Nothing to say

August 23, 2007


Isn’t it weird how sometimes we don’t have anything to say?

About anything?

Like right now. Maybe it’s my tiredness. Maybe it’s my workload at work. Maybe I’m just content to be quiet (though that’s unlikely, since I sat here for 30 minutes trying to think of something to write).

So there you go. It’s been quiet around this here blog. And I hate that. But there you go.

If you don’t mind, I’m going to bed early.

Tags: Blogging, Meta, Writing |

2 Comments

Chiroptera

August 21, 2007


We’re infested.

Again.

Or, so it seems. A few years back, I erroneously chalked up a scratching noise and small mammalian turds to a mouse. I was wrong. It was a bat.

The scratching stopped, and we figured the bat did one of two things:
1. It left our home, never to come back.
2. It died, and will forever be a part of the infrastructure of our home.

We thought nothing of it and went on with our lives.

Then, this past week, as a friend was watching our house for us, we discovered our problem was back, albeit in a different form.

Our dog was barking at the utility room door. Our friend opened the door, saw something flying around, shut the door quickly and stuffed towels under the doorframe. She called us and told us about our little visitor.

I have walked in several times, only to find our utility room batless. Nothing. Nada. Our walls are not finished in the room, so a bat could have ample opportunities to crawl back into the space between the floors. I figured that this is where he/she was at and let it be.

I’ve continued to keep the towels under the door. Just in case, I guess.

Last night, we heard a thumping in the vents. We figured it was the bat. It had moved into the attic. I would turn the fan off in the house and it would stop. I would turn it back on and it was back. It was as if the breeze from the vents was waking it up to its situation – that it was stuck in a strangers house and the stranger was doing nothing to let it escape. So I did what any bat-hating homeowner would do.

I went back to sleep.

Is this bad? I have a bat in my house, but I know it won’t be easy to find. I’m too lazy to go rummaging around for it. I know it’s closed off from the rest of the house – the livable areas – and, frankly, I don’t want to bother with catching it once it’s been let loose upon the rest of us. I’m content with letting it die, knowing that bats don’t smell too much when dead; knowing there’s probably a relative somewhere up there.

Maybe the bat came across its dead kin and, scared witless at what its fate could ultimately be, began pounding against the vents in a vain attempt at escape.

I do know, though, that this time it’s not a mouse. There’s no need to buy mousetraps. Balsa wood and peanut butter? Not worth it. It’s a bat. And I really don’t care whether it lives or dies.

I really just want to be able to take the towels out from under the door.

Tags: Vilhauer |

5 Comments

A travelling book, brought to safety

August 19, 2007


A year and three quarters ago, I signed up with BookCrossing.com – a neat little site that tracks books.

Here’s how it works. You register your book. You drop your book off in a public place. You wait for someone to find it, log in and let you know it’s been found. It’s Where’s George with books.

It sounded pretty awesome. I went through my collection and grabbed all of my doubles – books that both Kerrie and I had brought together when we got married. Later, I went to the Augustana College library book sale and grabbed some of the best books I could find.

I printed stickers and placed them on the inside cover. I began “losing” books around town.

The next summer - 2006 - I set a box out at a garage sale. I wrote a sign explaining BookCrossing and invited people to take the books for free.

This summer, I took the books that were remaining – including some newer books I had picked up and not wanted to keep – and filed them on a bookshelf at Dunn Bros. here in town.

It had been 18 months, and no one had found a single one of my books. I knew this to be impossible – I saw people take them from my garage sale. I gave one to a co-worker! I knew my books were traveling; I just hadn’t had anyone actually log in and check.

And then, on a whim, I looked at the site this week.

A book had been found. A Stephen King book I received from a co-worker for the express purpose of throwing it out through BookCrossing. It was found at Dunn Bros. By an anonymous finder. On August 1st - the day Sierra was born. And they left a message.

“caught the book at Dunn Bros. Coffee Shop.Will release it at same place after my wife reads it.

CAUGHT IN SIOUX FALLS SOUTH DAKOTA USA”

Awesome. It finally worked.

Reading is the most rewarding pastime I engage in. I enjoy reading books and magazines and articles and other forms of the written word. I took my love of reading and sought out a dream of writing. And after parlaying several wrong turns into educational experiences, I found a form of calling – writing, for a paycheck, and loving nearly every minute of it.

But reading is more than just a solitary act. Nothing is greater than recommending a book – than finding a brilliant piece of fiction or a thought-provoking non-fiction tome and passing the word along. You wait with baited breath for that person’s response. You wait to see if the book you love was universally accepted, or if it was a quirky blip, a book that would always hold a place in your heart but never caught on with the mainstream.

Reading is about more than the solitary act of comprehending words. It’s about sharing those words – through book clubs, discussions, web sites. I do it through my monthly What I’ve Been Reading articles, and through the “What I’m Reading” listing on the sidebar to the right. I do it by talking about great books to the people I think would have similar interests. I try to use my favorite author’s styles, learning from their brilliance, always turning a clever Steinbeck sentence into a subtly created piece of advertising copy.

