Thursday, July 31, 2008

on the road again

i'm about to wrap up a 5 hour layover in dallas on my way out to pennsylvania. had some decent bbq in the airport at a place called cousin's. i also found a nice corner and took a nap. oh the joys of travelling.

if i have internet/phone service i'll blog my experience so check back.

Monday, July 28, 2008

candid photos

so, my friend the jay has a sister. she's an amazing photographer. one trip out to california she took a picture of me throwing hammer when i still had dreads. i've got it around somewhere.

anyhow, after she came back from jay & becky's wedding, she had blogged about putting up some of the pix she took. i was bugging her to do so. and, she has. she's also put up a lot more since then. here's the wedding related pics. i hope she doesn't mind if i nic a few. maybe i'll ask first.

and just a link to her blog.

lunch review - smoke bros southern bbq

i always love it when friends call me with questions like, "do you have time to try out a new bbq place?" yes. yes, i do.

my friend met one of the owners yesterday at local watering hole, and the owner told him about the bbq. they've had their restaurant open about two weeks, but have had a converted coffee drive up that's been open for around four months. both are in an interesting location. the same corner contains an indian restaurant, an italian place, an armenian deli that claims to serve mexican, american, halal, and has goat & lamb meat. it's a diverse spot, and smoke bros' two locations fit in nicely.

since i was trying out the food, i felt alright ordering more than i would normally eat. shoot, if the bbq's good there is no reason why i wouldn't enjoy eating leftovers later in the day. both my friend and i ordered the 4 meat combo plate. it comes with a side and corn bread. we also ordered sodas. oh yeah, to start it all off we got the smoked wings starter. they' re weren't too smokey, but the seasoning on them was very good. they smoke the meat and then fry them up a touch to heat them. the chicken wings were very good quality meat, and there were 10 pcs for the $6.99 price, which seems like a good value to me.

for my 4 meats i had:
-st louis ribs - these were grrrrrreat. the meat literally fell off the bone. no b.s. the sauce was sweet, but not overly sugary.
-texas brisket - decent. the meat was tender, but it was a little too heavy on the sauce. the brisket comes pulled.
-smoked tri tip - so, this was some of the best tri tip i've had in a while, and this is a cut of meat i make on a somewhat regular basis. i should stop because i can't even come close to this. so very tender and moist. of the meats i had, it seemed like the tri tip had the best sauce (flavor & amount).
-bbq pulled turkey - i went out on a limb on this one, mainly for variety. it was worth it. the turkey was good, and i could definitely get with this on a sandwich.
-as for my sides, the bbq beans were good, with a mild kick and ground beef. i think you could have turned up the spice a few notches.

my buddy prefers his meats without sauce (you know atkin's fans). his 4 meat combo was:
-smoked chicken - amazing. still juicy, which can be difficult to maintain without any sauce on the outside.
- st louis ribs- tender. i tried a bite of his ribs that didn't have sauce. the smoke flavor came through in a better way that was a little lost without the sauce. i think they were a little better this way.
-brisket - without sauce the brisket was a little dry. and, being pulled the flavor is a little irregular. some parts were very good, others just okay.
-andouille sausage - this was offered hot or mild, and he went hot. it wasn't too hot for him, but it might be to hot for others. shoot, i was just looking @ it, the amount of pepper flakes in it and it looked hotter than i would want. but he enjoyed it. we wondered if they were homemade sausage or perhaps from a smaller, local distributor. they had a slightly irregular look which made us think that, but it didn't affect the taste at all.

honestly, i ate about half to 2/3 of my food. it was all worth eating, but in the future i'd get a smaller plate. without a second thought i would recommend the ribs and tri tip. if you like bbq, you have to eat here.

