Today is in my way

Why can't I sleep?

2011-01-23T21:12:00.001-08:00

I don't know what it is about being Sunday, but I just can't sleep. I think it's just the constant thought that I have to be up in a few hours to pack for my flight anyway. Do you want me to talk about my job? No? Well shoot, I guess I'll talk about something else then.

I had a great weekend. Friday I got to see my brother and have a few beers with him. It's always great hanging out with him, makes me feel a little younger. It does help me realize I'm not in college anymore though. I have a hard time keeping up with these pups.

Saturday I spent getting fitted for my tuxedo for the older brothers wedding. It's hard to believe that in a few months he'll be married. Even crazier to think that in 4 weeks it's his bachelor party. I put a lot of time planning it out, so I'm really hoping everything goes smoothly. Deep down I'm hoping we have to go to "Plan B" at some point. If you go out and don't go to "Plan B" odds are, you weren't having enough fun.

I can't bring myself to write much more. I'm a bit wound up for some reason. Until next time.

Way too literal

2011-01-10T09:04:00.000-08:00

So per my usual Monday, I was up at 3:30 this morning to pack and make it to my 6:00am flight. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I think most people's flights must have been canceled or delayed, because the airport was pretty empty upon arrival.

I always sleep on planes so today was no different. I had trouble sleeping on this flight because the man to my left was reading the paper with the light on. I slept on and off for the 2 hour flight, and woke up at towards the end when the pilot made an announcement that we would be landing shortly. I don't know what it was about being told the flight would be over soon, but I passed out IMMEDIATELY after that. You know what I dreamed about? The plane landing.

My dream felt quite real as well. I actually thought the plane had landed. I knew something was up though when I overheard a conversation behind me where the person said they were, "Going to go to Jabba about a quick loan to get back to Mos Eisley. " Yes, this is straight out of the Star Wars universe.

Once I did wake up though and landed (in real life this time) we decided to taxi for 30 minutes, so that gave me another opportunity to nap. No dreams from the second cat nap though.

Anyway, I have a twitter account now: Chen_says. It's all of the work things that go my co-workers say. I'm not limiting it to what they say, so if I have any gems, I'll be sure to post them. Have fun everyone.

I can't Sleep

2010-12-19T23:37:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I haven't had to get up at 3:30am in weeks on a Monday, and of course, I can't sleep. My mind is racing at the moment.

I read back on some of my older blogs, and got a few good laughs out of it. I'm glad I've been putting my thoughts down somewhere for me to trace back. It's good to know where I've come from sometimes.

Does anyone else have nights or even days when they think, "What am I doing?" I keep thinking I should be doing something, accomplishing something, or just being more productive than I have been. I'm sure I'll stroll into work in a few hours and realize what I'm forgetting, but I can't for the life of me at the moment.

I'm rocking out to some Vick's Vapor Rub right now. That stuff is my cure all. Just hope it gets me through tomorrow as I'm still fighting off a cold I picked up sometime Friday.

Hopefully I can string together a good post that is more than a few quick sentences sometime soon.

Almost a year? Really?!?!

2010-12-19T20:37:00.000-08:00

So it's hard to believe, but this blog is almost 1 year old. About a year ago I found out I was going to India, and prepping for my trip. It's crazy to think that it's been a year already. I can't believe it. So much has happened in the last year, but I still feel like nothing much has changed.

I've recently been in the giving spirit, so I've been putting together clothes and books I don't read any more to give to charity. I've got a nice sized pile sitting in our basement, so I need to drive that to the Salvation Army sometime before I leave for Tennessee. It's a great feeling, and I'm looking forward to giving more. Plus on a more selfish note, it allows me to get rid of things I haven't used in ages, so maybe someone will find some use for it.

I finally took a step towards getting back into art. I finally restored a painting I've had for over a year now that was destroyed. It might need a few more final tweaks, I'll wait until my critics (my parents) see it until I decide if it's done. There's a wonderful sense of accomplishment on it though. I was actually really down when I looked at it for the first time in months tonight. Time and sunlight really damaged the original I'd completed, and I was starting to feel like I would never be able to fix it. I tried some new techniques tonight on it though, and I think it really helped out.

Once it's ready, I'll post some photos of the painting.

I'm heading home in 3 days, I honestly cannot wait. It's been way too long.

Goodnight for now.

What was I doing?

2010-12-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

I'm supposed to be doing something, or something should be done for work, but I can't put my finger on it. I'm going to cut my finger nails and hope it eventually comes to me.

.....And nails are cut. Woo, I'm glad that's over.

So I have BIG news. Amazing Race applications are finally updated. Season 19 Application will be going in within the month. My brother and I are going to team up and hopefully be that 1 in 100,000 (maybe more) team that makes it through. We are going to need an angle though. Neither of us is gay, and we aren't really hicks. I guess we'll have to get by on our good looks and charm.

Broomball playoffs are in full swing right now. After a hard fought 3OT victory, we have the late game this Sunday vs. the Dragons.. Raaaawwrrrr. Ok that was lame. If all goes as planned, we'll have a full roster for the first time since.....actually I'm sure we've never had a full roster. It'll be great to have 3 subs, and a team ready to get rowdy for another game.

Overtime seems to be our gem. This is the second season in a row we've had to push games to 3OT in the playoffs. We always seem to manage a last minute goal. It's actually extremely exciting to be a part of. I've missed being competitive in sports for a while, so this has been a great outlet for me. The little exercise I get from it is good too.

I've been real bad about going to the gym lately. I need to start buckling down and going more again. I've used college football as an excuse for a while now, but I am losing that quickly. If I'm going to set a goal for myself I'll use my brothers wedding. I'll want to look good for that, and it'll take me that long (April) to get in shape, and trade in fat for muscle.

Well, this blog didn't have a purpose, just putting thoughts out there. Until the next one.

Ohh you know....

2010-11-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

So since I travel so much I get my choice of several amenities when I check in. Most people choose 500 points to be banked into their account. This week, I threw a curve ball and chose the option saying, "2 Beers and Popcorn." Well turns out room service is pretty freaking fast when they want to be. After getting into my room I chose to use the restroom, and while in the process, room service walked right in asking where they could serve the beer.

Who should feel worse? The poor guy who walked in on me? or me? I'm surprisingly ok with the whole thing, but I can understand where the Room Service Fellow might have felt out of place. In the end I told him to give himself a tip, and sign for him. I kind of think that might be the best news he heard in a while.

Today was a long day.

My hair is starting to get pretty long. If it weren't for the fact I pull and twirl it non-stop, I think I'd grow it out. I know I'm going to make myself go bald though with all the playing I do to it. It's the worst habit in more ways than one. Mostly because it's a pretty girly habit. Maybe I'll have my stylist, yes, I have a stylist, do some trimming so I can get adjusted to the length a little at a time.

Thanksgiving is coming up. It's gotta be my favorite holiday. I'll save all my favorites of it for a little while so I have more to blog about. For now, I'm just trying to get back into the routine of keeping this blog updated.

Things to look forward to with future blogs (also called a teaser): thoughts on movies coming out soon, Thanksgiving, video games, The Lion King.

Good night and good luck everyone.

I've been just aweful with this whole "blogging" thing.

2010-11-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

Geez I think the last couple blogs have all started with... "I should really keep this more updated."

So what's new? I'm still in Dallas. I see my last post was in September so I'm trying to think about what I've done since then.

I finished the Urbanathlon (see http://menshealthurbanathlon.com/). It was actually a lot of fun. I finished about 7-8 minutes off the average pace, which I don't think was too bad. I don't think I'd ever run more than 4 miles at a time before that, and it was a 9 mile race. So considering the running joke (no pun intended) was that I'd have to call my roommates for a ride home, I'm pretty happy with the end result.

I also went to Europe for a few days. I really just decided I needed a change of pace back in September and booked a trip with all of the points I've been earning from traveling non-stop. I was in London for 3 days and Madrid for two days. I had an amazing trip, but decided that I enjoy going on trips with other people. I really enjoyed the freedom of being alone, but it's nice to share the experience with others. That being said though, should the opportunity to travel be presented to myself again, I wouldn't hesitate to go solo again. Photos are on facebook.

My hair is starting to get long(er) again. Since it's Movemeber (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movember) I think I might have to just shave my head and grow out my beard. I've reached the official 1/2 way point for my project so it could be a nice way to mark it. I'm starting to look for new projects to get scheduled for this coming May so I don't get extended. I'll not go too much into my job though.

So based on my experience with the Triathlon and the Urbanathlon, I need to keep setting goals for myself to keep motivated. When I signed up for those events, I knew I had to work out to perform well and not get hurt. I've been watching The Buried Life on MTV and decided that a good way to keep myself motivated to keep trying new things would be to write down everything I want to do. So far I've been able to cross 3 things out of 27. I'm still constantly adding to the list though. I wrote a piece about this earlier, but I've started expanding my list. I think the next most feasible items are holding a tarantula (I'm terrified of them) and finishing an eating challenge.

Overall the new challenges I've laid out for myself that I'm most excited for are: 7 Continents and 4 Oceans (although I guess now there are 5), and standing on top of a mountain. I've got the mountains narrowed down to Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua. Go big or go home right? I'm dead serious when I say I want to do this, and anyone that wants to join is more than welcome to.

I feel like this blog has turned into a bit of a carousel going around and around to the same topics. It's either revolving around work, what I want to do with my spare time, or me griping about airports. I'll try to work some new topics into the fabric.

The new Harry Potter movie comes out in 2 weeks. I'm very excited for this. I'm glad that I'm vindicated in the fact that back in High School I stated with confidence that Emma Watson (Hermione) would get hot, and she did. I can say this now because she's 20 (thank you Wikipedia). That's not the reason I'm excited for the movie though. I was, and still am a huge fan of the books. I believe I've seen the last three movies at the midnight showing. I've got to keep the tradition alive and watch this one (and the 2nd part when that comes out) at midnight. I'm sure I'll wind up watching it twice so I can see it in IMAX with my roommates. I think my favorite memory of the movies isn't even from the movies.

The fifth movie (Order of the Phoenix) came out after I'd just moved to Chicago. Boomer and myself had moved to the city, but still hadn't started our jobs so we decided what the hell and went to the midnight showing. When we got there I remember seeing a dad pull up in his car with his daughter who must have been 8 or 9. Now you need to realize most of the people at this showing were either kids in High School, college students, and a couple young 20-somethings like myself so this dad actually stood out a little.

Anyway, he got his daughter out of the car, and I vividly remember she was still in her pajamas and wearing a coat over everything. She looked exhausted and the dad actually seemed really excited. I never talked to this father and daughter, but I honestly believe he surprised his daughter in the middle of the night, told her to get her coat, and told her she was going to see Harry Potter before her friends. I also have a vision of the mom not knowing anything about this. Now for all I know, this dad actually just relented and finally got his daughter a ticket after she cried and moaned for hours. I like my version of him surprising her though. It just reminds me of the awesome things my parents used to do for me.

One of my favorite memories as a kid is a weekend I spent with my mom. Both my older brother and I had hockey tournaments at the same time when I first started playing goalie (4th grade, so I was 9). So my dad took my older brother to his away tournament for the weekend with my younger brother and I stayed home with my mom. It wound up seriously being one of the best weekends ever. My mom took me to a hockey game at Clarkson and out to a restaurant called Angleo's for dinner on Friday night. Saturday night we went to Pizza Hut for dinner and then saw Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog. It's crazy how I remember these details, but I really recall that being one of the closest weekends with my mom.

One of my favorite memories with my dad is this one time he took my older brother and me to a Burger King for no reason. I think he just wanted to treat us to something nice. We got french fries and milk shakes and sat down at one of those tables with the booth seats and the regular seats. We just talked and sat huddled together at this tiny table. It's crazy how you remember those little details about some of those seemingly insignificant moments, but I think those are the moments you cherish the most. Those are also the moments I swear I hope I remember to create when I have a family of my own.

It's really amazing how I can remember some of the most insignificant details about my life, but still not be able to recall the names of sites or locations. I've been fortunate enough to see a lot of this world with my family, but it's always been the stories after I remember the most. It's the ones that make me laugh that I like the most. I think from my vacations the two New Years Stories I have are the best.

Anyway, again, here's another promise to keep the blog more updated. Until next time everyone....

2010-09-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

I'm sleepy.....

2010-09-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

So I'll just start by saying I've got 'Airplanes' by B.o.B (ft. Haley Williams of Paramore) and 'Do you wanna know?' by Alkaline Trio on repeat. I'm not going to lie to you, I'm bouncing my head like I'm the one recording the song right now.

I honestly wish I had more funny stuff to blog about these days. It's not that funny stuff isn't happening. I'm just not comfortable blogging about a lot of my weekend activities (I drink, Oh my!!) and my weekday activities are pretty routine. I also promised myself to not blog too much about flying/hotels and related activities because it's not as glamorous as it sounds. I remember as a child my dad would go on business trips every month or two months. Usually just 1-2 days, but occasionally he'd be gone a few weeks. I remember he was gone for 2 weeks once to go to Japan, and I thought it was the longest time ever. I couldn't believe someone could be gone for long. Of course, in my mind, I'm thinking about family vacations and how we would see shows, museums, and sites, and thinking my dad was doing all that. As I got older he explained to me about how it's not as great as it sounds. I remember saying, "Well you get out of work at 5pm, there's gotta be things to do, sites to see in the area. "

Now that I'm doing this travel thing every week, it's not the glorious experience I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, I got a very unique experience to see India for 6 weeks through work and that was amazing. But I'm in Texas every week, and unfortunately, just like Chicago, downtown shuts down at 5pm. Geez, I couldn't even go to the Aquarium this week because it closes at 5pm.

To set the record straight, having points for flights and hotels isn't that cool either. If you don't have points, I want you to close your eyes, picture yourself at the airport, and think of the business men who cut you off in line, give you dirty looks for having a bottle of water, and board the plane first while you wait patiently. Now I want you to think of a word to describe those people. Do you have your word? Was it "douchebag?" Well that's how I would describe most of those people. So everybody, when you hear that I'm traveling non-stop, or if you have another friend who's going to start traveling, don't say, "Ohhh man! You are gonna get so many points! That's going to be awesome!" no. don't do that. By doing that you are encouraging your friend (and myself) to become the douches we don't want to be. The worst part is, now that I'm there, I don't want to go back to what I was. I've tasted the forbidden fruit, and there's no going back. I'm forever unclean, and will remain so.

Anyway, since I have so much time on my hands, I've been watching a lot of MTV. Tonight was "Life of Jenks" and lots of previews for "The Buried Life" The second show makes me wonder about what else I want to do in life. I know I mentioned this a little in my last blog, but I really believe in experiencing as much as I can. So, with a little thought, here is my quick To-Do list.

-Get a tattoo
-Travel alone (doing this in 4 weeks, so it shouldn't really be on the list)
-Sing alone at karaoke (I think alcohol will have to be involved)
-Create something I'm truly proud of*
-Really see something through another person's eyes.
-Get back (or at least close) to my weight freshman year of college

*I actually used to be quite the artist. Back in High School i always took art classes as my electives, and while it might upset my parents, I made a conscious decision my senior year of high school that since I was so busy I had to choose between 2 of 3 AP/Honor classes. I chose AP Art and Pre-Calc over AP Chemistry. I still tried in Chemistry, but the majority of my efforts were devoted to the other classes. I had to work very hard at Pre-Calc because it did not come easy to me, and also create 40 pieces of art to choose from in one year (most people accomplish this in two year, and also choose from other pieces in their portfolio) and then break down my works to describe what was happening in each. I actually remember that in my theme project (multiple painting tied together) I made paintings that depicted my life w/ a joker mask representing me. After the third one, my mom asked, "When will you do something besides those masks?" I was actually sick of doing them too, but I had to create at least 4. I know some of you might think, "how hard is it to draw 40 pictures?" it's hard. I'm actually fortunate I got to see both sides of college work spectrum. Cramming hours for a test to get a good grade, and staying up until 4am drawing alone in a drafty room trying to get the shading right for a piece.

