Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in pete21982's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
1:40 am	Uber Good Mood Ramblings That's it guys and gals, I don't know what happened, but I'm in a very good mood tonight. So how about some ramblings? Of course, my there are obvious reasons why I am incredibly excited about Barack Obama's victory in the presidential election, Possibly my favorite reason though: my Obama impression is much better than any of my other political impressions. My Palin was okay, but my McCain and Biden were both awful. I am very proud of my Obama though. There were many incredible moments during the Pete Schramm Election Extravaganza here at the Powderkeg. My favorites: me buzzing around like a hummingbird between my laptop and three different TVs, my successful call of three states (New Mexico, Virginia, and Louisiana) well before the television stations thanks to my dork-like knowledge of voting districts, and our ten second New Year's style countdown when we figured out that 10:00 was going to put Obama over the top. Oh, and the audible cheering across our neighborhood. So I was going through old college notebooks, and I had forgotten about one of my more unique ways to kill time during boring lectures: travel itineraries. I found one, written during Introduction to Weather and Climate, that was a three-year around-the-world trip. It even has a written plan to figure out how to pay for it: writing a syndicated column each day. Naturally there is a leap of reasoning there, but hey, the seats in 1351 Chemistry were not comfortable, and the lecturer was really boring. You had to do something, and eventually I stopped being pathetic enough to try and ascertain any girl in the classes personality just by looking at the back of their head. So I was dancing back and forth from the kitchen today, and that led me to watch Singin in the Rain on YouTube. I'd forgotten how much I liked that movie. And the "Broadway Melody" number has a sentiment that I feel would better suit civilization as we know it: "Gotta Dance". Why can't we just randomly dance at odd intervals. Or break into song for that matter. I think we'd enjoy ourselves. I like winter. I like snow. I even like cold. I just don't like the transition. Particularly when it ends my frisbee season. It's two cold months before Red Eye. Although that gives me time to figure out the Boozehounds' 2009 Schedule. So a couple of my snooty guitar playing friends have mentioned to me: "Rock Band is just for people who can't actually play guitar." I usually stare at them for fifteen seconds or so and then say, "Yeah....." I know I can't play guitar. I can play most Rock Band songs on expert, and that feels cool to me, especially when you've got three other like-minded individuals in the room. That game is like electric crack. I don't pretend that I should be starting a band, it's just fun in the living room. That said, I now have a mental list of about two hundred more songs they need to make for the game. Hopefully I can manage to wake up tomorrow in the same wonderful mood I had tonight. That felt really good. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, October 24th, 2008
9:15 pm	Lost in A Real America I was trying to refrain from going political in my latest writings, since most everyone knows where I stand on most all issues, and everyone is starting to burn out on this election, but over the past week, I have heard a new argument appearing time and time again that is starting to drive me up and over the wall: that there is a "real" America, and furthermore, that I do not live in it. Yes, my friends, it turns out that there are huge sections of this country that despise it. It came as news to me. I had basically believed that most everyone had a healthy level of respect for the United States, and those who didn't were pretty easy to find. Apparently, I was quite wrong. There are anti-American sections of the country, We should go find those and take care of them. We're kind of used to this up here in Madison, starting with our favorite O'Reilly Factor moment ever. On December 13th, 2005, Bill was on a diatribe about Richmond, Virginia's newspaper writing an editorial about the "War on Christmas". In an argument with a member of the newspaper, he added this little fun tidbit..."Now, this is a conservative community, Richmond. I mean, this is not Madison, Wisconsin, where you expect those people to be communing with Satan up there." Now I, personally, have not had any discussions with the Dark Lord during my twenty-six years of living here, and I'm pretty sure most of my friends haven't either. I suppose it's possible that he's got his own booth near the back of Johnny O's, and I just haven't gone in there, but I'm going to assume not. O'Reilly's hex on our city may be the extreme example, but this election, we've seen the return of the tactics that worked well for Wisconsin's most notorious senator, Joe McCarthy: "declaring enemies or opponents to be anti-American." There's been a recent epidemic of this in the venom-laced presidential election. The chasm between the two sides of the political process is at an all time width. Over the past week, there were a couple of over the top statements made about where America really is. We had Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachmann suggest that the media should dig into Congress and find out "who is pro-America and who is anti-America". We had Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha declare that "western Pennsylvania is racist country". We had North Carolina congressman Robin Hayes saying "Liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God". We had McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer, after referring to "Real Virginia", begin a laundry list of "real" places, including Northern Wisconsin and the Iron Range of Minnesota. The last being personally amusing to me, since Mrs. Pfotenhauer has obviously not been to either Northern Wisconsin or the Iron Range of Minnesota, otherwise she would understand that those particular areas greatly resemble Canada far more than most of America. Very pretty though, crystal clear lakes and the like. This is the core problem with political discourse in America today. It is not enough that a person disagrees with you, it is not enough to represent a different side of the most contentious issue, and it is not enough to criticize their opinion. Those you support become "pro-American", those you do not become "anti-American". In my opinion, that is as anti-American as it comes. I do not agree with the opinions of one of the campaigns, but I do not believe them to be unpatriotic or not acting in what they perceive to be the best interests of their country. I believe their plans to be ill-advised, but they are not acting in malice. They are attempting to do what is right. I believe, that where Congresswoman Bachmann to get her media expose, she would find 435 congressmen and women and 100 senators all of whom love their country. They may be frustrated by their country, they may desire changes in their country, but I do not believe they dislike America. I have a very hard time believing Congressman Murtha's suggestion that the majority of voters in Pittsburgh as going to the polls to vote against the African-American, and not going to the polls to select the person they best feel represents their ideals. I take offense that liberals hate "real America" and the connection with us disliking "work, achievement, and going to church". I don't believe that liberals hate those values anymore than I would say such a blanket statement about conservatives. Such is the rhetoric of an election. I would even believe that Congressman Hayes knows that his statement was election rhetoric, divisive and hateful that it is, and doesn't actually believe that a large chunk of the population hates America. America is a work in progress, it is a constant construction on an original framework laid down with an incredible idea, and it is the debate that comes of trying to make this country better. It may frustrate me sometimes, but I sing the Star Spangled Banner, and I cheered for Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, and the Men's Volleyball Team. I am proud to be part of this radical experiment in pluralism. I disagree with the politics of many, but they also are patriots. Those who would take an opinion with the intent of improving our nation are American, whether or not they take an opinion that aligns itself with yours. We may be an extreme politically here in Madison, but the flag on the flagpole outside my school has the same number of stars and stripes as the flag sitting outside the statehouse in Augusta, Maine, or that hangs from the rafters in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, or that adorn the outsides of a house in Flagstaff, Arizona. The service of my father in Vietnam is the same service as a Navy veteran in California, or a former Marine in Alabama. On June 16, 1858, in Springfield, Illinois, a Republican senate candidate named Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in which he paraphrased Matthew 12:25. He said, "A house divided cannot stand." Lincoln knew that a constant struggle between two sides steadfastly refusing compromise or discussion is destined to end poorly. Likewise we have a similar chord in recent weeks. There is no one free of blame for the current economic crisis, but each and every individual on both sides of the aisle and in each branch of government would have you believe that their hands are clean of guilt, and that those who disagree with them are the sole culprits of the mess that my generation is staring at in exasperation. This is no time for finger-pointing; this is no time for McCarthy-era slander. This country is