I've stared straight into the sun

wrapped up

2008-05-07T11:00:00.002-05:00

Well spring is here and I remembered that I had a blog. Prior to forgetting about the blog I believe I had material to write about. It has been over a year since my last update so here is how I have spent my time.

....

Nothing comes to my head immediately but once it does it will make for AWESOME CONTENT.

-DAVE

Podcasting

2007-03-01T12:34:00.000-06:00

For Christmis Laurie gave a me an iPod to use while I was at work. At first I would just listen to music as the nights went by, but as I was searching for more music content, I found podcasts. Podcasts had been out for a while but I never gave it the time of day until I realized they were free. I tried it out, and ended up really enjoying the vast amount of content you can download for free off itunes and other websites. I've found some really sweet and really awful podcasts. Here's my run down.

1up.com : A video game web site with a host of different pod casts to download, but all end with a bunch of sad endless talk about the difference between one format of media over another. It would be a great podcast if they trimed the content down to 30 seconds from an hour of nerd bitchin.

Adam Carolla podcast: Adam has a radio show in L.A. now with Danny Bonoduci (spelling?) and some other women. He's a great funny host with great content, but who ever transfers the radio show to the pod cast is on meth. The audio quality is poor, but there's plenty of content right now to download.

American Public Media: "A Praire Home Companion": Garrison Keillor's stories from Lake Wobegon continue on through podcasts. Every cast is a 17 min edited segment that leaves me wanting more. Highly recomended.

APM:The Writer's Almanac: Keillor voices a daily podcast giving quips about two famous peoples b-days. He talks about their lives and how they came to success and or downfalls. The segments end with a poem. 4 out 4 stars.

National Public Radio's "Fresh Air": A great podcast about pop culture. If you only listen to one podcast let it be Fresh Air. Our host interviews a new guest and curent news and culture daily, about an hour long podcast.

There's a short list of what you can find on my iPod. I usually download NBC's Nightly News and Comedy Centrals stand up comedy. Alot of content out there and once again it's free! Download itunes and go to Podcast to find new content like Kevin Smith's new podcast "smodcast".

Heat

2007-02-25T13:51:00.000-06:00

The movie "Heat" was on T.V. today. Pretty good. Jim Gaffigan had a comic routine where he was out of touch with being "cool" when it came to being in the know of the latest movies. It went something like "Yeah so I saw the movie Heat yesterday." "Heat?" the other says, "Heat? Didn't that come out like 15 years ago?". Yes had to be there to get the humor out of that skit....

Working non-stop lately. I work two jobs, I teach during the day and work "logistics" another term for unloading trucks and and stocking a warehouse at night. Time seems to go by before me. I have a day once in a while to catch up to see what week it is. Caffeine and a lax-a-dasical experience of sleep is what I live on. My relationships are stretched. Distances have grown longer. I do what I can. I know I'm not alone. Millions do what I do if not more. Hopefully one day it will pay off before I burn out or alienate those who I like to be around.

St. Cloud State swept the Gophers this weekend! There's nothing better then SCSU Hockey. SCSU never gets the fair coverage so It's great when you defeat the supposed "big dog".

I'm going to go drink a Mt. Dew now.

James Plays First Ave.

2007-02-04T12:17:00.000-06:00

On Feb 3rd, my little brother was on stage at First Ave. He and his very talented Band Members played a great show. Delighting a full crowd at first ave. James gyrated like Elvis with confusing looks on my moms face who was next to me, "I didn't know he could move like that." Here are some pictures from the show, he's the one in the middle showing the skin.

2006-11-15T17:29:00.000-06:00

MySpace Music

2006-07-22T12:29:00.000-05:00

MySpace, the eclectic attention whore of our youth, has become useful to me. It's great adding your friends, but listening to your companions music on their page has become a past time as of late. I've found some new music I know I would have never encountered had it been for their myspace. Not only well known music affections, but the lesser known or even local has become more apparent since this dawn of myspace music. My little brother jumped on the bandwagon a while ago, sharing his music with his friends and making new ones, music ones, in the process, talking to and learning and sharing with other musicians. It's interesting to see the true music nature of your friends too. Like I said before, it's turned me on to many new forms, but at the same time other types of music has forced me to never speak to my myspace friends again and calling the IRS to audit them asap....

You can view my own myspace @ http://www.myspace.com/monkeyfart70

My commute

2006-07-17T20:21:00.000-05:00

This is my commute. It takes about 1 hour to travel 30 or so miles. This graph represents my emotions during my commute. I don't care for peoples driving abilities.

