WHOOPS

Kind of forgot about this thing. I haven't always been into blogging but I've always WANTED to be into it. I think with a lot of these websites I've felt that expectations were to make considerable posts about specific topics or about what's been going on in my own life. I'm not a good writer and so even if there were something here that I wanted to talk about I'd do a shit-poor job of writing it.

I've also always been averse to being too personal on the internet. I think in the back of my mind I can see myself being in a public position someday and having intensely personal things on the internet has never been good. Sadly most of my free time is spent thinking about those same things I'm unwilling to put out there in the public realm. This makes keeping up a traditional blog difficult. Trying to find some kind of mythical medium between substance and interesting miscellany isn't my cup of tea. So instead of disappointing expectations with infrequent, uninteresting posts I've decided to make a move to a more alex-friendly blog: tumblr. From now on you'll find me here:

fortyandtwo.tumblr.com

My idea for this so far is to have two posts each day: a quote and then some form of media (picture, video, etc). I'll do my best not to overlap with the things I share on Google Reader. If you've never used tumblr before I highly suggest it. It's simple and user-friendly. The queue feature is what sold me on it. I'd love for there to be a way to easily sort my queue instead of only "move to top" which makes for organization to be more like chess. But for the most part it offers me the simplest way to express myself without feeling burdened by it.

For most of you the things I post will be pretty typical of who I am. For others you might be getting a glimpse of something new. But since I've recently turned 25 I've decided it's time to be honest with myself about who I am. You might not get any more of the "THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MY LIFE" crap from before but you'll certainly read more about the things that go through my head on a daily basis. Enjoy.

My Dad Got a Smartphone

Our most recent conversation:

Dad: "Moe, Moe, Moe........You're disgusting" followed with a picture of Moe that he took a few days ago that Lisa mentioned on her twitter.

Me: "Hahahaha didn't you send that to lisa too?"

Dad: "How'd jew no?"

Me: "Lisa updated her twitter with that picture. And also it's not exactly PC to use jew like that but it's okay. You have a lot to learn about the 21st century."

Dad: "LOL. And you about the 20th."

Me: "Dad I have a history degree. I'm alright on the 20th century stuff."

Dad: "Hahaha."

I got a phone call this evening at 11:30 from an unknown Chicago number. Sometimes people from work call to switch shifts and whatnot so I figured it might have been someone from there. But I've been at the store for almost 6 months now and I have almost everyone's number that would normally call. Anyway I listen to my voicemail and this is what I hear:

"Hey Alex this is Melissa. I got your number from the store two days ago was just giving you a call. See ya!"

Couple of things went through my head:

1. There is no Melissa working at the store.
2. She sounded like a dude.
3. I haven't worked since last week.
4. Who the fuck gave my number out to some random potential drag queen?

More details to come in the next few days. But for now I plot revenge.

OSCAR RANKINGS

I'm only ranking the stuff I've seen. I'll get through all of it eventually and update this accordingly.

Best Picture:
1. The Hurt Locker
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. An Education
4. A Serious Man
5. Up
6. District 9
7. Up in the Air
8. Avatar
9. The Blind Side
10.

I like that the Academy decided to expand the Best Picture field to 10. It gives movies normally not considered Academy-friendly to be recognized. With this year's field I felt that the top 7 were all excellent. I gave the top spot to The Hurt Locker because I loved everything about it. The acting was fantastic, the directing was top-notch, and the screenplay was spot-on. I would have put Avatar at the bottom of the list (IT'S NOT A GOOD FILM) but I feel that its technical achievements were amazing enough to put it ahead of the bland Blind Side.

Best Actor:
1. Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
2. Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart
3. Morgan Freeman - Invictus
4. George Clooney - Up in the Air
5.


Right now I'm giving this one to Renner but I haven't had the chance to see Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. Not only did Renner do a great job with the role, but the character was expertly written. Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela is spot on but I didn't feel that he had to go to quite the depths that Renner needed to for his role.

Best Supporting Actor
1. Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds
2. Matt Damon - Invictus
3.
4.
5.

