It's Friday

so in lieu of posting something original, I'm just going to link you to this piece art.
You're welcome.

here goes nothing

sorry for the lack of posting on my part.  i've been crazy busy.  i'm working 32 hours a week and going to school full-time, so i've been pretty beat.  (in fact, i'll probably be going to bed as soon as i get done with this post).  i've just been crazy exhausted lately.

i know for a fact i'll have other exciting adventures to share with you all.  just not tonight.

i did want to share my draft predictions with the world.  i'm sure i'll be epically wrong, but i always love trying to guess the first round draft.  (my buddies and i are all betting a 6-pack...whoever is the closes gets all of it).

here goes nothing.  i'll add my commentary where appropriate.

1 CAR cam newton, qb auburn
2 DEN marcell dareus, dt alabama
3 BUF blaine gabbert, qb mizzou 
4 CIN aj green, wr georgia
5 ARI von miller, olb tamu
6 CLE julio jones, wr alabama
7*** HOU patrick peterson, cb lsu
8 TEN nick fairley, dt auburn
9 DAL tyron smith, ot usc
10 WASH robert quinn, de unc
11*** SF prince amukamara, cb nebraska
12 MINN cameron jordan, de cal
13 DET aldon smith, de mizzou
14 STL corey liuget, dt illinois
15 MIA mike pouncey, og florida
16 JAC ryan kerrigan, de purdue
17 NE jj watt, de wisconsin
18 SD muhammad wilkerson, dt temple
19 NYG anthony castonzo, ol bc
20 TB da'quan bowers, de clemson
21 KC gabe carimi, ot wisconsin
22 IND nate solder, ot colorado
23 PHI jimmy smith, cb colorado
24 NO adrian clayborn, de iowa
25 SEA jake locker, qb washington
26 BAL brooks reed, olb arizona
27 ATL jabaal sheard, de pitt
28*** TEN christian ponder, qb fsu
29 CHI derek sherrod, ot miss st
30*** ARI andy dalton, qb tcu
31 PIT brandon harris, cb miami
32*** NE mark ingram, rb alabama

asterisks:

***7:  i think houston trades up and gives san francisco their #11 (plus either a 2nd or 3rd) for the rights to peterson.  houston had peterson really high on their radar.

***11: san farncisco, who inherits houston's #11 pick, gladly sits back as amukamara falls into their lap.

once seattle pulls the trigger on locker (so many mock drats have them avoiding a QB...i just don't see it...there are far too many story lines: the washington connection, the need for a QB, carroll's experience against locker in the PAC-10...it just adds up) there will be a frenzy of teams making trades in the late 1st round.  for many teams, taking locker/ponder/dalton/mallet/kaepernick anywhere prior to #25 is a reach and not worth the money.  they are all early 2nd rounders at best, but with one going off the board at 25, they will all hit a frenzy to try and grab a QB before the others.  this results in:

***28: tennessee probably legitimately considered taking locker at #8...but realized he just wasn't worth that much of a reach.  new england is a willing trading partner (and gets EVEN MORE draft picks).

***30: arizona was hoping for gabbert to fall to #5.  by the time #30 rolls around, they will trade with the jets (rex ryan will only make this trade because he wants to be like belichick).

***32: new england will trade the pick they got in the tennessee trade plus their 2nd round pick to green bay to get ingram.  they have him high on their board.  this was a hard pick for me because i know that green bay really likes ingram as well.  ultimately, i think green bay thinks more about their future and takes 2 picks.  (my guess: cameron heyward and aaron williams....what an investment for green bay!)

quick prediction about the 1st pick of the 2nd round: carolina will trade down with either cleveland or cincinatti...whichever team makes a better offer.  the #33 overall player will most likely be ryan mallett.  i don't see the other team taking kaepernick that early in the 2nd...and i think the vikes will try to get him (which i don't really like at all).  oh well, it's a wilf-type move: make the fans think you're caring about the future.

i can't wait to see just how wrong i am.

Ring ring

If I recall, I may have told you about some of the really shitty professors I've had here at the U.

Let me tell you about one of the, if not THE, best professors I've had so far in my college career. He's easily one of the best at teaching the material. But I really appreciate his candidness and sense of humor. In the middle of this morning's lecture his phone rang. He looked at it, ignored the call, proceeded to silence his phone and then said (read this with a light Indian accent),
"That was my wife. Now she's going to be pissed... Do you see what I do for you folks?"

Maybe you had to be there. Most likely it's the little things that gets one through 6 hours of lecture in a day. But to me this moment ranks up there among top professor moments with the likes of:
"It's too early on a Friday to do math in public." and
"Let me run back over here." (said sarcastically indicating the other end of the whiteboard prior to one of the most doesn't-give-a-fuck walks I've ever seen)

happy 420

sorry for the barrage of youtube videos lately.

i'm still trying to figure out whether or not this video is a joke or a serious attempt at music.

