I Can Barely Breathe

Since I tend to spend too much time reading stuff online/in magazines about bands I like, I know things about bands I like.  For the last Man O album, Andy Hull decided to start smoking a lot in order to make his voice scratchier and rougher-sounding (but not like he swallowed gravel, like Nickelback).  While I do not at all condone trying that at home/work/school/etc., it did make him sound pretty ridiculously awesome.  I was always curious what would happen if I tried something like that, since my voice is kinda wimpy and I could use a little more gruff for the rock and roll band I'm starting sometime in the near future.  I don't really wanna smoke a pack a day for a rock and roll band that won't ever start, but I always thought that sometimes for about an hour after loading hogs, my voice sounded like it got hijacked by a chain smoker.  So, after 3 hours of fantastic time spent with satan's little playpals, I decided to give the singing thing a shot, mostly because I was driving a loud tractor back home and was therefore alone and soundproofed from the world.  Turns out, it kinda works.  I tried a little bit of shake it out, and yes, my voice was rougher and even had the thing where if I sort of sing badly it sort of sounds ok because I have no idea why but andy hull does it sometimes and its cool.  None of you reading this care at all about this topic.  But I thought it was cool to have a cool-sounding voice when I sang.  Now if only I could use that setting when I wanted without requiring time spent in the hog barns.

Ross Kenyon comes to mind

Ping pong is once again the official sport of the Bierma household, after it was temporarily replaced for 45 minutes last week by the throw-the-football-on-the-roof-and-try-to-catch-it-then-tackle-whoever-caught-it game.   I don't know why we suddenly became obsessed with ping pong again, but we're hooked.  Tim and I only played 13 games today.  We have a tally going, which includes two games from yesterday.  This is a very depressing tally, because of the 15 games, Tim has won ten.  How does that work?  I have no idea.  I used to beat him all the time, but then he came back from college with skills.  And its not that I lost my skills, because I think I got better, now that I can actually backhand a little.  He just suddenly is really good.  I asked if he plays a lot at Dordt, but he claims he doesn't play that often.  I think he built a robot in North's basement that trains him.  It's the only logical explanation.

Happy Chri- cough cough -stmas!

The benefit(s) of having friends who smoke

• When we go to Kevin's house (which is in Ocheyedan (which is far away (approximately 60 miles?))), they volunteer to drive so they can smoke, which means I don't use up gas

The downsides of having friends who smoke

• When we go to Kevin's house (which is in Ocheyedan etc. etc.), they volunteer to drive so they can smoke, which means I get to sit in a smoky car with open windows for two hours roundtrip in December, which is bad for my lungs, cold, and bad for my lungs. 
• Planning my vacation time in my early 60's around funerals for my cancer-ridden friends ( is that too dark to joke about?  I'm sorry if it is.  But I'm worried that it's true.)

Don't worry, I still love you guys.  Just not your firesticks.  Someday they'll find a cure.

for the record, this is not a rant.  this is in jest.  albeit truthful jest.


Not the Christmas blog you were hoping for? Maybe tomorrow

QWOP, the ill-trained, ill-coordinated man who obviously must be the only man in his country if he is in fact the best athlete in his country

It seems that every Christmas break I have so many things I'd like to do, but I never get done. In fact, I think I have an old blog somewhere about this exact same problem. This problem came to my attention once again as I just spent half an hour playing the impossibly difficult game of qwop (go look it up on google). The user controls a human trying to run a 100 meter race. However, you control his thighs and calves, which makes it more than a little difficult. my brother got 48.3 meters, which is the furthest of anyone I know. Granted, we and several of my friends who were introduced to it recently by our friend who just returned from Scotland are the only ones who know about it, but I'm still impressed. Apparently he's as good at virtual running as he is at real running. Anyways, its a superb time-waster and very frustrating, yet very addicting. I can even complete semi-normal strides instead of shuffling along on the ground like I used to. If I've spent that much time on this game that I'm beginning to succeed at it, I think that means I'm failing at quite a few other things, most notably, living life.

HTML rulez d00d

words

now that I've spent part of yesterday and a little of tonight slaving away ( not really at all, i quite enjoyed it and watched horton hears a who because it was on and it was nice and the part at the beginning with the monkeys was freaking hilarious) at attempting to learn html, I think I've made progress .

in order to test my newfound abilities,

1. i have decided to
2. produce this entire blog
3. by coding it in html
4. since blogger gives you that option and it's always made me curious

For those of you serious web programmers

_{yes i am a lowly noob}


but i am
learning and tha
t's what matters. I may not be very good yet,

but I'm having the time of my life

Note: that button, although very pressable, will only give you an error page, due to my lack of skill.

YOU CAN STILL PRESS IT IF YOU WANT

return to the top and read this blog again

Why Santa is overweight

While my roommate gently snoozes
Christmas spirit from me oozes
Spent yesterday just filling up
with cookies, pretzels, and other junk                         food
from the box my mother gave
that lasted nought but two short days
luckily, I've no  regrets
my stomach hasn't hurted yet
but soon all of this christmas cheer
will be coming out my ears
Two weeks from now, I'll be full
with more treats than I can hold
and though I know I should abstain
its hard when they're labeled with my name
so here I sit, longing for tastes
of sweets by my sweet mother made
and now a new box sits adjacent
betwixt the desk where I sit waiting
for the moment I'll give in
and sample every treat therein
but by her motherly attitude
a banana, apple, and orange she includes
knowing these won't be consumed
nearly as fast as the other foods
so what's a man supposed to do
when faced with so much tasty food?
puppy chow and frosted cookies
keep my eyes a' lookie-looking
it seems the only way to end
this problem is by digging in
and eating every bit of sweet
till there's nothing left for me
to gaze at, wishing I could eat
another box of tasty treats
Hope this one won't go so quick
else my stomach might be sick

Every ounce of motivation to study just left.  After a day and a half of (kind of) studying hard, Jon is ready for a break.  Inception will be played in our room at 9.  Until then, its looking like I will fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way (anyone? 10 bonus points).  That was going to be the merger between study and sleep, but its looking like i might not get back to studying before then.  And all I've studied for is circuits, which I really don't need to study for that much since I'm doing well in it anyways.  Diff. Eq.  (Differential Equations or Difficult Equations, depends who you ask), on the other hand, needs a lot of studying.  As of right now, I'm above the boundary between A and B by I'm not sure how much, but I'd really like to stay there.  Or maybe move up.  But the likelihood of that is about the same as the likelihood of my roommate listening to a little too much of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra while laying in his bed working on his photo II stuff and wearing a white sweatshirt.  Oh, wait....bad comparison.

Inception came out today/yesterday

who would win in a fight between a grilled cheese and a taco?