It's POP, dang it!

I found this link on a site called geek and proud the other day. (I don't recall how I came across it)

It's a map of the counties of the US showing what word is most predominately used to describe a carbonated beverage or soft drink.

From looking at the map one can clearly see that it should really be called pop. It's only called "soda" in a few key areas. First of all on the East Coast and in California. Areas well known to be filled with nothing but jerks. Then there is St. Louis. I'm not sure what to make of that. And then eastern Wisconsin. Ugh. Don't get me started on those people. Bunch of Packer fans who think that "Favre" is pronounced "farv".

Then there's the South. Yikes. Having sweet Mountain Dew called "Coke" isn't the only reason I wouldn't want to live there, but's it's one of them.

Now I can understand when certain classes of products start being called by their most prominent or original brand. The best example of this is when people blow their nose with a "Kleenex" instead of a tissue. But the thing with that situation is that there is really not that much difference between comperable "models" of Kleenex, Puffs and even the generic brand at the supermarket.

But how could anyone confuse Coca-Cola with the delight that is Sunkist? And who would call Sunkist by another product's name instead of a general descriptor of all soft drinks? No one would. No one except people in the South. And I just don't understand why.

So that leaves us with a bunch of outliers and "pop".
I think you all know what the right choice is.

Read the whole post

Final(ly) Fantasy

Pretty much everyone who spends any time with me knows that one thing that I don't have enough of is video games. Especially old RPGs for the Playstation.

Well, about the earliest console RPG I can remember playing was Final Fantasy (FF) on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I played it at my grandparent's house in Thief River Falls, MN while there on vacation. It was lots of fun and I had a great time playing it with my brother Brian.

Fast forward many years to the present. The latest Final Fantasy out is FF XI, the last FF I beat was VI, the last one that I played seriously was VIII, and the last one I played at all was X. They are all pretty fun and very popular. Just like with Star Wars I would call myself a fan-boy.

For the last few years Square (makers of Final Fantasy) has been releasing a number of their old games (originally released either on the Nintendo or Super Nintendo) in anthology sets for the Playstation. I bought two of them when they went on sale. First was Final Fantasy Anthology, which includes Final Fantasy V and VI. A great set since VI is widely considered the best FF game even to this day and V was never released in the US. Then came Final Fantasy Chronicles which included Final Fantasy IV and a great non-FF game Chrono Trigger. I have fond memories of playing both of those games. After those two sets they released Final Fantasy Origins which included Final Fantasy I and II. As I've mentioned I have fond memories of I and II was also never released in the US. As one can plainly see, Square knew exactly what they needed to do to take lots of my money. Luckily I was able to find the first two on sale and bought them for below retail, but I was not so lucky with Origins.

They released a disc with two games made in the early 1990s and priced it at $30. Now, they did do some updating and modernizing to the games, but that doesn't erase the fact that they are pretty much ancient games. Here's the kicker--it never went on sale. Ever. And it never went to the bargain bin along with almost every other PS game on the market at some point in the last year or two. The Playstation is considered nearly extinct these days. Nearly zero games are made for it and hardly any shelf space is taken up by this system, but one place was always reserved for a full priced Final Fantasy Origins. Rrrr!

But today. There was something magical in the air today, I could feel it. (though that could be the crick in my back I woke up with) During lunch I had to run a couple errands that included going to Target. While there I figured I might as well wander over to the video game section to see what crap they have on sale. Imagine my shock and elation when I see that they have one copy of Final Fantasy Origins left, priced at a measly $20. Yes, you heard me right, $20. My hand shot forth of its own volition and snatched it off of the shelf. Happy as a clam I brought it home and took the plastic wrap off.

I'll have to post again in a couple of years when I finally put it my Playstation and try it out. :)

Read the whole post

Mmmm, marketing

That George Lucas, he may not be able to write dialog worth crap but he knows how to take money from innocent geeks, you have to give him that. I know he's taken many of my dollars in the past whether for action figures, or licensed LEGO sets, or various other promotions.

Lucasfilm and Lucasarts are two pillars of a marketing empire that George has built from the ground up based solely upon three little movies (admittedly, three movies that I love). With the opening of the last two Star Wars films, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones the buzz on the internet before each movie (especially around the first) was nearly deafening. Everyone wants to know about the movie before the movie comes out, anything: character's names, who fights who, or a million other things. This, oddly enough, is the exact opposite stance I take, I want to know as little as possible about a movie before going, that way everything is new.

One of the next big cogs in the Lucas Marketing Machine is the upcoming (next year) video game based on Star Wars Episode 3: The Revenge of the Sith. I read in a story today that the game "is scheduled to release on May 5, 2005 for PS2 and Xbox, a good two weeks before the film comes out, no-doubt when anticipation for the final film for this most recent Star Wars trilogy will be at a fever pitch." At a fever pitch! Yeah, ya think? Fan boys will be scooping that game up with as many hands as they have to find out as much as they can about the movie that will be released two weeks after. It makes me sick but laugh at the same time.

Read the whole post

A couple of movies

Well, the post frequency has gone down a bit lately. Not much is happening in my life. Plus, approximately two people read this thing, one I do everything with and the other I let know what's going on over email. Nobody seems to be interested in what I'm doing any more, not even my family. sniff, sniff...

Oh, wait, was I expecting anything else?

Anyway, I've seen a couple movies on video lately. One I saw at Matt and Jenny's house the weekend I went home which was The Butterfly Effect and the other was last night, Hellboy.

I enjoyed both movies, but when it comes to total enjoyment it all comes down to expectations, with Butterfly I went in with slightly lowered expectations and with Hellboy I had them raised by a friend of mine.

