Strange Fascination

This is something that I've been meaning to write about for quite some time. I'm not sure why I haven't, maybe because there is a certain level of discomfort when I know that my wife will read this. It's nothing bad. I just seem to have a strange affection for bands that have female Japanese lead singers. It used to just be chick bands or bands with chicks fronting them. Don't you love saying that word? Say it out loud right now in front of your computer no matter who is around. Chicks. Awesome.

Here are two of my favorites. And no it's not because they are hot or I have some strange thing for Asians like some people do. It's very specific. Japanese female, must sing lead in a group or musical act. That's it. Perv.

Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead

Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof

Sneak Preview

Ok, so last month I complained about how much buying a houst sort of sucks, but not really. Well, it's almost all over now and barring any last minute snags we will be homeowners next Friday. I'm posting just one picture of the front of the house. I apologize for the quality, it was photographed by the sellers. If we don't get this house, I'm placing the blame squarely on you, the reader, for jinxing it by reading my blog. Jerks.

Just kidding. I love you.

Best Video of the Week

You'll probably see this everywhere soon, but if you stayed up late enough to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, you saw and awesome video. If you aren't familiar with the video, I put one up that has Kimmel explaining the background for the video he is in. So sit back, relax, and take 6 minutes to watch a pretty funny music video.

Buying a House Sort of Sucks

I know, it's been awhile since I've posted, but more than likely now that I have removed this blog from my former MySpace account no one is reading it. Hell, I don't even really write in it that much.

Anyway, in the past month my wife and I have been looking for new homes. As you read a couple posts back, apartment life sucks when people try to steal your car. The attempted theft on our sweet, beloved Neon only accelerated our want and desire to purchase a new home. I was fairly excited about the prospect of moving into my own house. I was aware the process of purchasing a home was fairly lengthy, emotional and complicated. I just didn't know how aggravating it would actually be.

The easiest part of it was getting pre-approved and such. Finding houses in the area of town that we liked wasn't much more difficult either. Our Realtor is even pretty easy to work with. Although she does have some hair-brained ideas about our chances of getting a home that's been on the market for awhile in a "declining market." Our broker says not to worry, so I'll believe her.

Here's the exciting part. The house we want to buy is a foreclosure. It's actually a brand new home though. Let me explain. The builder didn't sell it fast enough or just went under and lost it to a bank or the bank that originally financed the build. So, technically it's new because it's never been occupied.

Here is what you may not know about buying a foreclosed home. When dealing with a bank it takes for fucking ever. The listing agent never answers her phone. Our Realtor has to leave messages for the most mundane items that are not carried out until the next day. Oh hey, we have a question about what you just told us, we need to call you back. Oh well, looks like we'll have to wait until tomorrow.

With us being first timers, it's all very nerve wracking. The good thing is that the offer we made was accepted yesterday. All we have to wait for now is our home inspection to come back all Jim Dandy next Friday and we'll be good to go when we close on or before March 28th. So, wish us luck, we are hoping that the hard part is over. Somehow I doubt it though. We are keeping positive and hope to be in our new home soon. Pictures of the real house will be posted as soon as we actually close and take possession.

Notice now that I'm married my posts are now resembling mass family emails rather than points of view on anything of interest to anyone but my wife and I? Yeah.

Feeling South Dakota

That's right, this weekend I will be braving the elements to see some people back in my hometown of Sioux Falls. So if you know me, and I know you, and you read this entry give me a call. I'll be in town from Friday afternoon until Monday morning.

This week marked my return to college. I'm now attending Park University for a journalism major and public relations minor. Well, eventually on the PR minor. We'll see how the rest of this works out. My classes are quite interesting. Let me explain.

I haven't been to school for over six years so I thought it would be best to part-time it this semester and only take two classes. Not only that I'm taking day classes Monday through Friday. My Monday, Wednesday and Friday class is Interpersonal Communication. My professor in this class is, well, interesting to say the least. She's a bit of a dunderhead, but she seems like she'll be interesting and somewhat entertaining. My other class is even more offbeat.

Since I'm attending a liberal arts university, I have to take liberal arts classes. Of course every university has electives that one must take, but this one is a little out there in terms of class requirements. It's a music appreciation class. It's an intro class of course, but get this. No tests, no written essays and the syllabus is still to be accepted and approved by the department. The professor is obviously gay, which is fine by me but it obviously freaks some of the other students out a bit. This makes for some entertainment value for me.

Ah, the students. Most of them are like me, but younger. I feel quite old and I'm sure I look old to them. I'm married and I'm going bald. I look like I'm 35 but I'm only 27. At least to them anyway. I'm sure things will work out fine, I have a good feeling about my classes for the spring and that I'll do well. Plus, the company I'm working for is paying for it as long as I get a C or better.

Let's see, what else. Oh yeah! Now that I'm a proud member of the Nebraska Cornhusker Touchdown Club it is opening new doors for me and my Husker obsession. Being a booster now, I was invited to a club function in Lincoln, Nebraska on February 7th that involves the new head coach, Bo Pelini, and the rest of his staff. It's social hour, dinner and a presentation on the newly recruited football players!

I won't be attending this year because no one else will go with me. And it's in the middle of the week and an hour and a half away. Oh well, maybe next year. My season tickets should make me feel better for this next season.

Happy New Year

Out with the old and in with the new. In our case, meaning my wife and I, we are out with the old door and ignition switch in her car and in with a new one(s). You see, the night before New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve Eve, her car was broken into with the intention of it being stolen.

My wife was going to buy cat food in the afternoon while I was going to sit on the couch and play a rousing session of Super Mario Galaxy on my Nintendo Wii. She ran back into the apartment stating that someone tried to steal her car to which I promptly responded in true idiot form, "what, like right now?"