It doesn't matter what anyone else has done this year. Christoph Waltz gave one of the best supporting actor performances I've ever seen. Put him up there with Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. Also take Matt Damon off this damn list. Just because he lifts weights and has a passable South African accent in a Clint Eastwood film doesn't mean he should get nominated. His spot should have been given to Alfred Molina in An Education. But really it doesn't matter since Waltz destroys everyone else anyway. I also wanted to say that I'm becoming a huge fan of Stanley Tucci. He does such a great job in Julie and Julia and was great in The Devil Wears Prada. I'll try to watch The Lovely Bones sometime this week.

Best Actress
1. Carey Mulligan - An Education
2. Meryl Streep - Julie and Julia
3. Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
4.
5.

I still have a bit left to see in this category but what an excellent job Carey Mulligan did. It hurts my mind that she's dating Shia LeBoeuf. And I know Sandra Bullock has received a lot off buzz but I just got done watching The Blind Side and she's essentially every other southern mother with a son or daughter in a competitive sport. Yes, she played the role well but there was really nothing especially difficult about it. And holy hell Meryl Streep is amazing. She just has this ability to step up into a high-profile role and always do a fantastic job. But I'm still giving this to Carey Mulligan mostly because I believe Streep was limited by the character.

Best Supporting Actress
1. Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
2. Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
3. Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart
4.
5.

Best Adapted Screenplay
1. An Education
2. District 9
3. Up in the Air
4.
5.

Best Original Screenplay
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. The Hurt Locker
3. A Serious Man
4. Up
5.

Quentin Tarantino is simply a master of dialogue. I know Inglourious Basterds received some criticism for being boring but that's only because those viewers didn't appreciate the tension in every scene. The opening scene, the scene in the bar, and the scene in the restaurant all had me on the edge of my seat.

Best Director
1. Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
2. Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
3. James Cameron - Avatar
4. Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
5.

The Hurt Locker was just a complete film with a little bit of everything without seeming like it was too diluted or spread out. The balance was excellent.

So this new season of 24 is going to be AWESOME just by looking at the cast.

There are all the usual players but all of the newcomers to the show scream ridiculous. There's Horace from Lost, Baron Wolfhaussen from Beerfest, Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, the game show host from Slumdog Millionaire, Bubba from Forrest Gump, and one of the Cylons from Battlestar. There's also Freddie Prinze Jr. but he's turrible. Also Jack lodged a fire axe into one guy's chest and then used the axe+terrorist to knock another guy down 10 flights of stairs. AWESOME.

The new semester starts in a few days and a small part of me is excited to be very busy again. When my schedule is very open like it has been for the past month my sleep schedule begins to get worse and worse. So now I don't get tired until 3:00am and don't wake up until 11:00am. It's not a big deal at this moment but I'm going to get my ass kicked come next week. My Wednesday is already looking fantastic. I work from 12-6 and then go straight to class until 9:30. Then I get home at about 10:00 and make myself some dinner before getting up at 3:30am to be in at work by 5:00. It's going to ruin me but it'll likely be the only thing that gets my sleep schedule under control. I thought my 6-3 shift yesterday was going to help move things along but I got so tired later in the day that I napped from 5-8pm and so I didn't get to sleep until 3 like usual. I guess I'll actually have to use my coffee maker in the near future.

Apologies for not writing for a little while. I'd be lying if I said that things have been busy around here because it has been the exact opposite. The semester finished and my hours at work got slightly cut back for a few weeks so really I've just been sitting around watching a screen of some kind. You all still love me anyway.

I wanted to write a little bit about death. Over the holiday the girl's sister's boyfriend's mother passed away and so I've been thinking about it most of the day. You're probably asking why a death that seems so distant would affect me. Well, it was her house that I was at over Thanksgiving so I did know her, albeit briefly. She was very nice and to allow a complete stranger into her home on a holiday typically reserved for family was extremely gracious.

I'd eventually like to talk about how I have dealt with death on a personal level, how it affects my belief in a higher power, and what death might be like. But all of that will need to come later. I just wanted to make a short post to let you all know I hadn't forgotten about this.

Imagine a sport where the spectators jokingly scream insults at you, encourage you to crash, offer you beer, shots of whiskey, pieces of bacon, ring pops, and money. This is cyclocross.

