Stir Crazy

I've been home alone house-sitting for about 3 days now, and I've already gotten restless. Really, really restless. I can't focus on anything - not even mindless vegging in front of the TV, which I have had more than enough of in the past few days. I can't bring myself to read one of the many books I have sitting in front of me for more than 20 minutes, I don't want to go anywhere and yet I do, I'm going nuts being alone and yet it's peaceful, and over it all hang the twin specters of my thesis topic (which needs refining) and the upcoming interviews. It's a very odd feeling when you've got everything to do yet can't think of anything to do.

It's gotten so bad that I actually went to the mall today for refuge. Refuge. At the mall.

There's only one solution to restlessness this bad, and it is a well-planned and very full day. Tonight: bed very early at 10. Early morning tomorrow, with a rare but very real sit-down breakfast that will include breads and coffee of some sort. Followed by another trip back to the mall to exchange the jeans I bought today. Followed by....

oh, crap.

Sea Scrolls and Sunsets

Saw the Dead Sea Scrolls today at the Seattle Science Center. That was pretty cool. I was amazed at how small the pieces of parchment actually are and how hard they are to read - they're tiny. It was pretty weird to lean over the case and think about the fact that the piece of parchment I was staring at was thousands of years old. One cool tidbit: in many translations of the Bible we have today, you'll notice that the word "Lord" is always written in small caps, like LORD. Looks awkward, no? Well, my stepmom noticed that on the original copy of the manuscript we were looking at, you could see how the word "Lord" was actually written in a different style and size than the rest of the text - the Hebrew equivalent of what we do with the typeface today like we have it today. That was pretty cool.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are important both for Judiasm and Christianity. For Jews, they are the oldest existing versions of many of the prominent Old Testament books, such as Genesis and Isaiah, as well as a fascinating look into the life of the Qumran Jewish sect that is thought to have planted the scrolls in the clay jars and hidden them in the Qumran caves. For Christians, they are also definitive proof of the accuracy of our current translations of the Bible - the versions of the books contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls are exact, word-for-word copies of what we have (in Hebrew, of course). So the next time someone tells you that the accuracy of the Bible can't be certain because of how many times it's been copied or translated, you can tell 'em to do their research.

It snowed last night about 3 inches up on our mountain. That was surprising and also pretty cool.

Also, the sunset today was fantastic. Nothing like driving by downtown Seattle on I-90 during twilight when all the city lights are just coming on. The Olympics were out in all their glory and made for the perfect backdrop.

Welcome to Our World

Tears are falling
Hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised
We've been waiting
Welcome, Holy Child
Welcome, Holy Child

Hope that You don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known;
But long-awaited, Holy Stranger,
Make Yourself at home
Make Yourself at home

Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile fingers sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorns;
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God

Welcome to our world

-Chris Rice

Round 1

Interview Round 1 is over. Went okay. We ended up doing things in English instead of German, which, considering the subject matter, was a huge relief for me. I'm going to withhold any specific details about how things went just because it's probably protected information in some way or form and I have a feeling I shouldn't be publishing it all over the internet.

Coming up will be 2-3 hour-long phone conference interviews with the rest of the team. Not sure when exactly.

Again, terrified and excited. Hopefully my restless brain will let me get more sleep these next few days than it did last night (2 hours).

Drumroll...

Fairly slow but nonetheless productive day today. Up at 9, showered, dressed, off to the mall to nail some Christmas shopping. Got maybe half of that done. Off again to pick up sister from school and visit with former German teacher. Back home, time to lay around, play some good ol' fashioned Nintendo 64 (you know, the system that doesn't cause physical injury) and eat dinner.

And now 7pm, with only a couple hours to go before I decide to go to bed in order to be at least somewhat rested in time for my 5am interview. True to form, I'm wound up tight and my heart is beating like a mentally deranged jackrabbit. More irritating than the constant sensation of a caffeine overdose is the equally constant sensation that I am about to toss my cookies. It's unlikely I'll be getting much sleep tonight before the interview.

I need a drink.

*Gasp*

The company in Germany got in touch with me regarding one of the positions I applied for.

They want to do a telephone interview.

::deep breath::

Terrified and excited!

The Perfect Storm

For those of you keeping up with national news over the past week, we've had a horrendous windstorm in Seattle on Thursday night, and since then my mom's house has been without power or heat. It's been miserable, and all I can say is thank God for down comforters and gas burners on the stove. Power is supposed to come back on sometime Sunday night at the latest. Some estimates were running that up to a million people in the Seattle area have been without power over the past few days. It was worse than the storm we had back in the 90s that knocked out power for about 3 days.

I'm now down in Tacoma for the next 5 days or so at my dad's house, so I probably won't be posting much. Got a lot of Christmas shopping and work to do, meaning reading lots of books and white papers for my thesis research.

Lotta Work in Seattle?

Finally waiting at the gate in the Phoenix airport. Phoenix is the first airport I have been in that offers free wireless internet, which gives it a pretty high rating in my book.

They pulled aside and frisked my guitar after I put it thorugh the x-ray machine.

Also, when I got the gate a man who was flying to Oklahoma was sitting next to me. He looked at the guitar and asked,

Man: "You play that thing in Tulsa?"
Me: "The guitar? No, I can barely play it. I'm going to Seattle anyway."
Man: "My nephew, he got hisself a geetar, n' he plays that thing with his buddies in them little clubs and places all over Tulsa. I didn' e'en know he could play."
*short pause*
Man: "There a lotta work in Seattle?"
Me: "What?"
Man: "Work. Lotta work in Seattle? They still buildin' them planes up there?"
Me: "ummm...I think they might have moved some of that to Chicago. Boeing moved to Chicago, anyway. I think they still build there, though."
Man: "Always movin' stuff these days.....movin'...movin'..."
Me: "Yup."
Man: "'spensive, movin all that stuff."
Me: "Yeah." (inner monologue: It's a lot more 'spensive' to leave it where it is.)

In Threes

......And yet another application sent off to Germany for an internship. No word on the other one still outstanding.

Don't You Just Love Procrastination?

So here I am at my desk attempting to study for my supply chain final tomorrow. It's actually pretty pathetic that I'm not already done with it because this is the kind of material that you brain just soaks up really quick. I could be done in like an hour, but do I study? Nope.

On Wednesday I finally get to high-tail it out of Arizona and go back to Seattle. I am so glad that I booked the night flight for Wednesday because it is going to feel soooooo good to just get on the plane, sit back, listen to my iPod, and doze as we fly through the night. I always really, really look forward to that Christmas break flight back to Seattle. I'm hoping that since I'm flying out on the last day of finals and fairly late at night that the plane will be half empty. Night flights are even more awesome when it feels like you're the only one on the plane.

Having completely botched my finance final on Saturday, I only have 3 minor ones left over the next 3 days. I have just enough time in between each of them to cram for the next one. By Wednesday night I should be pretty exhausted. Going home for a whole month without school is going to feel so good - I haven't had a break from school in almost a year. I had Christmas break in Germany and went straight from spring semester there right back to fall semester here. So this month-long respite is much-needed.

I plan to spend the break narrowing down my thesis topic and searching for a director. There will also be countless hours spent by the fire reading books, which I am really really really really looking forward to. Oh and of course visiting downtown Seattle to soak up all the Christmasness. Christmas in Seattle is just awesome, it really is. There's just something really great about it, and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe because downtown Seattle is such a great "walkable" city and it's fun to see all the decorations and of course drink lots of coffee while you do it. I am so looking forward to 30/40-degree weather.

I am also going to be switching over all my bank accounts to Bank of America and *drumroll* getting me first credit card. Me is very excited about finally having a credit score. I figure it makes sense to go to BofA since they have the partnership with Deutsche Bank that lets you draw money out of their ATMS without a transaction fee - which is going to be a huge plus for me next time I go back to Germany.

Still haven't heard from the German company I applied with. They asked me to email them my resume and transcript the other day (HR lost them) so I guess that's a good sign which indicates I'm at least still in the running. Other than that, it's all quiet on the summer internship front and I'm going to be getting antsy if I don't hear anything from anyone by January.

I can't believe fall semester is already over. It's crazy. Just one more semester and then it's summer again...one more semester after that and I will be gradumatated. I'll have two Bachelor's degrees. Insanity! Can't wait to get those sheepskins in my hands. College is great and all, but I am definitely ready to be done and get on with life.

