why penguins suck, the maize rage, and the origins of Panchero's: The Board Game...

well my new adidas running gear came in today, so i guess that means i need to officially start (regularly) running again. i went all out this time, new shoes, new wind jacket, running pants, and 6 pairs of special running socks...one would think i'm going into training or something, haha. either way, i have started out by wearing the shoes out to the game today, and also tried on the jacket to make sure it fit. it's also going to be an exercise of will power seeing as i really HATE the cold and dread running in it even more, but i have done it for years in the past, and i think with a little effort i can do it again. of course, should i give up while out there, or get run over by one of the many (ridiculously awful) michigan drivers on the road, all the new gear has a lot of reflective material integrated into the clothes/shoes so my body should be found relatively quickly for processing by CSI: Ann Arbor.

i made the last entry thinking i would talk about how i got that box from pancheros, but then in my infinite wisdom realized that i had already posted about it in the entry prior to that one. yeah, im definitely losing it. anyway, the box is now safely among such treasured items at the tank such as the giant alligator gar head, the double chalices of doom, the braylon edwards signed football, the charlie brown & co pillow case, and the official muppets postage stamps (i am sure there is more, but you get the idea).

it was funny because yesterday a lot of people saw me with the panchero's box, and today it led to some further discussion. as you may recall i left it in the lab since it was pouring the day before and i didnt want it to get destroyed on the way home. well today several of my labmates asked 'what is up with the panchero's box?' and/or 'how many burritos did you buy???'. i must admit the thought of the box full of burritos makes me quite happy...what a great party item or gift for ME for christmas!
an interesting line of thought was started when i was 'showing off' the box to my friend/archnemesis, rakhi, this afternoon. she said she saw me with it yesterday and wondered if i had somehow gotten a hold of 'Panchero's: The Board Game'. although i usually get crazy comments from that direction, i really did think it would be sweet if it was indeed a board game! imagine, you have all these miniature burritos you have to make at various times during the day, opening time, lunch rush, dinner, bar closing, halloween, etc...and you had to keep up with the demand in order to progress through the game...maybe even use some of their punch cards and learn some spanish along the way. well, most of you have stopped reading by this point, but for those of you who are still with me, i commend you.
needless to say, i discussed the idea further and left the building and fellow (now estranged) labmates and former friends thinking i was even stranger than before.

and now onto the penguins. i HATE penguins. these feelings were further elicited by all the conversations going on in late summer/early fall about people going to see that ridiculous march of the penguins movie and how great it was. now, i will admit i have not seen the movie, but damon (knowing my distaste for these aquatic flightless mutants of the avian world) assured me that one day i would wake up tied to a chair with my eyes taped open and march of the penguins playing on a TV in front of me (think of it as my own personal game from the movie 'saw'). now THAT gives me nightmares.

i dont care how long it takes them to march from here to there, or how special it is that azeem narrates the film. i am, however, looking forward to bob saget's spoof of the movie, which should come out in a few months.

penguins are dumb. sure the emperor species may look kind of cool, and after all, they are named emperor (see darth sidious, emperor scorpions, for why the term is cool) but they are still dopey swimming mistakes for vertebrates. i would be happier if they showed a great white or even an orca eating some of them during the film...at least that would have shown some realism or at least some predation. perhaps they could have at least shown a yak.

billy madison hated penguins, and i thought that greatly contributed to why i dislike them so much. if you aren't familiar with this reference then you have no taste in movies, and coming from me that means a lot seeing as i exercise virtually no discretion in my movie viewing (see earlier entry regarding 'in the mix'). those penguins were always causing trouble.

but thats not where it came from originally. during one of damon and my many pseudo-philosophical talks on the way to and from miami a couple weeks ago i finally figured it out. Mario Kart 64...

it's late and i'm tired, this will be continued tomorrow, good night <:><

pics from the outing to crisler arena tonight; it was my first UM basketball game and it was a lot of fun...not to mention great to see us kick the crap out of Miami AND come away from the Michigan stadium direction with a feeling of victory instead of those various home games this season -

full court shot of crisler arena; good showing by the students and the place was LOUD!

the talented michigan dance team

this drummer guy was part of the half time show; he was really good, although he referred to us as 'michigan university'.

another drummer shot

final score...coach amaker was happy

Panchero's: The Board Game???

one of the coolest new additions to the many artifacts, trophies, and random haberdashery found at 'the tank' -


the story of this new item plus why i really hate penguins coming up later. right now i have to head out to my first UofM basketball game (we are playing UofMiami). GO BLUE!!!

three weeks is never quite enough...

well here we are back in the mix of the semester coming off thanksgiving break...with only three weeks left before Christmas break. we all know (especially those of us in school) that this stretch is anything but a normal three weeks of school, but instead is a last ditch attempt to procrastinate on projects and papers, crunch time to meet deadlines, the insanity of christmas shopping, and of course final exams. what a masochistic time of the year! ah well, at least i dont have to worry about exams this time around, but i will be sure to laugh at those of you who do have them. you can look for me around that time, i'll be the guy sitting in panchero's eating a burrito and reading the paper.

