Summer of Dan

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XXI

We never change

September is almost over. Craziness. I guess when you get older time really does go by way too fast.

• The Niff and I were in Wal-Mart last night to exchange something we had just bought that needed assembly. You'd think they would include ALL the parts you need to put something together. We bought a new drying rack and they forgot to put in one of the sides in the box. Are you kidding me??? It's like 12 pieces: the 10 dowels and the two fucking sides!!!! It's like buying a table that only has 3 legs. Or a lamp without the shade. WTF. 
  
  
• Pandora has been good to me. Very good. But I think I need to give it a rest, I must be pushing it too hard. For some reason when I listen to my Kings of Leon station that I mixed with a couple other artists (John Mayer, O.A.R., Snow Patrol) it has been putting in incredibly religious songs and artists. Songs like "No other Gods" or "He is here" or "Praise be to Him". WTF???!? I think the Music Genome Project needs a little help.
  
  
• My buddy Jay (who reads this blog) recently packed his Escort up with all his stuff and headed out to sunny California to start his new life. No prompting. No indication. He just did it. He left during our current undefeated season and although I don't think I would have done the same thing I can understand why he felt he needed to. More power to him for making the change he wants to see in his own life. It was cool reading his updates on his blog as he ventured out west and lived out of his car. People that think he is crazy just don't get it.
  
  

  

• I read something about tattoos the other day I found interesting. I've always had plans to get something that I really really want done, I have ideas of what I want but I want it to be something I will want on me in 20, 30, 40 years. People get them for all different reasons and whatever your reasons are they are yours and you have no one but yourself to answer to. That's the beauty of freedom of expression. But the paragraph made me think.
  
  "Everyone with a tattoo has their bullshit reasons behind it; You always want to live by a religious philosophy you briefly learned about in your eastern cultures class, you want to honor that guy you spent a fateful spring break with, you want everyone to know you’re hard to touch, hence the barbed wire on your bicep.

  While none of us want to admit it, most of the mental preparation done before getting a tattoo is figuring out what you’re going to say when people ask you what your ink symbolizes. You want to be deep. You want to be profound. You spend months crafting the beautiful soliloquy that will give insight to your masterful epidermal tapestry.

  But most of us are dumb and only profound in the way that a Zach Braff movie is profound. Every tattoo explanation I’ve ever heard (including my own) comes off as a cover story for the real reason we get tattoos: they are awesome. You can philosophize all you want, but deep down we know that the reason we brave ridicule from our friends, lectures from our parents, and potential inker’s remorse is so we can look cool in a tank top.

  But few people will admit this is the case. Most stand proudly by their tattoos and their vague, cryptic, undertones.

  The trickiest part of this whole equation is that we’re all getting older, and that one day we’re going to have grandkids asking about the muddy purple spots on our forearms and lower backs.

  Just take a second and imagine your own grandmother, just finishing setting the table for a delicious Thanksgiving feast, saying that she got Death tattooed on her shoulder blade because she always wants to remember that the Reaper’s on her back, man. Now imagine your grandfather, sporting Bermuda shorts and an oxygen tank, saying he got this piece done on his chest because Fall Out Boy is “fucking awesome.”

  Hilarious right? Gaze into your future, American youth.

   — Johnny Highland"

  I don't completely agree with it but it does bring up some things to think about.

  
  
• The 30 salads in 30 days experiment has sputtered and here is why: I was literally getting tired from eating. I know that is part of the point but holy shit it would take me like 90 minutes to eat a normal sized salad. I am sure there are all sorts of reasons why that is a good thing but it was exhausting me. Maybe I should try 30 bowls of cereal in 30 days.
  
  
  
• People that are flipping out about the Patriots need to calm the fuck down. They are 1-1 and only the Jets (2-0) have a better record than them in their division at this point. I heard a lot about the Jets taking everything they could from Kevin O'Connell (former Pats QB, recently cut by the Pats and picked up by the Jets), including blitz pickup assignments, Brady's hot reads and checkdowns. That is a ton of information for the Pats to changeup on the fly, so I'm not really surprised they couldn't really pick up the blitz this past weekend and lost. It's a long season. Calm the fuck down people.
  
