On my mind...

Olympics

2006-02-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

Every week, or when the paper needs the space filler, I write an article for the Spur. I normally try to be funny. Here was this week’s article: Note from sports editor: Olympics Events like the skeleton and hockey illustrate why Olympians are crazy and tough as puck By: Bryce Rausch Issue date: 2/15/06 Section: Sports I don't claim to be the best sports editor in the history of Southwest Minnesota State University, that honor goes to Jake Strait, but I tend to follow sports with a passion. That is until it comes to the Olympics; well, the winter Olympics at least.With the greatest winter athletes in the world coming together in Turin, Italy I knew one athlete going in, Michelle Kwan. Which makes sense since figure skating is the number one watched sport of the winter Olympics. Kwan recently withdrew from the Olympics because of a groin injury and I devoted all my attention to the Jamaican bobsled team. There is no Jamaican bobsledding team this year so it looks like I can return my TiVo. My point is, going into the Olympics who could name any athletes? There was that skier who admitted to skiing drunk, Bode Miller, who Tuesday Feb 14 was disqualified for straddling a slalom gate. I, like many others, feel that rule is a technicality at best and should be dealt with by a penalty, not a disqualification. I'm just joking by the way, I have no clue what that even means. But have you ever skied drunk? I'll bet it's extremely hard, and we should give Miller some credit. One thing that the winter Olympics has over the summer Olympics is that athletes in the winter sports are crazy and tough. For example, if you see a hockey player you would think they just look like a redneck with a love for taffy, the reason they have just one tooth, but then they body check you and you quickly realize they could kill you. Then again I weigh 140 pounds, all muscle, so it doesn't take much of a check for me to call you my daddy. If you need another example of why winter Olympians are crazy and tough, look no further than the skeleton event. Athletes lie on a 75 pound sled going downhill at a top speed of 75 miles per hour. When I drive in Marshall at 75 mph I at least wear a seat belt, but not skeleton athletes. After nearly a mile of sliding downhill and around curves without dying , the winner normally comes in just a hundredth of a second faster than second and third place. So if you have a death wish and Marshall isn't enough excitement for you, start training for 2010 in Vancouver, Canada.

Miles/Holli Weekend

2006-02-12T15:23:00.000-08:00

Miles and Holli came to my town this weekend.  It was incredible.  I was really worried about Holli not having a good time but without a doubt I think she had one of the best times of her life this weekend.  No really.  I’m serious.

Friday I got back to my place after lifting and classing and took an online test, did some homework, and showered.  I then ferociously cleaned the apartment.  When the DSU’s came over I knew we’d be drinking and partying and was pretty sure being super clean wasn’t a necessity.  Miles would show up trashed but would slowly sober up because he’s shy on drinking other people’s booze.  Poor Miles.  Scrapes got a new bed.  I have tried it out and it makes my butt hole hurt.  Get it?

Sorry Mom.  Couldn’t resist a good gay joke.  WWLD.  She would go for the joke.

So Miles and Holli were late coming to my place, Linds and I ended up watching the first Arrested Development episode without them and watched the first 10 minutes of the 2nd of 4 without them as well.  Linds laughed, she tried to hide it but Tobias is just too funny and one comment Linds made about George Michael was, “He’s too awkward”.  Awesome.

Holli came in the apartment with a look like, finally I’m here at heaven.  They sat down and everyone was starving, ordered a pizza, Holli got Katie to come over, and we laughed and laughed.  And Lindsey and I drank.  And Holli snuck booze in the bathroom.  And Miles was sicker than I was.  Sad.  He was miserable all weekend.  Dave posted that Miles was funny when he was in the BSC, he wasn’t very funny here, he was mostly sad and dying.  Amazingly Holli had a good/great time though.

So we watched the rest of the Arrested Development episodes and then played DVD Trivial Pursuit, Lindsey and I versus the rest of them.  Half way through the game they even got another teammate and they still fell to us.  But I mean, what could they do? Linds and I are super awesome at that game.  They were meant to lose.

After the game, so I wouldn’t influence the decision, I covered my eyes and flipped through the channels waiting for them to yell when they found something they wanted to watch.  They wanted Full House I thought, ends up that was sarcasm and they didn’t know what they wanted to watch.  I just kept drinking and turning the channel.

Day two I took the elated Holli and the belligerent Miles to the school for a tour that would rock their world.  The library, student center, Spur office, and of course the locker room took like 2 hours to tour but Holli craved more and Miles craved drugs.  A Wal-Mart trip later and sitting around for a few minutes and they were off to Katie’s while I went to Lindsey’s.  We chilled, laughed, and made plans for the evening.  Linds and I, mostly Linds, made lasagna, went to the Lick, and watched some Arrested Development, which Lindsey liked.  Then Holli, with a grin that couldn’t be erased across her face, and Miles with red eyes and two bloody nostrils came back from Katie’s.  We ate, watched Arrested Development, and went to the game.

The men lost to a team that shot over 50% from the field in the first half and had nearly a 20 point lead at half time.  We got within 9 but lost the game.  Two humorous things happened at the game, some punk 10 year old boy was like, “Take a picture of me” with the Spur camera, rolling my eyes I took it and said, “we’ll see if that makes the paper” and his eyes got HUGE and was says, “wow, that would be sooo cool.”  No way in hell is that picture going to be in the paper.  Later in the game he goes, “so my picture is really going to be in the newspaper?” and I go, “MAYBE, we’ll see.”  He got Punk’d.

The other thing was at the end of the game I was just a couple feet from the court, standing on the ground with the Spur camera and this big black guy from Bemedji State gets the rebound, fouled, and screams “AHHHHHH”.  I was like 10 feet from him.  It was scary as hell.  To take the edge off the crowd behind me then echoes.  I just slowly turned around so he wouldn’t remember what I looked like so he could later rape and kill me.  Rape and kill the boy, not me.

After the game we rented Red Eye after I made a list to better organize our thoughts.  No one liked that idea, and really no one liked the movie.  But surprisingly for a thriller it had a gag reel, though less that hilarious.

This morning we went to church, found Holli’s phone, which made her even happier that I thought possible, ate at Mike’s café where I put everyone though an interview, “Favorite class” “Most tragic news story you’ve ever heard” “Favorite Arrested Development Line”.  Then Miles and Holli took off, Linds went to study, I played poker and won.

I think Holli had a great weekend.  I’m pretty sure Linds is going to kill my some night while I sleep, just a vibe I’m getting, and Miles will never kick the cold and will die next week after the basketball game.
Thanks for the lasagna Linds.

Hawaiian Weekend

2006-02-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

At work on Thursday I could barely think.  I have embraced a hatred for my job.  I had a lot of enthusiasm at first, dreams of making tons of money by making the executive team, getting hired on for a big raise, and just being cool because I was getting some experience that might improve a somewhat naked resume.  Now I think of work as something I don’t want to do, I will take bathroom breaks even when I don’t have to go to the bathroom, I even passed time by taking a “Sweetheart” candy and crunching it into a powder with a needle.  Sucks.

Thursday I was pumped cause that is my last work day of the week.  Work got done and I think I just went over to Lindsey’s and hung out.  But Friday I woke up pumped.  I was going to take every dime of my $42 check and spend it on booze.  I did.  I had all but $1.05 gone by the time I left the lick and was feeling good.  Then I just had to wait for Linds to come home from Sioux Falls and wait for my guests to arrive.  While waiting Chester and I fixed my car, chilled at Rick’s, and chilled at my place.  Seth showed up first, and then boom there were a bunch of people here.  Rick’s entourage made a party at my pad.  Then Jeff, Box, Tyler, and Ned showed up.  Immediately Batman pointed out that Jeff was drinking a fag’s drink (some Starbucks coffee gross stuff) and I think everyone was creeped out by Batman.  Which was exactly his goal.

Then the DSU’s went to the lick, came back and each had a beer, then we all went to the bar.  HAHA.  There beer ended up just sitting here for most of the weekend undrank.  The bar was crazy.  Why?  Cause Chet and I went to pick up Linds at her place while everyone else went to Pappy’s.  There was a $3 cover charge to get in and Rick, although having a full-time job passed it up and went straight to the Pub.  Well, there was a lack of communication between Rick, Schaef, and the DSU’s.  Rick had called me to say they were heading to the Pub.  I was like, sure, we’ll meet you there.  Remember, Chet drove so we have his Neon.  Then as we were talking at Linds’ I get a call from Schaef saying what are they supposed to do now?  I get the drunk bus number for them, they ride it to the bar.  I get to the bar with Linds and Box shows up and kicks me in the testicles.  I go down, not sure why I got hit and feeling like I want to throw up.  Now as if its bad enough to get his in the balls, it’s at a bar so I’m like 2” away from the ground that is soaked with sweat, booze, and probably semen when I’m trying to catch my breath.  Gross.  I go and sit down, explain why it was wrong to have gotten me in my jewels, and Seth didn’t really get it cause he kept trying that night until he saw I was as paranoid as a mouse surrounded by cats after taking a hit of cocaine.  So we finally got the message out that I did what I could and I hadn’t driven.  We decide it is time to go, call Chet, he drives Linds and I to my place, Chet and I grab the van and fill it with how many people? 12.  Wowzers, huh?  We then ended up having an after party at my place.  Tyler, some redhead kid I’ve never met before, threw up apparently all over Schaef’s bathroom.  Which Schaef wasn’t very happy with cause he didn’t clean up his mess apparently. Silly boy.
Day ends

Around 8:30AM from the street I can hear Batman coming up laughing and then in comes everyone asking if people feel like a casino trip.  I don’t, but can’t get back to sleep.  That’s right, after going to sleep around 3AM I’m awake by 8:30AM.  Ouch for a Saturday.  Linds’ plan was to party it up at Angie’s around noon and I was just going to chill with Chet.  I get a call from Josh Scholten saying I should come over to his girlfriends.  I head over, play some drinking games, see a kid almost get his head shaved, see multiple men in skanky bikinis, but more importantly see the cops.  They busted the place and worst part yet I got another minor.  No, I wouldn’t have gotten one if I was under 21, they said, “we’re not going to check ID’s just get out of here”.  Talk about pissing me off.  I’m 21 BITCH!  CARD ME!
Head home, call Chet, chill at my place, go to Angie’s to get Linds and hang out, and see some trashed people.  The guys at that party had a rule, if you were a guy at that party you had to get a bare-backed slap.  Well, the kid that did mine sucked, he slipped up and only got my back with his fingers so it barely left a mark.  He had a frickin’ scar like mark on his while mine was like someone slapping a baby.  That made no sense but can you picture if someone had their baby boy there and everyone was like, “let’s slap that thing!”
Leave, game time, see the end of the girls game, Linds is trashed, we don’t see a single second of the men’s game.  Linds must go home.  She didn’t get sick but she was blind.  She said she couldn’t see.  I’ve heard of seeing double but going blind is weird.  Explains Ray Charles and Blind Debbie though.
I take Linds home and end up in bed by 9:30PM Hawaiian Night, probably before the game is even over, sober.  But at 4:30AM when I woke up wide awake, that was cool cause it’s like, wow, I’m refreshed, wait, it’s ungodly early.
Day Over.

Sunday woke up and went to church, went back to my place and around 3pm Linds came over and made my clean my apartment.  That sucked, especially because it turns out someone pissed all over my wall and floor of my bathroom.  GROSS.  Had to scrub it by hand, even grosser.  But my apartment is pretty damn clean.  Linds made some really good tacos, some not so good cheese dip, and probably some good lil smokies.  I didn’t have any cause I don’t like em.  We watched the Superbowl, we as in Chet, Linds, Schaef, and I.  It was a pretty decent game.
Other highlights of the weekend were the pyro tendencies of Chet and Schaef using Axe body spray as a blow torth.  Also Bartley stopped by Sunday, he had been gone to Florida all week, and it’s not even spring break, he just left. Luckyyyy.

I think this is a pretty long post, not particularly funny but that was my weekend.

Next weekend, Miles and Holly storm Marshall.  Weekend after that basketball game at SDSU.  And weekend after that Dan Rausch in Marshall.
Crazy.

Basketball

2006-01-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

Chris and I play basketball every once in a while.  He’s taller, can jump higher, and has tons more experience.  He loves his room and he hates people.  I once came to his dorm room and was hidden in Drew’s closet wearing nothing but his Allen Iverson Sleeve.  SICK.

So finally one day I asked him to get dressed and play some basketball.  He had been away from humans so long he had forgotten a lot of English.  All he could remember was “Fishin’ for Cod” “My Weiner” and “Battlefield”.  I eventually got him saying, “my lumps” and figured that was enough to bring him to the gym.

We went there and shot around some and finally decided to play one-on-one.  He beat me.  We played again.  I beat him.  Then he kissed some random guy on his way out of the gym, deep with tongue.  SICK.

Well, since then we’ve played 7 ( VII) games.  The series is at 6 (VI) -3 (III).  Let me tell you about one game.

We’re playing, and it’s raining inside.  My black hair glistening and there are tons of fans all cheering for me.  But I’m losing, bad.  I scored one point early and then it was all Chris.  He even burned me in front of some guys who weren’t even white and they started laughing! NOT EVEN WHITE!  Er, I mean THEY WERE LAUGHING!  It was sad.  I was down 12 (XII) to 1 (I).  As I said, it was raining, the fans were uninterested and then BOOM I hit a three-pointer just as thunder cracked across the sky.  As the game went on I completely erased his lead, fans started paying attention and throwing money at me cause I was so good.  The game finally gets tied at 14 (XIV) and the crowd is like, “WTF is gonna happen!” Then I beat him.  How it went down I don’t really remember it was last week, but it was pretty awesome that I managed to beat Chris Smith who is always such a cock-block.

Tonight we played again and we each won a game.

Thought you guys should know.

Spring semester at a glance

2006-01-23T10:08:00.000-08:00

What what? Another post? Yes

I have some time right now, not enough to get into any homework, take a nap, lift weights, play basketball, or get engrossed in a tv show, but enough to post while my pizza is a cooking.

So yesterday when I posted about my weekend I was like, shit, I forgot to post about my new classes.  So here is that post.

Also, I love you Linds.

