Set my pics free!

I received my MicroSD card in the mail today, so I can finally set free the pictures from my cellphone! They were taken, over the course of the last year or so. Here are a few of my favorite ones...
Chili cheers on the RV tour!

ODU driving range

Sunset Cliffs in San Diego




movement

On the way for a much needed carwash, after birds destroyed my car in like a one hour time frame...

rolling a cigarette...


no hands

"Knocked Up"

Yesterday, a co-worker of mine (a major movie fan) hooked me up with 2 free tickets to see a sneak preview of "Knocked Up." The theater was packed, more than I have ever seen. The movie was absolutely hilarious! I wasn't sure, going in, what to expect (Rachel didn't expect much). I think I can say we were both pleasantly surprised by how funny it was. The plot was pretty basic; a loser/stoner guy successfully 'slams' an up and coming news anchor for E! news, on a one night stand, and gets her pregnant. She decides to keep the baby and well, that's the rest of the movie. It is a comedy, maybe even a "romantic comedy" however, never did it get too stupid in it's comedic appeal or too mushy in its romanticism. It was totally over the top vulgar, crude and crass, but funny all the way through-as soon as the sappy parts started getting too sappy, the laughs followed in perfect time. A rollicking, laugh roller coaster of a movie NOT starring the usual suspects these days (Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, etc.) Lots of great lines, shock value, and funny, well scripted scenes. I can safely say that I would have paid money to see this movie. If I had to assign a grade, as The Cronington Post does: B+

Starts June 1st-go see it!

Stuck in traffic

Today I read a short piece in the New Yorker, regarding a planned initiative from Mayor Michael Bloomberg regarding the ever present issue of traffic congestion in Manhattan. He proposed congestion pricing- charging for the use of certain streets at certain times. As I understood it, this won't be put into place for quite a while but, it has proven results in places like London and Germany. Despite inevitable criticism, it sounds like it could be a good start to the problem of traffic congestion in big cities like New York (particularly in the global warming sense not to mention stress and road rage). From the article,
"The basic idea behind congestion pricing is simple: make motorists pay to use the busiest streets. Under the Mayor’s proposal, an invisible line would be drawn around Manhattan from Eighty-sixth Street south to the Battery. Vehicles crossing this line on weekdays between 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. would be charged a fee—eight dollars for cars, twenty-one dollars for trucks. (Those travelling only within the congestion zone would pay half price, while taxis and livery cabs would be exempt.) The fees would be assessed electronically and could be paid either with a toll pass or over the phone or the Internet."
You can read the full article here. A good Sunday morning read.

candids

two

drinkers

still life

Fly on a wall

To me, this is super rad. A (seemingly) private conversation on Pete Townshend's tourbus with the Raconteurs, including a impromtu song cover. Whatever. Maybe you care... (part I)

maybe you don't. (part II)

I think I need to go listen to The Who right now...

art du déplacement

Hey everybody let's Parkour!

Out on the weekend

On Friday afternoon, we set out to Richmond, for dinner with Dave and Kristin...

Saturday Rachel and I enjoyed a leisurely stoll around Old Town including lunch at the Fish Market, where they serve 32oz. schooners the size of her head!




Later in the day after exploring on the Potomac River and a birthday dinner at home, we headed out for the main event, a piano performance at Westmoreland Church on the DC/Maryland border.

It was a little boring, at just about two hours, but it was amazing playing and it made my dad happy...

Then, today, we woke up with all intentions of heading to Fredericksburg on our way home for lunch and more exploring. I decided to call Rory just to see if he was still going to Kings Dominion (as he had said was planned a day earlier). It turned out he was only 20 minutes in front of us on 95, on his way with Jessica and their two friends! Let's go! I hit 90 miles an hour in Rachel's Mini Cooper and we were there in about a half an hour.


The weather was perfect and there were barely any lines all day on most of the rides! It was incredible, like I've never seen it before. You could practically just stay on some of the roller coasters for multiple rides. But Rory had never really been on any roller coasters before and as his first one ever, Jessica suggested the Volcano; an insane "launch style" coaster that totally freaked Rory out! She figured it would make him think he could conquer any other coaster, but the complete opposite happened. He just wanted to "sit around and drink beer with his friends." (Most of us just rode the rides with or without him, anyway). To give him credit he did the Log Flume, and the White Water Rapids (and got soaked) and a few others. Most of the water rides weren't open yet. Bumper cars was awesome; we did The Rebel Yell, The Hurler, The Italian Job, Flight of fear, and several others.


(Oh, Rory did jump this trashcan in the park, which was pretty awesome...)


A wonderful end to an pretty relaxing awesome weekend.

Dad is cool

Tomorrow my dad celebrates another year. He is already older than most dad's I know, which I suppose is something I have gotten used to over the course of time. When I was younger I used to be embarassed about how much older my dad was than everybody else's dad, but as time went on I just accepted it and started to think it was cool. My dad is truly an amazing person, and has so much to do with who I am today. He instilled in me important values and always reminded me that the things that truly matter in life are those of "truth and beauty." He believed that people should strive to talk more about "ideas" and not just "other people." He is a lifelong musician and maintains a zest for the life of music to this day; still attending recitals, concerts and annual festivals on his greatest passion- the piano. My dad is always calm, reminding me frequently, in times of doubt or worry, to think, "Will any of this matter 100 years from now?"
Tomorrow is my Dad's 78th birthday. He was born in 1929. He still plays the piano everyday and reads more than anyone I have ever met. An active and well man of wisdom and experience, my dad is the kind of dad I would like to be someday.
On Saturday night Rachel and I are going to attend a recital with him at Westmoreland Church, where he was an organist (despite being a self admitted "heathen") for 23 years (before I was even born). It's the least I could do for him, being that I have never actually been to the church in which he spent so many of his younger years. In his earliest years in DC, my dad used lived on Connecticut Avenue and paid $90 for rent!

Enjoy this... NOW!

Happy Earth Day

Wine on the water! mmm... romance!

oh, and this is a hint of what awaits you skaters from elsewhere, when you come and visit me...

Temp and I skated this morning and it was shockingly not too crowded.
Edit: Oh shit! Temp made a short edit of today's footage!

YouTubin' my life away

This is the movie I came up with reflecting my recent San Diego trip. Watch it if you want. It is a bit longer than I had intended and a bit random, as it is comprised entirely of digital camera clips, on the go. It is not as entertaining as the front page videos but it is my own documentation of what happened on the trip. You've been warned. If you don't like it, then maybe you should go check some other blog (or just go own your own vacation!) Again, as a disclaimer, this video is probably going to bore you a little but whatever. I had fun and I am not responsible for your life.



If you pay attention to skateboarding than you might have recognized the chain bank in the video. Now, if you like, you can watch Tom Penny's epic part below, where he wrecks them. Then perhaps you will have one of the following opinions (or a partial of all):
A) Tom Penny is a super talented amazing skateboarder.
B) Brendan sucks worse than you thought on a skateboard since he only ollied in the bank!?
C) The chain bank looks really hard to skate since all Brendan did was ollie into it.
D) Brendan should have known better than to have even tried to skate the chain banks, as they have been "closed down."

mormoremore

Eddie took these...



Eddie took pictures with his finger in the way on purpose. Then we went to the beach to have a drink and watch the sunset by a fire.

Sunset cliffs

oh! look what just happened to be carved into the cliffs...

jumps for joy (and being on the edge of the world!)

Orange flavor colored mirror sun shades.


The reason I am soaking wet will be revealed in a later video...

edit: that video can be found here.

Satur.day

shuffle board!!

Happy Birthday Nathan!