Let’s face it people. In the last, something like 200+ years, we’ve gone a little state crazy. What do I mean? Look around! There’s flippin 50 of them! Who has time to remember 50 different things. In fact, when’s the last time you counted to 50? Can’t remember? That’s because it’s ridiculous. I mean, what happened to the good ol’ days when we “bought” (by bought I mean pillaged from the Native Americans) huge, continental pieces of land and just called it “Louisiana”? Those were the glory days. Even the Massachusetts colony went all the way up to Maine. I’m pretty sure.

It’s like, “Oooh, look at all this land! Let’s make a million states” — George Washington. What gives, Georgio? Remember when you weren’t a country? You know what you were? Colonies. And you know how many there were? Thirteen. Nice, round, unlucky 13. Well guess what… We’re about to go back to 13, with my widespread, retroactive state reorganization plan. Fasten your seatbelts, America.

Alright, let’s start with the homebase. Pennsylvania, the keystone state, has obviously earned its right to be a state. We held all the other ones together, so like… seriously. Also, PA will be changing it’s name slightly. People just can’t spell Pennsylvania. It’s too freaking hard. My mind is spinning just thinking about it. So we’re going to change it to Penn’s Woods. The original meaning is intact. Other options included the trendy Penna, and the women’s name Sylvia. Unfortunately for New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland… you will now be a part of Penn’s Woods. But don’t fret! Regionally, you will be known as Coastal Penna. Nice.

North of us is New York, cause I figure they’ve earned their right. But we’re changing their name too. Before it was New York, the city of New York was known as New Amsterdam. So, we’re going to go back to our roots. Plus, enough of this “New” stuff. Why are we paying homage to Europe? Instead, the state formerly known as New York will now be known as “Real Amsterdam.”

The same goes for the New England region. This new state will contain Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. We’re going to call it Connectiverhampshiresetts MaineIsland. It flows.

Let’s move on down south… West Virginia and Virginia. Really? Lincoln, who freaking pulled the country together from the brink of complete destruction… wasn’t able to piece back together West Virginia and Virginia? Well, I am. These two former states will now be known as Jeffersonland.

South of that, we have the Carolinas. We’re merging them, because there’s simply no need for two of them. Plus, now the Carolina Panther’s aren’t quite so ambiguous. I was always annoyed that they never picked one.

Also, I’m giving Florida it’s own statehood, but obviously it’s current name won’t do. Geriatrica seems to fit nicely. White shoes and belt required.

Moving west, the area that contains Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky will all be merged into one as well. We’re calling this land The Dixie Bayou. Don’t worry though, folks. We as a nation still won’t expect you to read.

I’m going to merge Illinois and Indiana too. I mean, honestly. They both start with I and they’re right next to each other. They’re practically asking for it. I thought about going with Illiana. Or Indinois. But no… I think a much better name for this region should be Chicaganapolis. This way, we merge the two names of the only places that matter there. Wonderful.

Oh, um. At this point, you might be asking “what about Ohio?” Well, yeah… about that. It’s been discussed for years how much easier life would be without that state. So, yeah. Ohio is cancelled. Now, what does this mean for residents of this desolate land? Well, we suggest you pick one of your neighboring new states. And do it quickly. Ohio is soon to become the world’s largest landfill. Finally! It will serve a purpose.

Next up: Canada 2. That’s right, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota are all being molded into one state, and potentially sold to our neighbors to the north. Oh, but uh… we’re going to keep all the automotive industry from Michigan. Besides that though, they can have’em. Cheeseheads? You’re bringing us down, as a culture my friends. And Minnesota has that “twin city” thing going on, which just seems Canadian in it’s very nature.

This next one is a little controversial. I granted North and South Dakota statehood as Dakota: Where Mount Rushmore Is. I’m not sure they deserve it, but I figure having a state with a subhead in it’s title is a great move. After all, America is all about being unique. As long as it doesn’t annoy me.

Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma are all joining together, no matter how much Texas might FREAK OUT at this prospect. They can deal with it. Also, this new state, Mexicoland, will NOT be able to fly its flag at equal height to the United States flag. Why? Because it’s a STATE and the country OWNS YOU! Deal.

California, Oregon and Washington are being molded into “The West.” Since basically all the people who live in these states are insane, I’m sure they won’t notice or care. Also, it works out really well, because this new state will rhyme with the next one…

“The Rest” is going to include Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa. Does anyone know anything about these states? My point exactly. What’s going on in this region? No one knows. It’s very mysterious. So it gets a mysterious name. Kind of. And kind of a name that signifies how much it matters.

