I was just playing around with yearbookyourself and this one totally looks like I did in high school except for the hair color.

Mullets were cool. Honest. My hair always had to be long enough to stick out the back of my football helmet.

What the hell were we thinking?

So when I hear that it’s the first of May the first thing that comes to mind in the Jonathan Coulton song. I wish I lived closer to Minneapolis. He is performing at the Varsity Theater tonight. How cool would it be to hear JoCo sing “First of May” on the first of May?

If you have no idea what song I am talking about check it out here. Just so you know, it’s a little NSFW.

He is giving it away on his site, so I am sure it’s fine if I gave it away. If you like it check out his other stuff. I bought it all, and it’s good stuff.

So if you are regular reader of my blog you know who the best fucking band in the world is right? Well, next Tuesday they are releasing a little 5 song acoustic EP on iTunes. I don’t know if it’s only going to be on iTunes or if it’s going to contain DRM or not, but I will be getting it. You can check out one of the songs over at Spin.com. Next month I will be seeing them for the sixth time. I can’t wait.

Thanks to Salena I now know when to expect my “economic stimulus” check from the government. I will be getting a paper check around June 20th. It doesn’t really matter to me when I get it. The money is going right into our savings account. We are trying to build it up again after the house purchase put a big dip in it last summer. I love having a big chunk of money in my savings account. I just feel more comfortable knowing that I have enough money in savings that I could miss several months of work and not have to worry. Currently we could probably go three months without any income. I would like to at least double that this year.

So it’s been a busy week. It’s been reasonable nice out so I have been busy doing outside house stuff. We got an estimate on a fence. Sometime in May we should be getting our backyard fenced in. It will be nice to be able to let the dog and not have to keep an eye on her.

We also had another thing going on this week. We had a two day adoption workshop. I tend not to blog too much about my personal life. I might start opening up a little more. We have been trying to have kids for some time now. The doctors can’t find a problem, it just isn’t happening. We have been talking about adopting for a while. In January we went in to start things rolling. It’s a long process to adopt a child. At first I wasn’t sure if I was up for it. I have always admired people who adopt, but I never thought I could be one of them. After attending this workshop I can see myself doing it.

We learned a lot about how adoptions work this week. There are a lot of misconceptions about adoption. In the past it was kind of kept a secret from the child. Then when the child learns that they were adopted it’s been hard for them to find their birth parents. Now days adoptions are more open. The birth parents actually chose who they want adopting their child. There are varying degrees of openness depending on the comfort level of the families, but the child grows up knowing who their birth parents are. Sometimes the birth parents get to see their child a couple times a year. Sometimes it’s just pictures and letters, but it’s all to benefit the child. Everything is geared toward the child.

Adoption is a great thing. I am actually kind of excited about it now. The next step is a bunch of paperwork. I am not to excited about that.

So I have been sick the last couple days, and really haven’t been in the mood to blog, but I had to blog about this. Weezer has leaked the first song off of their new album which is coming out June 24th. It will be Weezer’s third self titles album. This one will be known as “The Red Album”.

You can hear their first single titled “Pork and Beans” here.

I so can’t wait for this album. Weezer is one of my all time favorite band, and I have seen them in concert five times.

Last night the wife got free tickets to see Michael Winslow. If you don’t know who he is, he is the guy that makes all those noises in Police Academy. I know him from one of my favorite movies Spaceballs. He was pretty funny, but I thought his opening comedian was funnier. He still put on a great show. It was amazing the noises he could make. That was something to see. At one point hs sat back and played a clip from Star Wars and suplied all the voices and sound effects. It was pretty funny and amazing.

I watch very little TV. Most TV shows bore me. I am watching more and more online video. I love most of the shows on Revision3. They have a new show called Scam School that is pretty cool. Brian Brushwood is the host. He is a magician, and each show he shows cool tricks to play on your friends to get them to buy you free drinks. He recently did an interview with Drew Domkus from the Dawn and Drew Show on his N3rd Moment show. During the interview Brian said he was trying to get his show on a TV network, but they didn’t get it. They wanted him to comb his hair, put on a sweater, and tame it down.

