new toys

iphone. amaaaaazing. i love it. one of my under-40 coworkers hadn't heard of the iphone, i couldnt believe it. then she opened up her desk drawer and showed me her discman and collection of CDs and it all made sense.

dell inspiron mini 9. it's tiny. and light, 2.28 pounds. the keyboard is hard to type on, but i think i'll get used to it. i'm thinking of installing mac os x leapord on it. it's kind of funny, i've done a complete 180 on apple products. 4 years ago i would have never thought i'd own an apple cell phone or even consider intalling a mac os on my computer. i guess those mac vs. pc commercials really work.

i love technology.

two people that make my blood boil

david blaine. this guy sucks a lot. i've hated him ever since i saw his street magic special, the way he grunts and groans during his tricks drove me crazy. he's considered an "endurance artist" because he's done things like frozen himself in a block of ice, buried himself under a tank of water, hung upside down for 60 hours, "drowned" himself for a week, etc... stupid. just stupid. the fact that people give this clown money to do the most retarded things in the world makes me so angry. all of those "endurance acts" are bull shit, anyway. magic is lame.
















guy fieri of food network fame. everything about this guy makes me angry. bleach blond hair, armbands, the way he wears his sunglasses behind his head, the way he talks, that hybrid fu manchu/goatee thing on his chin, the look on his face when he eats food, i could go on and on. i will not eat a TGIFridays until he stops showing up in their commercials, even though i never ever eat there.






i don't know which one i hate more... i do know that television would be better without these two assclowns.

chicago

taken from the top of the sears tower, it's 3 images stitched together using ptgui. i'm a big fan of panoramic pics.

i'm back

sorry for the lack of updates lately. i have an obsessive personality and i think I got kind of obsessed with blogging for a little while. not too much has been going on lately. i accepted my new job yesterday, got pulled over going 42 in a school zone (obv got a ticket, been pulled over ~5 times, ticket every time), surgery is tuesday at 5:30a, i'm moving back home this weekend, softball started monday and i didn't play, got tickets for John Mayer in indy the weekend of july 4 (7 rows back!!), "won a trip" to vegas, and the master's are on tv. that's a rly long sentence. anyway, i love the masters, such a pretty golf course, really looks amazing especially in hd.. so i'm going to go watch that instead of enabling you stalkers.

have a good day!

i love this place

more pics from the trip.

do this

Put Madness to a good cause - Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati Enquirer

Katy Hines is my cousin. and when i say cousin, i mean it in the way that black people use it. katy and i aren't actually related by blood, but her family were very close to our family and i called her parents aunt and uncle my whole life.

lame brag

i was chatting with a friend of mine here at work a few weeks back, just shooting the shit talking about our time here at this wonderful company. he told me he'd put in a good word with his boss for me. i've heard this from people before and usually nothing comes from it, i didn't expect this to be any different. however, it was different. apparently the senior directors of both the global supply chain and sourcing department have been "fighting" over me for the past couple weeks. over the past 2 days i've heard from my boss that the position title is sourcing coordinator and will most likely start by june 1, if not sooner (depending on how long i'm out for on short term disability), and that it comes with a 21% increase in pay. maybe the best part of all of this: i don't have to interview for the position.

it's been a good morning :-)

i love march

this is by far the best time of the year for sports. 3 weeks of basketball followed by the masters.
this is what i came up with on my first try, i'm sure i'll change a game or two by the time i have to turn my brackets in. the first time i filled it out i had all four number 1 seeds in the final four, i think there's a realistic chance of that actually happening this year.

