Can't . . . Roll . . . Over

Maybe the only dog that could compete with a boxer.

Good vs Evil

I love the tv series Chuck. Since I was first introduced to it on my plane ride to Hawaii, I've found few things I enjoy so much. I've had such good memories associated with Chuck.

But then tonight I began a book by Chuck Klosterman. See, Jeffrey talks about this guy and how he's one of his favorite writers from time to time. He has these cards that have a lot of stupid, pointless questions on them to supposedly figure out what kind of a person you are, like whether you would let a gorilla play football for the Raiders or not, and your reasoning behind the decision. I know. Pointless, though kind of entertaining. Not that I feel like you get to know anything worthwhile about a person by asking them like Mr. Klosterman does. But again, they are kind of entertaining.

Now his books have nice titles like Eating the Dinosaur, and another about Cocoa Puffs. I started reading this Cocoa Puffs book tonight and four pages into it, I realize I cannot bring myself to read anymore of it. I might find it to be one of the worst things I have ever picked up. Though he has an extensive use of pop culture and does have the ability to reference it at occasionally clever times, that's about all he has going for him. He manages to be incredibly vulgar for no reason at all (I think he managed to pack eight "f" words into one sentence), annoyingly cynical, and very depressing all at the same time. He organizes his comments of world hatred into annoying rants and then tries to cover it with saying, "Not that I'm judging you, or blaming anyone," or something like that. But he is. He just hates the world, and wants everyone else to swim in his misery pool with him. When I encounter things or people like him, I think, "What if everyone in the world were like [insert name]? What a terrible world this would be. If that was the case, I might hate life as much as you do."

I'm glad there are still some good Chuck's in the world.

Thanks Library

The library made this for us. How awesome is that. And there's two more videos without music on my Facebook page. It's all pretty great. I think my mom is just proud of me for not throwing condoms on basketball courts to show my school spirit.

Magical New Traditions

A few weeks ago we were driving, talking, and we came up with one of those brilliant ideas that guys come up with: have a silent dance party in the library!

Well, I think it was mostly Jeffrey's idea. But I had a part in the collaboration. And today it went down.

At noon everybody, armed with their iPod's loaded with Flo-Rida's Right Round, pressed play and danced their little hearts out. I will post a video later, but for right now, here's the best picture of it. Though I have only seen five so far.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Though we don't exactly remember whose idea it was, we do know that roommate pictures was a great idea.

Go Big or Go Home

This was much better than the first attempt.

We Have A Trampoline!!!!!!

Thanks Caitlin.

At A Disadvantage

Anyone who has taken a standardized test in the last say, fifteen years knows what a Scantron is. This convenient sheet allows tests to be graded very rapidly and very efficiently. The problem is, when they designed these, they didn't think about the effects that it would have on people like me.

You see, when any serious test is given using these (SAT, ACT, I imagine the MCAT, LSAT, and GRE as well), the person proctoring the exam has to read instructions on how to fill out one of these. They tell you how you need to fill out the bubble completely, darkly, and within the lines. This is something that I would have done with or without the instruction. The point of this is, it take A LOT of time. I would say out of most tests that I take, a solid 25% of the time I am filling in those ridiculous bubbles; carefully tracing the ring, meticulously filling in the center so there is no spill-over. And don't get me started on when I have to erase.

Scantron, I think you are an amazing product. You truly have revolutionized testing. But though I think you are amazing, me and all the other people in the world who might happen to only leave the radio and thermostat on certain numbers, who reload the dishwasher almost every time they start it to make sure everything is in just the right place, who automatically straighten their shot glasses when they are put into the rack off center, we hate you. Curse the day you were created.

In Your Little Corner

Really everywhere you go these days you see iPods. Just about everyone has one. Except the "uncool" people who have some other mp3 player. And me.

Years ago I formed a bias against the iPod. It made me upset that you couldn't change anything on it without hooking it up to a computer. You couldn't use it with anything but iTunes. And I think for a while you had to use their special headphones for a while (though I might be wrong about that). Whatever the reason, I never bought one.

Now I see them everywhere. I see them at the gym, all around campus, everywhere really. But a lot of the time I think, "What if I wanted to talk to that person?" I mean, what if I had an iPod and I missed out on meeting someone awesome that couldn't talk to me because of my iPod.

I might buy one sometime. I do love the Tower Madness game. And Words With Friends. But as far as music goes, I think I will keep the one pair of headphones I own in that cluttered box tucked away. And if you want to talk to me I would love to talk. Unless you're weird of course.

Feeling Like Less of a Man

There are a few things in life that guys are inherently proud of. One of these is the ability to eat. A lot.

Thus came the food challenge. Eat some disgusting amount of food, just because we can, and we'll put a picture of you or the wall or something. Somehow, I had made it to this point in my life without ever competing in one of these.

