David

I found this link to be pretty interesting:

http://i38.tinypic.com/dwz1xc.jpg

Found it to be pretty intense and although I don’t blame atheism for the bad things going on in the country, I think it does strike a chord in that at some point the USA has to have some sort of standard instead of no standard as far as religion goes.  Freedom is slowly turning into no freedom as by trying not to step on peoples toes the government is stepping on everyones.

Example:

The government trying to force Catholic doctors in Catholic hospitals to do abortions.

What happened to our rights, our freedoms?  Is it because of athiests that things have gone this far; no, i don’t think so, but by not taking a stand on what is right or wrong and by allowing people to get their way in the name of freedom over time has led to the intrusion of freedoms of others.

Does America believe in God?  Most of America I’m sure would say yes but its hard to see in the rules of this country in the form of courts and the government as a whole.  By not taking a stand, the government has taken one that alienates those that created the nation in the first place.  We say God Bless America but how long has it been as a nation that we have done anything serving God?  We (as a nation) don’t deserve God’s blessing as it is very clear he is not allowed in many public events, gatherings, and court rulings.  Now we are probably going to have a president who does not believe a baby born outside of the womb is considered a baby if it was trying to be aborted and can therefore be killed. Apparently the difference now between being human or not has nothing to do with the baby, but how the people around it feel about it.  If the doctor isn’t trying to kill you you’re human, if not, your obviously just a mistake that needs to be taken care of. I wonder once the babies born if they’ll suck up the parts with a vacuum cleaner or inject it and then cut it up to sell the parts?  Thanks for being our savior Barack. God Bless America.

So the city has been cleaning the streets meaning their is a certain day when you can’t park on the street you normally park on.  They had signs up down the street I live on for the past couple days saying TUESDAY- NO PARKING FROM 7:00 AM TO 4:30 PM.  Now I, being the genius that I am, for some reason thought that Tuesday meant I didn’t have to move my car until Friday.  Why?  I don’t know, that is just how I process things sometimes.  I saw the sign like 5 times the past two days and it never registered that moving my car was so soon.

Yesterday I got home around 5 and I had a really bad headache so I went to bed and got up around 8:15.  Made supper, watched the end of Heroes, then feeling really sick, went back to bed until 8:15 this morning.  I got up, felt fantastic, showered, started a load of laundry, made breakfast, and then I realized - out of nowhere- Crap!!! my car is supposed to be moved today!!

Why I now realized Tuesday didn’t mean Friday, I don’t know, but I knew it already being 9:10 that I was in serious trouble.  So I ran to the door and looked out and the street was barren except for about 4 cars and a tow-truck that had just put a jeep on the back of it.  I didn’t see my car anwhere!! There was maybe a jeep, a white car in front of my house, and another car further down the road.  I thought I had parked my car down the block a ways and I didn’t see it anywhere.  Standing there, looking out the door I was thinking to myself, “No way, no way, you have got to be kidding me!”.  “I don’t want to pay a $200 towing fine!!”

Then, looking over the cars again, i realized the white car in front of my house was actually my white car!!! It was one of the lucky ones that hadn’t been towed yet.  So I ran out the door, hopped into my car with the frosted over windshield and took off into the sunrise for freedom.  Not being able to see much, this was harder than it sounds.  I eventually parked 3 or 4 blocks away and had a very cold walk back to my house, but I didn’t care, my car was safe and so was my money.  When I got back the tow truck and already hooked a second car onto it and was towing that off as well along with the jeep from earlier.  Looking at the 2 cars still their they both had envelopes in the windshield which means they probably got fined which means I probably got fined which means I hope the envelope is still on my car from me driving around.  Oh well, whatever.  I didn’t get towed.  My name is Neo and I can dodge bullets!

Game Over

This weekend, Houa and I drove down to her mom’s place in Onalaska, WI. It’s my first time being in Wisconsin, and I gotta say where we drove, it was pretty gorgeous.  Lots and lots of trees on hills, and with it being Fall all the trees were ablaze of different colors.

