Well, I’m really writing this just for completeness’s sake. Remember those posts about ACL? Well I did two of them and never finished. So… here’s the third and final installment. To be honest, this feels like it was a really long time ago, so if something sounds ridiculous and made up, it probably is.

Eliot decided to go pretty early on Sunday and, being exhausted from the previous two days, I stayed and went a little later. I got there by 3 o’clock. I went with Brandi Young (formerly of Beaver, now going to LSU, see the first post for more details… kind of) and her crew, which included her boyfriend and a friend of theirs. We saw Ben Kweller when we got there. Last year, he left the stage early because of a nosebleed. He stuffed a tissue (among other things) up his nose, but it didn’t help. This year he was able to finish his set and did a good job, from what I heard.

From there, we went to the Waterloo Records tent. Throughout the day they have artists sit at tables and sign things for fans. The lines go on for days, so Brandi wanted to see Regina Spektor. And that’s just about all we did… There was no way we had time for those lines.

After that, we went and saw Bloc Party. Brandi left to go to Barton Creek for a swim during this hour, so it was just the three of us. I didn’t really know these guys, but they were really good. From there, we met Brandi at Regina Spektor.

When her set finished, I left from that group and met up with Eliot and our friend Eva. It was Wilco time. For those of you who don’t know Wilco and attended BHS from 2000 to 2005, they were the ones playing the song on the morning announcements back in the day, “I’m Always In Love.” While they didn’t play that song at ACL, they were absolutely amazing. I would say, with little reservation, that they were the best act of the festival. I was really blown away. That song doesn’t really represent their sound. I borrowed a CD of theirs and genre came up “country” in iTunes. That is definitely not true, either. They’re some weird mix of rock, folk and some other weird stuff. Anyway, awesome.

After that, I was starving so I went to get something to eat. I sat on the hillside and listened to Ghostland Observatory. They’re an Austin duo–beyond weird–who’s starting to catch on elsewhere. They played at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago this last summer. If you remember last year, these are the guys we were walking by and said “Is that guy with pigtails and wearing girls jeans and a tight shirt?” As well as, “Is that guy wearing a powder blue… cape?!” They’ve gotten quite a bit more popular around here since then. They played to probably 20,000 people Sunday night.

After that, we went to the main attraction. This year, it was Bob Dylan. Interesting choice, I thought. He’s not quite the attention grabber as Tom Petty was last year and Coldplay the year before that. Nevertheless, it was nice to sort of “be in the presence” of a legend like that. His voice is absolutely shot. As we were winding our way closer to the stage, I had to look down to make sure I wasn’t stepping on anyone, so I couldn’t look up to the stage. As I went, I would have guessed they had put a frog up to a microphone, singing “Everybody must get stoned…” He played “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Working Man’s Blues,” “Like A Rolling Stone” and he closed with “I Shall Be Released.”

All in all it was a pretty amazing weekend. I had sort of low expectations, not knowing a lot of the bands, but I was surprised by how much fun it can be to just go and listen to music (as vague and hippie-esque that sounds). For those of you interested, you can click here for detailed wrap ups of each day at ACL. Anyway, on to more pressing matters undoubtedly in the next post…

I want to get the timestamp on this one correct, so here’s a quick little post:

Congratulations to Dave and Jen Deelo on the birth of their daughter Piper Grace Deelo!!! I don’t have many of the details, so I’ll edit this post later, but… She was born about 3 weeks early on September 24, 2007 and was a healthy 6+ pounds with a head a brown hair!

Congratulations to the new mom and dad as well as both sets of grandparents! Your extended family can’t wait to meet you, little one!

First, let me apologize to my readers. I realize we’re in the middle of a series (see below for ACL days 1 and 2), but a chance like this only comes once in a lifetime. Or every other week, apparently. But we’ll get to that later.

