Quick Post

This weekend is full of stuff that needs to get done. Its also Halloween on Sun., but it dosen't look like there is going to be any partying. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

Happy Halloween!

To do List

Have you ever had one of those periods in your life when it seems like everything is happening all at once and you can't stop it? I mean, a person can go for months of just absolute boredom, when all of a sudden like lightning out of the blue the whole world falls in on top of you. Here's the list...

1. Work is getting more and more annoying by the day.
2. Its crunch time for Lettonia to get everything done so that by February when my dad comes to visit he can see me get my colors.
2a. I have a paper due on Monday.
2b. I have to learn to fence by the end of the semester
2c. I have to memorize 25 songs and the entire history by the beginning of next semester.
3. School is about to start up again.
4. Money is tight and payday isn't until Nov.
5. Halloween is this weekend and I haven't planned anything (mostly due to reason number 4)
6. Our landlady is coming on Monday and I haven't finished renovating the apartment.
7. The U.S. Elections are on Tuesday, but also due to reason number 4 nothing is planned.
8. I don't even have time to finish this post, So if I don't post for a while I'll be somewhere on this list.

Farewell Terre

Last night we had a kind of farewell dinner for Terre before he continues on his European tour to Bologna, Italy. We went to a Latvian restaurant called Mazie Baltie Krekli (Small White Shirts). Its the restaurant we take everyone when they come to visit. Lena's sister Elina came with us but didn't enjoy the restaurant, so afterwards we went to McDonalds, which only through, Terre did we find out that they are serving onion rings for the time being. Lena had a great time with Terre and it is a shame that we all couldn't have spent more time with him. I guess we'll just have to go visit him in Japan. He has a digital camera and as soon as I ask him for some pictures I'll post them for everyone to see.

Since my Last Post

Well this weekend was interesting. Friday after seeing Lena off at the train station I went to the Lettonia house which turned into a party...which turned into a night on the town...which turned into walking home...which turned into being sick all day on Saturday. I had a large amount of things to accomplish this past weekend and none of it got done. I don't think I'll be partying with my frat brothers again for a very long time. On Saturday, I went to see Terre's exhibition. He's a DJ, but has a movie that goes with the music so it is more of a show. After the show I ended up missing consecutive transports and had to walk home in the rain...again. It was not fun. On Sunday, I woke up early and cleaned the apartment a little before going to meet Terre to show him around Riga and grab some lunch. Later, Lena and her sister Elina came back from Madona. Elina is going to stay with us for a few days. I think she needs a break from Madona. Its rough being a 15 yr. old in a town where there are very few things to do. I showed pictures of Madona to Terre from a calendar we have hanging in our apartment and he said something that fits. "Its one of those places that most kids want to get away from, but that older people want to go back to". I guess Lena and I classify as older people.

The Weekend Ahead

Today Lena is planning to go to Madona for her sister's name day. I wish I could go, but Sat. night is Terre's concert/exhibition. I also have a lot of work to do on my Referats for Lettonia. It seems like November is going to be a full month. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll think of something. In other news the weather is supposed to be unseasonably warm in Riga this weekend, which of course means that I'm not going to be able to enjoy it. I also wanted to ask if anyone that reads this blog that might have experience working in a Deli to please contact me. I have a few questions relating to the Top Secret Project I'm working on. That's all for now.

Trivia

I found something else to keep you people occupied while reading my blog. There is a link that now stands in the sidebar that goes to a Trivia page where you can register, answer questions, and compare your results against the other people that answer. Right now the question pool is history and geography, but as soon as I figure out how to customize the pool I'll change it to be either more challenging or more interesting. I keep looking for new things to add to this blog as to make it more interesting for the people who visit. I don't know if it is working, but I'll keep trying.

Pictures and a Novel

I don't know if anyone noticed, but my picture hasn't been showing for the past few days. Well, if you have noticed I fixed it, and through fixing it I signed up for flickr so not only will my picture work now, but I will also, be able to post more pictures to my blog. I have many pictures of family and of trips around Latvia that I want to show everyone so hopefully I'll posting those sometime soon. In other blogger news there is a national novel writing challenge that will start Nov. 1 and blogger is offering to do it online for everyone to see. Basically you have to create a new blog which will be your novel and write everyday for a month. By the end of all that writing you should either have a novel or a pretty good idea for one. I don't know if I'm going to sign up for it, because I have many many other things going on right now and I barely have the time to post on my blog every work day. (I think I've just talked myself out of doing it). Anyway, that's all the news for now.