  
  
• Picking out a laptop for myself is a nightmare. I spend way too much time trying to make that perfect laptop that will cover all my needs. A complete and utter nightmare.
  
  
  
• I am incredibly excited to see Where the Wild Things Are in a month. I'm not excited to be surrounded by a bunch of poser teenie-boppers that have no idea WTF it is and act like they are the king shit when I go to the movies. It's easily my favorite book as a kid, I must have read it a million times and related to Max on deep levels. I'm more afraid of the "fans" spoiling my experience rather than Spike Jonze ruining it because I don't think that is remotely possible.
  
  
  
• As much as I love football I'm looking forward to the end of the season (hopefully the end result will be winning a championship on our homefield). I just cannot wait to have my shoulder heal, be 100% again and be able to lift normally. Now isn't the time to whine about bumps and bruises, every guy on my team has them. We just need to keep our eyes on the prize and finish the season like we started. It's surreal being undefeated, but given the way our entire team plays it isn't surprising. Our defense caused 9 turnovers this past weekend. Our defense shutdown the best offense in all of Single A and our offense scored 21 points on the best defense in Single A. The scary thing is we played well enough to win but we can still do better.
  
  
  
• I really need to go to IKEA so I can buy a couple of these for my desk in Mantown:
  
  

  

  
  
• The following is a conversation that actually happened in front of the Niff and I last night while we were at the customer service desk at Wal-Mart:
  
  Overweight-missing multiple teeth-frumptastic woman: I needta cash mah check.
  Clerk: Ok, I need to see your I.D.
  Overweight-missing multiple teeth-frumptastic woman: (hands over I.D.)
  Clerk: Ma'am, your license is expired. We cannot cash any checks without valid I.D.
  Overweight-missing multiple teeth-frumptastic woman: It IS valid, it's me!!! It's just expired!
  Clerk: I know, because it's expired it isn't a valid form of I.D.
  Overweight-missing multiple teeth-frumptastic woman: I can't get a new license because I can't cash my check and I can't cash my check because I don't have a new license!!!!! (at this point the troll turns and walks away and says under her dragon-breath) FUCKING GOVERNMENT!!!!
  
  The only question I have here is: what does the government have to do with this?
  
  
  
• I want/need a new camera. I've been researching DSLRs for what feels like years now. I think once we get one we'll have to plan a weeklong car ride across the country ala Mr. Nickola and document our adventures. 
  
  

The more things change the more they stay the same. Right?

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XX

Do.Want.Please.

I've always been interested in design concepts and things that aren't ordinary. I've said before that as I get older I seem to be a bit more interested in art and things of that nature and these are just two examples of things I want.

Below is a pen/pencil/tracing paper (or roll of paper) holder called the Place for Trace. You just pull out what you need as you need it. It can also apparently be a key and coin holder. Maybe even hold a few cans of soda on their side too. Or a footlong sub from Subway. Or 1000 other things. 

The other thing I love is this sink. Maybe someday when I own a house but I like functional useful things like this plus it looks badass.

Awesomeness Level of 1000 has been achieved.

A Warning Sign

I knew late last week that we'd likely be playing in the rain for our game on Saturday for the second straight home game. In our league, guys are lucky if this happens even once every few seasons. Most teams aren't allowed to play on their fields if it rains because the schools they play at don't want you tearing up the field.

But we play on a city field and they could not care less.

Some may make fun of our field: it's not the nicest most level field but it has grass throughout, when it rains it drains incredibly well and as I said before you can play in it during a downpour. Playing in the rain is a gift from the football Gods.

My shoulder has had quite a bit of rest but isn't even close to 100%. Probably 10 plays into the game when I was tackling someone all the straps on my helmet popped and my face smashed ever so gracefully into my facemask. I felt the pop on the bridge of my nose and immediately saw that I couldn't see so clearly. I got to the sideline and was pretty sure I broke my nose. It swelled up something fierce, I iced it for the rest of the series which wasn't that long and the next time we went back onto the field I ran out there. As long as I could breathe I was playing.

