This is going to be my last update for the year. There's a weird kind of finality to that.
Megan and I drove down to Norman on the 24th to spend the holiday with our folks. After last year's Christmas Debacle of 2007, we declared early on that we would be alternating which set of parents' house we would be staying at each year. Megan's folks got us last year so my folks got to play host to the children this time around. I have to say that everything went much better this time around and kudos to both sets of parents for playing the game correctly and not making Megan or I miserable while we were in town for a visit.
The only Christmas tradition that my family has kept up through the years is driving around on Christmas Eve and looking at Christmas lights. We haven't missed a year in... well, let's just say forever due to the insistence of my mom to go every year. This year was no exception as we piled in to the Kia, which was weird because dad is usually the one who drives, not the kidlings. Anyway, mom only had one stop on her list this year that she just had to see and it was conveniently right down Highway 9 east. Some dude owns some land out there and set up a pirate radio station that broadcast Christmas music that was in sync to the flashing lights on his house. While not original in the slightest (someone else in Norman has done this for the last 2 years), it was a good show and it was nice to be able to see the house ala drive in theatre style due to the large field in front of his house.
We woke up on Christmas morning at my parents' house. Gifts were given and opened and there was much rejoicing.
Megan and I gave:
- To my parents
--- A wine bottle tote bag that is made out of wet suit material that keeps the bottle cold
--- A wine bottle stopper
--- A really, really, really nice wine bottle opener
--- Iron Man DVD
- To my sister
--- New York & Co. gift card
--- The new Britney Spears CD
- To Megan's dad
--- A new polo shirt
--- A gift set of vanilla cognac and glasses
- To Megan's mom
--- Tales of the Beetle Bard book
--- Various lotions
--- Something else that I forget (d'oh!)
Overall I noticed that all four of the parents made out like bandits this year. I commented that it must be nice to finally have grown up children who have jobs. I thought it was really cool that they finally received more stuff than the kids; they certainly earned it, no?
Of course, being a grown up with a job affords me the luxury of being able to buy whatever I want whenever I want it. This fact makes Christmas a very difficult gift-giving occasion for pretty much everyone who wants to get me something since I can never think of anything I want.
I did get some pretty cool stuff this year, though.
- The Shield, season 6
- Weeds, seasons 2 & 3
- A Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000
- New Balance running shoes
- The Bacon Lover's gift pack from the makers of Bacon Salt. It includes 5 new flavors of Bacon Salt, the all-new Baconaise, and bacon flavored lip balm.
- A new LSAT study book
- Assorted OU paraphernalia
- Kung Fu Panda DVD
- A 47" Visio LCD HD television...
Yeah, that last one was a shock.
We spent Friday and Saturday doing random stuff with our families and we came back on Sunday with a car loaded with way more stuff than it had when we came down to Norman. Surprisingly, we got even better gas mileage carrying a full load than we did when the Kia was empty. Not sure about that one.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Adventures In Buying a Car Land
Megan and I bought our first car as a married couple on Saturday. We have been in the market for a new car for about 6 months now, but we put off actually buying one because it's kind of a Big Deal. After I got stuck in the snow in the Camaro, we decided that we should make good on our goal and buy a car.
We knew we wanted a small SUV for their increased cargo capacity and only slightly decreased gas mileage when compared to small cars. Outside of that, though, we didn't have a brand or model that we were particularly fond of. Honda's Element and CRV were obvious contenders, as was the Toyota RAV4, but all three of those vehicles are well outside of our price range. We like Saturn as a brand, but even the Vue is a little over priced for our budget. We didn't want to buy a car older than 2007, and none of those vehicles depreciate fast enough for us to justify being able to afford them. We tossed around the idea of a Mazda Tribute after we rode with Josh last week, but the only one we could find up here was *really* used.
I really don't have brand loyalty other than being adamant about not buying American (Yes, I know Saturn is American, but they actually make *good* cars), so that's how we landed on the Kia. The Sportage handles everything we want to do with a small SUV, has good safety ratings, and most importantly, is in our price range.
We went car shopping on Saturday and it went pretty much the way you would expect it to.
The first dealership had a 2008 program car with 3500 miles (and a four cylinder engine) on it and no previous owners. We did the back and forth in the negotiations and wound up walking out because the sales manager refused to actually give us a deal on the car. He apparently thought that the original "offer" of the sticker price to open negotiations with was very reasonable. Uh... no.
We went to another dealer later in the day to test drive a 2007 four cylinder but barely got around the block in it because it reeked of smoke and had cigarette burns in the seats. Needless to say, we did not buy that one. The same dealer had a 2008 V6 model on the lot and we fell in love with it after taking it for a test drive. Negotiations started with them offering the sticker price... we low balled them which brought out the sales manager. We harped on the fact that it had more miles than the other 2008 and they weren't even giving us that price. Before we walked out the door, I told them we would sign the papers right then for X price. The manager bit and sold us the car. I won't say what we paid, but it is well under retail price and I think we came out really far ahead in the deal.
In the end, we drove away with a better car for a lower price. I'm glad we didn't take that first dealer's offer.
Also, the first salesman called me yesterday morning to find find out if I was still interested. I told him we found another Sportage for a lower price and we are really happy with it. I bet he wishes his manager didn't play that stupid game now, eh?
We knew we wanted a small SUV for their increased cargo capacity and only slightly decreased gas mileage when compared to small cars. Outside of that, though, we didn't have a brand or model that we were particularly fond of. Honda's Element and CRV were obvious contenders, as was the Toyota RAV4, but all three of those vehicles are well outside of our price range. We like Saturn as a brand, but even the Vue is a little over priced for our budget. We didn't want to buy a car older than 2007, and none of those vehicles depreciate fast enough for us to justify being able to afford them. We tossed around the idea of a Mazda Tribute after we rode with Josh last week, but the only one we could find up here was *really* used.
I really don't have brand loyalty other than being adamant about not buying American (Yes, I know Saturn is American, but they actually make *good* cars), so that's how we landed on the Kia. The Sportage handles everything we want to do with a small SUV, has good safety ratings, and most importantly, is in our price range.
We went car shopping on Saturday and it went pretty much the way you would expect it to.
The first dealership had a 2008 program car with 3500 miles (and a four cylinder engine) on it and no previous owners. We did the back and forth in the negotiations and wound up walking out because the sales manager refused to actually give us a deal on the car. He apparently thought that the original "offer" of the sticker price to open negotiations with was very reasonable. Uh... no.
We went to another dealer later in the day to test drive a 2007 four cylinder but barely got around the block in it because it reeked of smoke and had cigarette burns in the seats. Needless to say, we did not buy that one. The same dealer had a 2008 V6 model on the lot and we fell in love with it after taking it for a test drive. Negotiations started with them offering the sticker price... we low balled them which brought out the sales manager. We harped on the fact that it had more miles than the other 2008 and they weren't even giving us that price. Before we walked out the door, I told them we would sign the papers right then for X price. The manager bit and sold us the car. I won't say what we paid, but it is well under retail price and I think we came out really far ahead in the deal.
In the end, we drove away with a better car for a lower price. I'm glad we didn't take that first dealer's offer.
Also, the first salesman called me yesterday morning to find find out if I was still interested. I told him we found another Sportage for a lower price and we are really happy with it. I bet he wishes his manager didn't play that stupid game now, eh?
Friday, December 12, 2008
The DMV Is the Worst Place In the World
Megan and I finally got the Saturn registered with the DMV. I swear to God, there is no state in this union that makes registering a car easy. California managed to screw up the registration process horribly for both of us AND messed up my driver's license by putting the wrong date for my birthday on it. The Kansas DMV only made us come back twice, which still sucks, but at least it went smoothly once we found all of the items they required on their secret list of documents that they don't bother to tell anyone about.
We're going car shopping tomorrow. We've been looking for the right vehicle for the last six months but have been putting off the purchase for whatever reason. The decision to actually buy one was expedited this week when the Camaro got stuck in the latest snow and ice storm. Because the university is in a basin, the only way to get out of the area is to go uphill. Well, the Camaro is a rear wheel drive car and can only go uphill on ice and snow if it can do so without stopping. Knowing the roads were bad on Tuesday, I decided to risk taking Ward Parkway since it's a main thoroughfare through the city and the snow crews would salt and clear it of ice.
I was right... but also so very wrong.
Like I said, the only way out of the area is to go uphill. Ward has a sizable section of uphill and the weather was slowing everything down. Needless to say, the Camaro only made it half way up the hill before I had to pull on to a side street (where someone else had ditched her car) because the stop and go traffic made it impossible to keep traction. I wound up blocking the only lane in and out of this neighborhood for an hour while I waited for traffic to clear up on Ward. Once I was able to back out on to the main street without having to stop traffic, I floored it and managed to get up the hill. I was only able to drive 10 MPH the rest of the way home, so I didn't make it to the apartment until after 7... just in time to go to bed.
After going through that experience, we decided that we needed to buy a car that can handle Kansas winters. We're looking at 2008 Kia Sportage tomorrow. It's pre-owned, so if we like it, hopefully we can get a good deal on it. We were looking at the Saturn Vue, but since GM is going under, we decided to keep that off of the list for now. Honda and Toyota were always on the list, but their resale value is so high that we couldn't get one without taking a huge loan. The Sportage has great safety ratings and I don't care about driving a "non-major brand" car especially if we can get it at a good price.
We've never purchased a car before so this is all new to us, but we're excited and we might walk out of the dealership with a new car tomorrow.
We're going car shopping tomorrow. We've been looking for the right vehicle for the last six months but have been putting off the purchase for whatever reason. The decision to actually buy one was expedited this week when the Camaro got stuck in the latest snow and ice storm. Because the university is in a basin, the only way to get out of the area is to go uphill. Well, the Camaro is a rear wheel drive car and can only go uphill on ice and snow if it can do so without stopping. Knowing the roads were bad on Tuesday, I decided to risk taking Ward Parkway since it's a main thoroughfare through the city and the snow crews would salt and clear it of ice.
I was right... but also so very wrong.
Like I said, the only way out of the area is to go uphill. Ward has a sizable section of uphill and the weather was slowing everything down. Needless to say, the Camaro only made it half way up the hill before I had to pull on to a side street (where someone else had ditched her car) because the stop and go traffic made it impossible to keep traction. I wound up blocking the only lane in and out of this neighborhood for an hour while I waited for traffic to clear up on Ward. Once I was able to back out on to the main street without having to stop traffic, I floored it and managed to get up the hill. I was only able to drive 10 MPH the rest of the way home, so I didn't make it to the apartment until after 7... just in time to go to bed.
After going through that experience, we decided that we needed to buy a car that can handle Kansas winters. We're looking at 2008 Kia Sportage tomorrow. It's pre-owned, so if we like it, hopefully we can get a good deal on it. We were looking at the Saturn Vue, but since GM is going under, we decided to keep that off of the list for now. Honda and Toyota were always on the list, but their resale value is so high that we couldn't get one without taking a huge loan. The Sportage has great safety ratings and I don't care about driving a "non-major brand" car especially if we can get it at a good price.
We've never purchased a car before so this is all new to us, but we're excited and we might walk out of the dealership with a new car tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Law School Application Process
I e-mailed the assistant to the dean of admissions today of the school of law to see if I can set up an appointment. I have a few questions I would like to ask about the part-time program and how they handle internships and job recruiting for part-time students.
Edit: I have a tentative appointment next Monday!
Law School Application Process
I'm quickly finding out that there are a lot of hoops to jump through when applying to law school. In no certain order, here is what I have to do:
-Register with LSAC Completed 11/29
-Register with LSDAS Completed 12/2
- Register for the LSAT / Take the LSAT
- Request transcripts from all institutions I have attended
- Request two letters of recommendation
- Send application to the institution that I want to attend
- Send a resume to the institution that I want to attend
- Write a personal statement and send it to the institution that I want to attend
After all of that, I need to:
Re-register with FAFSA
Find any financial aid I can to pay for school
Whew... yeah, so that's a lot of work to be done in the next couple of months. Obviously the biggest hurdle is the LSAT, so that's my primary source of stress right now. I have one reference lined up and am working on securing the second, so hopefully that comes to fruition soon.
Double Edit: I faxed the transcript request forms to OU and OCCC before calling it a day.
Edit: I have a tentative appointment next Monday!
Law School Application Process
I'm quickly finding out that there are a lot of hoops to jump through when applying to law school. In no certain order, here is what I have to do:
-
-
- Register for the LSAT / Take the LSAT
- Request transcripts from all institutions I have attended
- Request two letters of recommendation
- Send application to the institution that I want to attend
- Send a resume to the institution that I want to attend
- Write a personal statement and send it to the institution that I want to attend
After all of that, I need to:
Re-register with FAFSA
Find any financial aid I can to pay for school
Whew... yeah, so that's a lot of work to be done in the next couple of months. Obviously the biggest hurdle is the LSAT, so that's my primary source of stress right now. I have one reference lined up and am working on securing the second, so hopefully that comes to fruition soon.
Double Edit: I faxed the transcript request forms to OU and OCCC before calling it a day.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Law School
It's hard to believe that we left Los Angeles 6 months ago and have been living in Kansas City since we moved. Megan started working the second we arrived, I was unemployed for 3 months but finally got picked up by a local university. We've played one season of kickball together and I am wrapping up my second inline hockey season. We survived election season, saw the most historic presidential election ever, had both sets of parents up for Thanksgiving, and our first marriage anniversary is in two weeks. Sometimes my mind spins thinking about how much we've done in such a short period of time.
Something that has come on to my radar is the thought of going back to school. I am three years out of my undergraduate experience and honestly, I'm really disappointed with my degree choice. I haven't used my history degree nor do I have any intention to do so. I went to school to learn about something I like rather than learning about something that will get me a job. I don't think what I did was wrong or bad, but I do think I set myself up for failure later on down the road. I am proud that I have an education, but it's just not getting me to where I want to be in life.
