I wish we would help out in Mexico more.  The U.S. is a huge reason for what's going on there right now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7902963.stm

I found this post on a blog today.  I'm not sure that the headlines are real, but they certainly convey the feelings and stories from then and now.

Headlines On This Date 4 Years Ago:

“Republicans spending $42 million on inauguration while troops Die in unarmored Humvees”

“Bush extravagance exceeds any reason during tough economic times”

“Fat cats get their $42 million inauguration party, Ordinary Americans get the shaft”

Headlines Today:

“Historic Obama Inauguration will cost only $120 million”

“Obama Spends $120 million on inauguration; America Needs A Big Party”

“Everyman Obama shows America how to celebrate”

“Citibank executives contribute $8 million to Obama Inauguration”

Nothing like fair & unbiased coverage of the news !!!

OK, since Anna isn't flaunting this, I guess I have to.

I, Daniel, have been picked to be my next(and favorite) nephew's Godfather.

Thank you, thank you, thank you... no, really.. thank you, thank you...

Hello everyone. So, as always, it's been a while since I've posted(as Ken was so kind to point out). Let's see... where to start?

My original plan to re-enlist in the USMC does not look good. In January, I twisted my knee while skiing up at Lutsen Mountain. I avoided going to the doctor for the very reason that I wanted to re-enlist, and they take a close look at your medical records. A busted knee could very easily keep me out of the Marines. After 7 months, it still hasn't healed fully. So I am going to the doctor in August(when my medical insurance kicks in from my new job). I am pretty sure they are going to tell me that I tore something, I should have come in months ago, I need surgery, ect, ect... anyways, so I've recently been trying to think of future paths to go down. The reason I joined the Marines was because there wasn't really anything else that interested me like that. I've thought about accounting because I've always enjoyed math. But accounting? That's not really "fun math." There's probably not even that much math these days. It's probably mostly just throwing numbers into a computer program. Anyways, so something I've been looking into recently is Islamic studies. First off, let me start by saying I am NOT considering converting. Just so there aren't any heart attacks out there. :) What I had more in mind would be something along the lines of translating. There is a huge market for Arabic speaking translators right now. Not just working for the government, but also large companies that do business in the Middle East. So, basically, I was thinking about majoring in Arabic and Islamic studies(they go hand in hand), and maybe minoring in business. Or at least taking some business classes. Now, my next problem was finding a school. My first thought, of course, was the U of M because that would be VERY convenient. But, after scouring their website, I failed to come across any of those classes. So I searched for schools that would work well, and I came up with a long list. The closest one is the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It's also one of few I would be willing to pay for(as opposed to $40k/year). Anyways, wondering what your thoughts are...?

I am going to see if the U of M has it and I just missed it, b/c that would be ideal. I could take afternoon and evening classes and still keep my job(where I could get a lot of homework done). Anyways, I hope you're all doing well!!

I don't often blog on LJ, so I thought I would let you all know what's going on in my life right now. I went on a ski trip up to Lutsen Mountain(north of Duluth a couple hours) from January 11-13. My plan was to start getting ready to go back into the Marines after that. I quit drinking and smoking and was going to start working out regularly. Unfortunately, I twisted my knee in a bad way while I was there. I haven't been able to work in almost a month since it happened. I haven't gone to the doctor b/c i'm scared that it is something bad that will keep me out of the marines. And when you enlist, they look at your medical record and they are pretty picky about medical histories. My knee injury has also kept me from going running. And since running was my main reason to quit smoking, I quit quitting. :) Although i have cut back a lot. I am going to start looking for a part time job somewhere close by the house if i can't go back to work soon. Hopefully it will be within walking distance. My goal was to be in bootcamp by May 1st, but the longer my knee keeps me out of action, the less likely that seems. But we will see. So these days I am dividing my time between various books, scrabble on facebook, and organizing music on my brand new, super sweet iPod that Caleb got me for Christmas. My days are extremely boring and I don't like the feeling of not accomplishing anything all day. So if anyone has any ideas of things I could do that would actually be worthwhile, feel free to throw out ideas. And I know everyone in the immediate family is going to say, "start cleaning up the house," but that's already started. And even though it is mildly satisfying, it's still incredibly boring to clean a big empty house by yourself. Especially when you are trying to clean the study and it's packed with stuff from Anna and Ken's yard sale, and half of it is papers that you think they should probably have with them. So you're not sure if you should just throw it all away(seeing as they seem to be fine without it) or if they may need it at some point in time. (Hint, Hint, Anna) :) Anyways, I've gone through 3 seasons of 24(the show) in the past 2 weeks, I've watched the 3 seasons of the Office nurmerous times. So when people ask me what's new, and I say "nothing," I mean it quite literally. :)