Art was a huge part of my life when I was younger. I used to just sketch for the fun of it, and put my thoughts visually on paper. I never was great at creating my own designs (like cartoons, or fictional pieces) but I could always draw what I could see. When I got to college, I was very seriously considering art as a major before getting discouraged from it (from a guidance counselor no less).

The point is, and I know I'm rambling, that I never really had to try to make much of my art. That sounds bad, but if you've ever met someone who is naturally good at playing sports, or just naturally has a beautiful voice, that's kind of how I was with art. I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but please let me preface that I started at drawing stick figures of my friends and making my parents drop off these drawings at my friends houses. How my parents tolerated me sometimes, I will never know. They say that at 10,000 hours you become a master of something. I wouldn't say I've completed 10,000 hours of art, but I easily have accumulated 5,000 at least. I did so much art in a 3-4 year time span, I think I just burnt myself out. Maybe I lose some secret muse, or maybe I just got tired. There could be any of a multitude of reasons I stopped, but I've not made a complete pieces in years.

Anyway though, I can only really think of one piece that I really put my heart into. That piece is currently in a state of shambles because a combination of sunlight and shotty materials faded the paint. I can think of pieces that I'm proud of. Pieces that make me smile. Pieces that I honestly believe are more talented, detailed, and accomplished than some I've seen created by students in my former classes. But besides one piece that now lays in ruins that I'm trying to repair (I've not looked at it for months to be honest), I can't think of a single work that I'd be willing to trade my hands for because they won't create anything that comes close to it. Or a piece that I'd be willing to go into a fire for to save because it's that important to me. That's what I want to create.

Wait......did you hear that? I'm switching gears. Fantasy football is upon us. I'm tired so I'll blog more about it later. It's safe to say though that I do the following....

-Talk about my team like I'm a real GM. Examples:
- Boy I wish Aaron Rogers has a great game, I can really use his help.
- Can you believe {insert opposing player}?!?! He put up 40pts against me! What an asshole! I can't believe what a dick that person is. Completely ruined my week.
- Can you please {insert my own player}?!?!?! He put up 40 pts to save me! Ohhh man I love him. I drafted him in the 7th round, did I tell you that?

-Incessantly watch games on Sundays. Actually not even the games, I watch the stat-tracker on Yahoo!

-Stress over my lineups to make sure I get the optimal performance from my team(s).

Until we meet again world, I leave you with this,

"Now it's up to me to wait, I need you to reciprocate..."

I wanted to destroy something beautiful....

2010-09-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well here it goes again. It's time for me to see how long I can blog and retain a cohesive theme, thought, stream of words together until either you the reader, or myself the writer get bored and stop. But first, some updates.

I finished the Chicago Sprint Triathlon 2 weeks ago with a time of 1:47:30. Next year I do the full thing, and enter the 'Clydesdale' division. I know I'm capable of more, and it's high time I push myself to that (more on that later).

I'm still in Dallas.

High Fructose Corn Syrup won the food challenge and $75 is going to Sweet Tea's choice of Charity. No, this cannot sponsor your weekend drinking. Honorable mention goes to Taco Bell. I NEVER eat Taco Bell, but twice during the challenge I was tempted into her delicious arms, nuzzled up to a quesadilla and tacos.

I've joined the countless others on Match.com to see who else is out there (find me single ladies)

My car has been broken into for the second time. I'd blog more about this, but I'll leave it at the fact that I'm pissed (this is the 2nd time), and I'm ready for the war on drugs to go after users and not the suppliers, because without users, there would be no demand, and with no demand, there should be no supply. Simple economics, Congress, see if you can figure that out with your one-sided, my way or the highway simple minded, don't own a passport bullshit.

Seriously, did you know a good percentage of Congress doesn't own a passport? That means that members in charge of our government haven't even been to Canada. Why is this a big deal? Don't assume we are the greatest country (and in my experience, we are) until you've got some facts from other countries to back it up first hand.

WOOH! That got heated pretty quickly.

So the title of this blog....it's a quote from the book Fight Club. What? Fight Club was a book? Yes, Fight Club is a book, and a movie was based on it. The quote is meant to be a form of anarchy. Basically, destroying something (in the case of the novel, the Mona Lisa) for the sake of doing it, and to gain attention. There are further questions asked within the context of the quote, such as, "Which is worse? Hell, or nothing?" An interesting question if you were to really sit down and think about it. Would it better to have loved and lost? or never to have known love at all, would also go along with this.

So for the record, I am not going to start Project Mayhem, or my own Fight Club. I admit, I have a growing interest in boxing, but I think I have too much of a glass jaw to seriously consider getting into the sport. The work ethic behind it seems like something I could learn to aspire to. From the quote though, I have been trying to get myself more active, not only physically but also mentally in my free time. I'm trying to be more constructive with my time, reading (currently I have 2 books with a 3rd in reserve going), and painting. As far as destroying something 'beautiful', I am really thinking about painting over (destroying) some of my previous works. I have a few paintings I've held onto since college, and I'm getting to a point with them, that I just don't feel a connection to them. I'm very proud of several of my works, but a few I look at them now, and just see something I'm not proud of.

This whole thought process of destroying something and starting over, really does intrigue me. I think part of why I've been experimenting with new things, and trying to be more outgoing is me just trying to do something more than what I normally do and break out of myself. I'm a big person on saying, "lets do this!" and then never doing anything. Skydiving has been that for me for the longest time. Thankfully, I got out of my apartment and finally did it last month (geez it's been a month already). Tattoos are next (2 weeks hopefully) and then, I don't know what's after that.

I've just felt tired lately. Maybe I'm stir crazy, or maybe being in Dallas 4 days a week and interacting with my computer almost non-stop is starting to get to me, but I've just been wanting a change. I should consider myself lucky I guess, most people get to a mid-life crisis at 40, myself at 25, I'm blowing the lid off on it.

Switching gears, the Triathlon was awesome. I almost drowned during the swim portion, and the bike section went much slower for me than I expected, but I still loved it. Now that I have one out of the way, I know what to expect. I learned one thing from this whole training, competing experience: I need to push myself harder. There is so much more I can be capable of. There's greatness in me (and everyone for that matter), it's just a matter of tapping into it and refining it. I ran the 5k portion of the race with a 9:55 pace, after an exhausting swim, and hilly bike ride. I started off my training at that pace. Imagine what I could be capable of if I pushed myself harder in training? If I knew exactly how my body would react to each transition, and if I tested my limits each and every week. I think we just scratch the surface of what we all can do, so I'm determined that while training for the next race, I'm going to push myself as much as I can do bring out the best of me.

And.......next topic. I went to South Bend this past weekend and enjoyed the Opening Game between Notre Dame and Purdue. It was a great weekend I must say. Notre Dame won (I'm now 4-0 in games I attend) and I got to hang out with friends and my brother throughout the whole thing. Don't think I can ask for more.

I did learn from the weekend that I need to start to separate people I know, with people I've just met as far as vocal filters go. While getting a ride from someone, I commented (in my sarcastic manner, so this person has a right to be upset) that maybe they should pay attention to the road and not the person in the seat next to them. Yea, that comment got me ditched at the bar we went to along w/ my buddy. I think she was more salty in the fact that I was paying attention with conversations and answered her questions when she decided it was "Quiz Time" at the bar. Ladies who want to take advantage of me in the future, 2 beers won't get me drunk. That just gets the party started :)

All right folks, I'm going to book my vacation, then watch a little tv and go to bed. Please feel free to keep in touch.

I suck at this

2010-08-31T20:44:00.000-07:00

I've been really bad about keeping this blog updated. I'll make this another quick on before I go to bed.

First things first, congratulations to Sweet Tea for picking: HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. He has won the bet. $75 to his charity. I lost 2 more lbs. Hats off to those who picked cheeseburgers and taco bell as well. I wound up eating those two times each. Usually I don't eat them that often.

The triathlon was completed this past weekend. 1 hour, 47 minutes and 35 seconds is what it took for me to complete it. That put me at around the 50th percentile. I have aspirations to improve this time greatly. The current debate is that I am riding the post race high, and really am thinking about doing the Dallas Triathlon. Basically I need to improve my swim and biking times. I'm hoping this can be my new thing, and I'm honestly looking forward to staying in shape so I can do more.

There's a lot I want to say, but I'm honestly too tired. I'm going to bed, until we meet again.

Some Updates

2010-07-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm making this blog instead of working, so don't be surprised if it's a little more brief than usual. I just want to give some updates on what's happened the last week and a half, and update everyone on the charity drive.

Last week I went to a shooting range in Dallas. You know what? Guns are cool. They are scary, but pretty cool. To quote Seth Rogan, it really is like having a second dick. I shot an HK 9mm. The only thing that really scares me is the fact that for someone having no experience with weaponry outside of my XBox, I was given a 10 minute lesson on guns, then told to go have fun. Seriously. Literally it was, clip, load, slide release, safety, shoot. That's it. I paid $40, then got my gun, bullets, goggles and glasses. Overall though, it was pretty awesome to shoot. I chose a target that looked like a zombie. It's pretty safe to say that if zombies do exist, I'll take out a few w/ a 9mm.

After that, the most exciting news is that Nigerian hackers broke into my Gmail account and spammed everyone I know. 2 things upset me about this. 1.) I lost all of my contacts. I have to basically start over with email addresses. 2.) the thought process of some people I know.

While I appreciate the love I got from people texting me and making sure I was alive, since it is pretty probable I would be in London, and even get mugged (the angle the hackers used). What gets me is that fact people didn't fully digest the email. People I unfortunately haven't talked to in months/years got the email and thought I could be in real trouble. No offense folks, but if we haven't talked in months, the chances of me hitting you up for money are pretty slim. On top of that, London, UK isn't exactly the middle of nowhere. If I have access to the internet, then there's a good chance I can get in touch with my bank, explain the situation, and get some kind of short term loan, or new credit card. If that's not an option, then I can contact my parents. If that's not an option, I'll reach out to my current roommates. After that, after I've exhausted all other logical possibilities for some quick cash, then MAYBE I'll reach out to some people I've been in less contact with. I'd have to be pretty desperate to do so though.

Anyway I could go more into how bad of a scam it was, but alas, "with tears in my eyes" I must continue.

Here's the update for the weight-loss charity drive. As it turns out, the weekends and lunch time are where I screw myself over the most. Either because I'm wasted, or because I want a quick lunch and unhealthy food meets the mark. So after a week and a 1/2 here it goes.....

Cheeseburgers $1
Milk/Cheese (I'm not including skim milk) $4 (1 quesadilla, and pizza)
Taco Bell $1
Fried Food $4 (mostly french fries)
High Fructose Corn Syrup. this is an interesting one since I figured Coke was the only thing. Unfortunately for me my roommates decided more research was required. Ketchup and Caesar Salad dressing also come up with this. I have to re-think the whole thing now. $6
Smirnoff Ice $0 (thank God)
Alcohol $8.50

That puts the total to $24.50. No weight loss as of today, so I need to work a little harder on this. Keep in touch everyone, and remember to change your passwords.

Account Was Hacked

2010-07-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

My Gmail was hacked this morning. Don't respond or send money.

Trying something new

2010-07-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

Ok everyone, this isn't really going to be a long post, but I had an idea. Those of you who followed this blog from the beginning may remember that during Lent, I said that I was going to donate money for every soda and beer I consumed during the 40 days. When it was all said and done, $150 will be going to 'Hockey Fights Cancer.' My dad had cancer several months ago (it's gone now) and after playing hockey all my life, I feel like this is a great organization to give to.

So, what now then? Well, with 5 weeks to go before my triathlon, I would still like to lose more weight. Currently I am fluctuating around 237 (which is about 5lbs for me). Here's my pledge: I want everyone who reads this blog to choose a food or a item that I cannot consume in the next 5 weeks. Every time I break down and eat one of those foods, it will be $1 to charity. All alcohol will be $0.25. For every pound I lose, it will be $10 to charity. Whoever chooses the food that I break down and eat the most, I will cut a check for whatever the total is to a charity of your choice.

Please, let's keep the food to junk food, things high in sugar, high in fat, etc. I will accept food places as well, for example "Sarpino's" or "Mr. Gyro's" however, be aware you'd be better off just saying pizza, or cheese steaks. I will maintain my current workout schedule (3-5 times a week) and nothing else will fluctuate. I will do a final weigh in the weekend of the triathlon. I'll be on the honor system, and keep track on the blog.

Thanks everyone!

2010-07-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

So I'm actually making a post within a month of the last one. Who's excited? All 10 of you I'm sure :)

I'm taking advantage of the fact that I receive per diem on my trips down here to Dallas. Every once in a while I get to treat myself to a fine meal that is overpriced, but makes up for the salads I normally eat. Tonight I had my second experience at Tom Colicchio's 'CRAFT.'

On this excursion I had a Wagyu Skirt streak with sweet corn, and for desert a chocolate bread pudding with cherries jubilee and vanilla ice cream. Let's start with the steak. The meat was well cooked (medium), very tender, and was truly a great cut of meat. Unfortunately, the meat was served a little cold and the sauce that accompanied the dish wasn't my favorite. I should stress that neither of these factors was enough to make me not finish the whole dish, so obviously it wasn't that bad. Again, for the second meal in a row, I felt that the side dishes really shined. The sweet corn was magnificent. I want to say some thyme and other spices were added, but it was a great compliment to the meal.

With desert, I was expecting some kind of soaked bread in chocolate, but instead was met with a sponge of chocolate bread (almost cake) that melted in my mouth and with the touch of cherries that was added, really thought I was in eating cake. Overall the meal gets a 3.5/5, mostly brought down by my meal being served slightly cold. I can't say I blame the chef or staff though as they had to time a lamb dish and my steak, which I'm sure through them off a bit.

Enough about the meal though. This past weekend my older brother, his fiance', one of my cousins and his wife all came in from NYC to Chicago for the weekend. A few bumps met them along the way here, but once they arrived I had an amazing time with them. They caught the Cubs game Saturday (unfortunately the only loss in a 4 game home-stand against the Phillies) and then sampled the local Goose Island Brews. Our waitress wound up being one of the most knowledgeable people on beer and was quick to give us all a recommendation on what to try based on what we had already consumed. Unfortunately for me, when I said, "I would love a surprise." she greeted me with a Bomber of "Demolition" which, while tasty, set me up for a constant state of being buzzed for the remainder of the night. \

After Goose Island I met up with a friend for her a BBQ she was hosting. I played some corn-hold with some folks and was quickly eliminated in my first game. It can be such a frustrating game when you get matched shot for shot each game, then make an error that gets capitalized on. But, that's how the breaks of the game go.

It was actually funny, but I now have a large scar on my shin, caused by a mishap in my training for the triathlon. So while at this party, the scab opened up a little due to drinking, and I got to answer what happened to me about every 10 minutes. I really love it when someone who's had one too many asks you a question you've answered several times already. In those situations, I feel like you have three responses.

1.) Give your truthful answer, be patient and just deal with it. After all, I chose to wear shorts during a 90 degree day in Chicago.
2.) Provide a large outburst about how I'd already answered several times already
3.) Make up a story.