I have an interesting choice to make, now that I work for a university. My school offers tuition assistance to full-time employees to the tune of 75% off 6 credit hours after 6 months of continuous employment. I am halfway to the 6 month mark, but by the time school starts next fall, I will have passed that point and then some. Everyone close to me has said that not taking advantage of that program would be (in no other words) stupid, so I have been mulling over what kind of program I want to join for the last few months.
After talking it over with Megan and my family, I have decided that I am going to try to get in to the law school at my university. The law school offers a part-time, 9 credit hour semester program for working students. The flip side of this is that it extends the program from the traditional 3 years to a 5 year ordeal. While I am not incredibly thrilled about that part, I have to remind myself that even if I pay out of state tuition, I will get 75% off of the first 6 hours, meaning I pay a fraction of what everyone else does to go to school. The major determining factor in all of this is that the school does not offer night classes, so I would have to miss 9 hours of work every week to go to class. If my supervisors can't adjust my schedule to be flexible, this whole plan is going to go down the toilet. Hopefully the fact that I have been a great employee will sway them to be supportive let me do this.
Even leaving out that last bit, I have a lot of work to do in the next few months. The application deadline for the school is March 1, so by that time I have to:
- Apply to the law school
- Write a personal statement
- Register with LSAC & LSDAS
- Register for and take the LSAT
- Request two letters of recommendation to go to LSDAS
- Request transcripts from OU and OCCC to go to LSDAS
It's very daunting but I know I can do all of it. I bought an LSAT study guide and a tip book for writing a personal statement this weekend. I've signed up for an account with LSAC and I have already started on my personal statement. The biggest hurdle right now is taking the LSAT. I only have one chance to impress before the application deadline, so I have to rock it on the first try. I am shooting for a 158-161, but I will obviously take anything higher than that.
I'm nervous about all of this, but I know I can do it. I haven't been challenged since I graduated and I need something to pull me out of this slump. I'm happy with my marriage, my family, and my friends, but my career is seriously lacking. This is a huge decision for me, but I believe it is the right one to make at the right time. I don't think I would have this kind of opportunity placed in front of me if I wasn't supposed to take it.
Something that has come on to my radar is the thought of going back to school. I am three years out of my undergraduate experience and honestly, I'm really disappointed with my degree choice. I haven't used my history degree nor do I have any intention to do so. I went to school to learn about something I like rather than learning about something that will get me a job. I don't think what I did was wrong or bad, but I do think I set myself up for failure later on down the road. I am proud that I have an education, but it's just not getting me to where I want to be in life.
I have an interesting choice to make, now that I work for a university. My school offers tuition assistance to full-time employees to the tune of 75% off 6 credit hours after 6 months of continuous employment. I am halfway to the 6 month mark, but by the time school starts next fall, I will have passed that point and then some. Everyone close to me has said that not taking advantage of that program would be (in no other words) stupid, so I have been mulling over what kind of program I want to join for the last few months.
After talking it over with Megan and my family, I have decided that I am going to try to get in to the law school at my university. The law school offers a part-time, 9 credit hour semester program for working students. The flip side of this is that it extends the program from the traditional 3 years to a 5 year ordeal. While I am not incredibly thrilled about that part, I have to remind myself that even if I pay out of state tuition, I will get 75% off of the first 6 hours, meaning I pay a fraction of what everyone else does to go to school. The major determining factor in all of this is that the school does not offer night classes, so I would have to miss 9 hours of work every week to go to class. If my supervisors can't adjust my schedule to be flexible, this whole plan is going to go down the toilet. Hopefully the fact that I have been a great employee will sway them to be supportive let me do this.
Even leaving out that last bit, I have a lot of work to do in the next few months. The application deadline for the school is March 1, so by that time I have to:
- Apply to the law school
- Write a personal statement
- Register with LSAC & LSDAS
- Register for and take the LSAT
- Request two letters of recommendation to go to LSDAS
- Request transcripts from OU and OCCC to go to LSDAS
It's very daunting but I know I can do all of it. I bought an LSAT study guide and a tip book for writing a personal statement this weekend. I've signed up for an account with LSAC and I have already started on my personal statement. The biggest hurdle right now is taking the LSAT. I only have one chance to impress before the application deadline, so I have to rock it on the first try. I am shooting for a 158-161, but I will obviously take anything higher than that.
I'm nervous about all of this, but I know I can do it. I haven't been challenged since I graduated and I need something to pull me out of this slump. I'm happy with my marriage, my family, and my friends, but my career is seriously lacking. This is a huge decision for me, but I believe it is the right one to make at the right time. I don't think I would have this kind of opportunity placed in front of me if I wasn't supposed to take it.
Friday, November 07, 2008
The last night of kickball for the Kansas City division was last night. My team, Fingerbang, made it to the semi-final round and we had to play our "arch rivals" Shake N' Bake. The game went pretty smoothly, all things considered. Our offensive game sucked, as usual, so we had a hard time scoring those precious runs. We wound up losing the game 3-2 in the 7th inning (2nd extra inning).
Here's the recap of that game that I wrote for the newsletter:
Ideally, we thought we would win this game and move on to play El Guapo in the championship game. While we didn’t believe that Shake N’ Bake would roll over and we’d have an easy time with them, we did think we had the upper hand since we beat them in our last encounter.
Needless to say, our ideal situation did not come to fruition.
SNB picked up one run in the first inning but we came back to match them at the bottom of the first. Neither team was able to pick up any more runs for the rest of the game, although we did have several opportunities to bring in the winning run, particularly with a bases loaded and only one out situation. Unfortunately the pressure got the better of our kickers and we weren’t able to convert on those much-needed runs.
Because of the tie, the game went in to two extra innings. Both teams traded a run in the 6th inning but SNB picked up an unanswered run in the 7th to win the game.
All in all, the competitive portion of the game was awesome. Unfortunately, the sportsmanship aspect was awful considering that SNB really solidified their position as The Team That No One Likes with their incessant trash talking through the entire game. Seriously, you guys should join a softball league if you want to act like a bunch of classless d-bags.
Also, no thanks to the jerks on the other baseball field that turned off the lights. It’s not like we needed them or anything.
Finally, big thanks to Team Awesome for providing not 2, not 3, but 4 umpires for the game. We know you didn’t have to come out to the fields, so big thanks for going the extra mile to make things run smoothly.
Shake N' Bake went on to play El Guapo in the finals, where they lost 3-2. I was obviously pulling for El Guapo to win since 1. I am playing for them next season and 2. I like them more than I like Shake N' Bake.
While I am sad that kickball is over, I'm happy that this season is finished. It started to get really cold at night over the last few weeks and it really wasn't fun playing outdoors while wearing 4 layers of clothing. We'll get started up again in the spring, probably April, and hopefully we won't get rained out for 5 weeks like the division did this year.
Here's the recap of that game that I wrote for the newsletter:
Ideally, we thought we would win this game and move on to play El Guapo in the championship game. While we didn’t believe that Shake N’ Bake would roll over and we’d have an easy time with them, we did think we had the upper hand since we beat them in our last encounter.
Needless to say, our ideal situation did not come to fruition.
SNB picked up one run in the first inning but we came back to match them at the bottom of the first. Neither team was able to pick up any more runs for the rest of the game, although we did have several opportunities to bring in the winning run, particularly with a bases loaded and only one out situation. Unfortunately the pressure got the better of our kickers and we weren’t able to convert on those much-needed runs.
Because of the tie, the game went in to two extra innings. Both teams traded a run in the 6th inning but SNB picked up an unanswered run in the 7th to win the game.
All in all, the competitive portion of the game was awesome. Unfortunately, the sportsmanship aspect was awful considering that SNB really solidified their position as The Team That No One Likes with their incessant trash talking through the entire game. Seriously, you guys should join a softball league if you want to act like a bunch of classless d-bags.
Also, no thanks to the jerks on the other baseball field that turned off the lights. It’s not like we needed them or anything.
Finally, big thanks to Team Awesome for providing not 2, not 3, but 4 umpires for the game. We know you didn’t have to come out to the fields, so big thanks for going the extra mile to make things run smoothly.
Shake N' Bake went on to play El Guapo in the finals, where they lost 3-2. I was obviously pulling for El Guapo to win since 1. I am playing for them next season and 2. I like them more than I like Shake N' Bake.
While I am sad that kickball is over, I'm happy that this season is finished. It started to get really cold at night over the last few weeks and it really wasn't fun playing outdoors while wearing 4 layers of clothing. We'll get started up again in the spring, probably April, and hopefully we won't get rained out for 5 weeks like the division did this year.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Halloween Night
Megan, myself, Kristen, Matt, Heather, and Dave went out last night for Halloween. We started out at The Midland for the T6: Terror At the Midland event, which is basically a huge party with lots of alcohol. Megan and I haven't done anything like this, so we didn't really have an expectation going in. It turns out that some organization rented out The Midland and turned it in to a giant night club. Girls still got to dress like "Sexy _________", the lines for the bar were super long, and people were retarded; so basically it was exactly like a night club.
Costume Highlights:
- The "FedEx Mail-Order brides"
- The group of girls dressed as yellow Peeps.
- The spot on Pretty Woman (Julia Roberts as Vivian Ward)
- The guy/girl combo dressed as Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich from 5th Element
- The cardboard Optimus Prime
- The other guy dressed as a Ghostbuster who had a custom built proton pack
- The guys dressed as Spartan soldiers from 300
- The Sweeney Todd group
- The guys pretending to be from the Cobra Kai dojo dressed as skeletons for Halloween
Epic Costume Failures:
- Anyone dressed as Sarah Palin or a hockey mom
- The group of guys wearing the capri-style swim Speedos, swim caps, and t-shirts that read "If drinking were an Olympic sport, I'd win gold"
- The guy wearing the flight suit pretending to be Maverick who was very obviously checking out our girls
- The guy wearing just a Speedo
- Pretty much anyone dressed as or pretending to be Michael Phelps
The Biggest Failure of the night:
Only having 4 bartenders to serve 2700 people. I'm convinced people were ordering 4 drinks at a time and then getting back in line because they could finish them before they could order again.
We bailed at 11:00 when the free bars closed and drove over to Charlie Hooper's in Brookside. Hooper's was much less crowded, so we could actually order drinks from the bar without waiting in line for 30 minutes. I guess the regular crowd wasn't expecting people to be dressed up for Halloween, so some of the older folks couldn't stop staring at us when we went to the bar. I caught some guy staring at me because I had my ecto goggles up on my forehead; I looked at him and said, "What?" like nothing was wrong which made him look away in shame.
Epic Awkward Moment:
A random girl credit carding my ass crack as she walked by. Megan saw it and just about threw down with her while I stood there like a doofus with my mouth hanging open.
I don't know how long we were at Hooper's, but after a while we left and walked down to the Brooksider (the kickball bar). They were super crowded, super busy, and it was just as loud as The Midland. Nothing really notable happened at the Brooksider, other than getting the biggest cups of beer I have ever seen for $5. I immediately passed one of those off because the night would not have ended well if I had attempted to finish them both.
I'm not sure how long we were at the Brooksider either, but we left at 2:00ish, went to Taco Bell, and then went home.
My Costume (Pics to come):
I had the idea to make a Ghostbusters uniform about 2 months ago but had to table it because I found out that we were doing a group costume thing. Naturally, that plan fell through last week and having lost the motivation to dress up, I decided I was going to take the easy way out and be House (Dr. Gregory House, MD), meaning at most, I'd have to buy a cane and not shave for 2 weeks.
That changed on Wednesday due to my face being unbearably itchy and my new found inspiration to make a Ghostbusters uniform. I rush ordered the patches on Wednesday and bought the rest of the supplies I needed for the utility belt and ecto goggles on Wednesday and Thursday. I know it's not "movie accurate," but considering that I had exactly 48 hours to put all of this together, I thought it turned out great.
The only hiccup I had was that the patches were sent via express mail and I guess someone has to sign for it when it's delivered. No one was home when the mail guy came by, so I didn't get my patches until today. I had to print out the patches and pin them to the uniform last night, which I was seriously distressed about, but it really didn't matter since I got a lot of compliments and random "DUDE! You're Spengler!" comments from random people at all three bars. Fortunately we're going to a kickball Halloween party tonight so it's not a total bust.
The best comment I got was from another guy dressed as a Ghostbuster (his was from a costume-in-a-bag) and he said, "Your uniform is so much better than mine." My outfit wasn't best in show quality but that really made my night. My goal for the next year is to build a custom proton pack and ghost trap. If I can pull them off, I'll be set for Halloween for the next 5 years.
Costume Highlights:
- The "FedEx Mail-Order brides"
- The group of girls dressed as yellow Peeps.
- The spot on Pretty Woman (Julia Roberts as Vivian Ward)
- The guy/girl combo dressed as Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich from 5th Element
- The cardboard Optimus Prime
- The other guy dressed as a Ghostbuster who had a custom built proton pack
- The guys dressed as Spartan soldiers from 300
- The Sweeney Todd group
- The guys pretending to be from the Cobra Kai dojo dressed as skeletons for Halloween
Epic Costume Failures:
- Anyone dressed as Sarah Palin or a hockey mom
- The group of guys wearing the capri-style swim Speedos, swim caps, and t-shirts that read "If drinking were an Olympic sport, I'd win gold"
- The guy wearing the flight suit pretending to be Maverick who was very obviously checking out our girls
- The guy wearing just a Speedo
- Pretty much anyone dressed as or pretending to be Michael Phelps
The Biggest Failure of the night:
Only having 4 bartenders to serve 2700 people. I'm convinced people were ordering 4 drinks at a time and then getting back in line because they could finish them before they could order again.
