Last night, Mark and I headed over to North Quad

for some soccer and frisbee in the courtyard.  Ian is currently training as a community assistant there, and—as you would expect from Ian—he immediately introduced us to what seemed to be the entire group of CA’s and RA’s.  After trading a few greetings, frisbee passes, and stories about European volcanoes, the insects came out, and it was time to head in.  For a personal tour.  Through the “not open to the public” doors =)

As expected, North Quad is really nice—but maybe not for the reasons we expected.  I don’t know about you, but with all its hype, I had envisioned plasma TV’s in every room, luxurious couches in every lounge, maybe even some moving staircases and secret rooms for times of great need.  The truth is, though, that most of that was left out.  Sure, there are still plasma TV’s in almost every room, but the couches are simple and sleek.  Most of the rooms are not overly grand, and the elevators don’t even work sometimes.

Instead, North Quad focuses much more on developing community and cultural awareness.  The building has no front desk but rather a community center lounge.  Centrally controlled monitors, providing information about all kinds of North Quad activities, can be found almost anywhere within the building.  There is an enormous tower room for hosting community events, and there is a room where residents can make voice calls to any country in the world.  The lounges even contain trilingual trash cans.  They even have “freaky German” chairs… which are interesting. 

One thing has been bothering me recently, though.  If we would have turned on any of those numerous plasma TV’s, we probably would have seen a large number of reports about cultural misunderstandings and misled hostility.  It seems to be everywhere these days.  Even our president is wrongly accused and well… yeah.  It just makes us wonder what people are doing out there.  Are they listening with an open mind? Or are they just listening for what they want to hear?

Either way, one thing is certain: North Quad is on pace for the former.  And gazing across the city from the tenth floor tower room, we can hope that the rest of the country will soon follow. 

Bipolar Attraction International Debut

Hey everyone, it's been a while since the last post...I've been working on a few lo-fi jams in the meantime that I'd like to share with you!

Thanks to my sis' for supplementing the latest track with her beautiful vocals!

More to come soon - the summer has indeed doused me with inspiration.

Golden Opportunity

Last weekend I was on my way to a friend’s apartment. As I turned onto State Street I saw a couple people walking a golden retriever and headed my way. Being a dog person (especially fond of golden retrievers) I asked

“Hey, can I pet your dog?!”

Owner: “Sure, do you have any dogs?”

Me: “ Yeah, I actually have a golden retriever also.”

We started talking about our pets, and at some point during this dialog my attention was drawn away from the golden retriever and to the owner, where I did a double take. The owner was a stunningly attractive girl.
I would have liked to continue the conversation, but her friend (completely forgotten at this point) seemed eager to continue their walk. So we parted ways without so much as an exchange of names. If I ever see “Golden Retriever girl” again I would really like to ask her out to coffee.

Opportunity missed.

Some opportunities I missed and some I took advantage of, but it was walking along the sidewalk that afforded me these opportunities. I believe if I walk long enough more chances will come, so I encourage you to metaphorically start walking.

P.S. Does anyone have advice about anything different I should/could have done? I felt like it would have been weird if I had asked for her phone number since I had never met her before.

Take that, gas guzzling automobile!

...now I just need a plug-in hybrid.

Official Blog Ditty (free music=)

Hey everyone!

It's time to unveil our official blog ditty (below, below).  We hope you like it because it was quite an ordeal writing and recording this thing.  Seriously haha.  If you can't get enough, download it by clicking here!

Later,
Tyler

Psychic Ant Predicts Germany Win

Big news! Conclusive evidence that Germany will come out of tomorrow's world cup semifinal matchup the big "Weener" against favorites Spain:

Click for High-Res Version

This pick surely trumps the nonsense out there that has the sporting world convinced Spain will defeat the Germans.

Holiday Adventure in Capac

Like most people I decided to spend this 4th of July weekend with my family. Home, for me, is a 8 miles outside a little town called Capac. It is about as far as you can get from life in Ann Arbor and still stay in the state of michigan. From the middle of a college town to the middle of nowhere, the weekend was full of adventures with my family and neighbors.

Adventure July 3rd. My brother cousins and I are lighting off some preliminary fireworks in our drive way, when we see a huge plume of smoke in the distance. My cousins and I take off running across the field and through some weeds to check it out. We stop just short of the tree line on the other side of the field, where we are able to see a massive bonfire twenty feet tall. Realizing it wasn’t a forest fire we quickly left because we were in fact trespassing.

Lost in Translation (Capac)
Neighbor- A person or persons living within a mile or so (walking distance) of your residence.

Drive way- A gravely stretch at least 150 feet long and sometimes reaching ¼ of a mile.

Weeds- Plants of an aggressive nature reaching a minimum of four feet in height

Summeresolutions

Roughly six months ago, when the world semi-simultaneously flipped a decade, billions of people did two incredible things. Firstly, they counted backwards from ten while being moderately to severely buzzed. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, they set their sights on the new year, the clean slate of a fresh era, and collectively pledged to make themselves better. How inspiring it was to shake ourselves free from memories fond and forgettable, to focus on the dropped crystal ball and the optimistic future within.

Whether we've followed through with those resolutions uttered ages ago or not, a half-year lays ahead, leaving time aplenty to make a change, live a dream, and embark on our declared adventures. It is time to renew and realign our promises to ourselves - Summeresolutions!

Here in the apartment, Ian and I made a resolution to run a 10-mile route around Ann Arbor. Last week, I felt physically unprepared and mentally freaked-out, since Ian told me how marathon runners finish races shorter in stature than when they begin. I'm 5' 7" tall, and really can't afford to lose precious centimeters. Despite the serious risks the run could potentially impose on my game, we went for it. We marked our heights on sticky notes on the front door and began playing mythbusters.

I received my first cramp at mile marker 0.5, experienced bouts of sobbing hysteria a half-mile later, and we got lost three miles in. Aside from a possible big foot sighting, the rest of the run was smooth, and even scenic at times. And by smooth, I mean that I could feel my vertebrae compressing with each impact and that the emotional distress I was in overshadowed any actual pain.

Finally, having conquered the adversity of ten pounding miles, we returned to our apartment. Before celebrating our triumph, I kicked off my shoes and slammed by back to the front door. Ian's grim look told me I didn't even need to gaze at the mark. I was a full centimeter shorter than 1.5 hours prior. Ian also posted a statistically less-significant loss in height.

Myth Confirmed: The run was free, but it cost Mark a dime.

Was I scared? Yes. But after a good night's sleep, I came to a few realizations. Running 10 miles is sort of like living a decade. Even though you face setbacks 1/20th into it, get lost along the way, or run into dangerous mythical beasts, you must press on and push through. When I woke up, I returned to the post-it note and noticed that I recovered my lost dime and then some - I was at the top of the note!

Aim high and keep it up - you'll come out a bigger man.