Me The People

Drake Goes Down: The Video

2008-06-17T16:32:00.001-04:00

DC STAND UP!!!

2008-05-02T10:22:00.000-04:00

Mr. Bookman

2008-04-14T16:03:00.002-04:00

Sunday Done Right

2008-04-14T11:14:00.003-04:00

Yesterday (4/13/08)

8:30am - Wake up and go downstairs to get water. See Margie Champagne has slept on our couch cause she was locked out of her house. Spoon with her and discuss the meaning of life.

11:00am - Get off of couch and take shower

11:20am - Enjoy massive breakfast burrito lunch with mimosas courtesy of Hagan and Katie along with 10 good friends

12:30pm - Depart for Nationals/Braves game with the big crew.

1:20pm - Arrive at game in time for the National anthem. Proceed to enjoy a few beers at the "Beerpen," eat some 5 Guys, and watch the Nats win a close one 5-4 with a pop fly out in the 9th. Kyle's broom that was confiscated at the front gate serves no purpose

6:00pm - Get home in time to watch the last hour and a half of the Masters

7:40pm - Pick up Joe V and go to the Sport & Health gym steam room. Sweat it out.

8:10pm - Get back to Joe's and jump on the trampoline for about 30 minutes

9:00pm - Drive home and catch up with a 30 minutes call with Johnson

9:30pm - Watch Wet Hot American Summer for the first time. Fantastic

11:00pm - Watch this past week's SNL, which was also pretty damn funny.

12:00am - Hit the hay.

Feeling good today. Real good.

Songs To Download -

Budos Band - King Charles
Hot Chip - We're looking for a lot of love
Hot Chip - I Was a Boy From School (Erol Alkan's Extended Rework Mix)

Taco Town!!!

2008-03-27T16:10:00.000-04:00

Not that new, but still fantastic

My New Favorite Site - Hulu.com

2008-03-19T15:36:00.002-04:00

They have videos of pretty much everything, but what I love about this site is it's finally the SNL video database that should have always existed. Below are a boatload of my favorites.

First Citywide

Bad Idea Jeans

NCI Phone Company

The 2000 Census & Christopher Walken

Pet Chow Brand Rat Poison

Pig Suey

2008-03-13T10:20:00.002-04:00

Newest track from the Dolla Crew. A little love for the Little Rock

http://www.zshare.net/audio/88578013017665/

Oh my dear god. This is just pathetic

2008-03-06T16:49:00.003-05:00

This is really pathetic. If it's happening in the UK, it'll no doubt be in the US very soon. I'm actually surprised it happened there first. Hell, maybe they'll even try to switch people over to bumpercars to avoid vehicular homicides while using the phone.

I actually think my favorite part is the people doing the re-enactments of people colliding with the poles.

Music -

Sounds from the Ground - Marshmello
Moe. - Kyle's Song
No Doubt - Sunday Morning

The Onion Movie

2008-03-05T15:06:00.000-05:00

Not sure how real this is, but the preview's pretty damn funny

"The Ninja Bandit"

2008-03-05T11:31:00.003-05:00

"People living in fear, wondering where this nunchuk wielding thug will strike next"

Ninja Bandit Terrorizes New York's Staten Island 9/23/07 Report - The best bloopers are a click away

Ninja Bandit Wikipedia Page

Yacht Rock

2008-02-27T10:09:00.003-05:00

This summer will undoubtedly be the summer of Yacht Rock. Nothing goes smoother with a hot summer day and ICBs than some Yacht Rock. To better understand what I'm talking about, please watch the following 2 videos.

Recommended Yacht Rock to get you started -

"Sailing" - Christopher Cross
"Carribean Queen" - Billy Ocean
"What A Fool Believes" - Doobie Brothers
"Peg" - Steely Dan
"Rosanna" - Toto

About as good as the Onion gets

2008-01-31T13:50:00.001-05:00

Bloodthirsty, Undead Ghoul Advocates Chocolate-Cereal Consumption

Tom Crooze

2008-01-29T14:18:00.001-05:00

This video is pretty damn hilarious

Remembering the Good Times

2008-01-29T09:45:00.000-05:00

Pumptown baby, Pumptown. I'm guessing 29 degrees on a cold February day in Lexington, VA

My god this is cool

2008-01-28T15:24:00.000-05:00

So I'm watching Con Air....

2008-01-14T16:25:00.000-05:00

yesterday on TNT and as I listen to Nic Cage's flawless Alabama accent, I get to wondering how much Nic Cage's voice coach got paid for this movie, and then I begin to laugh to myself about the South Park imagination land episode where they ask Michael Bay (among others) for help. See video below.

Thank god for Cameron Poe.

The other MJ

2008-01-14T16:16:00.000-05:00

With Felix Jones and Dmac Leaving for greener pastures and greener wallets, I'm getting nostalgic and obviously youtube led me to these gems. Take your pick, Matt Jones could dunk in either sport.

And on the Hoops Court

Not Feeling So Good.

2008-01-07T14:56:00.000-05:00

I felt great until I crossed the Key Bridge on my way to the man to your left's place in Northern Virginia on Saturday afternoon, but as I rolled down my windows as I passed the gas station/church in Rosslyn, I began to take a turn for the worse and haven't felt right since. My head is pounding, my throat aches, and my nasal passages are dammed up. I'm making a personal pact to myself to not cross into Virginia for at least 10 days, just so I can clean my lungs and remaining respiratory system out a little bit. For those of you that must venture into that god-forsaken place for work or otherwise, may I recommend you bring the following:

- A SARS mask (painter's mask)
- Rubber Gloves (owned, not rented)
- Duct Tape
- First Aid Kits
- Gas Mask
- Hair Nets
- Plenty of Fresh Water (bottled.. in DC)
- A copy of the King James edition of the Bible
- any other provisions you deem appropriate

New Song Rec's:

Peter Bjorn & John - Amsterdam
Ratatat - Truman
My Dad vs. Yours - Tanz Mit Unz

Also, the entire Daft Punk "Alive 2007" CD is bona fide badass

One Man Show

2008-01-04T14:47:00.001-05:00

I don't wish I was a little bit talla...
DL "One Man Show"
One Man Show, B*tch you know I'm a balla

What I Wish I Could Do

2008-01-04T14:39:00.000-05:00

In 2008, I will learn to do this

Bring the Wood!!!

2007-11-23T20:34:00.000-05:00

2 New Dolla Recordings Tracks

2007-11-21T10:25:00.001-05:00

These are the 2 newest Dolla Recordings beats from this past weekend.

"Cougar Huntin" - Binx, Grubdiesel, & $

"Dolla Dolla Blues" - Binx ft. $

More goodness at our myspace page

Myspace.com/dollarecordings

Ratatat Takes Over, Step One.

2007-11-19T14:43:00.000-05:00

This is a cool little video from Good Magazine about Nuclear weapons across the world made much cooler by the soundtrack, which is "Gettysburg" by Ratatat. Get ya some

Music To Download -

Bob Schneider - "I'm Good Now"
Twista - "Creep Fast"
Twista - "Adrenaline Rush"

Pheasant Hunt Weekend 2007

2007-11-13T12:28:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was one to remember to say the least. Luckily Wilbus and Joe V documented the whole weekend with pics.

The 2007 Tweardy pheasant hunt coincided with Veterans Day weekend, with all the more reason to blow off some steam by taking life. The "Thrill of the Kill" was no doubt the theme of the weekend, be it killing birds, killing hookahs, killing Wild Turkey, the Generals getting killed, or killing our arteries by eating more food than we could possibly imagine.

So here's the long and short of how our itinerary looked.

Thursday, November 8:
- Depart DC with Robert, Willie Noel and Joe V America and arrive in Pittsburgh at the newly purchased Tweardy residence by 11 pm to meet Greg and Ty.

- Actually end up arriving at 2 am thanks to the perfect storm of the worst Wal-Mart experience ever, terrible directions by me, lack of hunting hats in the state of Maryland and general trouble in a hell-hole of a shopping center in Anywhere, Maryland.

Friday, November 9:
- Awake, meet up with the rest of our hunting crew (10 Deep) and head SE to Confluence, PA. Upon arriving, shoot some clay pigeons, eat some delicious stew and sandwiches to prep us for the rigors of the wet & chilly hunt. Get our game-faces on.

Luckily, the early rainy weather held off and we divided into 2 groups of 5 which apparently shot right about the same number of birds, giving us 45 total pheasant and quail. With Chef Tweardy chomping at the bit to start cooking them up, we knew we were in for a big treat later that night.

A little side note: after being in the corn field for about 30 minutes, Ty & me quickly realized that waterproof shoes definitely would have been the way to go. With 4 hours of hunting remaining, we already felt that we were wearing aquasox and our feet weren't getting any drier. Word to the wise, Merrells are not waterproof, not even when you "waterproof" them.

Shot of the day? That's a tough call. I'd like to give the nod to myself for shooting the quail that basically landed on the barrel of my gun and subsequently seemed to explode and rip into 5 equally sized pieces while feathers rained down for the following 30 seconds. Basically I might as well have stuck dynamite down his throat. But from what I understand, there were some other impressive shots as well, one of which is captured in one of Darren's videos below. Other one is here

When we got back, Tweardy and Donna went to work. The feast they made is best put in the man's own words -

"First, we pounded the pheasant breast thin and stuffed each with locally made pancetta, baby spinach, shitake mushrooms, creamy feta cheese and then rolled it. It was then coated with a dijon glaze and placed under the broiler until it had a delicious crust. If i were a pheasant, this is how i would like to be cooked. Next we made a pheasant marsala by battering the pheasant with homemade breadcrumbs and then pan frying them until each had a crispy golden brown outer shell. We finished them off with a creamy red wine mushroom and peppercorn sauce. Daaaaaalicous. Not to be outmatched, the side dishes were equally impressive. We had some silky mashed sweet pototoes finished off with dark brown sugar, heavy cream, and butter We also had Tweardy's famous risotto, this time with wild mushrooms, hot and sweet sausage, and leeks. And finally we had some crunchy baguettes topped with an artichoke and cheese spread. We washed down the entire meal with about 5 bottles of red wine and 2 handles of scotch and bourbon. The meal came to a fitting finish with some of Mrs. Tweardy's homemade apple and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. What else can I say?"
It was an awesome spread and really couldn't have gotten any better. Good food, good booze, good friends, good hookah and the Chahine family made for a great post hunt evening.