my sister faced similar struggles returning to school, the biggest of course, was getting up before noon. thanksgiving break is actually quite the relaxing time for my family (generally speaking) and all that eating and sleeping presents a stark contrast with life at school. oh well, i made it up and into work in the dungeon today, but required at 2 hour nap when i got back, and i don't know where the rest of the evening went, but im definitely contemplating sleep once again.

speaking of pancheros, i definitely have NOT forgotten about kara's 'case' against the ultimate mexican grill on campus, and rest assured i'll be posting a response sometime in the very near future. i will add that today i was there (almost showing withdrawal symptoms from over break) and got a burrito for myself and one of my labmates and they actually gave me a big panchero's box complete with utensils, napkins, and tiny packets of salt. i must say that this was one of the coolest things i have ever received from an eating establishment, and if it wasnt raining so hard at the end of the day, i would have brought the box home from the office (instead it's still sitting there at my computer...man, i hope no one steals it!) i have never put salt on the burrito i get from there, but i was definitely fascinated with the tiny packets, and hid a few of them in the lab in case i need them later...you know, to melt slugs or something.
either way, the panchero's box was a nice welcome back to campus, and it will proudly be on display at the tank in the near future.

i will also take this opportunity to wish a belated happy birthday to meghan; im sorry damon and i werent able to make it out there to celebrate with you, laura, erin, and bacardi and roo (those last two are rabbits) but im sure other opportunities will present themselves in the future, and we'll make it up to you at some point. for now i'll just cancel out the burrito debt that you have with me.

in other news, it's official (as of just before break) that i will be teaching Parasitology (EEB 341) once again this winter semester out of the biology department. if any of you are looking for a bio class or just a cognate you should consider this class. the prof for lecture is great, but the GSI who has been teaching it for quite some time may be a bit tough. if i know you, you are probably better off NOT taking the class as i fully intend on making your life miserable...although i can be bought off with burritos from said mexican establishment on campus. if you bring me a big TEN burrito, you will not only fail the class, but i will also make sure you die via parasitism by some exotic tapeworm. so yeah, parasitology, think about it; i've been teaching the lab for years and fully plan on being senile this time around.

ok as usual its only monday night and it looks like the week is already filling out with all kinds of evening activities. tomorrow is the UM (michigan) vs UM (miami) basketball game which i have been convinced to attend (i actually do have work to do, but this will be my first bball game and was coerced to go). i'll also be working with some people to pick up the slack on the movies sarah and i didnt manage to see over break. this doesnt even get into resurgent craziness of later in the week...i'm sure schoolwork will fit in there somewhere.

the latest album by fall out boy is actually really good. ok time to read some of harry potter 5 and turn in. good night <:><

a few random pics:

emily, james, me from an adventure to detroit

james, damon, me from the OSU vs Michigan game

and AJ, julia, and a friend with a bunch of birds.

i HATE penguins...and that stupid movie comes out on dvd tomorrow (more on that next time).

mall rats...

well it has been an eventful thanksgiving break so far, and today the david family managed to fit in even more activities into less than 12 hours of conscious time.
i promptly woke up today at 1:30pm to the extreme hunger pangs of starvation since yesterday around 9pm (my organs were probably starting to digest themselves and therefore chose food over any more sleep).

why did i wake up so late? well i was normally going to be sleeping in since it is break, but last night after seeing Rent (pretty good, review later), In the Mix (not very good, not worth reviewing...much), and hanging out with the family, i wasnt tired and decided to stay up and make yet another attempt to scare myself by watching the amityville horror (rented) alone in our basement with all the lights off. i had heard mixed reviews about this movie when it was in theaters, which led to me renting it many months later. and yeah, it had its moments, but still wasnt that impressive and no, it didnt scare me. mind you most others (including my relatively tough sisters) probably couldnt have made it through this flick by themselves, especially with the random sounds of the water-driven heating system which originates in our basement. it should also be noted that at our new house, my room is in the basement and therefore isolated from the rest of the family...maybe they are trying to tell me something...oh well. anyway, it didnt work, so i'll be looking for more scary movies in the future, with the hopes that one of them can accomplish this feat.

today there was another horror i faced, and this was something that TRULY scares me...SHOPPING...during the HOLIDAYS. i managed to get by the day after thanksgiving madness since my sisters woke up too late to go shopping and also attempt to drag me along. we ended up seeing the two aforementioned movies instead. today was a different story, as our entire family (minus rachel, but that's all the same) wanted to go shopping. the sad thing was that i actually needed to go shopping for some clothes, and i couldnt afford to pass up this opportunity of having sarah along to help me make all the choices. and i when i say 'help' i really mean make ALL the choices for me as i don't know what i'm doing when it comes to clothes shopping. this was generally something i left to my sisters or girlfriend depending on the time/situation. yes, i'm not only intimidated by shopping during the holidays (mainly because everyone is INSANE) but also relatively inept when picking out my own clothes. sarah says shopping for guys clothes is a cinch compared to girls clothes (she has helped out my cousins as well) and i have definitely never even attempted to get clothes for a girl (except for jewelry -which im actually good at- or gift cards).