Alright, enough rambling. Business Process Improvement, Metrics, and Performance Appraisal await.

Wal-Mart: Bringing Christmas Back

Wal-Mart has officially earned its way into my good graces. It began when we learned in supply chain management that Wal-Mart's prices, contrary to popular opinion, are not low because they use sweat shop labor; they're low because they are masters of the supply chain. After learning that, my opinion of the retail giant went from negative to neutral.

But Wal-Mart has officially and firmly won its way onto my list of favorite companies with its latest decision to instruct its employees that it's okay to greet customers with "Merry Christmas." The retailer is also explictly using the phrase in its advertising and on its in-store displays.

I applaud the leadership of Wal-Mart and plan to reward them with my business. It is refreshing to see such a major corporate giant throwing political correctness out the window and giving its customers what they really want. If the news report I saw this evening is accurate, over 69% of Americans prefer to hear the term "Merry Christmas" rather than the bland and insulting "Happy Holidays."

And in a country the majority of which is decidedly Christian, why shouldn't they?

Muffins.

Holy. Crap.

December 7, 1941

We're Richie Rich!

Do you guys remember that movie with Mukulay Caulkin (sp?) when we were kids called Richie Rich? For those of you who can't remember, it was about a kid who was basically the son of the richest man in the world and had everything. This movie came out in 1994. There's a scene in the movie where Richie and his friends are at school. "School" consists of each kid sitting behind this huge mahogany desk with a big fancy-looking computer, fax machine, and telephone while being taught by the teacher as he walks around the room. They did all their work, of course, using their computers, which in 1994 was cool enough in and of itself. But the thing that we kids thought was awesome (hey, we were in 4th grade at the time) was that they could pass "notes" to each other using their fax machines. We thought that was the awesomest thing since sliced bread. We NEVER in a million years thought school could possibly be as awesome as it was for Richie Rich. "Wouldn't it be awesome if the real world were that way?" we sighed.

Now, 12 years later, computers in classrooms are the norm. It's odd NOT to see people with them. And we students, even in high school, do most if not ALL of our work on computers - anything written, anyway. Moreover, the advent and popularity of instant messaging and email means that we literally can - and, let's face it, usually are - passing "notes" in class to each other (paperlessly, I might add) without the teacher ever knowing. Just like Richie Rich.

Technology is so flippin' cool. I wanna know how our parents did college without computers.

FINALLY - Sanity Triumphs in the Cell Phone Cancer Debate

Finally, a study that shows at least some people in this world have brains in their heads.

Your cell phone is not going to give you cancer any more than your radio is. Most people believe this nonsense about cell phones causing tumors because they assume that cell phones operate on some high-tech frequency that's bad for your brain. This is absurd. Do you know how your cell phone works? It's a two-way radio. That's it. A radio. Do you have ANY IDEA how many radio waves you're exposed to every day? If radio waves caused cancer, we'd all be dead by now, I assure you.

Man It's a Freakin Good Day

So last month I wrote and submitted an essay on my study abroad experience for an international education organization/magazine. They emailed me today to tell me that I won 2nd prize and that as runner-up I am invited to come to Washington DC with them (all expenses paid) in late March for an advocacy day. We're going to get to meet with members of Congress on Capitol Hill and talk about international education issues. I am so wicked stoked.

And I'm getting published.

Sweeeeeet.

Good Day

It's been a good day, or a good evening anyway. I have been praying for months now to find a church and body of believers here in Tempe that I could get involved with that's close enough to campus so I don't need a car to get there. And tonight my friend Rachel invited me out to a small, still-growing church that she's been to a couple times. I almost didn't go, because I wanted to get some homework and studying done and was honestly just in one of those "I really don't want to talk to God right now" moods. But I went anyway.

Oh man, good thing I did.

I am in love with this church already and I don't even know five people in it. I would never have found it in a million years - it's in the middle of a neighborhood, just a block from Casey Moore's, which is a pub that I've heard a lot about but never been to. Anyway it's this one-building church, and the only room in it is the sanctuary, which holds maybe 60 people. There are two services on Sunday, one in the morning and one in the evening. I ended up at the evening service, of course, and it's almost all ASU students. The teaching was great, the worship was great, and everyone was friendly. The songs were all original and many were written by the church worship leader himself especially for that body...it was just such a breath of fresh air. And it's barely a mile from the apartment. I am so thankful! Praise God for answered prayers!

If you wanna listen to the sermon we heard tonight (or any other night, for that matter) you can find 'em here. Tonight we heard 77.9

Also on the Cool List tonight, a nostalgic picture:

Kopf Hoch!

Hausaufgaben machen, lernen, mit Professoren treffen....hört es denn JE auf? Egal, ich schaff's irgendwie! Nur noch 10 Tage bis Weihnachtsferien (und ich meine Weihnachtsferien, nicht Winterferien!) Nächster Halt: Finanz!

Hau rein!

Richard's Steamer

I found this absolutely hilarious. Be sure to watch till the end.

Phoenix for the Summer?

There is suddenly a strong possibility that I will be staying in Phoenix for the summer to intern here instead of Seattle. We'll see what happens. There is also currently another HUGE glut of puppies available at the Humane Society, all lab-retriever and german shepard mixes. I'm telling you, if this apartment allowed dogs, we'd have a new resident.

Which brings me to this summer. If I DO stay in Phoenix, I am moving to an apartment that allows dogs and I am buyin' me a dog, and that's the truth.

Ooooooooo...

I have discovered the international wine section of the grocery store. Guess what I found?

Riesling. From Germany. Mmmm. Although I am not sure I like the fruitiness of it. I tend to favor dry wines. In any case, it's good to drink it and remember Germany...

Ach Tübingen...

Frick.

Well, I got an e-mail this morning informing me that I didn't get one of the internships I applied for in Germany. Although, it was electronically generated and not personally written so for all I know it means I didn't get BOTH of the positions I applied for at a certain company which shall remain nameless. I am holding out hope that I might still get the other one.

The tough thing is not knowing whether it's because my application just wasn't good enough or whether summer was just too far down the road for me to be considered. I'll put in my applications again in a couple months and see what happens.

Seattle Storm

So the snow is coming down measurably in inches in Seattle now. There are 2.5 inches so far. The storm began as I was on the plane waiting to pull out of the gate. I looked out the window and the fog and snowfall were so thick that it just looked as though the whole outside world had evaporated into a gray and white mist. I wanted to get out of the plane and just walk around in it. It was one of those moments when you wish that you could "freeze frame" the world and take some time to wander around.

The pilot and flight attendants kept saying that they were trying to get us off the ground and out of this "nasty weather" to Phoenix where it was "better." I sincerely believe I was the only person on that entire flight that had absolutely no desire to leave the state of Washington at that moment.

I am only excited to be back in Phoenix because I know that the sooner I come back here the sooner finals will be over. Just two and a half weeks, and then I'm free. This is our last full week of classes, and then it's time to enter into the downslope that is finals. December 13th can't come fast enough.

Is It Winter Break Yet?

So Thanksgiving here in Seattle was nice. Our whole family was over here, and it was a large and loud affair as usual, although somewhat unconventional in that the usual Halo tournament upstairs between my stepbrothers and I was abnormally short and I was abnormally sucky. Seriously, what happened to my mad skills?

The second abnormal event was that it snowed last night. Snow actually sticking to the ground in Seattle is rare; snow before January and February is even rarer. I woke up to a foggy, cold, and still-snowing morning, which I loved. I have really enjoyed the cold and rainy weather here over the past few days. I am sick to death of Phoenix's love affair with CONSTANT and UNENDING 80-degree cloudless days. Maybe some people can take monotonous weather like that 12 months out of the year, but I am not one of them. Having my first ever real 4-seasons year in Germany last year changed a few things, and I for one am no longer an Arizonaphile. I'm sorry, but it's NOT supposed to be sunny and warm at the end of November. If you don't need a jacket and/or scarf in November, you are not living in a normal part of the world. I need some rain now and then, hence the serious enjoyment in being home the past few days.

Unfortunately it's time to go back to Phoenix tomorrow already. I can't believe that 4 days went by so fast. I'm anxious to get back only so that we can get on with the ridiculous insanity that is final exams and promptly get the heck out of that horribly sunny state again for winter break, during which time I will be forming and refining my thesis topic, reading lots and lots of books, and spending lots and lots of time in coffee shops watching the rain outside and/or enjoying Seattle at Christmas. I love Seattle at Christmas.

