The end?!

Yes. and no. This blog is finished!

The hotness is now at:

www.thedeucefo.com

Learn it. Love it. It's sexy.

-Jordan

I have a dream...

Super sweet video, I'd actually encourage everyone to listen to the whole speech sometime.

Spicy Round 2, Wordpress woes, and Aladdin?

So the consensus that I've reached is that the Spicy Pickle down here just lacks the game of the Spicy Pick in Louisville. I went back today for a REAL yardbird with all the fixins and while they did manage to get everything right it just lacked the love that my boy Jordan (no relation) puts into the sandwiches in Louisville. So maybe not a fuck you this time, and maybe the first one wasn't really justified. It's like getting mad at a child, they just don't know better...

With that aside... how weird is it that with the economy in the pooper there are still shitload of people who have just been hired? This could easily be a combination of selection and confirmation bias on my part, but esp. in service industry stuff it seems like everywhere I go it's they person's first week on the job. Anyways, good for them!

Wordpress is still not up and rolling. This shit is not as easy as I'd like it to be and although it's probably simple I'm fumbling all over myself with it for some reason. FML.

This weekend was another crazy one, I certainly didn't get to bed before about 6 am either night and that probably wasn't healthy for the old sleep schedule... again FML. Wild stuff, got to hang out with some friends from looooong ago, made some new friends, saw the Rockies game with some complete strangers who I met in line. They tried to convince me to invest 100k in their boiled peanuts venture, probably going to be huge... Was hungover until about 10pm then next day.... ugh smooth moves. Friends came over after the bars closed and we hung out by the firepit until the weeeeeeeeee hours of the morning with birds chirping and shit. Finally passing out after watching most of Aladdin with the sun having risen. Wow.

Update. Reading: duffed. Still haven't finished that book. Bought another 2 to read. Finishing that bitch up TO-Night!

Writing: here it is, once a week at least. It will be better and more frequent once I get this sexy wordpress rolling.

Random musings and things that I have boners for:

Aflac: Sweetness. Seriously ask about it at work.

Dogfish Head/other great beers: I bought a random assortment of beers that are all tasty and delicious and I am finally cracking into them. DFH, I've always heard good things about and it is assuredly the tits.

Happy Gilmore: Just came on TV and I'm so pumped forgot how ridiculously awesome it is. Looks like that reading might not get done (j/k j/k, do the right thing...)

Playoff Basketball: Some sick games this weekend esp tonight's. Nuggets duffed it majorly on Saturday, still managed to come close enough but come on kids! Making like half your free throws is probably not the recipe for success, but come back with a passion and put this shit away!

Summer: It's coming, get ready bitches!

-J

1 and 2.

1. To the people at the Spicy Pickle here in denver. Fuck you. Seriously.

(I realize that posting this on the internet is about as passive aggressive as it gets, but I'm going to be headed back that way later this day to let them know in person how I feel. )

So, you may ask what is their horrific crime that would drive me to such madness. Well it's simple. The Spicy Pick is known for its total badassity that revolves around anything food related. They are the tits, at everything that they do! One of their amazing creations, in fact, the one in question, is called the Yard Bird and it would be a gross understatement to say it's good. Freshly baked focaccia bread = warm fluffy deliciousness, roasted chicken, spinach, apple slices!, blue cheese crumbles, sweet sweet honey mustard, and OBV the biggest draw for any meal, BACON! Additionally, one of the cool things that you can do is throw on some extra veggies or whatever onto your sandwich. I take full advantage of this by spicing it up with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and alfalfa sprouts (FTMFW). This total packaged yardbird is a force to be reckoned with. This total packaged yardbird however was not the foe that I would be fighting today though. Instead I get the bastard child of this almighty beast. Chicken, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and sprouts. and LIGHT ON ALL OF IT! It's like a prisoner crawling out of a POW camp: Unbelievably thin, weak, battered, stripped of it's core identity(read: apples, blue cheese crumbles, spinach, fun), and horrifically sad.

This was my sandwich. Ugh.. obviously it was still good because that's how the spicy pick rolls, but what could have been... if only.

