Merry Christmas
Happy Holidays! Hope everyone has a safe and stress free day.
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eschapp
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eschapp
Ready . . . Break!
Well I the last time I’ve slept was for three hours on either Wednesday or Tuesday night, I’m not sure which. I’m a little groggy. I’m on my way back to the great city of Fargo, and am currently sitting in O’hare wishing the jazz band would stop downing out the music that is playing on my Zune [which enable me to not have to talk to strangers when I'm traveling]. Although the mix is mildly intriguing. It was raining in DC when I left, and there are all kinds of travel delays here in Chicago, but somehow none of my flights have been delayed. I did have to bribe a cabbie to forgo another fair to take me to the airport, but that was the worst of my problems. Based on these pictures:
O'hare is growing on me.
Hmm not quite 11. Damn.
I’m at least a bit happier here in Chicago than I was in DC. I can’t put my finger on the reason why . . .
I don’t have anything original to say, so if you are traveling this weekend be safe, and may the air delays be slight.
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acm006
Goose Island is a great brewery. I visited there and took the tour last time I was in Chicago. We got to sample 6 different varieties .
My local liquor store sells Goose Island (at 2.50E a bottle!) and I have one every now and then when I feel like a bit of home. Goose Island is probably my favorite brewer in America.
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yickit
I usually really like Goose Island, but this Harvest brew just wasn't hitting the spot. I think it was probably because that sandwich was really hot[spicy] which ruined the taste of the beer. Needless to say I switched to Bud.
Thats awesome you can get that in Ireland especially if its convenient.
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yickit
As soon as I imply I might make it through O'Hare without a delay, I get a 20 min wait handed to me, oh, but it sounds like we're boarding quick. And a here . . . we . . . go.
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eschapp
Wii Study Break
As some of you know, last week and this week are the time of year most college students dread: Finals. Finals are stressful enough, but it is also the holiday and travel season leading many people to feel stretched pretty thin. It certainly is a stressful time of year and right now I’m wondering how people deal with their stress.
Wii Yickit
Stress is a very personal issue, and everyone tends to deal with it differently. What works for one person might not work for anyone else. Be that as it may, I do have a recommendation of one thing that has recently worked for me. Buy a Wii1. For the last two weeks my Wii has helped me blow off a lot of steam, and while I do have other game systems2 nothing has helped me relax more than the Wii.
I think what makes the Wii a good stress reliever is the actual physical acts you must do to play the games. The weather hasn’t been great outside so it has been very difficult for me to run, and the Wii has clearly helped me replace my stress runs3. I am a huge baseball fan, so my favorite stress reliever is to play Wii Baseball on the Wii Sports game, which is included with the Wii when you buy it. Actually swinging at the pitcher’s throws really increases the game’s therapeutic benefits and is clearly better than sitting around reading when you have cabin fever. So if your looking for a new stress reliever for the cold winter months you should think about getting a Wii, especially is you like games.
So what works for you when you need to blow off some steam? Anybody have good suggestions for stress relief4.
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eschapp
Thoughts on Blogging
This post will not be about North Dakota, Fargo, Snow, or anything else related to those subjects. I promise.Today I’m going to think out loud a bit about blogging. Andy Drish has a very good post about blogging over at his site called, “Change Your Life – Start a Blog.” Blogging has had a profound effect on many people’s lives, and certainly has changed mine. Andy’s post basically chronicles how he came into blogging and his early struggles with the medium:
I was clueless. So Mike [Note: a fellow blogger - ed.] started teaching me the basics… And I hated it. For two reasons: 1) I had nothing to write about. 2) I sucked at writing . . . Being a bad writer with nothing to write about isn’t the best foundation to start a blog.
Id. Luckily, most people who stick with blogging eventually learn to create posts built upon what other people have written, but with their own analysis. Nevertheless, I think most people go through phases where they don’t know what to write, or question whether people want to read what they’ve written.
It is unquestioned that writing a meaningful post is most difficult when your first begin, but I also think this is an ongoing struggle for authors. [Based on my last week of posts, I do not mean to say that my posts are meaningful for other people, but rather that they are mostly my own work.] I’m not sure what the trick is to winning this struggle. I could be to find a muse of some sort to get you started [read: North Dakota this last week] or it could also be a community you have become involved and invested in [for me this includes primarily the WGOM Community and fellow bloggers I know on a personal level such as Andy or J.M. Verville].
Of course Andy quickly started writing about things he is very passionate [and very good at cultivating]:
But I quickly realized that blogging isn’t just about writing. It’s about ideas. And conversation. And relationships. But mostly… blogging is about people.
Id. Andy is clearly right. I think blogging is largely about finding your particular niche and exploring it while building personal relationships. Originally when I started blogging [at a prior domain which has long since lapsed] I had one goal: to get practice writing.
Over the years, I do think I’ve had plenty of practice, but that practice was not the great intellectual pursuit I was searching for. More and more the writing that I do has become secondary to my participation in online communities. Writing in a vacuum is not much fun. Conversing with people about what you each have written is much more rewarding. It took me a long time to learn this lesson, and Andy is right: blogging is more about the people than the actual writing.
