Report: Vermont Is Healthiest State

for some reason that title was in the autocomplete of my blog title li'l box.

austin hasn't blogged in a long time. i know it is because he is very busy. my capital letters voice is on vacation right now. if anyone wants to help me to write 5-7 pages about marx's views on modernity i'd appreciate it. <3 y'all.

hey look it's tiny london

this is something that i want to do for my future children

http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com

a quick moment in irony

from the people who are angry that "money from hard working people gets given to lazy people who are poor" comes a corporate bailout to the tune of $700,000,000,000. It's taking $2333 from each hard working american man, woman, and child(it's about $10,000 from the average household) and putting it in the pockets of investors and banks who purposefully made high-risk decisions. People who have been making hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars from their decisions. They're who the american people need to sacrifice for. Damn those welfare queens to poverty and death, they should just get a job. 

call it off

Today was one of the most genuinely great days of my life. Waking up this morning to the sunlight through my small window, I had no premonition of greatness. I didn't think it would be much more than a trudge through class, then work, then class, then homework, and then maybe a bike ride in the evening. That's the magic of the world though. It doesn't have to warn you, and it's probably better if it doesn't. I have no more consumer debt. Or fossil fuel powered transportation. It's liberating. It's one of those positive moments that I want to be able to look back on, so bear with my giddiness. 

Feeling free is the best feeling that you can have, I think. And being able to feel free with your friends, not having to escape them to feel free, is great. I think that is the appeal of the Gospel for me, when you are really doing things right, you really do feel free. More free than any other experience that exists. Add some fresh air, and you might never stop smiling. 

The weather has been perfect lately. I'm learning more interesting things than I ever thought that I could in college. The world is a pretty interesting place, even when it's having problems. 

Riding bikes is pretty much the best, and it barely even costs money. You just have to eat more pitas and hummus than you normally would. The colors are starting to change outside. I'm not sure if you've noticed or if you're too busy reading your rss feed, but you should really go outside and check them out. At night, it's starting to get cold enough that you don't feel your fingers if you stay out for too long. The days are getting shorter and sweeter. They aren't brisk yet, not by any means, but they are more pleasant. Look around; I just did and I wish that someone had reminded me to earlier. 

Take some more pictures and share them with me. I want to see your life. I want everyone to see how great everyone else's life is. Even when they're hard, there's a lot of greatness, of magnanimity in everyone. 

last night

last night i had one of these

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Nutrition/product.aspx?Category=Beverages&id=BV309

Serving Size 1 Serving (32 fl.oz.)
Amount Per Serving
Calories 2210		Calories from Fat 900
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 100g			154%
Saturated Fat 54g			270%
Trans Fat 2g
Cholesterol 245mg			82%
Sodium 1400mg			58%
Total Carbohydrates 302g			101%
Dietary Fiber 5g			20%
Sugar 250g
Protein 35g
Vitamin A			50%
Vitamin C			10%
Calcium			100%
Iron			50%
Calories per gram:
Fat 9	Carbohydrate 4		Protein 4
*Percent Daily Value based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be different depending on your calorie needs.
Calorie:		2,000	2,500
Total Fat	Less than	65g	80g
Saturated Fat	Less than	20g	25g
Cholesterol	Less than	300mg	300mg
Sodium	Less than	2,400mg	2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate		300g	375g
Dietary Fiber		25g	30g Welcome to deliciousness! A creamy blend of Oreo Cookies ‘n Cream ice cream, topped with whipped cream, chocolate drizzle and crushed Oreo cookie pieces. Yum!

time constraints

Often, I manage to convince myself that I am too busy to do something like blog. Or that I am too busy or in too much of a hurry to clean up. Or that I am too busy to read my scriptures, or pray, or do one of many important things that I should be doing at any given time. This is a fun game to play, but it's disingenuous to the highest degree. I work maybe eight hours per day, then arrive home to waste several more. I meet up with friends, and we shoot the breeze for a few hours, then end up doing whatever we had planned to do. I go to bed too late, then sleep for five or six hours until I have to get up to work again.
What I'm getting at here is that I need to start organizing my time better. So what that means, I'm not sure. Maybe I'll buy an iPhone, maybe I'll just start scheduling everything in my computer, with alarms and other neat alerts to keep me on my toes and doing all of the assignments that I am supposed to. I'm going to buckle down and graduate in April. I'm tired of being an undergraduate. I may not be very much fun for the next seven months or so. It's not that I don't love you, it's just that I don't love undergraduate studies.

disliking and/or hating music/art/people/clothes/subcultures

There is no risk involved in disliking something. It's fast, it's easy, and in most cases, it makes you feel like you are smarter than the people that like that thing. It's easy to say "oh, how pedantic," or "oh what trash," "what a lack of creativity." It takes no talent, no creativity, and no originality to hate something. There's nothing easier. 

