Sunday, February 19, 2012

Mardi Gras, St. Louis

Sitting here, I eat a bowl of cereal which I wold much prefer be a plate of something meat based, and not this flake type product—the kind with the dehydrated fruit that there is never enough of—that I eat to maintain some semblance of a balanced diet. It is a moment to reflect upon the long day before spent of the alcohol laden streets of Soulard on a Mardi Gras, which culminated in one of the most delicious meals of my life. The kind of deliciousness that only happens after a long day of reckless abandon and exertion, coupled with the decision to have not eaten a single thing during 10 hours of wakefulness.

Having walked far too far to avoid shuttle fees, and spent more time in line for a bathroom than watching a parade, the morning's primary victory was the procurement of a scarf found abandoned on the street. Memories of a club and a dance floor are vivid, including a scene in which I became the temporary star of the floor—whether through bold moves or more likely some sort of inebriated flailings that enraptured onlookers, I don't quite know or care—while nobody I knew was nearby to confirm this moment of glory for a man who traditionally considers clubs not his sort of thing.

It was the closing of the day that highlighted it. A meal at a small diner in Overland, by the name of George's Diner. It is the sort of diner that the Waffle House chain is based upon, and it befuddles me that this sort of place still exists. The sort of place that was supposed to have long since been crushed by corporate America. A sole cook mans the operation, and she seems to know every single patron that is not me. As me and my friends converse at the counter, she chimes in with the sort of blunt profanity that we had been reserving, thinking wrongly that this sort of behavior would be considered uncouth. Serving flattened burgers made on a griddle dating back to the era this diner should have existed in, the combination of unadulterated grease and grilled onions awakened an unrealized hunger, and a lasting memory and craving for that sort of fulfillment that far overshadows the charlie horse, bruised knee, and unexplainable limp from the hard day of merriment.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

My Amusing Wikipedia Post of the Week, Hosted and Edited by Jacob V. Gardner,

My friend Jake decided to start putting these on his blog...he has decided to take trivial information, websites, or articles I send to him and post them for his reader's—possibly "readers'—amusement (primarily from Wiki, I suppose.) I suppose that, eventually, he will start linking to this site and my twitter, seen below.



Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Hat Update

I exchanged the hat today. The manager tried to feed me this and that about how they are hand made and that is how some of them come. Point is that for a $40 hat there should be some quality control involved and I expect an appreciable product. He still wasn't entirely convinced that it was offset, but he let me exchange it after a minute or so of debate, possibly just to get rid of me and move on.

I was doing to looking into the matter last night and had a short correspondence with Paul, who writes The Ballcap Blog and provided some useful info.

"Hi James,

This is a very common problem, especially with caps made during the season such as this World Series cap. The problem is mainly that the production is rushed. There was a time when (up until recently), New Era would repair defective caps for free, but they stopped last year. You're better off returning it. Always check to make sure the seams on the outside of the front panels are in the same place on each side of the visor (brim/bill) stitching.

Hope that helps,
Paul"

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Does this hat look messed up?



I have been going through some sort of ordeal trying to get the right size of a Cards hat I got for Christmas. I wasn't expecting that I would get a fitted 59fifty, was just hoping for a $15 snap back, and got lucky. After exchanging it for a bigger size, I decided that the guy at Lids convinced me to get one a smudge too big. I went back and got a 7 3/8 instead of the size 7 1/2. Now, after looking it over at home, I have decided that the brim is off center, and am trying to figure out if I should again return it.

I wonder if it is normal for these hats to be this much off. Notice the how the seems on the hat line up to the seems at the left and right edge of the bill in visibly different places.
More pics here.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

















I got this bicycle last april or so, Have been riding it, it is pretty Icool and so on.

I decided to try an experiment and make my own cotton bar tape. I bought some strips of canvas from the fabric store and hemmed one
side of it so it didn't frey. The other side didn't need the hemming because it would be covered by the overlapping. It has an old innertube under it for cushioning and has had a couple coats of shellac for protection. It feels/rides just like the stuff you buy from the bike shop.
It is visibly a little poorly done here, especially with all the electrical tape. Some of the is because I was experimenting with the multiple colors (shoulda sewn the separate colors together) and because it is a rough prototype, I'll do it right later.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

What I am doing now

To be honest, only using this to follow other blogs, and to still have my business cards be worth something

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

What's up

Over a year and two college transfers later, I log on. I don't know why.

I find I have two followers of unknown origin. Anywho, I think I'll try to do something with this over Thanksgiving break. Maybe I'll think of something to put down; I also have ideas of some sort of creative work using recorded dialogue, but I have never claimed to be a creative type (that is very certainly a lie, though I do not currently claim to be a good creative type).