Back from Pittsburgh

We had a relaxing time in Pittsburgh last weekend. I'll write a little more later, but after a night out at Adale's parents we stayed with her sister in the city. We had both forgotten how easy it is to get around there compared to Philly, and how much cleaner the city is. In addition to visiting our favorite restaurants & places we kayaked on the Allegheny right next to downtown.

The reason I'm not giving y'all more detail is because all I can think about right now is the news I received yesterday that our landlord is going to put our house on the market. I really don't want to move but it looks like that may happen. Fuck!!! Maybe we'll buy a house or maybe I'll always be home in my undies scratching my nuts when there's an open house to make sure nobody rents the place. 

The pictures below are from near our friend Etta's house in Polish Hill (a neighborhood in Pittsburgh). 

BREAKING NEWS: New fad sweeps the nation

Vacation Time!!

Hey all, we're heading out to the 'Burgh for vacation so I probably won't be posting anything until after Memorial Day. I don't want to risk any kielbasa juice dripping on on my keyboard. In the meantime you should check out Bigfoot's twitter page (I'm excited to see him embracing the new social media platforms.) 

I want to share my jams with you

I thought this list of logos & analyses is pretty cool. They've got 25 clever logos with hidden tricky-bits, like the Fed-Ex logo below. Look at it for a few seconds...

Now look at the space between the "E" and the "X" and how it makes a forward pointing arrow, suggesting forward motion & speed.

This logo is for the Hartford Whalers hockey team. Check it out...

This has a triple whammy: the blue whale tail, a "H" in the negative space between the blue & green designs, and then a green "W". Smooth, right?

Adale's jalapeno relleno tacos. How awesome an idea is it to put these mini-chile rellenos in a taco?

Big Weekend!

Summer is almost here and we're ready for action. Without much effort or planning we managed to pack a ton of summer-time fun into the last few days. I really can't believe how nice this weekend was.

1. Happy hour with co-workers on Friday
2. Watched playoff basketball games on tv
3. Went to get tacos at Taqueria Veracruzana (chorizo for me, mini-chile relleno out of stuffed jalapenos for Adale)
4. Had no idea that the 9th Street Italian Market festival was going on (right next to the taqueria) and got to walk around there for a bit. The Paul Green School of Rock kids were performing at they were awesome & ended their set with Purple Rain. Here's a link of them playing California Uber Alles with Jello Biafra from a few years ago. 
5. Planted sunflowers, dill, and other stuff with the neighbor kids (see picture below)
6. Went & got italian ice at the Trolley Car Diner a few block from the house
7. Planted 21 different herbs & vegetables in the back yard garden
8. Grilled up a bunch of vittles, including king oyster mushrooms (see picture below)
9. Drove by this house for sale in our neighborhood
10. Watched Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. Girls start a punk band movie with a Legend of Billie Jean feel - highly recommended. 

Aaron (on right) and Quron are all about helping us garden (except Quron is a little scared of big worms)

Grilled asparagus, peppers, and king oyster mushrooms. Mmmmmm good!

I'm meeting with my supervisor later today to see if I can take a 3-month leave of absence so I can teach Mr. Peaches how to play piano. Wish me luck!

 We finished digging out the "L" shaped garden bed and our little backyard is really starting to shape up. I took the video yesterday while we were mixing in some Bumper Crop soil amendment & waiting for the charcoals to heat up. We had our usual cornucopia of grilled items - marinated meat, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and tofu.

I bought my brother a little camera made to clip onto your pet's collar & take pictures as they do their business. I got him to loan it to me last week & I started to play with it today. Below is a video I made with the first pictures I took with it - I had it on top of my computer monitor & set it to take one picture every minute. I put it on the kitty last night and learned two important things about using the pets-eye-camera: (1) kitty doesn't like wearing it & won't run around on his own accord when he is wearing it (2) you really need to watch kitty when he's wearing it because when he takes a drink of water he also dunks the camera in the water dish & that is not good for the device.

Holy crap I can't believe how cute this thing is. If it wasn't for their razor sharp teeth, the poison they produce & mix with their saliva and use to coat their fur with for protection, the fact that babies separated from their parents are unable to clean themselves so their fur becomes caked with urine, feces and oily skin secretions, and that they mark its territory with urine constantly for it's entire life, I would be tickling my very own slow loris right now.

Check out this Facebook message I got the other day:

Wow Greg, it's Been a long time My friend. How are ya? My Life has been totally crazy since we last spoke. Back in May of 1995 I was in Austin and I went to see you at your apartmant and you were not there. About twenty minutes later something happened that changed my life forever. I got busted with a gram of LSD. And my life changed for sure. I'll have to miss out most of the story for now, but at the present I live in the United Kingdom and I am married to a british woman , we have 2 boys. I have to go to work but hope to hear back from ya, see ya soon. 