We left Friday, we wanted to leave around 2, but didn’t leave until around 5 which is kind of a typical Rausch thing…being late. Its a 3 hour drive down there.  We got lost once but otherwise made it there just fine.  Houa’s younger sister Anna (she’s 18-Micaeala’s age) and her boyfriend also came up from Milwaukee where she goes to school.  That night we just sat around and watched tv, did grocery shopping for the weekend, and talked which was nice.  On Saturday was the Hmong New Year festival in LaCrosse which is kind of like a Cornfest, except 5 times bigger and mainly 99 just Hmong people there.  They had a big soccer tournament going with a few fields of soccer being played on and a beach volleyball tournament going on as well.  We didn’t watch any of that, but we walked around all the booths selling Hmong movies, hmong music, clothing, jewelry, shoes.  After doing the shopping, we all went and ate.  I, being the daring food eater that I am, stuck with fried chicken which also came with sticky rice which was pretty good.  After that we went to the performance stage and sat down and watched people dance and sing (all in hmong) for an hour or so. While walking around we ran into a couple of Houa’s cousins which she hadn’t seen in years so that was neat.

After getting back from that everybody was wiped out so we all just layed around and napped until supper.  We had a ton of food to eat for supper and after we were done eating we went to Houa’s aunt and uncles place nearby where I had to eat again.  At that place, I ended up almost eating an entire eggroll which is amazing cuz I am not an eggroll guy whatsoever.  Houa had to finish it for me though, I couldn’t eat the last bite.  I also ate squirrel there.  Not much meat on squirrels these days. After that, we sat around for a while and then went home where we finished up The Return of the King which we had been watching the night before and previously in the afternoon.

This morning Houa,Angela (her 9 year old sister), and I went to mass and then got back to find that Anna’s boyfriend was sick.  Shortly thereafter, Houa, Anna, Angela, their mom, and I went out shopping for clothing for Houa and Anna and for food for them too.  Once we got back Houa and I took Angela to Dairy Queen where we got ice-cream and then we dropped her off, said our goodbyes and headed home which went by really quickly.

All in all, the weekend was a really good time.  It was nice to meet Houa’s family down in Wisconsin and to meet her mother.    I think everything went well with her family, although Houa’s grandma said if we didn’t behave, her dad would hunt me down and cut me up into little pieces.  Sounds just like my grandmas.lol

Now back to reality with homework and tests and projects….sigh.

Game Over

So I was really pumped for this weekend because I had almost 0 homework.  Friday night there was a big drunkfest party at my house so naturally I did what I do best and avoided the crowd by staying downstairs watching television.  Chris came this weekend and got here Friday night, not for the party, and he, Tyler, Houa and I watched the Boston vs. Angels while lots of people I don’t know were getting tipsy upstairs.  On Saturday Tyler and Chris went to the Gopher’s game (that’s why he came up) and I stayed at the house and watched it on the big 50″ flatscreen in HD.  Who got the better deal?  I don’t know.  It was a great game though, the Gophers played pretty well.  Tyler then went to work, chris came back and slept, I went to Confession.  After confession Houa came over and we put in Lord of the Rings because she’s never seen them.  We only had 1/2 of the movie left to watch.  It took us 3 times to get through the first half.  The first time she fell asleep after 20 minutes.  Then the next time she fell asleep in 20 minutes.  The third time though she stayed awake until everyone made it to Rivendelle.  Saturday night, with Chris there and Tyler there, she was able to watch the entire second half of the movie without her falling asleep.  The second half is the more exciting half anyways.  On Sunday we all sat around and watched football.  The Vikings don’t play until tonite so there really wasn’t any game on that was real exciting to watch, but playing fantasy football helps a lot because then every game means a little bit more. Houa and I then went to mass at 5 where we meet up with Katie and Brenna and get our prayer on.  Afterwards, we went to Snuffy’s where we met Dan and Annie (did I mention Dan come up here this weekend to run a 10 mile marathon?) and we all ate supper together.  Afterwards, Dan dropped Annie off at her house and then he, Houa, and I went to Brenna and Chris’s apartment to play Rockband.  I got to drive his sweet new car there!  It is sweet!!!  He got black too which is totally hott, especially in summer and at night!  Rockband was a ton o’ fun cuz I haven’t played it since forever.  After that I went it was around 9:30 or so and I went to Houa’s where we did homework, she did painting and Spanish, I did Typography and while we worked we watched the Two Towers.  Got halfway through that one too.  Now, I’m at school and the weekend is over but the Vikes are on tonite which I’m really pumped for.  Go Vikes!  Prolly gonna lose though

Game Over!

