notasfatasmike

As usual, I only update the LJ when I'm depressed/need something.

Anyone have any bright ideas on coming up with $800 in two days? I'm pretty much fucking spent. The only option that I appear to have left is multiple payday loans, which is obviously not the wisest financial decision, but I'm quickly running out of options. Any advice would be appreciated.

Well, another day with nothing planned and no illusion of getting anything done. I can't even really do any job hunting, because I want to hear back from the last place I applied before I apply anywhere else. It's silly, but I just hate turning in a bunch of applications at once, because I'm the kind of person who'd not want to tell someone I changed my mind and was going to work somewhere else. I suppose I could work on the "Big Scary Adult Job Hunt" (tm) since that's where I should be heading anyway.

I think I must be growing up, because I can't sleep more than 8 hours anymore. My body just wakes me up. I remember I used to be able to sleep for 12 hours at a go. It was a really good way to waste dead time.

I spent most of yesterday reading H.P. Lovecraft. Believe it or not, it was technically "research" - I'm writing a song for the nerd rock band that I'm in that sounds like a Christian worship song, but is actually about Cthulu. The idea's really funny in my head, and I do have some lyrics that are pretty good, but I don't know a lot about the Cthulu Mythos. Lovecraft's not a bad writer - his writing is just really dense and hard to unpack. His casual racism is also pretty repugnant, but I knew about that going in to reading his work.

Wir Sind Helden's new CD is great - it's probably some of their best work. I tend to like their more uptempo stuff, but even the ballads on this one hold my attention. I wish they had a big enough following to come to the U.S. for a tour - I'd really love to see them live at some point.

So, I suppose I have enough time that I should start updating this thing again. I've been meaning to be more consistent with my LJ for about a year, but that whole "managing to graduate from college" thing kind of threw a wrench in my plans.

I suppose that's the big news - I graduated in December and officially have undergraduate degrees in German and Mathematics. I'm excited, but I'd be a lot more excited if I felt like I had some job prospects. As it stands, I'm just trying to find another part-time job to pay the bills while I continue my "real" job hunt. I'm still working at Games by James, and I enjoy it greatly. The holidays were crazy there, but they're done now and stuff is pretty much back to normal.

This, of course, does imply that I'm living in Eau Claire for the foreseeable future. And I don't really mind - I probably have more friends here than I do in White Bear anymore, seeing as how most of them, like me, have moved away for college and stayed there. Sometimes I think about how much easier Facebook has made it for me to stay in contact with these people, and I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a curse - as it stands, I don't know how many of my friends from high school I would've actively stayed in contact with if the interwebs hadn't made it so darn easy.

Anyway, I'm off to work. More thoughts to come later, I promise.
Matt/Marius

...so, Rush are Randian objectivists, right? Therefore they are supporters of free market capitalism, and, as I understand, shouldn't view attempting to profit as a bad thing, as it's just following your own rational self-interest.

So why, for all the world does "Spirit of the Radio" off the album Permanent Waves sound like a song that's against the commercialization of music? I mean, given their philosophy, how could they criticize bands for trying to make money?

Actually, "Natural Science" covers some of the same topics. As a socialist, I have a hard time understanding this world view anyway, but this seems to be a contradiction to me.

Sorry that I haven't posted forever, and that this message contains no info about my life. I swear, I'll update when I'm not having a panic attack about finishing everything I need to finish to graduate.

Does someone have a *current* e-mail address for Carl-Martin? I don't know if the old one I have still works, so I want to double check. I'm claiming my time at camp for my service learning hours (which I know is kind of a weird, EC-specific thing), and I need an address and phone number to use for his info.

Thanks a bunch, folks; you are all wonderful and I miss you very much.
Marius/Matt

^This gets good at about 2:30 or so. Basically the fast part


^Good all the way through, especially when I'm doing my hair metal singing.

I'm tired of logging in to see comments from the emo post I made when I was tired as hell and in the middle of doing a semester's worth of math homework in one night, so I'm going to actually update this thing. Let's hope I can make it a habit again.

So, what have I been up to? Well, mostly working at Ace Hardware out in White Bear Lake. They've been giving me darn near full time hours, which has done wonders for my bank account, and has kept me pretty busy, which is good. You see, there's not much of a social scene left for me out here in White Bear - Jim's still around and it's always good to hang out with him, but other than that, most of my friends from high school have moved elsewhere, or in some cases, simply moved on with their lives and don't really want to think about high school anymore. I often fall into this latter camp - I had a lot of great friends in high school, don't get me wrong, it's just that we've spent so much time apart and have grown so much as people that sometimes the common ground that once existed has eroded from under our feet.

So, I work most of the day at Ace, and then I come home and play video games most nights. I've rediscovered how much I love playing City of Heroes - it's a really *fun* MMORPG, which isn't true of all of them *cough Everquest cough*. I've also gotten a lot of time in in the casual room on Magic Online. It's reminded me why I started playing Magic in the first place - the fun of just throwing together the cards you have and seeing what happens. The Magic scene in Eau Claire is really focused on competitive Magic, which is really no fun for me. I'm just not into spending $200 on cards, just to have a chance to win, you know?

I'm also in St. Mark's production of West Side Story, which has been pretty cool. I play Gladhand, the nerdy MC for the dancehall scene. Talk about type-casting, right? Anyway, it's kind of a nice role because you get a ton of laughs with a minimum of work. In two months of rehearsals, I only had to show up to two rehearsals. I've had to be there pretty much everyday last week and this week, but the show opens on Thursday, so that's understandable. It's also been the first time I've been in a play with Karen, and it's been really amazing to watch her use her talent to develop a part. She missed the first month of rehearsals while she was in Germany, but came back and just jumped right in and caught up, and really made her part her own. I'm very glad she's decided to major in Theater; she really has a passion for it and she's incredibly talented. (And I should know something about majoring in what you love as opposed to what will make you money - German and Math aren't particularly useful majors, but I really enjoy them, so what can you do?) I'm really proud that she's my sister, which sounds corny, but it's true.

