the curse of the party: $20 fishes don't die...

now other than the old running days and a couple michigan football issues, i am not a superstitious person...ok there may be a few other things but we won't get into all that here; the point is, i don't believe in curses. oh wait, i just had a couple entries a few days ago about the wedding curse having to do with michigan football. ok so scratch that, i do believe in some of them. moving right along...

some days just plain SUCK. today was not starting out to be one of those days, but it definitely hit a peak by the evening and i'm still kind of bitter and pissed. back to the curses, or more specifically, 'the curse of the party'.

we have had a total of two official parties here at the tank, and our third is going to be this saturday. if you didn't receive an invite it's probably because you either live too far away or i don't like you. anyway, ever since the first party something has gone horribly wrong a few days or the night before the big event. our first party was in july as kind of a 'house-warming' party and it was the first time we had a lot of people over to the place. the night before the party i was doing a water change on the biggest tank (the one that got our place its name) and something went haywire and all the fishes started flipping out and a couple of them (two of the most valuable/rare) were upside down and knocked out for frequent periods of time. i seriously thought they were going to die. i was up until about 5-6am the night before the party because i wanted to make sure they were ok. the next day they were still flipping out, but somehow by the actual time of the party they calmed down and all was ok. to say that i was stressed would be a major understatement. these are not dogs or cats or children, but i do worry about them quite often (most of you have killed a fish before, so you know its not a cakewalk to keep them alive...and multiply your number x 50 and you have what we deal with at the tank). anyway, there was full recovery from a stage where i thought they were surely going to die.

they were fine after that...fast forward to two weeks ago when we had our second official party (which was really just a get-together that snowballed over the course of a week into a party)...the day before the party one of these same fishes, a Cuban gar, looked like it got the crap beaten out of it and was swimming around the top of the tank gasping. it even let me pick it up out of the water to help it breathe (they need to breach the surface to get air). this was almost a sure sign of death to me, and of course i was worried again...and hadnt had to deal with this except for the night before the last party. again, miraculously, the fish recovered by the day of the party and all was fine.

now we come to this week, i was almost expecting something to surely go wrong...and in this case (and many others) i hate it when i am right. to make a long story short, i came home from work and found one of these two fishes on its side and gasping at the bottom of the tank. i didnt have time to deal with it right then, and it looked like a goner so i had to take off and was going to come back later to do a water change on the tank (which i think would be futile). sure enough, i came back about an hour later and the fish was dead. on the floor of the aquarium with its mouth gaping open. i was pretty pissed off. just to put things into perspective, (for all you non-fish nerds) this was probably my second most valuable fish and also one of the rarest. up until today there were only a total of 6 in the country (they had to be imported from singapore) and i had 2 of them. well, at least i have one more left. that being said, its hardly ever the $5 betta that dies or the cheaper $20 gar from Florida...it has to be the rarest species in the world that is next to impossible to replace. yeah, sounds like BS to me. sarah suggested that perhaps the 'gar gods' do not like our parties or that i upset them somehow. maybe i haven't been paying enough attention to them recently, but most people who know me probably know i spoil them at worst.

so yeah, now this fish is on ice and will be brought to the university so i can preserve it and use a DNA sample for a potential upcoming paper...so i guess not all is lost, but it still sucks bigtime. all i can say is with all the stress and the actual loss of a fish this time (and not just a scare) this had better be one hell of a party. luckily my roommate james later convinced me that he wanted to watch 'Get Over It' since he hadnt seen it (it may have just been a ploy to distract me from the situation) but it was fun and pretty much worked. thank goodness it's the weekend coming up very soon...carrie's bday party tomorrow as well as the 'jell-Olympics' party (which i have never been to before, but i hear from various sources it's pretty cool) and then of course the party at the tank saturday evening.

i just poured some of my Fruit2O on the floor in memory of my beloved Cuban gar. rest in peace yo. good night <:><

Cuban gar (Atractosteus tristoechus)

comments...

i was just talking with sarah about random stuff and the blog/live journal competition came up. just wanted to share the following comments from that convo as i found them humorous, and i can only hope everyone else gets as much (or as little) out of these time wasters as she and i do:

Me: half the time, i don't even remember what i was talking about when i started.
Sarah: i don't even remember what you're talking about half the time.
Me: exactly
Sarah: its like i get to the bottom...and realize i read so much, but got nothing out of it.
Me: that's the point.

random pic:

the three roommates of The Tank

BW3 on the fly...

well the plan was to get a lot of work done tonight...and i did get SOME work done tonight, but i also have a few people/issues to blame for why nothing else happened. first off, it has been an extremely BORING week so far. now i realize you can't hang out with all your friends every evening of the week...that is primarily because the 'first week of school' craziness has subsided (and curiously lasts for about 2-3 weeks) and we are all in the midst of real, actual work.

as stated several times before, i also hate my job this semester. it wasn't too bad today once some other people came in and we started talking about random things like at what temperatures dogs get cold and whether or not cockroaches preserved in EtOH could replace tequila shots in mexico. outside of these enlightening discussions, i was going insane staring at the GIS maps on my computer screen...you know how crazy you can get while staring at a computer screen, yeah, like when i just kept getting closer and closer to the screen to the point where i thought i could jump into it like they did on pleasantville or that really old 80's cartoon where that band got sucked into music video land (if anyone knows what that is please let me know as i have been trying to remember it for years now). anyway, that made for a sucky day/week thus far as well.