Election '08, let the coverage begin!

2006-06-04T00:43:00.000-05:00

It's now the summer of 2006, the election for the new President of the United States of America is a year and a half away and it is still unclear at the moment who our candidates are. The speculated contenders: Hillary Clinton (D) and John McCain (R)have been in the public eye for the past couple months, not declaring their candidacy, but not denying it as well when scrutinized by the press during senate campaign events.

My question today for the prospective candidates form around Hillary Clinton. My biggest question or concern about the possibility of Hillary becoming President is the fact of the creation of a string of family members controlling the White House.
I found it very odd when Bush Jr. took office. It's almost like an aristocracy forming right before us, as we slowly form into the power we despised a little over 300 years ago. It's not like I haven't realized that the rich or so called "noble" class control the government, but never before has it been so prevalent, or pushed right into our face on the news.

The opportunity for new ideas almost cancels itself. I understand that each party has a certain agenda that they bring to the table, but ideas for new policy, or governance seem to die as have seen in the past 6 years with the lineage of the Bush name continue on. Every politician speaks of "change" when they campaign. No matter if they actually have a plan for "change" or not, they won't hesitate to use that magic word. I just don't know what new "change" Hillary can bring to us that we haven't seen since '92. You might be able to reverse some of the mistakes in the past years, but yippidy do da if you can't bring anything new to the table.

In 2008 I am looking for a fresh, smart, and open minded candidate. Will I or we as a people get this? Most likely not, but I can dream. We have to learn still who our candidates are. If it is Mrs. Clinton, I would like to find out more about her and her agenda for the people. I'm looking forward to this upcoming debacle.

Clinton Video link: CNN

Quotes

Witty Quotes Haven: Clever Quotes
1. Give a man a match, and he'll be warm for a minute, but set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
2. The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.
3. Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
4. War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.
5. Sarcasm helps keep you from telling people what you really think of them.
6. If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress?
7. If you think things can't get worse it's probably only because you lack sufficient imagination.
8. It's your god. They're your rules. *You* go to hell.
9. Parents spend the first part of our lives teaching us to walk and talk, and the rest of it telling us to sit down and shut up.
10. You can't be late until you show up.
11. A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station...
12. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
13. The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources
14. Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.
15. Knowledge is realizing that the street is one-way, wisdom is looking both directions anyway
16. I once prayed to god for a bike, but quickly found out he didn't work that way...so I stole a bike and prayed for his forgiveness
17. As Long As There Are Tests, There Will Be Prayer In Public Schools.
18. Books have knowledge, knowledge is power, power corrupts, corruption is a crime, and crime doesn't pay..so if you keep reading, you'll go broke
19. Advice for the day: If you have a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: Take two, and KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN.
20. A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.

post 100

2006-06-02T02:14:00.000-05:00

News stories of note:

Published on Thursday, June 1, 2006 by the Independent / UK
An Immovable Obstacle to Action on Climate Change

"At a time of soaring petrol prices and growing public anger over the cost of filling up cars and trucks, ExxonMobil is not only making money hand over fist at an increasing rate - it is actually making more money than any other oil company in the world."

New 'Iraq massacre' tape emerges

"The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians."

HAhahah it's been over a month and I still have nothing.

2006-05-31T00:54:00.000-05:00

Here's a new comic my cousin introduced to me:

White Ninja Comics:

www.whiteninjacomics.com

Tom Green Channel

2006-04-21T14:48:00.000-05:00

Tom Green has a channel on the internet. Go to www.tomgreen.com, it's a good way to kill some time.

-dw

Red Hot Chili Peppers Coming to Minneapolis!

2006-04-04T11:47:00.000-05:00

No official date set yet, but the North American tour has been announced with Minneapolis as one of the stops!

Red Hot Chili Peppers North American tour pre sale calendar:

May 7-8 reserved exclusively for RedHotChiliPeppers.com Silver and Gold Fan Club members

May 13 Public onsale www.redhotchilipeppers.com

RHCP's first single off of their new album Stadium Arcadium due May 9th was released, and the video premiere will happen tonight on MTV and following on overdrive.mtv.com following the debut.

Here is " Dani California " Windows Media 100kbs

Quicktime 128kbs

-dave

What 250 Billion Will Get You

2006-04-02T23:50:00.000-05:00

SomethingAwful.com posted a hilarious what if the other day. What we could of done with the 250 billion we have spent on the war and defer it on to other stuff. Pretty funny, but sad at the same time now that I realize I could of had my own 23'' LCD TV.

