Sticklers' World

Work in progress...

2011-06-17T19:43:00.001-07:00

Just something I have been drawing for fun!

Standup Paddle Board or Road bike?

2011-06-15T15:56:00.001-07:00

This is the question ladies and gentleman of the blogosphere, also how I'm going to make my return to writing. If both cost exactly the same which would you choose? The workouts using both tools are amazing, so that is non-factor. The road bike would be bring me one step closer to being able to do a Triathlon. The Standup paddle board would solve my summer woes of small waves in front of my house. So which should I choose?

A Brick Wall....

2011-06-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

This summarizes how I feel today.

The one about the cute neighbor...

2010-10-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

Living in Lalaland I have noticed that it is weird to know your neighbors. Driving alone in our cars for hours on end, stuck in heavy traffic has made us antisocial. Where I grew up we had a block call list, block parties during the summer, BBQ's, and events that brought the community together. Here people rush out of their apartments to their cars hoping they don't get mugged and when someone does approach, the other person is freaked out by the interaction. Which brings me to my story...

I'm not sure how long ago it was that the girl moved into the building across the street(Henceforth known as Cute Neighbor). What I am sure about is after she moved in she left a note on my roommates car. All it said was,"

Hey I have seen you walking down the street to play volleyball on the beach. I like to play volleyball and have been looking for people to play with. Here is my number ***-***-**** give me a call. Cute Neighbor."

Now the odd part is my roommate doesn't play volleyball, but our cars are similar and both are parked in front of the apartment so she could have gotten them mixed up. So my roommate, called her and told her he didn't play volleyball but if she ever wanted to get a drink or what not. He of course told me this story three days after the fact and I asked him why he didn't mention that his roommate plays volleyball every weekend.. with all the locals... and in fact there is an email list for the courts so people know when others are playing. He just smiled and said,

"Oh yeah, I didn't think about that."

Time went by, and I forgot all about this random interaction with Cute Neighbor... until today. Now I have noticed Cue Neighbor and her really big sunglasses walking into the apartment every once in awhile. In fact, since I know pretty much everyone who lives around us I have even thought about introducing myself. There really never was a moment when we were walking on the same side of the street, so it just hasn't happened yet. Today, while I was driving down a busy street through the downtown of my beach community I looked over and saw a very cute woman walking in the opposite direction carrying a large heavy bag... She looked familiar but I couldn't place her, so I continued driving to pick up my repaired surfboard.

A little side tangent, I broke my surf board during a huge swell two weeks ago. The fin box got ripped out and I lost one of the fins. When I brought it in to my surf shop, the dude behind the desk told me I'm lucky I didn't break my board in half. The amount of force it takes to rip that out of the board could have not only done worse damage to the board, but screwed me up as well. This also occurred to my new awesome 5'4" Biscuit that I found in perfect condition on a used board rack. I was bummed...Well, it finally came back and 85 dollars later... I guess I'm surfing again this weekend.

Back to the story, about a block past the woman I realized why I felt she was so familiar...it was the giant sunglasses and that woman was in fact Cute Neighbor. Being on a one way street I realized all hope of turning around and offering her a ride to her place was lost. I continued on my way to pick up my board.

When I returned to my place I put my board back in its resting place on the rack in the garage. As I exited the garage and started to walk around the corner to the entrance of my building Cute Neighbor came walking out of her apartment. I looked back at her and she waved and I smiled and we continued on our way.

So my problem...I need to have a conversation with the Cute Neighbor. But how do I go about doing this? As I stated at the beginning, Lalaland is a place of people not approaching each other. How do I approach this woman I have never met on the street and not make it weird? Go ahead Internet community, give me some advice, and make my return to blogdom worth it.

Another Blind Date...

2009-11-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

The blind date... I've always hated blind dates, the whole experience of them. Starting with the awkward set-up all the way to the bitter end of the night when both parties usually question what their friends were thinking. The only saving grace of these truly horrific evenings are the stories that become legend told over beers, various dinner parties, or even wedding speeches for the rest of your life. Not to say their isn't the occasional success story, but most go something like this...

It was just another day at work. Everything was moving steadily along when I was introduced to a very nice older couple who were visiting LA from Texas. He was an older gentleman in his late 40's, distinguished, with a tie and jacket. She was in her early 30's, and cute in a nerdy sort of way, with a nice sun dress. By the looks of them he was rich and she was riding the gravy train. Now whenever we have guests at my job, we give them the star treatment, literally! These people were no exception and as their day with us was winding down the woman turned to me and said, "Stickler, Do you have a girlfriend?" I was a little taken aback by this, I know we had all just spent the day together but are we all really that close? So I answered with a "Not at the moment..." The woman looked to the older gentleman and said, "Why, your such an adorable guy, we know the perfect girl for you." I immediately knew what was happening, I was about to be set up...