We bailed at 11:00 when the free bars closed and drove over to Charlie Hooper's in Brookside. Hooper's was much less crowded, so we could actually order drinks from the bar without waiting in line for 30 minutes. I guess the regular crowd wasn't expecting people to be dressed up for Halloween, so some of the older folks couldn't stop staring at us when we went to the bar. I caught some guy staring at me because I had my ecto goggles up on my forehead; I looked at him and said, "What?" like nothing was wrong which made him look away in shame.
Epic Awkward Moment:
A random girl credit carding my ass crack as she walked by. Megan saw it and just about threw down with her while I stood there like a doofus with my mouth hanging open.
I don't know how long we were at Hooper's, but after a while we left and walked down to the Brooksider (the kickball bar). They were super crowded, super busy, and it was just as loud as The Midland. Nothing really notable happened at the Brooksider, other than getting the biggest cups of beer I have ever seen for $5. I immediately passed one of those off because the night would not have ended well if I had attempted to finish them both.
I'm not sure how long we were at the Brooksider either, but we left at 2:00ish, went to Taco Bell, and then went home.
My Costume (Pics to come):
I had the idea to make a Ghostbusters uniform about 2 months ago but had to table it because I found out that we were doing a group costume thing. Naturally, that plan fell through last week and having lost the motivation to dress up, I decided I was going to take the easy way out and be House (Dr. Gregory House, MD), meaning at most, I'd have to buy a cane and not shave for 2 weeks.
That changed on Wednesday due to my face being unbearably itchy and my new found inspiration to make a Ghostbusters uniform. I rush ordered the patches on Wednesday and bought the rest of the supplies I needed for the utility belt and ecto goggles on Wednesday and Thursday. I know it's not "movie accurate," but considering that I had exactly 48 hours to put all of this together, I thought it turned out great.
The only hiccup I had was that the patches were sent via express mail and I guess someone has to sign for it when it's delivered. No one was home when the mail guy came by, so I didn't get my patches until today. I had to print out the patches and pin them to the uniform last night, which I was seriously distressed about, but it really didn't matter since I got a lot of compliments and random "DUDE! You're Spengler!" comments from random people at all three bars. Fortunately we're going to a kickball Halloween party tonight so it's not a total bust.
The best comment I got was from another guy dressed as a Ghostbuster (his was from a costume-in-a-bag) and he said, "Your uniform is so much better than mine." My outfit wasn't best in show quality but that really made my night. My goal for the next year is to build a custom proton pack and ghost trap. If I can pull them off, I'll be set for Halloween for the next 5 years.
Monday, October 27, 2008
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 8 / Issue 6
Prepare your brain for some knowledge. Issue 6 is ready for your consumption.
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 8 / Issue 6
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 8 / Issue 6
Monday, October 20, 2008
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 7 / Issue 5
This is the best issue I have ever created... that is, until I make the best issue ever next week.
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 7 / Issue 5
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 7 / Issue 5
Friday, October 17, 2008
Ex-Frat Goon Takes Ball To the Face. Flips Out Accordingly.
I was nearly involved in my first physical altercation last night during kickball. Here are the deets:
Around the 3rd inning, the game got really weird because the other team was more drunk than they were when the game started. That, combined with the home plate umpire being a first season rookie and not knowing the rules, set off a series of events that led to a near fist fight. Our opponents became increasingly agitated when I brought out the rule book twice to challenge calls that were completely incorrect, but what really set them off was what happened at the top of the fifth inning.
I was up to kick and having seen the home plate ump make really bad calls on the pitches, I decided to try and work the count since I had already been walked earlier in the game. The second pitch could have gone either way (it was probably a strike but the ump's strike zone was all over the place), so I waited as long as I could before fouling it off. Unfortunately, the ball had rolled behind me at that point, so I had to pivot on my left foot, which turned me 180 degrees (my back is to the field now) to kick the ball.
Well, the catcher happened to be standing right behind me when this happened, so when I kicked the ball it ramped up his foot, up his leg, up his torso, and caught him on the lip/nose area of his face. I immediately said that I was sorry and that it was an accident, but he wasn't going to have any of that. He shoved me and started going on and on about, "WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT? WHY THE FUCK DID YOU KICK IT AT ME? WHAT THE FUCK?" The whole time he's making a scene, I'm trying to apologize and make sure he's okay.
The umpires and his team finally got him to calm down enough to play again, but not before the first base ump came over and gave me the 3rd degree about it. I swear to God he was trying to get me to admit that I did it on purpose or something.
After the game we lined up to do the "good game/high five line thing" and the catcher didn't go so far as to not give me a high five or spit in his hand, but he did forget to say "good game." I tried to catch up with him after the game to say that I was sorry again but he blew me off and said, "Leave me alone, you're only making it worse by talking to me."
Looking back, I think they were frustrated with losing for the first time this season and this is what broke the proverbial camel's back. I've been told that they were really bad in the spring and turned things around this season. I understand that; I've been there. Reading the rules to the umpires to overturn their calls probably didn't help the situation either. I get it.
I still feel bad for what happened. I wouldn't try to hurt someone on purpose, nor would I pull some jackass maneuver like that just for the hell of it. What kills me about this situation, though, is his reaction to it. I've been hit in the face with baseballs, hockey sticks, hockey pucks, soccer balls, and kickballs and I have never had that kind of reaction, even when I had to go to the ER to get stitches. Hell, I didn't flip out when some jackass tackled me in a flag football game and broke my ankle.
I understand him being upset about it, but the shoving and yelling was over the top. You're not bleeding and there's not even a red mark on your chin, so shut up and get over it. The fact that 3 people on his team told me after the game that he does this all the time is testament to how out of control his is.
The other thing that pisses me off is that I've worked for 8 weeks to build up a good reputation with the people in this division and it was wiped out in 5 seconds last night. People who hear the story from him are only going to get, "That asshole from Los Angeles kicked a ball at me on purpose" and he's going to completely leave out the part where he acted like a douche for the rest of the game. Everyone who saw it happen, including the division president, thinks he over reacted, so I have some reassurance that I handled it correctly, but those fifteen or so people can't stop him from telling "his side" of the story. Megan thinks everyone will forget by next week, especially since no one really knows who I am outside of the "rules/newsletter guy" thing, so if I wear different shorts next Thursday, no one will recognize me. I think she's right, but I feel that my good reputation has taken a hit because of this clown.
I've seen my share of nonsense in Studio (Ex.The Warner Pros semi-final game last spring), but this was just too much. We took it seriously in Studio but it rarely got to this point because I think everyone realized that it's not worth taking to the next level. I'm finding more and more people in Kansas City that seem to think they need to relive their college frat days by being over the top with their competitiveness.
I've already been accused of being too serious by multiple teams in this division, but they don't seem to understand that just because I want to win doesn't mean I'm not having fun. I played many different sports growing up and it's just what I was taught: don't do something unless you're going to do your best. On the flip side, they don't have a problem with knuckleheads like this guy throwing tantrums and starting fights. They justify it by saying, "That's just the way he is. Oh well." and they don't do anything to correct the behavior.
Megan had the best line of the night, though. When one of the girls said to me while I was pitching, "You're finally pitching nice to a girl," Megan said, "So you're saying you want to be treated differently than guys? If that's so, you better get your ass home, pregnant, and have dinner on the table every day. Stand up for yourself, woman!"
I couldn't be more proud to be married to her.
Around the 3rd inning, the game got really weird because the other team was more drunk than they were when the game started. That, combined with the home plate umpire being a first season rookie and not knowing the rules, set off a series of events that led to a near fist fight. Our opponents became increasingly agitated when I brought out the rule book twice to challenge calls that were completely incorrect, but what really set them off was what happened at the top of the fifth inning.
I was up to kick and having seen the home plate ump make really bad calls on the pitches, I decided to try and work the count since I had already been walked earlier in the game. The second pitch could have gone either way (it was probably a strike but the ump's strike zone was all over the place), so I waited as long as I could before fouling it off. Unfortunately, the ball had rolled behind me at that point, so I had to pivot on my left foot, which turned me 180 degrees (my back is to the field now) to kick the ball.
Well, the catcher happened to be standing right behind me when this happened, so when I kicked the ball it ramped up his foot, up his leg, up his torso, and caught him on the lip/nose area of his face. I immediately said that I was sorry and that it was an accident, but he wasn't going to have any of that. He shoved me and started going on and on about, "WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT? WHY THE FUCK DID YOU KICK IT AT ME? WHAT THE FUCK?" The whole time he's making a scene, I'm trying to apologize and make sure he's okay.
The umpires and his team finally got him to calm down enough to play again, but not before the first base ump came over and gave me the 3rd degree about it. I swear to God he was trying to get me to admit that I did it on purpose or something.
After the game we lined up to do the "good game/high five line thing" and the catcher didn't go so far as to not give me a high five or spit in his hand, but he did forget to say "good game." I tried to catch up with him after the game to say that I was sorry again but he blew me off and said, "Leave me alone, you're only making it worse by talking to me."
Looking back, I think they were frustrated with losing for the first time this season and this is what broke the proverbial camel's back. I've been told that they were really bad in the spring and turned things around this season. I understand that; I've been there. Reading the rules to the umpires to overturn their calls probably didn't help the situation either. I get it.
I still feel bad for what happened. I wouldn't try to hurt someone on purpose, nor would I pull some jackass maneuver like that just for the hell of it. What kills me about this situation, though, is his reaction to it. I've been hit in the face with baseballs, hockey sticks, hockey pucks, soccer balls, and kickballs and I have never had that kind of reaction, even when I had to go to the ER to get stitches. Hell, I didn't flip out when some jackass tackled me in a flag football game and broke my ankle.
I understand him being upset about it, but the shoving and yelling was over the top. You're not bleeding and there's not even a red mark on your chin, so shut up and get over it. The fact that 3 people on his team told me after the game that he does this all the time is testament to how out of control his is.
The other thing that pisses me off is that I've worked for 8 weeks to build up a good reputation with the people in this division and it was wiped out in 5 seconds last night. People who hear the story from him are only going to get, "That asshole from Los Angeles kicked a ball at me on purpose" and he's going to completely leave out the part where he acted like a douche for the rest of the game. Everyone who saw it happen, including the division president, thinks he over reacted, so I have some reassurance that I handled it correctly, but those fifteen or so people can't stop him from telling "his side" of the story. Megan thinks everyone will forget by next week, especially since no one really knows who I am outside of the "rules/newsletter guy" thing, so if I wear different shorts next Thursday, no one will recognize me. I think she's right, but I feel that my good reputation has taken a hit because of this clown.
I've seen my share of nonsense in Studio (Ex.The Warner Pros semi-final game last spring), but this was just too much. We took it seriously in Studio but it rarely got to this point because I think everyone realized that it's not worth taking to the next level. I'm finding more and more people in Kansas City that seem to think they need to relive their college frat days by being over the top with their competitiveness.
I've already been accused of being too serious by multiple teams in this division, but they don't seem to understand that just because I want to win doesn't mean I'm not having fun. I played many different sports growing up and it's just what I was taught: don't do something unless you're going to do your best. On the flip side, they don't have a problem with knuckleheads like this guy throwing tantrums and starting fights. They justify it by saying, "That's just the way he is. Oh well." and they don't do anything to correct the behavior.
Megan had the best line of the night, though. When one of the girls said to me while I was pitching, "You're finally pitching nice to a girl," Megan said, "So you're saying you want to be treated differently than guys? If that's so, you better get your ass home, pregnant, and have dinner on the table every day. Stand up for yourself, woman!"
I couldn't be more proud to be married to her.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
I wouldn't call this the most random thing that's ever happened to me, but it certainly could be filed under "Completely Unexpected." I spent some time over at the student apartments/dorms this morning installing a new computer lab for the building residents. As I was walking to the truck, I heard bagpipes being played. Having heard bagpipes being played on the street in Scotland, I knew this was the real deal and not a recording being blasted at full volume. I went searching for the source and to my surprise, it was a bus driver playing the pipes while he was on break.
His bus was parked at a stop and he was standing on the sidewalk belting out some tunes. I went over and talked to him for a few minutes and got some information about who I could contact about taking lessons. My wife is going to kill me when I tell her that I'm going to start taking bagpipe lessons, but it'll be totally worth it.
His bus was parked at a stop and he was standing on the sidewalk belting out some tunes. I went over and talked to him for a few minutes and got some information about who I could contact about taking lessons. My wife is going to kill me when I tell her that I'm going to start taking bagpipe lessons, but it'll be totally worth it.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Thursday, October 02, 2008
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 5 / Issue 3
The flip cup tournament is finally over and it was a success. Here's your newsletter for week 5.
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 5 / Issue 3
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 5 / Issue 3
Monday, September 29, 2008
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 4 / Issue 2
Issue 2 of the MO Kansas City kickball division's newsletter is available. I tried some new formatting with this one, specifically with the recaps since I really didn't like how they looked in the first issue.
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 4 / Issue 2
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 4 / Issue 2
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 3 / Issue 1
Like I mentioned last week, I decided to take over the newsletter for the division because:
1. No one was doing it.
2. Divisions without newsletters are lame.
After a week of working on this thing, I think we're ready for prime time.
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 3 / Issue 1
1. No one was doing it.
2. Divisions without newsletters are lame.
After a week of working on this thing, I think we're ready for prime time.
[MO Kansas City Newsletter] Week 3 / Issue 1
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Rain, rain, go away!
It's been raining a lot the last few days. So much so that kickball got cancelled this week because it has rained non-stop since I woke up this morning. How disappointing.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Team Fingerbang had a double header last night and won both games to the tune of 3-1 and 5-0. Fielding and kicking were a little off for everyone because of the heavy rain we experienced Wednesday and yesterday morning. I found pitching to be particularly difficult since it's hard to throw the ball when it's slick from the rain. It wasn't nearly as bad as last week, though, since the rains stopped early yesterday morning rather than raining through the games like it did a week ago.