Hey Guys!! It’s only been about maybe 4 or 5 months since I last posted.  Well school is going pretty sweet.  Thinks are picking up a bit.  I had my first accounting test and I completely failed it.  As we only have 3 tests and a final as a grade, that means I’m starting out with an F.  Our teacher made comments how he gets people complaining about the test but how they are idiots for not studying what he tells them to study, I think there may be more to their comments then I previously thought.  I studied, and I had no idea how to do what he wanted us to do.  GAY!!!

I’m watching the season premier of Heroes tonight.  Pretty wicked awesome!!  I really like it so far.  It’s on the second chapter and I’d have to say so far so good. A lot of things have happened really fast answering a lot of questions and opening up the door for so many things.  Way better than last season. I’m totally stoked.

So its crazy but my summer is almost over.  I start school the day after Labor Day.  I’m looking forward to starting school again, living with Tyler, seeing Houa, having no life because of homework.  I’ll be poorer than a homeless man or woman, but that just means I’ll sell plasma again and save lives while creating life long friends with the city’s underbelly.  The classes that I’ll be taking this year are”

Type Design - A class soley focused on font.  After kids take this class, they start making fun of fonts, like which ones are ugly and useless. I think to myself “wow, weird people” and then I realize that I’m probably going to be like them.  Oh well, at least when I do it, it will be cool…right? As of right now though, all font is special with special purposes.  They should all be treated equally, they can’t help it if they are an ugly font. One man’s ugly font is another man’s treasure I say.

History of Visual Communication - Sounds like a super boring class.  It is writing intensive which I’m going to have to listen to a lecture and write a paper about stuff.  I don’t like history, especially about visual communication…how do I know?  I don’t, but I don’t like papers and this class has all kinds of boring written all over it.

Intro to Financial Accounting - this is a class that goes towards my Business Minor that I haven’t yet applied to the Carlson School of Business for.  So, to get the minor, i have to be accepted, but I haven’t applied yet.  I have the beginning courses done that are need to apply, this is one of the first classes you take once you get accepted, but I like being a rebel. I like breaking the rules. Carlson kind of takes things seriously, but i’m like “Why so serious?”. 

Beginning Hmong - So I’m taking a Hmong speech class every single day.  It does listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills so basically the hardest class ever.  I’m taking it because Houa and her family speak it a lot, and that is what her parents are really fluent in, and I think in the long run, it’ll be good for me to have some sort of idea or general understanding of what is going on. Then I can know when they are talking about me behind my back.  All I have to do is learn the words “white boy” in Hmong and then I know they are talking about me.lol

So really, it is only one design class which i’m really glad about.  At times last year I felt like I had design overload, so it’ll be nice to not have to focus on too many things at once. I’ll be working at Minitex again, to start out anyway.  I feel like if a design job opens up though I should try for it even though I’m comfortable and I like Minitex.  So we will see where I end up.  I’m not the most motivated when it comes to job hunting or applying or anything, so I don’t know if I’ll change, but at the same time I realize I’m going to need all the experience I can get before I get done with college if I want to have a half-ways decent resume. 

I’m really sorry about the job Holli even though I know you disliked the company, however, I feel like it was probably for the best. Watch The Pursuit of Happiness and maybe that will cheer you up.  I think that’s what I’d do if I ever felt like things were down career wise. Things always turn around eventually if you give it enough time. 

Game Over!

So last week Chris Fellows, his dad, his brother, Chris Smith, and I went down to Omaha to watch the College World Series finals between Georgia and Fresno State. We were down there for 3 days to watch the 3 games.  These games were really good with pitching being almost non-existent and both teams teeing off and going yard.  During the last game there was this really really old guy with no shirt on harassing some fans so 4 security guards came and escorted him out of the area and as the old guy was walking out he let out a big loud f bomb.  Musta been from Phili!  We left Monday morning around ten.  Each game was at 6 at night so during the day we hit up some malls. One mall was two stories tall and the entire second floor was completely empty.  The food court was upstairs and only 2 out of like the 8 places were open.  All the others were empty.  It was like a ghost mall.  We said screw this to that mall and went to a bigger, better mall.  We got home Wednesday at 3 in the morning.  Thanks to Matt being all amped up on energy drinks I didn’t have to drive at all on the way home and got to sleep.  Good start to the week.

