It's late, and I'm not packed yet, and I'll be hopefully leaving for the Chi shortly after work tomorrow, but I thought I'd stop and write, just ever-so-briefly.

I've had really nice conversations with Nemo and Gurs the last two nights, net conversation time of nearly three hours - lots and lots of minutiae covered, which is important. Substantive things, too.

I finished Christmas shopping and gift-wrapping on Wednesday night, which was important. I'll give my gifts a C, where C is average, which is disappointing. I'm hoping for some giggles and some excitement, but I'll probably get some...stares at the gift, unwraps, turns the box over a few times, looks me straight in the eye, and says, "Thanks" reactions. Like, appreciative, but far-from-overwhelmed. But that's not the point, but it kind of is.

I'll be back in the suburbs from late Friday night through sometime Wednesday. That's four full days, which is great. We're angling for some Didi-Jenny time, though that's still undetermined. We know there'll be a trip West, and ruthless holiday grab-bagging. We know that there'll be a trip to the House, to enjoy some Old Style, on Monday night. We know that there'll be Christmas tree-shaped cinnamon rolls on Tuesday morning. Man, those are the best. Other things are undetermined. Recharging is important, as are low-level college bowl games.

I really, really needed the last two days, even though I got nothing done. Nothing days are important, too. I'm really looking forward to being done with this round of applications - they're owning my life, but I'm reasonably proud of what I've accomplished, because I think I'm giving a fairly reasonable representation of myself. It'll be good enough for someone, I think. I'm reasonably proud enough that I even asked a friend in The Ring Fingernail to give my work a look. That unembarrassed, which is definitely worth something.

This weekend is well-needed, though I'll have to do some new-writing and some revising, probably on Saturday. But I'll be fresh off of three straight non-essaying days, so that'll be valuable.

Lupe Fiasco really is a genius. And Matthew Santos is the world's best white rap-hook singer in the world. Lupe's got a Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Gadget-Flow. He's from the city in the midwest - best city in the whole wide wide world. This is why he's awesome. I think that Lupe Fiasco's The Cool is in the top twenty, definitely, though I'll wait to rank it until next year. But "Superstar" and "Paris, Tokyo" and "Hip Hop Saved My Life" are probably all among my favorite songs of the year.

Okay, I've got nothing more. Happy Christmas. Back in a week or so.

So then, the question on your minds, clearly, based on the staggering response to Sunday's post, is whether I efficiently went to the coffee shop to prepare applications. And, well, I got there in timely fashion on Monday, and was pretty productive, and then I got there in timely fashion on Tuesday, but was less productive.

But I'm not done yet, nor that close, but, Hey, what are you gonna do?

- - - - - - - -

There's a great reason to get things done. This great reason is the Nemo Festivus Party, this weekend.

Obstacles:
1) Applications.
2) Broken Car.

1) Applications - This has been covered before.

2) Broken Car. Well, not really broken. But slightly broken. Since, say, March, my passenger's side window hasn't really rolled down much. It would get stuck. It wouldn't go back up. This is an annoyance, but not a huge problem. After all, my driver's side window works, and now it's winter. I could figure it out in the spring, perhaps.

Now, last night, I had a friend in the car. This friend hadn't been in the car before, I don't think, or at least hadn't been in the passenger seat before. I asked this friend not to roll down the window. This friend then rolled down the window, just ever-so-slightly. But it's stuck, down, ever-so-slightly. And, as a day's worth of driving can attest, this makes it cold, and perhaps getting colder. Tomorrow is not my driving day, thankfully.

So I think I'm going to try to get it fixed. The place I go is open until noon on Saturday. We'll see what happens.

(Update: Nemo has just suggested the highly-logical "Rent a Stupid Car, Stupid" solution. He has also encouraged me to think in terms of solutions, rather than obstacles. Nemo is very, very smart.)

- - - - - -

There's been a lot of high-fiving at work lately. I think this is a pretty good development. I like to think that I've been a big part of fostering an environment that encourages high fives. This is because I have been.

- - - - - -

Let's do the top...20 list for the year.