I love That 70's Show, it's hilarious and Ashton Kutcher's Michael Kelso is one of many highlights. I even liked Dude, Where's My Car? ("Stupid, yet entertaining" as a review on imdb says). But I think that fame has got to our friend. Punk'd can be funny, but it wore out it's enjoyment to me after only a couple of episodes. Just in general, Ashton has seemed to go a bit too "celebrity" for me. When I saw the preview's for The Butterfly Effect I was very curious. The premise sounded like it could be interesting but I really didn't know if Ashton could pull it off, he seemed to fit into the Kelso character too well (and it was all I really knew him as).

It had gotten fairly good reviews and a pretty good score at imdb, but I still wasn't quite sure. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I watch it and enjoyed it. The premise was interesting and Ashton actually pulled off the character very well. It even found myself wishing that they'd take each situation and examine it in more detail. (though it was already about 2 hours long) So I enjoyed that one.

Now, Hellboy. I am a comic book fan and I love action films. I have never read any Hellboy comics but the film intrigued me. I had a friend who I was going to go to see it when it came out in theaters but I was always too busy. He ended up going and liked it quite a bit and told me this. He is a bit of a movie snob and we have similar tastes in a lot of movies, so I took his position seriously.

This is the attitude I took into watching the movie last night and unfortunately I came away slightly disappointed. I really liked the character of Hellboy. Ron Perlman did an excellent job. The main characters, including the bad guys, were also mostly well done. Hellboy's sarcastic lines were funny and well timed, but most other attempts at humor fell flat in my estimation. But, the action kind of disappointed me. I can't exactly put a finger on why, but it just didn't excite me.

That said, I did enjoy the movie, just not as much as I expected to.

Read the whole post

Wow, a whole year?

Steph and I celebrated our one year anniversary this last weekend (it is actually next Sunday, the 1st, but her sister will be in town). It was a nice easy day.

We did a bike ride to the top of Story Hill, north of town and rode down the single/double track trail to the bottom. That made me think I'm not in such horrible shape.

After that we headed over the the Bogert Pool for a cooling off period. Just this year they built three huge water slides. One was pretty straight forward, just bent around one curve and then into the water. A second took a couple of fairly wide turns before dumping you into the drink. The third one had 3 or 4 very tight turns take you all the way down. They were all pretty fun, but I think I was a little big for it (I'm not sure I'm the intended audience). One one of them, I didn't fit all that great around on of the turns. Plus, with my weight, I was able to go pretty fast and got so far up on the sides that I was just sliding over segmented plastic (which was a problem for all 3 slides) instead of water, which didn't feel that great. They were fun nonetheless and we spent maybe an hour in the pool.

Not long after we went out to dinner at Ferraro's Italian Restaurant. It was slightly spendy, but the service was good and the food was very good as well. And hey, it was a special occasion. I even splurged for the veal parmesan and had a glass of wine.

After dinner we headed to the mall to catch Shrek 2. We both enjoyed it but got caught up in high expectations. Friends had been telling us that it was great and had tons of laughs (except, I guess, my brother). It was funny and the characters were all good, but I was a little disappointed from what I was expecting.

Well, that was the highlight of the weekend.

Read the whole post

Hockey

I played competitive hockey last winter for the first time in probably 10 years. I had played pick-up at the park a number of times in the previous two winters and indeed I had even coached a little bit with the women's club team at the U. (that's the U of MN)

But there was nothing like getting out there where everything really "mattered". What a fun winter time activity, I really missed it and really enjoyed the whole season. One thing that was really exciting was to see much of my skill come back over the first month or so of the season. At the beginning of the season I was merely okay. Over the next month or two I became probably the best player on the team. I played the position of my youth, defense, but I think I was the leading scorer on the team.

Another thing that was fun was to watch the development of my defensive partner. He was a friend of mine who had never played hockey before and was a piece of clay that I could mold throughout the season. By the end we were by far the best defensive pair, we knew what each other were doing and worked together way better than any other pair on the team.

The reason for this post is because I had an exhibition game last night. A guy on our team is getting married this weekend and as part of his bachelor party most of the team (and a few other guys) got together for a game. It was tons of fun, though our team lost 4-2. I got a few blistering shots off, which always feels good. But wow, I am not in hockey shape anymore. By the end of the night I could hardly climb over the boards or skate because of what felt like a pulled groin. Last night sleep came extremely difficult and I woke up feeling very sore.

I'm still a bit tender but I'm able to walk around without much of a limp. I know you're all worried, but I think I'll make a full recovery.

Read the whole post

Online gamers are crazy

I like video games. (though as I've proved I'm not very good at them) Probably my favorite genre of game is the fantasy role playing game (RPG), they have crazy characters and enemies, they usually have very engaging stories, and you have to keep track of lots of little details. But one kind of game I've never got into is the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). This has the same kind of feel as a normal RPG, but it is set in a gigantic persistant world that thousands of players from all over the world can log into and play in all at the same time.

This kind of game has been very popular in the last number of years and indeed some can be very addicting. The game Everquest is often referred to as "Ever-crack". There has been a whole economy online that deals with the buying and selling of virtual property, items, and even charaters in the real world. Just check on eBay for auctions for your favorite game, like Ultima Online. (this has also led to many problems as eBay agreed with Sony to stop all sales of virtual items for the Everquest game because of so many customer complaints)

Anyway, the reason I put this post up is because I saw an item that you can buy in the real world. It is a clock that keeps time in the real world but also in the virtual world of the game Final Fantasy XI. So when you get offline to do things like eat or sleep you won't forget about the real important stuff like when a ferry is leaving or when a battle is going to happen in the world of FFXI.

Read the whole post

Lava Lake Pics

Do you remember way back when I hiked to Lava Lake? Well, my pictures didn't turn out as well as I wanted them so I only have a couple of pictures to show you.