My personal favorite is number three. Every once in a while you get someone just gullible enough to believe whatever I say and it makes for a good laugh.

Anyway, back to center Hanging out at the BBQ made me remember how important it is for me to take advantage of being home when I am to see everyone. I feel like I've been losing touch with people, and it's actually very important for me to make sure I don't lose all of the connections I've made over the years. It also reaffirmed for me that summer is quickly fading, and that I need to take advantage of every single day I'm not in Texas.

To wrap up tonight's post, shout out to Hamster. His birthday is this Wednesday. There will be a party Saturday for all who want to partake. Come join and be merry.

Good night!

Sad Sad

2010-07-12T19:00:00.001-07:00

Well I'm sorry to say that this is my first blog in over a month. I've just fallen out of the habit of writing on a nightly/weekly basis. It might be that I feel like I have nothing to talk about, or just a lack of motivation due to my new job (still at the same company I was).

I'll start with some random tid-bits and factoids, and then proceed to my regular posts. Currently, my favorite song is "From now on we are enemies" by Fall Out Boy; hopefully the link works. In addition to my daily work outs....I'll let that sit in again, yes, daily work outs I am not experimenting with eating totally healthy. My dinner is on the way, salad, grilled chicken, dressing on side, skim milk and side of fruit. Honestly I think it sounds horribly boring. You might be able to guess that this whole attempt to eat healthy (despite the fact I ate Mr. Gyro's this weekend) is because I am still training for my triathlon. It's a little over 7 weeks away now. I think my goal of 1 Hour 30 Minutes is looking attainable. What's funny is it looks like my 2 weaker events, the run and the swim, will be where I make up time. It's taking me about 32 minutes to bike 20k. That's with a small warm up, and my last meal hours beforehand. I'm hoping with proper warm up, adrenalin and a good meal I can be even faster. Anyway, enough about that stuff.

In case you all forgot, I'm currently staffed in Dallas, TX. Overall, it's really not too bad. The biggest hassle is getting into a routine of it. I have developed some wonderful travel habits because of it. Rather than have a string of posts that involve my travel experiences, I'll do one large post to chronicle my adventures, and hopefully leave it at that, but I'm sure new events will pop up.

-To the family of 20 traveling together on the same flight: I think it's a wonderful thing you are all getting together. Really. I just want to drop some knowledge on you. When it's Thursday at 5:30pm, and you see 100 people with roller-boards getting on the same flight as you are, that is going to mean you have 100 people desperate to get home after being gone for a week who want to get back to family and friends. Most of us are experienced travelers (i.e. we know to take off our shoes at the security check in) and will get annoyed quickly by your ignorance and lack of worship. That being said, do not take the boarding time as an opportunity to continue conversations you could have had in the terminal. Please take your seat, sit down, shut up and get ready for a 2 hour flight. The aisles are generally for one way traffic, so you walking 10 rows up to say hello to your mother-in-law is not acceptable. I blame the 20 of you for making a 30 minute process take 45 minutes and causing us to be delayed by weather.

-The airline industry has turned into a caste system: There are those with varying levels of status (usually varying by some sort of metal or words like, "Exclusive" or "Executive"). These people (myself included) look down on the rest of the travelers around us. We can conduct the security check in like an orchestra, each piece of our travel-wear seamlessly removed and replaced without a moments hesitation culminating in a magnificent crescendo when we execute a laptop-to-bag||shoes on feet||one-handed belt back on pants without missing a beat. It's truly a spectacle to behold.

We can recognize which "upper class" tier each other belong to by the quality of dress, the type a breakfast being consumed (the highest usually bring their own herbal blend of teas or fancy coffees because Starbucks is so 2 years ago) but mostly it's in the salty looks thrown about. Next time you fly, find the saltiest person you can find, glaring at weaker travelers like a hawk. Odds are they have the most status, and are bottling up their anger at how these minions will ruin the flight. The upper-echelon people will also arrive to the airport solo, but will run into other uber-elite and being small talk to secure loose allegiances should the lower folk up-rise. Much like a game of asshole, everything flows downward, however, there is always that hope of climbing up the ladder.

Then there are those who have traveled in the last 5 years and know how the system works, but have yet to achieve true status. These are the middle-class of the travel system. These people will sometimes arrive together in smaller groups, but can also be found alone. They know the routines ("You mean cell phones CAN'T go through the metal detector?!?!") but are casual enough about the whole process to take their time and just enjoy the fact they are leaving wherever they are coming from. These folks are prone to simple mistakes like forgetting the 3oz. rule, or wearing too much jewelry, but make up for these mistakes by keeping to themselves and not making a scene.

Below them are the inexperienced travelers. These people will set off the metal detector several times before realizing they have a belt on, or will look at the security guard with sheer disbelief that shoes must be removed. They are also the people who will take 20 minutes at the self-help kiosk, call over someone for help, and then realize they aren't even in the correct terminal. With a preference to just go to the desk and have someone physically print out a ticket for them, arrive in a Hawaiian shirt even though they aren't going on vacation, the upper classes can't help but feel pity for these people sometimes. Occasionally a middle-class or bottom of the upper class will offer a sympathetic hand to these travelers, getting them through the confounded new technology, or pointing the way to the tram to the next terminal.

Finally, we have the bottom of the traveler caste system. Families with children. These travelers are frowned upon by all who see them. Carrying no less then 5 carry-ons for a mother, father, and anywhere from 1-3 children, plus the kids backpacks makes even the most battle-hardened road warrior cringe. Strollers in tow, these peons delay security with a frantic attempt to fold a horribly designed mode of transportation, walk 3-5 wide blocking the isles, and take up no less than 1 row of seats at the gate to accommodate their damn kids. Sometimes, an upper-echelon father (or mother) can be seen desperately trying to ferry his family through this labrynth of delays, and high tempers. You can see the sweat on their face, worried one of their allies will catch them in the act of transporting these refuges to safety.

The contempt all travelers have for these people....I wish I could convey it in words. Teenagers should be subjected to hours of sitting on a plane to the sound of a crying baby to be used as a tool against teen-sex. 20 minutes of that god forsaken noise in an air-tight compartment with no hope for escape can crack better people.

That was longer than I thought, I wish I had more time to give true justice to each traveler, but alas there isn't enough time.

-Most of my other rants involve carry-on bags, the weather, and overweight people, but just go by the idea that if you don't want someone to do it to you, you shouldn't do it either.

While on this project, I've actually eaten a lot of Indian food. I'm still not quite used to the spice, but I really have a new affinity for the genre after my experiences that started this blog. I had Malai Kofta the other night, and it was truly delicious. That and Biryani are going to be my 2 new stand bys.

Several weeks ago my roommate Sweet-Tea got "Settlers of Catan" for a birthday present. We've played twice so far and I am hooked. It's a well balanced game that's easy to learn, yet difficult to master. I personally would like to play the expansion edition, as I feel the current format (which lasts about 30-45 minutes) is a little too fast, and doesn't allow for enough wheeling and dealing to see who is truly the best settler. Just my opinion though, although if the game is good enough to win "Game of the Year" then it's good enough for me.

Sweet Tea also got me turned onto a book I purchased today called "Soccernomics." I would say it's a cross of "Money Ball" and "Freakanomics." It truly is amazing what we can learn from data and information. This book makes me want to go back to school for the sole purpose of doing more with statistics.

All right everyone, that's been quite enough blogging for one night. I don't want to over due it. In the spirit of giving the customer what they want, feel free to leave comments and let me know what you like, and don't like about the blog. Let me know what you want me to blog about, or stop blogging about. I always like input on this subject.

Until next time....

Spandex

2010-06-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

So I bought some of my tri gear this weekend. I got the shorts, the top, a racing belt (to save time in transitions) and some new goggles because I already lost my last pair. All I have to say is this, to the girls who rock out spandex on a regular basis, whether its leggings to the bar, or the tight pants and sports bra to the gym, be proud of yourselves. I look like a hot mess in my little spandex outfit. Seriously, unless my junk gets to Bryant girth and gets an extra 1-2 inches, there are going to be some very disapointed ladies at the finish line. And that's just my junk, I've got some small tight ass shorts that will be showing off my giant ass legs, and a near skin-tight top that is stretched trying to cover up my spare tire. If nothing else, it's a hoot to look at. The secondary goal of this whole experience is to look good (relatively speaking) in spandex by the end of it.

As far as training goes, I'm debating doing a little bit of a Pavlov's dog experiment on myself. It's usually pretty hard to motivate myself to workout. I figure I need some kind of treat at the end of each work out. I'm toying around the idea of......helping myself out; doing my "taxes"; talking with "Jill"....well you get the idea. Don't really know it's the best approach though. Thoughts?

Boomer is making his way across the pond in less than 1 week to watch the World Cup in South Africa. I would like to take this moment to wish him safe travels, and to have a kick ass time while there. Bring me back a Springbok's jersey.

That's all for now. We've got a big game Wednesday in hockey, GO HAWKS!

I've been waiting for this

2010-06-03T19:32:00.001-07:00

So yea, not a lot of blog posts lately I know. Whatever, forget about it, it's over. Anyway!

I am now 25. Solid birthday weekend with the family, drank some brews, called Evgeni Malkin (rather someone I met did), and beat a girl in a chugging contest. All in all, not too shabby.

So as some of you know, I am in Dallas for a project for work. It's not that bad. Monday's are rough because I'm up at 3:30, and working kinda late, but other than that, it could be much worse. The team I'm on is really cool, and the work seems pretty interesting.

This weekend, at my hotel, ANIME CON is here. For those of you who don't know, Anime Con is a convention for.....you guessed it, Anime. It is such a crazy site. I've seen someone dressed as 'Dan' from Street Fighter - despite the awesome name, seriously one of the WORST characters in the game, 'Max' from Where the Wild Things Are, an array of elves and a dude dressed as some kind of chick. It is so crazy.

A little piece of me is hoping 3-4 girls, each with different color hair, huge boobs, and a tendency to be "yea" girls start making out at the bar and going down on each other. Touching each others bodies, sloppy make outs.... wait....is that the wrong kind of anime? or am I spot on?

I've been training for my triathlon pretty frequently now. Without going into details I've been pleasantly surprised as how much better shape I am in than I was 6 months ago when I joined a gym and actually started going. The long and the short of it is, that individually, it is feasible for me to meet my 30min goals for each section. The trick will be to string that effort together.

That's it for now, I'm going to get some expenses, and flights booked for the next few weeks. Take it easy everyone!

Finally, a real new post.

2010-05-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

All right, so I've finally gotten some time to write in the blog again. I'm sitting in my hotel room right now, just relaxing after a good work out. I signed up for a Sprint Triathlon a few weeks back and have slowly been working out more and more to get ready for it. Today was the first "official" day of training. It's actually the first time I've felt great after a work out. I'm starting to get pretty excited about this whole event.

Last Sunday the Big M.A.C.C.s , the Miami Alumni broomball team I'm on won the "B" Championship. It was pretty damn exciting. We won 1-0 in Triple Overtime. We were pretty much dominated the whole game and just pulled through at the end. It was exciting to be a part of it.

I honestly would like to blog more, but it's 8pm, and I haven't eaten dinner yet, and need to get back to work unfortunately. Come back for more.

It's been a while

2010-05-24T18:05:00.000-07:00

Yea it's been a while since I've posted. I'm going to make an effort to make a real post soon.

Little Frustrating

2010-04-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

I was going to start this blog with a rant about my job and how it's midnight and I'm drinking coke and still working through my data. Instead I think I'm just going to ramble about nothingness until a cohesive thought process comes forward.

Most of my friends can admit that I can be pretty shameless. I say what's on my mind, I say what other people are thinking occasionally, and usually that tends to be inappropriate. I think we need to be unforgiving sometimes. Let's be honest, it's that brutal honesty that we need sometimes to kick us into gear. It's not meant to be mean (unless you want it to be), it's meant to bring you back to center. For example, a few weeks ago Noose (still trying to get you a better nickname) called me out. "Dan, while you were gone we had 6 weeks of the kitchen not stinking like ass. Then you got back. Have you noticed how bad it stinks? It's because you leave food in the garbage disposal and don't run it. I don't care if it's a grain of rice next time, run the damn disposal." You know what? I've run that disposal at least once a week since. It was honest, and righted by faults.

So why on earth don't we apply this same practice in public. I mean, imagine telling a homeless person, "Excuse me, could you at least urinate in the bushes outside, and not on the seats on the 'L'?" or how about to the people on bicycles, "Mr. Cyclist! Hello, I will do my best to honor your bike lane, if you do your best to not assume the whole road is yours. " It's not that hard.

I can see a downside to being as honest as possible with people. That would be low self-esteem and for emotional girls, a lot of nights crying yourself to sleep while you play Taylor Swift wishing your life was like the songs she sings about, eating your low-fat ice cream because you think it's not quite as bad if you eat the whole pint, self-pitying in self-loathing. We've all had those nights, don't worry about it. Geez, I can think of at least 2 or 3 people that if myself, or some people I know wanted to just let loose, would put some people on suicide watch duty. So maybe the whole honesty thing isn't good, but we should think about practicing in small doses.

In 2 weeks I begin my journey to obtain "Elite Flying Status" with a major airline. I look forward to smirking as I flash my card and get on the plane first while all the common folk look on with their "Zone 4" boarding passes. I hope when I flash my smile at the gate attendant, and don't look back at those miserable zombies, those people in line wish they were me. I'll be the envy of everyone. "Look at that young 20-something," they'll say, "He's going into the Delta Crown Room, I wonder what treats they have in there." Well having been privy to see several status waiting rooms, let me tell you this, I will NOT share with you what's in there. If I were to reveal those secrets, it'd be the equivalent of when the Nazi's opened the Arc of the Covenant and their faces either a.) Exploded or b.) Melted off. That's right, you don't want that to happen.

My quest for being healthier took a major hit this week. I'm working late hours, staying in a hotel, and the room service is from Applebee's. Oh and stress is high. Yea, I've eaten burgers, fries, and had a turkey sandwich covered in Avacado Ranch dressing tonight. I mean it was tasty, but I'm pretty sure I set myself back some time.

I will say this much, I'm very pleased that April is almost over. This month has been forgettable at best. The highlight was the wedding I went to. If it wasn't marred by the fact that the last day I was checking emails to make sure my team wasn't ready to implode w/out me, I think it would have been perfect.

I just remembered that I wanted to blog about something for quite some time, but just haven't put it down. Lately I've been worrying that I might have given myself some kind of bad voodoo. I don't know why, but I have very very random memories as a kid. it's funny what you remember sometimes. I'm sure I've blocked out countless important things from my past, and hell, sometimes I can't remember what I ate for breakfast. Anyway, this one memory from my past has literally been haunting me and I think it might be starting to affect me. I'm hoping that find a way to break the hex, but the biggest problem is I'm allowing it to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I guess I need to bear down and just make my own luck.

Oh yea, I need a haircut bad too.

Something to ponder

2010-04-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

What was the last restaurant you were in that didn't have 'Applewood Smoked Bacon'?

Bitch Slap

2010-04-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Recline Your Seat Before the Flight Even Starts and Makes Me Squeeze Into a My Seat:

All I want to do is slap you across the face. Do you have any idea how inconsiderate it is to recline your seat before the flight even starts? Hell, it's inconsiderate to put your seat down DURING the flight. I'm 6'3'', and the seats are small enough already. Screw you.