2 events of note well documented by video: Robert falling asleep around 930 and snoring his face off in the living room and Wilbus, Joe and I making sure Clark K. Saw the Goat, not once, but twice in the same hour. He is so gay.

Saturday, November 10:
Ahhh... Gennies Gameday. If the events prior were any indication, this tailgate would be pretty damn solid and It wasn't a let down. We tailgated in the middle of the Carnegie-Melon Tartan campus with the parents Tweardy, beers, whiskey and sausages on the open grill. (and no one else) It was amazing how NOBODY on the campus could tell us where we should tailgate as you can see in the picture below. I'm pretty convinced half the school didn't know where the stadium was.

We loaded up the flasks and binoculars with Wild Turkey and took to the game. After some spiked hot chocolates, we headed to the W&L tailgate above the field on the parking deck. Basically the nosebleeds. From there we had a great view of the message Joe and I got the press box people to put on the "big" screen. What the game lacked in excitement, we made up for with more free food and drink.

>After the game, we took it to Fiori, Tweardy's favorite pizza joint for a "pie." Really good stuff. Pizza with cold mozzarella on top was something I'd never had before, but it was great.

By this point, not a lot of energy was left in the crew. We took it back to Greg's house for some football watching and what I can only consider to be called, a "mass nap." It was fantastic and just what we needed before we went with Donna's bro Danny to Kassabs for an amazing Mediterranean meal, which he generously took care of. The spread there was amazing as well and I'm convinced that those Lebanese are some of the most generous people around.. or maybe they just want everyone to love their style of food as much as they do. Either way, I enjoyed it

A very chill evening around the chimineyo followed.

Sunday, November 11:
Before we left town to get Wilbus back for his flight on time, we had to stop by Pitaland. This place is pretty damn impressive. The Chahine family sells everything Mediterranian under the sun. I personally stocked up on Olive Oil soap, hookah tobacco, baba ghannouj, tabbouleh, hummus and home-made pita. Thus far it has all been amazing and I can't wait to get back for some more.

You could say our minds weren't exactly the sharpest on our way back to DC as we discussed designs for a Pitaland hoody, how we were going to make our millions, debated the merits of watching a movie before reading the book or reading the book before watching the movie. Our in-depth conversation and bob marley soundtrack led to a little navigational SNAFU on the way back to DC, as we ended up roughly 150 miles past our turn south, almost ending up in Philadelphia. As I looked at the map and wondered where exit 80 something was, I realized that we were at about exit 230, near Lancaster, PA. It was very obvious Will was definitely going to miss his flight, and which I guess was blessing for us. In fact, we got back to DC about 2 hours after his flight took off so he stuck around until 4 on Monday.

It should also be noted that after a weekend of out-eating our potential, we decided to keep on with a head of steam, getting coffee, ice cream, and eventually mexican food and margaritas to end the night.

Damn that was a good weekend. I never thought I'd say it, but I can't wait to get back to Pittsburgh.

Guest Quick Review - Spiderman 3

2007-11-07T09:49:00.000-05:00

Once again, a man who is far superior with his cinematic descriptions than I will be reviewing recent summer blockbuster, Spiderman 3. His review of this film, which I have yet to watch, has all but guaranteed that one day when I have passed on and am lying in a grave, people will discuss my legacy and many vices, but they will be able to say, "well at least he never saw Spiderman 3!" And for that, I am a very proud man. Here goes:

"Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I'm free at last"

No, I'm not a slave in the 19th century, I'm just a guy who rented spiderman 3, wanting closure to a paragon of my childhood. And now, at least I can say that I got a taste of how slavery might have felt: I spent all last night being whipped by horrendous writing, oppressed by innumerable and forced "cool" interludes of "bad" Toby Maguire "grooving" his way down the street and dancing in a nightclub (one of the worst scenes in cinema history), beaten down by the ability of movie studios to attempt to make movies more than they are: you're making a movie about a guy who dresses up in a nylon suit, shoots "webbing" out of his hands and flies around NYC, let's ease off the melodrama brake a bit and floor it to CGI-fightsceneville! News flash: NOT EVERY BAD GUY HAS TO BE A CONFUSED GOOD GUY! WHY CAN'T BAD GUYS JUST BE EFFING BAD GUYS?

Lieutenant Greenshorts TOLD me the movie was going to be bad. My suck-sense TOLD me this was going to, well, suck. Everyone in the room wanted to give up. But I held out hope! God forgive me I JUST WANTED TO KNOW HOW THE STORY WOULD END!

In my house, it ended in applause, applause for the fact that this 3-hour mind-melting experience was finally over. I thought I had seen the limits to which hollywood was willing to push the standard superhero cliches (good v. evil, keeping up the appearance of normalcy while facing insurmountable odds, etc.), but boy, was I ever wrong.

After 180 grueling minutes of force-fed life lessons from aunt may, a laundry list of quotes that make you want to rethink your stance on Kim Jung Il ("hey, if he were here, he'd shoot Toby Maguire"), and cartoon-like fight scenes with 1,000 bad guys (all of whom mutated as a result of stumbling ass-backwards into A NUCLEAR TESTING FACILITY, cause its so easy to get into A NUCLEAR TESTING FACILITY, all you have to do is hop a fence, cause they have a ton of them spread out across NYC, I think there's one up on 107th, but be careful not to fall into that one hole where they're testing SAND IN A MICROWAVE, it may not end the way you expected it), I can now safely say that I would prefer--thanks in advance Matt Wallace--a "hearty dose of prison-bitch sodomy," to watching this movie again.

I, more than most, enjoy the suspension of disbelief that allows a moviegoer to fall into an unrealistic story. Call me gullible; after the first 30 minutes of the movie, however, the only thing I had fallen into was a deep-seated desire to kick old people.

This review is heavy on insult, light on evidence, but who cares, I'd rather talk about shit than stick my hand in it, am I wrong, am I wrong? Suffice it to say the sheer complexity the writers forced onto the weak shoulders of terrible actors and into poorly
thought-out scenes betrayed a desire to make Spiderman 3 into something its not: a good movie.

- Cameron Garner

Welcome 2 Fayettenam

2007-11-05T12:02:00.001-05:00

These kind of speak for themselves

Probably my favorite

Do the Heisman

2007-10-25T11:35:00.000-04:00

It's called the stiff-arm. Good luck keeping that helmet on.

Guest Quick Review - Transformers

2007-10-25T11:03:00.000-04:00

You know how you see previews for a movie like "300" to the point of wanting to quit watching TV all together? And then the movie comes out and they put an end to the visual rape you experience watching the commercials every other break in a football game?

Well, I'm not sure what the exact scientific term this is, but they do the exact same thing to you roughly 6 months later when it comes out on DVD, or now a days, Blu-Ray. So just when you think you've put this movie behind you and you'll never have to see another slow-motion kick of a guy into a bottomless pit, it's now back in your face and more obnoxious than ever. Well, this guest review is dedicated to one such film who's ads have been wearing on me like rusty nails on a chalkboard: Transformers.

I would have to say that this movie had me more excited than anything else this year, which led to the greatest disappointment. I can't say the book is better than the movie since there is no book, but I was definitely looking forward to this movie since I was about 8 years old, so it was a long time in the making. It was yet another time when a movie's potential vastly exceeded the finished product.

For a more eloquent review, I turn to Cameron Garner:

"Wow...Transformers...the greatest cartoon I ever watched between 8-10AM on Saturday morning...well, maybe not, I think spiderman was good too...

Anyway, this movie was 100% awful. Pure and simple. I thought it would be decent, I mean a whole bunch of robots throwing each other around a city? Niiiiice...

What I got was a 2 1/2 hour GM commercial, interspersed with some missiles flying around, a quick jump cut to some sort of robot doing something, and about 4 minutes of enjoyable action.

The writing was awful, the use of "comic relief" was over-the-top and not even funny, and the continuous stream of cliches made me laugh away 45 minutes of the movie...it was the most enjoyable 45 minutes of this disaster. But there were a lot of great shots of the new chevy fall lineup, which made the movie even worse, so there ya go.

Shia LeDeutsche made me want to grab a fork and stab my eyes out...my love affair with this deutschbag is officially over. If I never hear him bumble through another sentence, I'll be a happy man. John Turturro, who used to be the funniest man alive (have you seen brain surgeons? funniest movie of all time), is just pissing his career away...cause damn.

How this movie is getting a 57% on rottentomatoes.com really makes me rethink ever walking into a theater wearing anything other than a trenchcoat and a sawed-off again. If I wanted to watch a 3 hour infomercial on chevy, gm, HP, panasonic and teen suicide (he didn't make it happen in the first one, but with transformers 2 already in the works, I'm REALLY hoping Shia will realize that a sweet handful of pills is the only real alternative to ear-fucking america a second time...), I would have turned on ESPN in Henry's room.

Did anyone else think that movie made history as the worst waste of hollywood money of all time? At least with waterworld they had the balls to sink all traces of the disaster to the bottom of the pacific...why can't Michael Bay show the same kind of courage? "

On a last note, what the hell is the deal with making things 4 times the size they need to be? Is it all about super-sizing shit? I mean, I'll concede that the incredible hulk was maybe 6 foot 5. Sure. In the "remake," he's 30 feet tall. So how does a 10 foot long car turn out to be a 80 foot robot?

Dr. Stratton Says...

