List #242: Keys to success in Settlers of Catan

List #242: Keys to success in Settlers

1. Longest Road!
2. Never start the game without access to wood and brick
3. Ranson cheats
4. Play the Monopoly card smart
5. Get a 6 or an 8 no matter what

List #241: Important stuff I learned from my Dad

List #241: Important stuff I learned from my Dad

1. YES, Steely Dan, Miles Davis (and Jazz etc.)
2. Dune
3. Bass players: use their fingers, look at their fingers, don't dance around, tell bad jokes, and only need 4 strings
4. TV is good
5. Trios are bad

bonus list: things I refuse to believe
1. Country Music

List #240: Ways in which I resemble Humpty Hump of Digital Underground

List #240: Ways in which I resemble Edward Ellington "Humpty-Hump" Humphrey III (aka Shock G) of Digital Underground

1. I like my oatmeal lumpy
2. I look funny, but...
3. ... yo, I'm makin' money
4. sometimes I get ridiculous
5. I'll eat up all your crackers and your licorice
6. I get things cookin'
7. I use words that don't mean nothin' (though to my knowledge I've never used "looptid")

List #239: Cold Things I Don't Like

List #239: Cold Things I Don't Like

1. Shower Water
2. Headaches
3. Feet
4. Steering Wheels
5. Fingers when trying to play guitar

List #238: Hot things I like / dislike

List #238: Hot things I like / dislike

Like
1. Franks' Red Hot
2. Hot Tubs
3. Hot Dogs
4. Hot Showers
5. Anne Hathaway

Dislike
1. Maryland weather
2. Megan Fox
3. Direct Sunlight
4. Stolen Goods
5. Burning Marshmallow

List #237: 10 Epic Andrew and Jason Art and or Escapades

List #237: 10 Epic Andrew and Jason Art and or Escapades

1. Pop America (1806 pop/soda cans taped to the ceiling)
2. Sprayfire/Spraefyre
3. Darth Vader breathing on loop for 24 hours
4. Word Finding/Anagraming their names (it's how we met... awwwww)
5. The Wall of Faces
6. Jimmy Stewart / Jive Talking Robot / the Penguin
7. Keeping Baby Spice Alive
8. The Art Exhibit freshman year
9. Andrew's Mowhawk
10. The Burton 417 Times

List #236: Ways the Wolverine movie could've been much better

List #236: Ways the Wolverine movie could've been much better

1. Not make the ending "Marvel vs. Mortal Kombat"
2. Not make "Deadpool" ridiculous, funny yes, Baraka, no. (dear Ryan Reynolds: Just be Hal Jordan)
3. Not make Sabretooth his brother
4. get Gambit right and use the character more
5. no silly "I loved you all along" moment.

List #235: Things I don't have in my wallet

List #235: Things I don't have in my wallet

1. hen
2. ducks
3. squawking geese
4. limerick oysters
5. corpulent porpoises
6. pairs of don alverzo's tweezers (ouch!)
7. thousand macedonians in full battle array
8. brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of eeeeeegypt
9. sympathetic, apathetic, diabetic old men on rollerskates with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth
10. lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep who hall quay around the corner of the quill and the quivey and quiver all at the very same time.
11. cash money

List #234: Band memories

List #234: A woefully inadequate list of EHS Band memories

1. Torm
2. The French Horn sectionals and defecting to the FHorn section in Wind Ensemble
3. When the 2nd Trumpets had 17 total notes in the giant all-music-department holiday concert finale.
4. The UMD jazz combo that played at the after concert party
5. Pops concert with Steve Vecchi
6. Pops concert with Ruth Dodge
7. Playing a Barry Mannilow medly when he was in the DECC giving a concert
8. 2nd Suite in F, The Lord of the Rings music (De Meij), Dies Natalis, and Valdres March
9. The Norwegian thing that Brad Bombardier wrote for torm
10. Vice Presidenting senior year
11. Looking up to/Idolizing Nick and Nate and Andy B.
12. Jumping out the window by the French Horn shelf on the last day
13. The Blues Brother's and pizza party
14. Being 2nd chair in concert band in 10th grade and sitting next to Chris Russo (and being called Superfly)
15. Getting a letter from the Edina band (see list #233)
16. Concert Band, Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble (with a study hall that overlapped with both Red Band and Symphonic Band) senior year
17. Making jokes about the choir and choir director during the holiday concert
18. super awesome friends
19. #19
20. Hans' dyed-white choppers for Christmas City
21. Florida (see Sub List A

