Everyday Life at Phi Delta Theta!

This week I’ve decided to do a piece on Fraternity rooms at Phi Delta Theta. I’ve gotta admit that one of the reasons I joined a fraternity in the first place was the fact that you could make a room however you like. Want a sweet loft in your room? Make it! Want a swinging bed? Do it! Best friends with the guy in the other room? Make a door! You get the point I hope.

The sweet thing about fraternity life is that you can do that without getting in trouble with the RA’s or having your landlord take your security/damage deposit as a punishment. Obviously don’t join a fraternity for this reason, but you’ll never have another opportunity in your life (unless you are like ass rich) to blatantly lower the value of your room through personalization without any sort of financial repercussions!

Anyway’s, depending on popularity, I might make this into a series and go through everyone in the house but for now I’m going to do mini-MTV cribs-esque tours of certain guys in the house! We’ll start with us seniors, Me (Austin), Joe the president, and Tako/Josh. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

JOE!!!

Welcome to Joe’s room (ignore the heart, they’re from girls from valentines day =P)

Sweet air conditioning (the only one in the house) box spring and mattress on the floor, minimalistic beauty.

Nice lil bookcase full of complex scientific books!

The only remaining built in closet in the whole house. Niiiice!

Big bro paddles…tiny tv, white boards, and postits for remembering complex physics equations…

Computer desk, a little WOW maybe??

Tako!!

Amazing door poster found someone in the house….Adorned with tako chip bag cut outs! Great styles taks.

Nice lil papa san (tako started it), a sweet curtain that I lack, you can also see the bed in the back of the room. Mattress on the floor, simple. Clean! Sugoi Tako.

Tako and his “big rig”. Amazing 24 inch lcd from dell, the sweet dell flexilamps, Joshua Svidriface. Beautiful, just astonishingly GORGEOUS!!

Fridge full of healthy snacks, awesome sound system, nice lil 360 there in the back. Nice work tako, looks familiar.

Wow, after all that intense stuff you’d expect a break when looking at the clothing corner but no such luck. If you look closely you can see the towel that tako uses on his RIPPED body after showers. Lucky!!

Austin

My favorite X-Man on my door! Thanks HUB free color poster printing!

My sweet Ikea “Beddinge”, my sweet TV, my life plans on the left, movie posters galore!!

Extended view of the picture above…

I copied tako and got a popa san. Best decision ever! My cork board, my clothing racks, and whatever!

My computer station. Very comfortable workplace, I’m actually siting there right now at this very moment! Spectacular!

Well there you have it you all! Some rooms in the house! I love living here and I love customizing my rooms when I first move in. Its like a tetris challenge cramming all the stuff you want in your room in there and have it look good an be comfortable and its so much more “nice” living in it knowing you did it all yourself (or with your Frat bros!!)

Let me know what you think of the post and maybe I’ll continue the series!

My favorite Beer: Mac and Jack’s African Amber

Hi all,

You probably don’t know this but I’m actually a huge fan of beer! Last year I even considered starting a small home brewing company and creating my own beer but this idea was rather short-lived as I was still fraternity president of a DRY fraternity! I may still do this someday and I’ll keep you posted for sure! Anyways….As I’ve progressed through the last 4 years of University I have gone through an immense number of different beers and recently I’ve finally gotten a very firm idea of what the best one is…

First though! Let’s go through and see the history – These are all the different beers that I would consider important in my life. They’ve treated me well through the years, we’ve had some damn good times, and well, their not all top tier, but they all hold a special place in my heart….

Budweiser – Can’t go wrong with the king. This is the first beer I had at my buddy Jake’s cabin where I officially got drunk for the first time. It was a fun time. Never liked the taste all that much and don’t like to just drink this the whole night ever, still good though!

Budlight – I love Bud light. You can almost never go wrong having a cold one of these and they are available pretty much anywhere. Sounds a little weird but I would even prefer one of these over a Heineken!

Keystone - Ahh freshmen year…. You can get 24 16oz cans of these at the Dawg pound for like 11 bucks… The official “frat party” drink, pretty watered down but still tastes pretty good (progressively better if you get my drift).

Don’t be fooled, Keystone is never in a glass….

Natural Ice – See above…

MGD - Pretty good tasting beer. I really liked this stuff my sophomore year and I’d often just buy a forty of this and hang out but it was replaced by the following beer.

Mickey’s - Absolutely positively my second favorite beer. I love this stuff (only as a 40oz) and I’ve had a lot of good times with this particular beer. I know its “malt liquor” and therefore “not classy” but shit, it tastes great, it’s cheap, enough said. One bad thing: bad gas the next morning.

Alaskan Amber – My girlfriend bought me a six pack of this for my birthday. Super meaningful because she usually doesn’t like me drinking beer but she made me a delicious 3-restaurant picnic and a 6 pack of beer. What a darling! She knows the way to my heart! I still keep one of the bottlecaps in my car to remember!