Well, I am in San Francisco, about to go down to China Town. We got back from South Lake Tahoe about 1:30 last night. After we got back here(Caleb's place), I finally finished the new Harry Potter book. It was awesome. She did such a good job with it. Anyways, there are probably a couple of parts I'm going to reread to try to understand a little better. Anyways, those of you I saw, it was great to see you. But time for lunch.... :)

The following was posted as a bulletin on myspace.

NO GAS...On May 15th 2007

Don't pump gas on MAY 15th

In April 1997, there was a "gas out"
conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices.
Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.
On May 15th 2007, all internet users are
to not go to a gas station in protest of high gas
prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most
places.
There are 73,000,000+ American members
currently on the internet network, and the average
car takes about 30 to 50 dollars to fill up.
If all users did not go to the pump on
the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's
almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies pockets
for just one day, so please do not go to the gas
station on May 15th and lets try to put a dent in
the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one
day."

So normally I am pretty skeptical about things like this. I think the chance of really getting enough people to do something like this via e-mail is very slim. But I have received this message from a few people on myspace, along with a couple people via email. So I think I am going to participate out of curiousity just to see what happens. And I encourage anyone else who is curious about it to do the same. Although, I can't imagine that it would actually bring gas prices down. If I were a greedy gas company, I would jack the prices up on the 16th since after noone fills up on the 15th, everyone is going to have to get gas on the 16th. Also, I don't think that the gas companies will actually lose money if nobody fills up on the 15th. Unless people just stop driving on the 15th, they are still going to be using just as much gas and have to fill up on the 14th or 16th, spending just as much money, just on a different day. So I guess these e-mails should really say, "Don't drive on the 15th." Oh well, not everyone can be as clever as me. :)

Well, yesterday I finally watched The Illusionist, which I had rented at least a week ago(can't wait to pay a late fee next time I rent a movie). Most of the people I talked to about the movie had compared it to The Prestige. They are both movies about magicians although very different. The Prestige was written by the same writer(or producer, I don't remember which) as Batman Begins and Memento. The movie takes place on three different time lines and can be a little hard to follow the first time you see it. But I thought it was very well done and it's awesome to go back and watch it again and try and find all the little clues you missed the first time around. The Illusionist was well done, but I thought the majority of it wasn't all that interesting. It reminded me a lot of The Usual Suspects in that it wasn't all that fun to watch, but the ending more than made up for the last hour and a half of mild entertainment. There was one part in the movie where the magician was arrested and talking to the chief of police and I couldn't help but think they were trying to make it seem like Jesus in front of Pilate. But that may be a stretch and they definitely went a different route after that scene. Anyways, they are both good movies(although I would suggest the Prestige over the Illusionist) and you should check them out. I also watched Happy Feet, which was cute, but a little risque for a childrens movie. Although, the younger kids will obviously not pick up on those jokes. I am very much looking forward to Shrek 3 and the new Harry Potter movie. Although, the two things I am really looking forward to this year are the last Harry Potter book(coming out July 23rd) and Halo 3(November). Actually, they are coming out with 2 new Halo games and a movie(directed by Peter Jackson, who also did The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong). So that's pretty exciting, although I don't think it will be out this year. Hopefully Ron and Hermione(from Harry Potter) won't die. Ms. Rowling has informed us that two main characters are going to die in the last book. The most obvious thought would be that Harry and Voldemort will end up killing each other. But I think that's just too expected. Plus, maybe more characters will get knocked off too.. I will just have to wait and find out..

