Summer of Dan

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XVII

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XVI

The slow demise of an old friend

I've had my trusty old Dell laptop for the last 5 years. We've been through a lot together. I've pushed it to the brink and back. I started this very blog from the comfort of my recliner over 5 years ago with this bad larry on my lap. I've brought it on any trip that's lasted more than 2 days.

But the time is coming.

When technology dies, it dies hard. And fast. I've been able to resurrect this guy a few times but there will be a time in the near future when I won't be able to do my techno-CPR. I've done my due diligence in backing it up but I don't want to see it crash and go out that way. But it will happen.

I'm torn with what the future holds for me laptop-wise: do I buy a kickass Dell with everything I want in it and need for an awesome price (I can get an awesome discount through work) or do I say peace out to Windows and go to a Mac, albeit less of a machine and something that will cost more? I know the pros and cons of both, I own a Mac Mini and love it. 

I just don't know. I'll feel lost when it's unable to be resurrected, even though it doesn't have the biggest hard drive, monitor, or processing power. It's easy to get attached to something inanimate like your laptop, it sees everything you write, it's there when you are writing your emails and surfing the web, and doing your homework. It's a friend.

The time will come soon, I know it. I just don't know what I'll do when that happens...

A little game in hell

This past weekend we played in the 95 degree heat and humidity down in Connecticut, in the middle of the woods, with a sideline that had absolutely zero shade. Guys were so dehydrated they were pale, shaking while trying to down as much water as their stomach could hold, and were generally sluggish all day.

The refs must have been feeling the heat as well because they fucked up at least 4 calls that anyone could see were wrong, couldn't explain two calls to us, and started fighting among themselves.

We were without our starting QB for our first full game and Harmon (our Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/GM/Owner/Backup Backup QB) was our leader on the field. He threw a nice TD to Pat and Zap had a huge day with 2 TDs and who knows how many yards.

Before the game started, defensively we were relatively healthy. Midway through the game was another story. Guys were getting dinged up left and right all day but there was no way we were going to let a first year team that has yet to put up any points score on us. The refs helped them as much as they could but it didn't do anything really but change the final score.

Despite the odds we won 23-0. 

Our defense was nasty: Nickola had at least 10 tackles, Rick had at least 2 1/2 sacks, multiple tackles and a safety, and I had 2 1/2 sacks and at least 3 tackles for loss. We were in the backfield every play. If we keep playing like this we will be extremely tough to beat.

Our home opener is this week and being 3-0 feels great but 4-0 would feel better because I don't feel like we've played anyone yet that has an offense that can put up points or shut our offense down.

Let's hope it's not nearly as hot this weekend as it was last weekend. 

Never die alone

The summer is flying by, summer nights in New England are the bomb - breezy, cool, and before long I'll wake up in the morning and use the word 'crisp' to describe the air. I love it. You can't beat New England. You can't.

• I find my random pictures I post on Fridays all over the net from a million different blogs. I try to average 12-15, sometimes I post more. I find at least 30-50 a week and post the ones that sort of capture the way I feel that week.
  
  
• Pandora One kicks serious ass. Everyone knows what Pandora is, Pandora One is just the optional service you can pay for ($36 a year). It allows you unlimited listening time, free of advertising, has an awesome desktop interface so you don't have to have a browser open all the time to control it. Not only that but you have the little fade in bar that comes up over all apps on your desktop for a second to show you the artist and song title. Awesome. Free is good, cheap is better.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Football season is going awesome so far. 2-0 with a shot to be 3-0 as we come back to Concord for our home opener next week. Offense is clicking, defense is just getting started. This season has a different feel to it than previous seasons. Hopefully that's a good thing.
  
  
• Whoever invented pound cake should be shot. Or declared a genius. I can't decide which.
  
  
• I was really enjoying this summer until the humidity recently started. WTF. I can handle the heat, just not sweating all the time. I do that anyway, I don't need any help.
  
  
• Life as a Blackberry user is mighty fine. I fucking love this thing. It has all the apps I wanted with my Dare but never got and even more than I could ever use. Amen to Verizon for getting the Tour before everyone else.
  
  
• I really want these Lightsaber Chopsticks. Seriously.
  
