Now What?

So here we sit in the possibly post-bloggerated.com era, And it's kinda depressing. I want to throw out a dot com here and there. It's easier to send people my way. I can't do that. I can, but the free URL is ugly and clunky. I believe if I make a phone call, I might be able to sort this thing out but I'm not that desperate. I hate making phone calls. 

So does anyone have another idea? Do you think I should rename the blog? I think it would be easier to get a brand new name than trying to get the old name back. Not sure. Got any ideas? 

Thanksgiving Hangover

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I sit here in the kitchen drinking a cup a coffee, and I'm not going to lie, I feel like garbage. I took my own advice from yesterdays post and really went to town on two giant plates of Thanksgiving food. Pretty good, I think.  I ate fast and loose.

However, it was too much.  When we were done eating, Jesse and I washed the dishes. Leaning over the sink to wash the dishes hurt.  It hurt in our chests.  First it was Jesse's problem, but once I took over the dish washing, I also noticed the weird pain in my lower chest, as well.  Totally gross.

I did manage a piece of pie, which I can't hardly believe.

We went "Black Friday" shopping last night at like, 11:30.  Wasn't that crazy, deals weren't all that mind blowing (although they were good).  We got stuff for the kids and ourselves.  It was weird being in an Old Navy at midnight, because it didn't feel like midnight.  In fact, being out at the Nashville West Shopping thinger-ma-bob that late at night would have felt real weird had there not been the normal amount of shoppers and traffic for that area at, say, six p.m. on a regular day.  The only indication to me that it was super late was my uncontrollable yawns.

But what I'm trying to say here is that I feel hung over this morning.  I have a thanksgiving hangover.  I drank some water, drank some coffee and ate some pie.  I still feel like a small truck hit me last night.  I'm slowly feeling better, but I don't every remember feeling this way after thanksgiving before.

Well anyway, that's all, I guess.  Now that thanksgiving is over, it's not The Most Wonderful Time Of the Year.™ ™

Merry Christmas™ ™!!!

6 Tips to Maximize Your Thanksgiving Feast Experience

It's Thanksgiving day, and you know what that means. Trying to eat as much food as you possibly can. If

you're like me, on Thanksgiving day you get sad when you're too full to eat anymore amazing food.  So what is a person to do?  How can you maximize you're food intake on a day like today?

Pizza Delivery

I ordered a pizza yesterday for the thrill of ordering a pizza for delivery.  I know that might sound weird, but in our old apartment, not a lot of places wouldn't deliver to us because of the neighborhood we were near, and also due to the lack of nearby pizza places, I guess.  Anyway, I thought it would be neat to order a Domino's pizza and have it delivered to my front door, and I wanted a pizza real bad, so I ordered one.  Have you guys tried the new handmade pan pizza from Domino's?  It's really good.  (Pay me, Domino's.) Also at the old apartment, it was a bit of an ordeal to explain our gate to the delivery driver, so that was nice not having that to deal with.  I mean, I guess I didn't order the pizza JUST BECAUSE I wanted it delivered, I did it because I wanted a pizza, and I didn't want to go pick it up or make one.

I do have this weird guilt about having people do stuff for me.  I understand that people have jobs that serve other people, but there's this part of me that thinks I don't need someone to do something for me, I can do it myself, don't worry about it.  I made that poor pizza delivery girl drive across Green Hills to bring me one stupid pizza.  I could have done that myself.  I did tip her, so that's my thank you I suppose.  I don't know, I ordered a pizza and it was delicious.  And it was cool to have someone bring it to me.

Later in the day, I had to go to the CVS and get some Tylenol because we didn't have any and my wife had a fever.  While there, I impulse bought a twelve pack of Keystone Light, which was nice and cheap. I also got some Gatorade so I had two bags of stuff as I left.  I brought Miles with me on this trip to the store. When we were leaving the store, I set my bags down on the ground by my car to I could put Miles in his car seat. When I got home, the Tylenol was missing from my bag! I checked the car and it wasn't in there, so it must have fallen out of the bag in the CVS parking lot.  I quickly re-strapped Miles into his seat and headed back to the store to find my missing pills.  When I got there, the box with the bottle inside was on the ground, and it had been run over.  I opened the bottle and all the pills were crushed and it was useless.  I took the bottle back inside and grabbed a new thing of Tylenol off the shelf. When I got to the counter, I told the nice cashier what had happened. She was nice and let me replace the product. I was the one that screwed up and they let me replace the purchase and I was pretty happy about that.  Thanks, CVS!

Okay, that's all.  Have a fine day.  

Movember or No-Shave November or Novembeard

I just got both kids to nap, and I was about to log off the computer and go work out when I took a shameless webcam selfie (for a project I've been "working on" for a while now) and I couldn't believe how good my sweet, sweet mustache looks in this lighting so I decided to stop by and post the pic on the blog because I'm vain like that.

That was all one sentence and I apologize for that.

New House Review

Alright, here I sit 9:42 AM and my daughter is still sleeping in, like a teenager.  She's never done this before, and while I'm not concerned, I'm a little bit interested how long this will last.  I'm not complaining, I like having no kids to feed and pay attention to, but c'mon kid, what's up here?

Anyway, let me give you an update on our house, now that we've been living here for a couple weeks.

1. It's cold in here. It's a lot colder in here.  I imagine it'll be really hot in the summer as well.  It's an older house, so I suppose the insulation and the window seals and what have you are not as good as our old apartment, which was less than 10 years old at the time we lived there.  It gets way colder than we're used to in here at night, and when I have to get out of bed numerous times throughout the night, I can't wait to get back under the covers and get back to sleep in the warm bed.  The reality is that I end up just freezing all the time, and it's something I'll have to get used to, because I look at the calender, I see that it's early November, which means it's not getting any warmer anytime soon.  That's okay, I just have to bundle up.  
2. The dishwasher kind of sucks.  It's to the point that I hand-washed two glasses yesterday so I could have a glass of water that didn't have chunks of shit stuck to the side of the glass.  I pulled out a saucepan from the dishwasher yesterday that looked as murky as it probably was when it went in.  I don't want to have to hand-wash all our dishes because ain't no body got time for that.  It's just unfortunate. #firstworldproblems
3. The tub in the bathroom is old and deep which is nice.  I imagine at some point I could acutally take a bath in our house, and that seems relaxing. 
4. I'm afraid to do my workout, because I'm afraid I'll go though the floor.   Not entirely true, but I am afraid that I will knock over the TV or knock a mirror off the wall.  The floors are bouncy and old, while the old place had a concrete feeling under the carpet, which made me feel like I could do anything on that floor, weight wise.  I'm going to try it today, if I get the chance, but so far, I'm worried what will happen.  If I end up through the floor, I'll be really pissed. 
5. It feels like home already. It didn't take long for me to feel like I was at home here. It feels so framilliar already, and when I'm out of the house, I get excited to go home, because I like it here.  I really do.  

Okay, so that's all.  I really hope I didn't already write this post last week and I forgot, but I really don't remember what I wrote last time out here.  Have a nice rest of the week and I'll talk to you soon. 

We're Moving: We Moved

Right, so we're in the house, yeah.  We're a bit settled in here now, but this, right now, is honestly the longest I've sat down and done nothing here at this house since we moved in.  I've never worked as hard for such a stretch of time than I did last week.  It was such a whirlwind of work I don't even realize how much I did, but I know I didn't stop moving for five straight days.

The big question I had before the move was "we're not packing, I don't know how this is going to go."  Well, my answer is shitty.  No, don't do that.  The thinking was, we're not moving very far, we don't need to pack everything just to unpack it again a minute later.  What ended up happening is us just throwing random shit into bags and boxes and hauling it all over here over the course of four days.  It would have been much, much faster if we had packed and cleaned in the weeks leading up to the move, but honestly, we took the lazy, under pressure route, which was way harder than just packing up a bunch of organized boxes and moving them efficently.  It was a mistake, and it cause us to move things multiple times in stead of OHIO (only handle it once).  Don't do that when you move.  Take time to pack and clean slowly in the days and weeks leading up your move.

It's funny because I really thought I was keeping a clean apartment before.  No, I wasn't.  I was keeping the main areas clean, I suppose, but the nooks and crannies of our apartment were filthy.  Dog hair and dust just EVERYWHERE.  Lots of work was done, but when we finished, the maintenance man for the complex said our work made the place nearly move-in ready for the next tenant.  That felt good to hear.

I'm not sure what sucked worse, the lifting of heavy crap and the stress of where we are going to put it all, since we have less storage in the new place, or the cleaning of the old place.  It's pretty equal, but if there's one thing I learned from the experience is that Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are amazing.  They do everything, man.  They're just clean up whatever you need to scrub.  I highly recommend that product to everyone for everything.

So we're in the new house, there is shit everywhere, and I don't feel like putting it away right now.  I haven't gotten to procrastinate on anything in a while, so now I'm going to sit here and watch football and wait for my wife to come home from work.  When she gets home, we're going to Best Buy to get iPhone 5s'.  Pretty excited about it, I'm not going to lie.

Here's a pic of the new house.  I will take more pictures and post them HERE later, once more stuff is put away.