Also, Mr. Yell at the Gate Lady Because It's Raining:

Take it up with God if it's raining. The gate lady can't help it's raining and the flight is getting delayed. She also can't help that the 75 people who boarded before you had carry ons and took up all the overhead compartments. I get that traveling is stressful and it sucks sometimes; especially when all you want to do is get home and can't. I hope yelling at the gate lady makes you feel better. While I'm hoping for things, I hope in whatever afterlife there is, that same gate lady hobbles you and makes you crawl through a field of rusty needles.

Respect

2010-04-21T18:02:00.001-07:00

So ever since I started writing this blog, I've really gotten into just writing in general. I admit I need to smooth out the edges, but overall this has been a very rewarding experience thus far.

In addition to this blog, I've been writing, for lack of a better term lyrics. It never rhymes, so I wouldn't call it a poem, but the flow of them looks more like that of a song. usually it's a therapeutic way for me to write out whatever is on my mind without using this current medium.

Either way, I looked through some of what I had put together. I think the best comparison would be to my golf game. Overall it's bad, but there's the occasional moment of greatness. I have a much greater respect now for bands, especially those I listen to. It's not an easy task to put together something and put it out there for the world.

That's my shout out. To all of those who write the songs I listen to.

Jamaican Wedding

2010-04-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

Continuing with my tradition to procrastinate, I'll blog about the past few days instead of check email and do work. This past weekend I was in Jamaica for my cousins wedding. Absolutely amazing time. I'll start from the beginning though.

The first part of this is going to mirror another blog post I've recently read. I feel I need to discuss how stupid some people are though. Here it is, my travelling by plane rants. So everyone, let's talk about how to get ready for a trip somewhere. First, the clothes you will wear to the airport. I don't care if you wear pajamas, or a business suit, whatever you are most comfortable flying in, wear it. You shouldn't wear lots of metal jewelry though, or put hidden trinkets in your 20 pockets. If you set off the metal detector more than once, I think you deserve a shot to the kidneys.

I had to wait 5 minutes for a woman and her child to get through the damn metal detector in security. The only reason I got through that quickly was because I lapped them. Yes, after each had gone through no less than 3 times each, I ignored line protocol, and just walked past them to get through. It's not like there have been radical changes to the security process. It's been AT LEAST 7 years, of shoes off, computers in a bin, all metal objects in the bin, the only thing going through should be yourself, and the clothes on your back. No accessories. I know I'm fortunate enough to travel around and have my security process down to an efficient routine, but this was ridiculous.

Next gripe, getting onto the plane. I have two issues here. 1.) People who pack more than one carry on bag, and 2.) Switching seats. We'll start with the first. Ladies and Gentlemen, you are allowed ONE carry on bag and ONE personal item. Let me clarify that for you, you can have ONE small suitcase, and ONE item that fits underneath the seat in front of you. The small item means a laptop bag (not one of those huge ones), purse, or handbag. That does not mean you should be 2 XXL Vera Wang, or whatever the hell those bags are, onto the plane to stuff into the overhead bins. I actually blame the airlines for this little gem of stress for charging to check bags. Just standardize across the industry to add $25 to ticket prices. This nickel & dime stuff is killing me.

Still on to carry on items. When placing them in the overhead bins, use the bins near y our seat. I don't care that you packed 50lb weights in your bag. I really don't. Carry your bags to the back of the plane where your seats are, don't just toss them in the first bin you see because it's open. Maybe if you walked that extra distance with your oversized carry ons, you wouldn't have to purchase 2 seats because you are overflowing into the seat next to you. We are becoming a society were being lazy, overweight, and self-entitled to things that don't belong to us are common place and accepted. People should be called out on this, and flogged in public. And you know what, if I have any of these traits, I would hope I get called out on it. It makes you a better person. Noose called me out the other day saying I don't run the garbage disposal enough and I'm the one who should be running it since I put food down the sink. You know what happens now? I run it at least once to twice a week, and the kitchen smells better. Everyone wins.

The final gripe, clapping when the plane lands. I don't get an applause when I do my job at work. In fact, there's a good chance, I might get chewed out for not responding to emails while on vacation. I don't own a crackberry for this reason. So don't clap when a pilot lands, don't sing, don't do anything. Act like he's supposed to do it, because well, he's supposed to. I will leave a caveat for this though. I was on a flight with returning soldiers from Iraq who hadn't seen their family in over 1 year. They were on their final flight home, and only had to walk off the plane and to baggage claim before seeing their loved ones. I joined them when they started clapping for joy when those wheels touched down. Support our troops.

As you can tell the trip down was pretty eventful. The wedding was in Ocho Rios and I was greeted in the terminal by my driver who was taking me. Once I got into the car, I asked my driver how long of a drive it was. "90 minutes man" was his reply. Well damn. So it was an hour and a half of silence as we drove the winding rodes of Jamaica. I'm usually talkative, but I'd been up since 4am, exhausted, and really just not in the mood to talk. Plus the scenery was breathtaking and I was taking it in.

The Royal Plantation, our resort, was amazing. Everyone was extremely accommodating, and all I had to do was ask and my wishes were granted. As is traditional with most weddings, a round of golf was played. We played Friday morning, and I was pair with my dad, older brother, and uncle to cousin (from his mom's side). This wound up being one of the most frustrating, enjoyable games of golf I've ever played. We were all using rental clubs, which will be my excuse for poor play. Per usual, my game was poor, with spurts of greatness. My greatest moment, and the one that will allow me want to play again, was being 5 yds shy of hitting my ball onto the green in 2, on a Par 5. Somehow I managed to string together a perfect drive (between 2 trees and cutting the corner of a dogleg), and then drilling a fairway shot with my 5 wood. Unfortunately, I took a bad chip, and 2 puts to pull off a legit par, but I was so pleased with the first two shots that I'll be coming back for more.

Fun fact about my family, they love martinis. How much so? In 3 days we drank the resort out of Beefeater Gin. The resort said they'd never seen anything like it.

The wedding and reception were gorgeous. I'll try to post some photos later. I managed to keep myself in check the entire weekend, only drinking beer with the occasional shot. I made the mistake once of trying to keep up with my cousins. I'm still at an amateur status, and had to pace myself through the night. I managed to stay up until 2am with most of the grooms friends celebrating after the reception when one comes up to me, "Dan! Think they still are doing shots?" I had to assume yes, so we checked, found out whiskey was all that was left for the night, and we rounded up 12 shots of Jameson. I don't normally drink whiskey, but Jameson was mighty fine and goes down smooth.

The worst part about the trip was getting up at 4am today to leave and spending the whole day coming back to Chicago. It's good to be back though. Unfortunately though, I turned my work computer on, and have no less than 20 important messages, including missing time and expense reports and scorecards. Perfect. I'll be up for a few hours catching up. This is honestly the worst part about vacation, I have to get back to the real world and play catch up for 2 days.

Good Ass Weekend

2010-04-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

Due to complaints, I am doing my best to keep this blog as up to date as possible. Work's been a little busy and I just haven't had the desire to blog lately. I'm actually delaying work that I'm supposed to be doing to keep this updated, so all 5 of you who read this better appreciate it.

Also, just to cover the food portion of the blog, my diet has been granola bars, apples, bananas, chicken wrap sandwiches, salmon, pasta with olive oil, and pizza (Thursday/Friday only) for the last week and a half. I don't really deviate from that right there. I'll also mention the bag of Oreo's I've been working on since Easter that my mom gave me. Thanks Mom, they are delicious! Seriously everyone, get yourself to your local grocer, buy some double stuff spring time Oreo's, some milk, and just sit back and enjoy (you're welcome Nabisco).

This weekend was good for a couple reasons. I'll start with work Friday. Typical day, I was given a project at 2pm Friday, and told, "yea, we need this Monday morning." seriously? It's Friday afternoon and you give me a project due Monday morning? Perfect, so that's next after this post is completed. I was pretty salty after that, but you know what? It's the weekend, so I got what I could done, shut down, and headed home. The original plan for the weekend was for my 3 roommates to be in Milwaukee and me to chill out by myself. I was actually really looking forward to this. I would have gotten to enjoy some naked time, nothing too crazy, just around my room, maybe downstairs to get some juice. I don't sit on any furniture when I'm enjoying naked time. I need to show a little respect for the roommates. I was going to take it easy, clean my room, get some laundry done, work out, lots of little errands. I managed to get everything I wanted to get done, completed around 6:30 or 7pm. Feeling good about this, I heated up some left over pizza, sat down and started trying to find a movie to watch while I relaxed.

Phone rings. Damnit who is calling? It's one of my roommates who's driving to Milwaukee for the night. My initial thought was, "What the hell did you forget? You'd better reward me with some amazing reward if you make me drive your phone charger or something similar to you. So I answer, and learn that he was in a car accident. I'm sure everyones been in this situation, you are gearing yourself up to make the other person feel bad, feeling a little bitter, a little angry, then BAM!!!! they drop something big on you. I immediately went into "concern" mode, asked what I can do, and told him I'd pick him and the person he was with up on the interstate.

This is actually pretty lucky for my roommates since the original plans for my Friday was to go on a date (more later), but that got pushed to Saturday. So I drove out, picked them up, discovered that 2 bottle of whiskey were purchased, and I wouldn't get my naked time this weekend. So what do you when you get this kind of news? You say to hell with it, take a quick shower, put on some jeans, and start boozing. I called another friend, and the 4 of us started to down whiskey shots and beer to get ready for the night.

The night took us to our regular spot, Butch McGuire's to meet some lady friends we know. Upon finding them at the bar, I promptly picked one up in a giant bear hug and smacked her head against the low hanging ceiling. Sorry about that EL. I didn't give any more big hugs after that.

Some O-Bombs and beers later, my roommate......

Ok, I'm taking a tangent right now. I'm going to give my roommates nicknames so I can differentiate them. I'm tired of saying, "my roommate this" and "that." I do my best to not use names in this blog, so for now, unless either myself, or they come up w/ better names for themselves, my roommates are:

Boomer (for his loud voice)

Noose (for his neckties)

Sweet Tea (loves sweet tea)

and back to center.... Boomer and I discovered a wall mounted juke box towards the back of the bar. I'm sure it's always been there, but this particular night, it called out name. We approached it like moths to the flame, and decided, the music being played needed an upgrade. $1 bill later, we found some kind of random song on the pre-sets. It was a split second after our song came on that I saw a credit card swipe. You gotta be kidding me? I can just swipe my credit card and listen to whatever music I want?!?! Recipe for disaster. $10 later, we were picking all the punk rock songs we love and taking requests from drunk girls shaking off their boyfriends so they can listen to whatever ass-shaking bump and grind jam they want to listen to. I'm serious, any single guys out there, make a $5-$10 investment into one of these juke boxes and watch girls just come up to you. Quite the opener and we weren't even trying.

So we're rocking out and loose track of the time, wind up closing down the bar. Well, all the girls from school we met up with left, so Boomer, his gf and I left to get some food. Mr. Gyro's is the best late night. I've yet to have Taco Burrito Palace, but I bet this rivals it. I picked up some cheesesteaks (Boomer you owe me $5), bring it back, and house it down. As I was licking my lips and sipping my ice cold cola, I glanced at the clock and saw it was 4:30am. Great. Just great. I went from wanting to stay in, relax, go to bed around 10, to getting shmammered, eating greasy food, and staying up until 4:30. Oh well, it happens. So thus starts the good weekend with a solid performance Friday.

Saturday greeted me with a hangover, sun shining and 11am wake up call. Deciding to make the most of the day, I did a few more errands, straightening up my room, hit up the gym for a solid work out (cardio mostly if you are interested) and then enjoying some sunshine on the rooftop of our apartment. While bronzing my sexy self, I called up the lovely lady I had made plans with for the evening to confirm time and place. With the plans set in stone, and feeling adventurous with some time to kill, myself, Boomer and Sweet Tea decided to go to the driving range to hit some balls. Apparently we weren't the only people with the same idea. It took about 10-15 minutes to get a spot to hit, but I'm pleased with the end result. I finally got a decent shot with my hybrids, and made a couple nice drives. I decided these good shots were a sign of good things to come and went to get myself ready for my night out.

It's been a while since I had a real first date, so I was nervous. You know it's bad when I'm trying on 2-3 different shirts trying to figure out what looks just right. Now, if I can say so myself though, I clean up pretty well. I admit most of the time I look like I'm not putting myself together well. I'm lazy. I hate shaving, I like wearing my ball caps, and save my leather belts and shoes for work. I took the extra steps this night though. Got myself a good shave, some cologne, new shoes, clean shirt, oh yea, it was on.

As I was about to head out, Sweet Tea, sensing some nervous energy around me decides to help me relax a little. "Shots?" I rarely refuse this offer, so I agree. "BOOMER!!! Get up here it's important!" Boomer comes bouncing up the stairs to be greeted with 3 shots poured of the Dr.'s Old Crow. Down the hatch and good luck.

I won't go into the details of the date. I'm sure this is disappointing to some, but I'll blog about my personal life to an extent, but keep private matters separate. We went to dinner, and then a bar afterwards. I'll say I had a great time, and am looking forward to seeing this girl again.

After the date, I came home, decided I wanted to stay up some more, and put in 'Gran Torino' staring Clint Eastwood. The blatant racism in the movie made me chuckle occasionally, but overall, it was an excellent film. Mr. Eastwood makes me want to be an angry old man when I grow older. Apparently other people agree with this though, because I got some "Likes" on facebook.

Sunday was a typical day, nothing too crazy besides getting pwned in Broomball. But yes, overall this has been a great weekend. I'm looking forward to more like it as the weather gets warmer.

So the recipe for a good weekend is this: Good Friends + Good Weather + Old Crow

Short and Sweet

2010-04-08T21:16:00.001-07:00

So I saw a "Top 10 Things I Hate About Facebook" blog the other day and it got me thinking. What do I not like about the magical world of facebook?

One thing really stuck out to me about what I don't like about it and even South Park did a great job talking about it the other night. I hate Farmville. I'm sorry, let me rephrase that, I LOATHE Farmville. I want to apologize to any good friends of mine who play this game. I'm sure it's fun, and I'm sure your imaginary crops are feeding the starving children in war-torn Africa, but the updates need to stop.

If someone knows how to block Farmville specific updates, I'll pay you to show me, because I don't need to know who found a baby cow on their property. You know what most farms would do with a baby cow (calf if you please)? Make a delicious veal dinner served with a side of farm fresh vegetables. Seriously, it's a vagrant cow, somebody obviously didn't want it, nobody is going to miss it, so eat the damn thing.

If there were a way I could sow the fields with salt like the conquering Roman army so nothing could grow again, I would honestly get myself drunk, and destroy some peoples farms and call it a night. I'd apologize in the morning I'm sure, but you'd have to guilt me into it.

I think I saw one update for a viking quest to find a dragon or something the other day. You want a god-damn dragon on your farm?! Are you fucking insane? They breathe fire. They'd burn your crops and eat your livestock. Great fucking planning.

So yea, that's all for now, come back for more.

Friday Night

2010-03-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks for Bert for reminding me this post is way past due.

So this past Friday, myself and my roommate Justin discovered something amazing. What we discovered was a phenomenon known as, "The Balance." What is this? more into that later.

After a nice Sushi dinner, since I can't eat meat on Friday's during lent (damn you fish mongers), Justin and I got some drinks from our liquor store and started to get a nice buzz on. While we were drinking, talking philosophy, and solving the world's problems, we came across a phenomenon we could only describe as "the balance." This rare event occurs when an individual has had just the right amount to drink. He or she drinks just enough that their insecurities are thrown completely away, but they remain sober enough that no judgement is impaired. Unfortunately, this is a delicate balance which one much keep in check. One shot too many, one extra sip of that red bull vodka, and the whole thing is lost.