ca$h cab

cash cab is one of the coolest shows on tv. i've become an avid watcher of this show and since i've started watching, i've decided that my life will not be complete until i am on this show. have you seeeeen the new season?! double the money and a loooot more red light challenges!!!! discovery channel, monday thru friday at 6p.
i haven't been to new york city in a while, but the next time i go i'm going to devote an entire day to riding around the city in van cabs with the hopes of finding benjamin bailey and the cash cab. when i DO actually make it in the cash cab, i'm pretty sure i'll know it right away and ben won't be able to trick me with his fake accents, nor will he be able to trick me into thinking i got a question wrong by doing that fake out thing he does. i dont get how people fall for the latter, but whatever. suckers. also, i feel that anyone who doesn't go for the video bonus question should have to forfeit their winnings. grow some gamble people, the question is NOT that hard!!

odd

it's kind of odd getting a friend request on facebook from the guy who's family had me suspended from school for 10 days and then sued for $6k-ish back in junior high..

edit: the more i think about it, the angrier i get. i mean, come on. going blind? seriously? how high were they when they came up with that story? maybe more importantly, how high were my parents and everyone else when they heard that story and actually believed it? his parents are what's wrong with this country. something go wrong? let's sue!! why? because we can!! what a joke.

incriminating

meet betty. betty is our next door neighbor. she's 70 something, has no teeth and lives alone. betty likes to talk about any and everything; her injured leg, the first time she did "it", the dog she owned 13 years ago and had to put down... pretty much anything in this woman's past is fair game for conversation. and the problem is she's always out on her porch when it's nice outside and she's memorized when each of us get home from work so she's there to harass us. i've become an expert at avoiding her. she caught colin today and well, see for yourself...
looks normal, right? then it came time to say goodbye...
awwww.

save the date

surgery is scheduled for april 15.


who's down for a round of golf on october 15?

snowday

and the driveway got shoveled in the process!

LOST

disappointing episode last night. then again, after "the constant" last week, most episodes would be disappointing. still, a disappointing episode of LOST > most other TV shows. i'm spoiled, i guess.

i've been re-watching the older episodes while kevin catches up and i found this exchange in season 2 kind of funny:

SAYID: Radio waves at this frequency bounce off the ionosphere. They can travel thousands of miles. It could be coming from anywhere.
HURLEY: Or, anytime. Just kidding, dude.

dun dun dunhhhh... that's the beauty of this show, the whole story has already been written. it's fun to go back and re watch the earlier seasons and pick up on the little hints the writers drop in each episode. it's nice to know that the show will (hopefully) never "jump the shark" because the ending has already been written, and the show will end with season 6 in 2010. i just can't get over how smart the writers are for this show, some of the things they do are just mind bogglingly brilliant. do yourself a favor and go get season 1.

on a side note, why can't starbucks make a cup that doesn't dribble coffee all over my desk? every time i take a sip there is a new drip of coffee on my desk. obnoxious!

on another side note, 13 inches of snow is coming because DEREK SAID IT WOULD! i love snow, and 13 inches sounds like it's going to be enough to keep me snowed in. i'm excited for this! now if only ohio had "mountains" bigger than 600 feet i could actually have fun in this snow!

politics

I should preface this post by saying that I don't pay much attention to politics and, for the most part, I find them boring. So take the following for what it's worth... Anyway, I don't understand how people can still be supportive of George W. Bush, or the republican party for that matter. The war in Iraq has seemingly divided the country in half. That's nothing new though, we've been in Iraq since when, 2003? So for the past 5 years the country has been split in half and the only defense Bush supporters had was that the economy was in good shape. Yeah, how's that working out lately? I just don't get it. Politics bore me, but with 2008 being an election year, its near impossible to not be overwhelmed with news stories about politics and the countless campaign ads on TV. Soooo I figured I'd throw in my $.02 since I have this blog thing to do just that.

btw, i voted yesterday for the first time. i can't really figure out why i was compelled to vote in the primary, but didn't bother voting in november or in any of past year's elections. whatever, i finally did it and i plan on continuing to do so, although hopefully i'll be a more informed voter on more races the next go round. other than obama, the only other thing i cast a vote for was the princeton school levy. that district needs all the help it can get. go vikes.

p.s.. apparently by casting my vote for obama i'm no longer welcome in my father's house.

