Friday, June 18, 2010

Checking in...

Haven't done much blog wise lately. It's wedding season- between May and June we've got 4 weddings to go to. Currently two down and two to go. I've been way too busy with terrible things like open bars and good food. Life will soon return to normalcy and I'm gonna get some quality beach time in July - Carolina Beach / Kure Beach over the 4th for a long weekend and I should be in the Outer Banks two weeks later; parents are gonna be at the place and I'm making sure I will be too.

I'm really excited about the idea of surfing sans wetsuit in some warm water. This is how the waves usually look in the Outer Banks during the summer time:



Awesome!






I'm happy as long as the waves are big enough to ride. As you can see, Fort Fisher is the choice location for barrels at Carolina Beach, south of Wilmington. Here's Corbin taking on a world record:











I figured out if you kneel down really far, just about any wave can be shoulder high, including this beast...I barely made the drop:











And the Jack dog ensuring the safety of all swimmers:













Speaking of Jack, in case you didn't know, he sleeps in my shower. That's right, he crawls into the shower and lays down every night. If the shower door is shut, he'll stand there with his head against the door and whine. When he sleeps upside down, his snoring sounds really weird - the first time I heard it, I stumbled out of bed around 3AM, flicked on the bathroom light, and this is what I saw:


Monday, May 24, 2010

Bros Icing Bros

This one courtesy of Owen -

I can't stop laughing at this. Apparently the new phenomenon is "Bros Icing Bros." Icing is when you present one of your friends (bros) with a Smirnoff Ice- they have to drop to one knee and slam it, no matter where they are or what they're doing.

Now if you are iced by some bro, and you happen to have an ice on you at the time, you can present it to them; this is an "ice block." If you ice block someone, they have to drop to one knee and take down both ices on the spot. No matter what.

Yeah, this is sort of fratty, but it's not wearing shorts shorts, croakies at night, or a Jay Cutler haircut.

It's hilarious because for one, Smirnoff ice is pretty much disgusting; imagine icing one of your bros with a warm, 24 oz Apple smirnoff, and him having to shame his name in public by dropping to a knee and taking it down. Or better yet, one of your hot shot bros ices you and you've got one on you already, ice block him, and he's gotta take both of them down. A game is a game.

Check out the links below and enjoy the scenarios- and hurry up - once it takes off mainstream it won't be as funny..

http://www.theawl.com/2010/05/guest-op-ed-why-bros-get-iced-bro

http://dealbreaker.com/2010/05/not-even-goldman-sachs-immune-from-taking-part-in-icing-phenom/#more-21291

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Some Towns Should Change their Names

Just found my favorite new town name.

Last week, a few of my coworkers and I embarked on a road trip that took me from Raleigh to Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh to White Plains, NY where we had a 3 day meeting, then up to Burlington, Vermont. I had a good time and finally got to see Vermont - which was awesome. Ended up taking a ferry across part of one of their huge lakes and drove through the mountains for a few hours on the way back. Getting into Vermont at night, we would drive nearly 20 minutes at several points without even seeing a light.

Anyway we passed through Pennsylvania from about 11PM-3AM on the last leg of the trip back to Pittsburgh. Now Pennsylvania, as you may know, has some pretty special town names.

Honorable mentions include Intercourse PA, Frackville PA (compliments of Nicole), Paradise PA (which makes the honorable mention because of the name and the fact that it's dead smack in the middle of Amish country.

My new favorite is town name, though, by a huge margin, is Shartlesville, PA. Shartlesville. It's either my ability to find humor in just about anything, my maturity level, or the fact that we'd been driving for 12 hours when we passed through the town, or maybe a combination of all of those things. That's just hilarious though. If I were mayor of Shartlesville, or anyone who had the power to do so, I'd have changed the name once urban dictionary or this movie came out.


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Fruity Drinks are OK if at the Beach

Pretty much just had one of the most fun weekends I can remember. For some reason, some of my college friends and I waited almost 4 years to get back together for the first time. We headed to Nags Head. It was Owen coming in from NYC, Corey (Blake/Babe #1/Ehhhh) coming in from Chicago, Robert coming in from Baltimore, and the Salty Donkey from DC or Baltimore, or wherever he lives now. Dooley Show and the Pat Monster were there in spirit. Actually more than that with all of that "what up chiefs" and Pat stories.