5 Days To Go

So, yesterday I came here and talked about how our truck situation wasn't going to work out so well for the couch, so today I decided to look into what it takes to rent a truck.  We rented a truck to move to Nashville 4 1/2 years ago, but I didn't do the renting.  I don't know how it happened, but we just had one, and I didn't have any part in the rental.  Anyway, I heard it was kind of inexpensive, so I checked it out.

I got a 10 foot truck for four hours, plus insurance, and it only cost $35.  Pretty nice.  I imagine we would spend close to that amount on gas back and forth.  Maybe not that much, but still, time is money, too.  It's about a 15 minute drive from my current place to the new place, so one load will take a half an hour just driving.  If the traffic is bad (which it can be in that area sometimes), then the travel time will take even longer.  We have a lot of stuff, and it'll be nice to put a lot of the big things in one or two loads and take it all at one time.  The four hour time limit will ensure we move, move, move our asses into gear, as well.  I think it's the perfect solution to our little sizable furniture problem.

Looking forward to a new place, not really looking forward to all the work it's going to be next monday, but the reward will be excellent.  No one really likes moving, but it's a fact of life.

Six Days till Move Day

Pretty much not packing.  That's our philosophy to this move.  I don't know, we just don't really like packing. But there is certainly a part of me that feels weird moving in six days and not really having anything packed, and no plans to pack anything either.  I mean, I have a box packed of stuff from the top of our dresser that I want to take, and I packed up our DVDs and video games and video game systems, but that's about it.  I believe we will pack up our dishes when the time is closer, but right now we're using them, so I don't want to pack them yet.  I think our plan of moving without packing might be a bad idea, but it might save us a ton of unnecessary work in the long run.  Or it will cause us a ton more unnecessary work.  Should be interesting.

Another problem I thought of the other day, my mom came down with their truck to help us move the big stuff.  What I though of the other day was that I don't think our couch is going to fit in the bed of the truck. Like...at all.  This is a problem because how are we gonna get the couch to the new house?  My mom is sitting right over there as I type this, and I haven't even raised this question to her yet because I just thought of it.  We might need to rent a truck after all.  I suppose we'll have to discuss this.

So today, I brought my wife to the airport because she is going to a work conference in Portland, OR.  She'll be gone the rest of the week, and this is uncharted territory for us.  I have both kids, one of which is breastfed, so I hope he doesn't miss his mama too badly.  We've got a freezer full of milk for the boy, but the comfort of the boob will be missed, hopefully not too badly.  As I said, my wonderful mom is here to help me this week and next during the move, so that's nice.  Don't know what I would do without her.

After bringing my wife to the airport, I went out to Mt. Juliet to buy a microwave off of craigslist.  I had conferred with the seller on Sunday and again on Monday about picking it up on Tuesday, (today) early this morning.  And of course, I went all the way out there and the person didn't answer their phone or answer my texts.  Perfect.  What a waste of my morning.  I don't understand how that happens.

That's all I feel like typing today.  I won $15 on a scratch off ticket yesterday, so that's awesome.  Later, folks.

Why Do Girls "Throw Like a Girl?"

I've got a serious question.  Why do girls throw like a girl?  I don't understand.  I mean, have you ever seen a girl that doesn't throw like a girl?  I haven't done a ton of study on this, but what is it that makes girls throw like a girl?

Sometimes boys throw like a girl, too. I think that Phillip Rivers of the San Diego Charges throws like a girl, but a girl that can throw a ball super far, and he's an NFL quarterback.  I'm not saying girls can't throw a ball, because they can, but I don't think I've ever seen a girl throw like a boy.  Is there something structural with the elbow and shoulder that is different in boys and girls that makes them throw that way?  And you know what I mean, it's that sort of shove/throw thing, where girls sort of lean into it.  I throw like a girl when I throw left-handed, because I'm right handed and I don't know how to throw with my other hand.

And that's another thing, what's up with handedness, anyway?  Why are we dominant with one hand over the other?  Don't you think that evolution would have made us ambidextrous by now?

I wish I had the answers here on this blog, but I don't.  I guess I'm seeking answers.  If you have an answer, hit me up in the comment section, or perhaps leave a comment on Facebook.  Whichever is easier for you.  I need to know. 

We're Moving: The Purge

The move day is coming ever closer.  It's about four weeks away now, and we're starting to get prepared by going through some of our stuff that we don't need to move with us.  We're assuming that our storage space is going to be limited, so we're getting rid of crap that we don't need.  So yesterday, my lovely sister-in-law came by to watch the kids so the wife and I could go through our outside storage thing and deal with some of the stuff we don't need anymore.  What we found was large totes full of books and movies that we really don't need anymore.  So after weeding though it, we filled two totes full of VHS tapes and books to take to McKay's, a used junk superstore here in town.  I'd never been to McKay's before yesterday, but I was really impressed with the place.  I'd like to take a couple hours and go through that place because their inventory was quite vast.  We barely got through the video games and used kids DVD's when the crap we brought was done being processed.  Speaking of the process, I really liked that they have this open air sort of design to that area, where you can actually see the folks sorting through peoples stuff, looking up their values and stuff, right behind the desk when you walk in.  Looked like a pretty interesting job, if you ask me. It didn't take long for our number to come up saying our thing was ready.  We were expecting them to maybe take half of what we brought, which was sort of true.  They took almost all of the books we brought and maybe a couple of the VHS tapes.  Tapes I know they took were a box set Star Wars trilogy thing.  I kinda figured they would take that.  But we were only left with a couple books, and now I don't know what to do with VHS copy of Days of Thunder I still own.  We were also not really expecting much of a return, money-wise from our transaction, so we were surprised to get $17 for all of it.  But like I was saying, I look forward to going back there sometime and browsing around for a bit because there was a lot of stuff there.

Back to the cleaning out process, we were able to either throw away or donate a lot of stuff from the storage thing, so that's nice. There isn't much in the storage thing anymore, so it'll make moving day a lot easier. Next task is our walk-in closet, which I can't imagine there will be much to purge, but I also thought that about the storage thing, so we'll see, I suppose.  The last time we moved, we waited until too close to the moving day to do this stuff, so I'm glad we're doing it now.  It'll make that final week a lot less stressful.  The hardest part of the purge, as you may or may not know, is that I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to stuff I've owned for a long time.  Stuff I will never need anymore, but I don't want to separate from it.  My brother worked long and hard to make me a compilation VHS tape of the best matches of Shawn Michaels' career, and I've had that tape in a box for 12 years.  Yesterday, I threw it in a dumpster.  Sorry, Matt.  All those matches are on YouTube now, so if I want to watch one, I can anytime I want.  It just feels weird to me, throwing away stuff.  

The best thing about this purge is I found a whole bunch of old pictures.  I can't wait to go through them, and post some of the better ones.  Should be a lot of fun.  Okay, that's all, for now.  See ya later.  

Do You Like Me?

I just realized something. I know a lot of you amazing people read this blog every time I post something, and I know a lot of you get redirected here from clicking on my links on Facebook. This probably means you "Like" my Bloggerated page on Facebook. But...what if you read this blog, yet you don't already "Like" me on Facebook? I never thought of that before. It never dawned on me that maybe I have readers that don't know that I have a Facebook page for the blog? Well, if you read this blog and don't already like me on Facebook, I encourage you to go over there and do so. 

If you like the page already, please disregard this entire blog post. Have a great day!?!?!

We're Moving: Looked at the House

Alright, so I believe in my last post, I talked about the house for rent that's owned by Lipscomb that's right next to campus, where my wife works.  I wondered how nice it actually is, and couldn't wait to go take a look at it. Well, yesterday we went over there and saw it.  It's pretty small, but not obnoxiously small.  It feels like we would be losing space form the bedrooms, and gaining space in the living room and kitchen. Decent trade-off, I suppose, but the only concern I have is storage.  We have a lot of crap jammed into this place, and I know we're going to do a purge of unnecessary things that we don't need to take with us, but what about stuff like, my drums?  Christmas tree?  Things like that.  The place didn't have a whole hell of a lot of storage space.  I guess those are very small details, details that will work themselves out, but we decided that we would like to have the house, if possible.  So I believe the email declaring our desires has been sent to the proper people and I guess we'll see what happens.  We're excited, though.

A yard that we don't have to mow, by the way.  That will be nice.  It's a small yard, but it's still a yard.   A driveway.  I don't know, it's just the little things that have me excited about the move.  A change in scenery. I'm sick of looking at a hotel parking lot.  Oh, it's got a dishwasher, and it looks kind of new and nice.  We didn't think this place would have a dishwasher. There were washer and dryer in there, I'm just assuming that's the current tenant's, but those hookups are int the kitchen as well, which is fine. Now, I know that moving into a house that you're renting isn't as exciting as buying a house, but it's still pretty cool to me.

Oh, also, fun story about the current tenant, we would have been able to look at the house sooner, but the current tenant was out of town, visiting her husband's family....in Marquette, MI.  Small world, eh?

We're Moving

(Update: I feel like that blog post title would indicate we're moving far, far away, when in fact, we're just moving somewhere within the Nashville area.  Sorry to get anyone too excited or whatever. Carry on)

I don't normally do any sort of theme on this blog space, because I want this space to be one in which I can come to and type out things I think about, as I've mentioned many, many times before.  Well, I've been thinking a lot lately about...