You might notice that Alaska and Hawaii aren’t on these maps. Yeah uh… what’s the deal with those, anyway? They’re not even CLOSE to the rest of the country, why did they ever get to be states? Therefore, we’re downgrading them to Puerto Rico status. Since I don’t know what Puerto Rico can or can’t do as a political body, then I figure that’s the perfect status for these two places.

So sleep easy 4th graders and geographers. Your job just got a lot easier. You can thank me later.

For your viewing pleasure…

Allllllllllright alright alright. Did you know that the accepted word is actually a phrase, and it’s all right. Alright is considered slang. Garbage, I say. Anyway, let’s get this ACL stuff done so I can go on with telling you all how you should be living your lives and what’s wrong with the world. I’ve got a scheme in my head that will revolutionize the United States and help geography students all at the same time. More on that later.

Day 3 started with rain. It rained before we woke up and before we left for Zilker Park. I didn’t care, I wasn’t there. And actually, it cut down on the dust that sometimes plagues the dry spots in the park. It made sitting down a little questionable, though. Anyway, the rain kept us at home a little longer, so we didn’t get to the park until…

2:30 — KT Tunstall: I wasn’t sure what to expect here. What I was worried about was the parallel in name to PJ Harvey. Horrible memories of “Lick my legs, I’m on fire/Lick my legs, I’m desire” reverberating around Mellon Arena came crashing back to me. ::shudder:: (Coincidentally, U2’s other opening act, Damien Marley was playing at the same time at another stage… wild.) But… that’s not really the point. KT Tunstall was really, really good. I was surprised. She’s from Ireland or Scotland or one of those funny sounding English countries. [There's a lot of things wrong with that statement.] Anyway, she would do these cool voice loops at the beginning of the songs, where she would record her voice or a guitar line or some percussion thing, and they would repeat throughout… it was a cool effect.

3:30 — Jose Gonzalez: This guy is an interesting story. He’s an Argentine-born Swede. What’s that about? Two fairly odd countries to be connected, but anyway… He was pretty good, but the problem with his music is that it’s really mellow. He just sat on a chair during the whole performance and even though it was really good, it was sort of boring and didn’t fit in with the rest of the festival. After this, we sorta floated for a while. Ween wasn’t very appealing and Matisyahu, the Jewish raggae artist was entertaining for a song or two… then the weirdness just took over. So Sam and I decided it was time again for some delicious pulled pork sandwiches. This way we’d be ready for the good stuff coming up later.

5:15 — Matt Costa: Decent.

6:30 — Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals: First and foremost… I think I proooobably got high by association at this show. WOW. I mean, W-O-Wee… ZOWee. I’m talking large, billowing clouds of smoke… brewing about the Austin air. With that being said, he put on a pretty good show. He started out with Jimmi Hendrix’s “Voo Doo Child”… and closed with “Get Up, Stand Up” and brought out all three Marley brothers and their families to end his set. That was pretty cool.

7:45 — Sam and Jeet run to the AT&T stage to get good standing room for the Tom Petty show.

8:30 — Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Freaking unbelievable. I am sooooo glad I got to see these guys, because they were great. Sam and I ended up probably about 75 feet from the stage, at the start. The whole beginning of the show were great songs that everybody knows. “Listen to Her Heart” was the opening and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” was next. Thennnn, we had some rain issues. And by that I mean, it started raining. This wouldn’t have been a huge deal, except that… rain turned into downpour. But that only lasted a little while. Unfortunately, Tom and the boys decided they needed to cover up their instruments, so that they wouldn’t short circuit and exlplode. But before he left, Tom made sure that we all knew they would come back and do a full set. I felt bad, cause people sort of booed when they left… but true to his word, they all came back about a half hour later and continued to rock… OUT! Two of the absolute best songs of the entire weekend came up next… Tom did an accoustic-ish version of “Learning to Fly” that was soooo good. During the song, my roommate Eliot, who had staked out the stage earlier in the day and was really close to the stage, was on the huge jumbotron! That was awesome. And the other awesome song was “Don’t Come Around Here No More.” They really got into this one and these crazy strobe lights at the end made everybody flip out. Unfortunately, the show was missing a certain short blond woman… Stevie Nicks did not show up at the show. From what I’ve heard, she really adds to the set in the middle (which I felt lagged, just a tiny bit) with their duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and her own rendition of “I Need to Know.” But… oh well. Finally, Tom and the gang said goodnight, and then they came back out for an encore which included “American Girl” and “You Wreck Me.”