I was reading the letters to the editor on the Beaver County Times website–I’m not entirely sure why. Anyway, I’m in a “Politics and the Press” class, so stories, letters, editorials that are about politics have been grabbing my attention recently. I came across a letter titled “Giuliani Is No Bargain” and decided to read (click the title to read it yourself; it’s strongly advised before reading the rest of this post). Boy am I glad I did.

Assuming you’ve just read it: WHAT?! If your brain hasn’t exploded from the bewildering prose of my new hero, Matthew P. Maljevec, let’s analyze this letter to push you to your limit. Let’s break it in half (I honestly can only handle half at a time. After I do this part, I plan on lying down for an extended period.)

Rudy Giuliani for president. Heaven forbid.
This individual is nothing but a hypocrite and a liar. What really ticked me off was the lie he was telling the world about how he spent more time at the 9-11 site than the New York City firefighters.
Ask any of the firefighters and see what they will tell you.
If it were not for Sept. 11, 2001, no one would know who Giuliani was. Now, he has the nerve to attack our next president, Hillary Clinton.

First, I feel like I should let you know that I have no particular inclination toward Rudy Giuliani. They tell me in journalism classes that it’s all about transparency, so… hope that helps. Alright, we begin with a bang! It’s a brilliant literary tool called “alienating your audience.” Maljevec accomplishes this with the “hypocrite” and “liar” descriptors. As the audience waits eagerly for his reasons, he makes the difficult to decision to give none for the hypocrite portion. Brilliant! Maljevec clearly believes in the theory that the unsaid speaks louder than the spoken word. Thus, he transitions seamlessly into “What really ticks me off…” And personally, as the audience, I’m hanging on every word… WHAT ticks you off, O Wise Sage? He tells us. It’s “the lie he was telling the world…”. Notice it’s not that he was “lying” which is easily summed up in one word. Rather, the use of “the lie he was telling” really puts you in the moment. As for Giuliani actually saying that particular statement, I’ve never heard it but that doesn’t mean he didn’t say it.

This next portion is rather contentious among literary scholars. Some believe Maljevec suffered some sort of head trauma shortly before September 11, 2001. Others believe it’s a more severe problem with causes unknown. Either way, his statement that “no one would know who Giuliani was” if it weren’t for 9-11 is an interesting one. Since New York City is a relatively “small town,” Maljevec is right–no one would have known his name. Names of past and present NYC mayors like Koch, Dinkins and Bloomberg just don’t resonate with the nation’s “common knowledge.” (Bloomberg in particular… you rarely see that name anywhere. Is that an appetizer at Outback Steakhouse? No one can be sure.)

And of course, what kind of analysis would this be if I didn’t address the fact that I MISSED THE 2008 ELECTION!!! Ahh, I’m such a terrible citizen. You know, they said the primaries were getting earlier and earlier, and it turns out they just moved the whole general election up a year… and two months. Anyway, congratulations to Madam President Clinton. I guess this is what I get for not voting. (People say they’re afraid Bush is going to enact the draft again… I forsee future executive orders for the neutering of all men ages 18-35… you just wait! Dangit, Bill!) By the way, before we move on to section two… “He has the nerve to attack…” I enjoy the fact that he doesn’t mention what was said or give any context for this statement at all. As you’ll see shortly (in the true heart of the letter), this becomes a theme/device Maljevec relies upon.

If you take a good look at Giuliani and the stupid look on his face, I sure do not want him running this great country of ours. He did not make a good mayor, let alone take over as commander-in-chief of our armed forces.
Look at Bush, a big blunder as president since day one. He really tees me off when I have to listen to his own personal description calling himself commander-in-chief. How disgusting.

(I lied! Shh, don’t tell Maljevec! Sorry, but I had to break it into thirds. Too much good content to chunk together.) Here, we start with an “If…” clause. Generally, these things go “if x, then y.” Either Maljevec is throwing these rules out the window in a daring literary move, or he actually believes that by looking at Giuliani’s face, we are to decide he should not be president. I’m sorry, I mean the “stupid look on his face.” The insult really supports the case he’s building here; in fact, it’s probably how he decided against Giuliani in the first place–the stupidness of his face.