Saturday School

When I was in middle and high school, I was given a lot of Saturday school detentions.  I got them because I would get regular, after school detention, and I would just not show up.  When I didn't show, they gave me Saturday. Saturday school was four hours, form eight a.m. to noon.  No one would give me a ride to Saturday school because, you know, punishment, or whatever.  I don't know why I didn't just go to the regular, after school one hour version of detention.  I think a lot of it had to do with if I skipped out, I would have a ride home, maybe?  And if I went to detention, I would have to walk home, which was not a short walk.  Yeah, that probably happened, I don't remember.  Or, perhaps I could have avoided detention all together if I had just done my homework every once in a while.  I rarely did my homework, and I got detention A LOT.

Anyway, I was thinking about Saturday school this morning, because I remember being there, tired, bored, and instead of doing homework, I would pass the time by letting my imagination run wild.  I would do this by grabbing a pen and a notebook and writing out professional wrestling shows.  I was a huge, huge wrestling fan in high school.  It was the most important thing in my life at that time.  I had all these characters and story lines,  Rivalries and enemies.  I had gimmicks, factions.  I had this entire roster of wrestlers that I had dreamed up, with champions, and everything, and I would sit there and write out an entire wrestling show in that four hours of sitting there.  I realized this morning that that was really the only time I was ever creative about anything in my life, creative on my own, not forced by assignment by a teacher, or in a group setting like making songs with a band.  Of course, I was massively embarrassed by this little hobby.  I would have died if anyone had found these writings.  Even in the late 90's and early 2000's when wrestling was pretty cool, it was still not that cool.  I felt like some little loser wrestling fan.  But it helped me pass the time while being stuck in a situation that was extremely boring, and kept me alert and excited about what I could come up with next.  I couldn't write fast enough to keep up with my ideas. It was never something I would have ever considered perusing as a career or whatever, but it was a fun little hobby and something that really brought me a lot of personal pride and joy.

So this was just a thought I had this morning and I thought I would share it here on the blog.  Thanks for reading.  Have a great weekend.  

Quinoa!

As a vegetarian, you'd think I'd be all into vegetarian food.  It's not that I'm not into it, it's just that some of it isn't good.  What I'm trying to say here is that I don't like quinoa.  I think it's pretty nasty.  But it's like, the quintessential (thanks, spell check) vegetarian and vegan food.  Aren't I supposed to live off this stuff?

I don't know what it is but it just tastes bad.  That's all.  I'm making some this morning, but it's for my wife because they say it's good for lactating mothers, that it helps them produce more milk.  Well that's just fine, enjoy.  But for me, I don't know, man, I really have to load something on it to make it edible.  Like Sriracha sauce, perhaps?  My wife puts cinnamon and sugar on hers.  It's pretty good, but there's still that weird quinoa taste that comes through.  Not for me, but I'll choke it down because it's good for me.  I'm dedicated to eating good foods...lol.  Also, I need a shave real bad. 

Working Out is the Worst

I've come here today as a self-motivation technique.  I just had a great psych-up speech in my head about why I need to work out and not phone it in today.  Number one, my two options of what to do now that the kids are down for their naps is work out, or take a nap.  I never take naps, but I didn't get to sleep too great last night and a nap sounds fantastic.  I would like to work out here in my living room because I don't want to feel like a sack of shit later on today.  If I take a nap, I probably will sleep until the kids wake up and it will be difficult to take a shower in that scenario.  If I work out, I'll take a shower right after, so that will be done with. So workout it is, I suppose...

I don't feel like telling people about me doing exercise, or any type of physical activity because I feel like when the only thing someone talks about is their fitness, they are douche canoes.  I'm proud of myself for getting off the couch and doing my workouts again because if I want to see a change in my body, I have to work for it.  If I hate the fat guy in the pictures of my kids, I have to make that go away myself, the hard way.  I'm jealous of everyone that works out hard and enjoys working out and being fit.  I don't have that drive, mostly because I don't see instant results.  I know that if I stick to it, the results will show up, but god, it's a lot of work and patience, which is hard because I'm naturally a lazy person.  I just feel like the hill is so hard to climb, it's so far to go, I should just give up right now and stop struggling.

It's day four.  The fourth day of being on the road to fitness.  When you see people that are in shape and clearly work out and take care of themselves, they've been at that way for ages.  On day four, when I step on the scale in the morning and see it has gone up a pound every day this week, I've tried to convince myself that I'm just adding muscle, but I don't really believe that.  I believe that I'm just making my muscles sore for no reason and I'll always be a chubby kid.  I'm going to work out now, but I don't really want to.  It's not going to change the way I feel in the morning.  It's not going to change anything this week.  I guess if I keep pounding my head against this wall, maybe one day it'll break through, but I feel that I'll just end up with a headache.  

No Phone Challenge Was a Success

My last post here was my 400th.  Congratulations go out to me for having a blog for four years.  I also crossed the 30,000 page view mark, so that's neat.  Most of my hits come from a post I did about your iPhone not being able to connect to the 4G network.  Get paid for any of this yet?

No.

Anyway when I last left you, I was planning on doing the no phone challenge.  I did it!  I only used my phone when my wife called me during her lunch break, used Siri to text my wife to let her know I was on my way to pick her up from work, and at the end of the day, my good friend Sean texted me some interesting life happenings, so I had to respond to that.  So how did it go?  Pretty good, actually.  I watched Netflix, which is pretty unusual.  The hardest part was when the kids were napping, I couldn't just fiddle with my phone while watching TV.  I wanted to look up when someone died, but couldn't.  After the kids went to bed for the night, my wife was going on with her business reading Facebook, and all I could do was twiddle my thumbs and dream about going to bed.  Other than that, I didn't miss much.  I thought about it a lot in the morning, but as the day progressed, the less I cared about my phone.  Even in the next couple days, I found myself caring less about what was happening on Twitter or Words with Friends or anything else, really.  But by today, Sunday, I'm fully regressed back to addict.  But if I had to, I could go without my phone.  It would be okay.

It wasn't freeing, like some people have said it would fell like.  I just made me focus on other things.  I suggest you unplug sometime.  It's a little weird, but not life-changing, unless you're addicted to your phone worse than I was.  I don't know.  It wasn't that cool, but I'm glad I did it.  

No Phone Challenge is Tomorrow

I've changed the Hand Picked Song to your right to fit the theme of this week's posts.

Tomorrow is the day.  Tomorrow I will be going phoneless for the entire day.  I'll leave it on, you know, for actual phone calls, because those are allowed during this no-phone challenge.  I have kids and a wife who will be at work so I'll need to be able to use my phone to call or receive phone calls.  Other than that, no iPhone, no iPad, no laptop, even.  I discussed the plan with my wife and she said that the PS3 should be okay because it's just watching Netflix anyway.  I could go super caveman and say no TV or any screens all day, but that's just crazy.  Maybe next week.

So we'll see how it goes, but tomorrow I'll be digitally off the radar.  Have a good day.  

The No-Phone Challenge

The other night, I was brushing my teeth before bed and checking Twitter while I did so.  As I scrolled along, my phone battery died.  I thought to myself, this sucks, I can't wait to plug my phone in so I can use it again.  Then I thought, what if I didn't plug my phone back in?  What if I went an entire day without the use of my phone?  Wouldn't that be a fun experience?

I'm addicted to my phone.  I freely admit it.  I look at it constantly.  It's sort of sad, really, but there's just so much entertainment on the thing, I can't put it down.  It's an addiction.  I might try the no phone for an entire day, but that day ain't today.  As soon as I got to bed that night, I plugged my phone in and continued on like normal.  It wont' be tomorrow, either because I need to use it tomorrow.  But soon, I think I will do it.  I don't know what extent I'll cut myself off at, like, I can still use the computer or no?  Use any electronic device like the PS3?  I don't know.  I'll have to decide on the extent, but I think that if I went at it hardcore, it might make for an interesting blog post, something that hasn't been written in a good long while.

Maybe next week.  I'll let you when I do it by writing about it the next day...or perhaps during.  We'll see.

Goodbye! 

Renting vs Buying Your Home

Dude who lives upstairs, I hope you read this.  You're really loud, and if you had any sense of your surroundings, you would realize you live above people.  You can't just drop heavy shit on the floor.  You can slide your feet when you walk, not stomp and shake my windows.  It's not that hard to live with common courtesy.  You, the reader, may be wondering why I don't go up there, knock on his door and ask him to cool it, but I'd rather bitch about it than do anything.  I'm not a confrontational person, and I don't want to make him feel bad or whatever for doing something that really isn't that big of a deal, like living in an apartment.  It's okay, but it's annoying when I get startled when this dude drops something on his floor.  If it was really affecting my quality of life more than just being annoyed, then I might say something.  I've lived in this apartment for four years, and I've had a few different neighbors live above us, and I've never really noticed them.  That's how I know it's not the apartment, it's the occupant.