SA:
"I'm not going to lecture all of you on why the Iraq war is stupid, and you are stupid, and your mom is stupid, and your brother is stupid. We've been through all that before and, yes, I know I'm a lieberal faggot who needs to be punched in the face. But all this talk of lost treasure got me to thinking about just what we might have done with that 250 billion dollars instead of blow up half of a country, throw it into civil war and get a few thousand arms and legs blown off. The answer is that we could have done a lot, an awesome lot."

"250 billion dollars is such a vast amount of money that most people, including myself, have difficulty even really comprehending it. You get to about a million dollars and people like me just see this huge cloud floating off in the sky that rains prizes from the Price is Right. I could buy anything I could imagine with 250 billion dollars. Even magic! Listing a bunch of random things I can imagine buying with nearly unlimited amounts of money doesn't really help anyone get a grip on the staggering 250 billion figure, so let me put it in terms that will help you visualize all of that squandered treasure. I like to call it The Awesome Deferred."

SA Article link

3rd Audioslave record releasing in June?

In the words of Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello, the rock and roll group's forthcoming third opus is an "ass-kicker."As fans might expect, the still-untitled LP (Morello said the band's toying with the idea of naming it Revelations) is
if bursting at the seams with the kind of brutal riff rock that's become Audioslave's trademark. But at the same time, they've woven deep '70s funk and soul grooves with heavy guitars, "and it's a pretty potent combination," he said.When the album drops (Morello dispelled reports that it will surface in June), expect the end result to be "really unique" and "as hard-rockin' an album as we've ever made," the guitarist said."If you want your ass kicked, you've come to the right place," he added. "And you may have the opportunity to shake that ass too."Three weeks ago, Audioslave Morello, frontman Chris Cornell, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk finished tracking the disc with producer Brendan O'Brien. O'Brien mixed 2005's Out of Exile; Soundgarden's 1994 disc, Superunknown; and produced Rage Against the Machine's Evil Empire and The Battle of Los Angeles.Most of the 20 tracks the bandmembers brought into the studio "were written before we went on the last U.S. tour, so we had about two months of touring to play some of these songs in front of arenas and to go over them during a number of soundchecks."Audioslave took "the momentum of playing some of the best shows of our lives, as well as working out the kinks of some of these songs in front of a live audience, seeing what worked and didn't work," and recorded 16 tracks over the course of three weeks, Morello said. The "fast and furious pace," as he described it, was imposed by O'Brien because he wanted to capture "the intensity of the performance Â the four of us, in a room, rocking the jam, top to bottom, to get the sweatiest, most intense take."For his part, Morello said he experimented with overdubs and worked with different guitars and amps "to create different colors." The end result, he said, is a record that "sounds like Led Zeppelin meets Earth, Wind & Fire."One of Morello's favorite tracks is a tune called "Original Fire." Like most Audioslave songs, it began with a single idea -- a riff he'd been tinkering with for years. "The songwriting process is tremendously democratic," he explained. "No matter where the initial idea for a song comes from, it goes into the Audioslave killing-machine grinder, and at the end of the day comes out something unique that you might not have expected."As Morello continued to sculpt the riff, he started to imagine what the finished track would sound like. Turns out he was way off-base. "It doesn't feel remotely like what I thought it would be when I came up with it on the guitar," he said. "Brad put sort of a double-time soul beat to it, and Tim had this super chocolate-thunder bass lick that went with it, and it turned out much better than I thought it would. Tim and Brad are just a ferociously funky rhythm section."Most of the ideas that were brought to the table ended up making it to tape because "we have confidence we can turn it into an Audioslave song we're going to love."Audioslave get overtly political on this album, with the song "Wide Awake.""It's the most political song Audioslave's ever written, and it's a scathing condemnation of the Bush administration's failures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina," Morello said. "It's a sad, powerful and angry song."There are a number of other tracks Morello's confident will make the final cut: the haunting and beautiful "Until We Fall"; "Moth," which was "the last song we wrote for this record, and it's a kick-ass, anthemic, 'Hammer of the Gods' riff-rock jam that will probably close the record"; "Revelations"; "One in the Same"; "Sound of a Gun"; "Until We Fall"; "Shape of Things to Come"; and "Broken City," which "is kind of Audioslave-plays-[War's] 'Low Rider.' "
This report is from MTV News.