Class for class:
Strategic Marketing policy:
Should be fairly easy. I’ve had this teacher a lot, like 5 times maybe and I have his formula down cold.  Quizzes are plentiful but don’t really matter, just have a good final test, good midterm and a good paper.  It is supposed to be hard, but we’ll see.
International Politics:
My favorite class I think.  Easy. I guess he gives you all the test questions ahead of time and then only selects some of them, so if you memorize the worksheet, you’re high flying.  Yesssss.  Plus the guy gets way off topic easily.
Intro to Coops:
My farming class.  I have to keep up on my writing so I don’t get lost right away.  I may be over my head and I hope not to regret taking a class just to be able to talk farming with my farming friends’ dad.  But if it all happens as planned, it’ll be so awesome.  The teacher is a total goof ball.  I mentioned him in my last post.  I have him today again.
Marketing Research:
Again a Mike Rich class.  This one will be a lot of work though. You have to survey at least 100 people (for my sex story in the Spur I surveyed 400 so *yawn*) But we’ll see.
International Marketing:
My teacher is a Russian chick.  Cool accent.  Who knows what to expect from this class.
Business Policy:
This one could be fun, but I hear it’s a lot of work.  A 40 page paper and a 45 minute presentation to conclude the class.  Have to make a fake business and run it.  Budgets and shit like that.  I am in a group that doesn’t have that person who will take it to the next level and get shit done.  So I may be doing the bulk of the work.  We’ll see.  Everyone is capable and smart.
Finally Leadership and Team Management:
I will be pissed if I get a B in this class.  Its online so that might be challenging but the work seems very simple.  I had this teacher before and got an A +.

There ya go.

Weekend in Fargo

2006-01-22T20:39:00.000-08:00

Friday’s adventures began as Intro to Cooperatives ended. My teacher is a dorky and energetic guy. I am the only one in the class who laughs at his jokes but it’s the way he talks that makes it funny.

“Can I say something? Is that okay? It’s Friday right? We can tell each other personal stuff cause its Friday, right? When I go on a big trip I don’t want to stay a little road side motel or something, right? I like to stay maybe at a Days’ Inn or something like that, huh? Big beds, nice and clean, right?”

Now re-read that and picture an energetic Woody Allen speaking. A Woody Allen that knows a shit load about farming.

So I left the school to my already packed van, picked up Linds who was doing a Sodoku puzzle and we hit the road. Chit chatted and listened to music (alternating CD’s) on the way to the BSC. Ran some errands, played with the puppy, rolled on our way north to Fargo.

Got to Fargo, found Tony’s house and was hungry. We went to Granite Brew or something like that. Good food, micro-brewed beer, and I went through the usual embarrassment, being carded for way too long of a time and I caught the server looking at my face to make sure it was the person on the ID. BURNNN! But the people working were obviously retarded, not one person asked for tips or recipes from me.

Then went to the lick and I chose to buy boxed wine instead of beer. Big Mistake.

Went to Tony’s and I played Drinking MTV Made. It was just me playing; there was this fat gay kid who wanted to make the varsity soccer team, every time he said something gay I drank. Being the kid was actually gay I downed a couple glasses of wine pretty quick. It was entertaining though. There was talk all night of going to a bar or renting a movie or going to a party. None of them happened, but it was alright. Bed Time, Tony had to get his friends who were trashed at like 4 AM and Linds and I heard the guys when they came back, it was funny but I was drunk myself so I fell asleep pretty quickly.

Saturday I already posted about the morning, I often thought about it later in the day and was just pumped. We ate lunch at this neat Hu Hot of Subways. It was tasty and then we went shopping. In the name game I amazing got a point, seeing Jackson Sussex who must’ve been in a huge hurry cause he didn’t stop to talk to me or Tony. That or he doesn’t like us. But probably the ‘in a hurry’ thing. Linds bought some clothes from American Eagle. I bought nothing.

Then we went into a very shady neighborhood in Moorhead, Minn. (right next to Fargo) and went to a brewing shop. Ok, it was very creepy, the front door has a giant crack in it and a sign saying, use side door. We go into the side door, which was locked but the guy was still shutting it down so he let us in. I wanted bottle caps that said “B B” none there. Not even a capping tool. Creepy things there. The owner dude, wearing jean coveralls and knew what he was talking about, but still was creepy. He had two kids, a lil boy and a lil girl, neither older than 6 I’d say. He goes, “Hey, keep cleaning up, what’s that (pointing to something) and that (pointing at something else) and put that stool away!” I was like, oh shit, this guy is a dick. So that was creepy. Another creepy thing was the parrot they had in the store. Really quiet but like hidden in the back corner in its cage. I’m like, what brewing store has a parrot. And the last creepy thing was the kids themselves. They seemed starved for attention. This little boy just kept staring at us as if to say, “take me with you” in his little kid sad creepy voice.

Then back to Tony’s. We waited on Joe Karels to see what to do, never got a call back. So, we went to a movie after like a half an hour of deliberation.

Remember when I said wine was a mistake, I was hung over all Saturday, I took an hour nap on Tony’s bed while Linds and Tony were in the room and I wake up and we have pizza. Papa Johns style. Hangover over, pizza time. We decide to go to “Dick and Jane”.

Funny movie. Jim Carrey is typical Jim Carrey again and it was a funny movie. Ended up having a bit of a political message to it, not political, anti-corporate crime message.

The movie was over by 11pm and our night was far from over. We went back to Tony’s place and decided, Cribbage time starts at midnight. We played like 5 games or something and Linds and I dipped into the wine. And dipped and dipped. Linds and I dominated the game even having a double skunk. We played with his roomy Brian and Boom watched. Boom is a professional paperboy.

We then hit the hay and Tony comes downstairs this morning to let me know we gotta head to church. We went to bed like 4:30am and it was 9. DAMNNNN. I remembered we passed this other church on our way to the subway place yesterday and said it was 10:30. I go back to sleep and wake up at 10. Shower and all that good stuff, go to church, abortion is bad, hung over as hell. Sucked. I don’t get hung over, I think when God was making me in his lab before my birth he was like, “Ok, it’ll be hard as hell to get hung over for him, but in its place I’m taking 5” of height and he dies a painful death” But I ain’t dead yet, right? Well, wine is the exception to the rule I guess. Holy shit it sucked all day. Took a nap immediately after mass and slept for two hours, still hung over. Hating wine more than the Mexicans that took my daddy’s job and ready to roll out. We hit up Perkins for a feast, Linds bought some fish at the pet store, and we roll.

Get to the BSC and eat with mom and the sisters. Roll to Marshall.

Dick and Jane got 8 stars out of 10 and this weekend got 8, too.

wow

2006-01-21T21:30:00.000-08:00

So... I'll post about my Fargo experience more in depth once I get back to Marshall. For now I'll talk about this morning/early afternoon I woke up this morning, went upstairs and showered and Tony was listening to the radio. The NDSU game was on and it was like 8-2 NDSU was down. I'm thinking, that is so cool they are playing a ranked team. Puts them on the map, we'll see the score scroll at the bottom of the screen and feel important because of Timmy. I take a shower, get ready for the day, and go back to Tony's room, there is like 2 minutes left of the first half and get this NDSU is up by 14. What? In most games that NDSU is playing a tough team they might start hot but eventually the tougher team compsoses themselves and stick to their gameplan. Then the ass kicking begins. But after halfttime the Bison get slaughtered. Well, today was not a typical day. I mean, a 14 point lead and Wisconsin couldn't make a shot, over and over. It was craziness. After a while the Bison just tried to play not to lose. Each possession being careful and probably spending it staring at the clock. Praying time would expire suddenly. Wisconsin was scary at the end of the game. Tony and I were gripping each other tightly. It wasn't hot, Linds vomitted, we don't talk about it. With like 5 minutes to go I started getting excited. Not like that, no Dave at an aerobics class excited, just thrilled. As time was down like a minute or so I wanted to call everyone in my phone, but there are so many people that would probably hang up on my immediately, and the others want their money for the pot I be buying, so I called my mom (who wanted money for the pot I bought from her) She listened to the game and was pumped, too. We were all equally pumped and I attempted calling Tim about 3 hours after the game was over. My guess is he was on the phone doing interviews all the way home. The game has been on Sportscenter and all the major sports websites have had articles saying what a crazy upset it was. I mean, we were thinking it'd be huge if they would've beaten K-State a couple years ago, but it was a ranked team with a long winning streak at home. Wow. In similar news, SMSU's mens team is 8-7. And we beat Duke today. All in a days work.

Spring Semester 2006

2006-01-14T16:26:00.000-08:00

Oh, hey.

Well, I haven’t posted in a while so I figured I would.  Plus David did earlier.

Break is coming to a fast conclusion.  Most of my break was spent relaxing, reading, gaming, watching movies, and hanging out.  I can barely remember the fast pace, time consuming work days from Marshall, but I suppose I’ll have to learn really quick.

I have just one semester of college left.  I plan, for right now, to come back to the BSC for the summer, working for dad while trying to set myself up for any future endeavors (resumes for employment).  Funny how breaks like this work, I can’t wait to graduate and during finals week and the rest of school year I was like, “Let’s keep rolling, I’m digging it”.

It was really nice to have Dan and Miles home over break.  I don’t get to see either of them very often and spent considerable time with both over break, Dan gaming upstairs, and Miles cause we slept with each other.

During the school year I was always thinking, I wish I could watch the office while it aired and could hang out sometime with just nothing to do.  This semester I’m more willing to just accept I’ll have to download the episodes but can then burn it to a dvd to watch it.  Also, I really hope I get my shit together this semester and read the chapters and get done with projects early.  I know I’ll have a bitch of a semester the way it is, it’d be nice to be prepared this time and be able to make time for other things.  I also hope to be more willing to come home during weekends to work for dad when short on cash rather than sit in Marshall doing nothing.  I, however, don’t plan on being too short for money being that I should get hired on at Schwan’s pretty quick.

Goals for the next semester are to enjoy my final college semester, go to Fargo (at least once) and go to Rapid to visit both Dirk and Dan.

It’s going to be my last semester, almost saddening, but then again, I’m super glad cause I’m spending a lot of money on this damn degree thing.

Not a whole lot funny here, but it’s something to post about, right?

Beyond the picture

2006-01-05T19:56:00.000-08:00

Having pictures in your post is apparently the cool thing to do. I'm going to attempt it. Look past the picture. Sure Chris Smith is 3/4 the way through the ass kicking of his GIRLFRIEND! (a dick like that probably doesn't even walk her to her car after she crosses borders just to be with him for an hour) Look at David in the background. Drinking out of his paper bag. That is awesome. That also means he was doing it for serious, not even a prop in a picture. Dave being real. Drinking his forty with his homies.

Dog Sitting

2006-01-04T06:48:00.000-08:00

I am bored. My lil sister Brenna woke me up at 7:30AM. I wasn't planning on waking up until around 9AM and was quite tired. Why did she wake me up? Was the house on fire? Did she need a ride to school? Had the freezing rain caused dangerous roads and I had to save a bus full of scared kids that had tipped over? Nay. I had to dogsit. Did anyone ever have to dogsit Patches, Lady, Ty, Ty, or Katie? F No. Now I'm awake and have to wait for the dog to wake up from its nap. Then outside it goes. That sucks. So being that I'm just sitting on the middle floor with the dog napping, wanting to shower but if that dog wakes up it'll shit on the floor or hang itself, I figured I'd give you all a good long post. What to post about is difficult to decide. I could post about what's going on in my life, personal stuff, I could post about stuff I've done, gaming and whatnot, I could post about things that interest me, Notre Dame 'n shit, or I could write about stuff I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm not sure what I'm going to write about while I'm writing it. So here it goes. Last night though I think we all would've liked to have gone to King Kong (or is it just Kong, who knows, the monkey movie) in Watertown I'm glad we didn't cause the roads were slick enough and I was driving dad's truck. So instead I talked the Rolfes' and Chris Smith into breaking into David's house, killing the family, and blaming the darkies. Race riot!! Instead Dave surprised all of us and asked if we wanted to play Balderdash without him. My memory is a bit shaken, after of course all the heavy drinking sessions, but I think this is what Dave said when he came to the house. "Hey skanky bitches. I'm going the a basketball game and if you guys join me I think I'll throw up all over the court. God I hate Chris Smith So how bout you idiots take turns putting the game pieces of this Balderdash game in your mouth cause God knows you won't be able to figure out how to play it. Dont' follow me, I'm leaving. Hey Hogan!!" He must've been grumpy. So Linds read the instructions and after much delay we played the game, I took it pretty seriously but Lindsey didn't. What a smart ass, seriously, some of us like to play the game and win, she likes to wag her pickle at guys and see if they laugh. WTF. Because of her distractions I lost, badly. I felt dumb voting so often for Tyler and Chris' definitions. Before the game started I figured it'd be easy to figure out Chris' cause all of his would say, "I wish I was gaming" or "I heart Kelsey, my girlfriend" or "I heart Drew". And Tyler kept saying, "this was the worst one I've ever written ever, i wish I was dead for serious." With a preview like that I figured it'd be a piece of cake figured out his. Nope. Tyler dominated and Dave joined in half way through. We then divided the room, Tony Lindsey David vs Tyler Chris Bryce in Trivial Pursuit. It sucked cause we've gone through every card so there were a lot of repeats, that and my team always seem to dominate the sports questions so we pick it as much as possible. Winners losers, whats it really matter in the end? I think we won but who knows. Right? Today I am supposed to work in dad's cold ass garage. Making shelves and moving shit around, it's a cool project that I had hoped to do during the summer but never got around to it, but how can I do that if i'm supposed to molest this stupid puppy all day. Linds is coming for lunch, no pun intended. With posts, its kind of hard to be funny. Almost nothing seems funny when you write it, you think nothing is funny. Really, sometimes you write somethign that even makes you laugh, and then you find it that it wasnt' funny to anyone else. But really with posts I think people just like having something new to read. I know I get excited whenever anyone posts even if they are just posting about how they got in some homoerotic situation and things went down real real bad. Apparently Dmetri Martinis now on The Daily Show. It was ok. I laughed but not as hard as I did during his stand up on Comedy Central. Linds, I'm only dating you for your hunting. I'm gonna have you teach me how to kill elk and then you're gone and I'm living with the tree people killing elk, they're favorite food. The dog moved, but is still sleeping. Now the sun is all up and its depressing me cause its like I didn't even wake up early anymore. What a waste. Whats the point of waking up early if you can't brag about it. I need to brush my teeth and maybe I'll just shower, I've waited like half an hour for this bitch to wake up, F'em. Gotta go, Dog is awake, time to watch him pee. And not in the R Kelly kind of way.