2007-09-19T17:28:00.001-04:00

"I'm A Real Sucker for Ethnic B*tches"

The Beginners Guide to Wasting Time

2007-09-17T11:34:00.001-04:00

That title can be pretty misleading. I don't think that anything I do is really a "waste" of time, more of how I "spend" my time. Since work isn't the most stressful thing these days, I'd say I'm rich with time to "spend." The only problem is, I am confined on how I spend my time since I'm in front of a computer, which means I do a ton of reading, and usually not good reading, because most of it is pretty trivial - i.e. Fake news stories and useless sports knowledge. I'll start with the obvious places to begin wasting time -

- 101-stories.blogspot.com - Man, those guys are geniuses. I'm not sure how they do it but they manage to come up with new, fresh material so often and it's always satisfying. Here are a few of my personal favorites to get you started
1. "Great Expectations"
2. "A Weary Traveler and a Waffle House"
3. "Ivan's Inner Demons"

- DC Big Hitters - I'll let you find that one out for yourself, but it's pretty amazing

- The Onion. If you don't know what that is, I feel bad for you, but it's not too late to change that. This one should hook you - "Ben Affleck Hoping Jason Bourne Has Sidekick in Next Movie"

- Deadspin - Pretty useless sports info, but always entertaining, much like the websites listed below
- Every Day Should Be Saturday
- Losers With Socks

Couple Other Random Ones -

"The Best Page in the Universe" - rarely updated, but always entertaining
"Hot Chicks with Douche Bags" - self-explanatory

That's all I've got for now, but look into all of those and you should be good for at least a day.

Songs To Download (all from Pandora.com) -
"Nostalgia for the Future" - Dark Globe
"Higher than a Skyscraper" - Hybrid
"Rize Up" - Chemical Brothers
"Live in Vanilla" - Boy Robot

Back in the High Life Again

2007-09-14T11:41:00.000-04:00

Well I've been away for quite sometime, and I nearly got munsoned, but I'm back now. Summer has come and gone and the weather has taken a turn for the cooler up here in DC. The highlight of my average day is usually either looking at Rogers Hawley's web albums or reading Ben Long's Bovine Bonanza blog.

Both of these have made me realize that there is so damn much to see in this world that I need to take advantage of it while I still can (realistically, not financially).

Ivan Drago is now officially on board for 101 Stories as we're up to 64 stories. Step 2 is trying to figure out how to make some dollas off of it.

We've got all sorts of new additions to DC this year, though it has not come without it's losses. Regardless, I've got a solid fall line-up that will hopefully include all of the following -

1) 2nd Annual Tweardy Pheasant Hunt outside of Pittsburgh, PA - though it includes traveling to Pittsburgh, I'm extremely excited about this trip as more folks have gotten on the bandwagon for the trip which should include all us DC folks from PDT (Joe V, Bobo, Hagan) as well as Tweards himself, Willie Noel, the Birdy Birdy Man, and Taylor Alexander.

2) Trip to Chicago to see my man Bradley Feingerts. Definitely looking forward to checking out Chicago from an older perspective than when I was last there when I was 10 years old. Hopefully I'll get to stop by the original Billy Goat Tavern. Anything's possible if you keep your E on the P, just ask Tweardy about Magnolia Bakery. We went to Magnolia and mac'd on some cupcakes

3) Trip to Athens to see Bazzel and see a UGA game. I know he's holding it down in his most loved of cities. I need to see it for myself

4) Halloween in NYC. Basically I need a reason to get back up there and think that might be a good time to go.

5) Arkansas. I got to see Darren McFadden again while he's still wearing razorback red before he's off to the pro's.

That's about it right now, since I've got to keep my post about Tweardy's bachelor party in Vegas separate. I've been messing around with some pictures I've taken from DC and put them in a web album on my picasa web. I think it turned out well, so definitely peep em out.

Songs to Download (all gold I swear) -
"US Placers" - Kanye & Luape Fiasco
"Lightsonic" - Groove Armada
"Truth Is" - Brother Ali
"Forest Whitaker" - Brother Ali
"Get Em High (Ratatat Remix) - Kanye West
"Change Up" - Fabulous ft. Akon

Ron Mexico

2007-08-02T11:43:00.000-04:00

I just had to put this up

Note To Self:

2007-06-28T17:13:00.000-04:00

Note to self: If you ever own a Verizon store, or anything of that sort, and are trying to sell a product, make sure that the store itself actually has cellular reception. It looks pretty bad when you pick up a phone and see that it has no service. However, that is nothing compared to having a laptop computer on display with numerous signs throughout the store touting the Verizon as having the "nation's strongest broadband network" only to actually have no internet connectivity in the store. You're really not going to sell anybody on its "power" when it packs about as much punch as a guy with no arms. I equate it to having a sunglasses store with no mirrors, magazines you can't open, or a mattress store where you're not allowed to lie down.

This ranks right up there with the point that you should never have the voice of a multi-billion dollar business be a voice that can't speak or understand the English language

Another note to self: If you're ever waiting in a cell phone store for what begins as twenty minutes but becomes an hour, a good way to pass the time is to take pictures of yourself on the various camera phones making terrifying faces and set those pictures as the background pic with a banner with something similar to "What's up friend" or "OH MY GOD!!"

Pink Palace

2007-05-31T17:19:00.000-04:00

This the official letter that the tenants of Pink Palace received during the 2004-2005 frat season (Wilbus, Ten, Tay Ali, and myself) from the W&L director of security after our St. Patrick's day party. To give you an idea of how ridiculous this is, our house was 15 minutes out in the country in the middle of nowhere as you can see in the photo.

Gentlemen,

I write to you about an on-going problem at The Effinger Elementary School. Several times in the past few weeks, we have been contacted by the school and The Rockbridge County Sheriff's Office in reference to vehicles being left in their parking lot at the school.

While Washington and Lee has no jurisdiction at this location, I am personally asking that you not park vehicles at this location for the social gatherings that you have at your house. Apparently this past weekend, the parking lot was also trashed. The Principal has concerns regarding the safety of his students and teachers who load and unload from busses at this location. I'm sure that each of you wish to be good community citizens, let's work with these folks to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

It would be less than pleasant to have your guest's vehicles towed for this behavior. Please pass the word to the folks that attend your functions and have them park elsewhere, not on school property. Hopefully this situation can be resolved with the best interest of everyone in mind. Thank you.

- Steve Tomlinson

Stephen T. Tomlinson
Associate Director
University Security
University Commons Room 253
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450-0303

You Know What Grinds My Gears?

2007-05-23T11:16:00.002-04:00

The English language. I take that back. People who suck at using the English language.

Well, that's a pretty broad starter topic, but about as accurate as I can be. The English language is undoubtedly one of the most difficult languages to fully master, and anyone I know that claims to have done so has most likely been sniffing glue only minutes prior.

I've always said that there's a subtle perfection to everything I do. However, there are common phrases that I hear thrown out every day that I'm pretty sure are wholly incorrect, yet I don't say anything (sometimes I do, but it pisses people off).

I'll start with one of the most common, which usually goes down something like this -
"Hey Steve, what do you want to do for dinner?"
"Well my name's Greg, but I could care less"

See that? No? Read it again. "I could care less." That is probably one of the most common phrases used in everyday conversation between people in America, yet it is completely incorrect. How can you say you could care less about something and mean it to say that you couldn't care less. I don't know but it really grinds my gears

Next on the list tends to go like this -
"Hey Mark, did I tell you that I read where Safeway is having a sale on pumpkins?"

(to which I usually, very sarcastically reply) "No, where?" as in where is the sale going on or where did you read that? The post? Time Magazine? Nat'l Geographic? Vibe?

If you're too slow to pick up on that, I either feel really bad for you, or am really jealous of you cause it drives me crazy - probably cause my perpetually grammar-correcting parents are the ones who drop that more than anyone.
Why is it so hard to say that you read that there is a sale on pumpkins rather than you read where there is a sale on pumpkins?

Third, and last for this edition, is one that has plagued me since my youngest years and I still can't understand why people want to say it and more to the point, why they are allowed to say it. So here goes - "..... as it were."

Damn that one pisses me off. I even looked it up using the internets, and came to realize that it is just a poor way of saying "in a manner of speaking," which is also a phrase that gets thrown around too much. Even still, people say "as it were" far too often, and it actually makes me cringe when I hear it.

You're probably thinking to yourself, "wow Mark, that's definitely not normal." Well, you're right. However, I had an English (mind you, ENGLISH) teacher in high school that seriously dropped that no less than 2-3 times every class. I can't find a reason to say that phrase once every few years, much less 2-3 times in a 90 minute class. Unbelievable. It was like she had to fill a quota. When we took tests I half expected her to take a look at her watch, realize too much time had gone by, call the attention of the class and say, "you have 20 minutes remaining to finish your test.... as it were."

Well that's my rant on that. I think my next post that's similar will include office phrases such as "it is what it is" and "re-inventing the wheel."

But for now, I'll leave you with this thought. Picture yourself.... same you, except that you play golf frequently and on three separate occasions you have made a "Hole-in-One." Now answer me this: If someone says "I've never made a hole-in-one. Have you?" Should your response be "Yes, in fact I've had 3 holes-in-one" or "Yes, in fact I've had 3 hole-in-ones"?

Doesn't it make about 20x more sense to say "3 hole-in-ones" since that whole phrase is the object? Well I have no idea, so get at me with some comments. In the mean time, I'm going to keep saying it that way... that is of course, once I start making hole-in-ones.

Music to Download -

Go ahead and buy the new Bone Thugs-N-Harmony CD "Strength & Loyalty." They are back in full effect and it sounds awesome

Smith Point Withdrawal...

2007-05-16T16:02:00.000-04:00

When you think you can't sink any lower, believe me, you can. I'm specifically referring to my friend Will Howorth (pictured at right) who is currently undergoing a process of being taken stricken from his comfort zone, what is popularly known as "Smith Point Withdrawal." It's not an easy process, and it usually takes a few weeks. In the most extreme cases, it will take months, maybe even years to get over.

The beginning is easy. Time will pass, and though you want to go, you won't mention it to your friends. As the days melt into weeks, you start thinking to yourself, "why, if I could only pop my head in, I bet it'd be a good time. I haven't even been there in a month." It may seem like a month, but it's not even close. That's how the real process begins.

