Good week since last. Doing the work thing, always fun and crazy. Tried and Indian food and hookah which were both great. Drank with my family Saturday after working the All-Star FanFest. Sunday bought clothes and met Don Mattingly who was signing autographs at Foot Locker. Then hung out with David and Franco, More work this week, hopefully flies by.

-Mikhail

Man its been a good two weeks since last post. Working at The Door has never been as great as this year. Definitely alot more grateful for it since working at a certain designer's daughter's store. I went to Economy Candy, and to Katz's for some pastrami. Needless to say great fuckin afternoon. Friday saw the fireworks, which was bad ass surprisingly. Saturday at Vice's brothers' graduation bbq, which was great as well. I'm hoping I get paid this week, considering I really need to get some paper flow.

-Mikhail

I've had a nice week off since leaving Dylan's. I'm well rested, my legs and feet don't hurt as much, and mental stability has returned. I finished MGS4 last week, not much after my last post. Snake can finally rest like I have the last week. On Wednesday I went to the Penn State Communications mentoring thing at the Hearst Tower. It's a beautiful building there and got to see one of my favorite people there which was nice. Went to the museum and drank with the jerks on Saturday, good times of course. Tomorrow I go back to where I'm supposed to be the Door. I got a very busy summer ahead, so it should be interesting.

-Mikhail

Tomorrow's my last day at Dylan's, which is great. Got my PS3 on Thursday with David. MGS4 is just spectacular. I'm almost done with it I think and the story is coming together nicely as usual. On Wednesday I get to go to the Hearst Tower for a speed mentoring deal for communications majors at Penn State. That should be interesting. Football tickets on sale tomorrow morning so looking forward to that.

-Mikhail

Its my last full week at Dylan's and I start off closing Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off and the rest of the week work 1-10. Death Cab and Rogue Wave tomorrow night, very excited. Sneaking out on Thursday, whether its in the wee hours or just before noon.

-Mikhail

Last week needless to say was really up and down. I discovered my absolute hate for working at Dylan's because its just straight up creepy to spend the day in. The hours have been really exhausting especially since I closed both Friday and Saturday. During those two days though I got to talk more with a couple of my coworkers, both can understand my desire to leave (one of which actually is around the same time I am). That's what kind of sucks about it because for the most part everyone there is pretty chill. Anyway, today I went to the Door to get a gist of this year's plan. I'm definitely excited about that as always, so it makes me more anxious to get the next two weeks out of the way. Less than 11 days til MGS4, wooooooooooo! Oh yeah, observation for the week: what is this new fascination with Avante Garde?


-Mikhail

Interesting week since last post. Went to see DeVotchKa on Tuesday night, which was amazing. Immediately prior to that I got a call to come in and work at Dylan's Candy Bar. Started on Wednesday, worked crazily Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Its not a terrible job at all, but it really isn't my type of thing. I'm gonna stick with it until its time to work at the Door so I can get MGS4 woooooooo and pay off other miscellaneous debts. In the meantime I can tell tales of customers I've had.

So here's one: This chick is standing at bulk candies in front of the Sour Patch Kids.
Me: Need some help?
Lady: Do you guys sell individual flavors of Sour Patch Kids, I need the red ones?
Me: No, you know we do have the Sour Patch Cherries.
Lady: Yeah, I saw those, but my boyfriend only likes the red Sour Patch Kids. He'll buy a pack eat the red ones and throw them out.
Me: Okay, you have fun with that.

-Mikhail

Beginning of week 2 of Summer of SIH!! The OCHO. Nothing really going on as you could suspect. Thursday I applied at Dylan's Candy Bar, some crazy candy shop on 60th & 3rd, interview went well so I hope to hear back. Afterwards bought Craig Ferguson's book Between the Bridge and the River read the first couple chapters and looks to be something good to read for the summer. Saturday had my first driving lesson, which wasn't too bad at all. Driving is fricken hard though, alot of things to consider when making any move at all. Hopefully in 6 lessons I know enough to pass the test and be on my way to drive around. Just heard from Greg about plans for the summer, so if I'm unemployed still by the end of the week, I might be getting an early start on that.

-Mikhail

Well, its great to be back home. Of course the way I officially know I'm home is when it only takes me 10 minutes to put shoes on, find the downstairs key and money and buy a slice of pizza and come back. I'm more than happy to be done with this year. This was definitely the toughest year ever because I missed out on a lot of good times. Whenever I saw my friends from last year they were easily the highlight of that week. It sucks that now most of them decided not to go to University Park, but I know I'll be seeing them during football season and other times.