The woman reaches into her bag and grabs her cell phone as I stutter, "You know that is ok...I'm kind of getting over somebody..." basically anything to not be set up. The woman goes, "Oh don't be silly, She is a beautiful girl, she is my niece, and her name is A...She just moved to LA...Let me show you a picture." So the woman goes to A's facebook page on her iphone, got to love technology. She forces the phone into my hand and says, "See, she is beautiful!" It was a picture of A on the steps of a sorority with many other girls, I assumed she was the one with the blond streak running through her dark hair. She looked cute from what I could tell. Suddenly the phone was yanked from my hand and the woman is texting A. She turns to me and says, "Ok it is all taken care of I told her about you and she wants to meet so I'm going to give you her phone number. All you have to do is call her!" Next thing I know she is putting A's number into my phone and then they are gone saying goodbye to everyone else.

So I stood there, looking at this number. I guess it couldn't hurt to call, but I needed a plan. Questions were running through my head, What do I say? What should I ask her to do? What if she is a terrible racist? Etc... Well, before I had time to really think on it my boss was yelling at me for something and I was back in the zone of my job.

A couple days passed by and I had a plan...kind of. I was going to call A up during my lunch break and make some sort of witty joke about how crazy her Aunt was...Yeah that would be perfect and then ask her out for drinks. Something simple that I could get out of easily if things turned sour. The clock ticked by and it was my lunch break, I picked up my phone and hit the dial button. The phone rang a couple of times and I got an answering machine. It was sweet sounding voice with no Texas accent. I left a very awkward message that went like this..."Hi A, My name is Stickler and I met your Aunt and Uncle the other day at my work. This is super awkward but they said we might get along so call me back when you get a chance. Hope your having a great day!" I know, I was kind of hoping not to get an answering machine...but again what do you say to someone you know nothing about in a phone message?

Well, regardless later on that night A called me back. She did indeed laugh at what her Aunt had done. And as we talked it turned out randomly that she had gone to the same college as I in Indiana. This made things even easier so I invited her at the end of our conversation to get up super early on Saturday Morning to watch the IU game with me at the Alumni Bar. My thought was if all else fails at least their would be many other people around. Well she didn't show... it turns out she slept in... At least I was at the alumni bar with friends. She did call and we rescheduled for a Tuesday night.

Tuesday night came and I was going to meet her at this certain bar that was known for their brews from around the world. So I'm sitting at the end of the bar waiting...minutes ticking by. Enough of them for me to finish my first beer. When a girl walks in the door. She was totally out of the eighties, Big black hair swirling in all directions held up by product, black stretch pants, little black boots, and a black tight jacket. In my head I thought, I wonder where she parked her Delorian? She then approached me and introduced herself as A. Jokes and jokes and jokes were swimming through my head. I stifled my brain and said, Hi, I'm Stickler. We sat there talking and it became very clear very fast that we had nothing in common. To make matters worse she was just another actress looking for a job. We parted ways and I was even nice enough to invite her to an event my friends were putting on... I mean she did go to my college. She called me the next day and turned me down.

I hate blind dates!

A rant about Tradition...

2009-10-24T01:23:00.001-07:00

I can't sleep... I went to the Doctor thinking it might be something wrong with me. After a few tests he informed me that I was just sleep deprived attributing to the fact that my brain won't stop turning. I guess that is why I'm writing right now. I've tried everything and maybe if I just start typing away again I'll lull myself back to sleep.

I got in a fight last weekend with some friends. See after living in LA for as long as I have some traditions have developed... for example once a month I make the 45 minute drive to "Portillo's" in Buena Park because I'm craving Chicago food or whenever I get out of work early and I'm in Los Feliz I stop by my old roommates place and we go out for Sushi. Well one of the biggest long lasting traditions of my time here has to do with Karaoke. When I first moved to LA one of the first bars that my friends and I came across was a place called "The Brass Monkey" it was a quaint karaoke bar in Korea Town. It was never super crowded and the DJ was fantastic.

My group of friends started going often enough that we became Once a Monthers. See in the Karaoke world; people who frequent a place receive more clout and are able to sing more frequently. Even if this person is really bad, but they show up every Tuesday and Thursday, no matter what they will get to sing and jump the line of newbies ahead of them. As Once a Monthers we developed a brand that we when our group got up to sing we pretty much dominated and made the room a buzz. My repertoire would start with "Come Sail Away," by Styx, then "Strokin" by Clarence Carter, ending with our entire group getting up and singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. Now of course I'm not the only one singing, everyone else had their own list of songs they would sing... and like I said we were all pretty good and knew how to woo the audience. We became known as Jenny's Fan Club...because we would always go on nights our favorite waitress Jenny was working. We would tip her big and get freebies in response.