2. Wow. Things were quite the train wreck this past week, all over the place, but today is a gorgeous day and despite #1's terrible sounding attitude, I am without a care in the world because it's so awesome. Scheduled an impromptu massage this afternoon, everything is awesome outside, Nugs play tonight at home and we had best deliver a hurtin' on those bitchass CP3 loving Hornets (p.s. I still love you Chris Paul, and I know you're reading this) and life is wonderful. Should also be finishing another book today. Weeeeeeeee! Read! Do it for the kids!

BOOM! I'm back!

So I'm back!

Some events in my life have transpired since last I wrote in this decrepit old blogger format. In the next month or so everything will be migrating to a much better set-up overall, so be on the look out! (For you blog nerds: wordsmith >>>> blogger)

Anyways, a few new things, a few old things, a few things to ponder, and some goals and ambitions that I felt like sharing.

So in no particular order:

Goals! BOOM!

-I'm going to start reading about 200 pages a week. I have only added to the amount of books that I have to get through and my current rate of a few pages one every so weeks will simply not cut it. So edumacate yo ass in a hurry.

-I'm going to start writing in this bad boy at least once a week. I live an interesting enough life to fill volumes upon volumes. It is more about the connecting pen to paper (figuratively) that is the issue.

In my own mind, I'm pretty terrible at writing. However, the process overall is very "therapeutic," and I'm not going to improve by sitting on my ass doing nothing about it. So the plans are to increase this output like whoa, and revamp the whole setup so that it doesn't look like some kind of amateur hour.

-I have a decent amount of life goals coming up. I've chosen not to write them down here, but I've recorded them elsewhere, but the premise is that I've set aside the next 6 months of my life to get some shit ironed out, quit the job, and go vagabonding on an adventure. The goals are set, the destination is not, so any suggestions, comments are welcome.

This all developed out of seeing many of my peers choose to shed away the ordinary and opt for an interesting and exciting stretch of their lives. Aside from being seriously impressed and a touch jealous, I got down on myself for not choosing to take some time and do something like this myself. You live once, so fuck it, anyone can sit behind a desk for 40 years. Hell, some people even enjoy it, but I think that it is really self-limiting and not something that I want to see myself fall into (yet).

(slowly bleeding into ambitions)

-Time to set this shit up. Over the past 6 months or so that I have been looking to take control and redevelop my life, I've discovered a few things about my role as a leader amongst my peers.

It actually came to me this morning on the way to work as I was listening to something about the leadership roles:

"It makes me think about the idea of having mentors or having heros. These are people that have already been through all kinds of traumas and wounds that they've learned from and they can kind of donate some of their intuition to you. Actually think about, if you have a hero who you've never even met (you don't even have to meet this person), they can be supplying you with material to fill your boundary with. Character."

"The more wisdom you demonstrate the more leadership society gives you. So you get more freedom to make even bigger decisions. The more wisdom you demonstrate, in other words a good balance of both ethics and intuition, the more rewarded you are by society with leadership opportunity because you're so wise, so as a result you get to rise up in some leadership position, you get more freedom than you had previously."

While the context of some of those words and relationships mentioned might not be completely understood in this form, it hit on a really interesting point for me.

While, I don't consider myself to be a leader in many regards, I find that I am fitting into that role for many different groups of people. So instead of shirking this role, it's time to man up and grab it by the scrotum. Borrowing some of the terminology from the quoted material above, by doing this, I'm going to be putting myself in more win-win situations (and more win-win-win situations as Michael Scott would say) which is really a byproduct of mature decision making. So instead of shying away from the responsibility for whatever selfish reasons (win-lose) it's time to step up and really take an active role in the enrichment of the lives of those around me.

Whew.....

So in summary, time to be more the man, and let other people know it, so that I can offer them this "character"material. (If you understood none of that, me writing it in these terms is more for me, I can explain it differently on a personal basis, to you if you'd like.)

.

.

.

Some old/new stuff.

Since we last got together, I've finished another book, "The Modern Gentleman" and managed to start a few more (bastards!). I'm actually most of the way through one of my fresh additions and full plan on finishing it this weekend, because it's REALLY interesting. Statistics is a field of study that I have always found close to my heart. It's a lot more fun to learn through gambling than through textbooks, and this strikes an interesting medium of practicality, and science that is a common trait of many of the more academic books that I enjoy. Hopefully that will keep the massive reading list at bay for a bit. (Sidenote, I had an interesting dream this morning that is pointing me which book(s) to finish next, so maybe this mass of text will actually start shrinking instead of growing until it gets to a manageable size. Currently I think about ~4000 pages of stuff on my immediate plate.)