Tomorrow I get to experience air travel on what is supposed to be one of the worst days of the year to fly. I hope it's not too bad. I plan on studying and iPodding all the way back to Phoenix.

::yawn::

5:30am. Time to get up and catch my flight to Seattle.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Things You CAN'T Do....

...when you're not in a pool.

Finally! (squared)

I caved in today and ditched my morning class to go to the Student Health Center. I woke up this morning coughing so hard that I triggered my gag reflex. That is a sign that this 2-week old cough needs to go. Tyler suggested that it was probably a bacterial infection, and that I'd need antibiotics. That is exactly what the health center prescribed me. Matthew is on round 1 of 3 of a ziwlkesjkfhsa, or whatever the medicine is called. Man, I love antibiotics.

I have never once used the health center until today. I was actually pretty impressed with the level of operations they've got there. It's a fully-staffed clinic/doctor's office, and they even had a pharmacy. I walked in with a cough and walked out after being checked out, prescriptions already filled and in hand. Best part is, they just bill your insurance. Love it. Why haven't I used this before?

Finally!

I sent off my applications today for two different internships with a certain telecommunications firm in Germany. We'll see what happens.

Glenn Beck,

...you're my hero.

Matt = Master Chef

I am so proud of the dinner I made tonight. I decided that since cooking should be fun, relatively quick & easy, and healthy, that I am going to make a concerted effort to learn to cook Italian style. So tonight I made a complete 3-course meal. I started off with bread dipped in olive oil & balsamic, followed by fresh tomatoes & mozzarella, and finally finished with baked chicken marinated in Italian dressing. Also a few glasses of a very nice chardonnay that I picked out myself.

Now it's time to do homework.

Surveys are Fun!

Finish The Sentence...

1. I've come to realize that...
Seattle really is my home and that I want to be there.
2. I am listening to...
nothing, actually. Better remedy that. I recommend Josh Radin.
3. I talk...
as little as possible so that my sore throat and cough will go away.
4. I love...
having the free time to sit in a coffee shop and read.
5. My best friend(s)...
are doin' a little dance.
8. I hate it when people...
make assumptions about or otherwise categorize me.
9. Love is...
not far down the road! I can feel it!
10. Marriage is....
very far down the road.
11. Somewhere, someone is...
waking up and doing this exact same survey.
12. I'll always...
act about 20 years older than I actually am.
13. I have a secret crush on...
no one at the moment.
14. The last time I cried was...
maybe a month ago.
15. My cell phone...
irritates me with its stupid little "Verizon Wireless" handicaps.
16. When I wake up in the morning....
I arch my back and stretch, then relax and go back to sleep for a while.
17. Before I go to sleep at night...
I always have to tell myself "Okay, stop thinking. Just breathe slowly."
18. Right now I am thinking about...
the meeting for the Global Section of the Chronicle in a few hours.
19. Babies are...
great, until they turn into teenagers.
20. I get on myspace...
never in your life.
21. Today I...
ate Chex cereal with lots of honey on top.
22. Tonight I will...
do homework.
23. Tomorrow I will...
do even more homework (gotta get ahead for T-Day!)
24. I really want...
a car.
25. The person who most likely to repost this is...
I think Erica and Shannon should do it.

Leiden als Wegweiser

Gepriesen sei Gott, der Vater unseres Herrn Jesus Christus! In seinem großen Erbarmen hat er uns zum zweiten Mal geboren und mit einer lebendigen Hoffnung erfüllt. Diese Hoffnung hat ihren festen Grund darin, daß Jesus Christus vom Tod auferstanden ist. Sie richtet sich auf das neue Leben, das er schon jetzt im Himmel für euch bereithält als einen Besitz, der niemals vergeht oder verdirbt oder aufgezehrt wird. Wenn ihr ihm fest vertraut, wird er seine starke Hand über euch halten und euch bewahren, so daß ihr gerettet werdet und am Ende der Zeit das unvergängliche Leben bekommt, das er euch zugedacht hat.

Deshalb seid ihr voll Freude, auch wenn ihr jetzt für kurze Zeit leiden müßt und auf die verschiedensten Proben gestellt werdet. Das geschieht nur, damit euer Vertrauen auf Gott sich bewähren kann. Wie das vergängliche Gold im Feuer auf seine Echtheit geprüft wird, so wird euer Vertrauen, das viel kostbarer ist als Gold, im Feuer des Leidens geprüft. Wenn es sich als echt erweist, wird Gott euch mit Ehre und Herrlichkeit belohnen an dem Tag, an dem Jesus Christus sich in seiner Herrlichkeit zeigt. Ihn liebt ihr, obwohl ihr ihn nie gesehen habt. Ihm vertraut ihr, obwohl ihr ihn nicht sehen könnt. Darum seid ihr schon jetzt von unaussprechlicher Freude und seligem Jubel erfüllt. Denn ihr seid gewiß, daß euer Vertrauen euch die endgültige Rettung, das unvergängliche Leben, bringen wird.

1 Petrus 1:3-9
(English: 1 Peter 1:3-9)

I have taken to reading my German translation of the New Testament and praying in German. I have found that praying in German is such an amazingly beneficial thing for me to do; it restricts my vocabulary and prevents me from getting carried away in praying for praying's sake. When praying in German, I can only express the simplest desires of my heart, speaking, quite literally, much like a child. Tonight I came across this passage while reading 1 Peter in my German NT. Something about reading the Bible in German makes it come alive for me. After reading this, I finally understand what it means to be joyful in affliction.

We all have one specific demon, one specific pain, that gnaws on our souls incessantly. This demon, this pain, causes us to ask ourselves our life's most important question. This question is different for everyone. But no matter what the question is, no matter what form this personal demon takes, it is always the one that causes us our greatest pain and suffering. We rarely share this pain with anyone else, because this question is always tied to our deepest and darkest secrets.

In the German translation of this passage, Peter describes this question as "the fire of suffering." I love that. The fire of suffering. The English translation says "refined by fire." Personally, I think that expression is ridiculous. It means nothing. It doesn't capture the pain of what it means to be in that place, holding that question in our hands, screaming for an answer. The FIRE of suffering. That's what it feels like, doesn't it? Slowly burning to death. And no one else even knows there's a fire.

But Peter encourages us here to see our suffering in a different light. Don't worry about getting an answer to the question, he says. Instead, take that question to the feet of the One who has planted it in your heart. Don't expect to get an answer - rather, find the discreet joy that comes from knowing that God has planted that question, that suffering. Know that He has allowed it for a reason; that He never wastes any hurt that you endure. That pain has a purpose. It is a test, and it is a marathon.

God wants us to find the hidden joy in our suffering. When I realize that the pain of my deepest question exists solely for my good and for the glory of God, I am comforted beyond any yes/no answer God could give me. It wouldn't help much for God to assure me that one day, I will no longer have this question. How far ahead in the future is the end? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Next year?.........or in heaven?

No, knowing that it will all be over one day when I die isn't a comfort for today. The comfort and the incredible joy that comes today is knowing that my suffering is the very thing that will lead me to Him. THAT is how we rejoice in affliction. We can even come to a place of THANKING God for our suffering, because He is merciful enough to bestow it upon us and therefore lead us to His open embrace.

"So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy that words cannot express, because you are receiving the salvation of your souls, which is the purpose of your faith in Him."

Bloody Peasants!!

Run Away!! Run Away!!

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are led by the wise wizard to the lair of a terrible monster ravaging the countryside . . .



Demonstrating - yet again - why Monty Python and the Holy Grail is perhaps the most hilarious movie ever made by the hand of man.

Petition to Revoke the Independence of the United States of America

Okay, this group was created on Facebook, and I have to say, I almost died laughing reading it. Hope you get a laugh too. My personal favourite is number 11.

To the citizens of the United States of America:
In light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair MP, for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections.

The House of Representatives and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters.

You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."

You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

Look up "interspersed."

There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier).

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters.

British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness. Popular British films such as the Italian Job and the Wicker Man should never be remade.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There are other types of football such as Rugby, Aussie Rules & Gaelic football. However proper football - which will no longer be known as soccer, is the best known, most loved and most popular. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game.

The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football.

Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).

