The Hart Beat

The Middle East and a Lost Hero

2010-12-01T19:36:00.002-05:00

Ever since Steve Meyers moved to Abu Dhabi two years ago, I knew I had to go visit him. It took a while to get all the plans together, but sure enough it happened. Aside from a quick visit to the US Virgin Island of St. Thomas, I haven't been able to leave the shores of the continental US since my amazing trip to Spain well over a year ago.

I'm not sure what excited me more, just getting away, or experiencing a part of the world that I had never encountered before. Regardless, both things turned out to be amazing. Spending 10 days in the UAE, Oman, and Jordan can have a pretty healthy impact on a person from a "western" culture. Although I spent some time in Morocco before, a Muslim country, I was never given time to be fully immersed in their culture. The two most obvious differences between our cultures have to be 1) the five prayer calls that are blasted throughout the city every single day 2) The clothing. There are also two not so obvious cultural differences, but once you realize them, you see the lack of it everywhere. Both alcohol and pork are forbidden...and not even available to the general public.

I don't have time to go into the specifics of the trip right now, but the important thing is that it gave me a ton of time to think, read, and experience a new culture...which is exactly what I needed.

Now onto a far more important and tragic topic. On Monday, November 22nd, Devins brother, Staff Sgt. Sean Flannery was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan. When I received the call, my heart dropped and I was overwhelmed with sadness. Not because I knew Sean well, because I didn't, but because I knew the grief that one of my close friends and his mother were experiencing.

After a very long and emotional week, Seans funeral was yesterday. Right after the funeral was a fallen soldier ceremony. I've seen similar ceremonies in movies and I've struggled to keep my emotions in check. To see the same ceremony, but instead with a family that I know closely...well, I'll just say that it even brings a tear to my eye as I write this.

Although yesterday was an extremely sad day. The Flannerys, our community, and our country were able to honor a man that gave his life so that others can live, so that we can live. It's weird how something so tragic can also be something so honorable. Sean didn't die in vein, he died in glory.

So to Sean and everyone else that has ever served our country, thank you. Sean, may you rest in peace.

New Life

2010-10-27T21:08:00.002-04:00

It's a funny thing how time passes by. I've not posted since May 8th, 2009...and honestly, that makes me sad. I'm not sure what part of this blog I miss the most. Part of me says I wish I had more documentation and not just memories of the past year of my life. Another part of me thinks that it's not actually the writing or the memories that I miss at all, but the time I was able to spend by myself reflecting on life. Lastly and probably most accurately, I think I miss the experiences and living all 89 of the stories that I was able to document while this blog still had life.

It's really easy to look back at life and think of all the happy times. I can't think of a happy time that I completely took for granted, but there are definitely things that I would appreciate much more the second time around. Not to sound overly stereotypical, but high school football is a great example of something I loved at the time, but it wasn't until I played in college when I realized how great it was. It wasn't about scholarships and it wasn't about trying to make the NFL. It was just a bunch of guys working hard and going to battle with their best friends. I think you would have a very hard time finding one person on our team that wouldn't give anything to go back and relive our senior year one more time.

I bring all of this up because exactly two years ago I was probably the happiest I've ever been. The major difference is that I actually knew it at the time. Before I started writing this, I read a few of my old posts. Not only did they bring me back to my happy place, they reminded me of an enthusiasm for life that I had back then...and that I've seemed to have lost. I'm the same person I was two years ago, I just have a different life.

Honestly, everything I said in the last paragraph has really taken a toll on me for the past year. The problem is that instead of doing something about it, I just sat and sulked. That being said, I think I'm finally ready to do something about it. Although I can't just pick up and move back to Sydney, I can alter my current lifestyle and try to achieve the happiness I had before.

Just because I'm in Wyomissing, it doesn't mean that I can't travel to new places on the weekend. Just because I don't work at a gym, it doesn't mean that I can't work out. Just because I have access to unhealthy food, it doesn't mean I can't eat healthily.

I guess what I'm saying is that you can't always change the situation you're in, but you can work your hardest to make the best of it. So today I made a commitment to myself that I'm going to work out more, eat healthier, spend more time reading, write in my blog, and try more new and exciting things.

If I spent the same amount of time doing the things I listed above, rather than watching tv for example, I truly believe I would be happier. Would I be as happy as I was two years ago? I don't know, but I'm going to try.

Ok, this post just took me over an hour to put together so I think I'm going to stop, but you haven't heard the last of me...and by you, I mean cyberspace, because surly I don't have any readers anymore after taking a year and a half off. I guess it's more of a journal. Anyway, I hope I can pull this off, wish me luck!

Life Goes On

2009-05-08T14:42:00.008-04:00

There are few things I enjoy more than reading a good book or sitting down and writing in my blog. Unfortunately I only get a chance to do both of these things when the dust settles down from my business of my daily life. That is the exact reason why I get most of my reading and writing done while on vacations or trips.

Before I write a new post I always read the previous one to see where I left off. Seeing how the last time I wrote was in March, I have a lot of catching up to do.

Anyway, I ended up not finding a house in that first weekend of looking. Some of them were nice, but they weren't right for me. I kept on looking and about 3 weeks ago I happen to run into a house that is perfect. Made an offer. They made a counter offer. I accepted. On June 15th I close...only 4 days before I leave for Europe. I'm very excited. I am going to re-do the kitchen while I move in because it's pretty old school, but everything else can wait until after I move. Here are some pictures:

I've still been going to the boxing gym, but I don't get as much attention as I'd like so I've skipped a few times. I'm getting into decent shape, but I'm not learning a whole lot. They did however put me in the ring about two weeks ago. It was my fist sparring match and I got rocked. I'm guessing the guy is a few years younger than me, but has way more experience. He is about 6'3" 250, so he doesn't have a ton of weight on me, but his reach was waaaaaay longer. The match started and I was trying to be really technical. He would throw a punch and I would try to dodge it just like Marshall showed me...and then I would get punched in the face. I can honestly say that I've never really been punched in the face (minus the time George hit me for no reason). Well I can't make that statement anymore. I got punched in the face over and over and over...at least 50 times. It's a funny feeling to get rocked in the face. Having spent the last few years of my life training for throwing, I have learned to really analyze and break down my athletic movements. I don't just got off of pure emotion without even knowing what I'm doing. I usually am very aware of what I'm doing and I think about it while it is happening. Well, I did the same thing while getting punched in the face. I would just stand there and be like "that guy just punched me in the face and I did nothing about it"...then he would hit me again.

When I realized that I was getting tired from attempting to avoid his punches without even throwing any of my own...I decided to start getting aggressive. It worked ok. Basically I was accepting that I was going to get hit, but in turn I had a decent chance of landing one or two of my own. I did land one haymaker on his face (the only highlight of the fight), but I was too tired to make it count...it probably still hurt though. At one point I remember getting hit in the nose so hard that I was sure I was bleeding. By the time I consciously had the thought that I was bleeding, I got hit again right in the same spot. It hurt. Bad. But I was too tired to do anything about it.

Enough of the boxing for now. Jepsen put together a softball team called the Soggy Bottom Boys. We are sponsored by none other than the Downtown Reading Hofbrau. We suck. 0-3 right now, but were starting to get better. We lost our first game 32-5, then our second 15-2, then our third 9-7. We're definitely onto something...I think we will be over .500 at the end of the season.

Alright, I'm starting to get really annoyed. Steve and I are going up to PSU this weekend to throw. He was supposed to be leaving DC and meeting me in Harrisburg at 3 or 4. Now it is 3:20 and he hasn't even left DC yet...two hours away. I took a half day...and now I'm just sitting on my couch at home getting bitter. I'm gunna try calling him again. Peace.

The Search

2009-03-25T21:17:00.003-04:00

Once again I've managed not to write anything in a while. I should start keeping track of how many hits my blog gets these days...because I don't think anyone visits anymore. Oh well, back to treating it like a diary.

I watched an episode of Survivor with my dad tonight and I'm really happy I did. I have seen many episodes before, but I definitely don't watch it routinely. I think my dad watches most of the seasons. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, watch it. There is a guy named "Coach" that is awesome. I just searched google to see if I could find any of his quotes, but I couldn't. He said something to the effect of "I am like an iron sword, forged into an unbreakable force"...and that only the tip of the ice burg. This guy is an instant classic, Survivor should pay him $1,000,000 just for being on the show. One of the girls on the show said "Where did they find this jackass?". I don't actually know where he is from, but it's gotta be a town called Awesomeville. He's priceless, I hope he doesn't get kicked out anytime soon. I wish it was American Idol and we could vote...he would be my pick for sure. Who wants to see a bunch of normal people anyway?

Moving on, pun intended, I'll be looking at about 10 houses on Saturday. I'm pretty excited about it...I really hope I see something that I like. Of the 10, I really want to like two of them, but my Realtor said the one is really goofy. I guess I'll see on Sat.

I joined a boxing gym the other day. My first session is next Thursday so I decided to go to Dane's "Garage Strength" gym to get a workout so my body wouldn't go into shock. Dane had me doing a few things and within 5 minutes I was wondering why I signed up for all of this. When I don't do anything hard for a really long time, I forget about my asthma. Well I didn't forget about it last night. By the way, I hate to make it seem as if my asthma was the only thing holding me back. I'm not in anything close to good boxing shape. I would get beat down so hard if I walked in the ring right now. Well actually, if I landed a haymaker within the first 30 seconds I might be alright. Anyway, I was at Dane's for well over an hour...I probably was working out for a total of 10 minutes. It was pathetic. I knew it. He knew it. And unfortunately my trainer at King's gym will know it next week.

Alright, I'm done for now. I hope to have some time to update soon, but I'm done making promises.

The Boys are Back in Town

2009-03-11T22:13:00.003-04:00

So I said I was going to write something once a week, haha, what a joke. Although that remained my intention and ambition...I dropped the ball. Anyway, some exciting things have happened over the last few weeks. Here they are:

Marijke is going to be back in the Netherlands when Tony and I will be there. I've already been there, but hanging out with a local always proves to provide a completely different experience than just doing things on your own. I can't wait to see her, it's going to be so much fun.

I'm meeting with a banker tomorrow to discuss what I can afford as far as buying a house. I've decided to buy a place since it is a buyers market, interest rates are low, and I qualify for the first time home buyer stimulus tax credit. As much as I like getting the royal treatment living at home, I've been on my own for almost 5 years now...and I'm ready to get back to it. The idea of owning a house and creating equity is pretty exciting.

On Friday Scott is flying into DC from Rhode Island and Steve is picking him up from the airport, driving to Reading. We are going to hang out all day before going to Dane's football game. Dane went out for, and made, the Reading Express arena football team. It'd been a really long time since we have all hung out together...so it should be pretty fun catching up. We'll have to break out our PSU gear since we obviously don't own any Express stuff.

Alright, I'm going to bed, but I'm going to start updating much more often. I promise. I have a few stories that need to be told.

Worst Blogger ever

2009-02-18T19:15:00.002-05:00

As you can tell, it's been about a month and a half since I've last written. I'd love you tell you how busy I've been and how I haven't had any time to update, but that would be a lie. I think the problem is that I talk to many of you pretty often now that I'm back in the USA...so I just tell my stories in person. That being said, I am going to try to start writing once a week. I would really like to keep this thing up and running.

A few big things have happened since I last wrote. I started working and it's going alright. I'm getting a lot done, but I'm far from where I'd like to be. I know it takes time, but it is a little frustrating not knowing what I'm talking about. Whatever, I won't bore you about my 9-5.

On to more important things...like traveling. As you all know, traveling is probably my favorite thing to do. I've seen more and learned more from traveling than I all my years in school combined. If I am in one place for too long I honestly feel as if I'm missing out on something. I've never regretted traveling somewhere...and there are just so many things to see. Basically what I'm trying to tell you is that on July 8-12 George, Tony, Devin, and I will be running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. It's going to be doper than an egg salad sandwich in my lap (inside joke).

The plan is to go to the Czech Republic for 9 days with a work group from church, then I'll have a week and a half before the running of the bulls. I think Tony is going to come over during that week so we can hang out in Europe. I want to go see a bunch of my European friends from Sydney, but I'm not sure who all will be around. During that week we are thinking about going to Either England, Holland, Denmark, Greece, or Portugal. We are definitely going to do at least two of those...maybe three. I'm obviously pretty pumped about the whole situation. Then we will finish everything off with Spain.

Tony and I have decided to get into good running shape since we don't want to pull a hammy while being chased by a bull...probably a good idea. It's funny that Tony is coming, since bad things always seem to happen to him. He is definitely the most eligible to get gored. We consider him our weak link. Haha, I think they say "you don't have to be the fastest guy out there...you just don't want to be the slowest"

I've been watching some videos on youtube and there are definitely a few different strategies on running. There are soo many people in the road that you could easily stay to the side, jog lightly, and let the bulls run by OR you can be THE MAN and run right along side of them and put your hand on their back and yell things. We are also thinking about running with a football in our hands and maybe even doing a Heisman pose or two. The possibilities are endless. In the videos I watched, there are some legends. They run at least 50 meters right next to the bulls while the crowd parts in front of them. I want to be a legend. I want someone to see me on youtube one day and say "wow, that big white guy with the football in his hand just ran really far right next to those bulls..." Then he will call me a legend...or an idiot. I can't wait.

Alright, like I said before, I'll try to do an update once a week. So check back every once in a while. Catch you later.

2009

2009-01-07T18:14:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed your holiday season. I went to DC for NYE and then up to Georges cabin for the rest of the weekend. I had a great time in both places, but it's good to be home. So it's 2009 and next year will be 2010. Crazy. For some reason 2010 seems like it should always be the future. Basically I'm disappointed that we don't have flying cars and laser guns.

I'm pretty excited about my upcoming year. Although there is pretty much no way it can be more exciting than 2008, I'm looking forward to it none the less. Actually I've already started chalking up my calender with some travel plans. I'm going to Florida for the first weekend in Feb. Then hopefully to Boston sometime in March. There are also some plans starting to take shape that include running with the bulls in early July. I really want to run with the bulls...like really bad. I keep on looking at pictures and watching videos...it's so sweet I have to do it. Plus I've never been to Spain or Portugal, so I want to go. I also want to buy a house...actually a condo. So I guess I have to start saving, or start playing the lottery. I'm really good at spending money...but I take pride in not wasting money. I'm not sure $40 a night working the Hofbrau is going to cover all my future plans. Haha, which is why I am soon going to be the newest employee at Hartsoftware. Thats right, as of the 19th I will have a real job...the kind of job that doesn't include me checking id's and kicking out drunk people...I think. However, if things do ever get rowdy at Hartsoftware, I won't hesitate to introduce anyone to the pain train. WOO WOO!!!

My position title will be sales and development. I'm actually pretty excited to get my hands dirty. I have a decent idea of whats going on, but there is a lot to be learned. I hope my learning curve is fast...which it prolly will be since I'm wicked smart. I have a pretty good relationship with everyone at the office so I think things will go smoothly. I just hope I'm not treated like Tommy Boy. Haha which brings me to the most important part of this blog entry...my favorite Tommy Boy quotes, enjoy:

Tommy: I l-left a message.
Richard: A message? What number did you call?
Tommy: Two, four, niner, five, six, seven...
Richard: I can't hear you, you're trailing off and did I catch a niner in there? Were you calling from a walkie-talkie?
Tommy: No, it was cordless.

Richard: [watching Tommy squirt catchup into his mouth] Ugh, I can actually hear you getting fatter.

Tommy: Did you hear I finally graduated?
Richard: Yeah, and just a shade under a decade too, all right.
Tommy: You know a lot of people go to college for seven years.
Richard: I know, they're called doctors.

Richard: No way that just happened. My car is completely destroyed.
Tommy: I swear I've seen a lot of stuff in my life, but that... was...AWESOME.
Tommy: ... but, sorry about your car, man. That... That sucks.

[Tommy carelessly set an open bag of M&M's on the dashboard and they immediately poor into an open slot]
Richard: Oh that sounds good: melted chocolate inside the dash, that really ups the resale value.
Tommy: I think you'll be okay here, they have a thin candy shell. 'Surprised you didn't know that.
Richard: I think your brain has a thick candy shell.
Tommy: Your... Your brain has the shell on it.
Richard: Are you talking?
Tommy: Shut up, Richard.

Tommy: Does this suit make me look fat?
Richard: No, your face does.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-27T12:03:00.002-05:00

Hey, I hope you all are enjoying your holiday season as much as I am enjoying mine. I've been spending most of my time getting fatter. As much as I try to keep my diet going during the holidays, I can't. I'm just too much of a fat kid at heart to say no to all my favorites.

I went snowboarding with Devin, Jepsen, and Pat the other day. It was the first time I had gone in at least 4 or 5 years. I used to be really good...now I'm ok. For some reason I have a lot of trouble dismounting the ski lifts. My biggest fall of the day was about 20 feet after I got of the lift. It was very ungraceful and embarrassing. I think I fell a total of 4 times...including 2 in the ski lift area. I should be back to normal after going a few more times.

I've still been working shifts at the Downtown Reading Hofbrau. It's ok. Not exactly something I'd like to make a career at, but it's cool for now. Most of my time is spent sitting at the doors checking id's. However, lets not forget the first two words in the name of the pub "Downtown Reading"...so inevitably we get ton's of rif raf that love to fight. When fights break out we just try to get them outside. Our theory is that anything that happens inside the bar is our problem, but anything that happens outside isn't. One nice thing is that the Hofbrau is on 6th and Cherry, so there are usually cops in the area at all times. The police are usually there within two minutes of an outside brawl.

After much disorganization amongst my Wyo friends, I've decided to go to DC for New Years. Steve and Jen invited me down for the night and I'm sure we will all have a good time, plus I haven't seen them in a while so it will be good to catch up. Then on New Years day I am driving up to Georges cabin and staying there for a few days. I've actually never been to his cabin so I'm pretty excited about it. The cabin is right next to Elk Mountain so we are going to hit the slopes pretty hard.

Alright, I have to get going. My cousin, Tim, is getting married in less than an hour and a half...and I'm sitting in bed writing this instead of getting ready. I don't know if I'll get a chance to post again before the New Year...so I'll catch you on the flip side.

Happy Holidays

Home Sweet Home

2008-12-21T14:04:00.002-05:00

Hey everybody! As you already know, I got home Monday morning at 2am. It feels great to be back, but it's really really cold. I immediately got into the Christmas spirit because of the snow we got on Tuesday. I have been pretty busy getting around saying hi to everyone...and eating cheese steaks. I have a lot of catching up to do with my favorite foods that I couldn't get in Sydney.

Anyway, sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, but I'll get back into it over the next few weeks. I've talked to a handful of you guys in the phone over the past few days, but if I haven't heard from you, give me a ring.

I talked to Steve the other day and we had a good laugh about his email (that I posted in my last blog post). Steve got some kind of government contracted job a while ago, but he still hasn't gotten his security clearance. So basically he sits on his computer and screws around all day...maybe not all day, but you get the point. So why am I telling you these things? Well because he admitted that the formula he came up with in his email is not only completely original and fully functional...it also took him 3 hours to develop. So here we are, the tax payers of America, paying Steve hundreds of dollars to sit around and contribute to my blog. I guess thats better than not contributing to anything... But anyway, if you enjoyed Steve's email, don't thank him, thank yourself...for financially contributing to it. It has officially become my most expensive blog post ever...because lets be honest, my time isn't very valuable.

So now is you chance to tell everyone how you feel about this situation. Should we congratulate Steve on "screwing the man" (well more like the man is screwing himself since they haven't given him clearance)or do we tell Steve that he's a disgraceful drain on society. It's you, the people, that have to decide.

Haha, alright, I have to get going. I got a part time job bouncing at a local pub so I'll be making more updates in the near future...since I already have a few stories. Bye.

Leagues part 2

2008-12-12T03:25:00.003-05:00

Alright, so I finally put up some quality material and what do I get?? Even more quality material. Most of you know my good friend Steve Meyers. But for those that don't, we threw together while I was at Penn State. We have remained good friends and he is avid reader/supporter of my blog. He sent me an email regarding my last post on leagues...and it was so good that it needs it's own blog entry. Keep in mind that Steve is a nerd...which accounts for his amazing formula, and it's accuracy. Here is what he had to say:

Jon, I like the numbers, but your logic is flawed for talking to 8 girls, and getting one. You might have a 12.5% chance of getting a girl 2 levels above, but this does not mean that speaking to another girl increases your changes. Since these events are mutually exclusive, you have a 12.5% chance with each girl, no matter what. So, odds are quite good that you can talk to 8 girls, and no luck would be had. But let’s be a bit simpler here and look at a real life example:

Let’s start out the night where you are tossing a few back, and talking to one girl every 15 min throughout the night. This means that you will be able to talk to 8 girls in 2 hours. Assuming the first encounter does not go well, you continue standing around consuming another beer. This proceeds is likely to repeat itself 8 times in a row, and by this time, you have had more than your fair share of beers. Odds are at this time, your girl ranking system could be slightly skewed. Fed up with the rejection, you then try your luck at level 6 girls, thinking that these girls will get a good chance (80%), since they are within your rank or level. But you do not include the Beer goggle factor formula which is:

BD = Number of Beers Drank
T = Time Spent Drinking
BS = Beer Strength – in %
LF = Lighting Factor – Ranked 1-5 – 1 being very dark, 5 being bright
FC = Food Content – Ranked 1-5 – 1 being no food eaten, 5 being stuffed
HF = Success Factor – Ranked 1-5 – 1 being little success with girls recently, 5 being lots of success recently

So, judging from these calculations, Jon has drank 8 Beers over a span of 2 hours, assuming slightly stronger beers (5.0). Lets guess this is a normal house party, where the lighting is average (2.5), and Jon will have certainly eaten something (4), and he has not had the best luck as of recent with the ladies (1.5). As noted above, Jon wants to talk to girls of his own perceived level (granted he has had beers), so using a level 6 girl we resolve an answer of : 2.42. Jon is actually is talking to a girl of rank 2.5, which makes his odds nearly certain to have some success, but, the next day, he will quickly realize that he has made a horrible mistake, and must carry around this formula in his back pocket to quickly reference how attractive this girl will look the next time her sees her. Working backwards from this formula, if Jon wants to talk to an Actual level 6 girl, he must try to talk with somebody who will be ranked a level 15, which is impossible, fully bringing to light that its near impossible to understand what level of girl you are talking to after drinking for a night.

Well Steve, thanks for your input, I laughed out loud the entire time I read it. But now for everyone else that actually reads my blog. If you have any ideas or something you would like to post, be my guest. I love hearing from everyone. You can always write a comment on my blog, but as you've seen me do a few times now, I love to post other peoples emails on here. So shoot me an email with your suggestions...and if they are funny, I'll post them. Alright, I'm going to bed. Ciao.

Leagues

2008-12-11T04:08:00.003-05:00

Found it! Here is my opinion on dating "leagues". This is part of an email I wrote Dunne about a month and a half ago.

Ok now onto the real topic, leagues. Although there might be a little validity to your argument, I tend to disagree with your overall theology. Leagues are like laws...made to be broken. Do I seriously need to point out to you how many people are dating people that are out of their league? Here is a common problem, people fail with one person out of their league...and they let that person be the representative of the entire league.

Leagues are on a person by person basis. The best way of describing it is by using percentages. Lets use the 10 point scale to define different leagues. Pretty much everyone is willing to date someone within their own league. Example: Lets say I'm a 6. I am aware of my status as a 6, therefore I am willing to date anyone that is a 6,7,8,9, or 10. However, your percentage of probability drops severely every number you move up. After many seconds of contemplation and research, I have determined these percentages.

80% - The percentage of people in your own class that you can get with.

35% - Success of getting with someone that is ONE point ahead of you.

12.5% - Two points

3% - Three points

0.33% - Four points

I decided to stop at four points because seriously...who can move up 5??? That would just be ridiculous. So here is the thing, these odds might not look good, but they aren't as bad as one might think. You just have to play the percentages. Back to my example. If I'm a 6 and I want to get with an 8, I shouldn't be discouraged that I only have a 12.5% chance, I should be excited. That means that I have a 1/8 chance. So what am I going to do??? Talk to 8 different girls in the 8th category...that way I am almost guaranteed to get one. Just because I get rejected by the first one doesn't mean that I should stop trying...it only means that my chances are even better for the next girl I talk to. See???

So how can we relate this to our lives? Well, Tara, it means shoot for the stars...because we might just land a 10 (Bonnie). You better get used to rejection, but you just have to keep in mind that the big score could be right around the corner. I hope this has cleared some things up, but let me know if you have any more questions. By the way, I don't know what number I currently am...but it's definitely higher than it was a few months ago. BAM!

haha ok, I just re-read that for the first time since I wrote it. Waaayyy better material then I have been putting on here recently. Talk to you guys later.

More New Zealand

2008-12-11T03:11:00.006-05:00

Hey, so I've had plenty of down time to do a blog post...but I haven't felt like it. I'm done with my 15 page paper so now all I have to do is send in a few more documents...and bam!, I'm a college graduate.

We are having a good time here in NZ. We went bungy jumping the other day and it was pretty sweet. I had never done it before, but my dad had...so I had to do it since he's a wiener. Anyway, the bridge is home of the first commercial bungy jumping place in the world. Here is a picture

Here is what it looked like while standing at the edge...a lot more scary in person

It's a hard thing to make yourself do something that seems like suicide. When you look over the edge...we'll your perspective changes. I'm glad there were other people there to cheer me on, I think the peer pressure made me jump quicker. I was the first jumper of the day so there were a ton of tourists watching in anticipation. And by tourists, I mean Asians. I must be on 20 different home videos now, it was pretty funny. I don't have time to put any videos of my jump right now, but I'll get to it sometime.

After bungy jumping in Qeenstown, we flew to Auckland in the north island. We did some cool stuff like going to a cave with glow worms and stopping at a sheep show. Again, I'll put more pictures up later when I'm more motivated. Since we've arrived in the Bay of Islands we have been really busy...golfing, para sailing, scuba diving...etc. Here is a picture of my golf ball that landed in a tree after I hit it over 200 yards off the tee...I feel like I should have won a million dollars or something.

The golf course was amazing. I've only played pebble beach on Tiger Woods for PS2, but this course reminded me of that. Half of the course was along cliffs and water, it was pretty awesome.

Para sailing was really cool too. The guys that were running the operation were from Ocean City, New Jersey. Apparently in NZ it cost half as much and you go twice as high...and it was bout 500 times more beautiful than Jersey. Good times were had.