It was definitely a great way to end the awesome weekend we all just had. It’s tough to pick a favorite between Tom and Van, so I won’t. They were both freakin’ awesome. This might be Petty’s last tour, so I feel pretty lucky to get to see him. Okay, it’s sort of late and I’ve rambled a lot (sorry about that) so I think I might go to bed. I hope this was at least remotely interesting to some of you. I know it doesn’t do it justice to write it out, but I tried to do my best. Alright, until next time, chicos.

First and foremost! Happy Birthday to Jen! aka Momma Bechdel… aka J-Biz… aka Juniper. And also Happy Birthday to Aunt Jeannie! Unfortunately, I don’t have quite as many nicknames for Aunt Jeannie… Except maybe “JEAN” as Ann Klesser likes to… shout. Hope your days are woooonderful and filled with happy birthday wishes and when the rainbow crests over the mountaintop… er, well… you get the idea. :)

**EDIT: I got a better picture from Jen, so here we go. I’m going to leave the other one up (unless I hear protests) so you can see the effort I put into finding a picture in the first place… haha.

Well, last time I took you through Day 1 at Austin City Limits, and today I plan on getting through Day 2. In general the day wasn’t quite as good as Day 1, but there were definitely some highlights, yet again.

1:30 — Phoenix // Ghostland Observatory: Okay, this hour was really interesting. We got there at about 1:30 and Phoenix had started. Now, don’t be fooled by their name… these guys are French. Not retired, white-haired, white hat-, belt- and shoe-wearing typical… Phoenixians? Phoenicians? Anywhoo, even though they were French…. they actually weren’t bad. Which I guess shouldn’t be surprising, since this wasn’t a war or anything. Anyway, we left them at one point to go to Ben Kweller, who was starting at 2:30. On our way there, however… we passed a stage with a girl in jeans and a tight pink shirt… her hair was in pig-tails and she was totally controlling the crowd. As we got closer, however… we noticed, this was no girl. A full grown man was wearing girls jeans and everything else listed above. The best part however… was the other guy on stage. There’s only two members in Ghostland Observatory, and the guy in the tight pink shirt and girl’s jeans is NOT the weirdest one. The other guy was at some kind of mixing board… I’m not sure what exactly he was doing, except rocking OUT! Anyway… he’s draped in a powder blue… CAPE! And I’m not talking your typical Superman/Batman cape… I’m talking the full blown Dracula cape, with the neck thing and all. The dark cirlces under his eyes and peering out into the crowd every now and then really added to this guy’s mystique. The best part about them though was that they were really good!

2:30 — Ben Kweller: We got to the AT&T stage for Ben Kweller and got pretty far up there before he came out. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. Time is sort of an important thing at these festivals, since someone’s waiting to come onstage after you. Ten minutes passed and he finally came out. He explained that he had a bloody nose and couldn’t get it to stop. And still hadn’t, but he was determined to go on. So he played for a little while, and after every song he blew his nose into these white towels… it was pretty gross, but he sounded alright. After a few songs, he asked the crowd if anyone had a tampon… to which just about every girl in the crowd threw one up on stage. He performed a song or two with one in his nose, but after bloodying his guitar and piano, he decided it was time to wrap it up. He performed about a half an hour. Hmmm, nose bleeds… what causes those? Stevie?

3:30 — The Secret Machines: With Ben Kweller ending early, we were able to get really close to the stage for this one. These guys were pretty good, but I don’t have that much to say about them, unfortunately. During this time, I left early and met up with Sam for the rest of the night.

4:30 — The Shins: These guys are great in the studio… and they’re okay live. They’ve got a really unique style, it just is hard to get into when you’re really far from the stage and sort of hard to hear. Don’t get me wrong, the speakers are really loud, but again, these guys are sorta weird in their style. Overall, so-so.

5:30 — Aimee Mann: This was a really, really mellow show. She was really good, but unfortunately she didn’t play any of her songs I know. Mellow was either good or bad, depending on the way you look at it, because… at this point, Sam and I were getting pretty hungry, so we sat for most of the show. And spaced out, here and there. So a relaxing show was good, I guess.