Anyway between all of the beer die, grilling, cards on the back deck, several thousand Busch Lights, a cheese slam (don't ask), tumbles down steps, and several pukings in a Wings parking lot (classy), were banana daiqiries (sp?). Never had one before.

Once in a while life throws you a little gem; in this case, Scott Owen threw one.

Ingredients per batch:

6 Bananas
~9 oz light rum
3 tbs Triple Sec
Lime Juice
Ice
Floater of Goslings rum on top (just enough to push you over the edge). Forego the lime wedge unless you're propping your dignity on the edge of the glass with it.

Just get yourself a constant flow of these all day and cap it all off with some reebs. I can't believe we were actually wondering why none of us could remember eating dinner that night.





There's definitely not enough dude in this hot tub.






Poor planning for the ride home left Corey in the back seat of a Subaru with an acoustic guitar and a 140lb Newfoundland dog.







Here's Darren with perma-grin on cruise control. In this picture, his subconscious sees cards, a table, and a drink in front of him, but his conscious really has no idea what's going on.
For some reason, Friday, he flew to Raleigh from B-more, rented a car, then drove from Raleigh to OBX. Sunday he did it all over again. He did make light of only being there for 36 hours or so by appropriately cracking his first brew circa 9:30AM. Respek.


I'm hoping we'll be able to do these weekends once or twice a year, if my body can handle it. I thought it was appropriate that I had a fever my first night back, especially since fevers are just your body's way of telling you something is wrong. I'm having trouble figuring out if the wrong part was what I had done to myself all weekend or just the fact that the real world was calling again. RDoug actually gained 6 pounds over the course of those 3 1/2 days--impressive.

All in all, it was great to see these guys and to see that they're all successful and enjoying life.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Have you seen this man?

This dude looks EXACTLY like me, but he's got this awesome mustache. My buddy Tommy sent it to me. It was the first time in my life I've ever seen someone and really thought, "wow, that guy looks like me." My friend Justin said he was thinking about putting the picture on a t-shirt.

Anyway apparently he's down in Atlanta somewhere, so I'm thinking about heading down that way just to steal his stache, since I'm starting to realize that I'd never be able to grow something that awesome on my face. Either that or put a bounty on his head, because if he ever decides to take it to another level of awesome and grow the handlebar, I'm worried my girlfriend Jensen will leave me and jump the tracks for Atlanta.

Let's see a comparison:

Me










Him



Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

A little venting and a little appreciation coming.

What should we start with first, the positive or the negative?

I'll get the negative out of the way, since when I decided to start a blog, I vowed it wouldn't be to vent on what's been bothering me. I've been stressed trying to make ends meet lately and that just amplifies the little things.

If you've been living on earth for any amount of time in the past few years, you'll have noticed the massive divide this country has experienced; people downright hate each other sometimes simply because of political views.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I read an interview that Larry King did with Jesse Ventura, the former pro wrestler and Minnesota governor. The guy has always seemed pretty much off his rocker, but to me, he seems like the most sane one of all right now. Larry King was pointing out that recent polls (usually garbage, but still) suggest that the country is more divided on Obama than any other president in history. At this point, Ventura tried to hold his laughter back and pointed out that it's not because of Obama or what he's doing, it's because of the two major political parties; they both put their parties ahead of the country and the people. This major divide, based on the concern of being re-elected, is magnified by the media, who are also biased, then down to all of us, who take it and run with it.

That being said, I'll tell you what the country's biggest problems are right now; no, it's not Obama or his big spending plan, and it's not George W., or the wars.

