Best Text of 2012

There's still a month left in 2012, but I doubt anything can beat this text.

"Watching how to train your dragon! It does look like your cat!"

Needless to say, I am freaking out.

My Thoughts on Politics

Some things I would like people to think about in the upcoming election:

1) Reducing access to birth control increases the number of unwanted children born. These children would be more likely to be poor, to be victims of neglect and abuse, and to die in infancy. What do you think costs more, the government supporting these unfortunate children or providing access to birth control?

2) Planned parenthood is not all about abortions. Planned parenthood helps families to conceive and raise healthy children. They help to provide prenatal care. They do cancer screenings that catch breast and cervical cancer early and save lives and money.

3) People who receive welfare are not lazy! They are people who are struggling and need help. They are not stereotypes! Welfare provides them the opportunity to advance, so that they can get better jobs and pay back into the system one day.

4) Women make 72% of their white male counterparts, but African American women only make 64% and Hispanic women just 55%. If women received equal pay, I am positive that fewer families would need welfare assistance.

5) Gay marriage would not change your life, unless you're, you know, gay. They just want to be able to see their loved one in the hospital and make critical decisions together. They want to inherit their spouse's belongings and life insurance without paying thousands and thousands of dollar to law firms.

6) Voter ID laws specifically target minorities and elderly. I cannot believe that seniors, some of whom fought in WW2, could potentially by disenfranchised. In person voter fraud is basically unheard of.

7) You cannot pay for a deficit with a 5 trillion dollar tax cut. How can you promise not to raise taxes, but say you will close loop holes to pay for your cut? Would the closure of these loop holes not increase taxes? Can you guarantee that those loop holes won't affect middle class Americans?

I am a woman and a minority. I am not a preexisting condition. I know I am opinionated. I know many of you disagree with things I have said here. My goal is only to share my feelings about issues I am passionate about. I have never been poor. I have never been pregnant. But I believe in an America where we reach out to help those around us.

Summer Reading

This summer I read the first two books of the Song of Fire and Ice series, a Game of Thrones and a Clash of  Kings. Absolutely loved them! I'm super eager to watch the HBO series, but I've been waiting for my stupid boyfriend to read the book, too! While waiting for him to catch up (which is taking incredibly too long) I decided to read an Ann Rice book my brother sent me for my birthday a couple months ago. I've read the first two books of her Vampire Diaries series and this time started the Mayfair Witches series. The first book is the Witching Hour, which is incredibly mysterious and inappropriately sexy. I'm about 700 pages through the 1000 page book, but my reading came to a screeching start once the semester started. Senior year and shit.

GZA

Exactly 11 weeks after I broke my foot and went to the Into the Wild Tour, the 64 Squares tour came to Minneapolis. The tour is GZA with Killer Mike, Sweet Valley (Nathan Williams), and Bear Hands. In preparation for the show, I drank like four or five bloody mary's at our apartment. Then we met two of our friends at the parking ramp and walked over to the show. I promptly grabbed a whiskey ginger and then Sweet Valley began to play. I am a huge fan of Wavves and had checked out Sweet Valley's newest mixtape Eternal Champ before the show. I screamed a bunch and then bought a Sweet Valley shirt with a topless girl turned away wearing high waist-ed jean shorts and facing back with a Misfits looking face. We grabbed more of the same drinks from one of the waitresses that walks through the crowd, and the exact same drinks cost us 2 dollars more? Rather drunk, I went wild for Killer Mike. There were probably two or three people between me and the rail. Between sets, one of the people we were at the show with managed to move up to the rail. His maneuver really pissed off some girl, who after yelling at him took his Das Racist Relax hat and threw it on the ground. My boyfriend has the same hat and feeling rather offended that she would do such a thing, I socked the girl in the face. Also, I fell over. Clearly not seeing it coming, she teared up and moved away in the crowd. When they picked my friends hat up, GZA actually signed it for him. During GZA's set he saw me desperately trying to reach my hand forward and he grabbed my hand specifically. It was pretty awesome. I forgot my phone in the car and was using my boyfriends to tweet at Killer Mike, who followed me after the broken foot thing, about meeting up. Apparently we got home to grab some stuff, I walked into the bedroom, and promptly fell asleep fully clothed on top of all of the blankets. That Friday morning I was almost as hungover as I was after the party bus I puked on. What a summer.

My Broken Foot - Part 2

The next morning I went to the doctor, feeling like a bad ass, to find out that I broke the outside metatarsal in my left foot, twice. To top it off I'd stood/danced on it for five hours and it was freakishly swollen. They gave me a "cam boot" so I can walk around and I can even take it off to sleep and shower. Also, I have my mom's crutches from when she broke the same bone in the same foot twenty years ago!