First, let's revisit the top one list, 1998-2005
1998: Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
1999: Wilco - Summer Teeth
2000: Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
2001: The Strokes - Is This It?
2002: Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2003: The Postal Service - Give Up
2004: The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free / The Arcade Fire - Funeral / The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
2005: The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday

Revisiting 2006, with ranking at the end of last year
1) The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls In America (1)
2) The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely (2)
3) Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies (3)
4) Band of Horses - Everything All the Time (8)
5) Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That (14)
6) Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (4)
7) Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor (13)
8) The Thermals - The Body The Blood The Machine (5)
9) Islands - Return To The Sea (11)
10) The Futureheads - News & Tributes (7)
11) The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (6)
12) Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming (12)
13) The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home (unowned - 2007ish release)
14) The Killers - Sam's Town (unranked)
15) Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat (9)

And now, my top 20 for 2007:
1) Okkervil River - The Stage Names
2) Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
3) The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
4) LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
5) The White Stripes - Icky Thump
6) Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
7) Kanye West - Graduation
8) Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
9) Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
10) Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
11) Band of Horses - Cease To Begin
12) Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
13) Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
14) The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
15) Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
16) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder
17) The New Pornographers - Challengers
18) Dizzee Rascal - Maths + English
19) Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
20) The Clientele - God Save The Clientele

Lupe Fiasco's album comes out Tuesday. I've got nothing more to write.

I think this will be really boring, but I feel pretty good about things right now.

If we're considering weekends to start when work ends on Friday (5 p.m.), and to end at the time one should be in bed on Sunday (midnight), and to not include the approximate time one should be asleep on the weekend (let's say, 2 a.m. until 9 a.m., which seems reasonable enough), then weekends last 41 hours. I am writing in hour 41 of the weekend. Had I written at any time before, say, right now, I'd be whining about how this weekend was a bust and how I'm still wasting my time and how I've still gotten nothing done...

And, really, I've still gotten nothing done. But, about six weeks late, there's a plan in place. And a lot of the grunt work is done...the entering of personal information and the entering of transcript information and the entering of community involvement and all of that other Vital Statistics kind of stuff. It's done. Fin. Complete. That part of my applications is [mostly...well, largely...well, probably 40 percent] done.

I had a very productive Tuesday last week, and have the majority of my four Northwestern essays done. I have nothing in terms of essays for the other schools, but, in many cases, they're repurpose-able. Not really, and that's not an encouraged tactic, of course, but a lot of what applies to one question at one school can apply to another question at another school, of course. And I'm pretty shifty, so I figure I can get it done.

- - - - -

Now, I'm not the cleanest of people, as you might know. Things like mail tend to build up on my countertops, and semi-dirty laundry winds up on my bedroom floor, and I tend to go several weeks without sweeping my floors, and several months without...scrubbing them. I'm not sure I had cleaned my bathroom since July. Really, except for a toilet scrub and some "wiping beard hair out of the sink."

[As I read this, I realize I'm a disgusting, disgusting, disgusting person. I use a lot of polysyllabic words, but I have the maturity level of a...13-year-old.]

Now, if I'm having friends over, they're generally kind-of unclean friends, anyway, and we'll probably be drinking a lot so, by the time my friends use the bathroom, maybe they'll be too sauced to notice. I'm not sure if this is or is not the case, though I'm a bit embarrassed to ask, as I think about it.

But, on Saturday afternoon (about 2-6) and on Sunday afternoon (roughly 2-5), I did some serious, serious, serious cleaning. On my knees, sweating, cleaning. Scrubbing corners that I would've never noticed could be filthy, because I never see them. Good freakin' cleaning, probably good cleaning because I rotated through some music I hadn't listened to in a while and because I was bolstered by (on Saturday) a solid Cats win and (on both days) a strong, strong desire to still not worry about getting my applications done.

And though, as a step towards the November-December-early January goal of completing these applications, this activity could be considered a bust, I think it's good to get to know what it feels like to accomplish something. Because, really, I haven't accomplished anything since October, otherwise. (That's when I kicked ass on the GMAT...and to think, had I not kicked ass on the GMAT, I'd've not been stressed about any of the rest of this crap.)