I hope to pass the gift of reading on to every one of my friends. To everyone I meet. To my family, to my wife, and in the future, to my daughter.

And now, through some weird six-degrees-of-separation-esque website, I’ve passed the gift of reading on to a complete stranger. Sure, it’s a book I’ve never read – probably will never read. But it was a gift, from a person who loves books, to a person who obviously felt the need to read, to pick up someone’s hard worked words and pour over each sentence. It was a gift from me to someone.

It feels pretty good, actually – to know that, in some very small, minuscule way, I helped someone read for the day. I just hope that people keep finding those books. I just hope that people keep reading.

Tags: Books, Literature |

1 Comment

KELOblog goes political

August 16, 2007


Congrats, fellow poli-bloggers.

I leave town for the night and major SoDakBlogosphere news breaks. Several of South Dakota’s best and brightest bloggers were chosen to represent the blogosphere over at KELOland.com.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the KELOland Political Blogs section. (It’s on the main blog page too.)

My invitation must have been lost in the mail. Or maybe they didn’t need a wimpy personal blogger that writes about the Sioux Falls Skyforce. I understand.

The best part? They’re not being paid for it. Which means they’re serving as a group of independent voices, infiltrating the megalithic station’s mothership, throwing the furniture around and yelling at the top of their lungs.

The barrier between our humble self-published diatribes and the true mainstream media has been breached. I hope some havoc is created. I hope some hell is raised.

Each writer is commissioned for one original, KELO-exclusive post daily. The list of KELOland entrants (and their blogs):
* Todd “My Favorite Democrat” Epp – S.D. Watch
* Pat “My Favorite Republican” Powers – South Dakota War College
* David Newquist – Northern Valley Beacon
* Joel Rosenthal – South Dakota Straight Talk
* Bob Schwartz – A South Dakota Moderate
* Anna Claire – Dakota Women
* Jon Schaff & Ken Blanchard – South Dakota Politics

To KELO’s Special Seven: if you need a guest blogger who’s always looking for publicity, chuck your keyboards in my direction.

Until then, everyone, congrats.

Tags: Meta, Politics, Sioux Falls |

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OH!-maha

August 16, 2007


I just got back from Omaha. I was there on business – my first “business trip,” a trip that I took with my darling wife and my even more darling daughter. Which made it Sierra’s first “business trip” as well. Her first trip altogether, I guess.

While sitting in the lobby of the Magnolia this morning, I paged through the Omaha World-Herald – the largest employee-owned daily newspaper in the United States – and came to a sudden (though not surprising) realization.

I really like Omaha.

I get this way about cities. I love maps, I love cities, I love roads – I love everything that makes a location a location, from the infrastructure to the city plan. I should have been a geographer of some sort. I get giddy when I’m taking in the city experience, when I’m breathing in the traffic flow and the side streets and the unique sights and smells and quirks. I get nostalgic when I’m gone. I find the positive points of the cities I visit and parlay them into an inconsolable love.

And today, I realized that Omaha has everything I love about a city.

Don’t get me wrong – I love Sioux Falls. I’ll live here for a long time. My roots are deeply entrenched here. It has [em]almost[/em] everything I love about a city.

Almost.

Omaha, though, has [em]everything[/em] I could want – more than any city I’ve ever been in. It has a great newspaper. It’s easy to get around, and the side streets off of E. Dodge are filled with some great houses – a McKennan Park district multiplied by 1000. It’s big enough to be filled with great culture – superb architecture, a blossoming independent rock scene (including some of my absolute favorite bands) and enough events to satiate even the pickiest night owl – without being too big.

It has a Whole Foods. It has a Borders. It has great shopping overall – and while I’m no shopper, it’s nice to have options. It has a great zoo. A love of sports and the facilities to prove it. A bevy of parks and green space.

It has what seems like hundreds of pizza parlors, great restaurants and quirky out of the way dive bars. It’s filled with Midwestern hospitality. It’s a college culture mixed with an upper class medical culture – an intelligent mix that seems as though it could support more than one independent bookstore.

I can’t handle the big city for longer than a weekend, but Omaha isn’t a big city – it’s a moderate city, twice the size of Sioux Falls but only a fraction of the size of Minneapolis, or Kansas City. But when I need a big city, there’s one close by. KC’s right there, right where I need it, about three hours away.

It sounds lame. No one dreams of living in Omaha. They dream of living someplace more exotic. They dream of New York City, or Los Angeles, or some other trendy hot spot. But I don’t. I like a little quietude. I’d take a historic 700 square foot home over any new development. I enjoy mixing a little plains mentality with my city experience. And Omaha’s a Midwestern not-quite-yuppie’s dream. Lame yes, but I’m a fan.

I know. I’m glossing over all of the things I don’t see while simply visiting. According to a report I heard on public radio today, Omaha has the 3rd highest poverty rate for black households and the highest poverty rate for black children. The ghettos are really ghettos. The crime is a little more serious than in Sioux Falls. I’m sure the usual city problems all exist, but as a visitor, I don’t have to worry about them.