Dave has picked up the sport the past few months and I was finally able to make my way out to a race today when I felt like I needed a break from my last final assignment for school. It was cold and I'm pretty sure my toes still haven't had proper blood flow return to them from the afternoon but holy hell was it fun. The essential premise of the sport is that you bike around an off-road course that has a variety of hills, hairpin turns, and sandpits. The entire race typically takes a half hour but it's definitely physically demanding. It sounds pretty typical but the culture surrounding it is what makes it a great time. It's essentially a drink-all-day atmosphere where the last few races are all about having a good time and really getting into the action. On this particular course everyone seemed to stack around a sand-filled L-turn that was prone to terrible wipeouts and jump attempts where the riders would just faceplant into the ground. As the riders would come around the turn everyone would try to entice them to crash by offering all of the items I mentioned in the first sentence of this post. We ended up seeing riders come around the corner chugging full cups of beer or tossing aside a shot glass they had just emptied. We saw a man dressed in a Superwoman outfit, another guy dressed as Santa Claus, and even a guy in a full gorilla suit whose head was eventually decapitated by another guy dressed as Mario who proceeded to finish the race while triumphantly raising the mask into the air as the crowd cheered. It was absolutely insane and the perfect way to take a two hour break between staring at my research and writing down a couple of pages of drivel.

It's finals week which means I'm eating chocolate-covered pretzels and catching up on TV from Monday. Deadspin already spoiled who got kicked off SYTYCD this week so I guess I don't really need to watch that, which is a good thing considering what I need to get done in the next 7 days.

But a lot of us are in that boat of OH MY GOD THIS WEEK SUCKS so I'll spare you the details. Instead I'll talk about what has now become one of my favorite ways to procrastinate: podcasts. I know I've talked before about how I'm usually pretty in-tune with all things technology and internet but it seems that some really huge tech stuff falls through the cracks. I got turned on to podcasts last week after the girl and I listened to This American Life while getting ready for Thanksgiving. I had listened to NPR a good bit when I was working at the bank so I was familiar with the program. And I think a few of you have mentioned it before. But I had just never really bothered to learn what kind of podcasts there were out there. I liked reading most of the news on my own and went to enough sports websites and watched enough ESPN to where I didn't need someone to dictate things I already knew so I never felt the need to see what was offered. But it's only been a week now and I've spent far too much time listening to Ira Glass and downloading Radio Lab for my own good. This shit is great, and I'm pissed I didn't know about any of it earlier. And now I just have another couple of hours of media to consume every week to get in the way of getting a good night's sleep and doing some quality schoolwork.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. My phone hadn't charged the night before so I used the last little bit of battery to talk to the family in the morning which explains the lack of responses to texts.

My Thanksgiving had a couple of "firsts" to go along with it. It was my first away from home, which is really strange to think about. I had been with my family on Thanksgiving every single year for the last 23. But it wasn't like I missed Thanksgiving with the family as much as I missed just being with the family like I have over the past few months. It was also my first time on a traditional train. And on this train you can bring alcohol. So the girl and I were planning on housing a few tallboys during our journey but the intense hangover from the night before coupled with us running late the entire morning prevented us from doing so. And we would have been the only ones on a train of hundreds that would have been boozing that early so it probably would have been really awkward. So except for the alcohol-permitting train it was an otherwise traditional day filled with turkey, football, family, and booze.

I really should be finishing up this assignment for my State and Urban Policy course tonight but it sucks and the internet is way more interesting.

Whenever think back on a night of heavy drinking there's always that point where you remember things took a turn for the worse. It might have been that crazy shot someone bought for you or that last rum and coke, but for me the tipping point has never been beer. Beer and I have always had a decent relationship. I feel like our trips to the Saucer provided me with enough types to where I can say that I know beer well. My tastes haven't really changed that much. I've had Guinness on three separate occasions spanning the course of three years and it has tasted like beef jerky soaked in water every time. Boddington's has always been that really shitty beer Alex and I recommend to people that don't usually go the Saucer just to mess with them. But since moving to Chicago there has been a beer that went from really awful to alright. I can remember having my first PBR sophomore year of college in Danny's dorm room in Fusz. I thought that it tasted like a jar of pennies and never had any interest in tasting it again. I managed to avoid it up until these last few months and I have to say I'm impressed. It's nothing special by any means but in terms of an easy-to-drink-having-all-of-the-beers kind of choice it's pretty solid. Someone usually brings a case to Bad Movie Night and it's now the closer in my binge drinking evening lineup.

