cuchillo

I just finished a Tipu's chai and checking on my myspace account. It's strange but good to get messages from old friends there. It really makes you feel nostalgic, even more so than looking at old pictures. Myspace is basically full of living, breathing photos of your past. When you look at old high school photos, sometimes you imagine several roads that old friends could have gone down, and you wonder which they took, but in this day you can see.

Right now I'm sitting in Liquid Planet waiting to listen to David Boone play, typing on their computer, which has a monitor that has a heavy blue tint. There is another guy playing guitar right now. It's some type of blues. I'm wondering if I should move my coat to the booth here by the computer, or leave it up there so I can get my seat back in the front. I think I can leave it for now, since there aren't many people in the back of Liquid Planet. Most are up front for First Friday or World AIDS day or something.

I have one more project to do for school - write a Russian poem. It is hard, and that's what I plan on doing tomorrow. Tonight I will watch David Boone, then go home and watch Battlestar Galactica with Shannon. It's the best show on television. Ask Rolling Stone. Sunday, after my poem is written, I will go snowboarding. I love snowboarding. I'm even thinking about taking a snowboarding class at the U next semester instead of 20th Century Russian Literature. We'll see what happens there, but I'll let you go for now.

Last year I camped out for an XBOX 360.

This year I camped out for a Playstation 3. Partly for the profit of selling it on ebay, partly to be part of the craze.

There were quite a few more people interested in getting a PS3, and quite a few less PS3s than XBOXes last year. That meant I had to get there two nights in advance. This photo is from Wednesday night. Target sold their six PS3s Friday morning. So all day Thursday, we got questions, looks, and sneers. Don't these guys have anything better to do than wait outside for a video game? I asked one guy we were chatting with if he was a gamer, and he said, "no, I get my kicks in the real world." Well, good for him.

As it turns out, though, I didn't have to wait out the second night. Some hard-core (i.e. crazy) gamer bought my spot in line for $700 and two Cat-Griz tickets. My friend Scott sold the tickets at the football game for $60. That is not a bad profit for 24 hours of city camping. Actually, it is really good. And that is real world cash, Mr. I-Get-My-Kicks-in-the-Real-World. So there.

It's 5:20 a.m. on Election Day. This is earlier than I usually get up. I usually get up when I wake up or two hours later, but today I'm helping with the election. Yesterday someone asked me (jokingly) if I'd rig the votes. I said that would be illegial and wrong, and it would be. Not to mention it is not really possible. It's not like Vickie, the Clerk and Recorder, has one person counting ballots.

Well, I have a lousy cold. They always seem to come at the worst times. I just hope that working a long day today doesn't make it worse, but I suppose that I can always take a sick day tomorrow.

Since I'm working, and it's easier than voting election day, I voted absentee. This year there are a record number of voters voting absentee. That means I could be at the courthouse really late counting ballots, or just being sequestered until they are counted.

I voted for Stan Jones. Not because I'm really excited about him. I don't know much about him. He is a Libertarian, and he is against abortion and for guns. I really did not want to vote for Burns or Tester. Maybe the Libertarian party will get a record number of votes in this race. That wouldn't be an altogether bad thing.

Well, I'm off to get some Thera Flu on my way to the courhouse. I wonder if I could park at a 2 hour meter all day today... It is a holiday so I don't think the meter maids will be working. I will. I'll let you know if I get a ticket.

If I ever left Blogger, and didn't roll my own site, Vox is where I'd go.

At least right now.

The last couple of days I've stopped by Edge of the World (the local skate shop) and practiced on their ramp. It's nice because it doesn't seem like many people use it. It was empty yesterday, and the day before just one other guy was skating there.

I've been making some progress at skating. I still can't ollie while moving, but I can do it if I put the wheels in an expansion crack in a sidewalk. I can now do 180 kickturns on the ramp (sometimes) and I've learned to pump so I can gain elevation up the ramp sides. I still can't "drop in," but I have tried. Last time I was at SHEC I did, and I banged me knee twice in a row. So I've instituted a new policy: whenever I try to drop in, I'll wear knee pads. Perhaps, I should wear some elbow pads too, because my right one is a little sore.

Anyway, here's a video. Rocky said that I should add some music to it, so I did. It's Plankeye, and they rock. Enjoy.

What is the world coming to when people break their word to Batman?

After the homecoming parade, Brad, Tyler and I went to find the Batmobile. We had heard that you could get you picture taken with the batmobile during the football game. What's that have to do with homecoming you say? Well, Batman brought Monte to the game in the batmobile - that's what.

We found the Batmobile, and not entirely unexpectedly Batman and Robin too. Brad paid $15 to sit in the batmobile and have his picture taken plus an extra $5 so I could take all the pictures I wanted of him in it.