The first is of Steph hiking to show you the terrain we were in. The trees are Lodge Pole Pines and are really neat--they were pretty much like that the whole way up. Then look at the path itself, very rocky, it didn't make it that tough, but you had to watch your feet.

The second is just a picture of the lake from when we were up at the top. Some nice peaks in the background.

Well, that's it.

Read the whole post

The Master of Horror

When Steph and I drove to Minnesota for a week in May (including Mother's Day weekend) we rented some books on CD for entertainment on the long drive. Wandering the one aisle of rental audio books at Hastings we finally decided on the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I don't think Steph has read any King, but I have read The Stand and The Green Mile (now also a very good movie staring Tom Hanks.

Most people equate Stephen King with horror and that makes people think of gross images and frightening, disturbing stories. The books I've read before and now The Dark Tower are not scary but just really well written and engaging. They all take place in or (in the case of the Dark Tower) connect with our world, but things are slightly different and fantastic things are allowed to happen. The way King integrates these fantasy elements into the world that we all live in and are familiar with makes his stories all the more interesting.

For that first trip we rented the first two books of the saga, "The Gunslinger" and "The Drawing of the Three". I had read The Gunslinger last year and enjoyed it then and enjoyed it again on the trip. We easily got through the first book on our way to MN. We listened to the second book on the way back and didn't quite finish the whole thing but had to finish the last cd or two on an afternoon at home.

For our latest trip we decided to continue the saga and rented "The Waste Lands". We almost made it through the whole thing and have less than two cds left (there are 16 total). We both enjoyed this one as well and I for one can't wait to someday get through the whole saga. The seventh and final book is actually being released this September.

Read the whole post

long long long

I hope that my posts aren't too long for anyone to read them. That's just the way I tell my stories (and a big reason why I take so long to eat at the dinner table). Why would I want you to miss out on any of the fun details of the night? I know that's what I expect and want when people tell their stories to me.

Of course, if I didn't have this blog, you'd just get these long stories in an email, that's how I used to do it, isn't it? And that's the whole point of this blog, to let a few people who might care what's going on in my life.

So enjoy as much of my stories as you can stand. Maybe sometime soon something not so exciting will happen and I can put up a nice short post about it.

Read the whole post

What a night

Sunday night was lots of fun. I've been out to clubs before, not a lot, but I've been out. Out here in Bozeman the music is usually provided by the jukebox or in some clubs a DJ spinning records. The mix is pretty much popular music that I know from the radio, not always what I would choose to play but they usually put in some good dancable songs. But the Quest Club on Sunday was filled to the brim with techno beats.

We got to the Quest just after 8pm for the opening. I guess we should have expected it, but they didn't have the headliners come on right away. The House DJ, DJ Kid Icarus, played for the first 2 hours. There was a good crowd but it wasn't packed. In the center of the dance floor there are some flashing lights embedded in the floor, including a big 'Q' that is the club's symbol. Everyone seemed to be avoiding standing on the 'Q' and just dancing all around it while listening to the music.

When my friends and I go out dancing here in Bozeman (or indeed even at weddings) our friend Emily always wants to play what she calls "Dance Party USA". It happens at every club: a big circle of people where one or two people go into the center at a time to show off their moves. It happened last Christmas break in Chicago when my brothers, our significant others, and my girlfriend's bro and sis and friends went dancing downtown at John Barleycorn's near Wrigley Field. At one point during the night the circle formed and people got in to show off. There were a few breakdancers that had some impressive moves when all of a sudden my youngest brother Matt ventures to the center of the floor. He had had a few (as in "There are a few people in China") beers and was obviously feeling good. When he got to the center he busted out the robot to the delight of the crowd, it was my favorite moment of the night.

Anyway, back the the more recent past. Before too long a circle formed around the 'Q' at the Quest and a few people began jumping in to show off. There were some good dancers and we weren't able to see them all that well because we didn't step up to the front of the circle. One thing that I had no clue was a popular thing was dancing with glow sticks. You know glow sticks, you can buy them at 4th of July fireworks displays or at carnivals at night, a little plastic tube with some kind of luminescent material trapped inside. Well, let me tell you, the last thing I expected to see that night was a bunch of kids with glow sticks attached to long strings whipping them around in the air and around their bodies like nunchaku (aka nun-chucks) to the beat of the music.

In the darkness of the club it was fun to watch. Most of them weren't all that good and kept tangling the lines or messing up some spin, but to me it was very entertaining. After this had been going on for a while this dude in a powder blue baseball jersey and a backwards Kanga hat began "running the show". Steph and I dubbed him the "Ringmaster". He started calling people into the ring to dance against each other and then would tell one of them to get out of the ring if he decided that the one "lost". I haven't seen the movie "You Got Served" (ranked the #4 worst movie of all time by imdb.com) but I've seen the South Park episode that makes fun of it and it's hilarious. Some people take this dancing thing way too seriously.

So this one guy gets fed up with the Ringmaster and basically challenges him to a dance off. The dude busts out some breakdancing moves and stuff and waits for PowderBlue to show his stuff. Gingerly holding a drink in his hand and a cigarette in his mouth the Ringmaster performs a dance that I can only call "The Epilectic Fit" across the circle. Then the challenger picks up his glowsticks and does a few things with them, nothing too impressive, and after he's done tries to hand them to the challenged. The Ringmaster doesn't even want to pick them up, and after multiple proddings he hands off his drink (with a cigarette still hanging precariously from his lips) and finally picks up the glow sticks. He then performs what I have to dub "The Glowing Epilectic Fit". This guy had no rhythm and no moves, it was hilarious. So then the good dancer heads to the center and asks the crowd for their judgement. No one is taking it too seriously and there are a few cheers and jeers for the appropriate combatants. The whole time Steph and I were making multiple "You Got Served" jokes and enjoying the whole thing immensely.

