We Don't Walk Slow

3 Nov, 2010

Turkey Tourny

By Tom Stortz|2016-10-28T15:53:37-04:00November 3rd, 2010|My Life|0 Comments

If you are here to vote for a date for the turkey tourny, the poll is on the right hand side bar. I’m sure a lot of people are indifferent but if you have a preference, we would like to know. I will post all updates and the results on this blog. A good tournament is always made better with the more people that show up. If you plan to show up, it would be good to rsvp on facebook so we can get a good idea of how many tables to set up. Comment on the facebook page if you have a preference for entry fee. Hopefully with good planning we can make this the biggest year ever. I look forward to taking your money. We are all getting older and I feel like a keg could be an added service to the turkey tourny. Just kidding. Maybe.

2 Nov, 2010

Sports Emotion!?!

By Tom Stortz|2010-11-03T10:58:51-04:00November 2nd, 2010|My Life, Sports|1 Comment

I think I just felt some emotion after watching the Sixers game tonight. If you know me you know that I have little emotional attachment to sports but tonight was different. Watching an 0-3 team get sent to OT on a miraculous 3 ball and then lose in OT was really sad. I’m not a huge Sixers fan but I hate having a team that’s 0-4 because it takes all hopes of any potential of the season if it starts to get worse. Even if the team starts 5-10 at least you know if they go on a run they can get back to respectable. 4 games without a win is starting to look bleak. I just hope they don’t fall further in the sinkhole.

I’ve gotten back to normal life today. The stock market has been doing well. Hopefully good news on SIRI earnings on Thursday will make me some money. Work has been busy and we’ve had a flurry of orders. I hit the gym today and got back on track after a 5 day hiatus. I only did 3 miles in 17:40 but I felt strong lifting so I expect to get stronger as the Winter nears. It’s one things that changes in my life. I start going to the gym more instead of long distance runs which allows me to add some muscle and not looking like a pipsqueak. So I’m in a good mood am expecting good things to come.

It’s kind of funny the amount of shoes I have, I feel like a girl. I’m looking around my room and I count 18 pairs of shoes. I have 2 pairs of sandals, 4 pairs of dress shoes, 2 bball shoes, 1 work shoes, 3 regular walking around shoes, 4 pairs of running shoes, 1 pair of cleats and a pair of golf shoes. At one point or another I do wear each and every one and they are starting to get to be a nuisance for the amount of space they take up. Another funny thing is I’ve fazed out collared Polo shirts for plain t-shirts. I decided that I don’t care that much about my look and I’ll go as casual as I can for everything. Shorts are also put away for the winter and my sweaters and sweatshirts are going to take over. I’ve developed a pretty decent long shirt wardrobe but I like to add some fresh gear each year. In college I used to always wear hoodies with no zipper but I’ve swapped over to hoodies with the zipper. I feel like they are more versatile and have a more presentable look than the degenerate drug dealing hoodie sweatshirt. I’ll probably buy a few more of those as winter progresses. I’m sporting 3 pairs of jeans and will have to add a new pair or two. It’s well known you don’t have to wash jeans as often so you don’t need as many pairs but I feel like I have a favorite pair that I prefer over the other two. I need to add another favorite so I can rotate two instead of a one rotation. This doesn’t mean I never switch, I just prefer not to.

Another change winter makes is that I like starting my car before I get in it. There is nothing worse than getting into a freezing car and waiting for the heater to warm up. Today I was freaking out because I woke up at 7:10 and the traffic gets bad around then and I knew I was going to have to face the cold in my car without any warm up. Tomorrow I’ll try to wake up before 7 so I can get a nice 5 minute warm up. These sort of events are paramount to having a good day. I love being under the comforter when it’s cold surrounding the room and you know that under the blanket is the warmest you’ll be for the rest of the day. I HATE getting out of bed in the morning knowing I have to brace for the cold. Obviously my shower walk is terrible in the cold and I could write a whole post about that if I wanted. I obviously prefer summer but I can get used to icy temps and make it work. I really feel like i was rambling throughout this entire post but I’m starting to get the feeling people don’t even care. People will read what I write because it’s better than doing other things that they don’t want to do. I also think people use this as a comparison to their own lives and see how someone goes about their days and what makes them tick. It’s sort of one sided for me as I constantly share and get no feedback but that’s the breaks. I have a few ideas for future posts so I’m hoping to make some progress in the upcoming days. I know I lack pictures and real entertainment but I’ll see what I can do. Till then.