After taking this photo, Batman handed me a flyer and asked if I could send him the picture. I told him "sure."

Later I emailed him a link to my Flickr photos of the batmobile, and to my surprise Batman emailed me back the next day with this:

Hey Lance,
Thanks alot for sending a link to the photos. I ask people all the time (for 20 years now) to send me pics they take of us and they never do!

Your the second person to ever send me pictures and I really appreaciate it!

Are they big enough on the link for me to print or have prints made? If not can you send me a cd with the full size images ? I'll pay for shipping etc.

Anyway your way cool for keeping your word!
Here is a pic for you of us.

Thanks again!!!!

Batman
www.cyproductions.com

Can you believe that! Only the second ever to send him photos?!

Well, in writing this I just remembered that I myself also lied to Batman, I'm ashamed to say. You see, I was taking photos of the car and he asked me not to take any more because they were charging for photos. I said, "Okay sorry," and put my camera away. Then after Brad decided to pay $15 to sit in the car and have his photo taken, I asked if I could take photos of my friend in the car. Batman said, "tell you what, for an extra $5 you can take all the photos you like." Then without thinking I just told him that I didn't have any cash, which was a flat out lie. I had $20 in my pocket, I just couldn't justify spending $5 to take some photos. Brad ended up paying the $5.

So I guess that is the state of things. We're all lousy sinners, but I'm sorry Batman.

Yesterday, I picked up Tyler after work, and we decided to grab something to eat before heading over to the Chi Alpha guys' house to paper mache the homecoming float.

We were going to go to Hoagieville (always a great choice), but we decided to try out one of Missoula's newer restaurants, El Diablo. Now, I've been skeptical of this place, because it's named "The Devil" and it seems like a rip-off of Taco del Sol - the best restaurant in the world, but I decided to try it anyway since I like to know my town.

Before we got there, I told Tyler that El Diablo meant The Devil in Spanish. He said it sounded spicy, and I replied that it sounded evil. Then he asked, "I wonder if it's good?" And I said, "Can it be good if it's evil?"

Their prices were comparable to Taco del Sol, $5.75 for a burrito or three tacos. You can also buy a single taco for $2.25. Taco del Sol charges $2 for a fish taco. I didn't try to order "The Lance" as it has become known (a fish taco in a burrito shell). You have to get to know a place, before you start asking for special things like that.

I was very happy with the food. I got a fish taco, a carne asada taco, and a pulled pork taco. All of them were excellent. Their lime and cilantro sauce is very tasty; however, I would not recommend it on the pulled pork. It doesn't go that well. The fish is grilled instead of battered and baked like Taco del Sol, and it was mahi mahi instead of cod. They are open until 9:00, but closed on Sunday.

It did end up being a little too spicy for Tyler, but that's the way I like - a little too spicy for Tyler.

I think I'll go back, but don't, for a minute, think that means I'm giving up Taco del Sol.

Well, I just read over on Techcrunch, that Audioblogger is going away. He says they will still be hosting the content, but I think I should back it up and move it somewhere else soon.

In memory of Audioblogger, here are my old audioblogs. Enjoy.

• #1 Audio Blog 5.7.2005
• Breaking News from the Field by the Carmike 10 5.17.2005
• Breaking News from the corner of Broadway and Ryman 6.2.2005 (this should have been an audioblog, but Audioblogger was down)
• Audioblog Test 7.15.2005
• Ice Cream Truck 8.3.2005
• A Cold XBox 360 11.21.2005

So I guess that 2005 was the year of audioblogs. Now, I need to get over to the Chi Alpha Blog and do the same. There are some good posts from overseas.

So if you've been following along, you'll know that I sent my broken camera off to Canon to be repaired, and they graciously fixed it for free. It's back now, and I'm happy.

This is the skateboard I bought with the money I "saved" from the camera repair. I decided to buy a helmet too, because really it will save money in the long run. I know it costs quite a bit to smash your head and go to the hospital. The helmet was only $35.

The downside is that you look funny sometimes. For instance, yesterday morning after I took this photo, I skated to Liquid Planet. The easiest way to carry the helmet was on my head and I just wore it into the store. Travis called me "helmet," and I told him that I was hyperactive and hypoglycemic.

Speaking of hyperactive...

One of my fellow students was talking to my teacher in her office the other day when she asked him, "have you ever been diagnosed with ADD?" He was a bit surprised that she would ask, but he told her that he was as a child. Then she said, "I'm not trained to deal with people like you."

Wow.

He was speechless, and so was I hearing the story from him.

I suppose I don't mind being called a hyper-hypo so long as people don't really think I am.