A few weeks ago Tom found a pizzeria that had a twenty-four inch pizza challenge. Two guys (or girls I guess. gross.) have one hour to eat it. Yesterday I decided I was hungry. So I sent Tom a message telling him it was the night to own this challenge. The problem began with a four hour lapse in the time it took for my phone to send a message to his phone. So he ate quite a bit around four. And when I got home around five, I was starving. So I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And then a salami and gouda sandwich on a hoagie roll. But it was only a twenty-four inch pizza, right?


I think we might have underestimated it. I might have been able to finish my half, uncomfortably, but luckily Tom was a little further behind. With a little less than a quarter of the pizza left, we tapped out. It was a little humiliating to both of us. Though I can deal with that. What I am not happy about is having to go back and eat the whole thing again sometime. But that picture on the wall will be mine.

A Little More Gas

I moved into my current house August 15th. Tom and I lived there for about a month alone, without any real problems. Jeffrey moved in about that time and started complaining that he had no hot water. Though it occasionally wasn't super hot for me, I didn't really think it was a problem. So after looking at the water heater one day, realizing I couldn't see the pilot light, and clicking the button a few times, I left it alone. However, the new roommates moved in this week, turned the a/c down fifteen degrees, and my shower was very cold suddenly. I knew that they hadn't showered for hours so I thought about it more that day.

About two in the morning last night Jeffrey and I took a look at the water heater. I discovered shortly that I could see the pilot light if I slid this little piece of metal over. Then I made the discovery that if I moved the little dial to "on" instead of "pilot" a lot more fire came out.

This morning the shower was just a little better.

Wounds That Never Heal

No I'm not talking about a love lost in my life!! I'm actually talking about my foot. My senior year of high school I suddenly couldn't walk anymore on my right heel. Apparently the repeated kicking close of my shower door had stress fractured my heel. And it really hurt. This pathetic looking, almost invisible line on an x-ray. I wore a boot for three weeks and gel pads for the rest of football season.

The problem is, it has never really healed. So here I am eight years later and still my heel occasionally bothers me. I can also say this about my numb lip from jaw surgery, or forehead from the motorcycle accident. But I suppose sometimes it's a good idea to have little memories of what we've been through.

I Don't Eat Corndogs Everyday

I haven't been cooking much lately in the last few weeks. I have made a few things though.

Stinky fish. Dover sole. Terribly, terribly stinky fish, but surprisingly good.


I bought a slap chop!! I love it!!


Christin called me up the other day and told me we needed to make dinner. So she came over and used the eggplants that came from my garden, and basil that came from my garden, and we cooked up some delicious eggplant miso. It was delicious.

Doesn't she look so happy?


Our miso eggplant.


Mirin glazed chilean sea bass.


Isn't it pretty?

The Bucket List: Revised

I have recently found a few new shows that I have begun watching from time to time. The Good Guys, Burn Notice, and even The Wild Boyz from time to time. But last night I stumbled upon something new: The Buried Life. I'm pretty sold on it. I am not one of those people who frequently thinks about things he needs to do before he dies. But from time to time I don't think I am doing enough with my life. I don't really make lists, and goals are not something I often make. Maybe I don't have enough vision, or maybe I just live in the moment a bit too much. There's things I can work on. And though a lot of the things they do for themselves are stupid (ie. sneak into the Playboy Mansion), the things they do for people are great. And when they have an idea, a goal, they go for it. MTV actually inspired me.



If you have twenty minutes to blow, this is pretty awesome!! Click here.

Time To Plan

It is now officially one month from my birthday. I need to start planning the fun.

Who's Idea Was This?

A few months ago I was with Jeffrey when he found out about this music festival in L.A. "Buy me a ticket," I say. I'm still not exactly sure why I told him that I would go to this music festival of some thirty bands, none of which I had EVER heard of before. But at the time it sounded like fun. And it was only twenty dollars.

The group we were going with changed several times over the course of the next few months, and from the Phoenix area it only included me and Olivia. Olivia is Jeffrey's love for the time. I had seen her, though never spoken to her. The good news is we had a six hour car ride to get to know each other.

When we got there we decided to stay where Jeffrey was in the extension office. They decided to not go for apartments, but instead rent a very large house (it's on the market for 2.7 million) from some guy that ran out of money before completing it and couldn't sell it. Sounds kind of cool, but living with that many sales reps in a house furnished with pretty much just beds and a ping pong table isn't really all it's cracked up to be. But it was pretty to look at from the outside.