2 Nov, 2010

Current Music

By Tom Stortz|2010-11-02T16:32:33-04:00November 2nd, 2010|Music|2 Comments

Quality song by Ra Ra Riot called Boy

Hannah by Freelance Whales has a nice sound to it.

Peacock by Katy Perry – I’m not even sure how to comment on this song but I heard it on the radio and I’m a bit disturbed.

2 Nov, 2010

Trash Post

By Tom Stortz|2016-11-01T23:48:05-04:00November 2nd, 2010|My Brain|0 Comments

I decided to clean up my posts that I never finish and just throw them all into one post. Generally these are posts that I write and then decide that the topic sucks and I just never finish them. Keep that in mind when you read them and think to yourself WTF am I reading.

Give me one reason
This has nothing to do with the Tracy Chapman song. I know I’m not the best communicator in the world but I generally have a purpose for what I’m trying to accomplish. If I’m calling you, it’s not to just talk. I have a specific reason and I make that clear from the beginning. I find that some people like to open with a “What’s up” or some statement that the only response I can give is OK… If you want to talk to me just ask me a question or tell me something that I would care about. Tell me how I can make money or how good I think Jamaal Charles is. Don’t ask how my day was or what I’m currently doing. Ask me if I want to do something fun like get drunk or play sports. Don’t ask me what I’m doing sometime in the distant future. If I have to look or think about a question and my only answer is OK, this conversation isn’t going anywhere.

Picture Taking
I’ve always had this weird thought on people who take pictures while they are doing things. I understand if you want to take a picture of a trademark or something you’d like to remember, but there is a line to what’s normal and what’s overdoing it. If you have to bring your camera everywhere you go because you like to document your fun, chances are you aren’t having nearly enough fun. Now when I get myself into some of these unusual nights, it would be a good time to have some pictures. I would assume the people who love pictures are the people who need to convince themselves they are having fun and that they look good doing it. I don’t mind the occasional picture but there’s a line you don’t want to cross.

Facebook Post
In a recent post I gave my impression on Facebook’s wall and now I want to give my opinion on facebook’s overall effectiveness. First of all, I have no issues with Facebook and I think the service is pretty neat. It gives a good foundation for getting in touch with people and even organizing events. It’s a good place for people to share ideas as well. I prefer it over Twitter because Twitter seems incredibly dumb to me. I would find it creepy if I had people subscribing to my feed because they found it curious what I was going to do next or what my next thought was. I find the newsfeed easy to wade through and the people search is easy to use. So I obviously wouldn’t be making this post to praise Facebook because that’s not my style. The next paragraph will be dedicated to the problems I have with it.

Recent news has shown that facebook has privacy issues with their applications. In my lifetime, I have refused to download any of these so called apps. Anytime something asks me to download it whether it’s a quiz or some game, I’m not interested because that’s how viruses are spread. So I don’t play farmville or any of the other crap that because I don’t care about any virtual crops. I also find it creepy how it suggests people to me and people I click on seem to pop up more so. It’s obviously documenting what I’m doing and the Ad’s are always designed to my preferences. Facebook is becoming it’s on live self and in some regard it’s creeping me out.

Writing Styles
I was killing time one day and checking on peoples blogs who seem to generate more traffic than mine and they all had a common theme, some of these people are really, really good writers. After I read theirs and read mine, I think to myself “ugh, me caveman, me write bad.” I understand that there are billions of people out there any maybe I was just reading some of the better blogs but some entries were just really well written. I need some theme to constantly write about to develop an audience and then I can start going off the wall with crazy topics.

Driving
Even good drivers can’t like the left hand turn into 2 lanes incoming traffic and then 2 more lanes of outgoing traffic, specifically in rush hour. 1 lane, left turns are no problem because once you are in the oncoming lane, you just wait for someone moving in the other direction to let you in. 2 lanes gets annoying because you can get your car between one car, but then you have to make sure the other car in the your lane is letting you in too. This gets even more complicated when the other side of the road is completely packed and now you have to merge with them as well and trying not to feel rushed because you are blocking traffic. Considering most people are shitty drivers, I feel like people should just avoid this type of turn because I see it every morning where Ridge and Kelly connect. These massive trucks try to make left turns into parking lot traffic and it just makes everything worse for everyone.

2 Nov, 2010

CK4 Grabs Rebound!!!