6:30 — Like I said, at this point we ate dinner. We got pulled pork sandwiches that were really good. Unfortunately, we missed “String Cheese Incident” and the “Raconteurs”… But we did catch a couple songs from “The Austin Jug Band” and “What Made Milwaukee Famous”… also from Austin. Weird name? Yes.

7:30 — Iron & Wine: Another pretty mellow show. We only stayed for a little while at this one, because Sam and I were going with Brandi, whose family set up camp at Willie Nelson early in the day, and if we didn’t leave early, we’d never get close to her family. The songs I did hear though were really good. The guy’s beard was ginormous.

8:30 — Willie Nelson: It was really cool to be able to say I saw Willie Nelson! The crowd absolutely went nuts when he came out on stage. Brandi’s sister informed us that Willie always comes out to “Whiskey River” at every concert, which obviously he did. And then a huge Texas flag came down to form the backdrop behind him. The place practically rioted with joy. You’ll never meet a person who loves their state more than a Texan. EVER! Anyway, Willie went through a bunch of songs… quite a few of them I recognized… Mostly from commercials or whatever, because well… I’m not from the South, so I don’t own any Willie cds. He played a couple new songs at the end of his set and they were HILARIOUS. One was called “You Don’t Think I’m Funny Anymore”… the jist of the first verse is… “I used to fall over and pretend to have a heart attack… you don’t think it’s funny anymore… and well, I don’t think that’s funny anymore either.” Everyone laughed. Hardy har har. Sort of like that. A great epilogue to this show was that on Monday morning, Willie’s tour bus was pulled over in Louisiana and everyone inside was cited for marijuana possession. 3 pounds. Awesome. (PS– If you’ve not seen Willie in “Wag the Dog,” you should. It’s hilarious.)

Sunday is coming up!

So, I’ve been a little busy this recently. This weekend, the Austin City Limits Music Festival came to town and set up camp in Zilker Park, which is about a five minute drive from where I live. For those of you who kind of know your way around Austin, it’s a little south and west of campus and downtown. Zilker is right on Town Lake and was a great venue for a huge festival like this. Three days, eight stages, over a hundred artists, and about 65,000 fans. It was crazy! They water the grass like crazy because, well, basically all the grass that isn’t watered in Texas is brown by September. They also leave it extra long, so they don’t even risk drying it out. The foodcourt area could feed a small nation… which makes sense, because Zilker becomes a small nation for a weekend. I think we elected Tom Petty president, but we’ll get to that later…

Anyway, I think I’m going to do a separate post for each day of the weekend, cause let’s be honest… you people are dying to hear about it. (HA! Or not.) Either way, here we go… Friday:

1:30 — I got to Zilker by randomly taking the Red ‘Dillo bus. We were just taking it to get to the shuttle drop off point, but the bus driver told us if we stayed with him, he’d get us there a lot faster than the shuttles. Divine intervention, perhaps. So anyway, Eliot and I got to the park and decided to head first to Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, because… well, it was the only band we had heard of that was playing at that time. Basically everyone plays for an hour. These guys were okay. Nothing really wonderful.

2:30 — Guster: I was excited to see these guys and they were pretty good. I was reading about them in the UT newspaper the Texan and apparently they have a large Christian following… which is really odd because, to use their words, “We’re a bunch of Jews who curse a lot.” So… I don’t know about that, but they were pretty good. The songs I knew were “Amsterdam” and “Come Downstairs and Say Hello,” both of which were excellent.

3:30 — Stars: Eh. They’re from Montreal, what can you expect? They were a little odd and not that good. Lots of people on stage, though.

4:30 — Nickel Creek: This was a tough decision to go to this one, because Gnarles Barkley (Yes, that’s Gnarles for those of you who haven’t heard of them. Last time I checked, they don’t play basketball. But they might be running for governor of Alabama… Cause I mean, why not?). Anyway, I was really glad I made the choice I did. These guys were SO GOOD! There’s only four of them and they play the violin, mandolin, string bass and acoustic guitar. Their harmonies were unbelievable for playing live, which is tough to do. The highlight of their show was easy to pick out. They decided that no show is complete without a Britney Spears song… and after hearing this, I’d almost have to agree with them. They covered “Toxic” and it was sooooo good. And funny, obviously. Imagine the real high melody part being played on the violin… brilliant.