anyway, it was a serious rampage through the express, AE, the buckle, and a few other stores (i also managed to pick up the paperback of the 5th harry potter book from borders along the way). needless to say i should be set for a while. i seriously think the last time i got any substantial clothes from shopping was about four years ago...and that was before a vacation where my sisters actually bought me all these clothes (i was doing field work at the time) and i wasn't even there. needless to say, that turned out quite well, all the more reason why i shouldnt even really be needed for outings to the mall...i should just pay them to do it for me next time.

another annoying thing about shopping is the different ways people try to push you into buying things. i like when i go to a store and someone asks if i need help (depending on the store of course...if its a fish store i tend to give out the help -yeah, im a nerd, shut up) and i say im either just looking, fine, or ask them a question. in response to the first question, the salesperson should just stand back a ways away, or just take off completely. today when sarah and i were at the buckle looking at some shoes, the salesperson was quite helpful and i got the shoes (of course with sarah's help, i wouldnt do that on my own nor just blatantly trust the salesperson). after that she proceeded to bring out a couple pairs of jeans which she insisted would work well with the shoes. she apparently did NOT see the two large bags from the express which were filled with clothes, including jeans which were nearly the same as the ones she was showing me. i said i wasnt interested since i had all these other clothes, including the jeans i was wearing (ok i made that part up), and she finally backed down a bit. we barely traveled 10 feet to the register (which she was manning) and she was right back in my face with some of those weirdo thick leather watch bands with fossil watch faces inside them. she said these were some options of what go well with the shoes.
i wanted to tell her i wasnt into matching up the ensemble enough to care about a chunky leather band that would match my shoes or jeans, but i just said i already had a fossil watch (proceeded to show her mine, and that it was not on a chunky leather band) and went back to the belt that sarah and i were picking out (which was also fossil...i have always liked fossils, dinosaurs actually, but thats another story). so i ditch the leather things and she comes back at me with a belt style COMPLETELY different than the regular brown belt we were looking at. i dont know for sure, but it had some weird white frill thread things coming off it, and although im a fan of centipedes, i didnt want to look like i had one around my waist. i took it from her hands and then just hung on to it until she went behind the register...then i just told sarah (hoping the lady may hear me) that i was a bit too conservative for the frilly centipede belt. i ended up getting the plain brown belt (i had purchased a black belt from AE earlier...this way i could change belts depending on what type of warrior class i felt like). luckily, we made it out of there alive and later met up with my parents.
yikes! leave me alone! this doesnt include the incident at finish line with the kid who looked 12 years old and was just hovering over us while we tried to find a decent pair of pumas! he must have been about 3 apples tall...i swear i thought you had to be 16 to work these days, but who knows. anyway, i got some clothes, got my book (i have decided to start reading a bit again), and my diet sprite zero (which is actually pretty good if you are desperate for refreshment -- according to my mom) and we headed back home to celebrate my dad's bday with some cake.

after that we all watched 'the terminal' on dvd (great movie btw) and that brings me to right now. yeah, thats about it; tomorrow we go to church (making my 4th appearance at the new place), out to eat, take a long nap and its back to ann arbor to continue the insanity which will now be the limbo period of hectic work between thanksgiving and christmas. thank goodness i already have half my christmas shopping done! hope you all are having a good break; good night <:><

random photo: here's a pic of a red devil cichlid which i caught during my first trip down to miami this year (back in september). these fish are MUCH more brightly colored when caught in the wild than when they are purchased from a pet store; its believed that natural sunlight has a lot to do with this. and i thought you would all like to know that.

post tryptophan-induced hibernation...

well its about 12:15pm on friday 'morning' and i just got up a little while ago. man its nice to be back home and catch up on sleep...not that i don't sleep relatively often in ann arbor, but at home there is no battle with the snooze button and no dungeon lab to go to every day.

break has been fun so far, and consisted of the typical david family activities for when the family comes home: sleeping, eating, going to a movie (or in this case, it will be multiple movies since sarah and i have quite the schedule planned). i think we have hung out with relatives on thanksgiving once in my entire life. they are just too spread out here in the US for us to effectively get together for such a short period of time. that and the david's are generally the travelers, and our other relatives like to stay where they are...so maybe we don't get together with family on turkey day out of protest. whatever...more food for me (and sarah doesn't mind taking out the extra pies).

things at home seem to be going well. the 50g fish tank i brought back in august (last time i was home) has only suffered minor casualties, and there are still 25+ fishes alive and doing well. jeevan (aka devil dog) has learned to be slightly more obedient, and at this rate should be acting like a normal dog by 2017. again for references as to what he looks like you can look earlier in this blog or see the griff in the third harry potter installment or the gamork in the neverending story.