After a semi-serious nap, Chris and I headed out to the Minnesota Zoo to see Devotchka. Side note - if you have will call tickets, they don't get there until 6:30 PM, so you can't get into the zoo like you would with regular tickets. On our way to the the amphitheater I got a beer brat and fries and a Big Ginger. The food and drink was expensive, but good. Luckily, we were seated in row O at the end, so we were at the top of the amphitheater and I didn't have to hobble down the stairs or climb over people.

Caroline Smith and the Goodnight Sleeps opened the show. Caroline was super cute and can really belt it out. An older gent in the crowd pointed out to us that her drummer is the drummer from Cloud Cult. We later saw him yell and chase the guy down to ask why Cloud Cult doesn't have any shows scheduled in Minnesota.

The right side of the amphitheater is definitely the side to be seated on. From there you can see the lake behind the stage and it's rather pretty at sunset. This was my second time seeing Devotchka, but my first time seeing them since they put out their last album, 100 Lovers. They played my favorite song, Exhaustible, and the song Chris was most hoping to hear, Enemy Guns.

During their set, a thunderstorm was approaching, so all behind the stage was being lit up by lightning. It was absolutely prefect weather for an outside venue. We left right before the encore so that I wouldn't have to struggle through the crowd on my crutches. A very lovely lady gave us a ride back from the amphitheater on her golf cart so I only had to walk from the zoo to our car. The storm never broke while we at the zoo, but the freeways were flooded and it was madness on the way home.

My Broken Foot

It all began the evening of Thursday July 5th around 6 PM. First with drinking Alize out of the trunk of my boyfriend's car in the park and shop parking lot. Then with dinner at Taste of Thailand, where I drank what was likely the most expensive black Russian in the world. After a great dinner, we walked over to the Fine Line Music Cafe to see if there was re-entry. On our way, I stepped off the sidewalk to cross the road, not realizing I was not level with the ground, and landed with all my weight on the top of my left foot. It hurt like hell and started swelling immediately, but I continued walking anyway. After finding out that there was no re-entry at the Fine Line, we walked all the way back to our car, drank some Shakers vodka, and then walked back to the venue again. By this time I was relatively sure I broke a bone, based on the strange jut sticking out of my foot, but I refused to miss the show.

After arriving at the Fine Line again, I promptly got another drink. I believe a rum and coke. We got there earlier enough to get right up to the front of the stage. The show started with Despot, whom I saw and met last fall down in Iowa opening for Das Racist. I recognized a couple of his songs and he also did his usual "aerobics."

Mr. Muthafuckin' Exquire, who looks rather different (and better) with a beard, was next. I've listened to his mix tape several times, but the only song I recognized that he played was Huzzah. I was glad he played the original since his verses are better than on the remix. During MFE's set El-P brought out grey goose so he could take "straight shots of vodka," as Huzzah says. His stage presence was immaculate and he never lost that smile of his, and of course he took his shirt off to showcase that nice big belly.

Killer Mike, probably my favorite rapper out there right now, came out next. He played my absolute favorite song - Country Fried, along with other hits off his new album R.A.P. Music like Reagan, Big Beast, and RAP Music. He also played Ric Flair and Burn off his last album PL3DGE and his verses on the old hits The Whole World by Outkast and I Ain't Never Scared by Bone Crusher. He even came down into the crowd, near what he called "gangland." Minnesota should be notorious for it's awkward, unmoving crowds, but this crowd was way hype.

El-P of course came out last. Slug made an appearance to bring out that strange squirrel puppet from that music video, but thank God he didn't spoil the show by performing anything. El-P played Cancer for Cure from front to back... except that he did not play Nothing but You+Me (FTL), the song that's on the same track as $4 Vic, which is my favorite song of his. In his encore he played the Company Flow track Vital Nerve and part of a Tribe Called Quest's track Can I Kick It. At the end of the show, I bought the Into the Wild tour t-shirt and my boyfriend bought the same shirt and the Cat be Unemployed shirt by Despot. We also bought the Into the Wild tour poster and got it signed by El-P and Killer Mike. My foot hurt so bad I paid a taxi to drive us back to the parking lot and then zombie dragged my foot into the house.

The next morning I went to the doctor, feeling like a bad ass, to find out that I broke the outer metatarsal in my left foot, twice. To top it off, I'd stood/danced on it for five hours and it was freakishly swollen. When I told my friends I broke a bone in my foot, several of them asked me if I'd been drinking. My response is fuck you... "I like drinking... and I be drunk."

Follow Me this Summer

Here is a link to the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power Research Experience for Undergraduates Summer 2012 program I am participating in.

CCEFP REU 2012

This link is about my project specifically!

The Civil Engineering Side

Stay tuned.

Soundset 2012

This was my first year going to the five-year-running Minnesota festival, Soundset, put on by Rhymesayers and held at Canterbury Park.  Despite what the local newspapers have told you, Soundset was not a Rhymesayers party for everyone who attended, though it was definitely a party still.