Scuba diving was pretty sweet too. Nobody got sick, so I don't have any funny puking videos...sorry to disappoint.

Ok, my posts have been really infrequent and lame. When I am traveling around all I do is tell you what I'm doing...and I don't put in anything funny. Thats pronanny why I don't get very many hits anymore. So I am going to look through some past emails to find something to post. I know I gave Dunne an explanation of how to work the system of getting people that are out of your league...let me see if I can find it. Also, as requested, sometime in the near future I will be making a short post honoring the great Joel Beck...

2008-12-06T04:42:00.007-05:00

Alright, so we are in New Zealand. I've had quite a bit of down time, but I've been working on this 15 page 1 and ½ spaced paper for my internship. It's coming along pretty well, I have 11 pages done, but I don't really feel like doing anymore. I have plenty of material, but 15 pages just takes to long to type out.

Anyway, we spent the first two nights in Christchurch, which is in the south island. Our hotel was right in the main square of the small city, so our location was great. We are really far south in the world so even though it's summer, it get quite cold. Fortunately we lucked out and caught some amazing weather, it was in the mid 70's both days. The first night we didn't really do anything other then going to a nice dinner. The next day we slept in then walked around town. In the afternoon I decided to catch a few rays of sun in the park. That evening we went on a trolley for dinner. The trolley did about 5 laps of the city at a very slow pace, while we enjoyed a fine dinner. It was a pretty good time...except for my dad when I spilled an entire glass of water on his lap...oops, my bad. Wednesday morning we went “punting”, which is basically boating down a stream. It was a lot like a gondola, some girl slowly navigated us through Christchurch's botanical gardens. It was really relaxing and the weather was amazing so we had a nice time. That afternoon we hit the road on our way to Lake Takepo.

The lake is stunning. The water is really heavily concentrated with minerals, so it kind of looks like light blue cool aid. It looks very unnatural, but extremely beautiful. The town only has 300 residents, so there aren't very many people around. Our hotel rooms looked right out onto the lake so I got a few nice pics. That night is was ridiculously windy...like really really windy. We were supposed to go horseback riding around the lake this morning, but it got rained out. Instead we got back into the mini van and drove 4 hours to Dunedin, where I am now sitting writing this post.

Ok, I wrote that first part the other day. Now we are in Queenstown, another beautiful city. We've been making our way around New Zealand pretty well. The landscape is amazing. Tomorrow we are going bungy jumping so that should be pretty cool. I've never done it before so I'm sure it will be scary. I'll post some pictures of it some other time. Peace

Christchurch

Lake Takepo

From the hotel

More New Zealand

A duck

Goodbye Australia

2008-12-01T04:52:00.000-05:00

Well it's over. It's a funny thing when you spend so much time preparing and planning for something...then it's over so fast. Things at work really calmed down toward the end of the week since I was leaving. They threw a farewell lunch for me and bought me a bunch of things to remind me of my time spent here. It was really nice. Everyone at Sydney Uni Sport and Fitness really went out of their way to make sure that I had a good experience...and it worked. I will never ever forget the past few months of my life.

I got to say bye to all my friends before I left, except Marijke and Benedikt. I'm really sad that I didn't get a chance to say bye to them, but I'm sure we will keep in contact via facebook. I've made so many good friends while I've been here...most of which are from Europe. I've now got contacts all over the place, so I'm sure my path with cross with most of them in the future. I hate saying bye to people, especially when I know I might not see them for a really long time. Also, I haven't seen my college friends in 6 months and high school friends in 5 months. Now I've left my Sydney friends...so I have two weeks of no friends, just family...which is good too.

On Saturday my parents and brother got here in the evening. Their flight came in at the same time that the first flight returning from Mumbai after the terrorist attacks, so it was a little bit of a media frenzy. It was great to seem them. That night we went to Darling Harbor for a nice dinner and we had a good time catching up.

On Sunday we got some breakfast, I showed them where I worked, and then we headed to Manly. The fairy to Manly has pretty much the best view of the opera house and the bridge. Manly is a really popular surfing beach and I wanted to go because I was meeting Marie, Joanna, and one of their friends. My parents got to meet Marie...actually she was the only one of my friends that they met, then they walked around while I got in some beach time. Marie had her surf board with her so I walked over and rented one from the shop across the street. It was an appropriate afternoon since we met at surf camp. Neither one of us is very good, but we had a great time. I ended up staying at the beach for the rest of the day. The whole time I was just thinking about how it was all over and the next day I would be gone. I was really sad to say bye to Marie, shes such a sweetheart. I'll definitely look her up next time I'm near Denmark.

Well anyway, I packed up my stuff, and this morning we got on out flight. So this is the first post coming to you via New Zealand. Right now we are in Christchurch. We are going to take it easy tomorrow, but then we are hitting the road and traveling all throughout the country for two weeks. I realize that there were no good stories in this post, but I'm working on it. It's just been too long since I've posted...other than the last Tasmania post that I put up 5 minutes ago, so I wanted to let you know what I've been up to. So there should be some cool New Zealand pics and stories to follow in the coming days. I hope you are all well, see most of you in a few weeks.

Tasmania Part 3

2008-12-01T04:32:00.001-05:00

This has taken me way too long to post, but I finally had some down time. These are pretty much my coolest pictures from my entire trip. Enough excuses, here is what I had to say a few weeks ago:

Sunday:

I got up bright and early, eager for my Wine Glass Bay cruise tour. I drove down to the meeting place which was only about 1 mile from where I was staying. It was much calmer than the night before, but it was still pretty windy and the cruise got canceled. I was disappointed that it was canceled, but I was quickly reminded of how sick I felt while on the boat in Cairns...and then I was glad that I wouldn't be experiencing that again.

The tour was going to take up the majority of my day so it was the only thing that I booked...but now I had nothing. So I jumped in the car, stopped at a cafe for some breakfast, and then headed to the national park. I talked to the lady at the information center and she told me that if I had the entire day open, that I should do the entire 11km hike. Feeling very optimistic and over confident as usual, I agreed. I quickly stopped at a few beaches and observation decks for a picture or two, but then I headed to Wine Glass bay. The way the Freycinet nation park is set up is that you have to park pretty far away from the actual beaches. Basically they just have a bunch of hiking paths which all end up at some beaches...but not just any beaches, the most beautiful beaches ever.

I was a little out of place when I showed up at the park entrance. Everyone was wearing very outdoors gear...like boots, windbreakers, huge backpacks, canteens, walking sticks...etc. I was wearing the same baggy blue jeans I wear all the time, my New Balance classics, a rugby jersey, and I had my Brooks track and field backpack. Whatever. I also had a sandwich and two bottles of water.
568

So I started my hike. The first sign said 40mins to the Wine Glass bay look out...and it also gave recommendations about the other trails. I had nothing else to do all day, so I wanted to do the long one. The sign showed the trial I wanted to follow...and it said something about it being “difficult” and for “experienced” hikers. Haha, what I joke, don't they know who I am? I was a division 1 athlete, this is going to be easy. *Severe over confidence alert

I got on my way. The first couple hundred meters were pretty tiring, but had some great views of Coles Bay. I was moving at a really good pace and I made it to the look out in 25 mins...15 mins faster than the sign said. This particular look out was definitely the highlight of the day. Stunning. I took a ton of pictures because I was paranoid that maybe they weren't coming out. I decided to take a few minutes and soak in the view, so I stuck around and ate half my sandwich while talking to a couple from Canada and another from New Zealand.

I then started my trek down to the beach. It was really steep and way more effort than I expected. I was pretty tired, but I made sure not to show “poopy face”...especially while other people were around. When I finally made it to sea level I started to run into a few wallabies. They had no fear of humans so you could walk right up to them. The beach was beautiful so I decided to take yet another break and have the other half of my sandwich. Again, I took a ton of pictures.

After a half hour or so I decided to get moving on my long journey. I walked through the woods for about 30 or 40 mins and then I hit another beach. At this point I thought I was about half done with the hike...way way wrong. It took me another 25 mins to walk down the beach before picking up on the trail. About 15 minutes later I saw a sign that said the end of this particualr trail was 2 hours away. I didn't have anything else to do all day, but at this point I was pretty tired and only had half a bottle of water left.

I kept on going, stopping less and less to take pictures because I just wanted to get back to my car. I finished all my water when I figured I had an hour to go. I hadn't seen anyone else on the trail for over an hour. I wasn't worried, but I was starting to regret choosing the longest hike. I guess I figured that if McDougal can run a 10k in under 30 minutes easy, I should be able to hike a slow 11k without any problems. Turns out that there were a few errors in logic when thinking like that. 1) Josh is an NCAA cross country champion, I am an NCAA fat kid thrower. 2) Hiking doesn't imply flat easy trails. 3) I never actually walked or ran anywhere close to 11km...so I have no concept of how far it really is.

At one point I decided that if the trail didn't end in the next 15 minutes, I was going to need water really bad. Like stop the next person I saw and ask them for their water...or knock them out and just take it. Survival of the fittest right? Well luckily for the rest of the hikers, the trial ended, I got my water and found my car. I forget exactly what time it was, but I decided to start heading back to Hobart since I was already tired and I had a 2 and ½ hour drive.

I got back to the Old Woolstore and decided to keep the car instead of returning it. I packed it in early since I had a few more tours the next day before returning to Sydney.

Monday

There is a huge mountain in Hobart called Mt. Wellington. I got picked up by a downhill mountain biking company who drove about 20 of us to the top of the mountain. At sea level I was wearing a t-shirt and shirts. At the top of the mountain, where we started, there was snow on the ground and it was freaking windy. I had a sweater with me and they also had some gloves and stiff to had out. Turns out we covered over 22km, but it was all down hill so we didn't have to pedal once. It was for sure one of the best tours of the weekend. They actually took us through some pretty fast and rocky paths, I was surprised...I almost crashed a few times....mostly because they told us to go slow, which I thought meant go fast.

After the sweet bike ride, I went on a short kayaking tour which was weak...pronanny at best:) The rest of the day was spent walking around the city trying to see as many things as I could before leaving. All in all the trip was a blast and I'll never forget it. I would definitely go back and recommend it to others. I really would like to hit a few more of their mountain biking trails and then spend a few more nights in Freycinet. Anyway, I ended up making back to Sydney in one piece, with lots of cool experiences and a ton of pictures.

Tasmania Part 2

2008-11-23T01:22:00.012-05:00

Saturday:

Every Saturday from 8:00am to 3:00pm are the Salamanca markets. It's basically a huge street that is shut down so vender's can try to sell tourists stuff that's made in Tasmania. I got some great gifts at really reasonable prices. I got my dad a really cool Christmas gift which was good because he's hard to shop for...since he already has everything.

After spending quite a while at the market, I had to get to the Cascade Beer brewery for my 1pm tour. The factory was pretty much what you would expect, but the visitors center was much more. It was amazing. They had a nice cafe and restaurant all of which was surrounded by a huge garden. I got some cool pics of both the garden and the brewery.

The Garden

Beer

The tour was pretty long, but definitely worth the $20. As much fun as I was having, I was anxious to leave because I had to go pick up my rental car and drive two and half hours to Coles Bay and Freycinet. The rental car was only $55 a day and it cost me $40 for a cab ride to my hotel. Instead of catching a cab back to the airport...where my car was, I decided to wait around for a $15 shuttle. I got to the rental agency and they showed me my Nissan. I forget what model it was, but it was similar to a Sentra. I was surprised that the car was an automatic, but I was happy since I was going to have to use all my brain power to concentrate on driving on the wrong side of the road...and on the wrong side of the car. Surprisingly it wasn't difficult at all. I've been here long enough and taken sooo many buses and taxi's that it's kind of second nature. Actually, I think it's going to be weird when I get back to the US.

Ok, so at this point it's about 4:30 pm and I'm on the road. I had no idea what I was in for...the most beautiful car ride of my life. The whole trip was up the coast and I couldn't believe the views. I had to keep on pulling over to take pictures because it was so magnificent. And as if the scenery wasn't nice enough, there were these two rainbows that were so bright that I almost kept on driving off the road. It was so nice that I wanted to high five someone...maybe even a high ten. By the time I got to Coles Bay, I realized that coming to Tasmania was such a good idea. I had already seen enough to make the entire trip worth it. Actually it reminded me a lot of how I felt when I was in Norway last year.
One of my stops on the side of the road

It wasn't even sunny out, but you could still see right through the water.

Sheep and a rainbow

More rainbows

Another view I had to stop for

Anyway, the entire Coles Bay/Freycinet area is national park so there are no hotels or anything. Only campsites and cabins. I wasn't sure what exactly my travel agent had booked for me, but while I was pulling into the camp site I was pretty skeptical. I'm not really the camping type so I hoping to avoid those type of accommodations. I checked in and the guy told me what cabin I was in. At this point I was happy that I indeed had a cabin and not a trailer or something, but I wasn't too excited about having to share an accommodation with others. I pulled up the the cabin and went inside. About 15 seconds later I realized that I was wrong. I wouldn't be sharing the cabin with anyone. I had the whole thing to myself. Thats right, I had an entire free standing cabin with 5 beds to myself. I was so happy. Two minutes later I got even happier when I realized that we were less than 100 yards from the beach. I decided to walk down to the beach and take a few pictures. It was really windy so I didn't stay out very long. Instead I waked to the restaurant and had another dinner by myself. The area was pretty quite so I decided to go to bed early since I had a tour in the morning. I was excited to go on the tour since I had underestimated the beauty of Freycinet. I was pretty sure it was going to be sweet.
The beach next to my cabin

Tasmania

2008-11-19T03:34:00.011-05:00

I started typing out everything I did while in Tasmania and I realized a few things. One, if I published everything I wrote at once...I would break to world record for the longest blog. Two, it would take me forever to add all the pictures. So what I've decided to do is put a few days on now and the rest on some other time. I just looked, I already have 3 single spaced pages typed out not including pictures...and I'm not done yet. Here is day 1 and 2.

Tasmania

Wow, what a trip. Tasmania is beautiful. I'm not exactly sure what I expected from this trip in the first place, but whatever those expectations were, they were exceeded by far. Here is what I did.

Thursday:

I left work early...around 2pm so that I could go home and pack. I packed and caught a cab to the airport, arriving plenty early for my 6pm flight. I checked in and waited at the gate. At this point I was pretty excited. Although you can make a case that my entire life is a vacation, this was my first real vacation by myself.

I fell asleep on the 2 hour flight, but was awake for the last 15 minutes before landing. I had a window seat and at this point it was almost 8pm. I've been on a lot of flights and I can easily say that landing is Hobart, Tasmania was the most beautiful view I have ever had from a plane. White beaches with water so clear that you can see the ocean floor and a beautiful sunset. This was the first of many moments I had this weekend in which I was sad that I had nobody to experience it with. I felt like it was too awesome to experience alone.

Anyway, we landed, got my bag, and caught a cab to the hotel. My travel agent told me that it would be a cheap cab ride to my hotel...$40 later I arrived, not too excited about the price. The hotel was great, “The Old Woolstore” was it's name. It was after 9pm, but I decided to head out into the city to see if I could find anything cool. I didn't. Haha, actually I realized that I was in a great location, but Hobart isn't exactly a huge city...I think I heard it has 200,000 people. I was close to the dock and tons of shopping, but everything was closed for the night. I decided to call it a night and retired back to my room.

Friday:

I got up at 8:30 since I had booked the “Hobart Deluxe” tour for 9:15. I walked down to the pier and found my tour bus with out any problems. We started our tour by going to the Cadbury chocolate factory. It was cool, but not as cool as I expected. Instead of them showing us the factory, they showed us a video. I didn't come to Tasmania to watch a video that I could probably have found online. Basically what I'm saying is that Hershey Park's Chocolate World is quite a bit better. However the one redeeming quality about the Cadbury factory was that they actually sold the chocolate at a very discounted price. They even sold the screwed up chocolate at really good prices. That is when my fat kid instincts took over. $40 later I left the factory with a very nice assortment of Tasmania's finest candy.

When I left the factory I decided to make a few phone calls, but unfortunately one one of them worked. I called Dunne, but got the added bonus of talking to Matt and Heidi. While I was on the phone with them there were two parrots sitting in the grass about 40 feet from me.

After Cadbury's we went on a lunch cruise through Hobart. It was weaksauce. Turned out to be the lamest thing I did all weekend. After that they took us to the wildlife center. This turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip. Our guide was great. He introduced us to Trixie the wombat. She might be the cutest thing I have ever seen. Look at my last post if you want to see her picture. After Trixie he introduced us to a few different Tasmanian devils.

They are surprisingly nicer than I thought they would be, but still scavengers. After the devils it was on to a few koalas, kangaroos, and wallabies. They gave us food to give to the kanga's and wallies as they call them. I was so happy when one wallaby saw that I had food and he came hopping over. He was my favorite...so I decided to give him all my food...and none to the others. It was so weird to just hand feed him, but really cool. Pretty much exactly the type if thing I was hoping to do on this trip.
After I took this pic they told I probably shouldn't do that again...unless I want the Koala to slash my face off...
Best friends

Albino

After the wildlife center they took us to a small art town called Richmond. There were many stores and boutiques, I got a few Christmas gifts out of the way. Once we were done shopping in Richmond they took us back to our hotels in the city.
Richmond

I was pretty tired from the long day and was thinking about just eating at the hotel, but “Hogs Breath Steakhouse” was right across the street. I felt like a loser going to dinner by myself, but whatev. Once I had finished my delicious prime rib I went back to the hotel.

And now onto a video. It's been a while since I've had the time to put one of these videos together, but this one was too good to sit on the shelf. Kangaroos are great.

Alright, I'll put up the rest of my weekend some other time. I have a zillion pictures of beaches that I am going to force you to look at.

So Busy

2008-11-14T17:13:00.010-05:00

Alright, just like I said in my last post, I went to another surf camp last weekend. Honestly it was waaaaaay worse than the fist one I went to. Two different worlds. This camp was much more about partying than it was about surfing...and since I was recovering from being sick for a few days, I had absolutely no tolerance for people actin like idiots. Also, the accommodations were terrible and there were mosquito's everywhere. Like everywhere. The first night I was getting eaten alive. I got out of bed, put a long sleeve shirt on, pulled my hands inside, and I slept with a towel over my head....and I still got bitten over 30 times. I slept for maybe a total of 1 hour...it was horrible, I was in such a bad mood. The only thing that was better about this camp was the location. It was absolutely beautiful. It was kind of like a tropical rain forest with tons of private beaches. There were kangaroo's everywhere and we saw dolphins and whales every single day.

Here is one of the beaches we spent time at

And another...I wish it was sunny in these pictures so you could see how clear the water was.

A small one

Some big ones

I also got some cool videos, but I haven't had time to edit them yet. I'll try to do that sometime in the next few days.

But enough about surf camp...thats old news. Where am I now? You know, obviously I'm in Tasmania. Yea thats right, home of the devils. I took a few days off of work and caught a flight to Hobart. I'm by myself, but I'm having a great time. It is beautiful here and so far it has been everything I had hoped for. I don't have time to put up tons of pictures or video, but here are two teasers. After this weekend I will have soooo much material. I can't wait to show you guys more of what I've been up to. Alright, I'm going to the Salamanca markets in 20 minutes. Talk to you guys later.

We got to pet and play with Trixie the wombat. So cute you just want to squeeze her.

Kangaroo's have to eat too.

Olli

2008-11-06T05:16:00.003-05:00

Ciao! Se hai volglia di scrivere un email questo e la mia indirizzo: jahart@liberty.edu or hecubus185@gmail.com ho anche laciato un messagio nell stesso posto dove tu hai laciato il tuo.

Ok, for the non Italian speaking readers of my blog, that first line is an attempt to tell Italains how to email me. Turns out that somehow my best friend, Olli, from when I lived in Italy found my blog and left a comment on the post called "Ross Tucker" that I wrote on May 23rd. I haven't heard from him in forever and I couldn't have been happier to hear from him. I hope he logs back on and gets my message.

Anyway, I wanted to quickly come on a write a few things since I will be gone for the entire weekend. This week was the Melbourne Cup. It's the big annual horse race...kind of like the Kentucky derby in the US, except way more popular. Like waaaay more popular. The entire state of Victoria, where Melbourne is, gets off of school and work as a public holiday for the big race. Although we didn't get off of work up here in New South Wales, our office did close at 2:30pm so that we could all go watch it. Our office reserved a few tables at a pub so we had great seats. There are 20,000,000 people in Australia and there was $150,000,000 bet on this race alone. For those of you that are mathematically impaired, thats $7.50 for every single person in the entire country.

Since the office wasn't opening back up for the rest of the day, most people stuck around until about 4:30. I hadn't eaten lunch, so when they brought out the finger food I went to town on it. They had seasoned fries, chicken wraps, cheese bruschetta...and some kind of terrible fish/seafood patties. So at this point I'm having a great time. That was about to end. At 5:30 I went to the bus stop to catch the bus home. My stomach was starting to turn. Before I knew it I was running into the building across the street looking for a bathroom. I don't know if I got food poisoning or if I was allergic to something I ate, but I've been bed ridden for the past 48 hours because of it. I literally wanted to kill myself during the first 24 hours. I obviously called off of work both yesterday and today, but I was so sick that I couldn't even use my computer or watch tv. I'm definitely feeling better now and I plan on going to work tomorrow, but it was horrible.

Anyway, I go to another surf camp tomorrow, it should be pretty sweet...assuming I keep on feeling better. It will be good to get out of the house and to get a workout. Also, I booked a trip to Tasmania for next weekend and it looks like my friend Benedikt is going to come along. I write more about those things later. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

World Series Champions and Halloween

2008-11-01T07:26:00.004-04:00

WE WON! WE WON! THE PHILLIES WON THE WORLD SERIES! As you can tell, I'm pretty excited about the Phils. I didn't miss a pitch during the entire series. My co-workers were really cool about letting me watch the games online during office hours.

It's kind of a weird thing. I'm so used to complaining about how a Philadelphia team has never won a championship in my life time...and now I don't know what to do. I briefly talked to George after the game and we had that exact conversation. Now what?

A few of us took lunch break and went to a pub for the last few innings of game 5. I was the only one in the entire pub that cared about the game...and I was also proudly wearing my Phillies hoodie. When they got the last out I forced everyone into high fiving me and even a few hugs. Then I explained to them that that was a defining moment. What might have seemed like a very normal lunch break for them, will forever be where I was when the Phillies won the 2008 World Series. I will never forget it.

Now onto Halloween. I didn't put much thought into Halloween over the past week, but then the other American intern invited me to go out with her and her friends. I decided that if I did go out, I wanted to look good. I thought of a few different ideas, but nothing great. I was gunna go as something really generic like an army man or some type of sport figure...but then I jumped online to see if I could get any ideas. I was trying to think of different cartoon characters, super hero's, or famous people. I did a character search and within 2 minutes I knew exactly who I wanted to be. The Colonel. Yea, thats right, Colonel Sanders, the American hero and creator of our favorite chicken.

So at this point I realized that if I wanted to go as the Colonel, I would have to do it right. I knew it would only be funny if I looked good. I did it right...and I looked good. I went to a costume store since I didn't have any white pants and I rented a pair for $15. I got a Santa Clause beard and trimmed it down. I got the Groucho Marx glasses and ripped off the nose. I tried to find white hair spray, but I don't think they sell it. Solution: White Out. Then I found a red apron at a Chinese dollar store. My roomates helped me get ready and when I looked in the mirror I was no longer Jon Hart. I was Harland Sanders, the founder of KFC.

I went to KFC to pick up a bucket of chicken and they loved my costume. I had to walk to Michelle's house from KFC. It was during that walk that I realized the night was going to be pretty fun. People were shouting from across the street "Hey! It's the Colonel!!" I would turn and wave. Cars were slowing down to look at me. I finally got to Michelle's and she was dressed as an indian or Pocahontas or something like that. Here is a picture of us.

We ended up going to Scruffy Murphy's and had a blast. There is a time for humility...now is not that time. I had the best costume in the entire place. I was a novelty. I am not exaggerating when I say that I was asked to take pictures with over 100 people. Even the band gave me a shout out. I've never gotten so much attention.

We had a great time...and that won't be the last time I dress up as the Colonel. I'm definitely going to recycle this costume. Alright, it's getting late here, I'm going to bed. Here is another picture of me...but with out my KFC bucket, which really made the costume.

Surf Camp

2008-10-29T06:53:00.015-04:00

Well I went to surf camp this past weekend and it was awesome. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect. Rooms filled with bunk beds, picnic tables, grills, palm trees, and the beach. We had two lessons on Saturday and two on Sunday. Each lesson was 2 hours long. The first lesson I didn't get up at all. The second lesson I got up a few times. By the fourth lesson I was getting up almost every time. There were 42 of us campers. Most were Americans, Germans, French, or other European countries.

I don't have time to get into details right now, but I'll try to tell some stories later. They had a full time photographer on staff and he got some awesome shots. I decided to purchase my photo cd for $50 once I realized that he had taken over 35 pics of me. Here are some of them.

Australia shaped cloud

This isn't me...just wanted to show that we had some big waves

Again, not me

All the surf instructors did was screw around...they love their job

I didn't actually see the dolphins...but here is what I almost saw

7 mile beach...where we surfed

The camp

World Series

2008-10-23T23:54:00.002-04:00

I haven't had much time to write about the Phillies, but I have been following them closely. Right when I got to Sydney I bought the MLBTV package which allows me to watch the Phillies over the internet. Since we are 15 hours ahead of the east coast, I watch as much of the games as possible while at work. Now that the are in the World Series, I don't miss a pitch. Everyone in the office has been pretty cool about letting me watch the games since they know I'm a big fan. I've been wearing my Phillies hoodie almost everyday and I break out my Cole Hamels jersey as often as possible. The Phils really haven't looked good in the first two games. Hamels was the man in game one, but our hitting has been terrible in both games. It's so frustrating to watch. They have tomorrow off which is good because I am leaving for surf camp tonight.

The weather is supposed to be perfect all weekend. I will definitely take pictures while at camp. I'm pretty excited.

