Freely Thinking Beings

Baseball team to Draft Fantasy Football team

Here I sit in the broadcasting booth(s) at Jospeh L. Bruno Stadium, home of the Tri-City Valley Cats a full 2 1/2 hours before our game against them.  Aberdeen dropped game one last night by a score of 6-3.  It was a close game until the sixth when Nicholas Stanley crushed a three run bomb that landed 60 feet past the right field wall. 

The big thing on my mind right now is my fantasy football draft.  It will start at 10:30 pm.  I lucked out on the time because my league is set to a pacific standard time and I of course am living in eastern standard time right now.  The luck part comes in because our game here will most likely be over by then and I will either be on my way back to our hotel or already there.
The draft is the most exciting reason I have to want to go back to our hotel room. The Days Inn in Albany, NY is not the prettiest hotel I have ever been to.  I'm not responsible for booking or paying so no complaints here but if you want a review of the place read on.

Dingy carpet, small rooms, even smaller bathrooms, no Iron or board in the room, Really just your atypical crummy hotel for cheap.  The shower head kicks ass and they provide a continental breakfast (of ourse it stops at 9 am so I have not been awake early enough to take part in it.) Also they provide two pots worth of regular coffee and decaf, something our last hotel in Vermont did not do.  I drank both of the regular today but I'm hoping since we are checking out tomorrow I'll get up in time for breakfast and get coffee there. 

I just joined a Yahoo Mock Draft. I've never done an on-line fantasy football draft before so I'm going to test my pre-ranks on this mock draft to kill time before our game starts.  Right now I've got my pre-ranks set at QB Brees, RB Turner, RB Jones-Drew, WR S. Smith and then I think QB Rivers...well see. I don't know what pick I'm going to have once we go live so the first five pre-ranks or so may go by the wayside. 

Luckily, since the Aberdeen game will be over I'll probably have the help of the enitre team.  Most of those guys are in a few different fantasy leagues and I'm sure they would be more than willing to kill time at the hotel with another draft.  Of course then you run into a million different opinions...we'll see, maybe I'll just ask a few guys to help...beer would be a good addition to a fantasy draft...huh? I'll have to explore that idea later. 

The broadcast booth is nice here inTri-City...I guess technically it's located in Troy, NY, thats where the team plays.  Tri-City is just their nifty name.  The third best booth I've been to since joining the ABerdeen IronBirds...the first best is obviously our home booth at Ripken Stadium.  Second was State College located in State College Pennslyvania.  No surprise there, their Minor League team, the State College Spikes play at Penn State University so everything was top notch. 

Alright just 2 minutes until the mock draft begins, let's hope Aberdeen wins a qucik one here and we arrive at the hotel in time for me to draft.  Thats the goal for Monday August 31st, 2009.

Credit Card's can be problematic

Of all the excuses I think I've used as to why there hasn't been any posts in quite awhile I don't think I have ever used the "my address changed and typepad declined the credit card on file because the billing address no longer matched the billing address on file" excuse...well I have now.

My life, as many lives do at my age (26) has taken some turns....For the thousands....probably millions in reality, that read this blog on a constant (daily) basis I will attempt to update regularly once again.  Ha...I don't know how many times I've said that...but this time I mean it, you'll take me back right?

Fasting for Poo

For the first time in my life I'm attempting to fast...Only a three day fast...nothing monkish by any standards but in my view a step in the right direction.  My mom has Chrone's disease...for those of you that don't know what that is, in short it's an intestinal disorder that prohibits your body from digesting certain things because your intestines lack the proper enzymes for the breakdown.  Luckily this disease is not hereditary. 
My reasons for attempting a fast are somewhere between an attempt to correct my lack of concern for health and a love of pooing.  On the health front I'm also adding jogging and stretching (on a side note I also wish I brushed my teeth twice a day...but thats a separate issue.)
When trying to figure out what I would do for a fast I looked towards my mom because she fasts all the time due to the intestinal problem.  It's a simple three day fast alternating what you drink every hour.
The potion, if you will, that you drink is a mixture of tomato juice and sauerkraut juice, that's the first drink of the morning.  

Here I'll break it down like this it might be easier to understand...