It starts with the tremors. Your hands will start shaking... becoming clammy, gross ... you start reaching in your wallet for your credit card .....or maybe a twenty or even a fifty... but there's nothing to pay for. The panic begins to set in.

Next come the night terrors. You'll wake up, profusely dripping sweat, confused and yelling "I AM on the list. No really, I AM!!! I SWEAR!!!". Most likely you'll curl up into a ball, cold, shivering... start telling yourself, "If they'd only let me talk to Bo, it'll all be ok" - but Bo never comes. Ever.

But it only gets worse. Now you can't even go to sleep. Why? You say you don't know.. but you DO know. You'll start having imaginary conversations with Sneadiker. You'll refuse to take off your suit, even in the shower, cause you always want people to think you just came left work... but that was days ago Will... maybe even weeks.

You'll lie in your bed, rock back and forth, whispering to yourself, "I don't want to lose your love tonight.... I just want to use your love tonight".....

This is only the beginning Will, but we'll be with you every step of the way

Songs to DL -

Slightly Stoopid - "The Officer"
Thievery Corporation - "Guide for I and I"
Tishamingo - "Travel On"
Marvin Gaye - "Hitch Hike"
Thievery Corporation - "Mathar"
Hot Chip - "The Warning"
Tsewer Beta - "Marl 1 (You'll Never Guess)" - awesome song if you can actually find it

DC Concerts - Ratatat edition

2007-04-25T13:15:00.000-04:00

On April 17th, I saw Ratatat for the first time (and definitely not the last) live at the 9:30 Club here in DC. I have seen several solid concerts since I've been living up here, but this one I think easily took the cake as the best show I've seen in Washington, and there's a few reasons for that.

Normally I probably would have opted out of a concert that started at midnight on a Tuesday, but after listening to their self-titled album ("Ratatat") and "Classics", I knew I couldn't pass them up. Also, my west coast connections Rogers Hawley and Willy Noel recently hooked me up with some of their rap remixes off of the Ratatat Remixes Vol. II. Those guys also had pretty unbelievable things to say about their show they checked out in San Fran. With the DC show being the second to last stop on their US tour, I felt compelled to go.

The 9:30 club is just about the best indoor venue you could ask for, and definitely the best place Ratatat could have played and at $15 a ticket, you can't get a much better deal for a show anywhere. They tore it up all night, but the definite hits of the show were fan favorites "Wildcat" and "Seventeen Years," not to mention the song they closed with, "Gettysburg."

After they completed their US tour they crossed the pond to London, where they played 3 shows, one of which my boy Mark Woodward ended up going to and saying was absolutely the balls. And just like that, good friends of mine and myself have seen Ratatat in 3 of the coolest locations to see a show possible.

Definitely check out their stuff on their myspace page. They also have a page on hypem.com of full songs you can listen to for free, a lot of which are remixes and recorded live bootlegs. Definitely worth popping your head in there. You can find that site here.

If you ever get a chance to see them, no matter what, don't pass it up. On the real real

Ratatat Song Recs (Top 5) -
"Gettysburg"
"Wildcat"
"17 Years"
"Lex"
"Nostrand"

Quick Review - Hustle & Flow

2007-03-26T11:19:00.000-04:00

Well I'm not exactly sure how to rate this movie, cause it's definitely unlike any other movie you'll find out there. I definitely would say this movie is pretty awesome. Aside from my parents, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find people who won't enjoy this movie. The scene where they put together "Whoop that Trick" is undoubtedly one of my favorite movie scenes I've witnessed in a while.

On a scale of 1 to 10, (10 being the movie you would most want to watch with a stripper who can't leave your house because a flood covered the bridge to your house in water so that she ends up staying at your house all day after the night she came to strip and ended up spending all day cleaning your house), I would give this movie a 10. And yes, that really did happen to a few of my friends and they really did watch this movie with her. It had to be the most awkward thing imaginable. Regardless, if you haven't seen "Hustle & Flow", definitely check it out. You might enjoy the company of a stripper more than your parents on this one though.

Stiff Bartsman

2007-03-26T10:54:00.000-04:00

This is just one of many compilation raps that my boy Taylor "Numba 80" Callaham and I have written. I'll try to present it as best I can, but we're still lacking a hook. After watching "Hustle & Flow," I'm envisioning a prostitute with heart of gold and the voice of an angel somehow doing Biff justice in the chorus. Here we go....

(Tay Cali)
Shake ya hand
and make you smile.
Biff is there with
your name on file.
Admit it now,
It felt damn good.
Makes a straight man
sport some big wood.
He's got your vote
and you don't know why
Whatever he's selling
You're willing to buy.
If you're talkin DC,
Biff's like Nick Naylor,
And If you're talkin pumptown,
Biff is the mayor

(Chorus)

(Grub)
well it's only 9:30 and you know biff's hittin the hay,
cause says he wants to hit the gym to start his day,
but you know nibbs wont get himself out of bed,
what's the point? Slim, Fit Biff = no street cred,
So stay away from the diets, workouts, & ricecakes,
One solid handshake - that's all it takes,
For D. Royal Startsman to get it right,
especially at IRT on movie night,

(Chorus)

(Grub)
Forget "King of Queens", that's not for Biff,
He's the King of DC - the man's got a gift,
Hold back the tonic - get this guy some Gin,
3 drinks down and his night begins,
Rollin thick with Biff and he'll get you in,
forget a dog - you know Biff's man's best friend,
DG? SP? All that's NBD,
Some solid mirror dancin' is what you'll see.

At the moment I'm thinking that the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song would work pretty perfectly with the lines, but as I said before, the chorus needs to be developed.

Songs to DL -
Bone Thugs ft. Akon - "I tried"

Also, the entire DJ Curious "Hustle Athletic Mixtape Vol. 1", which can be found here - http://www.yousendit.com/t
ransfer.php?action=check_d
ownload&ufid=602178CB5711E
096&key=ad070d9d4edf0b3dc8
15a3f38656f8dda0e2e8e5

Quick Review - 3 Hundo

2007-03-14T17:22:00.000-04:00

What do "300" and "Inside Man" have in common? Nothing really, except for the fact that those are the only two movies that I have ever left thinking that everyone was going to agree was terrible, only to find that about half of the people that saw it completely disagreed. One of my friends (who I'll call H. Dick for anonymity's sake... actually, let's use Hagan D.) even went so far as to utter the phrase "that is definitely one of the best movies I have seen in my entire life." Well, while I may completely disagree with him, this is America (insert patriotism) so everyone should be entitled to their own opinions. In addition, for the last 30 or so minutes all I wanted to do was get up and leave, and had I been the one who drove, I probably would have.

The thing about this movie is that you absolutely have to know what you're getting yourself into, and for the most part, I did. However, not even seeing 300 previews for "300" can prepare you for the absurdity of this movie. I had seen them all, yet I was completely surprised by Ninjas, Guitar playing Llamas, etc. I came across a couple great reviews after seeing it, so I'll leave the accurate descriptions to the experts on this one. These are quotes taken from a couple different news paper reviews (Credit to Robo Ferguson) -

"For me, the fight is unfair. "300" is about a bunch of hot white
metrosexuals -- those pecs, those abs, that hair -- against a million
freaky nonwhite club kids. In other words, the gays. King Xerxes's
hangout is full hookah-puffers, derelicts, and girls making it with
girls (let's call them lesbians). His army is full of monsters
seemingly from the Troma Films creature shop.

"According to this outrageously flagrant movie, the Spartans didn't
just die for Glory, Duty, and Destiny. They died to keep the Hot Gates
from turning into another gay disco."

Selected quotes from NY Times review -

"300" is about as violent as "Apocalypto" and twice as stupid."

"The Persians, pioneers in the art of facial piercing, have vastly
greater numbers — including ninjas, dervishes, elephants, a charging
rhino and an angry bald giant — but the Spartans clearly have superior
health clubs and electrolysis facilities."

"Another movie — Matt Stone and Trey Parker's "Team America," whose
wooden puppets were more compelling actors than most of the cast of
"300" — calculated the cost at $1.05. I would happily pay a nickel
less, in quarters or arcade tokens, for a vigorous 10-minute session
with the video game that "300" aspires to become."

My final personal recommendation is that if you live in a place where you can get a movie ticket for less than $8, and can't resist giving in to your curiosity, you should not resist your temptation to see it. Otherwise, get it on Netflix in a couple months or keep watching the preview as it will undoubtedly be on TV for weeks to come.

In other news, the Hogs are in the tourney, so we'll see how that goes. I'm about ready for some hoops revenge on the raping that USC has given our football squad the past 2 years.

New Songs to DL -

"This is why I'm hot" - Mims
"When the man comes around" - Johnny Cash
"The way I live" - Baby Boy Da Prince
"Otto's Journey" - Mylo

Where I Work

2007-03-02T16:36:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the glorious world of a Senate Legislative Correspondent. This is where I spend my 9-6 every day. The weather never changes in here.... ever. I am one of 4 desks in a room that is one of about 8 that our Senator's staff inhabits. Not too much to say about this spot, so enjoy the shots (click on any of the pictures for full size)

If you look closely at the one in the bottom right, you can see the very same view that I get to look at if I look over my left shoulder and through the office of my superior. Oh Look! It's sunny out there, but as I said, the weather never changes in here.

It's March!