Well as time went on and I moved out of Hollywood we stopped going as often as we used too. In fact the Brass Monkey has become a Bi-Annual occurrence now. We don't have the same pull as we used too, but at least they remember us when we walk in the front door. This past weekend though new people were along, new friends. And one of the girls actually had the nerve to put in her song as "Total Eclipse of the Heart." I was pissed. That was our song and because we don't get together and sing anymore... when we do it is kind of special. But she didn't care. She didn't care at all. It was infuriating. To the point she got up and sang the song to spite me and her rendition was terrible. My friends all said it wasn't a big deal...but I thought it was because like I said before it was tradition that this group of guys who don't really see that much of each other anymore would get up and sing that song, with the terrible choreography that we made up years ago. Tradition, what happened to it and how could someone be so obtuse to not see that maybe it is important?

When you're on a roll...

2008-08-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

In a sudden spurt of creative energy I have decided yet again to begin writing...

Well it all started with what I like to call the surfing disaster. By no means am I a surfing legend or anything and this was all made perfectly clear to me 3 weeks ago. While flying down a wave with a velocity faster then usual, I had the wave break over me. Flipping my board into me, pushing me to the ocean bottom, and dragging me through the sand.

When I stood up, the pain kind of shot through my body all at once. A pain I had never felt before. So after a couple of days I went to the Docter to find out I had cracked one of my ribs. He chuckled and said, "Well, there isn't much I can do, but it will be painful for about 8 weeks." Now you may ask what is painful? Everything, it hurts to breath, move, talk, sit, lay down, eat, pretty much do anything.

So a lesson, don't crack your rib it isn't worth it.

Speaking of ribs, Whale's have large ribs, so why not go check out a new blog I'm writing with some friends about Moby Dick, and remember it isn't a book club, just a group of people reading a certain amount of chapters of a book each week and then discussing it...

How to explain what I do when I'm not writing...

2008-06-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

A hair stylist on my current project basically put our job, without saying what it was, into a quote that explains why I get so busy and lose track of time...

"It's like the movie, Groundhog Day, in hell!"
- Anonymous

Couldn't have put it better myself!

Stories from the Weekend

2008-06-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

It all began with a peaceful Friday night by myself watching the Cubs/Dodgers game on my enormous HD TV. It was the 8th inning and the cubs had just blown another, when I heard a loud bang outside. I ran to the window to see what had happened and saw a large gold Toyota Tundra backing out of my suddennly smashed in bumper.

I ran out the front door and jumped on the hood of the Toyota as it was pulling away. I yelled at the guy in the car, "Man, you just hit my car!" He responded with, "No I didn't!" I explained that I had seen him hit it and that I was getting off his hood till he got out and gave me all of his information. He conceded and admitted that he had inadvertently run into my parked car.

I was pissed, so my car is in the shop and it is costing about 1500 dollars to fix. Luckily his insurance company is going to pay for all of it, because clearly I had nothing to do with it.

What I cna't believe is that their are some people that actuelly believe they can hot a car and get away with not telling the person or at least leaving a note. I have come to the belief that their really is no comon decency left in the world at all, that people are pretty narcisistic and could really care less about the well being of others. Maybe this is just in LA, but schools really should be teaching children to have respect for others and to take responsibility for their actions, because it seems like US citizens are really lacking in that. What do you think?

Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.

2008-06-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

I could go on and on about how Thrill has been trying to get me to start writing again, but that would be some long drawn out story about getting naked in the streets of San Francisco and possibly doing other acts that could be deemed as arrestable offences. Instead it was a singular moment earlier today that had my head in a whirl. Suddennly nouns, verbs, and sentences were impedeing my vision to the point that if I didn't spill them out onto this piece paper I probably would explode. What was this moment you ask? Well, it was when I saw this...

For those of you that don't know me(probably most of you that religously read my blog, if any of you have stayed by me with my 6 month hiatus from writing)this is the view from the gigantic bay window at the front of my new apartment. or as I have nicknamed it, "Paradise." I looked out to the ocean this morning and saw surfable waves and warm weather. "Summer is here folks!"

I went down to my garage to grab my board and happened to notice the gas price at our corner gas station was $4.29. Gas is getting mighty expenisive, but living at the beach has caused me to drive less. My bicycle has gotten a lot of use!

I headed down to the ocean with my roommate and we went surfing. The swells were great today, it wasn't crowded and they were about 4 foot curls that had a really soft feel to them. But I'm getting away from my story. After our surf session was over, we climbed the hill back to our apartment and I looked to that gas station again. In the course of 2 hours gas prices on regular fuel changed to $4.37. I did a double take and almost got hit by a car while crossing the street.