The response to my story about Rina and I was pretty good. Everyone seems to enjoy me being in uncomfortable situations. I don't know if you guys ever read the comments, but I felt that Joel had a great suggestion for what I should do to end the relationship. Here are his thoughts :

"Hart I am a little disappointed you didn't ask for my advice. So I am going to give it to you anyways. Play the friends with benefits card, all the while leading her on about how your going to have a long lasting relationship that may end in marriage and the production of five mixed asian babies. When you get tired of the friendship tell her that you never want to see her again because you can not bear the smell of her. This will haunt her for a long time and leave her in devastating tears. Then exit her apartment making sure to break something like a lamp by touchdown smashing it on the ground. Your friend and relationship counselor and one time lover Joel Beck"

Hahaha, thanks for the advice buddy. BTW, I fixed some of your spelling problems. Go Phils!

Jim and I

2008-10-21T05:17:00.005-04:00

Hey, here are a few pics that I took last week while Jim was here. I don't have time to tell you about all the stuff we did, but we had a great time. I forgot my camera when we went to the aquarium and the zoo...so Jim is going to send me his pictures.

Here is Jim and I hanging out in Circular Quay, right next to the bridge. I can walk here from my apartment...jealous?

This picture is taken from the exact opposite side as the previous one. So we are sitting right next to the Opera house.

The night before Jim and all his friends left, we went to an awesome restaurant right next to the Opera House. Everyone in this picture, besides me and the one girl at the end, are US Navel officers. Jim hangs out with a really cool group, I had an awesome time hanging out.

This was the view from the restaurant...you couldn't see in the previous one because of the window glare.

Ok, I don't have time to write a long story or anything, but I did want to get these up. Jim and I had an awesome time and I'm sad he had to leave. Actually, after he left I felt as if my Sydney experience was complete. I have made a bunch of new friends here, but I like my friends back at home more. I will definitely be ready to get home for Christmas. I miss all of you and I'll try to do another update before I leave for surf camp on Friday.

The Date Part 2

2008-10-19T01:47:00.003-04:00

Sorry again that this took so long to post. The reaction from the fist part has been pretty good thus far. I'm not sure these chapters are as good, but whatever, just read them. Also, I need to give a shout out to Dan Newell, he's been a faithful reader of this blog from day 1 and I talked to him on facebook today...he still reads it. Dan, tell Parker I said what up...and ask him if Beckles ever asks about me haha.

Chapter 9 - A Few Days Off

I didn't hear from Rina the next few days, which was good because it made her seem like less of a stage 5. On Friday my other two roommates moved in so I hung out with them for quite a bit. They are really nice, but more importantly, I think they are pretty quite. They didn't come here just to party, which immediately makes them better then my former Italian roommates. Then on Saturday I went to Hunter Valley with Marijke and Benedikt. Later on Saturday I went to a house party and I realized that I told Rina that I would text her about whether I was coming to church the next day or not. At this point I realized that I pretty much have two choices. Don't text her and never go to that church again. Or text her and probably hang out with her again. Again, what the heck, I'll text her. Here was our conversation.

Me: Hey are you still going to church tomorrow night?

Rina: Hey! How's going? How was d mini one day trip? Yep,i am going 2 evening service coz i'm working tmrw.

Me: Ok cool, the trip was great...i had a good time

Rina: That's good^^ R u coming tmrw?

Me: I'm planning on coming tomorrow night too. What time does it start?

Rina: 6pm

Me: Ok i'll text you tomorrow afternoon.

Rina: Cool. Sweet dream!

Me: Goodnight

Chapter 10 - Normal Sunday

Sunday actually didn't provide as many good stories as I thought. It was actually pretty normal. On my way to church Rina texted me to make sure I was still coming. The service started at 6pm and there were a total 7 people there. Again, I had a hard time understanding the pastor, he's from the UK...either Ireland, Scotland, or Wales....I forget. After church I said hi to everyone and then Rina and I walked to the bus stop since we both live in the same direction. The buses were packed so we didn't have any in depth conversations. When we were almost at her stop, she told me that she had the next two days off. I think she wanted me to ask her to hang out, but I decided to leave the ball in her court. I said something to the effect of "have fun on your days off, give me a ring sometime if you want to hang out again".

Chapter 11 - Cell Phone

Monday was Australian Labor day, so I had the day off. Last week I had invited Marijke and Benedikt over for dinner sine they didn't work either. They had never been to my place and I wanted to show them my crib. Marijke called me around noon and said she would talk to Benedikt and they would call me around 4 or 5.

That afternoon I decided that I wanted to go back to Bondi Junction to see everything that I had missed the week before. About 20 minutes after arriving I realized that I had forgotten my phone...whatever, no big deal. Wait, hold on a second. I then realized that I definitely brought my phone with me...I just lost it. Now keep in mind that this phone is pretty worthless. They cost $50 and everything is pre-paid. But I still had a few problems. One, I only have a few friends and I just lost all their numbers, two, Marijke and Benedikt are going to think I stood them up. I ended up going home really disappointed that I lost the celly. My other problem was that I don't even know my own phone number...so I couldn't call it. When I got home I searched my room and ended up finding the number on the box. I called it and nobody answered. About 20 minutes later I called it again and some guy answered. I asked him who he was and where he was. It turned out that he was a bus driver and someone had turned the phone in when I lost it. He told me I could pick it up at the bus depot any time after 8pm.

That was a huge relief. I ended up walking over to Marijke and Benedikt's house to let them know that they could still come over. They did, and Marijke cooked us an amazing meal. We had a great time. I ended up leaving with them so I could catch a bus to the bus depot. Surly enough, I had my cell phone back around 10pm. I was pretty happy about getting it back. The people at the depot told me that if you lose something on a bus you will get it back 85% of the time. When I check my phone, I had this message.

Rina: Hey! How's going? What a weather! Kk Didn't know what 2 do with ugly weather. What r u upto?

Me: (7 hours later) Hey sorry I didn't get back to you sooner...i lost my phone on a bus this afternoon and I just got it back.

Rina: Wow. That's ok. Thought u'd b busy^^

I'm not sure whether she belived me or not. She might have been thinking that I was just ignorning her.

Chapter 12 - Round Two

I would put the exact conversation into this story, but it would take too long. Basically Rina said she wanted to hang out on Tuesday so I agreed to do dinner again.

Tuesday came and she ended up coming out my way around 7:15. We walked to where I live because there must be 50 restaurants within two blocks. We chose an Italain place that ended up being really good. On a side note, another exciting thing happend on Tuesday. The Australian dollar fell like a rock against the US dollar. Three weeks ago $1 AUD was worth $.84 USD, but now it has dropped to $.67. Basically everything I buy I just assume I get 30% off. It's pretty sweet and now I have a little more flexibility with my money. But back to the story. We actually had a rieally nice time. Since Jim is coming tomorrow, I was telling her a bunch of stories from high school...most of which included Jim, Tony, or George. After our 30% off diner, I walked her back to the bus stop and she went on her way.

I was still really conflicted about our entire situation. About 5 minutes later she sent me this message:

Thanks,Jhone! I always have real good time with u. Strangely i feel so comfortable with u coz i am normaly very shy with male mankind.kk Afraid that will miss u&ur funny friend's story,when u r gone^^*

Why would she tell me something like that? We have hung out like 3 times. I feel kind of bad...but I don't really know what she wants from all of this. I'm only here for less than more 2 months.

Chapter 13 - Game Over

After our Tuesday dinner, we didn't talk for a few days...which I was completely fine with. I had off of work on Friday since Jim was coming and I was really looking forward to his arrival. On Friday afternoon Rina sent me a message telling me to have a good time with Jim and everyone else. It was nice of her, but again, she text messages me way too much. I didn't end up responding to her message because I knew she would write back again and again...she must have the unlimited text messaging plan on her phone.

Anyway, I hung out with Jim and all his buddies all weekend. We had an incredible time, I will never forget it. I don't want to sound mean, but Rina didn't really even cross my mind for those few days.

On Monday night a bunch of us went out for dinner at a really nice restaurant right across from the opera house. We didn't stay out late because they were leaving the next morning and I had to work. I got to work in the morning and again, Rina didn't really cross my mind...until she sent me this message:

Rina: Hey! How's going? Haven't heared from u,right? Not good. U have ur friend so u do not need me,right? Um..um..bad! Just kidding.Kk.

I hope you just read that in disbelief. I was shocked. As soon as I read that I decided I would probably never go out with her again. Done. I realize that she said just kidding at the end...but lets be honest, there is some truth in every joke...and in this case there was a lot. Stage 5 clinger all the way.

I texted her back a few hours later dreading the conversation we were going to have. She wanted to meet up at a coffe shop, but I told her that I was too tired from the long weekend. Shes nice, so I don't want to be mean, but it's over. I'm dreading the next time she calls/texts me.

Chapter 14 - The Final Chapter

I finished chapter 13 a few days ago and since then not a whole lot has happened. I told you guys that Tara has been "proof reading" the chapters before I post them, but she has also giving me some advice. When she read chapter 13 she told me this:

"I feel kind of sorry for Rina. Only because she doesn't know how unattractive she's making herself with the panicky sounding texts. Maybe you could help her out. Maybe now, you can be her dating coach. Let her know what went wrong and how she can correct it if she ever wants to date an American again. The chapters you sent me weren't lame, by the way, they were great. I was just waiting for you to write me back before I commented on them. I wasn't about to pull a Rina and send you 7 super long emails when you hadn't sent me one. Come on Jon."

Haha, I didn't ask Tara's permission to post her email on my blog, but let that serve as a reminder to the rest of you...everything you say is on the record...the hart beat record.

Anyway, I thought I was pretty much out of the woods when I turned down Rina's coffe invitation. I was hoping that she was getting the hint. I was wrong. On Friday I went back to Tara for some quick advice. Here was my email...and her response.

Me:"this afternoon Rina texted me and said she isn't working tonight...she wants to go out and get Korean food. It's been a few hours and I haven't texted her back. It sounds like fun, but I absolutely do not want to lead Rina on. So I've been spending my entire afternoon texting other people trying to get some other plans for tonight. I have nothing thus far...except another invitation to hang out tomorrow after work..."

Tara:"FACT: Rina likes you. A lot. And my advice to you, if you're not planning on dating her, is to not go out with her tonight. It's really hard on a girl to keep her hopes up for a long period of time. The more you hang out with her, the more she is going to keep her hopes up, no matter what signs you give off. If you want to save her from more pain down the road, I'd say stop hanging out while the friendship is still young. Going out for Korean food, no matter how fun it sounds, is only going to fan the flame. Even if that means you stay home alone tonight, stay home alone tonight. Just tell her you already made plans. You do actually have plans - plans to not break the poor girls heart - so it's not a lie. You might actually have to be straight up with this chick, not just hoping she'll get the hint if you don't call her / text her back. That might not be the way they do things in their culture. Let her down easy, but let her down. Sucks now, but good for the long run, trust me."

Ok, the reason I put up that email is just to show everyone that my friends are "wicked smart" (in south boston accent). First, I didn't expect Dunne to get back to me, but second I didn't expect any good ideas...haha. I was wrong, my favorite part of the email is that I was supposed to tell Rina that I already had plans...plans not to hang out with her. Hahaha thats an instant classic, I am definitely going to use that in the future.

So the story ends like this, I took Tara's advice. I turned down the dinner invite and I stayed home and did nothing. I haven't heard back from Rina since...but every time my phone rings I get nervous.

Ok this story has taken up way too much of my time to put on paper. Also I was going to post some picture and stuff, but for some reason the internet is acting up. My next post should be soon...and it won't be about Rina

The Date

2008-10-14T18:56:00.003-04:00

Here is that story I promised you guys a few days ago. I have been really busy over the past weekend. Jim and all his friends were in town and we had an awesome time. I also just got internet at my house so I should be able to update much more frequently. The blog is back...and I have some good material, including this post.

I am going to write this story like a very short book with chapters that are only a paragraph long. Let me know what you think of this style.

Chapter 1 - The Introduction

The story starts here. Over the past few weeks I have been searching the internet for different churches that I can try out. Sydney is a huge city so there are obviously a ton. Two weeks ago I went to a small Presbyterian church in Darlington. It meet in a public school building and there were about 50 people. Most of the people were young families...there were a ton of kinds. Side note: one of the kids was wearing a Brett Favre jersey(Green Bay). They were very nice, but I decided that I would try another church the following week.

I looked up some more churches and decided to go to another Presbyterian church in Bondi. Sunday morning came, I got ready, went to the bus stop, and made my way to Bondi. Church started at 10:00am, but I arrived in Bondi around 9:30. I decided to stop at a cafe to avoid being 30 mins early. After eating my cinnamon muffin it was 9:45 so I decided to start walking.

Chapter 2 - The Church

I could see the church from a few blocks away. The entire time I approached I didn't see anyone enter or exit the church. I started to question my choice and I wondered how many people went this this particular church. I stopped in front of the door and really contemplated leaving. The door was open with a welcome sign on it, but where was everyone? What the heck, I'll go in. I have nothing better to do. If nothing else it will make for a weird/funny experience...which I obviously love. So I went in. The building was old, but nice. I would guess that it could hold between 150 to 200 people. I was there 10 minutes early...and there were only about 10 people in the sanctuary. I sat by myself somewhere in the middle and tried not to look like a foreigner. By the time the service started there were only 20 people in whole church...most of them over the age of 60. The preacher came out and began the service. He had a strong accent, but I couldn't decide where I thought he was from. It wasn't German, but my guess was some other eastern European country. Anyway, the service continued and then a guy came up to the front to make some announcements. He looked at me and said "I see we have a visitor today, will you please stay afterwards for tea or coffee?". I shook my head in agreement and from that point on I knew the rest of the day would be interesting. The service was alright...I had a hard time understanding the pastor. As soon as service was over a few different people, including the pastor, came over to greet me. Just like everyone else I talk to in this country, they pegged me as an American the moment I opened my mouth. I went over to and sat down with a group of people, all of which had at least 40 years on me. They were nice, but they wouldn't stop talking about politics and how minorities were ruining their country. I think it's because of world war 2, but old people, no matter where they are from, just seem to be racists. Whatever floats their boat. I did meet a few younger(under the age of 30) guys, but we only talked briefly. Meanwhile, the pastor asked me to join a few of them for lunch. Again, I wanted to run away since I felt like I was living in the twilight zone, but heck...you only live once, and I usually like new experiences.

Chapter 3 - The Lunch

I have to back up a second before I get to the lunch just so that I can set the stage a little more appropriately. While I was talking among the old people at the church, I did notice a younger girl that was kind of cute. We didn't get a chance to talk because I was too busy explaining to the elderly that just because someones skin is a different color, it doesn't make them a bad person. Anyway, we all left the church at the same time, but at this point I had accepted that fact that I missed my chance to talk to the only person I actually wanted to speak with.

We walked to the house right next door. And by "we" I mean, the pastor who is in his 60's, some other 60 year old woman, an 75 year old woman, and believe it or not, the girl that I didn't get a chance to talk to. Ok, let me take this opportunity to explain something about this girl. Typically I am not attracted to Asians. There have been some occasions that I do find them attractive, but they are far and few in-between. Rina (pronounced Ree-na) is a 26 year old girl from South Korea. She has been in Australia for 4 years and her English is pretty good.

All of us sat around and discussed politics, travel, and everything else you can think of. They then prepared lunch and we ate. The old lady that is in her 70's was pretty much out of touch with what was going on. I tried to ignore her, but she butted her way into conversations all the time. It was funny. After lunch we sat around and talked for a bit more. I ended up being there from about 12:00 to 3:00. The pastor then took the old lady home and took Rina and I to the major bus station.

Chapter 4 - The Afternoon

The bus station is called Bondi Junction. It is a really popular destination to go shopping, so I wanted to have a look around. The pastor dropped us off and I told Rina that I was going to have a look around before I returned home. Rina was familiar with the area and said that she too wanted to have a look around. At this point I'm pretty happy with the way things are going. After I had already accepted that I wouldn't even get to talk to her...here I am walking around some huge mall with her. We walked around for about 30 minutes and then we left the mall. Then she said that she wanted to show me the park that was right next door...which is also close to where she lives. Now I'm starting to think that this afternoon is starting to get a little long. But again, I'm having a fun time and our conversation good. Her Ringrish (Asian joke) is pretty good, but far from perfect. Sometimes I have to ask her to repeat herself and some of the time I'm pretty sure that she is just pretending to understand me.

Around 4:30 we finally made it to a bus stop that I could take back to my house. We were there for a while since most of the buses were already full...they were coming from the beach. We talked some more and she was telling me about her work. She works at a pretty popular department store called Myer. She then preceded to tell me that she works a ton of hours, but she has Tuesday's off. Ok, at this point I'm still pretty happy about the days events. So I think to myself, should I ask her to dinner on Tuesday? Alright, whatever, I will. So I asked if she wanted to meet up on Tuesday night and she promptly agreed. We exchanged numbers, a quick hug, and goodbyes. She told me to text her on Tuesday afternoon to let me know what the plan was, I then got on the bus and went home.

Chapter 5 - Mind Games

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what had just happened. Did I just ask and Asian girl to dinner? Was she actually cute or did she only look good because she was a young girl among elderly folk. Did I seriously just ask an Asian girl to dinner? Wow, I just didn't see this coming.

The whole night and next day I couldn't stop thinking about how weird Sunday was. I wanted to tell everyone about my experience, but at the same time I didn't want anyone to know. I thought about telling Neil, my co-worker, but I didn't. He might tell everyone in the office...not that it's a big deal, but you know, it was just kind of an awkward situation. Instead I decided to tell one of the few people that I know can keep their mouth shut. Tara. It felt good to finally let someone know what I had been up to.

Chapter 6 - Tuesday afternoon

So it's Tuesday and I told Rina I would text her sometime around lunch. Here is our exact text message conversation (try to imagine her texting with an Asian accent if you can...it makes it funnier) also, I've added my thoughts at the current time in parenthesis:

Me: Hey Rina! Are we still on for dinner tonight?

Rina: Yep.was waittieg 4 ur message^^

(oh, so she's admitting that she was waiting for my text...desperate or nice?)

Rina: When&where do we meet?

(At this point I am a little concerned with her grammar...did she actually speak English as well as I thought she did???)

Me: How about we plan on 7:30. You pick the place. I'll call you around 6 to see whats up.

Rina: Well. I am a good at picking up place. But,will try with one condition^^Give me d menu then will have a look at it.kk How's that sounds 2 u?

(Ok, that was a pretty long text, how much longer are we going to be texting back and forth?)

Me: Ok sounds good...ill call you at 6 so we can set something up.

Rina: Cool. No problem^^ Get some tips from ur oz colleague in case of failure in rina's picking^^kk Talk to you later!

Me: Haha ok, talk to you later. (fake "haha" I wasn't actually laughing)

(now I'm starting to wonder what I got myself into...second guessing myself big time)

Rina: Yep. Coz i realized that i forgot 2 put NOT in 2nd text 4 picking up place.Crumsy her--*kk Have fun at work. Talk 2 u soon^^

(ummm, ok, maybe she likes to text message a lot...again, this is not helping the fact that I am already second guessing myself)

So just like I said, I called her around 6 to set something up. The phone rang and she picked up pretty quickly. Our conversation was weird. She didn't speak English as well as I remembered. At first I didn't even think it sounded like her. I told her I would meet her at World Square at 7:15.

As soon as I got off the phone I was laughing out loud. What have I done? Was my view so tainted on Sunday that I had no idea what I was getting myself into? Again, I wanted to tell everyone I knew. This was going to be interesting. Haha, also, about 5 minutes later I realized that I told her to meet me at a building right next to Chinatown. What if I don't even recognize her among the other Asians?

Chapter 7 - The Date

I left my apartment at 7:00. It takes me about 15 minutes to walk to center city, but I knew it wouldn't a big deal if I was a few minutes late. At 7:15 she sent me this text:

Rina: I am here. But,not sure am i in right spot^^ standing next 2 sushi bar. U?

I decided not to write back because I was only one block away. The moment of truth. I was approaching the corner where I told her to meet me. There were Asians everywhere...like hundreds. Would I recognize her? And more importantly, would I still find her more attractive than most Asians?

There she is. I recognized her without any trouble. She was standing exactly where I thought she would be. She was dressed nicely and yes...she still looked good. So I've determined that she actually is really cute...way more so than the rest of her people, haha. But seriously, there is no shame walking around with her. Actually, since I was walking with her I noticed a lot more Asian girls looking at me. Almost as if they were like "oh, that white guy likes Asians, I should go talk to him". Honestly, they were all looking at me.

We ended up going to Darling Harbor. It was beautiful and we ate outside. Dinner was awesome, I had a steak. Our conversation was fine, but not as good as the other day. I think it was because I was really trying on Sunday, but last night I was a little more skeptical. I had to keep on asking her to repeat herself, I think I over estimated her speaking skills. She talked a lot about relationships and about her family. She told me that she talked to her mom about me. That scarred me a little. Why would she tell me that?

We ended the night by walking back in the direction of my apartment. At the bus stop we said our goodbyes and then I walked home. As soon as I walked in the door she sent me a text.

Rina: Thank u 4 lovely dinner&being a good friend with me. I had real good time with u. Hope that u have such good time in AUS. See u on sun if u can make it. Goodnight!

I texted her back saying that I would call her this weekend to let her know if I was coming back to that church.

Chapter 8 - The Stage 5 Clinger

Ok there were a lot of hints that she has been sending me over the past few days to imply that she is somewhat of a clinger. For example she talked to her mom about me after spending only a few hours together. She text messaged me a ton. And she was being a little too easy about getting together.

Then this morning she sent me this text:

Rina: G'morning! Another beautiful day! U have heaps of fun with kids. And do not forget 2 put some sunscream.I mean it.kk Just on d way work.

Ok, I'll give her a pardon on using the words G'morning and heaps. They say those two words all the time in Australia. Also she was referring to the fact that we are running kids sport camps all week at work. But still, a morning after text message? Honestly I'm a little taken back. If I asked her to be my girlfriend she would almost certainly say yes. That being said, she is really nice and really cute. But I'm not too sure how I want to approach the situation.

End of Story....for now

Ok, I have written a few more chapters to this story, but I won't post them for a few more days since I want to put up some pictures and stuff from this past weekend. I might even be able to do some of that later today...now that I have internet at home.

The Dying Blog

2008-10-08T04:51:00.002-04:00

Not having internet access at my apartment is really hurting my blog. I feel bad that I don't get to updte as often as I'd like. A few things have happened since my last post. I got some new roommates. Two sisters from London. They are really nice and I think they are going to be good roomies. They moved in and literally cleaned the entire house over the next two days. The place looks great.

I also went on my first day trip on Saturday. I went to Hunter Valley with Marijke and Benedikt. We did a bunch of wine and cheese tasting. The weather ok bad, so it was a good day to be inside. Marijke and Benedikt had been telling me about a "house party" that their house manager was throwing later that night. They live with about 10 other people, so apparently they have a party once a month. I decided to check it out, but I had no idea what to expect. I showed up and it was about 10 people just sitting around hanging out. I introduced myself and took a seat. Everyone was really nice, but it was kind of weird. There were 10 different countries represented at this party...none of which were Australia. Let me see if I can remember them all, Germany, Holland, Norway, Finland, Turkey, Brazil, Scotland, Ireland, Congo, and USA...yea that’s right, I said Congo.

At one point there was this girl that didn't have a seat. I offered her my seat and she "jokingly" said "no, I'll just sit here"...she was pointing to my lap. I laughed because I thought it was a joke...then she sat. Ok, now let me explain something. I have absolutely no problem letting girls sit on my lap, but this time was a lot different than any other occasion that I had encountered before. This particular Finish girl had to weigh at least 180. Girls are usually petite and don't take up much room, but this girl was massive. I didn't want to be mean and tell her to get off, but I was sitting there and I didn't know what to do. She was so big I couldn’t see around her... It was at that point that I thought about you guys. I was wishing I had a video camera. I was an American, in Australia, hanging out with 10 foreigners, with a huge Finish girl sitting on my lap. Sweet. Haha, I kept on fidgeting and then she finally got off...and then blood circulation returned to my legs. I took that as my big chance to leave...I was on my way home 5 minutes later.

Ok, that actually turned out to be a somewhat amusing story, but I do have one that’s way better. I wrote it a few days ago, but I wasn't sure I was ready to share it with everyone. I'm not going to post it today, but keep on checking back...I should have it up in the next day or two. Basically it's the story of me going on a date...yes, with a girl. It's pretty funny. Alright, I hope you guys are all doing well. Bye.

I just tried to do a spell check and it's not working... I'm sure this post is a mess since the keyboard I am currently using is sticking. I don't really feel like proof reading...so sorry about the mistakes.

Lots of Videos

2008-09-30T00:18:00.005-04:00

Hey everybody, I finally finished editing and uploading most of my videos. It took a long time. But before we get to them I want to update you on a few things that have been going on. MY ROOMMATES ARE GONE. I couldn't be happier. I forgot what it was like to sleep without techno music playing in the background. I spent this weekend enjoying my peace and quite. I have now actually been able to enjoy our living room and kitchen because they are clean. At this point I hope nobody else moves in...fat chance.

Ok, now on to these videos. I try to explain whats going on during the actual filming...so hopefully it's not too hard to figure out. I wrote about this first one a few post ago. It was on a Saturday morning and I went with that guy named Steven King...remember? Ok, well here is some footage.

Later that same day I took a ferry to Manly. I just realized that I have some cool video footage of the trip, but I forgot to edit it. I'll put it on another time, but here are a few pics. They port is right next to the opera house. I took this first pic right as we were pulling out.

This next pic shows the city, opera house, and the bridge.

This picture shows the entire city. I live near that tall building on the far left. You can still see the opera house on the far right. I would guess that this picture shows about 3 miles...but I could be way off, who knows.

So once I got to Manly I checked out the beach and then waited for Neil to pick me up. He took me to the Rugby League game Manly vs St. George. It was awesome. It was packed since it was a playoff game and I was right in the middle of the craziness. I became an instant fan...cheering as if I was a Manly faithful for life...and not just a few hours. Here is some video. Haha I just watched it again before posting it...I say "alright" waaayyy too much, sorry.

About a week later I went the university's Rugby Union game. It's pretty much the same thing as League, but there are a few different rules. I just watched the video again...and its kind of boring, sorry again.

This next clip is frat basketball. They call the frats "colleges". It took me a while to figure out that they were actually frat's...which explains exactly why the crowd was so harsh. They did chants the entire game...it was almost more about the crowd then it was about the game.

The last video I have is of Bondi Beach. I was in Sydney for over three weeks before I made it...but I eventually got there. Needless to say, I will be back there quite often over the next few months.