Finally, at about 10pm Sandra Collins is announced and the crowd surges foward to cover the whole dance floor. She comes on and starts laying down the beats. Sandra was much heavier and much bassier than Kid Icarus. After a little bit the bass was getting really heavy and Steve and I started making "This Is Spinal Tap" jokes about how she may not have enough bass and should really turn it up to 11. (If you haven't seen the movie, you should, but until then you won't get that joke.) We could feel the bass coursing through our bodies and indeed a few times we could actually feel the air of the club moving with the beat. She really knew how to get the crowd worked up (the place was packed by this time) and the club was just jumping. The energy in the air was really astounding. Everyone was having a great time.

The heat was really rising inside as well, with all of the people now there and the renewed vigor of the dancing it started to really heat up. Luckily water was free at the bars and I drank down multiple glasses and chomped many pieces of ice. Everyone at the club was dripping with sweat and it reminded me of the rave dancing scene in "The Matrix Reloaded". Near the end of Sandra's set we all headed for the wings nearer the bar where the air was actually moving a little bit and was much cooler.

Sandra played until midnight when Paul Oakenfold made his way to the stage. Nothing too different happened from then on. We were all tired and footsore but we made it out on the dance floor a couple of times. Paul looked a lot different than he does on most pictures of him, he had much longer hair. He really reminded me of Eric Bischoff of the (formerly WWF) WWE. Compare that picture to this one or this one of Paul. As I mentioned in my last post the worst moment came when he attempted to shatter my skull with a certain high pitched sample. He was a lot more animated up on stage than either Sandra or Kid Icarus which could be entertaining--he acknowledged the crowd a lot more and even got a glass of wine out and made a "what a beautiful day" gesture during his mix of "It's a Beautiful Day" by U2.

I was reading through a couple of forums online and it seems that people think that Oakenfold's skills as a live DJ have lessened over the years. A lot of people thought that he was horrible than night and that Sandra was mounds better. Then there were posts from before the show a lot of people were saying that they'd never pay to see him. I have to say that I'm glad that I'm fairly new to this techno thing and have never been to a show before because I didn't have this jaded view going in to it. The music he performed at the Quest was way different than what has been on his albums, way heavier--probably more house than trance (those are sub-genres of techno) but it was highly entertaining and the crowd, for the most part, was really enjoying the show. I do think that Sandra held the crowd a little better and probably produced more energy, but the whole show, 6 hours of non-stop music, was wonderful.

At the end of the show we all filed out in to the euphorically cool night air. It was just after 2am and Steph and I made it back to Matt's house right around 3am. What a night, and what did he have to look forward to the "next" morning? A one thousand mile drive back to Bozeman. Hooray!

Read the whole post

Aargh, my ears!

I don't think I'll write about my weekend as a narrative, I'll just put up anecdotes about different things as I see fit--just to try something different. But don't worry, I'm sure each post will be just as long as you've come to expect. :)

Concerts and clubs are well known for their detrimental effects on the human ear. I expected some loud music at the Oakenfold show, but I was not prepared for the sonic power that I experienced.

But before I even got to the Quest Club I did my best to render my ears useless without the help of world famous DJs. Earlier that day (Sunday) after grilling some tasty burgers and corn-on-the-cob out on the porch we all decided to hit the pool. Much splashing and swimming ensued. We enjoyed the slide and played some basketball (Matt and I crushed Steph and Jen, but Matt and Jen took it to Steph and I; Jen is taller than Steph and Matt is stronger than me, plus, he was getting lucky on long range shots--who hits long range jumpers in a pool with a palm size ball and a toy hoop?).

One of the cool toys Matt had was an underwater torpedo. It kind of looks like one of those mini nerf footballs with fins on the end that you can throw really far only it's much more dense and sleeker and has a warning on the outside "Do not throw out of water". So it's basically a football that you throw underwater and it works pretty well. Matt and I had masks on and threw the ball to each other from opposide sides of the pool. But if you didn't throw it just right, though, it could turn down and head to the bottom of the pool, 8' deep. I threw it down there a couple of times and Matt the Marine would surface dive down and retrieve it with little effort. During this game and playing around in general if I ever got my head more than just fully underwater I would notice the pressure in my ears. I used to be able to dive to the bottom of pools when I was a kid but I think I've had problems ever since I got an ear ringing slap in the head while performing in "Guys and Dolls" in high school. One time one of Matt's throws went astray and headed to the bottom of the pool, luckily it wasn't in the deep end but just on the slope down towards it. I decided to dive for it since it wasn't that deep. I dove for it and could feel the pressure building and right before I grabbed the torpedo something in my right ear burst and it felt like a stream of air was escaping. I headed straight for the surface and walked slowly for the stairs. I was dizzy and in pain.

I sat on the steps for maybe 15 or 20 minutes just holding my head wishing the ringing and pain would go away. After a little while the pain had dampened enough to actually want to move about but it was not gone. For the next couple of hours I was essentially deaf in my right ear. Isn't that just perfect? I almost never go out to see live (well, calling techno "live" is slightly difficult, but you understand) music and I screw up my ear so I can't hear well. I told Steph that we'd have to stand on the right side of the club so I could hear everything with my left ear.

But, fate intervened on the way to Steve's house--my ear popped itself back to almost-normal! Oh, what a feeling! The beautiful sound of my car engine and the AC were able to float blissfully to my inner ear. It wasn't perfect but it worked.