By Tom Stortz|2010-11-02T00:02:12-04:00November 2nd, 2010|My Life, Sports|0 Comments

We had a game at the new Ambler Y and I must say I was incredibly impressed with the new structure. I read that the old one was built on a 3 acre land and the new one was something ridiculous 28 acres. We were playing a team of guys who were reasonably talented basketball players but lacked the basketball fundamentals and had little team chemistry. Even with that being said we went down 27-10 to start the game. That was the case for the first 10 minutes of the game. With Jkash being out for the second straight game with a shoulder injury we were running 6 people. After their initial barrage we started playing an uptempo game and started filling it up. Ck4 and Jeff were doing some scoring and we were just outplaying them on the boards and getting open shots and offensive rebounds. We ended the half 36-30 with our lead. The game never really got much closer than 4 points and we held them off. Bud came up with the title to this post and I thought it was pretty funny because CK4 probably, ok he keeps his own stats so he did, drop 23 but it’s hard to say how much of the other stat lines he fills up. He did have an assist to me I must add, but I was probably 2-15 from the floor and 2-8 from the line. I’m not sure I’m looking at the rim when I shoot and it was pretty bad because I don’t really take bad shots but I just make easy shots look bad. We moved to 5-1 with 3 more cake games and one more tough one before the playoffs. If you read this blog and you’d be interested in playing ball for our team in a Manayunk League, we are looking for 1-2 more roster spots to fill. If you’re interested, send me an email or leave a comment.

I’m going to give a quick fantasy football recap and I know these aren’t that fun to read but I’m doing it anyway. I went 4-0 for the 2nd straight week and was high scorer in 2 leagues. I moved to hold the number 1 spot in Evan’s league, 2 spot behind Jkash in Bakes, 1 spot in Steve’s, and holding the 2 in Bud’s. This has been a blockbuster fantasy year and hopefully my good fortune continues.

As I’ve done in my last few Monday posts, I’ll review some TV that I watched. I thought Dexter was pretty good but the main thrust of the episode was unrealistic. I don’t mind too much though as I like the Lumen – Dexter relationship. Boardwalk isn’t really developing into anything anyone cares about but I’ll still give it a chance and just assume they will tie some good plots into each other. I liked the Eastbound but it was nothing special. I think Kenny is more likable when he acts like he’s doing the right thing. I really liked the owner of the Charros with the sword in the beginning. I still have to watch Weeds but it’s getting late and I’ll do that tomorrow.

31 Oct, 2010

Pitt Homecoming

By Tom Stortz|2010-10-31T20:30:55-04:00October 31st, 2010|My Life|0 Comments

I left Thursday after work to drive down with Dooley and his friend Ferris for Pitt homecoming. I probably visit Pittsburgh once or twice a year and as I’ve gotten older I have a feeling it will be less and less frequent. Nevertheless, I was prepared to have a good time and make the best of it. I had no real plans and the homecoming meant nothing to me. We got there at about 11pm and went to Hemingway’s. Pitchers of beer were 5 bucks and Kamikaze pitchers were 4. I’m obviously laughing at these prices because Mad River charges 12 bucks and that’s their special for a pitcher. So we got pretty hammered and stayed til close and nothing to extraordinary went down. Dooley did get a glimpse into my disappearing act as I left them at the O at 2:30 in the morning only to re-appear at the hotel room a few minutes after. This is some foreshadowing for the trip.

We woke up at 11 on Friday and I decided to start drinking the Ketle one on the rocks. We went to Fuel and Fuddle at 12 and I had two more beers which were Double IPA’s and probably 7+% alcohol. I then met up with Gerald and we bought a 12 pack and went back to his sisters place. I probably had another 3 beers there and then bought a handle of Gray Goose just to prove how much of a baller I am and had no intention of being able to drink that much. We were doing shots at 4 or 5 pm and I was getting a nice buzz at this time. We then met up with Bill Gates and his gf Laura who brought some friends to the Cathedral of Learning which for some crazy reason had free booze for Alumni. I was starting to get smashed at this point and remember talking to some people who were old as dirt and I can’t really remember what I was talking about. After that I wandered off again and got a quesadilla from Veracruz. At this point everything was still ok and I met up with the same crew at Spice Cafe. I had a few drinks there and then there was some controversy on what a mind eraser was and that was the last thing I can vaguely remember. What happened next is sort of up in the air. I had a key to the hotel room and went back at 10:30. Next thing I remember is the police were asking me questions about my room and I have to think that I passed out outside of the door and someone must have reported it and they showed up. Nothing came of the situation though and they just let me in the room and I went to bed.