On the topic of school, it looks like I'll finally graduate this semester. Now that I got that all sorted out, I've got to get to work on applying to grad school. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm kind of intimidated - I don't really know where to start. If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it.

That's really about it. If anybody has questions about what else is going on in my life, leave them as comments and I'll answer them in my next update.

Just remember: Wherever you go, there you are.
Matt

So close to getting Dr. Doom. So very, very close.

Your results:
You are Venom

Venom 51% Dr. Doom 46% Apocalypse 44% Dark Phoenix 43% The Joker 39% Mr. Freeze 39% Lex Luthor 38% Juggernaut 36% Poison Ivy 36% Kingpin 28% Two-Face 24% Green Goblin 20% Magneto 19% Mystique 16% Catwoman 14% Riddler 0%

Strength, disguise and adrenaline are your greatest weapons.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

Dear friends from camp,

I will not be working at camp this summer. Between my sister's graduation and subsequent open house, and the wedding of a friend in which I am standing up, I have too much going on this summer to go up to camp. This makes me very sad. I do intend to visit on free weekend or I-Day - I'll be in contact to work that out as we get closer to those dates. You folks are the best, and I'll be thinking of you while I bust my butt at some boring job this summer.

With too much rock for one hand,
Marius

Converge put out an album that I can actually stand listening to. Congratulations, guys! It only took you 15 years of being a band!

the Wit (71% dark, 30% spontaneous, 21% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat. I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor takes the most thought to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion. You probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais The 3-Variable Funny Test! - it rules - If you're interested, try my best friend's best test: The Genghis Khan Genetic Fitness Masterpiece

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on darkness You scored higher than 99% on spontaneity You scored higher than 99% on vulgarity

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

( I am going to learn to play the Alpenhorn )
Incidentally, should I have done my application for Waldsee this summer already? Because I haven't.

...are the chairs from MST3K.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300055188348

Stupid being a socialist in college with no rich friends...can't buy stupid crap I don't need...grumble grumble grumbe. (J/K, friends!)

Speaking of being stupid crap, I bought a shirt with the good ol' Hammer and Sickle on it yesterday. See if you can find the funny part about the last sentence! It shouldn't be that hard.

Yeah, I know these things are lame, but I am a music snob, and hence will use any excuse to show that I know more obscure music than anyone else I know.

( Yay, lj-cuts! )

Sorry, Coldplay fans, but it's true.
(Oh, and props to Jeph of Questionable Content and the linked comic for being the funniest music snob ever.)

...but that doesn't mean I don't have a new song over at Myspace!

I wish I could actually keep up with my promises on the November Challenge, but there's just too much technology stuff I have to futz with to get one of these songs done. I just don't have enough hours in the day to devote enough time to get that many songs done. That said, since I have 2 songs up now, I have pretty strong motivation to keep going, so I think the "Challenge" served its purpose of getting me off my lazy ass.

I should really start buying some movies in German that I can actually use at camp. I mean, yeah, Friday the 13th part 2 is an AWESOME movie, but it's not like I can let any of the campers watch it. And I also forgot that Army of Darkness is actually rated R, because it has boobs in it. Although if you skipped the part with boobs, it might be OK. Maybe.

I think the problem is that I have no willpower. I go to Saturn, intending to buy a movie that's interesting and can be shown at camp, but then I see a horror movie for 7 Euro and I just lose it. No good, at all.

Alright, I didn't wimp out on the first deadline. Awesome. You can find the song I recorded here:

http://www.myspace.com/thesleeperhit

If any of you have Myspace, please friend me, as it would make me happy. I also have a Purevolume, but I will post a link to it once I actually have a song over there.

Oh, and apparently it takes them up to 24 hours to get the song on their servers and everything, so it might not be there if you check right away.

OK, I'll guess I'll post this again, if LJ doesn't want to make it work the first time...

So. Novemeber is National Novel Writing Month ( http://www.nanowrimo.org/ for more info). Basically, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.

I think this is a fascinating concept: personally, I am at my worst when I am not given deadlines, so setting a really strict deadline for people to get a lot work done is a very interesting idea to me. However, having found out about this about a 3rd of the way through the month, I don't think I'm going to be able to participate this year. Hopefully, I'll actually remember next year, or at least I'll be reminded of it by something a little bit earlier.

That said, this whole idea has inspired me to set a very strict guideline for myself to force my hand and make me actually get some work done on something I've been meaning to do, but haven't been getting done because of my rampant perfectionism and fear of failure. Starting November 10, I am going to record an entire song every two days for the rest of the month. I don't necessarily need to write it (although I don't know if I have enough material to make it all the way through), and I'm going to go ahead and count cover songs because they're still work for me to record.

OK, great. Why am I telling you this? I want (ok, realistically, I probably need) you people to hold me accountable. One of my bad habits is saying I'm finally going to get around to do something, but then I don't tell anyone else so that when I don't do it, no one can call me on it. Well, I'm telling you to call me on it. I'll put up a link when the first song is up - if I don't post a link by 11:59 PM November 11, I need you to start bugging me.

Are you ready to rock? Because I am.

(Mostly for Waldseers post. Non-Waldseers, deal.)

I picked up a copy of Army of Darkness in German. I can see an awesome party for an LKT house at Waldsee coming a mile away.

I also got The Descent, but I don't think I can pull off convincing anyone it's OK for the LKTs to watch a straight-up rated R horror movie.