A Life Less Ordinary

I’m being super lame right now and sitting at my house watching HGTV. I would like to lie and say “there was nothing else on,” (Which is true) but I actually do check HGTV for what’s on late at night because it’s usually one of their two good shows: House Hunters or My First Place. Both are full of fairly real estate uneducated people shopping for a new house, but it’s awesome to see so many houses. I love HH International (I can abbreviate because I’ve watched it) where they look at Italian villas or Spanish castles. They rarely look at houses over $1,000,000, but when they do, it’s a million times better than…

Why has Real World sucked so much lately? I mean since my cousin got me started on that shit with I think the New Orleans season, I’ve watched way more than I should (Thanks Nikki). Whether we watched it as she “watched” us over past summers (I put watched in quotes because watch is a generous word, maybe “kept breathing in a room relatively near us” is a better description) or at nights in college while doing homework, since about San Diego, it’s been downhill. Thank God someone invented the challenges, cause those are always trashy gold, but Real World: Cancun? That’s total crap. RW should be about supposedly “different, unique strangers” getting drunk and fighting in public in historic places. If I wanted that in Cancun, I’d watch those Girls Gone Wild infomercials.

Hopefully, Real World: Washington, DC will be cool. Too bad I’ll be gone and miss watching drunken idiots walk through GW. I guess I’ll just have to go to Thurston next spring. (Also, Nikki, you rocked as a nanny!)

I’d like to say I found this article on my own,but I was instead tipped off by my good friend Vicki Eastman. It always makes me extremely happy to see Minnesota portreyed in a good light, even more so when it is in relation to often strange MN traditions. In this case, David Carr writes about Minnesota’s weird electoral history with a local’s flavor, but the New York Times’ audience. Articles on Minnesota’s politics are nothing new, all of us here have been mocked for Ventura or read the ubiqutious pieces on Wellstone or Humphrey, but it is nice to see someone writing about where it all comes from. Carr himself points out that MN has the highest voting percentage (One small facts that will eventually be many promoting MN on this blog) but also that:

In Minnesota, there is a kind of populist approach that is less progressive than a reflex, a notion that politics belongs to citizens, and politicians only rent their positions.The civic entitlement-engagement of Minnesotans has produced lions on the national political scene — Hubert H. Humphrey and Eugene J. McCarthy — but is fungible enough to produce singular leaders of another sort.

Carr also points out that we, in neighboring districts, elected an extremely liberal black muslim and a white woman claiming that God led her to her seat. In recent times, we’ve elected four Jews, a group that makes up less than 1% of our Scandinavian rooted state. All of this to say that I am proud to be from somewhere that judges people less on their outward characteristics (Jesse “the Body”?) and more on their ability to light a progressive fire, compell a large group of supporters, or inspire a new movement to join the civic duty that our state so rightfully cherishes.

Happy belated 4th everyone! You can access the article here: David Carr’s NYT Article.

After just writing my “About” page, I remembered one of those dumb Facebook notes that people fill out and then say “Pass it to your friends,” as if the only thing I wanted to do was annoy the people who are my “friends” whom I haven’t spoken to in years by asking them to fill out some list of anime character’s personalities. However, the one and only list that I did like was one that asked the person to list (without hiding anything) your Top 30 played iTunes songs. I thought this was a more fun and interesting way of telling people your music “interests.” Therefore, I’ve brilliantly adapted this list to my blog and shortened it to the first 20 songs with the next 5 songs being my most played in the last month. I’ve also added another small list as a secondary way to get to know me…what I call my “If I could retroactively change my genes and grant myself skills in 5 areas, what would they be” list.

All Time Top Songs

1. Hangin’ Around- Counting Crows
2. I Want You Back- Jackson 5
3. Call n’ Return- Hellogoodbye
4. Right Me Up- State Radio
5. Let Go- Frou Frou
6. In Your Eyes (Live)- Peter Gabriel
7. Dark Blue- Jack’s Mannequin
8. Hook- Blues Traveler
9. Minnesota- The Push Stars
10. Don’t Stop Believin’- Journey
11. Ants Marching (Live)- Dave Matthews Band
12. Viva la Vida- Coldplay
13. The General- Dispatch
14. Roll to Me- Del Amitri
15. All For You- Sister Hazel
16. Higher and Higher- Eric Bibb
17. September- Earth, Wind, & Fire
18. Lonesome Pine- Carbon Leaf
19. Under Pressure- David Bowie & Queen
20. Paloma- Carbin Leaf

Top 5 Current Songs

1. Stay- Safetysuit
2. Luck be a Lady- Frank Sinatra
3. Run Away- The Real McCoy
4. Jumper- Third Eye Blind
5. Funny the Way It Is- Dave Matthews Band

Clearly Related to Songs List of Desired Genetic Traits

1. Fluency in Chinese (That’d be useful soon)
2. Tennis Acumen (Watching Wimbledon right now, Murray vs. Roddick)
3. Better website/programming capabilities
4. I’ll leave the next two blank for future use

Well, I hope this was a useful exercise in an attempt to allow everyone to get to know me a little bit better. I mostly used it as a way to learn this WordPress stuff.