lastly, i had a lab-wide meeting and after i came out of it AJ had called to say that she, hal, and one of their friends were all going to BW3 later in the evening. my initial instinct was that i had too much work to do, but then i realized how bored i was and the fact that damon/james/myself would probably just end up watching napoleon dynamite again while all working on our laptops in the living room later in the evening. so yeah, i called them up and we opted for BW3. we had a decent group get together, and erin, beth, and janine later joined us as well. this provided a good opportunity to come up with some other plans for the next party at the tank.

i will also add that i'm going to have to start posting more movies that i want to go see on this blog thing; after mentioning elizabethtown it seems like we already have a decent group to go out and see this movie as of tonight. it was also brought up (somewhat related) that damon watched 'get over it' the other day. he didn't like it as much as hal and i did, but he still thought it was funny.
we also got to have interesting discussions surrounding communications with the opposite sex, this was funny because at one point it was brought up that 'guys are so cryptic'. i seriously think there are problems in communications in this area, because normally guys are pretty simple, it's the girls that are harder to read. broad generalizations perhaps, but they seem to hold true in most cases. i, however, don't know how to be straightforward and to the point in any situation...heck, it takes me several paragraphs just to make a few relatively irrelevant points. oh well.

although i got food at BW3, the night ended with a run out to panchero's. that hit the spot. ok that's about it for now, the good news is that tomorrow is thursday, and that means just one more night of repsonsibility to schoolwork and then the weekend starts. sweet. <:><

note: the system is having problems with pics, so the random images will return later. i will therefore replace them with a feature that sarah has on her live journal, which is some sort of 'current music' listing. now this isn't my favorite song by any means, but i recently downloaded sean paul's (yeah, he's kind of annoying) latest song 'we be burning' now the reason i like it, other than it does have an ok beat, is because there is some line in it where he mentions king solomon. ok, well we all already knew i was a narcissist.

just a quick addition: J-Gar...

just wanted to add a quick note that jennifer garner (my second favorite actress) is on the tonight show right now. it's entertaining because she seems to be acting as if she is still on the set of 13 going on 30...but it could also be the fact that she's pregnant. either way, figured i would report that. i also believe that rachel or sarah can take credit for the 'j-gar' abbreviation, the fact that it includes the word 'gar' is pretty cool. good night! <:><

EDIT: seems like she just accidentally leaked that the baby is a girl. funny.

too tired to work, too awake to sleep...Laguna Beach II...

yeah, you read that correctly. i don't know if i'll be able to stay awake through the entire episode, but apparently MTV reruns all the new episodes of their shows throughout the week (surprise surprise, some things have not changed since i actually used to watch this channel regularly).

well i am actually planning on getting to bed early today; i think i am still pretty wiped out from the trip to alabama and the previous week's events as well. no time to recover and i sure as heck (unfortunately) cannot take a nap at work. speaking of which, i will just reiterate that i HATE my job this semester. if i was solely a research scientist i would have to kill myself. i cannot take that kind of repetitive monotony day after day after day...how is this possible, you may ask, this coming from the person who goes to pancheros up to 3x in a 12 hour period? pancheros is good food and a means to an end that usually surround more exciting plans. this research work is a means to an end, but it sucks more and more every day. i am beginning to think that peter gibbons' job in office space would have been MUCH more exciting, but instead this semester i am more along the lines of milton after being relocated to storage room B (with the cockroaches). every now and then someone else will come into the lab (there are usually one or two other regulars besides me, but we can only talk for so long) and that adds some excitement, but other than that its definitely a dungeon.

ok laguna beach is back on, they are playing ANOTHER DCfC song...now, i like this band a lot, but this is getting to be borderline inundation. ok ok, so maybe that's the only time these bands become cool to me, but it's almost haunting. maybe its just a signal that i need to add more variety to the iPod.

now that the show is back on, i will resume commentary/ranting over this ridiculous program. the text at the very beginning of the show was only up for a few seconds and i didn't realize it was about the show until it was too late. i think it explains that this show is real. weird, i wouldn't have guessed. how do they get all that high definition color to come out so consistently? i think i would like to see my life in high-def...maybe that's why this show is so popular, its the super-saturated colors...and kristin. i have decided that she is the rachel bilson of this show. for those of you keeping track this kristin is spelled differently, so shut up. actually its spelled differently than kirsten as well, so those of you going in that direction can keep quiet as well. speaking of which, we drove through 'elizabethtown' this past weekend on the way to the wedding...i figure i will have to see this movie for sure; its just a matter of who i can con into going with me (i was pretty successful getting sarah to see wimbledon with me last spring, and that actually turned out to be a good movie regardless, maybe i can pull that off again).

ok, i think that is enough randomness for now. ok, maybe not, i am too lazy to look up pics right now, so i will leave you all with the latest small collection of random quotes:


=

Sheila: ...i got some funny jokes to tell you at the party...trust me, they are funny. ok i'll talk to you later solomon david!

=

Sheila (my cousin) : maybe you should send me another bear
Me: i already told you, it was a WOLVERINE!

=

Rakhi: cool! we should all see the movie on friday!
Me: wait, aren't you going to be gone on friday?
Rakhi: oh yeah, shoot. you're such a killjoy solomon.

=

AJ: ...like i move from one bowl of ice cream to another -- FAST.

