i am shep

this is me

Tag: general

2019 Resolution

I've never really been a New Year's Resolution type of person, but that may change in 2019. I've been a bit bored with my websites recently and I've had the real urge to tinker around. I haven't had this urge in years. Since it has been a while since I've kept up with the web development community, I started researching what software or service everyone is using these days for creating content. I signed up for a trial on Squarespace out of curiosity and imported this site to see if I'd like their interface. It's pretty nice, but there are a few things that bother me about it and will, most likely, prevent me from moving from WordPress, which I've used since this blog's inception. I will probably create a separate blog post for my thoughts on Squarespace (and WordPress) at a later date. The point is, that led me to a realization that is brought me to my resolution: I don't blog anymore and I'd like that to change.

Over the past several years the frequency in which I update this site has slowed and slowed and has pretty much stopped almost completely. If you look at 2018, I had four posts. Yes, four. This is a blog that has existed for 15 years. I used to post weekly, if not daily, in the beginning. Of course back then I was in college and in the beginning stages of my career and as such I had more time, but in 2018 I managed to knock out four whole posts. I've essentially stopped writing. I think a lot of the reason why I no longer post is I'm always busy at work and when I get home the last thing I want to do is spend more time staring at a computer. This makes finding the motivation to write or share something pretty low. Especially since there are easier ways to share my thoughts. That brings us to Twitter.

Posting Activity for 2018

I've been on Twitter since almost the beginning. I think since it's second year in operation. I used to love Twitter. It was my go to place for sharing thoughts on a variety of topics. There was also a really great community that I followed on Twitter, especially the St. Louis area people. However, Twitter has become a cesspool of Alt-Right hate groups and trolls. I don't spend nearly as much time there as I did a year or two ago. In fact, there are days where I don't check it at all. So now I'm getting the urge to get back into blogging and sharing myself through my blog, taking me full circle.

So in 2019 I'm going to try and post more. If I have something to share or say I'm going to try and do it here first. I'm going to make myself get back in the habit of posting. I have an Instapaper account full of articles that I thought would make great posts but never took the time to actually post them. It kills me when I discover something really cool, save it for a blog post later, only to see it spread its way around the internet and by the time I work up the motivation to post it is old news. 2019 is the year of the blog (again).

blogging, general, new-years-resolution

The Max is Coming to Chicago

the max

The Max, the fictional diner from Saved by the Bell is coming to Chicago this summer. The popup restaurant will only be around for the summer, but is sure to be a popular destination for people my age who grew up on the Saturday morning television show.

The diner, called Saved by the Max, sold out reservations quickly, but travelers may still be able to walk-in for brunch and some late night grub. Visitors can order themed items from the menu, such as A.C. Sliders, Mac and Screech, Preppy BLT and the Bayside Burger (no green mystery meat here). According to Vogue, Ed Alonzo will reprise the role of namesake magician-owner of The Max and is set to perform magic tricks for the grand opening—just one in the series of late-night Bayside After Dark special events scheduled. Others include Tuesday Saved by the Bell trivia challenges and Sunday performances from the diner’s in-house band, The Zack Attack.

The decor looks great, but small. You can see photos at Vogue.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get a reservation. If anyone I know is going, please take pictures!

general, saved-by-the-bell

Meet Spike

IMG_0120After not having a dog for a couple of months I decided it was time to bring another fur ball into the house. I missed the companionship and, while nothing could ever replace Penny, decided it was time to start looking for a new dog. I knew I wanted to adopt a rescue. I also knew I wanted a small dog and wanted one that was already housebroken. I started my search, hitting up the humane society, looking on PetFinder, and going to adoption events as PetsMart. It took a few weeks of searching, but I finally found a handsome fella to bring home.

Spike is a 2 year old terrier mix (he looks like he has some corgi in him). I actually adopted him on his birthday. He's a sweet little guy that loves to be pet. I've had him for a couple of months now and he has settled in quite nice. I'm still trying to teach him how to play (he's not interested in playing, just wants to be pet and scratched). He's pretty hesitant of new people but he took to me right away. I'm glad I was able to provide a home for him.

dogs, general, penny, spike

Rediscovering Comic Books

When I was younger, I was a huge comic book fan. You could even say I became a collector. I amassed a large enough collection to fill two long-boxes.[footnote]Long-boxes are boxes that are slightly wider than the width of a comic book and go about 3 feet deep[/footnote] Like most kids, I started with the classics. I was a huge Superman and Batman fan due to the movies, so I started there. Then, I naturally moved to comics that featured both of those characters, The Justice League of America.