Why haven’t I packed up and moved? Why haven’t I abandoned Sioux Falls for Omaha – for a taste of the city I dream of living in?

It comes down to history.

I haven’t just lived in Sioux Falls. I’ve grown up in Sioux Falls. I’m a part of Sioux Falls, and Sioux Falls is a part of me. There’s something special about the city – something that makes me want to exclaim its positives to the world and creates an immense sense of pride. I’m a hometown boy, and I have a comfort level that I could never recreate in Omaha – or anywhere.

For me, it’ll always be Sioux Falls. Even if I move, I’ll certainly consider Sioux Falls my true home – the place I was born, the place that contains nearly every single personal monument and nearly every single memory. Sioux Falls is it – maybe not forever, but for as long as I live.

Of course, if there was no Sioux Falls, you know where I’d go.

I’d be moving to Omaha.

Tags: Sioux Falls, Travel |

4 Comments

Guitar Hero III: The Best Game Ever Created

August 15, 2007


Today is the day.

A few weeks back, I proposed a challenge to all of my co-workers at HenkinSchultz.

Dear HenkinSchultz.

I challenge you.

That’s right. I, Corey W. Vilhauer, guitar virtuoso and all-around classy guy, challenge each and every one of you to take me on — yes, me! - in a game of Guitar Hero.

What’s Guitar Hero?

I’m glad you asked.

Guitar Hero is a video game where you become a Rock Star. Of course, if you’re like me, you already ARE a Rock Star. So no game is needed.

However, because none of you are as Rock Star-esque as I am, this video game will have to do. To play the game, you simply play guitar. Playing guitar on a video game? That’s preposterous!

Ha! It is NOT preposterous! It is GUITAR HERO!

With that, I propose the very first HenkinSchultz Guitar Hero Tournament. All we need is two Guitar Hero controllers (I can provide one!), a Sony Playstation 2 branded video game console, (I can bring that as well!) and plenty of ROCK AND ROLL.

So, HenkinSchultz. What do you say? Are you ready for the CHALLENGE?

Rock On.

CWV

And today is the tournament - a brutal 16-person, single-elimination rock challenge to determine the true Guitar Hero II champion. This is what I do at work. Welcome to advertising.

In preparing for the tournament, I decided to check in on the upcoming Guitar Hero III release. I grabbed the Wikipedia page, hoping that a few songs had been released.

So far, 33 songs have been announced for the game, which is being called Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. And I was blown away. The list as of now, from Wikipedia:

* “3’s and 7’s” – Queens of the Stone Age
* “Barracuda” – Heart
* “Cherub Rock” – Smashing Pumpkins
* “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll” – Blue Öyster Cult
* “Cult of Personality” – Living Colour
* “Even Flow” – Pearl Jam
* “Go That Far” – Bret Michaels Band
* “Knights of Cydonia” – Muse
* “La Grange” – ZZ Top
* “Lay Down” – Priestess
* “The Metal” – Tenacious D
* “Miss Murder” – AFI
* “Mississippi Queen” – Mountain
* “My Name Is Jonas” – Weezer
* “The Number of the Beast” – Iron Maiden
* “One” – Metallica
* “Paint It, Black” – The Rolling Stones
* “Paranoid” – Black Sabbath
* “Raining Blood” – Slayer
* “Reptilia” – The Strokes
* “Rock and Roll All Nite” – Kiss
* “Rock You Like a Hurricane” – Scorpions
* “Sabotage” – Beastie Boys
* “School’s Out” – Alice Cooper
* “She Bangs the Drums” – The Stone Roses
* “She Builds Quick Machines” – Velvet Revolver
* “Slow Ride” – Foghat
* “Suck My Kiss” – Red Hot Chili Peppers
* “Talk Dirty to Me” - Poison
* “Through the Fire and Flames” – DragonForce
* “Welcome to the Jungle” – Guns N’ Roses

Wait. Metallica? Tenacious D? Do you see all of the great songs listed? This isn’t just “here are some great artists, rock on!” This is “Holy Shit It’s Metallica’s ‘One’ and The Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It, Black’ and ‘Sabotage’ and ‘Raining Blood’ and ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and OMG THIS IS THE BESTEST GAME EVER CREATED!”

The game will come with a wireless guitar as well. And a two-player battle mode where you can break your opponent’s strings and stuff.

I’m so excited. This is what I want for Christmas. Except I want it right now. My only fear? That this is all a hoax and we won’t get any of this great stuff. My other fear? That Metallica sues the pants off of Activision for including a cover of their song, since they hate the idea of “fun” and want everyone to purchase the song every time they play it in GHIII.

Awesome. I’m ready to rock.

(Edit: Oh, AND Slash is a playable character. Double Awesome.)

Tags: Music |

3 Comments

Oops…

August 13, 2007


For those looking for the What I’ve Been Reading for July, look no further. It’s been on the site the whole time. It’s just been marked “private” for some reason.

So here it is — What I’ve Been Reading, July 2007.

Thanks and sorry for the confusion.

Tags: Books, Literature, Meta, What I've Been Reading |

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