TV always seems to dumb things down. They have to make shows that suit a wide range of viewers. The Internet is great because you can make a niche show just about anything and if it is good and entertaining, you can get an even bigger audience that if it was on TV. Once advertisers realized that people are really watching online video and are really passionate about them and actually see their commercials, rather then their commercials being just background noise on TV, I believe online TV will explode even more and it wont be just geeks watching it.

One show that I hope makes it to TV is Skeptologists. It has a great cast including Phil Plait, Brian Dunning, Kirsten Sanford, Michael Shermer, and Yau-Man Chu of Survivor fame. If they can’t get it on TV I hope they will do in on the Internet.

So it looked like spring was about to get here. The snow was almost completely melted out of our yard. We were making plans for spring. I was going to call some fencing companies today to get estimates on getting out backyard fenced it. I guess I wont be doing that for a couple weeks now. We got a little “April Shower” yesterday. Six inches of “April Showers”.

Here are a few pictures I took with my phone at work. You can’t really see the snow coming down, but it was coming down like crazy.

I shoveled last night when I got home from work. It was some heavy ass snow, full of water. Today I got up and we had some more, but it was really frozen. The sidewalk and driveway are a mess now. I am not even going to bother trying to get the ice off. One of these days it should warm up enough to melt it.

Ten years ago today I started my current job. I can’t believe I have been working here for 10 years. Since it’s my anniversary, I get a nice 50 cent raise today, plus I now get a little longevity bonus every paycheck. It’s also now been 10 years that I have been living in Fargo. That’s the longest I have lived in one town. That seems crazy. I grew up in a little town in northern Minnesota. It seemed like I lived there forever, but it was only eight years. After my freshman year in high school we moved to a town in southern Minnesota. I also lived their for eight years, then moved to Fargo after college.

Another crazy thing is that I am 33 and have only had two jobs in my life. I got a job in a restaurant in high school and worked their until I graduated college and got my current job. I like my job. It very secure. Not too many people leave. I have been here 10 years and there is only one person that is newer than me. Crazy.

I have always been a CD guy. I like to touch and look at the physical CD. A couple of CDs that I want came out yesterday, and I am really tempted to buy them in MP3 form from Amazon. I have purchased a few albums from Amazon, but they weren’t from bands that I have to have their CD. No Use For a Name is one of the band that I have to have their CDs. Now that Amazon sells non-DRMed MP3s, they are actually an option for me. I would never buy DRMed music. I couldn’t tell you the last time I played an actual CD. I bet the last couple hundred that I bought have never been played. I just rip them, and then they just sit and take up space. I might as well just buy the MP3s, but it’s tough giving up the physical media.

So I haven’t blogged since I got back from Bismarck. Classes went good in Bismarck. They were boring, but informative. They were better than last time I had to go. Mostly because the PowerPoint presentations were better.

I am starting to get spring fever. The snow is melting like crazy. It still is a little cold to do much outside, but so tempting. Yesterday we worked on a few projects around the house, and today was catch up on TiVo and Internet day. I am almost caught up already, and am tempted to get on the roof and take down the Christmas lights, but it’s only 34º and might be a little cold.

Tomorrow I have to go back to work. It’s kinda weird missing a week of work and not having to take any vacation.

First day of classes are done. After class we hung out in the bar in the hotel. I very seldom drink, so it didn’t take much to get drunk.

it’s kinda nice having this big hotel room myself. The internet is also great here. I am able to keep up on everything.

Oh well, off to grab a bite to eat before I spend all day in class.

fun.

Well, I am off to Bismarck now, so to keep you entertained here are a couple of cool videos I found.

The first one is a live acoustic set of three songs from Bad Religion. I have been a Bad Religion fan for well…ever, and I am a sucker of acoustic versions of songs.

Another band that I have loved forever is Screeching Weasel. This video is from the lead singer, Ben Weasel’s latest solo album.

The final video is from Rivers Cuomo, Weezer’s frontman. His solo album wasn’t as good as I was hoping, but this video is from one of the better songs.

Happy viewing!