After we arrived at the club for the show the house DJ played for a couple hours, then Sandra Collins, then Paul Oakenfold. And as I mentioned before it was LOUD. The bass was unbelievable, you heard it and felt it through your entired body. Unfortunately it seems that clubs seem to think that louder equals better. While this may be true with the bass if the amps and speakers can handle the sound, it doesn't necessarily hold true with the treble. Any time any of the DJs put some higher pitched samples into the music the speakers would just screech painfully. This equated to extra pain for my slightly ruined ears but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle and didn't happen that often as the DJs were definitely fans of the bass that night.

The worst moment came during Oakenfold's set when he put in a sample that seemed to sound right at the resonant frequency of my head. Caffeine headaches can be painful, but this was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. My entire head was ringing--but mainly behind the eyes and next to the ears. The torture did not last too long and to my delight stopped before my head exploded.

My ears were ringing for the ride back home and have still not come back to their original state. But they're getting better and I'm certain they are on their way to full recovery as long as I'm not stupid with deep water or loud music. In fact, a couple of minutes ago they popped again and opened a little more, what a wonderful feeling.

Read the whole post

Made it

Well, I made it back alive. It was a fun and tiring weekend, but I'll get into more detail later. I went to bed at 3:15am after the concert on Sunday night and then got up at 8:30am Monday and started for Bozeman at about 10am. We got in around midnight and I'm at work today. So yeah, I'm tired.

P.S. And no, I didn't ride my bike to work today.

Read the whole post

Oakenfold

As I alluded to in my last post I am driving to Minneapolis tomorrow night. Well, I am starting the drive tomorrow night. Steph is coming with me and she has to babysit for a BBQ tomorrow night until about 10pm. So we'll be heading out of town late. I am going to try and take a nap tomorrow evening and then head right out when Steph is done. Then I will drive as far as I can while Steph sleeps. If she can drive then she'll drive a little bit.

Even if I can only drive a couple of hours and Steph is too tired we would be at Billings and have that much less to drive on Saturday. Plus, we'll already be on our way and won't be as prone to delays while running around before leaving.


We should roll into the Heartland sometime Saturday afternoon or evening and we'll pull up to my brother Matt's house. Once there I am sure that chilling out will commence along with the consuming of barbequed meat products and tasty beverages.

I've been in their house before when it was empty so I am curious to see what they've done with the place. Plus, they have a pool. Hopefully my sunburns won't feel too bad and I'll be able to catch some rays and play in the pool.

The reason that this particular weekend was chosen for a trip to the great state of Minnesota was that there is a show I'm going to on Sunday night at The Quest Club downtown Minneapolis with Steve and maybe a couple other people. The headliner is Paul Oakenfold and also showing is Sandra Collins.

When I moved to Montana I became immersed in techno/trance music while living with my brother Brian. He and his best bud Keith (who is now running a safari lodge in Costa Rice) were big into techno and electronic music. Before too long it started to grow on me and Paul Oakenfold was one of the big reasons why. He helped jump start this genre of music after a trip to the Spanish Mediterranean island of Ibiza (which I've been on, but not for clubbing) back in 1987 . He's now recognized as one of the best DJs in the world but he doesn't seem to often tour in the US. So when I found out about this chance to see him I had to jump on it. I don't know much about Sandra Collins, but I've read a few things online that tell me she will put on a heck of a show as well.

So I'm looking forward to a great weekend. Family, friends and fun. What more could a guy ask for?

Read the whole post

See? What did I tell you?

I got my bike last night and it shifts like a dream, it felt good to be on it again. But when the time came to get up early and ride to work what do you think happened?

10 print "Alarm sounds"
20 print "Brenden hits Snooze"
30 goto 10

this happened for a while until I finally rolled myself out of bed. I quickly got ready and drove into work. My excuse is that I need all of the sleep I can get for my upcoming trip (driving) to Minneapolis. :) Does that work?

Read the whole post

Mmmm, caffeine

Relating (somewhat) to my last post, I am enjoying the sweet nectar of the gods right now, a 12oz can of Mountain Dew. For those of you who know me well, I used to drink this stuff like water. (Luckily I now drink water like water.)

In my early days at SimonDelivers.com while living with Steve I fancied myself some kind of computer programmer. (of course, having Steve program a game of Tetris while he was bored at work one day when I'd been struggling for days or weeks kind of shot that idea down) A combination of the sweet, smooth flavor and the "culture" of programmers that said caffeine is the programmer's life's blood (as opposed to one's life's blood) is what roped me in to drinking it too much. Because if I am a slave to anything I am a slave to the marketing or the hype of something that is "geeky-cool".(I know that sounds like a contradiction) Somedays I would suck down nearly a six pack of Dew and I probably averaged over a case a week--though in recollection that seems high. For reasons that I don't believe I need to go into this really wasn't that great of a habit.


Let's travel back, shall we? To a rare busy day at work when I didn't have the free time to saunter over to the pop machine for my morning dose. It was nearing 2pm and I still hadn't had a chance to run to lunch and thus hadn't eaten and, more importantly, hadn't had a Mt Dew. My head felt as though my brain was trying to escape from my skull. I chalked it up to being hungry and maybe sick or something. But when I rolled into McD's and poured myself a large MelloYello it dawned on me: "I am addicted to caffeine!"

Immediately thereafter came the weening period. One can of Dew a day at lunch time, that was it. No midmorning drink. No can during dinner. No two cans at night while programming or playing games. One can, no more. Oh, and advil, lots of advil. This went on for a while and after that while I was pretty much cured. I could go through the day without needing one.

Currently, like I mentioned, I hardly drink any pop at all. I don't get headaches anymore unless I've maybe had a couple while driving from Bozeman to MN and back and my body remembers what it's missing. Water is cheaper and healthier and I drink loads of it. But every once in a while I hear the siren song of the neon, yellow-ish, green-ish ambrosia from the pop machine here at work. So I grab the $.50 in my pocket and pony up for a few minutes of sweet sips.