I woke up at 9 and went to the Pitt tailgate with Dooley and his friends. We played some pong and just the standard tailgating. We went into the game for literally 15 minutes tops and I have to question what the point of going in was but it was only 15 bucks so I wasn’t too worried. Then we went to watch the game at a bar called McFadden’s and I pulled another Houdini and escaped that place and got a taxi ride back to Oakland. Once again I ran into another snafu because I didn’t have the hotel key and my phone was out of batteries and wasn’t taking a charge. I got Arby’s and went to sleep in my car from 5 to 7. When I woke up I knew I still had a problem because I had no means of communication and no hotel key. I strolled into Gerald’s sister’s place and she let me use her phone to make some calls and find out that Shady was having a party and that worked out well for me because I had a car and a costume. I drove over to his place, sober after my nap if you were curious, and hung out with him and the people at his party for the duration. I dressed as Hunter S. Thompson from Fear and Loathing and even though I’m no Johnny Depp, the costume worked. I thought it was awesome because it had no mouth blockers and was simple to do. Some hoe thought I was Gilligan from Gilligan’s island but that was ok. Just to give a list of people that I saw at the party for those interested, Bill, Kevin, and Shelly, BG and Laura, Gerald, the McGrath’s and Bekee, Covitch and his Gf who thought I was mentally challenged. Anyone else I missed I apologize. Bill showed me his gun collection which confirms that I will never purchase one. I like the people in Pittsburgh and they accept that I’m a drunk and will do stupid shit so we all get along pretty well. I turned it in pretty early on Saturday night and drove back to Oakland at 8 the next morning. We left at 10:30 or so and that was pretty much the trip report. It was a good time and I left unscathed. Till next time Pittsburgh and it was fun seeing all my old friends who don’t get to see me often enough.

28 Oct, 2010

Break

By Tom Stortz|2010-10-28T08:56:33-04:00October 28th, 2010|My Life|1 Comment

Couple day break while I go to Pittsburgh. Big fantasy match-up between Blog This and I expect to whoop him like I did in week 1. 140 point lead after 7 weeks Hafe, what now? Was that me and my keen eye for talent who got Darren McFadden in round 9? Gates in Round 4 who is my top fantasy scorer? I don’t even know what I’m going to do in Pittsburgh because I feel like I’ve been away for so long and people are going to come off as little kids. We’ll see, I plan on making the best of it.

27 Oct, 2010

BBall Actually SIRI

By Tom Stortz|2010-10-27T09:31:32-04:00October 27th, 2010|Sports|0 Comments

So we had our first loss in the Ambler Y basketball league last night. It was a good game throughout and finished in OT with us losing by 3. The first half was tight and I think finished tied. They started the 2nd half with a nice run to put them up 9 or so. We made a nice comeback due to some hot shooting from CK4 who I’m sure doesn’t mind me mentioning he had 16 of our 36 2nd half points. Evan had some key buckets too that kept it close. The other team had 3 really quality players who could shoot and had good moves. Bake would say his D got dominated but the guy he was covering was just a really good player. I should have played better missing some easy layups and going 1-5 from the line which is really embarrassing and could be argued cost us the game. It was very competitive and the league will boil down in the end to 4 teams who are are pretty equal in skill. A fun night of bball nonetheless.

So I wrote a post about the word actually and how I feel into a rut saying it. Now that I’ve been on the look out for the word I hear it non-stop from just about everyone. I’m not sure the word has any point to it and can be omitted from speech. Unless you are correcting someone, everything is actually. It’s just a buzzword to give the person time to think of something to say instead of stuttering with uhh’s and umm’s.

I also wanted to write that Sirius Radio stock has been given a shot in the arm and will soon cross the $1.40 barrier. I read all the haters saying how music apps are too strong of competition and Sirius won’t succeed but I’m pretty sure that it will be around to stay. Not only is the company finally turning a profit but this will allow for further innovation to the product. They receive revenue because it’s a subscription service and they also have channels that make money due to advertisements. Most channels are ad-free but some do have ads. I have 99 problems but listening to radio ain’t one. BOOM! Hit me. I just cringe every time I have to listen to AM/FM. It’s constant flipping around and generally when you flip all the stations have commercials at the same time. I just assume peons put up with the radio because they don’t know any better. I know it’s difficult for people to consider paying money for a service they assume should be free, but generally stuff you pay for is going to be better than the free product. They’ve added a Pearl Jam radio station devoted to their music which has my attention of late and Alt Nation is the best music out there. I know I own the stock and am a complete pumper but I believe this is a good long term play that people can invest a small sum of money and see decent returns.

