36 posts tagged “current events”
A real update is warranted, I suppose. Even though this last week hasn't been really eventful...just dealing with a lot of stuff at work.
I never blogged about the Them Crooked Vultures concert last Thursday. Well, it was awesome. The doors opened at 7, so Pat and I showed up around 6:30. There was already a long line looping around the venue, so we stood in it for awhile and waited excitedly. We were told the band would come out at 9 without an opener. It was a little while to wait. I bought Pat a beer and we waited around impatiently, texting friends and listening to the other excited drunk people around us. Finally the band came out and everyone started screaming. I think a good 95% of the crowd was there to see Dave Grohl on the drums. I can see why - just watching him was worth the price of admission alone. The guy is INCREDIBLE. He puts so much energy into it that it's amazing. Even though we were pretty close to the stage, it was hard to see Dave drumming, so the majority of the concert, I was just trying to catch glimpses of him. One girl and her boyfriend shoved by us to go to the front - I have to say it was funny to see them straining to see Dave later, when my view had gotten better. Seeing a former Led Zeppelin band member in concert, John Paul Jones, was pretty cool. Josh Homme was a better front man than I'd thought he be. I was pretty disappointed that the band left without an encore though. It's hard for me to remember all the songs, but I really liked "Dead End Friends" and "Interlude With 'Ludes."
It's funny because last year, before I'd gone to the Foo Fighters show, I was a casual fan. I mean, I'd listened to all their albums at least once, and I liked a lot of their songs, but I didn't call myself a huge fan. But the Foo Fighters show turned me into a fan for life, and seeing Dave drum turned me into a fan of his even more. There are very few musicians I'd be willing to wait in a line all day for, but Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters are one of them. Incredible, talented, down-to-earth musicians.
I took Patrick downtown on Friday so he could check out the record shop and the awesome candy shop. He really liked that. Then I drove him back home on Saturday, and came back up to the City on Sunday. I'd driven over 1000 miles that week by this point, but it was worth it! So much fun.
However, guess what I missed on the 28th? Apparently, ALEXANDER SKARSGARD was here for some festival and was at a movie theater that is very close by to my downtown office for this said festival. ALEXANDER SKARSGARD. HERE. AND I MISSED IT. I was in a bad place when I found that out. I've recovered...only a little though.
So what do you all think about President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award? I think it's absolutely ridiculous and cheapens the award. The man was only nominated for the award after less than two weeks in office. Two weeks! And he has not done anything significant to warrant the Prize, only give a couple of speeches and otherwise fulfill his job duties. I got into a pretty heated debate about it last night with one of my friends over Facebook (I guess you can tell I didn't do anything else last night). There were 51 comments total to the thread...my aunt Chris kept egging us on too because she was enjoying reading the debate. It was funny.
Yesterday I was eating lunch with my coworker Thomas and the client's project manager. We were enthralled by a high-speed chase taking place in Dallas. I don't know what it is about high speed chases...you're just watching someone driving, but it's addicting. I don't know why Fox News devoted so much time to covering the high speed chase, but thaaaat's another topic. Right when we were finishing lunch, the cops had successfully run the guy off the road, and everyone started clapping and cheering. "SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM!" people were shouting. Gotta love living in Texas!
Ok, I think I have updated you all enough. Stay tuned for a fashion post this weekend.
I dare you to watch this without getting teary.
I have to say, I rarely get emotional over news like this, but the release of the US journalists in North Korea actually made me a little teary. I've been following the story for awhile and really feeling sad for them. I've been away from the computer practically all day, so I found out just a couple of minutes ago. I'm so, so glad to hear that this story has a happy ending.
I'm back from my sampling trip. Field jobs are always a lot of fun, and this one was not an exception. The work was definitely tough, especially today - we had to sample wells at the bottom of a small landfill, which meant I had to haul 4-gallon buckets of the purged water up the steep slopes. That was some work, let me tell you! But I relish that stuff. Somehow I managed to be the dirtiest one there; I'm such a boy.
Yesterday was a long day - I was up at 5, and we left the City by 6 so we can travel to the site. We worked until about 5:15 or 5:30. I had plans to meet a friend but since he was moving in, I decided to get dinner with my coworkers since I was STARVING (this was 7:00). We went to a sushi restaurant. I made my selection in two minutes, which tells you how hungry I was, while my coworkers pored over the menu. Our waitress abandoned us too, never coming back to get our order. After about 10 or 15 minutes, I was starting to get more than impatient. "Where is our waitress? We should go get another waiter," I said to one of my coworkers. She looked at a passing waiter, then said, "Nooo," with an embarrassed face. "Well, I don't care," I said, standing up. "I'm hungry." I marched over to the bar and talked to the waiter, politely telling him our story. He had hot miso soup and a salad for us in a minute. My coworkers made fun of me after that - "Don't get in Jen's way when she's hungry." DAMN RIGHT!