Change, it happens quickly and sometimes when we least expect it. Kind of the moral of my life right now...but that is a story for another time.

P.S. I'm back baby!

I thought the number would be more!

2007-12-20T23:18:00.001-08:00

Want to be a x ray technician?

On my way home...

2007-12-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

It is raining outside, pretty heavily from the sound of it. I'm sitting in my room trying to decide what to take with me, see I'm heading back to Chicago in the morning for my two week holiday vacation from LALALANd. I'm excited to be back in a world where people care for each other and don't try to stab each other in the back. Where instead of single people clogging up the roadways, family's caravan around the city spreading holiday cheer. Where instead of gloomy 50 degree days with weird rain that creates mudslides, their will be snow for miles and children running around like ait's a peanuts christmas special catching snowflakes in their mouths.

But I'm sitting here packing and I hate packing. I never know what to take with me. Currently trying to figure out where to shove my guitar hero cotroller in my bag so it doesn't get damaged. This year I bought all my presents on the internet and had them shipped home, so no need to worry about space for those. I feel like I need a new wardrobe though when Iay all my clothes out. TOday I went to JCREW just to look, but it was weird. It was like they through colored paint all over the summer line and had it shipped out to LALALAND for the holidays. I bought white t-shirts from target instead.

My flight leaves at 630am. Yeah, it is freaking early. At least I'll get to sleep on the plane. I wonder what it will be like to go home this year? Will their be a certain someone excited for my return to Chicago? Will my Mother watch movies all day and night with me? Will my Father force me to shovel, clean the house, and beat him at scrabble? Will my Brother be happy with what I got him for Christmas? Will my friends all be in town to hang with? Will I be sitting front row for a STYX concert in Waukegan? Will I watch the BLackhawks beat the Kings? Will I go sledding and get hot cocoa afterwards?

Will I figure it all out?

Guess you will all have to wait and see, but I leave you with this link to my favorite Holiday Song!

Fire Fire Everywhere...

2007-10-23T21:19:00.001-07:00

If you have been living in a box you probably have not heard about the state of emergency California is in right now. The fire are raging out of control this year making the sunsets beautiful. During the day though my entire city has been consumed with smoke. Now last week went hiking seen here in the picture. This of course does not exist anymore since the fires raged through this area about 2 days ago. Kind of sad to think about something so beautiful wisked away in flames.

San Diego has gotten the worst of it, The fires are absolutly out of control consuming over 1100 homes already and evacuating over 500,000 people. Kind of scary when you think about it. But the refugees are ok...it turns out that a majority of them have gone to Qualcomm Stadium. where live bands are playing and they are getting catered food. Now for those of you that think FEMA had anything to do with this...well your wrong. See Governer Schwarzeneger and withh all the rich people that were displaced set this up. In fact FEMA isn't even arriving till tomorrow. With President Bush so he can congradulate them on a job well done? Yes...this proves one gigantic point unfortunatly. If you have money these emergencies are taken better care of...especially i the president and FEMA don't step in!

The Price is Wrong...

2007-10-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

I awoke this morning kind of late. See I like to sleep in when I don't have to work. I think this has something to do with not getting to sleep more the 6 hours during the night when I am working. Regardless I always wake up on my days off, flip on the TV, and watch the Price is Right!

Now it use to make my day to see Bob Barker with all his energy making peoples days by shelling out a few thousand in plinko or winning that "new car." but this morning, this morning their was no Joy in "Price is Right" land. No, their was saddness, lack of enthusiasm, and utter boredom. Yes, I got to see an episode of the Price is Right starring Drew Carey.

The Drew Carey show was excellent, but Drew on POR was was awful. This show will never be the same without Bob Barker. The audience was hardly into it, Drew would constantly badger the people to hurry up, and Drew clearly didn't know the games well enough to explain to them to anyone. I was seriously dissapointed. Game shows come and go such as "Press Your Luck." and "Let's Make a Deal." Both they tried to revive and both failed miserably. So why try to keep an icon of Game Shows alive when it could pass into TV memory as something great instead of something that needed to be taken out to pasture and shot.

Blog Action Day...

2007-10-15T13:47:00.001-07:00

Today on October 15th, I guess it is official blog action day. Most of you are probably saying to yourself, "oh look another holiday created by Hallmark, but this time to sell e-cards." Well you are absolutly wrong if you think that, today has officially been marked the day where all of us will speak out on the environment and try to make the world a better place.

In theory this sounds like a great idea, but unfortunatly it won't work and I am here to tell you why.