Riga's Music Museum

Today I saw the post for Terre's exhibition on Sat. Lena and I were walking to work this morning and passed by it. Lena said that the poster has been up for the weeks and is all over Riga. I don't know how I've missed it. Terre is my sister's husband's brother who lives in Japan and is a electronic music artist who made a film that he's going to show on Sat. at the Riga Music Museum. It should be a good time. Upon reading the website I'm very interested to see the film. It might be a good place to try out Audioblogger that I signed up for last week. I've been waiting to use it, but due to the fact that you have to make a call to California in order to record your message I've been waiting for the right moment. I'm not sure how much that's going to cost so I want to try it and then see how many times I'll be able to do post from my mobile phone without going broke. Here's the info (go to the bottom and click ENG for English) Lovebomb.

Sigulda

I know it has been awhile since I've posted, but don't worry everything is fine and I'm back and ready for more. My last post was Wed., so I'll do a small re-cap of what has happened since then. The big reason why I didn't post on Thurs. and Fri. was computer trouble. (Those computer eating giant bugs can really be a pain in the butt) The most eventful thing that happened since my last post was Sat. when Lena, I and several of her friends went to Sigulda (a city about 60 km (the number is larger in miles) outside of Riga). Most people go to Sigulda in the fall, because it is a great place to see the leaves change color, but Sat. was all overcast and cold. Even with the weather being far from good we had a great time. We walked around the old castles and saw a famous cave that has a whole bunch of signitures of people from the 19th century. After the walk we went to a place next to a lake for a campfire and a picnic. The place next to the lake was cold and wet, but that was all cured by a fire, some food, and I few bottles (wink, wink). A good time was had by all.

Soccer

Today is the World Cup qualifying match between Latvia and Estonia. Its being held in Riga and there are expected to be a few thousand Estonians crossing the border to support their team. Both teams have played well in the qualifying round and this game could be the deciding factor for either team to move on. There is a lot riding on this game for the Estonians who are trying to establish themselves as a competitor on the same level with Lithuania and Latvia. Lithuania has always dominated in basketball and Latvia recently has dominated in Hockey and Soccer, but this year all three teams are competing for the Baltic pride of having the best soccer team in the Baltics. Lithuania is currently sitting on top of it's qualifying group. Go Latvia!

Talantu Fabrika 4

Not knowing what to post I begin to type while thinking of all the things that I said that I would post about and now have forgotten. I am exhausted from wandering the recesses of my mind for an interesting gem that I could post to make everyone go "Ahhhh!". I delve into my mind trying to remember what I did last night, but that ability has left me long ago with only echoes of TV left in my brain. I know I watched TV last night, but what I watched I don't remember. I pause and look out the window at the church steeple clock wishing that it were time to return to the TV only to have it suck even more memories away from me. And like being zapped on the ear by a friend who has just spent the last half hour rubbing his/her feet on the carpet, I am zapped with an idea, but just as quickly as the feeling was received it was destroyed by the interference of someone needing something at work, but they are too late I have already mentioned my post and will not forget so that I can leave and come back and finish the post.
PAUSE.
I wanted to post about the horrible reality show that is being shown right now in Latvia. Its called Talantu Fabrika 4, some of you might remember me mentioning last season's Muzikala Fabrika. Its basically American idol placed in Latvia and made by the same people that have made all of Latvia's reality TV only something is different. Its Crap! The quality of the video, audio, backgrounds, participants, "experts", is all sub-par on a good day. Lets go down the list shall we.

Video: The camera work and editing looks like its being done by a horny 16 year old boy. Most of the shots consist of boobs and closeups with the female participants, which most of whom are barely 18 themselves. (I only recently realized that the camera operator is the son of the producer and might actually be 16, but that doesn't make it right)

Audio: For a reality show based around people singing, you would think that someone would be paying attention to the audio quality. The whole first week the entire show had the Tin-can effect that when people sound like they are speaking through a metal tube. This past week there were two days in a row when the sound was blown out giving that screaming into a microphone effect that makes the audio impossible to hear and unbareable to listen to.

At this point there is a lot more I could complain about, but I realize that I'm ranting and I will stop so that I can save the few readers I might have left.

