Thoughts on the Vikings...

So going to school in Saint Louis, I haven't been able to watch many Vikings games, however, I did get to see the major primetime games...from what I've seen this year, I'm still not impressed.

I'm just gonna preface this with...I've been a Vikings fan for as long as I can remember, and I always will be, but as far as I'm concerned, we screwed ourselves over hard when we signed Childress to an extension.

If you look at our players...they are clearly not bad, not rebuilding like the lions (let me just say, that I'm also kinda a closet Lions fan...always have been). However, each of the games I've watched regardless of win or loss, we've simply been outcoached. Not just on offense (although that is a big part) but on defense as well. If you completely sellout to the run (both on offense and defense) that pretty much gives the other Coach a massive bullet to shoot you with on third down...

The only time I ever see the other team punt the ball is when the QB or RB makes a mistake, it's rarely a "good" defensive play that causes a punt.

On offense...I can give you the Vikings game plan...Run on first and second down...then pass on third if you aren't close enough to run...sure this may work some of the time, but lets be honest, half (or more) of football is having a strategy (and altering your strategy at halftime) to counter the other team.

I continually fail to see Brad Childress make these type of adjustments and/or good strategies in the course of the season.

People ask me if I'm excited for my team...don't get me wrong, I'll always cheer for them, but don't ask me to get my hopes up...not when Philly, GB, Arizona, New Orleans are all waiting in the playoffs (and I'm fairly sure we'll lose, even to GB, unfortunately)

K end of rant...

Summer Over...Return Trip Day 1

So...the summer is officially over for me, just doing the road trip back to the 'lou

I'm taking a slightly different route back this time. The first day wasnt too bad actually, mostly going 70-85 MPH

Went through Connecticut and NY, (and I really liked what I saw of Connecticut...very clean, upscale-ish)

Saw this sign at a rest stop in PA and it actually made me smile a little...


Also saw this sign...and reminded me of Scott's imitation Towel Fire profile pic...


The only bad part of the trip was being stuck in traffic because some idiots decided to do construction (even though there was no contruction at all...) on BOTH sides of the road....was stop and go for about an hour...

And lastly...for dinner, I was trying to find a steak house...but i'm literally in the middle of nowhere...so since i couldnt find one, i decided to use my dinner money on dessert instead....

Courtesy of Perkins!!! THEY DO EXIST OUTSIDE OF MN!!!


That's it for today...tomorrow, I'll be going to Cleveland to visit Lily and Jason!

Signing out from Danville, PA

~Matti

Just one reason my computer was so slow...

Pet Peeves

So I'm at work right now, and two of my pet peeves just happened...and I was so ticked off...I decided to blog about it

1) Who the hell doesn't know/follow the 1-3-5 Rule...So the bathroom here has like 7 urinals...So I got in, saw that there was no one there so I went to the farthest one, and was doing my business...then two guys come in...the first one went to the one closest to the door (and in my mind I was like...score, someone followed the rule!), but then the second guy walks all the way over right next to my urinal. As he unzips his pants or whatever he was doing, somehow he elbows me...freaking wouldn't have been a problem if he WENT TO ONE IN THE MIDDLE!!!

2) I'm walking back to my office, and I turn the corner in the hallway, and some women walks straight into me...SHE WAS WALKING ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE HALLWAY...you know...if everyone just walks on the right side of the hallway, then everything is good, no collisions, and I get to be nice and happy with my life...

OK midday rant done...I feel surprisingly better now...

Evening Edit:: How did this not get on this

Independence...

So what did I do for Independence Day (and the weekend)...I got to relax...well sort of...the thread of my tires was dangerously low, so I got new tires (and now I can actually drive safely in the rain)...but mostly just chilling out and resting...it was a good point to get a three (kinda four) day weekend...

I gotta give massive props to whoever designed the fireworks show over Boston Harbor...If you know me at all, I don't really care about Holidays and all the hoopla and stuff...but I watched the fireworks and it was very very well coordinated...not just the usual spheres being shot up, but different shapes, sizes, the timing was impeccable...made it seem like each and everything was scripted...I especially appreciated the finale...was very massive (to be expected) but it was all very deliberate...not just "oh lets just shoot everything we havent shot yet up at the sky and see what happens"

To sum it up...I was pleasantly surprised...