26 Oct, 2010

Returning to Humanity

By Tom Stortz|2010-10-26T00:30:35-04:00October 26th, 2010|My Life|1 Comment

I’ve gotten my life back on track. It’s sort of funny but my wasted self doesn’t like to shave and it always looks like a bomb hit my room after the weekend. Now I have shaved and cleaned up my room and feel better about my life. I ran 5 miles today at a 29:27 pace which was good considering the dehydration my body feels after 4 days of drinking. I also came up with a simplistic Halloween costume which I was pretty proud of considering I hate thinking of costumes and worst even is paying for it. I’ll be in Pittsburgh for Halloween but maybe I’ll just wear the costume around on regular days as well. It has that going for it.

Weed’s is winding down into something no one cares about. I felt like this season had that going for it because it’s plots were all pretty dumbed down and no they are trying to make it suspenseful and it just isn’t going to get there. I thought the Silas and Shane duo stood out as the saving grace to the season as the other characters just don’t have any real development to them. I’m ready for the next season of shows and saw previews for a bunch on showtime like Episodes and Shameless. Episodes stars Matt LeBlanc from Friends so I’m sure it will be bad but I at least like watching the pilots. Shameless seems stupid too but ditto on the last line. Obviously Californication has become on of my favorite series out there.

No rantings or ravings about anything in particular. Everything is going swimmingly and I don’t have anything to complain about. I even went 4-0 in fantasy games this week. Aside from finding ways to overcome boredom, I’m doing great.

25 Oct, 2010

Primetime – Week 6

By Tom Stortz|2010-11-02T08:39:13-04:00October 25th, 2010|My Brain, Sports|0 Comments

The other team made us look a lot better than we probably are and this week was a total one sided affair. The score ended 28-0 but they had few scoring opportunities and no real offensive threats. Plus I think we had 2 picks on two plays that were QB’s by girls. To have a girl QB doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because the field gets really congested and if they don’t have great arm strength, they just lollipop one that is asking to be picked. We had 4 int’s in the first half by Evan, Bake, and CK4. Jkash went down for a set of downs after landing on his shoulder funny. We only had 1 sub but it didn’t even make a difference for this game. Ck4 even got to play QB for a few plays. He also displayed a typical crybaby attitude when we were going to let Jess Baker take some snaps at Q and instead of handing the ball over he childishly throws the ball behind everyone in disgust. Certainly not a big deal but at 27 to still be acting like this hysterical. Let’s also add that passing to girls isn’t part of his arsenal. I’ll never forget CK4 crying after a 7th grade bball intramural lost after Chris Duntzee made some miracle bs fast break shot because Trevor Stutz shot the ball with 5 seconds left instead of holding. I don’t think he’ll ever forgive Trevor. Bottomline though was the game was an easy victory.

My fantasy football #’s were dynamite this week as I had McFadden in two leagues. A brilliant move to bench Kenny Britt in my one league and deciding to play Maclin and TO instead was my one mistake. I did manage to sweep all 4 leagues though so I should have a 2nd in Steve’s league, a 3rd in the Schmidt’s league, a 2nd in Baker’s league, and The Turkeys will be in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd depending on Miles Austin’s performance. All in all I’ve been pretty hot in fantasy and almost know what I’m doing.

I watched all my TV for Sunday too and I’ll just keep the trend going with what I think about each episode I watch. Eastbound and Down I thought returned to its glory and I was cracking up for the first few minutes. The way Kenny and his Dad would lie to each other had me rolling. When he called Stevie the poon was also classic. When they said the kid Casper was 15, that was ridiculous because he looked 30. I like when they leave that Mexican baseball crap out of it. I watched Dexter and even though Julia Styles is annoying me I still think the show is good. The Quinn / Dexter rivalry reminds me of Dexter and Doakes. I think the side murder plots aren’t nearly as good as anything that has to do with Dexter. Boardwalk Empire was OK but I think the show is losing some luster. I think the show is good but I don’t leave episodes the way I used to leave after watching the Wire. Californication is starting up again and that’s always a good show.

I had 30 viewers on a Sunday which is an astronomical number compared to what I’ve been getting so that was encouraging. People seem to find this blog when I write about Manayunk and the bars so I have to keep that in mind when tailoring my posts. Bball is on Tuesday night and I’m going to Pittsburgh on Thursday for the first time in a few years. I probably have to get a halloween costume just so I don’t feel left out.