3069 w. ashlan (southwest corner of ashlan & marks)
fresno, ca 93722
(559) 224-2020
fresno@smokebros.com

*cross posted here, fresno famous & yelp

celeb sex tape news

i have multiple email accounts, and some of them are of a public, non-work related nature. in those email accounts i tend to get a bit of spam every day. i'm always a little paranoid that an email i want is actually in the junk box, so i always check it before emptying. it's usually a quick skim of the names, but sometimes i also look at the subject line.

today this one caught my eye:


hilary clinton naked: watch the video.


really? h.clinton? i expect to see some celeb name there. i've been getting quite a lot of angelina jolie related ones lately. or britney spears. or whatever. h.clinton was definitely a new one for me.

needless to say, i won't be clicking the link to watch the video

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

ice cube's longshots

remember when ice cube was the baddest rapper on the planet? remember when his songs chronicled the heartbeat of the 'hood, when he was the inner city's dan rather? shoot, remember when ice cube was doughboy in boys in the hood? craig from friday?

you've come a long way o'shea.



man i miss this guy

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

3 jobs, not jamaican*

sometimes it's quite difficult explaining to people how you work at two different colleges, and at one of them you have two different jobs. it seems simple enough, but sometimes it just doesn't click.

then i think about it. i think about the amount of class (load) that i'm carrying. don't get me wrong. in no way am i saying that i'm some sort of work horse. i just work. and sometimes it doesn't feel like i should be getting the part-time/adjunct end of the stick. for instance, at university x i taught 10 units last semester. i was also an assistant coach. i also taught @ college y during that time period. over at college y, they run an accellerated pace, so a class that i teach for 3 units takes 5 weeks. so over the last semester + (jan -now), i have taught 7 different classes. 21 units. and, i've been doing all of these jobs for over 2 years (i've coached since 2000, that is 9 sesasons total on the job). that's right, 31 units over 2 schools, and coaching.

but somehow when an outside company looks at it, they can't quite figure out how much i work.

sometimes it makes me want to just do one of the jobs. too bad the one i want isn't looking for full-timers.

*lest anyone think i'm being racist/ethnocentric/etc i thought i should clarify the title. there was a comedy sketch, i think from in living color, where a girl brought her boyfriend home to meet the parents. mind you, they were all jamaican of some sort. but, they grill him on how many jobs he has and whether or not he's jamaican enough.

Monday, July 21, 2008

the dark knight - a review

we went and saw the dark night on sunday evening. i didn't want to talk about it too much after the movie, mainly because i enjoyed it, but just wanted to process it. there was just so much there. it was visually beautiful. it was massive. characters seemed to come in and out of the story seamlessly, working towards their purpose. so many little twists and turns. honestly, it seemed like watching a season of a show, not a movie. i guess that makes it an epic. i don't think it was flawless, but still great.

as i write this, i'm watching an interesting program called batman unmasked: psychology. it's trying to look @ the character and explain the man behind it all based on the history of the comics. pretty well done, although it focuses largely on the batman created/pictured in the last 2 movies + the comics (to an extent). anyway, right now they're talking about the villains of the batman tales. essentially, they're all facets of batman's psyche. they are the counters to who he is.

as you all know, the latest movie features the joker, played by heath ledger. the more i reflect on the beauty of the film i keep coming back to this figure. ledger was amazing. seriously, at this point in the year there isn't anyone that should win best supporting actor (i'll leave it open as the year isn't over). the mannerisms, the voice, everything were perfect. there's a clip in the commercial (if you haven't seen the film) where he's driving along and has his head outside of the cop car window. wind in the hair, he's totally free...and out there. it's moving stuff. i think nicholson played his version well enough and it fit for the film he was in, but it really doesn't compare at all to the masterpiece that ledger has delivered.

i want to see the film again to try and see new aspects, to take in the grandeur of it all, and yes, to marvel at ledger's performance.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

it seems you're taking on water

i can't wait to read more details about this. really, the sheriff sank their boat? were they racing? were they fishing? did it sink @ the dock? i need to know!

this charming band

last night this charming band played in fresno. this was the first time i'd seen the smiths tribute band, although i had been talking about them on our podcast lately.

frankly, the show was smashing.

although a cover band, the band doesn't really spend a lot of time trying to look like the smiths the obviously spend a lot of time trying to sound like the smiths. and they've succeeded.

it was a great time. the band played for around 90 minutes (i think). it was sold out, so club fred/audie's olympic was jammed with people. around us in the crowd were people from s.f. & l.a. there was even some l.a. "crew" that was there. pompadours ruled the house.

