This weekend was one of the better weekends I've had in a while, especially in the 6 months that I've been unemployed.
Friday I went out to Brooklyn to hang out at Nebs' place and catch the Yanks Phils game. It's really nice to have the luxury of a backyard, but I guess that's Brooklyn for ya. Unfortunately the Yanks couldn't pull out a win but it was definitely a good time. Nebs got me on a Bruce Springsteen kick, I really love movies and music from the 70's. I really appreciate the unpolished effects that they seem to have, compared to music and movies over the past 10-15 years. Not to mention that alot of the music that was made because the artists loved to make music and not because the labels were pushing them to put out album after album.
Saturday I went out to Fabrices for Paintball and a BBQ. Second time paintballing in a week and it really is a lot of fun. I guess the fact that I haven't really been shot up too many times definitely helps.
Sunday was a hangin out in Boken and yet another BBQ at Dara's, props to Dara for throwing together quite the spread of middle eastern fair.
Monday we hit up an awesome Mexican place called Charittos and then hung around the pool and watched the Cuse v Cornell lax game. What a game, I didn't catch the whole game but I did catch the last 4 minutes where Cuse' went on to score 3 goals to tie the game. The last goal coming with 4 seconds left. Widhalm and Day were ecstatic as they are Syracuse Alumni and I was pretty pumped since I have adopted them as one my college teams since Sarah graduated from there. Cuse then went on to win the game a minute into OT to complete the comeback.
Monday night I was persuaded to meet a couple of the guys and have some beers at Dukes, I was pretty exhausted but I was lured with the idea of a trivia night which wound up being cancelled. During any Yankee or Met game they have $1 beers or $4 pitchers which is awesome. We broke into quite a few songs and just had an awesome night overall.
I'm really looking forward to the Barca - Man Utd. Champions League final tomorrow.
Unfortunately the weather outlook for this weekend doesn't look like beach weather. I've been trying to decide on what to do this weekend based on the weather and it looks as though I may partake in a round of golf and some paintball intermixed with alot of maxin and relaxin.
I thought about going down to Sea Isle City but the trip is quite long, its over my budget and the bars are sure to be packed. Add to the fact that its not beach weather that idea was nixed pretty early.
Next up is beaching it in Point Pleasant New Jersey... This is a feasible option yet the whole weather and packed bars thing rears its ugly head again.
I think I'll take a trip to Central Park or Long Beach tomorrow for some fun in the sun and some much needed catching up on My Chuck Palahniuk Novel, Pygmy. As for the rest of the weekend I'm not utterly concerned about what I do, as long as I spend some time with my buddies I'm cool doin whatever.
A good weekend overall. Went up to Syracuse to see Sarah graduate. Probably the last time I'll hang out with college aged kids. Johnny A came out to meet us at the bar Friday night and copious amounts of beer and tequila were consumed. I love the fact that 2 shots of tequila and a Guinness was $12. I inhaled a Jimmy Johns sub at 2 am which is standard protocol for any late night hangover helper and then passed out on the floor of our room at the Comfort Inn Suites because a cot had not been delivered to the room. Needless to say this was not the most comfortable slumber I've had in a while.
Vice President Joe Biden was the commencement speaker, he spoke for ~30 minutes and delivered a nice speech. Gotta give respect for the University of Delaware! In all seriousness though he had an inspiring speech. The gist of the speech was this generation is at an inflection point in history and that we can help to influence the direction we are going.
With two wars being fought across the globe, an economic crisis throughout the world and a greater responsibility for the survival of our planet our generation has the potential to be truly great. Not many times do you get to grab the wheel and alter the path we careening towards.
The end of the speech sounded more like it was coming from a politician however. He spoke of affordable health care,a college education for all of those who qualify and finished the speech with God Bless our Troops and God Bless America. I understand that he's the VP and that these are important issues to alot of Americans. However I highly doubt that this applies to the majority of the population at Syracuse. Tuition is around $40,000 a year and my sister noted that over the weekend she was counting the number of Range Rovers she saw. It's pretty easy to see if you've ever been to Syracuse University that these issues are not what the students of SU are worried about.
