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Hell yeah

POSTING UP

Last night as I was walking to dinner on the square I noticed a group of guys sitting at a table on the Rooster's balcony. The reason it caught my attention is b/c it was at least 96 degrees and they were the only people sitting outside. I couldn't help but pass judgement on them b/c I knew exactly what they were doing. They were sacrificing unattractive sweat stains so they could "post up."

"Posting up" is one thing every group of guys or girls is guilty of doing. It allows us to feel secure to walk into a bar and find an area where we can relax and act like we are not interested in anyone else in the room. Of course that isn't what is really going on. We are actually extremely interested in everyone else in the room, but by acting uninterested we feel like it will somehow attract that group of girls at the table across the room doing the exact same thing as us. We occasionally throw glances there way and try to hold eye contact with one of them, or in an ideal situation their table is conveniently situated near the bathroom and you get to stare at one of them at close range as you walk by.

The problem is there have been way too many times when I have been in a situation like this and never actually talked to the group of girls that we were checking out all night. The only thing on every guy's mind at the table is the girls, but because we don't want to look stupid we never actually take a chance and initiate conversation. I assume girls would feel the same way about it, but it's the guy's prerogative to strike up a conversation. I am going to make an attempt to change how my friends and I "post up," and I hope other people will follow suit.

Keep up with items Mr. Barker describes and try to put a value on the whole showcase. And then watch and see what this dumbo guesses..

How Tabbed Browsing Changed My Life

I spend a lot of time surfing the internet. I could definitely find better things to do with my time, but I enjoy learning stuff that has no relevance to real life. When my friends and I are sitting around watching TV, I am the guy who always has his computer in his lab. Every 25 minutes I will look up during an important part in the movie and annoyingly ask, "Wait, what just happened?" If I am not interested in what everyone else is watching, I will randomly chime in with a useless fact I just read about and expect everyone else to find it as interesting as I did.

I've never been good at sticking with the same topic for more than a few minutes b/c I get distracted easily (I'm a sucker for that pop-up taunting you to shoot at a duck and win a free Ipad). But all these distractions became manageable upon my discovery of tabbed browsing. I could pull up everything I wanted to look at inside one window, and navigate to each completely unrelated website with a click of the mouse. Over time I've acquired a routine that I instinctively go through when I get on the internet. My individual tabs go something like this:

Tab #1) Facebook - I don't use Facebook for anything other than checking notifications, but if I am going to be on the internet for an extended period of time I leave it open and turn my Facebook chat status to green, just in case a mysterious girl decides to strike up a conversation. Nothing has happened yet, but I haven't given up yet.

(For the record, I navigate back to this page every 10 minutes to reload my profile so my chat status doesn't switch to "idle")

Tab #2) Gmail - I get maybe one e-mail every two days, but you never know. Plus, there's always the possibility that I'll have a convo w/ one of my 7 friends on G-chat.

Tab #3) ESPN - I read articles on ESPN, but only when there is something I really want to know about. This is more of a safety tab. If I am in the library and see a dude coming, I don't want to be caught looking at Facebook.

Tab #4) Twitter - This is a given. I only check it every 30 minutes or so, but I always leave it open. I pay more attention to it after I tweet something, hoping that one of "(7) Twitter / Home" tweets are a mention.

Tab #5) Deadspin - I recently discovered how wonderful this website is. Girls will have no interest in it, but it is basically a non-biased, unfiltered ESPN. It is all the latest sports news, but presented exactly as it is. Deadspin writers have no qualms about hurting someone's feelings. I highly recommend this site to any guy who likes sports news and sports drama.

Tab #6) Miscellaneous - During a lull in my browsing, this tab will be pointed to my iGoogle, but depending on my mood this last tab fluctuates b/t Amazon, Ebay, Tumblr, Youtube, Weather, Nike (customized shoe section), and anything else I am interested in at the time.

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Fitting song for today. Hopefully Harold Camping will be right on his 2nd end of the world prediction. Regardless, he has collected over $70 million cash in anticipation of today. Wacky evangelist or clever businessman??

The saying goes, "Things are always bigger in Texas." Apparently it is true for both Texans and non-Texans.

I do not claim to know anything about soccer. What I do know has been learned through a few years of FIFA on PS3. But I do know that this is a pretty crafty goal.

Why I'm a Belieber, And You Should Be Too

So last night I watched the Justin Bieber's Doc/Movie, "Never Say Never." I've never had a serious problem with the guy, but I will say that before seeing the movie I did not think very highly of him. My only impression of him is what I saw on South Park and how I saw him perform in the NBA Celebrity All Star Game. Granted, he scored a few points, but I couldn't take his athleticism seriously because of the sick-nasty form he had when he shot a basketball.

But that all changed after last night. Bieber is talented. He could play the drums when was two years old, and by the time he was seven could sing and play on the guitar better than I can as a 23 year old. I've tried hard to learn to sing and play in unison, but to no avail. It is a natural talent that some people have and some people don't have. Also, the kid can dance. I like to think, on a scale of 1-10 (the white person scale of course), that I fall somewhere between a 6 and a 7. Bieber is pushing a 9. He may have an ugly basketball shot, but he can hold his on a stage full of dancing asian and black back-up dancers. I was impressed.