Well I hope these videos weren't completely lame. They pretty much account for all the exciting things I have been doing over the past few weeks. Next post I'll try to add the video I forgot, also I was thinking about taking video of my apartment and surrounding area so you can see where I live. I hope you are all doing well, talk to you later.

Weak Sauce

2008-09-23T21:28:00.003-04:00

I'm not very busy at work right now, so I just wanted to stop by an say hi. And also, I realize that I have been really lame with updating my blog lately. I have some ok video that I have taken over the past few weeks, but the editing is taking way to long. I should have it up by the weekend at the latest.

In other news, my roommates didn't move out like they were supposed to. Big surprise. They did, however, pack up their bags and I think they are waiting until they are forced out by the property group. I sent the management group an email about some mantinence stuff, so hopefully they will stop by the place and see that they haven't left yet.

Things at work are still going well. I've had less to do this week which means that I was able to watch the entire Eagles game during work hours and I'm watching the Phillies game right now. They are down 3-2 in the 8th. How bout them Eagles? The defense was unbelievable. A non stop Ben Rothlisburger pounding. The Steelers were lucky to even be in the game. The score does not dictate how that game went. I just hope that Westbrook and McNabb can stay healthy. If they go down...so do the birds.

I've been spending some time researching things that I need to do while I am here. Obviously since the summer is right around the corner, the weather is going to be beautiful the entire time I am here... so I signed up for surf camp. It's at the end of next month. I could only sign up for the 3 day deal since I have to work, but it's going to be sweet. Also, since my coworker sends the camp a ton of business...they are going to let me go for free. I'm pretty excited for it.

Jim called me the other day and he still has a port stop here in Sydney. I'm excited to see him and to take a few days off of work. I still haven't talked to my supervisor about taking time off because I don't know what days Jim will be here...but it shouldn't be a problem...I hope.

Alright, I realize that my posts have been unexciting and not amusing. I'm surprised I still have any readers. But I am going to make a comeback and it's going to be better than ever. I'm the official photographer for a track meet tonight...so hopefully something awesome will happen. I want to tell a good story so bad. Haha ok, I'm done wasting your time now.

Happiness and Sadness

2008-09-19T07:15:00.000-04:00

So here we go, topic number one, the Italians.

Like I said in my last post, I'm not happy with my current living situation. I ratted the roomies out on Saturday and I was eagerly awaiting an email in response from the property management group. It came on Tuesday. BAM! Gone. You're Fired. They are getting the boot. I was so happy when I was reading the email that I stopped everyone else in my office to read it out loud so that they too could experience my joy. Basically what happened is that the place we are staying in right now is only short term living. I went through another company to get the property so I didn't know how it worked, but apparently we are on a month to month lease. It takes too long to evict people, but if their lease expires then they have to get out no matter what. Turns out that Stefano's lease runs out on this coming Monday and the management company is not going to renew his lease. Sweet. Happiness.

Now onto a much more tragic topic...the sadness part of my title. While performing with great courage, passion, and intensity...the mighty Eagles lost in an all time great game against the Cowboys. There, I said it, the Eagles lost to the Cowboys. I only repeat myself because for some reason I have a ton of friends that are Dallas fans. Actually, come to think if it, it's pretty much every person that is responsible for my entire throwing career. Back in high school Ty was about as obnoxious as you can be about them, and then in college both coach Bingham and Clendon were fans too. Funny thing is that both Clendon and coach are actually from Texas, but they are rather reserve about their commitment to the Boys, but Ty is from anywhere but Texas, except he acts as if Tony Romo was his brother and Jerry Jones were his dad. I knew I was going to hear from Ty. I live on the other side of the world, but he still got to me. You can see his comment on my post “Fly Eagles Fly”.

Ok, enough about Dallas. How about them Eagles. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy about the loss in any way, shape, or form. But they looked good...real good. Assuming both Don and the o-line stay healthy, we are serious contenders. Dallas won, but lets face it, that could have just as easily gone the other way. I'd like to point to the fact that they had a kickoff return for a TD and a few really long passes, but then I remember the Romo fumble and their boatload of penalties...which were much deserved by the way. There were also a few bad calls, but for both teams, so officiating was not a determining factor. All in all, that game is exactly what football is all about. Good Stuff. I have a feeling that the Birds and the Boys will be meeting two more times this season. By the way...NFC East??? Get outta here. The class of the NFL without a doubt. Oh, and by the way again, Desean Jackson is an idiot. I will never buy his jersey.

The Freaking Italians

2008-09-14T00:10:00.002-04:00

The Italians are officially pushing me to the limit. I get along with them fine, but their lack of common courtesy is out of control. Yesterday was the straw that broke the camels back. Let me start with telling you about Friday night. I actually look forward to the weekends with them because I know that they will be going out instead of having people over. They usually go out around 11 or 12 which is prefect since thats about the time I go to bed. I also know that since they will be out all night, when they return at 7am they will go straight to bed after a long night. I went to the gym after work so I didn't get home until about 7:30. When I arrived there were about 7 people eating kangaroo steaks in our living room. Ok, no problem, if they want to have friends over for dinner thats fine with me. From a distance I could see that the kitchen was a mess, but whatever, surely they will clean it up later. Then I saw that they used HALF of my bottle of olive oil. If they needed to use a little, thats not big deal. But half a bottle??? Thats stuff is expensive. It would be different if I actually liked them, but the idea of my freeloading roommates using all of my groceries....well it makes me angry...and you would like me when I'm angry...I'm turning green.

So anyway I went up to my room and decided that the next day I was going to say something to them because I had enough of their freeloading ways. Oh, and I forgot to tell you, two other Italians moved into the other room that was unoccupied. Anyway, I went to bed. Saturday morning I wake up to people banging on the door at 5:30am. For some reason they always seem to forget their keys so they just bang on the door until someone(me) opens it. I have opened the door for people at least 5 times since I have moved in, but it has never really been a huge inconvenience. Well this particular morning was different. From where my room is situated it's actually kind of difficult to hear the front door. I could hear a few people outside, but obviously none of them had a key. Still bitter about the olive oil from the night before, I actually laid in bed with a little smirk on my face. “I'm not getting up, they are going to have to wait until someone shows up with a key or until my alarm goes off at 7am.” See, I was invited to go to an AFL(Australian Football League) game which started at 8am so I was planing on getting up early anyway, but not 5:30 early. I went back to sleep...but not for long. At 6:00am I woke up to a noise that made me sit up in bed. I didn't know what it was. Then again. Crack!

The people that were outside were now throwing rocks at my window to wake me up. I got up and looked out the window to see the two people that just moved in standing there waving at me. I was so shocked by the whole thing that I didn't even get that angry. I couldn't believe their methods...but they worked, I let them in. They apologized, but whatever. I decided to get up and start getting ready for the days activities.

The game was great, I'll tell you about it in the next post since I've decided to dedicate this entire post to how much I can't stand the entire Italian race because of a few crappy roommates. HAHAHA GREAT...you won't believe what just happened. I am writing this post using my laptop which I obviously keep in my bedroom. One minute ago two Italians(a guy and a girl) came into the apartment and headed to the spare bedroom. Italians love my apartment...free groceries and now it's a free cheap hotel. My bedroom is right above theirs...great. How am I supposed to write with this going on. At this point I'm not even mad. It only adds to the ridiculousness of my current living situation.

Haha, but anyway, back to yesterday. I was so annoyed about the mornings events that I decided that I was going to call my property management group to see if there was anything they could do. Here is how our conversation went.

Lady: “Hello, thanks for calling the furnished property group, how can I help you”

Me: “Hi, how long is your office open today, I'd like to come in and speak with someone.”

Lady: “Oh, what property are you interested in?”

Me: “Actually I already live in one of your properties, 30 hardie st, and I'm having a few problems with my roommates.”

Lady: “Oh, do you live with a guy named Stefano?”

Me: “Yes, yes I do”

Lady: “Ok, well we are having some problems with him. What you need to do is send me an email with your complaints, that way it will be officially documented and we can do something about it.”

Me: “Ok, great, I will definitely do that, but what about Nicola?”

Lady: “Who?”

Me: “Nicola, one of our other roommates.”

Lady: “How many people live in your house?”

Me: “Five. Me, Stefano, Nicola, and two others just moved in. They are also Italian....How many people are supposed to live here?”

Lady: “Two...you and Stefano.”

Me: “I'll get that email to you sometime today.”

Ok, this post is getting pretty long, but I'm not done yet. This morning I went downstairs to eat some breakfast. I was looking forward to some toast and cereal. I bought a new loaf of bread two days ago so I knew they couldn't have consumed all of it yet. I was right, there were only a few pieces missing, finally something is still here. Then I went to get the butter out of the fridge. Gone. The whole tub of it. It was that special kind that you can spread when its still cold. Who uses an entire tub of butter in one week??? Are they using this stuff as hair gel or something? Ok, never mind with the toast, I'll just have cereal. Nope never mind, my milk is gone, oh and so is my 1.5 liter bottle of water. Now I'm mad and really hope they get evicted. I no longer care whether they have a place to stay. They have a ton of other friends here so I'm sure it won't be a problem, but if they don't...it's not my problem. I wrote down all the things they have used and taken from me in the last week. $29 in groceries...out of control.

Alright, well I have to get going. I have some cool material from the AFL game, a boat ride, and a Rugby game I went to last night, but I'll write about that later.

Foster's is NOT Australian for Beer

2008-09-12T06:43:00.002-04:00

I take the bus to and from work everyday. We pass a million shops, restaurnts, and pubs. I see beer signs all over the place just like in the US, except I've never heard of their brands. Then it hit me. "Fosters, it's Australain for beer". Thats what I've been subjected to for my entire life. So I asked the people at work if they drink Fosters...and they dont. They knew what it was, but didn't even know where to get it. WE'VE BEEN LIED TO!! So I've spent the rest of the day trying to think if what their real slogan should be. Here is what I came up with.

"Fosters, for American idiots"

"Fosters, I have an Austrailian accent so buy my beer"

"Fosters, Australia is so far away that the odds of you going there to confim whether or not they actually drink it is very unprobable so take our word for it, it's Australian for beer"

I'll try to think of some better ones, but if you think of anythig funny just post it as a comment.

In other news I noticed that I'm well over 2000 hits on this blog. At this point I feel like I have a set group of people that check it on a regualr basis, but I've definitly lost some readers...whatever, were better off without them. Well I'm going to get rolling. I'm going to an AFL game tromorrow morning and then to Rugby game tomorrow night. I'll definitly get back on here ad write something else this weekend because I'll have a few pics and stuff. Oh an I almost forgot, I made two friends. So now I have a total of 4 numbers in my cell phone. I'll tell you about them later. Bye.

Happy Days

2008-09-12T06:41:00.001-04:00

I wrote this a few days ago, but I didn't get a chance to submit it. I realize that this has become a habit so I am going to make an effort to change.

Today I got an email from Jim. For those of you that don't already know exactly who Jim is...he's one of my best friends from high school. We live about a block from each other in the wyo, we played football, wrestled, and did track together. We also went to wrestling camp(with George) and Italy(with Tony) together. We are close with each others families too. We are tizight...as they say. However, come to think of it, we didn't have very many classes together in high school. He took uncool classes like art and anything that began with “honors”. What an over achiever. But anyway, Jim went to Tulane and graduated ROTC with the Navy. He is now fulfilling his 4 year commitment. He is based in San Diego, but is currently on tour in some huge ship. I don't remember what its called, but his mom showed me a picture if it that was on their refrigerator...and it's big. Jim was supposed to have a stop in Melbourne...and I was gunna fly down to hang out for a few days, but now they got redirected and they are coming to Sydney. I'll admit that when I read that he was coming my heart rate went up...sounds gay, but it will be really good to see not just a familiar face, but a really good friend. I'm excited.

In other news, I logged back onto the NFL package thing I bought and I realized that it was showing the Monday night football game live. So there I sat, watching Monday night football live...on a Tuesday afternoon. It was the middle of my work day so I only watched it for an hour during lunch break...ok I watched a little longer than that. But it didn't matter because the Raiders were getting bashed by the Broncos anyway. I'm not sure who thought it would be a good Monday night game...the Raiders are so bad.

So I think this is an appropriate time do to an update about my weight. Back in the Spring(while I was really fat, but also really strong) I was talking a big game about how I was going to lose a bunch of weight as soon as the season was over. Now keep in mind, two and a half years ago I lost about 40 pounds(from 260 to 220) because I thought it would help me throw things farther...it didn't. So everyone at school knows I can lose the weight...it's just a matter of whether I have a strong enough will. They(and by they I mean Coach Bingham, Clendon, Andy, Joel, the Hagens, and Dunnski) knew that I wouldn't stay at the 275 pounds I weighed in the spring(since I was a fat turd), but they weren't convinced that I would ever see 220 again. I think the general agreement was that I would lose about 20-30 pounds and get down somewhere between 240 and 250. Well I can proudly say that I've already lost 30 pounds and I still have a few more months until I get home. Not to pat my own back, but I look and feel a lot better. I'm way weaker and I definitely couldn't throw heavy things really far, but I'm also not a fat piece of crap. I look in the mirror and I can't believe how much better I look, no wonder I couldn't get any girls this past year. One major difference, however, this time is that I have quite a bit more muscle on my body than I did 3 years ago when I lost weight. If I had to guess I would say that my body fat has gone down 5 or 6 percent. In the spring I would guess that I was a strong 22 or 23 percent and now I think I'm about 17 or 18. Haha, not chiseled by any means, but good progress. Since I work at Sydney University Sport and Fitness I get free access to all the facilities. There is a fitness room about 30 feet from my desk so after work I have been hitting it pretty hard. Being in China for almost a month helped too, since I would rather starve then eat their terrible food. But anyway, now that I have been losing weight at a great pace, I decided that I'm going to start lifting again too. At first I was doing all cardio all the time, but I want to throw again this coming spring so I can't lose all my muscle mass either.

I also decided that I've been a little bitten by the Andy Bartels bug. I've been training for sports for the past 10 years of my life, but now I have no “real” upcoming season. So I've decided that I am going to start lifting my “beach muscles”. Keep in mind that over the past 10 years I have been making fun of the guys that only bench press and do biceps, but now I'm thinking about joining the club. Right when I started lifting in 9th grade I would do bicep curls all the time...coincidently my arms were huge. Since then I haven't ever worked on them, but thats about to change. I do live close to the beach and the summer is just around the corner... Also, I decided that I want pecks. For some reason I have the most underdeveloped pectoral muscles. I have been able to bench around 400 pounds for 6 years now and I have a concave chest. Well I started a new peck deck routine today and if it doesn't add mass...then it's hopeless. So here is my plan. 45 minutes of cardio between 3 and 5 days a week. Beach muscles workouts 2-3 times a week. And a real mans workout once a week. I decided that on Saturdays I will go the real weight room and do a squat and clean workout. That should do the trick. And since I have no friends right now, I have no reason not to go. What else am I going to do? Sit around and listen to techno music with the Italians? I think not.

Fly Eagles Fly

2008-09-08T07:04:00.002-04:00

HAHAHA I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU. THE EAGLES RULE!!!! OK, so since I havn't been in the US for over a month I have been missing tons of NFL coverage...which is exactly why I havn't written nything about how awesome the Eagles are. But if you know me you already knew that I am a die hard Eagles fan. Remember that NFL streaming package thing I was talking about in my last post? Well I tried it today after work. I was hesitant to pay the $209 for something I wasn't sure would work...but I figured I could cancell the payment if I couldn't figure it out. We I wont have to worry about that.

5pm on the dot. I cross my fingers and hit play. BAM! I'm watching the Eagles game as if it were live. I didn't check my email all day just in case someone spoiled it for me. I was so excited. Like, you have no idea how excited I was. So there I sat watching the Eagles game by myself in the Sydney Uni Sport and Fitness office.

Let me explain a few things to you. 1) I have a man crush on Brian Westbrook. 2)I never threw Donivan McNabb under the buss. 3)Did I mention that I have a man crush on Brian Westbrook? When I play fantasy football I always draft B-West in the first, D-Mac in the second, and their top reciever in the 3rd. Westbrook is an easy choice in the first. To most people taking the DON in the second is crazy. And taking an eagles reciver in the first few rounds is always recommened. It's called loyalty. When they bleed, I bleed.

So after sitting in my office fist pumping on a consistant basis, here is my opinion on the game: 1)B-Weezy is still the nasty. Westbrook ruled like usual. If Brian Westbrook was a sock, I'd be rich because I haven't been on the bandwagon for a long time...I'm driving it. I jumped on board on day one when they drafted him. He's the man. 2)Donavin looked great...and by the way, remember when that idiot(Goose) said McNabb should have run the ball in for a td on that one play? Wrong, when you're up by over 30 points you should never run your quarterback...I don't care if he would have gotten in. 3)The offensive and defensive line totally controlled the trenches. I can only hope that is something that will continue for the rest of the season. 4)Desean Jackson...wow, nice pick up. I thought he was a good pick for the Eagles in the Draft, but I had originally hoped they would draft someone a little earlier. Jackson has great talent, but the thing that most impresses me is how he handled himself on the field. Kudos to the rest of the Eagles players. It seems to me that they have made him very comfortable as a rookie...which directly shows on the field. 5)We already knew that Asante Samuel was a very smart pick up for the birds, but its just nice to see an investment pay off some dividends. He looked great as did the rest of the Dawkins crew. Did you see that hit that Sheldon put on Steven Jackson??? Wow...that was awesome.

Ok I'm done talking about the Eagles for now, but you can expect another rant next week aroudn the same time. Best $209 I have ever spent. E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!

1 Week In

2008-09-08T06:58:00.001-04:00

I wrote this yesterday, but I forgot to submit it...my bad.

Well I made it past my first week of work and things have been going pretty well. Apparently Fridays are very relaxed work days in Australia...from what I understand. We are allowed to tone down our already not too strict dress code and everyone pretty much sits around and tries to think of a reason to celebrate. My boss Michelle brought a few 6 packs of beer into work today and by 3pm we were all just sitting around and hanging out. Haha it was pretty funny except that the receptionist had gone home for the day and they thought it would be funny to make me fill in. I'm the only one that doesn't know whats going on and they had me answering phone calls and helping people that showed up. They thought it was pretty amusing...I just went with the flow.

I was excited for the weekend because I still needed to get some things for my room and I needed to go grocery shopping. Turned out that yesterday(Saturday) it was freezing, windy, and rainy all day. I walked to a store and bought an umbrella which lasted all of 15 minutes. It wasn't of the highest quality, but it was so windy that I'm not sure anyone was fairing well with their sturdy umbrellas either. After my umbrella turned into trash I decided to go home.

Today was beautiful. In the upper 60's. I took this opportunity to walk around and learn my surroundings. I live in Darlinghurst about a 15 minute walk from center city. I am in a really really convenient location. Within 100 meters of my house there must be over 30 restaurants. At this I've only tried two, a Thai place and a burger joint. The burger joint is the closes to my house an I ad an awesome chicken sandwich the other day, I will def go back. I won't be returning to the Thai place. But anyway other than the restaurants, I live about two blocks from a grocery store, 4 blocks away from the Lamborghini dealership, 6 blocks from the Maserati and Ferrari dealership, and about 9 blocks from the Bently dealership. That pretty much covers all the essentials. Food and Italian cars. I also found a place that charges $1 for a half hour of internet. We don't have access at the house, so I will be going there quite often.

Alright, there is one last thing I want to cover in this post. I already briefly explained to you how things are sooo much more expensive here than they are in the US. I started keeping track of prices that I have either seen or paid over the past few days. Here are my findings:

Bently Continental GT
USA $300,000
Sydney $445,000

Harley Davidson Rocker
USA $18,000
Sydney $37,000

Fast Food Combos
USA $6
Sydney $9

New Balance kicks(you know the ones I roll with)
USA $50 or 2 pair for $90
Sydney $129

Asics Gel Nimbus sneakers
USA $120
Sydney $239

And here are some prices of things I bought at the grocery store today:
Box of Barilla pasta $2.59
Ice Cream $6.49
2 Liter of fat free milk $4.99
Candy Bar $1.89
Box of cereal $5.79

That pretty much sums up all the things I got today that I know are way cheaper in the US. So I also went to GNC to get some protein. Now keep in mind, I am in no way an advocate of GNC. Not here, not in the USA, not anywhere. You can always get a much better deal on any type of supplement or vitamins on the internet or at another retail location. I have, however, gone to GNC in the past when I need something quickly and I don't have the patience to wait for it in the mail. I knew that they had a type of protein powder that actually tastes good, so thats what I wanted to get. I think it sells for $30 in GNC stores in the US. Haha, but not here. $86 for the exact same 3lb bucket. I already used to get annoyed when purchasing this stuff for $30, but $86??? You have to be kidding me, screw that. The problem is that they take advantage of people that have no idea how much this stuff actually costs. People just assume that GNC is a fair retailer and they shop there. Well it fair to say that I won't be going back there anytime soon. I wanted to get the stuff today...but not for $86. Heck for that much money I'll just go buy a bunch of steaks with the same amount of protein and eat them. So basically what I'm saying is that you shouldn't support GNC. Take your business elsewhere.

Oh I almost forgot. I found something very exciting yesterday, now I just have to find somewhere it will work. Apparently the NFL and Yahoo partnered up and created an online streaming web site. For $209 I can get access to every NFL game for the whole season. I need to find a place that gets internet speeds of 300k to use it...which I haven't found yet, but I'm obviously going to keep on looking. It's only available for countries that have absolutely no coverage of the NFL...which includes Australia. Apparently I can access the games for up to 3 days after they have been played, which means that I don't have to watch them at 3am while they are playing live. Also since nobody here cares about the NFL, nobody should be able to spoil it for me before I get a chance to watch. I really hope that the internet at work is fast enough. If this actually ends up working it will have been the best $209 I have ever spent. I would pay double. Alright, I'm done, talk to you later.

Missing the Bus

2008-09-04T01:51:00.002-04:00

It's 3:52pm and my boss told me that I can go home for the day if I want. So what do I do? I decide to stay at work and write something for you guys. Well as you can see in my title. I missed my bus to work yesterday...even though I was at the bus stop before the scheduled arrival of the bus. Basically I was coming around the corner and I saw it driving around the street. I was two minutes early, but I guess the schedule is'nt always accurate. I ended up waiting 25 minutes for the next bus since I didn't want to spen $18 on a taxi. I was about 10 minutes late...on my thrid day of work. No body seemed to notice except for Neil, but he didn't care...and I'm not sure anyone else would have cared either, if they knew. Things are pretty relaxed here.

I jsut realized that there is no automatic spell check on my computer at work. This means that you can expect the quality of this post to be terrible. Anyway, yesterday I spent the entire day with Anthony helping organize the intermural womens basketball tournament. Basically all I did was watch women "play" basketball all day. I put the word "play" in parenthsis because the quality of competition was not very good. The team that won had a professional basketball player on it...and she was money in the bank. She hit three's like nobody's business. They won the final by a score of 55-3. Yea it was bad. But Anthony and I had a good time watching. We were giving everyone nicknames like, GI Jane, Yao Ming, and Scottie Pippen. GI Jane was this really aggresive girl that was fouling out of almost every game. Yao Ming was this really tall asian girl. And Scottie Pippen was the little asian girl that hit banked shots like crazy...just like Scottie.

Today Neil and I drove around the whole city of Sydney to drop off sport camp brouchurs at all the middle and elementary schools. It was alright. We took a nice lunch and again...it was free, so it was delicious. Alright, I'm going to go stand in the cold and wait for my bus. It's winter right now, but the spring is just around the corner. It's been on the mid 50's this week, but it's supposed to really warm up in the next few weeks. Bye

9-5 Working Man

2008-09-02T05:57:00.000-04:00

I realize that this is a complete blog overload and I'm sorry. I thought about just releasing one post a day so that it wouldn't seem overwhelming, but whatever. So here are the past 3 post I have written. They cover everything I have been doing for the past 10 days...which happens to be a lot. Scroll down to “Catching Some Love and Leaving Beijing” and read up if you want to start at the beginning.

Hello Sydney. Like I briefly covered in my past post, we made it to Sydney and had a nice weekend gathering things for my new apartment. We didn't really do too many touristy things and I don't have any good stories. Sydney is kind of weird. There are sooo many foreigners. Ton's of Chinese people. I didn't even meet an Australian until my first day of work. I got my haircut by a guy from Lebanon(the country ), our cab driver was from Iraq, the store workers are Chinese, and the places we ate at were run by people from Turkey and Portugal.

I moved into my apartment on Sunday night. It turns out that my current roommates are both Italians, from Rome and Milan. They are nice, but I'm under the impression that they aren't really productive. Nicola has a “day to day” job, which means they call him the day before and let him know if they need help doing physical labor. He said that they call him almost every other day. Stefano doesn't have a job, but hes thinking about doing the same thing as Nicola. If I had written this yesterday I would have told you that they were really nice and cool, but last night they had about 7 other Italians over and they were so loud that I wanted to throw them out the window. I have to get up at 7:30 everyday, but they don't work. I went to bed at 11:30 and just laid there until 1:30...then I had to go downstairs and tell them to be quite. After that they calmed down a little, but staying up that late better not become a routine...or else I'll have to introduce them to the pain train.

So I have my first day of work yesterday. I was excited and a little nervous since I don't know anyone and because I didn't know where I was going. I decided to take a cab since I am unfamiliar with the bus and subway system. Cabs are freaking expensive. I was about a 3 mile ride and it cost $17.00, but it did get me there right on time. I work at the University of Sydney Sport and Fitness. I went in an asked for my supervisor. They told me that she wasn't in yet. Around 9:15 she showed up and introduced herself. We walked down the street to a small cafe where she was asking me about my background and all that jazz. We had a nice conversation, but I was under the impression that she had forgotten that I was coming...so now I was wondering if there was actually any work for me to do. When we got back to the office she introduced me to a bunch of people and then showed me to my desk. At this point I realized that they actually were expecting me...she just forgot because she is busy. Turns out that my supervisor, Michelle, pretty much runs the show. Whatever she says...goes. I guess she had left the prep for me to arrive for someone else because when I got to my desk I had a computer with a login, an email address, a key to the building, and few other welcoming things all waiting for me. The secretary of the office then came over to give me a bunch of maps she had printed out showing me which buses and train I can take to work. They actually did a nice job of making me feel welcome.

