It’s Finals Week!  Historically, the most slack week of the semester…

1. Finals Week Suddenly Seems Easier: DSU has some interesting problems when it comes to finals week. You would expect that the buildings on campus would be open the weekend prior to the biggest week of the semester, so students can complete work that can only be done in certain labs on campus (i.e.: me with Illustrator and Computer Graphic Effects.) But, they’re closed. Therefore, I was forced to sit around all weekend, not that I’m complaining, but had the labs been open, I could have done some work. Sunday night they finally opened from 5-10—still pretty lame hours. Nevertheless, I was able to complete Graphic Effects. In that class, I made a big electronic portfolio which showcases all the projects I’ve done in my DSU career. I put in about 24 hours on it. In Illustrator, I thought I had a ways to go, but after an hour of work Monday I realized it was nearly complete. I also discovered that if I am able to finish my Acrobat final project before Friday’s exam period, I don’t have to come to class that day. That would mean I could be finished by Wednesday if all work was turned in. That would give me a couple extra days to clean up the house before move-out, as well as do a little end-of-the-semester partying with the friends here one last time.

2. Ryan Glanzer Billboard Charts: Here are the top ten songs of the week for me. Again, country is the genre of highest popularity this week. #1 – “You’re My Better Half,” Keith Urban. #2 – “Bless the Broken Road,” Rascal Flatts. #3 – “Whiskey Girl,” Toby Keith. #4 – “Time After Time,” Brooke. #5 – “Mr. Brightside,” The Killers. #6 – “Nothin’ to Lose,” Josh Gracin. #7 – “Mud on the Tires,” Brad Paisley. #8 – “Trip Around the Sun,” Jimmy Buffett and Martina McBride. #9 – “Live Like You Were Dying,” Tim McGraw. #10 – “If Heaven,” Andy Griggs.

3. Family Guy Strong in Return: Sunday evening, I sat down to watch FOX’s animated night of sitcoms. For the first time in months, I watched a couple all-new Simpsons. The first one was crap, as are most of the new episodes. But the second one had me laughing a few times. In the episode, Bart got fat, and they replayed the opening theme song showing Bart struggling to skateboard down the street, causing him to run into Marge and Maggie in their car as they zip around the corner. Family Guy also returned to the air, but I had already seen it since Chris downloaded it illegally. I would have to say the show didn’t miss a beat.

4. Santana Is Beatable: Bartolo Colon out-dueled Johan Santana Sunday afternoon at the Dome, making Santana a loser for the first time in 18 decisions. You have to go all the way back to last July when Jason Johnson and the Tigers beat Johan 2-0. Santana may have lost, but he only allowed two runs on two hits over eight innings. Unfortunately, the two hits were home runs. The Twins squandered a chance to take the lead in the eighth with the bases loaded and one out, but LeCroy grounded weakly into a double play. Still, taking two of three from the Angels is pretty good.

5. Streak Over: Ever since August changed over to September, Kayla Laursen and I had talked to each other on the phone at the turn of the month. The streak came to a fitting end as April switched to May Saturday night. I was on the phone with Amanda and Kayla was on the phone with Vinny Arp at the time, and neither of us even thought about it until it was far too late. Oh well. I was still on the phone with someone as the months changed, keeping at least that streak alive. I’m not too distraught.

6. Some Weather: Ahh, spring is here. The birds are chirping, the grass is greening, and the snow is… far from gone. Sunday, it snowed on and off all day long. It didn’t amount to anything since it was technically too warm for it not to melt, but the very sight of snow this late in the year is sickening. It was cold, windy, and snowy Sunday, but hopefully it warms up like they’re saying it will.

7. One More Week at 912: It’s going to be a rough time moving out of 912 North Egan. Chris and I are left to go through the house that we have all but trashed over the last 24 months and clean things out. Luckily, it looks as though Nick Sandbulte and his crew are moving in as soon as we leave, so if the place isn’t spotless, we won’t have to feel quite as bad. On another 912 note, Parker Newcomb evidentally cashed another round of rent checks, probably four to six months worth. Jason and I both received notices that we had overdrafted from our checking. I thought I was in the clear cause DSU was direct-depositing money into my account last week, but apparently it didn’t make it there before Parker cashed the checks.

8. The ’03 Roommates Live: I got a call from 2003 Valleyfair roommate Stacey Hackbart Saturday afternoon. According to Stacey, she was the drunkest she had ever been and it was only 5pm. But she goes to Wisconsin, and Saturday they had a huge block party where all 30,000 students go crazy. Stacey has been keeping up with the other roommates moreso than me. Charlie Offenbacher, who I have yet to speak to since we moved out, was at one time thought to be dead due to a hospitalization error. He was listed as “deceased” instead of “discharged” and announcements were made of his untimely death. But he is alive and kicking, as is Justin Kuipers, who I am sure to see plenty of at Valleyfair again this summer. He still works in Security.

9. Summer Plans for Site: Unlike the last few summers, I will be able to update ryanglanzer.com over the summer months. The old DSU student site actually required you to be on campus in order to work on it. With my new site, I should have no trouble keeping things going as they are now. Just as soon as we get internet hooked up at our Burnsville apartment, things will continue to roll on as usual. I know you’re all breathing a sigh of relief. By the way, April was the best month on record for the site. Would you believe 652 unique visitors stopped by? Do I even know 652 different people? It surpassed March by well over 100 visitors.

10. Rincon Suspended?!: I heard Monday that Twins’ reliever Juan Rincon became the fifth major leaguer suspended for violating baseball’s substance abuse policy. Needless to say, it was very shocking. Rincon is such a small guy and seems to be such a hard worker that you would never suspect him to be on steroids or something like that. At least we’ll get to see our top pitching prospect, Scott Baker, in the big leagues.

Well now that I am done with pretty much all finals stuff—except for the actual finals themselves—I can spend the next 12 days doing as I please. Which essentially means sitting around trying not to go crazy from boredom.