Now for decisions...i've got a little more than a month left in boston...should i go back to minn? or to st louis? Both choices have pros and cons....we'll see...interesting...

Hope you all enjoyed your fourth of july...

Time flies...when you're having fun???

Lol, don't worry guys, I'm not really..."having fun"

But I have been really busy lately...I can't believe I've been here in Lexington for 4 weeks...that is just a little ridiculous to me...

I've been really busy with work, and then coming home, and trying to rest and stay sane...the work that I'm doing...is a lot of research based, kinda like school work problems...which isn't the worst, but I just don't think that I can do this for a living...we'll see when that time comes...

The past four weeks have given me a lot of time to ponder about the future, where I should be next year etc...but whatever, only time will tell

So what have I been doing these 4 weeks? Well one thing that I've been doing is cataloguing all my pictures from this year... I'll share several of them with you

Catalyst Pics - Hike up the mountain



The Epic Fight of the Age...Fight to the Death, Guess who won...victory tease!!!

Catalyst Group Photo Takes 1 and 2, Look at Alan and Gary in the photos...;)

Catalyst Final Group Photo, Water Battles that ensue afterward...Gary...remember my mercy!


Random ACF Pics from 2008-2009
Charles being ridiculous, Lawrence being nice to Jeff....


Jeff enjoying a little too much, and Jiang wielding a gun???


Jiang in front of Poster, Melissa with something strange on her mouth....ask Alan...jk


My take on whats happening -- Kevin is not interested in whatever melissa is offering him
Introducing the freshmen to the Pointersaurus



Random Pics of Jeff! If you don't know where these are from, ask Jeff




Halloween, if you don't know the story, ask Chen or Charles, its worth asking...sorta




Random Pics
My mom wanted to buy me this shirt....not funny


After searching for a couple hours on today best thing.com we found this...


And LAST BUT NOT LEAST

If you see ALAN, make sure you repeat this phrase to his face "Ronon DIES!"

OK, if you made it this far, props to you...until next time
~Matti

Life...it flashed before my eyes....more than once

So my mentor came into my office yesterday and took one look at my work, told me I was working too hard, that it was the summer, and to take it easy...lol...so work should be a lot more surfing the web, and a lot less reading journal articles i guess...something doesnt feel right about that...

I drove into boston for dinner to celebrate my cousins graduation from Harvard. It was a really good dinner, but I drove a total of 11 miles...it took me 90 minutes to get there...thats a little less than 8MPH on average... on the way down there, I almost died 3 seperate times...

The first time, I was driving straight down a street (no stop sign or stoplight) and the cars on the cross streets ran through their stop signs and almost t-boned me...both of them...so it was good that I was paying attention and stopped...and then people behind me honked at me...for not going and getting killed...as Jerry would say...RIDICULOUS

Then the second time, a Semi basically merged into my lane, and saw me just in time...I kid you not, it was like maybe 3 inches from my sideview mirrors...

The third time, people were just being retarded and did the whole, I'm stopped, picking people up with my emergency lights on, then decided, oh nevermind I guess I'll just start driving, and almost drove straight into me as I tried to pass them...

I'm so sick of boston drivers...and for that matter pedestrians as well...

I thought it was common knowledge/decency to walk a little faster if you're in front of a car and they are waiting to pass...but no...people just stroll along like they dont care at all...taking their time and casually having a laugh at you waiting...

Living like a child...

My thought for the day...I'm OLD

Gone were the days where I could stay up till 3 or 4 (or maybe even 6), gone are the times where I could just do whatever I want, I'm supposed to be responsible, looking toward the future, trying to set goals and figure out where I want to work, where I want to settle down...

and then... I came back "home" to find a little 4 year old who seems to have no cares in the world except...where and what should I be playing with next???

Its was a great reminder to me (even in the least 1 and half weeks I'd forgotten) God's call to be like a child and enjoy life again...now I don't know where the balance is between this and going to work every day, but hopefully I can find that balance...

My cousin is graduating from Harvard!!! Major shoutout to Andrew! Congrats! So my mom is in town...hopefully we can (re)connect and have a good time throughout this week...and weekend...

A lot of people have been asking what I've been doing with my time...or what I've been up to...so far, its just been mainly focused on work...I've been trying to come home and just rest, not do too much outside of maybe playing with 4 year old Nathaniel for a little after dinner each night...