1) Sarah Palin - F saving the best for last. Dare I speak boldly: If you support her as a politician, you immediately lose all credibility in any discussion. Stop arguing with people about politics. She's just a political puppet doing and saying anything she feels will win the votes from the Right. In case she hadn't blown all credibility when McCain was running for office, she gets caught with her speech points written on her hand - that's not the point though- the point is her response, quoting the bible, saying that God wrote on his hand too, so she's in good company. Score a few more votes from the religious right there. Don't get me wrong- I'm a believer, but I don't think I want someone like her in any position of power. In fact, we should consider having her committed. I feel that the leader of the free world should be charismatic, but they don't have to be. I feel that they should be engaging, but they don't have to be. They damn-well better be intelligent, though. And her little Tea Party can go with her. I don't like getting taxed either, but it's life, and when you blame immigrants for all of your problems, you've got much bigger issues. These people are blind extremists. If they're so stuck on the constitution, where were they when the Patriot Act hit? My advice to them: get a job, sir! (what movie?). New book out, new program on fox - good businesswoman, it's just a shame so many people eat it up.

2) Fox News and CNN: Fox admitted they were biased. Not sure if CNN has yet, but they both pump out biased news 24hrs/day and most of us buy every second of it, and it shapes our opinions of politics and our fellow citizens whether we realize it or not. What does this lead to? Cubicle arguments, cheese-dick name calling like "hippie democrat" or "asshole conservative." Bring media outlets like Facebook into it and we've got a giant mess of the ill-advised hating on each other. Again, good businesspeople though- what are they gonna say, "Nothing to report on today- please get your news elsewhere."

3) Rush Limbaugh: It's not worth me typing more than a sentence or two about this disgusting blob of an oxygen-waster. No one can truly believe all that he talks about, including him; but I won't say he's a bad businessman- I hear he made over $30 mil last year. You are nuts if you support this guy. I won't call you stupid, but that's just out of respect.

4) Stereotypical Far-Left guy: Stereotypical far-left guy blames George W. Bush for everything, loves Obama unconditionally regardless of any issues, and votes for change for the sake of change. Usually bases his argument on the environment, global warming, hating George Bush, the Iraq war, etc.

5) Stereotypical Far-Right guy: Takes the stance of being an 'economist,' finds any reason to complain about Obama and his spending plan, loves George W. Bush unconditionally (forgetting about Bush's astronomical spending), and always longs to somehow bring Ronald Reagan back, even if only for a second, just once, just to see how it feels. Stereotypical far-right guy usually bases his argument on one or more of the following: welfare, paying for those who don't work as hard as them, the word "socialism", religion (btw if the right is so against abortion because it is "playing God", why are they so for the death penalty?).

I'm finding it harder and harder to have political views these days. I think many of the above issues are important, I just don't expect any of them to be considered fairly by any politician out there.

But I won't complain without offering a solution, so here's mine: Vote every major politician out of office. Bring in a new crowd, and tell this new crowd that if they pull the same partisan games, that they'll be gone too.


Enough with the bad stuff, let's move onto what keeps me going, and I think you should consider trying it too.

Sunsets: cliche huh? Well we're all living life too chaotically, including me. How many days of the week do you get done and say "Where did my day go?" Happens a lot. I've been making a point to check out a good sunset, even if only for a minute or two, every day. Believe it or not, they happen every day, regardless of what we're doing. It's been a good reminder to me that today happened. Throw in a tasty brew and a good friend / significant other and you've got it made. I'm telling you, Rednecks made this popular, and in many cases, they know what the hell they're doing.

Budweiser while playing golf: Nothing completes a bucket of golf balls or round of golf with a bud deisel, or a few of them. I've been trying to figure out why it's the best golf beer for a while and still can't. It's either something coming through the can from your golf glove or something in the air on the golf course that gets in your beer and makes it magical. Either way, it's definitely not psychological. It has to be in a can, too. Forgot to mention that.

Random people who smile and say hello: not the pedophile kind, but just friendly people you pass on the street or at the store. I think it's common decency to do this when two people passing make eye contact. Shit, life isn't THAT bad that you can't do this, is it?

Blue cheese: That's right. Pass the moldy stuff. I haven't tried this and don't plan on it, but you could put blue cheese on a dog turd and it would probably taste good. I stop trusting people a little bit when the waiter/waitress asks if they want ranch or blue cheese and they go ranch. Not sure why.


The ocean /surfing: Another cliche one here. Waves, like sunsets, happen every day, no matter what chaos is happening in our lives. If you are lucky, once in a while you get out a waxed up board and slide down the line. I'd take being out in the line up with a friend or two over just about anything in the world.








Ahh I feel much better.