Then last weekend I went to the cities to visit Houa.  I stayed with Tyler but didn’t really see him at all.  Got in Friday night and just hung out at her place for a while.  That night at Tyler’s they had a campfire going with guys eating chips and smoking hooka.  I ate the chips and I smoked the hooka.  It’s alright.  Not really that interesting or cool but not bad.  The chips were muy muy better.  Saturday Houa, her sister, and I went to her cousins’ house and a bunch of us went fishing.  Then after that we all went swimming in a lake.  Then after that we had a cookout at her cousins’ house.   Then I watched Houa, her sister, and her cousin strip… bamboo into tubs while little boys sang songs at the top of their lungs in hmong and english. (You see how I organized that sentence, how many of you had a dirty thought?  it’s okay, don’t be ashamed, it was set up that way).  That was a crazy fun filled day.  It is a little different atmosphere hanging out with hmong people because at least half the time they are speaking hmong so i really have no idea what is going on.  But then half the time they are speaking english so everything is normal.  And then sometimes they say part of something in hmong and finish it in english.  Then I’m confused. lol   Houa does a pretty good job of keeping me in the loop though which is really nice. 

On Sunday we went to church back at Nativity where I used to go and then we went ot Baker’s Square near the Roseville mall for brunch.  After brunch went to the mall to buy my mom her 50th birthday card and a gift and I also got some flip-flops.  Wouldn’t imagine I would ever get flip-flops, but i guess when you have a girlfriend who likes them, sacrafices must be made.  Honestly though, I have been thinking about how I should get l flip flops over the past 2 summers to combat the whiteness of my skin on my feet.  Well, now I have them so bring it on sun.  It’s game time! 

After shopping we were going to meet Tyler to watch Wall-E but he decided to watch the Twin’s game instead so we went for a walk in a park instead.  I wore my new flip flops and it rubbed the skin away on one of my toes.  I took it like a man though so no biggy.  After that we picked up Tyler at his house, I dropped Houa off at hers, and Tyler and I made the trip home listening to his music and a stand up comedian who was HILARIOUS!!  Can’t remember who it was though, but man, he was good.  

So that was my week last week.  Pretty much full of traveling and just chillin.  aka living the dream. 

Side Note:  Brought the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie with me so Houa’s little brothers could watch it.  They watched it 9 times in two days.  Blew me away.

See you all at the Reunion….well, most of you all!

Game Over

So, since coming back home, it’s been jam packed with things…fun things mostly.  Last week on Monday dad, Dan, and I went down to Kansas City to move Dan into his new place.  His new place is really nice, the community is pretty sweet although their basketball court looks like it was made for midgets with regular sized baskets. 

While down there, Dan picked out a bedroom set, a mattress, and a new couch that massages your back!  We went golfing one fine afternoon and I started out shooting terrible but then I pared 2 holes in a row, should have been three.  I ended up shooting a 59 and a 53 which is pretty bad, but not too bad for a first time out with all new clubs.  We also went to two Twins games which turned out to be amazing games to go to.  Walk off homeruns, inside the park homer, 5 run comeback in the 9th.  Ultimately, those games couldn’t have been better.  Then came graduation.

Micaela’s graduation went very smoothly.  Everything went well setting things up and cleaning.  She gave a speech as she was the saluditorian and she blew it out of the water.  The speech was short and funny and had a really good message.  The only thing you could fault her for was speaking too fast, but other than that it was really good.  

One big suprise of that evening was when I turned around to see Holli and Miles.  Shocker!!  Had they gotten LOST?  Nope, they came on purpose which was really cool and a nice suprise.  Its always good to see cool people and hang out with cool people infront of all your other family and the Big Stone/Ortonville community because then they know just how cool you are.  I was like ice…like ice from the Arctic…

Tony was there too…he’s like global warming to my being cool…not cool tony, not cool at all. Just kidding!!  We were like totally trippin the entire time which was boss on so many different levels.

In the end it was a good day for Micaela and a great day for me to get to see and hang out with my family and friends that I don’t get to see anymore (Holli and MIles) or won’t be seeing very much in the near future (Tony and Dan).  At the end of the day Tony, Dan, Tom and I fought the forces of evil and we won…hence, we saved the world.  Just like the night before when not only that stellar team but Chris also included defeated the legions of Hell. 

Videos games rock!!

