Strategerie

That's probably my favorite Bushism. I used a little strategerie myself last night. I was really torn whether to go to the previously-mentioned reunion deal at Cadillac's. I had already chatted with most of the people the previous night and there was good college football to watch. I decided to go and try it out, but with the caveat of "If there's no TV w/ the Auburn game on it, I'm having a drink and rolling out." For better or worse (I haven't decided yet) that request was met.

For most of the night, I strategically placed myself on the edge of the dance floor, between the chicken wings and big screen TV. The sound was turned down, obviously, but I was able to keep an eye on things while the chitchat was flying and the flashbulbs were popping. I guess they don't really pop anymore, do they? Random classmates pulling me farther onto the floor? OK, I'm just closer to the game...and I can bust out some of my moves. I'm still working on "Making the Pizza."

Anyway, if you're not familiar with the outcome of the Auburn game, the good guys won 9-7 on a last second field goal. My tigers had been ahead the entire game until about a minute and a half left, when Arkansas scored a touchdown and went up 7-6. I was pretty down when I saw the TD. With that much time left, and AU's lethargic offense, I didn't have much hope (you may say I didn't believe) that we could drive to field goal range. Well, obviously they did.

This may be sheer coincidence, but the song that the DJ was blaring in my ears (why were my peeps dancing so close to the speakers?) when the field goal soared through the uprights and I raised my hands triumphantly was Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me. Yeah, they're classy at Cadillac's. The point is, the winner of the SEC typically goes to the Sugar Bowl. The song that came on after that? Journey's classic Don't Stop Believing. Spooky. I didn't try to explain it to anyone around me; they wouldn't have understood.

While I did get two "free" drinks, some chicken wings and such, and there were a few new people there who weren't around Friday night, I still would have liked to watch the entire game and hear what was going on. I did TiVo it, so I should block out a few hours and take in the apparent defensive slug fest.

Apart from the football follies, overall, the reunion weekend was fun. Reconnected with a few neat people and netted some more MySpace friends.

As a quick aside: I really need to pare that list down. I'm now up to 104 amigos. I imagine my friends list is much like most of those on MySpace. i.e. I probably only really talk to maybe 20% of them on a semi-regular basis. The rest are bands and random people I probably knew once and don't really know anymore.

There are rumblings of a 15 year reunion now. Who has those? My suggestion will be for a little classier affair. I'm not wanting black tie or anything, but let's have something catered and semi-casual and, if some people want, go roll out to a bar afterwards. Having already chatted everyone of importance up, I would most likely roll home at that point.

Speaking of rolling, I'm finally closing up this epic post and rolling out.

The Vue After a Decade

Do you remember 10 years ago? What you were like, what others were like, etc.? This weekend my high school graduating class is doing a little 10 year reunion thing. There was a tailgate deal last night before the EHS/Statesboro game, which the Knights won in dramatic fashion, and a post-game gathering at The VUE. Tonight will mark the end of the reunion with a few hours of hanging with the old folks at Cadillac's.

I'm pretty much the same guy. That's what they tell me, anyway. I look the same, have the same personality, drive the same car...maybe you've heard I don't like change before.

It's pretty neat seeing all these people again. While my main amigos in high school graduated the year before me, there were still some good people in my class. It was pretty funny sometimes last night, though. I'm glad there was the built in excuse to break conversations with, "It's good to see you, I'm gonna go say hey to ______," because there were several times I was scratching my head for what to say next after chatting with the random classmates and using up the initial pleasantries.

I'm a little hoarse this morning after talking so much ("...well, I like to say I'm between real jobs...") and having to yell over the thumping techno beats. I can really rumble out the low notes on the baritone scale, though.

I make mental checklists for many things: grocery shopping, things to do around the house, what to look for in a woman, etc... Here's a peek at my high school reunion check list.

• Thin, athletic classmates packing on the pounds? Check


• Attractive classmates not so attractive anymore? Check


• Short classmates having growth spurts? Check


• Many marriages, divorces, and kids? Check


• Classmates being married to each other that makes you scratch your head? Check


• Classmates coming out of the closet? Check


• Random inebriated classmates bragging about how much money they make? Check


• Random inebriated classmates smooching, making you do a double-take? Check

Like everything else in life, blogging takes motivation. EHS Class of '97 is certainly that. It's not as strong as my previous motivation, though.

