Merry Christmas, One and All

So my family is flying up here for Christmas - they're actually due to arrive in about an hour and 15 minutes, after having been delayed in both KC and in Denver. Tomorrow the boys are going to shoot sporting clays in the morning, then we'll drive up to the winter-wonderland that is McCall this time of year to spend the holiday. We'll ski, snow-shoe, etc., and hopefully I can get some people to go for a swim in the lake with me (it's kind of dicey, since you have to break through the ice to get to the water). It should also be noted that the cabin up in McCall is sort of an internet-wasteland - translation: don't expect any updates for at least a week. Be strong. But seriously, even though everyone who reads this (read: mom) will be up here - merry Christmas. Have a safe and happy holiday. See you on the other side, Ray.

I hope they liked my smile...

So here's an odd thought; right now, literally as I am typing this, the KU Med admissions committee is having their final meeting of the year. They are discussing my interview group, and determining my future. It's kind of an odd thought. Tomorrow and Friday they will mail out letters to my group telling some (very few) that they've been accepted, some that they've been denied, and many that they will need to wait patiently until March when they compile the final list and create the wait list. All I can do now is wait, and hope they respected me for my mind, not just my body. Keep your fingers crossed.

erikebelingart.com

So in case you didn't know, my brother is an artist. In fact, one time when the whole fam was up here in Idaho, he showed his portfolio to an artist-friend of my grandparents who was so impressed that he pored over my brother's work for hours. During this time, I learned how to sleep with my eyes open (it makes me drool, that's the only downside). I was, however, jarred out of my slumber when the friend sensed that I was left out of the conversation (about 8 hours later) and asked me, "So... do you have a talent?" To which I replied, "No." I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a liar.

Anyways, my brother has just completed his website, which is way cool. Do yourself a favor and check it out at www.erikebelingart.com - he's got a gallery where you can check out a lot of his works (or pieces? I don't know anything about art), a page where you can follow the progress of his latest works, and a blog where you can wish you were reading my blog. So, check it out, tell your friends, spread the word (especially if you or someone you know might be interested in commissioning a work from a talented young artist), and enjoy. Btw, mad props to webmaster Nick Pearson who did the tech-work to make Erik's website possible. erikebelingart.com - go there.

Expert Skier or...

So today was my last ski lesson - it was a bit sad. I was really starting to like some of the people in my group (especially Bruce [see below]), as well as the instructor (who, as it turns out, is an ecological engineer and a really good guy). Oh well, maybe I will run into them on the slopes. Then, if we both survive the collision, we can catch up and exchange ski tips (another pun, but I'll let it go). I got a lot better, mostly because these lessons gave me the opportunity to take things really slow and establish good fundamentals.

Well, there's not really anything else interesting for me to talk about, and I need to study for my biology final coming up - I still haven't really come to terms with the fact that I have to take a final again, but I guess it will happen one way or the other. Btw, in case you didn't see I am Legend, and/or watched it online, here's the new Batman trailer. Should be pretty sweet, though it doesn't come out until summer '08.

I Am Legend /Ski School

So my cousin and I went to see I am Legend last night - or I guess I should say that I saw it and she saw about a third of it. Parts of it were actually pretty scary, and Megan doesn't deal well with that as it turns out; she had to hide behind the bill of her hat for a lot of the movie. I suppose the premise (Will Smith is the last man alive after a virus kills everyone and turns some into zombie/vampire things) might have alerted me to this possibility, but it was actually a really sad movie. I thought Will Smith, who is a surprisingly good actor (considering where he came from), did a great job in it, though most (if not all) of the special effects were somewhat lackluster. In fact, I was pretty disappointed with all of the CGI, frankly. I am, admittedly, a bit of a special effects snob... At any rate, I will forgo a lengthy review for fear of spoiling the movie for all of my rabid fans. It's definitely worth seeing, if you're in the mood.

In other news, I just returned from my first ski lesson, and it was a lot of fun. I was concerned that the lessons were going to be too slow and boring, but the pace was actually pretty good. It was a great opportunity to focus on the fundamentals and actually learn how to ski instead of just learning how to not fall. There are some nice people in my group, especially 50-year old guy named Bruce. Bruce is from Texas, and he was having way more fun than any of the little kids out there. He kept things entertaining, and it's way more fun to enjoy something like this when there's someone else who's having a great time. I'm really looking forward to having my family up here in a few days to ski, etc. Hopefully Bruce will get a little bit better by then - he's still kind of a scourge on the slopes, and it'd be a shame if he rand down a member of my family.

As a bonus, my cousin showed us this clip last night. It's from Robot Chicken, and it's short, disturbing and funny - just like most things from that show.