2007-03-01T12:08:00.001-05:00

While there are certainly few things worse than the time of the year when the clocks go forward, and the sun goes down quicker, it’s impossible for me to deny that I’m overjoyed about how possibly my favorite time of the year is coming in 10 days and counting - March 10th, the clocks roll back. I have posted previously with my thoughts on daylight savings time, so I’ll save you the effort of reading through that again (unless you really want to)

But the month of March brings us many things. Many would contend that the number 3 is lucky, which happens to be the order of the month of March in the yearly calendar. Named after Mars, the Roman god of war, March delivers us each year bountiful things to celebrate. Here are a few -

- March Madness (if you don’t know what that is, please leave my website)
- Beware “the ides of March” - A foreboding reference to the assassination of Julius Caesar by a group of nobles including Cassius and Brutus on the 15th of March. Ides is a term meaning ‘middle’ in case you didn’t catch that.
- St. Patrick’s Day - One of the best days of the year for the lone reason that it is an excuse for the entire world to get crunk on the same day. I’d love to see some kind of statistics for deaths/crimes related to March 17th.
- James Madison’s Birthday (March 16th)
- The aforementioned Daylight Savings Time shift.
- Women’s History Month (seriously... that does exist)

What we here in DC will actually be celebrating as well is ...
- 5 Frost Brewed Fridays .... wow 5 FBFs in one month? It’s almost an FBF miracle
- Wizards/Hawks game A.K.A. Gilbert Arenas vs Joe Johnson (March 2)
- The Roots ft. Luope Fiasco on March 9th
- Galactic on March 31
- My deadline for paying a $50 fine for driving the wrong way down a one-way street
- March marks the first (and certainly not last) time we’ve ever been featured on Baggo.com

Here’s a snapshot of other goings on in my life -

- Most pressing matter is that my boy Douglas (Dougface) Weissinger is headed to the far east in the not to distant future to spend the next 1.5 years in the protective custody of the Chinese branch of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (the attractiveness of the name goes without saying). In the mean time he’s trying to savor the taste of authentic Americana and hopefully using some line about how he’s moving to China and he’s never “been with a girl before.”

- Henry Slauson has officially reigned in the new year... the Chinese New Year that is. Apparently, the Chinese believe that it is the year of the Golden Pig. However, they fail to understand that though the year of the golden pig only comes once every 600 years, this is the year of the Slauson, so they’ll have to wait another 600 years for the Golden Pig. Coincidentally, Hank “Hot Slauce” Slauson’s birthday (February 18th) is the start date for the Chinese New Year, so there should be no confusion about it. Regardless, Slauson’s 2006 was well documented in photographic evidence, meaning that the bar has been raised for 2007. Indeed this is a very exciting time for everyone who walks this Earth, especially those who live in Washington, D.C.

I’m getting a new Verizon Cell piece. If anyone has a rec to buy or not to buy, get at me with it.

For anyone born February 29th, sorry you didn’t get to celebrate your birthday this year. See you in 2008.

That's the best part about guys hanging out--they make fun of each other. Especially guys like us. I mean we're so f'ing cool. It's the only way we stay grounded."
--George Cameron Todd (“hard body... soft touch”)

Songs to DL -
Eric Lindell Band - “Give it Time”
Common - “The Food”
Ratatat - “Sunshine (Remix Ft. Jay-Z)”
Ratatat - “Lex”

Next Post: Some solid rap lyrics about my boyz

Quick Review - Breach

2007-02-21T14:51:00.000-05:00

I'd be lying if I said that my immediate appeal to this movie wasn't that it's set in DC. It ranks right up there with True Lies & Wedding Crashers as far as copious shots of DC go. It probably even takes it a bit too far, but not for this guy. It's great when you can recognize the setting for just about every scene in the movie, especially being from Little Rock, AR, where not too many movies are filmed as you can imagine.
This basically tells the true story of the last 2 months of the investigation that leads to the 2001 arrest of Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), an FBI agent of 25 years who had been selling the Soviet Union intelligence that he had been granted access over the years. That much you know from the very outset of the movie. But how it all unravels is what keeps you glued to the screen.
The movie all begins with the introduction of Eric O'Neil (Ryan Phillipe) as the aspiring young FBI operative (not yet an agent) who is assigned to keep an eye on Hanssen. The interesting dichotomy plays out between these two characters, especially due to the devout catholicism of Hanssen vs. the minimal catholicism practiced by O'Neil. Though this movie is not full of flashy explosions and exchanges of gunfire, it has more than it's share of suspense. Not life changing, but certainly worth a watch (especially if you like/live in DC).
I give it an 8 overall, with a 10 for DC scenery.

"Do you know why the Soviet Union fell?..... Godlessness." - Hanssen to O'Neil

Must Have Songs -
"Wordless Chorus" - My Morning Jacket
"Fix Up Look Sharp (Dizzee Rascal)" - Ratatat
"Triumph" - Wu-Tang Clan (old, but oh so good)
"Concrete Schoolyard" - Jurassic 5

Guest Post - Happy Valentines Day! by Greg Tweardy

2007-02-14T12:49:00.000-05:00

I don't want to go on a rant here, but who in the name of baby Moses invented this holiday. everyone reading this with a girlfriend, or fiance in my case, should agree. i mean, i tell Donna i love her probably every day. With me telling her so often, I'm pretty sure she's gotten the memo by now...especially with the whole ring thing. So why do i need a designated holiday only a month and half after Christmas when I'm still paying off my credit card bill where I will undoubtedly drop an additional $200 bucks which i don't have for some roses that will be dead by the weekend and a nice meal on the town, which by the way, will be enjoyed in the middle of an ice storm, just to tell her information she already knows. If that is not the dumbest fuckin' thing I've ever heard, I don't know what is. It's like big Willy booking a flight from Cali to the Burgh and paying $50 bones for a cab to my office just to tell me that Lanier is fuckin' CRAZY. this is information i already have. It all seems a little excessive, if you ask me. I mean, Donna tells me I'm lazy all the time, but we're not gonna have a holiday celebrating that I've gained a couple extra lbs...or are we?

food for thought.
-Tweardy

Quick Review - Thank You For Smoking

2007-02-13T10:24:00.001-05:00

Maybe it's just cause I've been living in DC and it's mainly about the humorous battle between "big tobacco" and a Vermont Senator, but I'd say that this perfect length comedy movie (just about an hour thirty) was one of the more satisfying netflix arrivals I've had yet. Thank You For Smoking really focuses on one main character throughout (Nick Naylor) who drops more ridiculous quotable one-liners than any movie I've seen in a while. This guy, who seemed frighteningly similar to Dyllan Rankin, is a lobbyist for "big tobacco" who's basically the best BS guy you've ever seen. You'd hate him, unless you knew him. Over the course of the movie, you think it's going to get slow and sappy as his conscience gets the best of him (as most comedies tend to do), but kind of turns on a dime with 15 or so minutes left and restores it's comedic strengths to close the movie. A couple of the more memorable scenes include those where he's in LA talking to the big time movie producer Jeff Megall (Rob Lowe) about how to get cigarettes to be cool again by placing them in movies. The only low point (as with Batman Begins) rests with a poor performance by Katie Holmes. Overall I'd recommend this movie to anyone (friends, parents, grandparents, pets, etc.) and I give it a 8.5 on my comedy scale.

My Comedy Scale
10 = Caddyshack, Airplane, Fletch, Kingpin, Dumb & Dumber
5 = Scary Movie 3, Dodgeball
1 = Caddyshack II, Date Movie (anything you turn off or wish you'd turned off)

Best line(s) of the movie -
"The number 1 killer in America is cholesterol, and here comes Senator Finisterre who's clogging the nation's arteries with Vermont cheddar cheese" - Nick Naylor
"That's ridiculous - the great state of Vermont will not apologize for its cheese" - Sen. Finisterre

"You know that guy who get any girl? I'm him... on crack" - Nick Naylor

Next Review - The Departed

A Few New Songs to DL -
"Wheels Fall Off" - Kidz in the Hall
"Miss Teardrop" - Felix Laband
"Sun is Shining (ATB Remix)" - Bob Marley
"Superstar" - Jamelia

Agent Zero

2007-02-01T17:40:00.000-05:00

I'll be the first to admit that I am pretty big on jumping on the bandwagon (e.g. DTO, Patriotism, Mirror Dancing, etc.), but as of late it's been out of control. Ever since I moved to DC I've tried to get into cheering for teams of the city (Nationals, Capitals, Redskins, and most recently, the Wizards).

The reason I decided to write this is because my biggest bandwagon so far this year has definitely been the Washington Wizards - Actually, Gilbert Arenas (seen here taking a bow after scoring 60 pts). Not only has this guy absolutely been dominating the NBA this year with the most points per game, but the weird stuff he does off the court is what makes him my favorite player in the otherwise dismal NBA. Here are a 15 reasons for those who aren't that familiar with him (thanks wikipedia).

1. He wears number 0 because he was told in high school that he would get zero minutes on the floor playing college basketball.

2. During halftime he has been known to either take a shower in his jersey or play online poker. Also, while on the road he apparently is an infomercial addict, frequently ordering ridiculous things off of late night informercials (such as a home colon cleanser)

3. He has a weekly blog that's absolutely ridiculous where he predicts how many points he'll have among other things

4. After being told my the USA Basketball team coaches (Coach K & the head coach for the Suns & Trailblazers) that he'd have extremely limited playtime, he quit the team and dedicated himself to destroying all of those coaches' teams, and scoring 50 or more points. So far he's done that and he promised that he's going to score 50+ on February 11 against Portland. Then, he said that given the opportunity to play duke, he'd score 84 or 85

5. He supposedly spent $1.5 Million his own birthday party that was ridiculously elaborate (see the ice sculpture of himself & picture with Puff Daddy)

6. This year the Wizards unveiled these amazing gold and black jerseys for away games. The original Wizards colors are terrible, so any change is welcome. A lot of people think they look terrible, but I think they're awesome. They're also the only non matching jersey/short combo in the NBA.

7. He's leading the league in points per game this year and shoots a ton of 3's at over 40%, which is unheard of considering how many he shoots (Ironic b/c the US team shot about 10% in the World Championship)

8. He flipped a coin to decide what NBA team he wanted to play for before coming to the Wizards

9. After every game, he throws his jersey into the crowd for a different fan to have because he says he can afford a new one and the fans already had to pay a bunch of money just to get into the game in the first place so they shouldn't have to buy a jersey as well.