The next sentence, although set up as a traditional “furthermore” clause attached to a stand-alone sentence, defies all grammatical laws yet again. The man is a revolutionary when it comes to the English language. His verb choice “let alone take over” is baffling. “He did not x, let alone take over…” So perhaps he means Guiliani didn’t take over as commander-in-chief, as he was supposed to? I just wish Maljevec would have explained this a little better so I could figure out why I agree with him.

Maljevec moves on to Bush in the next statement. The use of “Look at…” is really interactive. I actually went and found a picture of Bush so I could follow along more closely. Then, and some believe this to be one of, if not the pinnacle of the letter, he employs the use of the phrase, “It really tees me off…” Two words: Thank. You. The only thing that could have topped this would be a “What the Sam Hill?” for good measure. And finally, the last portion:

Back to Giuliani. He will attempt to be dictator, just like Bush. It has to be his way or nothing. I can see it in his actions. It is better to be forewarned than suffering. We do not need it.
I suggest Giuliani step out of the race and save his face. He is a poor example of who we want for president of the United States. Remember this at the polls at election time.
Matthew P. Maljevec
Beaver

In a letter as long as this one, I’m surprised he didn’t have to use the transition “Back to…” more often. This thing’s a good 234 words long. I find in my own writing I use “Back to…” all the time. It is in no way abrupt or sudden and provides for the smoothest transition humanly possible. I enjoy the “he will attempt to be dictator” comment. There’s no need to substantiate this claim–he’s not done it previously in the letter, why start now? But furthermore, it’s just common knowledge that our country has had a rash of dictator problems in the past. Giuliani just fits the bill of all those other guys. Like Caesar, Pompey, Janet Reno… these types.

And finally, we come to Maljevec’s core argument. He lays everything on the table for us. “I can see it in his actions.” GUYS! He can SEE it! Who are we to disagree with that? Can someone get me a ballot now, so I don’t have to worry about this any longer? Please?! Before he finishes however, he shows what a great humanitarian he is. As a goodwill gesture, Maljevec tells Giuliani he suggests that he drop out of the race to save his face. He even left the word “stupid” out of this one. Personally, I’d be grateful to have someone as prominent and respected as this Beaver resident “give it to me straight.”

What up dawgs? It’s time for the ACL Day 2 report! So fasten your seatbelts, here we go.

First of all, the big closing act for this night was supposed to be the White Stripes. Well, about a week before the festival (or mayb less?), the White Stipes announced they were canceling all of the September shows because the sister (I don’t know her name… does it matter? It’s the girl one. The drummer.) was suffering from anxiety attacks. They refunded tickets for all their other shows, but because this is a festival and people are seeing a bunch of other acts, no dice for us. So I’m considering my legal options.

Anyway, I don’t even think I was going to see their whole show if they did come anyway, but that’s besides the point. I got there around 2 o’clock, right in the middle of the “Back Door Slam” set. They were playing at the Austin Ventures stage, one of the smaller ones in the park. I don’t know who these guys were, but they were awesome. The guitarist was insanely talented. They ended with a Hendrix tune–it was like he was channeling him or something.

After that, we wondered around for a while. It was deathly hot Saturday–hotter than all the other days because there was hardly any shade from clouds all day long. So for forty years we walked with nothing but the manna provided–er… wrong story. We wandered over to the AMD stage and Paolo Nutini was playing that “New Shoes” song. He looked stoned out of his mind and after the song was over, people streamed out of there like fleeing a house fire.

So there’s a mini-stage set up for “Austin Kiddie Limits,” where bands and artists play 15-minute sets for all the kids with stoner parents who for some unknown reason brought their kids to bake in the sun and inhale smokes of all varieties all day long. Ben Kweller was supposed to play, but said he was sick and couldn’t show. This is the guy who had to leave the stage last year after 3-4 songs because of a severe nose-bleed. Yeah… Someone should put him in contact with Stevie.

