München

Yes. I am in Munich. The city. Yes I went swimming in the sewer(ok not really a sewer but it was a pretty gross river). Yes I think this city is amaying. Yes I like starting sentences with the word Yes. Anyways. I´d post pictures but unfortunately I have no cable or that other thing(my laptop) thathas all the pictures on it. Sorry I´ve not updated- the house I was staying at had a dial up connection and the thought of using a german keyboard was really daunting. There´s only about three keys moved but that´s enough to just throw me off completely. Tonight we´re taking the night train to Venice. I´m pretty dang stoked. Not going to lie. So yeah. That´s about it. As soon as I can I´ll post up some pics. I´ve got lots of good ones. Oh yeah. I´m sure you´ll love them.

Washington DC

Ethiopian Restaurant only seems like an Oxymoron.


How cool is a restaurant where they let you eat with your hands?


I like taking pictures of myself. Not that I'm vain or anyything.

I honestly hate movies

So. I went to the 12.01 showing of Episode III. My dad went with. It was an interesting experience. It's as if I only went because I had gone to the last two movies on opening day as well and not because I really truly wanted to go see it. I mean- it was an enjoyable movie, but I definitely don't feel the same way about Star Wars as I did in high school. In high school I had the 'What- you haven't seen Star Wars? What's wrong with you?'. Now it's more like- 'well it is just a movie. No big deal'. For that matter- I don't feel the same way about movies. Right now, they are an annoyance. I feel guilty after having watched a movie. Especially the sort that depends on violence to entertain me. I just don't really see the entertainment value in violence. I can understand if the violence is a foil used to illustrate some key principle of good living or something. but when it's just violence for violence's sake- I get rather bothered with myself for being entertained. The sad part is- I'm not creative or energetic enough to come up with something else to do besides watch movies. I'll chalk that up to the cold weather. But no longer. It's summer and I will waste no more time on movies. Ok- I really don't mean that but I am seriously limiting the amount of movies I watch by like a lot. So anyone with any ideas of awesome (cheap) things to do- give me a holler. My idea is to punch a brick wall with a sealed gallon of milk and videotape it. I want to see what happens. Man. That's pretty pathetic. All I can come up with is wasting some milk. Anyways. I took my my non-wuss dog swimming today. And the other dog got to go on a walk too. But hers wasn't nearly as interesting as Max's. Maximilian Balthasar Xavier Rex. Ha. That's his full name. Mariah Cordelia Titania Xenia. That's my other dog's full name. Man was I wierd in high school. And apparently I really liked the letter X. Here's some pictures of them. I know they look like fake dogs in the first picture but they are real. It's actually quite shocking that they sat still long enough for me to take the picture. They never behave. The second one is Max 'swimming'. He gets lost in the water. Well, not so much lost as he can't find the stick after you throw it because he goes to where it hit the water but it's never there. And then he inevitably winds up with the stick behind him and he circles around but the stick somehow always stays out of his field of vision. It would be pretty humourous if I wasn't worried that he'd drown from being out there too long looking for the stick. He is a funny dog. Truly.

Editorial Cartoons= My only News Source.

Ok- so editorial cartoons don't really form my only news source. But this whole Newsweek issue is blown way out of proportion. It didn't even affect the latest wave of islamist violence. But to me- the funniest part is that the people who are all over Newsweek are the conservatives who defended Bush's move on faulty intelligence. And there's no arguing that people haven't died as a direct result of that call made on crappy evidence. So even if the Newsweek article did affect the surge in violence- their outrage merely shows their partisan nature as they support Bush after he messed up but they are constantly harping against the 'left wing media establishment'. Not that the people on the other side of the aisle aren't- it's just that this is an example of the neo-cons' crappy outlook on political life.

Der de Der

I watched Episode I today. Mostly out of....'duty'? Not sure. I am just in a wierd mood lately as far as movies go. I can't stand them really. It's actually quite tragic. So even though I like Episode I- I couldn't get through it. I did. But not happily. I watched it because tomorrow at midnight I will be watching Episode 3(hopefully). Now that the entire series is out- I have to watch them all in order one through six. Supposedly I was going to dress up- But that isn't happening. That was something I had decided on junior year of high school. But- I really just can't bring myself to go to the theater alone dressed up in a Star Wars costume. It would be even worse if I went with my dad who looks like Santa Claus. Unless I got him to dress up as Santa Claus. Man- that would be interesting. Can you imagine seeing Santa Claus and a random Star Wars character in the middle of May?

My 'rents have dish network. Get this- there are music channels on satellite TV that actually play music videos. It's awesome. So far I've found like three new bands because I saw their videos on these random music channels. Not gonna lie- I'm pretty stoked. That and Fall Out Boy's latest video has been on Fuse twice and I recorded it. So that's pretty sweet too.

I'm watching SNL and Brittney Spears is the guest. Yeah. She can't act. And she's not funny except for what the writers give her. So pretty much I don't know what she's doing there. It's pretty tragic. True story.

Sights and Sounds

Yeah. I got to 'operate' a forklift today. That is neat.

Pretty decent but I could do with about three fewer screams per song. Even though the screams sound like Donnie Darko screaming.

Pictures

Gary Numan and the Killers

Whoa! They are the same person. Gary Numan and Brandon Flowers. True Story.

New York!

Here's some new pics!

Grammar

What say ye- 'Books of Mormon' or 'Book of Mormons'?

Pictures Taken Late at Night

Help!

"It's a fiendish thingy!"

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire trailer

More Cowbell

We're just like you- we put our pants on one leg at a time. But after those pants are on, we make awesome t-shirts. You've got a fever, baby. And the only prescription is to buy this shirt.