after the usual turkey feast last night, our family went to see the movie yours, mine & ours. although the reviews for this flick were horrible, it was definitely the right movie to see with our family (those of you who know them can generally know why...that and it was rated PG). the plot was predictable (to regular film-goers) and straightforward, and had plenty of cheesy family stuff in it. either way, my parents enjoyed it quite a bit we (the siblings) thought it was pretty funny as well. dennis quaid did a good job of falling into stuff and hurting himself throughout the movie; but for a better performance by him i would highly suggest 'in good company' with topher grace and scarlett johanson.

ok well i need to get some food now, and see if me and my sisters will go straight to the movies, or if they will waste their time facing the shopping hordes first. hope you all had a good thanksgiving <:><

pack up, head out...

well we are currently receiving the first major snow of the winter here on Hoth; of course it had to arrive on the day when tons of people are making their way home or to other locations for thanksgiving tomorrow, so i can't wait to deal with all the idiot/moronic drivers on the road. you know how it is with the first snow, most people drive like they have never seen it before or as if their cars will explode if they go over 20mph because their tire-traction certainly cannot handle a thin layer of snow!!!

that being said, i will be making my way to my parents place in ohio, this will be the first time i've been home since early august; the longest i have gone without going home to date. i'm looking forward to seeing whether or not jeevan (aka devil dog) will recognize me or see me as some sort of prey item and attempt to consume me. should also be fun since this is the first time (4 months) that all the siblings will be home, and my parents are always excited about that.

i'll be sure to update over the short break, so don't worry, you will have plenty of opportunities to waste time reading this blog! for those of you traveling home, have a safe trip. happy thanksgiving <:><

me and the sibs (sarah - L, rachel - R) before the OSU-Michigan game this past saturday. rachel and sarah also found it necessary to wear about 7 layers of clothes, but it turned out to be quite the nice day. rachel also missed the sunglasses memo.

half a week of work...

well this past weekend was quite a plethora of events and incidents to say the least. there were fun, exciting, insane, disappointing, annoying, crazy, and enjoyable times all the way around surrounding the friday-night parties, an Indian play attended with my sister, the Michigan vs OSU game attended by all three david siblings (and 111,594 other people), the novi pet expo, and more.
its an understatement to say im pretty tired out, and on top of that the game (and talking a lot at the expo today) has greatly contributed to me losing my voice (the world will be quieter for a day or two, haha). that's all for now, i'll leave you with this particular image from the pet expo:

that is one SCARY llama!!! <:><

Tressell goes to heaven...

this is of course the week of The Game, and having lived in ohio for the past 16 years (at least that is where my family has lived, and i went to jr/high school/undergrad there) i have a lot of friends back in the buckeye state who have been dishing out the jabs over the course of the week. one of my best friends from undergrad has been sending me and several others some Michigan jokes so i figured i would go ahead and post this one about Ohio State's Jim Tressell (AJ, do you know who that is???) --

Tressell Goes to Heaven:

In a freak accident involving the Buckeyes mascot, a video camera and a tube of KY Jelly, Jim Tressell died, and went to heaven. When he arrived, St. Peter was waiting for him. He began to show him around the neighborhood, and eventually reached his dwelling. It was a nice log cabin with an OSU flag out front. They continued walking and eventually reached a huge 3 story mansion with tons of U of M decor in the yard and on the house. Tressell gets angry, and looks over at St. Peter.

"Why does Lloyd Carr get a mansion, while I’m stuck in a log cabin? Sure it’s nice, but he gets this? The guy can’t even lead his team to a bowl game victory for Christ sake!" Tressell yells.

St. Peter replies, "Jim, that’s not Lloyd Carr’s house, that’s God’s."

GO BLUE!

just a few things...

...BOTH of my sisters are going to be going to THE GAME!!! this will be VERY cool, as well as a really good opportunity and experience for rachel (aka townie, aka middle child w/ middle child syndrome) to get out of the apartment/Mansburg and do something fun and relatively social. i am even more excited about this saturday now, and it should be a great time! GO BLUE!!!

...i really HATE it when you're walking up the stairs behind someone and the person in front of you hogs the ENTIRE stairway!!! i was walking up to my spot in the parking garage and some idiot in front of me (this was not a big person by any means) just walked straight up the middle of the stairwell at a very slow pace. what was this guys problem??? i was really annoyed by the time i got to my floor (which coincidentally was his floor). i darted around him once we were on level ground and just shook my head at him as we parted ways...i later enjoyed indirect revenge as i laughed as i saw him wandering back through the garage retracing his steps...SINCE HE FORGOT WHERE HE PARKED!!! hahahaha! that must be some sort of karma coming back for being slow on the stairwell...at least that is my theory.

...someone needs to delete my iTunes program...i have plenty of music already, but the past couple days i have been downloading more music (LEGALLY...i.e. actually paying for it!!!) this needs to stop. maybe damon and i can go to some sort of class that covers iTunes and eBay and other online sites that begin with a lower-case letter followed by a capital letter.