We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2007.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of North America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders," which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. The 4th of July is no longer a public holiday. The 2nd of November will be a new national holiday, but only in Britain. It will be called "Indecisive Day."

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call 'French fries' are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually beer at all, it is lager . From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From the 10th of November the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as you will be permitted to keep calling it until the 1st of April) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon -- get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

Matt Needs a Car.

This weekend has been spent - so far - exclusively on studying for my Business Law exam coming up on Monday. Yesterday I was thinking to myself that I really need to get my crap together and get my work done by Saturday so that I don't have to use Sunday to do it.

And - just in time for the semester to really beginning to pick up - I have now contracted a sore throat and a headache that will not go away. Worse, the bottle of Ibuprofen I bought a few weeks back is now contradband because they've recalled the drug that is the active ingredient in that stuff. So all I have at my disposal are NyQuil and a recalled drug that will destroy my liver. Great.

My grades are slowly but surely improving. With a last-ditch effort, I may be able to hurl myself across the finish line this semester with more As than I expected, although there are bound to be some A-minuses scattered in there all over the place. I blame the adjustment back to American univeristy life. And the fact that my classes this semester HAVE BEEN A JOKE.

The apartment has no food save some Rice-a-Roni, which means I'm basically on a forced fasting schedule. This is ridiculous. I. Need. A. Frickin. Car. I HATE living in a place with no grocery stores within walking distance. HATE IT. Don't get me wrong; I love my apartment and its location. For HEAVENS SAKE, why hasn't a grocery store had the brains to open up a branch right next to campus?? I've half a mind to just buy a car over winter break for the sake of my own sanity. Debt be damned. Not being able to get around is one thing. Slowly starving to death is another. I'm going to need SOMETHING come May anyway, when it's time to move out of the apartment and head north for the summer.

I take solace in the knowledge that ASU sent the Cougs packing yesterday. Not in our house, kitties.

Need a New Desktop Wallpaper?

Those of you who know me well know that I can't stand to have the same desktop wallpaper for more than about a week. I change it constantly. Problem is, eventually you run out of pictures either in your default wallpapers or in your own photo albums.

I've found a great site that has wallpapers, themes, and even icons to download for free. Check it out:

InterfaceLift.com

Veterans Day

For all veterans, past and present . . .

thank you.

On This Day In History

-Washington becomes the 42nd State of the Union in 1889.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist and author of Crime and Punishment, born in 1821.
-Armistice which ends World War I signed in 1918.
-Poland proclaimed an independent republic, 1918.
-Veterans Day first celebrated in the United States, 1954

November 9, 1989

Weekly Dose of Ann

"History was made this week! For the first time in four election cycles, Democrats are not attacking the Diebold Corp. the day after the election, accusing it of rigging its voting machines. I guess Diebold has finally been vindicated."

If My Apartment Allowed Dogs

I would be down to the Humane Society for this dog so fast it'd make your head spin. This is exactly the kind of dog I'm looking for, a German Shepard/Lab Retriever mix.

And Then, Predictably, It All Hit the Fan

Our marketing project has run into some pretty crazy difficulties. A combination of slightly flawed strategy and bad implementation is threatening to kill the entire endeavor. I had been hoping for a kind of slow end to the week, but it looks like that's not going to be the case. We've got some last-minute insanity to take care of because everything has to be done by Tuesday, and our final presentation for the client is on the 21st. There goes my weekend. Again.

On a different note, all I can think about lately is how bad I want to adopt a dog from the humane society or something. I keep searching the classifieds on cragislist for those "free to a good home" types of ads. There are lots of them, actually. Do you ever do that? Search for stuff online that you can't have but imagine that you could anyway? I do that with cars all the time, and now I'm doing it with puppies. How sad. I guess what's really sad is that if my apartment allowed dogs I would probably have already adopted one by now. Why do I want a dog so bad?

Honors Devils Retreat

Retreat was an awesome time, with many hours spent around the roaring campfire and lots of laughing and storytelling. I am way too tired to write about it now but maybe I'll make a little iMovie about it later and post that.

Back into the grind tomorrow. Thank God in 18 days I'll be in Seattle.

jump into my nightmare - the water's warm!

It's that time of the semester where, instead of ebbing and flowing normally throughout the week, everything starts to hit the fan all at once, so it becomes difficult to even catch up, let alone actually get ahead. Like I said, I'm oddly unstressed this semester, but I am bored. And tired of school.

This weekend is the Honors Devils retreat, which I think will be a good time. But its timing isn't fantastic, since I have a test next week and I haven't even finished all the chapters yet. Not to mention that I'm behind in Finance and Legal Studies. And Supply Chain. And Management.

To add to my misery, I went in to pay my citation today (yes, I got a ticket. To make a long story short, don't ever take glass bottles into a public park). To my utter shock, the ticket cost an outrageous $250. I don't think speeding tickets even cost that much. I would have fought it but - to make another long story short - I would definitely have lost. So while the punch hurts, it's probably the best solution.

I tried to do some studying today but I just don't have the jam anymore. I'm tired, I'm bored, and I'm just plain frustrated with life's monotony right now. There are very few things going well (actually I can't think of one that is). My grades aren't stellar and I'm having a tough time just staying on top of everything. I'm starting to severely question the wisdom in taking 25 credit hours next semester.

Often when I talk to people about stuff like this they tell me, "Well, that's just the way life is. It's crazy sometimes." And you know what? I think that's bull. I think life is only as crazy as you choose to make it, and it just so happens that our society loves running at the speed of light and not taking time out to actually enjoy life anymore. And I for one have decided this is not my bandwagon. I want off. We all look down on those "crazies" who live out on communes in the wilderness or those tribes in Africa that are living in what we think is the stone age - but have you ever thought that maybe we're the crazy ones? E-mail, cell phones, computers, deadlines, meetings - they're great things, but who really needs them? I swear, sometimes I think the Amish are on to something.

The only thing keeping me alive right now is the knowledge that in just under 3 weeks I get to go home to Seattle for the short respite that will be Thanksgiving. All I can say is that it's going to be one heckuva relief to get on the plane, stick my iPod in my ear, and just sit back and leave godforsaken Phoenix behind for four days. Good riddance.

My Super Spoiled Sixteen

After coming back from my run today, as is my custom, I flipped on the TV and sat down on the floor to watch some tube while my body returned to equilibrium. Today I happened upon a show on MTV called "My Super Sweet Sixteen" which is essentially this reality TV series where they film the birthday parties that these really, really, really, really rich girls have thrown for themselves. I witnessed:

1. The booking of a $25,000 rapper to perform for the party.
2. The delivering of invitations to guests by a hired performer dressed as a French maid (party theme was French) using the girl's personal driver (by the way, it's a Bentley).
3. The booking of a troupe of circus performers to perform at the party at a cost of $3,000 each.
4. The surverying of the venue (ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel) and the girl's hissy fit when management informed her that the circus performers would not be able to dangle on hooks from the ceiling because it wasn't designed for that purpose.
5. The girl buying - and DECIDING on - dresses for her two best friends to wear for the party (they had to look "better than all the other guests.") Total cost for this shopping trip: $3,890.
6. The hiring of "hott" models who would escort the birthday girl into the ballroom at the venue for her "entrance." Applicants were required to "show me your abs" and were rated on a sexy scale.
7. The guests of honor being brought to the party at the hotel in a huge, silver tour/party bus.
8. The girl picking out her mother's jewelry to wear to the party, including a 9 carat diamond ring. Actual quote, I kid you not: "When I finish putting on all this jewelry I'll be worth well over $1 million . . . *giggle* but I'm worth it!"
9. The presentation of the birthday present from her parents during the party: a brand-new 2007 BMW 330xi. The car cost $49,000. The girl went ballistic and exclaimed breathlessly to the camera, "I love my parents! . . . and I love showing off for everyone!"

Total cost for JUST the party: $200,000
Including the car, the cost of this girl's birthday party was well over a quarter million dollars.

Meanwhile, that same night, statistics tell us that a 16-year-old girl somewhere in the world died of starvation or disease on her birthday.

In the name of all that is holy, how can anyone justify that kind of reckless, excessive self-indulgence?