In the morning we had phenomenal pancakes at Original Pancake House (or something like that). Jeffrey had the German pancake, I had the Swedish pancakes, and Olivia had normal pancakes topped with peaches (and I ate two of them...). I didn't actually know I could be so impressed with a House of Pancakes. We headed afterwards to the venue, and proceeded to wait. And wait. And wait. See they made a mistake and didn't send the tickets to Jeffrey for some reason, so we stood in the will call line for three hours. Yep. Three hours. Now I could go off about how miserable this was, because it kind of was. However, I was able to take the opportunity to realize that this was not my normal crowd. It was probably the most interesting group of people I had ever seen. In my whole life. I decided later that I would start taking pictures of some of them for the blog.

Anyways. I really did have a good time. I enjoyed Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Mountain Goats, and !!!. And though I wouldn't listen to them much, we danced our little hearts out to The Rapture. Which in turn got everyone within twenty feet of us dancing. And it was awesome.

By the time everything wrapped up it was almost twelve. And yes, I was starving. We made our way to Pink's which is pretty famous for their hot dogs. And it happened to be next to one of the funniest signs I have EVER seen. I had to immediately send this to a bunch of people.


And the hot dogs were awesome too.



And Sunday I found Bridget's brown doppleganger!!! I didn't realize it at first, but as soon as Jeffrey mentioned it to me, I couldn't see her as anything else. So we talked Olivia into going and asking her for a picture because she reminded her of a friend. Awesome.


I don't go out of my comfort zone nearly enough sometimes. What a great weekend.

Home Again

I'm really not sure why I am so happy to be home. I didn't really have anything that was waiting for me. I didn't have a better job, more fun, a girlfriend, or better weather. But I was very happy to be coming home. And last Sunday I made it. And I went to church and it was great. And I saw my mom and sister and it was great. And a few days later I got to listen to Christin tell me about her night at work and it was awesome. And my house is awesome. And the weather is okay. And school is okay.

I am very happy to be home.

Garage Galore

My mother and father finally moved into their new house. They couldn't be more happy about having a little more space and having a little bit of alone time once again. My mother has been furiously buying furniture and the wrong size blinds (just a little joke mom :)) and my father, well, he is very excited about his garage. If only I could find a way to move that bench over to Levi's house...

The Perfect Night

A lot of nights in your single twenties you sit around with your friends and wonder what you should do. We had been planning on going dancing but one of the girls that we were going with broke her toe so that didn't happen.

When we got home from work Jeffrey, Gene, and I ran down to get our favorite pizza from Luigi's Pizza Garden. The two medium pizzas were delicious, and exactly the right amount. Then we enjoyed delicious smoothies in my awesome new blender ("awesome" might be an understatement).

We decided our best bet was bowling. The problem is I knew we wouldn't be there 'til almost one. The first alley of course closed at one. I next called Country Club Lanes and I heard one of my favorite phrases ever, "We're open twenty-four hours." Excellent.

I put on my new socks and grabbed my shoes. A car ride later filled with amazing renditions of 500 Miles, Bad Romance, and I'm Shipping Off to Boston, we arrived. Now not only was this a twenty-four hour bowling alley, but it was only twelve dollars. For unlimited bowling. I know, right?!?!

I'm really not much of a bowler. I do have awesome shoes. However, I bowl anywhere from about 80 to the two times I broke 200. This night was one of those good nights. This picture is after my first game. That's right. 233.


Yes, that is SEVEN strikes in a row.

I didn't actually think it could get any better. I was feeling pretty awesome. But then I bowled a 236. I know, right?!?!


The next game was full of me bowling between between my legs, and a lot of awesome dancing. Really, this was maybe the best night ever. Until we come back for laser tag next week.


It has a SMOOTHIE button!!

Response

I wasn't going to post this, but in response to the worried comments of my parents, I will. This is what I had for dinner a few nights ago. And tonight is Pistachio Crusted Chilean Sea Bass. Don't worry mom.

Bad Company

Sometimes you need someone around to tell you that what you are about to do is a bad idea. Jeffrey is not that person for me, nor I for him. We're actually terrible together. Example: the other night we were up talking after the others went to bed, until about three. When we got up to go to bed, I realized I was hungry and said, "I wish we had doughnuts," referring to the tasty little Hostess morsels that have filled our apartment the last few weeks. "Let's go get some," says Jeffrey. So after a quick yelp.com search we find that there is in fact a 24 hour doughnut shop seven miles from our house, called Yum-Yum doughnuts. Now, was there a good selection? Not at all. Were the doughnuts they had exceptional? Definitely not. Were the homeless people sleeping in there a little creepy? Yes. Would I go again? Absolutely.

Hello, Pizza Stone

I had never used a pizza stone. I didn't see the point of it. But Jeffrey bought one. So we decided to use it. Last Saturday night after our H&M outing we were driving home and decided we needed to make a breakfast pizza. A trip to the store later, we were ready. So while watching the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands, we began cooking. Biscuits spread out as a crust, hash browns on top, eggs on top of those, sautéed onions and peppers and cheese on top of those, with sausage and gravy covering all of that, and we had our delicious artery clogging breakfast pizza. Best breakfast ever.

