I got 99 problems

The timing of this is definitely not ideal, but it's the funniest thing I've seen in a while and provided me a much needed laugh, and therefore wanted to share. For those of you that aren't familiar with Jay-Z (mom, dad, others), I apologize.

I found this when I stumbled across Au$10's blog (one of Decatur's finest CD salesmen and Paste contributor).

goconsolidation

I've come to the conclusion that I need to consolidate my web presence. Ol' Bradley has pointed out that having a unique name has proved helpful when searching for people that quote, reference, or use your work. Taken from Luther College's canoe derby about 6 years ago, I'm proposing to use "gomattolson".

Speak now or forever hold your peace...

Yours,
gomattolson

Quick, Quick, Look Quick.

As you may know, not only does Wikipedia change often, but it changes fast. That's why you should check out the current Wikipedia entry on Minneapolis. An editor recently emailed me and mentioned that he would like to use a couple of my Flickr photos for the entry.

One is under the Geography section, and labeled Autumn, Lake of the Isles. The other is under the Sports section, labeled Twin Cities Marathon (a photo in which you can see Robbie's right arm trying to take a picture, and Amanda cheering on their friend Colbey.)

It's no gallery, but it's better than nothing, right?

More March Madness

This weekend has brought another meaning to the phrase "march madness". Perhaps it is springtime just around the corner. Perhaps it is just when Nowakowski visits.

Last night we went out for St. Patty's day and found ourselves hitch-hiking across the Mississippi River at 2 in the morning.

The night before we watched tutu clad girls on rollerskates race around a track pushing, punching, and elbowing each other.

March Madness

Here are my current standings of the three brackets I submitted to ESPN.com. All I can say is at least I'm not last:

On a Mission From God

I've witnessed quite a few baptisms throughout my many years of church going, but they've never had a direct impact on me. This past weekend changed that when my adorable little niece was baptized back in Ames. Not only that, but I am officially her godfather now (Kjersten, don't ever cross the family).

After she had been blessed and the pastor was drawing the sign of the cross on her forehead, Kjersten opened her eyes up wide and looked straight up at the ceiling -- now I'm not suggesting that any supernatural thing happened, but I did find it to be quite the coincidence. It made me smile nonetheless.

Pictures to arrive a la Flickr shortly...

Fight the Power

I think Public Enemy has been right all along. We need to fight the power. Ironically, the power in this case is essentially the same group of people that made Public Enemy who they are -- the producers and record labels of the music industry.

Congress just released a mandate increasing the royalties that internet radio stations must pay to record companies. Not only are the new royalty levels retroactive for 2006, but they also are set to increase year after year.

Numerous companies, including wonderful Pandora, Real Networks, NPR, and others have already started to fight the power. Pandora's CEO says that they would instantly be out of business if such a royalty hike were imposed. NPR is planning to fight. Many others are too.

I think increasing royalties would be incredibly short-sighted. I discover a lot of new music through Pandora (which I blogged about ages ago) that otherwise I would never know about. And then something amazing happens. I actually go out and buy the CD of the artist (or pay to download via iTunes). If Pandora didn't exist, millions of people would not be introduced to thousands and thousands of artists and albums, and millions of dollars would fail to exchange hands. And I'm only mentioning one of many, many internet radio stations.

Personally, I think the entire music industry needs to rethink the way they do business. They need to embrace the internet, get rid of DRM, and come up with a new marketing plan that works in today's world of iPods, music-playing cell phones, and a generation that shares music one way or another -- legally or illegally.

Who's with me? I know Flava Flav is.

When Mimes Go Sledding

This past weekend was not only my wonderful parent's 35th wedding anniversary, but it was also the Subway Bed Race for Bridging event. The concept, although a little nuts, is very straightforward: Assemble a team of four, dress up in random costumes, hop on a mattress, and race down a snow-tubing hill.

Due to the last-minute assembly of our team, we only had a day to plan. Somehow, we decided to go as a team of mimes. We were welcomed throughout the night with numerous side comments such as "Nobody likes a mime", and "Mimes don't talk". It was great.

In our first heat, we smoked the competition. We easily beat the next bed by 30 yards. My face nearly fell off from the extremely cold combination of wind and snow blowing in my face the entire way down the hill, but I didn't care. We mimes were going to kick some butt.

Our second run was a complete 180. We got stuck in the slowest lane out there -- so slow in fact that we got stuck twice on the slope. Our bed racing dreams were over.

I wish I had taken more photos, so I'm hoping someone else in Flickrland was at the race (I did find a YouTube video, which is decent if you skip to about 2:30 in). The winning costume award went to a team of giant silverware. The topper was that one of their members was Asian, and he dressed up as chopsticks. Everybody loved it.

Snow Snow Snow

Minnesota is finally living up to its name. The snow just simply will not stop.

How much is it snowing do you ask? Enough that around 12:30 today we were notified over the PA system that we were allowed to leave work at 1:00 if desired. I couldn't believe it.