Bigot of the Day

"Radical Chrisitianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in this country."
-Rosie O' Donnell today on The View

Just Waitin'....(Waitin')

It's funny how your day can sometimes be negatively impacted before you even get out of bed. After a late-night study session at IHOP until 1am, I finally was able to make it into bed around 2 in the morning. With impeccable timing, a wave of nausea swept over my body and was just enough to keep me awake until nearly 4am. After falling asleep for about 1 hour and having a disturbing dream that I've already forgotten, I woke up drenched in a cold sweat. There are few things I hate more than waking up in a cold sweat.

Three hours later the alarm went off at 8am. I drag myself out of bed and am 10 minutes late to class, where - surprise surprise - my stomach STILL hurts even after a breakfast of cornflakes practically swimming in honey.

And as an additional ray of sunshine, we got our test scores back in Finance. I scored a 65%. That's including the curve.

This semester hasn't been a stressful one like past semesters have been. I'm just bored.. Incredibly bored. I'm sick of reading texbooks and taking tests.

On days like this, it's best if I just pop my iPod in my ears and mentally unplug. Listening to John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" while biking back to the apartment helped a lot.

The Simple Life

I remember one time I had a temporary job with a company that laid asphalt. You know, that really dark tar stuff and they spread it all over the road and it make it all smooth and new again. Anyway, part of the job was pressure-washing the old asphalt to prepare it for the new layer. I remember doing that for hours on end, just wandering around on this asphalt pressure washing it, back and forth, back and forth. At first, in my typical anal fashion, I was worried about getting dirty or wet (you know me, Mr. Pretty Boy). But after a while, I didn't care. I allowed the water to soak through my shoes and into my socks, didn't flinch when dirt and mud splattered all over me. It became oddly therapeutic, and since the job was so mindless my thoughts were free to wander. I had some of my best "thinking days" out there on the asphalt. I imagine that working land might be similar. Just gettin' dirty and working the farm. I think there must be something really satisfying in that kind of simplicity.

I think that's what bothers me about living in this day and age - life has become too complicated for its own good. Or better, man has made it too complicated. We sit around aruging metaphysics or the meaning of life or pondering philsophy or building bigger and better companies and at the end of the day it's all just so we can sit back, lower ourselves into a vat of bubbling pride, and marvel at our own pathetic greatness. If there's one thing about humanity that I can't stand, it's how full of ourselves we are. I'm reminded constantly of 1 Corinthians 1:19-20:

For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

I love the wording of that phrase there: "the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for God sometimes to sit up there in heaven and look down upon us. We really do think we know it all, and there are a lot of people in this world that have convinced themselves that just because they don't believe in something it doesn't exist. We've reduced truth to relativity and proclaimed the wisdom of mankind to be universal law. We neither need nor desire a God who holds the world in His hand and to whom all things are accountable because we've constructed a world that exists without Him. Or so we think.

One of the things that I love most about God is the fact that it's impossible to really have a relationship with Him without recognizing our own relative insignificance. There is an intense and gentle freedom to be found in the simple aknowledgement of my own depravity and helplessness. I love the fact that I'm just a guy splattered with mud and wearing wet socks who has no idea what he's doing - and yet the God of this universe sings over me and rejoices in my very existence. David rejoiced that God rescued him "because he delighted in me." God delights in us. Doesn't that just make you speechless?

The greatest obstacle to enjoying a relationship with God is our own pride. I have met many, many people over the last four years at this university who have this problem - including myself. I meet people every day who are convinced that God is sitting in their seat. I often try to put myself in God's seat without realizing it. Many times it's with full knowledge.

But sometimes I'm just standing there, with mud splattered on my face and wet socks, grinning childishly at my Father. I think that this, truly, is the meaning of life. It's not about money or fame or power or security or wisdom or know-how. It's about standing in a puddle and smiling up at my Father, who laughs with joy and rubs the dirt out of my wet hair with a towel. That is what I was created for, and that is how I want to live.

Germany Withdrawals

Answering messages from my German friends back in Tübingen on Studiverzeichnis makes me want to just bolt to the airport right now, get on a plane, and fly back to Germany. I'm continually blown away by the sheer depth and quality of the friendships that I have with some of the people back there, and by how much I miss them all so much. How is it that I am blessed with such amazing friends after only knowing some of them for one year?

It's times like this where I'd give anything for just one hour in a cafe or in the Neckarmüller beer garden with them, drinking a cool, frisch gezapftes beer and watching the Neckar flow slowly by. Maybe it's because lately my life consists almost literally of nothing but studying, but when I think back on the year in Tübingen, life in Germany seems so much fuller in comparison. There was time to stop and drink it all in, even if I didn't always appreciate it. There was time to sit in a cafe and read a good book or to go on day trips with friends. Here, there isn't time, or there isn't consensus, or there just aren't the resources.

What surprises me the most is that all of us USA/UK students are STILL feeling this way, even this long after returning home and all at the same time. I expected this, but not for this long. It's at least comforting, though, to know that I'm not the only one who is pining after Deutschland like this and that there's nothing wrong with it. It's something that binds us all, and it's something that only those of us who have done it can truly understand. And really, that's a beautiful thing.

So is Tübingen right now:



As most of you know, I've been feverishly trying to get an internship at T-Mobile Germany lined up starting in May. I had originally wanted to stay for 6 months, which would mean that I finish school in Spring 2008. But over the past few days I have felt the oddest and most unexpected urge to stay in Seattle for the summer and finish in the Fall instead. I'm especially puzzled by this because of the fact that I'm missing Germany so badly right now. It's the weirdest thing because everything in me wants to go back to Germany, but there's this smaller yet somehow more powerful voice telling me that I should stay in Seattle this summer.

This urge has nothing to do with my parents' constant pressure to stay in the States. Lord knows I didn't listen to 'em when they wanted me to do Germany for one semester instead of a year, and I sure as heck ain't listenin' now. I've always deferred to my parents' authority or expertise in most areas - but when it comes to international endeavors involving Germany, frankly, I think I know better than they do what's best for me.

The funniest thing about this is watching my mother try to make a case for me to stay in the States. She tries to make it sound logical and like the "smart" thing to do; but it's plain to see that, deep down, she is coming to an understanding of the simple truth that she no longer has any control over where I choose to go. Not only is her only son grown up, but he's got an insatiable appetite for Germany, and there's nothing she can do to stop it. I suppose it's hard enough to watch your first child really "leave the nest" and that this is only compounded when he's trying not just to leave the nest but find an entirely different tree. However, it was a source of endless amusement to me while in Germany that my mother's ultimate nightmare was not that I would die in a plane crash on the way there or get lost in Europe; no, her worst nightmare was that I would fall in love with a German girl and never want to come back; she breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the end of the year rolled around and I was reported to still be single.

No, it isn't parental pressure that has lead to this weird desire to stay in Seattle. Rather, it was literally an overnight thing. I woke up one day and thought, "I think I'll stay in Seattle this summer." How on earth do you explain that??

Next Semester = Woah

So far, my course load for next semester is at 22 credit hours. Now i'm thinking of adding yet another course, cause I wanna do independent study for my last German class. That would bring me to 25 hours.

Rock and roll, baby.

-edit-

So the German independent study is a go. Best of all, it's an "honors directed study" class, which means that I get to have Prof. Horwath as my supervisor and I get to basically study whatever I want. Which means I can use that to help me formulate and start my thesis and maybe even have Prof. Horwath direct it for me.

To understand how awesome I think Prof. Horwath is, ask Shannon what she thinks of Dr. Dalton (or basically any other professor in the BHC).

Next semester is going to be SO AWESOMELY EXHAUSTING AND AWESOME IN ITS AWESOMENESS.

Quotes of the Day

So, it becomes the devil's business to keep the Christian's spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes. He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage . . . we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead.

-A.W. Tozer

Listen carefully: any movement toward freedom and life, any movement toward God or others, will be opposed. Marriage, friendship, beauty, rest - the thief wants it all.

-John Eldredge

Thriday

Hooray! It's Thriday!

Yesterday afternoon around 3 a group of us Honors Devils (and by a group I mean 2) plus our recruiting director and one of our other BHC staff members headed up to Flagstaff to do an Evening with ASU, which is basically where we bring a sort of ASU orietntation program to the students in their hometown so they don't have to come down to Phoenix. It was so much fun. Some of the greatest quotations from the evening:

Lexi, while she, Adrienne and I are setting up tables for the Resource Fair:
Lexi: Oooooo look at the first little brochure on the inside of this viewbook: "No Tolerance Cheating Policy."
Me: Gee, that's the FIRST thing we want to impress on new students.
Lexi: I know, seriously! (in low, menancing voice with bugged-out eyes) NO CHEAAAAAAAAAATINNNGGG!!