the weather

i can't take this shit anymore. sunday and monday were sunny with temperatures in the 60's and 70's. i wake up this morning and raining and 38 degrees. i'm getting fed up. but sadly, i'm too much of a homebody to move to another part of the country, so i'll be stuck experiencing all 4 seasons each week for the rest of my life.

you know what they say about the weather in cincinnati, if you don't like it just wait 24 hours!! ba dum shhh

mystery word

can anyone define the word "triflin" for me? i have been fascinated by this word and it's use ever since i moved into princeton city schools and heard it for the first time way back in 5th grade. other possible spellings include triflent/trifling/triflen. i've looked on dictionary.com several times and i can never find a word with a definition that matches how it's used. example of the word in use: "that hoe is triflin!", or "ugh, people is triflin"(IHOP employee said this while cleaning windows). dictionary.com's closest match to triflin is the word trifling, and the definition of the word doesn't match the context in which it's used. urbandictionary.com has several entries for triflin and several different definitions. some of which are: "lazy ass man, relies on his woman for money", "a creep, someone whos nosy", and finally "dirty".

what is the real meaning of this word? what is the real word?! am i just a silly white boy for questioning if it's actually a real word? probably.

typical

if something is too good to be true, it probably is. see: shaun rogers trade. apparently the league rejected the trade because of salary cap problems, not because shaun rogers got a little rowdy in a strip club last year, what NFL player hasn't gotten a little out of control in a strip club? and as icing on the kick-in-the-balls cake, rogers was immediately traded to cleveland after the deal with the bengals fell through. i hate that city.

in other news, justin smith signed a 6 year $45 million contract with the 49ers. lol@that.

in shock

the bengals made a trade? for a good player? what is going on? i didn't know the bengals were allowed to do that! has this ever happened before? but seriously, i'm excited. i think we got a good deal, and it's a trade that will help us actually be competitive on defense in 2008... then again this is the bengals we're talking about.

who dey and happy february 29

mindfuck

watch LOST. go rent seasons 1 thru 3 and play catch up, you can thank me later. i need more ppl to sit and scratch my head with after every episode. season 4 has been great. ahhhh!

yesterday morning was fun

i got a flat tire on the way to work yesterday. as soon as i felt the car wobble i pulled off to the side and noticed that the tire on the driver's side was completely flat and i was riding on the rim. fuck. so i sat in my car for a good 10 or 15 minutes debating on whether or not i wanted to risk my life and change the tire. eventually i got out and gave it a whirl. it took me another 10 minutes to figure out how to use the jack, because volvo puts some really weird jacks in their cars. being the smart fellow that i am, i eventually figured it out. (this whole time flashes from those 'world's craziest drivers' shows are going through my head, and i'm convinced that i'm going to get plowed by oncoming traffic) i got the lug nuts off but couldn't get the tire off. double fuck. i got back in my car to read the owners manual and make a phone call, but when i got out of my car again i locked my keys in my car. triple fuck. i called emily and thank god she answered the phone and came and got me. after picking up the keys we stopped at target and bought a hammer because for whatever reason, my toolbox didn't come with one. we finally got back to the car and i was still unable to get the wheel off of the car. fuck it. we went back to my house and i called a tow truck and made arrangements to meet them at my car and have them tow it to tire discounters. immediately after hanging up the phone with the tow truck guy, emily tells me that she has AAA and they tow for free. sweet. so i call AAA and they tell me they'll meet me there in about in hour, which really turned out to be about 1.5/2 hours, but i can't complain because the guy ended up getting the wheel off of the car and getting the spare on. to top all this off, tire discounters wasn't able to repair the tire so i had to buy a new one which cost about $120. this whole ordeal finally ended around 2:30, about 7 hours after i popped my tire. what a day.


i drew a little picture so you can get a mental image. not drawn to scale.