My friend picked me up at around 9:30, and I hung out with him, his family, and other friends while we put his apartment together. I didn't get back to the hotel until about 12:45, but I had a lot of fun, so it was all worth it! :)
My dad got me addicted to a new game on Xbox. It is called 1 Vs. 100, and it's a trivia game. It's SO addicting. My dad and I are especially competitive. I won a round or two, and my dad told me I wasn't welcome home this weekend. But then he won the last round, which was the hardest one! My Xbox is still broken so it is technically the only game I can play, since you can access it via the game lobby.
Well, I'm wide awake for someone who only had 5 hours of sleep and worked all day...I'm going to go read and watch some True Blood before going to sleep. That show is my new addiction. It's totally vampire porn, by the way, but the story line is soooo good. I watched like 9 episodes on Sunday. I'm just about done with the first season.
Night y'all.
1. The baby birds in the nest outside of my apartment hatched. SQUEE. Between that and the baby chicks that hatched at my mentee's school, I've just been overloaded with baby bird cuteness in the past week.
2. The coverage of the Buffalo plane crash freaks me the eff out. Not only is it incredibly morbid to be hearing about someone's last conversation before crashing, but the pilots didn't even notice ice was building around the plane because they were too busy talking.
3. I'm so, so, SO sick of the media hype around Jon and Kate Gosselin. I don't condone cheating, but after seeing the way she acts on the show, I can't really blame the guy, you know? HOWEVER, I think they are both shitty people who need to stop parading their personal problems in the tabloids and put their children first and be adults, for once.
4. I want to perform tomorrow for the Frankie Manning tribute dance buuuut I haven't learned the choreography yet. So that's something I need to do before tomorrow.
5. Patrick will be here on Sunday! And The Offspring concert is on Tuesday! And his best friend/my adopted younger brother Steven is coming back from Japan for the first time in two years on Thursday! Next week should be awesome.
And just cuz:
Before I make my completely vapid confession, may I say this: to the Americans cheering the Iraqi journalist for throwing his shoes at the President, shame on you. No one says that you have to agree with his policies or even like the guy, but he's our President, elected to office by the people (well, in 2004, at least). Show some respect.
Ok, back to the OTHER topic all Americans are talking about 24/7: Britney Spears!
Britney Spears' first single was released when I was fourteen (has it been that long already?!), and I have been making fun of her ever since. I always thought I, the classic rock fan, was too good for the carefully crafted pop perfection she churned out over and over. She seems like a very sweet girl, and I'm glad that she's coming out of that depressing downward spiral she had going there for awhile. But let's face it- she's not, um, book-smart. I gleefully took delight in her many misstatements, like when she talked about traveling overseas to Canada, or discussing Indian religious themes in her music but not knowing what Hinduism is.
However, I had a realization of sorts a couple of weeks ago. It occurred to me that I had "Womanizer" stuck in my head, a song that I had previously dismissed as ridiculous. I hated "Piece of Me" when it first came out too, but then I broke down and listened to it over and over. Then I thought about all of her singles, and how I had blown them off on first listen, only to be downloading them later. I have her greatest hits album on my MP3 player "for the lols," but I find myself thinking that it's a good collection when I listen to it (except "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," that still is shit.)
So my confession: I AM A BRITNEY SPEARS FAN. There, I said it. I will not be ashamed of my guilty pleasure anymore.
To close this entry, I want to post a really funny video from Mad TV. Mad TV always has the funniest song parodies ("Mrs. Jackson," "I Have Got a Black Friend," etc). Does anyone remember that "Me Against the Music" video featuring Madonna? It was kind of ridiculous. Anyway, Mad TV made fun of it, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching it. I'm posting both for you to compare, if you are so inclined.
How do you feel about the results of the election?
Obviously, I am pretty happy. If you think about it, this country has gone through some trying times this decade. 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the war in Afghanistan, the muddled Iraq War (or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" or whatever the hell they are spinning it as), Guantanamo Bay, a crashing and burning economy...I think the majority of us are celebrating the excitement that such a fresh, young President-elect brings. Of course, I'm still wary. Obama is facing huge obstacles, both here and abroad, that will challenge him. He faces so many more than Bush did back in 2000, back before the wars, when we had a stable economy, and when terrorism was something that happened to people overseas, never to Americans. Like I said last night, I fervently hope that Senator Obama brings the change that he promises.
I have to admit that last night, I wished (very briefly) that I was back in College Station, aka "Cowboy Country" (I don't go to school there anymore, so using the nickname is useless). I love the A&M campus and have good memories of it...but for those of you who were reading this blog when I was a student, then you will know that College Station made me pretty unhappy. For one, the town is dead (take a look at this thread where people are struggling to name fun things to do there). A lot (not all) of the people there are narrow-minded, super-religious freaks (Meg and Meghan, you both are alums...please let me know if I am exaggerating). This was the place where I would get pamphlets telling me I was going to go to hell if I didn't accept Jesus as my savior, where people brought their six-year-old children to hand out gruesome anti-abortion pamphlets and where students wore shirts saying "Beat the hell out of (insert Democratic candidate here)." Even though the Bryan-College Station Eagle endorsed Obama (which really shocked me, and made me wonder if this is a sign of the Apocalypse), I would love to see the reaction on campus today. I really would. Before going to school there, I considered myself conservative. I quickly realized that I am moderate, and many of the people there are far-right Republicans. Like I said, I wish I could see the reactions.
