IBM Bowling League: Semi Finals!

NEW UPDATE!

Tonight is the last week of the 1st half in the IBM Bowling League.  At the end of the year, the team that wins the first half will play the team that wins the second half for the championship.  (If it happens to be the same team, they're automatically declared the league champs.)

Our team will be going into tonight tied for 1st place with another team.  We actually had a two game lead on them last week but lost to the same team 1-3. :( Tonight we will play them again because it's the position round week.  If the two teams are still tied after the end of the first half, total pins will be the tiebreaker, which I am happy to say we hold.  Winning the first half is not essential for making the championship game, but it's certainly comforting to get the placement out of the way.

So yep, BIG MATCHUP tonight!  Have to win at least 2 of the 4 points!  Gotta BRING IT and show up with my A game! It's going to be exciting!

12/9 UPDATE: Our opponent had one of their players prebowl last night (prebowling is when you know you cannot make the game at the scheduled date so you bowl your 3 games ahead of time).  In the first game, he bowled a 163 with his 118 average, so we quickly found ourselves down 45 pins. :/ However, one of our bowlers had a monster game, a 247 with his 177 average and we were able to overcome the deficit and take game 1!  We then needed just one more game to secure the first half victory. 

The second game was very close.  Our team was down 31 points and I had a strike going into the 10th frame.  To overcome the 31 points, I needed absolutely needed a strike first and then at least 6 pins on the next throw.  I ended up throwing two strikes in the 10th frame and we were able to secure the second game by 15 pins. :)  We were then in the clear, knowing we had won the first half and could relax the rest of the way!  We kept the intensity up for good measure and ended up taking all 4 points (31-17 record for the first half) and yours truly threw a 604 series.  It's a great feeling to have clinched a birth for the championship match!

Tucson Poker Pub: Semi Annual Finals Tournament!

NEW UPDATES! AFTER DAY 1 AND DAY 2!

The Poker Pub is an organization that hosts Texas Hold 'Em games throughout various cities across the nation.  At certain establishments throughout Tucson, nightly free tournaments are held and are open for anyone to play.  When I play, it's usually at the Frog & Firkin on Tuesday nights.  I go because my friend Lucky has a lot of friends who play there, so I just come along to throw some cards and have a few drinks.

If you're fortunate to win one of these free tournaments that usually range anywhere from 10-20 people, you get an invitation to play in monthly qualifiers for the semi-annual finals tournament.  The more open tournaments you win, the more chances you have to play in these qualifiers.  Then at the qualifiers, the top-25 players out of about 80 are given an invitation to the semi-annual finals.  What's good about the semi-annual finals?  Well there is $8,500 worth in prizes and a chance to win some WSOP seats!  Also the pure bragging rights of being able to beat several good poker players from your town.

So back in July, I won a tournament at the Frog & Firkin.  You can view my player card here: http://tucson.thepokerpub.com/user/87575

They gave me a ticket to play in one of the monthly qualifiers at Clicks Billiards and I made the top-25 cut.  So now the Semi Annual Finals Tournament is finally here.  Opening day will be at 2pm on Saturday, December 3rd at the Cactus Moon and the top 80-120 players will advance to day two on Sunday.  You can view more about the tournament at the Tucson Poker Pub's home page and you'll find my name in the Excel spreadsheet regarding chip counts.  Yeah, you can earn more starting chips by entering more monthly qualifiers and making the top 25 or placing in the top 10.  I did the bare minimum, which is 1 qualifier and then 1 top-25 cut.  Lol.

So anyway, I'm looking forward to playing some poker tomorrow.  I'm not really intimidated or anything; at my last experience at the 80-person qualifier I didn't really think anyone was outplaying me.  In any case, feel free to wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes!

After Day 1, 112 players out of 190 remain.  I started the day with 13,000 chips (they had an additional 3,000 you could buy for $3 and it came with 2 jello shots, so that was kind of a no brainer).  6 hours later and after about 70 players were eliminated, I hold 117,100 chips going into Day 2.  At the beginning of the day, about 7,000,000 chips were in circulation, so I am well above the 62,500 average chip count.  Onward to Day 2!

Day 2 was held at R Place Bar and Grill.  About 14 tables remained and a lot of poker was left to be played.  I bought 3 jello shots and 10,000 chips for $3 and started playing poker.  The day was an up and down rollercoaster for me.  The first hour I struggled to make any money, but I eventually found myself involved in a very big hand.  I had KQ and raised pre-flop to 10,000 with 2 callers.  The flop came out 7, 10, K.  The first player bet 10,000 and everyone called.  A King came on the turn.  Check, check, and so I bet 10,000.  One player raised it to 50,000.  The other player folds and I sat there for a while thinking what could beat me...did he have AK? Maybe pocket 10s.  Such a big pot at this point in time, if he has AK or 10-10 I'm beat.  I make the gutsy call.  The last King comes on the turn.  The other player goes all-in and I insta-call.  He had 10s, which gave him a boat on the turn, but I had caught quad Kings on the river.  It was an enormous hand and I'm so glad I called his 50K raise.  My opponent was a good sport and praised me on making such a gutsy call to see one more card.  I quickly found myself among the chip leaders after that point, holding around 300,000 in chips when the average is around 115,000.

A couple hours and tables later, I find myself in another memorable hand.  Holding A5, I'm raised preflop to 25,000.  Some back story on why I called with this hand.  The hand just before me I held AQ and was going straight up with a guy who had A5.  Neither of us hit anything on the flop or turn and I had been pushing him hard to try and get him to fold.  He made a good read, caught his 5 on the river and I was beat that hand.  So I decided to give A5 a try for myself heads up with the person who raised me...anytime you have an Ace heads up you're in good shape.  Flop comes out A, A, 9.  I check, he bets 50,000.  I stop to ponder a bit.  I've got to be out-kicked at this point.  I make the call to see another card, hoping to pair up my 5's.  An Ace comes out on the turn and I know I've got the nuts.  I slow-play my hand Emmy Award style and he pushes me all-in with his pocket 8s.  I insta-call again and he gives me props for the play.  I'm now sitting with over 600,000 in chips and people are definitely starting to talk with and about me, realizing my strength as a player.  It's a good feeling.  I also get labeled as the Boat-Killer since I crushed two boats with quad Kings and quad Aces.

At 10pm, about 7 hours later, I find myself at the final 2 tables with 20 players to go.  It's getting late and even the coordinators realize that they need to start wrapping this up.  The blinds start to increase more quickly, forcing players to play tighter.  I struggle to catch any good hold cards and the hands I played were failing to hit.  I soon find myself getting blinded out slowly and am now one of the short stacks now, but there are also only 11 players left.  The top 10 will make up the final table and also be in the running for prize money.  Another short stack pushes all-in and I'm holding pocket 8s.  I said aloud to everyone, "Would suck to be 11th huh?  Nobody wants to be that guy hehe."  At this point, everyone really respects me as a player and how I go about my business: very respectful, friendly, and professional.  I had gotten questions earlier in the day about what I do for a living since people recognize my polite demeanor.  Sure, I had gotten some bad beats or people had called me when I felt they shouldn't have, but I never insulted them, never raged, and never found myself on tilt.  I was honestly just having a great time playing poker and meeting people in a tournament where on Day 1 I honestly knew one person and it was Nick, who organizes the events.  So I said, "You know, I'm not in it for the money.  It's just been a lot of fun playing these past couple days.  I'll call."  I'm up against A9 with my pocket 8s and he eventually hits his Ace and I'm knocked out as the 11th place out of 190.  Had I made the final table and gotten at least 10th place, I could've made $25 or even more.  But at that point, my luck at the final 2 tables had run out and I knew even if I tried to wait for someone else to get knocked out, I wouldn't last long.  It's also true that I'm not in it for the money.  I could honestly take out $1,500 for a WSOP seat tomorrow and not even notice.  11th place got me a free drink offer, lol.