I share a rather large office with two other guys(Niel, and Shiv) that are roughly my age. One of them has been full time for a few years and the other is a part time student. Shiv, the still student, put me to work right away. He had a hug stack of papers that desperately needed organizing. I put in a good morning's work and then the secretary came over and told me that Michelle wanted me to join a few people for a meeting. It's kind of weird, but very cool...I feel like they are trying to get me involved as soon as possible. Michelle has almost been treating me like I'm some established sport businessman. Come to think of it, she was asking a lot of questions about the courses I took and she did seem pretty impressed with my soon to arrive degree. Haha, joke's on her. But anyway, this “meeting” that they sent me to turned out ever better than I could have imagined. It was more like a free lunch and hanging out...while briefly talking some business. Basically what I'm finding out is that I'm in high demand. Michelle heads the entire operation, but the whole complex is very different than a typical American athletic department. This department owns a professional women's basketball team, runs all the universities inter mural athletics, runs all the athletic facilities, owns a public fitness center, and runs all the intercollegiate athletics as well. And from what I understand right now, I am the right hand man to the head of every department. So it turns out that Trish, the head of the womens basketball franchise wanted me to come to the “meeting” because I will be setting up all the teams pre and post game meals, corporate dinner, and a few cocktail hours.

The “meeting” went something like this. Michelle introduces me to a 6'4” woman name Trish. Turns out that Trish was a 19th overall pick in the WNBA, 3 time Olympic medalist, and former captain of the Australian women's basketball team. I talked to Trish for about one minute and then she droves us to a nearby hotel where we met two of the hotels employees. It was just the four of us in the dining room of the hotel. At this point I have absolutely no idea whats going on. She said we were going to a meeting...and were out to lunch. Also, I figured that if I was invited to a meeting, everyone else would be too since I'm supposed to be the lowest man on the totem pole. We had a great lunch, talking about travel, experiences, and what I thought of Sydney. Turns out that we were actually there to talk about a team dinner that was coming up, but that had to wait until after we were done with lunch. So basically I got an awesome free lunch and I got to hang out all afternoon during work hours. Eating gourmet food, drinking beer, and hangaring out...all in a days work...I'm such an over achiever.

Trish and I then went back to the facility. At this point it was after 3:00 so I cruised through the rest of the work day. Then I took a bus home and it was only $1.80...much cheaper than a cab. Today I went in for day two. I started back on my paperwork and then around 11:00 I got called up to another meeting. This meeting was with 5 people. 4 head of departments...and me. I didn't say a thing the entire time. Not only was I wondering why I was there, but I was wondering why they specifically went out of their way to call me up to attend. I did learn a thing or two about whats going on, but I with I would have been able to contribute. Whatever, I'm new, I get a pass for a few weeks. Anyway, when I returned to my desk I found a crappy hand filled in 3 month calendar. Apparently it only took one day for everyone in the office to put dibs on me and my time. Other than a few open days I am completely spoken for during my entire internship. It does feel good to be wanted....now hopefully I can come through with my end of the deal. I read something on the internet today that said “Professionalism, initiative, reliability, and responsibility will always be in demand.” ...so basically I want to be in demand. Ok, I don't feel like typing anymore. I am currently picking up a random unprotected internet signal, which is great. I will keep on submitting stuff as long as this signal sticks around. But I do now have internet access at work so I shouldn't get behind anymore. Sorry for the delays, and the long post. Peace.

Hello Australia.

2008-09-02T05:54:00.000-04:00

We made it, we finally made it. After one of the longest travel days ever...15 hours of flights and 6 hours of layovers. As all of you know, my internship is in Sydney, but I don't have orientation until the 29th. We decided to take the few days we had before hand to put our newly acquired scuba licenses to use. Cairns is apparently one of the closest cities to the great barrier reef.

We booked this trip quite a while ago and everything fell right into place. We got scuba certified, booked a one day trip, and landed a hotel that is on the same pier as our boat. Everything was going smoothly. So this morning we got up very eagerly, got some breakfast, and made our way over to the boat. The boat was reasonably large...holding approximately 50 or 60 people. We were in good spirits and excited about our upcoming experience. They told us that it was about an hour and a half boat ride to get to our first diving site...so just sit back and enjoy. Ok, so at this point everything is great, I'm a little tired from the long day of travel so an hour and a half ride isn't a big deal. WRONG! It turned out to be a very big deal.

Let me start this story like this: 24 hours ago if you would have asked me if I get boat sick, I would have said “no”. And I would have been sadly mistaken. Listen, I've been on cruise boats, bus boats, tour boats, transport boats, and fishing boats. I have never gotten sick...until today. I should have known it was going to be a bad day when the boat manager began by saying “if you don't feel good and you think you are going to see that bacon, egg, and cheese McMuffin again, please go to the back of the boat and we will try to take care of you.” If this story was a book, that quote would be called foreshadowing...since a bacon, egg, and cheese McMuffin happen to be exactly what I had for breakfast. I was fine for the first half hour, but my dad was sweating profusely. We were listening to instructions from one of the workers and my dad got right up and left. Nothing needed to be said, we all knew exactly what was going on. During the second half hour I started to feel not so great. The little meeting had ended and I was pretty sure I could make it another half hour. WRONG! I thought I would feel better if I laid down. Within 30 seconds of laying down, I realized that I had made an huge mistake. I grabbed a brown bad and made my way to the “puke room”. I wasn't the first one to show up to the party. There was an open seat next to my dad, but there were over 10 other people in the exact same condition as us. At this point I knew I was going to blow...there would be no repressing the urge. I felt like crap and I held the bag to my face.

I have been compared to the Incredible Hulk for two different reasons in my past. One, because of my size and strength(that's my preferred comparison). Two, when I puke. Today was no exception...I felt it coming and I think I was turning green. I puked once. I puked twice. Then my bag tore. I tried to adjust it and I puked again. The 3rd time was different from the first two. I shut the bag too much and I sprayed it all over the floor, my hand, the bag...and some of it even splashed in my face. It was so shameful that even though I was horribly sick, I knew it was funny. I looked up and I was right, everyone else thought it was pretty funny too. What are you going to do? I'll take it in stride. I laugh at others people's expenses all the time...it was just my turn. After puking for a while we finally arrived at the reef. Big surprise, neither my dad or I felt like putting on all our gear and getting in. But we did it anyway. It was nice...obviously. We just wished that we didn't feel so horrible. After about 20-30 minutes we got back on the boat for a brake. Within two minutes I was puking again and my dad was cured up in the corner like a homeless person. We decided to pack it in for the day. I took a nap and fully recovered, but dad didn't. I was dreading the ride home, but I thought I could make it. I was right. I made it...dad didn't. He was hurting bad.

We eventually made it back to the hotel and fully recovered. Then we went out and had a great dinner. Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Sydney. I'm excited to be done traveling. I need to get into a routine and settle down a little bit. Bed time. Bye

Catching Some Love and Leaving Beijing

2008-09-02T05:49:00.002-04:00

Ok here is that pic of me and Evander that I was telling you about...a very long time ago. Ok, well here is a post that I wrote over a week ago, but never published:

I've been so busy traveling it's been crazy. I wish I had more down time to write, but I don't. I promised that Evander Holyfield picture the other day, but I just never got around to it. But anyway. I'll admit that I was a bit anxious to get out of China. The Olympics were great, we had an awesome time, but China got old. It treated me well, but I'm in no hurry to get back.

Our last Olympic tickets were for the night of the 23rd. That was the night that both the USA mens and womens 4x400 teams won gold. They were both favorites, but like the saying goes “it's not over till it's over” and after dropping the baton in both 4x100 relays...well we were holding our breath. Once again we had amazing seats...5th row on the final straight away. The relay teams came out of the tunnel where the 100 meter dash starts...which means that they had to walk 100 meters, right past where we were sitting, to get to the start. I obviously took this opportunity to take out my American flag and start yelling. It's nice knowing that you're so close that they can't even pretend not to hear you...they were literally 20 feet away. The women were first...and all four of them turned, pointed, and waved at me. It was great. Everyone in our immediate section was excited because it was one of the first times that we caught some love from the athletes(other than our Jamaican friends, who had been catching tons of love from every Jamaican athlete). For some reason I was the only one that brought an American flag...even though our group had at least 15 people in it.

About 10 minutes later the mens team came out and I did the exact same thing. They were a little more serious. Jeremy Warnier was in the zone and not paying any attention to the crowd, but once I started calling the other guys out by name we caught some more love. Angelo Taylor, David Neville, and LaShawn Merrit all gave me the point and smile. We celebrated with high 5's. Both teams ended up winning and Jeremy Warnier showed some love during the victory lap...so he's still ok in my book. It was a great night.

The next day we had completely off. We slept in and then started thinking about what we were going to eat for lunch. We were so sick of Chinese food and American fast food, but there aren't really too many options for a “western food” lunch in downtown Beijing. So we decided to look in the yellow pages to see if we could find anything. Bam! TGI Fridays! We brought the entire phone book with us so there wouldn't be any confusion with the taxi driver of where we wanted to go. While we were waiting for a cab, Brain Clay(American gold medalist in the decathlon) and his wife got out of the cab before us. It was cool to congratulate him and to get a pic. We were cheering for him a few days earlier because he is American and because we were sitting with his family and friends. They all had special Bryan Clay shirts...I felt left out. But anyway, it took about 15 minutes to get to Fridays, but I would have easily traveled an hour. When we finally arrived and were walking up the front stairs my dad said that we has so happy he could cry. We were craving American food sooo badly and leave it to Fridays to come to the rescue. It was fabulous.

That night we went to a dinner with everyone else that was there with Ludus Tours. A lot of families of American Olympians travel with Ludus so there were a few athletes that attended. We were sitting at the same table as Brad Walkers parents(the American record holder in the pole vault). That night was also the closing ceremonies...which were really nice. The next morning we took a 3 hour flight to somewhere close to Hong Kong, then a 9 hour flight to Sydney, then a 3 hour flight to Cairns.

Sorry

2008-08-30T04:18:00.002-04:00

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, but I have been having some serious lack of internet issues. I am at an internet cafe in downtown Sydney right now, so I decided to quickly jump on here to write a note or two. I have written two blog posts that are saved on my computer, but the USB port on at this cafe won't accept my thumb drive...so as of now I can't just copy them over. I'll try to put them up over the next few days.

I have a few funny stories from the past week, but I coved them in the other posts I will put on here another day. Basically we traveled from China to Cairns, Australia this past week, then we arrived in Sydney on Thursday night. I had orientation on Friday morning and I start my internship on Monday. Our hotel in Sydney is pretty much in the perfect location. We have had great walking access to everything in the city. Also, my apartment is only about 3/4 of a mile from center city. I'm located in an extremely convenient location. That being said, my apartment is pretty crappy. The cleanliness can easily be compared to the frat houses up at Penn State. And for all the non-Penn Staters that are reading this...basically this means that you shouldn't walk anywhere barefoot. The apartment has 4 bedrooms, but as of now there are only people occupying two of them. I'm not sure how many roommates I have, but I did meet two of them very briefly. I have no idea where they are from...but it's not an English speaking country. They seem a little rough around the edges, but what the heck, I guess I have to give them a chance. So I have my own room, which I insisted on while signing up for the house. There is also a room open...so if any of you end up in Sydney, I have a place for you.

Aright, my prepaid internet time is running low, but I did want to mention one other thing. On a very sad note, Amy Sparks, a friend of mine and my family suddenly died yesterday. I've know her for probably 15 years...we went to church together. We also graduated high school the same year. Amy was a real sweetheart, and there are going to be a ton of people that will really miss her. She was newly married this past year and her husband, Derrick, is a really solid guy. So keep Amy's mom, brother, husband, other family, and friends in your prayers. I know they would really appreciate it. Thanks.

How Could I Forget?

2008-08-22T11:35:00.003-04:00

I promised a post yesterday because I thought I was going to have the afternoon off, but I was wrong. Sorry. So here I am at 11:37pm China time trying to write a few things before I go to bed. I also decided that other than my videos, all I talk about is track results. If you like the results then go to espn.com or something because I think my writing has become boring and I don't want to lose my non track and field fans.

So here is a story...and unfortunately it affects all of my blog readers very negatively. We ended up scoring some rather cheap tickets to some boxing matches this afternoon. We were excited about getting the chance to see another sport. We picked up the tickets up at a restaurant called Rose's and ended up staying for lunch. It was a small buffet and it was actually good. We left Rose's at 12:45 because the boxing started at 1:30 and we wanted to get there a little early. We caught a cab and about 15 minutes later he dropped us off in front of the boxing arena. We got out of the cab, walked about 50 feet, and then I put my hands in my pockets. My heart sank and a wave of crushing reality hit me...I left my camera in the taxi.

I looked back only to see a few hundred taxi's going down the street. We didn't get a receipt, and we certainly didn't memorize the license plate number. I felt and still feel sick. I'm obviously disappointed that I lost a $300 camera 3 months after my dad bought it, but I'm definitely more disappointed about losing the memory card and all the data that was inside it. I have about 15% of it's contents backed up on my computer...which I guess is better then zero, but still not very good. The pictures and videos ranged from the end of my track season, summer fun, baseball games, Toronto...and of course everything I have done is China since August 2nd.

We told both Rose's and the security at the boxing facility to call us if the taxi driver brings it back. They were as helpful as they could be, but they knew that the odds were slim. I was in the back seat, so the driver probably had no idea that I left it in there until a lot later...and by then he probably forgot who we were.

One thing that really bothers me is that I had some priceless material from the table tennis matches we went to yesterday. The video was great. Equally as good as the dancing Chinaman. It makes me mad to think that someone, in some place, is enjoying that video right now...and it's not you guys. Basically the video was of these crazy Chinese people that were really into ping pong and they were doing chants like their life depended on it. We were right in the middle of their mob so it was quite thrilling the dozen times they did it...then it became annoying. Also, I had video of myself on the jumbotron. I made it on tv...and I had proof, but now it has slipped away forever. Our seats were in the 4th row so we were very close to the players...maybe 20 feet. And every time they would show a certain angel of the player on our side, you could see me in the background. My dad and I had devised a plan to get video of me being on the tron, but it had to be very strategic since the battery was low and we couldn't just sit there and tape the screen the whole time. We nailed it. Right as dad started recording, the player walked over to talk to his coach in the corner and BAM! There I was wearing my red Phillies shirt shaking the front of it as if I were actually Cole Hamels. It was clear as day. There was no mistaking whether it was me or not. I watched the video with a smile on my face. The type of smile that you get when you get a new car, fall in love, or win the lottery(Thanks to Steve Meyers and Joel Beck, I actually know what it's like to win hundreds of dollars in the lottery). I was the proud new owner of a irreplaceable video that I was going to force all my friends to watch. I was even going to do some editing and maybe even add some music.

So, I'm sorry. This was supposed to be a joyful post, full of hilarity. But instead it is a pictureless, videoless, and funless post. So since this afternoon I've been spending a lot of time reviewing cameras online. I had a Casio EX-V8, but they no longer make them. So I think I have decided on an Olympus 1020. They are both very small compact cameras and they are great for videos. Also they have 7x optical zoom as opposed to the industry standard of 3x. The only difference, from what I understand, is that the Olympus is also waterproof...which is obviously pretty sweet. We are going to go check some out tomorrow...so if for some reason you know a lot about cameras and you think I'm making a huge mistake, please let me know asap.

In other news, while I was busy sulking in my own misery after losing the camera. I saw Evander Holyfield and got a picture with him...with my dads camera. I'll put it up on here tomorrow. Alright it's 12:21am and I need to go to bed. See how long these posts take me? I didn't even add video or pictures. Alright, peace.

Fast and My First TV Sighting

2008-08-20T12:10:00.005-04:00

It's 12:11pm and I'm getting ready for bed, but I haven't posted anything for a few days so I wanted to quickly check in. I should have some time tomorrow to do a real post, but for now all you get is two videos. Also, today Jared Frymoyer, who I haven't talked to in years, facebooked me telling me that he saw me on TV. It must be true because he said he saw me this morning and that was the only time we went to see wrestling...I also didn't tell anyone I was there...until now. So I guess I'm a pretty big deal. Haha, but check out these videos. Only track and field junkies can truly appreciate the first one, but anyone with a sense of humor can appreciate the second. Talk to you tomorrow.

Crazy Fast

2008-08-16T12:18:00.002-04:00

We just got back to the hotel after an amazing night of track and field. So far most things have been disappointing as far as USA goes, and the beginning of tonight was more of the same. The US womens shot throwers didn't do well and none of the mens long jumpers made the finals...they had some serious fouling issues. Then they ran the semi finals of the mens 100 meter. Tyson Gay didn't end up making the finals, but both Dix and Patton did. All three of the Jamaicans made it and two from Trinidad. Then the mens 400 meter hurdles semi finals happened. The USA went 1,2,3. There is no way we are going to lose the hurdles in the finals. The Americans looked great and everyone else looked bad.

There was a ton of hype before the 100 final and everyone was getting antsy. It was really exciting. We weren't in the box seats tonight...we were 12 rows up from the front. I was actually happy we weren't in the box because the atmosphere was much better in the crowd. So assuming you haven't already seen this clip on tv a million times check out my video.

After the race the stadium was complete pandemonium. It was amazing. It was a celebration for everyone...not just the Jamaicans. People were dancing and screaming in disbelief of everything that we had just witnessed. We stayed and watched the craziness for almost 10 minutes after the race had finished. It was also really cool that Richard Thompson and Walter Dix got 2nd and 3rd. I've been going to the same meets as them for few years now and it's just cool to see them succeed. I am so glad that I was here to see it in person. It was an experience that I will never forget. Bolt let up so much at the end...I think he could have run a 9.63. Insane.

Tonight was the first night that we had the true Olympic experience...one we'll never forget. Hopefully it's only more of the same over the next week. Alright I'm going to bed...maybe I'll write more tomorrow.

Beijing

2008-08-16T05:37:00.004-04:00

Well we finally made it to Beijing two days ago. Just as we had hoped and expected, the entire city has been westernized to make our stay a little more comfortable. Our hotel is great and we are pretty much one of the closest hotels to the Birds Nest Stadium. But before I go any farther I need to put in a few pictures from Xi'an. I was really tired while writing my last post and I forgot a few things. First, I forgot to make it entertaining and funny. Other than the videos, the post was weak. Second, I forgot to put in two great pictures that dad and I had taken while at the Terra Cotta warrior archaeological dig.

Alright, now that you have been updated on Xi'an, I can tell you a little more about Beijing. The people are really excited that the Olympics are here, which is good because the government is forcing them to do things to make our stay more pleasurable. Typically there is a ton of traffic, but they are only letting people with even number license plates to drive on Mon, Wed, Fri...and the exact opposite for odd numbered plates. So the traffic has been cut in half which has made it really easy to get around town. Cabs are really cheap and we have been taking them everywhere. A 20 minute cab ride is under $5 USD.

Yesterday we went to our first Olympic event. Here is video documentary that starts in the hotel and ends in the stadium. Side note, it's not until you videotape yourself talking that you realize how much you repeat yourself...I think I say "birds nest" like 20 times in a two minute video.

The stadium is really nice and if you just watched that video you know that our seats are awesome. The mens shot prelims were yesterday morning and it went really well. All three of the Americans made the 12 person final. Then last night during the final they all threw really poorly. I was really disappointed. Adam Nelson won the silver in 2000 and 2004. I was really hoping that he would get the gold this year, but he fouled out. Reese Hoffa is last years world champion and probably the favorite this year, but he looked terrible and I think he ended up in 6th or 7th. Christian Cantwell threw decent and got the silver, but the winning throw wasn't too impressive so he too could have easily won it. Also, Dane's boy Dylan Armstrong threw really well and broke the Canadian national record and ended up getting 4th.

I have a bunch of videos to upload, but it takes forever so I'll get to them later. I'm leaving in about 20 minutes to go to our 4th session of track and field. I'm really excited because tonight is the mens 100 final. Usain Bolt from Jamaica has looked unstoppable. He walked a 9.92 in the prelims. I would bet that he is going to break the Olympic record for sure...and probably the world record. And I'm glad I'll be there to see it.

I'll put up all my very poor quality 100 meter videos either tonight or tomorrow. Alright, I'm gunna get going. I'll start doing more frequent and shorter posts. Talk to you guys later.

Guilin and Xi'an

2008-08-13T09:40:00.008-04:00

I know it has been a while since I have done a post, but you my friends are in for a treat today. I downloaded some new video editing software and I tried it out...I'm very happy with the results. I wish I had time to do more with it, but I only edited one video. It will be fairly obvious which one. Also, due to popular demand, I have posted a lot more videos this time. 7 to be exact. Enjoy.

Now on to what I have been up to over the past few days. We left Shanghai to go to Guilin. Guilin is seriously lame. It is almost like a ghost town. I felt like I was walking around an abandoned dirty city that smelled like Chinese food and pot. It was a little like Call of Duty 4...except no shooting at people. Our tour guides name was Forest. He was nice, but hard to understand. However, there was one part of Guilin that treated us very well. Keep in mind that I have now lost over 25 pounds since track season ended. I weigh under 250 for the first time in well over a year and a half. China has been devastating on my body...because we eat crappy food in crappy restaurants...by ourselves. Well in Guilin our hotel happened to be very close to a KFC. It was awesome. We went both days. It was quite a bit different than the KFC's in the US, but it definitely did the trick after being in withdraw for a few weeks.

Forest did take us on a pretty cool river cruise

Here are some food videos

Yes...I ate the fish

I wish I had my camera on earlier, but this kid chugged a beer and I had to show you guys how old he was. I didn't get any action in the shot, but trust me...he did it like a pro

Hitcher hikers...boat style

He also took us to some cave

Here is a picture of Guilin from out hotel

Cool rock

The hotel also had a store with some of our favorite American snacks...

While we were at KFC my dad asked me who out of all my friends would hate China the most. It was a funny question, because typically when you're on "vacation" you ask who you wish you could have brought...but not in China. It's a close call, but I have to go with Amanda would hate it the most. Mom would come in second. And Clendon would be third. Amanda doesn't really like Asian people, Asian food, or Asian culture. She is also very claustrophobic. Mom hates dirty things...which pretty much rules out the entire country. And Clendon has a serious issue with personal space and claustrophobia. There are people everywhere and they are always bumping into you. They don't wait in lines, they just all cram to the front. It's the worst.

Alright, so now we are in Xi'an. Our tour guide, Sherry, was the best we have had yet. Her English is great and she is very easy to understand. She took us to a pagoda, a crappy lunch, and to the terra cotta warrior museum. It was a fun day, but we are very anxious to get to Beijing tomorrow.

The pagoda

All these terra cottta statues are life size. Some emperor had them built to protect him in the afterlife. This entire room was only a part of his own grave. It took them 40 years to build everything...then he had all 700,000 workers killed when they finished.

No pictures!

And now the one you have been waiting for. I decided to get a few workouts in over the past few days. Their "weight rooms" are a little outdated, but that won't stop me!

By the way, that took me a while to do, but it was worth it. I did it for you...my loyal supporters and fans that read my entire posts. If you just scrolled to the bottom and didn't actually read anything...then it wasn't for you. OK, I'm really tired and I'm going to bed. I'll start posting more often now that we are going to Beijing. Sorry I put so many videos and pictures and didn't write much...I'll get my grove back later this week. Peace.

Shanghai, Wuxi, and Suzhou

2008-08-09T08:33:00.007-04:00

Alright, another free night. I'll admit, after each blog post I do there is a sense of satisfaction having successfully documented part of my trip, but I do kind of dread doing them. The last two took me forever to do since they were so long, but tonights won't be as bad.

It was nice to hear from a lot of you after my last two posts. I anxiously check my email when I can and I'm always excited to see my inbox full of mail. I thought a lot of you would take me up on my postcard offer, but as you can see in the comments section...only my Aunt wants to hear from me. Your loss, her gain...I think. But anyway, the disgusting bird got a great reaction...so I'm going to start looking for more gross things to eat. Only this time I want to film myself eating them. Those first couple of videos were experiments, but I feel like they came out pretty well. So yesterday and today I took quite a few more. I'm not sure they are very exciting, but they do save me time in explaining what all I've been up to.

So check out the videos. Again, I apologize if they aren't exciting or funny, but lets face it...the fact that you even read my blog means you have nothing better to do.

This video isn't anything special, but it's a good example of how there are no traffic laws in China. I try to stay alert for when weird things are happening, but everything happens so fast. Here is us driving down a sidewalk.

After we finished terrorizing the locals on their own sidewalks, we went to another "garden". They call everything gardens. It's basically old houses that have some trees and water. They are nice, but it's so freaking hot outside that I can't appreciate them. It has been between 95 and 100 degrees everyday and the humidity is out of control...unlike anything I have felt before. You literally have about 30 seconds outside before you are covered in a glaze. Here is a pic of the garden.

Afterwards we went for lunch. Here is a very unexciting video of it.

After lunch we went to some lake. Again, it was nice, but too hot outside to appreciate. They did have some cool things set up for the Olympics...

Last night we went on a short river cruise through downtown. It was cool for a few reasons, first - the city was all lit up and it looked great, second - it was short. Here is a video of the city.

Oh and by the way, everything we did yesterday morning was in Wuxi...not Shanghai. I forget to mention that at the beginning, but I don't feel like going back to the top to fix it. Today we went to Suzhou. We took this really fast train. Like 150mph fast. It was fun and it got us there very promptly. Crocs anyone?

Today went to another freaking garden. They are all the same. Every city we go to we have a different personal tour guide for the day. So I feel bad when they take us to the gardens because they are very proud of them...and I'm sick of them. Did I mention that it's too hot? The whole time we are walking around all I can think of is air conditioning. It's the kind of hot where you can feel the sweat drops running down your back and legs. It's terrible.

After the garden we had lunch. Here is another lame video.

After lunch we went to another silk factory. This factory is famous for it's silk embroidery. They were pretty amazing. The best pieces of art take people over 2 and 1/2 years to complete...and thats working 40 hours a week. Thats another reason they only make them in China...cheap labor. Here are some videos and pictures of the process and final product.

The art was amazing, but they try to sell it too hard. I think the quote from the movie 300 went something like "Give them nothing...but take everything". This is the Chinese peoples motto when doing business. As Americans we are all apparently as rich as Bill Gates and can afford to buy things at prices that are way more expensive than even in the US. They think we are idiots...but they might have a good point.