Honestly, living in an apartment isn't bad.  I like that when something breaks, I just have to make a phone call to get it fixed instead of a run to Home Depot.  Sure, I don't really have a yard to play in with my kids, but they're too young for that anyway.  I also don't have to mow my lawn, because the landscapers come on over weekly to do that.  Renters insurance is like, $8 a month.  I don't know what homeowners insurance is like, but that's pretty cheap to me.  I like renting.  I believe someday I will move into a house, but I don't know when.  It's a lot of work, man.  Someday though.  I want to buy a house just so I can play my drums.

I'm afraid of buying a house in a location I won't like.  I mean, I'm sure we would get used to whatever our surrounding are, but here in Nashville, there are some neighborhoods next to other neighborhoods that I wouldn't want to live.  We also don't have any money.  Buying a house seems like such a commitment that I'm scared of.  I'm stuck in this apartment lease on a year by year basis, I'd hate to be tied to a house for 30 years.  That's the rest of my life, yo.  And I'll have to spring for a new hot water heater at a moments notice.  No thanks.

Anyway, that's all I suppose.  I got retweeted by CM Punk today, so that's pretty awesome.  I need to go vacuum now.  Have a nice day.

Adding Classmates on Facebook

A high school classmate of mine posted a picture to their Facebook page today, and it caused me to fall down a Facebook rabbit hole that's known as "where are they now."  As I browsed through this well-connected classmate's friends list, I noticed a few familiar faces and names, some that I hadn't thought about in 10 years, and some not so familiar faces.  Some must have been form other classes above and below me that I didn't know well.  For those of you reading this that didn't go to my high school, it was rather small, every graduating class had around 100 people in it.  I think ours had 111, if I'm not mistaken.  Anyway, it's somewhere around that number.

Like I said, I was browsing around and came across a name of a person (I'm not naming any names at all in this post, by the way) that I'd forgotten about, and like I said above, hadn't thought about in years.  She had pictures of kids, and I have kids, and I wondered if after all these years, we could reconnect on Facebook and perhaps relate to each other at this stage of life.  But the more I thought about it, adding friends on Facebook is a two-way street, and if she wanted to add me as a friend, she probably would have done so already in the past 4 years.  But then again, even in four years, a lot changes.  I'm a very different person than I was in high school, and I'm also a very different person than I was four years ago.  I just felt that sending a friend request would come across as awkward.  I mean, it's not like we were the best of friends throughout out school years.  In fact, those of you who are very close to me might pick up on the clues I'm laying down, I would venture to guess this girl very much disliked me throughout school, from the fourth grade until graduation.  But like I said, I'm a different person now that I used to be, maybe we could have a nice conversation?

But no, I didn't send the request.  I think at this point of Facebook, or all social networking in general, most of us are past the point of adding any friends.  Anyone we add now are new people we meet along our lives' journeys, or if we're new to Facebook.  If you're new to Facebook, I'm glad you finally got that rock off the top of you that you've been living under for so long.  We've reached the limit of networking with the people from our past.  We've gotten to the point where if you're not already in as a friend, there's a good reason, and that's because you're not actually friends, never were and never will be.  The people that are already in there, and have been there for years, I have no problem being connected to those folks.  Some of them, if we weren't already friends, at this point, I don't think I would send a request, but I'm also certainly not going to be deleting anyone anytime soon.

I'm open to reconnecting to the people from my past, like old classmates.  I just feel weird sending friend requests to classmates in 2013.  They've missed the boat, and they don't get to see 10,000 pictures of my kids like everyone else does.  Poor them.

-BJP

Passing Out on Couches

Somehow, it's now been 20 full days since I last wrote a post.  I guess when you write one per day for an entire week, if you're me, it feels like I've written enough for a while?  I don't know how that happened, but it happened, and I'm sorry.

Anyway, let's talk about falling asleep.  I don't know why, but I've been falling asleep on couches in the evenings.  I don't mean to, I didn't even realize I was all that tired, but there I go, drifting off... And it ain't even about lack of sleep because of the kids.  These kids sleep amazingly.  I don't know what it is, but I'm sure it has to do with my insanely healthy lifestyle.  My dad used to fall asleep on couches.  I'm more and more like him everyday, I suppose.

So now I wanted to write a post, but I'm tired, so I'm going to stop now.  Thanks for reading.  Be sure to like my page on Facebook.  Follow me on Twitter.  Buy all the merch at Zazzle.  Donate to the cause.  Take care, grow out your hair.  Have a nice day. 

Daddy Problems

Remember what life was like before kids?  I do.  I remember clearly.  I remember being able to do stuff (if I had the money, that is) whenever I/we wanted.  I enjoy going to Triple A baseball games.  I would love to be able to just go with my wife, buy a few beers, get in late, sleep in and not take care of kids.  Please please don't take this the wrong way.  I love my kids.  There are people who would love to be in the position I'm in, with a family and the family life.  I don't want to bitch about having a pretty amazing life right now.  It's just that sometimes, I miss the freedom of not having kids.  Is that so bad?

I was thinking this as I cooked breakfast this morning, what it would be like if I didn't have kids?  Why didn't I take advantage of the time before I had these little kids.  How many times did I choose to not do stuff when I could have, and now I would love to but can't?  Then I looked into the living room and saw Miles sitting in his bouncy seat snoozing and Evie sitting on her knees watching Curious George on the TV and realized that even if I can't go out and do stuff like other adults I know, I have these amazing kids that are truely a blessing.  I'll take the trade off.  Even now, as I'm writing this post, I had to put Evie down for her nap, as she carried her stuffed Mickey Mouse that's almost the same size as she is, we laid her down and covered her up.  Such a cutie and a sweetie. How could I wish for a life without her?  And Miles is right now laying on the floor by himself, eating the back of his hand, bending back and almost rolling over...at eight weeks old.  So proud of this little guy.  He's getting so big.  He's so good, he only cries when he's supposed to cry, like when hes' hungry or wet or uncomfortably positioned...How could I wish for a life with out him?

So maybe I can't go the the baseball game tonight?  Is that the end of the world?  No, it's not.  Life without my kids?  That would be the end of my world.

With that being said, anyone wanna babysit?  There's this baseball game I want to take my wife to...

Skinny Vanilla Latte

I feel weird ordering something that has the descriptor of "skinny" for myself.  I feel like things that are marked "skinny" are marketed to skinny people who want to maintain their skinniness.  Sure, I'd like to be skinny, but ordering a skinny vanilla latte isn't going to help...well, it's not going to hurt either.  I won't get fatter by not drinking whole milk and 80 grams of sugar.  I will get fatter if I do.  See what I mean?  But it's the marketing of it all, it bothers me.

I know it works, I know people want to be skinny, so attaching the term to a drink that is usually fattening is a good idea.  I just feel less manly ordering a skinny vanilla latte.  I'd rather order a non-fat, sugar-free vanilla latte, which I could totally do, I suppose.  I don't know, it's not like I'm concerned with being manly.  I'm no tough guy, I'm no bad ass   I guess I don't really have a problem with it.  I just felt like I had to order it like it wasn't for me.    

I got a bunch of Starbucks gift cards from my Mother-in-law for Easter/my birthday, and I've been using it a lot this week.  Starbucks has half priced Frappuccino from 3-5 everyday, so I've gone over and gotten a cup of sugar and fat both Monday and Tuesday this week.  I might just go ahead and do that again today.  Who knows?  It might get crazy up in here. I didn't even know Frappuccinos were so delicious.

What inspired me to go get a skinny vanilla latte this morning was the fact that my birthday free drink coupon was set to expire today.  So last night I got in my mind that first thing in the morning I would head to Starbucks and get an expensive latte.  When I woke up this morning, I checked the Starbucks app on my phone to see that my free drink coupon had expired as of today, not after today.  So no free drink for me, but my heart was still set on that stupid latte.  So I went and got one anyway.  I hate spending more than $4 on a drink. I did it, but remember, I had credit on my card, so not really out of pocket expense.  Thanks, Kris Ball!  I'm happier for drinking that latte this morning.  I'm glad I did it.  And now I'm skinnier for ordering it skinny.  I mean look at me.

(this is a picture of me as of finishing this post.)

Sriracha Sauce on Everything

Remember back in the day when I used to post blogs on weekdays?  Wow that seems like forever ago.  Well I never wanted to be a weekend blogger, but that's sort of what it became.  Not today, junior.  I'm here to talk about food some more.

Sriracha sauce.  I know that many, many people are well aware of this sauce.  I know that a lot of people love it.  I know that a lot of people used to love it and are sick of it now.  I know that I'm late to the party, probably.  Heck, they flavored Lay's potato chips with it by popular vote.  But yesterday I bought my own bottle of it for the house.  I had it once before, a few months ago at Lipscomb's Bison Cafe while eating some kid of stir-fried noodles.  It was awesome, but very spicy.  Yesterday while shopping, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a bottle to keep here.

So last night we made Pigs in a Blanket (mine with veggie dogs, of course).  I usually use ketchup to dip it in, and I did that.  But I wanted to try out Sriracha sauce on there.  It was pretty great.  Not like, life changing, but pretty damn tasty.  And hot.  But then I put some sauce on some Cool Ranch Doritos and oh man that was real good.  Something about the flavors mixing together was just too good.  Then I realized that the delicious Sriracha sauce had caused me to eat far too much food and I was in pain.  Too much of a good thing,

So there you go, I'm one of those people that puts Sriracha sauce on everything.  Makes food taste good!  I can't wait to find out how it tastes on more foods.  Follow along on Twitter while I try out different foods with Sriracha sauce on it.

