Who gave Taylor a gun?

I found this image today using StumbleUpon, and was immediately freaked out by the similarities (it’s not actually Taylor).  I’m sure this photo will factor into my nightmares soon, and continue to haunt me for the rest of my life.

Today at lunch Lyle Lovett came in and sat at the table next to me.  It was a really bizarre experience, and the girl he was with was easily twenty years younger than him.  I guess it’s always cool to see a celebrity, though.  Evidently Jake Gyllenhaal came in to Rec Sports last week to work out.  I just thought Brandon might want to know.

Here is a clip from the new hit musical Spring Awakening.  It looks great to me!

School is almost over, which is a weird feeling.  This year has gone by extraordinarily fast, but I’m looking forward to a relaxing summer in Europe and Austin.  I’ll write a longer update later this week once my papers are done.  Maybe.

My huge presentation for Campaigns and Elections went really well, and I now find myself with an excess of free time.  I have started watching Six Feet Under, which is enjoyable.  Also, I found this while Stumbling today, and thought it was entertaining:

Brandon’s update was incredibly long.  31 pages long to be exact.  It took me almost an hour to read it all, but I now feel like I can forego talking to him for at least a week.  I think he has exhausted all possible conversation for a few days.  As much as I enjoyed the update, I feel like there is something missing from a 31 page rant that doesn’t severely crash your computer.  A goal for next time, maybe?

Sorry for the lack of updates for the past three weeks, but I have a reasonable excuse.  Right after my last update my computer thought it would be fun to a) stop one of the RAM slots from functioning, leaving me with only 128 MB to run my computer and b) stop charging unless I used something heavy to force the power cord in a certain position.  These two inconveniences have left me more or less computer-less for the majority of the time.  Fortunately, I went to Fry’s today and bought some new RAM, so while I am still only running on one RAM slot I now have 528 MB to work with.  Enough with the technology talk…

The majority of my time over the past few weeks has been devoted to a group project I have for my Campaigns and Elections class.  We are responsible for presenting a complete strategy for Hillary Clinton to defeat John McCain in the state of Missouri during the 2008 Presidential election.  While the concept is actually pretty cool, the project is so incredibly vast that I haven’t had time for much else.

Last Friday was an exception, however, when DSC brought Seth MacFarlane to speak on campus.  MacFarlane is the creator of Family Guy, and voices Brian, Stewie, Quagmire, and Peter, for those of you who have never seen the show.  The event was great, with Seth explaining the process behind creating a show and screening an unaired episode that happened to be all about Texas.  Before the event he was incredibly nervous and asked my friend Tracey to go buy him a bottle of Jack Daniels to calm him.  This plan backfired when the advisors saw him drinking in the green room and began arguing with him about consuming alcohol before the speech.  Incredibly nervous, Seth ducked away as soon as the episode started airing and proceeded down to the bar in the Union.  Fifteen minutes, and six shots of whiskey later, he returned completely trashed.  To his credit, he was able to remain calm throughout, and no one really noticed until they were up close at the reception.   After the event we headed off to dinner at Pecan St. Grille, and then proceeded across the street to The Blind Pig on 6th street…with Seth MacFarlane!  He ended up hanging out with us all night, drinking more than I thought possible for a human being his size.  Tracey knew the bartender, so we were basically drinking for free all night.  Needless to say it was a great night.  I’m sure I could remember some other stories if I tried, but I’ve already talked/bragged to most of you about the night, so I digress…

I began watching The Wire a few weeks ago, and have worked my way through the first two seasons.  So far I’ve really enjoyed it, but can’t wait to get to the fourth season, which critics have proclaimed “the greatest season in the history of television”.  I have this great system worked out, where I have an episode open in the corner of my screen while doing the mindless work they assign me.  The work is so boring and easy that I am able to do it and pay attention to the episode without sacrificing any time.