See, we all read blogs... some of us because they can be funny, some of us so we can debate news, some of us so we can try to make money. But all in all the only things blogs can't do are change things. When all the people who write on them and have no real power to do anything debate them they think they are making people aware. Yes this may be true but again unfortunatly no power to do anything, because the people who are in charge of the decisions to do certain things don't really care, because they have already weighed both sides of this and now you are stuck with their decision.

I'm going to use an example to make this very straight forward for all people to understand. Let us say for a minute that you are a vegetarian. Now you don't like to eat meat and you don't think others should eat meat. So on your blog you write about how you shouldn't eat meat...you show pictures of defenseless lambs being killed, you make a documentary about slaughterhouses. This is great people are watching this, maybe even someone who runs a slaugther house is watching it. But unfortunatly even though you have made the people aware of what they already realize, the guy running the slaughter house goes to himself..."well at least i'm making money so my family can survive." The guy eating the burger probably then goes, "Well I like burgers" and takes a big bite.

See you have no power to actually change anything. So goes it with the environment. I bought a hybrid...I love my car...You all are probably thinking that is great, good job, helping the environment. Well, to be honest I did think of those things...but again to be honest I also thought, this tax year I really need a tax break and I'm going to use less gas so I can save more money. I had other reasons that outweighed the environment in my mind.

Now we are all going to write about the environment but it is all stuff that we have heard before. If you really want car manufacturers to change their ways, everyone has to stop driving cars, COMPLETELY, or they won't care because they are still making money and you have no power to do anything. I'm rambling, but it is clear none of us have the power to do anything, so even if we write about it it won't change anything. Someone who has power has to stop it all and change everything and that is the only way to bring about change. Be it the president or the person in charge of your state, they have to physically do something, because debating about it unfortunatly doesn't do anything.

Again another example. Let's say your making a movie and it is the end of your 12 hour day but you want to shoot for another 2 hours. Well everyone on the set will debate this with you, they will say things like, "Let's just do it tomorrow" or "Yeah overtime." But everyones opinion will be thrown at you. They will debate both possibilities with you. But it won't change your mind, because you have to do what your bosses say, the ones holding the money. And everyone will fall in line because they have to.

So powerless to do anything...

I'm going to go drive my hybrid to work now...good luck to all of you, I hope you win your debates...whatever that actually means.

2007-07-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

This week the greatest and worst thing that could have happened has happened. It was as if the heavens parted and God with his booming voice commanded this most glorious gift to be bestowed unto me. You guessed it. I got cable. 100 over priced channels from which I will probably watch only 2 (if you can guess the two we'll send you an official Sticklers' World blog t-shirt). I fantasized about the moment i would get cable. I imagined five beautiful women with the largest cable boxes this man has ever seen. Sadly to my dismay no women showed up, but a large Mexican named Jose showed up, 8 hours late. However he did have huge cable boxes, and I'm not actually talking about the cable boxes (wink, wink).
Since the cable was installed I have become a slave to it. Like so many strong men with no job for the summer, i have fell victim, but please do not pity me (unless your pity consists of cash) I did this to myself.
Oh yeah happy birthday Sis, sorry I couldn't get in touch with you, I'll call you soon.

Why I am bad at posting...

2007-07-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

The other day I had someone say something about me to another person, it went along these lines:

Person A: I really like Stickler, but have you ever noticed that it takes him 30 words to say something that it would take the average person to say in 3?

Person B: Yes! That is Stickler!

Well it is true, I talk to much. But wouldn't you rather have all the information about something then just a yes or no answer?

Which brings me to why I am bad at posting, nothing interesting happens in my life that is worth mentioning. Nothing at all, I am so boring I don't want to bore you all with having to read about it.

For example; This past weekend I think I said something offensive to the girl my friend has been seeing. See, when I met her I immeadiatly realized that I knew her and walked up to her and said, "Hi Jenny!" Her immediate reaction was, "Who are you?" I was explained that it was me, Stickler, From that job we just did. She played dumb and was like I don't know what your talking about I am a school teacher. I told her that she was mistaken we just worked a job together. She then asked me how I knew her name, which I responded that she just worked a job with me.

At this moment my friend who is seeing the girl interrupted and I tried to explain that I knew this girl and that she was lying to him or has a twin who was seperated at birth with the same name. For the whole night I tried to prove to my friend that this really was the same girl. He doesn't believe me, but my question is why is she lying?

Regardless she can't be good for him, so the next time I hang out with him I am bringing Jenny's phone number and I am going to call her right in front of hima nd show him that she is in fact the girl from work and not a school teacher!

See boring life...now go check out my pics from the part of my life that is not so boring.

birthday wishes

2007-06-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

so, today was my birthday. i turned 24. both of my brothers forgot. it's quite possible i hate them now, and will never forgive them for being such selfish, unloving people.

that's all.

