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14 May, 2013

The Big Three O

By |2013-05-14T17:49:20-04:00May 14th, 2013|My Brain|1 Comment

At dinner on Friday night, Laura asked me if I’m going to feel any different when I turn 30 in November. The easy answer is no. Although I believe life gets broken down into different segments of time, I don’t feel like age plays a major part of them. For instance, I split a segment of time when I finished the Broad St Run. I trained hard for it for a few months, did the run, then took off exercising for 10 straight days which I hadn’t done for say 6 months prior to that. My point is that I tend to break the segments in events rather than time. Laura getting married, followed by JKash, and then straight into summer would probably either end a segment or begin a new one. It frankly doesn’t matter all that much.

dannyturning30

At dinner we talked about Danny Tanner and how he turned 30 in the very first season of Full House (he was 31 in real life). The episode write up is hilarious if you want to take a look. (Specifically this comment “This episode perplexed me every time I watched it because the way Jesse and Joey talk, they have access to Danny’s insurance payout and would use that money to buy the car. How the hell would they do that without Danny’s knowledge?”) When viewing Danny’s life, I think it’s a fair question, what the hell have I been doing for the first 30 years of my life? He has 3 kids, a big ass house (maybe from his wife’s life insurance?), a Ford Mustang, and is the news anchor on Wake Up San Francisco. Perhaps an unrealistic look at a 30 year old but still pretty impressive.

I think a lot has changed since 1987. The most obvious is the access to information. People are more informed about life decisions and make better choices that suit them. Rather than decide to have DJ at 19, people wait to have kids when they are ready. It doesn’t bother me in the least that there is a perception of when the right time to make major life decisions is. It’s what set’s everyone apart. I believe the change in how things work in a mere 30 years is also unbelievable and we are rapidly changing this world.

13 May, 2013

Bridge Over Troubled Franzia

By |2013-05-13T12:55:48-04:00May 13th, 2013|My Life|0 Comments

phillyside

A brief summary of yesterday was walking over the Ben Franklin bridge, puking, walking back over the Ben Franklin bridge. You’d think at 29 I’d know how to handle myself but you’d be wrong. A few of us bought tickets to the radio 104.5 birthday concert yesterday and I had planned on attending. However, a single shot of whiskey turned that idea into a disaster. After a few pre-game beers, we bought some boxed wine and started drinking it along the walk over the bridge to the Susquehanna center. Everything was fine until I took a swig of some whiskey and it was basically lights out. We ran into Nikkii and Ck4 and once I sat down, I started getting sick from the shot. Ck4 was talking to me and I puked up the wine right into my mouth and that caused me to vomit further. I started walking back towards the lawn and puking every couple of steps, it was pretty much a nightmare. After that I had to leave because I had throw up on my clothes and wasn’t enjoying the experience. I ended up trying to catch a cab but settled on walking back. Great concert though and 36 dollars well spent.


camdenside

The night before was more of a success. I went to a charity event to save the Kid’s Castle which really went off without a hitch. I ended up buying 4 rounds of golf for 250 dollars which was beneficial to all parties involved. Ck4 was rolling in the raffle tickets but it was Sammy G who took home a Wawa gift basket. I also have to mention the dinner beforehand which took place at Country Place and was my first experience of a red neck hootenanny. Cheap beers and food made for a nice place. I’m not sure they had ever seen khaki’s before or have someone order the Prime Rib. The night was an overall enjoyable experience.

countryplace

This write up was something because I know I haven’t posted in a few days. Everything is good and Laura’s wedding is this week which will be more events to attend.

9 May, 2013

Wawa’s 2 for 3 Sizzli Ends

By |2013-05-09T23:41:20-04:00May 9th, 2013|My Brain|6 Comments

2 for 3 Sizzli Special

The 2 for 3 Sizzli special is one of the best breakfast sandwich specials on the market.


Wawa’s 2 for 3 Sizzli special run by Wawa is one of my favorite specials of all time. You get 2 breakfast sandwiches, that usually cost $2.59 for 1, for 3 bucks. I usually don’t want to eat 2 sandwiches in the morning but I love taking advantage of the special because I save the second one for the next day. Plus, anyone who goes to Wawa knows that the customizable coffee is what separates it from other places like Dunkin Donuts. I love being able to put as much milk and sugar into my coffee as I want instead of being at the mercy of some half wit brewing a full pot of coffee. So with the combination of the 2 for $3 and the great coffee, I’m in breakfast heaven. I will usually visit Wawa two times a week when this deal is ongoing. I don’t know exactly but I suspect it runs for about 2 weeks and it’s done every few months.