It became our goal for the night to achieve this rare state of mind. We joined forces with my co-worker Lee, and headed to Angels and Kings for another co-workers birthday. It surprised me to see how nice the place is. It's a bit small, but pretty legit. Once the birthday boy and his entourage showed up, I was greeted by 5 more of my near-blackout co-workers. You know someone has had enough when you steal their beer while they are watching you, and start drinking said beer, thank them for the beer, and then return an empty beer bottle to them, and they can't tell the difference. Thank you buddy.

About two hours in, Angel's & King's was getting a little crowded so we checked out a few more bars. Next stop was the Kerryman........I'm not going to post anything about this place because it sucked, and the only highlight was a wasted girl tugging Justin's tie, asking why he was wearing it, and then making some snide comment about it. Congratulations, your saltiness and lack of anything intelligent to say to a group of guys will most likely lead to your ownership of multiple cats and transformation into a bitter old spinster, good luck with crazy Cat Lady.

Bitchy cat lady capped off Kerryman's for us. Usually it's a pretty good bar, but the vibe just wasn't there this night. The best place to find this vibe though, the place where all things would turn magically delicious for us? McFadden's. This is where the night took a turn towards the memorable. Luckily, I was pacing myself and heading for "the balance". We managed to get a table near the bar, crazy since it was around 1am when we got there, and settled in to people watch and enjoy ourselves. Lo and behold! what do we encounter after 2 minutes of people watching?! A group of three girls, with one girl standing out as she is a little taller. I think at this point, any girl that is over 5'9'' is defaulted to me being the tallest in our group of friends.

"Shout" sets the mood of the moment and we start doing the whole awkward wedding dance, hand in the air, "shout shout" you get the idea. Well right after the song, the 3 girls start posing for a picture. Well, being the creeper that I am, I decide there is only one thing to do. Stick my head into the photo and pull a "Bert Foster." See here for an example. I wish I had the picture to show you all. It honestly was my finest creep. I patiently waited for the girls to look at it on their camera and was rewarded with, "Oh my god what the hell!" I turned around with a stupid grin on my face only to be met with the two short girls shooting me the evil eye ready to smack the grin right off of my face, and the taller giving me some Bambi eyes. I decided in the interest of keeping drunk bitches happy, I'd better take a new photo for them, to ensure my giant face doesn't ruin another picture. Apparently I must be generally trusted by girls, because every time I do this, there's rarely a hesitation to give me their camera for a new photo. If I'm near a door, I think next time I should just gank it. So a new photo and taken, and I begin to talk w/ the taller girl of the group. I don't think this went over very well with her friends. the flat out refused to be friendly w/ my buddies, and kept trying to pull the girl I was talking to away.

As we were talking, I started to realize that she might have been a little too toasted. I was asked no less than 4 times if I, "Was having fun?", "Why I was at McFadden's?" and "If I lived in Chicago." By the time I got to the fourth time for each question, I realized this was going to be a train wreck. By about that time though, McFadden's was closing. I've never seen the lights on at that place, but yea, 3:30am, they turn the lights on and kick folks out. Who knew? Well I began exchanging numbers with her, and she only has my first name. This apparently is not a problem, since she has dubbed me, "Dan A Conda."

Yes everyone, DAN A CONDA. As in, Anaconda. Naturally I made a sexual comment about myself and had a good laugh. So if I am to call this girl now, "Dan A Conda" will appear. I think this alone will be the highlight of the night. We wound up having to split ways after the bar closed, but this goes down as one of the better nights I've had in quite some time.

So for all of the ladies out there, WATCH OUT! The Dan A Conda is on the loose.

Teaser

2010-03-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

Balance, a desirable point between two or more opposite forces.

Just wait for it.....

This week's food.

2010-03-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

So I've been put on a new client so it's not quite as easy to blog. My breakfast / lunch have been pretty standard for the week.

Breakfast: Granola Bar
Lunch: 1 Apple, 1 Banana, 3 Clementine Oranges, Granola Bars, Sandwich (Usually chicken, or peanut butter), and small bag of baked chips or pretzels.

The lunch portion is spread out through the afternoon.

It's actually been working out pretty well. I'm starting to feel better and I'm saving money by not buying my lunch every day. Hopefully the lbs start melting away soon.

There's one more week of Lent. I'm looking forward to being able to eat pizza again. Although, I'm starting to not miss it so much anymore. Usually it's the 2am drunk cravings, or on a lazy Saturday when I don't want to cook anything that I miss it most. And the other part of my lent promise, the $1 beer and $.50 beer will result in $150 to be donated to charity. As of right now, the charity is up in the air. So if anyone has a charity particularly close to their hearts, please let me know.

Progressive Laughter

2010-03-21T11:07:00.001-07:00

So I'm pretty sure one of the funnier moments of my life happened the other night. It was one of those you had to be there moments, but I'll do my best to give the play by play. I was watching tv with my roomate and a commercial for the New Moon came on. So we start making fun of the whole Twilight phenomenon. I crack about how my younger brother had a friend whose gf broke up w/ him because their relationship didn't have passion like in the Twilight series. I shit you not.

So we start making up voices about the characters and ripping into it, and I make an inappropriate comment, per usual, followed by a whispered, "I love you." I guess it was one of those comments that the more you think about it, the more it gets funny. For the next 3 minutes we both just kept laughing louder and louder until we were both in stitches over this. Laughter makes me laugh. It was a good time.

In other news, Friday night to once again negated all progress I've made in being healthy. We went out to the Hangge Uppe. I actually don't enjoy going to that bar. Now don't get me wrong, I'm almost positive every time I've gone there, I've had a decent time. My problems with the bar are these: 1.) If I'm not hammered drunk when I get there, I HAVE to get hammered drunk to enjoy myself 2.) Each time I've gone, between covers and drinks, I spend a minimum of $75 dollars. There's something about the bar that just makes me want to spend money. I think because if I were sober there, I wouldn't want to stay more than 5 minutes.

The other thing about this bar, is you see all kinds of people that you kind of know. I ran into 2 people I'd met before in the past. One was a co-worker of a girl a roomate of mine dated. The other was a girl who cock-blocked me once. I sincerely hope I didn't scream at the second girl. I was toasted when I saw her, and I'm still mad at her to this day.

And to top off a night of shots and beer, I got Mr. Gyro's after. Here's what happened next:

Philly Cheesesteak
Fries
Gyro

I'm not proud of this. You may mock me now.

Catching up

2010-03-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

Dinners: Salmon and Pasta w/ Olive Oil (2 nights); Baked Chips, Ham/Turkey Sandwich on wheat.
Breakfast/Lunch: Buffalo Chicken Wrap, Baked Chips 4 Granola Bars, 2 Bananas, 2 Apples, Cheeseburger, Fries.

That should cover breakfast and lunch for the last 3 days.

The Weekend

2010-03-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

Well I think the best word that can be described for the weekend is, "Shit Show." There was plenty of drinking, plenty of people over, although it was a lot of dudes. We have to do something about the guy/girl ratio at our parties. I fully admit I did nothing to rectify the situation, but still.

Suffice to say, any progress I made on being healthy was completely thrown out the window Saturday night. In addition to being hammered, I ate the following (this will be my weekend post of food):

Quiznos (I opted for the regular size, and not the large, I'll let my selflessness sink in a moment)

McDonalds (2 McChickens and a Dbl Cheeseburger.....and a small fries)

America's Dog (1 Chili Dog, 1 Dog with Onions, Jumbo Sized)

There might be more tossed in there, but we'll cut it off there. I'm not proud of what I did. Overall though I think I'm ready for a de-tox weekend. Maybe I'm just being a wimp though.

We had another broomball game today. I'd like to think I played a decent game. Our team is really improving dramatically. Everyone is finding their stride, and we are starting to move the ball around really well. The game wound up being a tie, 1-1. We fought hard, and held off our opponents in OT when they had a 3 vs. 2 man advantage. It was a solid game all around.

The only other item on the game was me getting laid out by the big man on the other team. So the ball was in a bit of 'No Man's Land' along the boards. The goalie was too far away to play it, and it was between myself, and the other teams largest player. Well of course we both go for it. I know it's usually the best strategy to not leave your feet during the game (I do catch myself doing it occasionally though). Well this person chasing the ball down realized he wasn't going to beat me to the ball, so he slid and took out my legs from under me. Now, I fully admit I'm a chippy player. I stick check, push, shove, and do whatever I can to get into position. So when the same is done to me, I let it slide. But this ass bum rushes me and takes me out. Needless to say, being the competitive person I am, I was upset.

So my knee smacks the ice, it hurts, and I'm pissed because of that, and it's a cheap play. So what do I do? How does a 24 yr old react to this? He throws his helmet on the ground (smash might be better) and then punches the glass. I don't recommend the second, plexy glass doesn't have as much give as you might think. I managed to collect myself and walk off the ice, apologized to the score keeper for losing my temper, and took a seat. It's all a little blurry, I guess my rage took over. Regardless, it was a pretty childish thing to do. I will have to make sure I find a balance between being competitive, and being an ass.

Food

2010-03-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

Dinner Yesterday: Salmon, pasta, vegetables

Food Today: Granola Bars (3), PBJ Sandwich (1.5), Bag of Baked Cheeto's, Sliced Apples, 1 Banana, Salmon, Cheerios, Small Handful of Pretzels with Hummus.

Ummmm What should I do?

2010-03-09T13:25:00.001-08:00

I forgot to blog about this the other night, so I'll do it today while I enjoy my 3:30 snack. I'm trying to eat every three hours so I don't go on empty as my trainer would say. I'm eating the pretzels I mentioned earlier.

So the other night I got a call from a friend to go out to a bar near me for a few beers. I normally don't drink during the week, but I figured I can have few since I'm unassigned at the moment. Little did I know that she was PLASTERED when she called me. Her drunken slurring was drowned out by bar noise, so I had to text my friend that I knew was w/ her the location of the festivities.

I guess by the time I showed up I missed the worst of the Schmammeredness (yes, I made up that word) but I was just in time for the real show to begin. We are having drinks, and my friend just looks at me and goes, "Ohh Dan, I have the perfect girl for you." My immediate thought is, "Well shit, this should be good." Usually when someone says these words to me, I imagine something terrible. She pulled up some pictures and showed me. To my delight, they were wonderful pictures of a classy young lady I might find some interest in. I then got the description, of this mystery girl of my dreams. "She loves Jameson and blacking out. " Yea, that's what I got. No personality traits, no interests, hobbies, etc. I just got, "drinking Jameson and blacking out."

I think it goes without saying I'm VERY excited to meet this girl.

So as the night goes on, my friend gets a couple texts from her bf and I notice her getting visibly upset. No doubt amplified by the drinks. After she went to the bathroom, I asked our mutual friend was the deal was. He explained, and I quote, "Dude, her boyfriend is a complete douche-lord. He sucks." I'm not sure if that's on Urban Dictionary yet, if it's not, please add it. A few texts later, we headed back to my apartment to watch some TV and hang out for a little bit.

So what do you do with 2 buzzed guys, and a drunk girl who has prostituted her friend (I was told I could get some if I purchased a meal for her friend because she's unemployed, forgot to mention that), remember this same girl is upset about her boyfriend at the moment. Well you bust out a bottle of home made wine and drink more of course! Aren't I full of the best ideas? So we break into some wine, chat for a bit, then settle down to watch the latest episode of The Office. About 5 minutes in, my friends phone rings, and it's her BF. What happened next is actually fairly standard for my life I think. For the next 45 minutes my friend talked, on the verge of tears w/ her bf. I know it was 45 minutes because The Office was done by the time she finished talking. I'm pretty sure the relationship ended during that phone call and we all know how those phone conversations can go. You'd rather them be in the privacy of your own room, door shut, nobody bothering you. I think the drunkenness helped her forget that we were still in the room.

So you might be thinking, well what were myself and my other friend doing while this break up was in progress and semi-yelling fighting via phone happening before us? What were we doing while our friend was fighting back tears of sadness and rage? We were fighting back tears of laughter from the episode. We figured we had 2 options.
1.) Stick it, watch the episode, pretend like the fight isn't happening.
2.) Leave the room for the basement and leave our friend by herself in a room filled with sharp objects, throwable items, and my flat screen.

Naturally, having gone through all the awkwardness that is my life, I decide to stick it out and protect the investment that is my TV from potentially getting hit with something. Plus as my friends know, if the tv is on, I can pretty much ignore just about anything and everyone. The problem was during the commercials when I couldn't zone out. I do recall sending a text message to my buddy saying, "I hope I'm the not the only one slightly uncomfortable at the moment." I was assured I wasn't, and we continued to watch tv.

Once the phone was hung up, do we reach out and console our friend for standing up to her douche-lord bf? No, we start watching Daniel Tosh's new show and laugh even more. I think we were banking on the whole, "Laughter is the best medicine" thing. Hopefully it worked a little. We did manage to crack a smile towards the end.

So yea, that's a night out with me. Pretty exciting huh?

Oscars

2010-03-09T10:42:00.001-08:00

So Avatar didn't sweep the Oscars. I'm actually ok with this. I enjoyed the movie, but I don't think it was the cultural masterpiece some people played it up to be. I also saw The Hurt Locker. I thought it was good, but again, not sure it was "Best Picture". But what do I know?

I will say I didn't enjoy the politics that managed to creep their way into the show. That's Hollywood I suppose though. I won't be texting "Dolphin" to anybody anytime soon. I do find it funny that it was blatantly obvious that the person with that sign was going to unveil it. I mean, wouldn't the producers think to themselves, "Gee, what's that person doing with a banner walking up to the stage?"

I did love the moment when the Director for "Music by Prudence" was giving his speech, the producer (?) jumped up and for lack of a better term "Kanye'd" him. I hope she feels at least a little embarrassment.

Food Items starting from Yesterday Afternoon:
-Bag of Peanuts
-Fish
-Vegetables
-Rice
-Small portion of chips/salsa

Today:
-Granola Bars (2)
-Foot Long Subway Sub (Chicken)

I also have a nice snack of sliced apples and pretzels waiting for me this afternoon.

Accountability

2010-03-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

So I've been trying to lose weight recently. It's been going ok I suppose. I think I've lost 1-2 pounds. The biggest problem I have is that, even if I manage to get myself to the gym 3-4 times a week, I eat so horribly that it negates whatever I do. Case in point, last week I worked out, and right after, ate McDonald's. I had a coupon, and figured, "what the hell?"

So I came up with this idea a few months ago, and while I'm sure I'm not the first genius to come up with it, I figure, it can't hurt if nothing else. I'm going to hold myself accountable by blogging what I eat, and if I work out. We'll see how long it actually lasts. I will continue blogging about my random thoughts, but I'll just add a blurb at the bottom stating what I ate and if I worked out.

In other news, Green Beer Day was this past weekend. I had a lovely time. For those of you non-Miami people who read the blog (and I feel sorry for you), it's a celebration of Green Beer before Spring Break starts. As alumni, we start our own parties to reunite with college friends. Well I guess the bar that holds this event decided, "HEY! All these Miami kids show up to get drunk early on a Saturday, I bet OTHER schools Alumni will show up too!!!" So what did they do? They advertised the hell out of our Green Beer Day. AND had the audacity to charge $36 for a 4 hour bar special. I am pretty sure I went off on this when I said I sold my ticket for $90 (which rocked), but still. Where do these other schools come off joining Miami's day? It's just rude.

