31 October 2007

Happy Halloween!

I planned to write a big post about the decline of common courtesy, huge D-bags, and my country being systematically dismantled by criminals. And possibly throw in something about peak oil.

But all that's too scary, and I suspect that it's just West County getting to me again.

So, I'll settle for this.


Happy Halloween!

30 October 2007

These guys give men everywhere a bad name.

So, I've been bored at work today.
I was reading some of my old blog posts, and I Have a couple of things to say.
First of all, I'm a funny guy. I never realized before.


Second, well not really. Anyway, I saw this ------------>
and.... Goddam.
I apologize to any femists I may have ever upset in anyway. Apparently, boys really are stinky. I hope that you all think of me as some sort of less stinky boy.

What the Hell would posess ANYone EVER to put FAKE TESTICLES on his damn truck?
WTF? I'll say that again. WTF? what makes you think that it's cool? are you so insecure you have to pretend your unnecessarily large vehicle is some sort of surrogate penis? Are you entirely devoid of taste?


I have some advice for anyone who owns "truckicles":
It is not too late for you to get a girlfriend.
Good luck and god speed, I hope your ungodly swelling goes down soon.


Dancing in St. Louis

Are there good dance clubs in St. Louis?
I dont' want to go to Illinois. Or watch hipsters who are too cool to dance.
Mainly, Anne watn to dance and I want to listen to loud techno.
Unfortunately, most of the night-life hangouts in my immediate area are gay.
(no really, apparently I live in the GLBT nexus of Missouri)
There are some cool places within a couple miles, but I have not found one with dancing.
Laminator_X has suggested a place to look, but I have not had a chance to explore that.
I've been looking online, and asking friends.
Ah, well. The hunt continues.
I'll have to call up the places I have found to make sure they are still open before I go. Apparently, clubs around here have a short working-life.

Also, the new (different) couch came yesterday. It's nice. I never realized how broken down my old couch was, until I sat on the new one.
Funny how it seems to go that you dont' know what you've got until it's gone.

28 October 2007

Dirk Gently's couch.

You know that sounds bad.

Anne and I picked up our new couch yesterday morning. It was bigger than expected...
In fact, too big to go up our stupid stairs. We tried everything we could think of. We got some helpers. (thanks, David and Aaron!) but, alas, to no avail.
I guess its our own fault. We really wanted a couch we could lay out on, but for some reason, most couches are 5' 11" long. This one was ~6'4", which was great. But it made the whole thing 8' long, and a bout 3" too long to ever fit inside.

In the end, we were forced to return the couch. We moved the old one back into the living room and lounged around for a couple hours before the party we wanted to go to.

The whole couch episode took ~6 hours, and we have the old couch here in the living room.

Stoopid.

On the other hand, the parties were great! We saw lots of people we don't see very often. Anne went as "Tank Girl" which was awesome. There was another girl dressed as Strawberry Shortcake, which was also splendid. My favorite though, one girl dressed as Hwy 40. It was very good.

I have work today, but then, we're going over to Jon and Wendy's for supper. I'm looking forward to that. They're good people and cool.

25 October 2007

Boogie nights!

Not actually.
Trivia night, though.
Anne and I went to play some bar trivia last night at Lewellens. It was awesome.
When you win, you get a pitcher of PBR. Which was awesome.
We won a round. It was awesome.
The real reason we go, however, is for the happy hour special. $1 pitchers of PBR.
That's right. A pitcher of Pabst Blue Ribbon. For a dollar.
It won first of best beer in 1894. Thus the aforementioned blue ribbon.

We met up with a bunch of friends. There was Stacey, our neighbor Eu nice, Anne, her co-worker Dax, and of course, your narrator.

We wound up drinking more than intended, thus I was feeling sligtly wretched this morning.
I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time, and I think we'll go back.

It was actually very cool, except for Anne, everyone there had someone that they did not know, but beer and trivia are great icebreakers, I guess.

In other news; it's been raining all day, and has been really really boring here at work. 10 hour shift and little to do. :P

20 October 2007

Tired and at work

We have a lot to do at work today. The first of our '08 models have come in, and we are trying to get them built up. It's also a nice saturday, so we've been busy with customers. Now, the customer flow has slacked off, and I am tired. I'm supposed to drive to Columbia, and possibly go dancing yet tonight. Whoof. I don't know if I'll make it. Maybe I'll have a nap in the car.

On the upside, I'm going to visit some friends in Columbia! Yay!

