Stronger

You may be familiar with Kanye West's hit single, Stronger, which gets played in clubs and bars constantly. Just in case you have no idea what I'm talking about here is the music video:


Do you see the glasses Kanye is wearing? They are called Shudder Shades and I can't imagine they will become a fashion statement, since it is hard to see out of them, but I wouldn't mind it because I love ridiculous things. Anyway Ed freaking loves this song, to no end. He always bumps it on our way to Mill, rolls down the windows (even if its freaking cold outside) and even requests it at bars, which once led to this incredible exchange at the Tavern:

Ed: Can you play Stronger?
DJ: Why would you request a song you know you are going to hear?

On with the story; Ed and I always joke about how we need to get the glasses Kanye wears in the video. This is one of those typical jokes that you have with your friends where you joke that you should do something, but you are never going to actually do it. I, however, changed the course of history when I did something amazing: I found a pair of shudder shades online and bought them. Just buying them wasn't enough, however, I needed to debut them in epic style. So I waited until last night, when our entire crew got drove around in a Party Bus all night. I created the playlist for the bus, and strategically put Stronger as the first song. It comes on and sure enough Ed starts freaking out to it (to call it dancing would be too much of an understatement). At this key moment I come running up to Ed, throw on the shudder shades and for the first time in his life I think Ed was speechless. He couldn't talk, he just stared at me bewilderedly while I kept yelling "that just happened!"

It was a fantastic moment, and shorty after I gave the glasses to Ed. I didn't plan to wear them the rest of the night, or into a bar, but I knew Ed would. Did he ever, Ed wore the glasses pretty much the entire night. Including was an epic moment where Ed jumped into the middle of the dance area at Suite 301, threw on the shudder shades and started dancing. Amazing.

Why am I telling this story to you? Because the shudder shades moment will go down as one of the most important events in Western Civilization. Just you wait.

We Don't Need No Stinking Writers

Conan O'Brien aired his first show last week without writers and let me just say he doesn't need writers at all! Well, actually this isn’t true. Conan led off his monologue talking about the writers strike and about how he grew a beard to show support for the writers. The rest of his monologue consisted of the camera slow motion panning over his beard, while his band sang a song they made up called “strike bread.” Then Conan proceeded to his desk and tried to see how long he could keep his wedding ring spinning. His record was 41 seconds, he only got to 36. When someone from the audience yelled, “spin it again!” Conan replied “oh there will be time”, and proceeded to kick up his feet and do nothing for about 30 seconds. It was ridiculous and hilarious but time will only allow Conan’s hilarious improve to go so far. Enjoy this unique brand of comedy while you still can, because it led to this gem:

I Will Never Leave ASU

You know those people who are so happy to get college over with? I'm not one of them. Sure I find myself getting frustrated at the amount of work I have to do while in school, but when I'm out of school I get so bored during my free time I actually find myself wishing I had the work to do. It is a sense of accomplishment. I didn't always feel this way, in fact I used to be a big underachiever back in my college heyday. In today's day and age I try hard and get good grades, of course that would have been much more beneficial to my future 5 years ago! For those who are not fortunate to know every detail of my life let me catch you up:

• I graduated ASU with a degree in Business and History in 2006
• I decided to come back to pursue teaching certification in Spring 2007
• I finished my first semester in the program in Fall 2007 and decided to suspend my placement to take a full time job.

Well now I am taking one class this semester, a special education class, for various valid reasons. So I am still an ASU student as well as a member of the full time workforce! Looks like I am easing my transition into my adult life. That being said lets move on to some random thoughts:

I recommend you check out Lupe Fiasco's new album, The Cool, if you are in to hip hop. It has some killer tracks, like Dumb it Down, Little Weapon and Superstar. I've been jamming to it for a while and for a few seconds thought it might even be better than his first album, Food & Liquor. Thankfully J to the and Eazy E talked me out of that stance. I love The Cool, but the first 6 tracks on Food & Liquor can stand up to almost any album of all time.

(edited 2/4/08: Yeah I can edit stuff too. I want to throw in this note: I know officially believe The Cool is better than Food & Liquor, in fact I think The Cool might be my favorite album of all time. Let's just say I love what Lupe is selling).

I went to the Fiesta Bowl yesterday, which was about 1000 times better than the Insight Bowl even though the margin of victory was greater. I enjoyed watching Noel Devine dominate, and I enjoyed yelling "Devine intervention" over and over, mainly because that phrase will get played out so quick (it probably already has). I also enjoyed the fact that there were a crap ton of people I knew in our section, so I mingled around for most of the game talking to people. I was engaged in such intense conversation I am pretty sure I missed the entire third quarter of that game. Did I mention I got the tickets for free? Thanks to Mr. Fiesta Bowl himself, Scottie Travis.
What makes New Years Eve such a downer must of the time? There are a few factors, the first one being that it feels like we are under obligation to have such an epic time. This only comes around once a year, better not blow it. Well that is a ton of pressure and New Years Eve rarely lives up to the hype of that pressure. The second factor is, if you are a single guy, is the race against the clock to kiss a girl. Now when a single guy goes to most parties he is always looking to hook up but usually there is not a midnight time table on the hook up. You know how hard it is to work game in under two hours. If you don't come to New Years with a few leads you most likely will not be kissing a girl.

With that being said I better stop writing for the night. I am just now getting readjusted to a busy schedule, after spending all of December waking up and going into work whenever I wanted, and now I always find myself tired. This time will pass. I will say I will miss going out on a random weeknight, not that I did that much when I could. Until next time loyal reader (not a typo).