Likely the highlight of my summer, two friends and I were on the center of the rail for both Action Bronson and Danny Brown, two of my current favorite rappers, who got rather strange introductions from host, Brother Ali.  At any festival outside of Minnesota, they would not have played at 12:30 and 1:30 PM, before whatever the hell Macklemore was...  But in Minnesota, Ghostface & Raekwon play before Atmosphere, because too many Minnesotans listen to limited music.

Action Bronson

Action Bronson and Danny Brown were everything I dreamed of in less-than-half-hour sets, while Kendrick Lamar, another favorite, was not everything I'd hoped he would be.  Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, and DJ Big Wiz, who we saw a year ago, put on a great show and a surprisingly large number of people in the crowd new all of those fast raps.  Opposing-ly, Ghostface and Raekwon's quest for people to rap a Method man verse and an ODB verse was rather comical.  Though, the kid who stayed on stage did a pretty damn good job.

Water was way over-priced at $3 a bottle in 90 degree weather, the food was average, the field was muddy from previous rain, and none of that stopped it from being a great day!  We ran into several random friends, left during Lupe Fiasco, got free Vitamin Water on the way to our rock star parking, and completely avoided the storm and rush out of the grounds.

two gift sets makes three

well, well.

What Happens When You Turn 21

Rums

Kraken (Black Spiced)

Kilo Kai (Spiced)

10 Cane (Gold)

Flor de Caña (Dark)

Appleton White

Whiskeys

Bushmills 10 Year (Irish)

Bushmills Black Label (Irish)

Jack Daniel's Single Barrel (Tennessee)

Pendleton (Blended Canadian)

Gins

Bombay Saphire

Tanqueray

Vodka 

Grey Goose
Grey Goose Le Poire

Brandy

Courvoisier VS

Tequila
Añejo Patrón
Blanco Tequila Corazon

Misc

Midori
Sour Apple Pucker

Sweet & Dry Vermouth

Triple Sec

Creme de Cocoa

Creme de Menthe

Angostura Aromatic Bitters

Fed Bothers Orange Bitters

----

Ginger Ale

Coca Cola

Club Soda

Pineapple Juice

Sugar Cubes

Maraschino Syrup

Maraschino Cherries

Garlic Stuffed Olives

Wasabi Peas

And you've been so drunk since your birthday on April 1st that you haven't 

changed the date on your white board.

SPRING BREAK

Spring Break 2012 .... It was filled with ridiculously warm weather, Halo Wars Risk, Rayman Origins, potentially excessive amounts of day drinking, and two really great concerts.

We had wanted to go to EMA, but things never really came together. Then Chris won a pair of tickets from the wonderful Radio K last minute. Due to my misunderstanding of how late Macy's stays open, we ended up at the concert considerably early. Like an hour before the opener.... luckily, we got stools! I love the 7th St. Entry, but man does it get LOUD in there. I'm not really one for loud grunge/punk music, however, the opener Nü Sensae was so much better than I had expected. Of course, EMA herself was wonderful. Her mom was at the show, which was pretty cute. EMA handed a bottle of Jack Daniel's out to the crowd and had people pass it around. Needless to say it was gone in minutes. Just a great show to sit back and watch.

Then there was the Grimes show! Another great show at the entry, but not great spots since it was sold out. We managed to find tickets on craigslist that weren't jacked up in price just a few weeks ahead of time. But where to begin!  The opener, Elite Gymnastics, is a Minnesota band inspired by Korean Pop. It's so nice to see new and interesting things coming out of MN, I would definitely see them again and again. Then there was Born Gold, a Canadian band, who almost stole the show with their crazy light show and dancing. It seemed like some members of Born Gold played with Grimes when she came out? She played a ton of great new stuff off her most recent album plus some old good'ens. Some alone, some with band mates. I would have loved to see more, but she said some of her songs can be overly complicated to perform live.

We almost went to zero concerts over break and ended up at two great shows. Despite being loud and crowded, shows at the Entry always end up seeming dear to my heart. Now, I am reminiscing fondly and trying to avoid reality, ie that my life is consumed by schoolwork.

St. Patrick's Day - Count me IN!

My Life

two black cats and that boy

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Valentines Celebration

Sea Salt Dark Chocolate. 60 % Cocoa Chocolate. Wisconsin Cheddar. Smoked Swiss. 150 day Gruyere. Green Grapes. Pink Lady Apple. Honey Crisp Apple. Moscato Spumante. 2000 Marqués de Cácares. Best Valentines Ever. We also had a dinner of whole wheat pasta with arrabiata + sriracha sauce and a side of steamed broccoli and melted Gruyere.

Jeff Mangum State Theater Set-lists

Left: Laura Carter's                                       Right: Jeff Mangum's

Boy Toys

Killer Power Rangers mask at Wal-mart!

Secret Santa/Sweater Party

welcome moon

Sweater Buddies!

Southern Hospitality and one Jamo 

potluck style

Merry Christmas!