Today I went out to Mcann Memorial Golf Course in beautiful Poughkeepsie to play 18 holes for a steal of a deal at $20. A great day, I shot an 81 which easily could've been a 79. I shanked a 7 iron on my second shot on the par 5 17th hole and wound up scrambling under some trees and through a bunker to pull a bogey out of my ass instead of what would most likely have been a birdie. I Played my round in 4 hours and it easily could've been 3 if I didn't have 2 foursomes in front of me. The course was relatively empty and it was a nice relaxing round. My ball striking was pretty solid off the tee all day. I still have to work on my game from within 175 yards but its getting better. On the back 9 I only missed one fairway and that was on 17 where i was about 3 yards into the rough so all in all it was a promising round.
For all of those golfers out there I highly suggest checking out oobgolf.com. I use Oob to input all of my scores and it allows you keep track of numerous statistics to get a better insight into how you're playing. After today my handicap is a 9.9 which I am happy with.
Today was a pretty damn good day. Started out the day with a very promising meeting that will no doubt help me in my professional development and eventually land me a job. There was no job offer but there was plenty of valuable information I took away from that meeting and it will no doubt help me going forward.
On my way back from that meeting I noticed a chalkboard that said the Barcelona v Chelsea Semi Final Champions League Match that was to be televised @ 2:30. I made a mental note about that game the week before but I totally would have forgotten about it if it weren't for that chalkboard. I strolled into my apartment at 2:40 to catch the first minute of the game and saw a well fought match by both sides where it seemed as though Chelsea dominated Barcelona for much of the match. Michael Essien scored in the 12th minute on an incredible side volley knuckler that grazed the crossbar into the back of the net. (See Video Below)
Valdes had absolutely no shot at stopping this goal and in all likelihood I don't think Essien could make that shot if he had 100 more tries. Barca played a very physical match and were quite aggressive in their own box. There were a couple slide tackles that could've ended up in a penalty kicks but they also got screwed on the red card given in the 60th minute that put them a man down. I'll call it a wash.
In the 2nd half Barcelona had plenty of opportunities to put the ball in the net off of Free Kicks and Corners but they couldn't capitalize and it seemed as though Chelsea was destined to win. Fast forward to the 92nd minute and the current man of the match Essien whiffs on a clearance just inside of their box. The ball gets played out to Iniesta at the top of the 20 and he ripped a shot on the outside of his foot that bent perfectly away from the diving keeper to tie the game up 1-1 and all but secure their position in the finals in Rome.
For those of you who don't follow soccer, and I imagine that is the vast majority of you. I myself am a novice, yet I do love catching top notch futbol. In Champions League play there are two matches, each team gets a home game and the aggregate score for both matches ultimately decides the winner. The first game ended in a 0-0 tie, this game ended in a 1-1 tie. You may think they would go to penalty kicks, but that is not the case as away goals are weighed more heavily than home goals. Tie Breakers are decided on the away goal aggregate. So Barcelona's aggregate total was 1-0 over Chelsea.
I'll never forget the last time Barcelona was in the Champions League Final. It was the senior year at UD and the final day of classes for me. I had one class at 5 pm and it was a joke to say the least. For those of you who did not attend UD and even those who did and would like to reminisce. I caught the game at Grotto's which serves $2 24oz beers. I downed 10 of those bad boys in the 2 hours of soccer that was played. Even in my best drinking days that is alot. Needless to say I was quite stumbly and incoherent. I made it to my 5 oclock class drunk as a skunk and I can say that is the only time I've ever been in a college class wasted.
Ahh yes, for those of you who don't know the end result of that game; Barcelona played Arsenal and they were down a goal going into the half. Barcelona went on to score 2 goals in the second half to take home the cup in an incredible match.
That was quite the tangent I just had. Applause for all of you who have made it this far. I rarely have that kind of patience for rambling.
