Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Using every last second of his 15 minutes...

Excellent

It's been confirmed! Bill and Ted 3 is on the way. We just have to see how long it will actually take to get to us.

I absolutely had the original Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on VHS. In fact, I watched it so many times it got to the point where the film was wearing thin and you would get the fuzzy screen coming through when you watched it - suspiciously enough it was right around the time you meet Missy/Bill's step-mom. Anyway, I'm pretty pumped to see how they pull this out. Especially with Rufus (George Carlin) now being dead and all...

Hopefully the Wyld Stallyns are still rockin' in the three-qual.


Been sick...

Last Tuesday I noticed my throat was feeling a little scratchy. The next day it was a little worse. The next day after that, I was pretty much out of commission and ended up taking Friday of last week off of work in an effort to knock out whatever it was before it got much worse. Needless to say, it didn't work.

Fast forward a week and I realize I haven't blogged in nearly 10 days. Pretty good hiatus, even for me. I doubt that any of the people who read this were worried about the fact that they wouldn't be able to catch up on asinine videos and random news stories from around the interwebs. Needless to say however, there is a rather large, (Orange and Black) elephant in the room that hasn't been brought up by me since August.

Weird, right? A Giants fan who watched them before the last week of September? Yeah, I know. Don't trip. We really did/do exist.

Anyway, as any true baseball fan knows, nothing is as awesome as playoff baseball. It's even more awesome when your team is competing - and even MORE awesome when they're winning -and EVEN MORE AWESOME when they make it to the World Series! The emotion and excitement in SF these past few weeks has been remarkable to say the least. In a town like SF, that is especially "clique-ish" when going out, it's often hard to break in to new groups of people since most often people travel in packs and tend to stay with those they came with. On Giants' playoff game nights however, everyone is there to support the same cause and cheer for the same thing: Getting drunk and cheering on the Giants. For most of the "new" fans, it actually (read: sadly) goes in that order. The point however, is that this playoff run, and now World Series appearance is actually giving San Franciscans something that they can mutually bond over (aside from living in the 'greatest city in the world').

All I can hope for now is that I kick this sickness before the weekend and before the Giants win the World Series. That will most definitely be a party not to miss.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Olympic Gold

Fairly certain this picture can't be done justice with words.

Found at Golden Gate Bike and Skate. I wouldn't recommend this place unless you have an emergency. I walked in and the guy completely ignored me for almost 5 minutes - mind you the shop is the size of a large walk-in closet, and him and I were the only two people in the joint. The good thing is, while the guy was replacing my flat tire, I was able to look at the "amazing" posters on the wall. And wouldn't you know it, I wound up spotting the greatest Devil's Backbone rollerblader of all time.


Yup. Mitchell effin Goosen! was right there on the wall getting radical. AMAZING! There were actually a ton of other awe-inspiring pictures from the late 80s all over the wall, but unfortunately I didn't have much time to snap them all. If you're ever in the neighborhood, pop your head in and check out the posters - just don't expect to get any assistance from the guy behind the counter.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

We can all eat and talk again in peace...

SunChips decided to stop making that INSANELY loud "biodegradable" bag. You all tried it, and you ALL know exactly what I mean. Heading into the Giants' pre-playoff game Sunday we had a bag and thanks to good ol' Scott, everytime we tried to talk he would crinkle the bag and the sounds of a Def Leppard concert would ring throughout the car. I mean, we all know there was a secret parental conspiracy placed on junk food wrappers long ago, making sure they were loud enough for your parents to catch you sneaking into the cookie jar - but this bag was just plain ridiculous.

Check it out for yourself:



The guy's a douche, sure, but you get the point of the video. Be glad someone over SunChips was smart enough to realize it was better to have consumers still buy their products, than file a class action lawsuit against them for deafening anyone who purchased their products.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Minimalism. A goal.

I have a ton of shit. Seriously. I buy things all the time. From $7 knock-off wayfarers to $750 cameras. I have over 40 baseball hats. I have something in the range of 30-35 pairs of shoes (from my computer chair I can actually touch six pairs of shoes right now). I have more t-shirts than I know what to do with - some of which are over 10 years old. I have dozens of books I've never read, and itunes songs I've never taken the time to listen to. There is something about the accumulation of things that has both an awesome feeling of accomplishment, and yet, a rather empty feeling to it as well.

About a week and a half ago I was on Amazon.com again, searching for nothing and finding something. This time around it happened to be a couple of new books and another pair of shoes. As is the case with most online purchases, this one was primarily impulse, and as soon as the credit card number had been entered and the final "submit order" button had been clicked, I immediately began to question why I chose to buy shoes that cost me nearly $100 that I would probably only wear a few times a year. This is rare, mind you. I actually took a step back and wondered, "Why the fuck are you buying these? You don't need them. So why?" As soon as I realized I was unable to answer my own question, I made a promise to myself to return them as soon I got them in the mail. And I did.

You know what? It felt awesome. It felt awesome knowing that I technically just paid myself back $100. It made the fact that I got a parking ticket minimally draining on my finances. Using part of that money saved, I was able to go watch the Giants win the last game of the season, making the playoffs for the first time since 2003 - A memory that will last a lot longer than those shoes would have. More than anything though, it really made me think about all the crap I have - stuff that has literally cost me thousands of dollars, that has no significant or meaningful value.

In his most recent blog, Everett Bogue writes about what he considers the "Secret of Happiness". His most important message? You don't have to have a lot of money or things. Describing why so many people are unhappy, he says:

"You’re unhappy because you sit in a car all day, and then come back and sit on your couch all night, which makes you want to buy a new car because you think it will make you happy. Really you’re just wasting thousands of dollars on a piece of metal that isolates you from the world — and thus happiness. When you spend 20-grand on a car, you have to work a gazillion hours to pay that off...stop buying, stop watching TV, sell your crap, and start living your life."

No doubt these ideals are a bit extreme considering the way most of us are living our lives, but it sure does make you think when you read his words. Especially when you take a step back and try to realize why it is we are doing the things we do on a daily basis. He discusses all this and more in his book, The Art of Being Minimalist.

Anyway. My "End-Year's" Resolution is to go through a ton of unnecessary things in my life and see what I've been keeping because I want it or if it is in fact something that I truly need. While I will make an honest effort to minimize the unnecessary, I know that there will still be some things I will retain that will undoubtedly be extraneous. This is something new, and I'm sure I will learn to live with a lot less over time, though it has to start somewhere.

I'll let you know how it goes in the in-between time.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Friday's "Best"

I'm a little nervous that "Gross Eater Guy" at the office is going to find this post. Not because he is going to see that I've been chronicling his disgusting habits, but because of this video I came across. This will undoubtedly take his slobishness to astronomical levels not seen since Manuel Uribe.



Seriously, if he sees this, he may just move straight to Korea for the convenience of it all. Check out the full article from over at TIME Newsfeed.