Blogging is Really Hard

Sometimes you just don't feel inspired to write anything to be shared with the world. Even though we made promises to keep this thing popping out hot sticky buns, it seems that all amateur bloggers hit a wall at some point. Don't think I've forgotten about this baby of ours. I've just not had.... whatever it takes to sit down and share something interesting or funny, or just anything at all, really.

I just got done having a pretty funny conversation with two of my roommates about what terrible people we all were as high schoolers (as a side note, take a look at the word school some time. It's just a misshapen, ugly word), and some of the nicknames we had for people who were perhaps a little different. One thing I learned is that my roommate Matt and his friends, and just for the hell of it I'll extend it to all people from Duluth, suck at coming up with nicknames for people. Here are just a few examples we came across:
1) "Armpit Hair" - the nickname for a guy who's armpit hair was reportedly of excessive length.
2) "Blue Shoes" - this guy had blue shoes.
3) "Samurai Sword" - formerly known as "Blue Shoes," he earned this nickname after threatening to kill several classmates with a Katana.
4) "Deodorant" - she smelled funny.


This whole conversation started when I told them about the guy known fondly to most of the U of M Aerospace Engineering class of 2012 as "Retrograde." But that's another story.
It's been real. Holla back. Or some other ironically cliche way of telling someone good-bye.

follow the steps

step 1: put computer in a room away from others.
step 2: turn volume up all the way.
step 3: play this video.
step 4: observe roommates as they will be pretty sure that porn is being played in the room.

or

follow steps 1-3
step 4: just do a bunch of acid and watch it.

eff 'em, elle

i think i hit a low point.  either that, or i'm a lot more depressed than i should be.

actually, i'm being overly dramatic.  let's make the long story short.

i'm in financial trouble.  so i've been searching for jobs for quite awhile now.  i finally found a sales associate job that i thought i could be good at.  i know i have limited sales experience, but i was once a telemarketer...and you'd be surprised how much that fact actually helps in an interview.

interviewer: "so it says here you worked for meyers associates and teleservices...what exactly was that position?"

me: "i was a telemarketer for a variety of political campaigns.  political parties would hire us to cold call individuals in an attempt to fund-raise for their individual candidates."

interviewer, wiping splooge off of face: "wow!  you must have great customer service skills...AND sales ability!  you're hired!"

(ok, so most interviews don't go like that.  but you get the idea.)

anyway, the job was for frickin' PAWN AMERICA being a sales associate.  they didn't say what the base pay was, but you got an hourly wage plus a commission on any sale.  i'm going to preface the following by saying that i LOVE the tv show pawn stars.  i love how you never know what might come into the shop.  and how every item has a history to it.  and, i mean, i'm smart enough to know how to flip a profit or turn a sale to potential customers.  when i was younger i collected baseball and football cards, old coins, played a few instruments, and know far too much about maps, globes, and other historical things.  i mean, i'd like to think i can do a great job quantifying the value of certain objects and knowing what is/isn't a good deal for the pawn shop to buy.

the job ad said that the average sales associate makes roughly $15/hour with commissions. they said their top sales associates make slightly over $20/hour.  considering that it was a guaranteed 40 hours/week, i definitely thought i had to apply.

anyway, i just went on a tangent.  the PAWN AMERICA (yes, i have to capitalize it again) position was first published on tuesday.  i applied on wednesday morning.  tonight, i got an e-mail from PAWN AMERICA:

"we feel that other applicants are better suited for this position.  we will not be giving you an interview, but we will keep your file on record for one calendar year."

whatever, pawn america...you win this time...i guess.

in the meantime i've applied to a few more "legit" places...they are all research/internship jobs that are through academia.  i figure that although these jobs may pay less, they look more impressive when it comes to building experience for future jobs.  plus, what can i say, i really do love research.  hopefully something will give soon...because i really need a job.

take care blogosphere, sorry it's been awhile.  

ps: "uno, dos, tres, cuatro...give me some more!"

"Blog Post Title Inspired By Song Lyric"

Damn. This last weekend with my man Ahmed and my buddy Zack up in Fargo was probably the best time I've had in a while. Let's just say that cheap booze got the best of us. I ran into people from high school, partied with some older folks, got reminded to tell my grandma happy birthday by one of my brother's college buddies, suffered through "greasy-food-and-booze-stomach", got probably a total of 10 hours of sleep in the two nights, and got to play "passed out guy" for our Chatroulette acquaintances. I look forward to more of the same some time in the future.

On the home front today, our tests were returned to us in one of my classes. On the first problem, I earned all of the possible points and no other remarks were made. Sometimes graders will write something like "nice work," but on the top of the page right next to "15/15" was the phrase "ok-ish".

That's all for now folks.