...

2006-01-02T21:51:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately the feeling I’m having right now happens quite a few times each year. I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach, like I’ve just been dumped, like someone just said that Alice was a shitty car, or like someone said Patches is the most worthless dog they’ve ever seen.
I feel this way because Notre Dame lost. I know it seems petty to most of you so I’ll put it in ways that everyone can embrace:

Keith Urban didn’t get nominated for any Grammy’s

Arrested Development was cancelled with NO hope of syndication

Your Irish Setter got it paw stuck in a trash compacter and everyone know calls him “Lucky”

I get depressed and upset and embarrassed whenever “My Team” loses in big games.  When UNC loses to Duke or in the NCAA tourney, when Notre Dame loses any game especially bowl games, when the Vikes lose in the playoffs, when the Twins lose in the playoffs, or back when I was a more serious NBA fan when the Pacers lost in the playoffs.
Sucks because most of the teams mentioned are normally pretty good so I’ve gotten used to their success.  That leads me to fall even harder when they finally lose.
Sucks.
But I suppose that’s life.  I slept with a smile on my face when UNC won the championship last year and was very happy with Notre Dame all season long.
Still F’en sucks though.

An email from the past

2006-01-02T11:24:00.000-08:00

Who am i

I am the Bullfrog

I am allways watching you.

You are my Hero.

Who am i

I am the Bullfrog

Dream

2005-12-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

So, I know right away that I’m a spy.  I have a small gun, great for concealing, and a camera, cause spies are always having to take pictures.  Very poor memories, need something tangible ya know.

So I’m at Lindsey’s but we’re not dating, we actually just met.  I’m trying to be cool but I’m still a spy and am pretty sure I was just followed to her place and need something but I’m not sure what it is.  It’s kinda like I’m just following myself around in the dream, I know what’s happening but Bryce the dreamer doesn’t know.

I am paranoid.  I say, “I forgot my camera in my car” I head to the car and turn around because I see Miles, the spy that followed me there and is probably going to get any info out of me that he can before he kills me.  I turn right around, grab Linds’ “Canon” camera, wayyy bigger than the one I have, and act all cool saying, “here it is.”  She knows shits up know.  “Shit is up” is something she might’ve wanted to say but didn’t.

Oh, Miles comes in. I’m upstairs (remind you this house really looks like my grandparents, not Linds’ current or Ortonville house.  But it’s like grandma and grandpa’s in an apartment setting, so there house, identical esque houses attached.  Weird, just try and follow me Tyler.

I’m upstairs when Miles enters saying he has to ______ (lies, all lies Lindsey!) and I realize I forget my gun in my car. Oh shit oh shit.  Miles slowly comes upstairs, I try to hide under a bed, no luck, and just then I can see through the floor heater grate the downstairs apartment, a black guy’s.  Two men break into his room and start coming upstairs.  They want Miles and I dead.  They were going to shoot right through the walls, shoot up the whole damn house!

Oh shit oh shit.

Miles comes upstairs and I let him know right away.  I’m actually scared and start thinking, oh shit oh shit, I’m gonna die.  Spying is dangerous.  Shoulda listened to mom when she said, “You could probably be a spy for a living, but its damn dangerous and you’ll get shot, be an assassin or something.”  Then Miles and I run the f—k out of there.

I decide Miles should stop his car and get his camera and I also need my gun. MY GUN, never would I forget that again… then…

Oh shit oh shit, cops.  So we run.  But we find dad, a non-spy still Representative.  This is when thinks get creepy.  I have made no secret, tough spy or just regular Bryce, I hate mice and rats.  I hate em.  Well, wait for this…

Miles and I meet up with our father, who is unaware of us being spies and killers, and we’re investigating a murder.  Maybe several murders.  We are searching around this old broken down fan in this field area kind of by this empty building kind of like a trailer from a trailer court.  I kid you not, it looked like Jane’s trailer from the courts only no other trailers there, just an empty field and the forest and of course the full sized van.

We go there, and the cop is like, I think it’d be around that van.  We look, nothing, finally open up the van, I shit you not, 15 rats and mice scurry out of there.  These bastards are huge HUGE!  Each being a couple pounds at least.  Why are they so big?  Cause they’ve had a feast, a feast of dead bodies that someone has been storing in the van and the van had a small opening letting in all these critters.

Then I woke up cause I was kind of hungover and my head hurt.

Grand total

2005-12-13T12:01:00.000-08:00

The grand total was $72

That’s with the tip.

Finals week.  Ugh.  I have decided I’ll have my computer upstairs during break so that way when my computer crashes at least I’m out of the way.

I also may not play basketball.  I may try to coach if we can get a 5-5 game going.  If the guys will listen I think it’d be interesting to give it a try.

I really need to start lifting.  My arms are smaller than Calista Flockhart’s and I haven’t had a chance to lift all semester.

Next semester I’ll be working 20 hrs a week and taking 21 credits along with the Spur.

Ouch.

Going to Linds’ before work

Bistro

2005-12-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

I went to the Landmark Bistro last night with Lindsey.  It was our five year anniversary.  I stole a fork.

I started by going to work, looking at my stats from the day before, great, 33 pre-orders, OH NOT ranked 33rd!! There’s only around 40 people!!!!
33 pre-orders means I had the 2nd or 3rd more pre-orders but none of them were very big.  I was livid, talked to my supervisors even but they shot me down.
“It means your orders are too small.” Dammit.
So that means I’m not pushy enough.  So my coach is a super seller named Jason and he can sell like… Miles can bang hot chicks two at a time, I mean, its breathtaking.
He comes to listen to me, states I have to try and “Bleed them dry” and then takes some calls.  I take over with his supervision and get a $138 dollar order.  Sweet, that outta boost the stats.

So 8pm rolls around, I leave and head for home. Shave. Worst idea of the night. I cut myself.  By the end of the night I realize I have blood on my tie and my white shirt under my blue collared shirt.  How it skipped the blue I have no idea.

Pick up Linds, head back home to get a coupon, head to the Bistro.
They offer to take our coats, we defer cause that’d be weird and I don’t want to have to calculate that into the tip, and we sit down, they put the napkin on our lap for us, what the hell??
Menus are huge, like 2 ½ feet tall and 6 inches wide, one page, and the wine menu is huge, too.  We go thru the wine first; my eyes are drawn to the $20 mark rather than the other end of the rainbow, $130 bottles of wine.  We get something that sounds like something bottle of champagne.
We took soooo long looking at all the menus. Learning…figuring out exactly what everything was.  Still haven’t much a clue.  I look at the dollar amounts and decide a salad is something we can skip.  That was my only limitation of the night.  The rest was balls to the wall.
We ordered the Mahi Mahi, fish, and the Fettuccini pasta.  They poured our champagne for us and refilled our glasses.  I was actually thinking a certain degree of age discrimination would occur but nope.  Damn.
For dessert we had some custard and cheesecake.  Cheesecake must’ve been good cause Linds ate it all but the custard sucked.  I ate like 5 bites and the rest went to waste because Linds didn’t like it either.
We finished the bottle of champagne and drover Linds home.  The grand total of the meal was…
Guess.

Bryce Rausch and the Goblet of Fire

2005-12-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

So the reason I feel like Harry Potter isn’t just because I bought a wand with the same feather as him and Volde-locks but the reason is because of last night.

I’ll set it up. Someone in the school hates me, just like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  They set up a situation for me to be embarrassed in front of a crowd of maybe 500 people, maybe more, I really have no clue, stands were decent but not super good and I think when it’s Hawaiian Night, our biggest crowd of the year, we push like 1500 people.

So we’re at the game, Lindsey and I, and we are members of the “Mustang Maniacs” which is just a way to get more students to the games.  And all people that are Mustang Maniacs can put their name in a goblet of fire (Tupperware bowl) and the goblet will choose (some guy will randomly draw) who can play in the tri-wizard tournament (dash for cash, they put slips of paper all over the court and some have $10, $5, or $1 written on them and others are blank).

Lindsey and I submit our names into the goblet that was like overflowing with fire.  We sit back down and think not much of it.  Then Dumbledore comes onto the microphone and announces the two competitors.  Start the dramatic music.

LINDSEY NELSEN.  The crowd is stunned, is she even old enough to enter? But has quickly can she dash for cash!?  Lindsey shrieks with glee as embarrassment fills me.  I have defeated Voldermort in like every movie and now I’m supposed to watch this mudblood rake in the cash?
And BRYCE RAUSCH! THANK GOD, I REALLY WANTED HIM TO BE SELECTED, TOO.
How could this be? We not only were sitting next to each other but we were wearing the exact same color shirts which Nelly had commented on already and we put our names into the goblet at the same time.  The probability of that happening is… um... 42.  Immediately Ron gets pissy and all the men in the stadium ask Lindsey to the ball.  Shit, I go with the “Non-Whites”.

We both go to the floor and wait our turn at halftime of the men’s game.  We get to keep any cash we pick up but they humiliate the loser by announcing the winner to everyone using a microphone and speakers.

I choose to go to the far court so Lindsey doesn’t have to, and as I stretch to get ready to begin the competition I hear jeers from the crowd. MY MONEY’S ON THE GIRLFRIEND…YOU WIN YOU’RE ON THE COUCH…YOU’RE A LIL BITCH

I knew something was wrong, crowd’s normally love me and ask to see my appendix scar whenever I’m around and they jeer?

We have 30 seconds, start…NOW.  I don’t see Lindsey again for what seemed like an eternity, I literally am diving around after the slips of paper, I grab everything and stuff them into my palms, no consideration for neatness.  I get nearly every slip of paper on my side of the court and at half-court with 5 seconds to go I meet up with Lindsey again.  I dive for the last dollar and knock it out of her hand.  I have two fistfuls of cash while she neatly has hers gathered together.  I have way more slips than her and realize I have beaten Volde-locks again (in a way I can’t type to you).

They begin counting, Lindsey opens up to me about her strategy, “I get the one’s that have dollar amounts on them, and I think I got a couple $10’s” it wasn’t till that very moment that I realized there WERE tens and fives.  The man counts hers, winks at her, and says “Just as the dark Lord wants, ma’am.”  She was $30.  The chick counts mine and has to unfold my crushed paper and mockingly says, “oooh you got a five here”. Bitch.  My total is $23.

Not only that, Lindsey didn’t even know this but I think one of slips was a port key that pushed my outside and then it flew away into a giant fire outside so I had to run all the way back to the gym.

We sit down, I’m made fun of relentless by the Slytherines and I bury myself in my Pumpkin Juice.

Lindsey beat me.  But it’s ok, we decided to spend the money on dinner and entertainment Thursday night, our 5 frickin year anniversary.  Holy hell, huh?

You're actually reading this?

2005-12-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

I feel like Harry Potter and I’ll tell you why next post.

Most boring post ever

2005-12-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

Day in the life at work with Bryce Rausch

Now many of you have no clue what I really do at work because it isn’t very exciting and really worth talking about.  Here it is for you though.

The people I work with: I was put into a cubicle in Jason (my “Motivational coach, one of four)’s area.  I sit next people who need the job to make it through life, having never been to college or people who are through college and can’t find a job any better, and college students.  In my area I am right next to Scott, who’s pretty cool but a bit wild, Steve, who’s cool and someone I would talk about computer with, Jessica, a single mother who, though nice, defines trailer trash, Matt, who’s 23 and been through college but stayed with Schwan’s because his brother is making shit loads and is still hoping to get hooked up, Lacie, who is fresh out of HS and her top goals include wanting a spider tattoo and getting out of Marshall with no major goal of any higher education.  I mostly just talk to Scott, Steve, or Matt and actually I would say I dislike Jessica cause she complains all the time that she wants to leave work and spend time with her 3 year old kid, who I told her I could beat up on Thursday.

I get to work a few minutes early, grab a cup, fill it with ice and pour my can of soda in it.  Have to put a spill proof lid on and find my cubicle.  Start up my computer, all the applications I’ll need for work, and then at 4pm exactly I punch in.  I try and setup my computer ahead of time cause as soon as you log in your time management stats begin and you may sell everything but you can’t get the top most incentives if you’re time management isn’t good.

I then look up the previous days stats, lately I’ve been right at about 10th place, the top 8 make it to the top team and bring in the big checks.  So I’m almost there, just have to figure out how to get over that hump.

I get into Not Homes, which is a list, and then my computer/phone calls everyone for me, I hear a beep and all their information pops up, phone number, name, address, product history, when and what time their driver last stopped.  I use this info to ask if the driver is stopping at a good time of them, verify their address, ask if we can ship anything to them, make sure it’s at least 30 bucks to ship it, and thank em and hang up.

The things you have to do every call: ask for the order, overcome objections twice, and mention both shrimp and Neapolitan ice cream which are both featured products.

At 7pm I go on break and hang in the break room with Steve, Brice, and Ian.  Other people go across the street to the gas station, other smoke, most smoke, and some chill like us.  Free ice cream, milk, and water.  If I’m hungry enough I’ll have ice cream.  But I try and stay away from it, being that it hurts my teefus’.

Back on the phones at 7:15 and stay with Not Homes till 8:45 when we aren’t allowed to call anyone anymore thru not homes.  Then I have to get into another list until the shift is over.  The lists include

Reschedules- driver couldn’t come and will it work if he stops another time this week

Superweek- competition with the drivers to buy the most

Lifesavers/Winbacks- people cancelled and you try and talk them into coming back, good luck, I’ve never gotten anyone and been yelled at for the fuel surcharge over and over and over.

There ya go, don’t you feel like you were there with me?

Lil Bitch

2005-11-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

It’s been a wild last few days, that’s for damn shit sure.

Concert first. Yellowcard was awesome.  I found out the easy way that I like them.  The hard way is to buy their albums and pray for that miraculous moment that they’d come to a school near me.  Instead I was in the middle of a mosh-pit rocking out and worrying about breaking a leg or something whenever someone would fall.  It was crazy.  I fell on a girl, Lindsey fell on me, a big fat dude fell on her, and somehow we were all fine.

So report card time:
Weird Al = B; points taken off for feeling like a loser when I told the wrestling coach why I was skipping practice that day (after we left he told some teammates that if we were going to ANY other concert he would’ve been mad, but figured we wouldn’t get into any trouble for going to Weird Al).
Keith Urban = A-; there was a huge ass crowd, he’s really talented and liked showing off how awesome he is at the guitar.  Not an A or A+ because I’d like to think someday I’ll see an A or better and don’t want Urban to be it.
Yellowcard = B+; it was certainly intense and they were good, but it wasn’t like a huge event that I was impressed with.  No crazy solos or wild light shows or stuff like that.  But I found out I recognized more songs than I thought I even knew and the crowd was really into it.  It probably helped that we were in the middle of it all.

