my submission is in the running!

Please vote for it! (A high score would be nice too)

EDIT: As you may notice from that handy little banner, the voting period is over. Now we wait and see if it gets chosen to be printed. I didn't get quite as many votes as I was hoping to (slightly more than 2,000) but I think it was still a good show. I'm not sure when they'll say what the score was, probably in the next couple of days, but I'll let you know when they do.

Thanks for voting!

haHA

For any of you who remember my brush with fame, the movie I was in came out on DVD recently. I didn't watch it, but my dad did and he assures me it was horrible. I watched only the scene I was an extra in. My dad was not in it, though he was at the filming.
HOWEVER. 28 minutes in, I AM. I apologize for the poor picture quality.
Click the picture for a larger view!





I'm apparently doing my best old man impression. But I'm in it! Now I can say that I shared the screen with Jessica Biel on my resume.

Awesome.

input, please

I was wondering what you thought about the (probably?) final design for my Threadless shirt. Specifically, the astrerisks. Were they better how they were before? Etc.
Also, my S button seem to not work conitantly. Thi i going to be a problem when I write my paper later today.

EDIT: My original version is not a high enough resolution. Frick. I'm going to have to redo it before I submit it. Frick.

You know when you need a new laptop battery...

...when the maximum charge is 20 minutes.

My Ten Songs of the 90s (why yes, I'm a Creative Writing major, why do you ask?)

(Note: This list was complied mostly after making a smart playlist of 90s songs, but includes others that I only remember hearing in that decade.)

In response to Claire's blog (and comment on my own), here is my list of 90s songs in no particular order. The titles are linked to youtube videos (if I could find them). Please remember that I spent just about half of the 90s in Saudi and so have very little idea of what the Youth Culture was at that time...

1. Undone (the Sweater Song) Weezer: This is the first song of theirs I heard about. I didn't actually hear it for a while, but I remember riding in the back of a van and my friends laughing and singing it.
2. Hello Operator The White Stripes: The video is from an old old performance, some of the lyrics are different. Elephant was the first actual CD I bought, and I liked it, but when I bought De Stijl and heard this song (the second on the album) I was sold on the whole red, white, and black thing.
3. Real World Matchbox Twenty: You'll recall that earlier I confessed to liking Matchbox Twenty, well, this was probably my favorite song from Yourself or Someone like You. Yes, I still sing it whenever it comes up on shuffle and on the radio. Damn straight.
4. Chop Suey System of a Down: So it turned out I lied. This was probably the first album I bought, I had forgotten. And I know that it came out in 2001, but I did hear their first album until after this one and I didn't like it as much. Erik Davis introduced me to System, and I still like this song, so here it is.
5. Stranger than Fiction Bad Religion: In middle school and high school I hung out with Chris Suter, who loved Bad Religion almost as much as he loved mountain biking. He burned me a bunch of CDs, of which this was one of them. The CD that this is on was my only Bad Religion CD, and I listend to it over and over in my ancient "portable" CD player that I had to keep perfectly level to prevent it from skipping.
6. Californication Red Hot Chili Peppers: I'm cheating again. This came out in 2000, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been around forever. I first remember seeing/hearing this song while staying at my uncle's house after we had watched monster movies. It was very late and I was very tired and this song came on MTV and I thought it was the greatest thing ever.
7. Amish Paradise Weird Al: I first became aware of Weird Al when this album came out. I still think he's awesome and the concert was one of the best I've been to, although I don't own any of his CDs.
8. One Jump Ahead Aladdin: This was my favorite song from the movie soundtrack. I'm pretty sure I used to act it out. This is not as embarrassing as...
9. Bad Michael Jackson: I know, it came out in 1987. But the number of days I danced around to this album in my youth should make up for it. And since I have a song from two years out of the 90s, with this song three years before them, it comes out as a decent average. I like to think that my dancing to MJ amounts to more than a full-body dry heave.
10. Frank Sinatra Cake: This is not the first Cake song I ever heard. That would be The Distance, which I heard in the back seat of Erik Davis' girlfriend's car, driving to some restraunt with all the windows down, Erik shouting about how awesome it is and for her to turn it up. I really like this song though.

Well, that's the list. I hope you approve enough not to ostracise me forever and remember that if you make some 90s cultural refrence and I stare back blankly it's probably because I missed huge gobs of the 90s. And because I haven't seen that episode of I Love the 90s yet.

EDIT: While looking at Claire's list, I was reminded of one thing that I would be remiss to leave off of mine: This awesomeness.

on headphones and...no, i don't have any american lit writing to do, why do you ask?

I learned a lesson this morning, after I put my headphones on and heard music exclusively through the left earbud: Don't skimp on headphones.
This all came up about three weeks ago when my ancient iPod headphones finally gave up the ghost. The wire was fraying down at the jack and the sound wasn't all that it used to be and it only played music out of one earbud, but I thought that they could stick it out a little longer until the day I put them on and no music came out. So that afternoon I went to the local RadioShack (it being right next to work and all) to buy new ones.
I bought the cheapest ones. Because, I figured, what was the difference, really? When I used them the next day, I found out. They wouldn't stay in my ears! In order to use them I had to stay perfectly still and if I wanted to listen to music while walking I had to keep my head perfectly level and stationary, like some strange combination of Eliza Doolittle and Dr. Alan Grant. If I wasn't completely still and did something stupid like turning my head or yawning pop! out would come one (or both!) of the earbuds. Oh, I wanted to tear the headphones apart. I came this close to throwing them into the wild blue yonder on several occasions.

And now they're dead. I'm not going to wait until they stop working completely to get new headphones. I'm going to bury these bastards and buy new ones. And you had better believe that they'll be expensive.

no, i'm not putting off reading. why would you even suggest that?

I have a confession to make. Now, before I tell you, I'd like to say that I hope it doesn't make you think any less of me or any differently. That's right: I like Matchbox 20.

It probably first started in freshman year when Marc gave me a bunch of CDs he had found and didn't like. Most of them were of bands I didn't like or were so messed up they wouldn't work. A lot of them didn't have cases. However, there was one I was intrigued by; its case was cracked, but still good and the CD wasn't too scratched. That CD was Yourself Or Someone Like You.

I'm admitting this because the other day I was in my car, listening to the radio and this song started. I thought "This sounds familar" and "I really like this." It wasn't until the song was almost over that I realized it was the new Matchbox 20 song. Maybe I felt that I had to get this secret off my chest because I hope that, in some deep and shameful place, I would totally like to go to a Matchbox 20 concert. It's possible, they have a new CD out. But if I do, I hope that I won't have to make up a different concert to say I went to. I hope that you can understand.

I hope we can still be friends.

If I can quote Matchbox 20, "I know it's wrong, that's the problem." Thank you.