=

Erin: you said 'shut up, you're annoying me'

=

Damon: the air stinks of sparty. this place disgusts me.
~trip to E. Lansing

=

Hilary: then again i'm sure all you're good at is aquatic trivia & drawing fish (i mean giraffes) blind-folded!
~for the record i have only lost at Cranium ONCE.

=

Jill: wait, the fish is named Solomon David???

=

Kara: i told you so, we won and you lost! badgers rule and wolverines dro000ol!
~sadly deserved on my part

=

Andrea: i think you are hiding us from sarah.

=

Sarah: i think you are hiding me from your friends.

=

Zac: i could call the rents...don't make me make that call
~threats from the product of an OSU education

=

EDIT: although there is little that can be said in terms of personality for the girls of laguna beach, i will say that just about ALL of the guys on this show are complete TOOLS. and who the heck is named tallan??? <:><

cut off...

ok apparently hotmail is down and this is really upsetting...what the heck am i supposed to do at work now??? anyway, if you need to get a hold of me just call the cell or whatever. hopefully this is resolved soon because i don't know how much more of this i can take!!! amazing how dependent we become on things such as email, cell phones, computers...makes you wonder how people survived long ago...like in the 80's. <:><

convos at the tank...

while watching television:

damon: dude!

james: i'm surfing channels

damon: that doesn't mean turn it to figure skating!

...meanwhile i am typing it as they are saying it. just thought i would share.

iced tea, southern style

i just want to reiterate how much BETTER iced tea is in the south than it is up here. as most people know it's already sweetened when you get it down there, as opposed to the stupidity up here where you have to add the sweetener yourself. those of you that know my relatively well know that i usually add a good 5-6 packs of equal/splenda to mine, so this valuable amount of time is retained regarding iced tea in the south...you can imagine that i used that accumulated time for something useful and productive...well probably not (especially if you considered watching the Michigan/Wisconsin game this past weekend a good use of time).

that's all the more i can say about the weekend and the game at this point. after 15 hours of driving for about 800 miles i am completely exhausted and have to get some sleep so i can go back to the computer/GIS lab dungeon tomorrow. more updates to come. in the mean time, here are some shots from the wedding (which was a great time) this past weekend:

wedding party shot

decorating the getaway vehicle

the ONU crew w/ bride & groom

the genetics of competition...

well i will be going to sleep very soon since the wedding i am involved with is in about 10 hours. we had a great time tonight finding out what everyone has been up to over the past year, what has changed, what stayed the same, and theories as to who will be next to take the plunge (quite an entertaining bet that has been going on for years now). either way, it has been great to meet up with some of the old undergrad crew (yes, i was in undergrad at one point) and hang out. we also got to meet the bridesmaids and other people involved with the wedding. those southern girls are something else, haha.

anyway, getting back to the topic of this post. i will leave you guys with a recent excerpt from my sister sarah's live journal. she raises some interesting points, but also demonstrates why for some reason us davids don't get much done or put a lot of effort into things unless there is some sort of competition at stake. yeah, sounds clinical. here is the post:

" so i'm thinking that everyone is probably boggled by my recent lj update craze. i owe it all to solo...you're going down by the way!
that brings up an interesting concept that i was thinking about the other day. i mean for the past couple months i've kind of slacked with updating and what not,and then once word of a competition was brought up, all of a sudden i'm back in the game. it made me think, would i be a slacker at other things if there were competition involved? or am i just really eager to beat the golden child at something? hmmm...i guess i'll never know. chances are i'll probably always be a slacker though."

well i found it entertaining/interesting. i need to get some sleep, one of my best friends is getting married tomorrow AND i will also be able to watch the Michigan game...in the words of Aundrea and company (from back in the day at ONU) "bonus, double score!" <:><

and some random pics from rick's that i promised in the last post:

what AJ has titled 'the oreo'

hal and brian as statues

southern hospitality...

well just a quick update as we get ready to go out to dinner...we made it down to montgomery safely and relatively without incident (other than our delayed start this morning...for the first time I was not the reason for being late)!

the drive took FOREVER. i did two 200+ mile shifts for a total of around 6-7 hours of driving, and cryder did two similar shifts. his g/f drove from chicago to our meeting spot in ohio...needless to say we were all fed up with driving and i am happy to say that my honda civic has survived the trip so far.

also, as you can see, our hotel has wireless internet access (free) so that's nice and i guess i will be updating over the course of the rest of the weekend. although the trip has been long, it is kind of nice to get out of ann arbor (just briefly though...i can't stay away from home for too long)!

ok well more will be added later, for now i have some additional pics that AJ sent out from the rick's outing the other night that will be added to this post soon. <:><

dayton, OH

well its been an exciting trip so far...3 cans of red bull later and i still feel tired. right now i am waiting outside a friends place (he's at work) for my other friend and his g/f to meet up so we can keep moving with this trip. after about 3.5 hours of driving we still have a good 10 hours left to go. also gotta love being able to access wireless networks in the neighborhood, haha. well that's the first update on the road. it's also the earliest i have been up in a looooooong time. peace out for now <:><

delay/the battle continues...

two things. well my departure has been delayed a bit because the people i am supposed to meet down in ohio are having car problems coming in from chicago...man, i could have slept a little while longer, but there is no hope for that now. guess we may be missing the rehearsal dinner because o this, but there is no way i was going to just drive down through on my own (i won't leave you guys behind, cryder!)