And, you know, it's also nice to not have eight weeks' worth of receipts on my dresser, and two months' worth of [paid] bills on my kitchen counter, and two months' worth of Newsweeks on my nightstand. And it's nice to have balanced my checkbook and to have confirmed that nothing's past due. It's just...better.

Cleaning things accomplished:
Bills organized, paid, filed
Receipts filed. (I keep receipts. I'm such a dolt.)
Junk mail trashed.
Trash trashed.
Old magazines stuffed into the magazine rack. (Why I don't throw out old magazines, I'll never know. Eventually they get thrown out.)
Kitchen counters scrubbed.
Dishes done, several times. (I own a dishwasher, but I only use it as a drying rack. I kind of like doing dishes, for some reason. I've not run the dishwasher for at least three weeks, which is idiotic.)
Living room furniture dusted.
Toilet scrubbed. Really scrubbed.
Bathroom counters scrubbed.
Tub cleaned. Really cleaned.
Four loads of laundry - cleaned, dried, hung/folded. (This includes a load of towels.)
Bathroom and kitchen floors swept, then scrubbed, then swept again.

My bed still isn't made. And my sheets haven't been washed for a few weeks.

But, generally, my place is presentable, and that's just awesome.

- - - - - - - -

Two stresses for December.

1) Gift-buying. My list is small. Family only, really. I've only purchased one gift so far, but I'm half figured-out. This is huge. (I may have been done by this time last year.)

2) Resolution-making. This is less stressful and, really, doesn't have to be done until January 1. However, I've figured mine out. It's reasonable, worth pursuing, will improve my life, and it relates to the above. I'll also start working on my resolution tomorrow, the first opportunity I'll have to do so.

"Dispose of junk mail in a timely fashion."

This is my goal. I often open my mail, like, once a week. It builds up and makes messes. I don't want to do this anymore.

I'm a huge, huge proponent of the Two-Minute Rule. The Two-Minute Rule is great, and it dictates that, if something takes less than two minutes to accomplish, one should do it immediately. This is because the stress associated with keeping this thing on your "To-do" list or with simply remembering to do it is far more than the stress associated with putting off whatever you were about to do in the interests of the imminent, easy-to-accomplish task. I think the Two-Minute Rule is great, and I'll start to apply it to junk mail disposal. Or to putting non-junk mail in its appropriate place.

Last weekend, I had a talk with a friend about her resolution. Her resolution for this year was to "Have cat-like reflexes when catching things." This is a pretty good skill to work on, I guess.

- - - - - - - -

Back to the application thing. They're not done, but, as of right now, there's a plan in place for this week. I've got at least three days' worth of dinner [my first taco soup of the season!, I think] in the fridge and, as a result, I'll be able to get home after work, crank through dinner, and go coffee-shopping to work on things. I'm far more productive at coffee shops, owing to the fact that I can't walk around coffee shops in my underwear, occasionally pausing to watch TV or open up Sports Illustrated or reorganize my CDs. (Walking around in my underwear, watching TV, reading Sports Illustrated, and reorganizing my CDs are my main barriers to productivity at home. I don't John-Cusack-in-High Fidelity reorganize my CDs or anything, but I generally grab a new CD every time I get in the car, and, generally, these CDs wind up on my kitchen counter or my coffee table. Not on the bookshelf where they belong.)

So, at least for Monday and Tuesday...
Home by 5:25.
Done eating dinner by 6:00.
At the coffee shop by 6:10.
Working. Seriously. Working until 8:30 or so.
Gym at 9.
Home, feeling good about having accomplished something, by 10.

I don't know if this is feasible, but I think it is. And if I get proper amounts of sleep, I really, really think I'll be able to do it. So right now, at this precise moment, 11:41 Eastern Standard Time, I feel great about things.

(Also, this timetable is probably a bit infeasible. Done with dinner by 6 is probably optimistic. But at the coffee shop by 6:30 is reasonable, and I think the coffee shop I'll work from is open until 9. Maybe even 10.)