The Clean Plate Club

So...it's been over a month since my last "blog" session. Some call them blogs, others call them toasters. (And by "others" I mean my buddy Jake.) I call them...well, I guess I call them blogs now, too. I don't have an excuse. I actually have several for my lack of blog posts, but I'll spare those of you who may happen upon this. I'm here now and that's all that matters.

On to the subject at hand. I met a girl recently. I guess after a certain age you're a woman...err, girls are women, so she's really a woman. Maybe it's because I'm still in my 20s, but I call all attractive females around my age girls. Anyway, moving on... We did dinner earlier tonight and, turning off all my sarcasm for a moment, I thought it was great. I believe she thought it was great too.

The Clean Plate Club. That's just something I usually joke around about. That is, saying someone is a member of it if they, appropriately, clean their plate during a meal. (I really had no idea it was a catering outfit that had won Best of Nashville seven years in a row. I wonder if it's as uppity as Best of Augusta?) Back to my definition: I've seen it done before and, as I said, I usually make note of it.

Tonight was the first time I've ever seen a woman do it. Let me qualify that. The first time I've seen a woman do it at The Pizza Joint when she orders two slices of pizza. This is not a knock on women but just to say The Pizza Joint sells you a big slice and she's a slim, athletic woman. I didn't have dinner with a Golden Corral buffet buster by any means.

I might also add the caveat of it being a date. General reasoning says that women are a little nervous on dates and, therefore, won't eat as much as normal. At least, I guess it was a date. Well, she cleaned her plate, so maybe it wasn't...crap. Who knows. She did claim to be "starving," though, when I turned up the sarcasm, I mean charm, when she was initially talking about the dual slice attempt. Until a hear differently, that's what I'm going to call it...a date...I think.

I've done The Pizza Joint before with women (not dates) who have attempted two slices...and, as the single guy, I usually got to bring one home. Not tonight, buddy. I felt like a little less of a man. I, too, had two slices (my usual meatball and pepperoni) but left behind most of the crust. Maybe I mentioned this earlier, but she cleaned her plate...i.e. not even crust left behind. I did have more alcohol, though, so maybe I'm not less of a man after all. We also did a piece of cheese cake, w/ caramel, for dessert.

Speaking of alcohol, I recommend Rogue Dead Guy. The Evans PJ has it on draft. Excellent stuff. My Publix doesn't sell it, which is a downer. I don't frequent the local liquor stores, but maybe they'd have it. I'll have to look into it.

Hopefully, it won't be as long between postings next time. Maybe I'll get inspiration again soon. My hair is growing back nicely, by the way. Thanks for asking.

Whose Space? MySpace!

Just a brief plug for my MySpace profile. Check it out here, if you weren't already in the know.

More Red Ring of Death

I've mentioned it before, the Xbox 360's red ring of death, and I'd like to mention it again. I really just want to post this funny video about it:

Cue Ball

Scratch another thing of my list of things to do before I die: shave head.



It was rather scary to do it, especially since I don't own an extra mirror to help w/ the back, but my razor never came back with blood on it. I doubt this is a style I want to keep, though. I don't really like shaving my face...I certainly don't want to do my whole head everyday.

Maybe I'll be John Locke for Halloween. :)

Just what I don't need...

Maybe you heard that the PlayStation 3 recently dropped in price to a slightly more reasonable $499. I fully expected an immediate counter-punch from Micro$oft in the form of a price drop for the Xbox 360...that didn't happen. Rumors are starting to surface now, however, that the price drop will come in a couple of weeks (down to $349) and coincide with the release of Madden NFL 08.

I can only hope that this feeling will pass soon, as similar ones did for the PS2, but I want to buy one! I don't care much about Madden but I long to play NCAA Football 08 and lead the Auburn Tigers to back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to...(you get the idea) National Championships. I haven't owned an NCAA football game since NCAA Football 2005 for my Nintendo GameCube. Quality stuff there.

Surely I don't need to cave in now, though. There's the "red ring of death" to look out for. As well, I don't even have an HDTV. It won't quite be the same as playing at my amigos' houses w/o one. Plus, I own a Nintendo Wii and it's mainly collecting dust (and pet dander, eww) because I sill play World of WarCraft so much. They don't make the NCAA football game for the Wii, though.