I managed to achieve one of my goals for the season last night: hitting a player with a pitch and having the ball go fair. Some of the girls on the other team thought I was "mean" and "scary" for whatever stupid reason. I'm the only one in the division that throws full overhand, so maybe that has something to do with it. It's not even like the full overhand is that effective since the grass on the fields is 4 inches thick and the ball slows down significantly on the first bounce.
I have 5 more games to reach my other goal of striking someone out. Hopefully we'll get a rain-free couple of days so that I can show everyone what real pitching is.
I managed to achieve one of my goals for the season last night: hitting a player with a pitch and having the ball go fair. Some of the girls on the other team thought I was "mean" and "scary" for whatever stupid reason. I'm the only one in the division that throws full overhand, so maybe that has something to do with it. It's not even like the full overhand is that effective since the grass on the fields is 4 inches thick and the ball slows down significantly on the first bounce.
I have 5 more games to reach my other goal of striking someone out. Hopefully we'll get a rain-free couple of days so that I can show everyone what real pitching is.
Dear World,
Sorry for not writing. My laptop has been on the fritz for a few weeks now and I like to keep my writing saved in one place... my laptop. Sure, I could update from anywhere since this website has a web interface, but it was easier to just not write rather than have to save everything on a thumb drive and transfer it over when I got my laptop up and running again.
Just to keep you up to date, I sent my laptop off to Apple a couple of weeks ago because smoke started coming out of the air vents and the screen's backlight wasn't turning on. 3 days after I got my laptop back from DHL, the hard drive started clicking. Noisy hard drives are bad and my drive stopped working soon after the clicking started. Fortunately I had a backup so I didn't lose much of anything and certainly nothing important. I am very comfortable opening up laptops, so ordering a new drive and putting it in myself wasn't a big deal. I got my drive on Wednesday this week and was up and running that night. Hopefully I won't have any more issues with this thing because dropping $400 total on it for repairs wasn't very fun.
The only saving grace about the situation is that I purchased an iPhone last month. The day I was screwed out of my first N+ exam, I went straight to the Apple store and bought an 8GB iPhone 3G. It's a phone, first and foremost, so I haven't loaded it with tons of music (besides, Simplify Media has built an app that lets you share music libraries wirelessly), but the calendaring and internet functions have been extremely useful. My only major complaints about the phone are that native apps, like Safari, crash far too often and the GPS functionality is still really limited. I am willing to give it some time, though, since Apple is really good about fixing obvious bug issues.
Update: I've gone back and added a few posts for the time I didn't have my laptop. -JM
Sorry for not writing. My laptop has been on the fritz for a few weeks now and I like to keep my writing saved in one place... my laptop. Sure, I could update from anywhere since this website has a web interface, but it was easier to just not write rather than have to save everything on a thumb drive and transfer it over when I got my laptop up and running again.
Just to keep you up to date, I sent my laptop off to Apple a couple of weeks ago because smoke started coming out of the air vents and the screen's backlight wasn't turning on. 3 days after I got my laptop back from DHL, the hard drive started clicking. Noisy hard drives are bad and my drive stopped working soon after the clicking started. Fortunately I had a backup so I didn't lose much of anything and certainly nothing important. I am very comfortable opening up laptops, so ordering a new drive and putting it in myself wasn't a big deal. I got my drive on Wednesday this week and was up and running that night. Hopefully I won't have any more issues with this thing because dropping $400 total on it for repairs wasn't very fun.
The only saving grace about the situation is that I purchased an iPhone last month. The day I was screwed out of my first N+ exam, I went straight to the Apple store and bought an 8GB iPhone 3G. It's a phone, first and foremost, so I haven't loaded it with tons of music (besides, Simplify Media has built an app that lets you share music libraries wirelessly), but the calendaring and internet functions have been extremely useful. My only major complaints about the phone are that native apps, like Safari, crash far too often and the GPS functionality is still really limited. I am willing to give it some time, though, since Apple is really good about fixing obvious bug issues.
Update: I've gone back and added a few posts for the time I didn't have my laptop. -JM
Friday, August 29, 2008
The WAKA Kansas City (KC) kickball division began last night. My team, Team Fingerbang, opened the season with a 6-4 (called 6-5 for whatever reason) victory over Shenanigans.
This division is nothing like Studio or even Junction, for that matter. The difference isn't a bad thing, it's just new to someone like myself who has played in more than one division and has participated in multiple national WAKA tournaments. First of all, KC doesn't concern itself with "rules." Those are merely suggestions by which you can play if you choose. My old division Studio (and to some extent, Junction) were very much the opposite of this; we knew the rules and followed them the best we could and disputes were resolved through yelling and fighting (I'm only halfway kidding here). My addition to the division board as the newly founded Rules Chair was marginally effective best. I ran the rules clinics both last week and yesterday, but I am quickly realizing that everyone's eyes glaze over and no one pays attention when they have to learn the rules. I didn't expect the Rules Chair to go over well at first, but already I'm getting the feeling I'm not going to be able to change anything.
I think the biggest problem everyone has is that they think I'm going to make it more serious and competitive, which really isn't my intention. I just want everyone to understand the rules so that no one is screwed when the umpires make a bad call. Of course, if everyone knows the rules the umpires are going to make less bad calls, so it really is a win-win situation for the division. I had some good questions last week and yesterday regarding situations that don't normally come up which shows that at least some people are thinking about this stuff. Hopefully the majority of those who don't care will eventually realize that knowing the rules is important and won't make it any more serious than it already is(n't)
The other huge difference is that everyone does their drinking at the field rather than at the bar. We were legally obligated to not drink in Studio and with cops roaming the fields all the time, we really didn't want to risk losing the division's permit. I've heard that it's against city law in KC as well, but apparently the cops don't care since no one causes any trouble, so everyone parties at the field. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with this at all. I couldn't care less if everyone wants to get smashed, it's just different for me since we couldn't do it in Studio. What's disappointing is that no one goes to the bar at the end of the night because they did all of their drinking at the field. One of the biggest draws about Studio is that everyone goes to the bar, win or lose. Hanging out with other teams is the best way to meet people and form relationships with everyone in the division. I think it created a sense of comradery in Studio which really helped to break down rivalries between teams. Hopefully last night wasn't normal and more people really do go to the bar.
Again, I don't want anyone to think that I'm criticizing KC. I've met some really great people and I did have fun last night. These are just some things that I have noticed are really different from Studio, for better or for worse. I would love for everyone to know the rules and actually follow them correctly rather than making shit up on the fly but I'll settle for "acknowledgement that they exist" for now.
This division is nothing like Studio or even Junction, for that matter. The difference isn't a bad thing, it's just new to someone like myself who has played in more than one division and has participated in multiple national WAKA tournaments. First of all, KC doesn't concern itself with "rules." Those are merely suggestions by which you can play if you choose. My old division Studio (and to some extent, Junction) were very much the opposite of this; we knew the rules and followed them the best we could and disputes were resolved through yelling and fighting (I'm only halfway kidding here). My addition to the division board as the newly founded Rules Chair was marginally effective best. I ran the rules clinics both last week and yesterday, but I am quickly realizing that everyone's eyes glaze over and no one pays attention when they have to learn the rules. I didn't expect the Rules Chair to go over well at first, but already I'm getting the feeling I'm not going to be able to change anything.
I think the biggest problem everyone has is that they think I'm going to make it more serious and competitive, which really isn't my intention. I just want everyone to understand the rules so that no one is screwed when the umpires make a bad call. Of course, if everyone knows the rules the umpires are going to make less bad calls, so it really is a win-win situation for the division. I had some good questions last week and yesterday regarding situations that don't normally come up which shows that at least some people are thinking about this stuff. Hopefully the majority of those who don't care will eventually realize that knowing the rules is important and won't make it any more serious than it already is(n't)
The other huge difference is that everyone does their drinking at the field rather than at the bar. We were legally obligated to not drink in Studio and with cops roaming the fields all the time, we really didn't want to risk losing the division's permit. I've heard that it's against city law in KC as well, but apparently the cops don't care since no one causes any trouble, so everyone parties at the field. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with this at all. I couldn't care less if everyone wants to get smashed, it's just different for me since we couldn't do it in Studio. What's disappointing is that no one goes to the bar at the end of the night because they did all of their drinking at the field. One of the biggest draws about Studio is that everyone goes to the bar, win or lose. Hanging out with other teams is the best way to meet people and form relationships with everyone in the division. I think it created a sense of comradery in Studio which really helped to break down rivalries between teams. Hopefully last night wasn't normal and more people really do go to the bar.
Again, I don't want anyone to think that I'm criticizing KC. I've met some really great people and I did have fun last night. These are just some things that I have noticed are really different from Studio, for better or for worse. I would love for everyone to know the rules and actually follow them correctly rather than making shit up on the fly but I'll settle for "acknowledgement that they exist" for now.
Monday, August 25, 2008
The Blue Team finally won its first game. Of course, it was the last game of the season and the team we played didn't have its ringers present, but we still won, none the less. I contributed 2 goals to the 9-6 victory. We were really starting to pull together at the end of the season. I think that if we had gelled like this earlier, we would have won more games. The next season starts in October, which honestly, isn't soon enough.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
I saw a computer catch on fire for the first time in my life last Thursday. Well, not literally catch on fire, but there was a lot of smoke and that was scary, so it may as well have been on fire. I was typing an email on my Macbook Pro when all of a sudden, I hear this loud "pop" come from under the keyboard and the computer shuts completely off. As soon as it turned off, smoke started pouring out of the air vent right underneath the screen. Again, there were no flames, but a computer that produces smoke is what I call "bad." Trying to think quickly, I pulled out the battery and unplugged the power and let the laptop sit for a few minutes. After the smoke went away, I attempted to turn it back on. I got the familiar Apple chime and could hear the hard drive spinning but the screen was black. I messed around with it and figured out that the backlight or the power inverter for the backlight must have exploded because I could still connect an external monitor to the laptop and get video out.
Much to my chagrin, I wound up taking it to the Apple store on the Plaza on Saturday. I guess they changed their pricing for parts because it's only going to cost me $310 (plus tax) for them to fix *whatever* is wrong with the computer. That basically means that if the logic board is fried, it won't cost me $Texas to have it fixed. I think this is a little weird because AppleCare for a Macbook Pro is $350... meaning that if nothing else goes wrong with my computer in the next 7 months, I will have saved a small amount of cash. Unfortunately, I will be without my primary machine for 7-10 days, so I guess that's the bad news.
I have been studying off and on for the CompTIA Network+ exam for 2 years and I just never got around to actually taking the test. I decided about a month ago that I would try to get my MCSA since the CCNA route clearly wasn't working for me. Microsoft allows the A+ and Network+ certifications to count as elective credits towards the MCSA, so since I already had the A+ cert, it kind of made sense to go ahead and sit the Network+ exam since it is much easier than taking another Microsoft test. I studied semi-diligently for a couple of weeks, got a great price on a test voucher, and took the test yesterday. I passed with a 750/900 (passing is 554), which is a good score considering I didn't study for that long. I'm honestly kind of disappointed with how easy the test was... I was relieved to have passed my other certification tests; I just looked up and asked myself "what's next" after finishing this one.
Perhaps it's because I was so frustrated with VUE because they have horrible customer service. I was actually supposed to take the test on August 8, but the exam proctor at the test site accidentally gave my test to the wrong person. She told me this when I got there and said that usually VUE lets her start the test over. Well, they didn't and they said I couldn't take the test that day and that I would have to call them on Monday to get everything straightened out. Per their instructions, I called on Monday and was told that I'd get a call from a manager on Tuesday. I called on Tuesday afternoon (after not hearing from anyone) and was told I would get a call on Wednesday. I called on Wednesday (after not hearing from anyone) and was told I would get a call on Thursday or Friday. I called on Friday (after not hearing from anyone... again) and the representative decided that I had been run around enough and rescheduled my test. Talk about a crappy way to run things.
Having gone through all of that, I killed the test but didn't feel great about it. I spent some time last night thinking about what certification I wanted to get next and I decided to finish out the MCSA since that was the whole reason for taking the Network+ exam. I'm really tired of Microsoft tests and the last one (70-291) is some of the driest material out there, but it will be worth it to finish it so I can move on to other stuff. After the MCSA is complete, I think I'll start studying for the Security+ to see if I like computer security concepts as a future path for my career.
Much to my chagrin, I wound up taking it to the Apple store on the Plaza on Saturday. I guess they changed their pricing for parts because it's only going to cost me $310 (plus tax) for them to fix *whatever* is wrong with the computer. That basically means that if the logic board is fried, it won't cost me $Texas to have it fixed. I think this is a little weird because AppleCare for a Macbook Pro is $350... meaning that if nothing else goes wrong with my computer in the next 7 months, I will have saved a small amount of cash. Unfortunately, I will be without my primary machine for 7-10 days, so I guess that's the bad news.
I have been studying off and on for the CompTIA Network+ exam for 2 years and I just never got around to actually taking the test. I decided about a month ago that I would try to get my MCSA since the CCNA route clearly wasn't working for me. Microsoft allows the A+ and Network+ certifications to count as elective credits towards the MCSA, so since I already had the A+ cert, it kind of made sense to go ahead and sit the Network+ exam since it is much easier than taking another Microsoft test. I studied semi-diligently for a couple of weeks, got a great price on a test voucher, and took the test yesterday. I passed with a 750/900 (passing is 554), which is a good score considering I didn't study for that long. I'm honestly kind of disappointed with how easy the test was... I was relieved to have passed my other certification tests; I just looked up and asked myself "what's next" after finishing this one.
Perhaps it's because I was so frustrated with VUE because they have horrible customer service. I was actually supposed to take the test on August 8, but the exam proctor at the test site accidentally gave my test to the wrong person. She told me this when I got there and said that usually VUE lets her start the test over. Well, they didn't and they said I couldn't take the test that day and that I would have to call them on Monday to get everything straightened out. Per their instructions, I called on Monday and was told that I'd get a call from a manager on Tuesday. I called on Tuesday afternoon (after not hearing from anyone) and was told I would get a call on Wednesday. I called on Wednesday (after not hearing from anyone) and was told I would get a call on Thursday or Friday. I called on Friday (after not hearing from anyone... again) and the representative decided that I had been run around enough and rescheduled my test. Talk about a crappy way to run things.