Well, it's about the time when I was planning on going back to boot camp. I have been trying to get ready for the past month and a half to no avail. I work out about 5 days a week with a friend and I haven't lost any weight and feel in worse shape than when I started. I think a major factor in this is my unhealthy eating habits. Who would have thought a steady diet of Taco Bell and McDonalds wouldn't do the trick?? So starting monday i am going to take this to the next step. I have gotten very antsy over the 6+ months I've been back. I am hoping to get in shape fast enough that I can leave sometime in the next month, but I am pretty sure that's just wishful thinking. Realistically, it could take 2 months. But I am hoping to get the ball rolling pretty soon here. So there is an e-mail that I have been putting off writing Ben for some time now and so I am just going to post it seeing as most of you would probably like to hear about it. So when you are in boot camp you go through 3 different phases. In Phase 1, the goal is to make every person self dependent. They do this by trying to turn people on each other and making you dislike each other. It forces everyone to become stronger as an individual. Then during phase 2 they form you into a team and make you understand the importance of having teammates. Anyways, so the point is that they make you look inside yourself and figure out a healthy way to deal with your stress and frustration without blowing up. Now honestly, if any one of you were to go into boot camp, the mental part of it is really a breeze. The only hard part is the physical, and even that's not all that difficult. Truth be told, boot camp isn't that difficult. The reason most people have trouble in boot camp is b/c they are undisciplined. The majority of the recruits are fresh out of high school, complete with way too much testosterone and attitude. Drill instructors definitely use this to their advantage and play on the recruits' emotions to accomplish their goals. Fortunately for me, I am a pretty emotionally stable person and their little games didn't have much effect on me. It was all pretty easy to just blow off, understanding they are just trying to get a rise out of you. Anyways, so most of the recruits are trying to find something to lean on for support and a lot of them turn to religion. It's also the first time they have been out on their own and many of them were not raised religious and are curious about different religions. Boot camp is definitely a good place to learn about other religions seeing as they offer pretty much every religious service and you can go to any one you want. And the drill instructors will sometimes throw in a little extra motivation by making you clean if you are not at a service. So it really wasn't until the end that i really turned to God for help. But I had a very frustrating departure from boot camp. I knew I was going home about 2-3 weeks before i actually left. It was very frustrating to have to wait around for 3 weeks b/c of other peoples' incompetence, knowing there is nothing you can do about it. Anyways, it was at this point that I started reading the Bible more frequently(along with a 24 book:)). The end of boot camp was really a religious experience for me. It's hard to remember all the details now 6 months later(sorry Ben, shoulda wrote this a long time ago). But even after I got home I was challenged with certain obstacles which i don't know how well i would have handled the situation had i not been praying about it. The funny thing about it is that when I got back a lot of people would say things like, "Well, it must not have been God's will." Which is definitely one way to look at it, but that's not how i see it at all.

Well people, I realize that I spend very little time updating here on LJ. My main reason for joining LJ was so I could keep up-to-date with what was happening in my nieces('I' before 'E' except AFTER 'C.' Thank you 'spell check.') and nephew's lives, seeing as I cannot talk to them and ask them what is new. Anna has done a wonderful job of keeping us entertained with funny stories as well as letting us know the more serious side of raising children. Ben and Monika, well... never mind... (hint, hint) :) Anyways, so I thought I would give an update about what's happening in my life. First and foremost(only b/c I just finished reading dad's entries, and he comments on this), I have never felt so incompetent when it comes to changing tires. Twice in the past week I have failed to change a tire. Dad recounts the first occasion in all too much detail if you would like to read about it. The second time was just this past weekend when a lady friend was leaving the house and as she drove away I could hear she had a flat. I promptly called her and she was back 2 minutes later. I found a jack in her trunk along with a spare(not full sized) and a tire iron. She drives an old, small Toyota Corolla. The jack that comes stock obviously does not need to be large, and Toyota, in their wisdom, supplied the car with a small jack. Now normally, this would be just fine. A jack has only to be large enough to lift a car off the ground and it did this just fine. The lug nuts were incredibly hard to get off with the seemingly 2 and a half inch tire iron, so i grabbed the brand new one dad had just purchased out of the van. Even with that, one of the lug nuts was stubborn 'til the end. But eventually I had the car up and all the lug nuts off. So then I go to pull the tire off the axle, and it doesn't budge. I pull harder and nothing happens. So naturally, I assume that there must be something else connecting it to the axle. It certainly can't be the unthinkable and I'm not strong enough to pull it off. Especially with my lady friend patiently waiting, having already thanked me numerous times for doing this. So you know how when you think something is still attached, but you can't quite tell what it is, you start to think everything is attached. Even the silliest things which you can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would ever think of attaching. So there I am pulling as hard as I dare given the size of the jack, and looking and poking at every single thing on this 37.68 flat surface(it's 2 x pi x R for surface area of a circle, right?), desperately trying not to get too upset about my own ignorance. So finally, we had to call it quits, and I threw the lug nuts back on, lowered the car, and gave her a ride home(feeling slightly dejected, I might add). Her parents came back later and called Triple A to change it. Apparently it was just rusted on and they had to hit it hard from the other side to get it off. I suppose I could have gotten it if I had climbed under the car and kicked it hard. There's nothing quite as thrilling as knocking a car back and forth as it rests on a small jack, knowing that if the jack tips the car will crush you. I could win a Darwin award!!