Then went to bed way too late, woke up too damn early, went to class, skipped a class to go running, and drove to the cities.

Wow. I’ve never driven in the cities and I did an alright job but my lack of confidence showed when it came to “you have to take this exit” cause I was so unfamiliar with where we were going.  I didn’t really look at any maps and just was like “Tony, lead us there!” and then Linds was all like, “I’ll figure it out, lil bitch Bryce” and then they were like, “yeah we got it figured out lil bitch Bryce” and then they were like, “Lil bitch, you should’ve taken that exit.”  But somehow we made it to the game like just in time for the game.

We got spanked.

Then HP and the skank mall.  There apparently was a club in the mall, but if you didn’t know that, like we didn’t’ for a while, you could’ve swore we were about to get shot for not paying our hookers.  HP was great though, worth the wait.  I’ll let the experts go into detail on how it could’ve been better.  Part I didn’t like, sitting front and center.

Then went to bed way too later and woke up with about 6 hrs of sleep again.  Went down One Ways like they were MY- WAYS!  Yeah, whose the lil bitch now? Even intimidated a cop into passing a ticketing opportunity when we were illegally parked waiting for Tony and his bagels.

By the end I was glad to be back home and even gladder that it was going to be a short week.

Now I go play basketball cause Chris Smith is finally back from Wal-Mart. What a lil bitch.

So crazy random...

2005-11-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

I normally get a pretty good idea that I should post when Lindsey goes, “Christ Bryce, are you ever gonna post again or what?”

So this one is for Lindsey…
Let’s see. Lots to post about I guess.
Spur has gone weekly. That means I have no weeks off and am pretty much doing the same amount of work. . . actually more. I forgot that now we have to edit our own photos.  Doesn’t seem that hard but I’ve screwed it up almost every week and it takes so damn long to do it.  I’ll bet the five photos I edited took an hour or more Monday night.

This issue we also had a record low for stories from the Sports section, just two stories. Granted we have only two sports currently participating: volleyball (in the NCAA Division II tournament) and wheelchair basketball.  So we covered volleyball and did a news story on our Athletic Director which I thought worked out nicely.

I am realizing how freakin’ slow my computer is. I can’t stand it. I can’t open Firefox and have Itunes function at all.  And all that with Azureus running and good luck.  This never used to happen and it makes me want to upgrade my computer more.  Therefore my wishlist would look like this: new motherboard, graphics card, a nice processor, a second harddrive (300 GB would be pretty awesome), and a DVD burner.  Oh how I wish upon a STAR!  But if anyone is reading this that may want to get me any of this for Christmas or birthdays forget it, I’m very particular and you’re probably anal about making sure it’s a surprise.

Any excitement recently? Grandma’s wood pile seriously impresses the shit out of me. We conquered an old outdoor fireplace in the process to free up some room.  But to our horror we discovered my aunt Sue is a sick little girl.  We found a tea saucer in the pit of the fireplace.  It doesn’t take owning your own brewing company to know that means she burned her poor doll to death!  She always loved playing Waco, Texas.

I have been extremely busy lately, just ask Lindsey.  My schedules tend to be classes, hr or so break, Schwan’s from 4-9pm and then homework or Spur.  All that while taking 18 credits makes me very nervous about next semester when I may be taking 21.  But what a story some day for the kids, I’d own them.  “Daddy we don’t want to clean up you’re vomit from drinking too much on a Tuesday night!” “You know, when I was in college I was taking 25 credits while being editor-in-chief of the city newspaper and all while working my way to the top of Schwan’s! And I didn’t complain at all!” “Yeah daddy, cause you drank” “That’s right kids, daddy drank”

Scary, huh?

It really hasn’t taken my long to write this much, makes me feel guilty for not posting more.

This weekend will probably deserve a post.  David’s Birthday is right around the corner, Friday for you ladies who wish to call him, and we’ve all got big plans.  Trip to the Twin Cities, watch the biggest upset of U of M’s history, go eat at some burger joint, Linds consummates their marriage, and Harry Potter 4 just before we trash Tyler’s place… then Lindsey and David do it again. Gross.  I should say something.

Tomorrow of course is the Yellowcard concert and I think my conversation with Bartley sums up a lot of people’s opinions about the concert:
Bryce- so you going to the Yellowcard concert
Bartley- yeah, I’ll be there
Bryce- so, do you know any Yellowcard songs?
Bartley- not really, I downloaded all their songs last night though
Bryce: me too, have you listened to them yet?
Bartley- No, not yet
Bryce: me neither
Bartley- but I’ll bet I’ll be their biggest fan after the concert
Bryce- yeah, maybe I’ll want to listen to the songs I pirated.

Made the conversation come to life didn’t I?

Well, that’s all for now.  I’ll try and remember to post after this weekend since it’ll be fresh stuff.

New freakin' post. lay off Larson

2005-10-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

     Well, I have been annoyed to the point of finally posting.

     So here it is: a post.

     Lately: Been playing tennis like Agassi, except not as good. Just the same frequency.  Last weekend was pretty wild, started with Jeff, Carl, and friends (Jung and Ned?) coming to Marshall en route to the cities. Jung, in an effort to get the man down, almost fought the law with the law winning as he urinated in my parking lot with two cop cars parked a half block away pulling over some fellow mini-van driver. (He should’ve had Knights of Columbus plates, wouldn’t have gotten pulled over no matter how awful they drive). But they had a good time and I had a good time showing them a good time.
     Then came the wedding, not mine, Lauren and Eddie’s. It was nice, good reception, props to Tony for hookin me up with ND scores throughout.  In the greatest game every played ever by anyone, ND lost… cause USC cheated. Burn in hell Reggie Bush.
     Then home, working for dad, going on a date with Grandma, hearing Linds’ sister Alli explain how a dead baby was propped up by the saddened parents and they took pictures of it, and then home again.
     Latest obsessions: The Office, sports as always, Linds’ love, Facebook, MLB playoffs, Digg, running, beer brewing, and Linds’ love again.
     I have seen every episode of the office at least twice and laugh everytime.

     Well, that’s all I got here.

Drinking= Bad -Love SDSU

2005-09-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

“What Values Do You Have About Drinking?”
Discussed by Bryce Rausch
Why?  Because he got busted with alcohol in his room.

Cultural Influences:
My family uses alcohol responsibly. I have never seen either of my parents drunk before, though once at a 50th anniversary dance my dad told me we were going to go to Denver, Colorado to visit family the next summer and then he changed his mind the next day.  Alcohol could’ve been the cause of such a promise.  We have little parties, my parent’s friends and relatives, and they are normally rather enjoyable.  I have never seen any of my parent’s friends drunk either.  They mostly have a plethora of wonderful things to eat and always have alternatives to alcohol.  Most the time it isn’t limited to one kind of alcohol: cocktails, beer, wine, and those little bottles of hard liquor (their like 5 oz or something, pretty teeny).
My family also uses alcohol at church.  I don’t mean they drink before church or anything, but wine at church as part of the service.  It’s minor but that is another way my family uses alcohol.
My family uses alcohol this way because it’s legal, they like the taste of it, and it makes for a good time.  First off, it’s legal.  Everyone who drinks at these parties are over the age of 21.  Some people like the taste of beer and others do not; I have tasted a Non-alcoholic beer before and struggled to finish it.  I had to brush my teeth twice after that beer to get that nasty taste out of my mouth.  Some people like it though and I respect that.  It also makes for a good time.  Some people may be very stern and stubborn while completely sober but then with a beer or two they may liven up completely.  The alcohol makes them more open and laugh more and friendlier which allows everyone to get along.
I believe my parent’s patterns are suitable for me.  They would never force me to drink and would never get out of control in front of me.  They don’t get into arguments or fight while drinking and they don’t beat my brothers and sisters and pets either.  My parents are responsible drinkers and have been their whole lives.  I am in no way harmed by my parents drinking.  The purpose of this paper I am writing is supposed to give the University a few ideas as to why I drink.  Could it be because of my family or friends?  And if so, what about my friends and family have led me to drink?  However, I don’t drink.  I don’t like the smell of alcohol and I have seen people drunk before and it is not something I want to copy.  Peer pressure is everywhere these days but the same can be said about people warning kids about peer-pressure.  I have been forced to go to lyceums in middle school, high school, and seen pamphlets around campus all telling me the dangers of drugs and alcohol.  I am perfectly aware what alcohol can do to your liver and brain cells.  That is why I haven’t followed that path.  The same can not be said for all people in the world.  Some people drink and I don’t look down on those people at all.
In conclusion, my parents have not made me drink.  They have always warned me about the dangers of alcohol, my grandpa was an alcoholic and my parents have always worried I’ll follow that path.  I will not.  I am truly sorry about this whole mess with the alcohol left in my room.  I take full responsibility as you can see from this paper.  I can only promise you it will never happen again.  Thank you.

Hole in One (non-dirty type)

2005-09-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

Lindsey Lindsey Lindsey…

Well Lindsey finally got her first hole-in-one. I’ve had like 6 by now, but Linds was still somehow impressed with her 1.

So…being the good boyfriend I am, I made her buy me a drink, she ended up buying the first round of drinks for five of us at Applebee’s.

The moral of the story, play golf with as many talented golfers as possible, it’s cheaper to feed your alcoholism.

Harry Potter and the Bachelor's Degree: by Miles Rausch

2005-09-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter and the Bachelor’s Degree
By: Miles, Dan, and Bryce Rausch (Featuring Random Guest Writers)

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Chapter One: Quite A Harry Situation

The school was abuzz with excitement.  The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry could only utter the names “Harry Potter” and “Lord Voldermort” amongst its young, magical students.   Two particular students felt a special connection to these names.  These two students were Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
“Harry!  I still can’t believe you rid the world of the evil Lord Voldermort!” Ron shouted as he hugged his dear friend.
“We still can’t believe the incredible way that you did it, either.  Sorry about your new tail, though,” Hermione added, looking uncomfortable because Ron was hugging Harry a little too long and little too tightly.
“Oh, don’t worry about the tail,” Harry said.  “I’m sure that surgery can take care of this.  Don’t take a piss; I’ll be fine.  Now, Ron, you can let go.”  Harry hugged his Hermione, whispering ‘Keep Ron away from me’ as he did so.
“Come on,” Ron shouted, “we have to get to the main hall.  Harry, I’ll get us a spot.”
“Huh.  Yeah.  Good job, sport.”  Ron sprinted far ahead of the other two.  Harry reached down and gently took Hermione’s hand in his.  She returned his affection, but then, with the other hand, she slapped him across the cheek.
“Harry.  No.  Remember what happened last year?  We already know that it won’t work out.  Plus, with your new tail, I find you distinctly less attractive.  I’m not into monkeys.”
“Come on, babe.  You’re killing me.  Just give me a kiss?”  He stopped her.  He pushed her physically up against the wall.  He leaned in to kiss her.
Suddenly, she was gone.  His lips to the wall, he realized she was a lot better at muttering spells then he remembered.  Oh, well.  Playing hard to get was all part of the game, baby.
Harry made his way to the grand main hall, located God knows where inside the building, and sat next to Ron.  He had to move his chair a little bit over (and remind Ron to keep his hands ABOVE the table) but the location was prime for a celebrity, such as himself.  Hermione tried her best to not make eye contact with him, and he tried his best to play footsy with her.  It would have helped if she wasn’t three seats down the row.
Professor Dumbledore rose and bid the crowd to hush.  “Students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we sit here today as a new era begins.  This new age is not for Wizardry kind alone, but for the whole world.  As many of you know, our own Harry Potter has victoriously defeated the infamous Lord Voldermort!”  Cheers rocked the large hall as people yelled, whistled, clapped, and sang Harry’s Theme song.
“Although the manner in which young Master Potter disposed of the tyrant of evil is a bit up for interpretation, the important part is that the deed was done.  It doesn’t matter that he destroyed a city and countless lives to do it.  It may have been horrid, base behavior, but we shall not let what we all say countless times on the news effect our opinion of him.  He is truly a cherished member of this school and the magic community as a whole.  Let us clap for him again.”
Again, cheers.  Again there was yelling whistles and such and, of course, the theme song.  If I knew the lyrics, I would recount them here, but I don’t have time to listen to this CD 20 times to figure out what that Vienna Boy’s Choir is saying.  It’s probably Latin or British, and I don’t speak either of those.  Harry rose, acknowledged the quite “over-the-top” fanfare, and sat down again.  Harry soon found Ron’s hand on his knee.  He removed it and grunted in disagreement.
Professor Dumbledore continued.  “Who else would like to say something about this momentous occasion?  Professor Snape, perhaps?”  The crowd made an “Ooooo” sound and several people covered their mouths in horror.  Somewhere, someone said, “Take it off!”  Professor Snape rose from his seat and raised his hands for silence.  The crowd noise died down to a very faint, “Ron, quit trying to hug me, alright?”
“Mister Potter.  Mister Potter.  What can I say about you?  I hate you, you understand, but you needed me.  If it wasn’t for my taking over your body the entire last book, err … uh, school year, you would have never discovered Lord Voldermort’s secret hideout.  You also wouldn’t have gotten so far with Miss Granger, am I right?”  He smirked slyly at Hermione, who mouthed the words ‘You are a dirty man’ from across the hall.
“Mister Potter would also not have gotten so far with Mister Weasely, am I right, Ron?”  Ron, at the moment, was trying his best to “rest his lips” on Harry’s cheek, but Harry was losing his patience.  He stood up and screamed, “Ron, knock it off!  I’m not gay!”  Red faced and upset, Harry looked around the hall.  All of the eyes were on him.  He shrugged and said, “Bring on the Wiccans!  Heh heh.”
Snape sat down and Dumbledore clapped to have the meal brought out.  They ate in delight (Ron had given up and Hermione had forgiven Harry a little bit for his behavior) and the evening grew on.  As it grew later, the residents of the school began to make their way to their rooms.  Hermione, Ron, and Harry all walked together towards the Gryffindor wing of the school.
“You know, Harry, with your victory over Voldermort, you automatically graduate with the highest honors ever in the history of the muggle world and the magic world plus 100.  What are you going to do with the rest of the semester?  You have to stay here because of some lame plot device, but you don’t have to take classes.”  Hermione seemed concerned over Harry’s future.  What would he do?
“You know, Hermione, I’ve been thinking about that.  I think that it’s time I had the childhood I never had a chance to enjoy.”
“So, you’re going to buy a bottle and some dolls and sit around in a diaper all day?” asked Ron, stupidly.
“No, Ron, not at all.  I think it’s about time I picked up some vices.”  Harry nodded his head vaguely at this.  This was going to be a great semester.  He could feel it.  “Ron.  Quit holding my hand.”