IT'S SNOWING! should be another fun commute home this evening.

watch

he looks like such a retard throughout most of that song, but the guitar solo is incredible.

yes, i'm obsessed.

evangeline lilly

ahhhhhhh.


in love!

that's deep

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?
-Barack Obama

more sushi....mmmm

half-price sushi again tonight. it was kind of an adventure. we got there around 6:45 and the place was packed, the wait was obviously going to be lengthy so we went to the stand and played some shuffleboard while we waited, i lost to keenan badly. we eventually went back over and waited around for 5 or 10 more minutes before finally getting a seat. there was just three of us this time but we got more sushi than last week. we picked 'em well this week, every single roll we got was delectable.

coming tomorrow: an entry dedicated to the best show on television, LOST. apparently that's what my fans want, and i aim to please.


P.S. IT'S TOO F*CKING COLD OUTSIDE!!
p.p.s. the moon looked really cool tonight.

depressing

last week i finished three weeks of physical therapy where i made no progress, and probably regressed more than progressed. instead of scheduling more PT, they sent me back to the orthopedic doctor for an appointment, which i just got back from. i'm going to have an EMG nerve test done on my shoulder blade on march 3. i'm not really positive what the point of this test is, but i guess they need to test to do it before putting me under the knife. i guess all of this PT screwed up my shoulder blade, so now it's asymmetrical and moving in ways it shouldn't. it feels delightful, let me tell you. nothing like waking up at 4a.m. every night in throbbing pain. so pending the results, i'll be having arthroscopic surgery where, from what i understand, they'll insert anchors into my glenoid and then attach the labrum to the anchors. i'll be out of work for a week (yay), in a sling for a month (booooo), and away from softball/golf for 6 months (kill me now). SIX MONTHS! that's my entire summer. do you have any idea how badly i've been looking forward to softball?! and then there's golf, i think i've been more excited for golf than softball... this sucks A LOT.

ballin out of control

baller. sick. just sick.

and since the last post i lost to kevin in fifa. rigged.

nevermind

i'm not getting an iPhone. i did a lot of research today and didn't like what i read. if i switch carriers i'm going to go with the blackberry curve. i'm afraid that i won't like the touch screen keyboard on the iPhone, and that's pretty important considering i use ~4500 texts per month. i guess the only question now is red or titanium..i'm thinking titanium.

and on another note, i'm like 8-0-1 against the roomies in fifa since we got the xbox back. dooooomination.

iWant

i want an iPhone. problem is, i have t-mobile and i'm stuck in a contract until october. so i came up with a plan to get out of my lolcontract. i'm moving to montana. or north dakota. or any random state with not a lot of people/cell phone towers. i'm not really moving, but thats what i'm telling t-mobile. i called t-mobile and they want me to prove that i'm moving, so i'm going to need kevin to photoshop a utility bill or something like that. hopefully it works, because t-mobile sucks and iPhones r cool!

and here's a bonus for you, my reader. i had penn station for lunch today and noticed people getting 3 or 4 of those little tiny paper cups (do they have a name?) that you keep ketchup in. it's kind of hard to carry 3 or 4 of said paper cups as well as your napkins, drinks, and any other condiments back to your table in one trip. i would know, i LOVE ketchup, and used to get 4 or 5 of those things. instead of using 3 or 4 or 5 tiny paper cups for your ketchup, just use one. take the little cup and "separate" the paper at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock. it will double, and sometimes TRIPLE the little tiny cup's capacity, enabling you to make ONE trip to the condiment counter.

you can thank me later.

ugh

i just saw a link to an article at enquirer.com about the bengals using the franchise tag on justin smith. i don't know if i can handle another season of watching him in a bengals uniform. yeah, let's use the franchise tag on a defensive end who recorded two sacks in 2007. TWO! shotgun, meet my head.

on a happier note, i think boyd, daniel and i are going to killington for "spring break". i can't wait! they have a tooooonnnnnnn of snow in the northeast right now, i hope it sticks around for another month, but ya never know with global warming and all. i haven't been up to vermont in several years, i'm really looking forward to this. beautiful part of the country when it's covered in snow.