@bradperala

Two Things

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!

Okay this post can go one of two ways.  I can talk about things that happened to me this week, or I can talk about things I thought about this week.  So, since I can't decide, and I know you'll probably read it anyway, I'll just do both.  I said this could go one of two ways, and then told you it's going to go both ways.  I'm a good writer.

As far as things that happened to me this week, I traded in my first new car for my second new car.  The Focus, the wonderfully dependent and reliable Ford Focus, it had to go.  The family had finally outgrown it.  When we bought the thing in 2010, we were 13 months away (unknowingly) from adding another member to our family.  When we bought it, it made perfect sense.  Good, compact car with good gas millage.  Sporty design, nice features.  A perfect car for a married couple in their 20's and no kids.  Well, now we have two kids and they didn't fit.  Well, they fit, but not like, super comfortably.  So I went and got an oil change on Monday morning, and while I was there, I got to talking to a salesman, Alfredo.  I told him the wife and I were considering upgrading to a larger vehichle, like perhaps the Ford Escape.  He showed me one on the lot, and I noticed it was even larger than I had imagined.  Okay, thanks Alfredo, but not today.

He calls me on Tuesday saying they have a great one-day deal on a Escape, and it's the last day of the month so we should go there and see if we can get a deal done.  Long story short, we got the deal done.  We got the bigger vehicle that we can fit comfortably inside.   Our payments didn't  go up much.  Overall it was a win-win situation.  I'll miss the Focus.  I was a good car.  But this Escape is really, really nice.  Serious upgrade.

Okay, so that's what happened to me.  So what did I think about this week?  Cottage Cheese.  Man, Cottage Cheese is weird, eh?  Usually when you see curdled dairy, the first instinct isn't "EAT THAT!"  Yet, when it comes to cottage cheese, that's exactly what I do.  I eat that.  Even as a kid, I've always loved cottage cheese.  Kids usually don't eat weird-lookin' food, but I guess I did.  Love cottage cheese, but it just seems counter to what you should actually eat.  Like, the idea of cottage cheese is gross to me, yet it's one of my favorite foods.  Weird.

Anyway, that's all.  Hope you have a fantastically wonderful day.  If you read this, that means you woke up and are alive, therefore the only thing stopping you from having the best day ever is your attitude.  You can make today great.  Try doing something new today.  Make a damn memory today.  

Road Trip in the USA

Road Trip, Y'all

This past week, the wife, kids and I took a road trip up to my moms' house in Big Rapids, Michigan.  It was a very nice trip full of relaxation, day beers and food, sleeping and showering and lazing around.  So it was a lot like home, just a few hundred miles north of normal.  The drive up there and back is a decent one, better than going to Wisconsin, that's for sure.  I've decided that Indiana isn't the worst state to drive through anymore.  Illinois is much worse, having now driven through each a few times.  Illinois is very flat and boring. Indiana has a few hills, a few more towns, but is still pretty boring.  The ride home was a bit more shitty because my data from AT&T got throttled sometime this week so I couldn't stream music from my phone.  Not the biggest deal in the world, but not making things easier.

The best thing I found on our drives was our stops.  On the way up, we stopped at a McDonald's in the South Bend area and on the way home we stopped at a Hardee's in the (Oh I don't know) middle of Indiana area.  At both places I saw an interesting phenomena.  Breakfast Clubs.  Does every fast food restaurant in America have these people?  These folks that turn up at the crack of dawn every day to shoot the shit about the boringness of their lives and their towns?  It happens everywhere!  All these old-timers get together and eat fatty food and drink mediocre coffee.  I suppose it's an easy and cheap way to stay social, so I guess I can't knock them for having friends.  Meeting at a fast food place seems convenient, I suppose.  I don't know, it just seems like they all got a memo or something.

In particular, I want to talk about our amazing stop at the Hardee's in god-knows-where Indiana Friday morning.  My phone wouldn't connect to any network for no goddamn good reason, so I wasn't able to actually look at a map so see where we were, but it really didn't matter.  This could have been anywhere in the USA.  It was so perfect.

We sat at an empty table near the front of the restaurant.  I went up and ordered, and I was tempted to ask the local next to me where exactly we were.  I assumed he was local by the work clothes and beard.  After careful consideration, I decided I didn't want to have a conversation with this man, and like I said, it didn't matter where we were, it all looked familiar anyway.  I got food for me and the daughter and sat down and started to eat.  That's when one old man, two old man, three old man four old man start to sit in the tables near us, progressively filling in the area closer and closer to where we sit.  Next around the corner comes fifth old man, and he realizes he doesn't have a place to sit in what I can assume is their regular spot because there's me and my family.  None of the old men seemed to bothered by our presence, but you could also feel that we were in their spot.  No harm done there, but I just found it fun that these old men had routine and we were messing with it.

There were two other patrons in this Hardee's that caught my attention.  A younger looking man and woman, perhaps in their thirties.  They looked like every man and woman who is either a regular or an employee of every dive bar in every small town in America.  The dude had on a leather coat, had big gold hoops in his ears, military buzzcut hair-do, jeans.  He looked like he was in shape at one point in his life, and still was not bad, physique-wise.  He probably plays guitar in an "alt-metal" cover band.  The girl he was with had on the tight, low-waisted jeans with the jewels on her ass pockets, tight white tank top that showed the cleavage.  Short girl, a-line bob haircut that was dyed an unnaturally consistent dark color that I'm 99% sure was done in her bathroom sink.  Beer gut.  Not unattractive, yet certainly no model.  I felt sort of at home around these two, even though I was no where near them and even though none of my friends or even acquaintances looked particularly like them.  They looked like they belonged at Rookies in Negaunee.  I feel like I've seen them before.  I sort of found it odd that these bar patrons were out getting breakfast at 6:30 am on a Friday, but hey, maybe it was a long night of But Light drinkin'?

The whole thing, the breakfast club old guys and the party time thirtysomethings, it all reminded me that no matter where you are, no matter what time of day it is, people are the same everywhere you go.  I find something comforting in that fact.

Other random observations from the road, we noticed that there are a lot of towns in Indiana named after places you'd rather be other than in Indiana.  Places like Nashville, Kokomo, Plymoth, Warsaw, Peru, Austin, Underwood, Columbus.  Anywhere but Indiana.

I also saw an amazing mullet in Kentucky.  Shocker, I know.

But overall, the drives were okay.  They sucked, but they were okay.  The kids handled it like champs.  The wife, who couldn't sleep because of the position of her seat because of car seats, handled it like a champ.  It was a wonderful trip, and I can't wait to do it again.  And you better believe I'll be stopping for breakfast.

Executive Cut (feat. Conor Adams) by Enemies

Well I haven't posted a song in a while, have I?  Let's change that in a real hurry.  About 30 seconds into the song I've posted today, I was doing the "oh shit yeah" face. I knew instantly I had to come here share it.  As I was copying the link to embed the song here, the song got even better!  Oh man, there is no better feeling than hearing a new song for the first time and absolutely falling in love.  I'd never heard of this bad before, but my newest favorite record label, Top Shelf Records posted on their site that they had signed this band.  They're called Enemies and they're from Ireland.  Perhaps it's the drummer in me that caused me to love this so instantly, but whatever the case may be, this is a fantastic song, and it's available as a free download on their bandcamp page.

Or you can download it right here on Bloggerated.com, yo.

Please enjoy this song. I wish I could be so lucky as to be in this band, or perhaps a band that sounded like it.

Twitter Book Club

For the most part, you could say that after the first 30 years of my life, you wouldn't really categorize this blogger as much of a "reader."  I read approximately one quarter of the assigned books throughout K-12.  That's a rough estimate, the real number may be closer to 15%.  Anyway, you get the picture.  I did go through, what I assume all kids went through in 1994, a Goosebumps phase, where I read about 30 of those books.  But after about 8 of them, you sort of caught on to R.L. Stein's patterns of characters and plots.  Pretty much the same book over and over, just with a different monster or thing.  Not the point here, though people.  I'm not here to talk about how awesome Goosebumps books were, no, I'm here to talk about how good I am at reading books.

I'm like a 3rd grader finishing his first Judy Bloom (or Goosebumps) book when I finish one.  I feel so accomplished.  Afterwards, I go to the internet and read what other people thought of the book and I'm extra proud that a lot of the time, people had the same formulations about the book as I did.  Sometimes, I wonder if I really know what makes a good book or not.  After all, I'm not much of a reader, and I'm not really all that smart.  I've been reading books here and there from our Library for the past year and half.  Some I loved, some I've completely hated and returned (Yiddish Policemen's Union, Telegraph Avenue, Life of Pi).  Some I liked enough to finish, but not enough to recommend.  Some I can't stop thinking about. 

When my good friend Tagan decided to start a Twitter Book Club a few weeks ago, I said I would participate under one condition; No Shitty Books.  So, she let me pick the first book for everyone to read.  Uh oh, what have I done?  I need to look smart and sophisticated  so I better recommend one of the higher-brow books I've read recently.  No, no, all those books were mediocre (Night Train to Lisbon, A Sense of an Ending.)  Okay well what about one of the shorter books I've read that will be over quickly (We the Animals, Sunset Park)  No, No those books were three stars at best.  What about a book that takes place during World War II, where two boys go on an adventure seeking a dozen eggs?  Bingo.  

In reality, it was a rather easy call what to pick.  City of Thieves by David Benioff is one of the best books (if not the best) I've ever read.  But just because I loved it, will others like it? " What a dummy!"  they'll exclaim.    Perhaps they'll like it, too.  And that's my goal.  To show others stuff that I've enjoyed.  

So I went to the library to check out City of Thieves again for the Twitter Book Club and couldn't find it, so I grabbed another book of short stories by the same author.  Close enough, right?  

So if you want to join our Twitter Book Club, hit me or @TaganElizabeth up on Twitter.  There's a Facebook group as well, but I don't understand how that would work if you were a stranger.  At the very least, go to the library and see if they have a copy of City of Thieves by David Benioff.  If's a real good story you won't be able to put down.  

P.S. Cool invention idea.  Make a book jacket made out of super glue or some other super sticky substance so when you pick up the book, you litterally can't put it down.  Okay, that's all.  

Happy reading.  

Happy April!

I wish I had more time and motivation for this blog. Sorry. 

Adjusting to the New Life

First off, it's been too long, and I know I need to write something because I have this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I need to write something.  Also, I can keep checking my Google Adsense account all I want, It's not going to go up, money-wise, if I don't produce any content!  Duh!

What can I say?  2013 is turning out to be on hell of a year.  Good and bad.  Of course, if you read my post last month about my dad, that happened.  Then on the 13th of this month (March) my second child was born, a boy, named Miles.  He's wonderful and healthy and hungry and cute and he has all kids of hair on his head and he likes to sleep a lot.  He's a newborn, what can I say?  So of course my life gets a bit flipped upside down, with new routines and keeping the daughter happy and keeping the wife who's home on maternity leave happy, and keeping myself happy, as well.  I hate to be selfish in this time because it really isn't about me right now.  But there certainly is a part of me that knows I must keep myself in a good place in order to keep everyone else in a good place.  Evie has been a bit whinier lately, and I know it's because of Miles, so I'm trying to show here that daddy still loves her so, so much and give her special time with me.  I can't do a whole hell of a lot for Miles at this point, except hold him and tell him I love him and that I'm his daddy.  He's 11 days old now, it's not like he can really respond to anything I tell him anyway.

I can tell it's been a while since I've blogged because I can't type worth a shit.

So we do cleaning and sleeping and showering and sleeping some more.  It's not that exciting, really.  It's exciting in the fact that I have a baby boy at the house, but it's really just a lot of adjusting at this point.  I'm sure soon enough we'll fall into what will be the new normal and I'll forget what life was like before Miles was ever born, just like now I can't remember what life was like before Evie was here.  What the hell was the point to living before the kids?

Life is good right now, and I need to tell myself that more often.  I also should tell all of you millions of readers that more often as well.  It's not that hard to open the laptop and say hey.  As we go through not only adjusting my own new life, also adjusting to Miles' new life as well.  and Evie's new life and Bethany's new life and everything that comes along with it.  Exciting times.  2013, man.  What else you got for me?

My Morning Is Ruined

I like coffee.  No, I love coffee.  I've talked about this before, and I'm actually rather specific about how I make and drink my coffee.  It has to be right.  It has to be good, quality beans, freshly ground by me, and made with the correct ratio of water to grounds.  It has to be made in a relatively clean environment   I know what I'm doing when I make coffee, and if something is off, it makes me upset.

I work in an area where there is a coffee maker that is shared by others.  These others absolutely do not share my love for a quality cup.  There is a massive can of "Country Roast" Folgers bullshit in the back here, that the day shift guys make every day, and it's absolutely the pinnacle of gross.  It's stale, it's smelly, it's cheap and it's worthless.  The part that bothers me is it's smelly, and it makes the coffee maker smell like shit.  I got the point where I couldn't take it anymore and bought my own basket that I use to put my quality grounds and make my coffee here at work.  I kept it hidden in a spot in a cabinet here at work, and no one bothered it.  I took their smelly, nasty basket out, and put my rather less smelly basket in and make my coffee.  It's a little thing that makes my life at work bearable 

Moments ago, I went to make my delicious pot of coffee with my basket that I keep hidden, and it was gone.  This is the worst thing to happen since... I don't know, maybe ever?  What the hell?  Who got rid of my stuff?  Don't touch my stuff, man.  I'm pissed!

So I had to take their nasty basket and took it to the kitchen area and scrubbed it until it didn't have a bunch of crusty old coffee film on it.  I've used it and my coffee is brewing now.  I'm sure it will taste like shit, but it's what I have to do now that someone stole my things.  I'm so upset.

Have a good day, but know that my morning is now ruined.

#firstworldproblems 

Vloggerated 2-25-13

Coffee Shop or Starbucks?

Something compelled me, the second I sat down here at this coffee shop, the desire to blog. Why is that? Thats dumb! Also, with blogging from a MacBook at the apple store the other day, and now blogging from my iPhone in a Starbucks? What's up with that? I mean, what's so terrible about picking up the computer and writing about things I think about?

So I just told you I'm at a coffee shop and then told you I'm at a Starbucks. I know this is a coffee shop, but I think at this point we all consider the locally owned, local little coffee shop down the stree around the corner as the real coffee shops and a Starbucks as maybe more like, say, McDonald's? I usually feel this weird pointlessness to go sit at a coffee shop or Starbucks and use your computer or iPad or whatever in public. Most people have wifi now a days, don't they? I feel like anytime I see a person browsing away on their iPad in public, they're clearly just showing off that they have one, no? Laptops not as much, but I just feel like you have to make a great effort to go out and do that in public. It's a culture I don't understand.

Well, since I'm here blogging on my iPhone, I think I'll grab that free app thing Starbucks offers. Usually it's something good. Looks like it's Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe. Hope it's good. I'll take almost anything free.


Have a good day, world.

MacBook Pro!

I've never seen Bloggerated.com look as good as it does on a MacBook Pro with retina display.  Really that's all I came to say today.  This post will self destruct in like, a couple hours.  Maybe a day or two.  Just wanted to type on this thing.

Have a wonderful day!

Thanks, Guys

Sometimes you expect what's expected in life, sometimes life throws you curve balls and change-ups.  I don't know, I don't want to talk about it, because that's not what this space is for.  This space is for writing about the things I think about.  But what have I really thought about these past 7-10 days?  I couldn't tell you. I really don't remember.

The main thing you readers should know is my daddy died one week ago today.  It was the worst day of my life, but I'm thankful I was there to say goodbye.  I'm thankful for my friends and family for just being themselves and helping me cope with what I just went through.  It helped me stay level, and I will never forget that you were there for me.  You all didn't even have to do anything, just be there, and that's exactly what you did, and I'm really glad you all knew exactly what to do.  So thanks, guys.  Meant the world to me.

I'm not going into details about everything because I really don't want to talk about it.  Not sure why I even wrote this little post, except I just wanted to say thanks.  That's all.  The healing began the second I walked into Vista Thrift Shop and said hey to Andy Kulie, and will continue every day forever.

Soon I will get back to writing about things I think about, and not being sad.  I'm not sad, but I just don't have anything to say right now.  2013 is really shaping out to be quite the year.  I'm not ready for it.

Super Bowl XLVII

I just want to stop by and say a few things about the Super Bowl, which is happening later on today.  Not specifically about the game itself, not the X's and O's of it all, but more about what this game, and what previous games have meant to me.

I spent a lot of time growing up watching football with my dad.  We would watch on Sundays  and that included most of the Super Bowls (up until was about 17 or 18, at least).   As I've grown older, I still make a point to watch football on Sundays  because it's just what I've always done, even if this game drives me a little crazy with all the stupid stoppages and over thinking some of the rules and instant replays.  No matter what, watching NFL football is important to me.


Today's game is especially huge for me.  One of my earliest memories of watching football with my dad was watching Super Bowls XXIII and XXIV (that's 23 and 24 for you non-Romans). If you know anything about the NFL, those games were won by the San Francisco 49ers.  Young impressionable five and six year old Brad watched those games, and what I witnessed was the 49ers winning in dramatic fashion and in blowout fashion respectively.  Young, impressionable Brad chose the 49ers as his/my favorite team then, especially from the blowout one.  I said "these guys are the best, they win every year, that's my favorite team!"  So I jumped on the bandwagon then, and never jumped off.  I paid a visit to a few other bandwagons here and there (the 1998 Denver Broncos, the 1995 Green Bay Packers mainly) but whenever anyone asked me throughout my life who my favorite team was, my answer was the 49ers.  Today, they go for their sixth Super Bowl victory, and I wasn't sure when I'd see this day again.

Things got pretty bleak in the old Niner Nation back in the mid to late 2000's.  That puts it mildly.  They were downright awful for quite a few years, yet I still wore the shirt.  I still wore the hat.  I still went to the bar every Sunday and ordered beer out of guilt for taking up a seat, and watched this team fall to the depths of the league.  The 49ers, my 49ers, didn't have a winning record from 2003 until 2011.  Yet I watched them every week (or just about every week) and remained hopeful that they would get it together and spark something and do something and be better.  It finally happened last year, and they fell just short of the Super Bowl.

But not this year, baby.  It's finally happened!  The 49ers are back in the Super Bowl for the first time since I was 11.  And I remember that Super Bowl fondly.  They crushed the San Diego Chargers.  I remember watching the game at my dads with my brother and we were placing bets on which 49er defender would have the next interception, Deion Sanders, Merton Hanks or Tim McDonald.  I also remember these were the days when the 49ers wore those stupid ugly white pants.  I still have the recording of Super Bowl XXIX somewhere on VHS.  I should watch that sometime.  I bet the commercials would be worth the watch.

So I won't be on my dad's couch to watch today's game. I wish i was. I'll be on my couch with my daughter and a few friends.  What's great about this game is I don't know any Ravens fans.  In fact, I can't say I've ever met a Ravens fan before.  So there's no one to talk smack should the unthinkable happen.  Also, I've not really seen a whole lot of 49ers haters around anymore, mostly because they've been so bad for so long, everyone just sort of forgot how how annoyingly dominant they were for 25 years.  Right now I'm just happy they made it back to the big game.  Someday, Lions fans.  Someday you'll know how sweet this feels.

GO NINERS!  WOOOOO!

Is Anyone Up?

I can happily say that I've never had a problem with sleep.  I've always slept well, no matter what weird shift I happen to work or what sort of nocturnal acrobatics I decide to attempt.  Usually if I ask my body to go to sleep, it abides.  My lovely 34-week-pregnant wife decided she wanted to go to bed at around nine o'clock last night, and I thought that sounded like a good idea.  I've been slightly under the weather lately, so going to bed after the kid was put to bed sounded like an outstanding idea.  I realized that if I slept for nine hours, which is about the maximum I can usually go, I realized I would be awake at around six a.m., which I guess seemed exciting to me because it was something different, I suppose.  So exciting to wake up at six in the morning, in fact, I decided to get a head start on it.  I woke up at about 3:00 this morning, and said, "why not just stay up?  Who cares?"

I don't know if I'll regret the decision, but right now, I'm okay with it.  I'm drinking coffee, watching local morning news, making a video of Evie that I'll post to YouTube.  I think I'll do a little cleaning next, because why not?  It needs to be done and everyone is sleeping, so might as well make the most of my time.

Just thought I'd update you my exciting life while Windows Movie Maker changes the quality of the video I've added to it.  It's done now, so I'll go make an intro...

Have a wonderful Thursday.  

Diamond Youth!

As you probably know by now, Bloggerated.com is your #1 source for stuff to read on the Internet.  But did you know this space is also a great place to find music as well?  It's true!  Sometimes I'm not the best at coming up with great content to actually write about, and when that happens, dontcha know, there are endless bands and artists making music out there that I can just post about instead?  Late last night, I had a few beers and tweeted about my love for a band called Diamond Youth.  Diamond Youth are great, and I like their music a lot.  They used to be called just "Diamond" and then there were called DMND and then I think they were calling themselves Diamond again...and now their called Diamond Youth.  Well, they just put out a new album this week, and I have a (not so) exclusive stream of their album, right here at Bloggerated.com!  Please stream their album Orange right here, and then go over to the actual bandcamp page and buy it.  It's only $5, and you can tell these guys worked hard on this, so the best thing to do is reward their hard work monetarily. Then go see them when they go tour in your cities.

Enjoy this delicious Orange.  Then I want you to have a nice day.  Do all that in that order.

How-To Videos on YouTube

I really like making soup.  I've made two soups so far this year already, and they have both been really good. I said in my New Years Resolution post that I wanted to start doing some cooking, and I actually have.  I found some recipes and stuff to make and I've made a few (2).  It's a lot of fun to cook, but mostly, I love to chop.  Chopping is great when you don't lose chunks of your fingers (which I've done a few times).  I don't know what I'm doing sometimes. but when that happens, I just look up an instructional video on YouTube.  There is usually a video telling me how to do what I need to do.  Like for instance, yesterday I made a vegetable soup, and I was supposed to dice the potatoes.  I didn't really know how to make my round, solid potato into little cubes, but some dude on YouTube showed me.  Who needs cooking school when you have the Internet to tell you how to do stuff for free?

It got me thinking, what could I make as an instructional video on YouTube?  What am I so good at that I could teach someone how to do it like me in a video?  I think it would be cool to get thousands upon thousands of hits and positive feedback for my amazing ability to do whatever it is I do.  I really came up with nothing.  I can't show anyone how to do anything useful :(.  It's sort of sad, actually.  So I'm thinking maybe I could make a video of me telling people to do something horribly wrong?  That would be hilarious.

Anyway, that's all I got for tonight.  I hope you all can get a good nights sleep.  I'll see ya tomorrow.

10 Pops That Got Dropped

Soda, pop, coke, call it what you like, it's the drink of choice of our generation.  Probably the previous generation as well, but I can say with certainty that it's been my go-to beverage choice for the vast majority of my life.  I blame my fatness and even more so for my general toothlessness on drinking pop.

Now let me clear this up real quick.  I'm from Michigan originally, so I say pop.  I've found myself not saying pop so much now, but more often I just say "drink."  Now that I'm away from home, no one calls it pop here in Tennessee.  I don't know what they call it, perhaps soda?  There are even some folks who refer to all pop as Coke, despite it not actually being Coke brand.  Like saying "what kind of Coke did you get?  Oh, Orange coke, that's a good one."  The reasoning is partially because Coca-Cola was based out of Atlanta, so it's been the dominant brand in the south since forever.  Also, in the same way we say Jacuzzi or Frisbee  that's what they call pop.  That's okay after it was explained to me, but I couldn't do that.  There is a handy dandy website someone created which told you what parts of the nation call it pop or soda or coke.  It's pretty interesting.

But what you call it, that's not at all what I'm here to discuss, believe it or not.  No, I want to talk about all the drinks you can't get anymore, and surely you and I remember and miss them.  Some drinks played a pivotal part in my development as an adult, as they were an important part of my daily routine at one time or another.  Taste is a very important sense, and perhaps only second to smell, the best source of nostalgia you can find.  When you haven't tasted something for a long time, and then you taste it again, it's magical what happens.

So I present you with some soda pop that has been discontinued (or just hard to find).  Heck, I'll even present it in list form, since that's what the internet does so well these days.  Hey, maybe I'll even name this "Top Pops That Got Dropped?"  Maybe...You would think that if I did that, I'd delete this line, no? (no)

10. Dr Pepper Berries and Cream

This is actually the best tasting pop you can't buy anymore, I think.  If someone at the Dr Pepper company reads this, THIS POP WAS REALLY GOOD AND YOU SHOULD BRING IT BACK.  There was also a Dr Pepper Cherry Vanilla that was out around the same time, but the Berries and Cream was way better.  I'm a little lad that love Berries and Cream!  Here's the commercial.


Dr Pepper Berries and Cream Commercial by dampier

 (upon further review, that last line is a reference to a Starburst commercial.  Oh well, it still applies.)

9. Faygo Honeydew Mist/ Faygo Morning Mist

As I said above, I grew up, and lived the first 26 years of my life in Michigan, so we had a lot of Faygo and Shasta drinks going on.  With the increased popularity of the Insane Clown Posse in the late 90's, it brought with it a renewed love and respect for the many wonderful flavors of Faygo.  So me and my friend Chris made an effort to try all the different flavors that Faygo made.  My personal favorite was Morning Mist.  Morning Mist was a grapefruit flavored pop that was pink.  I used to drink a 2 liter of that every day, no joke.  And when I drank 10 of them, I'd return the bottles and get a free one.  I was wearing braces on my teeth at this time, and wasn't that disciplined in brushing my teeth every night before bed, so I developed a lot of cavities due to Morning Mist addiction, but it was worth it at the time.  I'd do just about anything to taste that flavor again.  There really isn't that much information around about Morning Mist, except it appears on a list of discontinued Faygo flavors.  I couldn't even find a picture of the label or bottle on Google.  I have a lot of memories.  Oh and Honeydew Mist was good, too.  Could only find that at Econo Foods in Marquette in 20oz bottles.  I remember drinking Honeydew Mist while playing the first Silent Hill game in the summer of..1999?  That sounds about right.  Anyways, let's move on to...

8. Slice

As I Tweeted on Saturday, I hadn't even realized they stopped making Slice, and they stopped making it in 2000...what, 13 years ago, now?  They phased it out and brought in Sierra Mist.  I wonder if it's the same thing.  I don't know I had just completely forgotten about it,  There was the classic lemon-lime one, and of course orange Slice.  I just can't believe it's been that long already.

7. A Thousand Stupid Mountain Dews

Seriously, no one makes more new flavors that Mountain Dew.  I stopped paying attention after Live Wire, which...do they even make that anymore?  Man, I remember my brother drinking that a lot back in like 2007 or something like that.  I'm short on the details, as this isn't a post giving you facts, this is a post reminding you of the flavors you miss.  But yes, I do believe that became a permanent flavor in 2007.  So then they had the DEWmocracy thing where they put out three flavors and people voted on which one to keep.  I never tried any of them.  But hey, remember Mountain Dew Pitch Black?  The sour grape one?  That was the best!   I'll give Mountain Dew credit for putting out new flavors all the time.  I'm a fan of something new.  Which is why I drank a lot of...


6. C2 and Pepsi Edge

This was one of those times when one cola company put out a product, so the other one put out their version, as they have done so many times for so many years.  This one I remember well because I was like 19 or 20 at the time, at the height of my pop purchasing days.  I'm a Coke guy, let me say that first and foremost.  I remember either posting on Livejournal or Myspace about how Pepsi Edge wasn't terrible.  I remember my review saying something along the lines of "Regular Pepsi tastes like dog shit, and Pepsi Edge tastes like dog shit, but with half the sugar."  I was pretty proud of that line.  For those who don't know, the idea of C2 and Pepsi Edge was a cola with half the sugar as regular.  This was them trying to bridge the gap between people who wanted a less sugar choice and didn't want to drink icky diet pop.  Flop flop flop.  I remember the finale of the Apprentice on NBC had the contestants designing a new bottle for Pepsi Edge.  Goddamn I remember the stupidest shit, don't I?

5. Pepsi One

This is one that hung around a lot longer than you probably even realize, because I didn't realize that it's actually still around.  It was introduced in the late 90's as the one calorie cola.  Who gives a shit if it has one calorie?  Just take out the one calorie and make it zero calories.  Why does it have to have one calorie? Just one calorie, not evil enough.  Marketing, man.  Some of the strangest shit works sometimes.  I remember it just tasted like eating a packet of Sweet & Low.  And they still make this?  How did this stick around when other ones that were way better get shut down?  I'm sorry to include this in my Pops that got Dropped post, because this didn't get dropped yet.  Oh well, I;m pretty sure the next one did...

4. Diet Coke Plus

The cola companies are always messing around with their diet pops, aren't they? Remember Diet Coke Plus?  There was nothing special about the taste of the pop, but they added vitamins and minerals to it to make it healthier.  First off, you don't get your goddamn vitamins and minerals form pop.  You get it from plants.  People think you can just drink a can of Diet Coke Plus (or take a multivitamin for that matter) and you're good to go, you're not going to die now.  Okay, good luck trying that out.  Well I guess no one actually did try that out because it got shit canned.  I did find a listing on eBay for a sweet Diet Coke Plus t shirt that I'm considering buying.  That would be hilarious.  Diet Coke Plus came out during an exceptional flurry of new variations of old classics, around 2005-2006, something like that.  Around that time, they also released Diet Coke w/Splenda.  It tasted like a sweeter Diet Coke, and that's fine and dandy,  I just don't like Splenda.  It was also around this time they released Coke Zero, which I have to admit to you all is my absolute #1 go-to choice drink today, and has been since it was released in 2006.  I'm probably going to get cancer.

5. Pepsi Blue

I know a lot of people would expect this list to include Crystal Pepsi, but man, I don't really think that matters much on this specific list because it's been well documented what Crystal Pepsi was and how much people want it back for the ultimate nostalgia it provides.  However, Pepsi Blue is another story.  I remember when it came out, they were selling 20oz bottles of it at the grocery store for dirt cheap.  I bought one when I first saw it, but that was all I needed to have.  I never bought it again because it was really gross.  I think I remember Danny Featherstone buying it a bunch because of the price.  I wouldn't drink that crap if it was free, now or then.  It was terrible. But it was like a blue...cola...thing?  Was it supposed to taste like cola at all?  Because it didn't , in my opinion.  It tasted like that cheap Blue Drink you can get in the gallon jugs.  I'll say this about Pepsi Blue, it most definitely blew.

4. Pepsi Twist and Coke/Diet Coke with Lime and/or Lemon

This was was pretty popular if I recall.  I remember it being around a lot, people enjoying it regularly.  I'm pretty sure it was around for a lot longer than some of these other drinks that I've mentioned above.  Oh, and now that we've reached number four, you may be asking yourself, "Is this list in any particular order?" and my answer to that is no, it's not.  I'm really just writing this in list form because, like I said, the internet loves them some lists.  You can just scroll down and read what's next to the number and read the description if you want to.  Obviously if you've read this description, you're thinking, WTF is he talking about anyway?  I don't know man, it's like almost five in the morning at this point.

3. Surge and Vault

Man, this is the real reason I even started thinking about discontinued pop in the first place.  I remember when Surge came out, there was a big cooler at the local gas station that was full of cans of Surge for a quarter each.  I used to go load up on Surge on the cheap.  It was pretty good, but not my favorite ever.  I always like the can, with all the green and red.  It was so bright and eye-catching.  But everyone remembers Surge and that can't get it anymore.  Did you know you can't get Vault anymore?  Yeah they discontinued that a few years ago, too.  I hadn't noticed, which is probably why it got discontinued.  It seems like Coke has spent a lot of time over the years trying to compete with Mountain Dew, and just can't seen to get it right.  I personally think that Mello Yello is better than Mountain Dew.  I've always felt that way.  But then again, I'm not a huge Mountain Dew fan in the first place.  Call me crazy, but that's just how I feel.

2. Coca-Cola Blak

This was apparently so popular in France, they decided to launch it in the States.  It was not very good.  it was a small little bottle and that made it feel like it was really special, because you were only allowed to have this little tiny bit of it.  I'm glad it was so small because it was not good and you didn't have a giant drink to throw away.  I don't remember where I heard it, but it was on TV, a comedian of some sort, describing the taste of the drink as "you left your cup of coffee on your desk all weekend, and someone accidentally spilled some of their coke in there." I put that in quotes, but that was paraphrasing   But that's exactly right, that's what it tasted like.  Like old, cold coffee that you mixed some leftover coke into.  Not good.  Not good at all.

1. Vanilla Coke and Pepsi Vanilla

This is the only instance on this list where I'm putting one of the drinks into a specific spot.  The thing is, it's not really all that discontinued.  I mean Vanilla Coke, that is.  I could go to the store and buy some today if I wanted to.  And you know what, I just might.  But once upon a time you could buy this in 20oz at every corner store in America.  Now it's only available (at least that I'm aware of) in 12 packs.  I don't know if you guys know, but I used to drink a lot of pop.  I used to drink a 12 pack a day at my worst, in a week if I was really nursing it.  But my go-to as a new adult was Vanilla Coke.  And in the summer of 2003, I made the switch to diet pop, I switched to Diet Vanilla Coke, and later Diet Pepsi Vanilla because it was cheaper at my local grocery store.  When Bethany and I moved in together in the summer of 2003 (10 years ago, btw.  I've lived with the same woman for 10 years) we drank a lot of Diet Pepsi Vanilla, or as we called it for short, "DPV."  And one day, we just couldn't find it anymore, along with Toffee Butter Act II microwave popcorn.  I want those days back!  Oh, how delicious that time was.  We ate a lot of Tuna Helper, too.  We were kids, what else do we eat and drink when we're on our own?  I used to claim that Vanilla Coke was my hangover cure.  That and those BK Back Porch Griller sandwiches they had for a while there from Burger King.  Big ol' burger and a vanilla coke.  Maybe it worked, maybe it just tasted so good I forgot how shitty I felt.  Either way, I can still taste that, and by default, feel those days.  It wasn't that long ago to me, proving how fast life moves along.  That was only like, 10 or 11 years ago.

So in conclusion, there were other drinks that had come out before the late 90's and 2000's, but I really don't remember them.  I was too young.  But these, I tried all of them, and only a few were worth it.  I've always been afraid that delicious, delicious Coke Zero would end up on a list like this, simply because it's not one of the "regular or diet" options that are going to be around forever.  But coke Zero had done well, and it seems to be safe for now.  I'll keep buying it just in case they decide to pull it one day, for whatever reason.  Oh, yeah, they also made a Vanilla version of Coke Zero.  That was awesome.  I remember having that for the first time in 2007 when I was on my trip to Washington DC.  That was like the best of both worlds situation, right there.  Bring that back.  Also, I really hope that Pepsi is smart enough to release something under the name "Pepsi Perfect" in or around 2015.  That's what Marty McFly orders in the Cafe 80's in Back to the Future part 2.  I'd buy it.  I know this post is just dripping with nostalgia, and sometimes it's not a good idea to just dwell on the past, only focus on how good it used to be.  If you don't pay attention to how good it is right now, you won't have any new memories to miss later.  So stop to remember the delicious pop you once drank, but try a new one as well, so you can talk about it with your grand kids or whatever.  Something as simple as a flavor can bring back a flood of memories, and I think it's pretty cool that we humans can do that.  I'm going to go grab a pop and think about what it reminds me of, and I want you to do the same.  Enjoy your beverage, my friends.  And have a great day.


(this post is really scatterbrained, and I apologize for it.  Mostly this post was well-intended, but I think the execution is a bit off.  Sorry, I'm not good at staying on a topic or at making a point when there is not really much of a point to be made.  This is why I know I'm not a good writer.  Also, I've obviously never heard of drafts or editing.)