Now for dessert. I can't remember what dinner was this night, but we decided that we should have a pazookie. So we bought a roll of cookie dough, spread it out over the pizza stone, cooked it for about eight minutes, pulled it out and heaped scoops of ice cream on it, grabbed three spoons, and feasted.

San Francisco and Rock Band

I've had an interesting week. I went to San Francisco for the first time. I went to my first dance club with a live dj. I guess he was a big deal, but the thing is techno all kinda sounds the same after a while. But it was a good time. One of my roommates made out with a random girl at the club and another took a shot out of a homeless guy's bottle of vodka. It was awesome. I took a picture in front of the Full House house. I saw the fireworks on Pier 39 and had clam chowder. I went to the beach and had a delicious breakfast at a little cafe. I fired one of my technicians. I went on a date with someone that I am actually remotely interested in. I bought a pair of green jeans. I bought a pair of jeans that had a hole ripped in the crotch for twenty. And three other pairs. I tried on my first pair of skinny jeans and didn't hate them. I helped push this kid out of the middle of the highway that had totaled his car and very shaken and confused. I cooked delicious pork chops and brussel sprouts. I watched a lot of Grey's Anatomy. I am getting better at Rock Band and I'm a little embarrassed about it. I got a new phone (against my will). I drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. I installed for a big gay guy who talked to me about a little more than I really wanted to, and another for a cute girl about my age. I ate a lot of Hostess doughnuts.

And on that note, here's some pictures.





I don't know if watching that video will ever get old to me.

The Real Price of Free Food

I find myself a little on the tight side when I go out to eat. I can't remember the last time I ordered a combo meal at any fast food restaurant. I am a very strict dollar menu shopper. Which really is ridiculous. It is usually only a dollar or two more. And I do love fries. But the value menu has it's hold on me.

Yesterday Jeff found out that if you dress up like a cow you got free food at Chik-fil-et. On their website was even a convenient cow costume that you could print out. So twelve pages later we had four cow costumes. We began cutting, taping, and tying to assemble our costumes. We looked awesome. And by that I mean completely ridiculous. However we got not just a free sandwich like I expected but any combo meal we wanted. Unfortunately I had other things to do and couldn't stay with them, but the guys drove another forty or so miles so they could go to the other two Chik-fil-et's in the valley to get another meal. It is funny how much work we will go to sometimes to get something for free.



I'm going to need to work on getting an udder for next year.

Activity Day Correlation

I told the office today that they couldn't schedule four of us until one o'clock in the afternoon. I told them that we were having activity day correlation. I did this partially because I hate when they schedule me for stuff in the morning that could definitely be done later, and partially because I really wanted to do this:


Gene didn't seem phased by the really cold water.


Tom needs to work a little on his take off.



And speaking of taking off . . .


Good times.

Late Night Snacks

I really like all of the roommates that I have. Everyone seems to bring something to the plate, Tom, Gene, Jeff, and occasionally Humberto. We have some good times. We even bought Rock Band. Fortunately Jeff failed miserably at the drums. Now he is our theatrical lead singer. What he doesn't possess in talent he makes up for in performance. We are a pretty amazing ensemble.

We went out to eat two nights ago at like midnight. We ate a lot. Yeah, those four plates and the bowl in front of me are all mine. Unfortunately our server was a little older and didn't have the steadiest of hands.


I bought a new car. My faithful little Camry had the little transmission that decided it couldn't anymore so I had to make another automobile purchase. Not what I particularly wanted to do, but I am happy about it.

I've met some cool girls out here at different things. If only they weren't from California.

We decided we needed to do something cool for the fourth. So Saturday we are taking off to go to San Francisco to party a little. We got a sweet room in the Hilton a few blocks from the bay for a hundred bucks. I'm pretty excited about it.

Coincidence?

I left out one of the best parts of the last story. This was left on my car during church.

Times to Smile

I love that I know that mom just gasped when she saw this picture.

And no I don't think this happened because I got the tires for super cheap from a Mexican tire shop. I sort of jumped a curb in my Camry the other day. And though I don't think she particularly enjoyed it, it didn't appear like I broke anything. Though the steering column would periodically wobble. I was planning on having it looked at Tuesday, as tomorrow is memorial day. However driving home tonight after dropping off a co-worker at someone's house for a barbecue, the car started shaking pretty violently and then black chunks of something started flying off my car. It was pretty intense. I pulled over and this is the tire I found.



The funny thing about blogs is it makes it a little more exciting to have bad things happen because you think about blogging it the whole time that it's going on. And with this it at least broke the monotony of my life right now. And as weird as it is to say it is kind of a blessing it happened. Cause it was Sunday afternoon, I was really close to the house, and Tom could bring out my lug wrench to me. I figured out (I think) what the problem was with my car. Blessings come in so many forms.