For a nightcap I got to meet one of the most venerable literary figures and by far my favorite author ever. Mr. Chuck Palahniuk. I've been a big Chuck fan for the past 7 years after I fell in love with Fight Club my Freshman Year of college. I've seen the movie over 500 times and was lucky enough to write a paper on the movie in English 101. He has consistently written books that I love to read and have actually re-read Lullaby. I cannot say that about any other author, how many of you have read a fiction book twice? Exactly.
Note the sweet mutton chops on Chuck here.
There is no author I can even put in the same ballpark. For the past 4 years I have been at the bookstore the first day to pick up his latest novel. I could never say that about anyone else. He is the author of one of the greatest novels of our generation and I was ecstatic to get a ticket early enough that I got VIP status where I got a picture with Chuck as well as a signed copy of his new book Pygmy. I also snagged a sweet blow up penguin that he was throwing out to members of the crowd. (For all of those people not fortunate enough to see or read Fight Club, it's his power animal. What is your power animal? )
Sliddeee
The reading was held at Webster Hall and this was the first time the Strand held any reading/signing at Webster Hall. It was a great experience and I intend on catching him in years to come on his book tours. There were no instances of people passing out or anything too crazy. I did see a few people dressed in German Beer maiden attire and one dude rocking a sombrero with a drug rug. Chuck fans are definitely an eccentric bunch and I'm happy to say I'm one of em. I'll save a Chuck rant for later as I'm sure this post is getting wayyy too long.
Stay tuned for pictures from the Chuck reading...hopefully I don't look like too much of a jackass in the pictures. A nice high school student in line behind me was nice enough to take pictures of me and said he'd send over the photos..
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Beinstein Rules!
This idea is pawned off from the “Sir” Charles Barkley and Dwayne Wade commercials for T-mobile. The idea really started with the movie High Fidelity. Many people, including myself have a hard time in letting someone know with absolute certainty that they are in love with Pastor Tacos and could go about every day of their lives eating said tacos, or their favorite beer and so on. The character in the movie had this same predicament and I usually find myself in the same boat.So, as I see fit, perhaps once a week, I will throw out my “fave 5”. Ideas for future Fave 5’s are more than welcome, in fact they are encouraged. Ideas that have crossed my mind are as follows; Favorite Beers, Favorite Movies, Favorite Websites and Favorite Foods that make me fart… You get the idea.
Since I’ve been on quite the baseball kick in the month of April I will continue the trend with my Favorite Baseball Players.
1.)Donald Arthur Mattingly a.k.a Donnie Baseball, The Hitman, The Captain: I have been a Don Mattingly Fan as long as I can remember. When I was a kid watching those telecasts and even when I was lucky enough to go to the stadium, where they were lucky to get 25,000 fans into the stadium. You knew that Mattingly was out there giving it his all. He played the game the right way and was everything a Yankee is supposed to be. In his only post season appearance in 1995, he left everything he possibly could on the field with this line .414/.440/.770 1 Hr 6 RBI. When he hung up the spikes and had to call it quits due to injury it was a sad day for me. I pine for him to be the next Yankee manager and hope he can get his much deserved ring while wearing the pinstripes. If I had a vote for the hall of fame you’d surely get my vote!
2.)Cal Ripken Jr.: Another player that seems to be cut from the same cloth as the Hitman. I was lucky enough to meet Cal Ripken at Joe’s Stone Crab (Keep this in mind for my favorite restaurants) in Miami. I was about 12 years old and he seemed like a giant to me. He was a gentleman and obliged a young baseball fan by signing a menu for me. I don’t know a single person that was rooting against him to break Lou Gehrig’s record. Athletes like Cal come by once every generation. I’ll be lucky enough to say I met him.