1st: 4 oz. tomato juice 4 oz. sauerkraut juice mix and drink
2nd: 8 oz of aforementioned broth and 1 tsp. of formula X broth and a herb laxative
Formula X broth consists of: dandelion root, parsley root, yellowdock root, thyme, celery seed, horseradish, cayenne pepper, slippery elm, and cranberry powder.
The mild herb laxative consists of: kelp, rhubarb root, slippery elm, sena leaf, cascara segrada, cranberry powder, dulce powder, ground flax seed
3rd:8 oz. of grapefruit
4th:8 oz. formula X broth (no laxative)
5th:8 oz. grapefruit juice
6th:8 oz. formula X broth
7th:8 oz. grapefruit juice
8th:8 oz. formula X broth
9th:8 oz. grapefruit juice
10th:8 oz. formula X broth
11th: 8 oz. grapefruit juice
12th:8 oz. formula X broth, add 1 tsp. laxative again
13th:8 oz. grapefruit juice

It breaks down one drink per hour and after the third day you do the liver flush.  For the liver flush you take 4 oz. grapefruit juice and beat it into 4 oz. of olive oil and then drink the emulsion...apparently thre is a high chance of nasuea so best to lay still for about 20 minutes to avoid yacking it all back up....afterwards another 8 oz. of grapefruit.

After all of these steps it is finally time to let the good times roll. Grab a book or a good magazine article and prepare for the shits of your life.  I, of course am not at this step yet but I'm looking forward to it.

Interestingly enough I found some things about myself yesterday while not eating.  During the day while I was drinking these concoctions I never really felt hungry.  It wasn't like I was sitting on my couch all day wishing I was eating because I was starving.  The drinks keep you pretty well feeling full.  I did notice however that I would go into the kitchen open the fridge and look and dig around seeing what was in there.  Afer a few seconds it would hit "wait a minute I'm not eating." I would shut the fridge and walk away and try and find something else to do.  I spent time in my backyard tending to the vegetable garden my mom and I planted, did laundry and what not. 
But it hit me I eat out of boredom a lot of times during the day..especially when I don't have a ton of things to do during the day.

Think about it...how many times do you wander around your kitchen and decide to eat even though you don't feel particulary hungry at the time.  It's purely out of boredom...so if nothing else this fast has helped me realize some bad eating patterns I've probably employed my whole life.

A gauge for humanity

Occasionally throughout my life I run into situations where I can get an accurate gauge on humanity.  Picking up hitch hikers, stopping for stranded motorists, seeing someone drop something they don't realize and picking it up for them...they are all really basic situations that happen all the time.  What I question is how often does some one stop or help in these situations.

A quick example of this happened yesterday.  I was in Golden Gate park attending an impromptu b-day pizza and beer event and a biker (as in a person riding a bicycle) was hit by a university of california police officer in a car.  A lady that was also attending the impromptu b-day event happened to be a SF fire fighter.  Due to her sense of duty she ran over to assist the police officer who hit the biker until the ambulance/fire truck arrived.  That was someone who stopped and helped.

Let's rewind a bit further to Friday, March 13th.  The inevitable doomsday for all mankind Friday the 13th...I had gone to SF State to watch Gators baseball take on Chico State, plus our broadcasting department was doing the broadcast so I was checking out the set-up they had going on.  The Gators choked out a loss by making two errors in the ninth inning to cough up the lead and eventually lost in 12 innings.  

So afterwards I had to go to the edit lab to finish capturing all my broadcast stuff from last semester and I told my buddy James that I would drive him home afterwards.  So around 9 pm we roll out of the edit lab.  James lives on 27th and Noriega.  Sunset Ave. goes out the back of SF State and runs parellel to 19th Ave. but way out towards the beach.  Here is a map of the general route of Sunset Ave.  

I drive a 1990 Ford Ranger and the gas gauge is broken.  It has been broken since I bought the truck when I was a junior in high school.  I carry a 1 gallon gas can in the back of the truck in case I run out of gas, which admittedly happens more than I'd like to admit. Last time I had to use the gas can reserve I forgot to fill it back up when I eventually filled the truck back up with gas.  