pro-America, from Madison to Seattle to Miami to San Diego to Boston to Baton Rouge to Cheyenne. We are not a collection of primary colored states. Wisconsin is no more a blue state than North Carolina is a red state, as we are a collection of ideals. I do not have to travel far from Madison to find an area with individuals that harbor opinions drastically in contrast to mine. Within each region of this country, two Tuesdays from now, Americans will head to the polls, all voting pro-America, for to vote is to take an interest in the betterment of our country, regardless of for whom that vote is cast. Those who have an opinion contrary to mine are no less American than I, as long as those are willing to discuss how this country can be made strong, how our future can be assured. It is American to disagree, and it is in this disagreement that progress can be made. We live in too important times to be divided as far as we are. Regardless of who wins the many races being decided November 4th, nothing will be accomplished without all of us. This house must be united, or this country will remain a broken promise, a false hope to generations still seeking what is the "American Dream", different as it is for each of us. Truly, the fate of our country lies in our ability to mend this country. We must trust the words of Lincoln: With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves. For those words have never meant more than right now, when our nation is as wounded as it has been, now is the time malice toward none and charity for all. Now is the time to believe in our brothers and sisters across this land. Now is the time to mend the American Dream, and only together can it be successful. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
3:29 pm	The Mayor of My SimCity Could Have Fixed the Economy So we live in serious times, there's a major election less than a month away, the Dow Jones is collapsing like Rome in the Dark Ages, and it's way too nice out. Naturally, this brings one major topic to the forefront. Video games. I was reminiscing recently about the video games of my life. I've always been a game player, but I was thinking about how they've changed over time, and how there are certain games or elements from games that stood out throughout the slow march from my first game system to the big screen chaos that is my living room nowadays. My first game system was the old gray box 8-bit Nintendo. When I throw out memories about this one with other friends, they tend to be about how ridiculously hard it was to get the game started. You would blow into the game system, blow into the game, press it up and down a few times, it was a burst of calisthenics to get Mega Man III working. The first game: the Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt package. Oh, the morning hours spent, holding the Light Zapper gun directly against the TV screen so as to make sure that I would hit the duck everytime. Eventually, I learned that this was missing the basic point of the game. Also, eventually I started kindergarten. The games for that system were very basic, but often incredibly fun. Certain ones stand out, of course, particularly the sports games. Ice Hockey, where you picked four guys from a roster of skinny guy, fat guy, and normal sized guy, and the six countries to choose from were the USA, the Soviet Union, Canada, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. (How they came up with those six? No idea.) RBI Baseball III, which was the first one that had all the teams and players that could move faster than an arthritic tortoise. Of course, the great Tecmo Super Bowl, a game that I spent days playing. With eight plays to choose from, and on defense the attempt to guess which one the offense would use. If successful, the quarterback would get buried by the entire front seven. It was the first game with the Packers, and I spent many an afternoon converting crossing patterns from Don Majkowski to Ed West. The Sega Genesis was the next system I had, and it too is memorable for the sports games. My dad and I would throw down on Madden 93, because they had the 66 Packers in addition to the 93 Packers, and we would have era battles, often going his way because the 93 Packers were not very good. I remember NHL 96, because it was the first game I remember being able to create players, and the first time I destroyed opposing teams with the lightning fast winger Pete Schramm, usually of the Quebec Nordiques. The only non-sports game I really remember playing was Sonic the Hedgehog, and that more for the obnoxious amount of time I spent revving the character up before launching him into oblivion. You'll notice I basically ignore computer games in here, mainly because the only game I ever was consistently into on the computer was SimCity. I created some incredible cities, but none of them stick around as memorable, except for my bizarro Madison on SimCity 3000, with Neuschwanstein Castle on Capitol Hill, and the Sydney Opera House perched in Olin Park. It's also worth bringing up Super Mario Kart for the SNES. I think everyone played that game, and everyone had their favorite character. Mine was Toad. This was also the first game that featured the pitched battles between my sister and I that would denote games throughout our childhood. The recent systems have been a march of PlayStations. The original one was amazing for the time, a huge step up from the earlier systems. The game Twisted Metal 2 will be forever remember as the game that my sister and I would have epic wars on, me regularly choosing Spectre and my sister taking Outlaw, battling it out in the streets of Paris. The other game that endured for the PlayStation was NHL Faceoff 98, only for the late-night goal fests that Ryan and I would have, putting up scores of 25-19 with our fantasy teams, me always on the road because of the obnoxious home PA call anytime Pat LaFontaine would score a goal. With the recent systems, it was still mostly a parade of sports games. I've written before about my ridiculous attitude with franchise modes and dynasty modes, upgrading every two years or so with the same game. Only recently did something come out to change that: the creation of the Guitar Hero games. All of a sudden, there was this great new game to pretend to be a rock star. Amazing times. Now, as many have heard, we have Rock Band for Ben's PS3. This was the evolution that got me thinking: what would I have thought about the idea of this game twenty years ago when I started playing video games. It's more of a social experience than it used to be. Rock Band is a game meant to be played with four people in a room. I've gotten ridiculously addicted to the game, going so far as to fashion a mic stand out of a wire hanger so I could play guitar and sing at the same time. It's come a long way since those old two button (A and B) days, and I'm a little curious as to wonder where they can go from here. What will my kids be playing twenty years from now? How much more advanced can a "game" get? We shall see. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
4:03 pm	Debating Travelling So in my attempt to get the creative juices going again, here's ridiculous forced set of thoughts that I will throw together in no particular order to placate my sense that I need to post something here. If you played a drinking game where you take a shot every time I post an entry in this journal, you would have been sober for a very long time. And you would have taken shots at strange times, particularly when I used to update it during my radio show at 6:30 in the morning at WSUM while I waited for "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" to finish. So it was another debate gathering here at Pete Schramm's Election Headquarters. Once again, no minds were changed, thus putting this debate in the "As Expected" column, along with every other debate of my voting life. You have to think Cicero, the great Roman orator, would be immensely frustrated with these events. They basically turn into a joint press conference. I don't know why, but the phrase "uncommitted voter" makes me giggle a little but. Can't explain it. For anyone who asks nicely I will, at no charge, do my heralded impression of Barack Obama after being slapped by John McCain. People from all sides of the aisle say it's superb. The questions being asked about "average Americans" have only led me to one realization: there is no way I would vote for myself. I am a huge fan of train travel, but after fooling around with Amtrak's website, I have determined I am unlikely to ever use it unless it gets less expensive or faster. Travel times to cities that I seem likely to visit: Seattle, Washington - 43 hours, 15 minutes, San Francisco, California - 61 hours, 50 minutes, Washington, DC - 20 hours, 23 minutes. That's a long time to be stuck anywhere, much less in a train. Another reason why I love European travel, when I compared the times it took to travel. Paris, France to Moscow, Russia - 38 hours, 31 minutes. And most of that is because the trains get a lot slower once you clear Poland. The fun part about that train: you pass through six countries on your way. Fun with other travel sites, Greyhound was another laughable experience with hypothetical trip planing. A theoretical trip by bus to DC would take 32 hours, with layovers in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh. Signs point to no. Oh, and let's play the cost game, because you'd at least think for the time it took, it would be substantially cheaper than flying, right? To Washington, DC - Greyhound - $288, Amtrak - $819, Orbitz Flight on American Airlines - $263. Wow. And yes, as you can tell, I'm in "I have to get out of dodge for a little while" mode right now. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 6th, 2008