Myself and some friends wound up doing our own bar crawl and you know what? I had a better time doing that anyway. Also, hats off to Kyle Snyder for being the MVP of his bowling tournament the same day.

All that, that's all I have to say for now. Check back later this week for my thoughts on the Oscars.

TODAYS FOOD CHECK (as of 2pm Monday):
-Granola Bars (2)
-Foot Long Ham and Cheese on Wheat from Subway
---Did not work out this weekend.

Dancing with the Stars and Broomball

2010-03-03T07:26:00.000-08:00

Dancing with the Stars
So Erin Andrews will be on the next Dancing with the Stars. I am comfortable enough with my self to say that this show is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's impressive to watch what these "celebrities" learn after a few short weeks of dancing. I used quotes there because some of these people are D or C list at best.

Upon hearing Erin Andrews would be on the show, I immediately was reminded of a wonderful quote someone said to me about her. I will set it up. So back in the Fall, I was at the Notre Dame home opener and crashing at a friend of a friends. This is around the same time that the peep hole video of Ms. Andrews was leaked to the internet. If you don't know about that, just google Erin Andrews, and it'll come up. I wouldn't recommend watching at work though.

Anyway, so we are discussing this video and someone makes the comment that she was a great body. She does. So as we are all agreeing on this fact, one person in the group very simply, very under the radar tries to slip in, "Yea, I've smelt her. She smells really good." If you can picture the scene, this would be a perfect movie moment. It just got deadly silent, and 5 heads slowly turned to the one person making the comment.

"And you know this because......?"

"I was on the field for a game she was covering, and I caught a whiff of her. She smells awesome."

I've made some creepy comments in my life. This beats those though. Of all the things to say: I saw her in person, I spoke to her, I did XYZ. No, you SMELT her. Now of course, deep down, most of us in the room were proud of our friend for pulling off such an accomplishment, but no matter how proud we could have been, the creepiness factor just took over.

Regardless, I look forward to watching Ms. Andrews and Chad Ochocinco tear up the ballroom in this coming season.

Broomball
2 Weeks ago I began playing broomball again. Most people give me a WTF look when I explain it to them, so check the link if you are unsure what it is. It's basically hockey, but with shoes and not skates. Anyway, playing has brought back a competitive fire inside me I haven't had in quite sometime. Sure, I've done intramural sports here in Chicago, but playing a 16'' Softball game, or a kickball game just doesn't compare.

So far we've lost the 2 games I've played in, but we are actually looking much better than before. My one wish is that the rink were bigger. It's literally a 1/2 sheet of ice with the width cut down as well. There's not a whole lot of room to maneuver anywhere. I'd like to play on a full sheet of ice, but there aren't a whole lot of options here in the city.

I'd like to play in one of the tournaments in MN at some point. If anyone wants to put together a team, let me know. Sound like the men's tournaments might even allow contact.

Supply and Demand

2010-03-01T14:58:00.000-08:00

So I got a real life dose of Supply and Demand today. A bar is holding a bar special this Saturday that I have a ticket it. I bought this ticket for $36, and the event sold out yesterday. This bar special is the same as any $20/$25 special. Draft beer, no food, well liquor.

I'm getting offers of $90 for my ticket. I'm going to buy a load of tickets next year and just sell them at ridiculous prices if this continues.

Back in America

2010-02-22T12:44:00.001-08:00

So thanks for the gchat messages, emails, and comments on the blog everyone. I got enough of a response to decide to keep blogging for the time being. I've changed the title of the blog for now, but the URL will remain the same.

I'll make a new post soon about my first week back in the States. Suffice to say that so far, it's been amazing.

Last Day Here....

2010-02-18T22:50:00.001-08:00

Well, it's my last day here. I'm so excited. I'm extremely happy I'll be back in Chicago soon. Most importantly, I'll be back for GBD 2010. Who else is excited for that?

In 14 Hours I will hopefully be on a plane out of here. I have 2 projects that have to go out before that, but hopefully I can trudge through them and just get something out to keep people happy.

This will be my final post. If you all really want me to keep blogging about my regular life in Chicago, you can start a petition here. Otherwise, this is it.

Take care and I'll see you all stateside in about 36 hours.

2 Days....

2010-02-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

2 more days and I'm back home. I cannot wait. I've already got a few things planned out. The big items to do are getting a cheeseburger ( I don't care from where), Sport's Authority for some broomball essentials, maybe Best Buy for an overdue purchase, and then after that, the night is open. Who want's to do something?

Sunday I'll be playing in my first broomball game since college and I can't wait. Organized chaos awaits.

3 Days and Lent

2010-02-17T00:26:00.001-08:00

3 more days to go.

So today is the first day of Lent. Usually I give something up, and wind up breaking my Lent promise within 2 weeks. For example, last year I gave up beer, but gladly drank for St. Patrick's day. I also substituted beer with vodka.

This year I've resolved to actually follow through on everything. I'll be very specific with what I'm giving up. I'm even posting them so people can read and call me out for every infraction I commit. So, for Lent this year, I am giving up......

-Sarpino's Pizza
-Soda *I'll donate $.5 for every soda. and if it's a drink w/ soda, $1.5
-and for every beer/drink I have, I will donate $1 to charity.

You'll notice I was very specific with the pizza I'm giving up. Those who know me best know I eat Sarpino's about once a week, sometimes twice. No I will not substitute Sarpino's with Domino's or something else for my pizza fix. I'm leaving open the option for me to get a deep dish pizza, or to go out with friends to a restaurant and get a pizza. I'm simply giving up my weekly delivery pizza that I eat.

40 days and counting, let's see how I do.

4 Days to Go....

2010-02-16T01:19:00.000-08:00

4 More days and then I am back to the good old USA. A BSD showed up today at the office. I had to suit up for his arrival. I'm actually a little upset by this person showing up at the office. Not because of the suit, but because it takes me about 1-2 hours to get into a really good rhythm at work. I got into this rhythm, this groove today. There wasn't a problem I couldn't solve, and I was snapping necks, and cashing checks left and right, getting my work out the door. And then this BSD shows up. I had to stand and listen to him talk for a few minutes, then try to get back into work mode. Yea, that didn't happen.

The BSD did look at me for a moment. That was nice. I will cherish that glance for quite some time.

Bollywood and becoming what I hate

2010-02-14T04:09:00.000-08:00

I'll start off with the second portion of the title. Last night I went out, and actually had a decent time. I met up w/ some fellow co-workers, and we checked out the club Excess. If you've been following, you will remember that this is the same bar with the crazy rules posted outside. To my surprise, I was not charged cover for entering the club. Apparently being a guest of the hotel gave me enough clout to just walk in past the line of people who were waiting to get through, past the fancy velvet rope.

Once I got inside, I was greeted with fog machines, laser lights, and 1 lone man dancing by himself on the dance floor. There were a decent amount of people at the club, but nobody dancing, which to be honest is fine by me. I made a B-Line for the bar, and asked for a Tiger, the one beer here in India I somewhat enjoy. Not to my surprise, they were out. Apparently, the hotel only stocks enough of this beer for 1-3 days, and you need to time it just right to get it. So I'm left with the following choices: Kingfisher (which tastes like Natural Light, and PBR got together after drinking too much Keystone, and the bastard child that resulted from their amorous activites was Kingfisher), Corona (for $10 a bottle, IMPORT), Bud Heavy, and Carlsberg. . I opted for the Bud Heavy. "Bud Heavy!" I yell to the bartender over the techno music. A confused look enters his face. "What is this Bud Heavy drink?" I'm sure he's thinking. I then remember that this isn't Chicago, and yell, "Budweiser!" instead. This registers, and I'm served. The club itself was actually quite nice. Large circular tables, nice for lounging. 2 Floors, I soaked it all in while enjoying my first brew.

After ordering a second, I decided to make the rounds. I figured, worst case scenario, I walk around, enjoy my beer, then either a.) go to my room to pass out b.) enjoy a few more beers at the hotel bar. So I walk around when all of a sudden, I do a double take. This can't be real, two, not one, but two American's in the bar. Well tickle me pink, what a nice surprise. I introduce myself, and surprise surprise, they work for my company as well. We shot the shit for a while, as with all conversations with co-workers meeting for the first time, we talked about, you guessed it, work. After about 5-10 minutes of this, I had to say no more. It was Saturday night, and as most of you know, I usually drink Friday/Saturday night to forget about whatever I was dealing with Monday - 5pm Friday.

So I know this is the long winded version of why I became what I hate, but bear with me. So we are all leaving the bar, and hang out by the pool. We start trying to convince this one girl in the group to do some kind of dance. I volunteer to do it w/ her just so we can see what this is all about. Mind you, this was 30 minutes of a group persuading this girl to show us this dance. So we are about to start, and she looks at me dead in the eyes, and asks, "Ok, do you know what a cowboy is?"

Well I'm just shocked this girl would ask if I knew what a cowboy was. So my response, "Ya'll need to realize, I'm from Tennessee, and more importantly, America. Of course I know what a cowboy is." So who can spot the problem with the previous sentence? There are actually two. Need help? Ok, first of all, I said, "Y'all". I was, and still am the same person that would chastise classmates of mine from High School for graduating without an accent, and then returning home after a semester from Alabama or whatever southern school they went to with deep drawls, and a penchant for biscuits and gravy (which is delicious don't get me wrong). So I said, "Y'all" and didn't even realize it until one of the American's in the group (who went to Vanderbuilt) goes, "Oh, you say "Y'all" too." I can't even claim to have dropped the y'all out of habit from hearing others say it because let's face it, I live in Chicago. Nobody says it there.

Ok, now did you spot the second problem? I would bet good money Mr. Wagner caught it right off the spot. Everyone, I am not from Tennessee. I am a transplant. I moved to Tennessee. To say I grew up in Tennessee is even a stretch since I went to High School there, and spent summers home while I was at school in Ohio. To actually claim an allegiance to the state is a bold play though. I would like to move back one day, but I cannot rightfully say I am a Southern boy. So that was problem number two.

Anyway, back to center. This "Dance" I was being taught wound up being one of those dances you only do to one song (like the Cha-Cha song). The big move, the thing that was hyped up so much was this, and I'll describe it in detail. Hopping on one foot, while waving your right arm above your head like a lasso, and using your left hand to pretend you are holding the reigns of a horse. That's it. That's the dance. Well most of you who know how I get after a beer or two know that I when I am disappointed in something I will let you know. I had to explain to this girl that the build up did not live up to any of the hype I expected, and that had she simply bought me a beer 30-45 minutes prior to that, I would have gladly done that dance by myself, and maybe more. I also suggested her performance score card be lowered due to her poor performance of the dance. Mind you, I have no control over that, it's all hot air. Odds are I'll give the girl a high five tomorrow and go about my day.

Now, Bollywood. I bought a Bollywood movie a week ago, just to say I have it. I've watched about 30 minutes of it. So far, interesting idea, sub-par acting. It's very over the top, almost like how the videos I used to make for school projects looked acting wise. Except this movie had a budget. It's keeping my attention, but the thing I find interesting is that certain words can't be translated correctly I'm assuming, so the actors routinely switch from Hindi, to English and back to Hindi. It's kept my attention that's for sure.

All right, time for some dinner. I normally eat in my room, but tonight I'll venture down to one of the restaurants. It looks like there's some kind of Valentine's day theme going on here. That will make my table for 1 request that much more special. I just wish I had Jonah Hill offering me a magazine or something.

Ohhh my goodness

2010-02-13T01:00:00.001-08:00

I need to blog about this now before I forget. I just had a pedicure. Ohhhh my. Girls, I don't know why you are the only ones who enjoy this experience, because it was phenomenal. From the massage I got between my toes, to the oatmeal scrub, to the strange enjoyment I got out of seeing the pile of dead skin from my feet, it was sooooo worth it. \

Any of you who have seen my feet know they are gross. They are now a shiny, soft and smooth version of my old, gross and rough feet. I'm going to get another one soon.

:(

2010-02-11T06:53:00.001-08:00

Days like today make me seriously consider quitting my job. Here's my plan of attack for tonight:

Get to hotel around 9:30
9:45, order dinner
9:45-10:30 watch LOST
10:30 ->???????????? Finish this project.

Yay all nighter.

One more week

2010-02-09T23:03:00.001-08:00

My stay has been extended 1 week. My official last day is 2/19/2010. After that I plan on traveling for a weekend, and should be stateside by the 24th.

Get excited, I'm almost home.

Seriusly Driver? Really?

2010-02-08T09:08:00.001-08:00

So yea, after getting home today, I asked my driver if he knew where Charminar was. If you look up Hyderabad on wikipedia, it's the first picture you see. It's the main site in Hyderabad. Well I got a blank look from him, and silence. This confirmed something I've thought for a few weeks now....my driver doesn't understand English.

While sitting in my hotel room, his boss called me to ask what I was trying to say to him and if I needed him tomorrow. I assured him that I did in fact still need a ride and that I only want to know if he knew the location of the city's most famous site.

To top off this great confirmation I now have (please remember I had to get rid of my old driver who was awesome and knew where everything was) I am left with the thought that I won't be able to have my driver take me anywhere other than work.

My dinner just arrived, and I was served baby poop with corn in a bowl. I don't understand how a dish I ordered a week ago that I enjoyed can look so different (it has gone from yellow to green). I also asked for a small dish of hummus, and some naan. Well I got the naan, and when the person taking my order asked if I would like pita bread as well, I said, "Sure, why not?" Apparently pita bread translates into fried dough. A small dish of hummus also translates into a soup bowl filled to the brim. I'm talking about the soup bowl you use for a full meal. Seriously hotel?

I'm getting the chicken sandwich and fries for the remainder of this trip.

This is gross

2010-02-08T00:20:00.000-08:00

I inhaled so much dust, dirt and exhaust this weekend that my boogers are black. That's gross.

Who the fuck is Alice?

2010-02-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

I had the greatest weekend. It was awesome. I finally got to see India a bit, and it is amazing. I'm exhausted, and worn out, but it was worth it. Allow me to begin....

So Friday I worked most of the night with the knowledge that I had to be ready to leave by 3:30am Saturday morning to get to the airport. So do I go to bed early in order to be rested up? Of course not! I stay up all night watching TV, LOST and talking with people to get through the night. At 3:30 I met with my group to get in our car and drive to the airport. The flight to Delhi was pretty uneventful, I slept most of the way, not unexpectedly. Once we arrived in Delhi, we immediately met with our new driver to make the 5+ hour drive to Agra. Let me tell you something about driving in India. I thought traffic in Chicago was bad, traffic in Delhi/Agra is a whole 'nother animal. Well after stopping for goats, traffic, monkeys and lunch, we arrived in Agra for the Taj Mahal. It was so much more than I expected. The building is HUGE, and beautiful. Pictures are posted. The history behind the building is astonishing, and learning about all of the work that went into it made being there so much better. To give an idea of just how much work was put into the building, their are designs and inscriptions throughout the white marble. All of this work is inlaid into the marble. This means the white marble was carved, then pieces of semi-precious stones were cut and placed into the carvings. The whole slab would then be sanded down to make a smooth surface.

We spent the majority of our day at the Taj, and then took some pictures outside of the Agra Fort, but didn't have time to go in. We had to make the 5+ hour drive back to Delhi to stay the night. Unfortunately, due to some convention or something, there was not a single hotel that we could book, thus causing us to go back to Delhi. Well the drive was exhausting (mind you we've had maybe 4 hrs of sleep for 2 days) and we were starving, so we hit up a McDonalds on the way home. Now you may be thinking, "Really Dan, McDonalds?" I'll get more into that later. Suffice to say, it was some damn good McDonald's.