But what impressed me the most was his sincere humble attitude. Sure he's cocky, as you would expect any 17 year-old phenom to be, but he has a genuine heart. It is obvious from the movie. Maybe his P.R. rep is pulling a fast one on me, but from what I watched in the movie and what i've seen on late night TV interviews, he seems to be a decent person. I encourage you to go rent the movie if you haven't. This kid has genuine talent and he is here to stay. I would be very surprised if he is one of the typical child stars that gets caught up in drugs and abandons his career before his 21st birthday. It may happen when he turns 30 or 40, but I think we've got a solid 10 years of quality music from him, and I encourage you to convert & become a Belieber.

Pullin' an All-Nighter

It's 5:32 A.M on Wednesday morning. I have my last exam of the year in less than 3 hours. Did I mention my feet are asleep, my head is caving in on itself, and in the past two hours only managed to beat 3 levels in Angry Birds? You don't need WebMD to diagnose what it wrong with me; I've been up all night b/c I drank too much coffee and took too much A.D.D. medicine.

No matter how many times I tell myself to study ahead of time so this kind of night won't happen again, I consistently make the same mistake. Last night I tried to act like it wasn't going to happen. I brushed my teeth and washed my face; I even put my sweatpants on. The only time I have ever worn pajamas to bed was the 10 weeks I was in Dallas in the "real world." I laid in bed for an hour and couldn't manage to keep my eyelids shut, so I grabbed my comp and started playing games. After an hour of laying there playing games I decided to admit defeat. I got out of the bed (at 4:15) and started walking around the house. I flipped on the T.V. and watched a few infomercials, but quickly got bored w/ that. I moved outside, which is where I am right now, and decided it would be as good a time as any to make a post about pulling an all-nighter.

If you've ever stayed up all night for a test you know exactly how I feel. In about 30 minutes I am going to take a shower so I will look presentable to my teacher and classmates, but if anyone tries to have a conversation w/ me between now and my test at 8:00 A.M., they are going to either A) think I am crazy or B) think I am insane. Thankfully, I don't have any more exams so I can come home and sleep when I finish, but that hasn't been the norm the past four years. I can't imagine any worse feeling than the evening after an all-nighter, when you haven't slept in 36+ hours and you're strung out on caffeine and amphetamines, malnourished, dehydrated, and completely incapable of relating to anyone. Someone in the coffee shop will ask me how exams are going, and I will respond w/ a "she's doing good.. Oh, my exams?? I thought you asked about my sister. HAHAH. Yea man, my exams are going, I'm just ready to be done, you know?" I then put my head down and hope the person forgets the conversation ever happened.

My encouragement to people who still have a long week to go is this: Staying up all night happens, but remember how mentally inferior it makes you to an average person. Keep your head down, wear a baseball hat if necessary, and do your best to sleep whenever your body lets you. Good luck to everyone w/ the rest of their week.

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Heard this song for the 1st time in four years today. If you've heard of Dent May, this is a song his high school band wrote. Peyton Houchins introduced it to me in eighth grade. The 1st time I heard the guitar solo in this song I realized that you don't have to play football to be cool. R.I.P. @ScaryMilk

Courtesy of Francis Stanley and Kim Kardashian

Snoody Music Tastes

I have no problem with people that have a diverse taste in music. In fact, I would say I fall into the category of someone who spends more time than they should trying to discover new music. I do, however, have a problem with people that take pride in their diverse Itunes library. You know the kind of people I am talking about. Let's say you are at a baseball game and one of the player's walkout songs is "Play Something Country" by Brooks & Dunn. Five seconds into the song you hear someone make a comment along the lines of how they liked the player until they heard that song. They go on to say how they do like a lot of genres of music, "except, of course, country and rap." A mandatory requirement for a music snob is to hate anything country and rap. I have found that these elitists do like old country singers like Johnny Cash or Hank Williams Sr. They also have no problem w/ old school rap music.

My big issue w/ these self-proclaimed musical intellects is their inability to understand that just because we've never heard of a band doesn't make them "good." I see people with 6000+ songs in their itunes library. They buy the 80 GB ipod, and when you ride in their car they intentionally play songs they know you've never heard of. They make comments like, "the bass player in this band has two girlfriends" to show you how much they know about the band and talk incessantly about how sick the lead guitarist is.

If these people are so educated in musical talent, why is eighty percent of their Itunes library from artists in the same "indie" drama. There are a lot of bands that claim to be "indie rock" that really aren't that good at all. There are a lot of country singers and rappers that are musically and lyrically better than a lot of these bands. But because of their hatred for anything classified in the "country" genre, these so-called experts will never find this out. Recorded music has been around for close to one hundred years, and these people are limiting their ability to become "music experts" because of general stereotypes the "music scene" has created. Having the discography of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is cool, but I guarantee that a collection of rock music from the 70's is superior in all aspects. Diversify your tastes and realize that "good music" does not belong to one or two genres.