12:06 am	Like a Rain Delay, If Instead of Rain It Was Summer I am so notoriously bad about updating my journal, and really it's become notoriously bad at doing any writing. I could blame some of it on how busy it's been these past few months, and it has, but a lot of it has been a general apathy about it. It's gotten to the point where I almost need to force myself to make an attempt. That runs into the problem of how picky I can be about producing, if not good, then at least readable entries. Either way, I feel I need to do something to jump start me again, a kind of fall reboot to let the updates load and get my programming back on track. It was a high speed summer, the kind where you intermittently wonder if you were cheated out of two or three weeks when you find out it's already the middle of August. I know I got my summer's worth, between the frenzy of frisbee tournament after frisbee tournament after camping trip after frisbee tournament after wedding and back again, not to mention a blissful two week vacation in the bewitching Pacific Northwest. I think I forgot one of the basic things to remember about summer: it's important to relax. I got back to the school year almost with the feeling that I was coming right back. I didn't get the all-important recharge. I also don't think I would have changed a thing about the summer. I can't imagine giving up any one of the frisbee tournaments I played in, nor would I have wanted to miss Jeff's wedding or bachelor party camping weekend, and I certainly wouldn't have given up a single day out in Seattle. I think it's the danger of the way I try to live: I can't give up any of the enjoyable facets, but it leaves my skinny little carcass sapped of energy time and time again. I don't know if it is just the logical progression of my legendary wanderlust, or a coming of age, but my ironclad relationship with Madison has become slightly strained. I continue to adore the city that has been my lifelong hometown, but more and more I wonder if I'm not stuck on some sort of life tarmac, waiting for clearance. Is it just the logical questioning of how life has gone, a sort of a mild one-third life crisis (giving me a generous life expectancy of seventy-five) or just a curiosity if I've somehow stunted myself by remaining so close to home. It was MUFA's other Schramm (no relation) that asked me it directly, and I almost had to laugh, because I've pondered it left and right, but it took a namesake to ask it straight out. I don't know how it's solved. I've looked into options for a change of pace. Maybe I could teach English abroad for a year. Maybe I just need another epic backpacking trip, either back to Europe, or maybe the Egypt-Turkey-Greece ancient history fest that I've considered. Maybe it's time to consider grad school somewhere. Figuring out the course of action is a tough one, especially with the constant barrage of reminders that Madison is still unequivocally my hometown. It reminds me in the little moments, when I run into several friends at a neighborhood festival, or at the Dane, or the Union, or the Essen Haus, when I can scan the crowd and see dozens of friends. It's in the bike rides, along the incredibly bikeable paths of the city. It's in the friends I've made here, and I don't know if I could actually leave. Some would call a point like this a crossroads, but I actually think of it as more of just a regular intersection. There are options I could take, but none of them are necessarily along my path. It kind of feels good to, really for the first time, acknowledge that I have options. I'm going to try and make myself write more often, hopefully, reverting to the column style I used in years past. This particular journal often feels dated, a remnant of an insecure and confused past, but that might be just what I need right now. While I am a far cry removed from the troubled college sophomore that voiced his concerns, it's good to remember where you came from, so as to know which direction to go. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
2:31 pm	Spoiled By Beautiful Day Ramblings As per usual, my efforts to get back to updating this poor neglected little corner of the internet have been quite poor, so here's a dose of ramblings as I try to figure out what the actual record for longest someone has sat on the Union Terrace. I can't honestly say that I forget how great the Terrace is, because I know, but I'm still always thrown back into heaven that first beautiful weekend when I naturally migrate to the Union with a good book. It is such an idyllic setting to sit around on a nice day, people watch, and enjoy Madison. The first couple of what will be many days on the Terrace done with, I look forward to the impending return of famous Union Wednesdays, which have been the highlights of my summers past. One thing I was also reminded about the Union, if I actually want to sit outside and read a book, the Union is often not the place to go. I will inevitably run into people I know, and socializing will quickly send my text of choice back into the backpack as I set to the task of accumulating friends. This isn't at all a bad thing, but was driven home when Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins failed to get past the fifty page mark before the socializing began. If you ever get the chance, ask Bonnie O'Brien to do her imitation of Pete at the Union. Quite good, if you ask me. I've said it to a few people, but the best analogy I can come up with for Madison right now is as if the city had been holding its breath for a long time, and just releases it in relief right after graduation. The real Madison comes out when the students head back home for the summer, and the city leans back and suns itself. Particularly this year, with Madison more stressed than ever with the violence on campus, political climate, and all the rest that's been tugging at the city famously referred to as "Sixty-two square miles surrounded by reality". Once the summer hits, it kind of melts away. Here's a PSA from Pete's Guide to Shopping For Meat: If you are not buying your brats from one of the stands at the Farmer's Market, you are not eating as well as you could be. I've tried many different varieties, and they have never failed to impress. Three recommendations: the Sheboygan Style Bratwurst or Tailgater's Bratwurst from D&G Sausage Shoppe, or the Red Wine Brats from Pecatonica Valley Farms. Sensational. MUFA Summer League is almost upon us, and it's bigger than ever. I never cease to be impressed by the ultimate scene around here, and the sheer number of people for whom an integral part of the summer will be chasing plastic at Olbrich Park and kibitzing at the Great Dane after games. Ultimate is really starting to be measured with all the other sports on the recreational chart. I also enjoy that my beloved Big Money, No Whammies is slowly turning into my answer to my dad's Team Walleye, the softball team that's now in it's twenty-ninth year, and where the core members are basically family. If someone had told me, one year ago today, the events of the following three hundred and sixty-five days, I probably would not believe them. It's been a ridiculous last year. On a semi-related note: I enjoy that the constellation Orion now makes me smile. I think Europe is calling me again. It's very tough not to pick up the phone. A hike in the Berner Oberland would really hit the spot right now. Just because: Matt Doman. I kind of enjoy that the new Grand Theft Auto game built in a huge Sims-like component. It kind of appeals to my inner self to be able to run missions that just involve going out with a friend or going on a date, in between, of course, running over six gang members with a Hummer. Speaking of video games, it pokes at my inner sports geek that I found out that NCAA Football's Dynasty mode does, in fact, end eventually. It also mildly alarms me that I found that out. I recently got into Whatifsports.com's Hardball Dynasty, and I finally found an online game the severly tests even my ability to micromanage a fictional sports team. I'm also getting way too attached to another group of imaginary ballplayers, starting with third baseman Frank Ross from Brunswick, OH. This weekend: Bratfest! If you're not from around here, you just won't understand. If you are, I'll see you there! Perhaps the quintessential Madison event, and definitely one of my favorite. I have three to five of my meals planned out for the weekend already. Until next time, I'll see you on the Terrace. I'm probably by the wall on the top tier. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
11:23 pm	Oh My God, It's Not Snowing I love the first weekend of nice weather in Madison, where even though it's still only in the mid-50s and there's a relatively cold wind, everyone is in shorts, running around in parks, biking around the Isthmus, flooding the Union to sit outside, it's great. It's a collective weather freakout. I think it was even more pronounced this year. This winter was beyond anything most of us had experienced. Bone-chilling temperatures, mountains of snow that came in massive blizzards that shut down the city, a constant barrage of winter that we were not ready for. I enjoy a great deal about winter, but this one took my enjoyment of pond hockey, sledding, snow forts, and the like, and made it an endurance contest between us and mother nature, and taking on nature never ends well. Wisconsin always teases you with the beginnings of spring. It will dip towards forty-five degrees for a couple of days in early March, and then the Easter Blizzard comes with a dose of ridiculous fury. Then you endure another week of temperatures in the teens. The temperature noses back into the forties, but then comes the first rains. There is some enjoyment in hearing slight rumblings of thunder for the first time, but the gray rain and drizzle just pushes you back out of a spring mood. That's why this first weekend is so precious. Finally, the light at the end of the tunnel appears, and we get a chance to have a nice weekend and get outside. I had two therapeutic frisbee tossing sessions, and hope to finally fix up the bike and get it back to functional. I've been in that same doldrums that a lot of us get in around this time of year, and it's wonderful to get back outside. It a strange way, humanity is solar powered, and it's quite nice to see everyone get plugged back in. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