  
  
  
• I feel the need to address some of my self-directed fatty comments: I know I'm not "fat" physically. Sure I have a load of laundry on my washboard abs. Sure my doctor called me obese. But I don't honestly fully believe I am. I just have the mentality of a fat kid. I've always been husky and it's hard to shed the image/mentality of it. Maybe some day, it's just my self-deprecating way of explaining to myself and others of how I feel and the way things appear to me. 
  
  
• I haven't said it in a while but I will reiterate it anyway: the Kindle is still the best gift I've ever been given. Just sayin'.
  
  
• Last Suppers is an artistic website dedicated to last meals of Death Row inmates to show you the vast differences in food choices people make when they know they have one final meal. Freaky but interesting I think.
  
  
• Walking into Wal-Mart the other day I saw someone walk in, past the carriages and almost to the old door greeter guy while still smoking. What the fuck dude? Seriously, when was the last time you could walk into any place while smoking and keep doing it? He only realized it when the door greeter looked at him funny at a loss for words.
  
  Another thing to note on any Wal-Mart bingo cards you may have that might have it missing: find a pregnant teenager walking around in pajamas with her bulging stomach sticking out of her shirt as her boyfriend rubs her stomach. I bet you'll get that one pretty quickly but add it anyway.
  
  
• I've been thinking a lot about my musical tastes and came to the conclusion that 6 people in my life have had a profound effect on the types of music I have been exposed to and are fully responsible for what I listen to (in no particular order):
  
  My dad - I have very fond memories of growing up and listening to the Beatles, Zappa, Hendrix, CCR, the Allman Brothers, Dire Straits, and Tom Petty. This extended into my teenage years when he started listening to Pearl Jam, Green Day, and the Cranberries.
  
  Tom - Tom Chan changed my life. Seriously. He gave me my first CD ever (Rage Against the Machine). He gave me Def Lepard's Hysteria and told me to listen to it. He got me into Guns 'N Roses and Metallica. When I was 11. His taste in music greatly changed my life, as well as the way I listened to music and now he is creating his own. Just like back then, more awesome music courtesy of Tom. Check his band out, Forget the Girl. Don't just take my word for it, give it a listen. I'm not just pimping a good friend's music, I'm pimping music that I listen to every damn day.
  
  PJ aka Paul Bauer - around the time I was listening to Pearl Jam and Green Day and my dad was borrowing my CDs Mr. Paul Bauer Jr introduced me to his multi-thousand CD collection. Rush, 311, KoRn, Marley, Wu Tang, everything really. Rush was almost a religious experience for me, especially because we'd listen to a ton of live stuff while playing copious amounts of Playstation in his bedroom.
  
  Steve - much like PJ, Steve is a CD/music maniac. He has thousands of CDs, has burned me 100s of albums and encouraged me to listen to a ton of random stuff. Without him I would just be figuring out who O.A.R. were, he really turned me on to Coldplay at a time I was shying away from what was on the radio, gave me a shitton of Dave Matthews. This doesn't do justice to all the random artists he's exposed me to, that would take forever but Rusted Root, Keane, and Snow Patrol are all favorites of mine and it's because of him.
  
  The Niff - she's opened my mind about a lot of things in general, music being chief among them (as well as food). Listening to Sting, The Police, Counting Crows, John Mayer, even hardcore rap, it all sounds differently because of her. For one reason or another (maturity?) I hated Sting with a passion years prior, but now seeing The Police at Fenway is at the pinnacle of best concerts I've ever been to in my life. 
  
  Jessie - my sister. She listens to a lot of stupid crap, but she also listens to a lot of different stuff I'd never hear of without her. She's always been ahead of the curve in the emo-band department, but she also likes a lot of the lesser known bands and has exposed me to those as well.
  
  
• I love Kashi products: their bars, their cereal, their oatmeal/warm cereal. But dammit, I hate their healthy dinners. They are awesome for you, but I can't choke down the 7 grain mix they have in all of their dinners. Tastes to me like it's like gravel.
  
  And yes, I am whining.
  
  
• I've come up with a list of reasons why I need/want a house:
  
  I want to have a couple dogs.
  
  I want to grow a garden that is within 20 feet of my backdoor.
  
  I want to be able to better prepare for the Zombie Wars.
  
  I want to build things in a wood shoppe.
  
  I want to build an outdoor brick oven so I can make awesome pizza.
  
