So Pete was like....

Matt you gotta check out this video that Neil Gaiman linked on his journal today. And I was like this video http://www.fabulist.org/archives/2006/11/to_rouse_you_fr.html ? And Pete was like yeah. So I did. My life will never be the same.

I forgot that I had changed my password...

I was feeling kind of sick Saturday night after I got second at the euchre tournament so I came home and slept.

Sunday I went to see For Your Consideration with Jimmy (it sucked, lots) still felt kind of sick so I came home Sunday night and slept.

Monday felt slightly less sick, but work Jimmy was really sick so he didn't come in on Monday. I ended up having to take early and late run together, but it wasn't a big deal cause I'm a hoss.

Tuesday, Jimmy was back at work. I realized that the first of the month is Friday and freak out a little. Tuesday night, in bed by 11. I woke up this morning looked at the clock. It said 11:15. I slept for 12 hours. I am some sort of sleeping demi-god.


Ok so here's what's happening to me the next few days. Tomorrow is all about homework, with a bit of giving blood in the middle, followed by some working then some more Battle for Middle Earth. God I love that game. Friday is going to suck because it's going to be snowing/raining/sleeting and it's the first of the month and I have late run. Saturday I'll be getting up ridiculously early to go read at the Notre Dame Scholar Bowl Tournament, if it isn't called off due to snow. Some point this weekend I need to cancel my subscription to Final Fantasy 11. 11 is a decent game, but I don't feel like the time investment is worth it. The late game content seems pretty cool, but getting there would take a lot more time than I care to spend playing a non-RTS. I don't regret buying it. It was only $20 and like I said, it's a good game. Maybe I should just stick to the console RPG's.

So I'm in a LOTR kick due in large part to Battle For Middle Earth. It's the best RTS I've played in a long time. I'm trying to read 2 towers now. I'm farther than I've ever been (Chapter 3).

Anyway. I'm going to try to read more now.

Matt v. Tea; Round 2

I feel like I'm starting to get sick so I'm drinking hot tea to nip the sickness in the bud. I tried to get into the habit of drinking hot tea earlier this year, it didn't go over so well. I'm trying a peppermint, herbal tea with a spoonful of honey in it. It is making me feel better. The problem is when I'm in these early stages of sickness and my throat gets all gunky there are certain things that if I drink them it makes the problem worse, dark sodas (not really a problem. I don't need soda like some people *Matthew K Long*) and milk. Not being able to drink milk is a problem. Milk, Peanut Butter and Ranch dressing are the foodstuffs I consume with the most frequency. I drink milk with everything, especially with things that I have with peanut butter or ranch dressing.

I got up about 8 this morning to play football with Keith, some Strohmeyers and their friends. It was fun, but I was completely useless. I can't throw a football and I couldn't outrun anyone else out there. I did make a couple of quick completions for first downs but other than that. Mr. Garner, the guy who taught me physics was an unstoppbale football god.

Also:
Curb Your Enthusiasm is great, but I'm sure you already knew that, but did you know that the second season of Extras is also great. I'm sure you assumed it would be, but I have evidence to back it up. It's important to note that it is NOT, I repeat, NOT as good as the first season, but it definately has some great episodes. Specifically the Ian McKellan episode.

EUCHRE TONIGHT!!!!

Friday no more; A Boring post about my job

Worked sucked so much more than the Friday after Thanksgiving should. Here's a rundown of Clockout times this week vs mail we ran.

Monday: 8:10 ; 26,000
Tuesday: 8:20; 24,000
Wednesday: 8:45; 23,000
Friday: 8:55; 21,000

Tonight we ran 21,000 pieces. Over half of the businesses whose mail we sort were closed today. We ran a lot of mail from my two least favorite accounts. They're my least favorite especially when I have to meter them, which I had to do tonight. An important thing to mention is that metering mail takes considerably longer than just screening it. When companies send us their mail and it already has postage on it, all we have to do is screen it, which means we flip through it to make sure every letter has postage and make sure there are no stamped pieces in with their mail. It takes about 20-30 seconds to screen a tray of mail. When the mail doesn't have postage on it, when it comes from companies that don't have a postage machine and we have to meter it it takes anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes to prepare a tray of mail to be run through the sorter. It sucked so much. I can't express to you how easy tonight should have been. Fuck Great West Health Insurance. I hope the building catches fire and the flames burn hot with the massive amounts of junkmail that they send to people on a nightly basis.