So we wandered a little more. Are you picking up on a pattern for today? There weren’t a ton of acts I wanted to see during the day. I wanted to see Damien Rice, but that never happened. I’m alright with it, though. We saw this girl who calls herself Saint Vincent. After the first song she ripped all the strings off of her guitar. Lucky for her, there was another one waiting behind her. She had this weird half-grin on her face while she was doing it. Probably a murderer of some sort.

After that, Andrew Bird played… we stuck around for a little while. He specializes in whistling, which suits his name nicely. (Tweet-tweet!) After that, we headed back to the AMD stage to watch The Arctic Monkeys. They’re from the UK and were really good. And on the side of the stage we saw: Drew Barrymore and “Mac” from “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC.” I think we also saw Jack Gyllenhaal, but I couldn’t get a concensus of the people I was with. He was at ACL last year, so I think the odds are in my favor.

Anyway, we stayed at that stage for the 45-minute break between sets to watch the Arcade Fire. They were really, really good. Definitely a highlight of the week. Theres 10 of them onstage and they play anything from the accordian to the string bass to a portable pipe organ. Sort of bizarre, but the really strange thing is that of the 10, six of them rotated the instruments they played: guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, percussion. It’s sometimes common to see people switch from guitar to bass and vice versa, but drums?

So we walked back to where the car was parked… and that was day 2! Not really enough energy to… move, after that. This picture was taken as we, Jackie, Eliot and myself, were packed in to Arctic Monkeys. Unbelievably, we were packed even tighter for the Arcade Fire show 45 minutes later.

Hello childrens. Well, it’s the annual ACL report here at Jeety’s Joint. I’ve decided to scale back this year. See… last year I wrote the articles of confederation about each day and to be honest… I bet half of you didn’t read it and those who did (mom and dad) felt obligated (because they’re my mom and dad). Plus, who has time to write that crap anyway? So I’ll try and just hit the highlights.

I had class on Friday, so we got there a little later than usual. However, we would have been there even earlier if there hadn’t been A HUGE FIRE IN THE PARK! (By the way, for those of you who are unfamiliar, ACL is “Austin City Limits” and it’s a huge music festival held in Zilker Park, a big greenspace on the Colorado River [no, not that Colorado River] that runs right through the city and right by Barton Springs, the natural springs right in the city. There are over 100 acts, 8 stages and 65,000 people each day.) Back to the fire… so as we’re riding on the bus to Zilker, we notice this billowing black smoke. The general “that can’t be good” comment is made, but as we got closer to the park, we realized that it was coming from inside. Now, typcially large billowing clouds DO rise up from Zilker this time of year, but they usually aren’t jet black. Had Ziggy and Stephen Marley set fire to their stage in some weed-induced stupor? Had the Indigo Girls fans (mostly in flannel) started lifting kegs of beer and knocked over some heating device? No, but that second one was close. Turns out a Budweiser truck somehow caught fire. I never really heard why, but it stopped us from entering for at least a half an hour.

But while we were waiting outside, these cars kept passing us, entering the festival. They were either food people or ACL staff or bands. As we’re standing there, this red Expedition pulls up–no more than 2 feet away from me. I’m on the right side of the vehicle and the passenger window is rolled down. I look to my left and BAM! Joss Stone is right there! At first, I thought to myself, “Wow, there goes a really pretty girl.” Then .94 second later (someone had a stop watch… no, not really) I realized and said outloud simultaneously: That was Joss Stone!! It was pretty crazy. About an hour and a half later, I was watching her on-stage!

The “Most Surprising Act” of the day went to LCD Soundsytem. I had never heard of them in my life before this. I really had no desire to go see them, but they were playing opposite of M.I.A. who I also didn’t know. The lead singer had like three or four cow bells on a “cow bell tree” next to his microphone. He was pretty impressive.