[A Sports Illustrated-related aside: I don't know if you care about the death of Sean Taylor - it's really sad, I think - but I think that Sports Illustrated's Jim Trotter wrote a real well-done story about it. It's here, and, if you care a bit about sports, or a bit about issues of race and issues of media, then it's worth your ten minutes.]

- - - - - - -

On Saturday, I also made the best dinner I've made for myself in a long, long, long time. I created this honey-ginger-lemon marinade for halibut, and broiled it, and ate it with lemon-oregano spiced roast red potatoes. And peas, because I always eat peas. This was highly satisfying, and I'm really looking forward to eating the same for lunch on Monday.

Then I played marbles with a friend. I wish I were joking. Marbles is hard. I still wish I were joking.

- - - - - - - -

I've reintroduced tea drinking to my life. I drink tea in spurts.

I've got cinnamon stick, two raspberry flavors, and a cherry flavored one. I'm pretty happy with this selection.

- - - - - - -

Net fantasy football investment, 2007: $10.
Net fantasy football winnings, 2007: $0.

R.I.P., Willie's Destroyers.
R.I.P., De Stijl Curtain.

I think De Stijl Curtain is one of the greatest fantasy football nicknames ever. I'd highly encourage you to use it, if you'd like, next year.

- - - - - -

Ever-so-briefly, on Northwestern hoops.

No Big Ten school should consider it an accomplishment to win, on the road, against a MAC school. This is what Big Ten basketball programs do, if they have such little pull that they schedule road games against MAC teams.

But, when it comes down to it, Saturday's win against Western Michigan was a really nice one. Western Michigan is a good MAC team, I think, and they return the same players who took NU to overtime in Evanston last year.

NU is still without its best player, and continues to play a freshman point guard, and continues to play without any true post. But they trailed early, shot well, forced quite a bit of turnovers, and eked out a win on Saturday, and I feel really good about that.

I've not analyzed the schedule, but NU won't win more than five conference games. I forget, though, that they won only two, I believe, last year. And it's annoying to always, always, plan for next year, but this could be a building block to something real next year.

The fact is that, come the start of the conference season, NUs rotation will look like this:

Starters:
F: Coble, sophomore
F: Ryan, sophomore
G: Moore, junior
G: Williams, junior
G: Thompson, freshman

Bench:
G: Okrzesik, senior
F: Baran, freshman
F: Capocci, freshman

Deep Bench:
F: Melchoir, junior
F: Peljusic, freshman

Injured, status unknown:
G: Nash, sophomore

That's one senior on the roster. That's freshman as three of the top eight. That's a sophomore and a freshman as the top player.

Next year, NU welcomes a 6-8 power forward, John Shurna, who Bill Carmody expects to start immediately. They welcome a 6-5 wing, Nick Fruendt, who is expected to contribute immediately.

Every starter is back.

I'm probably hopelessly optimistic, but I think - think - that there's something building. And, if he builds something, Bill Carmody is a genius.

They say Tavaras Hardy is a hell of a recruiter.

I'm the biggest geek I know.

- - - - -

So, with that, I'll go to sleep.

I'm writing now, at 10 a.m., so that I don't have any excuse to not do anything tonight. ("I should work on my applications...wait, I've got readers by the quarter-score who need my musings to survive...always, always, devotion to the readers.")

Let's talk about my favorite thing in the world: College football. Really, I think college football is my favorite thing in the world.

I've not read enough to know, but my sense is that Ohio State and Georgia are the two teams in the national championship game. This seems wrong to me, as I think that LSU and USC are the best two teams in the country. (Or maybe LSU and Oklahoma.) LSU, as their coach said, would be undefeated "if it weren't for that stupid overtime system," while USC's two losses are directly related to an injury to their quarterback. (Of course, Oregon is probably the best team in the country if their quarterback's not hurt.)