We finally got back to Delhi at around 11:30 and checked into our hotel. Before getting there, I checked our itinerary, and was looking through some things, and figured out hotel would be shady. I honestly was expecting some tiny ass room, with either 1 double bed, or 2 small twins, and the definite possibility of spooning the person I was sharing a room with. So imagine my surprise when we walk into our room, and see the site before us. A 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, kitchen and common area hotel room that was nicer than my first apartment in Chicago. Check out Svelte.

Now sometimes in life, you have a thirst. A thirst so rare, that only one thing can quench it. My friends, that thing is a cold beer. After a shower and change of underwear, we asked the bell hop where the nearest bar was. Well it turns out it was a Hard Rock Cafe. Now, by this point you may be going, "Geez Dan, you travel thousands of miles to India and go to a McDonald's and a Hard Rock Cafe. Two things that are plentiful in the US, you go to in India. " Well, let me justify myself a little. The McDonald's was one of the finest meals I've ever had. And the Hard Rock, was surprisingly an awesome time.

Most Hard Rocks I've been to in the US are pretty boring. This was actually a bar and was fun. Music blaring, we got some drinks and found a table. The music selection was actually great. It was all rock music, no rap, and was a nice change of pace to listen too. The best part was people watching, especially a drunk Indian kid who was in his own world dancing up a storm. It was very refreshing to see people across the globe doing exactly what I do back home. Oh, and my new favorite song is, "Alice, who the fuck is Alice?"

So we closed down the bar, went to bed, and then spent all of today in Delhi. The highlights included a bicycle rick-shaw ride, the Prime Minister's house, India Gate, and the Lotus Temple. I would go into more detail about everything, but it's 2am, and I'm tired. I'll let the pictures do the rest.

Change of Plans

2010-02-05T01:28:00.000-08:00

Before I get into the change of plans, first off all, here are my complete thoughts on LOST. Well I have to say, it was a good start to the season, but I'm upset that more questions have come up as a result. The man in black is the smoke monster, and Sayid is alive. Ok, cool.

I'm starting to think there are two factions of "Others." Those at the temple, and those outside of it. But then I wonder why the stewardess (can't remember her name) visited Jack while he was captive, and at the temple.

The producers said that the two timelines would eventually merge together and form 1 story. I'm thinking that the 2004 story will have the characters eventually get to the Island. Hear me out, in previous seasons they said that the future has a way of "course correction." So if something is supposed to happen, it's going to happen. So if everyone is supposed to be on the island, they will all get their one way or another.

I would go on more about LOST, but I'm sure at least 1/2 the people that follow this don't really care.

Now, the change of plans. I was informed last night that I might be rolling off 2 weeks early. This has thrown a wrench in my travel plans quite a bit. Planning and executing a trip in 8 days is a little daunting. We'll see how it goes though.

Damn you Lost.

2010-02-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Ok yea. It's 1am so this will be quick.

Fuck you lost. seriously. more damn questions.

Finally

2010-02-03T22:42:00.001-08:00

Finally got LOST downloaded. This is how my day is going to go in anticipation for this event. It's currently 12:30 here. I will work until 9pm, then get into the car with my driver and go back to the hotel.

I will get back to my hotel at around 9:30. Once I get through the metal detector, and patted down from security, I will proceed to my room. In my room, I will undress, and then debate working out for a solid 5-10 minutes. Part of me will be going, "No Dan, don't work out. Just lay on the bed, and watch LOST." The responsible part of me will be saying, "Fat ass, you have a beach wedding in 1.5 months, and if you don't work out, Shane will kill you" I hope the responsible part of me wins the debate. For those of you who don't know, Shane is the personal trainer I use back in Chicago. When I signed up for the training sessions, I asked for the meanest person they had. I got Shane. Simply put, I pay for 1 hour sessions, and so far have lasted, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 45 minutes. I like to think I'm making progress though.

After a good workout, I will return to my room, and have another debate with myself on if I should order dinner. I know it's not good to eat after 9pm, but I need a health person's advice on this one. What's worse: skipping dinner, or eating dinner at 10pm? Especially after working out. My schedule here is so f---ed up. If nothing else I eat a decent breakfast each morning (fruit and banana bread). I usually have either pizza, or a chicken/rice dish for lunch. And after that, dinner is a crap-shoot.

Once I'm showered, and potentially fed, I will watch LOST. That's also pending I don't have more work to do. Let's assume I don't work tonight though. I will spend 88 minutes gleefully watching LOST. Once I watch the show, I will post my thoughts on the episode here. We can all then engage in a wonderful debate on what the hell is going to happen this season. Like I've mentioned before, I just want some closure to the series. There's been too many, WTF moments, and unanswered questions. I want some peace of mind.

:(

2010-02-03T12:32:00.001-08:00

iTunes, I'm very mad at you for not making the Lost premier Pt 1 available. I'm glad I can start the season in the 2nd half of the premier. f---ing thanks a lot. i also want to thank you for conveniently only showing the HD downloads which are more expensive and hiding the standard definition downloads.

another f--- you goes to the program I am running right now. thanks to this program i am at a new personal record : 2am and still working. yippee.

looking like tomorrow is going to be a red bull kind of day.

Please just wash my clothes

2010-02-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

So as you are all aware, I'm staying in a hotel for this trip. It's actually not too bad. Gym nearby, room service, free laundry, it's kind of cool. Anyway, I left some laundry to be cleaned today. When I got back, there was a nice little note left on my bed, along with two items of clothing. They said they noticed color bleeding, and a hole and would not wash these items. So I inspected the clothes. The item with the hole is an undershirt. Not only that, the hole is about the size of a small pebble. I could care less, just wash the damn thing.

The "bleeding of colors" mentioned for the other item involved a white shirt of mine. It should be no secret that I sweat a lot. A white shirt is going to develop a small sweat stain. It's bound to happen. The "bleeding" was a small yellow line that occurs where I roll up the sleeves on this shirt.

I honestly appreciate the effort being put forth by the staff here, but I just want my damn clothes cleaned. I'm aware of what I'm putting in the wash. Short of it all coming back pink, I don't care.

No dreams lately.....

2010-02-02T03:13:00.001-08:00

So I haven't had any dreams worth posting lately. Occasionally, I will dream of being on my computer doing work, but that's more of a nightmare that regularly occurs during busy season. I also had a dream than an ex-gf of mine got a boob job, and was taunting me via Skype. That's actually a dream I'd prefer to not going into any more detail on. We'll just leave it at that. I took my weekly pill though, so let's see if a fresh batch causes some Havoc. To be completely honest, the fact that so many of my dreams are involving me on my computer is freaking me out a bit. I'm starting to get worried that they aren't dreams and that I'm actually doing these things in my sleep. So yea, if I've talked to you at an unholy hour, please let me know.

So this past Saturday I laid out by the pool and got sun burnt. I only laid out for 2 hours and just got absolutely roasted. I underestimated the strength of the sun completely. I honestly thought I'd be able to last 2 hours, but no, I look like a Canadian flag (red stomach, red back, white sides). Today I've been going to the bathroom every 45 minutes to wash my face as my own skill falls off like a leper. It's not a look that I enjoy. It doesn't hurt to shower anymore though, so that's a bonus. I'm hoping the peeling will subside soon.

I got word today that a trip has been planned for the Taj Mahal. So if things don't fall through, I will be spending Saturday and Sunday in Delhi and Agra taking in the sites. I just hope I remember my damn camera this time. This is pretty much THE thing I've wanted to see since coming to India. It's the most touristy thing on the list, but I mean, you pretty much HAVE to see it.

All of this travel and thought of travel makes me realize how much I haven't seen in the USA. There are still some amazing things throughout the US that would be amazing to view. Among them, the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles (I've never been), and Yellowstone. I think in my mind though, I feel like I need to see the rest of the world before coming back around to the US.

Anyway, it's 5 o'clock here (cocktails anyone?) and I have another 7-8 hours left. Until the next post....

Suit up!

2010-02-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

Today the BSD's are coming. I get to finally rock out the suit I brought in. We'll see if I get to meet any of them, my guess is most likely no. The suit is more of a "just in case" measure. Apparently it's a big deal here, the front lobby has flowers and stuff laid out. Pretty exciting. Regardless, it doesn't matter who comes in today, I have work to do. I get into a very work focused mode when I'm here in the office. I think the drive is that I don't want to spend my weekend here. There are rumors of a trip to the TajMahal this weekend which I would much rather prefer to do.

Lost premiers tonight. I will have to wait until after it airs to purchase it on iTunes., but I still can't wait. By this point, I just want some closure with the show. We'll see if this season gives that to me.

Shit, I forgot my camera.

2010-01-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

So I went out and saw Hyderabad today. Not too shabby. Toured around a bit, had a nice vegetarian lunch (didn't even miss the meat) and went to the temple to look around. The downside is, I realized half way to lunch I was missing my camera. I need to do a better job of keeping it with me. Here's a link to some history of the temple I saw CLICK HERE . If that doesn't work, search for 'Birla Mandir'

It was pretty amazing. Everything was hand carved and made of white marble. I'm told the Taj Mahal should be similar. I also rode in an Auto-Rickshaw today. Let me tell you....you aren't missing much. I had a layer of dirt, sweat and exhaust on my face once I got back to the hotel. It was an adventure though, so I'm glad I did it.

I'm also learning some Hindi while I am here. So far I can say, hello, ok, Where is....., and how are you? Not too shabby if you ask me.

All right, tomorrow is another big day. I'll be sure to keep the posts coming. Don't forget to vote.

Out and about

2010-01-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

So I am heading out into the city for the first time today. I haven't had much of a chance to go anywhere yet, so this should be good. I am meeting a friend from work, Amitesh. It should be a good time. I think we are going to hit up the touristy things around.

I'll be sure to post pictures.

Who?

2010-01-29T03:26:00.001-08:00

Who is reading this blog so early in the morning and voting? I think the vacation post was made at around 2:00am (CST) .

Vacation

2010-01-29T01:19:00.000-08:00

So I'm going to travel after busy season. Damn the torpedoes (in this case my credit card). After a few 70+ hour weeks, I think I deserve a break. But WHERE?!

Well, now you can help me decide. I've put a new poll on the right side of the blog. You can vote for where I take my vacation at the end of February/beg. of March. If I get a good suggestion, I'll add it to the list. I will cut off voting 2/5/2010 so I can make my arrangements.

I'm not particular where I go, but I need to be able to purchases visas while here in India, and travel on a budget. Any good tour companies you all know of would be helpful. And as always, if you fancy a trip, you are more than welcome to tag along with me.

This might be bad...

2010-01-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

So this might sound bad.....

I got a new driver tonight. I didn't know what my driver looked like, his car, or anything. I just knew, I was getting a new driver. So I called him, and 5 minutes later a car showed up, I got in, and we started driving away. I didn't get his name or anything, I just got into the car. I've pretty much forgotten everything I was taught in kindergarten about strangers.

The first thought in my mind, and the thought that goes through my head each time I get into a car with someone, is that if they wanted, they could take me to some remote area, and hold me for ransom. I don't think that's an actual problem here, but the fact is, I have zero clue who the hell is taking me around. It's a little terrifying actually. I am more than aware I'm being paranoid, but still, it's a scary though.

Tomorrow is Friday, and every Friday is jeans day. I will say this, they've got it figured it out on this side of the company. Now we just need the other side to pick it up.

New Low for Myself

2010-01-26T22:38:00.000-08:00

So I've reached a new low for myself. As you all know it's busy season. It's stressful enough without additional troubles. Well, as I'm doing this work I'm assigned, I keep getting people who are either new, or haven't run the program we are using in years. It's frustrating to do my own work, in addition to other peoples.

Anyway, as many of you know, I watch a lot of movies. I can rattle off quotes, and scenes, and all that fun stuff. When I play Scene It, I make it my bitch lover. Well the moment I was told that the 4th person in a row I was assigned has little experience, I wanted to scream and just punch a wall. The low part of this is, while thinking that, my mind automatically reverted to a scene in a movie. Why is this bad? That move is 27 Dresses. Yes, 27 Dresses starring Katherine Heigl.

I mean, come on. I suppose it's better to have scenes from a chick-flick pop into my head instead of the scene from Rambo where Stalone jumps on the .50 cal (I used this as an example, that is not a threat). By the way, awesome scene. The gentlemen of the form Wayne Manor know what I'm talking about.

Thank you.

2010-01-26T10:25:00.001-08:00

I'd like to thank Mr. Justin Wagner for bringing to my attention that the last post was missing some information.

I've come to the conclusion I can give no work away while I am here. It is better for me to just do it myself.

New Dreams and Confirmation

2010-01-26T05:24:00.001-08:00

Last night I had a dream that myself and several other people attacked a convoy on ATV's. We won. The cool part about the dream was that for a part of it, the view was from 3rd Person, like in a video game. I got to actually view the destruction me and my team wrought onto the evil doers. After our solid victory, we celebrated. How you ask? I'll tell you how a band of soldiers celebrate a victory where they blow the living hell out of several trucks, and slaughter the enemy...

You watch an episode of Friends. Yes, after our hard fought victory, in my dream, we watched an episode of Friends. Now it's been a while, but I'm positive it was an actual episode in my dream. So if this is leading to things to come, I might be able to dream abotu TV shows I've seen, kind of like a re-run. That's pretty cool if you ask me.

It's Republic Day here. I'm told it's similar to our 4th of July. I don't think they do fireworks or BBQ's though. If they don't, I mean, what's the point? America. Speaking of BBQ, I want some ribs. Those sound good.

I'm debating belting out, 'Proud to be an American' but I don't think that'd fly over too well. And I haven't done anything inappropriate since I accidentally told a manager here a sexual slang, so I want to keep that streak going.

Ha

2010-01-25T04:25:00.000-08:00

I was so tired this morning I put on two different socks and didn't notice until just now.

Wow.

Getting Lost

2010-01-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

So due to the wicked hangover I inflicted upon myself, I kept a pretty low profile yesterday. After looking for things to do, I decided that watching Lost would be a good idea. Unfortunately, hulu.com doesn't work, and neither does ABC.com outside of the US. So I opted to buy season 1 on iTunes. Let me tell you, it was well worth it. I think I'm 1/2 way through the first season already.

I'm going to attribute my watching Lost all day to the messed up dream I had. It was basically a dream where everyone started turning into zombies and we were running away trying to save ourselves. I don't know, but it scared the piss out of me.

I also had a dream where I wrote an email telling off a co-worker of mine. Needless to say, I woke up in a panic. After some quick searching though, looks like I didn't send any emails in my sleep or while I was wasted the night before, and I didn't send any IM's either. That was a relief.

I'm thinking no more Vodka Redbulls (what I was drinking Saturday). Too drunk off of them, and as a result gave myself nightmares. Anyway, it's Monday morning here. I'm entering my time and expenses, and just getting my day kick-started. I'll keep everyone posted.

Indian Hangover

2010-01-23T22:47:00.000-08:00

Damn you Indian beer. Damn you. Last night was the first night I was able to do some drinking while here. It'd been a long week, and I had nothing else to do, so I went to the bar for a drink or two. I wound up meeting some English folk and drinking with them. They can drink. I was put under the table. I knew I was in trouble when at the tail end, I was starting to waiver, and one of them goes, "I'll have a double double gin and tonic." At that point I paid my tab, turned in and went to my room. They called me, "Yank" though, so I think that's pretty cool.

I wound up getting sick in my room. I made it to the bathroom, but I won't be seeking out English people to drink with again. I feel like garbage and am just waiting for food to come so I can feel better.