My biggest gripe is that the 2 for $3 is what these Sizzli’s should cost. $2.59 is too much for a Sizzli. My standard D&D breakfast is bagel with cream cheese, glazed doughnut, and a medium coffee for $4.82. When I get the Wawa deal it comes out to be almost exactly the same. When they don’t run the special, it costs close to 7 bucks which in my mind is too much. I put my foot down paying 7 bucks for breakfast. 5 is OK, 7 makes me feel like I’m overpaying. That’s why I blow my load when I get a 2 for 3 deal and pay what I usually pay for breakfast and get 2 SIZZLI’S! and the coffee I like more. I’m sad to see it end. Anyone else love the 2 for 3 as much as I do?

I prefer the biscuit sausage egg and cheese, then the croissant, then the bagel. All bacon sandwiches are worse than the sausage because for some reason they don’t have the right formula for the microwaved bacon. I would never feel comfortable with the pork rolls. Plus you always want the fresh ones, they taste the best.

9 May, 2013

3D Printer – A Look to the Future

By |2013-05-09T09:23:03-04:00May 9th, 2013|My Brain|2 Comments

Fab@Home_Model_1_3D_printer

Soon everyone will have a 3D printer. It may not be this year, or next year, but within the next few years, people will have gravitated towards paying for designs, and then printing their goods. I know this idea sounds foreign if you’ve never heard of a 3D printer before (I wasn’t aware of it till yesterday), but the idea is that a printer can print 3D objects.

To perform a print, the machine reads the design from an .stl file and lays down successive layers of liquid, powder, paper or sheet material to build the model from a series of cross sections. Below is an example of what a 3d printer can produce.

A blue shell produced from 3d printer parts.

The quality and complexity of printer designs, however, as well as the quality of kit or finished products, varies greatly from project to project. This rapid development of open source 3D printers is gaining interest in many spheres as it enables hyper-customization and the use of public domain designs to fabricate open source appropriate technology through conduits such as Thingiverse and Cubify.

People create the designs! Think about it, the world will be filled with people like you and me spending time designing goods, uploading the design to a shopping area like Amazon, and people will purchase your design and print them out of their printers. If this doesn’t make you say Whoa!, your mind isn’t able to comprehend the potential capabilities of this. I almost want to spend a grand just to understand what stage we are at currently. I also believe an amazing aspect of this project is that our brightest minds on the planet will continue to work out the kinks of something so groundbreaking that this idea will come to fruition to the masses. This is a monumental challenge and when people want to overcome challenges, they do.

“One of the greatest things about 3D printing is that there are some limitations, but as with any engineering challenge these really inspire people to push past them,” says Pettis. “I’m just curious what the community will do together and what kind of problems we can solve.”

My feeling is that the quality of the parts these printers are producing at this stage are pretty crappy but that will evolve with time. How awesome will it be when you shatter your coffee mug on the ground, go to your computer, print a new one, and not blink an eye. A quick word though is that I watched a video where a printer printed a car wheel and it took 4 hours so that scenario isn’t exactly there yet. Nevertheless, this idea will revolutionize the way we shop and the customization of items we own. I’m pretty psyched for what’s to come.

8 May, 2013

Challengeme.com

By |2016-10-29T13:25:43-04:00May 8th, 2013|My Brain|0 Comments

After a brief discussion Evan and I had over a few drinks, I believe we struck gold on a million dollar idea. Understand that it’s still in its infancy and that there are many details to work out, but I believe that we are on to something groundbreaking. Something that will revolutionize the way challenges are met. I don’t have many details other than this is a real idea that I intend to follow through on. If you want to be an investor moving forward, contact me.

7 May, 2013

Not Newsworthy – Serena Williams unfollows Sloane Stephens

By |2013-05-07T21:49:54-04:00May 7th, 2013|Sports|0 Comments

Australian Open Tennis

ESPN Magazine – To be fair, if there were misconceived notions about the tight relationship between Sloane and Serena, it’s in part because Stephens played along. In January Stephens told ESPN, “She’s, like, one of my really good friends” and that “everyone thinks she’s so mean, but she’s, like, the greatest person ever.” In reality, their interaction consisted of occasionally warming up together before events and chitchatting in the locker room between matches.

But then Sloane beat Serena in Australia. “She’s not said one word to me, not spoken to me, not said hi, not looked my way, not been in the same room with me since I played her in Australia,” Stephens says emphatically. “And that should tell everyone something, how she went from saying all these nice things about me to unfollowing me on Twitter.”

Her mom tries to slow her down, but Sloane is insistent. “Like, seriously! People should know. They think she’s so friendly and she’s so this and she’s so that — no, that’s not reality! You don’t unfollow someone on Twitter, delete them off of BlackBerry Messenger. I mean, what for? Why?”