OVERANALYZING A TEXT MESSAGE

Text messages are great because they are convenient. They are great when you have something you need to tell somebody but don't have the nerve to do it over the phone. They are great for mass-texting a group, such as the parents of my little league baseball team, because it saves a lot of time. But text message are not great when you are trying to flirt.

It always seems like a great idea to get into a texting convo with that special someone. And it is a great idea UNTIL you get an ambiguous message and you have no idea what the person means by it. For example, you and a girl have been swapping messages for a few hours on a Thursday afternoon. Since she waited thirty minutes to respond to your last message, you wait thirty-five minutes to send the next one. So far all the messages from her have been lengthy, so naturally you make yours lengthy. But just when you think the conversation is going somewhere you don't get a response. You contemplate sending the message again, but don't want to run the risk of re-sending the same message that was intentionally ignored. The longer you wait the more anxious you get, until eventually you write the girl off as a total bitch. You see her at the bar and do your best to ignore her, but then she comes up to you and says, "Why didn't you respond to my message earlier?" You then realize she wasn't ignoring you at all.

Although texting a girl is fun, it is not the best way to flirt. A text every now and then to see where they are on the square is OK, but trying to get to know a girl through SMS messaging is not a good idea. You are going to spend way too many hours trying to decipher the ambiguity present in every message. Odds are you will interpret the implied meaning incorrectly more times than not and look like a fool because you think you know exactly what she is trying to do. You think you can snub her w/ a two-word reply because she waited three hours to send her last message, but in reality she fell asleep and wasn't intentionally ignoring you.

I feel like a lot more can be said about this subject, but b/t studying for exams and trying to figure out why an unnamed girl didn't say "haha" in response to a joke I said in her last text, I'm overwhelmed.

NIkE--PuMPz

Going to "get a drink"

Yesterday on my way to a little league baseball game Arthur Davis said, "If we win tonight let's go get a drink somewhere." Sounds like something you hear everyday, right? It is, but what piqued my interest was the phrase "let's go get a drink." If we were in the same situation two years ago he would have said, "If we win tonight let's go out." Which brings me to the point of this post; what is the difference between "going out" and "going to get a drink?"

Is it an age thing? Freshman year my go-to conversation starter was "are you going out tonight?" It didn't matter if it was Monday of exam week. Now that I am a Senior the question isn't so pointed. Monday through Wednesday the question is, "What are you doing tonight?" and Thursday-Saturday it reverts to the most commonly asked question in Martin and Stockard, "are you going out?" Going out on a Monday freshman or sophomore year was normal, but now that I am a senior it is less common. It's almost embarrassing to call someone up on during the week and straight up ask if they want to "go out." Which is why we, being the clever Juniors and Seniors we are, have invented the phrase "going to get a drink." It means the exact same thing as "going out," but it sounds a lot less immature. I guarantee I've never said I am going to get a drink and gotten one drink. I get drinks, which is the same thing you do when you "go out."

But there are a few minuscule differences. When you say you are "going to get a drink" you go somewhere you can sit down, like City Grocery or Burgundy Room, where you can rock a long-sleeve T and flip-flops and only take a shower if you've exercised that day. It's what you do on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday night when you play Two Stick trivia, chill with the indie crowd and semi-famous celebrities at City Grocery, or try and figure out who the random people are at Burgundy Room on ladies night. "Going out" is reserved for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, when you go to the Library and have no reservations about trying to find a late night. The phrases mean the exact same thing; the difference is the day and location.

NIkE--PuMPz

Bill and Clint Rosenblatt - single, white, fraternal twins with swagger

NIkE--PuMPz

YouTube

Scenario: You're in the library studying for a test with one friend and two people you kind of know from class. It's late in the semester and you have studied with these acquaintances more than once, so you would almost classify them as "friends." You get on Facebook and see that one of your friends has shared a link from youtube on your wall. After watching the video you laugh, and when your study buddies look up to see why you're laughing you explain that you just watched a funny video on youtube. Immediately one of your acquaintances asks, "Have you seen (insert video here)?" If you say no, their response goes something like, "YOU HAVEN'T?? OMG IT IS HILARIOUS." They then commandeer your computer and look it up and you are forced to sit there and watch the entire video with them breathing down your neck.

I don't know about you, but this type of situation happens to me more than I would like it to. The only thing worse than being forced to watch a video on Youtube is having to listen to someone tell you about their dream from the night before. I never tell someone they should watch something unless I know for a fact they will find it hilarious, but for whatever reason this rationale hasn't gained worldwide acceptance yet. If you are going to make someone watch something on Youtube, keep a few things in mind.

Don't ever suggest a video that lasts longer than a minute. People like to laugh at funny things, but not when the funny part is at the 4 minute mark. My favorite video on Youtube is the sneezing panda. It's less than 20 seconds. Also, keep in mind your surroundings before you make someone watch a video. It's not worth trying to show more than two people a video. Computer screens are only so big, and computer speakers are only so loud. Videos lose their flavor when you are shoulder to shoulder with another guy behind the computer, awkwardly leaning forward to try and hear whatever is going on. Things aren't as funny when you aren't comfortable, so be considerate and keep these tips in mind next you get the urge to share a video with a friend.

NIkE--PuMPz

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