#43

Football is like, half over.  ALREADY.  So bummed!

Worry not, I am quickly finding that the Lake Show is more than filling that potential void already.  I will admit that haven't I followed a team this closely since my high school basketball team* lost in the state finals [2001] or the the Maryland Terrapins (see also: "tearing it up in the home of...") won the NCAA** tournament my senior year of high school [2002].  Juan Dixon was a total bad ass and there was Lonny Baxter, the once-upon-a-time Shaq to Dixon's Kobe, and Steve Blake filled the role of awkward white guy.  It was magical.  March madness ensued.  

Now I am fully on the Lakers' bandwagon which is a surprisingly easy thing to do from 3 time zones away.  It also helps that the only profesh game I've ever seen (this is something I hope to change on February 2, 2009 --cough--) was the Washington Bullets in like 1994.  Clearly I had no annoying loyalties in this sport*** to abandon.

Bring it on! ****

*The only real notable alum of the TJ basketball team (and he had long since graduated that season) is Terence Morris who is enjoying what seems to be a semi-lucrative career in the Russian League.  Go team?

**I may have erroneously referred to it as the NAACP tournament... but that's another story.  Can you really blame me though??

***Thank you Baltimore Orioles for continuing to suck at baseball, haha.  Why not aim for an even 30 games back next season? 

****Is my nose actually crooked like that?!  I've never noticed it doing that before.

#42

While few people love airdrumming more than me (seriously, I challenge you to find someone), I think investing in one of these bad boys would leave me with no friends. Read on for one of the most amazing things...ever.

According to their website,

We could do what those other supposedly geeky apparel companies do and print a regular t-shirt with a cool looking picture of a drum kit on the front... then say it was trendy, make a few Rock Band references and try to convince you to buy it. But we don't roll like that. At ThinkGeek we know you expect innovative new products and we're here to pony up the goods. So, how about an electronic t-shirt with a picture of an actual playable drum kit on the front? That's right. Hit the drums on this shirt with your finger and they play through the built in speaker... simple but amazing. With 7 different drum sounds you're ready for a personal drum solo on your chest.

Product Features:

• Tap the drums on this shirt and they actually play through the embedded speaker
• All drums on the shirt are playable
• 7 Different drum sounds in all
• Battery pack with speaker stores in hidden pocket near hem of shirt
• Adjustable volume... the top volume level is really loud

I'm sold.

#41

Happy [Early] Halloween!


I'm not sure if this falls under 'awesome' or 'cruelty to animals' but Teen Wolf Pug just made my afternoon!

#40

CAN.

NOT.

WAIT.

Lifted from Peter "Hope Beyond Hope" Hassett

#39

Photos from our Six Flags Great Adventure great adventure!!

Yea, we rode those... That's what she said.



'Cause I'm a vegetarian and I'm not fuckin' scared of him....




Just shreddin' with what looks like a giant blow-up Wiggle.



Sweet hangz, but where's Bleachie?



Group photo!



We'll blow one last kiss to all the beautiful nights like this under the Central Jersey sky... but actually, it's the Central Jersey sky!

#38

Fringe spoiler!

No, not the tv show...  

I just cut my bangs and I won't lie, it sorta looks like I ran out of time on the "My First Day of Kindergarten" episode of Shear Genius.

Oh well.

Asymmetrical is totally in... right?  

#37

R.I.P. EAST VILLAGE IDIOT

It's the end of an era and the end of some pretty great commentary on my neighborhood.

#36

Thank God for Comet!

I'm already learning so much from the rat book!  It's also making me even more paranoid walking home at night when there's a ton of trash along the street but... I'm surviving.

This is my favorite excerpt so far... 