Without looking back, I believe that since my last post a lot of things have happened:

A Superbowl, spring break, my roommates have gone touring across the southwestern United States, St. Patrick's Day, a seafood cookout at my place for the ages, April fool's, Lent!, and a slew of other interesting things that I may at some point return to, but what is here and now is my newfound, and completely unhealthy, obsession with Lady Gaga. Which leads me to the truly interesting part: the insanity that was last weekend.

There are many people that I consider friends, but some of the absolute best came out last weekend for a weekend of laughing, dancing, drinking, partying, suits, top hats, canes, a movie premiere, total shenanigans, old friends, HOT DAMN!, new friends, foot touching, gambooooool!, p-salad, André, 1 unfortunate but hilarious facial, One Fitty Fun, Bizz kegs, more laughing, some die, some dice, women decked out like Whoa!, triple kisses, lots of Gaga (often leading to spontaneous dance parties), soooo many pictures, prom poses, supermans, piggyback rides, mustaches, NHIE + CPV, "shots" of GoldSchlager, Either or, Mongostraws!, a cab ride?!, bastards, ET, a dance off, some serious DTF'n, a punch in the face, blindfolds, espionage, LIT's, socks on hands, a speeding ticket, 3 overtimes! and all topped off with the W&B to the RR-Combo. Wow.

The conclusion is that I was unaware to so many of the muscles in my body could hurt at once form having so much fun. If I could do that every weekend, I'd die within a year and die a happy man.

To all that participated. Congratulations, you're a part of something truly dastardly and memorable. To all that were unable, look over the pictures and live vicariously. Just ask me for them.

____________________________________________

That brings us to the present:

Tonight! (Yes, tonight!) My buddy, El Gaupo, has a birthday that should sprawl us across the greater drinking establishments of downtown Denver. My roommate is also signing a major record deal and we're going out afterwards to celebrate! He shaved himself a mohawk last night in celebration(?) and so between the bday crew and our post signing drinks I'm expecting some enjoyable times. Lock it up. (championship!)

-J

Asher Roth

Holy astrixes!

****!

I finished another book! Like whoa!
The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis (author of American Psycho), also coming out as a movie in April of this year apparently...

I gotta take some time and do some serious updates, but for now I'm pleased to be making a small dent in that massive stack.

Reading? Books? Seriously? Who does that?

Strangely, last night I decided like it would be a good time to start kicking some serious ass on my reading list. Sadly, aside from the Watchmen (sick nasty btw), I can't remember the last time that I actually finished a book, which translates into a couple thousand pages of make up work on books that I have started.

Luckily, I picked up IV, which I had started over the summer and was really just expecting to pound out the last 150 pages just to be done with the damn thing. Instead, I had left off right before some really cool shit, including this hilarious excerpt from "Three Stories Involving Pants" in the "Some of These Things Are True" section:



The following was a hilarious excerpt:

This might be one of those stories that ultimately ends with the narrator saying, "Well, maybe you had to be there." However, it remains the coolest story that anyone ever told me, primarily because virtually every element of the narrative (a) makes no sense whatsoever, and (b) remains mostly unexplained.

My associate Brenda and I were desperately in need of marijuana, and we couldn't find anyone in Fargo to sell us some. This was often a problem, but it was especially pressing during the middle '90s. As a last gasp, we decided to visit Brenda's recently unemployed cousin Sharky, a thirty-three-year-old goofball iconoclast who was regarded by Brenda's family as something of a black sheep. Sharky lived in downtown Fargo, directly above a bakery; his rent was roughly $90 a month.

Upon entering the anachronistic apartment, it became instantly clear that Sharky-regardless of his bad-boy reputation-was an incredibly sweet guy. It was also clear that Sharky was never not stoned. He sold us some drugs at an incredibly cheap price, and the only thing he asked was that we "hang out" for a few hours, which we did. We drank Sunkist soda and talked about music (especially the lesser-known works of Iron Butterfly) and about Sharky's vast VHS videotape collection (specifically a bootleg tape called Acts of the Unspeakable).