  I want to be able to paint whatever the fuck I want whenever I want.
  
  I want to be rid of my shitty neighbors that scream everything at their little kid, including things like "WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR BREAAAAAAAAKFASSSSST??! PAAANKCAAAAAAAAKES OOOOOR CEREAAAAAAAAAL??????"
  
  I want a library.
  
  I want to have a hammock.
  
  I want to get Rock Band and play it as loud as I want whenever I want.
  
  
• I only got 7 hours of sleep last night. I woke up exhausted. And then realized that it's because I've been averaging almost 10 hours of sleep a night. For the last year.
  

Summer is almost over. Enjoy every minute of it. It's funny, you think when you get older that time slows down a bit more but it doesn't. I remember summer vacation flying by. Now before I realize it's summer it's already over. Enjoy the beach, enjoy the sun, enjoy the water.

And don't forget to enjoy each other.

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XV

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XIV

When you hear a bear in the woods, circle that tree over there

The Niff and I had an awesome vacation last week (pictures will be put into an album when I upload them all). We opted for multiple day trips rather than just one big event, I think it keeps it interesting that way. It cuts down on the odds of having some shitty vacation that never ends because the weather is just awful and you can't leave your hotel or on a cruise ship where everyone gets sick and you need to come into port.

We spent the first two days up in Crawford Notch, which for those of you who have no idea where that is it's about 2 hours north of anywhere. Seriously, no cell service, barely any running water, and more bears and moose than people.

The Niff got us a kickass little cabin that had electricity but no running water. She picked the best cabin though because it was literally 10 feet from one of the outdoor water sinks and 15 feet from the campground bathhouse, so it was like we had a bathroom that was just down the hall. And by hall, I mean woods.

We wanted to do a few hikes so I emailed Steve and he gave us a ton to choose from. We were opting for shorter hikes so we could get multiple hikes in. And because I am a fat, lazy, slob that isn't meant to climb up mountains and walk in the woods for hours on end.

We hiked Arethusa Falls (tallest falls in New Hampshire), Zealand Falls (has the biggest horseflies you ever did see), and Mount Willard (if you want to just drop off the face of the earth this is the place to go). All of them were awesome hikes, a lot to take in if you weren't crawling your way up each one with your hands on your knees bending over losing a gallon of sweat a minute because you are an obese land whale. 

But seriously they were all beautiful, I only wish I took our camera to Arethusa Falls. It rained earlier in the day pretty heavy and we didn't want to risk another downpour and fuck up our awfully dated and shitty camera...

Mount Willard wasn't that tough of a hike but you had to earn it a bit. The hardest part was all the mud that you could easily slip and fall off the path into a small ravine, likely to hit at least a dozen trees on your way down. Coming to the top is the most surreal thing - you are walking out of the woods, up a trail and you just see sky when you are about 20 feet from the end of the trail. And then it ends. Just nothing but sky and mountains and cliffs you can plunge at least 1,500 feet to your death. Very peaceful though. Except the guy with his family at the top that was talking to some complete strangers about how he has wanderlust and shouldn't be living in a house or telling his kids how he "wishes he was a cloud". If I stayed at the top any longer I was going to see if he was as light as a cloud and flung him off the mountain.

Zealand Falls was pretty "flat" according to most hikers but as my dad would say, "Pig's ass". That's right - I would call it "wavey", because it seemed like you'd go up about 10 feet in elevation and then back down and then back up and so on. For 2 1/2 miles. Not that I'm bitching but if everyone says its "flat" I expect one of those completely flat roads like you see in the midwest where you can see for 10 miles in both directions. I guess I learned the hiker's definition of the word "flat". Something to remember.

On the way out there there were tons of little ponds and bogs. More than a few times we heard some pretty loud moving in the woods just from where we were. No doubt in my mind that either a family of bears were following us or a freakish non-Bullwinkle type mean ass Moose. If I saw a bear I was prepared to try to talk him down and look at him with sweet loving non-threatening eyes and back away slowly. And when he would surely chase me I would run around a tree until he got bored. 

Side note: I really think I could do the tree dance with a bear. As long as the tree was big enough I think I could just circle it and not let him catch me. Think about it - he has to turn all that 1,000 lbs. of bear muscle around a damn tree, I just need to get my fat ass around it fast enough. My turning radius is much smaller than his. I think I have a chance. Everyone I've talked to think I have a chance too. In becoming dinner. We'll see. We shall see. 