This piece of silk embroidery is $200,000 USD. (we decided not to buy it)

Alright, so after saying that this was going to be a shorter post and that it wasn't going to take me as long, I sit here over an hour later glad that I'm finally done. If you didn't already know, posting all these videos and pictures takes quite a while. It's fun to do, but time consuming. Let me know what you think of all the videos and stuff. If you like them I'll keep putting them in, but if they suck then I'll stop.

Hong Kong to Shanghai

2008-08-07T06:55:00.012-04:00

Once again our flight got canceled. This time it was because of a typhoon. We only ended up getting bumped back a few hours so it wasn't that bad. We waited in the airport for quite a while before our flight left, but it was nice to have some time to rest. China is exactly 12 hours opposite of the USA. So whatever time it is while you are reading this change the PM to AM or vice versa and thats what time it is here. Somehow my jet lag has not been bad. I have been going to bed around 10pm and getting up at 7:30.

So we finally arrived in Shanghai and our tour guide was holding one of those signs with our names on it. When we pointed at her and she realized that it was us she jumped up and down in excitement. It was nice to be greeted with such enthusiasm, but I think it was only because she didn't know our other flight was canceled and she had been waiting for quite a while.

This trip has been kind of funny for us so far because we never really know whats going on. We booked this entire trip(except the Olympic stuff) through a travel agency. The flights, tours, hotels, and transportation logistics were too time consuming, so we left it to professionals. The funny part is that the travel agency gave us itineraries for the whole trip, but I haven't actually taken the time to read mine. I thought we were staying in Hong Kong for a week, but it turned out to be only for a few days...same with Shanghai. I never really know whats going on with our tours.

So last night Rachel, our personal tour guide, took us to an acrobat show. We weren't allowed to take any video, but I am going to look on you tube to see if I can find any of a similar show. It was amazing. I was impressed 50% of the time and in pure awe the other 50%. The only thing I didn't like about it was that fact that some of the things they were doing we very dangerous. Now if it was middle aged men making stupid decisions to to entertain...then I wouldn't have cared. But it was girls, under the age of 12 doing things that were ridiculous. I know a thing or two about being strong or whatever, but these little girls were rip diesel. So I'm not sure how comfortable I am about paying minors to do dangerous things...but whatever, when in Shanghai do as the Shanghai people do. The production value was good and the entertainment value was off the charts.

Today Rachel and our personal driver pick us up and drove us around the city. Now keep in mind, Shanghai has 18 million people. That is almost twice the size of New York city and three times the size of Philly...or 180 times the size of Reading. The traffic is ridiculous and so is the driving. People are everywhere and there seem to be very few traffic laws. But our driver is the man. After visiting a Buddhist temple we went to a cool garden. It is really hot and absurdly humid which makes things a little more miserable. Then we went to some kind of shopping area. While we were walking past a Dairy Queen I saw a women eating something that looked like a bat. I immediately stopped Rachel and my dad to point it out. She informed me that it was a quail. So obviously I got in line and a few minutes later I was eating a dead bird as savagely as possible. Check out these pictures.

Dad took a bite too

After eating the bird we went to a tea shop. They love tea in China and they take it very seriously. Some of it was really good. We ended up getting lots of great souvenirs. I got some things for my wyo crew...George, Jim, Tony, MB, and of course Nicci. After the tea we went to a silk factory. They gave us a great tour of how they get the silk...from the worms, then make in to thread. At this factory they make rugs and bedding. The rugs are hand made and take ridiculous amounts of time to make. Each rug takes about 1 year to make...with someone working full time on them. Thats why they make them in China...cheap labor. We didn't buy any rugs, but we did get some of the bedding. I bought a silk comforter, duvet, sheet, and pillow cases.

$20,000 Rugs

Dad and I in Shanghai

They are holing some of the Olympic soccer games here in Shanghai

Now we are back at the hotel and we have the rest of the night off. This is the first opportunity I have had to get a bunch of work done and it feels good to sit down and write. I also have my online class that I have to finish. So again, sorry these posts are so long. Also, I wanted to make you guys a deal. I appreciate you guys reading my stories so here is my offer. Leave a comment on this blog, facebook me, or email me (jahart@liberty.edu) your address and I will send you a post card from wherever I am. I feel that this is a very fair offer and I hope some of you take me up on it. Also, it's really nice to hear from you guys whether it be comments on my blog or just a facebook message. So hit me up...it will bring a smile to my face when I check my email and see I have massages from you guys. Catch you later.

Tired, Busy, and Well Dressed

2008-08-07T06:18:00.015-04:00

I started typing this blog on Aug 5th, but I haven't had the time or internet access to post it. Tonight is the first time that we have the night off so I'm going to try to get a lot done.

Alright, before I go on and tell you guys what I have been up to, I'd like to explain how I am going to approach this next month. I realized today that I am so busy and so much happens, that I can't possibly give detailed stories about everything that is going on. You know how I love to drag stories out and how I try not to miss any details. Great examples of my story dragging abilities are shown in my Scuba story and in the guy getting kneed in the head story. Both those stories took only a few minutes to happen, but somehow they managed to receive entire blog entries to themselves. Also, I am keeping this blog as a type journal, so I am going to mention everything I did even if its not funny or cool. I just want to document everything I have done so that I don't forget it. And one more thing, we are sooo busy and I rarely have any down time which results in very long posts when I actually get a chance to do some work. Don't feel obligated to read the whole thing if it's too long...

Saturday Aug 2nd
12:30pm - My mom and Kim dropped dad and I off at JFK.

2:55pm – When our flight is supposed to leave

4:00pm – Dad and I start to wonder why we haven't boarded or left yet.

4:15pm – The people announce that our jet landed in Newark instead of JFK because of weather issues.

4:20pm – The people announce that our flight is going to be delayed 12 hours.

4:21pm – The people tell us that there are no hotel rooms left in the area because of all the cancellations.

4:22pm – They tell us we can't sleep in the terminal because it closes at midnight.

4:23pm – We start making phone calls trying to get on other flights.

Ok, so this started the disaster of trying to get to Hong Kong. We were originally booked on a 16 hour non-stop flight, but then we started looking for other options. I hate flying so I was disappointed that we were probably going to have a layover somewhere...which would in turn make our travels much longer. It was a mess. At one point we were booked on 3 different flights, but didn't actually have boarding passes for any...thats an expensive way to go nowhere. Long story short, we got frustrated and decided to book on a flight that only had business class seats, but it was leaving at 9:30pm...so we wouldn't' have to sleep in a corner or under a bridge. After booking the very expensive seats we had to go back to another terminal to see if we could get a refund on our previous flight. They didn't give us our money back, but they did give us a voucher for our new flight. We somehow forgot to mention to them that we booked business class seats...and they didn't even check. So we slipped through the cracks and ended up getting the $10,000 seats for the same price we paid for the economy seats. It was a sweet deal, but we both agreed that we wished our first flight never got canceled.

On domestic flights it's no big deal, but business class on international flights is a huge upgrade. The seats had 8-way electronic adjustments. You could make you seat go completely horizontal...which makes it quite easy to sleep. Instead of two options, you get a menu with a 4 course meal and an open bar. Personal tv's with hard drives filled with movies and shows...not to mention the Bose headphones that were provided. It's not a bad life.

Our layover was in France. It took us 6 and ½ hours to get to Paris and another 12 to get to Hong Kong. We showed up at 7:15am local time after traveling for 30 some hours. We got to the hotel, ate some breakfast, took a shower, and started walking around town.

We had heard that you can get custom tailored suits really cheap in Hong Kong so we wanted to look around to see if we could find any. Haha what a joke. They found us. I've never been so racially profiled. There were literally hundreds of people walking down the streets, but since we were white everyone was only approaching us. It was flattering for about 10 minutes, then whatever for the next 10, and annoying after that. The next day I was yelling at the people to go away and to leave me alone. They were relentless. We ended up finding a place that we thought was nice. We got really high quality suits and shirts made in about 24 hours. I think the final price ended up around $400 for a suit and 3 shirts, which isn't bad considering that we got to choose the material and they were hand made to fit our exact proportions.

We tried to do a documentary on how many people were approaching us trying to sell us suits, but it didn't turn out very well. For some reason the only time I had the camera rolling not that many people approached us. The video is almost 5 minutes long and not very entertaining, but if your bored check it out. Later that night we walked down the same street and were approached by 19 different people, but I didn't have my camera. Also there is a bonus video of the guy we ended up getting suits from. It's funny for two reasons, first because his voice is soo high, secondly because my dad tried to shake his hand and the Chinese guy leaves him hanging. Again, not a great video, but if your bored then watch it.

We also went on a few tours of the city. Hong Kong is pretty cool, but I'm not in a huge hurry to get back. The hotel was nice and had a great restaurant. They had a great breakfast buffet and very nice dinners too. One night we got the dinner buffet and it was awesome. I feel like American buffets have good selections, but of cheap food. They might have steak night, but every other dish is made of potatoes, pasta, or salad. At this buffet we ate chicken, steak, fish, lamb, and everything else you can think of. Since we are in China I have been a little skeptical of everything that I am putting into my body for a fear of getting extremely sick. As of now I'm on the clear...even after eating some sushi and sashimi...the raw octopus was a little risky but I didn't get sick. Here are a few more pictures that I took while in HK.

The City

Again, the city

These signs were everywhere...

The nasty fish market

Poor fishing village houses

A blowfish

Shared dinner with some other travelers

Ok, this Buddha statue was huge...those are people going up the stairs to see it on the right

Hong Kong - non city

26km cable car ride...it was awesome

More of the city

Me

Me wearing my new Hong Kong polo since they lost our luggage on the way over

Cool buildings

The city at night

Me and Bruce Lee

Gone

2008-08-01T23:41:00.002-04:00

Well it's 11:41pm. We leave for the airport tomorrow at 9am and our 16 hour direct flight from JFK to Hong Kong leaves at 2pm. I haven't finished packing, so this post will be brief. I said my goodbyes tonight to pretty much everyone that's around. I visited the Blanchet's, my grandfather, and all my wyo crew at the Hofbrau. I'm very excited for the trip, but I hate saying goodbye. I'll really miss everyone. It has been a great summer, so I feel like I'm leaving on top.

So basically I'm really gunna miss you guys. Thanks for all your support...even if it's just by logging on and reading my blog. I really appreciate you.

I'll try to update as often as I can while in China. I'm sure I'll have some good stories.

I'll catch you on the flip side.

love, Jon

Certified

2008-07-28T09:57:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately I haven't had much time to post over the past few days, but nothing too exciting has gone down either. Turns out that only my first scuba class would be hard, everything else went well. We had a bunch more classes in the pool, then on Saturday and Sunday we went to a quarry to do 4 open dives. The story ends like this...I'm now a certified open water scuba diver. But assuming you read my last post, that doesn't mean I can save you if your drowning by any means. Actually, if your drowning, but I have time to put on my scuba gear first, I'll come save you. But other than that I'll probably just tell someone else to do the saving.

In other news, I went out to lunch with Dane last week. We had a good time catching up, but I forgot to bring up the blog. He was the one that posted about how bad cereal is for you, to which I responded by doing a post about my favorite cereals. I'll ask him about it next time. Then this weekend I hung out with George, Amelia, and Conger. We always end up having a good time and this weekend was no different. Actually, we went to the restaurant Beverly Hills against my will, but it turned out to be really nice. I've never gone because I feel like it's one of those stereotypical Berks county hot spots, but it was pretty cool.

I leave for China on Saturday. Yea...Saturday. It's kind of crazy. I will be leaving everything and everyone I know behind. I'm really excited, except for the 16 hour flight. I briefly talked with Tara about what my legacy would be if I never came back. We decided that if I get eaten by a shark when I'm in Australia, it would be appropriate for Liberty to name the hammer circle after me. "Harts Hammer Circle". I don't know if any of my coaches actually still log on and read my stupid blog...but if you do read it and I die over the next 4 months, you better name the circle after me. A statue would also be nice...but if you do a statue make sure I have better form than I actually have. I want people to think I was a really technical thrower. Actually, as long as I'm making requests, make my biceps bigger...bigger than Bartels, I want nice pecks, and I want the statue to have a button that you can push to make the statue yell. Just pull one of my yells off of some old video or something...I want it to be authentic...except for my form, biceps, and pecks.

Ok, this post is slowly getting out of control. I had no intention of writing that last paragraph, but it turns out that it's probably better material then the rest of this entry. Alright, well I'll do at least one more post before I leave for China. So I'll talk to you guys later.

SCUBA Class

2008-07-23T11:03:00.003-04:00

So as most of you know, I started SCUBA classes with my dad last week. I was pretty excited about the whole idea because I figured it is something that I will be able to enjoy for the rest of my life. Our first class was mostly paper work and other simple things...nothing in the water. In that same class they mentioned that there would be some sort of swimming test, but nothing to be worried about. Ok. Well. I don't need a swimming test to acknowledge the fact that I am a horrible swimmer. But since they said not to worry about it...I didn't. Tara made the point that although I am not a good swimmer, I am in ok shape and I'm mentally strong so even if it hurts I will be able to fight through. I believed her. So we show up to class number two which met at the pool. The first thing they say is that we are going to do a swimming test of 8 laps. Each lap is 25 meters, so a total of 200 meters...218 yards, over two football fields. Ok, so at this point in the story half of you are thinking that this test is a joke and you could do it easily. I'm not saying you can't, but please understand that to anyone that swims MAYBE once a year...it's a daunting task. The other half of you have already decided that you couldn't do it and you can't wait to see how I did...since I am cardiovascularly challenged. The instructors paired us up and off we went, in two groups. I went first, my dad went after me. This is how it went.

Lap 1
I dive into the pool very unsure on how hard this is going to be. I start swimming using the freestyle technique. I feel like Micheal Phelps or Aquaman. My hands are cupped, my strides are long, my breathing is strong. I'm surprised...I feel like I'm doing much better than expected. Maybe I'm not a bad swimmer after all. Ok, it's time to look forward, I must be close to the wall. I look forward. Nope, not even close. Maybe 1/2 of the way there. Dang, that means that I've only swam 12.5 meters. Ok, whatever, I still feel fine. I get to the wall.

Lap 2
I just turned around and I still feel fine, but this is going to take a while. I'm glad there is no time requirement. Slow and steady. Slow and steady. I reach the wall. I am 1/4 done. Although I'm in no discomfort, I can tell my body is starting to tire. At this point I realize that I am going to be hurting by the time this thing is over...understatement.

Lap 3
Half way through this lap I can feel the lactic acid start to build up in my arms and legs. I no longer feel like Micheal Phelps. I'm struggling to maintain form. My breaths are short. I make it to the wall, 3/8 done.

Lap 4...fist half
Ok, now I'm hurting. This is officially an unpleasant experience. Why didn't they tell us that there was a swimming test when we signed up for the class? I wonder how everyone else is doing? Why didn't I bring my asthma medicine? Wow, the pressure of the water is really starting to affect my breathing.

Lap 4...second half
I'm looking at my dad and hes looking at me. Not only have I accepted failure, but I'm wondering if I can even make it back the the wall. I feel like a fat kid. My hands are flailing, my strides are nonexistent, I feel like I have emphysema. To steal boxing terminology...I feel like I have thrown in the towel, but nobody is there to stop the fight...and it's beating the snot out of me. With the little breath I have left, I gasp "I have to get out, I have to get out". I am 7 meters from the edge. I'm sinking. I am no longer worried about passing this test. I am worried about surviving. I am bobbing up and down. I am spending more time under water than above it. I lunge with exhausting efforts to get one more breath. There is now a 50% chance that someone is going to have to jump in and save me. I am now 5 meters from the edge...but wait, I'm on the far side of the pool. There is a ladder only 3 meters to my right. 10 feet to freedom. I make it. I'm holing onto the ladder/my guardian angel. I get out of the pool.

Lap 5,6,7,8
N/A

I am now leaning over the diving board with a strong reminder of how bad my asthma actually is. I might puke. I'm dying. I can't breath. My dad jumps in the water and starts his swim. I pay no attention to his laps because I am caught up in my own world of self pity. The whole first group is trying to recover...everyone is surprised on how hard it was. I don't puke, but now I am coughing. This would be a very appropriate time to use the inhaler that I don't have with me. My dad finishes his 8 laps. He is tired, but but not in bad shape. He says that he could have done at least 2 more laps. I feel crappy about myself. The 12 year old boy and his middle aged mother finish. I feel even crappier about myself.

So at this point I realize that I am the only one that didn't finish out of the group of 7. But not only did I not finish, I only made it half way. After the swimming test everyone had to tread water for 10 minutes. I couldn't even think about getting back in the water. It takes me about 25 minutes to recover after having a asthma attack. So again, like a fat kid, I stood there and watched everyone else tread, while I stood off to the side feeling sorry for myself. We then continued with class. It was a bad night. I was so anxious to get home.

Pictures from Toronto

2008-07-20T17:58:00.017-04:00

Well I got back from Hoboken last night after having a great visit. Nicci and her roommates are all sweethearts and they took good care of me. Like I said in the last post, our Billy Joel tickets fell through so we went to go see The Dark Knight instead. We had good seats and lots of candy so it was pretty cool. The movie was quite a bit too long in my opinion, 2 and 1/2 hours. It was good, but I think I like the first one more. The next day Nicci looked up an article on the Billy Joel concert to see what happened...we were kind of hoping that it was nothing great since we missed it. But we were not so fortunate. Apparently is was the sweetest concert ever. None other than Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, and Steven Tyler alls showed up and performed as well. It sounded like so much fun that we were thinking about just watching lots of you tube videos and still claiming we were there.

Yesterday we all went out and got lunch then walked to the park which is right next to the water. It was nice to catch some sun and hang out while getting a great view of NYC. I left last night and was sad that I won't see Nicci, or any other friends for that matter, until Christmas. Here is a picture of us. I don't know if she reads this, but hopefully she doesn't mind that I put it up.

Alright, now I wanted to put up a few cool pictures that I took last weekend while we were in Toronto. We stopped at the Niagara falls on the way up.

I got attacked by a bear in one of the stores. It looks like I'm in lots of pain, but I'm just pretending...I ended up throwing him like a hammer right into the falls, sucker.

We decided to grab a bite to eat after just missing out train into the city.

The Dunne sisters...soooooo hot.

A Bentley and a Lamborghini Gallardo...sooooo hot.

A one legged pigeon. He also had a nub.

At the Blue Jays vs Yankees game

Alright, this picture didn't come out, but I assure you that this woman looks just like Don Vito...

Here is the Dunne family dog Reilly. I like him a lot, hes really nice. And he has the appropriate intelligence of a fat dog with a mohawk. Haha, I might have some angry Dunnes after that comment.

Alright, this is all I have for now. I will be home the rest of the week so I should be able to keep up. I have to tell you guys about my scuba class so I 'll try to do that in the next few days.

So Busy

2008-07-20T17:46:00.004-04:00

So I haven't had internet access over the past few days, but I did have my computer. I did an entry on Friday morning, but haven't been able to submit it until now. So here is what I had to say two days ago.

This is how it always seems to work, when I have good material to write about I'm always too busy to actually get it down, but when I'm not busy I don't have anything to say. I'm in Hoboken, NJ right now and it's 8:00am. I don't usually just get up this early, but I can't sleep so I'm sure I am going to crash later. I came here after staying at Matt's house in Sumerset last night. He played in his league's all star game, but struck out on his only at bat. The place was packed out with almost 8,300 people. I felt like an idiot because I went to the game by myself and therefore was sitting by myself. The people around me obviously noticed, but at one point a friend called me and I made sure to talk really loud about how I was at the game to watch Matt. His team ended up winning 8 to 6. Also, Donald Trump threw out the first pitch which was kind of cool I guess. Actually, never mind. It wasn't that great. You should have heard the introduction they gave him, it was ridiculous. The guy that introduced him said things like “one of the greatest Americans of all time” and “one of the most influential people ever”. I'll admit that I don't know much about the Don, I've never read his books or watched his tv show, but come on... Everyone knows that the only reason people think hes awesome is because hes a billionaire. Ohhh maybe if I'm nice to him he'll give me a 100 million dollars. But whatever, I still took a picture of him throwing the first pitch.

There was an after party for the players, coaches, staff and guests right after the game ended. It was really nice and of course everything was free. Then yesterday we went to this great deli for lunch and then watched the movie “Into the Wild”. The sandwich was delicious, but the movie was horrible. Like really bad. Like if you watch it after reading this...I'll knee you in the head.

So now I'm up in Hoboken, home of the first baseball game and Frank Sinatra. Originally Nicci and I were going to go to the Billy Joel concert tonight, but the tickets fell through. I was a little disappointed, but we are going to see The Dark Knight instead. Win Win situation, but not the same. I'm not really sure if there is anything else on the schedule, but I'm sure we'll have a good time.

Once in a Lifetime

2008-07-14T15:28:00.002-04:00

So I haven't been able to post in quite a few days because I was in Toronto for Chealsy's wedding. We had a really nice weekend, but I'll tell you more about that later. Today's subject revolves around one particular incident that happened while we were in downtown Toronto. Although the incident was very brief, only one or two minutes, it has given me enough material to earn an entirely separate blog entry. Tara was at the wedding rehearsal so the only people that had the privilege to experience the following story were both of Tara's sisters (Bonnie, and Erin), Mike, Heidi, and I.

It went something like this. We were all on a street car, much like a San Francesco trolley, going from the distillery district, where we had just eaten dinner, back to center city, because we had tickets to the Blue Jays vs Yankees game. I realize that my sentence structure in the last sentence was far from being acceptable, but this story is so crazy that it has even impacted the way I write. But anyway, we had just finished eating a very enjoyable dinner and the weather was beautiful. The street car was pretty empty with many seats open. On the right side of the bus were rows of two seats and on the left it was just single seats against the wall...and there was of course a walkway down the middle. In the front row sat a man in his mid 40's by himself. In the second row was a man and his wife or girlfriend, I would guess that they were in their mid 30's. Bonnie was in the third row. Heidi and I were in the 4th. Mike and Erin were in the 5th.

Hopefully you have somewhat of a visual as to the surroundings, so now we can move forward. The street car came to a stop at a corner, much like it had done 3 or 4 times since we had gotten on, but we had no idea that this particular stop was going to be much different than any previous stop...ever. The street car had come to a complete stop and the doors opened. The single man in the front row got up somewhat casually, but instead of walking out the door which was right in front of him, he turned toward the back of the bus and walked up to the man sitting in the row behind him. Keep in mind that at this point nothing weird or unusual seems to be happening...but that is about to change. The front row guy is now standing next to the man that is sitting next to his wife in row two. Then without warning or explanation, the man that was standing round house kneed the guy that was sitting right in the head.

Yea, thats right, you read it correctly. He attacked another man via the joint in the middle part of the human leg that is the articulation between the femur, tibia, and patella. After the kneeing, everyone in the bus was in utter shock...except the crazy guy that had just assaulted another person. The crazy guy then started yelling things that are not condoned by the authors of "The Hart Beat" and therefore will not be repeated. Apparently he had over heard a conversation that the man and his wife were having and felt the kneed to do something about it...haha did you like my play on words? I used the word kneed instead of the word need because my story is about a guy that got kneed in the head. Haha, not a bad joke if I do say so myself. But anyway, the guy that received the blow wanted nothing to do with a fight or any other type altercation. Although he wasn't hurt, he was aghast and dismayed...mostly because he was a huge wuss and probably would have gotten rocked by the crazy guy if the altercation continued. After the wiener of a man verbally expressed that he wanted nothing to do with a fight, the crazy guy then got off of street car as if nothing had happened and started walking down the street. Then the driver of the street car called the police and the couple also go off the trolley.

So where do we go and what do we do now? I don't know. I just have so many questions. What exactly did the man say to provoke a kneeing to the head? Has this man kneed others in the head before? If he would have just punched him or pulled out a gun it would have been so stereotypical. But this particular crazy guy went for option number three...an old school kneeing. Wow. Gutsy move crazy guy. I can only thank you for such undeserved free entertainment.

Alright, so I know that I made a story that could have been shared in about 3 lines into a story that has now taken up few minutes of your time to read, but hopefully it was worth it. It was absolutely the highlight of the trip, but the rest of the trip was a lot of fun too. I have obviously told this story to everyone I have seen over the past few days and it hasn't gotten old. I couldn't wait to officially blog about it in true Hart Beat style. I'm just glad that it's now been documented and will forever live in cyberspace. I'll post some pictures and tell you about the rest of my trip over the next few days, but it's good to be back.

Back in Action

2008-07-08T22:32:00.002-04:00

Hey, hope you all had a great 4th of July. I know I haven't written in quite a while, but I've been really busy all weekend. This weekend started off by me having to pick up MB from the airport in Philly. There was an accident on 76 and it took me almost 2 hours to get the the airport...it was ridiculous. We ended going over to the RDH to catch up with a bunch of people and it was the beginning to the Wyomissing reunion that took place over the whole weekend. On Friday morning we all went over to the Clousers to watch the parade. It was a really good time. Later that night, after much procrastination, I stopped by a party that I knew was going to be beatface. I was right. So the 4th was fun, but nothing crazy.

On Saturday Devin, MB, and I all went to Nicci's and cooked a very gourmet meal...Tara, you would have been proud. We had an awesome time and everyone else ended up coming over later. It turned out to be the highlight of the weekend as I fully expected it to be. On Sunday I met up with MB and Nicci at Panera Bread. I didn't eat this time, but I am going to give them a rating of 87 based off of other times I have gone there. Their cinnamon bagels with cream cheese are money in the bank. But anyway, we stayed for quite a while and had a really nice time. They helped me with an assignment for my DLP class and then we tried to figure out if I could visit them before going to China. Then we left, which was sad. The only thing I didn't like about this weekend was saying bye to all my friends that I won't see until I get back from Australia.

So over the past few days I have been keeping busy around the house. Last night George and I went to Bucca Di Faggachino's....well that's what George calls it. It was cool, we got the Tony special. Then today I went to the Olive garden with Kate and Brian. It was really nice to see them and we had a good time catching up. They also picked up the tab which was sweet...if your reading this, thanks!

Tomorrow Tara and Mike are coming up to Wyo and staying the night. We are then leaving for Toronto on Thursday for the Willis/Davis wedding. It should be a good time, I'm excited for them to come up. Alright, I know this wasn't the most exciting post with any great stories, but I just wanted to get everything down that I've done over the past week. I'll try to put something up before Mike and Tara get here tomorrow, but if not I might have to take a few more days off since we are going to Canada for the whole weekend. So I'll talk to you guys later.

