Dig Out Your Soul

Oasis. December 10. Target Center. I’ve got tickets.

Oasis fan. Seen them a bunch. I’ve said it all before. I didn’t think I was going to get a chance to see Oasis this year, maybe early next year. After the attack on Noel in Canada earlier this month, I figured any chance of seeing the band this year was out the window.

I’ve had a couple vacation days in my pocket on the off chance I’d get to see them this year and wouldn’t you know it — they came through for me and announced a date in Minnesota. The last time I got out to see them I had to drive to Chicago in 2005. They haven’t stepped foot in Vikings country since the Tour of Brotherly Love back in 2002.

I ordered my tickets this morning and while they aren’t front row by any means, I’m happy with the seats I got. They’re comperable to the seats I had in Chicago a few years ago.

Keeping an eye on my birth place

I was digging around this whole Internet thing, looking up random stuff. I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of information I could find on the city of my birth, Frankfurt am Main in Germany. I found a site filled with live web cams. Kind of fun. Check it out.

The Office returns

It’s the fall television season again. Favorites like Chuck, Heroes, How Met Your Mother, My Name Is Earl and The Office are making their returns over the next few weeks. The Office will be recorded on my TiVo in just a few minutes. Oh and Grey’s starts up too. Thank TiVo for the duel tuner DVR.

Blog topics for the professional world

Keeping a blog going for more then two weeks is a rather daunting task for anyone really. As someone who writes for a living, coming home and posting to my blog can often be a little bit of a laborious task. I do it because I enjoy having the outlet whenever I want someplace to share my thoughts.

A few months back I started writing a blog for the Independent, part of my job. I have struggled ever since to come up with something that is actually worth blogging about. I don’t want to spend too much time blogging about what is going on in my cover area because this could reduce the amount of content I have for the print edition. I’ve written about technology but at the same time I have a semi-regular column that covers that topic.

I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago that really grabbed some attention by the readers. You can read it yourself and give me your two cents on it if you’d like. This post proved that people are at least semi-interested in what I have to say — even it’s just a chance to disagree with me.

There haven’t been as many obvious things to blog about since the RNC in St. Paul. I really haven’t had much to say on the site. Earlier today I realized that maybe I should try posting a “featured link” style blog. Give people ideas for Web sites that might interest them. What do you think, is this something that would grab readers attention? Let me know.

Already fallen behind on the NFL picks

Oi, so I had this big plan to actually try to keep up a weekly pick for this NFL season — something I’ve been meaning to do for years. But yeah after missing the first week, I jumped in on the second. I did pretty well, finishing with something like 9/15 — pretty stoked right?

So on Friday I had planned on going through and making my picks. That didn’t happen. I realized 10 minutes into the Vikings game that I neglected to actually make my picks. Of course the Vikes won, so I felt a little better about it.

At this point I’m wondering through if it’s work going through the motions week after week. It was a nice thought, but without some sort of competition attached to it — why bother?

Christmas in September

I was walking through one of the big box stores earlier today, perusing the electronics department looking at video games I can’t afford to buy at the moment when I noticed they were putting up Christmas tress.

Putting up Christmas trees in mid-september. More then three months before the holiday actually happens. This of course means that one-fourth of the year is dedicated to the Christmas season.

Remember when Christmas was one day, sort of stretched into two? Trying to get people in the Christmas spirit, one month before Halloween mind you, is a good way to delude the season and really make me want to say bah-hum-bug. I love Christmas, but for me the season doesn’t begin until after Thanksgiving.

Think of it this way. If you were to buy a live Christmas tree and put it up when these stores try to get us in the Christmas mood - it would dry and wither months before Christmas actually comes. Happy Holidays indeed.

Adele - Hometown Glory

I have had this song perpetually stuck in my head since I first heard it months ago. I finally picked up Adele’s album “19.” It is phenomenal. Enjoy a little “Hometown Glory.”

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

Tina Fey was amazing on Saturday Night Live. No matter who you’re going to vote for, this was the best impression ever done on SNL.

Summer coming to an end

It’s so cliche to say at this point but this year seems to be flying by. It’s already halfway through September. This has been a busy year at work. At the Independent we end each year with a round up of the ten biggest stories that have impacted our region. It’s going to be difficult to narrow it down to ten this year.

The obvious big story is the Cottonwood bus crash. It’s not an over statement to say the crash has had a massive impact on the region. We have also had a missing person, the resignation of a prominent CEO in Marshall and a number of other stories that in any other year would take top billing.

There are some bright spots to this year in the weeks ahead. A new Oasis album is “about to drop” as the kids say. A new Travis album is also waiting in the wings.

There is still a good chunk of the year to go, but the amount of things that has happened in just nine months is astonishing. It is an election year after all.

Speaking of election year, I had the oppertunity to briefly interview Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Friday. You can read my story on the Independent web site.