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Slaps

2005-09-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

Chase in Swift County leads to two arrests
APPLETON -- A vehicle that narrowly avoided collision with a Swift County Sheriff’s patrol car Saturday night was pursued and eventually stopped.
Two individuals who surrendered were taken in custody and later released.
The driver fled on foot and was not located.
Charges are expected to be filed later this week.
All three individuals are adults. Their names were not released.
According to the Swift County Sheriff’s Department, the pursuit happened at about 10:35 p.m. Saturday on County Road 1 in Shible Township, northwest of Appleton.
After the deputy pursued the vehicle for less than a mile, the vehicle pulled into a farm site where the driver fled and the other two surrendered and were taken into custody.
Officers from the Appleton Police Department, Big Stone County Sheriff’s Department and Chippwea County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit assisted with the incident.
There were no injuries, no property damage and no damage to any vehicles.

Eric Kline

2005-08-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking, what if I were to write about some men’s basketball player being the next… and then name someone who back in the day was awesome for SMSU.  And I realized I would have no chance of doing that because I can’t name any former greats.  Brad Biggler…? I don’t know.

I continued to think, SMSU isn’t a big college, it really isn’t a building block as far as athletics towards anything else.  Coaching and little else.  So if an athlete decided they would never go out, work out every day, and not even touch a drop of booze while they were at school what, in the end, could they accomplish from it?  So that also got me to thinking of can I name any Mustang Greats… well how about any former college greats from any non-Division I school.  And that’s when I remembered my favorite college basketball player of all-time: Eric Kline.

After a brief search of his name I found these NAIA records that still remain:
Most Field Goals Attempted, Career283, Eric Kline, Northern State (S.D.), 1993-94-95 Most Three-Point Field Goals Made, Game10, Eric Kline, Northern State (S.D.) vs. Alice Lloyd (Ky.), 1995 Most Three-Point Field Goals Made, Tournament22, Eric Kline, Northern State (S.D.), 1994 22, Chris Peterson, Eureka (Ill.), 1994 Most Three-Point Field Goals Made, Career60, Eric Kline, Northern State (S.D.), 1993-94-95 Most Three-Point Field Goals Attempted, Game23, Eric Kline, Northern State (S.D.) vs. Albertson (Idaho), 1993 Most Three-Point Field Goals Attempted, Tournament54, Eric Kline, Northern State (S.D.), 1994 Most Three-Point Field Goals Attempted, Career148, Eric Kline, Northern State (S.D.), 1993-94-95

Just for Northern Eric Kline scored 2,660 points

The following line was taken from an article in the Argus Liar:
“USD's Woster and Dakota Wesleyan assistant basketball coach Jay Drake have seen coaches yell more at player who can handle the heat. Drake, who began his college playing career at Northern State, recalls that Bob Olson would occasionally chew out Eric Kline, one of the most prolific scorers in South Dakota history.”

Now, I have always looked up to Kline as my hero.  But… my grandpa doesn’t share my feelings.  I believe he thinks that he was a choker.  But hey folks, numbers don’t lie.

So, when will the Mustangs see the next Eric Kline??  Or maybe they haven’t seen their first.

Happy Birthday Linds

2005-08-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

Well, there comes a time in every boy and girls life when their finally on their own, paying their own way, and eventually not having to sneak booze from the church anymore just to get a buzz on Sunday mornings. For someone very special to me, that day has come finally, August 25. I am, of course, talking about my “chik” Lindsey Nelsen.

If the drinking age was based on either looks or maturity chances are Linds would have gotten to drink before me (though neither of us may be drinking yet, ba dum ching)

To kick off her birthday we had a party, Linds got pretty drunk and even made up a new drink: one part of everything she has, have someone pour some beer in it, and watch her nurse it like a baby until she couldn’t take it anymore. The morning after Linds was hurting, hell the afternoon after Linds was hurting. Now we are on the verge of her REAL birthday bash, going to the bar and having every guy who’s had half a drink fight to buy her a “Mexican Thanksgiving” and “Jagg-bombs”

So Happy Birthday Lindsey, welcome to the club, we finally have something in common besides Tony Rolfes.

Oh me

2005-08-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

I thought I’d try this Word to Blogger thing out.

After two weeks I think I am 100% recovered from the wisdom teeth procedure.  The only things afterwards that bothered me was that I couldn’t open my mouth all the way, which sucked for eating, and yawning hurt.  But I’m better now.

The Spur is underway, most of this first week was spent selling ads and little else.  I wanted really bad to just crank out a page or so since I had a good idea of what I’d like to do, but the pages weren’t created until the weekend…when I was home.

I won a race today, that was pretty sweet.  The winning part was alright, I mean, I didn’t have lots of competition, but my time was 20:22 for 3.1 miles.  I was happy with that.

School starts tomorrow.  I guess I look forward to it.  It seems like all pretty tough classes this semester, though.

I guess time will tell.

Wisdom Teeth

2005-08-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

Here are the events to the best of my recollections: Wake up fairly nervous at around 7AM and burn three HP cd's for the road. Leave with mom, get to Target and given the inescapable pain to ensue I chose to splurge and bought the ghostbusters DVD's that ended up being a bust, Anchorman, Team America, and HP 6 the book. Went to Walmart and got "back2school" stuff. Went to the dentist. I go thru the paperwork and turn it in and wait for about 5 minutes. They call me in and I sit down in the chair. The dentist comes in and seems nice and hurried. I decide that the more I think that I hate him the less it'll hurt. So during the operation I imagine golf clubs in the back, that he was actually using swords to cut open my top two wisdom teeth, and that he was purposely hurting me and disregarding my bridge and just hitting em carelessly. I imagined myself also with a wand, damn Harry Potter. I can't get that shit out of my head. Ready to bolt up and say some spell to knock him and his assistant down. I remember pretty much everything, even thinking I was a little TOO awake during the operation. Most the time when I have novacane my whole face feels completely numb and its as if I just feel what they're doing dreamily, often with colors reflecting my pain or pleasure. And often times floating. Not this time though. It was like the novacane only prevented me from feeling the pain I'm sure was really going on, but no anything else. I could plainly hear his instructions, look in his eyes, hear my teeth break, remember how difficult it was to open my mouth wide enough for them to lodge a "block" in my mouth so I didn't close it. I also felt gagged alot. They had gauzes lodged down my throat which I soon realized was cause I was bleeding THAT MUCH. So I got done. the doc said I did fine, was a "good patient" and that he wasn't just saying that. And all I could think was, "who cares, i hurt..." Got in the van, the whole things cost about a grand (I wish I had the money to pay for it, I feel so bad whenver mom and dad have to fork any of their money over for me). Then we went to someplace where mom was to eat with her friend, I just chilled in the car, and than went to Burger King. Here was an interesting part. I go to change my gauzes and was just oozing with blood all over the place. Couldn't really swallow but dripped with blood as, what I assume was a manager because of his age (around 40) walked in and looked at me surprisingly asking, "break your tooth?" i mumbled, "no...well...kinda...wisdom..." and he got it and left quickly. Which was good as I was bleeding. I try and eat some, drink some, and we go. Half way home the novane completely wore off. I kicked my legs in pain almost the whole way home. I needed ice very badly and mom pulled over and eventualyl I was icified. Which really didn't help. It was a very very long excruitiating trip home. I get home, and take some drugs and take a nap. Wake up with immense pain, like hella pain, I feel like an idiot but tears were flowing it hurt so bad. It felt exactly like a tooth was slowly being ripped out of my mouth. Mom called the dentist and it ended up thats normal with novacane when you haven't taken your meds and with a bridge or something. I don't know. I just know that I took the meds and the pain went away. Napped, woke up, had bren call linds, and just kind of floated around the house. Day two, my cheeks are all swelled up and I have a slight fever. Pretty much sucks. Thank God I have Harry Potter VI on tape to get me through...

Alkkkkkffffrrred

2005-07-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a while and working around the house you think alot about future blogs. So I've decided to finally blog. Might as well be about a kid who was around for a month. Alfred, or in french: Alkkkkkffffrrred (you have to dry-heave half way thru it for the full effect). Well, he's been gone a week and my evaluation is for the most part it was nice having a little yet bigger brother around. Miles never was into sports so he would read or hop on a computer while I'd go out and shoot hoops for hours as a youth. Alfred was a pretty athletic kid and would always be up for sports activities. So it was a change for me. But he was cool. He had a much stronger personality than Camille and seemed kind of attached to me specifically. So it was nice having a "buddy" like that, too. It was also sometimes creepy, for example: First day he was here I was laying in bed watching TV and he comes into my room, sits down on the bed I'm laying in and just starts watching TV with me. Semi-creepy but definately not Camille-esque. He was also kind of a whiney kid. But thank God one characteristic not shared with Camille was political ... voice I guess. Me and Camille talked politics and I had to bite my tongue for most of it while she ripped into the USA. The most I got from Alfred was after my joking boast of the USA he mentioned that France receives more tourist dollars than the USA and that the Euro is currently better than the US dollar and that "he iz da best". I envied his fearlessness...and his height. He's gonna be a big dude, thats for sure. Quite the opposite of a Rausch. He did keep my from my work. Not that he picked me up and placed me in front of my computer or anything, but that he made any temptation that much closer to being accepted. I have a tough enough time staying out of the house for like a glass of water or I need to contact someone or something about someting that could wait but "I'll forget about it". And now there's Freddy playing basketball or wanting me to play AOM. (Thank God he learned AOM and didn't say "Age of Mythology" everytime). As insensitive as it sounds, I probably won't miss him much because Camille was never annoying being as quiet as she was. But Alfred had his moments that you'd be like "I just wish you were American so I could explain this in just a few seconds" Well his big comments were: "No, itiz ok" "I am ze best" "TITAN" "HEYYYYYY' That Freddy.

Frisbee post spring semester

2005-06-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

Eight athletes all congregate to battle for greatness, for immortality, and for respect. The teams split into Team Correll and Team Big Stone. Team Correll consisted of Rick, Gene, Chrissy Pooh, and Tyler. Team Big Stone was Bryce, Tony, Sue, and Dave. Teams seemed equal but no one knew for certain and no one would be sure until the final score was tallied. BS started cherry red, in a game that goes till a team scored 20 points they were nearly half way there before Correll started their unsurprising while unstoppable run. Correll chipped away at as much as a 6 goal lead from BS until catchup had ended and they finally captured the lead. It seemed there was a ninth player on the field to join them, the wind. Swatting frisbees far from its prechosen destination and making even the most skilled athlete look silly when they misjudge a simple toss across the field. It seemed just as Team Correll was pulling away for good Molly showed up to save BS from certain failure. Catching two goals, falling flat on her back, and sprinting the wrong way down field wasn't enough for Molly to turn the game around in favor of Big Stone. Team Correll may have won the game, but not the fan(s) loyalty (Sue Rausch, subbed from Molly's arrival).

The night of my 21st

2005-05-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I turned 21 tonight. With two classes tomorrow morning I limited myself to 6 shots. I had: prarite fire, dirty girl scout, jagg bomber, mexican hunter, goldschlagger, and a scooby snack. After the Mexican Hunter and Goldschlagger I started feeling ill so I took Jon up on his offer to take my "duck Fart" for me. thank you Jon. That would've put me over the edge. As far as being over 21 feels. I felt like I was being sneaky all night, like I wasnt' actually 21. Its certainly a different feeling. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Anyways, at 2:20 thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

Game Eight

2005-05-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

The game ended very fittingly: When it rained...it poured. The game started with them scoring four quick goals and our mission was to get Rick his first goal of the year. Rick was a very dedicated defender all season long, being one of the few players on the team capable of keeping up with the other team for all 30 minutes. (I was more of a, guard the guy with the frisbee and stick with him, so when a turnover would occur because of defense down the court, I'd end up being open) My biggest mistakes of the game tended to be misjudging defense and the wind. Everyone had their share of mistakes but we battled on scoring goals where we could and allowing some poor ones. I think they scored twice off deflections. They'd midjudge the wind and another one of their players would catch it. They got a lot of breaks. With little surprise if you looked to the sky at all during the game, it started to rain. Then came the thunder and lightening. Then the rain started POURING. It was fun playing like that, but I don't think anyone scored once it started pouring. The wind must've been 35 mph and water was coming down in sheets. The final score was 7-11, which I guess we were proud of. This was not the worst team we had played all year in my opinion. Blommee and Rawwrrr's teams I thought were about equal with this team, so it surprised me that they averaged so few points and allowed so many. It was a good season and a good final game. I personally hope this wasn't my last ultimate frisbee game. I hope to get some games going all summer.

Games Six and Seven

2005-05-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Wow. Heartbreaking. We battled super hard that first game, too. We were down like 7-2 and came back to tie it up 7-7. Went into overtime, we were all just dead tired and gave up a cheap goal to end it. Game two, I had blisters and I'm sure half my team did, too. I didn't sit, I scored a few goals, but I know I couldn't keep up with the more fresh team, though I tried. We got scored on and lost, something to something, maybe 5-12? I'm not sure. It was a situation where we had to win at least one game to make the playoffs. Instead we are designated as one of the two worst teams in the league. As much as I disagree with that, I think talent wise and physically we may sincerely be at the bottom, but I think we played harder than the other teams in a majority of the games. All of us had never really played before, and I really couldn't be happier with the support the team gave me all year. I went in it really wanting it to go off without a hitch and just hoping for someone willing to play. Then once we played we started wanting it more, practicing, working on things, tweaking our games. So, thank you team. I guess lets go and get that last one, sounds like we'll be very short handed since we're playing Thursday at 5:30. Joe, gone. Batman, gone. So we'll see. ...maybe we just shouldn't show up.