Having gone through all of that, I killed the test but didn't feel great about it. I spent some time last night thinking about what certification I wanted to get next and I decided to finish out the MCSA since that was the whole reason for taking the Network+ exam. I'm really tired of Microsoft tests and the last one (70-291) is some of the driest material out there, but it will be worth it to finish it so I can move on to other stuff. After the MCSA is complete, I think I'll start studying for the Security+ to see if I like computer security concepts as a future path for my career.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
If you haven't been living under a rock, you should be well aware of the Olympic games taking place in Beijing, China this month. I know that I have caught "Olympic Fever" and my television hasn't left NBC, MSNBC, or USA since last Friday night. I have a hard time explaining why I am so interested in the Olympics; I'm not overly patriotic, in fact, I'd say I'm rather cynical of the United States' position in the world. Perhaps it's the idea of thousands of the world's best athletes coming together to compete on an international stage. Or maybe it's Morgan Freeman's inspiring words in his VISA commercials. Of course I'm going to cheer for the United States, but I think I'm more interested in the idea of the Olympics rather than seeing the US win gold medals.
Everyone is watching Michael Phelps on his quest to win gold in all 8 of his events. He "only" won 6 gold medals in 2004, so the big story this year is of course "will he beat Mark Spitz' record of 7 medals?" Now that Phelps has won gold in his two toughest events, it seems highly likely that he will reach the coveted 8 gold medal mark. The guy is truly amazing at what he does. NBC has been running human interest stories about the Olympic athletes and by his own words, Phelps admits that all he does is eat, sleep, and swim. That's some dedication, people.
Another story that is of particular interest to me is the US men's basketball team. After a disappointing showing in 2004, the team desperately wants to make a comeback on the international level, even going so far as to call themselves the "Redeem Team," a play on the 1992 "Dream Team" moniker. They played well against China in their first game on Sunday, defeating the host country 101 to 70. Consensus is that the US played well in the opening game, but has areas in which it needs improvement.
After a day off, the men picked up Angola Tuesday night. Despite a win to the tune of 97 to 76, the victory was decidedly not solid. The United States should have been able to run the score up on the Angolans through the course of the game, but instead dropped a 30 point lead down to 21 through sloppy play. I will admit that I am not a basketball expert nor am I an analyst, but I believe there are three key areas in which the US men's team needs work:
1. Making the shots - The US shot 55.1% (38-69) from the field but could only manage 23.8% (5-21) attempts from beyond the 3 point arc. Kobe put up 4-13 from the field but couldn't drop a single 3 point shot out of 8 attempts. The rest of the squad didn't do much better, although Anthony and Wade managed to put together a combined 10-15 from the field and 3-5 from the outside. What makes these stats even worse is that the US managed to miss the easy layups and jumpshots from 6-8 feet out. No one expects the team to make every shot they take, but they can't keep missing the easy shots.
2. Covering open shots - Angola had so many open shots that I lost count of them by the end of the first half. They moved the ball around quickly and found their open man for the quick jump shot, most of which were for three points. Yes, Angola had more 3 point attempts, but they had a higher percentage of shots made, mostly because they were unguarded on the perimeter. This is bad, bad, bad and teams like Greece and Spain are going to drop tons of points if left open anywhere near the basket.
3. Getting complacent in the second half - Anyone would get lazy when playing teams like China and Angola. No one wants to completely blow out another team, especially in the Olympics where sportsmanship is held in high regard. You don't, however, want to blow a 30 point lead in the second half. These games aren't going to be won in the first quarter; rather, by wearing down the opposition, the US men will rack up the points over the duration of the game. Winning by 20 is still a large margin of victory, but it could have easily been 40 points if they hadn't let up. I am not condoning murdering teams for the hell of it, but I am suggesting that the US men should treat every game as if it is their last. They should use the comfort of a 30 point lead to practice the fundamentals of their game rather than needlessly turn the ball over on broken plays. I know they want to show off a little, but showing off isn't making them better. The US men need to stay focused going in to their next game against Greece and messing around on the court isn't going to do anything to maintain their intensity.
The US men's national team is more than capable of taking this all the way, but it's going to take some more work for them to regain their stature on the international level. I would imagine that most of their opponents view them as the bronze medal winning team from four years ago rather than the determined squad they are now. This slight underdog status can work well for them, but they need to make it clear that they are in China to win and they can do that by completely dominating their competition.
Everyone is watching Michael Phelps on his quest to win gold in all 8 of his events. He "only" won 6 gold medals in 2004, so the big story this year is of course "will he beat Mark Spitz' record of 7 medals?" Now that Phelps has won gold in his two toughest events, it seems highly likely that he will reach the coveted 8 gold medal mark. The guy is truly amazing at what he does. NBC has been running human interest stories about the Olympic athletes and by his own words, Phelps admits that all he does is eat, sleep, and swim. That's some dedication, people.
Another story that is of particular interest to me is the US men's basketball team. After a disappointing showing in 2004, the team desperately wants to make a comeback on the international level, even going so far as to call themselves the "Redeem Team," a play on the 1992 "Dream Team" moniker. They played well against China in their first game on Sunday, defeating the host country 101 to 70. Consensus is that the US played well in the opening game, but has areas in which it needs improvement.
After a day off, the men picked up Angola Tuesday night. Despite a win to the tune of 97 to 76, the victory was decidedly not solid. The United States should have been able to run the score up on the Angolans through the course of the game, but instead dropped a 30 point lead down to 21 through sloppy play. I will admit that I am not a basketball expert nor am I an analyst, but I believe there are three key areas in which the US men's team needs work:
1. Making the shots - The US shot 55.1% (38-69) from the field but could only manage 23.8% (5-21) attempts from beyond the 3 point arc. Kobe put up 4-13 from the field but couldn't drop a single 3 point shot out of 8 attempts. The rest of the squad didn't do much better, although Anthony and Wade managed to put together a combined 10-15 from the field and 3-5 from the outside. What makes these stats even worse is that the US managed to miss the easy layups and jumpshots from 6-8 feet out. No one expects the team to make every shot they take, but they can't keep missing the easy shots.
2. Covering open shots - Angola had so many open shots that I lost count of them by the end of the first half. They moved the ball around quickly and found their open man for the quick jump shot, most of which were for three points. Yes, Angola had more 3 point attempts, but they had a higher percentage of shots made, mostly because they were unguarded on the perimeter. This is bad, bad, bad and teams like Greece and Spain are going to drop tons of points if left open anywhere near the basket.
3. Getting complacent in the second half - Anyone would get lazy when playing teams like China and Angola. No one wants to completely blow out another team, especially in the Olympics where sportsmanship is held in high regard. You don't, however, want to blow a 30 point lead in the second half. These games aren't going to be won in the first quarter; rather, by wearing down the opposition, the US men will rack up the points over the duration of the game. Winning by 20 is still a large margin of victory, but it could have easily been 40 points if they hadn't let up. I am not condoning murdering teams for the hell of it, but I am suggesting that the US men should treat every game as if it is their last. They should use the comfort of a 30 point lead to practice the fundamentals of their game rather than needlessly turn the ball over on broken plays. I know they want to show off a little, but showing off isn't making them better. The US men need to stay focused going in to their next game against Greece and messing around on the court isn't going to do anything to maintain their intensity.
The US men's national team is more than capable of taking this all the way, but it's going to take some more work for them to regain their stature on the international level. I would imagine that most of their opponents view them as the bronze medal winning team from four years ago rather than the determined squad they are now. This slight underdog status can work well for them, but they need to make it clear that they are in China to win and they can do that by completely dominating their competition.
Friday, August 08, 2008
It's true folks, I am tentatively employed as of 8:30 this morning. After 3 rounds of negotiation, I accepted a position at the University of Missouri - Kansas City as the new System Support Administrator. The job doesn't start until 25 August, though, so I will have been unemployed for exactly 3 months. And what a 3 months it has been... The boredom was excruciating; sitting at home with nothing to do but clean and do laundry isn't exactly my idea of "fun." I'm glad I held out, though. This is the job I wanted and it came through in the end.
In other news, I am taking the Network+ certification exam later this afternoon. I feel prepared for it, I mean, I've had the study book for 2 years and I've read it several times plus I've studied for other exams that are much harder, but I still have this doubt in the back of my mind about whether or not I can pass. I found a good deal on a voucher that took $75 off of the total cost, but part of the deal is that I have to take the test before Sunday. I guess I'm doubting myself because I usually plan out when I'm going to take a test at least a month in advance and I only gave myself 2 days warning on this one.
Megan and I are going to an Opening Ceremony party for the Olympics tonight. I need to find my communist Russia flag before we go so that it really is a theme party.
In other news, I am taking the Network+ certification exam later this afternoon. I feel prepared for it, I mean, I've had the study book for 2 years and I've read it several times plus I've studied for other exams that are much harder, but I still have this doubt in the back of my mind about whether or not I can pass. I found a good deal on a voucher that took $75 off of the total cost, but part of the deal is that I have to take the test before Sunday. I guess I'm doubting myself because I usually plan out when I'm going to take a test at least a month in advance and I only gave myself 2 days warning on this one.
Megan and I are going to an Opening Ceremony party for the Olympics tonight. I need to find my communist Russia flag before we go so that it really is a theme party.
Monday, July 28, 2008
The good news is that I had a job interview this last Friday. I won't say what company it was with or what the job is, but I am excited about it and I really hope that this one comes through. I think the interview went well; I tried to relax and have a good time with the interviewers (it was a group interview). I threw in some jokes here and there and I think I was able to show them that I am serious about what I do but I also like to have fun with it as well. I have read that you should always send a thank you note after an interview, so I thought I would give that a try on this one. I'm not sure my letter actually made it to the post, though, because I dropped it in what I assumed was the outgoing mailbox, but the ladies in the apartment complex had no idea what I was talking about. That would really suck if I didn't get the job because my thank you note didn't ever reach who I sent it to.
We went to the Royals game on Friday night after Megan got off of work. The Royals lost 5-2 to the Devil Rays. What is really unfortunate with the game is that the Royals only had 2 hits... both of which were one shot home runs. There were a couple of SportsCenter highlights, but overall it was kind of a crappy game. We sat in the All You Can Eat seats, which was fun, but also disappointing because it was "buck night" which means that hotdogs and small sodas were only a dollar, so we actually paid extra to get what everyone else was getting by default. I put down 5 dogs, nachos, peanuts, 2 sodas, and a beer... and I paid for it on Saturday.
The Blue Team dropped to 0-5 yesterday in a 6-7 shootout thriller. I netted one goal in the second half. Our goalie didn't show up, which isn't surprising since last week he said he wasn't going to come because he was frustrated with losing. Our replacement goalie for yesterday was awesome, though; he made some fantastic saves that no one should have been able to make AND he didn't bitch about losing. I really hope we can win a game this season; I'm having fun and everything, but winning at least one game would be nice.
We went to the Royals game on Friday night after Megan got off of work. The Royals lost 5-2 to the Devil Rays. What is really unfortunate with the game is that the Royals only had 2 hits... both of which were one shot home runs. There were a couple of SportsCenter highlights, but overall it was kind of a crappy game. We sat in the All You Can Eat seats, which was fun, but also disappointing because it was "buck night" which means that hotdogs and small sodas were only a dollar, so we actually paid extra to get what everyone else was getting by default. I put down 5 dogs, nachos, peanuts, 2 sodas, and a beer... and I paid for it on Saturday.
The Blue Team dropped to 0-5 yesterday in a 6-7 shootout thriller. I netted one goal in the second half. Our goalie didn't show up, which isn't surprising since last week he said he wasn't going to come because he was frustrated with losing. Our replacement goalie for yesterday was awesome, though; he made some fantastic saves that no one should have been able to make AND he didn't bitch about losing. I really hope we can win a game this season; I'm having fun and everything, but winning at least one game would be nice.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The job crisis continues.
Megan and I arrived in Overland Park on May 29 which means that next Tuesday will be our two month anniversary of being in Overland Park. Two days from now (the 24th) will be the two month anniversary of me not having a job. Needless to say, I'm a little stressed and frustrated with my current situation. I re-did my resume after speaking with some of the dudes at the Temple. They believed that I wasn't playing up my skills and abilities and that I needed to focus more on what I accomplished at each job rather than just saying what I did.
I took their advice and posted my new resume on Monster and Career Builder yesterday. I've had 3 recruiters call me since yesterday, which is more than I had in the first month and a half of having my resume on either of those websites. One recruiter actually has a job she wants me to look at, another just wanted to put me on file because they are establishing an office in Overland Park next week, and the last recruiter was an Indian (not Native American) dude that wanted me to do tech support for Sprint. An Indian dude was calling me about a call center job was off-putting enough, but seriously? I have my big-kid pants on now and I'm not ashamed to say that I am above call center jobs at this point in my life.
Looking for jobs is probably the one thing I hate most in the universe. My biggest gripe is that companies put ads in the paper/on websites/whatever to fill positions but they take their sweet time setting up interviews and actually filling the positions. It doesn't seem like the best way to run a company, you know? If you need people, why not actually hire qualified candidates rather than run them around through interviews and not calling anyone back for months on end? On top of that, this whole "show interest in the job by calling after you apply" nonsense is ridiculous. I SHOWED INTEREST IN THE JOB BY APPLYING FOR THE JOB. Now do your part and set up the interview.