So take Andy’s advice: Start a blog, change your life, and think about the world in a new and exciting way. But make sure that you are particupating and building relationships along the way.
[You can start your blog for free at Wordpress.com]
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E-6
Being a bad writer with nothing to write about isn’t the best foundation to start a blog.
Aye. There's the rub.
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Steve
I just read Andy's post, he's a social networking junkie for sure
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eschapp
The ND Material Keeps On Coming
They need to leave John Burke out of this!
Blessing or a curse?
I was planning on writing about my Business Associations Exam that was this morning. I wanted to point out that given the past success rates given to us by our Professor, that the best strategy was to be able to confidently answer 35 or 40 questions [out of 75] and then make educated guesses for everything else. This was because the average success rate was below 50%, yada yada, ad infintum . . .
But now for today’s North Dakota news:
North Dakota tops analysis of corruption from USA Today.
Say what?
The story points out that ND, Alaska, and Louisiana [LA, no shit, I'm not sure why they're making this list.] all have corruption convictions at a greater rate than Illinois. The story continues:
But North Dakota?
Don Morrison, executive director of the non-partisan North Dakota Center for the Public Good, said it may be that North Dakotans are better at rooting out corruption when it occurs.
“Being a sparsely populated state, people know each other,” he said. “We know our elected officials and so certainly to do what the governor of Illinois did is much more difficult here.”
Morrison said the state has encouraged bad government practices in some cases by weakening disclosure laws. North Dakota does not require legislative or statewide candidates to disclose their campaign expenses.
Id. (As usual linked added to the blockquote for background information.) The story does include the little tidbit that that it may just be that smaller states are better at rooting out corruption leading to greater per capita convictions. I would say that this is probably the case, for ND because I am biased.
John Burke in the US Capitol. Is this the same statute as the one in Bismark?
Although this business with Kent Conrad’s favorable loans kind of bothers me a little bit. Who knows how far corruption runs anywhere I guess.
Perhaps my views have changed since moving to Washington DC, the root of government wrongdoings. I consider DC to be both corrupt and ridiculous, but I never thought I’d be reading a news story making the claim that ND is the most corrupt state. IL and LA have that honor [which they share with NY and FL, a fact which should surprise no one].
So, I’m just going to go ahead and call shenanigans on USA Today: ND isn’t the most corrupt state, unless you are only comparing it to its neighbor to the south.
I missed the memo about it being ND Week, but I caught up quickly. By the way, USA Today, what the hell did John Burke ever do to you? Do you think we should take his statute out of the capitol building now? Back off. I’ve said it once and I hope I don’t have to say it again: ND get out of the news.
Oh and mass media: Please decide if we North Dakotans are the simple, conservative, never fancy types, or the evil corrupts, crazy type. It be best if you could get back to us before the weekend, we’ve got a lot of snow coming.
E-6 are discussing. 
eschapp
Site Changes
Wow, I’ve changed the site template about five times in the last two weeks. I’m pretty sure I’m done. I might make some minor tweeks, but I think I’m finally happy with how the site looks now. I did like the last theme [a child theme which ran on the thematic framework] but it took too long to load.
Now we’re running on the carrington blog theme with a custom style sheet. We’ll see how it works out for the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for your patience.
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Kevin
Carrington, as in Carrington ND?
eschapp
Just Like Fargo?
Just Like Fargo?
Okay, I could not resist. I might as well keep the weeks theme going. Fargo is currently the bane of my existence. I have no idea what has gotten into me this week. Fargo is just not that interesting and therefore I shouldn’t be able to write about it for days on end. But for some reason the stars must be aligned in a way to encourage references and stories about the biggest metropolis in that tiny state. Well this picture has come to my attention via a twitter search I have set up.
[Okay, so i have a twitter search for Fargo set up. So sue me. Its my home town so I'm generally interested in what is going on there.]
Either way, this picture come courtesy of Twitter user Twood. On the picture page, the caption reads: “Stagecoach turning south on calif ave. outside my off. Just like Fargo, ND.“ Click on the picture for a better look on the photo page.
Believe me, this is a great picture but I can think of many more reasons that this picture is not like Fargo. So what reasons are there that this picture couldn’t have been taken in Fargo? I’ll get you guys started:
- No Snow.
- There is a man in a suit taking a picture of the stagecoach.
- That man . . . is using an iPhone.
What else?
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SBG
Um, no buildings like that in Fargo?
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Yickit
Yeah, I’m not sure that the Radisson would count.
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yickit
I think there are also train/streetcar tracks on that road.
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AMR
It's not covered in snow.
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yickit
Yeah I don't think downtown Fargo looks like that even if you include the Radisson
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yickit
No white Christmases in Fargo apparently.
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yickit
I'm just going to throw this out there: What the hell does a Stagecoach have to do with Fargo? I don't care if it does say 'Wells Fargo" on the side.
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yickit
And at that: Does a stagecoach have to stop for a red light?
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E-6
Fargo doesn't have stoplights.