In response to a question during the student panel session:
Student: Is the honors college hard?
Me: Ummmmm...is it harder? Well, yeah, I'm not going to lie to you, it's harder. Not holy-crap-I-want-to-kill-myself harder, but it's harder.

Another question in student panel:
Mother: Are the students in the honors college....you know....nerds?
Adrienne: Well, to give you an idea, we don't spend our weekends playing chess.

After student panel:
Adrienne: Matt, we rock so seriously hard!

We seriously do rock seriously hard.

Business As Usual

Practice presentation in Marketing for our meeting with the client tomorrow went swimmingly. Tomorrow should be no problem. I also picked up my suit this evening and I'm pretty excited to wear it for the first time tomorrow.

I also found out today that my request to change my major got approved, which means that effective next semester I'll be a supply chain management major officially. Thank God! The timing could not have been better.

After the presentation tomorrow it will be pretty much business as usual this week. Tomorrow night the honors college is hosting a Star Party on Hayden Lawn, where we honors college nerds get to go and look at the stars through telescopes. I am purty excited. Then Friday is drive-out-into-the-middle-of-nowhere-with-a-coffee-thermos-and-look-at-the-stars-all-night-long night with Adrienne and Shannon.

I can't believe we're halfway through October already! Where has the semester gone?

8 Films to Die For

An independent film studio is releasing 8 horror films next month that were deemed "too graphic, too controversial" for the mainstream box office.

The trailer alone scares me.

When I look at the whole horror genre, I sometimes wonder where our society is heading. Movies get increasingly graphic, increasingly gory, increasingly...well, just plain scary. Think of films like Saw and Hostel, where EVERYTHING is shown in all its graphic detail. It's like a drug. Once one movie breaks a barrier, it sets the stakes even higher. Directors and producers have to show things even gorier, even scarier, even more horrifying and depraved just to get a mild shock out of audiences. But how much is too much? Where do you really draw the line?

The older I get the less and less desire I have to see films like these. I just don't want images like these in my mind. Why put them there?

Believe Me Now

I watch you looking out across the raging water
So sure your only hope lies on the other side
You hear the enemy that's closing in around you
and I know that you don't have the strength to fight
But do you have the faith to stand

and believe Me now
Believe Me here
Remember all the times I've told you loud and clear
I am with you
I am for you
So believe Me now

I am the One who waved my hand and split the ocean
I am the One who spoke the words and raised the dead
I loved you long before I set the world in motion
I know all the fears you're feeling now
But do you remember who I am?

So believe Me now
Believe Me here
Remember all the times I've told you loud and clear
I am with you
I am for you
So believe Me now

So believe Me now
Believe it's true
I never have, I never will abandon you
And the God that I have always been
I will forever be
So believe Me now

I am the God who never wastes a single hurt you endure
My words are true and all my promises are sure
So believe Me now

-Steven Curtis Chapman

The Clarendon

My mom is in town since yesterday for a business meeting. However, her visit also serves as an opportunity to visit me and take me out today to buy my first business suit.

So last night after her flight got in we went to Olive Garden and had dinner. Then we went out to the grocery store and stocked up my apartment with more groceries than I know what to do with. Since we were planning to get up today and go suit shopping in the morning before her business meeting, I decided to pack an overnight bag and spend the night at the hotel with mom. So I packed, we got into her rental car, programmed the GPS, and off we went.

"So where is this hotel?" I ask?
"It's called the Clarendon, and it's supposed to be in downtown Phoenix. My Executive Assistant said it's really nice." Mom replies.
"Ok, cool.'

I knew we had a problem the moment the GPS navigator directed me to get off the 51 at Indian School Road. This is not a good part of town, even in daytime. We're passing 99-cent store after liquor store after bar.

"Mom, this really isn't a good part of town."
"I know, I was thinking the same thing. This isn't looking good."
"*BEEP!* In three hundred yards, turn left onto third street."

We round another corner and lo and behold, the hotel comes into view. As if we could have possibly missed it.

A large and plain 3-story white brick building with few windows, the Clarendon sports blue-colored lighting that shoots up the sides of the building to give it the appearance of glowing. I think this is almost classy for about 3/10 of a second until I realize that the color of the light is changing. Blue, pink, green, red, orange, blue....

On one side of the hotel is a bar with completely glass walls so you can see straight inside. A limosine is parked out front and a blond girl wearing what I would imagine is an uncomfortably tight red dress (any tighter and she'd be suffocating) is stepping out of it. What I would imagine is supposed to be a bellboy is standing at the front. He looks more like a bouncer, wearing a white shirt with no sleeves.

I look over at Mom, whose jaw is now firmly on the floor of the passenger side.

"Mom.......this looks like a strip club!"
"I...am going to KILL my executive assistant."

We decide that - maybe, just maybe - it's actually nice on the inside, so we park in the cheap-apartment-covered-style-parking lot next to the hotel, grab just one bag each and walk to check in. The lobby is basic but trendy, and you can tell they've gone a long way trying to style it up - largely unsuccessfully. We are visably uncomfortable and the overly cheery girl at the front desk notices this as she ratttles on about how the hotel has the same beds as in five-star hotels and blah blah blah and you'll also notice a large canvass artwork - like this one - in your room by the window, and it actually slides over the window to provide a non-electirc blackout shade and blah blah blah enjoy your stay with us!

We step into the tiled - yes, TILED - elevator that is about the size of a small closet and take it to the 2nd floor. Upon stepping out, we discover that this particular hotel has an inward courtyard - an no interior hallways. It looks like a Motel 8. Mom grumbles something to herself and I notice that the room signs on the doors are actualy fake Arizona licesense plates with the room numbers on them. Classy. We find our room and open the door.

Well, the girl at the front desk wasn't lying. The beds look expensive.

However, nothing else about the room looks expensive.

The walls are stucco. Cold and bare. The carpet is dark and doesn't match the rest of the decor, which is red and black and trying to look classy but actually just looks tacky. There is no real countertop in the bathroom, just a pedestal sink. No refrigerator, although there is a mini-bar simply sitting on a cafeteria-style tray on the same table the TV is resting on. And as the icing on the cake, there is a large, seven-by five-foot mirror propped up against the wall. Facing one of the beds.

"We are NOT staying here."

20 seconds later we're rushing down the stairs and toward the exit to the parking lot. As we pass one room, the very unmistakable smell of pot wiffs out at us.

"Do you smell that?"
"Yeah. Hurry."

We practially RUN to the car, get in, and take off. We didn't even bother to check out. Mom is already on the phone with a Country Inn & Suites in Tempe near the University. 20 minutes later we're there and checked in.

Warm, country atmosphere with a huge wooden staircase in the lobby. A cheerful old man at the front desk. No full-length mirrors in the room propped up against the wall.

And it was $30 less than the Clarendon.

Welp, that lasted long...

Yup. I'm back.

I know. I know. I KNOW. I said I was shutting this blog down. Geez people, a guy is allowed to change his mind, you know. Several times if necessary. The point is, the new website I made in iWeb was cool for about 24 hours and then I realized that it just wasn't quite what I wanted as far as flexibility and features go. And I'm not paying $100 for something that doesn't fit right. So here we are back to square one. Oh well.

Today was an amazing Monday. For starters, I woke up fully rested and energized at 8:30am. I was actually in a good mood when I got up and ready to start the day. That's rarely the case even on Fridays, and today is MONDAY.

So I skipped (not really) off to class and took wonderful detailed notes and paid attention and even sat up straight. During break I read the Wall Street Journal. Then back to class. More wonderful notes and good posture. Then back to Starbucks, where I did half of my reading for my legal & ethical studies class. Productiiiiiiiiive. Then lab, which I didn't even need to do this week, but I figured I might as well get it done now when it's not as much of a crunch as it would be next week (that's called being "proactive." Sometimes I try it).

Then tour at the BHC, which was one of those awkward ones where the visitors never speak and don't have any questions. I much prefer the semi-annoying parents who ask dozens of stupid questions to the mute ones who don't seem to care much.