Doing Nothing

I really haven't done anything today at work. I have discovered that it is really hard to not do anything at work. I went through my usual list of websites that I go to to find out what's going on in the world a new edition to the list is Mixonline which is a magazine about the world of audio recording. My mind is filled with a plan to make some extra money or to even leave my job here completely. I don't want to talk about my plans, because then I don't think that they will happen. My life seems to be more and more dependent on money to the point where it always seems that I never have enough. Something has to be done to fix this. I'm thinking of discovering a diamond mine in Latvia. All I have to do is find it.

Lots of Stuff

There is a lot of stuff to post and not a lot of time to post it, so everything will just have to be short.
Continued from the last post the interview in front of the EU Parliament for Ingrida Udre was filled with just as many questions about her being able to be a commissioner as questions about her prior convictions.
In other news a law banning duel citizenship in certain government positions has past its first reading. There are two more readings to go. If you want to look look at the law and discuss it you can do it at Latvians Online.
A few days ago I received my absentee ballot, but of course I forgot to bring it to work today so I will have to send it on Monday. For those of you who know me don't worry I'm not going to vote for Bush, but that doesn't mean I'm going to vote for Kerry either. If you want to know who I voted for then you are just going to have to ask me.
In more pleasant news I received an email from a person who stumbled onto my blog and just wanted to let me know that he was reading it. Its always nice to know that people are reading your blog. OK, well that's all the time we have from today so tune in next week to find out if Batman and Robin get out of the penguin's clutches.

Udre

As a person in Latvia I feel that I should mention something about what's going on in the news. Today Latvia's Prime Minister nomination for EU commissioner Ingrida Udre is going up against the EU parliament, because the EU Parliament has to approve the all the new comisioners. There has been hot debates about Udre, becasuse she has been convicted of illegal campaign funding, but because she was the speaker of the parliament she couldn't be prosecuted. She also was an avid anti-EU activist before the EU elections. Even the way she was nominated was suspect because everyone thought that Latvia would just re-nominate the old commissioner, but at the last minute the Prime Minister nominated Udre who is from the PM's own political party and who just "happened" to already be in Brussels when the nomniation was announced. Udre has also been criticized in the past for brining her stylist along on publicly funded trips. Anyway that's whets going on here. Here's some Halloween Cocktail ideas.

Song in my Head

Why is it that Blogger only eats the good and meaningful posts. Yesterday I wrote a great post about fall in Riga. "These words are my own" sorry about that, I have this song in my head from watching MTV Europe when we woke up this morning. "I feel so A D D" I don't know what to do. I don't know who wrote the song, but I do remember thinking that it was more of a Spring and Summer song than a Fall song. The singing style was similar to Pink, but more upbeat and very very catchy. "From my heart flown" I think I'm going to go insane. I just googled the name of the song and here are the lyrics so that you can all join in the fun These Words.

Heating

Well its that time of the year when the city of Riga fires up their heaters to heat the city for the cold weather ahead. Riga is centrally heated, which means that most of the cities buildings have to wait for three days below 10'C (?'F) in order for the heat to get turned on. You can always tell when the heat is being turned on because the whole city smells like ash and paint. Ash because most places are heated with wood or coal and paint, because the furnaces get painted during the summer. Its a warm smell that gives added effect to the darkness creeping in. Its dark by 20.00 (8 PM). Soon it will be dark by 18.00 (6 PM). Lena's thoughts are filled with a new jacket for the winter. Halloween will come and go. I'd like to do something festive, but I doubt that I will be able to pull anything together. Although Halloween is becoming more and more popular here, mostly amongst the youth who want candy. Nothing to do but wait and see what lurks out of the shadows.

Comment

I finally received my first comment by someone who I don't know. The only problem is that he wrote in Latvian and some of the letters aren't visible. I'm going to see if I can fix that some how, but its nice to know that other people have taken an interest in what I'm writing. Ok, well here's a run down of the weekend.

Friday: Lettonia stuff. (I got fed up and left early (I don't' like being a pledge anymore)).

Saturday: Went to Lena's colleague's Birthday party (It was a nice).

Sunday: During the day Lena, some friends of ours, and I went to Kemeri National Park (It's a huge raised swamp that is really cool to walk around, but it is really hard to get to and spending two hours there is more than enough time to see everything). In the evening I went to Bar One to watch an American Football game, the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Chicago Bears (the eagles were winning when I left. I left because it was a Sunday night and I have to work on Monday mornings (Damn)).