11:03 pm	Time to Jumpstart This Dusty Old Relic I have been so hit and miss when it comes to writing lately; it's patently embarrassing. I claimed in my last journal entry, in the closing hours of 2007, that I was going to focus more on getting back to this habit, but then it's the classic one thing led to another stretch and it turns out the next entry is in the closing days of March. I am going to have to fix that. It has been a great start to 2008 though. I had the February of Many Travels, with three consecutive weekends of awesome travel (Baton Rouge, LA for the Mardi Gras frisbee tournament, Houghton, MI for Wisconsin Hockey at Winter Carnival, and Seattle to visit Clara) that will be very tough to match. Either way, I'm going to try and get back into some of my old habits, maybe even reaching way back into the freshman year of college journal, when I was much more in favor of spending a night in reading a book/writing than I seem to have been recently. Not only would it probably be good for my rapidly aging self, but I think it might help reenergize my mind, which while still memory sharp as ever (Adam will attest to my continued ability to pull obscure early 90s sports references out of thin air, in the name of Vai Sikahema) but the creativity has seemed a bit lacking, at least to me. So it is time to reboot, and see what happens. I've been getting back to reading a lot, rediscovering my blazing speed when it comes to tearing through books. I am also on the lookout for new authors, so anyone reading this is welcome to contribute. Tips for suggesting authors: I tend towards fiction rather than non-fiction, although history can grab me if it's the right topic. I tend towards funny authors rather than serious authors, and usually more towards absurd humor. (I've been on a Christopher Moore, Tom Robbins, Garrison Keillor, Tim Dorsey rotation as of late.) That said, I might try anything, so don't be afraid to give me a whirl. One of Clara's friends just hooked me into Goodreads, which has a rapid potential of becoming one of my addiction sites. Either way, I hope that I will appear on this more now, and can get back to some of the habits I used to enjoy. And feel free to start recommending those authors and books. Cheers! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 31st, 2007
12:23 am	2007: A PeteWorld in Review So we're on the cusp of another conclusion to yet another year in this ridiculous script that some would call my life. It continues to write its way along in absurd fashion, but more and more it's becoming easier to love. There were a lot of highlights to this year, and when it comes down to, 2007 looks like it will have produced many fond memories to dust off and entertain friends with in typical Pete fashion, which of course means constant retellings of the same few stories. Some notable highlights: I went from working with the little kids to working with the big kids, and while it has been infinitely more work and more tiring, I often feel like I'm doing a better job and getting more out of work. I've really grown to like the community at Shabazz, and it's great to feel like I'm accomplishing something while I'm teaching. The Madtown Boozehounds, a 2006 invention to try and do a couple of frisbee tournaments, turned into a frisbee team tour-de-force, making a coast-to-coast march through gala event after small town invasion. The Boozehounds have become one of my favorite entities, and I'm excited for the even bigger and better 2008. The other element that MTBH gave me was the chance to make some ridiculously wonderful friends that I couldn't otherwise have made, and when it came down to it, those weekends around were among the most cherished of many highlights. I went back to the European continent again, this time with the whole family, and while it was at times trying herding three family members around Europe, it was another wonderful experience. I got to experience a little more culture than my usual backpacking jaunts, and that was a neat twist. I also got to take another life-affirming hike. This time crossing up from Lauterbrunnen to Grindelwald with a middle stop to visit the north face of Eiger. Eating lunch at 11,000 feet with snow-capped peaks dominating the sky, wind sweeping through, avalanches thundering across the valley, and the most beautiful scenery around, will never, ever, get old. The last major highlight is actual an introspective one. Anyone who has read the long suffering entries of journals past knows that I intermittently felt like a person without an identity, straddling a few different worlds of Pete that didn't necessarily seem reconcilable. This year, I think I figured out who I am much more than I had before. I began to accept that Pete is a good thing. I began to embrace my high energy, not always quite sane attitude, and I have felt better for it. From the reaction of Shabazz students (I have been asked "Why do you always fucking smile all the time?" at school several times this year) to the intermittent shaking of friends' heads when I have done or said something just a little bit more crazy than usual, I have stopped worrying about the outside opinions of Pete and started excepting that I can revel in the strange corner of existence that I bounce around in. It's made for a lot more smiling and laughing, and much less of the rest. 2008 will no doubt have its share of trials, but I feel more prepared to charge into it. I have my own goals and hopes, dreams and wishes, and I feel that I can take on those challenges. I am excited to travel more, for myself, for frisbee, and for whatever other reason comes along. I'm prepared to get back to writing, maybe even get further than thirty pages into a novel for once in my life (original terrible effort not counting) and get back to spending more time curled up with a book and recharging my mind. (Particularly if I get more reactions like the hilarious responses when I told people who called me that I was not out on Saturday night, but rather sitting in bed reading Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins. The flabbergast expressions of confusion were phenomenal.) I hope to learn a few new skills, try a few new things, and see a few new places. I want to continue to meet everyone, and at least smile at the ones that I can't. Most of all, I want to continue sucking every last moment of wonder I can out of this strange little story we call life, continue to be amazed by the littlest things, amused by the smallest moments, and left wide-eyed by the splendor of how marvelous things often are. Join me, won't you? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 11th, 2007
9:54 pm	Hockey Pete Returns, and He Is Concerned So the last two weekends, thanks to fortuitous connections and friends who had out of town commitments, I was blessed with tickets to the Badger Hockey games, and I got to dig out the old jersey and my beaten red hat and head downtown to rejoin with my Cardinal and White family. It was nice getting to return to my old stomping grounds in the Kohl Center among the Crease Creatures. The team is really good this year, although I am a bit disappointed in what has happened to the student section since the national championship. It's starting to morph into another version of the football section, with a bunch of late arriving students who don't know enough about the game and just want to swear a lot instead of coming up with creative cheers. There is still enough of the old guard to stand a chance, but I don't know if we have the up and comers needed to keep the traditions strong. You can definitely feel the loss of camp out as well, it's palpable in the lack of chemistry between the fans. Hockey line served so many purposes in the creation of a truly great student section. It separated the truly devoted from those who merely wanted to watch the game, it made a person prove that they, more than anyone else, deserved the wonder that was glass seats. It also helped build the precious camaraderie that made the Crease Creatures better than any other student section in collegiate athletics. Those long days and cold nights outside on the Kohl Center concourse forced you to become friends with the people who would inevitably end up in the seats next to you. The strange things done, from chair ball to super bouncey ball to writing with sidewalk chalk to just the lap upon lap I walked to try and get to know everyone in the hockey line were phenomenal moments that made me a lot of friends. The side effect was that it created a student section with a common purpose, and I still truly feel that we helped, in the smallest way, climb the mountain that was the 2006 National Championship. Now it feels different in the student section. I'm older, and it's tough to know exactly how it feels since I'm not the fixture I was beforehand. It feels more like the "in" sport, the cool thing to do. The seats were almost half-empty at puck drop for all the nights, and that is truly sad to see. The creativity of the cheers has completely vanished. The days of harassing Bobby Goepfert about plagiarizing a term paper seem long gone, and now it's mostly rehashing and repeating the same cheers over and over again. The songs aren't as funny as they used to be, and the whole group feels kind of stale. Part of me is saddened by this: I put a lot of energy into bouncing around the aisles and rows of the student section, and I harbored an illogical hope that the efforts of me and my friends would endure for years. Graduation happens though, and as the old guard continues to move on and leave the city, and new students continue to flood in and deal with the ever-changing whims of our intermittent adversary, the Athletic Department, I hope that the student section can find its identity, whether it's the oddball energy that I helped lead, or a new feeling, as long as its a unique strength befitting of the name the Crease Creatures. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 8th, 2007