Sub List A: Florida Trip memories
a) Taking pictures in the "backstage" areas of Disney (when they told us not to)
b) wearing those awful furry black hats and suits in the 98 degree heat/humidity
c) completely jumping the gun on an entrance in the contest piece (in the spot where Torm specifically told us not to screw up.... yeah... that was me... sorry)
d) 'My main concern right now is getting everyone on the tram(p)'
e) Hans' autograph book for his younger sister (and how "Sam Addams" signed it)
f) the beach
g) the crowd of boys that followed Sarah Fisher every where at the water park (and how just rumor that she was going to the pool was enough to get our trumpet sectional cancelled)
h) playing a really good solo on Samba De Carrera in the jazz band concert
i) running into my good pal Chad at the Waterworld boat
j) learning Cribbage from Paco on the flight home

List #233: Pep Band Memories

List #233: Pep Band Memories

1. everything up an octave
2. Pi
3. "Milk", "Bessie" and other cheers (to taunt and confuse cheerleaders)
4. playing chords
5. "Championship," "Sirocco", "Children of Sanchez", "Winter Games"(!), "Freeze Frame", "Rock'n'Roll part II (the Hey Song", "Centerfold" and, of course, "go, team, go"
6. Torm's keys and "Purple People Eater"
7. The Birchen, and how great it felt to play after a goal
8. State Hockey, Boys B-Ball, Girls B-Ball
9. the Communist flag
10. The Mall of America and Torm's threats to send people home on the Fan Bus
11. The Edina pep band
12. the Apple Valley Game (grrrrr!!)
13. the 95 State Hockey Championship
14. the long-sleeved t-shirts (which I used to still wear for CH back when I played it)
15. playing at assemblies
16. Many more. Pitch in if you've got one

List #232: Jazz Band memories

List #232: Jazz Band memories

1. Pete Lee, Legend
2. Super Saxy Swinging Snow Shovel Sea Serpent Story Solos
3. Chameleon and Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
4. Playing at gym class dances
5. Santa Hats
6. Loud and Louder
7. lots of Count Basie
8. the solo's on Li'l Darlin' and Shiny Stockings
9. it being a great way to end each day
10. The #2 Book

List #231: Things that are never acceptable, ever

List #231: Things that are never acceptable, ever

1. faux-hawks
2. "Time of Your Life/Good Riddance" by Green day

List #230: Favorite Bridges

List #230: Favorite Bridges

1.Arial Lift Bridge, Duluth, MN
2. University Bridge, Seattle, WA
3. Menai Bridge, Bangor, Wales
4. covered bridge on Sturgeon Lake
5. lincoln park bridge, Duluth, MN
6. any bridge designed by Daniel J. Baxter

List #229: Favorite Fabrics

List #229: Favorite Fabrics

1. Under Armour
2. Flannel
3. Soft T-Shirt Cotton
4. Corduroy
5. Linen
6. Silk
7. Polar Fleece
8. Terrycloth
9. Spandex
10. Parachute nylon

List #228: 7 Important Facts You need to Know about Jeremy

List #228: 7 Important Facts You need to Know about Jeremy

1. Your Mom and Dad will like him because he calls them Mr. and Mrs. (except my Mom won't like it)
2.He Knows Things
3. He weighs 2013 pounds and is a founding member of the Fat Boy Society
4. He is 113% Irish
5. He has an awesome family and a super cool house
6. He has to sleep with the window open and a fan blowing even when it's 20-below (and he steals the covers too
7. He understands all of the Girl Rules

List #227: Favorite NFL Memories

List #227: Favorite NFL Memories (that's National Forensics League beeatches)

1. The "Drugs for Creativity" Bill in Congress
2. The Crowbar of Justice vs Grand Rapids
3. Quoting "Bambi," Primus, Miles Davis and "The Lost World" in rounds
4. When Jeremy had to use my Case against me because his briefcase was locked and RB was the judge
5. Pretending to be Jeremy for one round at Zenith City
6. The overly high concentration of pyromaniacs
7. Stanley the Wiffle Ball
8. THEOOTBSC
10. The make-up room and Jackson 5 at the FLake Speech Tournament
11. When Jeremy got a 10th place trophy at Red Wing debate when I actually placed 7th but the ballot room messed up
12. Winning plaques in Congress
13. Getting Tilden nominated for Nationals for Congress (with the "man of great Scope" sonnet)
14. Lakeville Debate Camp
15. Being kicked off the team, and having Dave get me reinstated (and he made the coach cry)
16. 2 years of Creative Depres...I mean Expression for speech using epic Poetry I wrote in Middle School (one was a poem somewhat similar to Lion/Witch/Wardrobe but set in a gym locker instead of a wardrobe. The other began "Now Gather 'round children / and sit at my feet / and I'll tell you the tale of / The nightmare on Sesame street" and involved Freddy Kruger, a lot of Mace and Super Grover)
17. Taking 2nd place at our home meet the first time I did Original Oratory (about dinosaurs, decluttering and stress)
18. Giving back to back aff/neg speeches in congress rebutting myself
19. The mints, the Mint and the still life with silver platter
20. Arguing by analogy (esp. the House of Cards analogy deconstruction against Maggie Weller)
21. Novice meets
22. Trivial Pursuit in a Can
23. Overnight tournaments almost every weekend
24. The girl with the blue hair at the first debate tournament of junior year
25. Writing my case on the bus, with a scissors and gluestick for the tournament in #24
26. Eating a Habanero (and a lot of dirty snow) tagging along to watch NFLs for speech freshman year.
27. Ethos and Toy Store
28. Meeting pretty much all of my best friends in HS! People I still love and respect to this day.
29. Making semifinals at Zenith City my sophomore year
30. Having a Briefcase, Wearing a tie to school, talking to walls
31. Being told by a judge that "your second rebuttal" was a work of art, when I had really just made it up as I went along
32. Passing notes in Congress
33. Getting my Quad Ruby pin
34. Cool people on other teams
35. Enemies on other teams
36. The malleable rules of Seniority
37. Learning that it's a severe crime to make cool goggles out of a coathanger and two hotel-door peep-holes
38. The Shaft of Wisdom, it's Velvet sheath (and the year it spent in a hotel)
39. Learning more useful research/writing/structuring-an-argument/being-prepared-for-college skills than from any AP class.
40. Probably a ton of other awesome memories: if you remember anything, feel free to post!