I'm working with Robert today. He's a good guy, even though he claims to hate me.
He has demanded I link his blog here.

13 October 2007

I demand substance!

I'm tired of bland chain resturants and big box retailers.
What they have in virisimilitude, they lack in true authenticity.

F**k them.

Give me real things, and real stores to buy them in.
I want joints rather than cold cuts.

And I want out of the soulless hell that is West St. Louis County.
I have had it up to here with these D-bags who sold their souls for a couple dollars.

blarrgh!

visiting and parties!

I've been pretty dull-head this week.
I got to go visit some friends last night, and we're going to a costume party tonight. Anne is going as Tank Girl!
Awesome!


Also -- "support the troops" magnets on SUVs make me sick.

It's like putting "Cure Cancer" cigarettes outside the Cancer center.

08 October 2007

Charny's questions.

Well, one of them.
I can't find the actual text, but I will paraphrase.

On a day, a force of 100 men at arms encounters a force of 50. They fight, and the force of 50 defeats the 100.
Would you be counted as the most worthy of the 100 or as the least worthy of the 50?


Please, discuss.

04 October 2007

Stop polluting my Interwebs! Someone might believe you!

I have just been reading the website of a custom bicycle manufacturer. I'm in favor of custom frames for bikes. I'm in favor of small manufacturers. I'm in favor of things made in the USA.
I used to think well of Rivendell.
I once had a high opinion of both them and their bikes. It turns out that they are in fact more like the Blankenshield of bicycles. And their new website is ugly and hard to navigate. The have a lot of misinformation on their site, and seem to enjoy being a voice crying in the wilderness. They follow some very uncommon standards, not because they are better, but because they are not popular.
In some cases this is okay. In some bad (650B wheels) and in some really bad (threaded headsets) This will make anyone who has a Rivendell less happy with their bike. 650B tires are hard to get in most places. Much more so if you don't want to race. 650B wheels are usually ot of stock with bike shops's suppliers. Meaning that Rivendell is the only place to get them, really.
Don't get me started on 1" threaded headsets! When working at the Bicycle works, I came across Tons of threaded headsets that had rusted in, and will never come out of the head tube again. That meanst that the headset can Never be overhauled. Just one of the problems inherent in threaded headsets, and half the reason the Rest of the World moved away from them.
There are NO benefits to these non-standard parts choices. It's just the same foul thing that Trek and Cannondale do. Making their parts proprietary so only they can replace them.
Seems shitty to me.
I've also been reading about their opinions of tires and pressure. Totally bollocks. I tend to agree that on the narrow extreme, tires will run roughly on rough surfaces. On the other hand, having personally ridden a bike with low pressure in the tires and adequate pressure in the last week it makes a HUGE difference! You can run really wide low pressure tires if you dont' want to get anywhere, or you can run some sensible not fat tires at a decent pressure. Then you'll have a good balance of comfort, stability, and speed. Then you wont' be tired in a mile.
Their essay about clipless pedals is just dumb. It doesn't rise to the level of bolloks or misinformation. Just dumbness. It seems unlikely that anyone is confused about platform pedals being better for much. I am a big fan of toe-clips, and really, if you ride around, then put on some toe-clips, you can tell they are loads better than platforms. I don't understand why anyone is confused, about that, or why anyone not in BMX would use platform pedals.
Sorry about my incredibly long rant about a company you've probably never heard of, but well, Grump! Stop polluting my interwebs with your misiformation! Someone might believe you!

02 October 2007

Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket...

The past week has been really good.
I'm possibly getting a promotion at work. Contingent on finding someone to fill my current position, I'll be the manager of a store I like quite a bit better than the one I'm at now.
I've been invited to another crazy cup drinking party by my friends Steven and Stacey. The one last year was a really good party. Replete with life-size Jenga, fun folks, and gallons of good beer. It turns out also, that some friends I havn't seen much of in the past year or so are also invited. I had no idea that they knew Steven and Stacey. They can't go to the crazy cup party, but I was prompted to email her based on that. I should send her a link to my blog.
I had the best time I can imagine last weekend when some friends came to visit (see previous post) I may well have been a bit too stunned to say so at the appropriate moment, but I'm saying it now. "Last weekend was a Great time!" Could not have been better.
And, probably goes without saying, but Anne is the best friend/partner/wife anybody could ask for. No, she's "all that and a bag of chips" as the vernacular goes. (or possibly went) I don't mean to go on all sticky-sweet about Anne, but sometimes I can't help it.
~B