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yickit
Exactly! A case of mistaken Identity.
eschapp
Print: Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
Its been quite a while since I’ve discussed a book on the website. The problem has not been that I’m not reading, but rather that I have been too lazy to write anything about the books I read. I aim to rectify this problem right now:
Downtown Owl: A Novel by Chuck Klosterman is not the most recent book I’ve read. It also is not the least recent book I’ve read and not written a post about. So you might be asking yourself: Why pick this book? Well, apparently I’ve been obsessed with the great state of North Dakota this week. So in honor of that trend: Downtown Owl is set in a small North Dakota city. But wait. You should still read it.
From the publisher’s blurb:
Somewhere in North Dakota, there is a town called Owl that isn’t there. Disco is over, but punk never happened. They don’t have cable. They don’t really have pop culture, unless you count grain prices and alcoholism. People work hard and then they die. They hate the government and impregnate teenage girls. But that’s not nearly as awful as it sounds; in fact, sometimes it’s perfect.
Mitch Hrlicka lives in Owl. He plays high school football and worries about his weirdness, or lack thereof. Julia Rabia just moved to Owl. She gets free booze and falls in love with a self-loathing bison farmer who listens to Goats Head Soup. Horace Jones has resided in Owl for seventy-three years. He consumes a lot of coffee, thinks about his dead wife, and understands the truth. They all know each other completely, except that they’ve never met. (Links Added).
So the book is a story about a small town in a small state. I grew up in ND, but I have no ideas what its like to live in a small city like Owl. Fargo is not huge, but the difference between a population of 100,000 and 800 seems substantial to me. So while I doubt Klosterman has the most realistic view of small town life, his life experience in the subject greatly outweighs mine, so I will defer. The book’s plot centers around a 1984 blizzard which killed people around the state because of its sudden development and follows three people’s lives before, up to, and after the blizzard.
Overall I thought the book was good, especially for a first novel. But it could have been much better if the characters either would have differed to a greater degree, or were developed to a greater degree. That being said, I was invested in each of the main characters storyline and I literally felt bad for each character’s plight. If you want to read about what it means to be “normal” this book is for you as each of the characters struggles with what it means to be normal.
Overall, I thought the book was a good read and have already recommended it to a couple of friends. Has anyone else read this book? Are Klosterman’s other books worth reading?
[Chuck Klosterman has also authored Of Fargo Rock City; Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs; and Killing Yourself To Live. And he also is a columnist for Esquire and has written for GQ, Spin, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Believer, and ESPN.]
Algonad are discussing. -
Algonad
I've read Fargo Rock City. I really liked it. Although I'm not from ND, I'm guessing I could relate to that book better than you would because I'm from a small, rural town and I'm about the same age as Chuck. Fargo Rock City could have been written about my high school.
That's a long-winded way of saying I really liked it but you might not. I liked it based on how it related to my life.
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yickit
Thank for the intel. I'm pretty sure I'm going to read it soon. I've generally heard that its good, and that's good enough for me. Plus I have your recommendation now too.
eschapp
Hey North Dakota, Get out of the News
For the third day in a row, North Dakota is in the news. So much for being conservative and never fancy. This week it seems like that great plains state is being a media whore trying to steal the limelight. It came to light today that apparently ND is dabbling in changing corporate law by instituting reforms designed to solve some of the criticisms of Delaware corporate law:
Secretary of State Al Jaeger, who thinks the law might attract business to North Dakota, supports the effort. “Our position was … we will build it,” Jaeger told the Journal. “If somebody wants to come and play in our ball field, that’s great.”
The North Dakota law is unlikely to draw much business to the state soon, experts say. But activist investors say the North Dakota law adds fuel to the debate over shareholder rights and oversight, which has intensified during the financial crisis.
See Law Blog – WSJ.com : North Dakota Sends Delaware a Wake-Up Call on Corporate Governance (links added).
[Begins slow clap . . . no one joins . . . starts typing again]
Maybe this just interests me because I’m currently enrolled in Business Associations. Or maybe because I’m from ND I’m contractually bound to point out the state any time it appears in the national media. Maybe I’m just addicted to the song of the western meadow lark. I just don’t know.
Either way, I can’t remember the last time North Dakota was in the national news three days in a row [well maybe during the 1997 flood]. But here’s to you North Dakota, for trying to steal business from Delaware while Joe Biden isn’t standing guard on a slow news day.
I’m just going to pretend that this, “The Pride of Fargo” story doesn’t exist.
By the way ND, get out of the news: you’re blocking my view.
eschapp
Bling Bling and Fargo Do Not Go Together
Bling Bling is a phrase that does not belong in a news story about Fargo. I don’t care what I said yesterday. The fact that the two appeared together in a story from the Fargo Forum makes the following all the more ridiculous:
The Bling Bling Showcase at the Fine Arts Club was meant to show off local jewelry, purses and accessories, as well as draw people into the clubhouse at 601 4th St. S., Fargo.
See Fargo Fine Arts Club sells locally made ‘Bling Bling’ from Inforum.com.
What makes this story even more entertaining? Read the story and check out the picture that accompanies the article.
As a teaser, the alternate text of the picture includes, “You’re never too old for bling.”
acm006 8:33 am on December 27, 2008 Permalink |
Merry Christmas to you too. I hope Fargo is good.