Continuing on to movies, I saw a sneak preview of Knocked Up, the new Judd Apatow (Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, 40 Year Old Virgin) movie starring Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl.  It doesn’t come out until June 1, but I strongly recommend it to everyone!  It manages to deliver as many laughs as his previous work, with the back-and-forth between Rogen and Paul Rudd providing some of the films best moments.  Heigl is adorable as the “knocked up” TV personality whose world is thrown into disarray.  This movie proved to me that she has what it takes to make it as a film actress.  The film is also packed with outstanding guest appearances, from Harold Ramis and Alan Tudyk to Kristen Wiig and B.J. Novak.

Amazingly, not everyone in the world has seen this video, so I thought I would post it in case you are one of those people:

It has gotten to the point where I only really attend two of my five classes on a regular basis, because the others are so incredibly easy that showing up would be a waste of time.  I’d rather be at work, earning money and watching The Wire.  I do have a lot of work due the first week of May, however, so I should probably start thinking about that soon.  Every time I try to focus on school, I end up being distracted by things like the 2007 Air Guitar Championships at the Alamo Drafthouse, which I really want to attend this year.  I have heard rave reviews about the event every year since I’ve lived in Austin, and I’m determined to actually go this time.  Anyone interested?

Katie is secretly taking Arabic dance lessons, in preparation for an Arabic talent show.   Seriously.  I just thought everyone should know.

This week is SEC Banquet, which means dressing up and drinking very early in the afternoon!  It’s my last banquet, so I hope that it is especially memorable.  I will be disappointed if someone doesn’t throw up and leave in embarrassment, yell out inappropriate comments at the other committees, and hook up with someone else in DSC.  I’m hoping that Katie will be able to accomplish each of these on her own…

Hello all,

My birthday was last Monday, and I had an amazing time!  We celebrated my birthday and Greg Yeldezian’s birthday together, because his was over Spring Break when everyone was gone. After doing a round at Trudys, we headed off to Chuys for some delicious Mexican food and margaritas.  Around 9:00 we went back to my apartment, where we hung out drinking until around 11:00.  A few of my DSC friends then accompanied Greg and I downtown for the rest of the night.  Since it was a rainy Monday, 6th street was completely empty.  It was actually pretty fun having bars entirely to yourself, and getting free drinks from bored bartenders.  One of the highlights of the night was seeing David Arquette downtown promoting a new movie he directed.  Another was the amazing flaming Dr. Pepper that we had at Chuggin’ Monkey!

This week I had to lobby for some ethics legislation at the Capitol, which was intimidating but fun.  It was really just another reason to wear a suit, which I enjoyed.

Entourage and the Sopranos come back this weekend!  Thanks, Jesus!  I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that talked about how HBO was coming to the end of an era with the departure of the Sopranos.  All of their huge powerhouse shows (Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Sopranos) will be over before summer, and they will begin a huge new campaign to find their next big hits.  However, this time Showtime is right on their heels.  Over the past two years they have been able to compete with HBO for the first time, producing quality shows such as Dead Like Me, Weeds and Huff.  I’ll be interested to see what they come up with, because, while Showtime may be catching up, my heart will always belong to HBO.

Today I went to my first class, realized how beautiful it was outside, and took the rest of the afternoon off to play golf with Greg.  We’ve started playing at least once a week, which is great.  Also, since my Monday class has started the group presentation portion of the schedule I now only have class Tuesday-Thursday!  It feels like I never do anything, except work occasionally.

TV recap: BSG finale was pretty great, especially the last half; I forgot Veronica Mars still has six episodes left, and I think that says a lot about the season in general; FNL keeps getting better and better; with the cancellation of Black Donnellys I really hope they learn from their mistake and bring back Studio 60!; I don’t care what other people think, Scrubs has been consistently entertaining this season; I’m watching Boomtown on DVD and it’s awesome…I definitely recommend checking it out if you get a chance!

Have you guys seen this video from the set of I Heart Huckabees?  As much as I enjoy David O. Russell’s movies (especially Three Kings), he seems like a total dick!  Anyone who insults Lily Tomlin shouldn’t expect any sympathy from me…