Yesterday I heard Rhinestone Cowboy from Glen Campbell on the radio at work and actually liked it. Not because it was a great song, but because it reminded me of seeing Soul Asylum cover that song a couple summers ago. Seeing Soul Asylum was awesome. Dave Pirner looked like he was having so much fun up on stage. It looked like he would be doing that even if he wasn’t getting paid. They haven’t had a hit song in quite some time, but it didn’t look like they cared. They were there to put on a show for the couple hundred people that were there. I thought their last album was one of their bests. I was rooting for it to get big, but it didn’t get any airplay. I always root for fellow Minnesotans, but I am not really a Prince fan.

I watch tons on online videos/podcasts. For the last few months I have been using HappyFish to download my videos, but now have switched to Miro. Miro use to be the Democracy Player. I tried it out when it was the Democracy Player. I liked it, but it wasn’t quite there for me. Over the weekend I tried out Miro. I love it now. It’s pretty much my iTunes for video now. The best part is they have a Revision3 version that already has all the Revision3 shows in it. Since I watch most of the Revision3 stuff that’s the version I grabbed.

It’s kind of nice that I don’t have to work this week, but the sucky part is that I have to go to Bismarck for three days for continuing education classes. It’s something I have to do every three years. It’s not fun. It’s pretty boring, but what do you do?

I wont be able to keep up with twitter because cell phones have to be turned off in the classes, but I am hoping the hotel has good internet service. You never know in North Dakota.

So if my blog goes quiet, or the comics stop coming, you know it because the lack of the internets.

So today was the second day of spring right?

That is a pictures I took out the window at work. Our snow was almost gone, and we got at least six more inches today. It’s some wet and heavy stuff too. It was probably the hardest shoveling snow of the season.

Oh well, it is spring right? It should be melting soon.

So I went to the Boys Like Girls concert in town last night. It was at The Venue, which use to be a cool place to see concerts. My wife was kind of sick, so she didn’t feel like dealing with the crowd on the floor, so we went up to the balcony. We have been up on the balcony in the past and you can get a pretty good view up there. Well, no more. They use to have just a little VIP section up on the balcony with nice plush booths for people to sit in. I have no problem if people want to pay extra to sit there, but now basically the whole front section of the balcony is VIP. Pretty much every place where you can see the stage is VIP now. So we were stuck behind the people that were in the plush booths standing up so we couldn’t see, while the whole side section of that balcony that doesn’t have the plush booth and didn’t use to be VIP sat pretty much empty. So we were standing where we couldn’t see shit staring at a spot in the balcony where 20 or 30 people could stand and actually see.

The whole place is a mess now. When we were entering the place they only had one door open. The one where you had to cut through the line of people buying tickets just to enter the place.

Leaving the place was also a mess. There were cops all over the place making sure the kids didn’t do anything wrong, but yet people parked all over hell and were blocking all but one was out of the parking lot.

The Venue use to be my favorite place in town to see a concert, but now I don’t think I would go back. The new management really fucked the place up.

The music that I like isn’t always the most popular. Rarely do band I like get any radio play. Boys Like Girls is a band that I have liked for years. They are starting to get quite a bit of radio play around here. Today they are playing in Fargo for the second time. This will be my third time seeing them and they still only have one album that came out two years ago. It’s a great album though. My favorite song on the album is Thunder. You can listen to it here.

I finally got around to finding a WordPress plugin to make it easier to blog from my phone. This is the first blog post from my phone.

So you know that I have been having fun making comics with bitstrips.com. Well, I got a new site just for my comics. You can find all my comics at lolmace.com. Daily updates would be cool, but I doubt I will be that prolific. New comics will be out when they come out.

I am having lots of fun playing around with Bitstrips.com. Maybe someday I will learn to write something funny, but for now it’s just what it is. I am not a very creative person. I love playing around with the tools and technology that creative people use, but I struggle being actually creative. I am thinking about starting a new blog for my comics. I am just struggling for a domain name. I also wonder if it’s something that I will keep up with. I start all kinds of things that I end up getting board with and end up quitting. I guess I will never know if I don’t try. So maybe by this weekend I will have another blog.