Game Five

2005-04-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Loss: 5-10. I sat myself at the beginning of the game because I felt like I didn't deserve to win. And I did little to disprove that during the game. I threw bad throws again, still after all these practicing sessions witht he incessant wind I still can't throw into the wind at all. My only contribution was a knocked down pass and a goal scoring throw. Big deal. Anyways, the team did basically good. Dropped passes and poor defense led to our fall. I think we played better than last game though. We actually scored going both ways, rather than just once against the wind. This game was against people we knew. I knew everyone from their team which I had hoped would take some of the pressure off and we'd break free. But ... nope. I guess all I can do is just work on whatever I'm doing wrong, which is passing and .. catching, imagine that. And hope everyone else does their part, too. Two games left. I think this loss will put us in 7th which is one place out of the real playoffs. We have at least one win ahead of us, Blomme and another game we SHOULD win, Nelly's team. Playoffs baby. Playoffs.

It's been a while

2005-04-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

Well its been a week since I last posted and I have been thinking of anything interesting to post about since. So far nothing has really struck me as post worthy until tonight. And for it I blame Lindsey. I went to church this morning just to get turned away. Ends up there were 72 or 73 kids having their first communion so the church was packed, standing room only and this was all with me being 10 minutes early! So I hit my homework pretty hard all day, finished management principles portfolio and finished my sales mgt paper. YES!! Then I asked Linds if she wanted to go to church with me, she declined, so I went Maverick. Got to church a few minutes before it started and he goes, "just a single?" and at that moment I thought, I could say I'm waiting for someone just so I don't get stuck sitting next to someone weird or someone old... or both! Or I could not lie and just go with it, so I chose not to lie. He goes, "good" and goes "we have two singles open, one in the fourth row over there in the middle or this one in front" it was like slow motion. I look at the far one and just see a load of people and think, it'd be about impossible to get there in the first place. Then I look over at my other option and I see these two weird looking obese guys sitting with a space between them in the front right behind the podium, they turn to me and give me that friendly puppy dog face like, "you can sit by us, we're friendly" and I'm thinking, I WANT to sit way over in the middle out of sight, but I'll bet these guys have been passed on by like 12 people already, and they seem nice... so fine. MISTAKE. First off, guy to left, looks like Weird Al who chose drugs and pancakes over music. He's really big, fat, has those weird Al dorky glasses, bald except for his beard and mullet thing he's got going, and he sleeps all the time in church. Guy to right is this big fat guy who is wearing these suspendors that are designed to kinda look like "Do not cross: Construction" tape wearing jeans and a t-shirt who's not only fat with glasses BUT seemed somewhat mentally retarded. He probably wasn't clinically retarded, but he sure was a few fries short of a happy meal. The minute I sit down Ron, suspendors guy, goes to Dave, weird al druggy, "Hey Dave, I always knew there was someting between us" and he laughed really hard and Dave was sleeping so he didn't even hear it. Dave is big, as established, and he kept leaning on me. It was uncomfortable to say the least. And Ron, he doesnt' stand up cause he's too fat and it'd take too long. He seriously only stood for the homily and to get communion. Nothing weirder than the smalled guy at church being sandwiched between the two biggest and than one of em stays sitting the whole time you're standing. Way to draw all the attention to me and Dave. The other creepy part was when it was "sign of peace" time. I turn to Dave and shake his hand, and it was like, "this guys not even gonna look up... thank God" and than he looks up about the time the handshake should be done and gets this big grin on his face and starts shaking more enthusiastically. This guys teeth are all really tiny and yellow. Gross. Then the other guy just kinda made some joke and shook my hand. Than he shook Dave's and Dave shakes his hand and moves on, and Ron shakes Dave's hand and than tried to get Dave's attention so he can joking shake the pain from his hand cause Dave has quite the grip. Ugh.

Went Running

2005-04-17T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I woke up this sunday morning, not in time for mass. Last night I made a conscious decision that if God wanted me to go to morning mass he would wake me up. He didn't, so I have a date with God at 6:30 PM tonight. So I woke up, went to the bathroom, brushed me teeth, threw the running shoes on and a shirt and chose to go for a run. There is a 5K run next week and an Triathalon the week after that I have decided to consider. (How's that for making a decision) I'm very nervous about a triathalon though, I believe we run 5 miles, bike 15 miles, and swim half a mile. SWIM HALF A MILE. I'm a runner, by genetics, (rugby by heart) (yes that was a joke) (/joke) and so I think I could handle the run and the bike. I will and should drown if I do this thing. I'm not sure why I SHOULD drown, but ... it would be appropriate. So I ran, run run run.... STOP. A block later. I'm like, oh shit, this isn't fun. I walk to the stop sign, run run run, STOP. Hurts again, I'm getting a side ache, my legs are tired, I'm not running, I'm throwing one leg in front of the other gasping for air. I look like what Rocky would look like running a Marathon AFTER his first fight with Apollo Creed. Since I can already see that joke will miss with some of you, I looked like how Lindsey would run after a night backstage with Keith Urban. Can't walk straight, weird grin on my face, sticky. So I decided to run to Lindsey's place, try on her skirts and pretend I'm a girl, fall asleep next to a picture of Kenny Chesney and than run home. As I'm going I see the water park and realize I've never been there. So I hang a right and go check it out, made me further realize how rich a community Marshall is. Holy Shit. They have a really nice skate park, tennis courts, a really nice basefall field and a water park with a big ole slide all right next to each other, kitty corner to the golf course. F'in A Cotton, F'IN A! Anyways, I'm running/walking/weezing back and as I'm on the walk/weeze part I look over and this old OLD lady is going for a walk. No big deal. I soon realize she is totally keeping up with me, even walking a hair faster. F that. I didn't start running or anything, but I did walk at a quicker pace and she was still right with me. Than she must've gotten scared of my challenge cause she turned left and went home. Pussy. I walked the whole last block because i rationalized it. I was like, I just ran like 5 blocks in a row (because I saw a kid out in his lawn and was like, the hell if he's gonna JUDGE ME!) so i figured I deserved it. And I did. I won poker last night, too.

Game Four

2005-04-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well, today was bitter sweet. Bitter: On the way to the game I was driving Todd, Ryan, Schaef, Brian, and myself and I got the van stuck in the mud because I wasn't paying close enough attention to just where the most mud/water was. I drove through the heart and the heart got me. Sweet: We played a team that had only four guys but still was tough. Bitter: They gave us a run for our money Sweet: We ultimately won. Bitter: I dropped more passes than I ever have before. It was quite honestly embarrassing and humbling. I benched myself for the end of the game I was so mad. Sweet: We more or less dominated, leading from the start, leading at the half, and even scored going against the wind. Bitter: It was so so so windy. We scored only once going against the wind and they never scored. Sweet: Final Score: 8-6. And we got the van out. There were many pictures taken of the van stuck, I'm sure you'll see some if you're reading this. Laugh it up.

Game Three

2005-04-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've been furious, embarassed, humbled, inspired, and tonight was no different. We again played a tougher, stronger, faster, more athletic team and we remain frisbee-challenged. I think we lost 26-1. They had a man named "Scholten" wade, maybe. Anyways, his brother is a freak of Frisbee and so is this kid. They had a lot of guys to sub in so they stayed fresh. We had one man out, everyone seemed to have a different strategy. We ultimately decided, i guess, to go deep. I don't think we had more than five completions that way. As if it mattered though, right? Ugh... embarassing yet expected. I even got battered up. They go deep and it was me and two of their dudes going after the frisbee, both have size on me, and we all leap after the frisbee. One dude gets in between me and the wall with the other behind me, we all crash into the wall and as i make my landing I step in someones t-shirt and slip and land right on my knee. Ow. Adeneline made it not hurt so much afterwards, a few trips limping a bit up and down the court and it seems fine now, i'm sure it'll be sore tomorrow. Ugh.. Practice, I guess.

Tar Heels

2005-04-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sure most of you saw this post coming. For the first time since I've become a basketball fan I have seen North Carolina win a championship. (I didn't really start watching till one or two years after their championship in '92). I was fist pumping and cheering in Linds' room as she did homework. Linds turned to me and said, "Are you going to be like this the whole game?" and I said, "...hopefully" I was almost disappointed the Heels were winning by so much, but Illinois made a typical comeback and tied it up. Without a doubt, if May or Felton wouldn't have been in the game for most of the minutes, no chance of a victory. I had a grin on my face for at least 5 straight minutes after they won. I only called my dad after the game. When I was home at the start of the tourney he did nothing but kick Athena while she was in her ball and make fun of North Carolina while praising Duke. Take that dad.

Furious

2005-04-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am very upset with myself and my team. We again played a team filled with athletic tall guys. We went in a little nervous and got playing and it became clear we had these guys. I was absolutely sure we were gonna win, which is necessary. Why the hell would you play scared? Thats what we did in the first game and I didn't want a repeat performance. The starting roster was everyone but I think Chris Ostrowski, so it was: Bryce Ryan Schaef Joe Phil Glen So we played with em and I tried to tell the boys we had them and I think everyone believed it. Their passes fell incomplete, they kept dropping it. They kept letting us keep our feet in the door. We answered poorly. Dropping our own share of close passes. I am guilt of this, too. At half time it was 6-3, we were losing. Last game I believe it was 13-0. We started with that GO GO GO mentality and therefore made stupid passes. We'd try and go long and we're not a team that can go long. A lot of these guys have had a frisbee since they were kids, no one on our team has. I bought my first frisbee last year when I basically learned how to throw one. So half time we stressed keeping them out of a rythym. Have a defender go long to stop that play and to go long more ourselves. And get on the competitor more man to man style. We only scored one more point. We dropped at least 6 that I can remember in the end zone. SIX AT LEAST!! Those were just when we were going long, when we bounced it off the wall. Than we'd either get scared and drop it, be clobbered by defenders and drop it, or poorly judge the ball. Partially the throwers fault, not to rag on the receiver too much. I was the thrower of probably 4 of them. I would purposely throw it too long to hit the wall and hope for us to get the deflection. We were capable of winning this one. In my eyes, we let it get away and didn't capitalize on anything the second half. We worked hard for this game and we showed it I guess. So if you can be satisfied with a loss, I guess this is the right time for it. I'm mad right now, calming down as this post goes on. I just hope the guys will want to keep practicing and getting better. We showed a lot of improvement and a lot of places where we need to work on. Next time, I guess.

Some of you... got PUNK'D

2005-04-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

Well, more were fooled than not so it was a successful April Fools Day. I know i fooled the following: Molly Brass Loock Kouba Brian Krause Andy Adelman Keith Haggerty Nikki McKay Wade Degler Brian Larson People not fooled: Miles Rausch Tony Rolfes I haven't talked to her, but I'm assuming Lindsey Nelsen Katie Brass Mom Mark Jenniges John Muller-Morgan Glen Dawson But I won't try it anymore. This was my last April Fools Joke.

I did it

2005-04-01T06:26:00.000-08:00

Well, last night I decided that me and Lindsey had no further to go in our relationships growing period and I took her to Riddles Jewelery and let her pick out a ring. Thank god she picked a cheap one, only $275. Best part is I can pay it off in smaller payments so it doesnt' break my bank. It was a very surreal moment. Lindsey was crying and I don't think I'm any less of a man for crying myself. I didn't do it in any special kind of way, I waiting for her at her blue van when her class finished up and had roses under her windshield. I had gotten her extra set of keys from her house and put the ring on the drivers seat. Then she came out, saw everything and I came out from my hiding spot behind a car in the parking lot. There was a group of like 4 people who witnessed it, they just kinda smiled, whispered to themselves, and kinda clapped. Being me, I took a bow. No date is set yet, but it's pretty big news. I havent' called anyone yet cause I really havent' had time. Cause then after that I had Ultimate Frisbee and she had practice and than we decided we'd tell people at a later date. So sorry Tony and Dad, I'll call later and give you all the specifics once we have them. Wish us luck.

Game One

2005-03-27T20:44:00.000-08:00

So we have our first game under our belts. Through it we gained experience, knowledge, and heart. We discovered that if they have the "most 'Cute' team" or "The 'Ohhhh what a neat team' team" we'd win those awards. We played the best team we'll see all year, the undefeated for two years, 2 championships, alternating varsity basketball players. Two kids from Miller, S.D. and some other punks who can throw a frisbee well. "So.. what was the score bryce?" 25-1 We had the one. It was ugly. I ran the whole time. I realized I can't throw the long ball without a hook/slice. It's very ugly, our whole team. I am going to come up with positions and attempt to learn how to throw correctly. Hopefully we can get Lindsey to wear one of those leotards from Freshman initiation and get some pom poms and be our cheerleader. We'd be quite inspired. C'mon Linds. We got some work to do. All I'm saying.

It's been a while

2005-03-23T09:52:00.000-08:00

Lets see here: I am signed up for Ultimate Frisbee Lindsey came back from Spring Break really tan, we look like different races, thank God I'm still white. It's been a crazy short week. A test, a quiz, a paper, the newspaper, and tonight freshman initiation for the golf team. I declared a major today. She said I'll probably graduate on time. yessss MVP Baseball 2005 kinda sucks cause you apparently need a controller to play it, can't change the controls. Why the hell would they do that to me? So get this, a rule for Ultimate Frisbee is one pt for a TD and 2 if you get a TD from the length of the field, endzone to endzone. WTF. No one on my team can even throw the frisbee that far from my team. Team roster: Bryce Rausch Ryan Guse Todd Nellermoe Brian Larson Joe Johnson Glen Dawson Chris Ostrowski Chris Schaefer Team Name: Might as well do something while we're doing nothing. And with a team like that, how could we not beat a bunch of varsity athletes? God save the queen. God let me be the queen.

Ultimate Frisbee

2005-03-03T08:39:00.000-08:00

In class today all I could think about was Ultimate Frisbee. I just pictured all those sport movies I've seen in my life, the super great team going against the feeble underdogs. My team is sure to be the underdogs, no doubt about that. My plan is to aim everything at beating one team, Andy Zweber, Andy Wiersma, Chad Orbum, Josh Skolton, and probably other big athletic guys who can throw a frisbee over them mountains. Chances are you don't know who everyone I just wrote about is, they are all big, they are all at least mildly athletic and they practice and they win, all the time, they haven't lost a game in two years. Strategy time. My team will have hopefully all athletic people with good jumping abilities and at least one member who can throw a fribee long. Everyone in some aspect is a quartback, a receiver, and a defensive back. We will need to drill and write up defense plays and offense plays. My defensive strategy of moment is that we can not contend with their height so we jump a second late and knock the frisbee out of their hands. It's on. No losing by a yard here, Boyeee.