I had a lot of fun playing in my first ever multi-day poker tournament.  Some people think I'm crazy to have played 14 hours of poker for nothing, but to be honest, I never got tired or made bad plays from exhaustion.  My game was always strong the entire time.  I just had fun playing cards and in the end it was great entertainment.  If anything, I'm just sad it ended so late at 11:30 pm because I couldn't go to the gym to work out anymore. :(

Rolling for Niños!

On Friday night, I was invited to participate in an exclusive charity event: Rolling for Niños.  The event is an annual fundraising charity bowling event where several business founders and owners come together to bowl for Casa de Los Ninos and the Boys and Girls Foundation.  There were a ton of sponsors who each established a team to bowl and every lane at the Lucky Strike in Tucson was filled (meaning 32 sponsors).  I was invited through Ray Carroll, the supervisor for Pima County, who I will add is a very classy gentleman as expected.  I don't actually know Ray personally, but my friend Jen works for him and that's how I got involved in this event. 

I'll be honest, I didn't know anything about Rolling for Niños before I got there on Friday night.  I soon learned that they raised over $250,000 for the childrens' foundations.  I met a lot of Tucson famous people, such as Chris Edwards from Tucson Appliance and Greg and Eric Geile, founders of SuperPAWN.  In any sense, pretty much everyone there was a successful business owner or founder and apparently they all know each other pretty well.  I was selected to sub for any team that night who didn't have a full roster of 4 people.  They found me a home on Hudson team, which I guess is basically Stephanie Hudson being a baller and sponsoring the event on her own name, lol.  It was a team of three girls (all married with very expensive-looking rings) and so that was the team I would end up playing for.  I will also mention that they were probably the routiest and loudest of all the teams, but it made for a very fun night!

The event included a 3-game set.  The first game was normal scratch bowling, the second game was 9 no-tap, and the third game was 3-6-9.  The girls bowled games close to 100-120 each game.  As for me, I bowled terribly the first game, only recording 130 pins and I was very disappointed in my pathetic showing.  However, the second game I bowled a 241 and the third I bowled a 189, securing to a 180+ average fo the night, which is close to my league average of 190.  For the record, a 9 no-tap game does mean every 9 on your first ball is made a strike, but even with that freebee, I only took advantage of it once, recording 6+ natural strikes in the game.  In fact, I really could've used the 9 no-tap in the first game where I got tapped 6 times, lol.  Finally, a 3-6-9 game means they automatically give everyone a strike in the 3rd, 6th, and 9th frames, so everyone's score in the third game was skewed up.

Our team didn't win that night and the team that took home the championship bowling pins was actually the team we bowled against in the next lane.  Either way I had a really fun time meeting and hanging out with all these either important or successful people, all of which were really nice and friendly.  Did I mention I got free beer and pizza all night long too? Can't complain with that!

At the end of the night there was also a raffle for various donated prizes.  There were several $50 gift certificates to fancy restaurants around Tucson, tickets to Diamondback or Wildcat games, but some of the best prizes included an antique guitar, an iPad 2, and a 42" LCD TV.  Raffle tickets were $20 a piece, or you could buy 7 for $100 or 20 for $200.  I only bought one, which didn't stand a chance to the several people who easily took the $200 deal, but there was big money in the house and it was probably like nothing to them.  Sadly I didn't win anything, but had I won that TV I honestly would've given it to my friend Jen who got me invited to the event and who's been hoping to get herself a new flatscreen TV anyway. :)

I also got to take home the shirt I'm wearing in the picture above that has the "Rolling for Niños" patch on it and it sounded as if they wanted me to come back next year, which would definitely be an honor.  For one night, I actually felt like an 'important' or 'successful' person and it honestly felt really cool. :D

iPhone: How to Create Ringtones

Creating your own ringtones for your iPhone is fast and easy - and it can actually be completely free too!  The process may be well-known already, but I am writing a quick how-to-guide for my own reference, since I eventually forget if I haven't done it in a while.

How-To Guide: Creating a Ringtone from an MP3 for your iPhone

Note: I have done this on the iPhone 2G and 4G and I'm pretty sure it would work for any model.

DISCLAIMER: If you follow my guide to create your own ringtones for your iPhone, you do so at your own risk. I am not liable for any resulting damage or expense.  I do not work for Apple nor am I affiliated with the corporation in anyway.

STEP 1:

Select an MP3 you wish to convert into a ringtone.  This may be a clip from a song or a sound downloaded from the internet.  http://soundfxcenter.com/ has several sound effects to chose from if you're browsing for something in particular.  Keep in mind that you want to keep your ringtone reasonably short and you may have to use a software tool such as MP3 DirectCut to clip a section from the original MP3.

STEP 2:

Add the MP3 to your iTunes library. Select the MP3 in the playlist and go to Advanced and select Create AAC Version.

STEP 3:

If you are using Windows XP, locate the newly created AAC file.  It is usually located in the My Music folder, which is located in My Documents.  From there, go to iTunes > iTunes Music.  You'll then find subfolders for the Artist and Album, which could very well be titled Unknown.  Here's the full path for example:

C:\Documents and Settings\[User]\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Unknown Artist\Unknown Album

If you are using Windows 7, you can go to Libraries > Music > My Music > iTunes > iTunes Media > Music.  Here's the full path for example:
C:\Users\Andy\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music

STEP 4:

Now that you've located the AAC files on your computer, you need to rename then.  You'll probably want to show hidden extensions for filetypes to make renaming them easier, or if you're a novice, I think it should still show up when you right-click on the file and go to Properties.  The file should currently have the extension .m4a.  We need to rename it to .m4r.

STEP 5:

Next, locate the iTunes ringtone folder.  This is also in \iTtunes\iTunes Music\ and it should be a folder name "Ringtones" or "Tones".  Move the .m4r file to this folder.  Here is the full path:

C:\Documents and Settings\[User]\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Tones

Once you've moved it there, simply open it and it'll be added to your Ringtones within your iTunes program.

STEP 6:

Sync your iPhone and you should be good to go!

This process is very simple and the best part is, it doesn't cost you anything.  Hope it works for you and enjoy!

RE: PAndyX

It's been over 90 days since I've added P90X into my weekly workout routine.  You may recall from my blog that I altered the program to fit my lifestyle and needs, which basically came down to me continuing my own lifting and basketball schedule at the gym and doing just the cardio-type workouts on days where I don't lift or play ball.  Really it comes down to 7 DVDs that I just rotate through: Plyo, Yoga, Kenpo, Stretch, Core, Cardio, and Ab Ripper (this one is so short, I don't know if it should really count hehe).  In addition to the P90X, I was also trying to change my eating habits by splitting my meals into several small portions throughout the day in an effort to increase my metabolism.  90 days later, how did I do?