P.S. Speaking of consuming healthy stuff right around my dental appointment: Two days ago I was sitting at home at lunch snacking on some Peanut Butter M&Ms (man, those things are tasty) when the phone rings. I pick up and as I pop one more M&M in my mouth the receptionist from the dentist's office tells me that I have an appointment the next day. I thought that was perfect timing.

Read the whole post

Mmmm, Dentist

I had a wonderful visit to the dentist yesterday afternoon. This was actually my 2nd check-up in 6 months, which is of course the frequency at which you're supposed to visit the dentist. I probably haven't gone to the dentist so much since my mom used to make my appointments when I was a kid, and I already have my next appointment set up. Funny how I never went to the dentist when I actually had dental insurance, but now I'm going without any and having to pay full price. Oh well, I'm glad I'm going. And the nice hygenist made the 45 minutes of pain go by much quicker than you'd think.

Read the whole post

Long Posts

You may have noticed that some of my posts tend to get long. I have this thing where I like to describe my experiences in more detail than people usually want to hear. (Though keep in mind that I've kept my posts here even shorter than I could have)

So, in the interests of a cleaner homepage here on my blog, I've dug into the html code for the page and made it so that on the longer posts, only a part will show and there will be a link you have to click on to see the whole post on its own page. So if you like what you read at the beginning of a post just click where it says "Read the whole post" and you'll see the rest of the interesting verbage I've put here for your perusal.

(and yes, this is my third post of the day!)

Read the whole post

La Bicicleta

I am quite excited. Last week I finally brought my bike in to be tuned. It's almost 6 years old and never really had an overhaul. Last year switching gears was often a dodgey proposition. Plus, the break pads were getting a little worn and I'm sure there was some tightening and whatnot that needed to happen.

There have been a number of periods in my life when bike riding was a huge thing. Most notably soon after I bought my current bike. I worked for Honeywell during college and rode my old bike to work 30-45 minutes each way every day that I worked (not every day of the week) all year long. That's right, I rode my bike to work through a Minnesota winter. I also rode my new mountain bike on all sorts of trails in the Minneapolis area with a friend or two who also rode, or just by myself.

Needless to say, during those periods I was in very good shape. Unlike my current situation. You may have read a little about my current hiking saga. Well, I'm hoping to get, at least a little bit, back into biking as well.


I am certainly going to start biking to work. With my current position as full-time computer nerd and zero-time surveyor man at work, I don't get a lot of the exercise at work I got during the last couple of summers. This will get me about 4 miles a day on my bike, without even really trying. It's a mile each way and I like to go home for lunch.

This course of action will not be without pitfalls and perils. Contrary to popular belief, not every single day in Bozeman is sunny. I may have to deal with rainy or chilly mornings (though those are becoming fewer and farther between as we speak). And if I decide to keep riding through the fall and winter, well, biking the Cold Smoke is not the same as skiing it. Plus, drivers here are idiots (especially in the winter), I'll always have to be on the lookout for them.

Though I think the part that will impact me the most is the need to actually get out of bed on time and leave a full 15 minutes before work starts, as opposed to leaving with a mere 5 minutes to spare like I do now. Once upon a time I would get up around 5am and go and workout with my brother Matt. He had just gotten out of boot camp and needed a sucker to wake up at about the same time he automatically did every morning. Amazingly, and against all premonitions, I started finding it easier and easier to get up that early and loved getting in a full workout during those months. (plus, I had huge pecs) Unfortunately, Matt's work schedule changed and correspondingly his sleeping patterns. Without the outside motivation, it was all too easy to sleep in until 6, or (gasp!) 7. The point of that long aside is that getting up early is not something I am accostomed to or even seemingly capable of doing at this present time. But, I'm just going to have to do it. I know my heart and lungs and various other muscles will appreciate it. Not to mention my wallet--gas just climbed over $2 here. Ouch.

Read the whole post

Nothing like a weekend of hiking and burning

Well, Steph and I decided that after all of our hiking last weekend we decided that we should keep it up and hike more so that we don't waste all of that hard work and get in a little better shape. We hiked the M (a huge 'M' made out of white rocks laid out on the southern side of the Bridger Mountain range that the whole valley can see) one night and went on a nice walk another night.

Over this most recent weekend we decided to go somewhere not too far away and not too strenuous. We hiked to Lava Lake, which is a lake on the northern end of the Spanish Peaks, an area of mountains just north of Big Sky, and about 20 minutes south of Bozeman. It is 3 miles one way and gains 1600' in elevation from the trail head to the lake. The trail doesn't stop going up until you get to the lake, but it is gradual and spread out over the 3 miles instead of concentrated over a short distance. The lake is beautiful and has a number of 10000' peaks surrounding it. I took some pictures, but I'll have to post them later. We spent about 30 minutes just sitting in the sun and enjoying the view and a few Rice Krispies treats.

That night we watched Peter Pan which, as one of the comments at imdb.com says, "Not too bad, worth renting". Which is what I originally thought when I saw previews for it. I didn't want to chance it while spending too much at the theater, but I enjoyed watching it at home for only a few bucks. It certainly wasn't a great movie, but it was cute. I think kids would certainly like it.

On Sunday we floated the Madison River. A girl I know from work, Christie, was going with a group of her friends and invited us along. We didn't really know anyone but it's hard not to have a good time floating on an inner tube (or raft) for 3.5 hours under the sun. That is, of course, until later that night when you notice the red streaks all over your body. I was really good with sunscreen, but not good enough. I'm going to be toasty for a little while, though I hope I'll be fine by next weekend when I hope to be sunning and swimming in Matt's pool in Apple Valley. After floating we went to Christie's house for a BBQ, and to play some games. It was fun and interesting to hang out with a group of people we didn't know at all, just to watch how they interact and what kind of things interested the group.

Then last night we watched Love Actually. It was cute and good, I enjoyed it, I am definitely not above watching a "chick flick". Steph had seen it before and really likes it.

Now back to work!

Read the whole post

Pictures, hooray!

Okay, I have some pictures to show you about my 4th of July weekend. They are all external links and range in size from 50KB to 100KB, so keep that in mind depending on what kind of connection you have.

The first is a picture of Sacagawea (the tall peak to the right) and The Great One, which is the largest chute on the lower peak to the left. This picture was actually taken last year.


The second is the path across the rock field from when you turn off the trail to Sacagawea. The Great One is just over the ridge basically straight above the trail right as it goes around the corner.

The third is of my buddy Sean, with his skis and boots on his back, looking over the edge of the ridge about half way down the path from the second picture.

The fourth is at the top, just before Sean and I get our ski stuff on. We couldn't believe how many people were up there that day. We're above 9000' and there's this many people who want to hike up there to ski one run? What kind of crazy town do I live in?

The fifth is the view looking up the chute from the bottom of the run. This was also taken last year.

The sixth is just to give you a look at the gigantic rock formations that enable this chute to keep snow for so long. Then this picture is of on of the people who came down after us, to give you a sense of scale of how big those rocks really are.

The eighth picture is of the lake awaiting us at the bottom of our hike, Fairy Lake. The color of the water is always beautiful. It is a little chilly though, so we've never taken a dip after a trip to the Great One. I believe the peak in the back of the picture is Hardscrabble.

This final picture is of our campsite the morning after the huge thunderstorm. The ground is still almost completely covered by 1/4" hail stones. Keep in mind that there were many more the night before. For anyone curious, the green tent is mine.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed.

Read the whole post

4th of July Weekend part 3 (Spiderman 2)

Well, this post *for sure* won't be as long as the last two. After doing some laundry and grabbing a bit to eat and resting on the couch in front of the TV, Steph and I went to see Spiderman 2. On the way to the theater we stopped at Baskin Robbins for some well-deserved (again) ice cream.

I had really enjoyed the first Spiderman and Stephanie liked it too, proven by the fact that it is one of 5 movies that she actually owns. Both of us had heard how good it is, and even going in with such high expectations I still enjoyed it immensely.


The action was good, the dialog was good, the CG was good, the cameos and little tributes to comic books were good. Pretty much everything was good. One thing I really like about this series is the chemistry (that I see) between Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. For whatever reason a lot of people don't seem to like Dunst. I must be lucky that I haven't seen any of her other movies to not have this bias. It isn't that she's a *great* actress, even in Spiderman, but it just seems that the two characters actually like being together in the movie. At the time the first Spiderman came out I compared their chemistry to the chemistry between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman (Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala) in Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones, and in this case by "chemistry" I mean "complete lack of chemistry". Now, I certainly can't blame them for atrocious writing and dialog (thanks George Lucas!) but I don't believe for one second that they are in love or even want to be close to one another.

Anyway, to sum up, Spiderman 2 is good. If you liked the first one, or are a comic book fan, or even a comic book movie fan, you will probably enjoy it.

Read the whole post

4th of July Weekend part 2 (Golden Trout Lake)

Well, this post shouldn't be as long as the last one but here goes.

On Saturday, Sean, Stephanie, Eric, his two corgis, Sam and Dillon, and I started driving towards Big Sky, south of Bozeman. There are many trails along the Gallatin River throughout the Gallatin Canyon. Our hike started up the Portal Creek drainage.

The hike to Golden Trout Lake is about 2.5 miles and probably gains about 1000' vertical, though most of the vertical seemed to be concentrated at the end of the hike (always convenient). My legs and shoulders were still a little sore from the day before but we all made it fine. Along the way we had a number of stream crossings and passed a few people who had been fishing and a group of maybe 20 people on 10-15 4 wheelers. There were a friendly bunch but we could hear those engines from a long ways away when they started up again.


When we got to the lake we admired the view for a little bit and started setting up camp. The weather had been a little rainy all day and isolated thunderstorms were in the forcast for the entire area so we wanted our tents up as soon as possible. With our shelter in place we started on the important task of dinner. We had a variety of good food. Our main course is a Sean specialty: Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Just boil the water, add the shells and squeeze the cheese out of a foil bag. No messing around with water or butter like with Kraft Mac and Cheese. Then we added cut up summer sausage to the mix for some added flavor and protein. mmmmm! We also had a variety of chips and some trail mix. Eric actually went with his own camping staple, Ramen noodles. Even cheaper and easier than Shells and Cheese, though I'm not sure about the taste.

Throughout dinner we were having problems with the fire since most of the wood around was fairly wet. It would be going well and then die down and then some wood would dry out enough and then flare up again. Mostly it was a lot of smoke and ashes coming out. Which did cause a little problem when an ember landed on Stephanie's ThermaRest and made a hole and deflated it (this of course did not make her happy). Luckily the hole was not big and she was able to patch it up with some tape which ended up holding for most of the night. After dinner we cleaned up a bit and then boiled some water for some hot chocolate, it was beginning to become a chilly evening, so this hit the spot. Of course, the butterscotch Schnaps in each cup didn't hurt either!

Pretty much immediately after we finished our hot cocoa rain started falling and we could hear a little thunder in the distance to the west. We started packing all of our food up and put it into bags which we had to hang from a tree. Nearly everywhere in the Montana Rockies is Grizzly bear country, so you have to take precautions with your food so as to not attract bears to the door of your tent. As we were hanging the food the rain started coming down in earnest.