10 Best 80's Music Videos

2006-03-30T01:53:00.000-06:00

Ahh the 80's, full of experimental synthesized music, power ballads, and shitty hair. Like Huey Lewis, I too wish I could bring back the 80's. Now we can revisit it for a bit with the top 10 80's music videos (based upon 80's movies which makes for great cameos). The funniest one I saw was the video from the movie "Short Circuit", in which pretty much the whole cast makes an appearance in the video minus Steven Guttenberg. They just have a cardboard cut out of him. WTF Guttenberg, where have you gone to?

-80's Video Link

Clerks 2

2006-03-29T00:31:00.000-06:00

About time. Teaser Trailor -Link

www.clerks2.com

-dave

Farkin Peeps

2006-03-28T13:26:00.000-06:00

Google Earth. The new program from Google that allows you to circumnavigate the world at the click of your mouse. Basically if you have used Google's satellite map program along with any other map quest you get the gist of Google Earth minus the "hotness" that is Google Earth's "cool" factor.... I'm a huge "loser".

What makes this cool is the "virtual" way you can travel the globe, as if you took a plane from one destination to another, or were catapulted from your destination because your girlfriend got sick of you spending countless hours searching google earth. You can then zoom in on most areas up the point of seeing, in my case, my backyard basketball court. Once you've come into the area your searching you can then click on different options to locate certain places, like roads, hospitals, or the pub. These will appear on the screen with a little icon that will give you the address, phone, and website if applicable. It's a great way to plan a trip, or vast in awe of Mother Earth's great majesty...

Check out Google Earth and download it free at: http://earth.google.com/

Peeps to St.Paul City Hall -"Suck It"

This story made Fark.com with the headline: "Three brigades of Peeps deployed to St. Paul City Hall in the ongoing War on Easter"

From the St. Cloud Times, LINK.

Great Resource

2006-03-24T23:42:00.000-06:00

I've been searching for reference photos recently for an upcoming painting. In high school and in college I've referenced National Geographic Magazine. Since I don't subscribe any more I decided to check out National geographic.com. If you are looking for some wallpapers for your desktop, or to admire some unbelievable photography along with various submissions from great novices as well as some great articles it's a site I highly recommend to kill some time.

www.nationalgeographic.com

Blurbs, Larry King style or something

2006-03-21T19:32:00.000-06:00

The Vikings are looking better and better as they update their roster for the 2006 season. Richardson and Hutchinson have been added as of late. - link

I haven't been following the T-wolves due to I stopped caring after a few games from the Celtic trade.

The Twins look healthy in spring training, they'll be contenders, but who can stop the White Sox?

Lately I've been enjoying Einstein Bagels made available at the super target near my house.

A man was shot in uptown a few days ago and has died from his wounds earlier Mon. The 25 year old man was shot in the head for no reason or altercation after two men robbed his mother that he was escorting and took off. My girlfriend works a block away from this incident. link

Spring is here and the snow is melting away. I went to home depot and purchased some seeds to plant indoors for now, to grow and be ready for the deck come May.

that is all, good day, -Dave

Jack Nachos

2006-03-19T01:04:00.000-06:00

Nachos... enough said. Here's the movie website.

St. Cloud State Tops Minnesota 8-7 in ot!

2006-03-18T12:26:00.000-06:00

HA HAAAA! Man that felt good, and if you missed that spectacular game last night of the mens semi-finals whca game I'm sorry, because it was awesome. One of the biggest shoot outs I've ever seen resulting with one of the biggest emotion jerkers of all time with the Huskies ahead of the Gophers 7-5 and then within the final minutes scoring one and then to tie it up with 20 seconds to go knocked the wind right out of me. But redemtion came with Hartman scoring at 9:14 in ot to knock out the Gophers.

It feels good because all you ever hear about is the Gophers, and the Huskies usually get the second hand scraps of media coverage. Doug Woog's facial expression was great, he wasn't happy at all. Minnesota college hockey isn't just the U of M, there's 4 or more great divsion one hockey teams in the state that never get enough coverage....

Suck it Gophers.

Good luck to SCSU tonight againt NDSU @ 7:37

Game article

Top Ten Worst SNL cast members of all time

2006-03-12T00:01:00.000-06:00

Found this off of Fark.com, as a tribute to the 10 worst SNL cast members of all time. I agree with them all except for Horatio Sanz, I believe he's funny, maybe not such a wide range of funny, but enough for me to shoot milk out of my nose on to the coffee table. It's a good list, it will bring back memories of those skits that stole ten minutes here and there of your life that you will never get back.

http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=2246&SectionID=3&amp;LayoutType=1

I'll see you again someday, but not yet.