It's That Time of the Year Again

So it's nearly Christmas, and you know what that means... it's time to not know what to get my family for Christmas! Hooray! This year could have been easier, given the fact that my dad actually told my mom, "this is what you should tell the boys I want for Christmas this year..." Apparently, however, my mom wanted to let my brother and me (yes, that is grammatically correct) suffer a little bit more by withholding this information until it was too late. Oh well, this is only the first time in recorded history that a member of my family actually wanted something for Christmas - why not squander it, you know? Anyways, I wouldn't say that I hate giving gifts at all. I actually like it a lot, I just wish it were simpler and that success could be guaranteed without resorting to interrogation methods not in accordance with the Geneva Convention. But in case you're reading, mom and dad, I'm sick of this - be warned that next year, I will have no qualms about waterboarding one or both of you to get this sort of information out of you (sometimes even I have to lower myself to over-used, topical humor). Then I will be able to give you the best gifts ever and win Christmas. Which is really what Christmas is about, after all. That and terrible commercials on TV.

It's happened...

Jason Giambi, before and after... or did I mess up the order? I can't even tell.

So the big Mitchell Report has been released listing "all" of the Major League Baseball players who used heroin I mean crack I mean steroids, and I must say, I am shocked. Literally, shocked. No real surprises on the list, but a few surprises left off the list. I'm not going to say who they are, because that might give you, the reader(s?), the sense that I care about baseball at all, which is false. All I'm going to say is that around the time Bonds was nearing the record, I saw a clip of him up to bat and a few fans in the crowd had a huge banner that said, "Babe Ruth did it on hotdogs and beer." I thought that was pretty funny. Oh, and I will also say that I think his record should get an asterisk, or should I say ass-terisk.

I think the biggest issue with this whole thing is that it's such a huge issue. I mean, yeah, these jerks are supposedly role models for children and all that, but being disappointed in our role models is neither new, nor is it confined in any way to baseball (ahem, Kobe Bryant [maybe I should just say "the NBA"]). And, yeah, the drugs are illegal and they've all but destroyed "America's pastime" (though it was the fact that the games are 7 hour snore-fests that ruined it for me). But what I really don't understand is why Congress is so heavily involved with this whole thing. They have invested so many hours and tax dollars that could have been put to better use in any of a hundred ways that I just really can't stomach the whole thing. I mean, the average Congressman works like 3 hours every other week, it seems like they might be able to form a slightly more useful sub-committee - perhaps they could probe something else, like getting re-elected to keep doing nothing, or the rapidly decreasing size of "fun-sized"
candy bars (seriously, have you noticed that? it's hardly worth it for me to trick-or-treat anymore). At any rate, I definitely don't want this blog to turn into a sports column, both because I don't know that much about sports, and because professional athletes can be some of the most discouraging, disgusting examples of humanity at its worst (with notable exceptions). I just thought we should all take a moment to morn the death of baseball's innocence - I know you were all as surprised as I was hear that all of those massive, frighteningly muscular behemoths are taking steroids in spite of the fact that doing so is prohibited.

btw, if you are so inclined, here's a site with a bunch of pictures of MLB guys before and after they started juicing. Pretty impressive stuff, especially seeing Barry Bonds dressed as a woman.

Lots of things - Pull!

So it's been a while, but I've been pretty busy. I have a couple of big topics to cover, but due to the fact that some of them might be totally boring to some of you, I'm going to break them up into separate posts, all labelled "Lots of things- something" to make this easy for you, my loyal reader(s?). This way, you can decide if you want to read or not. Your fate is in your own hands.
So today I did something I've always wanted to do - my uncle and I went to shoot clays. It was amazing - way more fun than I thought it was going to be, and I thought it would be a lot of fun. I was pretty apprehensive at first, considering I had never even held a gun before, but as it turns out, I caught on pretty quickly. I don't mean to brag, but I hit my first three clays. Now I'll brag - the owners of the place said that a beginner is doing very well if he/she gets 17 out of the first 50 targets. I hit 29 on my first time through the course (you can't see, but I'm literally patting myself on the back right now). The course is set up kind of like a golf course, so you walk around to all of the different stations, each with a different set-up of trees and angles and position of the clay-thrower things (no idea what they're called). Then you say "Pull" and shoot. It was great fun. On the first round, an older guy who competes on a national level shot with us and gave my uncle and I a few pointers, which were very helpful (btw, I beat my uncle on both rounds we did). He was amazing, and a pretty darned good teacher. All in all, it was a very fun day, and I would very much like to do it again. I haven't checked yet, but I'm hoping to have a sweet bruise on my shoulder. I'll keep you posted (that's a little blogger's inside joke, I don't expect you people to get it).