Saturday Working and Coke

2010-01-22T23:46:00.001-08:00

Well I'm working on Saturday. It's a slightly cloudy, 83 degree day here in Hyderabad. Perfect for sitting by the pool w/ a cool drink, and a logic puzzle...or for sitting in an artificially lit cubicle jungle with 2 expats, and 10-20 of your local co-workers. I mean, whichever.

I'm actually rocking out some work today, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Now I need to tell you all, I think the Coke tastes better here. I did a little research, they use sugar here, and not corn syrup. Maybe I've just been missing Coke, or been drinking Diet-Coke in the states too much (It's harder to find here) but I think it make's a difference. I'm also a firm believing in the fact that Coke tastes better out of a glass bottle. So I need to locate some Coke in a glass bottle while here.

Tonight I will be joining some co-workers and going to the local shops and a nice dinner. I'm quite excited for this. I want to shop around and see what I can find. If you want a nick-nack or something from India, let me know.

Pearls are supposed to be the big thing here, and cheap. Also, customized clothing and things are supposed to be on the cheap here as well. So if you need something or want something, just let me know.

Food, Word of the Day, Last Nights Dream

2010-01-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

So I'm going to learn some Hindi while I'm here. Today's word of the day, spelled phonetically:
teekay (T-K). This is the equivalent of "OK" in English.

If anyone feels like going to an Indian restaurant to experience what I experience here are some more foods I've had...

Biryani
Pulao
Aloo Bhaji (breakfast)
Dosa

Enjoy.

And everyone's favorite part of the blog, last night's dream. Last night I had a dream I was traveling with people for a hockey trip. At one point it was my coach, and another player, and at another point in the dream, I was with my dad and some other people.

Well when traveling with the coach, we lost one player, and then while staying at someones house, we somehow managed to destroy the whole place before we left. I don't know how. As we left though, some kind of snow storm hit, and we drove off the road.

Fast forward, I'm now traveling with my dad, and we are in the same ice storm. We try to drive around this frozen pond, but wind up sinking the car right into the water. I dive into the water, which is surprisingly warm, and start fishing out articles that people need. Cell phones, glasses, all kinds of little things. After that, I'm stuck on the side of some hill, and two firefighters turn a valve to drain the water out of this pond. Once the water drained away, our car was there completely destroyed, looking like a ship wreck.

Everyone was ok after all these events by the way.

So that's the dream(s) from last night.

Rant

2010-01-21T09:01:00.000-08:00

So I promise to keep any rants about my job short and sweet. Two days in a row now I've reached a cross-road where I need to decide: is it faster to do the job myself, or explain it to someone else? I've chosen the later both times so far with mixed results. I'm in a mental debate with myself on if it's my fault for being a poor senior, or my co-workers fault. Time will tell.

I'm VERY excited about this hotel I am in now. Apparently my laundry is free. That or they are hiding the charges on my bill. Regardless, I get my clothes back w/in 12 hours, and they are folded and pressed. I came back from work to find my 3 Oxfords, 2 polos and 1 of my suits, pressed and hung in the closet. I need a service like this back home.

I'm basically to a point where I'm running a 16-18 hour day, with 10-14 hours of that working. It's sad, but I see these numbers, and I try to think of how I can work more in that time. I suppose I could stop blogging, but I've gotten a favorable response from everyone, so that's not going to stop. I just need to get through the next couple weeks and then it's smooth sailing.

I need a hobby for what little spare time I have. Suggestions?

The Good News

2010-01-21T01:47:00.000-08:00

I've decided against posting the good news. No matter how I wrote it, I wasn't comfortable posting the good news. Not without ruining the story, or potentially getting individuals in trouble.

If you want to know what the good news is, you may ask me in person. Otherwise, I apologize for building the suspense for all of you following the blog.

Dreams from 01.19.2010

2010-01-19T20:34:00.000-08:00

All right everyone, new malaria pill, new dreams.

The first dream from last night was me working. I kid you not, I had a dream that I was running that testing that I'll be spending my morning trying to complete. I've had this dream before, so it's not that exciting.

The next dream is this; I had a dream that I was in the world of...wait for it......Harry Potter! BAM! Oh yes, I was in the fantasy world of Harry Potter. In my dream I had to apparate and splinched myself on accident. I left behind my eyeball. Then Professor Snape came in and jammed my eyeball back into it's socket.

I swear I can't make this stuff up.

I'll post the good news I got on facebook in a day or two. I know I'm keeping most of you in suspense.

Man, I really want to do this....

2010-01-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna preface that the girls might feel left out on this one...

So I really want to pee on someone's car. Girls, I know you can't enjoy this post as much as the guys because you have to pee sitting down. You really are missing out. There's not a whole lot of things better than writing your name in the snow, or drawing pictures w/ pee.

Anyway I digress....

So I was facebook stalking to relax a little before I go back to work at 10:30pm. I came upon a person I'm friends with on facebook. I haven't seen this person in some time, but back in school one of our favorite things to do in our house was get drunk and pee on her car. She always double parked someone instead of parking in the street, so she had it coming. Anyway, I saw her picture and it made me really want to just pour my urine all over the handle of some poor unsuspecting persons car. I know it's mean. I'm sure it's been done to me. But there is something special about the moment you see that person you've recently wronged reach for the handle of their car, and just get a handful of your dried man waste.

Ohh how I miss it.

Formats and Rambling

2010-01-19T03:10:00.001-08:00

So I figured I'd play around with the format of the blog a bit. I will say I'm not a fan of the pic to the right hand side. I'll try to update it to something more appropriate. Maybe the Indian flag or something? I do like the blue background though.

So I am pretty sure I might be developing carpal tunnel in my wrist. I always thought I'd hurt my wrist from other activities, but yea, it looks like the 12 hr days typing might be the end of me. We'll see how I feel tomorrow, but today it hurts.

So I don't know why, but I've been fascinated by "rap lingo" lately. Words like, "Shawty," "Flossin'," "Purple Drank" etc. Even phrases I might hear in a rap song intrigue me. It's made me want to make up either my own word or phrase that I can say. I haven't really been too successful so far. I thought of one today, but I am not sure I like it at all. It goes, "Call me Sully, because I'm a miracle worker." Even if I did like it, I'm almost positive I've heard a similar line somewhere, and besides, I wouldn't ever want to actually be called Sully. Rap baffles me still.

As lame as it sounds, Yes, I consider myself a data savior of sorts for my job (hence the above quote). I don't know if that makes me confident or cocky, or what not but yea, I think it's safe to say I'm very good at at least one portion of my job. go data!

America.

New Dreams and some wonderful news

2010-01-17T19:29:00.001-08:00

I had two dreams last night. The first dream involved me finding out a friend of mine got a girl pregnant, had the baby and was trying to locate it since it went up for adoption. This isn't actually that weird, I have a couple friends who are married and some have kids already, so that's pretty standard I would assume. However, the friend in question who got the girl pregnant I wouldn't have imagined it happening, and on top of that, the girl in the dream was an Asian stripper. Crazy right?

The second dream involved me protecting some people from some sort of crazy wolf/boar/bull combo animals. I have no idea what they were, but in He-Man fashion I defeated these creatures. I even managed to body slam two of them, one onto a rock where it proceeded to explode on impact, and the other one I slammed into a fence where I broke it's back. Pretty graphic I know.

In other news, I got the BEST news today on facebook. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I fully believe we should throw a party when I get back just to celebrate. More details later....

Ohhh Boy I found 'da club, and I'm the main course

2010-01-17T08:22:00.001-08:00

So yea, this is my third post today, but I had to share this. So everyone I've talked to from Hyderabad has told me that the world famous Novotel (see link below), the hotel I'm staying at, has one of the best clubs in the city. It's supposed to be the biggest bar in the city (according to it's website).

So for the 1 week I've been here, I've been looking for this bar that's supposed to literally be inside my hotel. The only thing I was able to find was a tiny bar that has a 20 inch TV that each time I've been in, has been showing Wrestling. So I finally realize tonight that the address for the bar is for the Convention Center attached to the hotel. So I go talk a walk around the hotel and BAM!!!! there's the entrance to this magical club, Excess.

Being a Sunday night, it's closed of course, which is fine. But as I turn around to come home, I notice the club rules posted on the wall. Well I was intrigued, so I took a look and read down list. Most were pretty standard: No outside food or drink, if you are wasted already, we won't let you in, attire is smart casual (i.e. no shorts, no tshirts, no sandals).

So I see these rules, and I'm thinking, "Ok, this seems like a pretty legit place of business." I can clean myself up and go try to get my swerve on. That is until I see one more rule tucked away.

"Club is for COUPLES ONLY"

Seriously Excess? Couples only?

I would rant more about the fact that a bar is couples only, but I'm sure there's more to the story. Maybe it's a swingers bar? Maybe there's a cultural difference I'm being insensitive to? Or maybe they just want to make sure there's a 1:1 ratio of girls to guys. I don't know.

If anyone wants to do some research and shed some light for me, that'd be clutch. I'm willing to bet there's a reasonable explanation, but it just seems like a very odd rule.

I also continue to be the main course for the mosquitoes who live in the swamp next to my hotel. Now my ankles, left bicep, and knuckles, are all bitten. Yes, those bastard little bugs bit my knuckles. Do you know what a hassle it is to have a bug bite on your knuckle? It sucks, because every time you move your fingers it's like you are just barely scratching the bite, and then it just gets worse.

Ok, tomorrow is another big day. If there are any requests for types of posts, please let me know. I haven't had any crazy dreams worth mentioning for the past two nights. I think drinking beer helps counter-act the craziness. More to come though........

WARNING* Don't read this post if you get grossed out easily. Especially you Wags.

2010-01-17T07:36:00.000-08:00

So yea, I just took my first dump in like 3-4 days. I don't know if I'm not eating as much, or what, but damn......I feel so much better.

So yea, all of you travelers out there, make sure you stay regular.

Just a thought....

2010-01-17T04:49:00.000-08:00

I just ordered some more Indian food to my room. I'll take a picture so you can all see what I'm eating here.

So depending on my funds, I'm about 90% sure that I'm going to travel after this trip for anywhere from 5-12 days. I know I'll have been gone for two months already, but I don't think I can pass up the opportunity, especially since I'm 1/2 way around the world already.

So this is a long shot, but if anyone wants to travel with me, drop me a line. I'm more than aware it would involve you coming to my end, but I'm open to going anywhere I haven't been already (which is all of Asia, South Pacific, and Australia / New Zealand).

I've spent a good part of my weekend working, and I'm going to work through the night to make sure I'm prepared for the week(s) ahead. The good news, I've got two of my projects about 75% done each. So I should be at least off to a good start before the real crazy stuff happens.

Anyway, keep in touch everyone.

Busy Season

2010-01-16T01:03:00.000-08:00

This is the first Saturday I've actually worked more than 5 minutes. I have to say I don't enjoy it. The plan is to get as much done today as possible, and if I have time tomorrow, to go into the city to explore.

Amazingly enough, no crazy dreams last night. This could be due to the beers I had at the bar last night. Note to everyone out there, there's a beer called Tiger that is excellent. I recommend it.

Real India Food

2010-01-14T21:53:00.001-08:00

I ate an Indian lunch today. It was quite excellent. I don't know exactly what it was, but the names were (spelled phonetically)....

-Idil
-Samber
-Chutney
-Curd

And I had a wheat flat bread that I can't recall the name of. Overall, it was quite excellent. I will keep you all posted on how I feel in a few hours. I also brushed my teeth with the hotel water, as I had finished all of my bottled water. I'll be taking bets on if/when I get sick.

Pictures Finally

2010-01-14T03:28:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from my hotel. The first is the bathroom. I got a kick out of this because of the shower head next to the toilet.

The others are a picture of my room, and a view from my room. Enjoy.

Stupid Phone

2010-01-13T20:38:00.000-08:00

To answer a question from Bert, no, I don't get ABC here, so I won't be watching LOST on TV. I have a decent internet connection though, so I should be able to watch on ABC.com after each episode airs.

Last night I can recall one dream. It was a wonderful dream. I was back in college, and me and some friends were about to go to someones dorm. I can't quite recall which one though. Anyway, we get to the dorm, and there's a group of girls waiting for us. One of the girls, was a girl I had the BIGGEST thing for in High School. She took me by the hand and we went up to her room. We started to make out and then....

my f---ing phone rang and woke me up. I mean, seriously? This was like, my one chance to make this happen, real or not. And to top if off, after looking up the number, it's some collection agency. Great. I pay all of my bills on time, so I can't wait to see what this is about.

It's a holiday in India today, so I'm pretty much the only person in the office. And to top it off, nobody state side is getting their stuff in on time, so it's going to make my life hell in a week or two. Wonderful.

Busy season has started and I was bitten

2010-01-12T20:28:00.000-08:00

I will say so far the worst part about all of this is that I get emails all day while I work. Go to bed for 8 hrs, then wake up to find another 30 emails have arrived while I sleep. It's a little frustrating.

Newest dreams from last night include....

-Being on an island much like the one from LOST, and exploring secret passages and tunnels. At the end of these passages, I arrive at a rehearsal dinner where I reveal that the groom cheated on the bride.

-In the other dream I was at a baseball game and caught a foul ball.

The second dream was interrupted by a phone call from Sprint at 6:11am to tell me about all of the new service plans I could be using. I hate you sometimes Sprint.

The other news of the day is that I have no less than 15 mosquito bites between both feet. I don't know how they got their since I wear dress socks all day. Normally I'd say whatever, but since you get malaria from mosquito bites, I'm hoping I'll be ok...

Contact Info and Malaria Dreams #2

2010-01-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

In case any of you feel like chatting, my skype is danielj.adorno

Newest dreams last night included:

-Riding on a bus that crashed due to ice on the roads and running into someones Christmas tree outside. I should note that the family in this dream were more concerned about getting the lights back on their tree than the victims of the bus crash.

-Getting in my first dream fight where I land a punch. For whatever reason, usually when I dream and get in a fight, I throw some kind of pansy punch that barely glances off of my opponent. In last night's dream, I clocked the guy, and it felt good.

Malaria Dreams

2010-01-11T06:51:00.000-08:00

So to fill everyone in, while traveling to certain countries, you need vaccinations against disease. For malaria though, you need to take pills. Prior to my trip, I was given the the following options: One pill a day, $6 for each pill, for about 13 weeks, or one pill a week for 13 weeks and $40 total. I chose the later. The catch is, in about 10% of the people that take the weekly pills, they experience hallucinations, anxiety and vivid dreams.

I rarely dream. Since I've started taking the pills, I've been having dreams, or at least remembering them in in greater detail than before. I do not know if this is caused by the pills, or if it's the placebo affect (effect?) and I"m making this happen on my own. Regardless of why, my dreams from last night included the following....
__Holding my breath under water for 5 minutes

__Building a house (a bad ass one I might add) on a lake

Future posts will go into more detail about these malaria dreams.

Day 1

2010-01-10T23:57:00.000-08:00

First day, first blog. Between the jet-lag and malaria pills giving me crazy dreams (see next post for my Dream Log) I'm running on little sleep. Good news from this is that I have so much time in the morning, I'm getting my work outs in, and hopefully will stay in shape.

I found out I have a driver for the time being today. He almost hit a cow on the way into work. Seriously, it was just walking in the road. I don't think I've seen a stop sign, or traffic light, it's just continuous movement with speed bumps.

Once I leave the office, I'll post some of the other happenings, and my dreams. If there are things you all want to know, or have me take photos of, let me know.