5:30 — Eliot and I met up with Sam during Nickel Creek and the three of us decided to go to Cat Power & the Memphis Rhythm Band. She was really good and the band was awesome too. Unforuntely we only stayed for a few songs because Sam had to meet up with Brandi Young, who used to live in Beaver and now goes to school at LSU. Soooo, we left and went to see Gomez. They were alright. I didn’t really pay much attention to them, to be honest. After that, Sam and I got something to eat, because we were about to die without food. So after paying $9 for a cheeseburger with no cheese and a lemonade, we were ready to keep going.

7:30 — Ray Lamontagne: This guy is really, really good. He’s a bit mellower than most of the people we had heard earlier that day. Basically just him and a guitar. But at one point, the violinist from Nickel Creek came onstage and played on a few songs with him, which was awesome. The other nice thing was I knew a bunch of his songs, which is always a plus. A few celebrities were spotted at this show, too. Each stages has a “VIP” section that is just on the side of the stage and has a canopy, so the rich people can watch from the stage, in the shade. Must be rough. Anyway, Lance Armstrong was there and Jake Gyllenhaal actually waved to a friend of mine! haha, good times.

8:30 — Van Morrison: Okay, this… might have been the highlight of my life. I can’t even describe how good this guy STILL is! Honestly, how old is he? Okay, he’s 61, I just looked it up. That’s not that old, but he sounds just like he does on his “best of” cd! It’s amazing. Let me also point out, he is one of the classiest men alive. Or, he must be. He comes out onstage in a full pin-striped suit, no tie and this white hat with a black stripe around it. He has a new cd out with a bunch of country cover songs, some of which he played. But he also played “Bright Side of the Road,” “Moondance,” “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Wild Night” and he ended the night with “Gloria.” Ahh, it was really a dream come true to see this guy. I recommend if he comes to your town… go! It’s worth it.

Anyway, that’s how the night ended. Unfortunately, I had to miss John Mayer. That made me sad, but his set overlapped way too much with Van the Man, so I had no choice. I’ll get to see J-May sometime again, probably soon. Also, I saw Theivery Corporation for a little while. And the nice thing about that was, I only knew one of their songs and it was the first one they played. So I headed off to eat after that!

All in all, Friday was a GREAT day at ACL. Lots of people I wanted to see, not too many disappointments… Saturday is next!

Alright, I realize I don’t update this thing as often as SOME might like… but you’re just going to have to learn to deal. It appears that this semester might be a little more work than anything last year… which has it’s ups and downs. Not to mention I’m going to need to spend MUCH more time on my College Football Pick’ems this year, apparently. I’ve gotten off to a rocky start, as some of you might have noticed.

Speaking of rocky starts… (ADRIENNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Um, so… nothing happened this weekend. Nothing at all. Nothing worth talking about, that is. Oi… apparently the Texas receivers decided it would be a really good idea to wrap their hands in Saran Wrap, spread an even layer of Vaseline over their fingers and finally drench their hands in butter before the game. Brilliant. That really worked out well for them.

So, in the spirit of completely ignoring the game itself, I decided that we’ll focus on the other stuff that was going on. Campus was absolutely swarming with people Saturday. Obviously, almost everyone was dressed in burnt orange, but for those who weren’t… We made sure to point out their errors. I had to lead with this picture because um… it might be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

I’m pretty sure I wrote that at some point in my life… circa 2nd grade. It is beyond words how funny that sign is. And in case you can’t read the one behind him, it says, “Take Drew Carey back with U.” I’m not really sure the context of this poster… other than maybe some round about way of bashing Drew Carey… which isn’t all bad. I don’t think he’s in Texas so I’m not sure how the Ohio State fans were going to take him back with them, but… I digress.

Several celebrities (not Drew Carey) appeared at the game that day, as well. Naturally all of them were rooting for Texas because seriously… who’s from Ohio? Matthew McConaughey showed up in his private box to the delight of basically every female in the stadium. He opened the window from his box and all of a sudden you hear this one, giant squeal… Most of the men could be heard cursing under the breath. Interesting. Austin-native Lance Armstrong did the coin toss and Emmitt Smith appeared on the GodzillaTron at one point, flashing the horns. To the disappointment of thousands, Chuck Norris did not appear at this game.