Lots of things - Tool Concert

So last night, I was lucky enough to go to see Tool in concert. Who would believe they were playing in Nampa, ID. Nampa is better known as the home of the Snake River Sugar Co's Sugar Beet factory than for their rock music, but I'll take what I can get. At any rate, the show was amazing. All of the visuals on all of the screens, as well as all of the lighting and laser effects were totally revamped. More importantly, nearly every song they played incorporated a new segue, solo section or groove. Some parts were a little bit loose; you could tell that everyone was improvising more than normal, which is understandable considering they've been playing basically the same songs for the last 2 years. The setlist is below, and it was the only real disappointment of the night - they just didn't play enough songs for my liking. They spend too long wasting time between songs with atmospheric effects and long transitions, and not enough time playing actual music. Oh, I just remembered - the most disappointing part of the night was actually the opening band, TransAm. Terrible. I've never understood why Tool insists on having such terrible bands play like it's amateur hour to open up the show. It would literally be more entertaining to just sit there and stare at the stage. Oh, I just remembered - the actual most disappointing part was when they brought some idiot from Isis on to "play drums" to accompany Danny Carey's drum solo. He literally looked like he'd never held a pair of drums sticks in his life. Fortunately, they had him turned way down so he didn't totally ruin the solo. Actually, the sound was great in general. They were all clearly on top of their game, though Maynard still wasn't feeling well after his viral infection.

I was able to go to this concert with my cousin Amy, and her bf (the) Jimmy. It was way fun because this was their first real concert. We got to see fist fights, people getting kicked out, and drunk people yelling at each other. All in all, pretty sweet. Here's the setlist, nerds...

JAMBI
STINKFIST [extended]
46 & 2
SCHISM
ROSETTA STONED
FLOOD
[intermission light show]
WINGS FOR MARIE
10K DAYS [WINGS II]
LATERALUS
VICARIOUS

Lots of things - Medical School Interview

This last topic is one which will likely receive further treatment in the near future, but my exhaustion will limit this post to a few choice sentences for now. I returned home to KS on Wednesday evening to go and interview at KU Med. My mother was kind enough to pick me up at the airport, and we had a nice meal at Bravo!. I picked out a tie (powerful, yet conservative) and tried to get some sleep. The next morning, I braved the weather to travel to the Medical Center and have what was a stressful, yet enjoyable day. Everyone there, except for my second set of interviewers, were very friendly and welcoming (I got grilled a little bit by the second interviewers - they were clearly trying to see how I handled the stress [I started to sweat profusely, shift uncomfortably in my chair and make wild, false claims about past achievement in the fields of both health care and quantum physics - you could say I am probably the best ever at interviews]). I also saw several people I knew from BVNW, which was pretty cool. All in all, it was a pretty good experience - now I just get to wait for a few months before I discover my fate. Should be swell. More on this later.

Btw, I don't know why I thought of this, but if you haven't seen the video of all of David Caruso's one liners from CSI:Miami, go here and enjoy. You won't regret it. And if you're pressed for time, here's one that I don't think is in the video, hosted by the great Joe McHale.

Matt Damon

So, I normally try not to hate too much on things that are totally awesome, but this has been bugging me for a long time. The Bourne Identity movies are bad-ass. At least I think they are. It's kind of hard to tell because the camera is always bouncing around so much that 99% of my energy is spent avoiding vomiting from motion sickness, which leaves a scant 32% of my massive intellect remaining to enjoy the movie. Don't get me wrong, I think they really are great movies, and Matt Damon does a great job, I just really wish I could see what is going on. Clearly, the choreography for the fight scenes is fantastic, and the chase scenes are second to none, I just really wish it was all viewable. The reason this really bothers me is because I went to see the Bourne Ultimatum with my aunt, uncle and cousins over the summer, and Molly literally had to leave about 20 minutes in because the camera work was making her sick. I blame Oliver Wood, who did the cinematography for the movie (also worth noting is the chuckle I had when, while reading over all the crew to decide who was most deserving of my scorn , I came across Florian Emmerich who [hilariously] operated the steadycam). I just don't understand why such good movies had to be ruined by such terrible cinematography. It is, however, humorous to imagine the camera men(/women) running around the set, chasing after Matt Damon and shaking their cameras like they're covered with fire ants... In case you haven't seen the movies, I decided to provide you with a clip below so you can see what I'm talking about. If you look really closely, my hand makes a short cameo - think of it as a sort of Easter egg for the fans out there.


I almost hate to bring this up, but another great movie was nearly ruined by this same problem, though it was less of an issue on this one: Batman Begins. If anyone can describe to me what exactly is happening in some of those fight scenes, I'll shut up, but nobody can, so don't try. I can understand directors wanting the audience to feel like they're "in the action," but it seems like they would also want audiences to "be able to watch their movies."