Then there was the alleged subtweet — a cryptic message posted to Serena’s Twitter feed two days after their January match and addressed to no one in particular that said, “I made you.” Stephens was sure it was about her, and so were a few of Williams’ followers who tweeted back at Serena about “that lil girl” who beat her. “I was like, ‘You really don’t think I know that that’s about me?'” Stephens says.

I thought that this whole story is absurd. A rising star beats an injured legend during one match and all of a sudden the media creates a huge story about it. Both parties involved (Serena and Sloane) are acting immature about the whole thing and the media feeds off of it. Sloane is only 20 years old and the youngest woman in the top 20 but isn’t the point that she hasn’t done anything in the tennis world in regards to winning. The only reason this is a story is because she’s a black rising star female and Serena is the best black tennis player in ever, and they don’t get along. Does anyone give a shit about this story? That Serena is a bitch and this girl is learning what it’s like in the professional world. This type of news story is the worst because it inflicts a race card which is the only reason it’s a story. Serena’s attitude to a girl who beat her is atrocious by the way. Sloane should have taken the higher road and kept her mouth shut but she lowered herself to Serena’s game and now it seems her game is paying the price. She’s been on a downward slide of inconsistency since beating Serena and I can only imagine why. Me posting about Women’s tennis has to be a low point for this blog.

6 May, 2013

4 Bands With Staying Power

By |2013-05-06T22:32:00-04:00May 6th, 2013|Music|1 Comment

Bands that I’ve heard over a long period of time and don’t get tired of their music are the artists I’m praising with this post. These artist’s songs are played everyday and I will usually not change the station when I hear them on the radio. There are tons of artists who I consider good artists but when I hear their music, I want to change the song. Some examples for me are Tom Petty, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Sublime. I’ve heard the songs so much that I don’t like them anymore because I’m worn out. This list will contain bands whose music has been around for decades and who I will still listen to (almost) no matter what the song.

Men At Work
Men At Work
Men at Work is an Australian rock band who achieved international success in the 1980s. They are the only Australian artist to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single in the United States (Business as Usual and “Down Under” respectively). The group won the 1983 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and have sold over 30 million albums worldwide.

Only two of their three albums produced notable songs but I think they are dynamite. Business as Usual produced Who Can it Be Now, Down Under, and Be Good Johnny. Cargo had Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive, Overkill, and It’s a Mistake which are all good songs. None of these songs have lost interest to me and I’ll listen through the albums from time to time because they are upbeat and put me in a good mood.

Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News are an American pop rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts.

The hardest song for me to listen to by Huey is The Power of Love. I find most of their music to have well thought out lyrics and nice rhythm. Some major hits are Do You Believe in Love, Heart and Soul, I Want a New Drug, the Heart of Rock and Roll, If This is It, Stuck with You, Hip to Be Square, and Jacob’s Ladder. Perfect World or Walking on a Thin Line are my favorite off songs.

The Cars


The Cars were at the forefront in merging 1970s guitar-oriented rock with the new synth-oriented pop that was then becoming popular and which would flower in the early 1980s. The Cars started fresh with their debut album The Cars which went on to go platinum in late 1978. The Cars’ debut album was called a “genuine rock masterpiece” by Allmusic.

I keep finding new Cars songs that I like. Their hits being My Best Friends Girl, Moving in Stereo, You’re All I’ve got Tonight, Just What I Needed, Drive, Dangerous Type, Let’s Go, Good Times Roll, Shake it Up, Tonight She Comes, and You Might Think. If you aren’t familiar with any of these songs, then you’ve never given the Cars a chance. They are all classics and at some point in your life are worth knowing.

Dire Straits
Dire Straits
They also became one of the world’s most commercially successful bands, with worldwide album sales of over 120 million. Dire Straits won numerous music awards during their career, including four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards—winning Best British Group twice, and two MTV Video Music Awards. The band’s most popular songs include “Sultans of Swing”, “Lady Writer”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Tunnel of Love”, “Private Investigations”, “Money for Nothing”, “Walk of Life”, “So Far Away”, “Your Latest Trick” and “Brothers in Arms”.

My favorite band on the list. Brothers in Arms is one of the best Albums of all time. Even Mark Knopfler’s solo songs are great. I listened to What It Is on repeat for a few days straight. Songs worth listening to that Wikipedia didn’t mention are Skateaway, So Far Away and Expresso Love. No song of theirs that comes on the radio deserves to be changed. I even noticed that Mark Knopfler did the score for the movie Wag the Dog which I didn’t watch all the way through. Solid band.