10. When he was asked about a perfect shoe commercial, this is what he said -

"You know how I always throw my jersey into the stands after a game? In Washington, they just go crazy for it. So in this commercial, that's what I'm gonna do with my shoes. I've just hit a game winner, and I throw these shoes. Everyone starts to react, and you see everything in slow motion. Everyone's pushing, shoving, doing whatever it takes to try to get to these shoes. People from the 400 level, they're jumping off the ledge, they're missing the pile, hitting nothing but chairs, and you can just see in people's faces like, Ooooh, that hurt. While all this stuff's going on, one of the shoes pops out of the crowd, and a little girl gets it and she takes off. A couple of people see she has it, and they start chasing her, and she's looking back running—and then she gets clotheslined by a kid in a wheelchair. So he picks the shoe up and says—he's gonna have the only line in there—"They said I couldn't get it. Heh. Impossible is nothing." And then he rolls off."

11. He's been known to yell "HIBACHI" when he shoots, which has become one of his nicknames, along with "Agent Zero"

12. In 2004 he traded a guy a pair of his shoes for a box of ballots so he could vote himself into the All-Star Game.

13. He refers to himself as the "East Coast Assassin". When Kobe said he takes too many questionable shots, he said "Out of that whole game I probably took two bad shots ... And for me not to have a conscience? You're right. When you're an assassin, you don't have a conscience."

14. This year he's made tons of game winning shots, and when asked if yelled "Hibachi!!" when he shot the game winner against the Bucks and then turned around and walked away, he said, "no... my swag was phenomenal"

15. He also mentors a D.C. boy who lost his family in a fire at age 10. Arenas takes him shopping, bowling, got him a job as a ball boy for the Wizards, and acts as brotherly figure towards him.

Basically, he's the man.

New Jamz to check out -
"Make it Rain" - Fat Joe & Lil' Wayne (great basketball warm-up song)
"Leaving London" - Team SR
"Motivation' - T.I.
"Home Again" - Dirty Vegas

"It's Just Lunch!!"

2007-01-25T10:13:00.000-05:00

So there I was, at my desk, peering over important, confidential, official papers I had just printed out, when I received an email on my always-open Gmail account. "Thank you for signing up for 'It's just lunch'" it said in the subject line. "Oh no" I thought, "I must have forgotten to fill out all of my information when I signed up for IJL." Later in the day, I looked at my mobile phone and saw that I had 2 missed calls and 1 new voicemail. I checked this voicemail, which went something like this - "Hey Mark, this is Jenny with 'It's Just Lunch' and I was hoping to get the ball rolling on your account, so if you could give me a call back at ....."

It was about that time when I realized that I had not in fact signed up for IJL at all, but rather I was the victim of one of the more clever hoaxes I have seen in recent time. What criminal mastermind had the moxy to pull off such an inscrutable act? None other than Hagan Nicholson Dick (pictured here), who I assure you normally has "Lacks Creativity" stamped on his forehead. He's basically like the Morton Andersen of our friends.

This got me thinking, if someone as vanilla and boring as Hagan Dick could pull this off, just imagine what a much more creative and original person like myself or any of my other friends could do.

The point of all of this is that there is not enough appreciation for good ole fashioned practical joke wars these days. For instance, in my college years, I had a friend named Will Noel who would foam at the mouth when mention of prank wars came up. If someone sent him a box of their own sh*t, he would retrieve a dead skunk and put it in their shower. Simple, but devastating.

My advice to you is don't let the corporate world cease your pranking ways. With each passing year and change in lifestyle comes new opportunities for different kinds of original pranks. If you are new to this, you may want to start slow. Try some of these - unscrew every lightbulb in a friend's house just enough so that they won't turn on and they think every bulb is burnt out, move all of their clocks 12 minutes forward (or back), superglue a nickel on their floor, switch out drawers in their dresser, or put all of their DVDs in different cases than they are supposed to be in (nothing like finding Patch Adams in your American Psycho DVD case). From there, you'll be able to work your way up in no time.

Since I'm bitter I didn't spend $85 on Red Hot Chili Peppers tickets, I decided to spend that money on other concerts. So here are the 4 concerts I'm looking forward to for roughly the price of 1 RHCP show-

January 25 (tonight) - Perpetual Groove concert ($12.70)
February 8 - Moe ($25)
Febraury 10 - Galactic @ 9:30 Club ($26)
March 9 - The Roots w/ Lupe Fiasco ($30)

Songs to Download -
"Superstylin" - Groove Armada
"Don't Matter" - Akon
"So Lonely (Cover of the Police Version) - Emmet Swimming
" Mahgeetah" - My Morning Jacket
"Once In A While" - Akon
"Leaving London (Original Mix)" - Team SR

My Creed to Apollo (Part Two)

2006-12-20T12:25:00.000-05:00

As I began to discover the various points for/against Daylight Savings Time, I became very intrigued.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_savings_time

* One thing I should clarify is that the whole system is not called Daylight Savings Time. The times of the year when the clocks are "rolled back" and the sun is out later is actually referred to as Daylight Savings Time. Therefore, getting rid of DST entirely would eliminate the longer hours of sunlight during the summer.

Rational for DST (sorry to do this the lazy way) -
- "Because people tend to observe the same bedtime year-round, by artificially moving sunset one hour later, the amount of energy used is theoretically reduced... Part of the reason that it is not observed during the winter months is that the amount of energy saved by experiencing sunset one hour later would be negated by the increased need for artificial morning lighting due to a later sunrise. During the summer most people would wake up after the sun rises, regardless of whether daylight saving time is in effect or not, so there is no increased need for morning lighting to offset the afternoon drop in energy usage. Another reason for not observing daylight saving time in the winter is concern about children walking to school in the dark."

Opposition to DST Rationale -
- "DST is particularly unpopular among people working in agriculture because they must rise with the sun regardless of what the clock says, and thus their schedules are placed out of synchronization with the rest of the community, including school times, broadcast schedules, and the like during the DST shift."

The point of all this was mainly to inform, but in reality the reason I got excited when I read this was that I made the discovery that beginning in 2007, the dates for clock change will be different.

Daylight Savings Time is always observed on the last sunday in March or the first sunday in April and the last sunday of October. That's not the good news. The good news is, that starting in 2007, the clocks will readjust and we will have summer extended daylight time from the 2nd sunday in March to the first sunday in November. THAT MEANS 3 MORE WEEKS OF EXTENDED DAYLIGHT TIME & 3 LESS WEEKS OF SHORTENED DAYLIGHT TIME. HELLS YEAH!!!!!!

So mark your calendars, cause on March 11, 2007 I will be basking in the heavenly rays of my man Apollo.

In the words of butters, "don't fly to close to the sun, you might burn your wings and fall into the ocean"

My Creed to Apollo (Part One)

2006-12-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

Today started like any other day. The sun rose in the eastern sky, I hit the snooze button 12 times. As per usual, my blinds were open and I was semi-asleep yet covered in full body sunlight and working on my tan.

If you're like me, you're a feen for sunlight. During the spring and summer months you count down the steps until you're outside and can bask in the glorious semi-toxic waves from our sun. You feel at home at the beach. You fear the inevitable winter. And you're pretty convinced that you have Seasonal Anxiety Disorder (SAD).

But what does that mean anyway? If leaves dying and falling off trees, the sight of brown rather than green grass, getting into a frigid car every morning, perpetual grey skies, losing any hint of a tan and the fact that the sun goes down 3 hours earlier than during the summer all grind my gears constitute having SAD, then count me in 100%.

"Is there anyone who doesn't enjoy nice weather and the warmth of the springtime sun as much as I do?" you might ask yourself. The answer is yes - and they live in Wisconsin. Don't get me wrong, the late fall/winter season has great things going for it - fireplaces, snowball fights, hot chocolate, thanksgiving, eggnog, christmas (presents & decorations), and new years eve - but I'm fairly convinced these holidays are nothing more than arbitrary distractions to make people forget about how much winter weather sucks.

All this said, I was having a discussion on the reasoning for Daylight Savings Time one day and decided to do some research on everyone's favorite semi-reliable online encyclopedia - wikipedia.org.

I read through various arguments for and against Daylight Savings Time (coming in Part II)

30 Songs

2006-12-13T16:50:00.000-05:00

Willie Noel recently asked me to document my favorite 30 songs for him so that he can restart his recently lost musical collection. I took that to basically mean that if I could only have 30 songs to my name, what they would be. As I assumed, this was extremely hard to do. I tried to incorporate different types of songs that I liked for different reasons and reminded me of different times. I originally ended up with 72 songs that were on “My Top Rated” playlist. I tried to narrow it down, and I’m sure 2 month’s from now about 1/3 of these songs will be replaced by new ones.

Here they are in no particular order (Wilbus I expect you to do the same)

1) “Kodachrome” – Paul Simon
2) “Erotic City” – George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic
3) “There It Go (The Whistle Song) – Juelz Santana
4) “King Without A Crown” – Matisyahu
5) “Hands of Time” – Groove Armada
6) “Designated Driver” – Epicure
7) “Rapture at Sea” – Eastern Sun
8) “Notorious Thugs” – Bone Thugs-n-Harmony ft. Notorious BIG
9) “Problems” – Salmonella Dub
10) “Stay High” – Three 6 Mafia
11) “Pressure Drop” – Toots & the Maytals
12) “Mother & Child Reunion” – Paul Simon
13) “Hard to Concentrate” – RHCP
14) “Bright Side of the Road” – Van Morrison
15) “Hate It or Love It” – 50 Cent & the Game
16) “Mellow Mood” – Slightly Stoopid
17) “Mother We Just Can’t Get Enough” – New Radicals
18) “Proudest Monkey” – Dave Matthews Band
19) “Mr. Brightside (Thin White Duke Remix)” – The Killers
20) “Right Here, Right Now” – Fatboy Slim
21) “Collie Man” – Slightly Stoopid
22) “Beast of Burden” – Rolling Stones
23) “Wait in Vain” – Bob Marley & the Wailers
24) “Is This Love” – Bob Marley & the Wailers
25) “Round the Wheel” – String Cheese Incident
26) “Keep on Callin” – Akon
27) “Love Tractor” – Widespread Panic
28) “Da Art of Storytellin (Part 1)” – Outkast
29) “Money Ain’t a Thang” – Jay-Z & Jermaine Dupri
30) “What You Know” – T.I.