On another note, I think this is gonna be a great summer. I've seen the people that I can see for now and thats the best way to start the vacation. Hopefully tomorrow, I can go get my driving lessons on while looking for work. I need some serious money this summer so that I can get MGS4 and PS3, new phone, new TV maybe, and pay off my credit card before going to University Park.

Good Times Ahead,
-Mikhail

Holy shit, I don't think I've ever been as sick as I've been this week. Officially I have an upper respiratory infection, which implies that not only is my throat all sore, but my nose and surrounding upper respiratory areas are all fucked up. I'm now trying to irritate my sore by gargling a simple saline solution and drinking highly acidic orange juice. I'm hoping my reverse psychology works because it really sucks. Only 2 weeks left of class and a few finals and i'll be home in 3 weeks time.

-Mikhail

I'm so sick of this place, it has really taken a toll on me mentally and physically. Last week I had to work on two major papers and study for a quiz that I was actually sick. Sure it was my usual change of weather sick, but it was really just pounding me bad. I saw a buddy of mine today from last year that unfortunately due to lame circumstances couldn't come back to school this year. He saw me and said "Mikhail, I'm glad to see you! You're like one of the most chill people I've ever met." I wish that were still true, but too many things here really make that impossible. There are some people, there are some rules, this place in general just is here to ruin your day and with proper combination of each it definitely will. And you know how they say things get better with time, well in this case its not because you get used to it, its because there's a time limit fortunately. My new situation at University Park is less than 5 months and I'm lucky enough to know that its not a drag on you, but rather enhancing. Classes are gonna suck already for me, but at least a friendlier atmosphere is there to keep from dreading them. Oh well, 5 weeks to go before I become a workaholic again.

-Mikhail

UPDATE!

So I'm working on this project for sociology, that is ridiculously difficult in that I never meet with my group. It always involves several exchanges of emails and text messages the day before a project or presentation is due. Its cool though, our group does the best at all of these things. Anyway, I've been playing MLB 2K8 lately, which is possibly the most frustrating video game ever. Their pitching interface is pretty innovative, but one would hope that when putting this in it'd be at least near perfect. After looking through the 2K forums I of course found I was not the only one with this problem and someone put up a very helpful diagram. Since seeking this advice I've won 4 of my last 5, with 3 shutouts and the other win taking a no hitter into the 8th inning before tossing a meatball that goes over right field.

7 to go.

-Mikhail

Here's an interesting article about joke-stealing.

Oh and me? Alive, eight weeks left in this hell-hole...can't complain.

-Mikhail

Here's an interesting video.

Spring Break coming up Thursday. I'm very excited about seeing my family again and going to Stony Brook to hangout with the jerks. I'm probably gonna go back next Thursday since allegedly I'm hanging out with some chick I've been meaning to meet up with for a while. This would be alot easier if this place had more housing or if I was more mobile. Anyway gotta get through anal-rape Wednesday (one with 3 scrumptious tests) and Thursday. Oh yeah, hopefully MLB 2K8 comes tomorrow, that should pass the time.

-Mikhail

You know...February wasn't at all too bad. My weekends this month have been incredible. On Saturday the ninth I went to New York with Katie and she ended up meeting my folks and the jerks as well. The Saturday after that we went to the University of Pennsylvania for our district conclave. It was great to meet brothers from other chapters and learn about what they do in their chapters. This weekend of course was THON 2008. Just like last year it was amazing, but this time the dancers were people I have been friends with for a good part of my college career. Me and Micah decided to spend the night at Bryce Jordan Center instead of going to the hotel, which was crazy because we really were like the dancers and had no idea what time it was. We did the line dance many times, sung and danced to songs we sure as hell knew we hated (my favorite being Adam suffering through "Blue") and met cool people such as my potential neighbors next semester and Gwen, who I'll refer to as "Micah's friend". Another great Penn State weekend.