Maybe I just need to buy an HDTV too. Hmm...

The Big House

Prison. Jail. The clink. Having never been to one, except in Monopoly, I can only comment on what I've seen in the media. I do know there are several types, though. Some of which follow: There's the country club prisons where white-collar criminals go. There are also "federal pound me in the @$$" prisons, where the hard-core criminals go. There's even a place in Arkansas called The Varner Unit!

A new breed of prison was introduced to me this week, the song-and-dance prison. Instead of pumping iron, playing basketball, and watching out for their corn hole, here the inmates apparently work on dramatic dance routines to pass the time. I'm not sure what to think about this, but I'm sure I still don't want to go. Check the videos.

Michael Jackson's Thriller


I Will Follow Him - From Sister Act

Big Bad Bubba and his Big Ole Burger

How 'bout one of these bad boys? If you know me, and I don't think you'd be here if you didn't, you know I wouldn't be down w/ half the toppings on this monstrosity, but I love the idea of such a beast's existence.

Road trip to West Virginia coming up.

The host for the video took it down. Just think of the biggest burger you've ever seen, then multiply that by 50 and that's what the video showed.

"Going to the Grocery..."

Well, "went to the grocery" would probably be a better title for this, but those aren't the lyrics to one of my favorite songs.

It was suggested to me over the weekend that the grocery store would be a good place for me to meet the woman of my dreams. Not in those exact words, but that was the gist of it. We talked about a good grocery store to meet such a person at and, as it happens, I already shop at such a place.

Naturally I was a little more excited when I realized I was down to my last Hot Pocket last night and would need to restock today. It didn't matter that I sat through the same traffic light twice on the way there (the lady in front of me was doing her makeup) because I was in hot pursuit. Doug was about to become a babe magnet walking down the frozen food aisle.

Taking special care to look out for eligible bachelorettes as soon as I pulled into the parking lot, what's the first thing I see? My friend who said that was the place to be. Unfortunately, she's quite married. After brief chit-chat I head inside, eyes peeled.

"Oh, I need some tortilla shells." I've gotten to where I attempt my own Barberitos-style burritos at home.* I actually said that out loud, by the way. I don't have much of an internal monologue anymore. If I'm thinking, I'm probably mumbling it to myself. Those shells are at the very end of an aisle at my Publix; an end cap, if you will. Glancing down that aisle, of course, I see another amiga of mine...also very married. She was looking for some fancy tomatoes that Rachael Ray told her to buy. What a good wife.

The rest of the shopping experience was uneventful. All I saw were old ladies and, it seemed like, other single dudes. Maybe they had my idea. Perhaps Friday at 3PM isn't prime time for the lovely ladies to frequent the grocery. Could it be a Saturday thing? At least I got BOGO on cereal. (I can eat cereal 24/7)

Publix: 1
Doug: 0

To be continued...


*This is made all the more important since my Barberitos closed up shop last week. It's a sad time for me. "That's because Moe's is weak!" as a buddy of mine said once. Seems like they may have been a bit too far out in Evans and a lot too far up a hill and out of sight.

Pandora Radio

A buddy just turned me onto a cool new Internet music service, Pandora Radio. Here you just enter in the name of a favorite band or song and you'll be treated to hearing similar bands or songs play.

For example, I typed in Hootie & the Blowfish (shocker, I know). The first song I heard was a HBF song, followed by some Counting Crows, Goo Goo Dolls, Sister Hazel, and Barenaked Ladies. I've also heard artists/songs for the first time, like Cardinal Trait, which sounds pretty good.

The free version is advertiser supported, so there are ad banners on the page. You can avoid that mess by having it open in a separate window or, if you roll like this, a separate tab in your browser.

I could see this as a great tool for parties, vacations where you can't bring your CD collection, or any occasion where you want a little variety, but not skew too far from the norm.

I encourage you to go check it out for yourself. Here's my profile page.

Oh, some Toad the Wet Sprocket just came on...nice.

Down, but not out

Greetings and salutations. For all intents and purposes, this is my personal web log...for now. Not that I utilized it much, but my previous web log, localclovis.com, is currently experiencing technical difficulties. i.e. there are server issues at work beyond my control. Those in the know are currently trying to rectify the situation.

More to come.