10:44 pm	Time to Write Again Ramblings And once again, I come back from a long hiatus away from the keyboard to grace the online journal world with a bit of my wit, wisdom, and nonsensical rambling. I hope to get going again to provide a little bit of an outlet for the buildup of mental plague that has been the last few months, so here's a little bit of classic ramblings. It's been quite the year of frisbee for me as my humble tournament team, the Madtown Boozehounds, expanded its horizons to include many tournaments previously unconsidered, with stops in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, and capped by our second consecutive trip out to the carnival of frisbee that is Potlatch in Seattle. Once again it was a sensational time with friends both old and new, and it already has me deep in analysis over the possibilities for the 2008 campaign. For now, the frisbee season is about to come to a close with the fall league playoffs, but once again I have been blessed with a talented and fun group of teammates to spend the Tuesdays and Thursdays with. Now it's time for me to try and nail down my first league title. The teaching year is underway, and I am busier than ever. It's so hard to imagine how hard one will work in the first months of the school year, but I have been a bit overwhelmed by a tidal wave of school responsibility. It has been a rewarding year thus far, but I sometimes pine for the carefree days when each night wasn't necessarily just a way to get ready for the following day, and when weekends were celebrations rather than a respite from the grind. I spent August wandering Europe again, and once again the highlight was a day spend hiking through the Berner Oberland. I made it up to Eigergletscher, hiked around to the north face of the mountain, and walked the long trek down to Grindelwald. Quite possibly the most beautiful hike of my life. Oh, the aches afterward, but it was so good. I enjoyed going back to the old ways and attending a couple of Badger games this weekend in the form of women's hockey and women's volleyball. Got to see two good wins and got to enjoy some of the old Badger spirit. Also, got to pull out a few of my favorite old inappropriate comments about opposing players. My fantasy football team is awful. I mean, ridiculously awful. I went on a rant on my bulletin board that I should really cut and paste, I was pretty proud of it. I don't get the weather. I buttoned up my room when it started to get cold, and then it went back into broiler mode. Now it's diving towards cold again. Cut it out, Wisconsin, I need to fix my room. Just because: A.J. Degenhardt I've burned through a few of my oft-enjoyed formulaic action novels. It's been a nice respite hearings the latest Da Vinci Code/Clancy thriller ripoff where a former Special Forces member and a ridiculously beautiful neurobiologist have to race against an evil society bent on destroying every church in the world by finding the remaining pieces of Noah's Ark and plugging them in to the right place on the slopes of Kilimanjaro before the society finds the lion den of Daniel fame. I found my glasses after losing them in July. Where were they? In their case, on the floor of my room. Methinks it's time to tidy up more often. I have 22 frisbees hung on the walls of my room. They're pretty, and I definitely don't need to throw all of them. Hopefully things calm down as we continue into October, and hopefully I will return to the journal before five months or so. Until then, nostrovia! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 27th, 2007
11:01 pm	Madison's Kevin Bacon Many of my friends have made jokes about my intertwined relationship with the city of Madison through the years. I've spent my life here, and I've taken on many of the quirks of the city, Most of my fondest memories take place among the streets of Madison. Particularly during the strange little (and big) festivals Madison has throughout the year: Paddle and Portage, the Farmer's Market, Taste of Madison, Rhythm and Booms, and Bratfest, which was today at the Alliant Energy Center. Before getting to the story of the day, let me tell you about Bratfest. For those not from the Madison area, it's a four-day festival where we get together and eat prodigious amounts of brats. In 2004 over Memorial Day weekend, 189,432 brats were consumed at the festival, setting a world record for brats consumed at a festival. It's a fun time with live music and carnival rides, but more importantly, it's a chance to eat inexpensive brats in large amounts. That's a different story though. It's been a long running joke that I can run into someone I know anywhere in Madison, and I frequently do. Some of this comes from the wide circles of people that I am fairly recognizable in, particularly the hockey student section and the city ultimate frisbee league. Add on to that my high school crowd and the people I just would have met along the way, and you get a large net of people I could conceivably run into. Today, I had perhaps the pinnacle moment of when worlds collide. I was attending Bratfest with a couple of frisbee friends, and on the way out I ran into another frisbee individual. I sat down with him and his companions for a moment, and a few minutes later that group met up with another group. Of the eight individuals in the group, I knew the majority of them, but that's where the high comedy ensues. I knew people from four different places. It was a wild and wacky interconnection of different worlds. There was my frisbee teammate, a girl who was friends with my roommates on West Wash, a friend that I knew through Vladi, and two girls who I met through a guy from Edgewood. Five people that I knew for four different reasons. I felt like Kevin Bacon, two degrees of Madison. I don't know what that's a sign of, and at the time it felt pretty strange. Later this evening, I actually felt happy about it. It rang home how much of a home I really have, my own nook in the world, here between the lakes in Madison. The theme from Cheers had the chorus "sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and you're always glad you came". Today drove home how much I've become immersed in this town, and why I love it so much. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 12th, 2007
10:50 pm	Top Ten Influential Places In My Life I was toying around with a top ten list, and I came up with this category: the top ten places that influenced my life. When I started to think about it, it was actually a really tough list to do. I decided that I couldn't count my parents' house, because that's too obvious. I tried to think of the places I spent time at that have had an effect on making me who I am today. The final list was fun, and I'm interested to see how other people view it. Without further ado, the places that made the modern Pete.... 10. Yahara Place Park Coming at number 10 is Yahara Place Park on the east side of Madison, near where I grew up and at the point where the Yahara empties into Lake Monona. This was the park I spent the carefree days of the preschool years, where my dad took me to play during those long afternoons after Mr. Rogers, and the first place I remember spending time running around outside and playing. It would be a reoccurring theme. 9. The Coliseum/Camp Randall/Field House The old homes of Badger sports make a natural number nine, and they get placed together because the three old stadiums are all representative of a neurosis that I would develop early in life, from the first hockey and basketball games against Northern Michigan and Loyola-Chicago through many epic duels between my beloved Badgers and the evil forces of the Big Ten and WCHA. Those early days set the stage for the biggest personal mania of them all once I'd get to college. 8. Lakewoods Resort in Cable, Wisconsin The place my family retired to for a week or two each summer up amongst the wonderful scenery of Bayfield County gets number eight. It was the quintessential vacation spot in my mind. A chance to throw a baseball or frisbee with my dad, a chance to plow through a dozen or so books, relax in the pool, play some board games, and spent an incredible week taking it easy. It set the tone for the personal difference between a trip and a vacation. The Lakewoods was always a vacation. 7. Essen Haus People are going to laugh about this one, but the Essen Haus has been a site of as many good times as almost anywhere else. It was a gathering place for many great circles of friends, and was one of the first places I really got a chance to just enjoy being around people and rock out. It was a site of frisbee gatherings, post-hockey rockouts, work parties, and lots lots more. 6. Olbrich Park and Gardens The combination of Olbrich Park and Olbrich Gardens had a lasting ripple throughout my life, so it gets then six spot on the countdown. Olbrich Gardens started as a fun place to walk around and smell the flowers when I was a kid. My middle school friends and I used to hop the fence and play football in the snow on the outfield of the baseball diamonds. It was the site of my first assignment as a photographer for the Daily Cardinal. I would drive off and study there when school got really stressful in college. The first wedding that I stood up in had the reception there when Stuessy was married. And of course, Olbrich Park is a main site of the MUFA League games in summer that have become and integral part of my summers and my current social circle. 