If you keep up with the Chi Alpha Blog at all, you probaly have read about my trip to Plains already. I love Plains, I love the church there, and I love logging and cutting firewood with them. Only one bad thing resulted from this trip; my camera broke.

I didn't drop it or cut it with a chainsaw or anything dramatic like that. It was working just before I left, but when I got home I discovered that the LCD (that stands for liquid crystal display you know) had shattered. Recently, I read an article on lifehacker about asking for replacements for broken things, and how it is especially helpful if you send the company a nice written letter with your broken item.

First, I called the warranty center. After getting all the info, Rita told me the average cost was $100 to have the LCD fixed. I told her that I was hoping to have it repaired for free under warranty, and she told me that it would be up to the repair center. So I sent them a letter with my broken camera.

The other day I got an email addressed to "LANCE" which told me that they were going to fix it for free. Man, I love Canon.

In other news, I've been skateboarding a lot recently. I have wanted to learn for a while, but seeing Tony Hawk skate really got me excited about it. Yesterday I skated about four miles or so. I also went over to the new skatepark a couple of mornings this week. Mornings are nice, there are hardly people and sometimes no one.

So with the $100 I "saved" on fixing my camera, I think I'll buy a skateboard.

Summer of 2006. Silence echoed through the blogosphere. What could break it? School starting again? Free coffee? Free tickets to the UC Theater? Aug 4th, the day the Crocidile Hunter died? No, no, no, no. Not even Snakes on a Plane. But today the anticipation is building for something big, and I have tickets.

Neil Diamond. Well, not him perse, but a sixteen piece orchestra and a Neil Diamond impersonator. Tonight the band Cherry Cherry will play at the Wilma theater, and I will be there.

I know I said no apologizing for not blogging, but come on, I haven't posted all of July. You know, it's kind of like having a good friend that you haven't called in a while, but you keep putting it off because you know that you'll be on the phone for an hour or more and you really don't have that kind of time right now. I kept meaning to blog, but stuff kept piling up, and I've been short on time.

I'm out of school for the summer, yes, but I've been sleeping in and working overtime. We have some large projects that are going live this weekend and man it frustrates me when things (programming things) don't work like they should.

Other than all that, I've been able to get out and enjoy Montana a little bit. I went tubing down the Blackfoot with my brother and rafting down the Blackfoot with Chi Alpha. I also got to go up to Flathead Lake and do some waterskiing with my parents. Later in the month, Andrew from Boise and Nate from Ohio came up for a visit, and we went hiking in Glacier. I love Glacier. I got blisters from hiking twenty two miles the first day. About 14 miles into the hike I jumped into the lake and hit my face on the bottom, so I was a little sore the next day.

Also, Katie came to Missoula for a visit. So I guess you could call July 2006 the month of visitors. Yeah, that's what it will go down as.

Wow, it has been a while, but I've resolved not to apologize for not bloggging enough. I was talking to Jennifer when we hiked the M yesterday. She was recently reading the blogs, and said that they were all different, but the one thing that everyone seems to have in common is feeling bad for not blogging enough. I've also been taught that when your speaking, you shouldn't apologize, and Scott tells me that it is a common problem in newsletters too. So here's the rule: don't apologize, just blog.

With that, here is a quick update of what I've been up to:

I'm out of school, you know, so I've had time to work on the yard. I finished building the retaining wall, now I just have to build an asymmetrical rock formation, plant a Japanese Maple, and some ground cover (I think I'll go with creeping thyme), and then this little area will be done. I've also nearly finished roofing the fence.

A couple of weekends ago, I went to Bozeman to check out the fireworks for Scott since he was still in Poland. It works out well, because my little sister Renee lives there. So we went shopping, ate sushi, arm wrestled robots, hiked to Palisade Falls, and then watched the fireworks.

Last weekend the fireworks were delivered, and there's quite a garage full.

Yesterday, I hiked the M with Scott, Clay, and Jennifer and her kids. It was the longest day of the year so we thought we'd watch the sunset from the M. I used a new photo technique that I read about on flickr called HDR (High Dynamic Range). These are some of the most interesting (and that's official).

Well, that's all for now.

Just over a year ago, ed made a tragic discovery that the classic Dilly Bar no longer had a dimple (or a belly button, or a drop, or what ever you're supposed to call it).

Today I bring you a joyous dicovery: they're back! But, can you believe that the good ol' Dilly Bar is up to $1 now-a-days? Jason tells me that the drop on top means that they are hand-made. His mother-in-law used to run a Dairy Queen. He said the trick was getting the right weight of ice cream. If it was too much then, well, that was okay, but if it was too little then you had to figure out how to add some.

In my opinion there are no Dilly Bars but the hand made ones. The others are just some kind of ice cream on a stick.