This week I started work at Rausch Bros. I was polishing today and I did what is called a gravey run. A gravy run is where somebody takes a van or truck somewhere to drop something off doing no work and then coming right back.  I get those all the time and they are awesome.  That is what I’ll mainly be doing for the rest of the week.  Then on Friday, Houa is coming to visit!!  I’m totally stoked about that.  We may end up meeting Miles and Holli Friday if thigns work out.  Right now though it is looking like I’ll pick her up in the cities since I have a gravy run there in the morning anyways.  We still have to talk about it though.   I’m really looking forward to having her meet the family and show her the place I grew up in.  That’ll take about 5 minutes and then we’ll spend the rest of the time in the house with no internet or cable taking naps and reading books.lol

Game Over

Game Over

Sorry, it’s been about a month but I, ultimately, just haven’t felt like posting.

Well, finished finals with flair and style. I pulled of 2 B’s, 2 B+’s, and an A in weight training. Overall I’m pretty happy, especially when I thought one of the B’s was gonna be a C.

For the summer I’ll be working at Rausch Bros. again making some sweet moola and living at home for free, Golfing with my boyz, hanging out with my aunt’s, kickin it with my cousins.

In other news, I now have a girlfriend. Shocking! I know.

How we met is what I bet you are all asking yourselves. Well, we both worked at Minitex (the library where I work at on campus). We started hanging out once a week to watch LOST, just as friends. Eventually we started hanging out more and more and then bam, we hooked up! Her name is Houa Lee, she is 21 so she is older then 18 so no worries there. *wink!* Also, she is shorter than me which is a plus. You all have facebook, so this is probably old news to you, but yeah, she is amazing…in bed! hiyooo!  jk!
She is of Hmong heritage from Laos.  Her entire life she has grown up in the U.S. in Wisconsin and recently, 3 years ago or so, she moved to the Twin Cities.  She can speak Hmong and is a Catholic although her family quit going when she was a little girl.

Sorry about the long delay.

Dan and I went home this weekend…for about 22 hours.  Yes, we came, we ate, we saw, we slept, and we ate again, and then left.

The subject of our road trip had to do with Cinderella.  Micaela was fantastic as Joy who was one of the evil step sisters.  So full of not joy and she did such a great job that she and Rachelle (the other evil step sister) had the crowd in the palm of their hands making the audience laugh at will…or me anyways.  It was a “joy” to see her succeed at being so “not joyful”.  If you had seen the play it makes perfect sense in all the right ways.  No slap of silence for her!

Tom was good too!  He got to dance with a girl which puts him about 2 years ahead of me in the “dancing with high school girl” category.  Other than that, he smiled a lot and just was a stud.  You’re probably thinking to yourself, “that’s not impressive, I could do that too” and Paula is probably thinking “Hogan is the only real stud on this earth!”  You are all wrong.

That was Friday night.  On saturday Dan and I stayed for lunch, talked with the fam for a couple hours and then we bounced.  We met Tony and his buds Nathan and ******, Tyler, Chris, and Miles and Holli at Godfather’s Pizza which was delicious.  Then we hit up the concert.

Ben Fold’s was awesome.  Lots of songs, lots of good songs, some nice comments like “Your gym is nice” and …um…. “Your gym is nice, it has nice acoustics….”.  The only downer - he didn’t play Army.   I mean, c’mon!!  Army IS Ben Folds.  First Ben Folds song I ever heard. I mean, YOU DON”T EVEN KNOW!

Other than that it was total awesomeness.   Side note- Tony’s hooded sweatshirts doesn’t fit me.

Sunday came and I awoke to come downstairs to find Chris Smith sleeping on the futon in my house!  Like Christmans but so much gayer.  Nah, I knew he was there.   He spent the night instead of driving back to Marshall that night which was cool.  We watched an episode of The Office that night when we got back.  Sunday we played MLB The Show 07 and then Dan, Chris, Chris (bren’s fiance) and I played Rockband until around 1 or 2.  Then Chris took off, Dan and I went shoe shopping and then came Mass.  Invited my friend and fellow LOST partner Houa to church with us.  She’s a Catholic that hasn’t been to mass since she was a really little girl so that was really cool.   Afterwards at our house we had a grillout so we had brats, hamburgers, and grilled chicken while we all sat out in the deck.  It was really peaceful and relaxing.  That night Sarah and I watched Once which was a pretty decent movie.  I liked the music, movie was a little slow, but it was short too which kind of made up for it.  I’d give it a B-/B.   I then fell asleep on the couch waiting for the PS3 to update.

My weekend in a nutshell.

“It was a shell of a good hit!”

“I like it, step up!”

If you can guess what movie that quote is from you get 10 points.

Game Over