After stopping at the bookstore to pick up a ream of printer paper and finding a $4 paperback that looked cool, it was back to the apartment, where I cracked open a beer in celebration of my wonderful day and proceeded to actually COOK dinner (Oregano chicken in a tomato/mushroom/garlic sauce with green beens). And I just finished my finance homework, planned out what has to get done every day for the rest of the week in order to be ahead (ahead! I haven't been AHEAD in months) for the weekend when Mom gets here. Oh, and I even got an hour of guitar practice in today.

Most days I'm just a spaz trying to keep up unsuccessfully. Today, Monday cowered in fear as I beat the living daylights out of it. I love beating the crap out of Mondays. Tuesday, you're next.

In closing: check out the new Mac ads. The counselor one is my favorite.

New Blog Home

Hey everyone, I now have a temporary new home on the web. I'm using a trial of .Mac membership, so should I decide not to continue this my account will expire in 60 days. Until then, enjoy the new home of my blog and everything else:

http://web.mac.com/matthew.linden

The End of an Era

Alright everyone, I've done a lot of thinking about whether or not to keep this blog going and I have decided to......

::drumroll::

shut it down.

I'll pause for a moment so you all can gather the rotten fruit you're going to throw at my virtual stage. It's just gotten to the point where blogging really has no value anymore....Most of the people who read it are people who see me often if not every day and it's just sort of a drain.

I would like to continue having a website and even a blog of some kind, but I want it to henceforth be of my own design and on my own terms. I've been building a website in iWeb (don't you love Mac applications) that would theoretically include photos and a blog and all that jazz, but I have no place to host it as of yet and I am not going to pay for the kind of significant hosting space that would require. Whether or not that project actually gets off the ground at all remains to be seen.

So for now, Matt's Blog is on hiatus. Any suggestions as to a place where I can host (a lot) of space for free would be welcome.

Think I'm a Business Major?

I get asked all the time what it is that Supply Chain Management majors such as myself actually study. To finally put it all to rest, the better question is what DON'T we study. Supply Chain Management is tied, quite literally, to every aspect of a business' operations. Packaging (Marketing), Shipping (Logistics), Strategy (Management), and Servicing (Outsourcing). We SCM majors spend our time trying to figure out how a company can do what it does faster, cheaper, and better. I'll let you figure out what that means when you're dealing with a multinational corporation that works in 30+ countries.

One thing that we SCM majors are OBSESSED with is called value-added processes. Value-added processes are any process or anything you do that adds value to what your company is producing. For example, if a worker in a BMW factory is screwing down bolts in a car's axle, he is doing a value-added activity. If he gets up and walks down the assembly line to work on the next car, he is wasting time. Not adding value. Every single solitary SECOND that your employees are not doing something that directly contributes to the production of a product or execution of strategy is not a value-added process. You know the expression "time is money?" We SCM people came up with that.

So where am I going with this? In case you all thought I wasn't enough of a yuppie, here's an example for you:

I'm walking along through campus and my final destination is the business college starbucks, where I plan to get my reading for the day done as well as write my first little assignment for my class tonight. On the way there Shannon and I have to make a few pitstops at the honors college to visit Keith and to get some other stuff done. And the whole way as we're doing these things - every single STEP on our detours off the shortest and quickest possible route to the Starbucks - I'm thinking, This is SO not a value-added process.

There is no hope for me.

German Unity Day!!!

Today is the Tag der deutschen Einheit! (Day of German Unity)
For those of you who did NOT pay attention in history class and are therefore complete losers, today is the day when East and West Germany were reunited as one country 16 years ago in 1990. It is a very important historic day in light of Cold War history and the history of Germany itself. So get out and celebrate!!
I'm debating wearing my German flag around myself to classes today....although I think people at the business school would be a little weirded out.

Internship Applications Galore

Who's excited about applying for internships in Germany? That would be moi. I am applying with T-Mobile again, as well as a few other firms. My hope is to finish as much of my major coursework this year as possible, and then to head to Germany in May. Internships with T-Mobile last 6 months, so if I end up getting one there I won't be graduating till Spring 2008.

The funny thing is that at this point I am so excited just at the prospect of landing an internship in Germany that I hardly care when I graduate anymore. Woooooo international experiences!

Ahhhh...

So last night was a night of celebration because Shannon finished the LSAT and is now freeeeeee. We pregamed at Old Chicago, which prides itself on having 110 different kinds of beer from all over the world. You get three guesses which type I chose, and the first two don't count. Lucky for me, they happened to have Spaten's Oktoberfest blend ON TAP (!!) which means I was drinkin' $2 pints. Oh yeahhhh. Then we headed off to Native New Yorker for more drinkin' and eatin'. It was a good time.

Tuesday is the Tag der deutschen Einheit!!!! (German Unity Day) I for one am wicked excited. I'm debating wearing my German flag to classes. For those who don't know, the Tag der deutschen Einheit celebrates the day that East and West Germany were reunited as one country in 1990.

Quote of the Day

"Aaaaahhh, I love being a corporate whore!"
-Shannon in Abercrombie & Fitch yesterday

Early Friday

I declared today (Thursday) an early Friday and skipped 2 of my 3 classes. I feel like such a rebel. But it felt good to sit in Starbucks and read the Wall Street Journal and drink some coffee. Man, I love being a yuppie.

Tomorrow I will be sending off the second letter to o2 begging them to cancel my cell phone contract. Okay, not really BEGGING....but since the "I'm-an-American-exchange-student-going-home" approach didn't work, this time I'm taking advantage of my last name and going for the "I'm-a-German-with-a-funny-first-name-who-has-moved-overseas" approach. Short and sweet. I've moved abroad, please cancel the contract. I'll pay the penalty fees. Please be praying that this all gets worked out soon. I'm very confused because every time I talk with o2 on the phone about this I get a different answer and it's very frustrating. I don't want my credit in Germany ruined.

Wednesday

Supply Chain Management test today in t-minus 3 hours, which I still need to study for. I slept horribly last night and for some reason feel nauseated this morning. I HATE waking up like this. Last-minute cramming for this exam wouldn't be so bad if I at least didn't feel like I was going to vomit.

At least the worst part of the week is over once I get this test done.

Dieses Leben

Tolle Liedtexte aus Julis neuen Single:

Denn ich liebe dieses Leben
Ich liebe den Moment, in dem man fällt
Ich liebe dieses Leben
Ich liebe diesen Tag,
Ich liebe diese Welt

September is so last month

So here we are: the last week of September. Today is Monday. I hate Mondays.

Is it sad that the only reason I really want it to be October is so that I can take down the whiteboard calendar above my desk, wipe it clean, and put up all my due dates and events for the next month? I think that's sad.

Weekend

I love my schedule this semester. Thursday my classes taper off nicely, and I finish at 3pm, followed by a Friday with no classes. It's always the perfect end to the week. I get an extra day to do whatever I want to do.

Today I slept in till 9:30am. It's 11 now, and I think I'm going to go and take a shower. Today feels like a good day to get some non-school related stuff done. It's a day for doing non-school related work in coffee shops. I love days like this; the entire day is out in front of you, waiting to be used....and you have all the time in the world to work and relax in your favorite coffee shop. Write a scholarship essay, maybe read a book. That is my ultimate favorite way to unwind, because it's simultaneously productive and relaxing.

I'm applying for internships in Germany this summer. One with the State Department (imagine working at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin!) and another with a company based in Frankfurt/Düsseldorf. I'm wicked excited.

I can't stop listening to The Perishers. Their song Weekend is such a great song for Fridays. And for working in coffee shops. Three Roots, anyone?

Missing Link?

So they've apparently found an early human child fossil, aged over 3 million years old. They've dubbed it "Lucy's daughter" and claim that the discovery could "fill an important gap in understanding human evolution." Researchers also developed a 3D reconstruction of the skull and face to see what the "child" may have looked like. Oddly enough - and you can verify this for yourself in the photo - the "girl" bears a STRIKING resemblance to a monkey...Researchers were also puzzled by her "surprisingly long gorilla-like arms."

They have GOT to be joking.

Any idiot with half a brain can see that what they've found here is nothing more than a small monkey. Yet just months from now, this "groundbreaking" discovery will be in every science textbok you can find in our public schools. Mark my words.

It's happened, folks. The evolutionary scientific community, in its last-ditch efforts to find a missing - and nonexistent - link between apes and humans, has now actually moved past baseless conjecture (i.e. the Cambrian explosion) and transitioned straight into flat-out denial.