I was in my bedroom – I had two roommates at the time, but they were both out for the evening – and I heard a noise in the bathroom. Sort of a rustle-around kind of noise, so I got up and peered into the bathroom, looked all around, and that’s when I saw the giant rat running around inside the bathrub. I screamed like a girl and closed the door. Then I poured a glass of scotch to think things over, and I decided my best option would be to poison the rat without trying to confront it. So I looked around for some kind of poison in the apartment and all I could find was furniture polish – it was Lemon Pledge – and also I thought I remembered something about rats liking peanut putter, so I mixed some Lemon Pledge with peanut butter and put it on a tiny piece of cardboard and slid it under the door and then waited. After about fifteen minutes I decided to peer in, and the peanut butter was untouched. So then I looked in the bathroom and didn’t see it. And then I looked around and it was up on the sink staring at me. And then I screamed like a girl again and closed the door. I had another scotch and ultimately decided I needed to go in there and confront it, so I opened the door, didn’t see it anywhere, looking all around, but there was a towel on the shower-curtain rod blocking a window ledge, and I figured it had to be on the ledge, so I grabbed the towel to pull it down, and I can’t figure out to this day if I saw the rat on the ledge or it just dropped down into the bathtub, but now it was running around in the bathtub as scared as me and it couldn’t get out – its claws were scraping – and so I decided I could drown it. So I turned on the water, waiting for it to drown, and that’s when I had the tragic realization that rats can swim. But then I thought I’ve got it trapped, so now I just have to kill it, and I went back to the kitchen looking for something more poisonous than Lemon Pledge and I found the Comet kitchen cleanser. So I went back in and the rat was swimming around in one end of the bathtub, and I poured a bunch into the other end of the tub, and it formed the large, scary green pool. The rat swam toward it, and the second it hit the pool, it turned belly-up. Then I realized I had to get it out of the tub, and I didn’t want to touch it, so I used a plastic bag and cut holes in it to drain the water, and I ran it out to the incinerator chute.

Man, this guy was pretty innovative.  Definitely filing his ideas away for future use, if necessary. 

#35

In honor of CMJ, the following is what the line-up would be if I hosted my own showcase.

WIDESPREAD PANIC AT THE DISCO BISCUITS 

and

GOD IS AN INTRONAUTALIS

with

RISE AGAINST ME WITHOUT YOU AND I AM THE AVALANCHE

Special guests:

BLOC INNER PARTY SYSTEM.

SAVES THE DAY TO REMEMBER

BRAND NEW RADICALS

MINUS THE BEAR VS. SHARK

SONIC YOUTH OF TODAY

WE THE KINGS OF LEON

That's all I have confirmed for now.  Please stand by for an update.

#34

This just in from Erica's Google Reader:

Simple Plan to record "punk-pop" version of Hockey Night in Canada theme

After it scooped up the beloved Hockey Night in Canada theme song this spring from rival broadcaster CBC, CTV announced yesterday that Montreal's Simple Plan would be the first band to re-record the song.
The Juno Award-winning band's unique punk-pop version of the theme -- now known as "The Hockey Theme" -- will debut during the Boston-Montreal game on TSN and RDS on Oct. 15.

"This is a very cool and a huge honour for a bunch of diehard hockey fans," said Simple Plan drummer Chuck Comeau. "This song was a huge part of our childhood, and we are all stoked to have the chance to put our own 'Simple Plan' twist on it and to record it for the millions of hockey fans tuning into TSN and RDS."

#33

I'm really into this Dutch photographer lately named Hans Eijkelboom.  He basically sets up shop on a popular street and just takes photos for an afternoon.  

He has a book of photography that I really want to get called Paris - New York - Shanghai and, all comments on globalization aside, it seems really cool.  He's also inspired me to maybe start a photo project of my own.  And clearly this can't be difficult to do, especially in NYC.

#32

Hehe.  Not everyone has low self-esteem... some people submit the best secrets into Postsecret.  

P.S.  Fringe is like... so fucked up.  It's like Veronica Mars + CSI + Heroes + I couldn't ask for anything more!  Eh, I could do with less Pacey and more of his cantankerous dad.  Oh great... now there is a hairless rat (of course) tormenting this girl... and she exploded/killed it with her mind.  Sick.  Sign me up!

#31

QUICK RECAP: 

Such a great day!

MORE DETAILS:  

This happened... 

in my apartment for about 10 minutes before Perry and I headed out to brunch with Dustin and Ali.  My postulate* was correct though, for those who care.  I didn't blog pre-game, didn't root too hard and the Ravens actually freakin' won!  And not only did they win, but they scored a defensive touchdown on a gift from Chad Pennington - my fantasy team thanks them.