So I'm driving down Sunset Ave. at Vicente heading North towards Noriega.  As you cross the intersection at Vicente and Sunset the road begins a slight up hill for the next block or two..and of course my truck doesn't have enough gas left in it and going up hill sends what gas you do have in your tank sliding to the rear of the tank making it even harder for it to be pumped into the engine...wallah! the truck sputters. I was currently in the middle lane which is not a good spot to run out of gas. Luckily I was able to coast into the right lane before the car died completely.  

So now I'm out of gas with an empty gas can stopped in the right lane of Sunset Ave. in San Francisco.  Luckily at this point it's about 9:30 pm and traffic is at a fairly low pace.  James calls his roommates for help and they have been drinking so they're out.  I call a mutual friend Sim and she is out with friends in North Beach which unfortunately is no where near the Outer Sunset where my car is located.  Finally I settle on Ben, my old roommate.  He is sitting on his ass doing nothing so he agrees to come down and take my empty gas can and James to a gas station located just a few blocks away.

While James and I are standing next to my truck on the road we begin talking about how odd it is no one stopped.  We had already been standing there for about 15-20 minutes and the only attention we had gotten was funny looks.  

All of a sudden a car on Vicente pulls over and a lady gets out.  At first we're not sure if she stopped for us.  But she begins to walk towards us.  She is blonde, and wearing a calf length skirt.  It was pretty cold outside and the fact that a lady stopped not dressed for the cold impressed me.  She asked if we were all right.  We answered yes we were o.k and that we had a friend coming to help us but thanks for stopping because she was the only one who stopped so far.  She answered "well I lost a tire once on the freeway..." 

Shortly there after another lady in a Honda Element pulled up behind us and turned on her flashers, rolled down her window and asked if everything was o.k.  Again we answered yes, we had a friend coming to fill up the gas tank.  She said o.k and drove away.  

About 10 minutes later Ben showed up to pick James and the empty gas can up.  I stayed with the car in case a police officer or somebody of authority showed up while they drove away.  Standing there by myself sucked, it wasn't nearly as warm by myself and of course there wasn't anyone to talk to.  

About 5 minutes after they left another guy in a Honda Element pulled up behind me and rolled his window down and asked if everything was alright.  I again told him that my friend had come and was on his way to get me gas.  

So far three people had stopped (two women and one man) and I appreciated all of them.  About five minutes after the last guy in the Element stopped a guy came out of a house on Sunset Ave. and asked if everything was o.k.  I'm assuming he had noticed that I was still there with the truck flashers on and finally decided to come out and check. I told him the same thing I told everybody else who had stopped.  This guy brought with him a road flare which he lit and left in the right lane at the intersection to force people to change lanes earlier.  I didn't think it was necessary at that time because Ben and James had already left to get gas but either way he was trying to help and it didn't inconvenience me at all to have him light the flare.  

A few minutes later Ben and James showed up. I filled the truck with the one gallon and drove James home.  I then proceeded to the CFN on 19th Ave. and filled up my truck with gas.  All the while thinking about how I was stopped, blocking the lane for a total of 45 minutes and four people stopped their lives and offered to help.  While I consider myself self sustainable in most situations like this I nevertheless appreciate the effort put forth by strangers with the overall welfare of their city and their fellow humans on their minds. 

I don't know if four people stopping to help in that amount of time being stranded is a good sign or a bad sign for humanity overall but I am going to choose to look at it positively because it seems rather easy for no one to have stopped at all and what would that have said about humanity?  The fact that people stopped at all tells me that there are people still around that do, on some level attempt to look out for other humans whom they do not share any other bond with except being alive.   

So in short, Thank you

Starbucks says DON'T DO GRAFFITI

To set myself up before my big drive to the LA I finally had my new car stereo installed. I say finally with such exasperation because for x-mas of 07 I received a brand new car stereo from my parents...which was promptly stolen from my truck while parked right outside my house in San Francisco...not cool. I of course didn't have the money to immediately replace the replacement stereo so I went stereoless for over a year until x-mas of 08 my parents lovingly decided to buy me another new car stereo, which as I mentioned above I finally had installed at the Best Buy on Du Bois avenue in San Rafael.

The process went exactly as I imagined it would go. I dropped of the car explained what happened to the install guy. He asked me if any cables had been ripped out. I explained to him that no cables had been ripped out because why? Because the SOB who stole the stereo had so much time to carefully remove the stereo nothing was unnecessarily moved or broken in my vehicle. I left my phone number and bounded off to Borders where I was looking forward to using a gift card I got as a gift god knows how long ago. I was feeling very productive on this day.