2007-06-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

So, my brother has hounded me once again to begin "blogging"... so, I have succumbed to his endless whining, and here I am, "blogging."

I would like to begin by saying, that in all the times I have found myself a "blogger," if you will, I am generally out of the country and on tour with some silly production, and unable to use my cell phone. This tends to bring out the boredom in me, and well, "blogging" is what I have turned to to keep myself from feeling completely out of the loop.

... so, what shall we discuss this evening...

I was just discussing with a friend how I was "blogging" and it kind of sounded like I was vomiting or something...

So, I am on tour with a very large production of a very well-known, global smash hit, that for anonymities sake, I will refrain from telling you... although, my brother hasn't done a very good job of keeping it a secret.
I understudy one of the "leads". It is very exciting. I went on this evening as said "lead" and it too very exciting.
ALTHOUGH, since I am in Canada... yes, you heard right, Canada, we are at a very high altitude... much higher than I am used to. I would like to tell you how difficult it is to breathe.. let alone how difficult it is to breathe when you are doing a role you don't normally do every night, and how much of an effort it takes not to let how dizzy you are and slightly nauseated get in the way of your performance. It is very exciting... no, exciting isn't the word, it is more intense, scary... I wish I had a bigger vocabulary...

ANYWAY... I had a martini after unsaid #1 global smash hit, and well, it was called a "g-spot" and it was very tasty... I believe it had vanilla vodka, grand marnier and pineapple juice.. maybe.. i dunno, it was good... and I ate a lot of wings... I was hungry, and they were cheap!

I want a bike... I miss my bike... if anyone can tell me where to get one of the fold-able bikes that I could put into my large trunk and travel with me, I would be very happy.

AND, I want a fridge... I am so over the fact that Canada doesn't have my south-beach diet breakfast bars... if you are ever tour, I recommend them... they get the job done and really quench that hunger in the morning... apples are good too...

I have a personal trainer this week... he kicked my ass yesterday... and now i'm afraid to go back tomorrow... I almost puked after we did lunges across the floor... but it felt good to be sore... nothing beats a good after workout soreness...mmmmm....

ok.. I got nothing else..

no wait.. i just finished the second season of Gray's Anatomy.. it is really good.. i cried.. a lot.. mcdreamy is so hot. mcmeredith gets on my nerves... sandra oh is brilliant, and kathrine heigel is a beautiful actress.

if you download tv shows.. watch THE RICHES on FX. it is brilliant, Eddie Izzard and mini Driver and at the top of their games.

ok, really, i'm done rambling.
I'll try to have a more constructive post next time.
I'm tired.

goodnight.

-lil miss stix

Little Miss Stickler has her day...

2007-05-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

So my little Sis has gone and given an interview to her old college towns online newspaper. It is full of wisdom and chili. Go check it out here and it will bring you one step closer to figuring out what show she is in! Thanks to Joan Marcus for taking a picture of the performance I actuelly got to see. Now if only I could get her to write on this thing...

Sink the Biz Rules

2007-05-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

I will fully admit that I have become addicted to my site meter stats! And like all bloggers who look at their stats I'm going to say the same thing that they have all said before me, "Please leave a comment, I don't care how bad it is...Leave a comment …please...Say Hello...If what you say is stupid we will only make fun of you for a day or so! I just want to know who all these random people who stalk me are amnd you all know who you are!"

Anyways the one thing I have come to realize checking my stats is that our site comes up if you google some very inappropriate things. Like "How my sister lost her virginity" or my favorite "70's porno chest hair" Who are these people looking up these things! At least I am not the number one hit on Alia Shawkat... like my friends at the jotel! Regardless the one thing that does pop up most of the time is "Sink The Biz Rules at Nick's English Hut."

Since there is probably no better person then the record holder for Sink the Bizmark, I have decided to set out this post as The Official Rules To Sink the Biz! Hopefully I have said it enough in the above sentences so it will come up at least on the first page when you google it! So a back-story is probably a good place to begin:

When I was a junior in College my roommates and I discovered Nick's English Hut because not only was it a Icon of Indiana University, but it was located 3 blocks from our amazing house. Senior Year we must have spent at least 3 days a week lounging about in the hump room or near the pool tables when we should have been studying. We knew everyone that worked there and befriended a waitress, that at the time, we thought was just the best waitress in the joint...but there is more to her story.