secondly (other half of this entry's title) my sister has been putting up a decent effort keeping up with the journal entry/blog competition. it must be in the david genes, because of all the 'competitions' i have been involved with over the past several weeks (and there has been a variety) my sister seems to be the only one that is nearly as competitive or can come close to winning. ah well, its always been in good fun anyway. oh, and its also about winning. yeah, that sounds about right.

so i have a lot of catching up to do with various stories and events of the past week/weekend...instead of getting into major details with all that stuff (which i definitely don't have time for right now, and probably won't for a while) i am just going to list some comments and you can take from them what you will, depending on what you understand. if you don't understand any of them, well i suggest you go find something else to do until my next entry. comments:

-in the spirit of competition, there is one battle that i have seriously been losing...losing for years, but losing pretty badly as of recently. this is the battle with the alarm clock or my phone alarm. yeah, right now i am 0-2 with that. i seriously lose against the snooze button, what a horrible invention. so if i ever say 'don't worry, i'll set an alarm' i suggest one gets a backup or makes other plans.

-people who come over need to start accepting that the restaurant of choice for us is pancheros. simple as that. we can take certain criticisms, but only so much before you get kicked out. so come over, have a good time, grab a panchero's napkin and don't start up any mexican food debates. either you will lose or i won't give up my position. it's the best, deal with it...or even better, just have a burrito.

-the fish are cool...just ask all our delivery people...the tio's guy, chinese delivery person, fedex delivery guy, domino's delivery, they all love them; we even let some of them come inside the place to check out the other tanks. along with this, our fish DO NOT look like dolphins, rats, giraffes or ANY other mammals. i take it as a personal insult when these ridiculous comparisons are made. if you want mammals go buy a cat or a gerbil and stay home.

-i really hate the fact that every phone service but sprint requires you to listen to that stupid voicemail prompt lady. like nobody knows how to leave a message in this day and age. i hate the few seconds of life that i lose to that stupid voice every day. sprint is probably the worst carrier on the planet after t-mobile...yet they have the 'press 1' bypass which is extremely useful. too bad those with sprint get reception at about 30% of the locations the rest of us do.

- thank goodness some of those regular tv shows are starting up again...it was far too long without CSI, but Rescue Me was definitely a good fill-in. now its just a matter on seeing where Alias goes this season. at the same time, i am glad there are reruns of Seinfeld and The Simpsons, because there are no good new sitcoms on at all. the new family guy episodes are good though.

ok i think that is good enough for now. i'm going to go load up my car and take a nap...at this rate i could have just left tomorrow morning. as much of a crazy-long drive this will be, it will be nice to get away for a little bit. it's definitely been an INSANE past few weeks, so a brief hiatus before the coming busy week and Tank III will probably be good for me (and probably for everyone else too)! peace out <:><

ok as always, here are some random pics:

the jaws of a gar...how could someone think its a scary fish?

my buddy hal really likes blazin' wings

sweet home...

alabama. well its not MY home but that's where i'll be headed in just about an hour. i am trying to make a CD for the road (well, it will last about 1/20th of the trip, but i have more CDs) which will be loosely based on the playlist from the 'party at the tank II'.

i don't know how well all the red bull i bought will keep me up, so i am going to wrap this entry up right now. i'll leave you all with some pics from last night's outing to rick's and some other random pics that were still on my camera:

armbands x 2

like i need a third sister...

the gang at rick's
troublemakers: hilary & erin
the rick's vixens...AJ, erin, julia

a day without an update???

wow, for the first time in a long time an entire day went by without a single update to this thing...perhaps i will write that off to just giving sarah a chance to catch up to me (she took advantage of this by posting 2x in the same day, something she hasn't done in ages).

anyway, i am not sure when the next time i will be able to update will be, i am leaving ann arbor for montgomery, alabama at 2:30am friday. i will be in one of my best friend's wedding (my roommate of two years from undergrad) so it will be a busy weekend at that. i am looking forward to seeing some of my old friends from undergrad, some of which i haven't met up with in a loooong time. the main catch is that its about 800 miles away and we (me, another undergrad friend & his g/f) are driving. yeah, roughly 15 hours (each way) of fun...4 of which i will be driving on my own to meet up with the other two people. i already got my 4-pack of red bull and will probably need much more as the day's travels go on. rest assured i will take some pictures (when not driving) and since nothing normal ever happens to me (especially when i get together with the undergrad friends) i am sure i'll have some stories as well.

for now i am going to finish watching the O.C. (hey, it was on when i got home) and await the season premiere of CSI. last night was pretty crazy, but i will update about that a little later. i think i have some Tio's coming soon as well (mmmmmm). that's all for now < : > <

random photo:

a badger wouldn't stand a chance...

a party to watch the video of the party???