Now in the '90s, the only Justice League that existed was Justice League America, a shell of its former greatness. I preferred the heroes of old. Instead of reading the exploits of Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and the Guy Gardner's Green Lantern of the '90s era Justice League, I was reading about Superman, Batman, Hawkman, Hal Jordan's Green Lantern, The Flash, and The Atom. I tried getting my hands on as many books of the Justice League of America from the '60s and '70s as possible. What also drew me to the books was knowing that they were some of the same books that my dad read as a kid. It was a bonding experience to know that we were reading the same things. Eventually, I expanded my reading to the solo books of Green Lantern, The Flash, Hawkman, and even The Atom. Some of these titles were good. Others, not as much.

Once I started running out of books from the '60s and '70s I decided to try and pick up with my favorite characters in the present day. Again, some books were good and some were not. I really enjoyed the rebooted JLA of the late '90s, which featured all the greats back together. Green Lantern with Kyle Rayner and eventually returning to Hal Jordan was also one of my favorites. I enjoyed a few issues of The Flash. Limited series, such as the DC event Final Night and the mini-series Kingdom Come were also excellent. It was about this time that I entered high school and started spending all my money on CDs instead of comic books. The comic book store was replaced by the mall, Best Buy, or even Blockbuster Music [footnote]I swear, no one remembers Blockbuster Music, but it was really a thing.[/footnote]One day, I just quit reading and I never thought about going back.

Fast forward 15 years or so and comic books have made a pretty big comeback thanks to the cinema and TV. The rebooted Batman films and films from Spider-Man, The X-Men, and Iron Man and TV shows like Arrow[footnote]I hated Green Arrow in the comics but Arrow is a pretty good show[/footnote] and The Flash have paved the way for the resurgence. Not just that, they made it cool to like comic books. Nerd and geek culture became mainstream. When DC decided to launch it's New 52 campaign,[footnote]The New 52 is the 2011 revamp and relaunch of DC Comics' entire line of monthly comics. All of the existing series were canceled and 52 new series debuted[/footnote] I briefly considered reading again. I even downloaded a few of the number 1 issues that DC offered for free in their iOS app. The problem was, I just couldn't get into them. Perhaps it was because I was reading them on an iPad 2 and there's something that just feels right about holding a physical comic book. Perhaps I had outgrown the stories. Perhaps they were just bad. It's hard to say why I they didn't hook me then.

A few years later I decided to give them another try. Why the change of heart? A lot of people I follow on Twitter and the podcast world[footnote]The Incomporable and Nerdist to name a couple[/footnote] would discuss comics fairly regularly. They made me feel like I was missing out on some great stories and characters. I began to feel left out of a larger conversation that was going on. So, a couple of weeks ago I made my way to a local comic shop[footnote]The excellent The Fantasy Shop, which had the nicest clerks working[/footnote] to see what I could find. I had no idea where to start. I asked one of the clerks for suggestions and they got to know what my interests used to be (the DC Universe) and recommended the trade paperback Flashpoint, which sets up The New 52.

So that settled it. I purchased Flashpoint and a couple of other New 52 trades, Batman Court of Owls and City of Owls, as well as vol 1 of the new 52 Green Lantern. Flashpoint was pretty good, but the Batman series was amazing. It made me go on Amazon and purchase the next several volumes right away. Green Lantern was disappointing, especially considering he was always on of my favorites. I decided to try out the new The Flash series as well. It is pretty good. The intentional cheesiness of the book makes it fun. I've even purchased some comic books using the DC and ComiXology apps. Reading comics on the iPad Air 2[footnote] I was previously reading them on an iPad 2[/footnote] is a lot better this time around, though nothing beats the physical touch and the smell of a good comic.

So, after more than 15 years, I have rediscovered comic books. I just hope my bank account isn't impacted as much as my allowance was when I was a kid.

comic-books, comics, general

RIP The Blog

Jason Kottke recently had a post on his blog declaring the blog dead. Of course, it's not really dead, but the way we write, consume, and share content has changed drastically over the past several years. If you look at my posting on this site over the years, you can see the number of posts decreasing each year, and fast. I no longer have the time, or the will, to write long posts about what I find interesting, what's going on in my life, or random stuff I find on the internet. When I do want to share something, I usually post it on Facebook or Twitter (mostly Twitter).