3.)Derek Sanderson Jeter: Perhaps you’re seeing a trend here. I couldn’t ask for a better player to follow in the footsteps of Mattingly to be the next Yankee Captain. Derek has always been in the limelight since he stepped onto the big stage in 1996 as rookie. To maintain the level of respect he’s garnered in the media and sports capital of the world speaks volumes of the man he is. Everyone speaks of his relationships with models, actresses’ and so on. All the more to him, if I were Derek Jeter I would be doing the same thing. The fact that he is able to keep out of the back pages of the NY Post while A-Rod seems to have a new story every 2 months really shows you how focused and awesome Derek really is. Not to mention as a kid I grew up wearing the number two playing shortstop for my little league teams on up through high school. I also attended both games in which Jeter dove into the stands. The playoff game against Oakland was probably the loudest I have ever heard it in the Stadium. I’ve been to a lot of playoff games in my time but nothing compared to the intensity of the crowd in this moment.
4.)Paul O’Neill: This guy was a straight up gamer, there wasn’t an at bat that he didn’t take seriously. Anyone who wasn’t a Yankees fan thought of him as a primidona who was only concerned with smashing water coolers and making a stink on the field when things didn’t go his way. After reading Buster Olney’s book the Last night of the Yankee Dynasty it really gave me a better view into the man that Paul O’Neill is. He’s the guy everyone hates but secretly wants on their team. That’s exactly how I feel about Kevin Youkilis but he’ll never make it to this list. He will always be remembered as one of the Yankee greats and was a key part of that dynasty I grew up with. My one lasting memory of Paulie would be that incredible catch he made in game 3 against Atlanta in the 7th inning on a bad knee. He is the Warrior.
5.)Wade Boggs: Not necessarily because he stuck it to the sox by going to the Yankees and winning that World Series in 96’ and gloating like a 7 year old on that stupid horse. It’s because this guy could straight up hit. I’ve went to games where he would have a 10 minute at bat, fouling off 25-30 pitches until he found the one he liked and would slap it into right for a single. There are also the rumor’s that he could drink with the best of them. If I can find the link I will surely post it. Rumors have it he was known to polish off 64 beers on a cross country flight without looking the slightest bit intoxicated. On a side note, I’ve actually heard many stories that a lot of ballplayers actually play better when hung over. If this is actually true we’ll never know. Hey, maybe Sports Science can do a show on this myth? Wade also was notorious for being a habitual creature by eating his chicken at a certain hour every day before a ball game. Baseball players, of all professional athletes are extreme creatures of habit. He is the only player in major league history to have his 3,000 hit come via a home run.
5a.) Rickey Henderson: Ricky is quite the opposite of Donnie Baseball but they did play together early on his Mattingly’s career. You have to love a person who talks about himself in the 3rd person. In fact Rickey was an important reason why Mattingly won the MVP in 85’. Who do you think was setting the table for all of those 145 RBI’s Mattingly had? It was always exciting to see Rickey play. Making those flashy catches in the outfield, stealing bases at rates that were unheard of and most importantly for “Rickey being Rickey”. He is one of the most ostentatious athletes I know, and his time was before the primidonaWR’s of the NFL came to be. In fact I will display some choice quotes from Rickey for your viewing pleasure.
"“This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”
In the early 1980s, the Oakland A’s accounting department was freaking out. The books were off $1 million. After an investigation, it was determined Rickey was the reason why. The GM asked him about a $1 million bonus he had received and Rickey said instead of cashing it, he framed it and hung it on a wall at his house.
Check out that link for the rest of Rickey being Rickey
Well folks that’s all for this installment of my fave 5 even though it turned into a fave 6, hope you enjoyed it!
Monday I hit the Links at Unionvale and shot a respectable 86 from the back tees. Mind you, the greens were in horrible shape as they were being aerated. I really feel that if you play golf on a course that has aerated greens you should receive a 20% discount. You spend approximately 1/3-1/2 of your shots on the green so it makes sense you should receive a discount for the poor conditions that exist.
Tuesday I made it to Casperkill for another beautiful day on the course. I plodded around the front 9 with a 46 and played much better on the back for a 42. My score didn't show it on the back but I definitely played better. All in all these are good indicators to a successful season. I do need more consistency out of my iron play, I've been playing with a relatively new set of irons and have problems figuring out my distances.