top 25

top 25 most played from my iPod since april of 2006. click it.

wtf

another school shooting. what the fuck is this world coming to? i think i read that this makes 6 in the past 7 days, which is just batshitfuckinginsane. sweet life, world. wow.


happy valentines day!!

dinner

matt, keenan, kevin and i went to half-price sushi night at dancing wasabi. half the price = double the sushi... and apparently double the wasabi. twas the biggest glob of wasabi i've ever seen.


i think there were between 58-62 rolls on that plate. matt ate six and the rest were split between keenan, kevin and i. sooo good. i'm still stuffed 4 hours later, which is not like me.

sorry, dad

4 years ago, had you told me that i'd be voting for a democrat in 08 i'd have told you you were crazy. i guess that just speaks to how much bush fucking sucks. check out votehelp.org to help you find the candidate you agree most with, pretty helpful site. apparently i'm 96% "compatible" with obama. go figure!

i remember being on campus freshman year and seeing all the protesters and being so angry with them. i didn't understand why people would go against the president. 5 years and nearly 4000 dead soldiers later (one of which was close our family), my views have changed. not just on war, either.

my life in lyrics

I am driving up 85 in the
kind of morning that lasts all afternoon
just stuck inside the gloom

Four more exits to my apartment but
I am tempted to keep the car in drive
and leave this shit behind

Cause I wonder sometimes
about the outcome
of a still verdictless life

Am I living it right?
Am I living it right?
Am I living it right?
Why, why Georgia, why?

I rent a room and I fill the spaces with
wood in places to make it feel like home
but all I feel's alone
It might be a quarter life crisis
or just the stirring in my soul

Either way, I wonder sometimes
about the outcome
of a still verdictless life

So what, so I've got a smile on me
but it's hiding the quiet superstitions in my head
Don't believe me
Don't you dare believe me
When I say I've got it down

Everybody is just a stranger but
that's the danger in going my own way
I guess it's the price I have to pay
still "Everything happens for a reason"
is no reason not to ask yourself

If you are living it right
Are you living it right?
Are you living it right?
Why, tell me why
Why, why Georgia why?



john mayer is a fucking genius.

18-1

i called it. from 1/27/08:

Oh, and Giants win the Super Bowl, 38-34 or something like that.

so it wasn't 38-34, but oh well. the 32 yard completion late in the 4th quarter from eli to david tyree is one of the greatest plays i have ever seen, in what was one of the greatest games i have ever seen. i just wish i was degenerate enough to bet the points!

by the way,the mannings own the NFL. i was kind of impressed that fox only showed peyton 11 times (yes, i actually counted) during the game, i was expecting 20+.

g'night.

trade 85

Trade Chad Johnson. He obviously doesn't want to be here. I was never under the impression that Bengals fans blamed Chad Johnson for losing, or at least I didn't and I didn't hear any of my friends saying that. I'm not sure who's ploy this is, Chad's or his agent's, but regardless he needs to be traded.

Chad with Jim Rome
Do you want to be traded?
"I'm going to leave that to the Shark (agent Drew Rosenhaus)"
Are you happy in Cincinnati?
"I'm not allowed to say. I get the blame......the so called best player....I'm the problem. Somebody in-house is spreading this. Maybe they want me to quiet down, stop being me. That is not going to happen. I can't function that way.
I tried it...I sucked. There was no excitement."
Can they make it right with you?
........long pause.......I think I could be here with you all season...on your show"
Is it blown up...not fixable?
"I'm leaving that to Drew. It's been bad (in Cincinnati)....I'm the scapegoat...alot of stuff in house is happening I'm not fond of. It doesn't sit well with me. I have fun. I'm a little outlandish. I produce. I do everything to help us win.
Who does have your back?
"TJ has my back.....Carson....that's it....that's really it"

I find it interesting that Carson has Chad's back, considering the number of plays Chad just quits on because he's afraid of getting hit. But kudos to Carson.

and then there's this...

