Michael Braun's Blog

The semester is finally over. And what a journey it’s been. I went from being a fully bearded man mistaken by hippies for a hippie myself… into a goteed, beatnik punk… into a clean shaven upstanding youth… into a young republican?! Well, not yet. But I think I might get my hair cut tomorrow, and that style is an option! Anyway, this semster has lead to a lot of changes more than just in my hair. Unfortunately, I can’t think of what those changes are right now, but I’m sure I’m a much better person because of them. Maybe I’ll take some more time to reflect on what this semester has meant to me later on this week. Probably not.

Yesterday, late at night, I received an e-mail from the UW Athletic Dept. Ticket Office. It was a message from Barry Alvarez, inviting me to buy tickets for the Capitol One Bowl, in which the Badgers will play… sometime in the future. Previously, the Athletic Ticket Office had sent me other exciting offers. I had twice clicked the REMOVE ME YOU ASSHOLES link at the bottom of the message. Obviously it hadn’t worked. So I decided to call Mr. Alverez and ask him why he kept sending me messages. Since it was late at night, I was forced to leave him a message. But someone got back to me that afternoon, and the whole situation was resolved. My e-mail is (apparently) no longer on the list. But I tell you what, if I get another e-mail from them, I’m going to firebomb the stadium.

I’ve also been carefully following the Ford Motor Company’s struggles with insane right-wing christian (read “evil”) groups who have been putting pressure of Ford not to advertise in magazines marketed at Gays and Lesbians. Why they would care where Ford advertises, I don’t know. Why they are still alive, I do know the answer – it’s ’cause I haven’t meet any of them yet. I would love to spit in their faces. At the suggestion of David Savage of Savage Love column fame, I decided to call Ford and tell them I was happy to see they had resumed their advertisements in these publications. David, whom I talked to, said he would make sure to note that I gave positive feedback for their actions.

And so there you have it. That’s what I did with my day. What did you do with yours?