Then I do a little reading and then maybe some crafts...better than playing computer games at least...

Here's my latest craft, for Nathanael (notice the spelling) my baby brother...for his birthday and high school graduation

Front

and back

As for reading, I'm trying to decide where to start my devos, but I've been reading the Firebird trilogy, something that i bought way back in the day, and then only last year started reading again...I'm on the second book, out of three (duh...obviously since its a trilogy)...the series is a christian sci fi series written by the author of one of my favorite star wars books (...yes I'm a nerd I know)....but the premise is something like...what if God had created people on many different planets, how would God save the people then? Something like that, its hard to explain without getting the book, and its across the room from me at the moment :-P.

Until next time!!!

Matti out

The start of another week waking up early, and going to sleep before a godly hour...

The epitome of East Coast Driving (In my opinion): I was stopped at a red light, and the car going the opposite direction was also stopped and then the light turned green, and he waves at me and just turns left right in front of me...clearly they didnt have a left green arrow or anything, he was just impatient and saw a Minnesota drivers licence plate on my car, so he just went...its a good thing i wasnt ready to gun my engine like i usually do....So Ridiculous

In other news, I was in a lot of pain this morning, for like 3 hours, my butt really hurt sitting at my desk doing my work, I thought I was just really sore from random things, but then I went to the bathroom and found....a price tag....i have no clue how it got into my pants, but it was there in my pants making it extremely uncomfortable to sit down...

So now that you have had way too much information about my day, I'll log off for the day...the 4 year old that I'm staying with is hellbent (not really) on destroying my laptop, so I should hide it...until next time...

Week in Review...

So I've been lazy (actually the opposite of lazy) and havent updated, but heres the general gist of what I've been doing all week...

I never thought I'd say it, but I've been sleeping at 11-12 ish every night and waking up at 7:30AM. Going to work and watching background videos for 8 hours...then coming back exhausted. Very exhausted...but yeah, next week starts the real work, so hopefully it wont be as painful.

Here's a pic of new jersey as i drove through...and I swear it ALL looked like this...i swear!!! dirty factories...ridiculous


And this is my experience driving through New York...at like 2:30 on a SUNDAY (and btw...this is like the one second that you can't see any taillights lite up...)


I was planning on maybe going up to New York to visit people this weekend, but then decided to go to Nathaniel's Birthday Party.

Nathaniel is this cute little 4 year old that I'm staying with the summer. God worked in funny ways to provide me with housing this summer. Ask me about it some time...

But heres some pics of the party and also of my gift to him...

They played with the parachute and all hid under it (theres like 20 of them under there)


We were greeted at the door by Winnie The Pooh...I wanted to kidnap it and keep it for myself
The little kids got to play with the sprinkler stuff, I hate those things that fill with water and dump on you...just go play in a pool :PThis is my gift to Nathaniel...a Pochacco made with light blue (he picked the color...not knowing what it would be for)

That was my week and weekend, more updates to come...hopefully

Day 3, My hate of the east coast

Let me preface this post by saying, growing up in the midwest, I've come to like my life (and driving) a certain way. Even though I complain about slow drivers in Minnesota, driving in NY has really made me realize how nice it is to drive in the Midwest. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of today, because I was busy fearing for my life in my NON ANTILOCK BRAKES car while NY drivers constantly honked at me for going ONLY 15 MPH OVER the limit.

But it's ok....clearly I don't care so much. I'm just glad I'm alive. I survived the roadtrip!

Day 2, Mountains and Valleys (and lots of bridges)

Leaving Columbus Ohio, downtown

I was looking for gas, and I got lost in this lovely town somewhere in the middle of Ohio...Is that Jason's new apartment on the left???? jk...

Bridge to West Virginia

Tunnel Number 1

Tunnel Number 2

Tunnel Number 3

Tunnel Number 4

As I was driving throughout Pennsylvania, I kept seeing these signs, In my head I saw Alan in a fighter jet watching cars to see if they were speeding, and then shooting down those that were speeding...needless to say, I stayed close to the speed limit...;)

Road Trip Day 1

Indianapolis: Colts Stadium, from Drivers Seat













Welcome to Ohio!














I drove about 30 minutes behind these two guys in the pick up truck, they were making faces and laughing for my camera (The pic is kinda small, but the truck is under the Columbus OH sign)