-Mikhail

This Texas Ranger Doesn’t Play Baseball

With the rise of the Internet no one person has been given hero status more in the past three years than Chuck Norris. Before I became familiar with Chuck Norris in his current form, I found myself in one of the many dojos where he practiced in Harlem. His hero status has been assumed since he started appearing in his own feature films during the 70s where he of course roundhouse kicks fiends and takes names. In the 80s he had a cartoon show where he lead a team of a couple of kids and a helpful sumo wrestler pal fighting a crazy ninja and some dude with a freakish golden claw. In the 90s Chuck was Walker, Texas Ranger, who was fighting crime (while selling home gym systems at that) when Texas was having some serious issues apparently…for eight years too. Well in this decade Chuck Norris is now a supernatural being that until about two months ago, was greater than God.

One characteristic of the rise of Chuck is his continuous gain of power, which of course was helped by immense training, but was enhanced with the powers of his facial hair. The rise of this hero starts with a really big fall inn a fight scene with Bruce Lee. Not only does Bruce Lee beat him to death, he had hair ripped right off of his chest! In the 1980s he had a mustache while fighting ninjas in The Octagon. While on his Texas Ranger stint he had a full beard hiding another fist. Back to the Bruce Lee fight, no mustache...just wimpy sideburns.

In 2005, Chuck Norris became a phenomenon once again because people were learning more and more about what a brute, unforgiving force he was to humans, nature and pretty much the entire universe. Our beloved crime fighting Texan was not only striking fear into the eyes of criminals, but everything alive…maybe even dead in some cases. The Chuck Norris facts became an amazing hit and of course Chuck Norris being the man he is acknowledged the jokes and was willing to laugh at his own awesomeness.
Unfortunately it was time for another fall, when Chuck Norris decided to show that maybe God actually does have more power than what Chuck Norris gave to him. He began running ads to promote Bible study in schools, which of course to many shows that Chuck Norris may be a God fearing man, but he can snap your neck faster than you can blink. In late 2007, he sued a book publisher for releasing a book of the mythological Chuck Norris facts, which of course makes the threat of “Don’t F*** with Chuck” true because he’ll sue your ass.

Well now that that’s taken care of Chuck Norris has teamed with Mike Huckabee in a line of ads including “Huck-Chuck” facts, which were of course “Chuck Norris Approved”. By the way, this paper would not exist had Harry Truman decided to use the atomic bomb instead of use Chuck Norris, since it was more humane.

-Mikhail

Man I'm tired. Next two weekends should be cool. UPenn next Saturday with the boys. THON the week after that. Good times.

-Mikhail

So yesterday I went to New York for the day and it may have been one of the best 12 hour spans I've been in the city. Our time in there started with my first ride on the PATH stopping at where else but the in progress World Trade Center hub, which is a crazy sight in that you are right in "Ground Zero" watching people build stuff there after the reckoning the Cloverfield monster did. We went to Chipotle's for lunch although it was the first meal for most of us. Then we went canning at our respective spots having initially moderate success. We took a break and went our separate ways for the most part. I ended up going home where I had a nice hearty meal and then took a nap only to wake up to my brother playing Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest on a N64 emulator. Six o'clock hit so I went back to meet up with the others. As it should be no surprise to anyone, cluster-fucked weekend service left us waiting at each stop while "traffic" cleared. We finally met up at Times Square where the characters finally started to appear including my favorite "I GOTTA SLEEP, GOTTA EAT, GOTTA SHIT, GOTTA COOK BREAKFAST MAAAAAAAAAN." While trying to figure out our next canning locale, we heard about a bar that serves as an underground Penn State Alum spot. We head down there and low and behold you can spot a banner that says "Welcome All Penn State Nittany Lions" We imediately think this is incredibly awesome and that about ends the trip. The entire time (especially after leaving my folks place) I thought that soon enough this is how life's going to be for me. Whether it'll be other trips to day trips to New York from school or after graduation, when I'm living far from my current home and just stop by to say "Hi!" to my family. Also this day helped to give me an idea of where to find fellow Penn Staters after my time at State College is done. Best Saturday so far this year and definitely top 10 lifetime.

-Mikhail

Friday night we had our usual brotherhood development starting at TGI Fridays and then at this pool hall. As we were leaving we decided to go to my friends place to just hangout some more. On the way there our newest brother Steve turned on his GPS to take us on our way over there. The GPS kept implying that we go straight ahead for about 6 miles, when our first and only possible turned was a little more than a block down. We took the only route we could go still "following" the GPS. After a couple of more turns out of our alleged way, Steve decided to restart the thing. So he did put in the destination and the same map came on. He looks through again and somehow then realizes that it was running on demo. Before he realized that we ended up on the right road that takes us straight to school on a complete stroke of luck.

-Mikhail