Ok, so I am aware that I have said nothing about what I have actually been up to in my life, but I think I will try to post a little more often(and I'm out of time). So until next time; au revoire.

p.s. Jack Bauer is doing fine, thank you. Audrey.. not so much.

Well, it's that time of the year again. The time when most things in life just seem a little less important; a little less glamorous(Ben, I'm sorry if that was an improper use of a semi-colon, but it was the most fitting punctuation point to emphasize my dramatic pause.). The whole world seems a little darker. Terrorist threats are at an all time high. People are getting in accidents on account of the 7 inches of snow last night. Homeless people are desparately trying to stay warm. The divorce rate is still extremely high. The news is full of murders and beatings. People are upset that we are still in Iraq and people are dying. Abortions are happening every day(probably every few minutes, but I don't know the exact numbers). Hundreds of people in power are abusing that power. Teachers, priests, politicians, managers, the drive-thru guy at Taco Bell, etc. And through it all, we ask ourselves; "Is there someone to blame? If we had a different president, would that solve our problems? Is it our fault? Should we be doing more?"

Well, today I have your answers. There is one person who can solve our problems. I don't know if you can really justify calling Him a "person", but you understand what I mean. He is the One that every President should follow without questioning or second guessing Him. Only through His infinite wisdom and power can this country truly be at peace and we can sleep easy at night. You may have heard of this person(I mean, who hasn't?). His name is Jack Bauer. And He's back.

I am listening to Metallica's "Orion" right now(see website on previous post). This song is an instrumental structured around the bassist. It's really good and it's a really rare thing to find a band that can do that. Or at least rare to find a band that would give that much credit to a basasist. Usually bassists get no credit and they just hang in the background. Of course, one could make the argument that after Metallica's first bassist, Cliff Burton, died in a bus crash in 1986, their bassist for the next 18 years was forced into the background, which is the reason he quit in 2002 and they hired Robert Trujillo. Anyways, I could write an essay on this, but Cathy is right here and wants to go, so I should probably stop writing. Go Metallica... Go Vikings!!!! Let's see if we can win a game for once!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all the family members reading this(there are only family members that read this). All 3 of you. :) Why does the "bored" face have to be such a big frown? I am bored, not super depressed or sad. I think that it is a poor choice of faces given the mood it represents. Check out my site: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=75113325
Beware the loud music... :)

Cathy's 21st birthday was a success. We met at dad's house around 6. Luke, Cathy, Moriah, Jason and I hung out there for a couple of hours waiting for Janell to get off of work. In the meantime my friends Anne Marie and Katie Wind came over. Then we went to the Drink downtown(Luke and Moriah went home). Luckily they have $1 drinks on Monday nights from 8-10 and $2.50 drinks from 10-2. Shortly after we got there, Anne and Katie decided it's not a real 21st birthday if you aren't trying to get the birthday honoree drunk. So they got her 3 shots in the first half hour. She also had part of 2 cocktails, and a few martinis. Plus we had champagne at the house before we left. After a couple hours at the Drink, we went across the street to the Refuge(a much more low key bar). The bartender there bought her a drink for her birthday, which she passed on to Janell. She decided to stick with Cherry Coke for the rest of the night. After all was said and done, I was very impressed with how she held her liquor. And, in true LaVergne fasion, she was very composed even when intoxicated. Anyways, she is walking in here, and if I type fast enough, she won't know I ever wrote this!! :)