My time killing travels around San Rafael on foot eventually brought me to the mecca of all time killing establishments...Starbucks.  Starbucks in my eyes is a different dimension to the universe.  The seating areas look like green rooms from the 70's where all the famous comedians and actors hung out before and after sets and railed lines of blow while drinking their stiff martini's.  The coffee is good enough, while not great (and I have a serious issue with their chocolate) it is much better than your garden variety Folgers or Yuban.  The always too young to actually go out on a date with female staff members are nonetheless enjoyable to converse with while waiting for whatever ancient Roman sounding drink you just ordered, and of course the clientele is always so sophisticated with their laptops, and way too serious looks on their faces. 

So after I order my medium tuxedo mocha with whip cream I choose my cushy seat in which to inspect the smell of my cocaine and then decide to use the restroom.  This is where the whole story gets interesting...and the entire reason for a post...everything I've written up to this point just got me here...

I'm standing (which is also to say I'm peeing) in the bathroom and looking straight down as my urine splashes way to loudly into a bowl of water that could probably look cleaner is never that exciting.  So I decide to gander around at the bathroom decor.  Once again Starbucks is so sophisticated one would expect nothing but the finest of decors for their bathrooms. 

Overall the bathroom was much less plush then the seating arrangements in the cafe but to my left hanging on the wall were three fairly simple yet geometrically sound paintings. I assume IKEA merchandise but I'm not one to sell anybody short.  They were interesting enough to look at while my penis is in my hand to say the least.

As I'm staring at them I notice some tagging (or graffiti depending on your view of that practice).  If your not familiar with the practice (or art) of tagging then your probably to old to figure out how to work the internet to find blogs but I'll indulge.  People, groups, gangs, organizations, etc. will tag something (a wall, a car, a billboard, doorways...etc.) to tell the other taggers that they've been there or it's their turf. 

As a disclaimer if you read this and you are affiliated with such a group or are a person who tags please feel free to leave a comment containing any information about the underworld of tagging.  I don't confess to be an expert, in fact I'm not even on level 2 of understanding anything about how tagging works and what it represents. I know the absolute bare bones about the subject. 

This is the tagging part of the message.  The author left us P I Z to identify who they are.  I am a firm believer that if you can't read the word the tagger left or don't know who that is than the message wasn't intended for you.  The painting themselves are random and allow a lot of room for interpretation by the viewer.  If your wondering why the tagging is hard to read it's because Starbucks attempted to wash off the graffiti left in their bathroom and an employee took a scrubber to it.  To no avail however...as you can see.

I decided to take this picture because I was using a camera phone and an old camera phone at that.  It is equipped with no flash and the lighting wasn't the greatest, plus the tagging was faded due to the attempt to erase it off the face of the picture.  Here is a close-up of the tagging aspect of this message.  P I Z...any takers on what it means or who it is...?

 

Now your getting an idea of how these paintings were laid out in this bathroom.  This is the second painting from left to right and the second part of the taggers message DON'T DO written on either side of the very nice coffee mug with a star on it.  Subtle but cute Starbucks coffee.  I apologize for the difficulty in reading the DON'T on the left side.  There was an obvious attempt to erase this part as well.  On to the next photo...

Here is my amazing photographic work with a bad camera phone to bring you up close the word DON'T, an integral part of the San Rafael Starbucks taggers message....

Same action here but this time it is a close up of the word DO on the bottom right side of the second painting...quite the mystery we have here so far...

P I Z      DON'T     DO

 The conclusion of our taggers message is now in sight.  As you can see the word GRAFFITI is written in the bottom middle of the third and final painting (from right to left). Interesting placement don't you think...

Here once again is a close-up of the word GRAFFITI to make it easier to read.  Do you see how all the paintings included shapes of differing sizes colors, and placements.  It makes one wonder whether or not these three paintings were originally intended to be hung in a line like they were at Starbucks...