And as the photo here shows, kids, denial is an ugly, ugly thing.

Obsession

Watch the trailer here.
Read the synopsis here.

Reason for Dismantling the U.N. Number #4,592...

Yesterday, in a 30-minute speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demonstrated the full meaning of the word "irony." Not to mention "hypocrisy."

During his speech, Ahmadinejad called the Islamic Republic of Iran "a symbol of true democracy." Interesting. I didn't know that in a true democracy, you get suppressed free speech and gross gender inequality as well as a less-than-sparkling human rights violations record.

My personal favorite morsel from his tirade: "Today, more than ever, nations need constructive, positive, and honest cooperation and interaction in order to enjoy a dignified, tranquil and peaceful life based on justice and spirituality."

THIS from the man who has publicly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," declared the Holocaust "a myth," and remarked that, perhaps one day, we will enjoy a world "without the United States."

Well, he's got the HONEST interaction part down, I guess.

Heimweh (Homesickness)

Homesickness is really quite a beautiful thing. I miss Germany a lot, I really do, but honestly I'm enjoying it rather than suffering it. Why? Because the fact that I feel homesick for a foreign country is just so unbelievably cool.

Don't get me wrong, I love being back on campus here at ASU and I'm having a great time. At the same time, though, I'm at the point in the being-back-at-home phase where I have pretty much adjusted back to my native culture. This affords me the opportunity to really sit back and reflect on my time in Germany with a clearer mind; to discover what it is that I really learned about myself and about life in general.

So lately I find myself looking at my pictures from Germany and just taking it all in, reliving it in my mind. I loved Germany before I left for last year, but after living for a year there, I fell even deeper in love with it. It's become my one, all-consuming passion. And the odd thing is that I couldn't even tell you WHY.

There is something beautiful about that country in the littlest, most insignificant details of life there. The air smells and even feels different; it is heavy with thousands of years of history. I miss the ancient houses, the buzz of the marketplace, and the chic, hip European feel of the big cities. I miss the trains, subways, and streetcars. I even miss my 3-hour lectures in the university.

The more that I think about these things, the more determined I become to return as soon as possible. Let me reiterate: it's not that I don't like my life here in the States or that I'm not happy here; I am. But ask anyone who has lived abroad and they'll tell you that after doing that, your life splits. It's no longer bound to one continent. I'm here, at home, but I'm also away from my other home in Germany.

Who knows how long it will be until I go back and for how long it will be; it could be as soon as next August or September depending on where I get a job. For now, i'm going to let the chips fall where they may, allow God to lead me where He wants me, and enjoy life here and now while enjoying the bliss of my memories of Germany.

Oy.

So it's......busy.

The thesis is still in gridlock and the deadline already passed. Despite that fact, I remain calm and have actually moved this to the back burner momentarily. I refuse to rush into something that will consume 9 months of my life without picking a topic that at least MODERATELY interests me. Hopefully it will take shape by the end of this week. I'm working on it, slowly.

School is consuming most of my time, but the proportion of time that I spend studying is decreasing as I acclimate to an academic environment with set homework schedules and multiple-choice tests that are almost entirely B.S.-able. The most important thing for me to remember that will allow me to preserve what piece of my sanity I have left is that it doesn't have to be perfect.

Random Fact of the Moment: I've decided that I'd really like to get a dog when I graduate.

As far as everything else....life is good but tiring right now. God has been doing some pretty great things in my life over the past few days, teaching me to surrender parts of me that I didn't even know I was holding back and to open up more. Being more open, just going with the flow, feels good. Ironically exhausting, but good.

Currently Reading:

I highly recommend this book. It's a really fascinating account of how globalization is affecting the way we do business and live our daily lives. I spent 2 hours at Starbucks today (how yuppish of me) reading it and I still can't put it down...my schoolwork is going to start suffering if I don't finish soon!

I Looooove This Company

Apple's done it again. They've updated the iPod nano, introduced iTV and a brand new iPod Shuffle. And best of all...

They've sexed up iTunes.

MmmmmmHmmmmmm.

Make It Stopppppp

Seriously, I'm drowning in academics. Drowning. Has it always been this insane at ASU, and I'm only noticing it now because of the contrast with Germany? Or is this semester just one of those insane semesters?

Fridays are Awesome.

This morning we went to IKEA and managed to walk out spending less than $150. I am proud of myself. The biggest item on my list was a $60 bookcase, which was sorely needed. You can only use those cheap wire cube things for so long before they begin to go south on you. I also invested in a much-needed extra lamp and a nightstand. I am very pleased with how amazing the room looks now:




As if the day couldn't get any better, I went and met with my advisors to ask about graduation and thesis stuff. Turns out the thesis deadline is "soft" - meaning they really don't care WHEN I turn it in. Meaning I have all the time I need now to get the topic, and the director, sorted out. HUGE sigh of relief. Also, should it be necessary, I can always start the thesis work in the spring and defend it in the summer. And there's also a great chance that even though I won't be done with everything until summer session, I can appeal the dean to be able to walk in the graduation ceremonies this spring.

(Hallelujah chorus)

What a great Friday. I should go out and paint the town tonight.

Pack the Good and leave the rest

Supply chain management was awesome this morning and Eddie gets cool points for talking about German manufacturing in detail. I'm hoping we have the makings of a good thesis director or at least a reader here. Meeting with Eddie tomorrow will determine that.

Thesis topic is going moderately well in refining. Email to contact at T-Mobile has gone out, and if all goes well there will be an informational interview via telephone on Friday. Hopefully further success is forthcoming.

I'm finally used to the new Facebook News Feed revision, and I have to say that I like it. Call me a stalker, I LIKE seeing every little dirty detail of your lives, people. It's cool. Saves a lot of time that would have been spent aimlessly wandering your profile pages.

I've been buoyed all day today daydreaming about living/working in Germany at some big corporation. I think that's a sign that I'm a nerdy business major and a complete Germanyphile. And I love it. I love that feeling of having a "second home" that I know I'm totally comfortable in - and it's not even on the same continent. That just rocks. I miss it, yes, but it's awesome being back in the U.S. of A and on campus too.

Met with Lucia and Adrienne for coffee today at the business college Starbucks (yes, our business college has its own Starbucks. We rock that hard). Hilarious conversation topic about the pretentiousness of the W.P. Carey School's courtyard atmosphere, which, again, just shows you how hard we business majors rock. I always wanna walk through there with my cell phone to my ear and saying, "Look, I'll have my people talk to your people . . ."

And as if the day couldn't go any more slendidly, there is now a group on Facebook entitled "Angela Merkel rocks my world." I think it's supposed to be a joke but I joined anyway because she seriously rocks my world. She is awesome. Wooo Merkel.

Quote of the Day

"Amateurs built the Ark - professionals built the Titanic."
-Unknown

I'm Either Crazy or Brilliant. Or Both.

I still don't have a thesis topic. I have wracked my brain trying to figure out what on EARTH I could research and write about in the realm of business or German that would, as the professor I talked with put it, "get my juices flowing."

And then, tonight, while sitting at Starbucks brainstorming, I had an idea.

Why not write a fiction novel? We're allowed to do pretty much anything we want with the thesis project. I could try and get it published at the end of the year, and honestly, when else am I going to have a chance to set aside huge blocks of my time to write like this? Certainly not after I graduate and dive into the real world. I could come up with a premise, write a book proposal, and the meetings with my director would serve as deadlines for chapters and drafts and outlines and brainstorming and editing. For the final touch, I go to a publisher. It's just crazy enough that it might work.

The most encouraging thing about this idea is that the moment it came to me, I shot up straight in my chair (nearly knocking over my coffee in the process) and started scribbling ideas in the notebook in front of me that, up to this point, had a list of halfhearted thesis topic ideas on it.

Christian Fiction. A thriller, like Ted Dekker's stuff.
Historical Fiction. Set in Germany. World War II.

I rushed home and pounded out a draft email to a professor in the English department, who I will contact tomorrow. This is one of those moments in life where you realize

a) you've finally snapped under the weight of all the stress and totally lost your mind (a novel from scratch to publishing in 9 months??) or
b) you've just had the best idea you've had in a loooooong time.

Visions of Tuebingen

The final video chronicling the year in Tübingen is finally finished. Without further ado, here it is: