Very frustrating.
Short question... why is it so ass-backward as fuck to try to import this to facebook?
Good afternoon, loyal readers!
Yesterday was a fucking awesome day. I won the lottery before I even woke up.
Well, not exactly. But the return of my hard-earned money from last year into my bank account - via the Internal Revenue Service - forced out my incomprehensibly bitter mood from some events of the weekend. Sudden injections of large amounts of cash have that kind of effect. So, with all of you in mind, I headed out to National Camera Exchange with a nice wad of cash - and I was the first person through the door on what, to most, seemed to be a nondescript Wednesday afternoon. I left a half hour later with a notably smaller wad of cash and a slick Canon PowerShot SX200. It has crackin' optical zoom capabilities and the ability to run in a pure "manual" mode, as well as aperture-priority and shutter speed-priority modes. While I will reap the greatest benefits of the purchase, I plan on passing some of those along to YOU as well.
Large chunks of my life - in some cases, YEARS at a time, have passed by with no photographic documentation and that will no longer be the case. FOREVER.
Sadly, this was all I could think about yesterday, when my energy might have been focused better on things like work. And more work. A frustrating exercise over the last week or so due to circumstances far beyond my control. Still, the cash injection provided a second wind of sorts and I can find myself keeping my head down and killing it in earnest again. I was unsure if I'd ever reach that point after the peak of my frustrations, so those of you who have expressed your concern over my faltering mood can again sleep easily. It's all good. Those of you coming to this space hoping for the juicy details of the work situation will be met with disappointment and vagaries.
After the business portion of Wednesday (on a side note, Wednesday plays the same role in my life as Mondays do in many of yours) was over, I met up with some friends/co-workers at Chianti Grill in Roseville. They opened a new location in the last few months and it happens to be walking distance from Unit Five Global Headquarters, and it was about time I checked it out.
The interior of the bar and lounge areas are jaw-dropping compared to any place in the area. It was a little late for me to be testing the food, but if the chefs can cash the checks the architects have written... this place will be successful for years.
As for the crowd? Well, the crowd was mostly our group by the time I had gotten there but there were a few interesting characters. Pictured on the left is "John" and on the right is "Big Steve". For the curious, I don't know the origins of his nickname... but I can assure you they aren't prison-related.
My experiences in the service industry tell me that when you get two older gents relaxing at a bar, they tend to react negatively to large groups of youthful, exuberant individuals. These fellas were the exact opposite, to my surprise. They enjoyed the company our motley crew kept in the bar area. As some of you may know, some of our work gatherings have had components of epic fail and epic win in equal measure. Rarely have we been treated as nicely by our bar area cohabitants as on this evening.
Steve ponied up for a shot of bourbon for me, as long as I would talk to him about bourbon in general. Well... I'm a gin guy and I don't know fuck-all about bourbon because I don't like it. My sense of adventure isn't so small as to deny an offering of a free shot of booze. So I took him up on his offer and presented some bullshit about Knob Creek being my favorite bourbon I've ever tried. I don't even know if the shit is whiskey or bourbon but it didn't matter. Steve laughed in my face and mocked my taste in alcohol before offering me a shot of this...
Above: Basil Hayden's 8-Year. My new favorite bourbon, for whatever it means.
This stuff was buttery, smooth, and had a nice aftertaste that lingered long without being too overpowering at any one point. I promptly ordered another round in the interest of returning the favor. Steve, being awesome, obliged.
WARNING: SPORT RELATED CONTENT FOLLOWS!
Having accomplished my goal of obtaining a good celebratory buzz to cap off a fantastic day, I headed back to HQ with Ryan - the other half of Unit Five Global Headquarters. We completed the first 12 picks of our yearly NFL mock draft. We have two more days to knock out the other 20 picks with each one taking progressively more time than the last. I know not what horrible fate will befall us if we don't complete this task by 3pm on Saturday, when the yearly celebration of sporting hope renewed begins in earnest. All I know is we ALWAYS finish the mock before the draft starts. My stubborn nature tells me this year will ultimately be no different.
As for baseball, I've decided on the Arizona Diamondbacks as my adopted National League team for the year. Rip stole the Cincinnati Reds with the first pick, which he earned only through his own initiative. Killa went with the Florida Marlins and Nelly settled on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Why anyone would willingly root for such a shit team is beyond my comprehension, but the hat he purchased in honor of his selection will serve its purpose beautifully. Currently, Killa has picked the best team by leaps and bounds. The Marlins have been destroying all comers. The law of averages will rear its foul head eventually, though, and things will draw more level. Except for the Pirates... they will probably suck until I die.
Finally, soccer season in Minnesota is fast approaching. I'm playing on a co-ed team in Blaine this summer that meets on Sunday nights - my favorite night of the week to begin with. The team is looking for a select few more members - especially those with two X-chromosomes. If anyone is interested in joining, let me know. The team is filled with a genuinely nice crowd and if you fit that mold, you're welcome to join us.
COMING SOON:
I have a wild hair up my ass to go out this weekend and take some pictures, and I'll share them with you in this space when I do. Other topics on the docket are karma, the art and importance of proper training, and economic survival tips for tough times. I'd be happy to tackle any other project you're willing to hurl at me as well.
TRACK OF THE DAY: "Like the Rest of Us" - Atmosphere
"... you gotta let people be hypocrites
count your blessings, and mind your businesses."
The balmy weather in our fair city has everyone talking. Currently, it's sunny and 54 in what could only be called ideal conditions. The windows are safely open, ushering in some much needed fresh air to relieve headquarters of the stale leftovers of winter.
This is an exciting time of year for everyone, regardless of their reasons. I'm personally the most thankful for the return of shorts weather and the packing away of the oppressive garments of winter. Some are renewing long-forgotten gym memberships in hopes of looking fly for the summer. Others are cancelling their MMO accounts in hopes of finding more constructive uses for their time... gaming is a hibernal activity, and dedicating large blocks of time to it is a practice best restricted to the winter months.
There's one final rite of spring that I enjoy most. My friends and I have carried a tradition of picking National League baseball teams to follow over the course of the season. These can be picked arbitrarily - the only requirement is the purchase of one (1) baseball cap bearing the colors of said team. Still, it's always a good idea to pick a team that has some chance of being successful deep into the season. I would have felt pretty damn pleased with myself had I gone with my instincts and picked Philly last year but alas, I stuck with the Dodgers as I had for the previous two seasons.
This year, I know the Reds have been claimed by someone which is personally disappointing. They have a pretty exciting pitching corps, regardless of other shortcomings on their team. Red and white are always fashionable as well, making them a safe pick for the purposes of the experiment.
Today is the official day of reckoning for the teams of the National League. Lines will be drawn and wagers made on games and series involving the selected teams. Updates to follow.
In other news, Easter is this weekend. What better way to spend Easter weekend than working it away? In my dead time, I'll consider options for running items to put in this space.
track of the day: Open Water - Thrice
Blogs are fucking boring.
Seriously.
The only thing more boring than reading a blog about some random shit that you don't care about is trying to come up with something interesting enough to be worthy of an audience. I mean, I am my own number one fan and everything, but this project has me stumped.
No matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise, I just don't think any of you care to hear me ramble on and on about Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, or the Minnesota Vikings, or anything related to the hamster cage I work in.
Since blogging is, at its core, a form of escapism for the author, I'll probably touch on those topics from time to time. I have no higher purpose for doing so, other than my own self-satisfaction. If you happen to enjoy any of those topics, then I commend you. This blog will always maintain a general lack of focus since, frankly, I don't care enough about any *ONE* topic, person, or cause enough to devote an entire chunk of the web to them. Someday, that may change and if it does, a new blog will be started in a fresh space, far away from the degenerate ridiculousness of this space.
So while there will be epic tales posted here over the coming months - along with photographic evidence, ideally - I will need your help if I want you to continue to be interested in reading this tripe.
In that vein, I have a proposition for all of you, my dear readers.
I want to craft this blog with a pinch of community control and creative genius. So, at any point in your readings of these postings, feel free to propose a topic or project. I promise I will tackle your questions/requests with great enthusiasm and vigor, no matter how ridiculous they sound. Just don't suggest anything that could cost me a limb or my life and it will get taken care of. More ground rules might be laid out later but that's another post for another time.
With no good ideas from YOU - the reader - you will be forced to read about the SAME BORING SHIT YOU CAN READ ABOUT ON ANY OTHER BORING BLOG. I'm affording YOU the opportunity to decide which types of boring shit will be addressed in this space. Yeah, I might not know fuck-all about whatever you suggest I write about here, but at least the uninformed musings that result from these projects will be topics of interest to at least one of you.
Together, we can usher in a new era of community-controlled, user-generated pointless blog content!
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