That being said, I still want to share that information in a place that is much easier to sift through the noise (like a blog!), but that's not what piece of shep is or was. So, I started i am shep on Tumblr. It is the perfect place for me to post quick links, pictures, videos, etc. Yeah, I could have found a Tumblr-style theme for WordPress, and I tried, but Tumblr is a better place for my new focus (or lack thereof). So, if you'd like, go over and follow me there or subscribe to the RSS feed (or, since it posts to Twitter, follow me on Twitter). POS will still exist, and I may post longer posts here, but for now, anything that grabs my attention will be posted at i am shep.

blogging, general, tumblr

Some Blog Changes

I have added some changed to the blog which you may or may not have noticed. I started adding linked posts to the blog. These are similar to what John Gruber does over at Daring Fireball. Basically, these are links to external articles that I comment briefly on. The reason I'm creating these is that I noticed I post a lot of links on twitter but rarely have enough characters to comment on them how I'd like. I figure my blog is the perfect place to do this but didn't want just a series of extremely short normal blog posts. That's when I decided to implement asides.

I found a plugin that will allow you to implement and style your asides without editing WordPress' loop. It's a great plugin because the only file I need to edit is my stylesheet so that I can style my asides as I see fit. That still didn't solve my problem with having the post link to the actual article on my blog or my feeds. Because I didn't want to hack my theme files, I settled on two plugins that would bring me that functionality. The first is the Linked List plugin. This is technically all I should need but, as I said, I wanted to implement these things without editing any theme files (besides the stylesheet of course). So far, I have styled asides and if you click on a linked post in my feed it will bypass my site and take you directly to the article. I needed one more plugin to link the actual post on my site to the external article. This is where the Page Links To plugin came in handy. I designate the URL the permalink should redirect to and it takes care of the rest.

So when you see posts like the one in the screenshot below, that's a linked post. You can click on the external link icon at the end and it will take you to the article I'm referencing. If you are reading an external article from a feed reader, just click on the feed title and it will take you there.

Of course, right now I have no way of showing, in a feed, that it is a linked post, but I would think it would be pretty obvious if I'm talking about an article but there is no link within the text. I'll see if I can find a way to make that more clear from within the feed. If you have any suggestions on how to that, I'm open to them.

asides, blog, general, linked-list, wordpress

Conan O'Brien Might Be a Genius

On Sunday I made the trip to Missouri's red-headed step-child, Kansas City, to see Conan O'Brien on his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television tour. In case you didn't hear, a while back I transferred the domain teamcoco.com to Conan which ultimately resulted in two free tickets to his show in Kansas City. I took my friend Matt, who lives outside of KC. If you are a fan of Conan's humor you would definitely enjoy this show. The type of show that Conan is doing on tour is not something I've seen before (or not seen in a long while) and the whole idea of this tour might solidify the idea that Conan is a genius. Warning, if you are planning to see this show don't continue reading as you will get some spoilers.

The show isn't groundbreaking in and of itself. It's equal parts comedy and music, a formula that has been done before. What makes it Conan (and his staff) a genius is that this 30-plus city tour came about because of the devotion of his fans. He has capitalized brilliantly over a terrible situation. Instead of fading into the shadows after leaving the Tonight Show, Conan turned himself into a complete brand. He is Coco. He is the underdog. He is the people's champ. But enough about him, let me tell you about the show.

First off, the seats were quite nice. I got the tickets through Conan's people so we were in row 18. His opening act, Reggie Watts, was really good. The only issue I had with his performance is that sometimes it was hard to make out the lyrics to his comedic songs because of the way the sound was set up at the venue. His set didn't last as long as I thought it would either. After about 15 minutes or so of Watts, the Legally Prohibited band came out. The only way I can describe this opening act is the movie Blues Brothers. You know the scene at the end when the band starts playing the introduction song. You had some good old rhythm and blues with loud trombones, saxes, and trumpets? That's what it was like. I half expected to see Donald "Duck" Dunn and Matt "Guitar" Murphy to come out. It was fantastic. The band was lively, ran through the crowd, and got the crowd pumped for Conan's entrance onto the stage.

Conan came out and talked about his situation, the tour, etc. He did his typical self-deprecating jokes, which were a hit with the crowd. His old pal Andy Richter came out and joined in on the fun. There were appearances by the masturbating bear self-pleasuring panda, a very funny video featuring Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and the appearance of the Walker Texas Ranger Lever Chuck Norris Handle. KC's own Jason Sudeikis even came out to pull the handle. In between the skits Conan strapped on his guitar and played some tunes. The show really was awesome.

