what's an 8 letter word for "kicks ass and takes names"?

yeah, I do my crossword puzzles in pen, and I don't make mistakes either. Take that tentative sissy puzzle gamers. I laugh at your mind games. I find them unintimidating and thus attack them without regard for anyones welfare. I scoff at your indecisiveness and your amateur-esque approach to all things uncertain.

Anne Hathway is on the free agent list. I am kicking myself for not clearing enough cap space in the 2004-2007 seasons. Now I can't afford her and she'll probably go to a big market franchise like Shia LeBeouf or Ryan Gossling. Looks like I'll have to continue to scour the Triple A farm system.

be honest

I was doing a bit of working out this morning when wait a second......(looks left, looks right)......I think I just.........yeah.....I just had an idea.

I just had an unintended departure from my cell phone, and although I got new one with the same number, I have none of the numbers that used to be in my contact list. Common problem amoungst 20th century humans. Thus, there are a ton of facebook groups for people who have encountered the "lost cell phone, need your number" debacle. Somehow, people join these in an attempt to regain what was lost, but as we all know, you are doomed no matter what facebook group you join because a) you're lame for joining a group for that purpose and b) your friends are selfish and really do not care or read what facebook groups you join. 5 seconds to call and send you their number is 4 seconds too much.

However, my attempt to remedy this problem is to potentially make it more humerous and create a face book group called "HELP! I got really drunk and I gave my cell phone # to a fat/crazy/ugly person and I had to destroy my phone......now I need your number" I would like to see what kind of people join that group.

That scenario has to happen to a lot of people right? Anway, that's what I do on my saturday mornings; laugh to myself about inane ideas in the middle of a giant river. They are so much funnier out there, I swear......shut up, you're so jealous.

Doing what I can

It's not often that I mention rowing on the ol blog. I try to keep it seperate because I don't want it to be exclusively any one thing. In this case however, I feel like I have to do what I can for 2 friends of mine that achieved major lifelong accomplishments this past week, and will likely get no recognition outside of their family and friends. Rowing never gets enough press and I can't tell you how many times I have done or been a part of something newsworthy in rowing and no one hears of it. So, given that I have a blog in which 10 people read, I figured I would do what I can to get the news out there, and try to right this wrong as best I can.

Micah Boyd and Rebecca Smith both made the national team. Micah will be going to Beijing for the Olympics in the US Mens 8+ and Rebecca will be going to the World Championships in Austria in the LwtW4x. Each of them has spent over 10 years training 2x a day 6 days a week in order to reach their goal and it finally came for them. They are an inspiration as amateur athletes, rowers, and American citizens. I truly hope they get to hear the national anthem on the medal stand. GO USA!!!

Here's some pics of them in action!

Rebecca in 2 seat

Micah in stroke of the white 2- in the PACRA blue and yellow uni.

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Sorry, I wanted better pics from Row2k, but Ed sucks about that. So I had to go to the personal stalker files.

Tuck tail and run

Listen, if you make a big stinky mess in a bathroom. Don't close the door and run........just run. I understand the need to rid yourself of the responsibility of your EPA violating rear end; but closing and running doesn't make the problem go away. It just nails the next person to go in there, i.e. S.Vincent, since I pee like 50 times a day. You have a much better chance of escaping un-marked if you do so because you better believe the whole time I am trapped in there, I am turning my gears trying to think of who it was that went to the bathroom last. And I am VERY observant!

You'll be just as safe in your anonymity, trust me. Flush, run, and leave the door open as you go.

I've been lazy the past 5 months, I just didn't know it

I've heard of seasonal depression, but I never really believed in it. The low light of winter sapping the happiness out of people and the lack of the sunlight making them depressed. I'm not admitting depression, and nor should I have to, cause I wasn't. But I do think that the coldness and the earlier arrival of darkness and later arrival of light had something to do with my productivity over the winter. I wasn't sad, I just felt like not doing anything that I didn't have to. This lack of motivation probably does cause some depression in the more affluent and Type A personailties in this country. I am immune to such feelings because I never have a problem with being selfish and lazy. So, Ha Ha to you implied exestential stress. However, I think that trudging through the winter like a brave little Po-Vegas soldier has trained me in an un-intentional way to be more productive in the longer days of summer. The little things friends, the little things. That extra load of laundry, showering, throwing the garbage out when the bag is full, washing the car, an extra cardio session, that trip to the dry-cleaners or the mall, and cleaning that space on the floor between the stove and the counter. In the winter, they would have been put off til the weekend so I could get another much needed hour of sleep or to jam in a missed workout.