HG800 – Also known as bum piss. This shit is digusting and probably the strongest beer that I’ve ever dranken. Drinking a 40 of this is almost like drinking 2 40s. Even at the height of my “drinking career” back a 2 years ago i thought this stuff was disgusting. My friend Xuan once drank some of this and got hives the next day….. and yet we always seemed to keep drinking it…….interesting…

The WINNER: Mac and Jack’s African Amber: Word’s cannot describe how delicious this beer is. I’m actually not like some sort of expert on all the fineries of tasting or drinking beer but I can just say that I love the taste! It’s REALLY like those beers where in the commercials the guy comes home has a beer and is instantly relaxed. It’s a strange but awesome feeling and I feel kinda like I’m finally starting to understand what the fuss is about with enjoying beer instead of just drinking for the sake of it. I think this particular beer is a local favorite or something so definitely go to a bar or restaurant and try it out!! It’s MONEY!!!

There you have it! A beer documentary from someone who loves his beer! Have a great mother’s day everyone! I’d appreciate comments as usual and btw, Go have a beer in the sun!

Beer by Reel Big Fish

Life at Microsoft! An update on my career…

Hi everyone, I was looking through the various categories in which I blog things today and I realized my career path has long been missing from this blog. Interestingly enough, I actually started this blog initially with the intent of documenting my career as I progressed through it in a really interesting time in my life (latter half of college) so I’ve decided to dedicate this post as a update to my career for those of you who don’t know yet.

I have been working at Microsoft for the last 6 months doing an internship in Microsoft IT. I began January 2nd 2007 actually so I’ve only actually been there for like 4 months with about 2 months to go. The internship has been a lot of fun, I’ve learned a HUGE amount about how large companies work as well as in regards to the work I actually do there which I’ll get into in a sec. I get to interact with a lot of extremely smart people everyday, the intern program here is very well developed, my manager and mentor are both awesome and very supportive, my team is super cool and very experienced and kind people, and my office mate Alex is an awesome dude as well. I have a lot of fun working at Microsoft, a lot more fun than I originally thought I would actually and it’s been a rewarding experience getting praise for the stuff I produce.

To be a little more specific, I work for the IT Showcase group. It is a content developing group within Microsoft that Showcases the stories of Microsoft best practices and dogfooding lessons learned. I do process optimization within the team which is pretty useful for any group as there are always redundancy issues in any large organization.

In terms of the future, Microsoft is definitely one of the companies that I am looking to work for, I’ve had a really positive experience in the environment, it’s been challenging but a great experience nonetheless.

Hmm, I guess I’m not really sure what other stuff to write about here? Please leave some comments if you have any curiosity about what I do or anything!!

God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You by ‘NSYNC

Funny Video Tuesday!

Here’s some of the funnier videos I’ve come across in the the last couple days…

This is a spoof on the Behind the Music series on Vh1 about Luigi, the neglected brother. Pretty clever!

This is the funniest commercial I’ve seen in a while! Spider-Man working his way into our everyday lives. Excellent.

Lol…
Super Mario Bros. by Andrew Chae

Just went Running with my MOM!

I literally just got back from running for like an hour and a half with my mom around trains outside my house. Freaking awesome workout and damn, she is one healthy woman. She’s got like 30 years on me and is still killing me running up hill and barely behind me on flat ground. I hope I can remain that healthy when I’m her age. Good work mother.

The last 90 minutes…

Here’s one of my favorite running songs, actually one of my favorite songs in general…
Listen To Your Heart by D.H.T.
Its got that nice piano!

First Album Review! Rhapsody’s Front Page Tori Amos!

Hi everyone. I’ve been thinking to myself lately about the amount of exposure I get to outside influences of the artistic sort. Ever since I did PROJECT X (I’ll do a post on it later) I’ve been really inspired by a few of my fraternity brothers who are much more musical than I to let myself have more exposure to the “artsy fartsy” side of the world. What I mean by this is that I want to start listening to more different kinds of music and maybe reading more creative writing or looking at art or something. Ok, so I dont really know what I’m going to do precisely just yet but I figure it doesn’t get as easy as listening to an album of something I’ve never heard or heard of before.

Rhapsody does this cool thing on their home page where they have this fancy slide show thing that shows their newest and most featured artists and albums and tracks and stuff. I have NEVER actually used this but today, right now, I decided to click on what is most unappealing to me…Tori Amos… I have no idea who she is or what kind of music she makes so I figure, lets do it! Lets go!!@@!

Tori Amos – American Doll Posse

So in a nutshell (thanks to Rhapsody) this is some background info on Tori Amos.

“Tori Amos is a songwriter in the classic ’70s sense. Creating meaningful, emotional songs that incorporate acoustic guitar, piano, and strings into elaborate and evocative compositions, Amos’ fragile voice carries with it all the strength, emotion and sensuality her intelligent, poetic lyrics allow. Her complexity as an artist comes from her ability to display womanly vulnerability and subvert it with raw sexuality and intimidating, thick-skinned ire, embodying it all with startling honesty.”

I guess this is all true as the melodies are elaborate and evocative so to say, but the key question is, Do I like it? The answer is No, not really. Too bad too because I usually like what I listen to but in this case the music is just a little too “bouncy” and erratic for me to really enjoy listening to in my everyday life.