In terms of the P90X, I've really enjoyed it so far.  The workouts are pretty intense, but it's the convenience of being able to do them at home whenever that really makes it great.  I still think 3-4 games of 5-on-5 basketball at the rec is a better cardio workout, but I feel better about myself when I do P90X on days that I wouldn't have been doing anything in the past.  In the course of a week, I will end up doing 2 days of lifting at the rec, 1-2 days of basketball, and that leaves 2-3 days of P90X.  Thursdays are always an off-day now since I have bowling league and I'm trying really hard to not drink during NFL Sundays so that I can work out after the games.

In terms of my diet changing, I did a very good job in the beginning of breaking up my meals and eating half portions every few hours.  However, I felt it very constraining on my schedule in the sense where I couldn't always have my meal when I should.  For example, It'd be 4pm and I'd have a meal, but then I wouldn't be able to leave the office until 6pm, but I'd be planning on going to the gym after work.  That means I would have to eat after the gym, which could be as late as 8 or 9pm, a couple hours later than I wanted to eat.  I constantly found it difficult to cater my lifestyle around this diet and eventually I gave up on it.  However, I will say that getting into the habit of just eating less during each sitting carried over.  I will eat my 2-3 bigger meals throughout the day, but they certainly aren't as big as they were before.  Instead of ordering two burgers for example, I'll just go for one burger and maybe fries if I feel extra hungry.

With that said, it's time for the results.  I tried copying my friend Matt from his P90X Results Blog.  Below are 4 sets of poses of me with my shirt off (oo-la-la!) and me on the left in blue shorts is before and the green shorts is after.  In summation, I didn't really notice a huge difference from PAndyX.  I didn't lose any weight and my waistline maybe went down half an inch at most.  Oh well, mentally I feel like I've accomplished something at least!

IBM StarCraft 2 League

A couple weeks ago, an IBMer at IBM Tucson googled the words "IBM" and "Starcraft".  One of the results led to my blog and e-mailed me telling me about a league for StarCraft 2 that he was organizing for him and his friends at IBM.  Before he found me, the league had only been on for about 3 weeks.  I joined their channel one night and decided it'd be fun to participate in a work league for StarCraft 2.  With my help, I was able to recommend other IBMers who play SC2 and they grew from 11 people to 16.

After the assimilation of new recruits, the league has put together the "October Classic" season.  It is comprised of 4 pools that contain 4-5 players each and will meet every Wednesday from ~7pm-10pm PST.  Tonight is the season opener and the first time I'll be playing a match in the league.  You can find the complete bracket online at challonge.com.  The first 3 weeks will be round robin pool play and at the end of the each month there'll be a single-elimination tournament with seeds based on the outcomes of the round robin play.

In case you're wondering, the IBMers we have so far mostly comprise of mid-level skill (Silver through Platinum) and there are just a small handful of Bronze and Diamond+ players.  I was selected to the highest pool, which is comprised of only one other Diamond+ at the moment - Steve (a.k.a. GreatArchon).  Steve and I have been playing against each other for quite some time with about a 50% split.  I guess you can say him and I would initially be the favorites to win the season, but hey, never doubt any player!

But really this is just an opporunity to have a fun yet organized league among friends and coworkers and I'm looking forward to playing some fun matches!

Some People Just Flat Out Suck

I was driving home from the gym tonight and made my way north up Stone coming from 6th street.  While driving up Stone, a white sedan from behind me is going at least 15 MPH faster than me in a 30 MPH zone, swerves around me, and nearly hits my car as he changes to the lane next to me.  I'm pretty livid since he came so close and he pulls up in the left turn lane to turn west onto Speedway.  I'm sitting in the left turn lane behind him also waiting to turn and I look at the guy's license plate.  I actually memorize it real quick, but really there's not a whole lot I can do about this asshole...if only there were some way to report him.

When the light turns green, he turns onto Speedway and quickly speeds ahead, literally driving like a maniac and swerving around cars.  Then, at the next intersection, I see in the distance a car getting hit from behind and smoke coming out of it.  The white sedan swerves around some more traffic, runs a red light, and speeds off toward the freeway.  I turn on my emergency signal and pull over to check out the damage and make sure the victims in the totaled car are alright and fortunately no one was injured, just a bunch of car damage.  I get on the phone with 911 reporting the accident and they send out an ambulance and a police car.  At first, the lady on the phone tells me that they can't take a report for a hit and run if there are no injuries, but I go ahead and give her my contact information as well as the number on the Michigan license plate I memorized earlier.  She also tells me that there's not really much they can do if there's no ID on the suspect, something that I couldn't provide.  Fortunately, there was another witness who saw the man driving the white sedan and could ID him.  The ambulance soon arrives and I try to help them move the car out of the street, but this honky, old grey car just won't budge.  After that, they let me go since I've provided just about all the help I could at that point.  Them stopping traffic so I could get back onto the road was a pretty cool, VIP-ish feeling by the way. :)

Later this night, I'm sitting at home watching my boy Weaver pitch against the A's and I get a call from an officer.  He asks for a description of what I saw and I basically tell him everything that I just told you.  He tells me how much it helps them that they got a license plate number from me and I wish them good luck.  It's funny, I sometimes think about what I would do if I were a cop.  I'd be the hardass who would pull you over and try and put you behind bars, but usually I only think about that as I'm raging right after someone on the road just pissed me off.  Tonight, I feel like I was actually able to help thanks to the rage I had after he almost hit me, which led me to memorize his license plate.  I'm also really lucky that it wasn't me with the totaled car instead.  Ugh, some people just flat out suck. :(

Kyle's Entry: Me Catching Up

During my near one-month hiatus of blogging, Kyle constantly texted me to update my blog with blogworthy items.  So here you go buddy, this blog is for you!

Texas (August 18-21):

The weekend after my birthday, I traveled to Texas to visit Kevin, one of my buddies from college.  Kevin left Tucson for Denton to work on his PhD in psychology and some 4-5 years later, I finally got a chance to go visit him out there.  Before this trip, I've never actually been to Texas or even driven through it, so I was really excited to have someone to visit in this state.  I always thought Austin would be the first city in Texas I'd see (I hear crazy stories about the nightlife there), but the Dallas:Fort-Worth:Denton "Golden Triangle" area was pretty good!

I arrived at DFW airport Thursday evening and we started by getting some good ol' Texas barbecue at a hole-in-the-wall type restaurant called Metzler's (pictured above).  One of the things I really enjoyed about this trip was the inexpensiveness of it.  Kevin has similar tastes as my own, so the places we went to eat not only featured really good food, but it was fairly cheap too.  And when we went out at night, we didn't go to expensive clubs with covers and over-priced drinks, we instead went to dive bars and sports bars...which leans more towards my current taste in nightlife. :)  With that said, Thursday was a great start to my vacation 'cause we went to a couple chill sports bars in Denton Square and I got to enjoy a great pitching duel between Jered Weaver and Colby Lewis: two starters from my fantasy baseball teams at the time.  I also proceeded to demolish Kevin in corn-hole (a.k.a. bean-bag toss) 21-3 and 21-6. :D

Friday was more of our sightseeing day.  After grabbing Freebirds World Burrito (the successor to Chipotle burritos), Kevin drove us out to Dallas to check out the city and since we're both big sports fans, we actually learned that the Cowboys offer self-guided tours of their new stadium for only $17.  I had never actually done something like this before and it was actually pretty cool despite the fact that I don't really like the Cowboys.