As the year progressed we made ourselves known to the Nicks culture that we were top dogs and our Waitress, Eryn, helped us out in that regard giving us drink discounts, cutting us to the front of the line at the door, and always holding a table for us in her section. She was the one that encouraged us on the night that IU beat Illinois in Basketball, by shooting 17 three pointers, a slam-dunk one may call it, that we should go for the record. With Brian's parent’s credit card at our disposal, the 5 of us set out to hold the record for most alcohol consumed by 5 people in one sitting. Brian, I don't want to hear it! And so began the game…

To Play You Will Need:

A Bucket...Metallic in nature, about the size of 2 pitchers of beer.
A Biz glass... Specially weighted to float in the beer.
Pint Glasses...For pouring into the biz.
Napkins...I would recommend procuring a rack of them from a McDonalds, all will be used.
Beer...And lot's of it. We usually go through a 24 pack in about 15 minutes, better if you had a keg, even better if you play at a bar called Nick's.

The rules:

Sink the Bismarck, known as Sink the Biz, is played with a bucket filled with beer. In the center of this bucket floats a small weighted juice glass. You can buy these things at Nicks...normal juice glasses or shot glasses will not float correctly! Everyone sits around the table with a full pint glass of whatever beer is in the bucket. This is important, because we do not mix beers when playing the game, that is a party foul and you will be banished from the game. I prefer to play with glass pint glasses it adds a certain, how do you say, nobility, but plastic is ok as long as everyone knows not to squeeze the sides to make it easier to pour! Also make sure that everyone has a stack of napkins, it gets messy!

Place the bucket on a plate covered in Napkins and fill the bucket with Roughly two pitchers of beer. Going clockwise, the first person(There is no definitive way to figure out who goes first, whoever puts the bucket down usually just goes!) pours their beer from their pint glass into the Biz glass that is floating in the bucket. Their pour must be a steady stream. The second the stream breaks, their turn is over. You may pour as much or as little in as you wish as long as you don't break the stream! The object is to not sink the Biz(who am I kidding the object is to get drunk so the girl sitting next to you may do more then make fun of you for sucking at this game all night!). Whoever sinks it drinks it!

Now it seems easy in theory, but some rules need to be stated so everyone knows what happens when matters of controversy come up!

-A steady stream, is like when a guy goes to the bathroom after a night of drinking, it is not when a single drop falls out like your 70-year-old grandfather going to the bathroom! If the person pours a drop they must go again!

-The Pint glass must be held above the highest point of the handle to the bucket when being poured or the biz will be sunk and the person pouring automatically must drink it!

-One has the option to count to 5, Mississippi style, before they take their turn. This is in case the biz is floating so close to the edge you think it may sink before your turn!(most people play to 3, that wasn't challenging enough for us and we learned to time out 3 seconds in our pours)

-If the table is kicked and the biz sinks and you can prove it was someone kicking the table on purpose(Chris!) then whoever kicked the table drinks the biz!

-If someone pours any other type of beer into the bucket to play other then the beer being played with, they are banished from the game.

-If the same person sinks the biz three times in a row then they must drink the entire bucket!

-When the Biz is sunk it must be shot like a shot, not poured into an already existing beer!

So those are the official rules, easy to follow, easy to play, and now on to the rest of the story:

So around pitcher number 10 or so I think I got in a fight with all my roommates and left for a couple of pitchers and then came back and apologized. When we reached 17 we decided not to stop but to keep going. Which is how we made it to 27! Brian I don't want to hear it...all of our memories are a little fuzzy! Eryn informed us that we had broken some sort of record, that we were indeed champs. A picture was taken and we left...I'm still not sure how I got home!

The next week, oh yes we went back, Eryn informed us that a space had opened up on the ceiling of Nicks. And that Space was being given to us! We were confused until we found out that our Waitress, Eryn, was related tot he owner of Nicks and when she was asked who the space should go to, she told them about us!

For those of you that don't know to own a bucket from Nick's is not that hard a feat, anyone can buy one...but to have your bucket held at Nicks and hung from the ceiling for all eternity is something to be proud of. Supposedly when Nick's first started the game they would hold peoples buckets for them on their ceiling so you could always play with the same one. Well, sometime during the 50's or 60's they ran out of room and stopped holding buckets.

The only way to get a bucket is if someone dies and they will it to you or someone dies, they don't will their bucket away and a space opens up! I'm not sure who died for us to get our space...but we were bequeathed one. We purchased paint and supplies and on a Saturday morning went to Nicks and painted up "Drunky, the Bucket." The picture was put up on the wall of all of us with Eryn holding our bucket. You can find this picture if you walk from the top of the stairs past the bar on your right and look to the right side of the big entrance into the room with the pool tables. And forever our Bucket is at Nick's waiting for our yearly return to play with it.

So Folks if anyone should be the official rule makers it should be my roommates and I because as you can see we are Champs! For any questions or concerns you can reach me, Stickler, at sticklersworld@gmail.com. If you’re in the LA area you can come play with us anytime!

