Hi, there everyone! I hope that everybody's week has been going well. It is almost over now. On with the show...

"FEELINGS...NOTHING MORE THAN FEELINGS"

I have noticed something kind of weird in my behavior lately, since about the beginning of the year. I am laughing a whole lot more these days. Not that this is a bad thing...Garrison Keillor says that the average child laughs more than 300 times a day, and that the average adult laughs about 17 times a day. There is something very wrong with that! That is why I make it a point to tell jokes in these emails. Smile, and you will feel better. Period. No discussion needed. I have always been a relatively easy-going, quick to laugh sort of a guy.

But what has also accompanied this flux of joviality is the real curiosity...I find my swept up emotionally in stories and occurrences that didn't really used to affect me. Case in point...there used to be two movies that would make me cry.

Alright, I can hear some of you out there saying "Oh, jeez! Hartmann has lost it! Here this hairy behemoth is going to lecture us about his crying habits!"

I am not ashamed to say it, I bawl when ever I watch "Old Yeller" and "Dead Poet's Society"...bawl like a baby. I have NO shame!!!! I cried at "Twister" too, but that doesn't count because those were tears driven by the laughter at the absurdity of THAT film. Anyway, the list that was two is now growing. Add "Shine" and "For Love of the Game" to the list. It seems to be
accompanied by a great soundtrack, going further to prove the theories about music's stranglehold on our heartstrings, but that is an entirely different essay.

Another example...last Saturday, Dale Ernhardt, Jr. won the Pepsi 400 race held at Daytona Motor Speedway. His father, Dale Ernhardt (Gee, imagine that!) was killed at this speedway back in February. Now, anybody who knows me knows that I
am not necessarily a big race fan, and I certainly didn't see much point to the big hubaloo over Dale Ernhardtt. When I working at the Mall of America, we were right out front of the NASCAR Silicon Motor Speedway, and in there, they had one of Dale Earnhardt's old race cars. I guess for weeks after his death, mourners were turning it into a shrine, flowers, candles, the whole bit. I thought it was a bit silly. I did feel somewhat bad that a man lost his life, but he died doing what he loved. Anyway, it turned out that his son "brought closure to the mourning process" by winning the race last Saturday. He did in dramatic fashion,
too. With 6 laps to go, he was in 6th place. In the space of a lap and a half, he passed all 5 cars and took the lead. The crowd was screaming, all 200,000 of them. Earnhardt, Jr. was certainly the favorite, and everybody wanted him to win the race. Well, it was certainly dramatic, and to my surprise, I found myself shedding a tear for the young man who won. It was so strange to me. Here I was sitting in my living room, watching this race, and crying because of the crowd reaction and the reaction of the announcers.

I don't know, but I find myself more emotionally fragile than I used to be. Even good drum corps shows set it off...I used to cry whenever I watched the 1994 27th Lancers Alumni, but now I get "that feeling" when I watch 96 Phantom, too...scary!! I can hear everybody right now..."What the heck is in the water up there? I hope that Brian doesn't join some "Nature Worship" cult and come back wearing a fennel wreath and paper pants...or worse, he joins the "People's Republic of Ester!"

Note: Ester is a small village on the other side of Ester Dome (everybody from last summer will remember that as the big hill to the WNW of campus)...The PR of E is REAL, and I will tell you more about that in a later email.

THE SNOOZE-MINUS

I got to be Brian Hartmann, Hyper-critic and Whistle-blower once again this week. I was riding the bus in to work yesterday and was reading my newspaper, which apparently, I am subscribed to. You see, I did subscribe to Saturday/Sunday service, but my carrier decided that I should have it EVERY day...I even called them and did the "good citizen" routine..."I should not be getting this paper." thing, and they said that they would take care of it. I just don't want to end up having somebody say "You owe us money, even though you didn't ask us for the daily paper." Well, that was last week, and I am still getting the daily...oh, well.

Actually, to get back to my story, I ran across the Alaska Science Short, a little blurb that they have everyday; usually just a little factoid. Well, yesterday's blurb was that "The temperature in Fairbanks has risen 1.5° C in the last 20 years." RED FLAG!!! Where in the heck did they get that?!?! The average annual temp in Fairbanks has risen just over 1°C since 1904!!! Well, I got the data out and ran a quick analysis on it, and consistent with our previous studies, the average temps in Fairbanks have actually DECREASED by 1.26°C since 1980! So, the guy from the GI who puts these numbers out was off by 2.76°C
(almost 5°F). Well, I took it to my boss, and he got on the horn to Ned (the guy from the info office who gives the stuff to the paper) and asked him about it. He said that he got it from the permafrost people...what the heck?? What are they looking at? Anyway, we got his word that he will check any climate data through us in the future. I am still confused over what the permafrost people were talking about...

Oh, yeah, Snooze-Minus is the derogatory name that some of the locals have given to the our "illustrious" daily, the News-Miner. Let's just say that I miss reading the WSJ everyday...

GOINGS ON

Drum corps is still going strong. The Bluecoats are doing well. DCM Regionals are this weekend, so a clearer picture of the Midwest will soon be had. All of the Midwest corps have not had a show together yet, so we will see where Cavies,
Phantom, Madison, Glassmen, Bluecoats, Southwind, Colts, and Pioneer shake out on Saturday. Look for a few surprises.

The Lincoln, Nebraska show was last night? Anybody go? Amy, Derek, Chris? Anybody?

The new version of Brian Hartmann Online, my website, is in the works right now. I would say that it is about 60 percent complete. I hope to have it online by the end of next week. I think that you will like it. More to come...

My good, good friend Scott Phillips (with whom I grew up, graduated high school, and raised cain in Kearney Co.) finally found a job!! He got his MA in English (Would you like fries with that?) from UN-Lincoln this past May, and found himself in the unenviable position of job hunting. I, of course, could sympathize with him, having gone through that not too long ago myself. He is now going to be working as an academic advisor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a Kangaroo (that is their mascot, I guess...heck, it beats the Lopers...) He is going to be teaching a sort of college survival skills class, too. Correct any of this if I am off base, Scotty.

Anyway, Scott, and anybody else how has recently gotten a job lately, do you ever job search now, just for fun? I do that from time to time. Just to see what is out there. It is funny that, after you have been looking for long enough, you get to a point where you visualize yourself doing just about anything you find a ad for (I guess that I could sell aardvark coats and 'Dilla skin boots..they would take a BS in physical science, right?), but when you have gotten a job, there is just about nothing that you would rather be doing? Just a thought...

INJECTIONS D'HUMEUR

"Yes, folks! It is the wonderful humor part of the email!!"

There was a Basque movie theatre, and unfortunately, there was a horrible fire. Everybody was panicked, and trying to get out of theatre. Sadly, there was just one door, and many people died. It just goes to show that you shouldn't put all of your Basques in one exit.

That one was enough of a groaner, that I decided not to pile on another. But be forewarned, you will have to survive two in the next update.

Have a good weekend, and email me, darn it!!!

Brian "Sensitive New-Age Guy" Hartmann