I got to check out the ridiculously over-sized jumbotron, the Cowboys locker-room, and we even got to see the Cowboys scrimmage during practice against the Chargers.  There was also a Troy Aikman sighting and we were sitting in seats along the sideline where he was only several feet away.  Troy is still in phenomenal shape might I add. Why did this guy retire early again? After touring the stadium, we decided to check out some more of Dallas including downtown and Deep Ellum, one of Kevin's favorite collection of dive bars in Texas.  Our night ended with watching Telegraph Canyon perform a concert at Dan's Silverleaf bar. Apparently Denton is home of a lot of up-and-coming bands and this band is one of Kevin's favorites.

Saturday was a fairly chill day where we went to Riprock's, which is the bar that sponsors the Denton rugby team that Kevin plays on.  I got to meet the girl he is dating who not only is the blonde bombshell type, but she's smart, can actually talk sports with us, and plays video games too, like FPS-type gaming even.  In other words, I was pretty jealous of Kevin's find and I really hope he can lock her down. :) Very good job buddy!

Since Saturday would be my last night in Texas, we drove out to Fort-Worth to visit Kevin's grad school friend Courtney.  He claims that his group of grad school friends is actually a lot bigger then who I got to meet and that I just happened to be there on a weekend where everyone was out of town.  Uh huh, suuuuuuure.  Just playin'!  Anyway, the three of us checked out Sundance Square in Fort-Worth, which is the nightlife neighborhood. It was pretty much like any other collection of bars and clubs and likewise, I had a good time. :)

There wasn't really anything left to do on our list for Sunday, so we spent the day engaged in many 1-on-1 Madden battles on the XBox360.  Back in the day when Kevin used to live in Tucson, we would play a game of Madden before we hit the clubs every weekend...Madden was just one of our things so it was fun to play vs him again while I was out there.  On Sunday afternoon, Kevin introduced me to a round of disc golf, which is basically what it sounds like.  Instead of golf clubs and golf balls, you throw a disc (it's like a small frisbee) from the tee area and try and eventually sink it into a chain-link basket.  Like regular golf, I sucked, but Kevin was actually really impressive.  Not surprising to me because he's always been pretty good at the things he's passionate about, sort of like myself. :)  That basically concluded my trip to Texas, which officially ended with me getting one more burrito at Freebirds.  I'm serious, it's better than Chioptle and if it ever reaches Arizona I will be one happy eater.  It's nice to cross Texas off the list of states I haven't been to yet, but I would go back.  Just not during the summertime if I can help it 'cause that heat+humidity is gruesome!

Peyman Visits me in Tucson (August 25):

The Thursday after I got back home from Texas, Peyman visited me in Tucson for a night.  It had definitely been a few years since he last visited me in Tucson, so it was nice of him to think of me as part of his annual 2-week west coast summer vacation that also included stops in San Diego and Flagstaff.  Peyman arrived in town around 6pm and we caught up a little before I had a fantasy football draft for EC's $200 league.  He actually watched me draft my football team and I think I picked the New York Giants as my backup defense just because he was around. :) Later that night, I took him to the popular restaurant that has been featured on Man vs. Food: Lindy's on 4th.  He absolutely loved the burgers and I was happy I could take him to a place that would be unique to Tucson itself.  Lindy's was an easy choice 'cause it would also put us on 4th ave, which is basically the only good nightspot to go on a Thursday night.  He had been to 4th before, so I took him to the places I go now which are the not-so-overly-crowded bars like O'Malley's, but places like Skybar and the Shanty.  The night was a good collection of sights and events, meeting up with Kirstin and Teqas finishing up trivia night at Bumsted's, playing Big Buck Hunter at Che's lounge with Teqas and Jonny, or dancing with Brooke and her friends at Club Congress.  Overall, it was a good night and I'm glad someone from out of town visited me!  I don't get too many visitors anymore with all my friends getting married or in serious relationships these days. :'(

Hashing (August 27):

My friend Chuck has been inviting me to try hashing with him.  However, he'd always invite me the day of and of course I'd already be hungover or have something else planned.  In case you don't know what hashing is, it's basically a group of people who walk/run and drink beers at designated pit stops.  A few people, known as the hares, create a 3-4 mile trail that no one but the hares know.  The group has to follow markings on the ground such as chalk symbols or flour or rice to the final destination and along the way, there are stations where there is beer to take a break and have a drink.

Since I was a hashing virgin, I didn't really know what to expect.  I did know that my house was going to be a stop since Chuck was one of the hares for this hash and wanted my house to be a station along the trail.  There are two types of hashers: walkers and runners or also referred to as the turkey trail and the eagle trail.  The turkey trail is a straight shot to each pit stop and eventually the final destination whereas the eagle trail will have several paths and could make you end up running in circles.  Either way, both parties would end up at the stops around the same time.  I was a turkey for this event since the friends I went with weren't really into running.  I still considered this a workout though since trekking this trail of about 4 miles required some energy.

About 50 people showed up for this hash, which I hear is a huge amount.  Usually it's only 15 or so people.  The trail started at Estevan Park at Main & Speedway and along the way we had beer stations under a bridge near the I-10 and at a small chinese market called Johnny's by the El Rio golf course.  Some of the memorable moments during this hash were walking through sewage tunnels lol and watching everyone climb the wall alongside a huge wash.

The trail actually ended at my house, which wasn't supposed to be the final destination but became it when it got late by the time we got there and everyone was kind of tired.  It was also kind of scary to have 50 really loud hashers outside in my backyard from 8-9pm, but fortunately it was early enough were my neighbors weren't really bothered by the raucous party.  It was however pretty funny to see that many people back there singing and dancing to their hashing traditions and initiating virgin hashers including yours truly.  It really was an eclectic group of Tucson locals and I actually really enjoyed myself.  Hashing is definitely something I will consider again!

Exploring Southwest Tucson (August 28 & September 1):

My friend Lucky lives in the southwest part of Tucson.  In terms of driving distance, it's west of the I-19 and south of the I-10 and a good 20 minutes or so from central Tucson where the popular nightlife is.  Lucky is a great friend in that he drives out to visit his friends in Tucson and never complains when people don't go to his side of town to visit him.  Granted there isn't a whole lot to do in his area, I recently wanted to make an effort to check out his side of town more and make it more convenient for him for a change.  Our mutual friends didn't participate in these recent excursions mostly using the "it's too far" excuse, but fortunately, Lucky shares the same "Make It Happen" mentality that I try to hold up to.  (Kyle, I know you're gonna knock me down for not coming to tailgating when you guys were in town, but I was pretty hungover that day from partying so hard the night before and just wanted to rest. I had honestly forgotten about the U of A game, or is it not forgetting when you don't follow your alma mater's sports...lol, hmm.  You know I'll be out there eventually!)  Anyway, on the last Sunday in August, I drove down to Lucky's house, which is really only 15 minutes from my house so I can't see how anyone can complain about it being far.  It's a pretty quick drive.  We played some Madden before we hit up Casino Del Sol for some Pai Gow and Blackjack action.  Lucky broke even, but I didn't fair very well, but I did learn Spanish 21 while I was out there, a game I still can't decide is broken or not. :P We also ate at Moby Dick's cafe/restaurant while we were there and I was really satisfied with the food and the price.