After missing the 3rd game of the season, I made my grand return to the Skate City roller hockey league on Sunday... where we were annihilated 13-4. I got us on the board with 2 goals, but the rest of the guys just couldn't finish the puck. I would not call this the best example of good hockey (except maybe in regards to the other team). In fairness, though, the other team has been raping everyone, so no one should feel that bad about losing to them. Right now the Blue team stands at 0-4, so we can still pull out a .500 season if we win the next 4.
Megan and I arrived in Overland Park on May 29 which means that next Tuesday will be our two month anniversary of being in Overland Park. Two days from now (the 24th) will be the two month anniversary of me not having a job. Needless to say, I'm a little stressed and frustrated with my current situation. I re-did my resume after speaking with some of the dudes at the Temple. They believed that I wasn't playing up my skills and abilities and that I needed to focus more on what I accomplished at each job rather than just saying what I did.
I took their advice and posted my new resume on Monster and Career Builder yesterday. I've had 3 recruiters call me since yesterday, which is more than I had in the first month and a half of having my resume on either of those websites. One recruiter actually has a job she wants me to look at, another just wanted to put me on file because they are establishing an office in Overland Park next week, and the last recruiter was an Indian (not Native American) dude that wanted me to do tech support for Sprint. An Indian dude was calling me about a call center job was off-putting enough, but seriously? I have my big-kid pants on now and I'm not ashamed to say that I am above call center jobs at this point in my life.
Looking for jobs is probably the one thing I hate most in the universe. My biggest gripe is that companies put ads in the paper/on websites/whatever to fill positions but they take their sweet time setting up interviews and actually filling the positions. It doesn't seem like the best way to run a company, you know? If you need people, why not actually hire qualified candidates rather than run them around through interviews and not calling anyone back for months on end? On top of that, this whole "show interest in the job by calling after you apply" nonsense is ridiculous. I SHOWED INTEREST IN THE JOB BY APPLYING FOR THE JOB. Now do your part and set up the interview.
After missing the 3rd game of the season, I made my grand return to the Skate City roller hockey league on Sunday... where we were annihilated 13-4. I got us on the board with 2 goals, but the rest of the guys just couldn't finish the puck. I would not call this the best example of good hockey (except maybe in regards to the other team). In fairness, though, the other team has been raping everyone, so no one should feel that bad about losing to them. Right now the Blue team stands at 0-4, so we can still pull out a .500 season if we win the next 4.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
I'm in Los Angeles... again. This is the last trip, though. The boys finally hired someone to fill my position, although I think it must be a sick joke since the guy's name is Jose. I guess they really couldn't get along without me. Work has been relatively light this week; I had no major projects or anything to work on, so it has mostly been trouble tickets and the random nonsense that comes with working at a religious institution.
I played kickball on Monday with the usual suspects. Michael rented a field at the park so that the Ninjas and GFC could scrimmage. He invited me to come out and play but didn't tell anyone that I was coming. I'm getting used to the stares and "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE" looks, due to getting that response both weeks I appeared at the temple unannounced. I played for the Ninjas during the scrimmage but switched over to GFC after 5 innings after they lost too many people to field a team. I got the pitching bug and pitched a couple of innings. I think my pitching has gotten a lot better, so I'm excited to throw down in KC this season. From what I hear, there's only a couple of people that pitch overhand in KC and I doubt they pitch as hard/fast as I do. Basically, it's going to be awesome.
Also, quote of the week: "Here, touch the Silver Bullet!" -someone handing me a Coors Light.
I played kickball on Monday with the usual suspects. Michael rented a field at the park so that the Ninjas and GFC could scrimmage. He invited me to come out and play but didn't tell anyone that I was coming. I'm getting used to the stares and "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE" looks, due to getting that response both weeks I appeared at the temple unannounced. I played for the Ninjas during the scrimmage but switched over to GFC after 5 innings after they lost too many people to field a team. I got the pitching bug and pitched a couple of innings. I think my pitching has gotten a lot better, so I'm excited to throw down in KC this season. From what I hear, there's only a couple of people that pitch overhand in KC and I doubt they pitch as hard/fast as I do. Basically, it's going to be awesome.
Also, quote of the week: "Here, touch the Silver Bullet!" -someone handing me a Coors Light.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Day 43: Still Jobless
The search for a job continues. I have only had one interview after a month and a half of living in Kansas City. Job hunting is probably the one thing I hate most in life, so not getting results is really frustrating. We aren't hurting financially (yet), but the longer I don't have a job, the longer I have to stretch our savings, which means we will have less money to put down on a car. What I really don't get is why businesses put ads on careerbuilder.com, etc, etc, when they really don't have any intention of actually hiring anyone in a decent amount of time. I'm sure that if some of these hiring managers remembered how much it sucked when they were looking for jobs, they might expedite the process a little bit.
I have two bits of good news, though: I found an inline hockey league and kickball is going to start next month. During my search for a hockey league, I found a website for a rink that is fairly close to our apartment that was advertising a hockey league. The information seemed old, but I decided to call them anyway. Good thing I did because the adult league was going to start in two weeks and I needed to come to the pick-up game on Sunday in order to get on a team.
I was extremely nervous about going to the pick-up game, mostly because I didn't know anyone and I hadn't played in a month. It went well, though, and I was placed on a team. The cool thing about this league is that the owner, Larry, doesn't allow anyone to bring their own stacked team. He essentially runs tryouts and picks the teams himself so that no one team has the upper hand during the season. I think this method is great considering that the last two leagues I played in had multiple teams that were stacked and no one could beat them.
Our first game was on Sunday. We unfortunately had to open the season with a double header, so we were exhausted after our first game. We lost both games, 6-5 and 5-1. I think we will do better for the rest of the season, though. We just haven't played together and it's going to take some time for us to get used to each other.
Megan and I went to the end of the season kickball party for the Kansas City kickball division. I spoke with the president on the phone the other day and he invited us out so we could meet some of our team. We went... and we met some of our new team. They all seem cool and I think we're going to have a good time this fall. Bruce the President introduced us to the entire division during his announcements, which was surprising but also really cool. Megan pointed out that we are going to have to get over our pre-conceived color notions in this division because the "over competitive team", the "always drunk team", the "really fun but really bad team" are all different colors in KC than in Studio. I also volunteered myself on accident to be the rules/operations chair on the board, which is weird since I have never been involved with "a" board, not to mention "the" board.
I have two bits of good news, though: I found an inline hockey league and kickball is going to start next month. During my search for a hockey league, I found a website for a rink that is fairly close to our apartment that was advertising a hockey league. The information seemed old, but I decided to call them anyway. Good thing I did because the adult league was going to start in two weeks and I needed to come to the pick-up game on Sunday in order to get on a team.
I was extremely nervous about going to the pick-up game, mostly because I didn't know anyone and I hadn't played in a month. It went well, though, and I was placed on a team. The cool thing about this league is that the owner, Larry, doesn't allow anyone to bring their own stacked team. He essentially runs tryouts and picks the teams himself so that no one team has the upper hand during the season. I think this method is great considering that the last two leagues I played in had multiple teams that were stacked and no one could beat them.
Our first game was on Sunday. We unfortunately had to open the season with a double header, so we were exhausted after our first game. We lost both games, 6-5 and 5-1. I think we will do better for the rest of the season, though. We just haven't played together and it's going to take some time for us to get used to each other.
Megan and I went to the end of the season kickball party for the Kansas City kickball division. I spoke with the president on the phone the other day and he invited us out so we could meet some of our team. We went... and we met some of our new team. They all seem cool and I think we're going to have a good time this fall. Bruce the President introduced us to the entire division during his announcements, which was surprising but also really cool. Megan pointed out that we are going to have to get over our pre-conceived color notions in this division because the "over competitive team", the "always drunk team", the "really fun but really bad team" are all different colors in KC than in Studio. I also volunteered myself on accident to be the rules/operations chair on the board, which is weird since I have never been involved with "a" board, not to mention "the" board.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Where'd All the Good People Go?
I have been all over the place when it comes to blogging and keeping up with a journal. The biggest problem I have with blogging is that it's public, i.e. anyone with an internet connection can read it. This is a problem when I have things that I want to say but really should keep it to myself. This is why I try to keep a separate journal, but having to write twice kind of sucks and I wind up not writing at all.
Fortunately, I find inspiration every now and then to write on the ol' blog and keep the world up to date on my life. Paul, one of my good friends in Los Angeles, is moving back to Boston after living here for over 4 years. He and I are a lot alike when it comes to blogging: we write hardcore for a few weeks and then it tapers off. He recently started his up again because of this huge event in his life (the move) and I thought I should update mine since I did the exact same thing three weeks ago.
Much like Paul, I moved to Los Angeles a couple of years ago without really knowing what I was getting in to. My girlfriend (now wife), Megan, was accepted to Pepperdine for graduate school and was going to start school in August 2006. She wanted me to go with her to California, but I will be the first to admit that I was hesitant about leaving my comfortable life in Oklahoma City. After some convincing, I begrudgingly packed up my stuff and moved to Northridge with Megan.
I wish I could say that I was excited about moving to Los Angeles, but my fear of everything I had heard about the city made it nearly impossible to enjoy this major life change leading up to the actual move. Once we got to Los Angeles, though, I saw that it wasn't that much different from Oklahoma City. Cost of living was higher and the traffic was infinitely worse, but other than that, you found your group of friends, joined a few activities, and life was gravy after that. I slowly found my friends and activities in Los Angeles and they are what made the experience positive for me. When I was tired of my job and things just weren't going the way I thought they should, my friends are what pulled me through and made living in LA a great experience.
Here are some of the highlights:
Kickball October 2006 - Present
I had just started my new job at the Temple and was just starting to get my bearings when I overheard one of my co-workers talking about how she had a kickball game the night before. I hadn't played kickball since grade school, so I was intrigued with the concept of playing kickball, in a league, as an adult. She invited me to the season opening pickup game for the division, which Megan and I attended, and the rest is history. Megan and I spent our inaugural season with the Pregnant Cheerleaders, a team with a lot of spirit but with thinly spread talent. We didn't win very often, but everyone on the team had a good attitude about it and recognized that they were just there to have fun. We met so many great people on this team, including Jeremy who would later be one of my groomsmen in the wedding.
We left the Cheerleaders after just one season for Michael and Scott's Awesome Helicopter Ninjas. We won the division championship during our first season with the team, but couldn't pull it off again during the Fall 2007 season. During this time, Michael started his own team in Junction, a new division in Koreatown, the Hobolympians and the Cagey Bees. Both teams were pretty much Studio All-Star teams and we worked over the divisions during both seasons. We didn't win a championship with either team, but the Bees were undefeated in kickball with their only loss of the season coming in the final game when the field lights turned off and we had to play rock-paper-scissors to decide the game.
We finished our Studio careers with the Guy Faux Conservatory. Jeremy and Kelly split off from the Cheerleaders the season after Megan and I left and started their own team. They had a great first season but lacked that extra "umph" to get them to the finals. They picked up Megan and I, along with Reginald and Dan, and along with the rest of the team, we took the GFC (on a long and drawn out road) to the finals against the Valley Girls. We lost by one, but it was a great game and was a shining example of how the game should be played.
Kickball was a huge part of our lives for the last two years. All of my friends are from this group of people and I honestly wouldn't want to have a different group of friends in Los Angeles. Even though we took it too seriously on the field, we had a good time off of the field. Playing kickball is the best way to network because you can count on the people that play to be fun, weird, and outgoing. We have already started scouting the Kansas City division for a new team, even though we know it won't be as crazy as Studio is.
Red Line Pub Crawl - April 21, 2007
To celebrate my birthday, Scott, Michael, and Ashley organized a pub crawl that utilized the Metro's Red Line. We rode the train to Central Station and then worked our way back while drinking heavily at bars along the way. I couldn't even begin to tell you which bars we went to, but they were all awesome, especially the one that gave me birthday cake. My 25th birthday celebration was even better than my 24th (car throw-up night) and it was because of my friends. Despite Scott almost killing Jeremy and I on the escalator, this was the best birthday I have ever had.
The Donnas
Jeremy, Ashley, and I made the trek to Hollywood to see the Donnas perform the first show of their tour to promote their new album. I had been out of the music scene for a long time, so this was the first show that I had been to in probably years. The Donnas were never on my radar before they had a song on Guitar Hero, but even then, they were never really in my rotation. Seeing them play live, however, put them in a permanent spot in my top bands list. Jeremy was so excited about the show that he shoved his way in to the middle of the crowd when the Donnas came on stage. The venue was just a shitty dive bar, but seeing a great band made the location a non-point.
The LA Bachelor Party - December 2007
In preparation for my upcoming marriage, my friends organized a small bachelor party in my honor. They took me out to restaurant in Woodland Hills called uWink. It's a gimmick restaurant that allows you to order your food from a touch screen monitor at your table. Michael thought it was a cool because I'm a geek and well, he was right. After dinner we went to an English pub called Scotland Yard. It was a total dive but it was one of the best nights out I have ever had in LA.
Roll Down @ Mammoth - '07 & '08
The tradition of the IT department going skiing every year was started long before I showed up. Somewhere along the line, someone fell down the mountain and the annual trip was renamed "Roll Down the Mountain." Everyone drives up to Mammoth Lakes, CA on Thursday or Friday, and spends Friday and/or Saturday skiing or snowboarding (some just stayed in the lodge and drank all day). Mammoth itself is a terrible ski resort, what with frigid winds and long lines, but getting out on a mountain again was a lot of fun. Spending time with co-workers outside of work can be fun if it's with the right people. Fortunately, I worked with the right people so we spent the weekend drinking and bitching about work knowing that what was said would never be repeated again.
DefCON 15 - August 2007
I went to the annual hacker convention in Las Vegas with some co-workers last year. We went to the convention every day... somehow. Our nights were spent drinking and gambling until 3... 4... sometimes 5 a.m. I was told by a co-worker that I would learn to play craps because that's his favorite gambling game. I learned how to play craps, maybe not very well, but I loved it and now it's my favorite gambling game. Best part of the weekend: walking down the street at 5 a.m. after spending 6 hours in a casino because we were unable to legally drive a car.
