tumbledry

Bachelor Party

Just returned from a wonderful night out (aka bachelor party) with my great friends Matt, Steve, John, Nils, Dan, Ryan, and Chris! We went to a great place in Maple Grove called Dave & Buster’s — featuring food, bar, and full gaming area. I came home with the prizes from the night — Gophers fan hand, Dave & Buster’s novelty soccer ball, and poker chips + cards + box! Awesome! So, it was exactly the kind of night I had in mind — nobody puked, nobody was naked, and everybody will be able to get into work tomorrow! I need to get out with these guys more often.

Many thanks go out to my best man, Mr. Matthew T. Prestegord, for putting this together. I had a great time!

Mis-match of the night: me vs. Rupert on wolf hunting. Chris: 3000+ points. Alex: no points.

Punchline of the night: “number munchers.” Courtesy Markoe.

Game of the night: well, that’s for us to discuss in the comments.

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Wedding Weather

78° and sunny for Saturday. Keep it up, weather!

Aristotelianism

Is it infinitely cruel or impossibly beautiful that we can conceive perfection, but can not attain it?

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Emails with Katy

Katy: I already got a card, so you don’t need to worry about that! Just the gift … :)

Alex: Got it! It’s on my calendar. I’ll storm my brains.

K: Be careful during that brainstorm. If it’s really intense, there may be lightening and high winds!

A: Tornado warning in my brainstorm!

K: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo!

*Sirens*

A: This is a storm that has a history of producing strong winds and damaging hail. Citizens in the path of this storm are advised to seek shelter immediately. Avoid interior windows and find a central room or stairwell.

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Bat swinging

A bit on Moving Apartments and the End of the Semester ‘09 soon. In the meantime:

Attn Rupert. Chris Rupert. Josh Womack’s crazy bat skills at Long Beach Armada 2009 Training Camp:

Womack’s ability to swing the bat around and catch it again are only surpassed by his sharp wit. After he realized camp had stopped down to watch him, pitcher Jose Lima yelled out “nice pants!” to which Womack replies “Nice face.” ZING! Should be a great season.

Sorry I missed The Chris pitching this past Sunday!

Laurence Sterne

An interesting snippet I saw today in a wonderful illustrated piece in the Times about Thomas Jefferson:

Time wastes too fast: every letter
I trace tells me with what rapidity life follows my pen. The days and hours
of it are flying over our heads like clouds of a windy day never to return

Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne

Conspicuous Expression

As promised: extremely heartening piece declaring online social networking as the beginning of the end of conspicuous consumption, and the start of something significantly more environmentally sustainable. Conspicuous, but not Consuming, by Stephen Linaweaver:

But “conspicuous consumption” is being replaced by “conspicuous expression” as the driver of identity. This new paradigm emphasizes the conspicuousness of ideas, interests, and opinions rather than accumulating more stuff than your neighbor. This is not insignificant. How billions choose to distinguish themselves from one another will be just as important to global sustainability as how they power their homes, what they eat, and how they commute to work, making online social networking a critical “leapfrog” technology in the developing world and a surprisingly powerful source of behavioral change in the developed world.

So, it’s not just that your neighbor is expounding the virtues of satirical news as a valid avenue of current events delivery… it’s they’re bragging they saved $1100 per year through conversion to passive house-style heating and cooling.

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Summer Movie Poll

Poll time! First movie of summer vacation: Pride and Prejudice (2005), Wedding Crashers (2005), or Blade Runner: Final Cut?

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Last Day

Tomorrow is the last day of dental school before my longest break for my entire 4 year tenure: 10 weeks! 10 consecutive, glorious weeks without having to go to school. Later summer breaks are substantially shorter… about 3 weeks at most.

The forecast for my last day of school? 93°F. And thunderstorms.

I am psyched for the bike-ride home!

Work-Life Balance

“Work-life balance” - Wikipedia:

In the 1920s, the workers were coaxed into believing that they wanted to work longer hours and that they would be harmed by measures that limited how many hours they were allowed to work. Social scientists would later name this force the “gospel of consumption.” Beginning in the 1920s, advertisers persuaded Americans that happiness would not come from leisure time, but from purchasing commodities, and he concluded that this made it easier for managers to “allow” workers to make more money by working longer hours. Social scientists would conclude that a new work ethic began as Americans left the psychology of scarcity and adopted one of abundance. Some argue that this mentality of consumption or “consumerism” persists to this day.

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