On Saturday night I drove up to Northern Wisconsin with a friend to visit his mom who was staying at her fiance's farm. It's only about an hour and a half from the Twin Cities, but it's really out in the middle of nowhere. We got up there after dark and got the grand tour of the farm in the dark. It was pretty interesting. He owns 140 acres up there. It's a little scary running around with cows praying you're not going to get kicked. Especially when it's really dark out. We also got to pick up some chickens(they have very sharp talons). sunday we took a more detailed tour of the grounds driving around and seeing everything by daylight. There is a patch of woods on the property that is surrounded by fields. Some of the neighbors were doing some hunting. We sat up on this hill close by and watched it happen. About 5 unarmed hunters started on one end of the woods(the woods look about the size of a football field and it's perfectly rectangular). There were 4 other hunters posted about 200 yards away from the woods, who were waiting for the deer to run out. Unfortunately, there was only one doe in the woods, and the grandpa nearest us decided not to try and shoot it, which I thought was good because the doe ran between him and another guy and had both of them shot and missed, they could have hit each other. It would be extremely unlikely because they were so far from each other, but still possible. Anyways, it's amazing the different life styles that are lived in this world. I also heard stories about the Amish that live close by. They sound like a sneaky bunch of people(the ones that lived there at least). So their beliefs don't allow them to have phones or cars or drink beer or anything like that. But they can come over and use your phone. They see it like they are not sinning because it is not their phone, but you are sinning by letting them use your phone. And they can drink beer as long as it isn't their beer. So basically they become major scrubs. And they take advantage of the people nearby. The guy who's house we were staying at said he put in another phone line in the garage b/c the Amish came by so often asking to use his phone at all hours of the day. So the Amish pay for the phone line, but since it is in his name, it's ok. I don't know, but that just sounds like looking for excuses to cheat on your religion. It's a weird religion. I'll hold off passing too much judgement at this point though.

Well, it is now the 16th. Another birthday come and gone without any major tragedy. I have a history of birthdays going bad. My 20th birthday was going fine until my girlfriend at the time made out with who was then one of my friends in my bed at my birthday party. That will sure put a damper on your evening. :) My 21st birthday I was in a pretty bad mood as I worked all day, then it got a lot better when Sharolyn came over and told me she was falling in love with me. Then, midconversation, we were interrupted by a gunshot which was my roommate misfiring his shotgun in an attempted suicide. That ended that conversation pretty fast. Last year, Sharolyn was determined to make sure I had a good day, and she did a very good job. This year was pretty good as well, so hopefully the bad spell is over. Thanks for the calls/e-mails people.

So this is a conversation I had with a friend on myspace after she encouraged everyone to vote. I had a similar conversation with Anna the other day.

Mary-"Vote!!!"

Me-"ok, but only because you asked. And by the way, can you imagine the morons who would make it into office if every young moron actually voted?? We would have lead singers of bands and actors as all of our politicians... scary thought huh?? Sometimes you have to appreciate that the majority of voters are knowledgeable, older and wiser citizens than ourselves. :)"


Mary-"What do you mean we WOULD have actors as politicians? We've already had a pro wrestler as a governor and California currently has a bodybuilder/actor. And I don't think they did a bad job! If we could have more Jesse Venturas I would be pretty happy. :)"





Me-"I think if everyone voted, Puff Daddy would be president. Except, we would no longer be a democracy, we would be something crazy that noone's ever heard of, and Puffy would be our king. Except you wouldn't call it a 'king'. He would be our 'Diddy' because he would want his name to live forever. Then we would invade Mexico because we would want their drugs. Then Canada would go to war with us b/c they wouldn't like us invading our neighbors. And since Canada is going to war with us, France would join the Canadians. Now obviously we could handle France, Mexico, and Canada without a problem(assuming our soildiers aren't too doped up on all the drugs that our Diddy made legal). But then the U.N. would hate us and it'd be us against the world(with the exception of Australia, b/c they just sit over on their little island never bothering anyone). So basically, I don't think EVERYONE should vote because I think America has a big enough drug problem as it is, I don't want Canadians in my country, I hate the word 'Diddy', Mexico has enough problems already, and I don't want to have to move to Australia. Life is just so much easier when the lazy and uninformed don't vote. :)"

Hey, I have no idea who is going to read this other than Anna, b/c I have no idea who reads Anna's. But so far this thing is more trouble than it's worth. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually. This is definately something different than what i am used to. I have had accounts with myspace, xanga, and facebook, and this is much less glamorous. Oh well. :)