After brunch we walked around for a bit... it's starting to get colder and so fun, outside days are soon going to be few and far between.  We picked out furniture at ABC Carpet that we currently (and maybe never) cannot afford and then spent the better part of an hour perusing the shelves at Barnes and Noble in search of this collection of Eggers short stories.  I've now learned that it's out of print or only available in the UK or whatever.  So, I settled on this book:

For those who aren't aware, I have more run-ins with rats in NYC than anyone I've ever met... not limited to having them scamper across my bare flip-flopped feet (Attorney Street, between Houston and Stanton), sharing the subway platform with them at the West 4th Street station stop (Downtown A/C/E side), and walking in the middle of the street in the summer when I see them nibbling on garbage (pretty much anywhere in the East Village/Lower East Side).  I have luckily - fingers crossed & knock on wood - never lived in a rat/mouse infested apartment building, although I did rather enjoy that Ratatouille movie.  I seriously hope this book sheds some light on those little critters and hopefully helps calm my crippling phobia.

Now, I'm watching the baseball game and tying a few on with Perry.  Thanks in advance for continuing to read her blog.  She has google analytics and shit and I want to feel popular!

Question #1: 

If we heat up hard cider, will it burn off all the alcohol content?

Question #2: 

What's with the Boston coach (er, manager...whatever) and his rampant gum chewing??  I hope he has stock in Bubblicious.

*pos-chuh-lit; -noun; Mathematics, Logic.  a proposition that requires no proof, being self-evident, or that is for a specific purpose assumed true, and that is used in the proof of other propositions; axiom.

Re: #29

Whoops! 

Looks like I may be eating my words if  Boston beat Tampa Bay in Game 7.  Although, I think there may be a mathematical explanation for this...

Some rules of geometry and how they apply to my sports predictions:

Antecedent - "A" - if I hope a team will win and blog about it...

Consequent - "B" - ...then they will win.

Thus, the conditional statement is "If A, then B".

1. Case Study #1 - the Dutch soccer team in the Euro Cup

If A, then Not B.

If I hope they win and blog about it, they will lose.

2. Case Study #2 - NLCS, Dodgers vs. Phillies

Not A -> Not B

If I hope they win and don't blog about it, they will lose.

3. Case Study #3 -  Game 5, Boston vs. Tampa Bay

Not B -> A

If it a appears a team is certain to lose and I blog about it before the game is actually over, they will win.

So, I know that the inverse and converse of my statements do not hold true.  I haven't yet tested the contrapositive...  Not B -> Not A... aka, they won't win if I don't hope about it and don't blog about it.

In conclusion, overall epic fail on my part.  

#30

Hello, Christmas gifts.  I think I want to make shirts like this Experimental Jetset one for everyone I know.

Mine would probably have to be the following... but I'm open to suggestions.

HOT WINGS &

KARAOKE &

PHOTOBOOTHS &

CANADA &

KINSELLA BANDS.

And is it totally lame to make one for my fantasy team?  I think so!... but I just might do it.

CAMPBELL &

ADDAI &

HOUSHMANDZADEH &

PITTMAN &

SCHEFFLER &

BUCKHALTER &

KAEDING &

BALTIMORE.

The possibilities are so endless!!

(I also need this shirt but that's another story.)

#29

   

vs.

FAIL.

Maybe next season, Perry!

#28

TORONTO!

IN PICTURES!

Blogspot kinda sucks at letting me upload photos... so more are here.

Re: Re: #21

It turns out my good idea isn't very original.
BUMMER!

But whatever, I'm still doing it... and I don't need to wear a mask. Big thanks go out to Tina Fey for potentially looking like future me.

#27

Say hello to @jessicaxmaria and @tonythaxtonsalright.

Two of my favorites captured together in one screen shot! I won't lie... I'm pretty bummed I missed this.

You can watch the real video here.

#26

Because this happens to me all the freakin' time...
It's really too bad that The Big Lebowski and Kenny vs. Spenny aren't options.

This post is brought to you via fellow blogger Andrew Keller.

#25

I just had the best time with everyone this weekend... only to hear some of the worst possible news via my parents while on the bus coming from the airport.  I'll post more about the weekend later but I'm just really not in the mood for it now.

Lindsay, I know you probably don't read this but I am so sorry to hear the news about your mom.  Life has been really unfair to you with the hand you've been dealt but you somehow always come up on top.  I really admire you and will be there for you on Thursday.

#24

Quote of the day:

"Shane, its like you're inside my head.... Snacking on something."

#23

My favorite Kerouac haiku:

Quietly pouring coffee

  in the afternoon,

How pleasant!

Maybe it doesn't fit the standard 5-7-5 meter... but in less than 12 hours it will be me standing in a Tim Horton's (hopefully the 'homebase' location) enjoying an afternoon cup of coffee in the great country of Canada.  

Kerouac for the win, eh?