...the title of this entry was an interesting point brought up by rachel regarding the low-key (for the first time in a while) gathering of friends this evening. i guess everything has to be an event, and this is definitely not the first time i have been accused of doing that, oh well.

anyway, damon and james wanted to be entertained this evening so they came to my talk for the fish group out of the museum of natural history; it was basically an overview of gars relating to my recent article in TFH. yeah, i finished that presentation about 30min before i had to give it, but it went really well and we had a good turnout. we had enough time to grab some NYPD Pizza (i should point out that they told us their burritos were better than pancheros...i'm not even going to dignify that statement with any more response here) and then get home since people were coming over to watch the 24 minute party video.

i was surprised at the turnout we had as i figured it would be maybe five of us (including damon and james), but we had the entire SPH group show up and plans are already being made for cinematic improvements and more creative license for the next party (which has been tentatively deemed the 'death to sparty party').

so yeah, we had a small party to watch the video of the party...it's surprising that anyone out of the group gets anything done. this was further complicated by the fact that i got about 3 hours of sleep and was coming off my red bull boost by the end of the evening, oh well.

one more topic before i turn in for the evening, i just thought it was humorous that sarah has made the following statements in her blog:
"whoa, back to back updates? that's right. i was going to let today slide and not update anything but then i stumbled upon solo's blog and saw that he wanted to make this some sort of competition. you are NOT the only david capable of rambling about insignificant events solo. i'll take you on."
i guess the point of incessant competition coming from me has been brought up quite a bit in the past several weeks...i don't know what the deal is, but i guess there always seems to be the need for some driving force of winning. personally i think it is somewhat related to the fact that i am still upset about overpaying for honey smacks at kroger last week.

well i am way too tired to keep this going, so i will continue tomorrow. such hilarious topics as rachel threatening to start her own blog (to get back at sarah and me) and the incredibly funny leroy jenkins video will have to wait. it's time to screw around with more video stills for random pics and then turn in for the night. Guten Nacht und Tschuss < : > <stingrays, aka tommy & pam, sleeping (but thanks for including them on the vid julia)

damon: "i'm sorry i wasn't listening" (he was just joking around)

new for party at the tank II: the fish column

julia gets me called out by kara

mmmm...milk. i believe i have damon & rakhi to thank

andy trying to wave off the camera

and finally, the mascot of Team Bowfin...the...bowfin.

i caught you a delicious bass...

...ok so that line really doesn't have anything to do with this entry, but me and the roommates just finished watching napoleon dynamite a little while ago so it seemed loosely appropriate. it does at least mention fish, so leave me alone.

well its 3:45am and i am supposed to be working on a presentation for tomorrow evening, but i have decided to take a break and write a quick entry...that and i got on my sister's (sarah) case about lagging behind with her online journal so i can't afford to let her get ahead. yeah, seems like everything is a competition these days...

anyway, i took some stills out of the video from the party at the tank II to share with the rest of you...there is a lot more that can be added, and i'll see what i can fit in later. for now, here are some random shots from saturday night (quality is a bit lower since they are stills from a video) --

new addition to the kitchen from damon's alaska visit

AJ gets flips it with just one try

rakhi and company actually showed up...and we even talked for a little while


damon's statement: excitement is high, tension is low

showing off the Indian tolerance of hot foods...in this case a dried jalapeno pepper

julia made sure to get a shot of james' dying plant

the two hosts of The Tank (james was gone this weekend)

more pics later <:><

...of the things to come...

well it has been quite a while (relatively speaking) since i have updated this thing and unfortunately there is waaaay too much to cover (and i am waaaay too tired right now to talk about all of it) for just one post. this past weekend was a lot of fun to say the least, and i am not in the least bit interested in heading back to lab (aka the dungeon) monday morning.

i'll leave you all with a brief (and somewhat random) list of things to be covered in upcoming posts about this past weekend:

-UofM soundly defeats EMU 55-0. there were also A LOT of bees (actually yellow jackets) in the stadium for it being a slightly rainy day.

-Party at The Tank II...
the second official party at the tank was a success! we had a good group of people show up and all kinds of stuff going on. luckily we had several people taking pics, and word has already spread amongst some of those in attendance about the 'random video' from the party (i must say it's hilarious!) special thanks to erin and julia for coming up with the idea to videotape stuff and for their camera skills over the course of the party, the 20 min of complete randomness and craziness is a must-see.

-dried jalapenos peppers actually ARE much hotter
-damon's drinking glove (may require a separate post altogether)
-the iPod/laptop open jukebox and the requests for more 'booty music'
-team bowfin's slow start but still successful run over the course of the party
-do gars really look like giraffes, and can you get kicked out for making such comparisons?
-who is good and who really sucks at euchre?
-andy's long walk out to the party...luckily it was a shorter trip back
-party host duties and fish tours of 'the tank' (tour tapes w/ headphones are in the works)
-why double D totally creeped us out at 3am
- 7am is far too late to stay up when the alarm is set for 8am... an 11am wake-up is much more reasonable...

lot's to come about the party stuff, as well as my sisters' second visit to The Tank, meeting rachel's 'friend' daniel, video of leroy jenkins, and why NO ONE (or was that everyone) should see the movie 'Cry Wolf'. until then, i will leave you with some random pics from the party:

the armbands...