6 May, 2013

Working Google

By |2013-05-06T22:57:16-04:00May 6th, 2013|My Brain|0 Comments

shut-up-and-take-my-money-android

Today was a minor success in terms of blog traffic. After posting the link to my entry on the Broad St Run to Facebook, it was liked 9 times and brought in about 50 people. You’ll see the Facebook indicator reset on that post because I changed the URL to something I believe Google will show more in searches. When I type Broad St Run in Google and my blog doesn’t make the first 10 pages, I know I’m not doing something right. Not having your keyword in first part of the URL is a start. I also don’t have enough original content which is key. Pictures of the race would help tremendously and then tagged appropriately. Problem is that I’m not a person who takes pictures, ESPECIALLY WHILE I’M RUNNING. I don’t bring my camera to the race because I’m focused on running. Signing up for the run and then taking pictures of your slow finish is the epitome of what’s wrong in running. However, I know this garners interest in posts because I saw some terrible posts getting 40 comments. I’m not saying my posts deserve national attention but I do believe my performance and dedication to this blog far surpasses some of the shitty websites out there that generate more traffic.

I’m sharing this post to help other people understand what it takes to make Google like your page. Ideally, and this is a guess, you do everything right the first time and make absolutely no changes, this is your best chance to get the page recognized by Google . Once Google indexes the page, I’m not sure if it gets re-indexed with updated information if you go back and make changes. Meaning if I make a post, publish it, then go back and edit it, does the new information get updated or is the first publishing what counts moving forward towards searches. That’s why I don’t expect that post to get anymore traffic when I change the URL, but since it didn’t get any attention in the first place from Google, it doesn’t hurt to change some things around. Plus it helps me answer the question of updating and re-indexing.

I always claim that I don’t care about visitors but there is something alluring about growing a website’s popularity from original content. It also expands your network which can never be a bad thing. The more eyeballs, the more opportunities. That’s why trying to master Google should be a part of every bloggers universe. The 9 likes on Facebook though this afternoon proves how social media can also play a part. I know 9 wasn’t a big number, but it’s bigger than 0.

6 May, 2013

Broad St Run 2013 – Better With Age

By |2013-05-06T20:04:06-04:00May 6th, 2013|Running, Sports|0 Comments

Broad Street Run 2013

This Sunday for the 2013 Broad St Run I continued to amaze myself. I played a round of golf on Saturday and walked my bag the last 5 holes which I wasn’t sure was smart because it could hinder my performance. I got a fairly decent night’s sleep (aside from a 2 am wake up call) and was feeling alive on Sunday morning. I dressed in only a tee-shirt and shorts which was a mistake pre-race because it was a chilly morning. I did a lap around the area and some brief stretching to get prepared. I was hydrated as I hardly needed to drink any water and didn’t need to use the bathrooms which I think was a huge indicator that I was geared to go. I met up with Bake and the McGrath’s pre-race which was surprising because of all the people in the area.

My goal was under 60 minutes and my strategy was to go out hard to make up some pace and then see what I had left in the tank. I was in the red corral, which was up front, and I had no problem with the start of the race. I went out in a 5:35 mile which got me plenty of breathing room and a nice cushion to work off of. As the race progressed I kept clicking off sub 6 minute miles and was wondering when I would start to fall off. Around mile 6 I could tell I was slowing but was still under 6’s which had me extremely optimistic. At the 8 mile mark my feet started hurting and I hit my first mile over 6 with a 6:02. Moving into the last mile I found myself checking my watch more frequently (I didn’t check it once in the first 8 miles other than the splits) because I was out of gas. My feet were hurting me and I couldn’t sprint but I still closed the last mile in 6:11. I finished in 58:35 (chip time) which was good for 146th place. I felt great through 7 miles, started cramping a bit after that, and my feet hurt for the last two. Other than that though I was feeling like a champ. Results here. My splits were 5:39, 5:39, 5:46, 5:50, 5:43, 5:56, 5:53, 5:51, 6:03, 6:11.

When I got back home I popped a blood blister and was walking around gingerly. It was Cinco De Mayo and I was celebrating a nice time with a few drinks during this beautiful day. I’ve also become wiser and more experienced with my drinking as I was in great shape all day and woke up this morning feeling fine. Only story from yesterday was when Ian and I really had to take a piss and decided to go into Woody’s (gay bar) because it was the only place around. Ian was completely against it to start and I underestimated the experience. The bathroom was completely empty when we went in and within 2 seconds, 3 dudes were in the bathroom making comments and asking if we were gay or straight. It was a bit terrifying when my dick was in my hand but we both made it out alive. I was also harassing people throughout the day who were wearing their Broad St medals around because 12,000 place finishes shouldn’t be flaunting medals 8 hours after the race. All in all it was a good day for me and I will continue to get better in all aspects of life.

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