5. Memorial Union Terrace Since I was young, the Union was the place to go on a nice summer evening. My parents would take me to feed the ducks on the steps. I would sit there and read. As I got older, it was a place to hang out, play cards, listen to music, and just enjoy the Madison summers. The Union was always at the center of any great summer. 4. Vilas Park Vilas gets the nod primarily because of the stretch of summers in early college when I was introduced to the game that would become a massive focal point of my life: ultimate frisbee. I had played it a little in high school, but the early bando pickup games with Fuhrmann, Flood, Steve Ratke, Paul, Samantha, Nate, Aaron, and all the rest were the days that I really began to get into it. We would start around 6 and play until we couldn't see the disc, in all types of weather, twice a week. This was before I knew there was a MUFA, these were just pure park pickup games on the grass at Vilas. 3. The Kohl Center The KC was the center of my little universe for the later years in college. It's the place when my nervous but excitable interior was finally allowed to explode in a full-out mania of excitement that eventually became so prominent, it basically turned into an alter ego, the infamous Hockey Pete. It was the first time I managed to have full and complete confidence in myself, if only for a few hours during a few weekends a year when my beloved Badgers would take the ice. I spent many a September evening sleeping on the concourse in my quest to be in the front of the student section, I met many of my long-time friends on that concourse and in that section, and it will forever be among my most cherished memories. 2. The Aud (LaFollette High School's Auditorium) While there wasn't a lot of positive to take away from those four tumultuous years at La Follette, the times in The Aud were something to cherish. From working on musicals to designing and helping build the sets that would be some of my earliest proud accomplishments, those days and nights in the Aud were the early signs to the fun to be had with good friends. It's also worth noting that four of my best friends all came from those days in the Aud, and the mischief caused after school was often a tribute to the La Follette Five that I now consider my closest group. 1. Sellery Hall The transition from nervous youngster to crazy adult was sparked, fueled, and fired among the hallways of Sellery Hall. When I first stayed there at UW's Summer Music Clinic, I knew I wanted to live there in college. The two years I lived on the ninth floor of Tower B, the infamous Roe House, I met more unique individuals and had more incredible moments than should be available to a person in ten years. It was the foundation of the early years of college, would connect me to a group of friends that is still a group I keep in touch with, and started the main stretch of my wacky college years in motion. It was a film to which there never could be a screenplay, and that's why it gets the number one spot as the most influential place from my life. Think about yourself, and consider adding your own in the comments, or turining it into one of those chains that everyone does. It's fun to think about. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 16th, 2007
4:32 am	I'm-On-New-Zealand-Time Ramblings Haven't done one of these for a while, and I've got a little bit of a bunch of things bouncing around the deep corners of my brain, so let's rock the ramblings at this point, since I'm probably not going to want to sleep anytime soon. I was watching the Golden Globes with my family tonight, and as always, I was amused by the acceptance speeches. Some people are very canned and limit themselves to reading off of a list. Some are much funnier. Those are the ones that make the show worthwhile, (That and the prodigious amounts of cleavage that frequent these shows, but I digress.) I had two ideas about how to do a really great acceptance speech. The first would be to start hitting on everybody in your path, but Adrian Brody already kind of pulled that one a few years ago. The second would be to start thanking a series of completely unrelated people at random until the crowd starts murmuring. (First, I'd like to thank the late Franklin Pierce, Mary-Louise Parker, Lyle Overbay, and Stephen King. Oh, and the cast of Matlock. And the South Dakota State University Women's Volleyball team. And the chancellor of Germany. And the CEO of Baskin-Robbins....) It would be great to watch that get dissected on E! the next day, The 2007 Madtown Boozehounds season started with a solid 3-1 performance at Red-Eye overnight at Keva in Middleton, and more impressively, I got out of it without paralyzing myself by diving into a wall. The tricky part was how far I threw off my sleep schedule. It's bad enough staying up all night without trying to be athletic. So now I'm a full eight hours off where I want to be. This is going to take going around the horn at least once to fix the problem. So most of my friends know I play a lot of sports video games, particularly the dynasty/franchise modes. NCAA Football 2007 is my latest neurosis. Previous NCAA games have resulted in me getting inordinately attached to my fictional players I recruit in the game. I've had players that I still refer to: Troy State's Robert Crocker and Kendrick Pendergrass, Duke's Derek Busse, Baylor's Antwaan Medley, Curtis Mills and Chris Suggs, and Connecticut's John Paul Turner. (This without even leaving the college games and bringing up legendary Madden 2001 San Francisco wide receiver Nate Tippins) I've been jazzing up Wisconsin on the recent one, and I'm getting more neurotic than ever. I managed to recruit a running back named Joe Jackson that shattered records, but my biggest dip into video game hysteria came in the last recruiting session, when a quarterback from Barrie, Ontario named Shane Elliott appeared on the recruit list. I couldn't resist throwing everything I had into recruiting a Canadian quarterback with a combination of the names of the Badger's two goaltenders, and I've turned the Badgers offense into a five-wideout mania. Another example that I am quite the lunatic. Speaking of video games, I found a new way to exercise and look stupid in my living room by purchasing Dance Dance Revolution for my trusty old PS2. I'm quickly discovering that it's a fantastic leg workout, particularly for the calves. I'm almost to the point where I don't feel funny playing it as well. Also, between DDR and Guitar Hero, I'm spending a lot of time being pseudomusical in my living room. I'm currently wearing a long sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt, two pairs of sweatpants, and two pairs of socks. I'm not going outside, I'm just sitting in my bedroom. I'm thinking a space heater might be in order. Just because: Joe Bianchi So my family is pondering a two week trip to Europe at the end of the summer. My parents and sister, who have never been to the European continent, who, in fact, if you take my dad's involuntary trip to Vietnam in the early 1970s out of the equation, have never left North America. Then you have me, who has spent a combined few months in Europe flying by the seat of my pants and sleeping in rooms with strangers I've never met. I already anticipate the highest of comedy. The other trips of the summer will revolve around frisbee, and fortunately, I continue to develop quite the stable of good friends and excellent players who are interested in criss-crossing the United States and playing absurd amounts of ultimate. My interest in goofy sports continues to pay dividends. Note to all: I have started writing a political thriller-type novel, and have one snag I have started running into. I may have to get a consultant so that my Republican characters start sounding like reasonable politicians and less like agents of Satan. Any moderate Republicans who wouldn't mind being an occasional editor for me to check my policies and make sure that the predictable slant of my story doesn't slide the whole plot off the table would be appreciated. I think I'm going to hammer away at the beginning of my story some more. Good morning, good morning, it's great to stay up late, good morning, good morning, to you. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 9th, 2007
5:34 pm	Any Therapy For An Addiction To Wisconsin Sports? I don't think it's a surprise to anybody to learn that I have more than a casual interest in University of Wisconsin athletics. From people who have seen me screaming at the Kohl Center to roommates who have watched me pace a furrow in the carpet of a myriad of houses to the fact that I have to do a load of red-colored shirts when I do laundry, I'm pretty neurotic about the Cardinal and White. I have often joked, half-seriously, that I would watch Wisconsin and Minnesota play Scrabble if the opportunity presents itself. (Tri-Ple Word Score! CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP!) It's a good time. Today I set another personal mark. I was watching a Wisconsin-Ohio State basketball game on TV. I was getting excited with every basket, jumping around and yelling. When Ohio State hit a three pointer with a second and a half to go, I was pretty bummed. Something set this particular moment higher on the loon-o-meter though. The game was from 1983. I was watching a game on ESPN Classic that took place at the Field House about a week prior to my first birthday. Cory Blackwell had a career high in scoring, but the Badgers fell short in the end. Still, since I didn't know the outcome of the game, I watched it as if it was taking place today, with all the excitement and energy that I watch all Badger games with. I think I need professional help. Tonight I'll go watch the current Badgers take on Ohio State at the Kohl Center, and bring my usual energy to the game. All today proved was that I'm completely certifiable when it comes to my favorite sports team. Most of you knew that anyway. On Wisconsin! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007