Just as we finish and all head to Sean's tent, the 4 of us and two dogs (luckily small dogs) piled into the three person tent. We were going to have a nice game of cards to wait out the rain before going to sleep. Well, so much for that plan. Not 5 minutes after we got in the tent, the hail started. Just beating the tent relentlessly. We couldn't hear each other without yelling, we could hardly hear the thunder that was getting louder and louder and coming increasingly shortly after bright lightning flashes. For 10 or 15 minutes we basically sat there in stunned silence smiling and laughing at the incredible storm outside. At the high point the thunder didn't wait for the lightning to stop before sounding. A number of the flashes lit up or tent like the noon sun, fully illuminating everyone in the tent for an astonishing moment. The only one of us that didn't enjoy the storm was little Sam, who was panting and trambling like a Quaking Aspen. (sorry, I had to throw that metaphor in since Aspen groves are so prevalent out here) Eric wanted to take Sam on a trip out of Bozeman for the night of the 4th since she hates fireworks, which had been going off every night from 10pm to 1am sometimes. Unfortunately we ended up going through something much closer and louder. Finally as the hail let up and the rain started to fall again and the thunder receded to the east we opened up the tent door to peer ourside. It was a winter wonderland of hail. The ground was completely white, covered an inch deep in 1/4" hail stones. It was flabergasting, but again, we could only laugh at the whole experience. We were just thankful that we had gotten into the tent when we did.

Before too long Steph and I made our way to my tent and quickly got into our sleeping bags, stuffing clothes for tomorrow into the bottom of them, knowing that anything left out in the tent would be frigid by morning. (getting out of a warm sleeping bag into cold air, pulling on cold t-shirts, socks, and/or underwear is not fun, I know this from experience)

The next morning greeted us all with a chill and a mist hanging in the camp site and over the lake. The ground was still covered with white pellets and our thoughts were fully on packing up and getting hiking, which would finally warm us up. None of us thought (stupidly) to bring a stocking hat or gloves (except Sean, he brought gloves). We were all waiting for him to act out the scene from Dumb and Dumber where he peeled off an outer pair of gloves because his hands were too hot and another one of us could be warm. Alas, this was not to be and all of our hands stayed cold as we packed tents and sleeping bags and lashed things to our packs.

The hike back was uneventful and it kept us warm the entire time. The weather did clear up for most of the hike, which was nice, though it started pouring again just as we got into the car. We had a nice ride back to town and unpacked and hung up all of our wet stuff.

Thus ends the 2nd part of my wonderful July 4th weekend of 2004.

Read the whole post

4th of July Weekend part 1 (The Great One)

Well, I'll try to post some pictures sometime soon, but I can't find the transfer cable for my camera, so just words will have to suffice for now.

On Saturday my friend Sean and I decided to set out on our annual tradition of hiking and skiing "The Great One". It is a chute in the northern Bridgers that is very north facing and protected by huge rock walls such that it holds snow very late in the year. This was the third year in a row that we have done this around the 4th of July weekend. Stephanie came with us for the hike, though not to ski. The only problem this year is that I'm probably in the worst shape I've been since I've moved to Montana. Ahead of me was a hike of more than two miles (one way) while climbing more than 2000 vertical feet, with a huge load strapped to my back.


For the first half hour or so I was really wondering if it was a smart idea to be doing this hike. The stainless steel skis with ski boots in the bindings strapped to my back were really starting to take their toll. Finally, at about the hour mark we all made it to the saddle (~9000') between the two of the highest peaks in the Bridger Range, Sacagawea (9665') and Hardscrabble (9575'). We sat down for a much needed rest, knowing that the worst was mostly behind us. Since it is still relatively early in the season, there are parts of the trail that are still completely covered by snow. This can make for a shorter hike, as you basically just hike straight up the snow field, it is much more difficult than walking up switchbacks.

After our (too) short break we started up again, but I was feeling much better at this point. After maybe 20-30 minutes we hiked to probably 150-200' below Sacagawea peak and then turned off of the main trail. The path to the Great One leads off across basically a rock field that has a small path flattened out through it. At one point (you just kind of have to know the point) you turn off the trail and scramble up over rocks and and to the ridge line. Then you climb down 20' to the mouth of the Great One.

We had finally made it. Sean and I sluffed our packs off and broke into the food. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining all around us. There were already a few skiers up there who were just starting down the chute as we arrived. As we sat there eating and getting our gear ready 7 more people showed up! I couldn't believe how busy it was up there. After a snack I got into my jacket and ski pants, which feels weird to wear on July 3rd, though there is no way I'm going to chance a fall without my whole body covered. Stephanie setup with my video camera on an outcropping of the huge rock wall that protects the chute from the sun. She taped both Sean and I as we made our decents. The snow was mostly soft and very easy to turn it. The run was great. It takes maybe 15-20 minutes to get to the end of the snow, where you get out of everything, pack it back up and return it all to your back. I did fall once, sliding on my side for 10-20 feet, digging my elbow in to slow myself down enough to be able to dig my ski edges in for a full stop. I can't imagine how that would have felt with a t-shirt on.

Then the end is a 30-40 minute hike down through a forest to the rim of Fairy Lake. We hiked around it while watching people swimming and fishing. Finally reaching the parking lot we sluffed our packs off and sat down. Then it was just a 10 minute wait for Stephanie to get back down, she had hiked back the way we had come up.

What a day. When we got back into town we grilled up some huge burgers and shortly thereafter we had all gone our separate ways and taken well-deserved naps. Then that evening we walked downtown for some well-deserved ice cream. And that was about that.

Read the whole post