Jesse says...

I’m going tonight… anyone else gonna be there?

Well, all in all, I had a pretty great Memorial weekend. Hannah and I spent much time hanging out with our friends — poker Saturday night, dinner party on Sunday. We ended up seeing both Iron Man and Indiana Jones, and made a trip out to the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market, which lead to getting some much needed gardening done at the house. As anyone who happened to talk to me or watch any local news knows, the town I live in got hit by a pretty severe tornado. I wasn’t home, and so had no idea what the state of my place was, but Hannah came up with the brilliant idea of calling the gas station by my house, which let us know that everything was fine. So, all in all, not too bad of a three day weekend :)

18. The only thing that would make you happier than the demise of IE6 is world peace.

It just gets bigger and better every year — this time at the U of M’s Coffman Union! I hope to see you there Saturday, May 10th!

So, there is a little meme going around with my friends about the songs that have most infiltrated their brain over the past year. I thought I would play along too. These are that tracks that, for one reason or another, managed to find themselves on ‘Repeat 1′ on my iPod over the past 12 months… and they probably give you some insight into where my brain has been dwelling. Enjoy!

Outro Lado – Zuco 103
Oxygen – New Found Glory
Being Your Walls – Armor For Sleep
Chi City – Common
F-cking Boyfriend – The Bird And The Bee
Hi – Psapp
Gett Off – Prince
Rosetta Stoned – Tool
Calé Barí – Ojos De Brujo
We’ve Got Everything – Modest Mouse
All Falls Down – Kanye West
Zero-Sum – Nine Inch Nails
I’ve Been Thinking – Handsome Boy Modeling School
I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me – Fall Out Boy
Carolina – Seu Jorge
Hat In The Wind – themselves
Amortiguador – Andrea Echeverri
Lado Este – Sara Valenzuela
Pour Me Another – Atmosphere
Círculos – NXZero
Frontin’ (BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge Version) – Jamie Cullum

I might add, there were a few full albums that definitely made the rotation more than a few times: 10,000 Days by Tool, NXZero’s self-titled album, Coming Home by New Found Glory, Lado Este by Sara Valenzuela, From Under The Cork Tree by Fall Out Boy. I could have put the entirety of each of those albums on this list, but that would have just been excessive.

For those who have seen the recent status change on Facebook, or who have noticed that I’ve been smiling uncontrollably for the past few weeks — yes, the rumors are indeed true. I am seeing an amazing, intelligent, wonderful, compassionate, empathetic, passionate, deep, introspective, hilarious, perceptive, cute, romantic, extraordinary, cultured, inspiring, attentive, sensual, appreciative, liberal, open-minded, wise, creative, generous soul by the name of Hannah. She is… unbelievable. Really, truly. I have no idea how we found each other, but I am so thankful that we did.

I did a little illustration for my buddies Ensemble Productions and their latest performance, Seven Santas. Jeff Goode, the playwright, liked the image so much, a theater troupe he’s associated with based in LA picked up the image for their own performance. And you know what? A Metromix posting for the play called my image “the best poster ever designed!“. Woohoo!

Today I was reminded about what a beautiful place Minnesota can be in winter. Last night, everything was covered with the most delicate dusting of snow which, throughout the evening, crystalized on all the trees to form the most brilliant, serene, elegant shell of sparkling ice I could imagine. I took a few photos, but none of these do justice to being in the moment.

Halloween, Alaska, a local Minnesota band, provided the soundtrack while driving into work and admiring how wondrous nature truly is.

Two things are on my mind right now as I’m getting ready for bed.

First of all, I really need to not be sick. I was sick, and then I got better, and then, literally a day later, I started feeling like crap again. Fricken winter and it’s dry air. I thought I was done, I thought my winter cold was complete… but no. I hope this ends soon, because I feel it moving into my ears and I do not want to spend the next week in a congested fog.

Secondly, I have a book sitting on my shelf, just begging to be finished. I stole Tanya’s copy of As Aventuras de Ngunga, because it was little and in Portuguese and I really need to practice reading real Portuguese sentences. I’m halfway through, and even though it’s small, I’m proud of the fact that I burned through the first half in such a short amount of time, because IT’S NOT IN ENGLISH. Granted, I looked up every 10th word in the dictionary, but I still consider that an achievement. Only 80 pages left… just waiting for me to read them. I need to get on that.

I was watching Saturday morning cartoons with my daughter today and came to an interesting realization:

The only functional difference between Tom & Jerry and Itchy & Scratchy is that Tom & Jerry just doesn’t show the blood.