When Brenda and I finally got up and began to leave at 2:00 A.M., we noticed that Sharky had an apple green zoot suit hanging on the back side of his front door. The suit was small (I would estimate that the inseam of the pants was somewhere in the vicinity of twenty-four inches), but it remained in remarkably good condition. So just before we left, we asked Sharky why he had this apple green zoot suit.

This is what Sharky told us:
Several weeks previous, it seems, Sharky had been walking home from a downtown Fargo tavern at a little past midnight. As he left the bar, a little old man wearing an ascot suddenly emerged from the shadows and stopped Sharky on the sidewalk.
"Would you like this suit?" the little man inquired, holding the outfit in Sharky's direction.
"Why would I want your suit?" Sharky replied.
"I have to get rid of my clothes," said the man. "It's free. There's nothing wrong with it. I just need to get rid of it."
"Why?"
"What difference does it make to you? There's nothing wrong with this suit."
Sharky examined the garment.
"It looks small," said Sharky.
"Well, it's a free suit! If you don't want it, just say you don't want it." The little man grew agitated. "You know, you're not the only person in this city who I can give this suit to."

Somehow, this logic worked on Sharky: he accepted the offer. The little old man thanked him curtly and disappeared. Sharky continued on his way home, his right index finger around the claw of the metal hanger and the green zoot suit slung over his shoulder.

Three blocks later, two police cars suddenly pulled alongside him and turned on their flashers. This made Sharky understandably nervous, as he was holding six ounces of pot in his pants (and was drunk, and he had smoked two joints in the bathroom of the bar). However, his nervousness changed to confusion as soon as one of the cops began questioning him.

"Is that guy back there selling suits out of the trunk of his car?" asked the cop.
"What?" Sharky replied quizzically.
"You know exactly what we're talking about," said the other policeman. "That old man you were just talking to. Is he-or is he not-selling suits out of the trunk of his car?"
"I don't understand this question," said Sharky.
"Is that guy selling suits out of the trunk of his car? Yes or no?"
"Well, I don't think he's selling suits out of the trunk of his car. Maybe he is but I don't think that's the case." Sharky was now recalibrating his reality. "I mean, I don't think he even has a car, you know? He just gave me this suit for free."
"Why would he do that?" asked the officer.
"I'm not sure. That was my question, too. I didn't even want this suit, really."
"Then why'd you take it?"
"Because... well, you know. Free suit."
"So you just take clothes from people you don't know?" asked the policeman. "Does this happen to you a lot?"
"No!"
"And you didn't pay him for this suit?"
"No. He just gave it to me. I don't think he's selling suits out of the trunk of his car. I really don't. You should arrest him if that's the case, I suppose, but I don't think he's selling suits to anyone."

Quite suddenly, the police officer's social posture completely changed. "Well, okay then. Sorry to bother you. We just had some reports that an older gentleman was selling vintage apparel on the street. It must be somebody else. Sorry. We really apologize for hassling you."
"Oh, no problem," said Sharky, now relieved (but still confused). "And actually, that description sounds a lot like the guy that gave me this suit. Do you need this suit as evidence? You can take it if you want."
"No, no," said the cop. "Keep it. You should take a free suit if you can get it."

The officer got back in his car, and both police vehicles left the scene. Sharky walked the two blocks back to his building, hobbled up the flight of wooden stairs to his $90 apartment, hung the green zoot suit on the inside of his door, and went to bed.

When he woke the next morning, he saw the suit on the door and realized that this had not been a dream. That realization completely blew his mind, so he decided to immediately smoke more dope and not leave his apartment for the remainder of the day. Which is why he missed work, which is how he got fired from his job at the bakery, which happened to be located directly below his apartment.

And this is probably why Sharky was unemployed.

I first heard about Klosterman when I was 18, because my buddy Ty had just picked up a copy of his book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. I read it (or most of it anyways not sure if I finished) and thought it was cool, but didn't really get a lot of the references or really understand what he was getting at. Honestly, I think I liked the title more than the actual book itself, but having just finished IV I'm fairly convinced I would have hated that too at 18. Hell, I even hated it for a little bit while reading it at 23. However now things are different, by the bitter end, things all sort of came together and I saw it all in a new light. And I really like a lot of where he is coming from.