Spring my be finally on it’s way. Yesterday was the first day of the year that we were able to take the dog for a walk. I think it was 28º when we went for the walk. It felt nice except for the sloppiness. It’s already 32º now, so I think we will have another walk in store for this afternoon. I am really looking forward to seeing grass and getting into the yard. We got all kinds of spring projects planned, but can’t really do much until the snow melts and the yard dries up.

So I played with Bitstrips a bit.

So I am finally rested up enough to make a blog post about our vacation. Vacationing sure it tiring.

We had a great time, and lots of food, on the ship. The food wasn’t super good, but it wasn’t bad. There was tons of it. Anytime you wanted something to eat you could eat. I was also able to try a bunch of things for the first time. I actually had sushi for the first time. Sushi isn’t all that big in North Dakota. The sushi bar was only open for a couple hours a day, but it always seemed to be open when we walked buy. I tried a bunch of different kinds. I’m not really sure what any of it was, but it was all good. One of the ones I tried had caviar on it. I have never had caviar before. It didn’t really taste like much, just salty. I also tried escargot for the first time. It was amazingly good. I love trying different foods. I never seem to find anything I don’t like. Drinks are a different story. I don’t like most alcoholic drinks. One night on the ship they had a fancy get together to meet the captains, and they had free drinks. They were mostly fancy drinks, no beer. I tried a martini. It was nasty. My wife tried a cosmopolitan and that was even worse.

On the way to Grand Cayman the water and weather was nice. We sat out all day and enjoyed the sun. I burn easy, so I made sure I was keeping the sunscreen on. I managed not to get any color, and that it fine with me. The only color I ever seem to get is red anyway.

It Grand Cayman we did the Ray Runner Stingray City Snorkel Tour. It was awesome. We took these inflatable boats out into the water for what seemed like miles. The faster we got out there the more time we could spend out there, so we cruised. It was a fun and bumpy ride. Once out there we snorkeled for a bit and then went over to where the stingrays were at. It was the first time that I have ever been snorkeling. The water was amazing. So warm. So clean.

Our next stop was at Calica Mexico. There wasn’t much there. It was just an industrial port. They said cruise ships don’t stop there very often. It was just a short bus ride to Cancun though. We toured the Myan Ruins of Tulum. It was cool to learn more about the people there. Our tour guide was great. He was very informative and nice. I hope he makes good money. We gave him a good tip. I felt a little bad when I saw the houses that people live in down there. There were shops all over the place selling junk. Everything seemed pretty expensive. I am sure everything was expensive because everybody barters them down. I am not the kind of person that can do that. Those people need the money much more than I do, but we still didn’t buy anything. We did eat at this little shack next to Tulum. I was always told that “real” Mexican food wasn’t very good. I don’t know how americanized this food was, but it was amazing. I had fish tacos. It was my first time having fish tacos. There are no fish tacos in North Dakota either. Everybody there was super nice. I suppose they are super nice to Americans because they know we have money, but it was still nice.

On the way back the water was a little rougher. Our last day at sea was a rocking one, and it was cloudy out too. A lot of people were getting sick. It didn’t bother me much. It just got a little annoying. I am glad the whole cruise wasn’t like that.

Overall we had a great time. I’m Not sure if I would ever do a cruise again. I probably would. Vacationing gets tiring though. The last thing I want to think about when I get back is another vacation. The day we got back it was -16º out though. That was sure a shocker after spending a week in 85-90º weather.

I am back home.

Vacation was great.

I am sick.

I gotta go back to bed.

Well, it’s here. It will be a little quite here for a week. I don’t know what kind of internet connection I am going be getting on the cruise ship, so don’t expect much blogging from me. I might be on Twitter a little, but I wont be able to keep up on that either. International roaming on my phone is $2.50 a minute. I will be shutting off my phone and not even looking at it for a week.

In about an hour we are heading to my brothers house in Minneapolis. Tomorrow, we are heading to Tampa and staying at my Aunts for the night. Our cruise ship takes off Saturday morning.

I will be back next Thursday.

Take care Ya’ll!