I ended the night watching The Killers. I have their first cd, “Hot Fuss” which is pretty good. They were great live. The crowd went nuts to “Somebody Told Me” and more nuts for “Mr. Brightside.” Although I don’t have their new cd, it translated well to the stage. Definitely a highlight for the weekend.

My Friday schedule went like this: Peter Bjorn and John, Joss Stone (amazing voice!), LCD Soundsystem, Spoon (Austin band), Kaiser Chiefs (very good!), and The Killers.

Afterward, I went down to Sixth Street with Sam. Our friend from home (who moved to Louisiana while we were in high school) Brandi Young came for the festival. She brought her boyfriend Kevin and another friend Mattie. Brandi’s sister lives in Austin and we all met up for a little bit that night.

More to come on Saturday and Sunday…

The Beaver girls’ soccer team is steamrolling opponents like a… steamroller… rolls pavement… or blacktop. In their first five games, the team is 5-0. Last year, the team accumulated 6 wins. Total. Needless to say, the team has had a drastic increase in quality of play, efficiency and fundamentals. In this past offseason, the team got a new head coach: Gregg Gailey, former Beaver middle school boys’ coach.

In a recent article in the New York, I mean, Beaver County Times, Gailey was interviewed following his teams win over reigning section champions Quigley. Along with Gailey, sports writer Bill Utterback interviewed several girls on the team.

If your unfamiliar with Utterback’s work, you should check out such works as “The Iliad,” “The Oddysey” and “The Aeneid.” He wrote them all. He also wrote “The Divine Comedy” and “The Canterbury Tales,” but brushes the latter two as fluff. “I wrote them mostly in the bathroom,” Utterback said. “Some people do crosswords. I write epic tales.”

Utterback can somehow make you feel like the soccer game he’s writing about is the most important event in human history… that all previous events leading to this game simply took place as a prelude to this game and that all matter will stop its movement following the game. And then he writes another one next week. Honestly, the only thing missing from his clips is the invocation of the Muse at the beginning.

While the article about the Beaver girls’ isn’t as over-the-top as most of his writing, it does make me ponder brave Odysseus and the rage of Achilles every once and again. Do me a favor… if you click on the link, notice the spelling in the title. Classic.

But now we’re finally arriving at my point. (Sort of. To be honest, I don’t really have one and all that Utterback stuff was just fun.) Where is the interview of the assistant coach? One word explains its absence: fear.

In a press conference about the lack of an interview, assistant coach Kevin Bechdel released the following statement to Utterback, Gailey and his adoring public:

You must not know ’bout me, you must not know ’bout me. I could have another you in a minute, matter fact he’ll be here in a minute. Bay-bay.

At that point, Bechdel stormed off… to the left, to the left. He picked up a box of everything he owned in a box to the left.

The Bobcats hope to pick up the pieces from this ugly event and carry on with the rest of the season. No doubt they soon will again be playing for all of humanity.

(If this was funny to a single other person, then this was worth the post. I laughed the whole time I wrote this one.)

Well, I’ve finally had all of my classes. Today I had my Monday 3-hour class “Politics and the Press.” The class is taught by a highly-esteemed political column writer in the Austin area and nationally. He teaches the class alone now, but when he began the class in 1996 he taught alongside political pundit and talking head Paul Begala. Begala, for those of you who don’t know, was a political advisor for President Clinton. He worked alongside the “Ragin’ Cajun” James Carville during the 1992 campaign. The two later rejoined on CNN’s “Crossfire,” which Jon Stewart subsequently brought down by telling the gentleman on the air (along with their Republican counterparts Tucker Carlson and Robert Novak) that their program is “hurting America.” But in between working for the Clinton campaign and his stint on “Crossfire,” Begala taught “Politics and the Press” with my professor. (Strangely, the man who replaced Begala once he left for CNN was none other than Karl Rove.) And sure enough, Begala spoke at our first class meeting of the semester.