In terms of quality losses, among the contenders, certainly Missouri has the most compelling case, except that it was Oklahoma, and twice. Or maybe it's Kansas, who only lost to Missouri, and once, and held it close. Ohio State lost to a top 15 team in Illinois, but a top 15 team that Missouri beat. Oklahoma's losses were to unranked Colorado, and (unranked?) Texas Tech.
Georgia lost to South Carolina, a non-factor (though not at the time), and got smoked by Tennessee. Had they beaten Tennessee, they'd still not be in the championship game, because LSU would've smoked them. West Virginia is my favorite team, and they'd be in the championship game had Pat White been healthy. (Or if they'd've just given the freakin' ball to Steve Slaton.) Also, from what I saw, which wasn't much, Pitt's tackling was unreal. Awesome. Virginia Tech avenged their loss yesterday, with their other loss was to LSU, a blowout, but at least a quality non-conference opponent. Maybe LSU and Virginia Tech are the two best teams in the country? I think they might be.

What's the point? Trying to determine a true national champion, among 119 teams, in only 14 weeks, is impossible. Absolutely impossible. And that's okay.

What's the real point? Go back to the old system. The old, old, old system. Firm bowl tie-ins. And see what happens.

Here's what you'd have, roughly:
Rose (B10 v. P10): Ohio State (11-1) vs. USC (10-2)
Orange (Big East v. At-Large): West Virginia (10-2) vs. Georgia(10-2)
Sugar (SEC vs. ACC[?]): LSU (11-2) vs. Virginia Tech (10-2)
Fiesta (At-Large vs. At-Large): Missouri (10-2) vs. Hawaii (11-0)
Cotton (Big 12 vs. At-Large): Oklahoma (11-2) vs. Florida (9-3)

Kansas left out. This is just a guess. Obviously, the Orange was a Big East-Big Eight game, and the Cotton was the Southwest Conference champion, but this is something.

The point is, some voters would believe that the USC-Ohio State winner was the best, and some would lean towards LSU-Virginia Tech, and some would feel that, hey, if Hawaii wins, why not? And some would think that Oklahoma deserved it, and all wouldn't feel a shred of guilt that not-that-good Kansas wasn't involved.

Who cares if we don't have a "true" champion. We don't need it. It's still a beautiful, beautiful sport.

Also, there's no way Ohio State's one of the two best teams in the country. They're most-quality win is Michigan, and they lost to the best team they played. I really wish West Virginia had won last night.

- - - - - - -

Also, I find presidential politics beyond exciting, or fascinating, I've decided. I've never really followed presidential politics, really, and obviously there's this odd vacuum where there's nothing resembling incumbency that has made this one particularly wide open but, wow, after this morning's Meet the Press, I'm all fired up.

On the Democratic side, Obama now leads in Iowa. Clinton in New Hampshire. It's close, with Clinton leading and Obama gaining, in South Carolina. And if Obama wins Iowa, he'd probably win South Carolina. Edwards remains done-zo.

On the Republican side, Huckabee has opened up a sizable lead in Iowa. He's now focusing on New Hampshire, where Romney leads and where the largest paper just endorsed McCain. I don't know who leads South Carolina. (And now I've just skimmed a British newspaper article that says that Huckabee and Giuliani have agreed to a "non-aggression" pact, in a tactic to knock Romney out of the race. How very WWF.)

What's silly is that, of course, this is pure Horse Race coverage, and talk about campaigning tactics and demographics, and it's a bit silly. And it's an awful way to pick a president. But, hey, what are you gonna do? It's the system we've got, right?

Now, I don't really feel passionate about any of the candidates, though I'm pulling for Obama to win the Democratic nomination. I think that a black man is more electable, on a nationwide level, than a white woman, especially when the black man has Oprah's endorsement. He's also a black man with a short, short, short record, which makes him eminently more electable with anyone who might've "flip-flopped" at some point in 20-plus years of public service. I think I could be compelled to vote for Bloomberg, not because I know anything about him, really, but because I really liked the profile of him in Newsweek about a month ago.