Not in my top 30 just yet, but here are some new ones that are really growing on me I suggest you DL -

“When you were young (thin white duke remix)” – The Killers
“Kids” - MGMT
"Top Back" - T.I. (Undeniably the hottest jam out right now)
"I Luv It" - Young Jeezy
"Go Getta" - Young Jeezy feat. R. Kelly
"One Blood" - The Game
"Throw Some D's" - Rich Boy
"Why U Wanna" - T.I.

A couple vids to check out that I posted on youtube -

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Micb_YxhlWY

http://youtube.com/watch?v=el6GoUBhoKg

"Man, I f*cking love musicals!" - RDB
"Hey, I just bought some monogram handkerchiefs for my dad... those things are f*cking expensive" - Bro Mike
"Grobmyer, I've got a shotgun party on my bureau if you want to grab it" - Hot Slauce

Frost Brewed Fridays

2006-11-17T17:00:00.000-05:00

Let's hear it for Frost Brewed Fridays (FBF).

Keep in mind that when you want to enjoy the rocky mountain cold taste, it is probably best to wear oven mits or some type of protective handwear. Though the frost brewed liner was originally conceived with the intention of trapping the ice cold taste that comes with frost brewing using rocky mountain cold water, the unintended consequence is that the product is actually too cold to the touch to be harnessed by man. Many have tried. None have succeeded. However, in light of this unintended consequence, many have found the secret to affordable conditioning of air on a hot summer day. Place 12 frost brewed liners in different corners and other locations of the room no less than 18 inches apart. This should stabilize the room at a decent temperature for you and yours to enjoy the delicious rocky mountain refreshment.

In order to enjoy the taste properly, I recommend one of three options -1) preheat your oven to 450 degrees and let the cans sit in there for roughly 10 minutes. Afterwards, you should be able to hold the can with your bare hand (no promises though) 2) Microwave said can on defrost mode for 20-30 minutes and then heaton high for 4-5 minutes.3) Lastly, try an external flame, such as a gas stove or even a grill. This is the fastest way to reach peak frost brewed taste, as it will only require about 3-4 minutes of exposure to the flame to achieve a safe temperature. One last thing, you may run into a problem storying your delicious rocky mountain cold bronsons.

The dilemma is, if you keep them inside when it's not the summer, you're bound to lose a fortune by paying high heating bills to offset the coldness of your house. If you choose to store them outside, you run a significant risk of freezing whatever immediate surface you store them on and most certainly heighten the probability for either an ice storm or blizzard. Lastly, never enjoy that cool, crisp refreshment with headphones on (unless of course you're listening to "Love Train" by the O' Jays) due to the potential for not hearing the Coors Light Silver Bullett Train coming. With all that said, don't hesitate to give in to the deliciousness rocky mountain cold Coors Light on this Frost Brewed Friday

WOOO PIG SOOOIIEEEE!!!!!!!!!

2006-11-06T10:34:00.000-05:00

GO HOGS GO!

I just had to share my excitement for the Razorbacks who, for the first time in school history, are going to be hosting ESPN College Gameday this Saturday in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The Razorbacks are getting some serious rushing yards from the 2 back setup with #5 Darren McFadden (1,034 yards this season) and #25 Felix Jones (750 yards this season). Cheer on the Razorbacks for me this weekend when we take on Tennessee. You better believe I'll be rockin' my hog hat & DMac jersey

PS- If you ever get the opportunity to watch a football game from a Hot Tub with Scotch Drinks on an outdoor Television, I suggest you take it cause it may be the greatest thing in the world.

Tweez/Doug/Clark/Numba 80 Come to Town

2006-10-30T17:52:00.000-05:00

In what was to be just another weekend in the most ballin'ist spot in all of America (aka Wash DC), a combination of Generals Gameday and the promise of good hosts yielded one of the best weekends in the "real" world yet. BTW, this is written very posthumously.

With Tweards, Numba, and Doug each arriving early on friday night, the board was set and the pieces were moving. Doug's B-Day was finally upon us and we could think of no better place to be. So I strapped on the Wolf and my trusted off-white blazer. As we opted to skip out on Bennigans and decided instead to enjoy some Margaritas instead (Not Jumbo Tex), we all felt that same sense of reluctance you get when you know for sure that the Bennigans employees won't be singing their Happy Birthday song.

Regardless, a great night ensued that took us to G Town hotspots Paulo's and SP. The highlight of the evening had to do with neither of them. It was all about having a good time with good friends like Numba, casual shotguns, Doug, Gladiator Shotguns (seen below), Tweards and DTO (actually PTO on this occasion)

In the morning we rose for battle, which, in this case, would be the first game for Tweezy and CK to watch our beloved Generals from the stands against the DC native Catholic University Pussywillows. Certainly emotionally draining and downright thrilling as the game was, I believe that the highlight of the game was a 93 yard INT return by CB Bazzel off of a Grobmyer pass during halftime. The pass was intended for the WR Callaham on a slant route.

In the meantime, the unranked Arkansas Razorbacks steamrolled #2 ranked Auburn --> http://youtube.com/watch?v=CFX_THONHA8

After the game, we put our feet up and watched a few games before taking on the town once again. Ben "Squirrel Gravy" Long was a special guest star for the evening.

All in all, it was a great weekend and certainly unprecedented as our DC ventures have gone. We had plenty of time to catch up with eachother and more than enough drinks to keep the energy up at all times. We all parted ways that Saturday, but the promise of a soon to be Pheasant Hunt with the Tweardy family on the weekend of November 3 have kept the spirits high. Also, homecoming was only 2 weeks away.

This post's song to DL is a throwback edition to some adolescent songs I've recently heard while listening to Sirius radio's "The Pulse" Channel -
"Lightning Crashes" - Live
"Wonderwall" - Oasis
"Losing my Religion" - REM
"Allison Road" - Gin Blossoms
"The Guitar Man" - Cake
"Glycerine" - Bush
"Black" - Pearl Jam

Also, this site's ridiculous if you're looking for a good throwback jersey -
http://www.christianthrowbackjersey.com/

100 Questions

2006-10-13T15:24:00.000-04:00

After some encouraging from Willie Noel to think like Leonardo DaVinci, I have decided to take a famous practice of his and put it to use and post it on the internet. I am going to write the first 100 questions that come to mind starting right now (October 13, 2006 3:19 EST)

1) Why are there so many names for mexican food disches but they're all the same?
2) How do you install electricity, cable, and phone lines way out in the country?
3) How much paper actually gets recycled when you put it in a recycling bin?
4) How do people translate a language that nobody speaks anymore and know that they're accurate?
5) How did they draw out maps of countries before they had the ability to see it from above?
6) How do you build a skyscraper?
7) Is that poster of guys eating lunch during construction of the NY skyscraper real?
8) Do professional photographers hate that everyone now has digital cameras?
9) Does eating things that are cooked in a microwave reduce your lifespan?
10) Would drinking cheaper beer/liquor decrease your lifespan if you drank equal amounts?
11) Am I ever going to be able to grow a full beard?
12) If I did, would it look weird cause it was dark hair and I have blonde hair?
13) Is my hair ever going to be dark or is it just going to become white at some point?
14) What is the point of writing down the first 100 questions that come to mind?
15) Why do they call it a blog?
16) Am I an alcoholic?
17) If so, are all my friends alcoholics?
18) Is there enough floss in the world that has already been produced to last us for a long time, say 50 years?
19) If a product starts to sell less, does that mean the factory is open less, or they just have less workers?
20) When they say that the US Mint is going to make more money to put into circulation, does that mean that the money producing factory will be turned on, or that they'll be much more productive and work longer hours?
21) Why do new movies and TV shows suck so bad? Is it cause we're used to everything and there are less new ideas, or do they just genuinely suck?
22) Am I going to hate taking my little kids to see G-rated movies?
23) What are the odds of having twins?
24) What month accounts for the most birthdays?
25) Does that trend vary by country and climate?
26) Does drinking purified water do that much good for you that tap water doesn't?
27) Why do we spend so much time as kids learning cursive?
28) What percentage of adults write in cursive?
29) Do people that live in the Dakotas or Wisconsin hate life?
30) Why the hell don't I live in Hawaii?
31) Would it get boring if I didn't experience winters even though I hate them so much?
32) Why do people get such shitty knee problems at really young ages?
33) What are the odds of non-ginger parents having ginger kids?
34) Where do they make fake plants?
35) How do you ship a live plant?
36) Why did people wear such weird clothes in the 1800s?
37) What's the point of wearing white wigs?
38) Would it have been profitable to be a wig salesman in olden times?
39) What year did people first see what they looked like?
40) How did they do it? Still water?
41) How do you make glass from sand?
42) What year did people first start shaving?
43) If you were born with bad vision 500 years ago, were you just screwed?
44) Are people only recently getting really bad vision because it's a regressive gene?
45) Would a job where you went skydiving everyday get boring?
46) Why do people choose to wear suits all the damn time?
47) Is there any way to fix national traffic problems?
48) What does a provost do?
49) What does a Sergeant at Arms do?
50) Why is Colonel pronounced Kurnel?
51) Why does my office work until 6pm?
52) What is the point of Daylight savings time?
53) Am I going to have arthritis at an early age because I type all day?
54) Am I going to go blind because I stare at a computer screen all day?
55) Am I going to go deaf because I listen to music by basically putting speakers in my ear?
56) Why do my neighbors suck so bad?
57) What is it about being referred to as "Andrew/Jack's little brother" that is so irritating?
58) Where can I play indoor basketball this winter around my house?
59) Howcome there is not a single place in Lexington that is renowned for what they do well?
60) Where can I join a bowling league in DC?
61) Why do people use the phrase "put 2 and 2 together" when they really mean that they have put two separate things together?
62) Why does nobody every correct people when they say "I could care less" when they should be saying "I couldn't care less"?
63) How the hell do people like George W. Bush as a president?
64) How is Conan O'Brien going to have to change his show around once he moves to the tonight show time slot?
65) Do people actually believe the late night informercials for singles lines that show really good looking girls and say "hot girls are waiting to hear from you"?
66) What could I sell as a salesman to make a ton of money so that I wouldn't have to worry about money?
67) How did jeans become the most popular form of pants for men? and women?
68) Would I feel better every morning if I never drank coffee?
69) Will we ever know if lasic surgery is completely safe?
70) By the time I'm 50, will there be a shortcut for things like braces?
71) Why do guys put a shit ton of gel in their hair?
72) Why are people so attracted to people at their office that they may otherwise not find attractive?
73) Are asian girls attracted to blonde guys?
74) How much longer can dippin' dots call itself the ice cream of the future?
75) How can i get into advertising?
76) Why do people like scary movies?
77) Why do I suck so bad at musical instruments?
78) If I look young now, when will I actually look 21?
79) Why don't all of my songs transfer onto my iPod when I hook it into my iTunes?
80) Why hasn't Ty come to DC?
81) Do blue tooth things hurt your hearing?
82) Do blue tooth things give you more a chance at brain cancer?
83) What about wireless internet?
84) How the hell does wireless internet work anyway?
85) How come my cell phone service costs $39.99 a month, but my bill is always around $60?
86) Why do rappers already say that they're retiring and then come back 6 months later?
87) Am I ever going to like bloody mary's?
88) So is Pluto not a planet anymore?
89) What could NASA have done with the budget that has gone to the Iraq War?
90) Is a working Jet-Pack feasible?
91) Why do shuffleboard tables cost $4.000?
92) What are hushpuppy shoes?
93) What do they make fake leather out of?
94) Why doesn't the metro run into georgetown in DC?
95) How much does it cost to build a tennis court at your house?
96) How much does it cost to build a good pool?
97) Is there any undeveloped coastline left in the US?
98) Why do we have an appendix?
99) Why do we have a prostate?
100) Do homeless people just hate the winter?
End Time - 4:16 pm EST