Hockey
I have played inline hockey since I was 12. I was one of the "founding members" of the Norman inline hockey league, despite having no prior interest in the game of hockey. It took me a while to find a league in the valley, but one eventually popped up at the West Valley YMCA. I started going to pickup games on Sundays and after the second week, I was offered a spot on the Schoolyard Bullies. We had an up and down season, a lot of our troubles were induced by the league itself, but we managed to make it to the finals. We lost, but it was nice to lace up again for a full season instead of just playing pickup.
At the end of the season, I started playing ball hockey on Sunday mornings with a group of guys that has played together for 15 years. Ball hockey is the same as inline hockey, except that you play with a ball and you run rather than skate. It's a great workout and I was very fit when I was playing regularly. After the break for summer, we moved to the East Valley YMCA because the West Valley Y decided to stop its hockey programs. I discovered a Sunday morning inline pickup game that played before ball hockey, so I grabbed my inline stuff and played in both games. I met a lot of great guys in both games and wound up playing for Stu's team in the Wednesday night silver league (intermediate league).
Hockey has been a release for me for a long time and I was really depressed that I couldn't find a league. I had always heard that southern California was the mecca of inline hockey, but apparently that died out in the 90s. Getting to play regularly for a year while living here provided me relief from the insanity of day to day living in Los Angeles. Even though I probably wouldn't hang out with any of those guys outside of hockey (except for the one time I ran in to Chris at Ireland32), just having 4 hours of guy time on Sundays was enough.
Garth Brooks - 2007
Garth Brooks put on a charity concert for the victims of the 2007 southern California wildfires. He was originally only going to play one show, but the concert sold out in 5 seconds, so he decided he was going to play 6 shows at the Staples Center in one weekend. Megan, Jeremy, Kay, Kelly, and I went to the last show because Kelly had somehow obtained tickets. I had never seen Garth play live, so i was very excited about the show because he is my favorite country singer. Growing up in Oklahoma, you always hear about how awesome his shows are because not only is he a great musician, but he's also a fantastic entertainer. Even though he didn't go flying across the stage like he used to, he put on a great show. He really knows how to entertain and I hope that he starts touring again when his kids are a little more grown up.
Dodgers Game - April 25, 2008
Scott, Julie, and I went to the Dodgers game because Scott got a great deal on some lower level, first baseline seats. I like baseball and hadn't to a game since last season when we went to an Angels game.
The game itself was rather mediocre. The Dodgers beat the Rockies 8-7, but it took 13 innings (4 hours and 38 minutes) to finally finish them off. Unfortunately, the Dodgers really aren't that great, so I'm not all that surprised the game was rather bland. There were some good plays here and there, like getting thrown out while trying to steal second. On of the bigger plays was when the Dodgers' third baseman was injured and was replaced by the catcher. The new (backup) catcher totally missed the ball on his very first pitch and allowed the Rockies to score off of a loose ball.
The "fans" on the other hand... well, wow. Dodgers fans are the worst kind of people in the world. No one really understands until they experience the nonsense that is a Dodgers game for themselves. Here's a breakdown of the shenanigans that I witnessed in my 4 and a half hours of the game:
1. Dodgers fans aren't so much about supporting the Dodgers as much as they are about trying to demoralize the other team. The "Rockies suck" chant was much more prominent than "Let's go Dodgers."
2. Dodgers fans will boo and jeer the Dodgers. There was a play in which a Dodgers outfielder didn't dive for a fly ball and just let it bounce off of the ground. He was booed, by Dodgers fans, after his less than stellar performance.
3. Dodgers fans will get in to fist fights with people who are wearing the other team's paraphanalia. No joke. There was a huge brawl in the left field stands.
4. Dodgers fans will get in to food fights with anyone around them, especially in the "All you can eat Dodger dog" section.
5. Dodgers fans still believe that they are in college because they like to yell "Chug! Chug!" at people who are carrying full cups of $10 beer back to their seats. I swear to God, like 20 people in the next section over chugged their beers at the prompting of the people around them.
6. Dodgers fans are mostly Hispanic gang bangers. Not much more to add here.
7. Dodgers fans are more interested in hitting around beach balls than actually watching the game.
Basically, everything that is wrong with Los Angeles is personified by a typical Dodgers fan. Scott and I think that raising the prices of tickets to $1000 just for nose bleed seats would stop the idiots from coming, but the reality is that retarded people will go in to debt just to buy season tickets.
Regardless, getting to see baseball was fun and I learned a lot about Los Angeles (the city) that night.
Galaxy vs Red Bulls - May 10, 2008
This was another Scott-organized event. Scott, Jeremy, Megan, and I went down to the Home Depot Center to watch David Beckham and the Galaxy play the New York Red Bulls. As an open critic of Landon Donovan, this game did nothing to put him in my good graces. He missed an open net 3 times because he messed around with the ball instead of just shooting it when he had the chance. Seeing Beckham play was neat since he was the Next Big Thing last season. It was also British Night during that particular game, so everyone was wearing EPL shirts and waving the Union Jack/St. George flag. I wasn't impressed with the so-called Riot Squad fan club; most of them didn't seem to know the rules and got very upset when they thought a call should have gone their way. They also had lots of fake European team chants, which was very entertaining.
Red Line Pub Crawl II - May 2008
To say goodbye to Megan and I and to also celebrate Ashley's birthday, another Red Line pub crawl was organized. Michael and I sported wrist watch walkie-talkies all night; they didn't work very well, but it was fun coming up with call signs for everyone in the group. Once again, we rode the Red Line to down town and drank our way back. This is quite possibly the best way to see some of the shadier/weirder parts of Los Angeles: hanging out in the subway in the middle of the night is a surefire way to catch some crazies in action.
BBQs At Richard's
Our good friend Richard got in to BBQing this year and had several BBQs for anyone that wanted to come. There's nothing better than having good meat and beer with all of your friends around. There wasn't ever a special occasion for having a BBQ (except for when his new roommate moved in), but just having people over for fellowship made them special.
Top Random Celebrity Sightings:
1. Michael Chiklis, The Shield, dropping off something for his kid at the Temple. He was cool enough to stop and talk to me about the show.
2. David Beckham, Los Angeles Galaxy, playing soccer. This doesn't really count, but I thought it was cool.
3. Victoria Beckham, Former Spice Girl, asking me to watch her car at the Temple.
4. Sylvester Stallone, Rocky I-V/Rambo, watching his kid play basketball at the Temple.
Fortunately, I find inspiration every now and then to write on the ol' blog and keep the world up to date on my life. Paul, one of my good friends in Los Angeles, is moving back to Boston after living here for over 4 years. He and I are a lot alike when it comes to blogging: we write hardcore for a few weeks and then it tapers off. He recently started his up again because of this huge event in his life (the move) and I thought I should update mine since I did the exact same thing three weeks ago.
Much like Paul, I moved to Los Angeles a couple of years ago without really knowing what I was getting in to. My girlfriend (now wife), Megan, was accepted to Pepperdine for graduate school and was going to start school in August 2006. She wanted me to go with her to California, but I will be the first to admit that I was hesitant about leaving my comfortable life in Oklahoma City. After some convincing, I begrudgingly packed up my stuff and moved to Northridge with Megan.
I wish I could say that I was excited about moving to Los Angeles, but my fear of everything I had heard about the city made it nearly impossible to enjoy this major life change leading up to the actual move. Once we got to Los Angeles, though, I saw that it wasn't that much different from Oklahoma City. Cost of living was higher and the traffic was infinitely worse, but other than that, you found your group of friends, joined a few activities, and life was gravy after that. I slowly found my friends and activities in Los Angeles and they are what made the experience positive for me. When I was tired of my job and things just weren't going the way I thought they should, my friends are what pulled me through and made living in LA a great experience.
Here are some of the highlights:
Kickball October 2006 - Present
I had just started my new job at the Temple and was just starting to get my bearings when I overheard one of my co-workers talking about how she had a kickball game the night before. I hadn't played kickball since grade school, so I was intrigued with the concept of playing kickball, in a league, as an adult. She invited me to the season opening pickup game for the division, which Megan and I attended, and the rest is history. Megan and I spent our inaugural season with the Pregnant Cheerleaders, a team with a lot of spirit but with thinly spread talent. We didn't win very often, but everyone on the team had a good attitude about it and recognized that they were just there to have fun. We met so many great people on this team, including Jeremy who would later be one of my groomsmen in the wedding.
We left the Cheerleaders after just one season for Michael and Scott's Awesome Helicopter Ninjas. We won the division championship during our first season with the team, but couldn't pull it off again during the Fall 2007 season. During this time, Michael started his own team in Junction, a new division in Koreatown, the Hobolympians and the Cagey Bees. Both teams were pretty much Studio All-Star teams and we worked over the divisions during both seasons. We didn't win a championship with either team, but the Bees were undefeated in kickball with their only loss of the season coming in the final game when the field lights turned off and we had to play rock-paper-scissors to decide the game.
We finished our Studio careers with the Guy Faux Conservatory. Jeremy and Kelly split off from the Cheerleaders the season after Megan and I left and started their own team. They had a great first season but lacked that extra "umph" to get them to the finals. They picked up Megan and I, along with Reginald and Dan, and along with the rest of the team, we took the GFC (on a long and drawn out road) to the finals against the Valley Girls. We lost by one, but it was a great game and was a shining example of how the game should be played.
Kickball was a huge part of our lives for the last two years. All of my friends are from this group of people and I honestly wouldn't want to have a different group of friends in Los Angeles. Even though we took it too seriously on the field, we had a good time off of the field. Playing kickball is the best way to network because you can count on the people that play to be fun, weird, and outgoing. We have already started scouting the Kansas City division for a new team, even though we know it won't be as crazy as Studio is.
Red Line Pub Crawl - April 21, 2007
To celebrate my birthday, Scott, Michael, and Ashley organized a pub crawl that utilized the Metro's Red Line. We rode the train to Central Station and then worked our way back while drinking heavily at bars along the way. I couldn't even begin to tell you which bars we went to, but they were all awesome, especially the one that gave me birthday cake. My 25th birthday celebration was even better than my 24th (car throw-up night) and it was because of my friends. Despite Scott almost killing Jeremy and I on the escalator, this was the best birthday I have ever had.
The Donnas
Jeremy, Ashley, and I made the trek to Hollywood to see the Donnas perform the first show of their tour to promote their new album. I had been out of the music scene for a long time, so this was the first show that I had been to in probably years. The Donnas were never on my radar before they had a song on Guitar Hero, but even then, they were never really in my rotation. Seeing them play live, however, put them in a permanent spot in my top bands list. Jeremy was so excited about the show that he shoved his way in to the middle of the crowd when the Donnas came on stage. The venue was just a shitty dive bar, but seeing a great band made the location a non-point.
The LA Bachelor Party - December 2007
In preparation for my upcoming marriage, my friends organized a small bachelor party in my honor. They took me out to restaurant in Woodland Hills called uWink. It's a gimmick restaurant that allows you to order your food from a touch screen monitor at your table. Michael thought it was a cool because I'm a geek and well, he was right. After dinner we went to an English pub called Scotland Yard. It was a total dive but it was one of the best nights out I have ever had in LA.
Roll Down @ Mammoth - '07 & '08
The tradition of the IT department going skiing every year was started long before I showed up. Somewhere along the line, someone fell down the mountain and the annual trip was renamed "Roll Down the Mountain." Everyone drives up to Mammoth Lakes, CA on Thursday or Friday, and spends Friday and/or Saturday skiing or snowboarding (some just stayed in the lodge and drank all day). Mammoth itself is a terrible ski resort, what with frigid winds and long lines, but getting out on a mountain again was a lot of fun. Spending time with co-workers outside of work can be fun if it's with the right people. Fortunately, I worked with the right people so we spent the weekend drinking and bitching about work knowing that what was said would never be repeated again.
DefCON 15 - August 2007
I went to the annual hacker convention in Las Vegas with some co-workers last year. We went to the convention every day... somehow. Our nights were spent drinking and gambling until 3... 4... sometimes 5 a.m. I was told by a co-worker that I would learn to play craps because that's his favorite gambling game. I learned how to play craps, maybe not very well, but I loved it and now it's my favorite gambling game. Best part of the weekend: walking down the street at 5 a.m. after spending 6 hours in a casino because we were unable to legally drive a car.
Hockey
I have played inline hockey since I was 12. I was one of the "founding members" of the Norman inline hockey league, despite having no prior interest in the game of hockey. It took me a while to find a league in the valley, but one eventually popped up at the West Valley YMCA. I started going to pickup games on Sundays and after the second week, I was offered a spot on the Schoolyard Bullies. We had an up and down season, a lot of our troubles were induced by the league itself, but we managed to make it to the finals. We lost, but it was nice to lace up again for a full season instead of just playing pickup.
At the end of the season, I started playing ball hockey on Sunday mornings with a group of guys that has played together for 15 years. Ball hockey is the same as inline hockey, except that you play with a ball and you run rather than skate. It's a great workout and I was very fit when I was playing regularly. After the break for summer, we moved to the East Valley YMCA because the West Valley Y decided to stop its hockey programs. I discovered a Sunday morning inline pickup game that played before ball hockey, so I grabbed my inline stuff and played in both games. I met a lot of great guys in both games and wound up playing for Stu's team in the Wednesday night silver league (intermediate league).
Hockey has been a release for me for a long time and I was really depressed that I couldn't find a league. I had always heard that southern California was the mecca of inline hockey, but apparently that died out in the 90s. Getting to play regularly for a year while living here provided me relief from the insanity of day to day living in Los Angeles. Even though I probably wouldn't hang out with any of those guys outside of hockey (except for the one time I ran in to Chris at Ireland32), just having 4 hours of guy time on Sundays was enough.