Later that week on Thursday, I again visited Lucky on his side of town and we checked out Salud, which Lucky had heard hosted ladies' night on Thursdays.  The look was pretty much what we expected and how do I put this lightly...let's just say the girls were exotic and had a little bit more to love if you know what I mean.  I don't know if I'd go back based on the lack of talent, but it was nice to get two free rounds of shots from Lucky's ladyfriends who were working there that night. :) After Salud, we checked out some real dives by the airport.  First was Airport Inn, where I was drunk enough to be overly ecstatic about the true diveness of this bar and I sang some karaoke to the tune of Toby Keith's 'I Ain't As Good As I Once Was'.  Our final stop of the night was Palo Verde Bar & Grill, which I think had 5 people inside when we got there, but it was actually fun because we all just started talking to each other along with the bartender.  I will mention that the bartender gave us another round even though we didn't ask for one and I think that put me over the edge where I wouldn't be able to drive home the rest of the night, but that's okay, since I was in Lucky's side of town, he offered to be the DD for the night; I just had to crash at Lucky's house for a change.  These Tucson excursions were pretty fun for me, I think I just like checking out new places and being around some more wholesome people. :)

IBM Bowling League (September 8):

Not only was yesterday Opening Night for the NFL, a season I am very eager to watch, but it was also the first night the IBM Bowling League met.  Usually it would be the first week of our season, but over the years, there has been a gradual decline in participating teams.  When I started, there were 12 teams in the league, but it would drop by 2 teams every year until this year where only 4 teams remain. :(  Pretty unfortunate that the league just doesn't get enough advertisement and interest now.  So yesterday was mostly for a league meeting and our league is scrambling to establish at least 6 teams in order to be a league. :/ I honestly just want to bowl, so I guess if there won't be an IBM League this year, I would just find a league somewhere to be a part of.  Of course, I'm partial to IBM League because I know people, but hey, gotta do what you gotta do.

Ahhh!!! Where have I been!?!?

Yikes! 1 blog entry in August is not enough!  I have been up to a lot, but the problem is I like to blog when I'm at work and there's downtime.  When I'm at home, I never really have downtime.  There's always something I want to be doing be it watching a sports game, playing video games, or watching Netflix (which I recently subscribed to).  In other words, I guess I'm busy at work lately and I just need to find time to blog.  Don't worry, it's coming though.  I have much to update with things like a Texas trip, Peyman visiting me in Tucson, and my first hashing experience.

I will say that I am super-excited for the football season that starts tonight!  Bowling league is also on the horizon: tonight is our first week and league meeting to determine if there'll even be a league with the lack of teams.  Updates coming soon!  Hang in there Kyle!!! :D

Birthday Blog!

I just want to say thanks to everyone who came out for my birthday in Tucson.  The Fox and the Hound is one of my favorite bars in town and I know it's a bit far for some, especially those who live on the eastside.

This birthday was just want I wanted: nothing too crazy, having all my good friends around and me being able to exercise my drink card. :)

At the age of 28, I'm very happy with life and where I am right now.  I live an almost completely stress-free life thanks to a wonderful career and great friends and family.

I haven't been up to a lot of blogworthy stuff lately (lol at Kyle) but that will change.  En route to Texas today!!! :D

Me: Live on twitch.tv playing StarCraft 2!

So you might recall from some of my previous posts that I'm really into this game called StarCraft 2.  StarCraft 2 is a real-time strategy game that is currently one of the most popular multiplayer games online right now.  It is probably the top game in the eSports gaming era at the moment and there is a huge fan and player base that encompasses tournaments being held worldwide and the gameplay being casted online.  There are already several players who cast themselves playing the game on a livestream...Team Liquid provides links to several of the current top SC2 players in the world right now.  I myself love watching livestreams of games and decided that I'd give livestreaming a try.

For the last week I have been learning how to stream gameplay to the popular website: twitch.tv.  I learned a ton about streaming in the process and am proud to say that my stream is ready to be shared with my friends and the world.  I know I'm not the best gamer out there, but I can definitely hold my own (I won the online tournament for Red Alert back in '99).  I'm just hoping that streaming my games can be a fun experience for myself and anyone who becomes a fan of me.  I know there are professional StarCraft players out there who are 100x better than me and I am not putting myself anywhere close to their level...but if I did, wouldn't you want to be a part of it? :)

With that said, feel free to check out my game at http://www.twitch.tv/atrain64 and like my fan page on Facebook. :D I welcome all comments, suggestions, questions, and to an extent, insults, lol.

New Toilet!

I'm not much on home improvement (I bought my home in 2005 and it was remodeled at time of purchase and thus doesn't need much work), but every now and then there are things that need taking care of.  I recently replaced the toilet in the guest bathroom, which was really old from over 10 years of use.  I ended up installing a CADET3 by American Standard and I'm pretty happy with the results so far.  I almost don't want to deuce on it 'cause it looks so clean and nice.  I'm also really proud that I was able to complete replacement all by myself.  I may not be Master League when it comes to improving bathrooms like my friend Matt over there, but I think I just got promoted to Silver League! :D

PAndyX

A few weeks ago, I mentioned how I was starting to feel fat and out of shape and thus was going to change my diet and start doing P90X.  I had been on vacations the last couple weekends, but finally got to start last night with the Plyometrics workout.  It was pretty intense and halfway through and I really started to get tired, but overall it was a great workout and I enjoyed that I didn't even have to leave the house for it.  (Thanks Matt for hooking me up by the way!)

I can't actually say that I'm doing the P90X program though.  My goals are to maintain my current lifestyle, but add P90X into the mix.  For example, I still lift weights every 3-4 days and play basketball on the days that I don't lift.  However, I don't play basketball on back-to-back days anymore, so if you do the math, that leaves several off-days where I'm not doing anything.  Those are the days I am reserving for P90X cardio-workouts.  I likely won't even touch the strength training videos since I have my own (not videos, workouts, duh!).  In addition to the workout routine, I want to maintain the same diet (which I altered a few weeks ago) that includes eating the same things, but eating them differently.  Also, you know I still like to party, so my drinking habits will remain the same.  There's also one more difference and that has to do with the 1 day of rest a week you get with P90X.  I don't plan on having a normal day of rest but instead will rest if I feel like I really need to.  I'm not worried about slacking and resting multiple days in a week since I've technically never stopped working out for 14 years straight.

For my body, the goals are simple.  Feel less fat and lose a couple inches off the waist.  People look at me and say, "you're crazy! you look just fine!"; but honestly I'm just not where I want to be and I don't want things to get worse.  That and I am crazy: I'm addicted to working out.  I'm not necessarily looking to regain the 6-pack abs I had way back in high school; I think I'd have to quit drinking to accomplish that. :) I just want to look slightly better and feel physically and mentally better as well and I achieve that by working out!

I guess I will still revisit my status in 90 days from yesterday, but just think of it more of PAndyX instead of P90X. :) See ya on September 26!

Another Celebration in Vegas

This last weekend I went to Vegas to celebrate my friend Kassie's 25th birthday.  She hadn't been to Vegas since she was 15, so to her, Vegas is very new and exciting.  For me on the other hand, I end up going a few times a year because Vegas just seems to be everyone's choice for celebration, fun, and excitement.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the company of my friends and love being invited on trips, but personally, the city of Vegas is really starting to lose its lure.  I am no longer excited to go there because I've been there so many times and I just don't find it as appealing anymore.  I will probably never get tired of gambling however.