Zealand was really cool, the last .1 miles was literally straight up but there was an AMC Hut at the top where you could rest. The falls started even higher than the hut and there were tons of people swimming up there. In a waterfall. In New Hampshire. Pretty damn cool.

On the way down the Niff and I sat on some rocks and dunked our feet into the waterfall in one of the little pools that spilled down the rocks. It was crazy cold but with the pounding my feet took over the 2 days it felt like some sadistic day spa in the woods.

Another side note: people on hiking trails and up north in general are insanely nice people. It's likely the nature of the type of person that is up there - carefree, loves to just be outside and easygoing. You don't really see that in most places...

The two nights we stayed at the cabin I made our dinner on the small charcoal grill to the side of the cabin and made a fire. Bear Grylls could learn a thing or two from me, let me tell you. I mean, over the course of the two nights I only used half a gallon of lighter fluid and half a notebook to get our fires started! 

I brought my laptop so we could watch movies at night and I brought Stand By Me, Lost in Translation, The Blair Witch Project, and something else. We only got to Stand By Me, but next time we are watching BWP for sure. And I'll make her walk to the bathroom by herself at 3am.

I think I took the whole "don't worry about what you eat when you are on vacation, you're on VACAAAAATION!!!" thing to an entirely new level. In no certain order, during the two days up north I consumed no fewer than 2 1/2 lbs. of hamburger, 3 chocolate bars (S'mores), an entire package of hot dogs, two decent sized cups of potato salad, a ton of chips and pretzels and goldfish and Clif bars and whatever else I could eat. Because I was on vacation!!!! Excuse me while I inject my insulin.

We went to the beach for two of the days of our vacation, slumming it at Hampton Beach the first time and opting for Jenness Beach the second time. The best $26 I spent was on our boogie boards. Mine is epic (again, pics to come) - a cheesy, dead-skeleton Pirate with a dead parrot on his shoulder and some skulls and crossbones. I was going to get the Niff the one with the giant fantasy type dragon on it, but I figured she'd toss me in the ocean if I did that. Instead I opted for a hawaiian flower type board for her.

If you haven't boogie boarded, it's awesome. If you aren't fat. I mean, whenever the Niff went she took off and would be gone for at least 50 feet. Whenever I did and thought I got a good wave I went 10. I liken it to strapping 4 cinder blocks to a piece of plastic and wishing it luck. I fared a lot better closer to shore in the smaller more compact and powerful waves, I seemed to get a really good push off and seemed to get the best runs on those. Whether I am good at it it's fun as hell and just became our latest hobby. It requires almost zero skill (which is good for me), very little money ($26 for two?!!), and just the desire to have fun (we have plenty). 

Our last day of vacation was spent with our good friends Tom Brady and Randy Moss. And the rest of the Patriots. At Training Camp. Always a great time, I could watch them practice every day of the week. The best drill of the day was the wet ball fumble drill - they had a guy hosing down the field for over an hour. I don't mean a garden hose. I mean a firehose. Seriously. The guy was watering it for over an hour, and the entire team came over, the coaches grabbed soaked balls and wiped them on the ground to simulate a fumble that was forced in a downpour. And the players loved it. They sprinted as fast and as far as they could before they got to the ball and dove on it, covering up and sliding anywhere between 10 to 30 feet in the grass. We weren't close to it but we could see it and you could tell they were having a great time. 

Brady looked solid, he hit most of his passes (only 2 that were off the mark, he hadn't planted his back foot and the ball just dipped or sailed).

Welker and Moss looked awesome as always but the biggest surprise will be in Joey Galloway and Greg Lewis. People that are casual fans don't know them but they are impact players. Galloway is a beast and Lewis is a bit bigger than Welker and both are threats to take it to the house.

Maroney looked awesome as well, broke a big TD during the offense/defense portion of the practice. Fred Taylor looked fresh and will be an impact player as well.

Defensively, Wilfork is just a grizzly bear of a man. But he is stupid fast for a guy that big. Mayo and Meriweather looked solid. I think our defense is going to turn heads this season.

It was an awesome end to a fantastic semi-relaxing but uber-productive vacation with the Niff. I can't wait to plan Summer Vacation 2010.