He was sort of interesting to listen to. Not terribly interesting—just sort of. The things I found most interesting, unfortunately, are probably the most boring to tell all of you, however (namely how to run campaign, what a “message” is and how to get it across to the voters). While some might believe him to be the Prince of Darkness (coincidently, that actually IS the nickname of his “Crossfire” co-star Robert Novak), he did actually show himself to be a real human. However, with that said, he said he loves negative campaigns. When the room stiffened, he explained that he likes when candidates disagree on issues and talk about those differences. However, I couldn’t help but sense some sort of “mean” undertone. I guess that’s just natural when someone tells you they love mud-slinging and negative campaigns. I think he either actually likes the nasty stuff or just says he likes negative campaigns for the shock value of saying it.

Anyway, enough of this… Most of you probably, or hopefully, know Paul Begala as played by the beloved Chris Kattan on SNL’s spoof of “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” Below is a transcript of one of those sketches (edited for space and relevance).

Chris Matthews: Paul Begala, what about it? Denise Rich insists she didn’t break the rules, but more importantly, shouldn’t someone who wears that much makeup be a better liar?

Paul Begala: Absolutely, Chris. There’s no story here.
Chris Matthews: Yeah.
Paul Begala: The Bush administration…
Chris Matthews: Yeah.
Paul Begala: …is simply substituting an…
Chris Matthews: Yeah.
Paul Begala: ..anti-Clinton witch hunt…
Chris Matthews: Yeah.
Paul Begala: …for their actual agenda.
Chris Matthews: Blah, blah, blah, you’re done! You’re boring and you look like a fetus!

(Moving on, Matthews interviews his next guest, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA).)
Arlen Specter: Uh, again, at this point, I merely want to investigate our legal options. For instance, under the Articles of Confederation, we may have the authority to take President Clinton to a deserted island and hunt him for sport. If he survives, he’s acquitted. If we bag him, we get to cook him in a large pot and eat him. Now. I’m not saying we’re going to do this. I’m just saying, Strom Thurmond has an island.

Chris Matthews: Paul Begala, you chesire cat-faced cretin, should Clinton be hunted like a dog on Strom Thurmond’s island or what?
Paul Begala: Chris, you really don’t expect me to answer that.
Chris Matthews: You’re a virgin, aren’t you, Begala? Come on.
Paul Begala: That’s really none of your business.

Arlen Specter: Can I say something here, Chris? Scottish common law says that we have the option to shrink President Clinton to the size of a field mouse and then force him to fight spiders for our amusement. Are we going to do this? Probably. All I’m saying, Strom Thurmond has a shrinking ray.

Chris Matthews: Ho-ho! Now we’re playing some freakin’ Hardball! I wanna thank my guests. Senator Specter, good luck eating the President.

Arlen Specter: Or shrinking him, Chris.

Chris Matthews: Okay, right. Paul Begala, once again, I tore you a new one. Let’s check the scoreboard: Matthews 17, Begala 2! Stick around, I’m going outside to shout at cars! You’re watching “Hardball”!

Yo, yo, yo! Hope everyone’s doing well… getting back into the swing of things of the school year and such. I think I’ve finally gotten everything situated in my new place now. Although yesterday the Homeowners Association rep came by and flipped out. Apparently we can’t keep “things” on our porches. It’s fairly ridiculous, but the result is that I have to find a new place to keep my bike. It’s a spacious condo, but with six of us in here, it can get crowded at times. And among the six of us there are… six bikes. I have no idea where we’re going to put them, but… whatever.

Anyway, the purpose of this post really isn’t talking. I took a few pictures of my place and wanted to share with those of you who haven’t seen it yet (i.e. those of you who aren’t my dad). So without further ado, I give you… 3200 Duval!