So here's to you, PBR. Though your brand is up for sale and the hipsters can't get enough of you, I just wanted to say that you're alright.

I'm not sure why it has taken me this long but I finally started following NASA on Twitter. Space has just always been one of those things that appealed to me. It probably has something to do with the fact that there's just so much more to learn about the rest of the universe that the future is really exciting to think about. But anyway I check their twitter feed and see that they have a live video of a fucking SPACEWALK. IN SPACE. I have been so excited all morning listening to them communicate and watching the dude work on equipment that probably costs more than what I'll make in my lifetime. It's just way too fucking cool. Just 10 years ago people designed their Geocities (R.I.P., btw) pages using mainly animated .gifs and now we're able to watch live fucking spacewalks and listen to their coms. I swear if NASA doesn't broadcast live video when we go back to the moon I'm gonna rage.

Also being in the big city sucked because I couldn't watch the Leonid Meteor Showers. I mean, it was cloudy anyway but still. On a clear night I can usually see about 20 stars. And three of those are probably planets.

I'm kind of obsessed with numbers so I have no idea why I barely ever look at my bank account balance. I never fill out my check book and always just try to keep an idea of how much money I have in the bank. But it seems like as much as I estimate what my account balance may be I always undershoot, which is great. It's not like it has only happened once and twice. My banking has functioned like this for six years and it always seems to work out well for me. The only bad thing is that when I realize I have more money than I thought I did I always want to spend it. And with the Friends and Family thing starting tomorrow coupled with watching a Chicago Fire game on Saturday night at a bar and not having really any team colors to sport, the urge to spend is strong.

I got an A on my State and Local Policy exam which kicks ass. Didn't do as well as I would have liked on Stats but that's alright. My first test and our final project will do more than enough to stay in good shape. Now's about the time when the shit hits the fan. Multiple assignments every week and a giant paper looming will have me adequately stressed.

The Mountain Goats was fantastic. They played more of their newest stuff than I would have liked but it was a great performance. It was also my first concert here in Chicago so I figured it would make a good start. Final Fantasy opened for them and their violinist did a really great rendition of Going to Bristol. And John Darnielle encored with This Year, No Children, and Going to Georgia. I screamed as loud as I could because I know Alex would have have killed me if I hadn't. The people in front of me were none too pleased but w/e. After the show my friend and I went to some local dive called L and L. It was pretty much empty but the beers were cheap and she knew the bartender so it was a really fun time. Two cross-dressers came in, walked in a circle around the entire bar and then left, which was strange. Otherwise it was a pretty typical bar experience. My knowledge of bars is growing and I've already learned of a place called The Globe which is essentially a soccer bar. For Chicago Fire games they give you a bus ride to and from the stadium plus beers for $15. But that season's over so I won't get to enjoy that service until the next one. But once the World Cup rolls around and I don't have work in the morning I'll be glued to their TVs. There are hundreds of places I want go to just on the North Side (including a bar with free darts and a Nintendo).

Stats test tomorrow. I've barely studied but I've got a pretty good grasp on this stuff.

The last few days have been a whirlwind. Halloween was fun. Mario and Luigi were a hit at the party. There is one incredible picture that was taken that I will post on Facebook as soon as Dave uploads it to his Flickr account. The wait is worth it.

I pulled an all-nighter on Monday to prepare for my test Tuesday. Work and class gave me zero time to really study and a 6am-3pm shift on Tuesday gave me no choice but to stay up. I looked at my test review and it was essentially "know every single thing we have talked about in class so far" so that was a great start. I held off on coffee until just before my test and it did wonders. I was wired by the time I was handed the test and did really well. Of course it comes down to how it's graded but I never had to bullshit through a question. I might not have remembered every single market failure that information provision addresses but I recalled most of them. And I didn't stop writing for about 2+ hours so I'm feeling pretty good about it. So now I'm in a really good mood today (no work for two days + bad movie night + THE FUCKING MOUNTAIN GOATS TOMORROW) and have a really good feeling about the rest of the semester.

This makes me rage so much. So so much.

