If you've got 10 mins to kill...

...you really oughta watch the clips from this game, Manchester vs Roma at Old Trafford (sorry it wont let me embed it). Nani, the manks' newest portugese winger, was amazing. Rooney was clinical, just sick. He doesn't even look where he is and just calmly hits a one timer across the goal mouth, off the post and in. It actually looks like a "lucky shot" until they show the final camera angle, the one from behind the goal, and you can see how luck had very little to do with it. It's just awesome to watch, IF you are a giant nerd, like me. Here is a 1 min version of just the Rooney goal, but the whole ten min deal I linked to above is way better.

Anyways, United were also lucky not to get scored on. I'd like to find the full game on-line somewhere, send me a link if you know where I can find full sporting events to watch. I have no TV, so I am missing the baseball playoffs right now, too. I saw some of the yankees get kicked tonight while I was at the bar. A happy hour with the other kids in the program, both our year and the 2nd years. Good times. I am acutally pulling for the Yanks tho'... I know, it's evil, but I like that Doug main-ka-wits or whatever. And I hate any team in the AL central not named the Twins, so fuck Cleveland.

School life

Detecting a theme in these posts, are we? Well hell, you can't blame a guy for being preoccupied with himself and what's going on in his own world, right? Especially not when he is writing for his own blog.

Today I realized that university and college towns would be the perfect place to live, if it weren't for the damn undergrads. They are loud, obnoxious, ostentatious (a grad school world), and for the most part, just plain dumb.

Take for instance these two jokes sitting at the next table over here at Cafe Allegro (the first espresso shop in Seattle, and pretty darn good coffee, too boot). They are in some philosophy topics course and are currently reading David Hume, one of the first Empiricists (any Descartes-hater is a friend of mine). So anyways, I can see by the book sitting on the table that homies are still in the first chapter. And yet they are running their mouths like they are freaking Hume scholars, bad mouthing everything from Christianity to Kant, whom I am sure they haven't even read yet (cuz Kant always comes after Hume in modern philosophy classes, duh)! So they are having this quasi-high minded conversation when a couple of co-eds walk in. Next thing you know, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum are talkin' about how awesome it's gonna be to get shit-faced and do some E this weekend.

Now, I know I shouldn't be judgmental because I was probably actually worse when I was there age, in terms of know-it-allness and meat-headedness all wrapped up into one, but for some reason it still annoys the shit outta me. I mean, I am sitting here, quietly trying to do my get my homework done, and these fucks just have no respect for their elders. It's like they don't even know how loud they are being. Should I say something? No, of course not, that would make me a mean old man. If anything I should offer to buy them booze to get them the hell outta here. But were we really this annoying? Were we worse? This makes me sorta sad to think about, I have a feeling I might still be this annoying. I know, instead of saying something, I will just give them the stink-eye. Like this:
Woah, this post is going south fast. Enough introspection, back to my fake "Memo to the President" on the dismal state of health care in the US. I'd say it's easy and going well, that it's essentially writing itself at this point, but that would be a bald faced lie. It is currently writing this pointless and wandering post. But, I need to try to get it done soon so I can go grab beers with this friend of a friend (the one in Saipan), and hopefully become friends with this FoF. Wish me luck, this could go a number of different ways. Sometimes FoFs are awesome, and become your own friends. Other times you find that the only real thing you have in common is said friend. So we'll see. I am sure hoping we connect, cuz lord knows I need some friends. Not that I am trying to be all pitiful or anything, just sayin' it'd be good to have some more buddies, that's all.

I mean c'mon, does this look like a guy who is wallowing in his own pity-party right now? Hell no! Godspeed, LIFE! Hoo-haa! Get some!
Alright, this procrastination is just getting ridiculous. And besides, I am getting looks from the others around me who keep wondering why I am taking pictures of myself with my computer. And frankly, I don't blame them, this is weird and more than a little self-serving. But that is what blogging is all about right? Well, that and procrastination.

Breaking news...

This just in: my old dear friend Pedro Locco made the Saipan National Soccer Team!! How cool is that? Homey went over there to learn some chitlins in some edumacation, decided to try out for a team, and what do you know? Three weeks later I get a frantic email that reads (more or less), "Can't write now. Kids screaming in classroom. Someone back home should know: I made the Saipan national team. Might mean travel to Guam and the like. Good luck finding grass in Seattle, I know it's out there. Peace and love."

By golly he is right, apparently, due to the rain of course, it is green all year round and peoeples' lawns never turn brown and die like back home in Minny (that is what he meant, right?). ANYWAYS, how cool is it that I know an internationally capped footy player? (That means he played in an international recognized game, which I am not sure if he did just yet, but probably will in the near future.)

Now, I am not sure exactly how legit the Saipan national team is, given that it is an island about 5.5 miles wide by 13 miles long, give or take, BUT that does not take away from the fact that homey still gots mad skillz. He even scored a goal in his last match!

For those of you who know and love Pedro, like I do (former roommate and world travel companion), this is probably one of the biggest shocks of 2007. Stay tuned for more!

The beautiful Saipan (umm, i think we can see the whole island from this angle, but where are the soccer fields?):

Big News from Barry

Courtesy of his Myspace page:

Last night our movement hit some landmark goals: more than 500,000 donations from more than 350,000 people.

We also got news yesterday from Iowa -- we're leading in the latest Newsweek poll of likely caucus-goers. Here's the breakdown:

Obama: 28%
Clinton: 24%
Edwards: 22%

And our lead climbs to 8 points when first and second choices are combined.

It's important to remember that deciding the Democratic nominee for president is a sequential process that begins in Iowa. Generating momentum early will be the key to winning the nomination.

So while the pundits focus on meaningless national polls, we are leading in the one state where the electorate is most focused on this election and where they are getting the most exposure to Barack.

That same dynamic explains the unprecedented number of donors to our movement. The American people by and large have not yet tuned into this election. But among those who have gotten involved, Barack Obama has inspired record numbers to take ownership of this campaign.

We have a long way to go, but because of your support and determination, we are shattering records and making progress where it counts most.

Thank you so much for everything you've done to make this happen.


P.S. -- There's still time for you to be part of this historic moment. The deadline for donations is midnight tonight, so please make yours now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/winiowa

A great perk

One of the really great perks of grad school, and one I really did not see coming (which makes it all the more awesome), is that I have time in the afternoon to take a nap if I need one. Do you know how long it's been since I took regular naps?? Me neither. Probably not since high school when I would sneak one in every day after school before I had to go to work. I took 45 min power naps, and I had it down to a science. I could be lights out 5 mins from putting my head down.

I think as an undergrad I took naps, but mostly because I stayed out drinking way too late the night before, not just for the sake of taking one. And no way I took naps when I was working 9 to 5. I think I can count on one hand the number of naps I took in DC, and those were all because I was out too late drinking the night before. But now, when I am sitting in front of my computer in the middle of the afternoon, trying to do research for some random case study in public health, I can just say fuck it all, I'm taking a nap and will come back to this in a few hours. It is totally liberating, not to mention rejuvenating. Today I took a power nap for the ages. I was completely tuckered out from this long hilly 50 mile ride in the rain, I couldn't get any work doen because I could hardly keep my head up. An hour and a half later, I woke up feeling like a new man. Naps rule. And I will probably take one every day I don't have class in the afternoon, cuz why not?