List #226: 10 Things I Love about "Starman" by James Robinsion

List #226: 10 Things I Love about "Starman" by James Robinsion

1. Opal City architecture
2. The Shade
3. Jack Knight's cool goggles
4. The cover to #63
5. The O'Dare family
6. Solomon Grundy
7. The "Grand Guignol" arc
8. Talks with David
9. The Ludlows
10. the Letter Columns

List #225: True Facts about Vampires

List #225: True Facts about Vampires

1. Vampires DO NOT sparkle. (well, they sort of give off embers as they burn up)
2. Vampires are all evil (unless they have souls)
3. Vampires do not have souls, they have demons (except for 2 of them that do have souls, and those two really don't follow any of the vampire rules.)
4. The correct action to take when meeting a vampire is to stake it, the vampire's correct response is to turn to dust.
5. Vampires use evil trickery to make people swoon
6. Vampires are cooler if they can turn into stuff like Bats or Mist or Wolves
7. Vampires use really good PR to fool the masses into making them seem sympathetic (see Buffy Season 8 for an excellent commentary on this)
8. Vampires want to drink blood. Your blood. Don't let them make you think otherwise
9. Vampires are Undead (which is just a variety of dead), just like Zombies, Ghouls, etc. and Necrophilia is icky
10. No one remembers the rules about how Vampires are compelled to count things, so a good defense against vampires is to spread seeds all over a vampire's grave so that it has to count them all and then gets caught in the sun and vaporizes, except maybe Sesame Street
11. TV and books pretty much get it all wrong, but, when in doubt, Bram Stoker or Joss Whedon are smart.

List #224: Favorite Steely Dan Songs

List #224: Favorite Steely Dan Songs

1. Josie
2. Kings
3. Black Cow
4. Barrytown
5. Bad Sneakers
6. Peg
7. Dirty Work
8. Hey Nineteen
9. Kid Charlemagne
10. Reelin' in the Years
11. Any Major Dude Will Tell You
12. Jack of Speed
13. Deacon Blues
14. Charlie Freak
15. Caves of Altamira
16. Gaslighting Abbie
17. FM
18. Bodhisattva
19. Pretzel Logic
20. My Old School

List #223: A few jobs I could not do

List #223: A few jobs I could not do (though some I might admire)

1. English (language/writing) teacher
2. Lifeguard
3. Comic Letterer
4. Accountant
5. Window Washer
6. High steel construction
7. Firefighter
8. Bus driver
9. Baker
10. Any Medical job

List #222: Websites that have been indespensible to me recently

List #222: Websites that have been indespensible to me recently

1. www.dmbalmanac.com
2. www.dreamingtree.org
3. www.antsmarching.org

List #221: Favorite Detectives /Investigators

List #221: Favorite Detectives /Investigators

1. Sherlock Holmes
2. Veronica Mars
3. Ralph Dibny
4. Batman
5. Encyclopedia Brown
6. Lester Freamon
7. Angel
8. The Great Mouse Detective
9. The Hardy Boys
10. Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
11. Seeley Booth
12. Detective Chimp
13. Deb Morgan
14. The Scooby Gang (original)
15. Inspector Gadget

List #220: 25 Guitarists I admire or enjoy

List #220: 25 Guitarists I admire or enjoy (not comprehensive)