The only downside to the show was the length. Conan was only on for a little over an hour making the entire show last less than 2 hours. If I paid for the really expensive seats I would have been a bit disappointed, not at the quality of the entertainment, but the length. I know that they are hitting a lot of cities in a short amount of time, but I think they could have easily fit another 15-20 minutes into the show. Other than that, the show was fantastic. It made me look forward to his upcoming show on TBS even more, which in the end, is really what this tour is about.

conan-obrien, general

On Email

I have way too many email accounts. I have accounts set up on this domain (using Google apps). I have accounts set up for my real name domain as well. Also I have myrealname@gmail.com. And then there's all the accounts set up for all the other websites I run, old accounts I never use for email but still use for other things (such as Yahoo and a second Yahoo address I had to create when Flickr's login merged with Yahoo's) and email addresses that were created for me when I signed up for a service (ATT Uverse). That's 3 email addresses just at Yahoo alone.

The funny thing is, even with all these email accounts, I rarely send actual emails. I exchange emails with my friend Trix and my family, but that's about it. It's not that I dislike email. In fact, email is my preferred form of communication. I would much rather exchange emails than talk on the phone. I guess one of the reasons I never send personal emails is because everyone I know is on Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, or IM. There really is no need for me to email people anymore and when I do it's for a quick question or comment, nothing at length. I actually enjoy sending emails. There's something to be said about sitting down and composing a lengthy note to a friend or family member. Sadly, I rarely take the time to sit and do this. I think the first thing I need to do is consolidate some of these accounts. The Yahoo ones that I have I should part with. Yes, it's like giving up part of my youth, but I think it's time. After that I might just send out a lengthy email. But probably not.

email, general

Update Your Feeds!

If you subscribe to my site, I'm moving feeds. Please update now! I will be removing the old feed in a couple days so it will no longer work and you will no longer get my awesome blog posts. So please, update now!

feedburner, feeds, general

Assassin's Creed II

I recently purchased a PS3 and one of the games I purchased with it was the much-hyped Assasin's Creed II. I've never played the original but I heard great things about the sequel and the video of the game play looked amazing. After playing it for a couple of weeks off and on I beat it. For most gamers, that is not a big deal, but I'm not most gamers. In fact, I wouldn't even call myself a gamer. I have a Nintendo Wii and I love it because it makes gaming casual. I wanted the PS3 because of a handfull of games that are coming out and for the BluRay player for when I purchase an HD TV. Anyway, beating this game was a big deal for me because games rarely hold my attention long enough for me to actually beat them. The only other game I have ever beat on any system in my life was Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64.

ACII was a great game because the story kept you interested. Normally I can only play games for 15 minutes before I get bored with them and want to turn them off. ACII wasn't like that, but even if I did want to quit after a short amount of time there were plenty of checkpoints to make sure I didn't lose my progress. The scenery was amazing and the game play was smooth. The building looked almost real and the scenes where the city would erect before you were awesome. I can only imagine how great it looks on an HD TV. The cut scenes that helped move the story along were great, if not long at points. The only time in the game where I questioned the makers' choice was when I was forced to go all around Italy to gather Codex pages in order to progress the story. It was almost as if the developers said, "We need to make this game longer, how do we do it? Let's send the player on a long scavenger hunt." Besides that point in the story, everything else was great. There were missions that you had to do and several others that you could skip. And it doesn't matter if you skip them because once you beat the game you still have free reign to go about the other missions, which I'm currently doing now. The final level snuck up on me fast and I was surprised at how easy it was to beat the final level, but I wasn't disappointed. I'd have to say this should probably be up there as one of the top games of the year, but since I don't game that much I can't really make that call. All I can do is tell you that the game was fun and beautiful with a great story and great graphics. If you have a PS3 (or XBOX 360) you should buy this game.

assassins-creed-ii, general, ps3, video-games

My Favorite 5 Posts Over the Last 5 Years

5yranniversaryIt's hard to imagine that today is my 5 year anniversary of this blog. I've never posted anything groundbreaking or life-changing, but I do have some favorite posts from the past 5 years. They are nothing spectacular, but they were fun to write and put out there for the world to see. Here are my favorite 5 (in no particular order).

The New Rules of Blogging This post is quite old and not many people will understand it. It was basically an inside joke with some members of the WordPress and Habari communities. The post was inspired by someone that we all found completely annoying and we hated her blogging style. This post was created as a joke.