Klosterman poses some really interesting questions and I will certainly need to share some of his thoughts on monogamy later on... maybe a few other issues/questions too, but that will have to wait for another day. Time to power through some more of this gigantic stack of books that is steadily collecting on my nightstand. Anyways, 1 down, 13 or 14 to go... for now...

Fuck. (/Sweet.)

-J

Last night + TV recap

So last night had a few big things planned...

My buddy Improv had a show for his recently released album at the Marquis Theater in Denver. He has been a good friend of mine for many years now and has always been awesome at pretty much everything that he touches because of his awesome work ethic. After spending at least the last year of his life dedicated to this album, Omotion, it is finally out! (You can check it out here!) Also as I mentioned in my last post, last night featured the season premiers of LOST and Lie to Me.

So I get home with enough time to check out the first hour of LOST before we head out to Improv's show. The roommates and I meet our buddy Bobcat down there and go to check out the show, as we roll up around 9:15 (he told me that they would probably be playing around 10ish) we hear that he has already played, and since we weren't interested in any of the acts other than him we ended up not getting tickets and headed to a bar across the street.

That bar, The Retro Room, is pretty cool but for some reason never seems to be busy ever when I've been there... On Wednesdays they used to have free beer from 9pm-10pm, but I guess they changed it to a variation on flip night where you play a hand of blackjack with the bartender and if you win you get your drinks for free. Kinda cool, I bought the first round after patting a 19 vs. the bartender's 2/5 after a running A/3... I played for Cokes because he doesn't really know what to do and we won after catching a 7 on our 13 vs the dealer's Q who actually had Q/2 and peeled a 6. and I busted my last beer of the night.

The bar is actually half of a salon (that half is closed off at night) and although small is pretty chill and has a good atmosphere... usually... For some reason on some of the TV's including the main one, they were showing the movie Caligula on mute, which falls somewhere between hardcore porn and rated R. Weird. Anyways Prov ended up meeting us there and explained how he got fucked by the promoter and ended up having to play first right as the doors opened before anyone even got there... but he played his set and seemed really pleased with his performance so props to him!

Headed home and finished up LOST. Wow. This shit is bananas! Going to be a fucking awesome season and I can't wait til next Wednesday... So much craziness!

Lie to Me... ehhh kinda a let down. I don't really know what I expected going in, but I felt like they really overplay the body language thing. Granted that is the basis of the show, but having television actors try to mimic the would-be-natural reactions of their characters while the camera zooms in to accentuate the "reaction" just seems forced and sometimes outright fake. My other main gripe is that it doesn't seem as well written as most of the shows that I like. Ugh... I will give it another ep or two (and maybe watch it before I watch LOST) to get a better opinion.

-J

Been a while...

Well it's been a bit since I got down to jotting some stuff so let's fire it back up.

Things have been kinda slow since the beginning of `09, but that's alright, quick recap:

New Year's Eve - Good time, headed up to Boulder and got to party with some of our close friends and a few girls. It was a great time and this picture pretty much sums up our night, although things got much more ridiculous, but let's leave that in `08.

TV - I'm pleased that TV is returning finally. 24's new season is looking alright so far, The Office returned last week, tonight Fringe comes back. and tomorrow LOST returns as well as what could be a good show, Lie to Me*. I like Tim Roth a lot and it seems to have some potential. As for the premiums, Flight of the Conchords' 2nd season officially started this Sunday, and I was recently introduced to Summer Heights High, which I found immediately likable. Jonah is good enough to carry the show solo, but the other characters are also entertaining.

Football - Pittsburgh vs Arizona. I am in all likelihood headed to meet up with some friends in the Poconos for this. It's something that I am actually really looking forward to and happy that I will be able to make it. As for the actual matchup, I like Pitt to win, but I think it will be a less exciting matchup than this best offense vs best defense hype. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Other life - Govnr's Park. is. fuckin. awesome. Sweet bar 4 blocks from my house we hit it up Saturday night and I was equally impressed with the atmosphere, food (open to 12, maybe later), big ass mugs, and a good number of attractive ladies around.

That's all for now, time for some Summer Heights High.


-J