...i don't understand the free trade coffee concept very well (i went to a lecture about it a couple years ago, but forgot a lot of it) but i took a survey today in the dana building commons. i turned it in and then proceeded to go to the regular coffee machine and get my $.50 cafe mocha which i'm pretty sure was NOT free trade. i'm a bad person.

...T-minus 5 hours until harry potter, i'm thinking of wearing my halloween cape...not just to be any particular character, but also for warmth. i like how A2 has fully transformed into Hoth. peace out <:><

pics:

it was a busy day at the dungeon today and there were actually a lot of people there. i was talking to one of my friends, rakhi, (also former student and archnemesis) about movies and how i liked (and owned) bride & prejudice and of course like Aishwarya Rai. after making fun of me for owning the movie, she told about another actress that all the (indian) guys seem to like and one that she thought may even be better looking (gasp!) either way, we looked her up (good use of lab/work time) and i was definitely impressed. she's another bollywood actress named Rani Mukherjee; here are a couple shots:


thanks for the info rakhi, i now know a total of THREE indian actresses! ok now its time to eat a red baron personal pan pizza...

iTunes transfer, harry potter, and other upcoming events...

well its 2am and almost time to get to bed (guess that will make it an early turn-in for tonight!) i've been quite busy since returning from miami and coming off the weekend with detrow's wedding and am just starting to catch up with work (of which there is always more to do no matter how much gets done in the dungeon).

anyway, i just spent about an hour or two tranferring a bunch of my music from CDs to my iPod.

yes, i took the plunge and finally caved and got an iPod. i should note that liza got me and iPod shuffle for my birthday this past april, and i really like it...very small, very portable, and quite versatile. after seeing how cool this little item was, i started to consider being able to convert ALL my music to compressed format and store it on an iPod...this would eliminate the need for me to constantly switch CDs out of the changer in the car (where i listen to music the most). given this is still a 6-CD changer so its not like it's that difficult or that i run out of music often, but its also because im lazy and since my radio antenna is ghetto i sometimes end up listening to the same CDs for months at a time. guess i only have myself to blame if i get tired of the music since i was the one who purchased it (or downloaded it) and put it in the player.

anyway, for the past year or two just storing mass amounts of music on an iPod didn't justify the purchase of one to me, and my shuffle has served me well for the past many months and i fully plan on using it in the future (walking to class...especially since that walk is now much longer due to new city zoning/parking regulations...A2 SUCKS!!! as well as walking to class or in the distant future: running). anyway, now they came out with the new iPod that can do much more...it can now store and play video, store and display photos, as well as download photos from a digital camera....these are the features that helped push me over the edge. this will cut on some of my luggage as i often bring my laptop on trips just to download digital pics (i.e. the miami trip, australia trip, etc)...i still overpack though, and i know it, so leave me alone!

so yeah, i have been converting all my old CDs (and there are hundreds of them, without including digitally stored music...about half are movie soundtracks) so i can store them all on the iPod and listen to them in my car. i also had to get some music videos just to utilize that feature, so i got ones that i thought were good songs AND had good videos...the picks so far are:
beautiful day - U2, in da club - 50 Cent, crooked teeth - Death Cab for Cutie, island in the sun - Weezer, gold digger - kanye west, thriller - michael jackson, hung up - madonna, are you happy now? - michelle branch, and why pt. 2 - collective soul. if i run into any of you maybe i'll share them with you as i am all about wasting other people's time.

either way, its kind of hard to believe that i've already sorted through over 150 CDs and have only pulled off about 200 songs that i really liked...just goes to show how much of a waste buying an entire album can be (don't get me wrong, there are several groups where i will blindly buy the entire album because i like the band). anyway, im looking forward to wasting time with the new toy and saving countless hours by not having to change out CDs from the 6-disc changer...yeah, all kinds of time. i may even download some of those TV shows...catch up on the entire series 'Lost' during work or fill in the several episode gaps i have of 'Desparate Housewives'. rest assured if CSI goes to iPod along with Alias, Rescue Me, and The Office you'll probably never see me again. oh yeah, and Michigan football broadcasts as well.

wow, that was a lot on that issue. guess i'll have to leave everything else to my bulletted statements/comments:

-CONGRATS to AJ for getting accepted into TWO med schools so far (Loyola and Wayne State)!!! she's way cooler than the indian stereotype of a med student, so leave her alone and be happy for her!!! way to go anandhi!

-i FINALLY was able to meet up with andrea and brenda today for a late lunch at Amer's deli. we even had to delay it by an extra hour because of an impromptu teleconference meeting my advisors called me into (since i'm officially a 'research collaborator' i need to be there for such things and explain aspects of the project status to everyone). either way, i ended up turning lunch into a $15 feast at amer's complete with tuna sandwich (in a pita...that was GOOD), bowl of chicken noodle soup (with very MINIMAL chicken...dangit, must have been for vegetarians, UGH), cream cheese muffin (very big and VERY good- good call andrea), and a mocha chai (quite possibly a new favorite drink, or at least makes the top 5). yeah, needless to say i was stuffed after the meal. either way, it was good to catch up with them and exchange updates/stories/etc. i knew it had been a while when they let me know their main contact with me was via the blog for quite some time!