Speaking of the GodzillaTron, check out this shot…

That’s the American flag during the National Anthem. And those tiny specks you see? Those are people. The thing is absolutely freakin’ ridiculously big. I’m pretty sure one of the fake stitches they put on the graphics is about as big as I am. Actually, that’s probably an understatement. Anyways, the point is… it’s huge.

Lastly, we had a Rory Nicol sighting. I took my camera with me to the game (uh, obviously… if you couldn’t pick up on that by now, you’re just not paying attention) and I thought I could see him through the viewfinder. We were pretty sure his number was in the high 80s, but weren’t positive exactly which one was his. We spotted an 88 and it looked like him. We still couldn’t tell until he caught a pass during the game and got punished for doing so by one of the Longhorn defensemen and they announced his name over the PA. Anyways, after analyzing the evidence on my computer, we definitely got a shot of him:

My peeps! What’s crack-a-lackin’? Not a lot going on here… we’re still enjoying Texas’ win on Saturday here. Of course, I’m not going to do much talking until next Saturday’s game is over with. We looked pretty good last week, but next week will be the real test.

Anyways, I thought I’d take a few minutes to show you guys around my place… in a virtual sense. Now, to start off… let me just say, Texas spares no expense on their dungeons. I mean, they really try to make all the lairs, labyrinths and other assorted catacombs top notch facilities. Let’s start off with how we get to the dungeon… Here is our lovely staircase:

Now, unfortunately there’s a few things these pictures cannot convey. During your journey from the top of these stairs to the bottom, you’ll feel about a ten degree temperature change, especially on a hot day, which uh…. well, we have a few of those. I have no complaints about that. The other is that with crime the way it is… the seven of us who live down here (though I think it’s important to note that I’ve only seen 2 other people down here, ever, not counting Eliot and myself) decided it would be a good idea to get some theft protection for our dungeon. So naturally, we hired a troll. He lives on the other side of the door at the top of the stairs. His name is Thag; he enjoys rotten bananas, his giant club for beating intruders and anger. And yes ladies, he is single.

Our gorgeous (and so well-lit) hallway is the next stop. The first door at the bottom of the steps is the bathroom… then a room with three guys (I’d love to know how they fit three people in one of these rooms. I swear one of them must be mounted on the wall as a spare or something…) and then my room. I have to say that the seclusion isn’t all bad. Unlike last year, I’m not expecting any games of frisbee and/or soccer in the hallway. Or wheeling the table from the laundry room down the hall and banging it into one of the dorm rooms for the weekly Thursday-night poker game. Yeah…

And just like that, we’re in the room! I think the room is a little smaller than Jester, so I’m still adjusting with where everything “goes,” but I’m getting there. If things look a little clutters it’s only cause… they are. As you can see all the essentials are up… My terrible towel, Dumb & Dumber poster, pictures of some of my peeps… Interesting note… For those of you who’ve seen “The Shawshank Redemption”… behind that poster of Harry and Lloyd is actually the tunnel that Andy Dufrane burrowed en route to pipe full of human waste (delicious). At the end of the year, I’m going to bring someone in to throw a chiseled chess piece at the poster… and then find me staring at them from the other side. I figure it will be really creepy.

The desk! This is where I’ll be speaking to all of you this year. The news desk. The anchor desk. The Rock. We’re still working out nicknames. Anyway, all the essentials are there… dictionary, Ecce Romani, The Best of Will Farrell 2 (genius, and better than the first… believe me). It’s actually a pretty good sized desk, but with my rat’s nest of wires and other electronic mangledness, it looks a little smaller. I’m going to try and work on that.

And now, I’ve saved this for last because, in the words of the only woman to figure out how to administer steroids to your hair, Tina Turner… it’s “Simply the Best.” My gorgeous view!

Now… I apologize for apparently being so bedazzled by the view that I couldn’t hold the camera straight up and down. That annoyed me when I looked at it on my computer… but not enough to take it again, so ya know… deal. Anyways, this is what I wake up to every morning and fall asleep to every night. Breathtaking, is it not? Actually, to be perfectly honest, since the window opens and I have that awesome little ladder there, it’s kind of cool. And I mean… You can tell when it’s daytime, usually. So it’s not all bad. It’s been discussed that we might sidewalk chalk it one day… Which would actually be kind of cool. Perhaps a mural of the ocean or a lake or… well really any scene other than a concrete wall would be an improvement.

Anyways, that’s the dorm, folks! Mo-Hill, Mo Problems.