If you haven't checked out this site yet, you should. It's called oobgolf.com and for me it allows me to track my handicap and have a detailed guide of my rounds. (i.e how many fairways i hit, where did i miss, GIR, putts, and various other stats). Right now my handicap is a 10.4. Pretty respectable if I do say so myself.
Jonathan Papelbon: He actually does garner my #1 most hated of all athletes as his douchebag like demeanor on the mound evokes the feelings portrayed in Fight Club where Edward Norton decimates Jared Leto’s face. Add to the fire his comments about closing the all star game at Yankee Stadium over Mo and dancing like a jackass on the field in compression shorts and goggles. He’s number one for sure. If I could beat that smug look off your face I would die a happy man.
Tom Brady: His chiseled jaw and golden arm are not going to leave him off this list. Add to the fact that he’s a deciple of Bill Belicheck and he only gets worse. When you have one of the best offensive lines in all of football along with an airtight defense of course you’re going to win 3 super bowls. I could not have been happier when in the span of two games Eli Manning out Manning’s his brother to beat Brady for a super bowl and then in the next game goes down for the season against the lowly Chiefs. Tom, just retire now before you turn into Troy Aikman and enjoy time spent with a wife who makes more than you.
Jason Varitek: Generally everyone named Jason is pretty freakin awesome but there are always exceptions to the rule. He’s the heart and soul of the Red Sox and that ridiculous ESPN generated Red Sox Nation. He led the fracas in the 2004 between A-rod and himself at Fenway and will always be considered a douche for wearing that C on his jersey. Note that our captains don’t need any recognition on their uniforms. Everyone knows who the captain is, this isn’t hockey is it?
Bill Belicheck: I hate watching him in his cut off sweatshirts sulk along the sidelines. He has not made many friends during his tenure as a coach and continues to be one of the most hated coaches in all of sports. We understand you have your own coaching tree of deciples now but come on now Bill cheer up! Loves to trade down in the draft and make something out of nothing.
Red Sox Nation: An ESPN manifestation where all sorts of fans seemed to come out of the woodwork after their 2004 WS victory. I understand New England is a large portion of the Northeast but they don’t deserve their own "nation". This I blame solely on the media and cancer like growth it took in the earlier part of this decade. I get it, you guys won two world series in the past 5 years but get over yourself, you’re not bigger than baseball. Add to this the evil empire moniker that Larry Luchino gave to the Yankees and I’m all but done with this.
Jack “Blackjack” McDowell: Here’s someone you probably did not expect. He is a the schmuck who gave up the hit to Edgar Martinez in relief in game 7 of the 1995 ALDS. All but killing any dream of Mattingly winning a World Series as a player. In the same season he also flipped off the crowd while being booed off the mound during a game. Blackjack is now some crappy country singer, if you see him give him a punch in the stomach and say it was from me. Thanks, he’ll understand.
Kevin Youkilis: I really do like the way he plays baseball, but the fact that he plays that brand of baseball for the most hated team in all of sports automatically deems him unfit to root for. He is to the Red Sox what Paul O’Neill was to the Yanks. He’s a cocky S.O.B with a stupid looking facial hair arrangement.
Dustin Pedroia: See Youkilis. A nasty Napolean complex and an unwarranted MVP winner in 08’. He also looks like a rat.
Trot Nixon: If for any reason just because his name is Trot.
Carl Pavano: One of the biggest wastes of money ever to wear pinstripes. This speaks volumes due to the number of large contracts the Yankees have thrown around. He’s one of the most fragile overrated pitchers of all time. He’s the reason why contract’s shouldn’t be guaranteed in baseball.
Any coach for the Dolphins after Don Shula: Except for the current Parcell’s regime these coaches have managed to turn one of the greatest franchises of all time into a laughing stock of the NFL. (See Wandstedt, Jimmy Johnson, Nick Saban, Cam Cameron and interim coachJim Bates). Horrible drafts and poor coaching has left me hoping that Sparano is the next Shula.
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