Chad was working it during the season
MiamiHerald.com
Rumors about the Dolphins trading for Cincinnati receiver Chad Johnson have swirled since Johnson told WSVN-7 on Saturday, `` Bill Parcells, call me.'' But as Fox insider Jay Glazer noted off air Tuesday, Johnson approached opposing coaches this season and asked them to get him out of Cincinnati. Glazer said he doesn't expect the Dolphins to trade for Johnson because ``I don't see him as their kind of guy, and for [Bengals owner] Mike Brown to trade him, it would take a lot.''

Both are taken from Lance McAlister's blog. There's more on ProFootballTalk, too. By the way, lol at Chad Johnson in Miami. Have a blast with that one Chad! (sorry Mike) Chad Johnson is a jackass. In the back of my mind I always feared he'd go T.O. on the Bengals. It sucks that that day actually came.

Yay Bengals.

it's just a season thing

Tri-Health was conducting free body composition screenings today at work today. I went down and had myself measured; I have 16.7% body fat with a body mass index of 25. Both of those are normal from what I've read, my BMI being a little on the high side. I've put on about 10 lbs of fat since injuring my shoulder/end of softball season/start of winter season. I blame the season, I'm 90% sure I have seasonal affective disorder (among other things). I just don't have much of a desire to work out anymore, maybe some of that is because of my shoulder and the limitations I have because of it.

My goal is to have a workout program, as well as reasonable short and long term goals by Monday. I'm hoping that posting these on my blog will give me that extra motivation to carry through with this plan. (even though nobody probably reads this)

salvia.

Mike likes to party.


Oh, and Giants win the Super Bowl, 38-34 or something like that. If I were a degenerate and bet sports, I'd be all over the Giants at +12. I think the line actually started at +14, which is insane.

It's breakfast sammich time!!!

UFOs and the such

aliens are real. i think anyone who would disagree is kind of ignorant. their technology is probably way more advanced than ours. they're living in our oceans, watching what we do, waiting for the right time to attack.



(i kinda just wanted to embed a video in my blog. i'm only half kidding about the aliens attacking)

i have a blog?

It's cold. Like, 11 degrees cold. I've never really minded the cold weather, but lately it's starting to get to me. I don't really spend much time outside so it shouldn't really bother me all that much, but the few minutes I spend walking to the car and then waiting for the car to warm up are absolutely hell. I've never really given much thought to moving outside of Cincinnati, but it seems I like the idea of year-round warm weather becomes more and more appealing each time I have to sit in a freeeeeezing car.
Not too much else is going on these days. Winter is boring. The only thing I have to look forward to is indoor soccer every Tuesday, and I'm not exactly sure why I look forward to it. It's incredibly tiring, we're not very good and I don't like chasing Mexicans around in circles for 45 minutes. This past week was the first time that I've enjoyed myself, most likely because we won, I didn't puke at halftime and I had 3 goals. Woo hoo.
I start physical therapy for my shoulder on 1/23. The doctor says I have a torn labrum, and that PT should take 6-8 weeks. Assuming he's right (he's not sure how badly it's torn, it was hard for him to read the MRI because I moved near the end of it), I'll be healthy right around the time softball starts. I'm hoping all will be okay by then because I cannot afford to miss any softball, or golf for that matter.

I signed up for Netflix last week because they now allow you to watch unlimited streaming movies/TV shows from their website. I've started watching season one of 30 Rock, great show that I highly recommend. Tina Fey is a genius.

Once I'm done with 30 Rock, I plan on starting on Heroes. I've heard good things about that show. I swear I do things other than watch TV.


I guess that's all for now.

dingle and berry

I saw this picture a few weeks ago and just figured some nerd photoshopped it, I was wrong. After turning on the Fiesta Bowl I realized it was probably real, as Johnny Dingle and Scooter Berry do in fact play for WVU.

If I were an NFL coach I'd draft these two players regardless of how good they were or what I had to give up to get them.

Happy New Year!