We got to Vegas Thursday morning and stayed at the MGM Signature Suites, a hotel I've stayed in before, although this time we had two suites that were connected, so it was pretty ballerific.  The first day we walked a bit of the strip in 110 degree weather, probably not the smartest idea and we would eventually take a cab back down from Caesar's.  We kept Thursday pretty simple, but played plenty of Pai Gow and getting several long islands in the process.  We ended up at night at the Nine Fine Irishmen for some drinks, which is somewhat true to its name 'cause there were pretty much just men in there but they were neither Fine nor Irish.

The next day we hit up the Grand Pool which is pictured above.  FYI, if you want to look at talent, don't go to the Talent Pool.  The title is very misleading.  Instead, you should find your way to the Lazy River, plenty of good scenery to see there.  More gambling ensued throughout the day until dinnertime, where the mild drama started.  Chet and Kassie wanted to go to Shibuya at the MGM for teppanyaki and nice dinner.  At first, people were on board, but then it became a "I don't want to spend that much and would rather go to Hooter's across the street."  First of all, I committed to this trip because Kassie invited me to celebrate her 25th with her, so that's what I planned on doing.  The other 4 guys went to Hooters and I went to Shibuya with the 3 couples including Chet and Kassie.  The food was very delicious and was a full out meal (not good for my diet but oh well, it's vacation).  I dropped $192 on dinner because I wanted to buy the $65 bottle of Sake for everyone, and my bill turned out to be more than any of the other 3 couples', lol.

Later that night, some more annoyance ensued.  Chet and Kassie went to "The Bar at Times Square" in New York New York.  Several of the party had split, but I went with Jonny to go meet up with them and we paid $10 cover to get in.  Once inside, Chet and Kassie were sitting in an area where the bouncers wanted us to pay $30 cover to join them.  I texted this to Kassie asking if she wanted to come over to the bar area, but responded by saying "we didn't have to pay, you guys have to pay the $30 sausage fee" and then further indicated "that's why you need a girlfriend."  I was honestly offended at this point because 1) I only flew out here to come celebrate with you and 2) I don't need a girlfriend just so I can go into shitty venues in Vegas.  Anyway, Jonny and I decided to just split after that and we went to Dick's Last Resort at Excalibur.  It wasn't a great scene, but they played good music and I hit on some hot married chicks (they were the only good looking girls in the place).  At the end of the night, we stopped by Centrifuge at the MGM where we sat down at a table with 4 girls.  I continued to spit game only to see rings on their fingers moments later.  It felt like everyone in Vegas this weekend was married.

The next day Jonny and I were pretty hungover, so we didn't get out of bed until literally 4pm LOL.  Hangovers are pretty rare for me these days, but I guess having 20 or so drinks the previous day will do it.  Saturday was our last day in Vegas, but it ended on a good note.  Differences aside, we were able to get everyone together to go to Studio 54, the nightclub at the MGM Grand.  Vegas nightclubs are all pretentious, we already know this.  However, I enjoyed Studio 54 because there was no bullshit about getting in without an even ratio, the line was less than 10 minutes, and all 7 of us got in for free because we were hotel guests.  Inside, the venue is two stories and they played good music.  Chet went full out and got us a table and two bottles in the VIP area so we got to enjoy the nightclub like ballas.  You would think that would help attract the ladies but man, I just couldn't give away free drinks.  Since the VIP area was upstairs, you had to convince girls from downstairs to come up and have drinks with you, but that proved to be a very challenging mission.  I literally couldn't give away that free shit.  Out of everyone we asked, we were only able to get a group of 3 girls up there who in a total had 2 drinks.  More reasons why I think the clubbing scene in Vegas just isn't that great.

And so concludes another trip to Vegas.  Overall I still consider it a fun trip and I will probably be going to Vegas again at some point, I just really hope it's later than sooner.  I really don't want to go back in 2011 unless I have to.

I also just reread this entire blog and I am officially a grumpy old man at the age of 27.

Changing My Eating Habits!

On Saturday night, I put on the pants to my black suit that I bought a little over a year ago.  It was a bit tight and I realized, "damn, I'm really starting to let myself go aren't I?" Actually, I know I'm not as thin as I used to be in prime and I haven't had six-pack abs since high school.  And it's been easy to notice that my belly is definitely larger than what I think is ideal.  Anyway, when I measured myself after putting on those pants, I was a big 34.5" around the waist! :'( Granted I had just finished eating a large meal, but still...I felt very fat.  On Monday morning just a couple days ago, I measured 33.5", which is probably most accurate.

On the scale, I still weigh 177 lbs, which is close to what I've weighed for the last few years.  Nonetheless, my waist still seems too large for my taste and with my single-forever lifestyle, I need to look my best if I'm to attract any honies.  I've been known to be able to eat a lot in my history, being given nicknames like "The Bottomless Box."  So now I'm starting to really watch and control my portions.  In the past, I'd usually do 2 or 3 big meals throughout the day: Lunch around 2pm, Dinner around 7pm, late meal around 12pm.  After doing some research on eating habits, I'm now trying to split up my meals and eat every few hours: Breakfast in the morning, Lunch around 1pm, 2nd part of Lunch around 4pm, Dinner around 7pm, 2nd dinner around 10pm, maybe an after midnight snack if I'm still hungry.  I think the key is to just control how much I eat at any one time and not overeat even though I may be eating the same amount of food throughout the day.  Either way, I'm gonna give it a try!  So far it's been challenging to stop when I'm not completely full but still satisfied, and I do look forward to the next meal only being a few hours away!  I seem to have a ton of leftovers in the fridge now too, lol.

As for exercise, I haven't let up on that too much.  I still lift every 3-4 days and play basketball on the off days.  Unfortunately, my lower body just can't sustain the pounding from playing ball on back-to-back nights, so there are definitely days where I don't hit the gym at all (I think overall I'll go to the gym just 4-5 days a week).  Thus, I'm getting ready to explore the world of P90X, something my friend Matt has had great success with recently.  However, I probably won't do the whole 90-day program at once since lifting and basketball are still more important to me.  What I plan on doing is P90X workouts on the off days where I don't go to the gym at all.  That way I'll be constantly doing something active everyday, which is important with my sedentary job at IBM and playing all those StarCraft games at the computer. :)

So we'll see how it goes.  I measure 33.5" right now around the waste and I guess the goal is to lose an inch or two and just feel slimmer!  And hopefully date some cuties as a result!

Lindy's at Redline: My Death Wing Experience

The owner of the popular "Lindy's on 4th" restaurant in Tucson, that has appeared on shows like Man vs. Food, opened a another restaurant called Lindy's at Redline.  Like the original Lindy's OMFG challenge, there is a food challenge at Redline called Death Wings.  The wings are made with Lindy's Death sauce, which they claim comes from a small $200 vial that is pure ghost pepper extract.  The challenge is to eat 12 of these wings with no sides or drinks and finish in 30 minutes or less.  Here is a picture on Facebook of their menu.  FYI, most really spicy dishes are made with Habanero peppers that rate 300,000 Scoville heat units.  The ghost pepper is over a mllion Scoville.  As of this blog entry, there is no one who has completed this challenge, but Redline has only been open for less than 6 months.

