Luke ‘n’ Bill

I love the band Flogging Molly!

Ok, I just wanted to put that out there before we got started. Last Friday I went up to the Irish Festival in St. Paul, thanks to Ross for letting me know about it. The whole reason that I went up there was not for a Guinness. Which by the way, I found out that they didn’t have on tap there…anywhere…I’m pretty sure that is the reason why it rained a little after I got there…God was crying!

Anyways, the reason I went was because the headliner of the nights Irish music was the best Irish band ever (and best punk band ever) Flogging Molly. If you disagree, it’s ok, you’re wrong. If you haven’t heard Flogging Molly before, do yourself a favor, go to Itunes and download a song. Any song will do, I really can’t think of a song I don’t like.

So yeah, I headed up there Friday night…met up with Chris McMacken and we started to check out the festivities. There were tons of people there selling everything they could Irish, a few cool entertainers including a couple soccer teams playing in the center of the park, a few guys boxing in an old style boxing setup, plenty of kids doing their little irish dances and finally a large assortment of great Irish music.

The best of course was Flogging Molly.  This was the second time I got to watch them live and they have just as much energy and excitement as they did 6 years ago.  There is something awe inspiring with seeing 7 people on the stage making music with a such soul that it literally grabs you by the neck and forces you to sing along.  They played a fairly long set which was nice, being that I only was able to see their Friday show and they were going to do it all again the next night.

Here’s to Irish Punk.

I usually do it every morning…but this morning is the first time in a long time that I’ve actually woken up early to work out.

I went for a fun little bike ride on the local trail here by my house. Got in about 15 or so miles and finally passed 100 total miles on my bikes odometer! I was originally planning on doing that a few weeks ago, but I’ve been more busy (or perhaps more lazy) than I would like to be.

I was thinking that I need to take some pictures out on the bike trails some time and post them online. The trail is extremely scenic, especially early in the morning when the sun is still low in the sky.

So lately I’ve been thinking, it has been entirely too long since I read a book just for enjoyment, not to learn a skill or because it was assigned.  Currently I am reading “C#: The complete reference” mainly because when I originally learned C# I was overly rushed because of the fact I was writing a program for school at the same time.  Secondly, I think I’m going to write an application in it this fall (for myself) and thought it would be a good time to brush up on it.  So that’s what I’m reading at the moment.

However, I really want a good book that I can read, just for entertainment purposes.  I figured I would make a request out to my few readers that I’ve started to acquire (along with directing a few other good friends to the site) and see what everyone out there has to offer.

As a reference, some of the books that I can remember reading just for entertainment value include the following (in no specific order):

Ender’s Game - Probably one of my favorite books ever.  I’ve thought about finding that book again and reading it just because it was such a good book.  From what I can remember it is about a boy who is sent off to a military themed boarding school where they learn to fight and lead in this futuristic space station.

(Unknown Title) - A book about the 82nd Airborne Division during WW2, written by a man who was in my Grandfather’s company, so it is basically a story of what my grandpa went through in the war through another person’s perspective.

The Raft - A true story about 3 guys who’s bomber had crashed off of the Japanese coastline during WW2, recounting their survival story while floating across the Pacific in their life raft.

(Unknown Title) - A book about travelers going through time and space following worm holes.  I forget what the entire theme of the book was, but I just remember it really made you sit back and think about everything.

The Hatchet - This may of been assigned when I was in 5th grade, but I remember it made a big impact on me, so I figured I would include it.  I’m fairly certain it is required reading of all kids that age but it’s a book about a young guy who goes down in a bush plane and ends up stranded in the wilderness with nothing but his hatchet.

So that is the quick list of the books I’ve read for entertainment purposes.  As you can probably tell, I prefer either true stories or books that really make you question things or at least think about things again.  Here is a list from Kevin Kelly that I ran across in my RSS feed a while ago.  If you have read any of those and have opinions on them, I’d love to hear it.

Thank you in advance.

Well this morning I went ahead and picked up a season pass to Welch Village for this season.  The price isn’t horrible (around $100) for a season’s “Night Club” pass which is a pass for the season for after 4:00pm.  Not bad, considering it’s $35 for an after 5:00pm ticket usually.

Along with that the resort looks like it has a descent amount of trails along with EIGHT, count ‘em 8 chair lifts (which is 7 more then what we had at “Great Bump” in Sioux Falls).   Of course, it’s not as close of a drive as Great Bear was, but I think I can deal with it.

Hopefully this will give me a good amount of practice before my annual snowboard trip with Reid and it’s one one step closer to Reid and I’s big trip to Alaska to go Heli-Boarding.

(Note: I figured since us “Minnesotans” get hassled for supposedly calling every puddle a lake, I’ll go ahead and call this hill a mountain)