So today, I will write a blog post AND make a playlist with some relaxing outdoor summer songs (which will probably be listened to inside, 90% of the times it is played)

Unfourtunatly, with all this productivity, I am missing out on retaining information to blog about here. Too many thoughts, too much focus on singular tasks. With a larger readership then I anticipated, I have to be a little more guarded than I ever planned on being. I can't just flail away at whatever is on my mind when I sit down.

That would be easier, a better-written blog and probably more fun, but inherintly would include more problems. I wish I could be brave and shirk the expectations and the reputations I have worked very hard to fool everyone with. But I am lazy, and this blog is certainly not an eternal masterpeice with which I can show to my grandkids nor did I ever want it to be. It's my entertaining past-time to keep me awake so I don't take another nap or watch the same Family Guy episode for the 10,000th time. I can't be over-worked and lose sleep over my leisure time.

And that's the problem with undertaking any activity in this day and age. Every once and while you can feel pressured to make it perfect or that if you spent more time, it could be better. With so many things to take care of these days, its impossible to give everything the time it requires. But nothing outside your main focus in life has to be perfect. Nor do you have to strive to make something better than what it is. I find that sometimes its much better to let extra curricular activities be what they naturally are and leave it alone. There is a cliche phrase that I like to use which says "too many chefs spoil the soup" and another phrase which says "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". So when I feel the pressure coming down on me when I am supposed to be having fun, I have to step back and say "If it ain't broke, don't let 6 chefs come in and make you soup"..... or something like that.

Summertime also means lots of movies. I LOVE movies. But this summer is more than just the theatre and me scowling at people who show up 20 mins late and stand near me assesing the scene for the absolute best seat available for 5 minutes instead of sitting their tardy distracting unseated ass down pronto!(BASTARDS) Like it matters how much they visually enjoy the movie when they have no idea what is going on cause they missed 1/4 of it. That and restraining my temper at people who smack, chomp, and crackle the wrappers of their theatre food like they are at a raucus ball game instead of when a serial killer is stalking ever so quietly and terrorizingly down a dimly lit hallway towards his un-suspecting prey. Last week, I was ever so close to jumping out of my seat at that girl and giving her something to really be scared of.

Anywhosal, like I was saying, this is the summer of Netflix and me catching up on all those movies that I want to see, but miss out on the chance to. I have some serious movie watching to do now. I have already seen a lot of movies, but now I am going to be a regular ol' expert with this new and highly enjoyable service.

And with that, like whoever the celebrity is that is going to promote the will rogers institute this year in all the previews, "we'll see you....AT THE MOVIES"

SV-TV Programming Note: This is one of my new favorite bands, but being hopelessly indie, they have no money and can't afford any cool videos. As much as I hate making a joke of their musical style, the guys in this video make videos like I would make videos if I made videos. Extremely funny with a touch of homo-eroticism and slow motion running. Too funny not to post, hang in there, song is longggggg.

And I told you to be patient, and I told you to be kind

I know I am beating the old dead horse here with my 30th blog on this subject, but believe it or not I am upset with the current heat wave and its effect on my place of employ. More so, the people who call in and were not properly educated in how to act like human beings in modern society. I guess I should be numb to it by now, and in most cases I am, except on days like this. I believe it's because I pride myself in being a thoughtful, intelligent, and responsible person in how I treat others (cue friends guffawing) that I expect the same treatment back from them. Should I know better? Of course....but on days like a Monday after a heat wave, all I need is one or 2 people who have enough IQ points to understand what will happen when you call an AC repairman during a heat wave. So yeah, now I am all vented out and I can resume normal brain function.

I hated "footy?" pajamas. I don't understand the love affair some people had/have with them. I felt very very restricted and closed off from the world. For a young chap, they are a harbinger of claustrophobia. Hey, I got an idea, lets send our toddler to sleep wrapped up in a bag with only his head exposed and a zipper he can't operate yet. The only thing that could have made them worse is if they were handy and footy pajamas. Honestly, I don't understand the appeal. Socks, pants, and shirts don't work? You had to attach the socks to the pants and the pants to the shirt? Why? It makes no sense, and with every step, something would pull or bunch. Toddlers grow and inch per day, so the third time they use them, their gonads are destroyed due to the shoulders pulling up the crotch area . Plus when you are 4 and wet the bed, guess where all that pee collects? That's right: in your feet. So now you are walking around closed off from the entire world, tweaked out with claustrophobia and 2 liters of urine sloshing around your ankles. Fuck those footy pajamas!

Remember those books, "Scary Stories: To tell in the dark"? I used to love books and most importantly, the hideous illustrations. I wish I had a camp fire and about 10 - 7 year olds to tell those stories to and to make me s'mores. I could start and assembly line and probably get 2 s'mores a minute in my mouth. Plus they would worship me and my powers over their fears.