As I'm staring from a few feet back at all three of these paintings with this taggers message written in permanent marker on the bottom of them I just started laughing.  Oh, I was done peeing at this point, just FYI.  I find it hilarious that someone took the time to write their identifier tag P I Z  on a 2 x 2 painting in a Starbucks.  It's natural human progression to look at the other paintings so it's safe to assume that the tagger knew every person who saw any part of the message would read the entire thing...and he/she chose DON'T DO GRAFFITI.  That's ridiculous.

It's either a condemnation of what they personally do, but that's not what I think it is, it doesn't make sense.  Why would someone who obviously is involved in tagging/graffiti try to leave a life lesson in a bathroom? Especially one that goes directly against what they are doing...

It could also be an obvious mocking of Starbucks and the establishment that it represents as a whole.  What better way to give an F-YOU to the corporate machine that Starbucks has taken so much shit for being a huge part of? DON'T DO GRAFFITI.  It's subtle hilarity is only matched by the fact that Starbucks spent energy trying to make it go away only to fail.  yet they didn't (or haven't yet) replaced the paintings altogether. 

I love how a little person who has some artistic ability can make a lasting impression on the huge establishment that is. 

Obviously the little guy is the tagger, the lasting impression is the message, as always the message is all wrapped up in a little bit of the sarcasm that is a by product of the establishment itself, and of course the lasting of it all is signified by the fact that Starbucks can't wash it off and now everyone who goes into the bathroom sees it unless Starbucks decided to replace the paintings all together which would signify a complete rejuvenation of the establishment which of course is what the tagger and the message is trying to get everyone to realize anyways.

P I Z DON'T DO GRAFFITI  

Live SF State Gator's Basketball webcasts

So after many, many, many years attending college, I say college because it has been split between three different institutions.  Two junior colleges (Butte, and Santa Rosa) and one State university in San Francisco State. 
My whole goal throughout this entire process was, well too obviously graduate, but within the graduation process was a goal.  A goal about something I wanted to learn or be able to walk away with, besides the rolled up piece of paper that everyone walks away with. 
I want to do play-by-play, preferably for baseball at the end of the line, but right now I'll take anything.  I want to be the guy people tune into.  I don't want people to tune into the sporting event because of me I want to augment the sporting event and not turn people off. 
Within that dream lies SF State University, which has allowed me the opportunity to mold my craft by broadcasting the Lady Gator home basketball games.
So I now invite you to tune-in to my broadcasts of Gator basketball you can check the basketball schedule here if you'd like.  To tune into our broadcasts go here, during the games you can chat with the other people listening but also you can listen to me and through that you can judge me.  I'm open to people telling me what they think.  A perfect place to do that would be to comment here on this blog....since it's mine.    

Flushing Methods

Lately I have found in my life I have been faced with many different looking toilets.  I recently moved out of my apartment and was staying at my folks house for most of the summer.  From there I stayed off and on with a buddy who lived in a three story old Victorian house in San Francisco.  This style of house of course had a different style of toilet than my parents house or ld apartment.  I have just recently moved into a new studio apartment in Pacific Heights and this apartment yet again has a different style of toilet.
I forgot to mention that while I was staying with my parents they were in the middle of a bathroom remodel.  The remodel was mainly focused on the shower but the toilet was removed and there was general conversation going on about all aspects of bathrooms. 
The other variable in my toilet scouting is school.  There are hundreds of bathrooms at SF State.  I only use a handful of them on a regular basis, but one thing I have noticed about the bathrooms at State is they only get something new in them if the old thing broke.  University's and their money (or lack of money).  This creates some odd matches in some bathrooms.  Bolts are different, toilets are different shades of white porcelain, things of that nature. 
I have decided on my favorite type of toilet.  One where you can use your foot to flush.  Most house don't have this style of toilet.  This seems obvious, most people don't feel their houses are dirty and thus visitors don't need to use their feet to flush.  This trend in toilets is mainly found in public places like school, stadiums, concert halls, etc. 
This toilet here is the one in my new apartment.  It's an interesting design considering it is in an apartment in San Francisco.  The seat is comfortable, but there really isn't enough room for my knees when I'm sitting on it reading.  As you can see there is a cabinet directly in front of the toilet that sticks out quite a bit considering its placement.  Due to this I have to angle myself to the right to allow enough room for my legs. 
      