12:52 am	New Year's Lack of Resolutions Well, we're a couple of days into 2007, and so far I've spent most of it on the couch. Not that this is a bad thing. The bowl games on New Year's Day were pretty exceptional with the Badgers' win over another SEC opponent deemed to be too fast and talented for the slow plodding Badgers to play with and the playground shootout that was Boise State's victory in the Fiesta Bowl. I'm definitely using this break to recharge and get ready for the rest of the school year, but am getting towards that point that I'm going to have to reboot my sleep cycle by either staying up for a day and a half or forcing myself to struggle through a day on a few hours sleep. Either way, there's something amusing coming up very soon. (One note back on rambling about the sports community: Is there some reason that all Wisconsin teams are required to be slow and plodding. Dick Bennett's basketball teams were incredibly slow, this is true, but we're in the Bo Ryan era now. This isn't the slugfest that was. That, and the new age Badgers have a few athletes. Alando Tucker is as athletic as anybody your North Carolinas or Kentuckys are going to throw at us. As for football, the Ron Dayne-Mike Samuel run the ball seventy times a game is also past. The Badgers had four athletic pass catchers chosen in the NFL Draft last year (Brandon Williams, Jonathan Orr, Owen Daniels, and Brian Calhoun) and just beat Arkansas without a running game. They were apologetic for both Auburn and Arkansas when we beat them, and I'm tired of it. Are we honestly going to have to beat Michigan, Ohio State, and USC in the same season throwing for 400 yards a game before they give us any credit? Okay, rant over.) Speaking of resolutions, I always wear a bit of a smirk when people set these incredibly lofty goals for the new year. There are many things I'd love to accomplish for the next year, but I want to set my bar at a moderate level, since anyone who has seen me play sports knows, I am more likely to hit the bar than clear it. A few things I wish to accomplish, and the amount that I expect is reasonable. I want to get a decent start on a novel. I don't expect to be able to blast through one in a year, but I would like to have a good outline and a reasonable amount put together for something to look at and be proud to try and finish. The hardest part of this whole process is that it looks like too large a mountain from from this point to try and climb; if I can get a third of the way up, the top will look much closer. I want to cut back on the extreme nights out, and spend more calmer nights at home or at quieter gatherings with friends. I think that's a key step in the growing up that it's about time I get around to. It's also got to be better for my health. I want to get out traveling again, if under the guise of frisbee tournaments or just for the heck of it. Last year featured less extra-Wisconsin experience than usual, and that makes everything a bit more stagnant. Madison is nicer when I get the chance to get away from it every once in a while. Some quick hits: I want to say something nice to somebody for no reason at least once a day, I want to work myself into better shape than I've been in for a few years, I want to double the number of random hugs I give to people, and I want to learn a new language to the point where I can at least be semi-intelligible to a native. Other than that, we shall see where 2007 goes as we wade into it. Happy New Year everyone, and take care (Comment on this)
Friday, December 29th, 2006
3:13 am	I Feel Like I Missed A Year After lying in bed with the maelstrom that is my thoughts for a while, I felt the need to get up and write for a while. These late night brain dumps via keyboard never come off with the usual Pete level of wit and humor, but that's usually because it's deep in the witching hour when I actually start dealing with those little questions that you never want answered. This particular quote that graces the title of this entry has become one I've been thinking about quite a bit. The quote comes from the West Wing, my favorite show on television, when Josh Lyman tries to explain to Amy Gardner that he likes her, and why he's bumbling about it: "I feel like I missed a year in school..I never learned what you do after you like somebody...what you do next." I've been realizing recently that I am growing up in a very enigmatic way. In some levels I've been raced into adulthood, and at some levels I have slowly progressed in baby steps way behind the rest of humanity. It's all part of the unique package you get here in the wild world of Pete. The balled up combination of a forty-five year old world traveling writer, and the eight year old still waiting for the next dodgeball game. Somewhere in the middle lies the eye of the Peteicane. It's as I drift out of the tempest that was 2006 for me that I pause to reflect on something I still haven't figured out. I still, to this day, have no idea what to do next. I am beyond incompetent when it comes to the opposite sex, and it keeps me thinking on more than a few occasions. Is it still the residual effects from the false start that was the first nineteen years? Is it really something you learn over time, and how do you go about doing it? I refuse to believe that I'm just that out of left field. Sure, my energy level and pace is slightly on the far side of manic, but it's slowly mellowing over time. I get such an incredible pain when I start to ponder taking action that it's truly debilitating. The last time I actually worked up the nerve to ask somebody, all of three years ago at this point, I ended up being so insanely nervous that I completely train wrecked the whole process. I sometimes wonder how people find it easy. I also ask myself where the confident, incredibly social version of Pete that I see so often goes when I need him to try and find something out. It always ends up in a complete mental freezeover. I can think of a few occasions in the past year where I may have completely whiffed on an opportunity. Actually, a more accurate analogy would be that I watched a strike go by. There's a night back in February that sticks in my head where I had a chance to get to know a girl who seemed really cool, and who I know had a decent opinion of me, and I blew that one in epic fashion through my epic inability to figure out what to do next. There are other occasions that pop into my head. In each, it seems I'm just missing some crucial bit of knowledge that leaves me hanging all the time. Sometimes I wonder if it's my old problem of trying to be the trusted friend all the time. I always want to be the friend that can be counted on, the shoulder to lean on, and I start to wonder if that personality is stuck in neutral. My friend Amy and I have traded blows on the theory of nice guys, and I think the truth lies somewhere between her Nice Guys Lose Because They Walk and my much publicized Davis Theory (go back in the journal entries for the full description of that one). There's definitely a lack of boldness that comes from wanting to be trusted, and there's always the terror of not being able to be there for someone who believes you have ulterior motives. This could possibly be the ultimate no-win scenario, but the optimist in me refuses to believe it. I think the main factor lies in my ability to tell when I should make an effort. There's another line from the West Wing along the same story arc, where Amy explains to Josh: "You know what the problem with guys like you is? You need to be hit over the head", which she follows by throwing a water balloon out her office window at him. Maybe that's just it. Maybe I'm one of the guys like that. Will it come down to some girl walking up and hitting me with a water balloon (or smacking me with a frisbee, or maybe just kicking me with an Essen Haus boot, or a two by four, who knows) to let me know. I'm open to the possibility that I'm just that daft. Two years ago, I wrote a journal entry about a new motto for this topic: Fortune Favors the Brave. This definitely fell in the easier said than done category. I still haven't quite figured myself out, and I'm still combing for clues. This definitely turned into another one of my late night meandering personal introspectives that come out as an amusing self-analysis combined with the usual sarcasm I have about my writing. 2007 looms just a few short days away and maybe, still providing I actually get out of 2006 alive (I refuse to take it for granted that I get there), I can use the new year as so many try to do each year around the world: as a chance for a new personal outlook and an opportunity to continue my slow inexorable march towards being most of a grownup. That said, I've said that before. Let's see what this future shall bring. Game on. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 4th, 2006