The Game I really love this post, but not as much as I love baseball. I was excited about baseball season starting and was bored when I was working in the computer labs in college, so I wrote this. It was even featured on StLToday when the season began a couple seasons later.

The Best Hip Hop Albums Everyone knows that I love music, especially hip hop. In 2006 I put together some of my favorite albums of all time. 3 years later and I'd still say this list is the same. Maybe that's because I'm still waiting for the sure-to-be-a-classic Chico and the Man album.

Three Generations of Cardinals Fans This isn't so much a post as an image. One of my favorites. My nephew, my dad, and me.

The World Can be Saved by the Bell Last, but certainly not least, is my favorite post of all time. Anyone who really knows me knows I am a freak when it comes to Saved by the Bell. I think it's the best show in the world (only slightly kidding here) and have seen every episode too many times to count. Heck, if I could get away with having the theme song as my ringtone without looking like a total geek I would.

So there you have it, my favorite 5 posts from the past 5 years. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I have writing them.

blogging, general, life

Happy Blogiversary

On October 4th I will have been using WordPress for 5 years. Piece of Shep has actually been around a little bit longer, but that was in my Blogger days. I never imported those old posts because they were mostly drunken college ramblings. WordPress has served me well over the years, though I will admit I have looked for alternative platforms lately. It's kind of hard to switch platforms when you're this deep in and when you rely on certain plugins. I have been keeping a close eye on Habari and can't wait to see how the development progresses.

Because this month is my Blogiversary, I will (hopefully) be posting a bit more, including one that features some of my favorite posts of the past 5 years. I find it hard to categorize my blog other than personal. I write about technology, music, TV, and rant about pretty much everything. This of course makes my blog limited in exposure. When you visit and read a post you really are getting a piece of me. Most of my readers are people I know in real life or from the internet. I'd like to thank all my readers for continuing to read and look forward to what the future brings.

blogging, blogiversary, general

My Dog Likes TV

Penny enjoys watching TV. No really, she actually watches it. When the previous owner told me this I thought she was exaggerating and just meant she likes to hear the sound of the TV. I was wrong. She will sit with me on the recliner or couch and watch TV, for several minutes, if something interests her. It is really weird. I've never seen a dog this interested in tv. Of course, she's not interested in most things I watch, like baseball and network programming. She prefers shows with animals in them. I was watching an episode of Planet Earth and she watched for 10 or 15 minutes. Sometimes she'll be walking by the TV and something will grab her attention and she'll stop and stand in front of the TV for several minutes, watching the screen, until she gets bored and moves on.

The funniest moment was last night. One of my favorite so-bad-it's-good movies, Congo, was on. I turned it on right at a scene where Amy the gorilla had a close up. She instantly became curious and watched the TV. She then started getting excited, like she wanted to play with the gorilla. She moved closer and closer to the TV and then even stood on her hind legs and put her face inches from the screen. The scene changed and she sat back down, but not before watching another 5 minutes of the movie. My dog is weird.

general, penny

Penny Updates

Penny is doing great and seems to be completely used to her surroundings. She has even started to let me sleep a bit later on the weekends. The only thing we still need to work out is where she sleeps. After the first few nights in the apartment I realized she can't just sleep on my bed because she sleeps right up against you, many times using you as a pillow. This made it very uncomfortable to sleep. I decided to put her bed on my bed and that worked for a few nights, but then she started her routine of sleeping against/on me. I think now I will try putting her bed on the ground and letting her sleep there (or on her "spot," the recliner in the living room). She is too small to jump up on my bed so I wouldn't have to worry about her jumping up and sleeping on top of me in the middle of the night.

Here are some pictures of her if you haven't seen her yet.

[gallery link="file" columns="4"]

general, penny

Meet Penny

On Saturday Penny arrived at my apartment. She is a sweet Boston Terrier that loves everyone she meets. She's 1 and very tiny. She seems to be adjusting well to her new home, though I have to play with her food in order for her to eat it right now. She is definitely a lap dog, so if you're sitting on the recliner or the couch, she's in your lap or right up against you. She also sleeps right up against you in bed as well. Oh yeah, and she snores, which is hilarious. She's been a good dog so far and I'm so happy I got her.

[gallery link="file" columns="4"]

general, penny

Sweating the Small Stuff

I'm guilty of sweating the small stuff. I don't know why or when this started, but I notice that in certain situations I find myself stressing and over-thinking to the point of exhaustion. I'll give you some examples of my weirdness.