AJ/damon (check out the glove) /janine

me/damon/hal at BW3 the previous weekend

more pics to come, and probably some stills from the video once i get it uploaded. its 4:45am...good night <:><

in preparation...

well we are slated to have a decent number of guests over tonight, so damon and i are scrambling to get things together before they arrive (which starts in about two hours). should be a good time. i will be sure and update with pics.

in other news UM soundly defeated the EMU eagles 55 to 0...good to see them bounce back and this had to boost confidence at least a little bit (EMU is NOT that great of a team relatively speaking, but it helps). the first big test will be their first away game vs. big 10 opponent Wisconsin next week. those badgers are going down! GO BLUE! ok back to the preparation for guests... <:><

random photo:

my study site river, The Muskegon

warlord & itunes...

from the title you may be thinking 'what a strange combination!' well, all i really did was change up the words in the title of the movie we saw tonight and include one of the small projects i was working on in the evening in preparation for the ('impromptu') party tomorrow.

first off, it's pretty late, so this will be shorter than usual.

so hal and i went to see 'Lord of War' starring nicholas cage, bridget moynahan, and jared leto tonight. it was not what i expected, but i still thought it was very well done and worth seeing. i did think (shortly after leaving the theater) that it was somewhat inappropriately placed in the mainstream cinemas when it could have played out quite well at the michigan or state theaters...but if the movie was going to reach a wider audience, it would have to go mainstream.

this is a fictional movie based on some facts. it is about gun-running operations and generally how they work and affect everyone from the first world to the developing world (major focus was given to politics in africa in this movie). it was an interesting movie and although there is no clean-cut ending or outrageous special fx...or even exceptionally deep character development, i still enjoyed it and it really makes one think about how governments work in the wars they wage in the open and covertly. interesting to say the least, but don't go to it expecting it to have the action of a michael bay film or style of die hard. it's a tough call between *** and **** out of five...and since i don't do halves, i will round up to **** in this case. in related news i think we decided we're going to get a group together to see 'cry wolf' at some point in the future...and that of course will be one of those really bad horror movies, but should at least be entertaining.

a lot of the rest of the evening was spent preparing the apartment for guests tomorrow for the party (which was planned somewhat on the fly, but that is a relative term especially since i did most of the planning and am pretty AR about such things). we downloaded all of james' itunes to my computer and i think we've now got a good mix of music. i think there is just enough to make some people happy and some people annoyed over the course of the evening...should be entertaining to say the least. a lot of other cleaning was done, so its been a long evening.

we have the UM vs EMU game tomorrow at noon and some more prep-work to do so it's definitely time to turn in. good night <:><

random photo:

one section of my biology of fishes students, 2003

pics from the land of Oz...

special thanks to julia for sending out the pics from last night's outing. it was definitely a fun time. i can't write much now, but i will post the pics:

AJ and Julia

hanging out w/ the SPH girls (erin, me, janine, AJ) hal was with us earlier in the evening as well...we were probably the only two grad student representatives from SNRE in attendance.

erin gets up on stage!

you can check out the file name of this image (julia named it) as that is at least somewhat humorous. i also want to make it clear that i was NOT DRUNK in this picture, i'll write it off perhaps to being entranced (???), and the fact that am willing to put up embarrassing pics for entertainment purposes. as we were all out on the floor i was somewhat coerced by the those crazy SPH girls to dance with this indian girl (wow)...surprisingly, it was a good time.

that's all for now <:>

peer pressure...

well i just finished watching the last 1/3 of 'American Psycho' with james, but that was after coming back from pancheros (with julia and erin), and that was after hanging out with them and janine, AJ and hal at club Oz for the 'grad student mixer'.

it was an interesting night to say the least, and i really wasn't planning on joining anyone to go out in the first place, but circumstances ended up leading towards Oz by the end of the day. needless to say it was A LOT of fun in spite of the large crowd of grad students (and what i am sure were a lot of thursday night regulars). either way, a good time was had a by all, and you can't go wrong with a night that ends with hanging out at pancheros!

julia will need to get me all the photographic evidence/records from the evening, and they will be added in as the not-so-random-photos for this or the next entry. let's just say there was a dizzying amount of indians there and a lot of dancing (yikes!) good night, and more to follow later <:><

random photo:

another pic that has become somewhat infamous amongst friends and even some profs...a friend of mine photoshopped this image to change the original movie poster into the story of my life...

The O.C. wins...

first off, i want it to be clear that i am NOT a big fan of EITHER of these shows. i have a lot of friends who watch one or the other or (gasp!) both and i refuse to become a regular viewer.
that being said, i came home today to find that one of my roommates (james) was back early due to issues with their research equipment. if it wasn't for him, i wouldn't have been watching the season premiere of the O.C. just to state the obvious, NOTHING happens on this show!!! it may just be my ignorance and not having watched more than a handful of episodes last season, but it seems like they are in the same place. i will point out again that my favorite character is rachel bilson and then that guy she was dating, they have the best subplots in my mind and are the funniest. mischa barton is just waaaaay too whiny and that other dude has strange hair and is a thug.

anyway, it should also be noted that the show opened with the same song that was on laguna beach last night, 'Soul Meets Body' by Death Cab for Cutie. now i was just introduced to this band about a week ago (thanks africa) and they seem to be getting a lot more mainstream play...which usually ends up being when i hook up to a band anyway. i'll admit it, i am not a huge indie-band person, because i don't like putting forth the effort to track them down. i would rather wait until they reach me via mainstream channels or someone tells me about them. ok so anyway, it's a good song and band. their old stuff is pretty sweet too. i still think pump up the jam and sabotage and song 2 are great as well, so don't pigeon hole me into any group here.

ok, i completely lost track of where i was going with this entire entry. i think it had something to do with the O.C. being more tolerable than Laguna Beach. coincidentally, i had lunch (Raja Rani's...mmmmmmm) with one of my best friends from back in 6th grade -Matt- today and he was just down in Laguna Beach. i asked him if everything was in hi-def and widescreen and he just gave me a funny look...but strangely enough i saw his name fade in and fade out in front of him. creepy.