I still think Borat is mean.

I saw Borat last night with Work Jimmy. It was ok. There were some really funny parts. I read on IMDB that it's set to become the highest grossing comedy of all time. Anchorman is funnier.

We're finally done with taxes at work! Yee -haw!

That's really all I had to say

Monday!!!!!!

I've been in a spectacularly good mood since Saturday. I think it might have something to do with the joint the guy next to Steve was smoking before the concert. Maybe not.

I talked to my cousin Josh-shwa tonight. He's going to be home the Tuesday before Thanksgiving which is pretty bitching. His family goes to Texas every year for thanksgiving day so I usually don't get to hang with him over Thanksgiving break which is a bummer.

I keep watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I think it is a very bad show, but I hope it stays on for at least the rest of the season. It's certainly better than CSI Miami and it gives me something to watch on Monday nights. In tonight's episode we found out why Tom was speeding through Parump, Nevada (It had something to do with his brother who's in the air force and was being protested. John Goodman told us why, but I didn't really follow him nor did I really understand how he came by this information). Also the thing that Harriet and Matt were fighting about for the past two episodes was just Matt being protective of Harriet *aww*. Here's a reenactment of their conflict.

Matt: You're a Christian!
Harriet: I certainly sound like someone who could be Christian.
Matt: I'm mad at you for believing things that you believe in.
Harriet: *shouting* Hey everyone!!! I believe and Jesus and stuff! But unlike ever other Christian I have a sense of humor, you know cause Christians don't have senses of humor and spend all of their time boycotting crappy SNL knock-offs that aren't funny!
Matt: Was that supposed to be ironic?
Harriet: No. The writing is just that bad.
Matt: Wow... this is painful. Anyway. I'm mad at you cause of gays and stuff.
Harriet: Blah blah blah. You're a liberal, I'm a conservative but we still love each other even though you dumped me.
Matt: I'm still angry at you.
Harriet: Ok.
Matt: Now I'm not mad at you, I just wanted to be there when those gay street thugs one of which looked like the lead singer of Beulah accosted you.
Harriet: Let's hold hands.
Matt: ???

Apparently they're going to kiss next week, so get your TIVO's ready.

Oh by the way, I was going to mention this last post but I forgot. If anyone is looking for the hot indie chicks they're at the Decemberist's concerts. Yikes. Lots of solid black frame glasses. Lots of scarves. They were everywhere. Jimmy K, a good friend of mine and a veteran of 2 Decemberists concerts said that this was not a fluke, it is not limited to Chicago. Where the Decemberists be, so be the hot indie chicks. You've been warned.

I should be tired of this song, but I'm not.

I've heard Crane Wife 3 about 8 times the past 2 days. It's still an amazing song and I still enjoy it every time I listen to it.

Well this weekend was a blast. Friday, after I got to St. Louis, I hung out with Pete briefly and spent the night at Steve's and reread 300. Saturday morning after everyone was awake and what not we, we at this point being Me, Steve, Mary (Steve's lady) and Frank (Steve's roomate) assembled at the van and then went to retreive Petus and Kaelin (Pete's lady) {Note: I really don't know how to spell her name, and for what it's worth I wasn't even aware that Kaelin was a first name as the only experience with the name Kaelin that I had before meeting Pete's girlfriend was from Jenifer Kaelin, some girl in my cousin's class in high school}. It was 7:40. The ride to Chicago was unspectacular, except for Frank vomiting in the van and the subsequent cleansing with lysol. Also the book of Neil Gaiman short stories I was reading was pretty fucking spectacular. As we got closer to Chicago there was a lot of quoting of Arrested Development. All and all the trip to Chicago was fairly pleasant.

We found the venue and parked relatively close to it. It was balls cold in Chicago. We hung out in a Borders while the people in our party made contact with their friends that were in Chicago. They came to meet our group and then we had lunch at a Thai place.