2006-03-10T15:03:00.000-06:00

I was very close with my grandfather. Learning of his passing struck me with a lot of grief. The past couple of days have been odd just thinking about him and what happens when you leave. I was very distraught for a day or so, and I'm sure I will be again in the next couple of days, but for the moment I can find some peace in reflecting on his life. He survived many "chalenges" in life; the great depression, WWII, and raising a family and eventually me. I've had it pretty good in my life time, as far as complications coming along like not being drafted or dealing with the day to day situations of the great depression. The odds were stacked against an individual I believe more so back then. So to survive all of that, and conitinue to have a very productive life while knowing he has moved on to that next step, I can't help but celebrate a man who has accomplished so much.

I miss you, but I'll see you again,
David

The St. Cloud Times had published an article about my grandfather.

http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060310/NEWS01/103100025/1009/NEWS01

I've been away

2006-02-27T23:46:00.000-06:00

I haven't updated in some time, due to I have no idea what to post and I've been to busy. So here's some material.

I've been sick lately, so now I have time to dangle around the computer.

While sitting in front of the computer for hours on end, I have found a new source of amusment. Comedy Central's Mother Load, in particular the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. A "Mother Load" of clips can be streamed instantly and the funny doesn't end.

So that's that.

-dave

Jim Gaffigan: My Favorite Comedian

2006-02-01T23:11:00.000-06:00

"Isn't it strange, when you're single, all you see is couples, but when you're part of a couple, all you see are hookers?"

"Whenever I'm out of town for at least a week, I feel like I should write a postcard or something, but you can be a genius, you try and write a postcard you come across like a moron anyway: 'This city's got big buildings. I like food. Bye'."

Jim Gaffigan has to be the funniest comedian I've seen in a long time. His style to me is hard to explain. If you take Conan O'Brien's humor where he mocks himself and then mix that into a 3rd person sub-conscious speaking back to himself after he tells a joke then you got Gaffigan. I don't think that made any sense.

I was introduced to his stuff on TV a few years ago, and then my friend Luke bought one of his CD's. Just hilarious stuff, from talking about how dumb we are for buying bottled water to how dumb we are for buying Hot Pockets.

You can catch him on TV this week with the advent of his new CD coming out Feb. 7th "Beyond the Pale".

Here are some clips of Gaffigan from Comedy Central: Gaffigan
Clips

Conan's Endorsement

2006-01-15T03:22:00.000-06:00

A few years back the movie "Dirty Dancing" was brought back to the big screen after 20 years or so from it's early 80's release. It wasn't some Hollywood big wig's bright idea to bring it back for a 20 year anniversary or some other ploy. It was Conan O'Brien's. If I recall, O'Brien constantly promoted the movie at his own expense to generate some comedy sketch, or to kill time. Either way after a few weeks of begging on his show Late Night, paramount or who ever owns the rights to the movie, Dirty Dancing was re-released to the silver screen once again.

As soon as the news hit Conan's ears about the re-release of "Dirty Dancing" he pulled a 180 and I believe called it one of the worse movies of all time or something to that extent, but totally back stabbing the movie... It was hilarious.

People listen to him, and or his writing staff. This time Finland is listening.

"HELSINKI, Finland - Finland's president finds her traditional support among women and the Social Democratic Party base, but lately to the surprise of many Finns Â and her opponents in Sunday's election Â she has gotten an endorsement of a different sort.

The redheaded late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien has been promoting President Tarja Halonen's re-election bid as part of a long-running joke about their supposed physical similarities.

"Why do I support Tarja Halonen? Because she's got the total package: a dynamic personality, a quick mind, and most importantly Â my good looks," the comedian, whose show is broadcast on cable in Finland, said in a statement to The Associated Press." -By KARL RITTER, Associated Press Writer

The election I believe is today in Finland. I'll post any reports from the race tomorrow to see if Conan had any pull what so ever.

The article from: Yahoo! Associated Press

Readers' List: Best acting performances by athletes
ESPN.com Page 2 report

A funny top 10 list from Farve to Andre the Giant...

"10. Andre the Giant in "The Princess Bride" (23 letters)
If you are going to include wrestlers such as The Rock, then you can't overlook the brilliant performance of Andre the Giant in "The Princess Bride."

No other person on earth could have played the gentle giant Fezzik as well as Andre did. The single best line of the film is when he says to Mandy Patinkin, "Indigo. (Yes, Fezzik) I hope we win."

Leaving him off the list? Inconceivable!
Marty
California "

The List

Video clip of the day: "Big screen version"