Happy Birthday

2005-02-28T05:35:00.000-08:00

Well Dan and Miles, it is officially the most insignificant birthday you'll ever have. This is the "Next birthday after you're 21" and 23 will be known as, another step towards 30. Than its 40. Than death because of the aliens. So I hope you have an insignificant day filled with things you want to happen that are good.

Bonehead 2

2005-02-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

So Lindsey was sleeping upstairs and I needed to get my mind moving so I chose to make supper. Homemade pizza. So I made a huge mess with flour and cheese and Pam spray but i took care of it pretty quickly. I put it in the oven and set the timer, and watched Seinfield. That Kramer. I even laughed out loud. Lauren is cooking food, too. I go to take it out of the oven and notice a few burns but nothing bad. But still I'm thinking, "great, I burned it". I set it on the stove and figure, it'll cool down once I cut it up into pieces. So I do, but I can smell it burning and I can see the cheese bubbling and am thinking, "Shit, I really burned it". I go upstairs to let it cool off and come back downstairs and I go to the pizza and it has been moved to the opposite side of the stove and Lauren goes, "Yeah, the burner was on and it was burning your pizza pan so I moved it. So not only did i not look at the burner first before setting the pan down but I left the room to let it cool down. Wow.

Bonehead

2005-02-21T18:11:00.000-08:00

I think I should start this as a regular piece for the site, the Bonehead move of the day. Todays Bonehead move of the day is: went to ask ryan and todd if they wanted to go work out and ended up staying for 40 minutes watching Mission:Impossible... hadn't planned on being over that long and left my car on the entire time... almost stayed for The Fugitive, too.

meh

2005-02-21T09:11:00.000-08:00

Tony's taller than my dad and now all the House of Representatives knows it. And about a half a dozen people think that he is either adopted, a runaway, or just my friend.

Poll

2005-02-17T15:06:00.000-08:00

What's better or what would you prefer: Being respected by everyone but likes by none or Being liked by everyone while respected by none. Think about it... no, you think about it.

'Gone Fishin

2005-02-10T13:41:00.000-08:00

I guess I'm going fishing this weekend. I really don't fish but it shouldn't be too bad. In other news, DAD AND MILES, WATCH YOUR BACKS. BRYCE IS CATCHING UP! I added two new activities to my list this week, JUST THIS WEEK. Here are my grand totals: 1. The Spur Newspaper 2. Intramural wrestling 3. College Republicans 4. Sportsman's Club 5. Intramural Dodgeball BOO YA. I figure I have to get 15 to win, which leaves twice as many as I have now left. So, I still suck at AOM but i have a new technique I like, put villagers on reload. Thanks Tony. Anyone know when Team America comes out on video? Anyone else think that new movie with Vince Vega, Peter LeFleur, and Beatrice Kiddo looks funny? We'll see. I have only seen the trailer. I was surrounded by Nepalians today and they smelled weird and I couldn't understand any of them and they all want to write for me but none of them want to be a beat writer which is what I want them to do and they are only there for money, but this year we have changed our policy for payment, you don't get paid just for writing a story, you now have to submit 3 stories and then apply, and then the section editor chooses you or not. I won't. Not them. Never. This semester I think it is within reach of getting several A's. True story.

Update

2005-01-30T13:32:00.000-08:00

So ... Here's a new post Lately I have been playing AOM like Keith Richards drinks and as much as Ringo should. Which is alot. Its gotten so bad that with all my friends that do any gaming I try and brag to them that I play AOM as they sternly tell me they play World of Warcraft now. Big deal, what a dumb game. Idiots. So far our team is Tony, who is more or less uber good, Dan, who is really good, Lindsey, who is good, and then Miles and I who have a lot of heart. In our defense, we put alot of thought into it. We look up strategy we talk about it, we post about it, we treat AOM like Lindsey treats Athena. Speaking of Athena, we played AOM last night and Tony said he wanted Athena and I think I speak for both Lindsey and I, you can have her Tony. So lately I've been trying to listen to full albums at a time. I got Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, I think from Boy. I kind of like Jet, too. I've tried getting into some Radiohead and Bright Eyes. I have to say I like Radiohead quite a bit more. Except for True Blue by Bright Eyes lifts them up a bit. I like posting on random things. I think it may be easier to read because you won't be reading and say, "i see where this is going, hit the snooze I'm going back to sleep" or "pass the bottle I'm going to drink until I die cause I see where this is going" or "Pass that sock and can of spray paint I'm going to spray that paint into the sock and inhale it until I'm very high because I see where this is going" (that was meant to be ironic cause as I rambled on you could see where each little quote was going, God I'm awesome) So Hawaiian night was pretty much the worst. Then again, I don't think I've ever had that great of a Hawaiian night. I'm just looking forward to Ash Wednesday. Got all dirty at church and you get in trouble if you wash off the ash, how kick ass is that, you HAVE to stay dirrrty. What I like the most about Ash Wednesday is that it is NOT a holy day of obligation so you don't even have to go... but you still can't eat anything but meat-less supper. So i need a job pretty bad, today I spent like 450 bucks on tuition and rent. JUST TODAY. And bills cost like a hundred. All I want is a job that pays for my expenses and gives me some spending money. The spur pays for ... the cable and internet bill... thats it. The shot glass Tony stole for me, or maybe he bought it, either way, it is so pretty I can't even imagine any drunk dude taking a shot from it. I mean, its got a colorful castle on it with squiggly lines all over it and it says Magic Kingdom. So if it isn't a typical college kids shot glass, its definately not for bars or the bar crowd. Which basically leaves one group, Tony's parents. But I certainly can't picture them saying, "hey, kids are all gone Jannee, wanna take some shots and see what happens?" and she'd say, "I'll get the magic kingdom shot glasses we got at Disney World and you get the Morgan" Then of course Tyler would walk in and Mark would go, "shit, forgot you still lived here, go practice your god damn electric guitar or something, ugly" Mark gets pissy with some drinks in him. Thats where I'll end this.

Winter Break

2005-01-06T21:05:00.000-08:00

I have to start this with an introduction to the Bryce Rausch family conjoined with the Lindsey Nelsen family, Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom. We found her at a pet store, cheap too. Athena is a hamster that is better looking than your hamster or turtle, guaranteed. She is brown and white, small, and the Goddess of Wisdom. She was created by the Uber Hamster, Zeus, and only Zeus, no chick hamster. She is also the Goddess of ferocious and implacable fight, but only in defense. So if you get all up in her cage, she'll smack a hoe. When we first got Athena she got sick. Odd for a Goddess to be sick, but it happened. She had wet-tail so Linds got on the horn and talked to everyone she could about saving our lil lady. In finally found a store in the Fargo mall with something called "Dri-tail" and had Tony pick it up, next thing you know, Athena's fine and keeping Lindsey up all night while she would run in her cage in the middle of the night. So Athena is awesome and you would be lucky to be half the hamster she is. Well, as for my break, I'll discuss movies. I have seen a lot of movies but rarely has a time come that so many movies at the same time have come out that I've wanted to see. I have seen all the movies I wanted to and all of them were great. Those movies: Dodgeball, Anchorman, and Napoleon Dynamite. All of them have numerous areas of hillarity. I own Dodgeball now, after much drama, and will set out to at least own Napoleon Dynamite in the future. For those of you who have never met Schaef, Napoleon looks just like Schaef. I also watched Secret Window with the ever-so-hot Johnny Depp, I received Play it again, Sam, a Woody Allen film that I watched once with Miles on TV way back when and looked up the name of the film and what do you know, a lil birdie told my Godmother Kelly about it and she got it for me. Awesome. I also watched Killer Klowns from Outer Space The winter break has been pretty relaxing, rather fun, no major stories at all, much gaming and some money made, thank God. I've especially enjoyed being away from the paper. It's been a good break and I don't look forward to doing so many stories on my own next semester, so I guess you could say my New Years Resolution is to recruit new writers. Wish me luck "I call these, keepers" "Yeah, there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident!" "Hey, Napoleon. What did you do last summer again? I told you! I spent it with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines! Did you shoot any? Yes, like 50 of 'em! They kept trying to attack my cousins, what the heck would you do in a situation like that? What kind of gun did you use? A freakin' 12-gauge, what do you think? "

Mission Failed

2004-12-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

I feel like someone just robbed me and took a few hundred bucks from my wallet...and about four months of my life. Accounting I ended with me missing out on my C by a matter of a few points. God dammit.

Fame hits local South Dakota boy

2004-12-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

Headline: Fame hits local South Dakota boy David Rausch, formerly of the Krystal Heroes, becomes icon after appearing on living legend Bryce Rausch's website David Rausch, from Big Stone City, South Dakota is just eighteen years old yet already a living legend after a conversation in which David said a funny joke with Bryce Rausch, owner author of plethora33.blogspot.com, was published on Bryce's site.

"dude, was that really you on Bryce's site... people have been calling me from all over the globe seeing if i knew who it was, your famous man!"

were the elated words from Dan Rausch in an internet conversation with his much more famous brother David. Miles Rausch, the author of plethora33.blogspot.com's brother, had this to say to David:

"dude, was that really you on Bryce's site... people have been calling me from all over the globe seeing if i knew who it was, your famous man!"

David is taking the fame in stride, humbly saying,

"I'm not famous yet, yur dad hasn't called me,"

in an internet conversation with Bryce Rausch. David, so confused with the sudden rush of praise by people he typically only considered acquainances, like Bryce, Miles, and Dan, after Miles and Dan's similar remarks Bryce had this to say:

"my phone's ringing off the hook with people wondering who this david kid is!"

David responded saying,

" thats kinda exactly the same thing miles said."

With fame comes sibling rivaly and David has taken attacks by his brother Dan in stride.

"He's just jealous I made it on your site,"

said a very cool headed David. The moment David finally accepted the fact that he was famous will forever be remembered by friends and family when during an interview done by SMSU Sports Editor Bryce Rausch the following was said:

Bryce: I guess you really are famous David: Haha David: I guess.

David's life will certainly never be the same with the all his recent fame. His thousands of fans have already made preorders for the DVD releasal of "Living in the fridge" the music video released by LFK productions. The famous conversation took place Monday night between Bryce Rausch, of plethora33.blogspot.com, and David Rausch, with the Ortonville Trojan tap dance team:

Bryce: hey, want me to find the demo online for ya? David: it would take me all day to download Bryce: good point CAUSE YOU HAVE DIAL-UP!!! HAHAHAHAAH David: yeah, i know, i know, pick on the kid with slow internet

Snap Crackle Pop

2004-12-07T09:21:00.000-08:00

I'm cracking... I'm totally freaking out right now. I may have just failed Microeconomics and I feel defenseless with Accounting. My other classes are in the B range, no worries I guess. But I feel that if I decide to focus on say, Accounting, I'll get a B on the test and a D in the class and than I'll fail Micro cause I spent all that time focusing on Accounting. Or what if I focus on both of them and then trip up on Marketing or Stats. And all that with an anniversary tomorrow. That means four years of a relationship with a great gal, Linds. But it also means that I can't dedicate that night to studying or something. It's probably a much needed break... like it'll matter anyways. It's times like this that I like to grab my guitar and play some of my favorite songs, "Blackbird" "Stairway to Heaven" and "Satellite". Or go to my piano and play some of my favorite songs like, "Tiny Dancer" "Fur Elise" "Fantasia in F minor" and of course "Chopsticks". Or I like to take out my synthesizer and play some of my favorite songs like, "Baba O'Reiley" or "Mr. Blue Sky". Maybe tonight I'll bring out my harmonica and play some blues or my sitar and play some Indian country songs I love so much or maybe I'll play the spoons with two of my favorite silver spoons or maybe I'll just play my baritone...

... anything though to just calm me down

It's gonna be a long couple weeks...long ...long ... long

That old time rock and roll

2004-10-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

I have a fascination with music. I am a "music lover". That being said, late at night when I'm alone because Lindsey says she's "golfing" when I have all my lights off in my room and am sorting baseball cards from 1988-1993 under my bed I think: Hey Bryce, what are your favorite bands? Well, I would say a blend of Beatles, Metallica, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and after that it becomes a tight race. After seeing these bands you realize certain bands that you DON'T SEE:

Petey Pablo
*Nsync
Master P
any R and B
Any new pop

What I'm getting at is that for the most part I had come to grips that for whatever reason I appreciate older music more. Music that is more historical, already been a number one hit, the band has already been dubbed "The Greatest..." before I was even listening to them. I go through music mood swings, in the last two days I've listened to "At Last" by Etta James around 10 times. I have feverishly worked to get my new Kazaa working so I could download the Ray Charles song, "Georgia" that I have heard bits of and liked the sound of it. I have also gone through rap stages in my life. I was once convinced not only was I black but I was in a rap group called "Street Justice" and even had a hit song called, "Snoop you're whack" or something to that effect. Before that I was hardcore country. Both MILES and I were. I still enjoy listening to those songs we loved when we were...oh...5th graders or so. I also went through a huge Beatles phase when I was a 6th grader. Loved the red and blue album like they were the children I'll never have so I just sit outside their school waiting and praying their real parents are late picking them up so I can take them home with me. Then mom ruined it by writing about me listening to the band in the CHRISTMAS LETTER! Then it was pop music. Miles and I would sit for hour waiting for a good song to come on the radio to record on our cassette tapes. Then we went our seperate directions. Miles bought a "Hanson" vinyl and I bought "Sgt. Pepper" and we never saw directly into each others eyes again. Miles now is really into the "Horny Ponies" or some band like that. Lindsey is heavy into rap, her favorite song being Freak-a-leek. Tony LOL OMG loves Ringo Starr's individual stuff he did after the Beatles broke up. And my parent's are starting to get into metal. Oh right, and Boy craves each note Ashley Simpson belts out. Dan Vierck loves OMC so much he says that they are like the Beatles but with more instruments. Whatever Dan. Anyways, music is kinda like tap shoes... (Open for interpretation)

I approve of this message

2004-10-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

Many people are stupid. No really, hear me out. But if there is one thing that is on the television even more than Law and Order and Texas Hold Em it's the political ads and news programs discussing politics. "Hey Bryce, where does the thing 'Many people are stupid.' thing come into play in your post?" Well if you would shut up for just two seconds I'd tell you. With all of this political discussion taking place on TV everyone absorbs a handful of information, it's hard to miss it. Therefore everyone thinks they are a genius when it comes to politics. Schaef the other day tried to tell me I was on welfare because I was a college student. I wanted to punch my fist through a dogs ass I was so confused. His point ended up being that he assumed I was using grants to pay for college. By I'll be paying loans for the rest of my life. Give or take a dozen years. I know a bit about politics. I can hold my own in a debate on a range of subjects but I even have to admit that I get in over my head with people who know way more than me. I used to debate Steve Brotzel in the "Grocery Sto" and he would start pulling SD bills out of his ass, not literally, that I'd have no idea about and I'd say, "wowwie wow wow I don't know what you're talking about mista." Ends up he's like involved in the Grant County Democrats, like college democrats only for big kids. Like I ever stood a chance. I am that annoying person to him that I'm complaining about seeing all over the place right now. "But Bryce, would that mean this post is pointless and you were only doing it to make a point without actually ranting on anything or reminsing or praising meerly pointing out something anyone could have?" Yes.