Good Article

2008-07-03T14:58:00.002-04:00

Two posts in one day, I'm such an over achiever. Actually the only reason I wanted to post something else was because I just read a pretty cool article on ESPN.com. It's about Lopez Lomong who is now a professional distance runner for Nike. He is a lost child of Sudan, but now has American citizenship. Josh has won and lost many races to Lopez so I knew who he was before I read the article. Check it out, it's a pretty interesting story. Click here to read the article.

Also, I heard that my poll hasn't been working correctly for some users. That explains why only 6 people voted. I'll take it down soon...it was lame anyway. Alright, I probably won't be doing any posts over the next few days because of the holiday. But I hope you all have a great 4th. Be safe and have fun!

More Baseball and Couple of Fat Kids

2008-07-03T10:49:00.008-04:00

Alright, so the last post I made was seriously lamesauce. I took a few days off and then I created a crappy post...unacceptable. I'll try not to do that again, my heart just wasn't in it. But, this was the first time that some of my readers actually made it known that it was bad. Sorry to disappoint. These pictures are from this past weekend down in Maryland, not to be confused with the game that I went to in the Lanc Lanc. This first picture is Mike, Tara, and I at the stadium.

Ok, so Andy Musser and I went to one of Matt's games in Lancaster on Tuesday. I hadn't seen Andy in a while, but that didn't make things weird. We pretty much picked up right were we left off...making fun of fat people and eating ice cream. Speaking of which, Andy and I used to go to Dairy Queen about 4 times a week back in my freshman year at Liberty. The funny thing was that I would always run out of money and he would have to spot me. Every time he would bring me back home I would go inside and tell my mom that I owed Andy $50 bucks. She never really asked why, but I'm sure it would have been no surprise to find out that all of it was going to pay off my DQ debts. That second picture is of Matt while he is being the first base coach.

Haha Andy also reminded me of when we used to go throw with this guy out in York. But, in order to get to York you have to go past the Oregon Dairy. We would stop and get ice cream before our workout and then again after our workout...those were the days. While I was eating dinner with him and his wife, she commented on how they still frequent DQ on a once a week basis. I was a bit surprised, but then she said "Andy, tell Jon what size blizzard you get when we go to Dairy Queen." Andy then hung his head in shame and in a weak and embarrassed voice replied "small". Things sure have changed...where have all the good times gone?

So once we were at the game we had a really good time. Matt played really well going 3 for 5 with a homer. At one point in the game the pitcher and the batter started yelling at each other and the benches cleared. The pitcher was so mad that his teammates were holding him back. The tension was high and I was just waiting for someone to take the first swing. I yelled "punch him in the face!" as loud as I could...it was directed at anyone that would listen, but nobody did. Right as it was starting to cool down the pitcher realized that he still had the ball in his hands so he threw it into the pack of players. Haha, he ended up hitting one of his own teammates in the face. So obviously that didn't spark a fight from Matts team...I think its more effective if you hit someone on the OTHER team...real nice buddy. The above picture is me with the Blue Crabs mascot, Pinch. The below picture is of some fat lady. Look at her left bicep...it's even bigger than Bartels'.

Here is a funny quote/conversation that Andy and I had during the game. He was talking about how much different you live when you are married etc...

Me: "So how is the married life going?"

Andy: "Really good, but it's a lot harder then you would expect"

Me: "How so?"

Andy: "Well both of us were used to doing things a lot differently, but now we have to be on the same page."

Me: "Oh, you're talking about compromise...meeting each other half way."

Andy: "Yea...kind of...it's not exactly like meeting each other half way. It's more like...ummm...me doing everything she says, 100% of the time."

Haha, we had a good laugh after that conversation and then we got some ice cream. Alright, it feels good to publish this post after doing such a lame one last time. It turns out that Andy is an avid reader of this blog so I'm sure he'll be excited to see every conversation we had was on the record. Nobody is safe when they are hanging out with me...so watch watch what you say.

Baseball

2008-07-01T15:16:00.003-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while...I just don't feel like I have any great stories from the past week. But anyway. I was in Maryland with Tara and Mike this past weekend to see two of Matts baseball games verses the Maryland Blue Crabs. They lost both games, but Matt hit .500. Someone was heckling him while he was up to bat. They yelled something about his mom having a beard or that she wears really big pants...or something like that. We had a good time just hanging out, it was nice to see everyone again. I'm actually going to another one of Matts games tonight in Lancaster with Musser. I haven't seen big Muss in a while so I'm sure we will have a good time.

In other news, Tony was trying to jump over a fence on Saturday night and while he was jumping, Travis came up behind him and kicked him in the nuts. Long story short...Tony now has 9 stitches in his hand and it was a bloody mess. Real nice Travis.

I've still been eating at Buca every other day. I get the Tony special every time...free everything. I also got the Rutter special last night at Chef Alans. His parents(the owners) were there and they comped my bill. So I'm pretty much a free loader at this point. I definitely have to take both Tony and Pat out to make up for it sometime.

The Olympic trials hammer prelims were last night. Turns out that if I would have thrown my best mark of the season I would have gotten 13th and if I would have throw what I typically throw I would have ended up around 21st. I'm still sad that I didn't get to go. Clendon throws in the discus prelims on Thursday so I'll make sure to post his results on here once I get them.

I was also cleaning out my old emails from my account and I ran into a few that were pretty interesting. Back in 2005, after I left Penn State, Steve sent me an email with a picture. It was a scan of the envelope that PSU was using to sent letters to Lions Club members. It was probably sent to a 100,000 people. It also happened to have my picture on it. It was just funny because I had already transferred out and they obviously didn't take the time to see who's picture they were using. Haha, suckers.

Mixed Reviews and Chuck Norris

2008-06-26T16:20:00.004-04:00

Alright, it's good to be back. I was in Lynchburg the past few days getting a bunch of stuff done and moving out of Montview. I didn't feel sad as I was leaving the townhouse, the school, or Lynchburg. However, it was sad to say goodbye to the few people that were still around for the summer. My dad and I went out to dinner with Clendon and Brenda and had a really nice time. I'm sad that I won't be seeing Clendon very often...we've spent a lot of time together over the past few years. We have had a lot of good times and a lot of great experiences. I think I heard a quote on a beer commercial that said something to the effect of "Some people are born with brothers and some people earn them". Clendon is much like a brother to me. Haha, he is going to read this and think I'm really gay...but whatever, I'd call him gay, but he's married. So anyway, I talked to the coaches for a bit and then we parted ways. I've had my share of complaints about our program over the past few years, but the end story is that I was never ashamed to represent our mission or our coaches. They treated me well and I like to think that I returned the favor. When I was leaving coach Tolsma said "It's been fun" and coach Bingham said "It won't be the same without you", both those remarks made me feel good. It's definitely nice to leave on a good note and to feel like I was an investment that paid off.

Ok, so I had some mixed reviews about the Cereal post. As you can see in the comments, Tara liked it and Clendon thought it was lame. He did however make a very valid point. I originally started this blog to talk about my life experiences and now I am doing reviews on children's cereal. I feel like this is a great example of a problem I have with this blog. The people that read this are either reading it to hear about track and field or they are reading it for entertainment purposes. I think I am going to try to put up a poll to see why most people read this. So be on the lookout for it...I'll try to put it up when I'm done, but it might have to wait until tomorrow.

Now onto the good stuff. For some reason every time I start doing comparisons or start manipulating photos...well it hits my funny bone so I'm going to keep on doing them. So the story goes like this, I saw that Josh obviously got invited to the photo shoot with Chuck Norris at graduation. There were too many students to wait in line so the school handed out photo opportunities as prizes over the past semester of school. Josh, being BMOC since winning and NCAA championship, I assume just got invited because he is the man. He recently made his picture with Chuck as his facebook picture and I immediately was jealous because I wanted one too. So I decided to make my own. Then I decided that Josh and I don't have too many pictures together so I made one of those too. Haha I love both pictures.
You have to admit...those are pretty good...and yes they took a while to do. Teer, are you reading this? You said you would visit the blog, but I won't believe you until you somehow respond to this message. Haha sorry for the subliminal message/shout out. Alright, thanks for stopping by, talk to you guys later.

Cereal and 1000 Hits

2008-06-23T11:01:00.002-04:00

Well my web site counter is now over 1000 hits thanks to you guys and I've only had the counter on for a few weeks. So thank you to all the regulars that visit my crappy blog...you must really love me or be really bored.

Haha, but anyway, many people that read this blog know my good friend Dane Miller. We threw against each other in HS(he went to Schuylkill Valley) and then both threw for Penn State...while I was there. He is now training up in Canada which is one of the reasons that I'm considering the move. He is also the person that I originally stole the idea of doing a blog from. You can check out Dane's Blog Here. Dane mostly talks about throwing, eating healthy, and politics. His latest post is about how cereal is bad for you and he links to an article that talks about how it will make you fat. So in response to his post...I decided to do a post about my favorite cereals and how delicious they are. Here are the results to my findings.

Top 6 Cereals

Lucky Charms - Lucky Charms is definitely a childhood classic...but not just for children. The magical shapes and scrumptious marshmallows are always a safe bet. They truly hold up to their claim of being "magically delicious".

Cinnamon Toast Crunch - Ok, if you don't like CTC then your crazy. You can actually see the cinnamon swirls on every piece! And everyone knows that best part is when all the left over sugar falls to the bottom for one last spoonful of joy. Yummy!

Reese's Puffs - What isn't there to love? It's a proven fact...I think, that all Reese's products have addictive chemicals that keep you crying for more. As a PA native anything made by Hershey gets my stamp of approval. Plus, a free bowl of peanut butter-chocolate milk at the end? Don't mind if I do.

Fruity Pebbles - Fruity Pebbles make me very happy on a consistent basis. Their bright colors bring joy to my heart and their crunchy goodness calms my soul. If it's good enough for the Flintstones, then it's good enough for me.

Honey Bunches of Oats - This is the most healthy of my favorite cereals. It's made with whole grains, plenty of fiber, and crunchy pieces of Heaven. I feel healthier just thinking about it.

Cap'n Crunch - I'm eating a bowl of CC right now as I write this...enough said.

Honorable Mention Cereals in alphabetical order

Alpha-Bits
Apple Jacks
Basic 4
Cocoa Puffs
Cookie Crisp
Froot Loops
Frosted Flakes
Smacks

I eat cereal everyday for breakfast and have been doing so for many years. I don't want anything else. We don't need no thought control, hey Dane Miller leave us kids alone, all in all you're just another brick in the wall. BAM!

2008-06-21T19:53:00.002-04:00

I finally have some time to sit down and write something, but I feel like I don't have much to say. I have been keeping close tabs on the Olympic trials registration to see if anyone has scratched, but nobody has. So as of now it looks like I am going to be the second person out. They take 24 and I'm 26th. It's disappointing, but I am glad to finally relax. My body is waaay too worn down from competing since December. I have been spending a lot of time running on the elliptical and in the hot tub. Its been nice to get somewhat of a workout in without it having negative effects on my body.

Josh burned me via facebook wall posts...and I thought it was worthy of blog material. Here was our conversation.

Me:Today I ran on an elliptical for 30 mins and I pretended I was you at cc nationals. I also owned Galen Rupp...what a sucker.

Josh:Today I sat on the couch all day and watched TV all day and pretended I was you...It was awesome...I would have taken Beck down....

Haha, I set myself up for that. It's funny because the entire time we lived together, Joel and I would be watching tv or playing video games and Josh would leave for a run. About two hours and 18 miles later Josh would return and we would still be sitting there. You could make the case that he was more productive in those two hours...I guess. Side note: I was just talking to Dan aka DOM and I told him I'd give him a shout out. Of the almost 1000 hits I have on this blog, I feel that Dan can account for about 50 of them...so the least I can do is say hey, thanks Dan. Haha what a lame shout out.

I've been home for a week now and have pretty much seen everyone that's around. I'm excited for the 4th of July because almost everyone is coming back for it. It will be nice to see Nicci and MB since they haven't been around.

Yesterday I was thinking about how much free food Tony has already given me in the past week and it reminded me of how much free stuff my friends have given me in the past few years. It seems that at least one of my close friends is always working somewhere where they can hook me up. Jim worked at Subway when we were in HS. I used to go and hang out for a few hours every time he worked. It was pretty sweet. All I could eat for a dollar. Then George worked at Chef Alan's and everyone knows I spent a ton of time there. And now Tony with Buca and the Hoffbrow.

My brother had three velodrome races today. He is a cat 5 racer which is for beginners, but its definitely taken seriously. His bike and uniform were crap compared to his 10 competitors, but he seems to be more talented and in better shape. He won the first race, got 4th in the second, and won that last race. They keep track of points throughout the whole series and he ended up being the overall winner. It was pretty cool and we all had a good time.

Alright, I'm gunna go watch the Phil's.

Keeping Busy

2008-06-20T19:44:00.006-04:00

Hey, sorry I've been lame with doing new posts. I feel like I will always have more time the next day...but then I don't. Things have been going pretty well. I've been going to Buca Di Beppo and the Hoffbrow almost everyday because Tony is always working. It has been working out really well for me. Today was the first time that I have even paid for anything. It's pretty sweet...good food. That being said, I have also started trying to lose a few pounds. My elliptical workouts have been going pretty well. I am able to keep my heart rate over 170 for about an hour each day.

Peter and I went to Camden to check out one of Matt's baseball games. It was good to see him and he hit a triple. He only went 1 for 4, but it was $1 hot dog night...so it was still pretty cool. Tara said she could hear us cheering for Matt over the radio so then I decided to yell GO TARA! right at the microphone through the window in the stadium broadcasting office. She said she turned up the volume on her computer to see if she could hear me...then it was sooo loud that I pretty much yelled through her entire house. We had a good laugh. Devin and I went golfing today I played like crap. It was disappointing, but it was my first round of golf this year. He beat me by 11 strokes, but I'm sure I'll get him within the next few weeks. Alright, I know this post is lame, but I'm going over to George's to hang out. So I'll hopefully write something tomorrow. My brother has a velodrome bike race tomorrow afternoon so hopefully I'll have some cool pictures or videos. Peace.

Back in the Wyo

2008-06-17T15:11:00.002-04:00

Alright, so I haven't posted in a few days, but I should have plenty of time to catch up over the next week. So we ended up getting getting back to Lynchburg at 2 in the morning on Sunday. I decided to hang out and not come home until yesterday because I wanted to see how things were looking for the Olympic trials. Things aren't looking good. I was ranked 18th last week, but after this past weekend I dropped all the way to 26th. They take 24. So now I have to sit around to see if everyone declares...or if there are any injuries. I felt like making the Olympic trials was going to be a great consolation prize to not getting All American, but now it looks like I won't get either. But on a positive note, my dad seems to want me to move to Canada to continue my training once I get back from Australia. As of now, if nothing changes, I will be headed up north sometime in January. We'll see.

So now I'm back in Wyo. Everything seems to be good here. I got excited when Tony left me a message saying he was working at Bucca last night. Obviously that lead to me getting free dinner. It was also really cool that George ended up being around. I feel like George and I rarely come home, but we always seem to be home at the same time. So Tony, George, Devin, and I all hung out last night and we had a good time. It was nice to catch up with everyone. I also met Tony's girlfriend, Ashley. She seems really nice and was really fun to hang out with. I'm sure we will all hang out again tonight.

I got my first speeding ticket in 6 years yesterday. I felt like I was soooo overdue that I really wasn't too upset about it. I was going 80 in a 60 zone...but in my defense I thought it was a 65. I usually drive with cruise control, but for some reason I wasn't...and that decision cost me $161. I wasn't trying to speed...but I wasn't trying not to either. Oh well, if I get one every 6 years I think I'll be alright.

Alright, I'm going to go throw some shot with Ty and one of his high school throwers. Here are some reviews of things I've done lately.

Bucca Di Beppo - Eggplant Parm - 89
I almost always get the eggplant parm when I go to Bucca and it's never disappointed me. It's really good and Tony gave it to me for free which made it taste a whole lot better.

Iron Man(movie) - 89
I gave it an 89 because it would be really hard for me to decide what I'd rather do...eat eggplant parm or watch this movie. It was really good, definitely one of the better Marvel comic movies. I would recommend it.

The Hulk(movie) - 82
Not as good as Iron Man, but better than the Hulk movie that came out a few years back. A lot of people were disappointed with the movie a few years ago, but I feel like they cleaned this one up. It was good, but I'm not sure I would recommend paying $9 to see. Wait for the dvd to come out and rent it.

28 Days Later(movie) - 70
After seeing this movie I lost all respect for I Am Legend as far as original thought goes. It's the same movie, but I Am Legend was better. I would not recommend this movie, don't waste your time. It was weak sauce.

Ok, I'm done, I'll do some more tomorrow.

Redemption

2008-06-14T00:20:00.004-04:00

Well the results are in and Clendon got 3rd in the discus. It was pretty exciting. He was winning with his 192 foot throw going into the finals. We were all kind of looking at each other with huge grins on our faces...thinking that perhaps 192 was all it was going to take to win the thing. The wind was terrible and was getting in the heads of everyone except a few. Clendon looked really good and had quite a few good throws considering the conditions. Yemi also looked great. He got 2nd, but backed it up with two throws that were farther than Clendons...he was definitely better on this day. Scott from Kentucky won it all...and Dane was kind enough to point out the fact that I picked him to get 12th. His throws were actually very unimpressive looking, but a few went far so he won it fair and square. Some of the top seeds were really struggling. I thought Garza would do well, but I think the wind really hurt him. Stockbarger had one good warm up but never put one together in competition.

Evans also did awesome in the steeple. Although he didn't get All-American with his 10th place finish, he did PR by another 6 seconds. He is my favorite distance runner ever(other than Mcdougs)...he doesn't talk, he just runs...fast. It seems that other than Josh...who is obviously a machine, Evans is the only guy that doesn't talk about how he should be good and will get better...he just goes out and runs hard every time. He's fun to watch and I appreciate his efforts.

I also got a chance to hang out with Pete Jansen for quite a while. We had a good time catching up and remembering funny things about high school. Remember the time that he got in that fight with "Dan the Man"? That was awesome. He smashed Dan's head into the side of the bathroom stall. Even though Dan weighed 50 pounds more...he had no chance...I thin he was borderline retarded, haha. About two months after Pete beat him up, Dan fell off his roof in a thunder storm while trying to fix the TV antenna and broke a ton of bones. He missed a month of school. Ok, I'll stop telling high school stories now.

I'm rooming with coach Tolsma and he is watching Reno 911 right now. I'll be surprised if he doesn't change the channel in the next 10 seconds due to extreme volgarity. Alright, I'm going to bed. I won't have time to post tomorrow since we are traveling back to Lynchburg, but I'll post something on Sunday. And by the way, thanks for the nice things you guys wrote in response to my last post. I'm still emotionally fragile so it's nice to have support.

Bad Day

2008-06-12T23:39:00.002-04:00

Well if you hadn't heard by now...I threw terrible and watched my All-American aspirations fly out the window. I didn't post yesterday because by the time I got back to the hotel it was pretty late and I was a little overwhelmed with emotion. Now that I have some what recovered from my traumatic experience, I feel I can sit here and write something... So heres what happened. Because of the crazy flooding and storms that have been going on the hammer was delayed by 2 and 1/2 hours. I was sitting around all day to throw and was a little anxious, but not too bad. By the time I threw it was pretty late. My warm ups were ok, but nothing special. The ground was wet and I didn't feel comfortable in the circle. I slipped on my first throw and went 57 meters...which was pretty embarrassing. Then my rhythm was wayyy off on my next two throws and I fouled them both. I couldn't believe it was over after my last throw...and I'm not sure it has yet sunk in. It's over. My collegiate season is over. And I'm not an All-American.

I was pretty upset when I was done, but it didn't take full effect until I met with my parents, coaches, and teammates. I really felt like I had let them down...which is a horrible feeling. I have more support from friends and family then I could ever hope for...and then I throw like that. I can't believe it. I wanted it so bad.

I got back to the hotel and went straight to my room. It was just me. I sat on the edge of my bed with my hands on my face and I cried for the first time in a long time. I just wanted it so bad. I'll admit, even as I write this my eyes are watery.

It has now been over for 24 hours. I feel much better...not as emotional, but it still hurts. I have spent this time thinking about how many blessings I have and focusing on the positives. I realize that in the grand scheme of things I have absolutely nothing to complain about. My track and field career has been more successful than I could have ever imagined and the support I receive...well its amazing. But all those nice things don't take away from how much I wanted to throw well this weekend. I try to convince myself that it's no big deal...just a bad day, but thats not the truth. I had a lot of eggs in that basket and one of my dreams was crushed...with no more opportunities available.

So now I just want to say thanks to everyone that has contributed, followed, and supported my career thus far. There are too many people to name. I wanted so bad to be able to tell you that I threw awesome and it hurts me to tell you that I didn't.

I need a few days to clear my thoughts so I am coming home next week. It will be really nice to see everyone since I haven't been home in months. I'm not sure when I will find out if I made the Olympic trials, but I'll be sure to let you know when I hear...it should be close.

On a lighter note, Clendon and Evans both made the finals in their respective events. Clendon looked good and made the final comfortably in 5th. Evans ran hard and ended up making the 14 man final in 12th. They both compete tomorrow so I'll be sure to post the results. I will definitely feel better about this week if Clendon can do well. We have been on this crazy journey together for a long time and one of us has to leave with some hardware. Here are my some what bias predictions in the disc:

1 Clendon Henderson
2 Greg Garza
3 Leif Arrhenius
4 Martin Maric
5 Jason Schutz
6 Wes Stockbarger
7 Yemi Ayeni
8 Darius Savage
9 Andy Fryman
10 Ryan Whiting
11 Russ Winger
12 Rashaud Scott

Thanks for reading, I should have time to post tomorrow. Goodnight.

Good Day

2008-06-10T15:23:00.002-04:00

Alright, so we got into Des Moines yesterday around 4pm. I was grouchy from the trip that started at 7:30 in the morning and Coach Tolsma wasn't making it any better. He didn't bring an extra credit card so it took us over 45 minutes to rent a car. Then not only did he not have directions to the hotel...he didn't even know what hotel we were staying at. I definitely voiced my opinion on how I thought we were extremely unorganized this trip, but that didn't help the mood. The hammer circle was only open from 5-7 and I was nervous that I was going to miss the practice time because of our lack of organization.

We got to the hotel and my day started to get better. I was talking to Clendon in the lobby and someone put their hand on my shoulder. I turned and it was my good friend Pete Jansen. Pete an I were really good friends back in elementary school, but then my family moved to Italy and Pete's family moved to Germany. We both ended up moving back to Wyo and we again were pretty close. He ended up moving to Texas after our sophomore year, but we had some good times on the track team before his departure. I knew that he had been running for the University of Colorado and I knew that he had qualified for NCAA's so I was hoping to see him sometime this week. But we are staying in the same hotel so it's going to be fun catching up with him over the week. He is the 8th seed in the 3,000 meter steeplechase with a time of 8:43.28.

So after briefly talking to Pete I went to the track to take a few throws. I had been throwing very ok in practice this past week so I wasn't expecting anything great. I was going to throw until I hit at least one decent mark. I expected to take about 6 or 7 throws, but ended up only needing 3. My first was 210, my second was 215, and my third was 223. Yea thats right, I threw over my PR in practice. Obviously I felt great and I am pretty excited for tomorrow. On thing that is annoying, however, is that it's supposed to rain...which could change everything. I did practice once last week with a wet circle and it went fine, but I'd rather throw in dry weather.

So when I got back to the hotel I was pretty excited about throwing well. Then I saw that Nicci had posted on my wall and said she wants to go to Rhode Island to visit MB as well. I got excited because it sounds like a fun little road trip and I'm sure we would all have a great time. And yes Nicci, this counts as your shout out. Haha, so anyway, after a crappy start, yesterday turned out to be a great day...old friends, current friends, and throwing far.

Ok, so now onto my NCAA discus and hammer predictions. Let me explain how this meet works. Tomorrow all 25 of the throwers will get 3 throws in the qualifying round. Then the field will be cut to 12. On Friday those 12 guys will come back for the final competition. Friday will be like any other throwing competition. All 12 will get 3 throws then the top 9 will get 3 more. Our throws do not carry over from tomorrow to Friday so we will have to hit good marks both days. I explain how to get All American status in one of my previous blogs called "Hits and Odds" so check that out if you want to know. Basically all I need tomorrow is top 12 and then on Friday...assuming I qualify, I need to throw well to place. So here is the link to the national qualifiers in seeded order. I am only going to pick the 12 guys I think are going to make it to the next day. I'll do my top 12 place predictions tomorrow night after I know who all made it to the second day. So here are my top 12...in the order of their seeds. The information goes Name, year of eligibility, school, metric PR, region, date of best throw, and regional place.

Qualifying Round NCAA Mens Discus

1 Greg Garza SR UCLA 62.42m W 05-10 AQ4-2
2 Clendon Henderson SR Liberty 62.26m E 04-04 AQ1-2
3 Martin Maric SO California 61.13m W 04-04 AQ4-1
4 Ryan Whiting SO Az State 61.11m W 03-29 R4-6
5 Wes Stockbarger SR Florida 60.94m E 05-03 AQ1-1
6 Rashaud Scott JR Kentucky 60.91m ME Regn2 AQ2-1
7 Russ Winger SR Idaho 60.80m W 04-05 AQ4-3
8 John Caulfield SR UCLA 60.31m W 03-29 R4-10
9 Yemi Ayeni JR Virginia 59.92m E 04-12 AQ1-3
10 Jason Schutz SR Colo St 59.62m MW 03-29 AQ3-1
11 Andy Fryman SR Kentucky 58.55m ME 04-18 AQ2-3
12 Zach Clayton FR Auburn 58.49m ME Regn2 AQ2-2

Qualifying Round NCAA Mens Hammer

1 Cory Martin SR Auburn 73.11mDME Regn2 AQ2-1
2 Jake Dunkleberger SR Auburn 71.42mDME 04-04 AQ2-2
3 Egor Agafonov SR Kansas 69.95mDMW Regn3 AQ3-1
4 Simon Wardhaugh JR Boise State 69.05mD W 05-16 AQ4-1
5 Matej Muza JR VA Tech 68.83mD E 04-04 AQ1-2
6 Boldizsar Kocsor JR UCLA 68.54mD W 05-17 AQ4-2
7 Jason Morris SR Missouri 68.41mDME 04-26 AQ2-5
8 Jon Hart SR Liberty 67.76mD E 05-17 AQ1-3
9 Steffen Nerdal JR Memphis 67.43mDME 04-05 AQ2-4
10 Jarrod Stevens SR Boise State 66.77mD W 05-02 AQ4-3
11 Timothy Morse JR Radford 66.35mD E Regn1 AQ1-1
12 John Freeman SO Georgia 64.23mD E Regn1 AQ1-4

Let me know what you think of my top 12. Here are a few points of interest if you click the national qualifiers in seeded order: The 100 meter dash times are pretty sick this year. Walter Dix should be able to go under 20 flat in the 200. The number 14 seed in the 800 with a 1:47.83 is Gov Mifflin Grad Mark Miller. Our steeple chaser, Evans, is the 24 seed with a 8:49.39. In the shot, PA native Ryan Whiting is the 3rd seed and Justin Clickett is the 9th seed. Clendon is the 3rd seed in disc. I am the 8 seed in hammer. And Brandon is the 3rd seed in the decathlon. Ok, sorry this was so long. I'll post the results tomorrow.