I am one for spicy foods.  I absolutely love spice and have a pretty high tolerance for it.  I wasn't about to jump head first into the challenge, but I was very curious to sample how hot these wings were.  Lindy is no slouch when it comes to his food challenges, so I wasn't about to take this one very lightly.

My friend Teqas and I went to Redline to sample the wings.  We figured we'd see how the test drive goes, then decide if we want to buy the car another day.  There to support us were Wes, Jonny, Jen & Jon, Aaron, Ryan, Sam, and Vanessa.  Not many of my friends are into spiciness, so I was happy to have Teqas attempt these wings with me.  We ordered the dozen and signed a waiver before receiving the wings.  I found the last of the five lines of the disclaimer to be quite amusing, basically stating "I am not inebriated or trying these wings as a drunken dare."  Our server said no one had ever ordered the Death Wings in the few months she had been working there.  She wasn't even aware there was a waiver process.

The wings arrived and you could instantly smell the spice on them from afar.  The wings came with 2 plastic gloves that Teqas and I each took one of.  Wes also wanted to try a wing and took one before Teqas and I even realized.  After one, he immediately started yelling how hot they were and looked to be in pain.  I let Teqas try his first wing and then I tried mine.  At first taste it seemed really typical of any other hot wing I've had, but seconds later it hit me.  I was overwhelmed with hotness in my mouth and couldn't stop drinking my Guinness (I chose Guinness for it's thick, milky texture).  I was sweating and even almost started crying.  There was a table near us who were watching us try these wings and laughing in shock at how much pain we were in.  After the first wing, I honestly felt that I couldn't eat anymore, the pain was just too intense.  I kept thinking, wow, there are 8 more of these fuckers and it's all just gonna go to waste.  Teqas gave it some time and eventually tried another one.  Our friends passed us some ranch from the regular wings they had ordered.

About 10 minutes later (what for me felt more like half an hour), I felt like I was ready to try another wing.  I took a different approach than just eating the wing off the bone.  I used a fork to wipe off excess sauce and pry all the meat off the bone first and make a little pile of chicken.  I poured some ranch on it and then put it in my mouth.  The second wing was much easier and the ranch certainly helped.  I continued to work my way through wing #3, wing #4, and finally wing #5.  Teqas was also trying to put 5 wings down.  Jonny was the one who tried the 12th wing.  After the fourth wing I was really hurting.  I stopped drinking my beer but I was constantly sweating.  I am not one who sweats easily, but I soaked an entire napkin with my sweat.  I mustered up whatever strength I had left and put down the fifth wing without any ranch.

These wings were unlike anything I have ever had and I have had tried some really hot foods.  Teqas ordered a bowl of vanilla ice cream while I continued to chug down beers and water.  The ice cream tasted so great.  However, after I had finished just 5 wings, I began to shake.  It was like I had the shivers.  I never felt like I was going to die, I just felt pretty uncomfortable lol.  My friend Teqas' stomach started to feel upset and actually he didn't feel right for the rest of the night, not being able to pass out until 6am.  My stomach felt some burn, but a couple hours later I felt fine.  And to answer your question: Yes, the morning after I certainly had firebutt.

I don't know if I could ever attempt the challenge.  Considering how painful it was to get through not even half a dozen in what felt like an hour, a full dozen in half the time would probably leave me feeling like hell.  We did consider strategy and this is how I would approach the challenge:
1. Start by drinking at least a pint of warm milk before you get to Redline, preferably as close as you can get to before the challenge starts.
2. When the wings arrive, spend all your time peeling the meat off bones with a fork and/or knife and make a big pile of chicken meat.
3.  Down all the chicken meat in one fell swoop.
4.  Pray that you don't die 15 minutes later.

I'm really proud of myself for finishing 5 Death Wings.  After how badly we reacted after the first wing, some of my friends were saying, "One and Done!"  But Teqas and I rallied and we finished the entire plate.  Although I had to resort to scraping off extra sauce, ranch, and beer, I honestly feel like I accomplished something great.  Lindy's Death Wings are the hottest thing I've ever tried and I can now say that I finished five of them with pride!

Seattle: Round 2

A bit late on this entry 'cause I've been busy/lazy ever since I've been back, but time to write a blog about my recent trip to Seattle.  Actually, I had been wanting to go to New Orleans for the longest time and found some friends who at first wanted to, but then decided they wanted to go Seattle instead.  I obliged and visited the city with them for the first time since I visited Mike DEEE 4 years ago.  This entry won't have too many pictures because I didn't take many blogworthy ones, sorry!

We stayed in downtown Seattle at the Silver Cloud Hotel on Broadway.  We got the hotel by using Priceline's negotiator and this pick was the result of inputting $150- a night and 3.5+ stars.  It turned out to be a pretty good deal when we crammed 6 people into one room.  Yeah, 6 people trying to sleep in 2 queen beds.  Don't worry, I was okay with my trusty "no-sex wall" of pillows.

I got there on Thursday night to be greeted by the ladies (Jen, Vanessa, and Deanna) who got there a day earlier.  I quickly found the closest bar and caught the last quarter of the Heat-Mavs game: the game where the Heat blew like a 15-point lead in the last 5 minutes...UGH.  Anyway, the girls (who were dubbed the nickname DJV, which I then evolved it into DeJaVu) had met some guys from the pool at the hotel the night before and were planning on going out with them that night.  LOL, WTF.  How come they couldn't have met 5 girls at the hotel instead of 5 guys?  Figures...  Actually, these guys were pretty chill Hispanic Americans and I got along with them just fine.  We ended up going to Cha Cha Lounge that night to play Never Have I Ever, a game I DOMINATED because I am just that cool and exciting.  FYI, the winner is the person with the least number of things they have done and gets bought a shot by the loser, the one who's done the most.  We also stopped by Unicorn, a dive-ish and smelly bar and Havana, a nightclub which actually had some decent Big Band music to dance to.  Jen's boyfriend Jon would arrive later in the night.  I ended the night with Seattle's finest late night drunk food: Cream Cheese Dogs!!!

The next day, the 5 of us went to Pike's Place, the popular fisherman's market.  We ate lunch at the Pike Place Bar and Grill and it had some good clam chowdér (IT'S CHOWDA! SAY IT RIGHT!), but nothing else was really great.  I would later learn that we should've gone to the Crab Pot instead.

Vanessa's boyfriend Ryan arrived later in the day and at night we started at a piano bar called Chopstix.  Okay, so truth be told, I had actually considered moving to Seattle to find love.  Why Seattle?  Well, Seattle has a very strong asian population.  So I believe that girls that I'm typically interested in (e.g. non-asian and mostly caucasian) have to grow up with so many asians around and consequently they become more accepting and attracted to asian men.  If you've ever interracially dated yourself, you'd understand how challenging it is to overcome the interracial barrier.  So at this bar Chopstix, I saw this cute blonde with an asian guy and said "OMG! That could be me!"  Lol, this wouldn't get old the rest of the trip either.  After Chopstix, we headed to Pesos with some of Jon's friends.  One of them asked me, "So why are you on a trip with these other couples?"  Well, it wasn't initially planned like that, it just turned out that way.  I honestly don't care who I'm with on a trip as long as their good company and we have fun.  I guess I've just grown out of the phase where I need to be constantly hitting on girls and hooking up with them (e.g. 2010; lol, that phase went by quick).  Friday was kinda weird and a little drama-ensuing when Vanessa, Ryan, and Deanna literally ditched us to go another bar.  I was in the bathroom at the time this happened.  Jen knew they had ditched her when they were M.I.A. for several minutes, but she had faith, "Out of all the ones who left, Andy will come back." I did and she was happy that I wouldn't just ditch my friends like that.  Me?  I honestly don't care if people ditch me.  I figure if you wanna hang out with me you will, otherwise, go ahead and do your thing!  Although I did find it odd that you would coordinate a trip with your friends and not hang out with them there.  Apparently this is not totally uncommon...to each their own I suppose.  We eventually got home that night but Jen was super-hammered and ended up puking when we got back to the hotel.  Jon was taking care of her and I was craving more Cream Cheese Dogs, so I went to go pick up a bunch for everyone. :P