I went down to discover the ignition switch on the passenger floorboard of the front seat and the drivers side door had been pried away from the car to gain entry (as shown above). What the would be thief did not realize is that Neon's after the year of 2002 or 2001 had chips in the keys with the expressed purpose of not being able to hot wire them from the inside. Would it kill car thieves to subscribe to Consumer Reports to learn about theft deterrents such as this?

So we spent most of our New Year's Eve afternoon filing the police report, calling State Farm (our insurance agency) and getting the car up to the local Dodge dealership. The rep from State Farm said two other clients had their Neons broken into over the weekend. The tow truck guy said he just picked up a Neon a couple miles away and the only difference is that it was black.

Now the car is checked in at the dealership, but the body shop is backed up. It is winter in the Midwest after all. At least we only have to pay our deductible rather than upwards of $1000 for the cost of the repairs. So we ended 2007 with a bang, so to speak. Hopefully the year of 2008 doesn't involve any more destruction of our property. Who knows, it is Kansas City. Maybe this is karma for my last post of 2007?

Goodbye for now, sweet Neon!

Get Your Opinion Off Your Car

This is my first post on this blog not transferred over from my soon to be defunct MySpace blog. This isn’t a historic even or anything, I just figured I’d give the first non-MySpace entry its due. So, congratulations little guy, you deserve it.

I have an issue this morning. Well, it’s more an issue from last night that spilled over into this morning. My wife made enchiladas last night. No, my issue is not with the Mexican feast that she lovingly prepared. My issue comes from when I had to travel to our local grocer for a couple of missing ingredients.

I parked next to a 1992 Ford Taurus with an interesting bumper sticker. If it wasn’t at night and my cell phone had a flash on it for the camera, I would have taken a pic to post on here, but this will have to do…

While I don’t have an issue with his sentiment to promote the buying and purchasing of American products, I do have a problem with the tone of the phrase used. Does my owning and driving of a Volkswagen somehow make me less American than this gentleman?

Am I hurting the American worker by driving a car that is made in Wolfsburg rather than Claycomo? Should I buy a German flag magnet and put it on my car? My Dad is German after all. Nah, the Germans would never make something that tacky. However, some American company would probably manufacture it. In China.

I don’t hate my country. I don’t even hate this guy whose bumper sticker offended me. What I hate is the continued assumption that if you aren’t supporting someone’s particular cause in this country then you are somehow against them, and it’s personal. I think some people have watched too many Dirty Harry or Arnold Schwarzenegger flicks.

Let’s break down the message on the sticker itself.

“Get My American Flag…” – so, this guy and anyone else who purchased this mass produced sticker is somehow assuming that the American Flag is his intellectual property or he designed it? Could be. Or does he think that people who own foreign cars are out to actually steal all of his American Flags? Who knows, he could be crazy and actually believe that all the flags in the contiguous 48 states are his.

“…Off Of Your Foreign Car.” – who knows? Maybe I could just be driving my buddy’s Honda to the store quick for a six pack or a magazine. Maybe I have a good ol’ Chevy in my driveway and I’m catching the icy stare from this dude for no reason. “My friend is an asshole anyway,” I’d tell him in order to defend my poor choice in transportation. “He wipes his ass with toilet paper with the Declaration of Independence printed on each square.”

This flowed into this morning because our local sports talk radio station, which I spend about 90% of my time in my car listening to, 810 WHB has a program on Saturday mornings called “Racin’ Boys.” Now, I don’t particularly care for NASCAR or any other form of Americanized racing (man, maybe I do hate this country) but I’ll listen to anything while I’m half asleep on a weekend morning before 9AM.

Someone called in to the show and said that he didn’t have a problem with Toyota’s being in NASCAR. He said the people that do are hypocrites because they probably watch Sunday racing on their Japanese TV’s while they wear their favorite drivers T-shirt, probably purchased at Wal-Mart and manufactured in China.

The guy had a thick Missera (maybe you’d have to live here to get that) accent and used the vocabulary of a 5^th grader, but he made a very valid point. We don’t really live in an American economy any longer when it comes to the purchasing of most products.

We live in a global economy and it’s probably going to stay that way while most people are looking for “Everyday Low Prices.” So, until American auto manufacturers can produce a car that isn’t a complete piece of shit that I can afford and I feel is safe yet mildly sporty at the same time, I’m going to stick to buying Volkswagens.

Just sort of a side note here, have you noticed that the two big foreign car makers are from former World War II Axis powers Japan and Germany? Even most people associate exotic cars (IE Ferrari and Lamborghini) with Italy. Does anyone else find this awfully coincidental? Maybe it's just me.

I make a conscious decision to not shop at places like Wal-Mart. I don’t like it. They don’t pay their employees much, or take care of benefits for the non-management workers that make up 85% of their global staff, and yet they are the richest retailer in the world by leaps and bounds. I won’t buy from a company like that. But mostly it's because a majority of the people that shop there have the IQ of Forest Gump with none of the sunny disposition and life lessons that he had to offer. Not one damn piece of chocolate either.

That is called a personal decision. Well, “that’s not unusual Zach,” you might say. To you and me, probably not. You are literate enough to follow what I’m talking about, so you’re smarter than most people. But a personal decisions to purchase American made cars, or bar soap, or socks should be just that. You shouldn’t have to buy your opinions and put them on your car.

This country is now full of personal opinions on cars. “Stay The Course,” “They Started It, We’ll Finish It,” and my favorite “Support The Troops.” Give me a fucking break, do you really need to put crap like this on your car to prove you’re that much more American than someone who doesn’t? Keep your opinions to yourself, and keep your bumper clean. Your crappy 1987 Ford 150 will thank you for it.