so if you have a choice, watch the O.C. neither show will get you anywhere, and at least Rescue Me has much better acting and you may learn something from CSI and nothing will ever be as funny as Seinfeld, but if you are looking for a nothingness show about young people in cali, go with OC. although if i hadn't been changing the water in the fish tanks at the time, i probably would have done the smart thing and turned the tv OFF.

that's all for now. it's time to eat some hot pockets (still searching for the inventor Rachel?) and head out to Oz to meet some grad students. grad students...now there is a fun bunch, but i'll talk about my general opinion of those forever in school in another entry. peace out <:><


random pic:the elusive grass pickerel, Esox americanus

laguna beach: i just don't get it...

well after spending a ridiculously exorbitant amount of money on cleaning supplies and frozen food items (for both me and the fishes) at kroger this evening, i turned on the TV to TBS...and there was ANOTHER episode of 'Everybody Loves Raymond' on. now, that show is relatively humorous in its own right, but there is only so much i can take of it, so i decided to scan the channels and eventually landed on one of my roommate's (james) favorite channel: MTV. i used to watch a lot of this channel back in the day, but hardly ever do as of late.

what show was on? yeah, laguna beach. now, this show is a bit of a conundrum to me (one may ask, how is this even possible for a show that is on MTV, where one pretty much has to be in a zombie state to even enjoy) because every time i try to watch it (no, it's not THAT many times) i am perplexed as to what the heck it is supposed to be! is it reality? is it scripted? is it farce? or could it be that it just plain sucks?

the show seems too unscripted to be flat out fiction, why? because the stories seem to be as uncreative as they come (not that that doesn't stop NBC sitcoms) and even the ADD kids have got to tire of this stuff at some point. then again, i have a lot of friends who enjoy the OC, which is just a more scripted version of this same drivel...although the OC has Rachel Bilson, so i guess the points would have to go to Fox on that one.
Laguna Beach seems close to reality because they talk like i would imagine human/californian hybrids would speak. they also interrupt each other all the time and the dialogue overlaps, something you won't really see in clean cut scripted fiction. i would guess reality at this point except for the fact that they aren't pseudo-philosophical enough, like they are on the 'real world' where they babble in confession and over drinks about stuff that (seriously) no one talks about in the real world. that, and these people are all cookie-cutter replicas of one another. the guys in the episode i saw tonight seemed kind of funny, but they were golfing, so that made me lose some respect for them. find a real sport. the girls, although all attractive, can hardly be distinguished from one another since they are almost all blond and sound exactly the same ('like' is used in front of every article in their speech; heck they even begin and end sentences with 'like'). there was one brunette girl on there, so she was somewhat distinguishable, but the guy was basically dropping her for one of the blond clones, so i guess she wasn't as important. oh the horror.

i will give it to the show that i like the widescreen format. i like widescreen a lot, in fact, i tore down my older computer monitors (even though i could have had all 3 hooked up like some sort of psycho matrix freak) because none of them were widescreen like this one. i think that's why i like the fish tanks too, its all widescreen. everything. widescreen.

i digress again.

there is also the hi-def color which makes everything look cooler. one thing which i can't decide whether its annoying or not is how they fade in and fade out the characters' names quite frequently. since the people all look the same (and these aren't racist comments towards white people, for those of you who are worried) -see above comments- having the names fade in does help, but at the same time, i really don't care if its kristin or nicole or parminder. so yeah, i think im going to go with it being annoying.

well, i suppose i should get some real, actual work done, but it has been fun sharing my laguna experience with you all. rest assured i will probably try to watch it again (when left with no choice other than that raymond show) in the future and will have more comments to make.

i'm going to track down some good random pics and add them to this later. while i am doing that, i suggest you get online and illegally download 'Pump Up the Jam' by Technotronics...i'm listening to it right now and man am i glad i got this track a couple months ago. awesome. <:><

ok this entry's random pics aren't so random as they are the pics AJ was talking about in her comments. they were taken at the (i believe) baltimore aquarium. i must admit the pics turned out quite well, especially for someone who generally does not like fishes:

the cowfish was AJ's favorite

the 'michigan fish' would be the blue tangs

my favorite...the stonefish. members of this group are the most venomous fishes in the world.

lab = running...

well not exactly, but today the two are loosely connected. my lab-wide meeting with my PhD advisor and all the people in our lab was postponed from this evening to sometime next week, so i am home a couple hours earlier than i intended for the evening.

even though i was struggling to stay awake after lunch in lab (i actually had coffee for the first time in months to try and keep awake) i am not going to use this extra time to take a nap (like i instinctively would) but will instead go running. yes, running. that and i bought these new earphones yesterday so i can run and listen to my iPod shuffle to make the experience of distance running more enjoyable (ah to be back in the old days of high school cross country...)

anyway, if i don't pass out from over-exertion i should be back later this evening for more time-wasting in between thesis work. peace out <:><


random pics:

what damon and i look like when caught mid-conversation


and here is what a black bullhead looks like when caught mid-conversation

15 minutes of real, actual work...

ok, so i did more than 15 minutes of work today, but i did find that the lab is much more bearable if i take relatively frequent breaks to walk around the basement of the dana building and socialize with people in other offices and in the halls...this made the day go by MUCH faster, and it was nice to catch up with a lot of people, ranging from former students to friends i haven't seen since last winter.