And may I say one more thing before I shut up about politics - I am so disappointed that California passed Proposition 8. It's like we took one giant step forward and one giant step backwards at the same time. If a gay marriage ban passes in California, then I don't have a lot of faith in other states adopting gay marriage. I was hoping that Californians would be more progressive than this.
Even the cynic in me is pushing aside my preconceptions and am allowing myself to be caught up in this infectious excitement. The candidate I voted for, Senator Obama, has won the election. It truly is a night to remember. It's always exciting to know that you are living history, especially for an event as positive as this one.
I think Senator McCain's concession was very gracious. He had been running a good campaign until he picked Governor Palin, which was a risk that did not pay off. I am hoping that President-elect Obama proves to bring the change and hope that he has promised.
...yeah, I don't make 300 political posts a day, so I think I can get away with making this one.
I really admire Colin Powell-he came to my college to speak back in 2002. What he says in this article really sums up how I feel about the election in general. I'll let you read it for yourself.
This week has been pretty good so far. I went out for a run on Monday and did the easy workout. I skipped tonight's run because I was pretty tired. I got to bed later than I wanted to last night, because I was having a good conversation with my brother and then with my friend Andres online. How ~mature~ of me, I know. Plus I had Dr Pepper at dinner, so you know how that goes. Jenny + caffeine = hyperness. Seriously, you would not know that this blog belonged to a 24-year-old woman, would you? Or from my conversation yesterday with my brother:
Me: What? I'm a grown-up.
Pat: Jen, don't even.
Last night's Lindy class was good. I'm in Lindy 2 now and it's a lot harder than Lindy 1. Plus I hadn't danced for two weeks since I'd been sick, and man, could I tell! I was all off. I signed up for mini-private lessons on the 28th. They are only 15-20 minutes (for free), but that should be enough to iron out some kinks in my form. I don't even remember the new styling moves we learned yesterday. I'll need to pay better attention in next week's class. I'm supposed to go on a site visit sometime next week for work. I hope it's not on a Tuesday because I don't want to miss class again.
Yeah, I didn't watch the debates tonight. I don't really care to watch them. I just want to read and decide for myself that way instead of listening to white lies from the candidates. That being said (and I'm probably going to get shit for this, but I don't care): I can't wait for the elections to be over because I'm getting so tired of reading everyone's political posts. I know. It's your blog and you're entitled to write what you want, and in my blog, I write about such groundbreaking moments as getting hyper off of caffeine but STILL. When EVERYONE does it and my neighborhood page gets clogged with everyone's political views...I get kind of tired of it. And especially when people idolize their candidate. Look. I'm not going to say who I'm voting for, but I was undecided for a long time. Both candidates are imperfect. They are politicians, for heaven's sake - you don't get to become a senator without flip-flopping on issues or stepping on toes along the way or sweeping some scandals under the rug. So what's the point of making one into a saint and the other into a devil? I'm an Independent (I am socially liberal but hold some Republican views), but I get really tired of reading Republicans getting hated on. I feel like they get a bad reputation because of Bush. They are not stupid people. They just have different political views than a lot of you out there. Big fucking deal. To call them stupid or idiotic or blaming every single one of the problems that this country has SOLELY on them makes you look uneducated. Respect other people's political beliefs and move on. Is that really so much to ask for?
Moving on.
Today the electricity went out and my phone started crapping out too, but it's still working. That was the highlight of an otherwise very boring day. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have Andres to email or text during the day. It's definitely fun to laugh about the work environment or other issues with a funny text. It breaks out the monotony sometimes.
I got back in touch with an old friend yesterday. I've lost a couple of friends over the years, but most of the time, it usually had to do with the fact that they were huge bitches. But I have to admit that I was the main reason for the rift this time.
I want to read and go watch TV. Exciting! Tomorrow should be fun. We'll see.
Isn't this the headline I should have read 13 years ago? OH YEAH I WENT THERE.
I can't tell you what kind of entertainment that sordid story provided to a bored ten-year-old during the Summer of 1994. I remember watching the high-speed chase on TV with my brother, and staying up late enough to see Tim Meadows on SNL as O.J. By 1995, I was so bored of the trial but it seemed like it would never end. I was convinced that he would be convicted guilty. My middle school assistant principal wheeled out a television on the cafeteria stage so that she could watch the verdict. I looked impatiently as she watched, wondering what it was. Then she went by each table and told us-"Not guilty." "WHAT?" I said. I was so convinced it would be otherwise.
Please tell me where you were when you heard the O.J. verdict, because come on, it's one of those things that people just remember.