A very important Question to start off the week...Don't Laugh!

2007-04-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

So if you shave your chest hair...does it grow back thicker and expand to other areas of your body...let's just day the back region for an example?

Curious minds need to know what they may have just gotten themselves into? Not that it was me trying to get rid of that small tuft of hair that pokes up through my shirt that sometimes make me look like I am a reject from a 70's porno! And then tried to even it out...but screwed up and ended up shaving it all off...I swear...just inquiring minds would like to know...soon!

DonauInselFest 2007

2007-04-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

Who is coming with me? Seriously, who is coming with me?

For those of you that have noticed for the last two years I have caught what one might call a major travel bug! And I have decided not to stop with Nepal...instead; last year around June, I found myself in Vienna, Austria. For those of you that were keeping abreast(tee hee) with my amazing adventures for the world cup you may remember one such article on rivalfish.com about the donauinselfest. When The Donau island becomes one of the biggest musical venues in all of Europe for one weekend. Tons of stages, music round the clock, Bad german cover bands, germans, austrians, free food and beer! And not to mention JaegerEnergy! So when I ask who is coming with me...I expect you all to jump! and if that isn't enough to convince you look at the swell picture from last year!

Thought process...

2007-04-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

So I'm currently in Chicago...My lovely sister who refuses to write on the blog (due to her current job) was performing in Iowa as the lead in the such and such Broadway Tour she is on. She was amazing and if this blog wasn't completely confidential I would tell you which one...instead you are all forced to go see all Broadway shows that come to your town! Good Luck!

When I pulled into the driveway of my childhood home the first thing I noticed was the major landscaping work my parents had done on the backyard. It looks completely different. But checking out the plants and trees and stuff that is now everywhere it reminded me of what was missing and this story for all to enjoy.

When I was about 8 years old I had a mulberry tree in my backyard. I know everyone hates them because they drop mulberry's everywhere and dye everything a purplish hue. They are also a lot of fun to throw at people like the great tomato and mulberry fight from 1988, which is a story for another time. But this mulberry tree with its intricately curving branches was the perfect climbing tree. So perfect it held my secret fort as a child.

I will never forget the day Giles fell out of the tree and his mother banned him from climbing it. Well, we engineered a pulley system in the tree that made it possible for someone to lift someone else into the tree without any climbing. Therefore Giles was no longer climbing the tree to get to our fort. His mother didn't buy that BS either, but she did allow him to climb in the tree again. I don't actually think our elevator system worked, it was just for show.

Like I said I was 8 years old and it was a hot summer day. The next-door neighbors were installing one of those above ground pools to ward off the heat! I was excited because that meant an entire summer in the pool, maybe? Well, low and behold when they finished putting in the pool they came over to the house and told us we could swim in it and then informed my parents they had to cut down the mulberry tree because it dropped berries in the pool.

I was pissed, it was my tree no one could cut that down...well actually they could, it turns out their property line extends over where the base of the mulberry tree is and the fence that exists is actually meaningless. So I complained and through a tantrum like any child who was about to lose his beloved tree would do. My parents who I believed cared for me sent me to my room for the night.

The next morning, my parents went to wake me up and could not find me for breakfast. The phone then began to ring; it was our neighbors asking my parents if they could please untie me from the tree because the tree cutters refused to cut the tree down till I moved. My parents looked out the window to see me wrapped in the rope used for our pulley system tied to the tree. My father came outside and saw that I was crying and proceeded to cut the ropes, pick me up, and carry me inside. He then told me it was better that the tree was being cut down because I would get to swim in a pool instead. This just made me angrier, but he grounded me, so I couldn't go outside. Instead I had to watch from my room as my tree was ripped from the ground and cut to pieces.

The next day I asked if I could go swimming in the pool and the response from the neighbors was, "No! Your to small, maybe in a couple years!" I was never allowed to swim in that pool and 3 years later they sold the house and the new people tore the pool out when they moved in!

When I arrived home that was the first thought that went through my head...It would have been cool if that tree from my childhood was still there!

My second thought was of how unsure I have been lately! Work has been crazy but I am not going anywhere...I'm kind of at a stand still. So lately I have been discussing options with my father to return to Grad School and get my MBA. Why? Well, I have this feeling that I could have a better job and could start moving up to a different level in the industry I currently work in. So my question for those of you out there reading this; What is getting your MBA like? And do you think this will help me excel in my career? Or am I just at that point in my life where I am confused and this will in no way help me figure things out?

The Jo-Tel New and Improved

2007-03-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

Just a quick shout out to the guys over at the Jo-Tel. The New Site looks fantastic and with the change in URL it seems they have lost some of their Fans...Please take a look...I heard you can write it off on your taxes!