Example : Bouncing off Clouds by Tori Amos

Its not really good for relaxing, dancing, or working out to. There are a couple good slow tracks on this album…

Digital Ghost by Tori Amos …

Anyways, I listened to a bunch of the other songs and they pretty much all rubbed me the same way so I think I’ll pass on Miss Tori Amos next time I have the opportunity to listen to her music – Fat Slut by Tori Amos

Still though, I think this a good first new step in opening my eyes to more creativity and such in my life. Its nice that with Rhapsody I’m able to listen to all these things that are recommended by professionals and all for free and unlimited so I don’t have to download a bunch of software or buy a bunch of stuff for music I’m not wholly committed to. Thanks Rhapsody!

I’ll leave you with one of the better songs on the album….Good feeling, sad feeling?
Father’s Son by Tori Amos

Spider-Man 3 – The Review of the Century!

Hi! So today I’m going to talk a bit about my feelings on Spider-Man 3. Almost all of Phi Delta Theta fraternity went to the IMAX with me on midnight opening night and it was a fantastic time. We all got pretty good seats and the theater was totally packed with Spidey Fans. All in all it was a pretty awesome night but thats not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to review Spider-Man 3 the movie.

Before I get started, lemme give a little background information. I HATE it when people give really critical and negative reviews not because I don’t like to hear it but rather because it seems so pointless to give out a blanket statement that the masses are supposed to read and take into account when deciding to see a movie. Movies are kind of like music in some respects, how the heck are you supposed to review something when everyone on earth is going to have a completely different feeling and background going in? I guess it’s tough but a necessary thing.

Anyhow, I believe MY opinion in particular matters when it comes to a Spider-Man review because I have loved Spider-Man ever since I was a tiny kid. When it comes to comic movies a lot of non-readers look to me for my interest level in order to determine how excited they themselves should be. In other words, comic fans are thought/opinion leaders when it comes to comic related movies. With that being said, this is my OPINION on the movie.

Spider-Man, unlike X-Men maintained a fantastic director throughout the trilogy and has long been praised as the best comic book movie series in the history of comic movies. I tend to agree with this as Spider-Man focuses on the individual man’s struggles in the everyday world (paying taxes, girlfriend issues, school etc) so more people can relate to it. So without further Adieu (or however u spell that) I give you my review of Spider-Man 3 (SPOILER ALERT)…

The VA Tech Shooting

I’m writing a bit of a delayed response to the shooting in VA Tech mainly because I prefer to avoid knee jerk responses to the things that happen around us.

Now before I go on I want to say that I’m sure that theres millions of other posts out there and I don’t presume to bring any new opinions to the scene or anything, nor do I think that is the point. Instead I just want to put into words my own opinions on this whole matter, whatever that may be.

Cho Seung Hui was a deeply troubled person and for reasons we’ll probably never understand he went on a rampage and killed 32 totally innocent victims. That much has happened and will never change. What has happened already is just that, already happened. The best we can do is be respectful to the victims, their memories and their families, offer as much support as humanely possible, and never ever forget what happened.

There will be plenty of people (ahem Jack Thompson, I’ll post about that later) who will want to knee jerk and blame it on something or make some drastic change or point our collective fingers at some innocent scapegoat.

It’s easy to do this but what I think we should do instead is take a look at ourselves as a nation, ourselves as family members, or even individuals and see if we are living or at least TRYING to live the healthy/fulfilling life of virtue. I don’t like to use the word virtue too much because for me at least it brings up this heavenly image of an angel or something which is really not really realistic. But words like, hope, charity, fortitude, patience are the kind of things I want to be living my life by. We are all in control of ourselves at least and no one in this world can stop you from living with your head held up high knowing that you follow these virtues. I feel like less people will be so filled with despair and hate that they would do such a horrendous act if they lived their lives with virtue.

Also I think this is an interesting quote:

Chris Rock: [On the US school shootings] Everybody is wanting to know what music were the kids listening to, or what movies were they watching. Who gives a fuck what they was watching! Whatever happened to crazy? What, you can’t be crazy no more? Should we eliminate crazy from the dictionary?

Well thats all I got.

Crawling by Linkin Park Tribute Band

Mario in a whole new light…

Another great video found on youtube. I cracked up when I saw this….

This is quite possibly one of the cleverest videos I’ve seen on the web and definitely full of minijokes, which is niiiice…

Enjoy

This song reminds be about drugs….
Where Is My Mind? by Pixies

A few more photos of my life

Hi everyone, I thought I’d share some more photos from my everyday life from now on now that I have my sweet new method mentioned last post!

Most of these are from a recently BBQ at Phi Delt’s Wednesday BBQs (we have one every Wednesday all throughout spring quarter rain or shine). Enjoy!

Magnificent HEAD of the evil GI Joes.

Awwwwww! What a cute Baby!

Jason as Anchor Spash Rock Star. Noice. Clothing by Tyler.

Jason as Anchor Splash Borat. Niiice. Where did all the props come from???!?

Look Familiar? Look Above….

I love this show…
Superman by Lazlo Bane