11:31 pm	Don't Eat The Crayons? So I was going through new boxes of crayons at work today (Yes, my job, still more fun than your job) and I came upon some new colors in this year's Crayola box of 96. Now, you always get some absurd color options when you're trying to name almost one hundred crayons, but they took a turn for the weird this year. If you'll recall, the composition of crayons was redone in the latter half of the twentieth century because kids would eat the crayons. Crayola remade their crayons to make them non-toxic, and they are now made of paraffin wax, which while not pleasant is edible and not poisonous. So teachers did not have to worry about students eating the crayons anymore, although naturally, it still happens. Well, in this year's release, they renamed a bunch of colors. Four of the new colors are named "laser lemon", "wild strawberry", "vivid tangerine", and wild watermelon". Are these crayons or Jolly Ranchers? It's tough enough to keep kids from eating the crayons without giving them tasty names. These are flavors not colors. Couldn't we come up with something more natural for the color names rather than making them sound like an extreme Starburst package? C'mon, Crayola. Help us out. All right, there was a little rant. Anyway, if you want to have a little flashback, here's how crayons are made, courtesy of Mr. Rogers... http://pbskids.org/rogers/R_house/picpic.htm Enjoy. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006
3:08 pm	Oh, The Places A Survey Website Says Pete Could Go A bunch of my friends have been linking the site FindYourSpot.com on their facebook notes. I was curious as to what it would say with my entries, but rather than merely list them, let's have some fun and comment on them. They give you the top 24, but let's go with the top 20, counting backwards towards number one... 20. Fredrick, Maryland I had to read the profile to figure out where it was. Being near DC would be kind of neat, and it looks like they have some neat festivals and all, but still, I think we'll stick to further up the list. 19. Oshkosh/Neenah/Appleton, Wisconsin You will begin to notice a couple of themes running through this list. One seems to be my home state. I don't know if the Lake Winnebago area would be my first choice, but well, here it is. Huzzah. 18. Eugene, Oregon Go Ducks! Could I replace Camp Randall with Autzen Stadium on my fall Saturdays. Oregon has a nice climate, it's got the Pacific Northwest's great ultimate frisbee environment, and I've always been fond of college towns. Maybe... 17. Albuquerque, New Mexico Home of the International Balloon Fiesta, but it'll take more than a lot of hot air balloons once a year to make me interested in moving to the desert. I drove through New Mexico. Not interested. 16. Charleston, West Virginia Seemed like a nice town when I passed through it in 2002. There seemed to be a run on capital cities at one point in here. The proximity to the Appalachians would be nice for weekends out. 15. Salem, Oregon Again with the state capitals. I wonder what part of my interests has me henpecked for a potential future in Oregon. It would eba shorter trip to Potlatch next year. Who do you cheer for in the Pac-10 if you move to Salem though. 14. La Crosse, Wisconsin Right. No. 13. Kenosha, Wisconsin Ditto. I am not moving to the home of Mike "Cheesedick" Johnson. I've heard all about the Fourth of July celebrations. My life expectancy is short enough. What is it about this state anyways? I figure it has something to do with my enjoyment of winter. 12. Portland, Oregon More with the Oregon. I don't think I could become a Trailblazer fan, and that's the only major sport. Remind me to spend some time out there, though. Find out what the hype is all about. 11. Danbury, Connecticut It's near New York City, which would be kind of neat, but I'm not huge on that giant urban sprawl type area, although that'll probably be unavoidable soon. Seems to be a nice little spot though. 10. Baltimore, Maryland Hmmmm....Baltimore. I'm thinking no. 9. Sheboygan, Wisconsin Sheboygan? I guess, maybe. Nice enough city, not too far from home, but really, Sheboygan? 8. Boston, Massachusetts I could see handling Boston. Fun town, my intermittent trouble with my "ar" sounds would fit in better, and the atmosphere is decent. 7. Chicago, Illinois I've always kind of liked Chicago. Fun museums and things to do. The lakefront is nice. I know a lot of people down there, it wouldn't be an awful transition. 6. New Haven, Connecticut If you can see Pete living in the home of Yale University, raise your hand. Didn't think so. Me and the Ivy League don't always get along so well. 5. Milwaukee, Wisconsin Next. 4. Providence, Rhode Island Other than the humor were I to trump my mom in the homes in tiny states category, I could see it working out. More with the Ivy League, but it's Brown. Seems like a decent sized city, not too big. 3. Worcester, Massachusetts Again, I can handle living out in Massachusetts, although I prefer cities I can pronounce. Proximity to Boston is nice. The NCAA Regional is there every other year for hockey. 2. Hartford, Connecticut Yet another state capital. I wonder if I could handle New England. Interesting change of pace from the midwest. I think the Connecticut/Rhode Island stretch would be more tolerable than the more populated areas. It's worth a thought if I ever try to pull up roots. And finally, the amazing, entirely unexpected, completely unpredictable, number one answer..... 1. Madison, Wisconsin Yeah, no one figured that one. Aw well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
7:19 pm	Understanding a Blue Day It is the day after the midterm elections, and it's not all roses here in Madison. Despite victories by the Democratic Party in almost every major contested race in the state, the city is sad with the success of the marriage amendment. It's interesting for me to watch as many of my friends have ranged from fury to sadness to anguish and back again, It is sad that Wisconsin joined Colorado, Idaho, Tennessee, Virginia, South Dakota, and South Carolina in passing legislation meant on writing discrimination into state constitutions. It is sad that the constitution, a document built on the granting of rights, is now being used to take them away from people. It is sad that an attitude of ignorance still exists for such a discouraging percentage of the population. This all is bothersome. There is something that gives me hope though. We are at a turning point in history. I truly believe that. I feel that those who look at history could find parallels with some of the worst times for other civil rights movements. We are in the early 1960s, when fire hoses gunned down African-Americans in the South, or the 1910s, when Susan B. Anthony and company were being thrown in jail for asking to vote. We are at the moment of final backlash before the surge, and a moment that I feel will be remembered in history as another last gasp of another group of people who will be remembered as an antiquated group with misguided views by generations to come. Some would have you believe that this amendment is the end-all for this cause, but amendments are not set in stone. The 18th Amendment doesn't do much anymore, as it was overturned shortly thereafter by the 21st. It is telling that the individual most responsible for ramming the ban through the state legislature lost to a doctor who had never held office before in the Wisconsin 8th. This amendment will be remembered as the Jim Crow of gay rights laws. An anachronism from a time where a populace hadn't yet advanced enough to handle it. There were positive signs in the national ballot measures. Arizona stepped up and defeated their own ban attempt. South Dakota voted down an attempted ban on abortion. Missouri voted to allow stem-cell research. Missouri, Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado all voted to raise the minimum wage and help the working-class. Opinions are changing throughout the country, and while it may seem slow to those of us living in the information age and it's light speed pace, it is a steady progression towards a greater viewpoint. The Congress flipped during yesterday's tidal wave of blue, and it leaves me cautiously optimistic. I hope that the Democratic Party use their new influence to move policy, and not settle old scores. Yes, corruption still runs deep through the executive branch, but to waste time on a final stomping is a disservice to the opportunity they have been given to start a legislative agenda that will change so many more minds than merely proving the points that got them elected. They need to take this opportunity and legislate a better health care option with a better prescription drug plan. They need to mend the holes in the No Child Left Behind act, if not completely overhaul it. They need to advance the 9/11 commissions recommendations for better national security. They need to fix the system of checks and balances that the founding fathers intended and restore the integrity of our government. They need to revisit our foreign policy, and prepare an exit strategy for a broken war. They need to attack their agenda with energy and speed, and force both sides to come together and make an effort to create policy that benefits America. This is the message that out of the Cardins and the Klobuchars, the Kagens and the Sestaks. The new wave must prove to us that they intend to work for us, not for themselves. We need to see the progress being made. We need to know that American can be fixed. For those here in Madison and around Wisconsin who just watched our state join the ranks of the homophobic, take heart. I believe in our generation. I believe that the ideas are growing and spreading, and that our ideals will, like every civil rights movement before it, be stronger than others because they represent tolerance and acceptance, love and understanding. I believe that we can win. As long as we refuse to accept these beliefs, as long as we continue to stand for acceptance, and as long as we continue to profess that a committed couple is a committed couple regardless of any other factors, we will succeed. (Comment on this)