the band played pretty much every smiths' song you would have wanted to hear. they even played a few morrissey songs. sadly, the one solo morrissey song that i would have loved to hear, first of the gang, was not played. whatever. i still had a fabulous time. my ears are ringing, my throat is hoarse from screaming lyrics, and i'm wondering when they'll descend on fresno again.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

shade tree

i'm going to like this tree



i sat in the shade of this tree while our home was being inspected. it was nice. kept me shaded a good part of the morning.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

pirate staff meeting

i totally get to wear my pirate shoes tomorrow (i mean friday) to the faculty meeting. they sent out an email about casual wear, pirate theme, and bring your running shoes.

it's all coming up milhouse

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

new sports writers on the beat

i just can't help but start new things.

check out the latest.

buckle up to avoid a murder charge

so, i watch cop shows like law & order (svu, ci), i used to watch csi, and i loved magnum p.i. but, one thing that always bothers me a bit about them is how cliche every show is going to end. they're always going to get the bad guy. most of the time, they confess in the last 3 minutes or whatever.

"i would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids and your pesky dog!"

however, that's not how it works in real life. people get away with crime. murders go unsolved. criminals are brought in, sit through interrogation, and walk away.

so, i had to chuckle when i saw this story. apparently, if you've done something wrong, like say murder, you should buckle up. i would. really, if i was a wanted man, i would do everything i could to avoid the law. turn signals, buckled up, obeying the speed laws.

Monday, July 14, 2008

new shoes

so, i love shoes. i have to work at not just buying shoes all the time. this means that i receive many a catalog that i throw away without looking at because i don't want to deal with the desire. anyway, i was actually needing some new shoes because some of my older pairs were about to be retired. oh yeah, i pretty much wear exclusively adidas, so of course, that's what i got.

the first pair is a pair of indoor soccer shoes. i love the indoor shoe, light, good support, comfy. this pair is a special edition devoted to the orlando pirates. don't know who they are? well, they're a south african team that i've been familiar with since my bro & sis moved their. i won't really say i'm a true fan of theirs, but i will say that if i did follow a side there, it would be them.



detail of small side graphic



the second pair is a canvas one. these are based on some indoor table tennis shoes. that's right, ping pong shoes. i dug the stitched on stripes. i'm curious to see how well the canvas holds up with the motorcycle. fortunately, they were on clearance so even if they shred, i'll feel alright about the purchase. the bottom is a little lacking in traction, sort of like some shot put shoes. i think they'll probably be like gazelles, where the tread wears off and you've got some slick bottom shoes, especially when it's wet.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

never too young for heels

i'm not naming names, but i know a lady that loves heels, and also has a daughter who could probably rock these.



okay, they're for babies 0-6 months, so i guess she's a little too old.

(thanks neatorama.)

3rd party iphone apps

so, with the release of the latest version of the iphone they also brought out the application store and the idea that you could put whatever you want onto your phone. i didn't get a new phone, and we'll see if i eventually upgrade. however, i have been checking out some of the apps. i haven't decided to pay for any of them, but i did get several of the free ones. what did i get?
-yelp - nice. i love to yelp, and this application figures out where you are and then allows you to read reviews of stuff near you. unfortunately, it doesn't let you review in the app, or i haven't figured that out yet, but i can still do that through the mobile internet.
-remote - this app works with your itunes or appletv. so, yes, i can sit three feet away from my laptop with itunes open and use my phone as a remote control.
-jott - this is a cool little service where you can record a voice note and it transcribes it for you
-imaze- roll a ball around a maze my changing the angle on the phone
-shazam - want to know what that song is? well, hum it, play it, whatever and shazam figures it out.
-tap tap - this is basically guitar hero. i downloaded the app to check it out, but since i'm not a huge guitar hero fan, i'll probably end up dumping it
-bible - nice, searchable bible. many different versions (translations) and it even has 3 spanish options.

our offer was accepted

so, i don't think we're jinxing it by talking about it, but we're in escrow on a house right now. heather is really excited, i'm excited, but it kind of sucks waiting to get the deal all done. tomorrow i've got to drop off a grip of papers and such @ both our realtor and our finance company.

stay tuned, because i'm sure we'll be hitting you up to help us move our stuff. we'll also be trying to rid ourselves of some of the junk we've accumulated. if you've seen anything around our place that you want, let me know, i'll probably give it to you.

if you want to see some photos, click over here. we'll post some of our own later. btw, we're paying less than they've listed it for.

