huh

i just realized i haven't blogged in a while, would you look at that.

fall in bemidji

i love the fall, we get to go to bemidji and winterize the "ponderosa" - one of my favorite things!

surreal

october? 80's? humid? DUST STORM??? wtf?!?!?! where are we, mars?

jeebus...

huh, ludwig works too

i'm at work and struggling with logging, regular expressions, and exception handling in java programs. i thought of jumpstarting my brain by listening to some beethoven (i've always been a bigger fan of him over amadeus) and am amazed at how everything seems to makes so much more sense!

true, it may be due in part to draining out my co-workers to aid in focusing but, instead, i'm going to sing the praises of beethoven.

freude, schoener goetterfunken!

RIP

RIP steve, thanks for all you did.

pocket play

got a pocket-sized copy of the US constitution from the ACLU in the mail today... i wonder what neo-con GOP friend(s) i should lend it to?

oh hell, who am i kidding... they don't need a copy, they all have it memorized already.

my favorite text of the day

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy anniversary to you both--
Happy birthday to just you!

friday ramblings

- pumpkin pie pop tarts kick serious ass.  the pastry actually tastes and flakes like pie crust; the filling is the taste and consistency of pumpkin pie filling; and the super-cute fall-inspired-and-colored frosting and sprinkles are reminiscent of whipped cream... i'm in love (sorry my love)

- speaking of fall-inspired, HAPPY FALL!  finally, i'm a step closer to my favorite season: snow

- my birthday is in two days, i'll be the same age jesus was when he kicked-it.  i've unofficially decided not to celebrate this year because every year i find i care less about birthdays and more about the fancy dinners i get to have on them w/ my hubbie (there, i made it up to you, hun)

- i'm considering an "i lived longer than jesus" party, though, when easter comes along.  not to rub it into jesus' face or anything but, let's face it, chances are definitely in my favor that i'll be living longer than he did

- http://www.drawastickman.com/

early rainbow

no, your eyes aren't messing with you... that is a rainbow in downtown saint paul at SEVEN O'CLOCK in the morning! the sun wasn't even over the horizon yet! i felt quite lucky to have caught it, it didn't last long =) a good way to start today.

oh... you're one of them

i just got pulled into a discussion at work that ended in the imfamous "oh, you live in an APARTMENT" line.

i guess there's still a stigma around 30-somethings who choose to save their money and decrease their carbon footprint by living urban.

i guess i shouldn't be surprised tho, these are the same people who occasionally still ask when john and i are going to have kids. when will they learn that we're never going to fit into their moulds???

[almost] ICE!

the temp was a mere 38 this morning on my walk into work and tomorrow should be around the same.  i am LOVING this mid-september chill and can't wait till next week when i can, once again, celebrate the return of the fall and my favorite half of the year - the LAST half!  HOLLA!

bring on mabon, fools!

fortune cookie

they other day my fortune cookie said, "the secret to a happy life is not doing what you love but loving what you do."

i couldn't disagree more.

"doing what you love" puts you in the center of your domain of control, giving you the ability to decide what you are doing based off of what you love.  to do what you love means you've taken an active role in your life by admitting that you are the only person who controls what you do (mental stability assumed) and therefore you'll do what you like, dammit.

"loving what you do" puts you in a passive and, thusly, inactive role in your life.  to say you "love what you do" makes it sound like you happened to wake up one morning and conveniently decide that what you're doing is satisfactory for your life.  

true... loving what you do will occur naturally if you do what you love but it can't be said in the reverse... you won't necessarily love what you do if you're not doing what you love.  this cookie is disturbing me on several levels.

fall

fall is finally on the way... while dropping the hubbie off at the airport for a business trip i couldn't help but notice that the leaves are starting to turn and are already starting to fall - FINALLY!  it's been a long summer with too much sun and too much heat (e.g., it's 90+ right now... WTF!?!?!).

do you think if i were to start picking leaves off of the trees they'd get the hint and start dropping them on their own???

sneaky little bastards

so the sneaky little bastards at work did an update to our instant messaging software over night so it no longer allows people to create/import their own custom emoticons.  true, they've gotten a little out of hand (belly dancers, hula-hoopers, tea bags, dancing hippos, a box of summer's eve (reserved for douche bags)) but really??? 

oh company-who-doesn't-like-to-be-named-in-social-media... you've done it again. 

*snapping on the handcuffs*

who are YOU???

i'm a grain belt, menards, costco, target, dunn bros kind of guy... now where's that broken lamp?

http://bit.ly/qYA3Ng

the highlight of my day

today's highlight: roseanne barr calling me a "hookr" =)

twitter

for more frequent updates, i dare you to follow me on twitter @Nakachunkoff.

holla!

quote

another amazing quote found on CNN.com in the comments on an article about a man who converted from christianity to islam:

"Atheism/Humansim is not a religion... It is a personal relationship with reality."

dancing in the precipitation

woke up this morning to rain, dark, and a chill in the air - a day made for me!  it's days like this that i'm glad i live AND work downtown because i get to walk to work in the rain with my umbrella; that rarely-used accessory that adds an element of romanticism and fun to any person's day.  there's nothing i love more than rainy days because no matter how i'm feeling when i wake up or seconds before i walk out the door, it never fails that the moment i see the rain i feel like a new person with an energy level that matches that of any crazy person who loves the sunshine in the middle of summer (crazy people).  i mean, seriously, what's more warm, cozy, and full of childlike fun than a good rain!?!?!?

the only bad thing is the new work shoes i bought (to keep my feet dry because the others weren't so successful at that) did indeed leak this morning so my precipitation-happy-dance was clouded-over by a wet sock on my right foot.  oh well, something i can take through my day as a reminder of my walk in  = )

RIP don quixote

last saturday afternoon i mourned the passing of a dear friend i had been intimately close with for 982 pages.  while i found myself wishing for his swifter demise around page 500 i was more than just surprised when i chocked-up while reading his last words and the words of his closest friends/family on page 980.  i found the writing style of cervantes to be more than a simple rumination on the life of this most famous knight errant, it was more like an ongoing newspaper column than that of a large novel; thusly, on his unexpected passing, i felt like i had lost what had become one of my favorite pastimes: catching up on don quixote and sancho's crazy goings-on.

may you rest in peace alonso quixano - i look forward to the future when i pick up your crazy antics again and relive our [almost 1000 pages of incredibly fun and thought provoking] adventures.