When I finally start earning real proper money, I wanna get a neon orange Freelander I have been told by Landrover owners that this is the best for me as it's the girl's version.

Nah. The Freelander is for hairdressery girls. You need a neon orange Defender, Lettuce.

this one is quite sweet, although the suspension is a bit weak. But you can always jack that up.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUPER-91-J-DEFEND ... 3361b4974a

[Blazingmonga]

When I finally start earning real proper money, I wanna get a neon orange Freelander I have been told by Landrover owners that this is the best for me as it's the girl's version.

Nah. The Freelander is for hairdressery girls. You need a neon orange Defender, Lettuce.

this one is quite sweet, although the suspension is a bit weak. But you can always jack that up.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUPER-91-J-DEFEND ... 3361b4974a

Agree on the Freelander thing. I see a lot of them, fresh and clean and with alloy wheels. They shouldnt come under the 'Land Rover' title, more like 'Urban Sprawl Meanderer'. Defenders are where its at. Especially ones with snorkels.

Timothy Olyphant on The Office.

There's a guy there shitting gold coins...

small part of huge painting (google: hieronymous bosch)

Seconded. The Wire was awesome from start to finish.

This pear I'm eating.




Pears. They fucking rule.

Jim Carrey's website.

http://www.jimcarrey.com/

Stephen O'Malley. Excellent musician, and nice in person.

Having Amber round yesterday to make hair extensions

[Octillus]

haha you crazy British kids and your special effects.

On another note...

I'll be honest, I'm probably the first to admit that I'm not the hugest baseball fan in the whole world. I mean, I played in little league when I was a kid, and I genuinely think it's a fun game to play. I got really disenfranchised with the steroid thing, just as I was getting into my "FUCK EVERYTHING" phase of my early teens.

When I talk about not being the hugest fan of baseball in the world, I mean I don't usually really care who plays, who wins who loses, etc. But I love visiting new baseball stadiums of every city I've ever been to, because in a baseball stadium you see a slice of what this particular American city has to say about themselves, and the same with the fans. Football fans, hockey fans (though I love my ice hockey), and basketball fans all love the sport, but they don't represent their city in the same way that baseball fans seem to cut across all demographics. So far I've been to AT&T Park (probably the most beautiful recent park in baseball, sitting right on the San Francisco Bay), Petco Park, Wrigley Field (my maternal grandfather lives two blocks away. it's breathtaking), Cellular Field (my maternal grandfather's friend and neighbor, ironically is one of the 100 investors that owns the White Sox), Oakland Coliseum (2 dollar day games on wednesdays coupled with 3 dollar beer!), Angel Stadium, Dodger Stadium (yuck, what a festering shithole that place is, sure it's got some history but who cares about the LA version of the dodgers anyway ) Yankee Stadium. and one other that I'll get to.

But then there's my paternal grandfather.

My grandfather and I have been close for a long time, and in March of 2009, my grandmother passed away, and pretty much shattered our family. Things, were not, and have not been the same since, and well to be honest as close as my grandfather and I have always been, being that he's an 80-year-old curmudgeon, we don't always have too much to talk about. What we do have to talk about everytime we talk from March-October is baseball. In particular, the San Francisco Giants.

Now, my Grandfather has been on the west coast since the 60s, but prior to that he grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. If you know anything about baseball, that's Red Sox territory, and my grandad, not unlike me is more of a fan of the game than a fan of legends and legacy. That said, one of the most emotional moments in my life was on my odyssey last year, working around the country while working for Nintendo, going to a Red Sox game and visiting my grandfather's former seats from his 1955 season tickets. Then to actually get to sit behind home plate on benches that have been in place since 1918. I don't care if it's just a meaningless game, that's a piece of American history, and a memory that I will always cherish. However, in the words of my grandfather, "I never look back," and while he was happy for the Red Sox to finally win the world series, he has been on the west coast for nearly 50 years, and so he, like his grandson, roots for the Giants.