Ok I could keep going on with this boring play by play, but I won't. Here's the highlights.

I bought this kick-ass Nazi sweater at this Army Surplus store and put it on under my Fleece Jacket thing, bringing me to a mind-sweltering 4 layers of shirt.

We went to this used book shop that sold a ridiculous amount of pornography. Actually it just had a ridiculous amount of pornography on display. I can't really comment on the quantities of pornography that the store moved, but I can say one guy that was there when we were there bought like 8 magazines. Also I think I should point out that there were like 13 of us college kids moving about in these very small stores on the street near the venue.

While we were waiting at Borders the second time I was reading this book of 1001 albums you have to listen to before you die. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake both had albums in there. You know who didn't? The Decemberists. Neutral Milk Hotel. Ben Folds/BFF. Cake. THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS!!!!!!! That book was bullshit.

There was a lot of standing around and waiting. In line to get into the Venue. In the venue waiting for the concert to start. Waiting for the lame opener to stop playing so the Decemberists could come on and rock the house. Waiting for Frank to come back with water to revive our fallen comrade Steven Wissinger. That's right folks, after the boring, but entirely Scottish opener finished my dear friend Steve Wissinger was overcome with some sort of fever and nearly fainted. Thanks the quick thinking and acting of the girlfriends and Petus and Frank, Steve recovered quickly and was able to enjoy the rock that soon followed his spell. What was I doing during Steve's near fainting spell you ask? Doing what I do best my friends, keeping people away from Steve while he sat on the floor trying to not pass out. Giving him room to breath, as they say.

So a word about the Decemberists. Spraelificent. What does that mean? I'll tell you.

sprae-LIF-i-cent: adj. The Decemberists rocked hard, no doubt, but it wasn't a rock concert. They Might Be Giants put on rock concerts. Actually they put on Rock Shows, but still. The Decemberists put on one of the best live shows I've ever seen. They play the songs almost exactly like they sound on the album, which is how you would want a Decemberists song played. Colin Meloy is so engaging and fun to watch. He has so much control over the audience. He can work a crowd like no other.

At some point during the concert I got it into my head that the Decemberists look like they could all be high school teachers. I spent the majority of the rest of the night trying to figure out what subject each one would teach. John would teach history, obviously. Jenny would be the choir teacher. The choir wouldn't be very good, but she wouldn't care. She would love her job anyway. She would be fairly strict but also very kind. Nate would be the chemistry teacher, but he wouldn't like teaching chemistry or teaching at all probably. Chris would teach Math or art. Probably math. He might be a coach too. Probably tennis. Lisa would be the new English teacher that all the boys have a crush on and Mr. Meloy would be the Drama teacher that all the girls have a crush on, and some of the boys too. I don't know why, but this little exercise gave me endless amounts of satisfaction during and after the concert.

Wow. This post is really long. I'm going to end it now.

Watching Big Fish. Yippee

Wow, I love this movie.

I'm totally stoked about the impending weekend.

Work was incredibly long but highly tolerable due to my super Decemberists playlist. Nine freaking hours.

So almost everyone and everything I voted for on Tuesday didn't pass.

Gosh, I haven't blogged for a week and I have nothing to say.
Sorry gang.

Secret Movies

I just saw the Prestige. First of all, anyone who doubts that the United States of America is the greatest country in the world just take some time and observe Ms. Scarlett Johansson. Still not convinced? Look again. Any country that can produce that clearly has something special. God Bless America.
Anyway about the movie. I think I figured it out too early. I can't say when I figured it out, but it was definately before the final act of the film. Also it was just me and Bob in the theater so we just speculated out loud for the majority of the film and as it turns out, we were mostly right. I'm not saying it isn't enjoyable once you know what's going on and where the film is going, it just sort of takes the wind out of the sails a bit. Fortunately the cast is so superb the film would be a joy to watch if they were just playing Ping Pong for 2 and a half hours.

No good trailers before the movie sadly. Stranger than Fiction. A Good Year (what the Hell is with this movie!? Ridley Scott, that angry Australian guy I keep hearing about, making some sort of "love" movie?) Deja Vu. Apacalypto. Deja Vu. Ho hum.