In other interesting ice cream news. P tells me that when he was a kid, back in Ukraine, ice cream wasn't so easy to get. It was only availabe every now and then, and when it was the special ice cream kiosks would open up and sell one of three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, or coffee. It's funny how things change. Today, I can walk across the street from my house and get hand-made ice cream delivered from Big Dipper.

I guess all this is proof that sometimes things do change for the better.

Today's high was 74, the temperatures seem to be dropping. From the 15th to the 18th we had a little streak of all-time highs. This is the longest streak of all-time highs in the month of May for Missoula. Guess what happens when we have really hot weather in the spring here? Floods. That's right all the snow pack melts, and the rivers run really high.

As I promised, J.J. and I went to the farmers' market, and then went hiking. Kim the empanada lady was at the Clark Fork River Market selling empanadas. So I got three. Two for me and one for Rocky, who was stuck at work. Just before that I got a few cucumbers from a Russian lady selling them at the old school farmers' market. Then it rained. Then we went to Liquid Planet. Then we saw Rachael, then we saw Rocky, and then we saw Peter and Megan, but they didn't see us.

We decided to go to Blodgett canyon over Cold Lakes in the Missions. It was a great day. We hiked about eleven miles. Oh yeah, and I looked for my keys at the crash site, but didn't find them.

Marshall played at Liquid Planet tonight. If you haven't heard him, you should check out his music on myspace. He is really good. The music is a nice blend of folk and alternative with some great finger picking. His lyrics are excellent. Anyone who incorporates quotes from C.S. Lewis can't be all bad. Marshall is releasing his new CD this July, and then going on tour in late summer.

After Marshall played, Rocky and I met Rachael at the Union Club to see Travis play drums with Tom Catmull. Their music was really fun. It reminded me of the Refreshments. It was my first time at the Union Club which turned out to be a really cool hangout. My favorite moment was when the band was playing a song that might be called "Cool Water," Travis was standing up and rocking the drums, and right in front of our table a couple (that looked like father and daughter) were really cutting a rug jitterbugging.

Tomorrow, I'm heading to the farmers' market with J.J., and then we're going on a day hike somewhere.

Last night was fun. Every Tuesday Sean Kelly's has trivia night - and it rocks. Trivia doesn't start until 8:00, but if you want a table you need to get there early. Zach, Rocky, and I got there just before seven and barely got a table in the basement.

Here are some of the trivia questions:

1. Which of the 48 contiguous states has the most shoreline?


2. What two-word musical term is used to describe the birds singing in the morning?


3. What band sings "How Bizarre?"


4. In Greek mythology, who gazed into a pool of water, fell in love with his own image and wasted away?

And here are the trivia answers:

1. Michigan


2. Dawn Chorus


3. OMC


4. Narcissus

We didn't come in last, but we were quite a bit away from first with a final score of 55. There were eight rounds of ten questions worth one point each except for the final round where the questions were worth double the points. The same team that always wins won. I think they are called Second Thought. Our team was named the Rockettes, but the best team name was Suck It Trebek.

Back in November, when Scott's car was pushed off of a mountain, I lost my keys with it, and on my key ring was my only motorcycle key. Well, the weather has been getting nicer and I really would like to start riding it, plus it gets much better gas milage than the truck.

To get it working again I needed to get a new key made. First step was getting a blank key from the Kawasaki dealer. Man, they have some nice new motorcycles in there. Next, I had to remove the ignition and take it and the blank key to the locksmith. Then they just cut me a new one. So amazing.

I put it back in the bike, jumped it, and took it out for a test ride. I like riding motorcycles. Yeah. The starter is going bad though, so I'll have to take it in and get it checked out. There's a bunch of little things that need to get fixed with the bike, but once the starter is fixed I can ride it on a regular basis once again.

Well, for all of you waiting on pins and needles: I got the paper in!

After a grueling homework session at the guys house including some great coffee, several cokes, and nabbing Zach's bed for a quick rest my paper is complete. It's not my best work, but it will do for a grade. On my way to drop it off, I ran into a couple other students who, like me, waited until the last minute to write it. I don't know what it is, but it always seems that for one reason or the other I'm finishing big school projects right before the deadline. I intended to finish this paper earlier, but I got a nasty cold over the weekend and spent most of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday sleeping. But that's all behind me now, so let's forget it.

Today I took my one and only final. It was scheduled for a week from tomorrow, but our class managed to talk the teacher into giving it today. A couple students were still allowed to take it on the scheduled date, but for most of us it was nice to get it out of the way. So now I am officially enjoying summer.

Next on the todo list: get the motorcycle working.

It's 4:28. I'm printing. The paper is due by five. Will I make it? Stay tuned, and find out.