On the Republican side, there's not a real "Republican" candidate there, we've established, yes? Romney's got the religion thing that still makes people uncomfortable. Huckabee's a tax-raiser, and a hyper-religious-righter, which is acceptable, I guess. I don't even know how Giuliani considers himself a Republican, what with his anti-second amendment stance, and his love for illegal immigrants, and his torrid personal past. And Thompson's a putz. Ron Paul's a true Republican, I guess, but the only people who like him are libertarian kooks, mostly those who are under the age of 30.

Two points here, then:
1) It's fascinating, in an "I'm an old, old man" kind of way.
2) I wish I had caucused in 2004. But it was a bit snowy. And I didn't really know who I was supporting. And, perhaps, 24 was on. Had I caucused in 2004, I probably would've wound up on Edwards' side. And he might be president now.

- - - - - - -

On voting, is it okay to strategically vote? Like, do the people who voted for Nader eight years ago feel okay with their decision now? Probably not, right? Or maybe they do? (They should feel guilty, because it was really, really dumb.) So, is supporting Obama, due to electability, okay? I strongly feel that Clinton's negatives are too, too high for her to win. I don't know. It's strange.

- - - - - - -

So, Friday night, I was out at a thing, a 10 or 12 person mixed gathering of work friends and associateds, and I had met everyone there at least once previously, and it was a great time. The highlight was when I was making conversation with a coworker and her boyfriend, an aging hipster-type (actually, an aged hipster-type). I was looking quite sharp, wearing my royal blue 2008 college radio t-shirt under my half-open brown Goodwill button-up shirt (I mean, I'm stylish, dudes), and, because conversation was scintillating, I was asked, "So, what's with your shirt?" though in a nicer way. (Like, "That's a sweet black-on-blue t-shirt, Tell me about it.") But before I could start an answer, her boyfriend said, hipster-like, "Yeah, it's the college radio station that I used to spin at..." and I was flabbergasted, and then giggled loudly, and then explained that he was exactly, roughly, right, and then we laughed louder.

- - - - - - - -

It's December 2. I'm probably about two weeks from figuring out my albums of the year. It's interesting, because I'm not sure anything has stood out as Album of the Year worthy. (Lupe Fiasco's Lupe Fiasco's The Cool comes out on December 18, and I'm sure I won't have time to make proper judgment before making my list.)

I'm not even so sure what I'm considering, but I think it's a pretty uncool list. Old favorites.

Bloc Party
Spoon
Probably not Band of Horses
Probably not Kanye West
Of Montreal
The White Stripes
Stars?
The Arcade Fire
Maybe Jens Lekman?
Probably not Wilco
Maybe LCD Soundsystem, actually, really, maybe LCD Soundsystem
Okkervil River?

Probably Okkervil River, I think. And Okkervil River's relatively new, so that's cool.

But I don't think anything this year will prove to be as good as the Clap Your Hands debut, or Wolf Parade's debut, or either The Hold Steady's Separation Sunday or Boys and Girls in America or Destroyer's Rubies or The Mountain Goats' The Sunset Tree. I think those are all extraordinary. I think this year is just pretty good, but it's also possible that I've wasted so much money on music that I've not let anything sink in long enough to establish itself.

What's certain is that I'm a completed effin' dork.

- - - - - - -

I got a great, great letter from my sister on Wednesday. It was in bound-notecard-book form. The cover was genius - a stolen library checkout card from a book I recommended to her about a year ago. (I don't what to call those cards, but it's the system that's been replaced, obviously, by a computer scanning system.)

She's wandering through Europe right now, but she'll be back in Chicago right after the new year. From her letter, the excitement level is palpable.

Here's the highlight of the letter:
I like when my glasses fog up when I enter inside. I don't like when my glasses fog up when I drain boiled pasta, because that's dangerous.

This is a smart girl, clearly. I hope she doesn't mind that I replicated her words here.

- - - - - - -

Sometime in the next three weeks, I need to Christmas shop. I have no idea. Crap.

- - - - - - -

I bought and drank a carton of Egg Nog yesterday. I feel ill, but in a great way. I won't buy Egg Nog the rest of the season but, damn, it's great stuff. Ho ho ho.