hal and AJ ( aka 'the other brown girl') came over this evening to watch the season finale of Rescue Me with james and me. it was a really good finale and i am sad that i will have to wait until 2006 for the next season to begin; i suppose i will at least have CSI, CSI: Miami, and Alias to look forward to pretty soon, but the grittiness of the FX dramedy will be missed.

ok well it's already pretty late so i will leave you all with some quotes from the day:

christine: wow, you are accomplishing quite a bit before noon!
~i guess i at least appeared to be working...

andrea: anyway, i have a feeling your party is not going to be a simple, small affair since you don't know how to plan anything simple anymore (kidding, or am I?).
~called out via email

carrie: will there be any drinking games involving fish tanks full of liquor?
~10 gallons is quite a bit...270 gallons is probably just a little crazy...

me: so what were you up to all summer?
andy: shrimping.

===

random pictures:

view from Hinchinbrook Island, Queensland, Australia

one of the opponents of team Bowfin...team Capyba!

have a good night <:><

bright and early and some tracks...

...well, its early for me anyway, and not really voluntary. i am really eager to get back to my prison, aka the research lab. if we don't get some traffic going through there today i am seriously going to consider moving that computer to the diag.
speaking of computers, i was recently able to consolidate the three computers into one, there is now a decent and easily accessible variety via itunes (note, not all music was purchased legally). here are some tracks that are popular at the moment:

-C'mon C'mon by The Von Bondies (also the theme to 'Rescue Me' and the season finale is on tonight)
-Halcyon & On & On by Orbital (track was actually in both Mortal Kombat AND Mean Girls...how is that for diversity?)
-What Sarah Said/Marching Bands of Manhattan by Death Cab for Cutie (recently introduced to this band, they're pretty good...more low key but you need that every once in a while)
-So Long and Thanks for All the Fish from the soundtrack to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (should be obvious)
-Shoot to Thrill/Back in Black by AC/DC (everyone needs some classic rock mixed in there)
-Plain by 311 (i am going to use this in the opening titles of a movie someday)
-California Love by Tupac & Dr. Dre (almost have the entire rap down)


random picture:

Jeevan, aka devil dog

have a good morning <:><

super troopers...

just want to make the quick addendum that the movie 'super troopers' is STILL extremely funny by the 200th time. i honestly can't remember how many times damon/james/myself have watched this movie since moving into the new place, but it's a ridiculous number. if you haven't seen the movie, you really need to check it out...and then watch it again the next day, and maybe later that next day as well (i didn't realize how funny it was until the 2nd or 3rd time). it's directed by this indian guy (Jay Chandrasekhar) and written by the broken lizard comedy troupe. this movie ranks up there with Office Space, Happy Gilmore, Dumb & Dumber, The Big Lebowski, and Old School in terms of the quotes, etc. i won't say any more about the movie so you can just check it out for yourself...or just watch it again.
pancakes.

random photo:

one of the 'themes' that sonya and AJ came up with...

long day...longer night...

it's been a long day. maybe not because of the actual length of the day or the amount of work actually accomplished at this point, but because most of it was spent trapped in a very large office BY MYSELF. our lab office is only at the extremes, either there are a ton of people in it working on various projects or looking for random pieces of non-existent equipment or there is just one or two people and the occasional giant cockroach (actually there are probably close to 2 million which had infested the cursed dana building).

today i got in in the morning (way to go!) and started off by logging on and reading part of the Michigan Daily to check out the news as well as all the critiques of the horror that was the UM vs Notre Dame game (now known around our apartment as 'the game of which we do not speak'). well it took a while but one of my former students/labmates came in to take a few jabs at the michigan game (he's an illinois fan, so you gotta take what you can get) and just shoot the proverbial, well, you know. my advisor came by and eventually the search for equipment ensued...

i think that was pretty much the last human contact i had until i went out for lunch. man was it HOT out there! either way i still went to pancheros and got plenty of hot sauce on my burrito, but even that wasn't quite right, why, you may ask? because for the first time ever (at least when i have been there) they were OUT of CHICKEN. although this may not seem like much of an emergency to the rest of you, i pretty much eat the exact same thing from there every day with a few variations, but nothing so drastic as replacing chicken with beef. all that being said, it turned out to be pretty good, and i was glad to be among humans and away from the blattodeans for a little while.

i came back and things were pretty much how i left them. except for a brief face-off with my archnemesis regarding how quiet i was (seriously) when we were all hanging out last friday there was little more contact until i left the office.
i hope i NEVER have to go through that again. if this is the life of a true researcher, you can count me out completely. i'll teach jr. high so long as i don't have to sit in a lab all freaking day (in order to teach at the U level you unfortunately have to get a higher degree). i am beginning to think that i could GSI (graduate student instructor...what i have been doing for most semesters) for the rest of my life if it was necessary...i really love that job, and research work just blows.

ok enough of that ranting. i had to take a nice 2 hour nap (typical david style - you know where you wake up and don't know if its morning or night or what day it is) to shake off the sour taste of my lab imprisonment and now i will be up for the rest of the night working on thesis stuff (what? no social events for an evening? yeah, those are definitely tapering down this week!)
rest assured the craziness will soon be continuing, but not without some decent work completed in between. and now its time for some Ben & Jerry's Half Baked ice cream...

and for completely random purposes (maybe its because i am fish-sitting them while damon is up in alaska) here is a pic i took of damon's tank:

<:><