There you go Wilbus, my mind feels stronger than ever.

Give these songs a listen -
"Mellow Mood" - Slightly Stoopid
"Bomb the World" - Michael Franti and Spearhead
"Wash Away" - Joe Purdy
"U Can't See Me" - 2pac
"Money Ain't a Thing" - Jermaine Dupri & Jay-Z

Looking to spend some money on cool stuff you probably don't need? peep this site
http://www.radtech.us/Default.aspx

There & Back Again

2006-09-19T13:21:00.000-04:00

New York was ridiculous.

Stu Swann, "Big Snake" C Todd, Robbie, Dougie, Appel and Thrills Mills welcomed us into their abode in Tribeca. Robert and I took the train up and enjoyed copious amounts of Whiskey drinks on the way. This led to a swift blackout and justification for sporting this look when I went out.

In addition, we drank Calimochos - a favorite of our train rides while in the UK during the summer of '04. It's basically 50/50 coke and cheap red wine. You can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calimocho

This swift blackout also led to taking far too many pictures of far too many random people wearing the Euro glasses I'm wearing above (seen on my facebook page). All in all, a great night with the boys. Wish I could remember more of it.

When we woke in the morning and got our bearings, we hit Mudville wings place. A few pitchers, a win for the Razorbacks, and many styles of wings made for a great afternoon with the crew plus a guest appearance from "Tupelo Bill" Milam which we cannonballed into bronsons from the nastiest keg in Manhattan back at their place.

I love the game where you try to get the ring on the hook

After a few hours of football, we headed to the Widespread show at Radio City Music Hall, which was awesome. We took a big crew and they tore it up. After the concert, G Cam got crunk and proceeded to try to give "nucks" to every homeless man or person capable of breaking his jaw that we saw. When we got back we all crashed, but not before enjoying a few casual shotguns.

Sunday Funday lived up to its title as we hit the streets of Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown looking for beautiful women, culture, more beautiful women, fried oreos (I'm serious), bonzai trees and other authentic immitation chinese goods - which included some room decor for me and a select couple goods for Essence (seen here).
I bought a bootleg of Snakes on a Plane in Chinatown. Definitely the way to go if you don't mind people standing up to go get popcorn or hit the restroom every once in a while. Makes it more real if you ask me.

A few minutes of my bootleg Snakes DVD and we were on our way back to DC on the late evening train (highly recommended). If you get the chance to visit these guys, I highly recommend it. You won't feel like you've been away from them for more than 5 minutes and they make the effort to avoid going to the office on the weekend.

Also, check out Nip/Tuck if you get a chance. That show is absurd

Here they are, my new Songs to Download:
"Smack That" - Akon & Eminem
"Transitive Verses" - Brookhaven
"Push It" - Rick Ross
"Gumboots" - Paul Simon
"Off the Record" - My Morning Jacket
"Back to the Hotel" - N2Deep
"Nobody Does it Better" - Nate Dogg

Bad Houseguest of the Weekend - The guy who crawled into bed with Stu Swann and then pissed on his floor, and then took my keys to his apartment so I couldn't drive home once I got to DC. Still waiting for them by the way.

"Here's to our children.... May they have wealthy parents!"

Sqwiggertrankin'

2006-08-18T16:25:00.000-04:00

Otherwise known as the recently discovered and thusfar underappreciated hobby of shooting the black squirrels of Washington DC (seen on right) with tranquilizer darts in order to take them home and make them your pets.

Well I finally got a job and I finally got a house. The job, working at the front desk in Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Fantastic (the job I wanted all along). The house, 4454 Greenwich Parkway, Washington DC. Ballin'

Old Style Beer - Unbelievable. $7.99 for case. Not only that, but it's also the "Oldest Tasting Beer in the world"

I'm loving the place. 3 BR upstairs, 1 in the basement, nice back deck, nice kitchen, etc. My roommates (Bazzel, Wallace, Bobo) and I have been working round the clock to find an affordable, yet impressive and dominant as hell HDTV that's much larger than makes any sense to have. Also, we're loading up on cheap but attractive couches that will hopefully serve as a home base for many a visiting friend to the DC area. Wilbus, for instance, hopefully will be coming to stay with us for upwards of two weeks in October. In the mean time, all other visitors are welcome and if need be I have no problem sleeping on the floor to facilitate anyone who wants to join us for fondue and margaritas (not jumbo tex, but damn close). Amenities include free wireless internet (neighbors), sharing of our 1 pipin' hot shower, and all the G&T's/Old Style that you can handle.

As for going out, we've got Nats games, Saloon, AM, and last but certainly not least, a little known establishment called the "Wonderland Ballroom." It is basically the equivalent of a post collegiate Pumptown with ridiculously good DJing and ass-smackin' bass every second saturday of every month. Not much to look at from the outside, but definitely the most fun I've had since I've been up here.

Sarging has been a must. Softball players, Maury openers, wrong guesses at names, etc. We still need some help, and godwilling we're going to get it.

If I've called you in the past month and you haven't returned my call, I consider you to be a jackass

We're still awaiting the arrival of some for sure to be DC residents (Hagan) and some who are not so sure (Slauson, Lackett). In the mean time, visitors have all had good reports - see Ben Long, Joe V, Lipscomb

Also, if you plan on being in DC during the week at any point in the near future, I can definitely hook you up with a tour of the Capital. Tips welcome

Songs to checkout -
"Wildcat" - Ratatat
"Off The Record" - My Morning Jacket
"Side to Side" - Blackalicious
"Satellite" - Guster
"Traffic" - DJ Tiesto
"Moneymaker" - Ludacris feat. Pharrell

IDEA BOX - basically stupid ways to make your night more interesting
1) Dress like a tourist for a night -> fanny packs, American flag shirts, tevas with socks, tucked in T-shirts
2) Shotgun a beer at the bar on $1 beer night and then ask for another
3) Lame Game - loser has to say whatever line to whatever girl the winner chooses

Good Recent quotes:

"Pumptown kicks this place in the balls" - Joe Greenhill referring to Smith Point in DC
"You know life has changed when you actually look forward to Adult Swim at the pool" - Me
"friends come and go, but $ will always be there" - Will "Dolla Dolla Billz" Andrews

"Oh, I didn't recognize you... I got a haircut" - 8O

Breaking the Seal

2006-07-19T23:59:00.000-04:00

So here goes -

I need a job

I'm blown away that an active man with as many hobbies as I have has a tough time finding a job. I went through about a 2 hour phase the other day where I figured that I should start looking through my house for products that I enjoy and attempt to start a career within those companies. Obviously DTO was the first thing I picked up (shown above). After a 20 minute phone call to the good people at Banana Boat, I quickly moved on. Then I picked up a box of Wheat Thins - another great product. The big whigs over at Nabisco didn't have much to offer either.

So I have decided to toss my resume around DC like tossing bird seed out on a sidewalk. So far, I've had a couple bites and the next few days will speak for themselves as I undergo phone conversations and personal interviews where I will ponder my greatest strengths (and weaknesses) as well as my motivations, ambitions, and overall driving forces in life.

For the mean time I have decided to set up this blog to entertain myself and hopefully a few other people as well. In addition, I am going to have a good time in DC and continue to travel back to Lexington with frequency until the school year starts and people can make fun of me for being there. But while I'm there I will enjoy the finer things in life - Don Tequila's, Tubing, Boones Farm, Ropeswinging and excessive DTO. Godspeed

PS - I have taken a page from the Rogers Hawley playbook and decided to share a few of my favorite songs I have recently become a fan of in hopes that you may check them out.

"Eastern Sea" - Southern Sun
"Desecration Smile" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Hard to Concentrate" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Poncho & Lefty" - Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings
"Bammer Weed" - RBL Posse

They say only drunks and children tell the truth...

Guess which one I am.

The Hero Shot

2006-07-19T14:40:00.000-04:00