As you can see above the cabinet sticks out from the wall about five inches.  Which doesn't sound like a whole hell of a lot but when your supposed to sit with your legs straight on it makes a big difference.  You can see the flushing handle is one you would find more commonly in a public restroom.  I don't know the story behind why this apartment had a toilet with a flush handle like that, but really it makes no difference to me. Actually its kind of fun sometime. I can kick it down with authority.  Here's the same toilet from another angle.

When I'm at public places on a regular basis, such as school, I find a bathroom I'm comfortable with and I use that same bathroom every single time.  I like big bathrooms because that cuts down on the chances of waiting in lines.  Plus that means there is more than one stall.  I generally pick the one up against a wall because that allows me to only have to deal with one being full next to me because my other side is the wall. Here are some examples of toilet set-ups at Sf State.
   
These are obviously urinals, which for most people are a different animal due to the lack of commitment needed. It's a whole different ball game when you have sit, bare bottomed on something than stand next to it. But notice the flush mechanism.  This set-up is by far the best set-up possible for a public restroom.  All you do is click it with your foot and your gone.

here is a toilet in the same restroom as the urinals in the previous picture.  The flushing handle itself is a different part but the idea is the exact same.  It is so obvious that you use your foot a person can't possibly touch that handle with anything else.  The fact that everyone flushes with their feet does make the handle itself dirtier than it would be but the method makes flushing hands free.
Alright here is my last picture. This toilet is essentially the same as the picture above but it is located in a different restroom in the BECA building at SF State.

Obviously there is one huge difference with this toilet than the one located in the other picture.  The location of the handle makes this toilet a hands flushing toilet.  Now when I use this toilet as I did right before I took this picture I still use my foot to flush.  it isn't impossible to use your foot anyways the handle is only three feet in the air or so.  But it does beg the question why does one bathroom in the same building have a foot flusher and another has a hand flusher when the foot flusher for public bathrooms is so much better.  I don't have the answer to this question but I think most people prefer the foot flushing method. I know I do. 
So next time your in a public bathroom check out the flushing method.  Remember when they built the bathroom they decided which way people were going to flush.  As the user we can defy this assumption and flush all the time with our feet regardless of the location of the flushing handle.  Stay clean and flush with your foot.

The KJ BoothCast

Alrighty Ladies and Gentleman I am proud to announce that the KJ Boothcast is live as of a few days ago.  The shows are roughly an hour long and chock full of hilarious bantering and antics.  Get to know me and my compadres Vu, Brent, Ken, and McKenna.  Although all of us are not present for every single show due to random reasons we all have a good dynamic.  Check out the website here The KJ BoothCast and being the laughs. I will also post a link to the website in my sidebar so once this posts disappears to the nether worlds of archiving you can still find it.

Danny

Podcasts

This is a post to notify anyone who reads this bad boy that me and some fellow co-workers at the Karaoke bar have begun a once a week podcast.  We are currently waiting for a friend to finish building us our website.  We haven't gone live with any of the casts yet but expect a link to the site with more information in the coming weeks. 

I know I'm not that consistent with my blog posts which hurts readership and blunts my ideas but I'm trying and I think this will be a welcomed edition to what I'm trying to do here. 

Bills To Pay

I found this poem I wrote about six years ago when I attended the Santa Rosa Junior College.  It was in my notebook for the class Psychology 56:Death and Dying.  I was really surprised by a few things when I found this poem. The first thing was that I wrote a poem. I've never written poems in my life, so the fact that I found one in a school notebook is odd.  Secondly, I really like the poem and I think it reflects accurately on my feelings about the class.  I was around 19 years old and was trying to fulfill a general education requirement by taking the class.  I had no idea exactly what the class was about except for death and I remember the class constantly making me feel uncomfortable.  Not necessarily in a bad way, but in a way that I knew I had to deal with.  During the class I would constantly think about my parents, grandparents and friends.  It was a very unique perspective for me  at that age.

Livin'

Walked out my door today
Hmmm...maybe I shoulda stayed?
Well, I have to go to work
The bills are piling up, dads on the lurk
Gotta get him the money or else its my worth

Oh well, back to gettin' to work
Woops, that was a red light...
Now I'm in the fight
For what? For life!

Families my support, but what can they do?
Don't they know that it's through?
Oh no! I feel it slippin', slippin' away
It seems that I've seen my very last day
All I know about today
I had to go to work, with bills to pay.