Lots of people love to be this first to hate something. This is especially prevalent among high-end alt-people. Noncommittal approval of bands, abandonment of trends and music as soon as it becomes "mainstream," and an air of nonchalance all contribute to the vacuous idea that liking stuff is uncool. 

What's ironic about all this is that in disliking things, people are simply showing how terrified they are of taking any stance at all, how badly they themselves don't want to be disliked. It showcases an inability to defend personal taste. The idea that you're better because you find something "below you" just shows how much you care that people think that you are above something. 

I love the song "Toxic" by Britney Spears. 

let freedom bling

I woke up in a bit of a panic, my alarm had gone off much earlier and I thought that I had missed the parade. Looking out the window, I saw that the majority of the grass covered by cheap white lawn chairs, occupied in odd patterns of two or three here and there. There was still plenty of space, so I laid back on the couch and fell asleep once again. An hour or so later, I woke up afraid again. Many more chairs were full, and the remaining lawn space was taken up by blankets both occupied and unoccupied. 

What I'm trying to say here is that the fourth of July was really great. We saw a lot of awesome floats and tanks and stuff. And a lot of fireworks. And rode our bikes. And went swimming. And rode our bikes. And grilled. And smiled. 

Keep on loving summer, it'll love you back. 

sometimes my eyes go out of focus when i am reading or writing, especially when it is this late. as the saying goes, i'm tickling the late night keyboard once again. 

this means that i'm highly likely to avoid doing the homework that I should be doing and instead write a great blog post about the foreign service and the associated studying that 

goes on while preparing to take the foreign service exam. the reading list says this:

"Given this breadth, it is difficult to provide a definitive reading list that will prepare a person for the Foreign Service selection process, and for a Foreign Service career. Nonetheless, the reading list below illustrates the kinds of books and readings that can set you in the right direction. "

One of the books listed: "Atlas of the World." 

That means that I should be much better versed in history and geography if  I am going to have a chance at this thing. There are a lot of awful smart people out there, and they probably aren't blogging at 2:28 in the morning. But I am, and so it goes. 

This post will signify a transition in my blogging, where I use capital letters again. I think they've been gone from my life for long enough, so I am inviting them back in, as well as inviting in touch typing. And more friendships. And more swimming. And hot weather. And Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. And Mitch Hedberg. And summer jams. And more biking. And new bike parts. It's a party in my heart, and everything and everyone fun is invited. We'll try to keep the not fun at bay for as long as possible. You should try it too, it's surprisingly liberating. Here's a picture of me feeling liberated:

B-rad is there too. Everyone is invited, you see. Get happy. Wear some type of clothes that you have never worn before. Try something that you've never tried before. Summer is the time for reinvention and remedial fun. Get outside, ASAP. 

a new look

i thought that my idea about the hipster cookie cutter was pretty funny, hope that you did too. i was tired of the old look, so i've upgraded to something a little simpler, and a little bit more classy. 

in keeping with my ideas from the last post, let me tell you about american apparel and urban outfitters. 

the two stores generally make appearances together. while they are not neighbors, they are most often within a few (maybe ten) blocks of each other. both appeal to the same demographic, though AA tries to be more discreet about it. urban outfitters is the one place that tegan can go and be a celebrity, and aa is the place for cool dads. 95% of shoppers at these two stores are college students, so naturally, they are all within spitting distance of a college. four examples: pearl st. in boulder, the u district in washington, trolley square in salt lake, and on university in tempe. the executives who run these stores know that their shoppers don't like to be marketed to, so they do little overt marketing. they're much more astute than they seem. i love american apparel v necks and urban outfitters $15 goofy sunglasses. 

i'm going to skip lenses for now

light blue and tan is most probably the best color combination since colors were invented. perhaps it is because the sky contrasted with a field at harvest time creates the same combination, but it looks stellar on a human body. more people, including myself, should wear this combination, paint our cars and houses this combination, and visit places that have this combination. it's awesome. 