Only One

Here I go, scream my lungs out and try to get to you You are my only one I let go, there's just no one that gets me like you do You are my only, my only one Made my mistakes, let you down And I can't, I can't hold on for too long Ran my whole life in the ground And I can't, I can't get up when you're gone And something's breaking up (breaking up) I feel like giving up (like giving up) I won't walk out until you know Here I go, scream my lungs out and try to get to you You are my only one I let go, there's just no one that gets me like you do You are my only my only one

Letters to Malcolm

"None of them[religious things] bad things. But none of them is necessarily of more spiritual value than the activities we call secular. And they are infinitely dangerous when this is not understood. The department of life, labelled 'sacred,' can become an end in itself; an idol that hides both God and my neighbours. ("When the means are autonomous they are deadly.") It may even come about that a man's most genuinely Christian actions fall entirely outside that part of his life which he calls religious.
I read in a religious paper, "Nothing is more important than to teach children to use the sign of the cross." Nothing? Not compassion, nor veracity, nor justice? Voila l'ennemi."
-C.S. Lewis

Volcanoes

Between Mexico City and Puebla there are two volcanoes. The larger is called Popocatepetl(smoking hill in Nahautl). The smaller is called Ixtaccihuatl(white woman in Nahuatl). So they're really big. And you can see them from anywhere within the valley that Puebla is in. If your lucky and there aren't any clouds, you can also see the Pico de Orizaba(another big volcano) on the other side of the valley. Anyways, I was tooling around on maps.google and I didn't have anything else to do so I was wandering around Mexico and thought that this looked cool. And then I remembered this picture of me and Popo(catepetl).
On a side note- Popo and Ixta are the volcanoes of legend where the hero type character kneeled over his sleeping bride waiting for her to wake. And then they turned into mountains. Not sure how that one worked but- who really does know how that sort of thing works.

Pictures

My house came with its own blacklight. The other night we turned it on and I realized that I still had orange paint on my hand from painting my bike. Of course the first thing that came to mind was taking a picture of it. I'm not sure that it came out all that well. But that's as good as I could come up with with my camera in italian. But the picture of the small black light came out way better, I think. Especially with the climbing poster in the background. I think it came out way neat. I'm thoroughly enjoying having a camera. It makes things so much more interesting. Seriously. Tonight we had a ward bonfire. I accidentally left my camera at home. I had a sad realization that there were pictures to be taken but I couldn't take them because of my lack of camera.

Two Fine People

Now that I've passed your test How can I prove to you baby i'll never let you down ... How can I prove to you baby I'll never make you sad If I ever had , do believe your tears won't come back again I love you, though the stars may fade And mountains turn into sand. I love you 'Til my body changes into an old man. I love you And the song that i sing is the only way that I can explain La la la la la la You know i wish for you baby nothing but good times ahead Anything that heaven can give you, I can give you instead La la la la la la How could I lie to you baby, i'll never lead you around I'll take care of everything you need, darling Every little need'll be found. I love you Thought the time may change and snowmen sleep in the sea And I really only want you to want me. I love you And the song that i sing is the only way that i can explain Now that you've shown your heart I'll be right with you baby, I'll never leave you alone Anywhere you want me to be honey, i'll be there to have and to hold And now that the clouds roll back, hold on to me baby We're going never to land, flying on the power of love Flying on the power of love. I love you Though time may fade and mountains turn into sand I love you, 'til the very same come back to the land I love you and the song that i sing is the only way that i can explain Two fine people should love each other Two fine people should help each other

My Room.

This is my room now:

But this was my room yesterday:

It's barely the same place. I don't recognize it at all. I went mountain biking today with my roommate. It was pretty cool. I came to the conclusion that I'm way out of shape. So I think I'll do something about that. Of course- I've been saying that for weeks now. But now I've got a working bike that(cross your fingers) isn't cursed. So I can like -ride it. Whistles go woo-woo!.

I was trying to find out about these grips from a brand called Coda. They make mountain bike components. And I can't find anything about them online. Their website doesn't exist. It's a figment of somebody's imagination. Bread Cereal. I seriously spent like a half an hour trying to find anything. But no such luck. Anyways. I'm going to go get some food from the store I think. I think I need some sauce. Or somezine. I have linguine you'll all be happy to know so there's no emergency. Maybe I'll buy some chicken, tomatoes, garbanzo beans and balsamic vinagrette and make some couscous salad. Couscous salad is very good. I just started craving it a couple days ago.

Mechanically Inept.

Indeed. I am mechanically inept. Don't let the fact that I got my bike all together fool you. It still doesn't work- some problem with the rear derailleur. Everything else works I think. But it makes hideous noises. And the rear tire randomly decides to uncenter itself. Then I center it- then it uncenters itself again. So anyways. And the rear derailleur works- as in it shifts- but it makes this hideous noise cause the tension pully is like- bent or something. Who knows. Anyways. Update- The tension pully stopped making wierd noises. I didn't change anything though. Oh well. I guess the problem went away. Or at least I hope so, right? Anyways. The new Fall Out Boy CD came in the mail on Saturday. That made me pretty excited. And I 'learned' a Moving Units song on the bass. And I was working on a Weezer song or two. I don't know- maybe I'll become a musician. That would be basically awesome. Anyways. It's late. So I'm going to bed before two in the morning tonight.

Sights and Sounds

There's food. In the kitchen. Go figure. At least now everyone knows that.

Sometimes I need to listen to a little Rage. Sometimes we all need to listen to some Rage. Not very frequently though- it's not that good.