it's kind of strange, i know i'm grown up (sort of) but getting a house really feels like we're growing up. the house is in the same block as our current place, but three streets east of us. we'll still be in the heart of the tower, although i won't have a fabulous view of the tower theater any more.

things i'm looking forward to:
sitting on my porch with a cup of coffee
planting a garden in the back yard
having people over and entertaining in wide open rooms
playing cards at my kitchen table
a dishwasher

Saturday, July 12, 2008

dance bag revolution

so, the other night we saw the sleepover disaster, joshua lanes and the fay wrays play. there were a couple of fan boys that seemed to have made the trip to fresno to waych joshua lanes play. these two were wearing jersey tank tops. they started to get their groove on, and local blogger hmac caught some video. she didn't post it on the beehive, as allegedly it's too dark for them. but not for me.



here's the info she put on the video:
Couple of kids inexplicably wearing jerseys while dancing to the Joshua Lanes at Club Fred.
This video is dedicated to Adam and Ed, who themselves are a couple of dancing d-bags.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

come and get with this

so, as i sat listening to blu & exile, i pondered many random things.

is karl rove a slug that eats worms? they just found these extremely rare slugs in england that are carnivorous, eating earth worms. such type of slugs are a little more common in turkey & georgia. perhaps one somehow found its way over here and now is claiming executive privelege, even though he was never the president. and, nevermind that nixon was subpoenaed and testified. mr. rove claims he has a get out of jail free card from the justice department. look, i'm no constitutional expert, far from it, but it seems like if your supoenaed you've got to at least show up and claim the 5th. but i guess when you're a rare slug you've got to protect yourself. you may be one of the last of your species.

i've worried here before that the u.s. may be on a path to war with iran, even before our lame duck dictator flees office. it looks like the rails might be getting greased as iran tests missles and our ally, israel rattles it's sabres right back.

what happened over at the fresnan to make him pull down the dope i submitted? beats me.

i'm trying to figure out if i can head to pa. the first weekend of august. it's sooooo soon, but i think i'll make it. sadly, i forgot to bring my american airlines card w/me today because i was going to call them and see if i can break off some of my miles on that flight. it'll have to wait until tomorrow i guess.

last night i overheard three ladies talking about doing "private shows" and other work related drama. adam previously heard them talking knowingly about the nasdaq. them some diversified dancers. people can still surprise me.

maybe you want some big hair. here's how.

the other day i saw this cheesy 80's action flick called remo williams: the adventure begins. i think it was supposed to spark a sort of american james bond type series, but it sucked and didn't spawn jack crap. however, at the end (i on ly watched like the last 25 minutes of the movie) remo dodges bullets using his martial art skills from korea. it was totally the precursor to any bullet dodging neo did in the matrix. i'm not bs'ing, it's several of the same moves, sans special effects and carried out a little bit slower.

finally, my newsman chum is getting the station's luxury box @ the chuck' for a grizz game. he gets 18 total tix, i'm not sure how much input i get on those, but keep an ear open on the when.

oh wait, one more thing. look for the possible recording of another episode of tvlgfhf this weekend, maybe even tomorrie if it ain't too hot for us to live.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

timmy t in fresno!

so, timmy t has been on my mind lately. first, i post his video here a few days ago. today, i saw the man, the myth, timmy t. here in fresno! i mean, he's originally from here, but who knew he still kicked it in the hood.

(btw, you may have already seen this picture on thefresnan.com i sent it to him first so he could have the dope breaking news.)

here's the story. i'm cruising on my vegas on the way to work. i pull up to the light @ van ness & mckinley and see a mercedes in the lane next to me, one car up. nice looking convertible sl 500. black, top down. wait, what's that i see on the other side of the car...timmy t! dude's got his name on the back of the car. i think,
"can it really be him? do i actually know what he looks like? yes, i watched the video this week."
as traffic begins to move, i see his face, i can totally confirm it's him. don't know who the lady in the car was, but it was timmy t driving. anyhow, we drive up van ness, past clinton, and between clinton and shields it seems the driver that's next to him has also realized it's him. they're sort of chatting but i can't hear what, but timmy waves and it seems friendly. the t is turning right on shields, but i'm going to go straight.

no i'm not. i think,
"crap, my camera phone is in my backpack. can i reach it? i'll give it a go if we stop @ shields and blackstone."