i've got lots more blogmunition. visit the triplogblog if you want to learn about our trip to washington, from several perspectives. 

big fish, little pond

item one: i'm a buy you some strang is one of the funniest songs i have ever sang

item two: midnight is the best time to blog because you are certain to write something completely silly, and will most likely throw the rules of capitalization right out the window. 

item three: my triplog blog is on lockdown right now, google thinks that i am using it to distribute space age meat. they are wholly incorrect. so excuse me for not having poste about seattle there yet. 

item four: i scanned about fifteen of the seattle pictures before dave came over to play with ableton live. he made some pretty sweet beats, but i fell asleep in the sunday afternoon warmth. my nose is running like a faucet, but the warm weather is so great that i have no allergy complaints yet. in about a month i will be wishing with all my heart that it could be winter again. 

i have some ideas to blog about, here they are so that nobody else blogs about them first

a. urban oufitters/american apparel target demographic and store location

b. 50mm lenses

c. light blue and tan

d. long term storage and its effects on both hearts and ski equipment

e. cha cha (this is a real thing not a space filler)

f. livejournals, and their influence on the current blogging culture

g. sun-bleaching of my hair

h. curb chipping

i. curb painting

j. driving stuff around

k. going to seattle, but this will be on the triplogblog once it is freed from the google brig. 

do u have any ideas of things i should blog abt?

time constraints

Often, I manage to convince myself that I am too busy to do something like blog. Or that I am too busy or in too much of a hurry to clean up. Or that I am too busy to read my scriptures, or pray, or do one of many important things that I should be doing at any given time. This is a fun game to play, but it's disingenuous to the highest degree. I work maybe eight hours per day, then arrive home to waste several more. I meet up with friends, and we shoot the breeze for a few hours, then end up doing whatever we had planned to do. I go to bed too late, then sleep for five or six hours until I have to get up to work again. 

What I'm getting at here is that I need to start organizing my time better. So what that means, I'm not sure. Maybe I'll buy an iPhone, maybe I'll just start scheduling everything in my computer, with alarms and other neat alerts to keep me on my toes and doing all of the assignments that I am supposed to. I'm going to buckle down and graduate in April. I'm tired of being an undergraduate. I may not be very much fun for the next seven months or so. It's not that I don't love you, it's just that I don't love undergraduate studies. 

i am so unbelievably sorry. i made a promise, and then i didn't keep it. i feel awful. i haven't been bloggin every day. i haven't even been blogging every week. you've been coming here, hoping for something fresh and new, and you've been disappointed every time. maybe you were looking at your own blog and thought "oh, i'll just click on through to see if rob has written anything clever" (91.43% of the traffic here) or maybe you were just thinking of me. i disappointed you. every day for the last two weeks you have thought, just a little bit "darn, nothing." even if you didn't know you were thinking it. well now there's nothing here but an apology for not writing anything. i don't know if that is much better, but i hope it is. 

i'm fascinated by sunglasses. i want to own one hundred pair. even if they were all cheap ones from places like urban outfitters and target. the bigger the better. 

i went to seattle this weekend and took 128 photographs on chemical film. i'm going to write a great story about the trip on my other blog, the one that i said would just be about trips. it's triplogblog.blogspot.com

as dp would say, 

you're the best. 

keep coming back, i'll try not to disappoint you so often. 

album review: re-arranged

mates of state are an interesting band, a couple of people that love each other, animals, and singing together. they are coming out with a new album soon, and i happen to be on the short list of people that get an advance. that's not true, but i still have the new album, called re-arranged. since i got it i haven't really stopped listening to it, and i wasn't much of a mates fan in the past. this album feels good, like summer love and happiness and the type of sadness when even though you are sad you know that things will get better so it isn't so bad. 

for some reason when i review records i care a lot more about how it makes me feel than anything else. a good example of this is the arcade fire/david bowie "live at fashion rocks" EP. when win butler sings "children, don't grow up/ our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up" i care every time, because he means it, and i know what he means. that sounds stupid and corny but it's that emotional connection that i believe makes great music truly great. the mates of state album isn't really on that magnitude, but the opening track "get better" sweetly says "forget all your politics for awhile" and reminds me that sometimes, you just have to go outside and love summer. and that's what i'm going to do. 

new album

mates of state- get better.mp3

another favorite

mates of state- nature and the wreck.mp3