-we're going to see harry potter tomorrow! and yes, chances are, we are seeing it BEFORE YOU!


as many people know i can't normally wait to see the movies i highly anticipate and so i tend to at least see them opening weekend OR (as in this case) a midnight showing the night before they are officially released. so tomorrow we're going to see it at 12:05am at showcase...gonna be sweet!

-and of course there is a certain big event coming up this weekend. if you don't know what it is, don't ever speak to me again (this will do both of us a favor). yes, it's The Game. more on that in upcoming entries, but it's just a fun week on campus and everyone gets progressively more hyped as the big day approaches. i enjoy reading all the articles in the daily (especially amongst some of the other crap in there) regarding the game, and this year my roommates of course elevate it even further as we are all hardcore UM fans and college football fans in general. should be a great time, along with all the surrounding events of the weekend.

...and now it's time for bed, good night <:><

and for those of you who haven't yet checked out the miami road trip pictures album (see previous entry for link) here are some shots:

the miami road trip: photodocumentary...

well the pics are up in a massive album on yahoo photos, you should be able to access them via THIS LINK. they are arranged in chronological order, so you can check out the slide show and get the descriptions as well. let me know if anyone has problems accessing them. hopefully you find at least some of them entertaining, it was a great time and the stories will be added later. that's all for now, i gotta get some sleep! <:><

the #1 gift...

just wanted to add this quick entry to show off the VERY cool groomsman gift i got from detrow at his wedding over this past weekend. i wasn't sure what to expect given the original packaging, i thought maybe he got me shoes...but as i opened the box i was very surprised to find an official wilson football autographed by michigan's own Braylon Edwards! most of my good friends know that college football is really the only sport i care about/follow, and this was an amazing gift. it's funny since amongst some of my friends there's an inside joke about me meeting up with michigan's #1 wide receiver over last year; i met him twice and was a pretty cool guy. the football came with a certificate of authenticity and all that stuff as well. damon and james were eager to throw it around until they found out who had signed it, now it will probably go somewhere in the living room amongst such other valuable items like the mounted alligator gar head. jeremy (one of the other groomsmen) got a baseball autographed by omar vizquel...thank goodness matt knew better than to get me baseball paraphernalia as i hate that sport!!! <:><

sweet!!!

wedding crashers...

i know i'm going a bit out of order given all the miami stuff i need to update with, but since this is my blog i'm doing it my way (wow i sound like burger king. anyway...)

here are some pics from matt's wedding from this past weekend. i have known matt since 6th grade and he's probably one of my oldest friends that i still keep in touch with (which is easy to do since we went to the same jr. high, high school, undergrad, and now grad school). in the pics are matt, myself, and two other friends (john and jeremy), a group which has been close friends since jr. high. pretty crazy that three of us (john lives in indianapolis) live right here in the A2 area.

anyway, the wedding was a lot of fun and probably one of the most elaborate that i have ever been to, and as of the past several years i have been to quite a few (and that excludes the many i attended that my dad performed over the past many years). too bad i was really wiped out from the miami drive on friday or i would have been able to eat more at the FEAST we had at an italian restaurant for the rehearsal dinner. as usual, jeremy and i were running late leaving MI, but luckily he was able to get my civic up to about 100 mph to get us there pretty close to on time.

ok well more talk later, here are the pics (i didnt take as many myself, but i'll probably add ones that others have taken at a later time). this was a great time for sure, and we were happy to be a part of detrow's (matt) big day.

oh yeah, as you will see, this was a jewish wedding since amy and (recently) matt are jewish. i've been in several weddings, but this was my first jewish wedding and it was quite interesting to be part of some of their traditions. and yes, we did that dance around in a circle dance, picked matt (and other family members) up in chairs and carried them around, and of course wore yarmulkas! <:><

no flash = blurriness in low light, but this one has kind of an abstract quality to it; this is matt and amy signing a document which is an important part of the jewish tradition.

the four friends: me, jeremy, john, matt. jeremy and i were both groomsmen in the wedding.

impressive ice sculpture

john, jeremy and i were able to sit back and make comments (as usual) at the reception; and no, ALL those drinks at the table were not ours (that wasnt even our table)!

jeremy and i found it necessary to take photographs of the photographers.

jeremy, john, and i wearing yarmulkas in participation with the jewish wedding

return to the hoth system...

well damon and i pulled into the driveway of The Tank at about 7am this morning...after departing miami around 8:30am on thursday...definitely a looooong drive, but i was determined to get us home so i downed several red bulls and blasted the music to make sure we returned to the frigid lands of the midwest. unfortunately i've had about 3 hours of sleep and now have to turn around and head back to cleveland. the event is not unfortunate, however, as i will be going down there to be in detrow's (one of my best friends since 6th grade) wedding. crazy!

anyway, pics from the epic miami adventure may have to wait until sunday, but rest assured they are coming. i will add that yes, it is almost twice as cold here as it was down there, and experiencing that change over a 20+ hour drive really is a shock! hope you all have a good weekend, GO BLUE!!! <:><

leaving the tropics...

well its 7am and we are set to head out from miami and begin the epic journey back to ann arbor. i had typed up the following entry last night since we have limited access and i didnt feel like walking across the street to the sister hotel (where we 'pirate' the signal from) to get online. funny how the trip is over before i can really begin telling you all half the stories, but that's just how it goes. here's the entry from last night to hold you over:
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Well it is 12:55am on Thursday morning and we are getting ready to crash in preparation for the long journey back to ann arbor, starting around 7am this morning. Since our internet connection is inconsistent I’m typing this up ahead of time and will post it when we get home (or maybe sometime sooner).