But I did download Windows 7 last night and after hammering out a few kinks it's running beautifully. It's pretty damn fast compared to XP (never got Vista). It also takes up a whole lot less space somehow (about 30 gigs). I assume that's because of old programs and such and not the OS itself but it says a lot about how bogged down computers can get over time. Tonight after class I'm going to tinker around with it and see if I can't customize it a little more.

I also have Google Wave invites to hand out so if you didn't see my tweet then just e-mail me your preferred address at alexm1309@gmail.com. I still have 11 left and don't know who else to give them to.

I'm pulling another all-nighter but not because of anything school-related. The last two nights I've gone to bed at 2 and 4am and since I need to wake up at 4:30 for work it just isn't worth nap. I might as well catch up on my TED Talks.

After running the register at Target for three months, deli for a year, and now at BR for a few months I finally came across my first counterfeit money. Those of you that know me well know I used to collect coins so I'm fairly familiar with all things currency. A guy came up and was buying about two hundred bucks worth of clothes. He hands me two hundred dollar bills, which isn't rare given the number of international tourists we get. A lot of them just walk around with a couple thousand dollars. Anyway as soon as he hands me the bills I can tell they're fake. The ink didn't feel quite right and the paper seemed more rigid. It's store policy for us not to examine the money up at the register and I didn't want to accuse the guy of trying to give me fake money without knowing for sure so I just took it. As soon as he left I got my manager and told him about it. Without holding it up to the light I could tell there was a watermark so I got curious as to how the guy managed to put that in there. Turns out it was a watermark of Abraham Lincoln. The guy had bleached a $5 bill and then just printed the $100 design over it. Oh well. I just hope the guy understands that the Secret Service is in charge of investigating counterfeit currency.

Working five or six days a week and abiding by a dress code for it has me really evaluating my "nice" clothes. I've always had enough and I've never really needed a whole lot so I never actually took a close look at my business casual attire. I've come to the conclusion that I need more clothes which isn't really a problem with the employee discount. The issue is that at some point in my life I had decided that I was a size Medium. I don't know where this came from or if it was just some kind of subconscious desire to be like everyone else but half of my dress shirts are way too damn big on me. I just bought a nice sweater vest with a specific shirt in mind and it wasn't until just before I had to walk out the door to work that I tried everything on only to see the vest was form-fitting but the exposed sleeves were puffed out like I was some kind of circus employee. And I hate that I have already typed this much about clothing.

Google Waaaaaave

GOT MY INVITE!!! Sup.

I only have a few wave friends right now so I can't use it as often as I'd like, but it's really freaking cool so far. It's going to be great for group projects/presentations, and small business meetings. It's sort of hard to explain but before I got my invite I learned a whole lot from thevideo below:

It's really simple to make something like that.

There's also the public wave feature in which you can sit on and participate in other peoples' waves. It's kinda neat to watch other people wave but a lot of them are as clueless as me about the capabilities of it all so everyone just sits around and replies to each other without ever doing anything cool. But as more extensions are developed and functionality is improved then you're going to see some really cool shit.

Kwirkee

I feel like I'm known for being weird about certain things. My knowledge of skyscraper heights, NHL trophies, and stacking pieces of tin foil among the few. But one thing I've never really been known for is allergies. I've been around cats and dogs a ton, eaten plenty of peanut butter and other typical allergy-related foods and whatnot. On every medical form when they ask about any allergies I always write "none". But for some reason tonight at BR I decided to start sneezing like crazy. My eyes got puffy and I had to keep running for tissues every five minutes while trying to close down the store. I didn't stop sneezing until I got on the bus. My eyes still feel a little swollen and I'm on the verge of sneezing again but it's likely finished for now. I have no clue what caused it. I didn't handle anything that I hadn't handled since I started there and no one came in with any kind of exotic pet that I hadn't been in contact for. It was a total mystery and I hope it was caused by some customer or something because I don't want to have to go through the job search just as I'm settling in.

Whatevs. Dan and Brian are coming in town for the marathon this weekend. It might snow a little on Sunday morning but I got some sweet gloves from BR and will likely grab a nice winter coat tomorrow so I'm prepared for the freezing temperatures. And my time off was approved for Christmas so I'll see you all then. Gotta spend Thanksgiving and New Years' up here.