Let me tell you about the Giants. The first game I ever went to of any sport was a San Francisco Giants game when I was 5 years old at the old Candlestick Park. That place sucks, gets ridiculously cold, and is a bitter memory for all of those older than me. But holy crap did i have fun, pretzels with melted cheese, time with my grandparents and watching the crowd move and react to all the various cues for crowd participation. I'm not sure if the Giants won that day, but I do remember the ride home, and my baseball cap I got from the shop. The Giants just years prior had participated in a world series with local rivals the Oakland A's (whom I root for when they do well, but I wouldn't really consider myself a fan of) during that time a terrible disaster occurred. Northern California was rocked by the worst earthquake we've had since San Francisco burnt to the ground in 1906. Parts of the bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco collapsed, and people died. Players helped fans in the stadium to safety, and in my hometown of Santa Cruz, our entire downtown was leveled, and my grandmother was trapped in a building that used to be a department store named Leask's. All in all, no one in my family was hurt, and I was really too young to remember a lot of this, but the tremors and shaking and my mom holding me in the bathroom are still my earliest memory. Kinda a side story, but tangentially related, and since I'm rambling and nostalgic right now, hey, I'm allowed.


But back to the Giants. As I hit my teen years, baseball revealed itself for what it really is, you know a corrupt system of drugged out millionaire athletes making money off of fans who are only close in proximity to the team and therefore the only valid connection to be shared is entirely illusory. I was so disenchanted with the game, and it really, really, really broke my heart. It took me a while to come to the cultural conclusions that I stated earlier in this post, and during this time arguably the biggest asshole and greatest Giant ever to play, the ever expanding 'roided out Barry Bonds broke pretty much every home run record. Bonds hated pretty much everyone, and will die a bitter lonely millionaire with an empty void in his heart. Why do I tell you this? Because the first game I went to at AT&T Park, was just a throwaway day game in the summer, where my friends and I rallied around where the players came on and off the field. Bonds trots out, and we ask him for his autograph. His response? "50 bucks." What a fuckin loser, man.

I was over and done with everything sports, and ESPECIALLY baseball. And then something funny happened. In 2007, my then roommate and I bought this big tv off of our neighbor, and he invited us to go with him to the game, as he has season tickets. We saw this kid no one had ever really heard of, named Tim Lincecum pitch his 3rd start in the major leagues. Just this goofy little kid with long hair who just happened to be about a year older than us, really just giving it his all to be in the majors. I mean, this was about as throwaway of game as there's ever been. It was May, the Giants were already pretty much doomed to last place, the stands were empty, and they were playing the Florida Marlins of all things. Who gives a shit, right? And here he was, showing that the game could be about fun and personal pride, and just being a good night out with friends, right on the San Francisco Bay. The damn game won me back. To say I've been a huge fan or anything since, would be a bit of a lie, since I mostly watch the games on TV to talk to my grandfather about them or just watch them with him when we're in the same house, but it's been fun. The team is now stacked with kids pitching about my age (the fourth starter in the Giants rotation for the World Series is 21 years old. Think about that for a moment), who are really just going out there and doing it for the love of the game. Sure, the money too, obviously, and sure it's just a stupid sport, but hey the ancient greeks honored their athletes as well.

In addition to the pitchers, the team is just stacked with a bunch of weird characters from around the league that never quite fit anywhere else, like a tall MMA enthusiast with a beard and a mohawk who likes to talk about astrophysics and all kinds of crazy crap, oh yeah and he's the guy who closes out their games. A dude who shares my namesake, that was basically only picked up for the team to spite the San Diego Padres. He's their MVP for the last series in the playoffs. A guy who has been known to play an acoustic guitar shirtless on the San Francisco pier (though he probably hasn't done this in years), oh yeah and Lincecum, the kid who I was talking about earlier? Yeah, he was caught for using drugs. That's right, the guy who ignited my love of the game was caught using... MARIJUANA! OH DEAR LORD, HOW WILL WE SAVE THE CHILDREN? I'm not the hugest pot-smoker in the world, but I find it amazing that this pot smoking kid can lead the Giants to the World Series, win back to back Cy Young awards, and just be one of the funniest interviews on the planet. They just won their first game last night, and here's to them taking the series. My grandfather won't be able to make it out to the parade on Market Street if they win, but if they do I'll be out there partying for him.


Thanks for all of those who read my rant, baseball is kind of an emotional thing for me, due to the familial connections, and I don't know, since I don't usually really care about who wins or loses I never really have a proper outlet for these feelings, but even if they don't win this year, it's been one hell of a ride.



My final thought:

FEAR THE BEARD

I ran 7.0 km in 37 minutes.

[djskrimp]

I ran 7.0 km in 37 minutes.

Damn, well done!

I ran 7.0 km in 37 minutes.

Damn, well done!

I actually overtook a mountainbiker while running uphill after I got annoyed that he passed me at the bottom of the hill

Slovak tea liquor. 82%
I like to think I am a fairly hardened drinker, but fuck me, this stuff is scalding my digestive tract half an hour after drinking. The first couple were really hard work.