This has definitely been a VERY eventful trip, and it will probably take a few entries to share all the stories…or at least most of them. Rest assured there will be plenty of pics as well!

Today damon and I made our way to Key Largo and were able to go snorkeling on a national park/wildlife refuge coral reef. Needless to say after last night’s crazy events I was not sure if we’d make it out there today, but we booked it down to key largo from Miami and I’m glad we made the effort…the snorkeling was amazing (even having already done so on the great barrier reef) and we saw a TON of fishes…you KNOW there had to be more fish stuff involved with this trip at some point. I took 27 pics (filled) on the underwater disposable camera, so I should hopefully have those developed and ready to share sometime soon (just reminds me how annoying regular film is, but then again I wasn’t about to put my digital in a plastic bag and try it out underwater).

We also made our way out to key west this evening and had some great seafood and visited the southernmost point (represented by a big bulkhead on the beach) of the United States. Key West is a pretty cool island, but it takes forever to get there since there is only one highway that connects all the islands/keys together (US 1).

Well that’s at least a brief summary for now…later this morning will require me to get plenty of rest and take in a lot of caffeine; more stories and pictures to come; hopefully we didn’t annoy a lot of you last night (Tuesday) when i called at least half the people we knew! Good night! <:><

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more to come when we are back in ann arbor!

here's a shot from just off the coral reef we visited yesterday...definitely an amazing time!

south beach: limited access...

well its around 80 degrees and quite nice down here in south beach! this will be a very short entry since there is limited access (im pirating another signal as i type this) and i need to meet up with damon on the beach before we move on to other plans for the evening.

the drive down was quite long but without incident. we drove from ann arbor all the way to tampa, FL on our first day, and then went to Ft Myer's (some of you got text messages rubbing that in) and ate on the beach and did some exploring. we also went to the tampa aquarium which was very cool (many pics of that to come).

last night damon and i hung out on the main stretch here on south beach which was an amazing social gathering of people at the many shops, restaurants and clubs. i wonder if these people are on perpetual vacation since it was a monday night, yet the south beach strip was really busy!

tomorrow we'll be doing some snorkeling on the coral reefs which should be fun for us fish people. i think we are also making our way down to key west. i'll update when i can; we've taken a lot of pics (including pictures of us at all the major football stadiums -most recently the orange bowl- we have come across on our trip). i hope you are all doing well, until next time... <:><

the land of hurricanes...

well the hurricanes beat virginia tech today, i guess that will keep the BCS in order for now, i'm sure another fiasco with a 3rd place ranked team will rise up in its place though...

speaking of miami, damon and i will be taking off in about 3.5 hours for the tip of Florida on our epic road trip. i am not sure what kind of access we will have at the hotel in our first stop, but our main place in miami will have internet access so i'll try to keep you all updated on the craziness that is sure to ensue.

why are we going to bed so late with such a big road trip only a few hours away? well james convinced us it would be a good idea to go see the 11:55pm showing of 'Jarhead' (which was actually a pretty good -definitely not uplifting- movie, i would give it **** out of five stars). it was an eventful night in detroit (more specifically ferndale/royal oak) last night as damon/james/myself ventured out (we called it a guys night out, haha) and went to dinner at a great restaurant (memphis smoke, live band, good food, etc etc) and then later met up (at least for a little bit) with sheila for her birthday. perhaps more on that trip later when i have more time and need less sleep! i know, i know, i'm seriously lagging behind on the updates of the stories, but rest assured they will be told!

i hope you all had a good weekend, right now i need to get some packing done, get a few hours of sleep, and get set for the trip down to the beach, swamp, reef, U of Miami, and who knows what else...good night <:><

damon being creepy at BW3 in ferndale as we waited for our cab...

chupacabra...

well in 7 hours i will be on my way to what will probably be another 13+ hour day of processing gizzard shad and emerald shiners on crane creek in ohio (those two things are fishes for those of you who don't know...and pretty lame species at that).