First, we have the exterior. It’s a lovely brick building with siding in parts for, let’s say flavor. The picture on the left is the side view, with our back porch. Directly above the back porch is my room. The picture on the right is the “front view” of the building. We own the top and bottom porches there, as well. But our unit stops just before the chimney. Let’s move on, shall we?

As you enter the 101, or “the Palindome” as some have come to call it, you are given a choice: Choose left and you enter the downstairs living area. Choose right and you venture into the upstairs. Let’s go left. Here as you walk down the hall, the first left takes you into the kitchen. I’ve been told people cook here, but as I’ve already written, I mostly eat the crumbs and scraps that lie around the trash can and sink.

From the kitchen, we go into the dining room. You can sorta see it in the background of one of these pictures. It’s really more of a nook, with the back porch right off of it. It leads into the downstairs “common, living, dwelling place” whatever you want to call it. Lots of big couches and chairs, as you can see. My TV and DVD player act as a “movie station.”

At last we have reached our final stop: my room. We’ve traveled upstairs, gone past the sitting room that is Zane’s place and taken the room on the right. The room on the left is where Eliot, Jeff and Christopher live. Buddy and I live in here, however. He’s on the right, I’m on the left. I’m still in the process of putting some things up, but this should give you a pretty good feeling of the room. Behind the door by my next is the bathroom… it’s pretty big and our closets are in there.

Anyway, that’s the place. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Hello my babies and welcome to the brand-spanking new Jeety’s Joint! I’m now technically halfway through my “college years” (Here’s a paradox for you: Everyone says college is the best time of your life, yet on our beloved teen TV shows like “Saved by the Bell,” they’re always the worst. What gives?) and I thought I’d spruce things up a bit. And by “I,” I of course mean the technical staff at Jeety’s Joint, and by that, I of course mean Kevin. Unfortunately, being the computer nerd he is, he’s changed all my passwords to Babylon 5 references and it’s taking a while to get back to normal. Hopefully within a few weeks, I’ll be all set.

Let’s see, what have we missed? My last post was on May 15… In that time, I’ve turned 21, gone on two vacations to Stone Harbor, NJ, celebrated my cousin’s baby shower (known to some, namely myself, as “Margarita Night”), partied for Jackie’s brief visit back home, finished the Harry Potter series, finished the Arrested Development series, survived another summer at Stop’n’Sock, and grieved the loss and celebrated the life of a teacher and close friend.

And all of a sudden, here I am again. For the third year in a row, I write to you from the same town but a different place. I’m now in an apartment a few blocks north of campus with five other guys—all Texans, of course (after all, what else is there? Ha!). While I’m a little further from campus, I’m really enjoying the “apartment life.” The group of guys is pretty cool. The only real downside is that I’ve stopped eating (JOKE MOM!). I’ll try to get a few photos of the place up sometime soon, so you all can see how I’m living. Perhaps I can do a compare/contrast of my living situation last year (for those of you who are new or have forgotten, I lived in a torture chamber in the basement [i.e. dungeon] or bowels of the Moore-Hill dormitory… In reality it wasn’t that bad, but I am thoroughly enjoying cell phone reception and say, daylight).

Classes seem somewhat interesting this semester. We’ll see. I have a feeling I know the two that I’m going to hate the most, but I’ll reserve judgment until later. The football team looks, uh, good? I don’t know, we played Arkansas State on Saturday and, let’s just say I was expecting better results. Of course, things could be worse. I could go to Michigan (ouch, how about you fellas hang up the spikes and call it a season already? Nothing-NOTHING you do can dig you out of this hole. I’ve never seen an entire season crumble in the first game of the year!). I’ve had my first trip down to Sixth Street—I’m not exactly sure what compels hundreds of people to flock to the part of the city that can get away with charging $3.50 for a Bud Light, but whatever.

Anyway, I will be sure to write more on these and many other topics in the future. In the time being, I’ll post my address for those of you who care. As always, mail is appreciated. Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend!

Jeets
3200 Duval Street
Apt. 101
Austin, TX 78705