Fraggot

2004-10-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

I went to go see Miles' play at DSU. I can't remember which one it was, I've seen probably 5 of them. Afterwards Tony and I stuck around with Miles and were going to spend the night on Miles' floor. In my worst moment I needed to be surrounded with loved ones at all times. For it had been within a week that Lindsey decided we needed a break. After the play Miles wanted to show Tony and I the basement of the Trojan Center, which is not a condom shop in Madison, SD. When I saw it I was amazed. It was so incredible. The lights were dimmed, there were probably 30 some people, the room was probably 85 degrees and trash talking could be heard from any direction. This was, of course, my first view of what I would later become quite familiar with, a LAN party. I remember sitting next to Jeff Gabhart, who I only knew as Miles' friend from college and now I know as a friend and fellow gamer. I talked to him and thought his quiet ways and nearly silent jokes were hysterical. I remember a month later I actually participated in the party. Miles and I couldn't play too much, for the gaming world was very new to us and we hadn't bought any games that people were playing. I remember pirating my first game for Battlefield 1942, I remember where I sat (right next to Miles) and I remember the excitement when we finally got the weird Battlefield game to play. The only map we got to work was Stalingrad than Miles played Collapse and I played Bejeweled. Not great but enough to get me hooked. Since then I spread the love. Passing around games, updating people's computers, going to LAN parties, buying games, playing online, experiencing life as a gamer. My favorite LAN party moments are:

We're playing Unreal 2003, we as in Miles and I. The LAN party had been a mini-disaster for Dan because no game worked on his system so he spent the night, yes the LAN party was still a nightly thing then, doing homework and playing games by himself. Dan was playing his game, and Miles, me, and some other bloke were playing Unreal and Jeff and his friend Allan decided to leave. Then suddenly all of our computers went blank and we here: "Oh...dammit...did I just shut off your computers? Oh dammit. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.." and the sorry's went on all weekend. Funniest part is that Miles, Dan and I start packing up and the guy we were playing with goes, "hey, are you guys leaving!?" and we're like, we haven't been playing for 5 minutes, and he just shrugs and goes, "I guess that's why you guys have been such easy kills."
Three-on-three Battlefield Desert Combat, map: Berlin, game: capture-the-flag. Teams, Dan, Miles, and Bryce VS Jeff, Allan, and Foreman. The most intense fun gaming experience I've ever had. Brought new meaning to "ex-pack"
Playing at the last LAN party when I could have swore I was walking on water.
Any random LAN party when all the guys are staring at Linds' chest, I am King Geek

That's all off the top of my head. Please fill in your favorite LAN party momens in comments.

Fancy seeing you here

2004-09-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks, I realize it's been since Nam since I last posted and it's not that I don't have anything to post about, just need to be inspired near a computer. Seems like everytime I get inspired I'm staring at Tony while he's sleeping. But thats not internet appropriate. So let's recap what we've missed, heh folks? Linds had a birthday and God dammit was I sweet. Flowers, dinner, I juggled chainsaws like she asked me to and then golf balls to complete the day. What good date doesn't end with balls coming out? ooo...not internet appropriate. Delete key broken, sorry. School continued, skipped a night class to watch some whack-o UFO guy, if I hadn't fallen completely asleep during class pre-skip I would feel worse. But I did that shake yourself awake mid-dream thing that draws attention from everyone while the drool slowly begins rolling down your chin and there's that one long drool thing dangling from your mouth. Yeah. Needed a change of scenery. Hmm...what else. Been playing a lot of Monopoly and then last night me, schaef ( who spilled his beer all over the board) and Linda played and even though my nickname is Mr. Boardwalk (cause I win so much) I was the first one to lose. Hmm...what else. Oh yeah. Lan party. I went to the one in Madison and not only were there massive amounts of playing time instead of mostly installing/fixing time. But aside from that rarity I laughed real real hard twice. Once on account of listening to Brian Regan's radio interview and the other from an incident during Battlefield Pirates. You'd have to be there. Well, this posts inspiration came from a cleaning project. I was cleaning out my old AOL Instant Messenger lists and MSN lists and Yahoo! Messenger lists. Wow, some old friends in there. I was reminded of the times that I would have to time chatting so it wasn't when people would be calling the house or we'd have to go on for moments at a time because of Dial-Up. So many screennames I haven't seen in years. People from TEC, people from Miles' class in high school, and just old friends that I've lost touch with or have outgrown the chatting world. Such memories. I remember Miles and I trying to chat with our new friend Sarah Matz on Yahoo! until like 3AM at grandma and grandpa's old school computer with Dirk and we finally gave up. Reminder, this was before one on one chatting, we tried meeting her in a chat room and it never happened. Then at such an hour, the three of us went for a walk in the fog. Weird how I can remember weird events like that but I can't remember things from my notes that I just took. I remember what Amy Spors' color on her AIM was, I remember seeing any of the Brass girls online creating excitement. Just seeing those screennames on AOL IM was a thrill. We set up chatting times. Miles and I would be up at like 3 AM in our basement with a phone line mom confiscated a few times from us. I remember when Mom took the phone line one late night/early early morning and goes upstairs and I look at Miles sadly. We look everywhere for the stolen cords and then Miles takes me to his room and reveals he has a backup. I remember chatting with Brenna and Holly. Mostly Brenna. Again, great excitement when I saw her name online. Then I remember chatting with Linds. Thats basically how I found out anything about her, being I was quite a nervous dude around her. Seeing her name online was crazy at first. What a rush, ya know. I felt a need to make her laugh. Most the time I was quite unsuccessful even beginning to trash talk about golf. I figured, she may be good, but there is no way she's better than me, she's a girl. Thank God I was right. One of my favorite things is to go back in time and relive things. This is an example I haven't really touched on before. I see a movie, hear a song, watch a cartoon, see a building, things like that have always aroused nostalgia, but never instant messengers. Well, you guys are the first to know.

Happy Birthday Lindsey

2004-08-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

They say it's your birthday Happy birthday to you. They say it's your birthday you're gonna have a good time. Ect. I love you Linds. Have a bodacious day cause now you're no longer a teenager. I looked it up, it is really hard if not impossible to have a bodacious day as a teenager. Not sure how that worked.

First of many...

2004-08-19T23:48:00.000-07:00

Today was a bad day for Bryce VS The World. It began well, I woke up, went to the Spur office, got to work. Chit chatted with Rohan. Dan Vierck showed up. Ate with Ryan and all was well in gumdrop land. Then a cloud came over my precious sun and enter Debbie into Spur office. As I worried about the blind one tried telling me how to run her old position. She wasn't offering advice, she was telling me which stories to cover. Bryce no me gusta mucho. Conversation: D: Say, Bryce, are you going to cover the olympics at all? B: I wasn't planning on it. At least not this issue. D: What? It's the olympics. B: Debbie, you yourself have even said to leave national issues alone, stay school related. Plus, I have schedules to print, and I have to do the Athletic Director story as well as preseasons for all sports. D: So, you're not even going to do a medal count?! B: Debbie, do you wanna just be sports editor then? ... D: ... B: [back working] D: Are you at least going to do a story on "waaaa waank wank wa wa waaaa" (name I can't remember) B: Who's that? D: (rolling eyes, which is quite the feat for a bling person) he's coming to talk to the athletes as part of orientation, he wrote the Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul books. B: No room. It was tense after that till she finally left. The only witness to this was Eliza who also got chewed out by the gremlin and she later said that she agreed with me and Debbie's stupid. What can I do? She is going to try and control that editor position till the day I die. I've been good so far, not rubbing her nose in it, but it's war and dammit, I'm Rambo. ...Stay tuned for part 2 of "First of many"

It's Funny Really

2004-08-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

Playing in what's become a twice a week occurance everyone tries for the Top Three Places, otherwise known as: In the money. I am streaky as a poker player, I am emotional. When I've been feeling it I've won four out of five tournaments and when I'm not feeling it and have no confidence I have been the first one out of the tournament in four straight tournaments. If I get reraisied and I've been bluffing I get frustrated and will go "All-in" and they'll quickly call. Boom, I'm out like Ellen Degeneres. On Saturday (August 7th) we played, nothing out of the ordinary, but if you would've told me I was going to get second place I would've believed you but how it happened would be beyond me. I'm not saying anything that terrific happened, I'm just saying if someone would tell everyone how they placed before the tournament happens it would be very shocking. Lindsey, also streaky, placed second to last. That would've been hard to believe. My point is, It's insane to think, "what if I would've known this before it happened?" I'm getting to the "Meat" of the post, for now I'm just kind of "coasting". Fast Forward to Sunday the 8th of August. The Rausch's (Dan, David, ect.) are all gone, some at work in Sioux Falls and others on vacation near Alexandria, MN. Therefore I must read for David. If you would've told me what I was about to do as I went out for the "Greeting" as commentator's do, I wouldn't have believed...well, I would've but I would've done anything in my power to prevent it. Including taking that cynide pill I keep in my "Dick Tracy" watch. "Welcome to the ______th Sunday of Ordinary time. Today's mass intention is for _________. Please welcome FR. RAY and Fr. Jim...Fr. WILFRED and Fr. Jim with out entrance song number ________ _______." I stumbled to my seat trying not to role my eyes so hard that it kills me. I go into my empty pew and feel and I mean FEEL everyone's looks. I feel like a whore in church...who came naked or something. Everyone staring, shaking their heads muttering, "Poor Bryce, what a ridiculous idiot." Fr. Wilfred and his posse strut to the front of the church taking their usual places and Sue (also a reader that day) stands next to the now shaking Bryce, and just smiles the type of smile you give a homeless man who just got raped by a dog. The type of smile that says it all, I feel bad, but damn, that's funny. Fr. Wilfred declares to everyone that his name is NOT Fr. Ray it's Fr. WILFRED. He once again mentioned my error at the homily and then gave me a hug at the "sign of peace". Now I've made plenty of jokes while reading at church. I also like to imagine that there are an equal amount of people out in the church audience that shudder and cheer when they see I'm reading, hoping, hell their in church, maybe even praying for a joke, or maybe praying for no jokes. But as much as everyone laughed at this one, I'd take it back quicker than the "Grammy's" took back their award from Milli Vanilli.

Fragile

2004-07-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

Today I learned the awful news of the passing of a recent graduate from Ortonville High School: Zach Kafka. I wasn't much more than an ecumenicist with him, he was on the waiting list for the big poker tournament and I guess looking at it now I'm glad we never called him to play because then maybe losing him would be harder. This sounds quite awful, I know, but I hate it when friends die, call me crazy. It started with Seth. I remember thinking, "ya know, this is my first friend who has died". Then, a year later Justin Maas died. In this instance I remember thinking, "I made this kid laugh. I can still see him laughing at me joking around and now he is gone forever". This year I lost someone very close to me, Fr. Ray. I was a wreck that night and was a wreck at the funeral. I can now joke about it and know he's in heaven and blah blah blah but at the time all I could think of was, "How? Why?". With Zach dying in his sleep from an aneurysm I think, I've nearly fallen cold asleep at the wheel, I've had major surgery to remove a cranky appendix, I've had a lot of close calls in my life, and he dies in his sleep, Seth fell asleep at the wheel and died, Justin had a fatal seizure, Fr. Ray just got sick and here I am...alive...healthy even. Life is unbelievably fragile. Fragile to the point that I don't want to leave my house again. Yet, everyday we take risks we don't even think about, passing on a hill or curve, speeding, drinking, hunting, being outside during lightning storms, I mean, it's weird, some people die, some people live, and they go through nearly identical experiences during their lives. Just a thought.

A Week in the life...

2004-07-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

Another week is done and it is a week closer to the completion of work at the warehouse, or as we in the business call it, F'in HELL! Don't believe me? Well, this week I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and all but Thursday were hotter than an oil fire in Kuwait. We're talking, steamy. Not only was it bloody hot, but I was tired all week, missing my girly girl, and on Thursday I smashed my left middle-finger. WOW! What a way to start the day I didn't just say "What the Hay?" I said, "What would you do Dr. Dre?" and he responded, "who the hell are you?". I just decided to post because we did get out of work early today (3:30) and no one else seems to be posting. The week was more eventful than me smashing my finger and working but that's a post for another time.

Plethora 33

2004-07-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

I realized upon picking the URL for this blog that some people may think I really enjoy "Wham" and have kitten folders. Well, I do have kitten folders and enjoy the song "Wake me up before you Go Go" but NO I am not gay. I would've just had plethora but it is in use. So I went with plethora33 because 33 used to be my basketball number, it's one of my lucky numbers, and it's Larry Bird's basketball number. Larry Bird is the Irish God of rain...ing THREE'S!! Whoa. YEAH! Sorry about that. I just thought I'd use my PP (Post Power) to clarify the 33.

First Post

2004-07-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday I mentioned to Tony, Linds, and Boy that I wish I had a blog so I could post about something on my mind. Step one was to create a blog. I haven't done this yet because it's kinda gay. If not gay, pretty trendy. But alas, I have never minded reading them and have even gone as far as to use Miles' site to post my own sites. Miles is my bitch. Heh. Anyways, this is my first post so I've decided not to post of anything relevant or pressing. Just to say, this is my blog, enjoy. Who knows what I'll post about. If I get agitated I'm bound to post about my problems or if I think of anything funny I can post on that. I hope Miles helps me format my site so it looks HALF as pertty as his and 2/3 as pretty as Tony's. This is Bryce, signing off.