So next weekend is fast approaching. Huzzah.

Work is going to suck today. Just thought you'd like to know.

11 days later

I haven't posted for a while. Sorry bout that kids.

The Halloween game went wellish. It went ok. It wasn't our worst, it wasn't our best.


I saw some movies. I saw The Departed. It was enjoyable. I saw Slither. It was good, but not as good as it could be. I'm listening to Colin Meloy lead the audience at a Decemberists concert through their vocal warm ups. I'm really stoked about the concert which is in 2 weeks? I don't really know. Yay the Decemberists.

I rented FF 12. Want to fight about it?

OH!!!! We showed J-Spaeth Army of Darkness tonight. He had never seen it before. Can you believe that. I can't.

Halloween is over. I'm not really sad. It didn't really feel like Halloween at all this year. I hate working on Halloween. It sucks toast.

Aftermath

Well the Halloween game was last night. I think it went ok. It was probably our second best game. Last year's game was our best I think. This year's game felt like it was really thrown together. But I think everyone still had fun. Kurt was came to the game, so that was cool. I hadn't really seen Kurt since he got married.

Halloween is in 2 days or something. Yipee.

Nacho Libre was a pretty good movie. It was better than I thought it would be. I give it a 7 out of ten.

I also watched Slither. It was not as good as I thought it would be. The problem was mostly that it was too short of a film. The movie was good, but lacking. Nathan Fillion is amazing though. He needs to be in more mainstream films. Anyway 6 out of 10.

Good Lord, is it Saturday?

ZOUNDS!

I'm listening to the Wilco concert NPR recorded. It's a whopping 2 hours long. I was thinking about going to see Wilco in Springfield MO. I didn't, but apparently some guy who did got and stage, tried to kiss Jeff Tweedy and got punched in the face. Way to go Jeff. People who jump on stage during rock concerts deserve to be punched in the face.

Work was the suck tonight. I won't go into detail, but I will say I don't like the new guy.

The Halloween game is a week away. I have a lot of work to do.

I watched Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World tonight. I liked it. I haven't seen a lot of Albert Brooks movies. I've seen The Muse and The Rookie (is that what the one with Brendan Frasier is called?) Anyway, I liked it. It was subtle and somewhat unfufilling, but very funny. I think that's sort of his thing though. I reccomend it.

Is it still raining?

I did absolutely nothing this weekend. And unlike some people who revel in those kinds of lazy days, I always feel bad about them. I'm so unproductive during the week anyway, when I do absolutely nothing constructive on the weekend I feel tremendously bad about it. Especially with all the things I could have been doing. I did do some laundry, and I worked on the game a bit, but for the most part, I have nothing to show for the 48 hours between friday and today.

This week in Matt Essner

Musts:
I have to work this week, pay Semo lots of money, work on the Halloween game, work on School Work, clean the kitchen and bathrooms (before Wednesday when my Parents get back from San Diego)

Would Like to's:
Finish all the planning of the Halloween Game
Make some oatmeal cookies
Time Spiral Draft (Friday Night? Anyone!?)
See the Illusionist

I'm going to stop writing now.

The Cardinals are going to lose.

The Mets are going to score again and the Cardinals can't get runners on the bases. They're going to lose. Carpenter pitches tomorrow, but that doesn't matter. Weaver pitched just about as good a game as anyone could've hoped for Glavine just shut them down offensively.

Joe Buck is awesome.

Have you seen Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip? Yeah. Me too. It's kind of dumb. Not as dumb as CSI Miami, it's Monday night competition, but yeah... dumb.


Work is the suck.

I'm cold.

The End.

Blue is not my color

We had fun playing magic tonight. That's what happens when you have an Eric McLain there.

I bought God of War. It is engaging. It's a lot more fun than Devil May Cry 3, I can tell you that right now.

This weekend I finished all of my MC 101 projects. I have to take a test online tomorrow. I have to finish my Bibliography project for EN140 tomorrow as well. I also rented From Hell from Kent library. It's pretty good so far. I'm not suprised.