Whenever I have to go somewhere I've never been I stress about it non-stop. What time do I need to leave? How do I get there? Do I take this exit or the next? I could have the whole route memorized and still stress about it. I don't know why. I've never gotten lost and I generally have a great sense of direction. In fact, I used to deliver pizzas and found myself to have a great sense of direction and never stressed about going on a delivery to a place I didn't know. I don't know what makes me stress out now, but I do.

Whenever I'm going to a place where there is a set of procedures that I've never preformed before, I stress, going over every possible scenario in my head over and over. This could be anything from a trip to the doctor's office to a trip to the DMV. If I've never been there, I stress. Do I have everything I'm supposed to have? What do I do next? Are other people judging my actions because I don't know what I'm doing?

At the end of all the stressing, when whatever action I wanted to complete has been completed, I always relax. I think to myself, that wasn't bad, why was I stressing? I know I'm weird and I have really no reason to stress, but I do. I sweat the small stuff, but I'm trying to change that.

general, life

The Great Twitter Facial Hair Contest

Ok, it's not really a contest. The only thing you win is the gratification of seeing me make a fool out of myself. I've decided that I'm going to let the folks on Twitter (and commenter here) decide which facial hair style I should wear. I will grow/shave my facial hair to match whatever the winning choice is then post a picture of it up on here and flickr. What are the choices? Well, I'm glad you asked. Take a look at these fine examples (image from dyers.org).

beardtypes

The only catch is I will not do a full beard (come on, it's going to be summer in St. Louis. That's just cruel!) and the Super Mario looks pretty much impossible. You can vote by commenting here or sending me a reply on twitter

UPDATE:There's now a poll, so submit your vote!

facial-hair-contest, general, humor, life, twitter

Frustrations

Tonight was a frustrating night at Sylvan. It was frustrating enough that at the end of the night I thought to myself how I didn't want to ever go back. Both hours I was there I had 3 extremely hyperactive kids that needed constant attention (2 of them I had both hours). None of them would listen to me, none would do their work, all were hyperactive. Usually I have fun while I'm there (otherwise I wouldn't be there), but tonight was not fun. On top of having kids that needed constant prompting, they were all almost entirely guided practice. It was extremely difficult teaching 3 different things at one time.

The 2 hours mentally and physically exhausted me. The two boys I had, both in 5th grade, would not stop talking to each other or to the table behind me. Typically I have great table management skills, teaching ISS for a year will do that for you, but it's hard to have table management when they don't listen at all.

One of the girls I had was frustrating as well, but that wasn't her fault. The work she had she could not comprehend. It was an independent practice activity and she needed to be guided through the entire thing, and she still couldn't find the answers. I feel bad for not being able to help her more, especially since the two boys I had required the majority of my attention. The other girl required me teaching a new math lesson, while trying to deal with the two boys who seemed to be even worse the second hour. I hope Saturday goes smoother.

general, sylvan, teaching

Crawl for Cancer 2009

There is a Crawl for Cancer coming up in St. Louis on June 20th, 2009. If you don't know what Crawl for Cancer is, it is an event to raise money to find a cure for cancer. You get a group of 10 people together and you drink 4 pitchers of beer at 4 different bars. After the event is over, there is a party where more beer is served. The cost is $400 for the team and it includes the 4 pitchers at each of the 4 bars, the t-shirt, and the after party. I participated in 2007 and had a blast. It's for a good cause and you get to drink beer with friends. I'm thinking of starting a team (or maybe more than 1 if there are enough people interested). If anyone wants to join, let me know. The deadline for creating the team is May 25th. You can check out the details on the Crawl for Cancer website.

crawl-for-cancer, general

The Inauguration

[caption id="attachment_1007" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Barack Obama taking the Oath of Office"]Barack Obama taking the Oath of Office[/caption]

I guess I should say something about the inauguration. The thing is, I do not have much to say on the topic. I'm speechless. It's almost like a dream. Whether or not you voted for him or agree with his policies, it was a momentous occasion. The country is forever changed, for the better, from this day forward. I will never forget this election. I will never forget this day. I wish I could have been there. Heck, I wish I could have watched it live on TV instead of listening to it on NPR. At least I experienced it. His speech I think was perfect for the occasion and I think he handled expectations well. He warned America that the road to prosperity will be a difficult one but if we take responsibility for ourselves and work hard, we will get there. The whole day was just amazing. Again, it's almost like a dream.

barack-obama, general, politics