Totally fucking crazy, right? I was friends with this guy when I lived in Dallas - I remember him being a funny, crazy, genuine friend. He helped me move to Austin (including recruiting a friend & a family member, I think) in Jan 1995. In the craziness of the move I didn't get a hold of him right away after I moved. I always felt bad about that. I also always felt bad because I planned on buying him & the other guys dinner after they helped me move with the deposit refund from the rental truck, but the rental place wouldn't give me cash & insisted on sending a check. I didn't have any money so I couldn't even buy them a beer let alone dinner, so they just drove back to Dallas (200 miles). Anyway, I tried to get a hold of him later but couldn't find him. I can't believe he tried to visit me & got busted instead.  I haven't heard the story from him about how he got busted. When I first read the message I felt guilty, but for no specific reason. I'm 99.9999% sure I didn't talk to him after I moved to Austin so I'm really sure I didn't ask him to bring acid down from Dallas. I'm sure I was in class or somewhere hiding from my then future-ex-wife. I checked his criminal record & can't tell if he served any time in jail. He was really close to his family, which makes me think he would only move to the UK to escape jail time. Beats me. It's weird to think that if I had been home when he stopped by we probably would have dropped a hit of acid, walked around the neighborhood & freaked out, slept it off, and then went for breakfast tacos the next day instead of him getting arrested. 

My Hero

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

PAY ATTENTION: Everyone will find this interesting!

Before I let you know my results for the super-awesomeness test, there are a few things I should note. First, supposedly there is no such thing as a good or bad result. This suggests a strong correlation between higher levels of narcissism and awesomeness. Second, others typically see individuals who score high on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory as being egotistical and conceited - or in layman's terms, they're jealous. Third, the average score for the general population is 15.3, and the average score for celebrities is 17.8. The perfect score that all the smartest, best looking, most important people get is 20.

I scored a 20. Please note that this is 2.2 points higher than the average celebrity. Rather than seeing this as high on the narcissism scale, a more accurate and contextual interpretation points out that this score "suggests an admirable level of modesty in relation to the actual awesomeness of the test subject."

Principal component analysis of 1000+ tests has identified a general construct of narcissism comprised of seven components, listed below with my respective scores.

authority: 2/8

self-sufficiency: 3/6

superiority: 3/5

exhibitionism: 5/7

exploitativeness: 3/5

vanity: 1/3

entitlement: 3/6

I've got to get to sleep so y'all can chew on those until tomorrow.

A FUN TEST FOR YOU

While relaxing in my cubicle earlier this week I took a fun little test called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, a 40 question test designed to measure features of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (based on the DSM-III clinical criteria) in the general population. Please understand that The Man does not typically have time for any sort of self-awareness foolishness. He barely has time to keep up with the local professional wrestling association's schedule (I'm going this weekend!), critical office gossip, or remembering to always speak in the third person. But also understand that there are time during every work day when even The Man cannot keep up the blazing productivity pace The Man tries to set for everyone on the team, and during those times must find respite in the bounty of the internets. 

Will y'all take the test? Click on this link to go to a download link for a word doc with the test questions.  After you take it, leave a comment & I'll post the key for scoring it & then I'll post my scores (and maybe I'll be able to talk Adale into letting me post hers too). In addition to an overall score, the test gives scores for different aspects of narcissism like authority and vanity, and we both thought it was relatively accurate. 

I won't give away how I scored, but I'll give you a little hint: I have a blog where I write about my life.

Peace out, bitches

 

The Hotness

I'm just relaxing at home tonight...

Man have things been busy. I've been meaning to post more often but most of my free time has involved re-thinking my long desire to own a monkey. Maybe one of those little ones that fit on your finger but nothing bigger. Especially after I read about the guy who was mauled to death by his liger while being pinned down by his pet ape. Thinking about the upcoming baseball season has helped a bit. 

Adale has been a little obsessed with looking up genealogy info online & in turn I'm been somewhat obsessed myself. Adale's been doing a lot with ancestry.com & has found tons of family records in the short time she's working at it. One exciting discovery is that her last name is currently spelled differently than it was for her grandparents in the 1930 census, which is different than for those grandparents in the 1920 census.

I remembered that my great-grandfather on my mom's side had done a genealogy of his family, the Moons. You can read it here. It's pretty nutz. This castle here - William the Conquerer gave it to a relative for his support in the Battle of Hastings. That relative, William de Mohun (which later was bastardized to Moon), was married to Agnes de Gaunt. Agnes was a direct descendant of Charlemange, 8 generations removed (click here and search for agnes de gaunt). Totally crazy, right? The Mohun's kept the castle in the family until 1376, when it was sold to the Luttrell family. Those a-holes lived there until 1976. I remember 1976. I could have visited family there if they hadn't have sold it. 

There are all sorts of fun little triva nuggets in the Moon book - relatives who hung out with Thomas Jefferson & James Madison, another who sailed with Sir Thomas Drake as Captain of his beloved ship Commander, and numerous slave holding plantation owners. 

Anyhooters, I'm going to go grab a soda & watch Trailer Park Boys in HD. 

BREAKING NEWS: New Jersey must have been a wonderful place to grow up, right Joe?

This reminds me of a trip Joe, Adale, and I took to a Chinease buffet in Binghamton