fortunately, it's a red light and i can reach the iphone/batphone. here's the pic i snapped:



so, i'm not sure if it's a good pic, but the light's going to turn and so i jam my phone in my pocket and think maybe i'll try again if we stop before fresno street, where i'm now planning to turn and head for work. unfortunately, no red @ fresno. why not, i'll head up to first in hopes that i'll get one more try (you see what i did there?) no matter what, i'm turning left on first street to head north. omg, timmy t just pulled into the turn lane in front of me. we've got a red!

so, i snap one, but realize my headlight is totally jacking up the shot of his name. i back up a little and turn the wheel, and snap a decent shot, although a little crooked.



from there, we parted ways. timmy t flipped a u-turn and pulled into the taco bell on the corner. not sure if he wanted lunch, or if he was freaked out by the weirdo on a motorcycle taking pictures of him. it was about 11:30, so either could have worked. i just made a simple left and headed off to work.

does this make me paparazzi?

play it again, sam

i did it again today. the funny thing is, heather made fun of me on saturday for doing. what was it? well, i watched rounders. for me, rounders is one of those movies that every time i stumble upon it while channel surfing, i'll watch it. so, today, i see rounders is about half over, i'm bumming around the house before work, and i watched it. which made me thing about movies that i'm pretty much guaranteed to watch if i see they're on. here are three i thought of, in no particular order:
1. rounders - yep, watched it today, and almost watched a little tonight when i saw it was on again.
2. garden state - watched about the last 3/4 of it last night
3. tombstone. haven't seen it on lately, but thought about watching it on demand over the weekend. instead i watched gone in 60 seconds. that was a bad choice. in fact, watching tombstone actually caused me to create a similar post before. dammit, i'm repeating.

so, what are the movies you'll almost always watch?

Monday, July 07, 2008

one more try

adam had a video posted up on his blog, and the title reminded me of this gem. so, here it is, a fresno gem, mclane high schools own, timmy t.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

fresno kickball

fresnans, any of you out there interested in some kickball? i've been missing my sport fix since i stopped playing soccer. softball was aight, but just didn't do it for me. today i saw this, which led me to this. i'm interested.

Friday, July 04, 2008

happy 4th of july

hope you and yours had a fun time. here are two videos from our night.

up first, the sparkler dance:



and here's our cat watching boom blox

Thursday, July 03, 2008

tahiti village vacation

anyone interested in a little time in vegas? as some of you know, we have a timeshare @ tahiti village. it's a pretty cool place to stay. but, I doubt i will be able to get over there any time soon. so, i want to know if anyone of you devoted readers would like to go there and stay? for a small rental fee, of course. i'll do you better on price than a hotel.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

a runner post for kasey

kasey, you've got to click over here and look @ some of the funny signs held up for runners in a marathon. maybe we'll work on some for you.

eames stamps

so, i needed some stamps today, you know, gots to send out the bills. so, i went early to avoid the lunch rush. i quickly made my way to the front of the line, and asked for a book of stamps. often, the worker just gives you whatever they feel that day, but today the guy asked which ones i wanted. hmmm, hadn't thought about that. then i saw these and knew what i wanted.



here are some of my eames stamps in action:


pretty cool that the post office has stamps dedicated to the work of charles eames. the only drawback is that you only got 16 instead of the normal book of 20. oh well.

something else about the post office, i like it. i think it's hecka cool that you can send something across country in like two days for under a half dollar.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

working for the weekend?

so, i'm blogging @ work. where i'm not allowed to. seriously. we're not supposed to use work computers for personal reasons. even when we're on break. like i am. i'm off the clock, but don't feel like driving all the way home for an hour to just drive back. so, i'm in the faculty room, violating policy. wev. not the first, or the last.

but, this brings me to something i was thinking about earlier today, and wanted to post on but ran out of time. i dread coming to work. don't get me wrong. i like my job. i enjoy what i do. when i'm done doing it, i have a sense of satisfaction, and want to keep doing it. however, almost every day, i sit around the house knowing that i've got to go back. and it's so hard to get motivated, to get up, to get ready, and to go. even though i know that once i'm here, i'll be fine.

seriously, i think i almost had an anxiety attack this morning thinking about going to work. which is what caused me to think about this whole situation. i enjoy work, but just don't want to go.

what do you think?