Drama aside, on Saturday we went to the Mariner's game against the Rays.  Props to Jen and Deanna for making it to the game given how hungover they were.  The game was a good one: 3-2 Rays and a save for my boy Farnsworth! However, I was extremely disappointed to see Evan Longoria leave the game. :( After the game, Jen and Deanna had to go back to the hotel and get some rest and recuperation, but the rest of us stayed around the stadium area to do some more drinking...like in the beer garden at the Pyramid brewery.  After the beer garden, we found Swannies 'cause we were planning on watching the Stanley Cup game.  The TV's weren't easy to see from the table we were sitting at, but it was still a good time.  The evening rolled around and we went to this bar called Double Header.  Very interesting because we actually got thrown out of the bar in a very polite fashion.  Apparently the bartender could "tell" when a group of people have had too much to drink and kindly asked us to leave.  I just don't know why he did it 'cause we were a majority of his business at the time and weren't causing a ruckus.  Oh well.  We walked back towards Qwest Stadium (it's right next to Safeco) and the U2 concert was going on.  My friends tried walking into the concert without any tickets (I pussied out) but they were denied.  So then it was on to Slugger's Sports Bar for another drink and then finally heading home.

Sunday was my last day in Seattle and I wasn't about to leave without having some asian food.  We went to Boom Noodle (Vietnamese) for lunch and I was very pleased with the Tokyo noodle bowl.  We kind of took it easy this day...checking out the local parks, the girls did some shopping, and we had ice cream at Molly Moon's.  Matt and Pamela, I recommend this place for you two since you two looooooove desert.  My friends asked me what I wanted to do on my last day and I honestly said, "I just want to catch the NBA game."  And so we did and I watched Miami take a 2-1 lead on Dallas. :) The rest of the series was very disappointing for me obviously, but 'grats to Dirk for finally winning a championship.  He really earned it.  We went to the Oddfellows building for some late-night dinner at Tin Table.  We also learned that they had ballroom dancing which looked kind of fun but I guess the couples weren't into that.

That pretty much wrapped up my Seattle trip, which was my kind of vacation.  Not big on doing a whole lot of sight-seeing.  I just like to experience the food, culture, and lifestyle, relax a bunch and hang out with my friends.  Next up is Vegas next weekend for Kassie's 25th birthday!

Speed Dating...FAIL

My friend is trying to establish a new speed dating service in Tucson.  Last night was his first event held at Gentle Ben's.  I decided to sign up, not necessarily expecting anything, but hoping to at least meet some new people.  I got there a little before the event was to start and had Wes, Teqas, Jonny, and Ryan there to support me.  However, the host (my friend) was nowhere to be found.  He arrived 30 minutes late only to notify everyone that the event had been canceled since half of the expected participants did not show.

He offered to refund me my money and instead I just had some food and drinks at Ben's before heading back to my place with my friends where we enjoyed plenty of hookah and Wii.  So instead of meeting anyone, I met zero people and went back to my place to drink, smoke, and play video games.  LOL, awesome! :) That totally sounds about right.  My friend said he'd try the speed dating event again in a month or two, but I'm skeptical now that he just doesn't have his shit together.  Oh well, at least I can honestly say I tried!

Wakeboarding & Camping @ Apache Lake

Last weekend Doug invited several friends to enjoy his annual Wakeboarding and Camping trip at Apache Lake.  Several of the big names were there such as Matt, Pamela, Jonny, Alex, Jody, and Kim.  I also got to meet some awesome people like Travis, Dennis, Alice, Cooper, Lynette, and JP.  I had missed this previous year so I was really happy that I was able to make it this time.

I have only been wakeboarding once last year, also with Doug, Matt, and Jonny, and my first time was pretty challenging.  I spent the entire day just trying to get up on the board but struggled mightily not being able to figure out the technique.  Towards the end of that day, I think I started to get the hang of getting up but didn't last on the board for very long...just a few seconds.  I left with very sore arms that day, a result of me incorrectly trying to pull myself up.  The quote of my first attempt was me wishing, "if I only had more arm strength."

I think the experience of me being so new and uncomfortable the first time made it less exciting to want to get out there again.  This time was much more enjoyable because I had learned so much from the first time and was able to start popping up regularly and at least give myself a chance to ride the waves.  I really felt comfortable sitting in the water before being pulled up this time around.  Once I got up, steering was certainly a problem since I have no experience in boarding of any sort, but by the end of the trip, I was able to maintain some good runs of over 20 seconds before crashing in the water!  Wahoo!  For me that is great progress and the feeling of actually riding on the water makes me look forward to the next chance I can get out there.

Camping was the other part of the trip (we were there 2 days, 1 night) and we just enjoyed great weather and great times with great friends.  Doug and his sister provided everyone with a ton of food.  I honestly felt like all I did was eat when I was at the campsite lol.

Overall I had a very fun time and I'm really hoping I can make it back out on the lake with Doug and friends a couple more times this summer!  It shows how much I've improved 'cause instead of having sore forearms, I was sore in the legs and abs, an indication that I was doing the whole "getting up" part correctly.  Maybe someday I can be as good at wakeboarding and wakesurfing as Doug or Matt!

No Repeat... :(

The IBM Basketball League championships were held last Wednesday, but unforutnately I was not crowned the winner. :( The first game was pretty close the entire time, but we started making mistakes and committing turnovers in the 2nd half and were eventually done in.  Since it's a double-elimination tournament and we had not lost a game, we had to play a 2nd game to determine the champion.

The 2nd game we started out really hot, jumping out to a 24-11 lead about 13 minutes into the game.  We were really pumped and needed to stay aggressive and not let the other team back into the game.

However, Jose's team is very quick and is in great shape and I feel like their stamina was the key in outlasting us and eventually coming back in the game.  To be honest, our team just doesn't have much depth past it's top 3-4 scoring options.  Depth plays a key role when your star players need rest or are being heavily defended and that's something our team really lacked this year.

My legs started to die at the end from giving it my all and it was Jose's team that came out victorious.  Our team still had a good season as it's always an accomplishment to make the finals, but there can only be one winner in this game.  I do feel like I come out firing very early in our games and help our team get out and ahead early, but then I start to feel selfish, so I try to get others involved and then stop taking my own shots later in the game.  As a point guard, it's tough to balance your own shot and your teammate's.

Next year I have strongly considered being a captain.  I feel like it will force me to take a larger role on offense and I honestly think I could draft together a strong team.  I know almost all the players in the league and their strengths, so I think it would be a good challenge for me to see if I can put together a team and lead it to a championship.  It's a thought, but I've led softball teams to championships and we all know I can put together a good fantasy team haha!  We shall see...