1. Mike Stern
2. Robben Ford
3. Jimi Hendrix
4. Steve Howe
5. Phil Keaggy
6. Vernon Reid
7. John McGlaughlin
8. Leo Kottke
9. Tim Reynolds
10. Jeff Beck
11. Buddy Guy
12. Mark Kozelek
13. Andrew Whiteman
14. Claudio Sanchez
15. J. Mascis
16. Billy Corgan
17. Al Sparhawk
18. Will Dack and Brian Dack
19. Ron Koivisto
20. Hans Anderson
21. Andy Summers
22. Scott Henderson
23. John Mayer
24. Michael Hedges
25. Frank Zappa

List #219: Favorite Pizza Toppings

List #219: Favorite Pizza Toppings

1. Onions
2. Pepperoni
3. Mushrooms
4. Green Pepper
5. Sausage
6. Any combination of 1-5
7. pizza margherita
8. "bacon cheeseburger" (hamburger, cheese, bacon, onions, pickles)
9. "Hawaiian" (pineapple, canadian bacon, green pepper)
10. "baked potato" pizza

List #218: 10 Things I LOVE about football

List #218: 10 Things I LOVE about football

1. 5 seconds of action, 45 seconds of talk
2. running the ball up the middle and maybe crossing scrimmage
3. the long season
4. taking a knee at the end of a game
5. the fair system for determining the college champion
6. that you've got a full season to prove yourself worthy of a college championship and losing your first game won't knock you out of contention
7. simple, easy to follow rules
8. the versatility of the players and positions
9. Brett Favre/The Green Bay Packers
10. The Huddle Offense

List #217: How I spent my Friday Night

List #217: How I spent my Friday Night

1. Lost
2. Came home
3. Tried to read "Ender in Exile" or watch "True Blood"
4. Fell asleep in my clothes on top of my bed and gym bag at 8:30
5. Dreamt about the "Lost" final season premiere.

****Sublist A: Things in/about my dream about the "Lost" final season premiere
*a) it was animated
*b) the colors were beautiful
*c) there were nuclear fireworks
*d) the crisis was seemningly averted
*e) there was a Unicorn and a Guardian of Oa, which were the result of the fireworks
*f) My favorite chairs at my grandpa's house were missing and I panicked, but my Mom said they were just being re-upholstered
*f) Jack's mom(?) didn't like his white-with-black-stripe-haired pirate girlfriend, so she switched the seat numbers on a bus so the girlfriend couldn't get on.******

6. Woke up at 2:30am to brush teeth and write this list

List #216: Keys to success this year in field hockey

List #216: Keys to success this year in JV field hockey

1. A goalie (preferrably one that wants to play the position!)
2. Focus
3. No Detentions, No Injuries
4. Endurance
5. Effective leadership from the girls that have their head in the game
6. Midfield that can carry the ball
7. Quick learning curve from the rookies
8. No bad attitude from people playing in new positions
9. Good off-ball movement
10. Hydration
11. me actually being a good coach...

List #215: Most expensive things I've ever purchased

List #215: Most expensive things I've ever bought
*denotes still paying for.
Does not include Service or Maintenance

1. MLIS ( $37K before interest)*
2. Car ($17K, including interest)*
3. My share of my BA ($16K)*
4. Computer, 2004 ($2,500)
5. Computer, 1998 ($2,200)
6. Guitar, 1997 ($650)

List #214: Current ailments

List #214: Current ailments

1. Aching arm/shoulder/chest muscles from starting to lift again
2. Sniffly stuffy sneezy nose (cats? swine flu?)
3. very-tiredness (staying up late watching dvds/reading, getting up very early to work out)
4. that sinking feeling of not being quite ready for school but not sure in what way exactly
5. dry throat in the mornings
6. lack of goalie
7. out of shape-ness from not having camp to keep me on a regular exercise pattern this summer

List #213: Digital Audio versions of "Lie in our Graves" by DMB feat. Bela Fleck that I have

List #213: Digital Audio versions of "Lie in our Graves" by DMB feat. Bela Fleck that I have (as of this writing)

1. 1996-12-28
2. 1996-12-31
3. 1997-06-07
4. 1996-06-08 (partial)
5. 1997-06-10
6. 1997-06-13
7. 1998-05-20
8. 1998-11-21
9. 1998-11-28
10. 1998-12-03
11. 1998-12-07
12. 1999-05-22
13. 1999-05-25
14. 2000-09-13
15. 2000-09-18
16. 2002-04-19 (and saw this one live!)
17. 2006-08-06

Versions that I don't have or are pending
1. 1996-12-29
2. 1996-12-30
3. 1997-06-03
4. 1997-06-05
5. 1997-06-06
6. 1997-06-11
7. 1997-06-18
8. 1998-06-05
9. 1998-08-07
10. 1998-11-20
11. 1998-11-30