Mental note: Next time when your helmet straps all snap, take a second to fix them all and make sure your helmet fits fine.

I got out there about 8 seconds before the ball was snapped and about 3 seconds before the play started I realized I hadn't fixed my helmet from when I popped everything, I looked back at my MLB Jim Levesque and told him to call a timeout but it was too late. The play started so I did what I had to. I grabbed the Guard's facemask and held on. The play ended so fast and I fixed my helmet but it was a hairy 7 seconds.

I talked to Jimmy after and asked him if he heard me and he didn't realize it was me and said I should have called a timeout. I wasn't about to cost my team a timeout because I was stupid and wasn't paying attention but lesson learned.

After that series I went back to the sideline and put more ice on my nose and apologized to the Niff for being with Quasimodo. Every game I play at home I get a little more deformed. I offered to set her free but I think she was still in shock to take me up on the offer right then. My nose never turned to either side, I don't have a bump, it's just badly bruised and swollen. It could have been a lot worse, I should consider myself semi-lucky.

With two games left in the regular season we are 6-0 and host the also 6-0 Southern Connecticut Sting this Saturday at 2pm. Here is to hoping my left wing is even healthier than last week and I can keep my helmet on.

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XIX

We live in a society!!!

An otherwise awesome weekend comprised of going to the Hopkinton Fair, exploring a corn maze that had Boston trivia answers hidden inside, and an exploratory adventure of sorts was marred by someone that doesn't realize that we live in a society. Where there are rules. And repercussions for their actions. 

So there we were (all great stories start this way): doing our laundry in our laundry room where we live that has two washers and four giant dryers. One washer was empty so I put my stuff in it. One was stopped with a basket on top. Now, people routinely leave their clothes in the washers and don't care about anyone else or their urgency to do laundry. They'll leave them in there for hours. I did the logical thing: I took out the clothes and put them in the basket on the washer. And put in the Niff's clothes.

We come back as soon as our timer goes off and we get our stuff. Because the dryers crank up the heat and destroy our clothes we hang them up on clothes racks. As the Niff is putting her stuff on her rack she realizes she can't find a piece of clothing. She looks all over the apartment, walks back to the laundry room, finds nothing. She keeps hanging and realizes she is missing a lot more than she thought. 

What.The.Fuck.

The person that had their clothes taken out by yours truly took probably at least 1/4 to 1/2 of the Niff's laundry: running shorts, sports bras, panties, shirts, you name it. 

And they did it because I took their shit out of the washer.

I mean, I realize I crossed major boundaries here touching your shit, almost Hatfield and McCoy type reasons to start shooting each other. But seriously?? Stealing someone's clothes because they touched your sheets.

It's more than fucked up, it's criminal. And because I've watched way too many episodes of CSI I am getting to the bottom of it. For real. I've already turned my recliner around to face the parking lot and dumpster. Anyone that goes near it that looks suspicious is on my suspect list. Because of my uber-Hardy Boy skills I have it narrowed down to a family that has a little boy which could be one of two families the live in the floor below us, one directly beneath us. 

I know what their laundry basket looks like and I'm on a mission. It might take a week. A month. A year. But I will figure it out. Oh yes, I will.

Little decision, big impact for a big guy...

The battle I wage with eating good is constant. I talk about it way too much but it sort of defines me at this point until I get a grip on things. I figured I'd try an experiment and see how it goes.

For one month...

I will have one salad a day.

That's right. I'm going to eat all sorts of vegetables and see what it does to me physically. I love fresh veggies, but instead of the frozen meals for lunch I'll pack a salad, maybe some canned chicken or turkey if I want some meat on it.

Of course this starts after the holiday weekend.

That's when the best diets start, right?

With my shoulder being injured I'm painfully aware that I need to do my best to watch what I eat because I can't work out like I normally do. Even running hurts. I still get a few trail runs in a week with the Niff but going a more natural route for one meal a day might have a big impact on me.

We will see how this goes, one leaf at a time.

Don't touch that bacon

You seriously shouldn't fuck with a kid's bacon.

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XVIII