well it can't be much worse than the time i wasted doing GIS work in the lab today. yeah, i was there until almost 8pm when i realized that the computer and our archaic GIS program was NOT going to let me do what my prof and post-doc manager dropped on me earlier this week...at least nowhere near the deadline we were shooting for. we're using old programs and ENIAC-tech level computers along with our newly acquired 'skills' to work on a model that is bigger than most that have been proposed for river systems in the past. yeah, i think we should have brought in some real 'experts' to work on this since those of us grad students who made the attempts have just gained a better understanding of true frustration and a hatred for the dungeon and technology (especially modeling) in general.
at one point today matt, one of my friends and fellow lab co-workers, said we must be part of "Saw III"...trapped in a dungeon-like room with a computer assignment that cannot be finished and we'd eventually kill ourselves. i think a head through the comp monitor would be cool for one death, maybe slow consumption by cockroaches for the other. yeah, this is what we talk about in the dungeon, if we're lucky enough that another human is present. we also traded our various impersonations of the emperor/senator palpatine from episode III. i'm pretty good at it too.

well today we were watching some talk show with that jimmy kimmel guy; the tonight show got boring after nicolette sheridan was done, so we switched. dane cook was on the kimmel show and was talking about the chupacabra. i have included one of the images that came up on a google search here:

yeah, nothing else to say about that.

you know who is NOT associated with the chupacabra...aishwarya rai. i saw that l'oreal commercial that i think sarah referenced sometime back and so i felt the need to mention the famous bollywood actress once again here. i can't remember what her next movie is, but you can bet i will be there to see it...i would imagine it's better than elizabethtown as well.

speaking of movies, i was wasting some time on the iTunes music store (where i get good ideas of what to download off limewire) and saw the trailer for a new movie called 'Water'. now this isnt the typical type of movie that interests me, but i have gotten a bit more into indian movies over the past couple years, and this one looks good. the main actress, lisa ray (how is that for an indian name) was really good in an earlier movie i saw (Hollywood/Bollywood...or something like that) and this one looks intriguing as well. it's also called 'water' and that's what fishes live in, so i'm thinking there will be some in this film as well...if not i am automatically deducting one star from the rating.

i should eventually get to the story about this past monday's halloween craziness, but i don't know if i have that kind of motivation at this point. maybe later tonight depending on how soon this red bull wears off. it would be nice to cap off the week with an exciting story or two, and you can bet there will be stories next week as damon and i make our road trip to miami florida...i believe our hotel was finalized today and we will be staying right on south beach and also relatively close to the university campus...should be a good time. i'm thinking about buying an iPod, we'll see. that's all for now <:><

ok just to further offset that extremely creepy chupacabra image here is yet another picture of aishwarya rai:

not just fishes...

well my first 13 hour field day since this summer was pretty exhausting. i am definitely NOT used to getting up at 6am...funny thing is that two days prior i was just getting to bed around 630am (as sarah would say) "but u'll have that".

anyway, we caught a TON of fishes, seriously, thousands. none of them were very cool, and since we were pressed for time i didnt take many pics of them. i did take a few pics today, and will probably take more when i go back down there tomorrow. once again i'm pretty tired so i'll just leave you with some pics for now and continue with stories and more random commentary in a later entry. good night <:><

here's the boat we used to check the fyke nets which we used to trap fishes and sample various sections in the wetlands.

me and the pleasant waters of crane creek as it enters into lake erie...it was a decent day for november, but the water was still pretty cold!!!

as you can see, it's not just fishes that we catch in the nets...tastes like chicken...

episode III...

well this is gonna be short, i know i say this quite often and then it ends up being an epic length entry, but this time i am not kidding. i have to get up in about 4 hours to get ready to leave for a day of field work down on the crane creek wetlands in the ottawa wildlife refuge in ohio wednesday morning. at least i'll get to work with fishes for a couple days (going back down there on friday) as opposed to GIS in the dungeon. either way, i need to get to bed.

damon and i both ended up getting a late start today given the extremely LATE night last night with the last installment of the halloweekend trilogy. i'll get further into detail with that in my next entry, so sit tight. it was definitely a memorable evening and we were definitely planning things spontaneously (if that is possible). for a summary of a lot of the stuff you can check out sarah's recent live journal entries for now.

today was back to the grind only it was a bit more useless work than usual, especially since i spent several hours on the project which ended up being completely meaningless since we found some new data and lost some other stuff. fun times. james, damon and i watched Episode III tonight since it just came out...i really enjoyed that movie although this time around i was still really tired (probably from going to bed at 630am) i fell asleep while palpatine was explaining the sith story to anakin. oh well, i knew what was going to happen anyway.

that's all for now, definitely a busy week and things are only set to get crazier...especially given the upcoming road trip to miami (FL) that damon and i will be taking starting this weekend to pick up some important field equipment. should be interesting to say the least. i'll leave you with a couple pics from halloweekend episode III...stories to come later, good night <:><

sarah and me at theo's

damon, sid, sarah, me at steak 'n shake (my first time to this place)...what does evil eat (besides pancheros)???

just when you thought the nightmare was over...

...evil continues as halloween officially arrives and worlds collide...

this shaped up to be an unexpectedly eventful night, more info and pics to come soon, but for now, here are a couple pics from a memorable halloween night <:><

worlds collide: j-berry, sarah, damon, me at theo's

damon, me, angie, sid, and sarah at theo's