I went to 9 o'clock mass today and I was literally surrounded by the parents of people I went to school with. Mrs. Glosemeyer was sitting in the same pew as I, two pews ahead of us were the Medlins, the Lages two in front of them, the Buherles three in front of them, the VanGennips and the Enderles were in across the aisle, the Wittenborns and Wencewics (I have no idea how that's supposed to be spelled) were also there too. It was an impressive gathering of people whose children I used to know 4 years ago.

October. Oh Me. Oh My.

I haven't posted for like 2 weeks! It's crazy.

Well it's October, my favorite month of the year. The month of hoody sweatshirts and Halloween (2 of my all time favorite things). I feel like I'm really behind on my Halloween game. I have a lot of work to do, and only 3 weeks to do it.

I got my ticket to the Decemberist concert. Yippee!

So what have I done since last I posted?

I saw some movies.
1. Black Dhalia (liked it)
2. The New World (liked it)
3. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (liked it)
4. The Warriors (liked it)

I played Devil May Cry 3. (It was hard)
I kicked everyone's ass but Spants (as usual) in a magic tourney. I technically didn't play Kevin, but he stole my side board which is counts as an automatic loss for him.

ANNOUNCEMENT:
Work is going to suck tomorrow. Adam isn't going to be there and neither is Pat. If the new girl shows up today, she'll probably be there tomorrow, but still.... Jay better stay or we better not have any mail or both. Also Pat is gone all next week and Wednesday is Adam's last day. But we are off on Monday.

Accoustic Head Wizard

The office is on at 7:30 now so I'll never catch it live, ever. I don't know if I just want to tape every episode, or torrent it or just not watch it till it's over than torrent it. The 3rd season started tonight. The first episode was very good. There was a lot of stuff happening in that 21 minutes of show so it felt pretty rushed. I'm stoked for this season. I need to find a game to play. I'm going to watch a movie now.

Things you need to know

Here are some things you need to know.

1. I cleaned my room tonight. I just got done in fact. It's hard for me to clean my room without completely rearranging it. I just need some change every now and then. Some new features in my newly cleaned/rearranged room inclued:
i. Organzied DVD/Music/Game Shelves
ii. Finally sorted through those laundry baskets sitting in my room
iii. For the first time ever I have a bedside lamp! WOOT!

2. I haven't shaved for more than a week and it's gross/uncomfortable.

3. I shouldn't have eaten at burger king tonight.

4. I wrote a commercial for my EN140 class. I think it's kind of funny, but I have to memorize a lot of lines becuase we're supposed to perform it live in front of the class.

5. The fight scene in the middle of The Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite battle scenes of all time. It's a skirmish between a raiding party of Huron and a retreating battalion of British troops and it is a great scene. The Last of the Mohicans is the first part of my fall trilogy of awesome. TLOTM sometime in early to mid September, The Patriot in mid to late September and Sleep Hollow at any point in October. All three are set in New England between the years 1750 and 1799 and though they are not particularly seasonal, they are my quinticential autumn films. I think this connection stems from the fact that in school, anytime I learned about or talked about this particular time period it was during fall.

That is all.

Still not cleaning my room.

I watched the Matador last night. It was good. Pierce Brosnan was hysterical.

Here's a list of some of my favorite things.

1. The Complete Series of Arrested Development
2. The second season of the American Office
3. My Cat
4. My dark blue jeans

I bought Rise of Nations. It's a good game, but it doesn't hold my interest because I've played it before because it is Age of Empires. It's a prettier, better Age of Empires, but it is exactly the same game.

What's happening this week... not much. I might be doing a trivia night with my uncle Roger on Saturday. Sunday is the big 50th anniversary party for the Diocese of Springfield Cape.... it should be exciting.

I'm going to take a nap now.

So it's September now

I went to the fair tonight with Jimmy, or did I go with Jimmy to the fair tonight, English majors, help me out. It was neat. The arena building wasn't open and the livestock wasn't there. It was still pretty neat.

Work was too easy last week. We pretty much kicked ass every single day. This week, however, work is going to suck incredibly hard since Pat is gone tuesday-thursday.

I had a good idea for the Halloween Game this year. I think it's going to happen. We'll see.

I have my first test tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. It's online and it should be lots of fun.