Garth Brooks - 2007
Garth Brooks put on a charity concert for the victims of the 2007 southern California wildfires. He was originally only going to play one show, but the concert sold out in 5 seconds, so he decided he was going to play 6 shows at the Staples Center in one weekend. Megan, Jeremy, Kay, Kelly, and I went to the last show because Kelly had somehow obtained tickets. I had never seen Garth play live, so i was very excited about the show because he is my favorite country singer. Growing up in Oklahoma, you always hear about how awesome his shows are because not only is he a great musician, but he's also a fantastic entertainer. Even though he didn't go flying across the stage like he used to, he put on a great show. He really knows how to entertain and I hope that he starts touring again when his kids are a little more grown up.
Dodgers Game - April 25, 2008
Scott, Julie, and I went to the Dodgers game because Scott got a great deal on some lower level, first baseline seats. I like baseball and hadn't to a game since last season when we went to an Angels game.
The game itself was rather mediocre. The Dodgers beat the Rockies 8-7, but it took 13 innings (4 hours and 38 minutes) to finally finish them off. Unfortunately, the Dodgers really aren't that great, so I'm not all that surprised the game was rather bland. There were some good plays here and there, like getting thrown out while trying to steal second. On of the bigger plays was when the Dodgers' third baseman was injured and was replaced by the catcher. The new (backup) catcher totally missed the ball on his very first pitch and allowed the Rockies to score off of a loose ball.
The "fans" on the other hand... well, wow. Dodgers fans are the worst kind of people in the world. No one really understands until they experience the nonsense that is a Dodgers game for themselves. Here's a breakdown of the shenanigans that I witnessed in my 4 and a half hours of the game:
1. Dodgers fans aren't so much about supporting the Dodgers as much as they are about trying to demoralize the other team. The "Rockies suck" chant was much more prominent than "Let's go Dodgers."
2. Dodgers fans will boo and jeer the Dodgers. There was a play in which a Dodgers outfielder didn't dive for a fly ball and just let it bounce off of the ground. He was booed, by Dodgers fans, after his less than stellar performance.
3. Dodgers fans will get in to fist fights with people who are wearing the other team's paraphanalia. No joke. There was a huge brawl in the left field stands.
4. Dodgers fans will get in to food fights with anyone around them, especially in the "All you can eat Dodger dog" section.
5. Dodgers fans still believe that they are in college because they like to yell "Chug! Chug!" at people who are carrying full cups of $10 beer back to their seats. I swear to God, like 20 people in the next section over chugged their beers at the prompting of the people around them.
6. Dodgers fans are mostly Hispanic gang bangers. Not much more to add here.
7. Dodgers fans are more interested in hitting around beach balls than actually watching the game.
Basically, everything that is wrong with Los Angeles is personified by a typical Dodgers fan. Scott and I think that raising the prices of tickets to $1000 just for nose bleed seats would stop the idiots from coming, but the reality is that retarded people will go in to debt just to buy season tickets.
Regardless, getting to see baseball was fun and I learned a lot about Los Angeles (the city) that night.
Galaxy vs Red Bulls - May 10, 2008
This was another Scott-organized event. Scott, Jeremy, Megan, and I went down to the Home Depot Center to watch David Beckham and the Galaxy play the New York Red Bulls. As an open critic of Landon Donovan, this game did nothing to put him in my good graces. He missed an open net 3 times because he messed around with the ball instead of just shooting it when he had the chance. Seeing Beckham play was neat since he was the Next Big Thing last season. It was also British Night during that particular game, so everyone was wearing EPL shirts and waving the Union Jack/St. George flag. I wasn't impressed with the so-called Riot Squad fan club; most of them didn't seem to know the rules and got very upset when they thought a call should have gone their way. They also had lots of fake European team chants, which was very entertaining.
Red Line Pub Crawl II - May 2008
To say goodbye to Megan and I and to also celebrate Ashley's birthday, another Red Line pub crawl was organized. Michael and I sported wrist watch walkie-talkies all night; they didn't work very well, but it was fun coming up with call signs for everyone in the group. Once again, we rode the Red Line to down town and drank our way back. This is quite possibly the best way to see some of the shadier/weirder parts of Los Angeles: hanging out in the subway in the middle of the night is a surefire way to catch some crazies in action.
BBQs At Richard's
Our good friend Richard got in to BBQing this year and had several BBQs for anyone that wanted to come. There's nothing better than having good meat and beer with all of your friends around. There wasn't ever a special occasion for having a BBQ (except for when his new roommate moved in), but just having people over for fellowship made them special.
Top Random Celebrity Sightings:
1. Michael Chiklis, The Shield, dropping off something for his kid at the Temple. He was cool enough to stop and talk to me about the show.
2. David Beckham, Los Angeles Galaxy, playing soccer. This doesn't really count, but I thought it was cool.
3. Victoria Beckham, Former Spice Girl, asking me to watch her car at the Temple.
4. Sylvester Stallone, Rocky I-V/Rambo, watching his kid play basketball at the Temple.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Reboot FTL
I know that I am months, probably even a year, behind on this, but regardless, I am pissed off and I need to vent. I did my monthly run to the comic store on Monday and I picked up Amazing Spider-Man numbers 545, 546, and 547. There is nothing special about this except for that #545 is the last issue of the "One More Day" story arc. "One More Day" is a four part series that served two purposes:
1. End production of Sensational Spider-Man (SSM) and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (FNSM) and consolidate those issues into a thrice monthly publication of Amazing Spider-Man (ASM). I like this because now story arcs will be finished in their entirety in ASM instead of the first issue of the arc being in ASM and the rest of the story playing out in SSM or FNSM. I disliked having to read multiple lines of books to finish a story, so this change is for the better.
2. Reboot the Spider-Man franchise. Spider-Man has been stuck in a rut for a couple of years now, with Peter Parker becoming more and more "emo," whiny, and selfish; all in all, not a lot of fun to read. Marvel felt that the franchise was going off on a tangent that was not good for the brand, so a reboot was in order.
Starting a series over in the middle of production is not unheard of; many Marvel and DC comics have successfully done so without creating too much nerd rage among its readers. I do not have a problem with refreshing the Spider-Man image because characters and stories need to be updated for the time in which we live. I do, however, have a problem in which Marvel went about refreshing the Spider-Man brand.
"One More Day" takes place after the Civil War story arc. Peter has unmasked himself to the world and has publicly taken a stand against Tony Stark and the government mandated super-hero registration movement. Since the whole world now knows who Spider-Man is, the bad guys are going to be coming after Peter to exact their revenge on the man who foiled their evil plan to take over the world (or whatever). In somewhat of a predictable move, an assassin is sent to kill Peter. Peter is alerted to the assassin's presence at the last possible second and leaps out of the way before the shot is fired at him. Also largely predictable, the bullet misses him and his Aunt May. May goes to the hospital, Peter goes emo, and "One More Day" begins with Peter trying to find a way to save his aunt.
I will say upfront that I am not a big enough fan to keep up with the politics and the happenings at Marvel. I do not know who the Editor-in-Chief is of Marvel, nor do I know the names of the artists and writers who work on my favorite books. Understanding that, when I read issue 545 of ASM, I thought Marvel had lost its collective mind. Part 4 of "One More Day" is quite possibly the worst writing I have ever had the displeasure of reading in my entire life. I do not even have the proper words to describe how abysmal this book actually is; it is like a 7 year old wrote it while wearing boxing gloves and hopped up on kool-aid.
Without writing out the whole story, Peter basically makes a deal with the devil to save his aunt, with the stipulation being that his marriage to MJ would be erased from history. It would be as if the marriage never happened. Marvel took it a step further and also re-masked Spider-Man, brought back Harry, and said that everything in the past still happened, it is just that the marriage did not happen. Issue 546 of ASM starts up as if nothing has happened and everything is hunky-dory. Peter and MJ dated but broke up (never even knowing they were married), Harry is back, and Peter's identity is protected again.
Marvel basically killed 50 years of canon and their response is, "Get over it."
Issues 546 and 547 are great in their own right, but with "One More Day" casting such a negative shadow over them, I found it really hard to enjoy reading the two books that followed the reboot. I did not have the month everyone else had to get over what Marvel did; I read all 3 books in an hour, meaning I could not digest and "get over" what happened. I think that had I had a week between each book I would have been more okay with the refresh. Even though I suspected the story would end this way, I cannot help but to be bitter towards Marvel. What a sad and stupid way to update a series.
I am going to keep reading ASM for another month or so to see how it goes. If it sucks, I have no problem dropping it from my rotation. I am going to start reading Ultimate Spider-Man, if only because it is a once a month publication and it will not cost much to add it to my rotation of books, especially if I drop the (now) thrice monthly ASM.
1. End production of Sensational Spider-Man (SSM) and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (FNSM) and consolidate those issues into a thrice monthly publication of Amazing Spider-Man (ASM). I like this because now story arcs will be finished in their entirety in ASM instead of the first issue of the arc being in ASM and the rest of the story playing out in SSM or FNSM. I disliked having to read multiple lines of books to finish a story, so this change is for the better.
2. Reboot the Spider-Man franchise. Spider-Man has been stuck in a rut for a couple of years now, with Peter Parker becoming more and more "emo," whiny, and selfish; all in all, not a lot of fun to read. Marvel felt that the franchise was going off on a tangent that was not good for the brand, so a reboot was in order.
Starting a series over in the middle of production is not unheard of; many Marvel and DC comics have successfully done so without creating too much nerd rage among its readers. I do not have a problem with refreshing the Spider-Man image because characters and stories need to be updated for the time in which we live. I do, however, have a problem in which Marvel went about refreshing the Spider-Man brand.
"One More Day" takes place after the Civil War story arc. Peter has unmasked himself to the world and has publicly taken a stand against Tony Stark and the government mandated super-hero registration movement. Since the whole world now knows who Spider-Man is, the bad guys are going to be coming after Peter to exact their revenge on the man who foiled their evil plan to take over the world (or whatever). In somewhat of a predictable move, an assassin is sent to kill Peter. Peter is alerted to the assassin's presence at the last possible second and leaps out of the way before the shot is fired at him. Also largely predictable, the bullet misses him and his Aunt May. May goes to the hospital, Peter goes emo, and "One More Day" begins with Peter trying to find a way to save his aunt.
I will say upfront that I am not a big enough fan to keep up with the politics and the happenings at Marvel. I do not know who the Editor-in-Chief is of Marvel, nor do I know the names of the artists and writers who work on my favorite books. Understanding that, when I read issue 545 of ASM, I thought Marvel had lost its collective mind. Part 4 of "One More Day" is quite possibly the worst writing I have ever had the displeasure of reading in my entire life. I do not even have the proper words to describe how abysmal this book actually is; it is like a 7 year old wrote it while wearing boxing gloves and hopped up on kool-aid.
Without writing out the whole story, Peter basically makes a deal with the devil to save his aunt, with the stipulation being that his marriage to MJ would be erased from history. It would be as if the marriage never happened. Marvel took it a step further and also re-masked Spider-Man, brought back Harry, and said that everything in the past still happened, it is just that the marriage did not happen. Issue 546 of ASM starts up as if nothing has happened and everything is hunky-dory. Peter and MJ dated but broke up (never even knowing they were married), Harry is back, and Peter's identity is protected again.
Marvel basically killed 50 years of canon and their response is, "Get over it."
Issues 546 and 547 are great in their own right, but with "One More Day" casting such a negative shadow over them, I found it really hard to enjoy reading the two books that followed the reboot. I did not have the month everyone else had to get over what Marvel did; I read all 3 books in an hour, meaning I could not digest and "get over" what happened. I think that had I had a week between each book I would have been more okay with the refresh. Even though I suspected the story would end this way, I cannot help but to be bitter towards Marvel. What a sad and stupid way to update a series.
I am going to keep reading ASM for another month or so to see how it goes. If it sucks, I have no problem dropping it from my rotation. I am going to start reading Ultimate Spider-Man, if only because it is a once a month publication and it will not cost much to add it to my rotation of books, especially if I drop the (now) thrice monthly ASM.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Where'd 2007 Go?
Oh man, where should I even begin?
Megan and I were married on December 15, 2007.
We started our honeymoon in Cancun on December 16, 2007.
We had our first Christmas with the in-laws catastrophe on December 25, 2007.
I had a ridiculous new years eve for the first time in years.
I sold my PS2 (the Guitar Hero Machine), Guitar Heros, and guitars and bought Rock Band for the 360 and it is awesome.
The Sooners got their asses kicked in the Fiesta bowl (which I didn't have anything to do with, but still...).
We bought a lot of cool stuff with the money we received for the wedding.
We wrote a lot of thank you cards for all of the wonderful wedding gifts we received.
We got rid of all the couches and got a new micro-fiber couch for free. The Greatest Couch In The World and Megan's computer desk were both donated to one of my friends.
Megan went to Vegas and her room was burgled during the first day in town (way to work for your money, people). I can't help but to think that I'm really glad I talked her out of taking her laptop.
Megan and I were married on December 15, 2007.
We started our honeymoon in Cancun on December 16, 2007.
We had our first Christmas with the in-laws catastrophe on December 25, 2007.
I had a ridiculous new years eve for the first time in years.
I sold my PS2 (the Guitar Hero Machine), Guitar Heros, and guitars and bought Rock Band for the 360 and it is awesome.
The Sooners got their asses kicked in the Fiesta bowl (which I didn't have anything to do with, but still...).
We bought a lot of cool stuff with the money we received for the wedding.
We wrote a lot of thank you cards for all of the wonderful wedding gifts we received.
We got rid of all the couches and got a new micro-fiber couch for free. The Greatest Couch In The World and Megan's computer desk were both donated to one of my friends.
Megan went to Vegas and her room was burgled during the first day in town (way to work for your money, people). I can't help but to think that I'm really glad I talked her out of taking her laptop.
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