The White Hart

2008-06-08T15:24:00.002-04:00

The past few days have been relatively uneventful which is why I haven't posted anything. Yesterday was the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the triple crown. Joel and Andy aren't around so I wasn't about to go to Colonial Downs by myself. In the past year I have been following horse racing which has made things much more interesting. Side note: if you have Direct TV then you probably get channel 602 which is a 24 hour horse racing station. But anyway, Big Brown was a 1/4 favorite which is just ridiculous. I was pretty nervous for the race because I was pretty sure we were going to see the first triple crown in 30 years. I was wrong. Da'Tara, at 38 to 1 odds, won in a wire to wire victory...which means he was winning the entire race. Big Brown didn't look very good 3/4's of the way so I wasn't surprised to see him fall apart. Too bad, so sad.

In other news, we signed the recruit that we had this weekend. I feel like I had a pretty good influence on the kid. He's a really good shot putter, 59 foot PR. When I dropped him off at his hotel he told me that he was going to sign with us. He also commented that the Georgia Tech coaches were going to be pissed. Haha. So our incoming class of freshman throwers now include a 59 foot shot, a 220 foot jav, and a 213 foot disc throwers. Thats pretty sick...definitely one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.

Yesterday Tara and I were trying to think of somewhere we had never eaten before. We ended up trying The White Hart Cafe. It ended up being a great decision. Good atmosphere and great food. I would definitely go back...and I would probably get the same thing, the Mugwumper or something like that. So I would highly recommend it.

While I am writing this we are listening to Matt's baseball game on the web site radio. He hit a 2 run home run in the first, got walked in the the third, and got struck out in the 5th. If you voted for him off of that link that I posted the other day, thanks.

I think I am going to start giving more reviews on my blog. I decided that my favorite scale is 1-100. So here are my reviews on a few things from the past couple of days.

Hardee's Fast food in general - 70
Every time I go there I am disappointed, but they keep on sending me coupons so I keep on going like a sucker.

Hardee's Prime Rib Steak Burger - 64
It looked so good in the picture, but when I was eating it I decided that I would have rather just ate a bowl of cereal.

The White Hart Cafe - 89
See my review above

Hitman (the movie) - 72
The movie was better than eating Hardee's food, but I wouldn't recommend it. I loved the video game, but the movie was lame.

The Office (tv show) - 94
Great show. I can now say that I would revolve my schedule around a new episode of The Office. I gave it a 94 since I would rather watch the show then eat at the White Hart Cafe which I gave a 89...so I had to go higher.

Coach Bingham's Grilled Chicken - 87
Saturday was the third time that coach Bingham has cooked for us and I must admit that it has been very good every time. Much better than any restaurant that I can think of off hand.

Jersey Mike's Sub Shop - 39
I have now gone to Jersey's Mike's twice...and I have been extremely disappointed both times. The first time I had to wait 20 mins for my sandwich and it was only ok. The second time my sandwich was so bad that I threw some of it away. It was also over $11 which is just unacceptable for a sandwich. I will never go back again...ever.

Alright I think this is getting too long. I'll put up some more reviews tomorrow and I'll also start giving you a preview of the NCAA championships. I throw hammer on Wednesday. Talk to you all tomorrow.

Missing Home and the Recruit

2008-06-05T22:03:00.003-04:00

After spending a tone of time on last nights post I decided to take it easy tonight. No really long stories, videos, or pictures.

This is definitely the point in the season that I really start to miss being home in the Wyo....just as I was typing the previous sentence, my good friend Jepsen called to settle a bet with Big V on how much the most I ever benched was. Jepsen's bet was quite a bit too high, but I appreciate the confidence none the less. By the way, the answer is 425...only 20 more pounds than I did in high school. But anyway, since not many people are still around here at school I really miss my friends from home. Jim is in the Navy so he isn't around, but George, Tony, and Peter are home so I'm excited to see them in a few weeks. I will be coming home for at least a few days in two weeks. I don't know whether I am going to make the cut for the Olympic trials...its going to be close. If I don't make it, then I will be home in two weeks until I leave for China. If I do make the trials then I wont be home until the second week in July.

I'm only going to be home for about a month this summer, which is a little sad since I won't see any of my friends until Christmas because I will be in Australia in the fall. But in that month I really hope visit a bunch of people. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go up to Rhode Island to visit Scott...and of course to see my secret lover MaryBeth. I haven't ever been to RI, so I really need to go. I will also be in Toronto for a few days for Willis' wedding which should be fun. I also might need to take a pit stop in Hoboken:)

But anyway, practice has been going a little better. My form is still off, but I feel like I'm close to getting it back. My throws have been a little more consistent these past few days and my confidence is starting to rise. We had a really good recruit named Ryan come up today for the weekend. All of the coaches already had plans so they asked my to take him and his step-dad out for dinner. It was kind of weird that I was in charge of taking them out...I felt powerful since I had control of the situation. (Side note: the recruiting visit went much better than Kirk Devines...haha inside joke...some people will find that really funny). We went to this really nice restaurant called the Crown Sterling. There were only 3 of us and we spent $142 of the schools money, it was really good, but it was even better since it was free.

I have been getting some good feedback on the blog in the past few days. Heidi D. said she enjoys it...but she might just be saying that because shes one of the nicest people in the world. My supermarket friend, Chenoa, liked the coverage of regionals so I'll make sure to do a good job at nationals. Also, Clendon actually like my last post about us being fat...so he wasn't mad. So other than practicing and blogging the only thing I have been doing the past two days has been watching seasons 2&3 of The Office. I love that show. I have been spending so much time watching it that I feel like I am actually friends with the characters. When people ask me if I can hang out later I say no because I already have plans with Jim and Pam...haha just kidding...or am I? So that should give you an idea of how bored I actually am. I just felt something land on my arm and I thought it was a fly...so I smacked it. Haha, it turned out to be a lady bug. And yes it's dead...my bad. Alright, I'm done.

Fat Kids

2008-06-04T18:49:00.007-04:00

Before I get into the actual content of this blog I wanted to ask if you would go to this web site and vote for Matt to get into the all star game. Scroll down to “Outfield Freedom” and vote for “M Hagen – Somerset”. Sweet, I'm sure he appreciates it.

Ok so this could be one of the best blog posts of all time. It started like this: I was looking at a picture of Clendon and I from regionals and I realized that we are much bigger and fatter than we were just 1 or 2 years ago. To prove this I went onto facebook and looked at our pictures. I was laughing out loud when I saw how skinny we used to be. I know that this post mostly applies to me, but I had to drag someone down with me and I chose Clendon as my victim. I didn't ask his approval to show these pictures, but I feel like that just makes it funnier. I can't wait to text him to tell him to check this out. So after thinking about doing this post Steve also sent me a sweet video of himself...and that put me over the edge. If your wondering if this took me a long time to put together...well the answer is yes, but it should be worth it. Haha here are the results to my findings:
The left side is from Bryan and Kate's wedding two years ago and the right side is from this past weekend at regionals. Look at my cheeks...crazy.

I usually don't stalk Clendon so I don't really know when the picture on the left is from, but it is definitely within the past year. The picture on the right is also from regionals. Clendon's neck size must have gone up at least 3 inches.

The left side is from when a bunch of us all went to Jamestown and other historical places in Virginia, like Busch Gardens. The right side is from our track banquet which was last month. This is just ridiculous.

Again I don't know when the left picture is from, but the one on the right is from Big South this season. I wish we could get these two Clendon's to fight each other. My money is definitely on the Clendon on the right.

Alright, so I thought these pictures were pretty funny. You can't tell me that you don't see a difference. Hopefully Clendo doesn't care. Things like this blog are some just some of the baggage that comes along with being my friend...just wait maybe you will be next. Haha, but anyway, here is the video that Steve sent me. He says that since he can do this he can't be considered fat...I beg the differ. But I'll let you decide.

I laugh every time I watch it...and that is a lot of times. So I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed putting it together. I have been spending a ton of time doing this blog over the past few weeks, but unfortunately I won't have as much time next week so don't get used to it. Steve sending me this video prompted me to do this post. If you have any suggestions on topics that you feel I need to cover then just let me know, I'm all ears.

Hits and Odds

2008-06-03T22:39:00.002-04:00

In the past 24 hours this blog has spiraled out of control. The cat is out of the bag and my daily hits were 5 times the usual. I am curious to see if the hits keep on coming or if my blog is just the flavor of the week. I don't, have much experience with YouTube, but those throwing videos are getting a few hits too. Clendon's disc video takes the bacon with over 60 views in the past 24 hours...but 53 of those views were by me...just kidding.

"Just when I thought you couldn't get any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!" Thats the quote I was hoping to hear from my coaches when comparing todays practice with how I threw this weekend. Unfortunately, I threw like crap again. I don't understand how three weeks ago I was having the best practices of my life and now I am struggling to get back to where I was at mid season. I hope it was just a bad day. On a lighter note, however, I was looking at the national list and I'm pretty sure that 9 of the 26 entrants are not American which means that All-American status should drop at least a few spots. The top 8 Americans get All-American status...if I understand it correctly. So if there are 5 foreigners in the top 8 then All-American would drop all the way to 13th. The plan is is to get top 8 anyway...but it's still nice to know I have a little room for error.

So now on to my predictions for this past weekend's regional meet. I got the top 3 right in the disc and all 5 in the hammer...just in the wrong order. I actually wasn't that far off in the hammer. Just switch me and Tim and I would have been perfect. The top 3 in the disc was pretty easy and the other two spots were just guesses since it was wide open.

Alright, I'm going to bed, but I'll leave you with a few more Dumb and Dumber quotes since they are hilarious.

"According to the map we've only gone 4 inches."

Lloyd: That's a lovely accent you have. New Jersey?
Lady at bus stop: Austria.
Lloyd: Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!
Lady at bus stop: Let's not.

Lloyd: What are the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me... ending up together?
Mary: Not good.
Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
Mary: I'd say more like one out of a million.
[pause]
Lloyd: So you're telling me there's a chance.

State Trooper: Pullover!
Harry: No, it's a cardigan but thanks for noticing.
Lloyd: Yeah, killer boots man!

Going Public Part 3

2008-06-02T23:29:00.002-04:00

Alright, I know this is my 3rd post of the day, but I couldn't resist. I just saw that Martin Bingisser posted my interview on TrackShark.com and he included a link to my blog. So I wanted to welcome anyone that has arrived here via TrackShark and thank you for stopping by. This blog has now gone from an audience of about 15 to...well a lot more in a few hours. I got a little nervous when I saw that he linked this blog in the interview, but in a good way. There is a certain amount of satisfaction knowing that there is a possibility that I could get a few hundred hits in the next few days. That being said, I re-read most of my blogs to make sure that I didn't say anything that was too opinionated or offensive. I am happy to say that I didn't have to edit anything...so hopefully nobody gets offended about any of the things I have written. So this pretty much sums up the interview with TrackShark that I was talking about earlier. Check it out. Tomorrow I'm still going to write about how my predictions faired at regionals...but now that I have a wider audience, I think I'll leave the Jimmer story out...it's a little too personal to go public. Thanks for reading.

Going Public Part 2

2008-06-02T19:34:00.003-04:00

I decided to facebook a bunch more people to tell them about this blog. I told 15 people about two weeks ago and it went over pretty well. So if you are reading this for the first time, thanks for stopping by. I only have 20 some posts so be sure to read them. I'm pretty interested to see how many hits I get over the next 24 hours. Thanks for reading...let me know what you think.

Near Disaster

2008-06-02T18:34:00.005-04:00

I decided that I wanted to throw shot this past weekend to bring some closure to my collegiate season. I didn't end up PRing, but I threw pretty well. 56'8" feet...17.28 meters. This was definitely my most consistent year in the shot, I probably averaged around 56 feet. Here is the video of my throw...I got 11th in the East and ended up ranked 57 in the country:

The next morning I had to throw the hammer. Since my national ranking is pretty high, all I had to get at regionals was top 12. Unfortunitly, thats the mentality I went into competition with. I was really confident going into the competition, but after slipping on my first attempt I went insane. So I fouled my first throw...the ultimate no no when you are a top seed. On my second throw I went so conservative that it was my worse marked throw of the season by 3 meters, 57.71. This is pretty much the exact situation that I was in at nationals last year...I wasted my first two throws and now I had to make it happen on my third attempt. I walked into the circle while having a conversation with God. The conversation went something like this:

Me: God...I know that your plan is whats best for my life. But...I'd really like to throw this over 60 meters.

God: 60.76

God didn't actually say 60.76 but thats what I threw...so once again He came through big time for me again. After securing a spot in the finals (7th), the pressure melted away. I took 5 warm ups to get my timing back and I felt much better. I ended up fouling my forth, 63.96 on my 5th, and 65.27 on my 6th. So I got 3rd and I'm going to nationals. Here is my best throw:

The rest of the day I was really worried that Clendon might do the same thing I did...except not make nationals. He was ranked higher and had worse competition, but I was having a hangover from my near failure so I couldn't get bad thoughts out of my mind. To my relief, Clendon rocked out with a 195'6" on his first throw which got 2nd and solidified his spot at NCAA's. Here is his throw:

While Clendon was throwing our steeple chaser was racing. He was ranked something like 9th in the region, but he ended up 2nd. I don't have any video of it, but I'm not sure you care. Clarence also had a huge PR in the triple jump. His previous best was 50'4" and he ended up going 51'9". Here is the video of that...you can hear me yelling for him in the background.

Clarence will find out tomorrow if he got an at large bid into nationals. Supposedly there is about a 50% chance...so keep your fingers crossed.

My aunt and uncle came out for the whole weekend which was really cool. They really spoiled me and Clendon. They took us out for dinner and we also went and saw Iron Man in the movie theaters during some down time...which was a pretty good movie by the way, I would give it an 8/10 or a B+. This is us right after Clendon finished throwing the disc. Alright, this post is long enough. Keep the feedback coming...everyone seems to like it except for Amanda who thinks I have too much time on my hands...but at least I don't smell like farts...haha I hope your reading this. But anyway, I will definitely do an update tomorrow discussing how my predictions worked out, a funny Jimmer story, and an interview with trackshark.

Liberty's Regional Results

2008-06-01T22:10:00.003-04:00

Well we got back from regionals today. Sorry I didn't get a chance to post any results over the weekend. I don't have much time right now, but here is all you need to know. I got 3rd in the hammer with a 214 (65.27) and 11th in the shot with a 56'8" (17.28). Clendon got 2nd in the disc with a 195. Evans also made nationals in the steeplechase by getting 2nd. McDougs has been hurt so we already knew he wasn't running so his collegiate career is over. So it will be Clendon, Evans, Brandon (decathlon), and I representing Liberty at the NCAA championships. Clarence also got a PR in the triple with a 51'9"...we have to wait a few days to see if he can get an at large bid. I will give you the whole story of everything that went down at regionals tomorrow. I also have a few pictures and perhaps some video...so stay tuned. Talk to you tomorrow.

Odds Makers

2008-05-28T23:02:00.003-04:00

Ok, we made it to Georgia for the night. I leave for Florida State tomorrow morning so that I can get one hammer practice in before Saturday's competition. I don't have any rants tonight, but I wanted to leave you with a few funny quotes and some odds that I came up with for regionals this weekend.

The first quote is from Steve. He was talking about how he is excited about looking for a new job. He misses working hard in a industry that fits his expertise well, but after saying that he also said this: "Although...I must admit, I do take a certain amount of pride in the fact that I do nothing at work and still get paid...its not a bad gig."(paraphrased). Haha you bum.

The second quote is from Clendon. We were watching Top Chef tonight and he had never seen it before. I was explaining how it works and who I like and dislike in the competition. When Lisa...aka LESBO, was on the screen I said I didn't like her. Then I told him that she is a lesbian and her girlfriend was on the show too, but she got kicked off already...and Clendon said: "Wait...shes really a lesbian? Thats gay." HAHA, great quote.

NCAA East Regional Odds:

Mens Discus - Top 5 automatic qualifiers

1. Clendon - He is the number 1 seed, but not by much. Both Yemi and Wes beat him last year, but his PR wasn't as good either. Clendon might not be as consistent as either one of the others, but his big mark potential still has him as one of the favorites. He hits big marks in big meets, so I have him as a co-favorite at 2 to 1 odds.

2. Wes Stockbarger, University of Florida - Wes won this meet last year and is also a multiple time all American. He was pretty consistent last year, but but has been struggling with consistency this year. He has big time potential, but he also sounds like a little girl when he yells...which really hurts him. He is freaking huge which gives him a visible advantage over the other two, but I have him as co-favorite at 2 to 1 odds.

3. Yemi Ayeni, University of Virginia - Yemi PRed at this meet last year and went on to get all-American at nationals. He seems to be the most consistent of the three contenders, but consistent at a mark that is beatable by Clendon and Wes. He looked good at IC4A's, but I'm not sure he has really big throw potential. He went crazy on one throw two weeks ago, but it only went 59 meters. It's going to take at least 60 to win this weekend. I have him getting 3rd. His odds to win are 3 to 1

4. Steve Marcelle, Georgia Tech - The east really falls off after the top 3, but Steve went to nationals last year so I like his chances again this year. He choked really bad in the shot last year, but I think he has learned his lesson. He also threw his best of the year two weekends ago...so he should be confident. His odds aren't good to win since the other contenders are much more accomplished. Odds: 60 to 1.

5. Igor Misljenovic, Virginia Tech - I don't really know much about Igor, but his mark is pretty safe if he can hit right around his PR. The other guys below him have really been struggling so I have him getting 5th by default. Him and Steve have virtually no chance of winning. Odds: 75 to 1.

Mens Hammer - Top 5 automatic qualifiers

1. Me - Obviously I have to pick myself as one of the favorites after the way I threw two weekends ago. I am one of the very few throwers in the country that takes a natural progression during the season...meaning that I consistently get better as the season goes on. I went 67.76 at IC's and had a few even bigger fouls. I have my odds as co-favorite at 2 to 1.

2. Matej Muza, Virginia Tech - The Croatian is the number one seed, but hasn't been over 67 meters in a bit. He also fouled out last year at this meet...so that will definitely be on his mind. He fouled 4 out of 6 throws at our home meet one month ago. The 1 time all American has great form and definitely has 70 meter potential. Matej's odds are also 2 to 1.

3. Tim Morse, Radford - Also from the Big South, Tim is a bit inconsistent, but hit a nice PR two weeks ago. He should be confident, but he can be a little erratic. If he throws well he will definitely be in the top 5. I have him 3rd with 24 to 1 odds.

4. John Freeman, Georgia - Little bro of a former NCAA hammer champion, John looks a little soft, but his form is actually pretty nice. He doesn't really look athletic, but neither did his team USA brother. He has been getting better from week to week, consistently beating his teammate and 3 seed, Nate Rolfe(who has looked terrible lately, which is why I don't have him in the top 5). John has a good chance of going to nationals, but already gets a lot out of his body and has absolutely no big time throw potential. Odds: 70 to 1.

5. Paul Peulich, Manhattan - Paul is consistently over 62 meters, but doesn't always show that big time potential. He will make the finals with no problem, the question is just whether he will hit that big 64+ meter throw. I say that he will. Odds: 30 to 1.

Dane thinks Steve is going to win the long drive competition. And my good friend Pedro Iezzi thinks I will take home the crown. Clendon can't decide who his favorite is. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think of my predictions.

Long Drives and Longer Drives

2008-05-27T20:02:00.002-04:00

I have finally felt better in practice, although not back to where I was two weeks ago...I won't have anything to worry about at regionals. We leave for Tallahassee tomorrow..BY VAN!! I mean come on, we are division 1 athletes...we are kind of a big deal, we should have a private jet. So anyway, we have that long drive with a stop over in Georgia then off to Florida on Thursday.

The other drive in my title is referring to the longest drive competition that Steve, Clendon, and I are going to compete at on June 21st somewhere near Richmond. Long Drivers of America. All three of us have come to the conclusion that the qualities that are beneficial in throwing are probably the same qualities that are beneficial in hitting a golf ball. So we are putting that theory to the test in this official competition. If you can be in the Richmond area that day please feel free to join us. There is a $40 registration fee, but some serious pride is on the line. I figure worst case scenario is that we are completely wrong and we will look like idiots, but I doubt that... I have also been trying to figure out who will be the best out of the 3 of us. We all have some golf experience and I think we all shoot in the 90's. So actually making contact with the ball isn't going to be the issue. Here are the possibilities...how each one of us could possibly be awesome or terrible.

Clendon - He has good height and even better arm length, but none of those are his most enviable attribute. As far as a thrower goes, he has good flexibility and great power from a separated position. If hitting a golf ball has any correlation to a strong standing discus throw...well then me and Steve are going to get owned. At this point I would have to choose Clendon as the favorite at 2 to 1 odds.

Steve - He is in a tough position for the following reason. If the strength needed to hit a golf ball is anything like the discus, well then he's in bad company with Clendon being in our group. And if its anything like the strength needed for the hammer...well then he will be terrible. But I have this overwhelming idea that hitting a golf ball as hard as you can might not be the same strength as either one of those throws. I also think that Steve might be the best golfer of the 3...so his good contact skills could come into effect. I pick Steve as the runner up to Clendon, 3 to 1 odds.

Me - Ok, I think I have some severe disadvantages. I am clearly the shortest of the group. I have the shortest arms. I have the least amount of flexibility. However, I do also have some advantages...I just don't know how much of an impact they will have. I feel that I am definitely the most explosive of us three. And if hitting a golf ball has anything to do with power/hang cleans...well then I'm your man. But I don't think it will. I would say that they are both better athletes in general, but I have some freakish qualities that can give me advantages in certain scenarios. I consider myself the dark horse with a fighters chance. 4 to 1 odds.

So if you are looking for a trifecta bet, my recommendation is Clendon, Steve, Me. And if you are looking for an upset, well then I'm your guy. I'm sure they will have some input on these odds, so I'll let you know if they change.

I'll try to get on here to post an update tomorrow, but we have a ridiculously long drive so I might not get a chance. However I have decided that after doing the odds on the long drive competition I will also be doing odds on the Discus and Hammer for this weekend. So stay tuned to see what the payouts will be on Clendon and I at regionals. Bam!

Can I Get Some Civil Rights?

2008-05-26T11:50:00.002-04:00

Things are going pretty well down here in Lynchburg. I was sick last week and coincidently I practiced really poorly. The past few days I have been taking it really easy trying to get better so I can have a productive week of practice before regionals. I'm pretty excited that I only have two more NCAA meets before my collegiate career ends. I'm trying to peak in my training so my lifting is really light and easy and practices are short...but I spend a tone of time thinking about the next few weeks and how it will affect the way I look at my entire career, so I'm still a little stressed.

I talked to my good friend Scott the other day. He just finished his second year of Law school and loves to talk about anything that has to do with legal issues. So the rest of this blog should excite him.

Click it or Ticket. Thats the motto that I have been hearing on my radio and seeing on my billboards the past few weeks. It is of course referring to the fact that not wearing a seatbelt is against the law, so you will be get a ticket if you don't click it. Catchy right? The commercial I heard talks about all the unnecessary deaths that take place because people weren't wearing their seat belts and now they aren't around to tell you about it. But here is what the end of the commercial says:

"So lets make a deal, if I pull you over for a traffic violation you are going to get a ticket. And if your not wearing your seat belt, you're going to get another ticket. Hopefully the fine is all you will have to pay...many other people have paid a much higher cost, but they're not around to tell you about it."

But this is what they should actually be saying:

"So lets make a deal, if I pull you over for a traffic violation you are going to get a ticket. And if your not wearing your seat belt, I'm going to violate your civil rights and give you another ticket. Hopefully the fine will be one of many that you will have to pay...many other people have also been violated by unconstitutional laws, but we have some sweet new Dodge Charger squad cars...so it's definitely worth it." Officer Powertrip.

I mean, come on, where do you stop with this? Next month the commercial might say:

"So lets make a deal, if I pull you over for a traffic violation you are going to get a ticket. And if you are obese, smoke, drink, don't exercise, or do anything else thats not good for you health, you're going to get another ticket. The government has now decided that we are now going to enforce healthy living. Don't let me catch you watching too much TV or buying food thats high in fat and sugar."

Ok, so I wear my seatbelt I think it is a good idea for others to do the same...but shouldn't we have the option? Whether I wear my seatbelt or not has absolutely no affect on other drivers. I realize that wearing a seatbelt is much safer, but we have the right to do all sorts of unsafe things in America...just like we should. Whats next? A ban on everything that has some bit of danger...sports, riding motorcycles, stunts etc...

Instead why doesn't the government take the 30 million dollars they approved to run these adds and try to fix some other issues. If our government was run so perfectly and the most important thing on the agenda was whether people were wearing seat belts or not...that would be great. But last time I checked we are at war, our economy is terrible, social security is a mess, and wearing seat belts isn't going to solve any of those problems. The government should also stop wasting taxpayers money to investigate the MLB and NFL, but thats a different story. Ok, I'm done now. The closer we come to the weekend the more I will talk about track and the less I will talk about politics. Sorry for the speech.

Some More Blog Feedback and a Story

2008-05-24T10:07:00.003-04:00

The feedback just keeps on rolling in about my blog. I must admit, I am surprisingly encouraged...unless my friends are just being nice. DOM said he read the whole thing and like it. Dane is now the second person to comment on how the title of my blog is really gay, but since I really don't value his opinion, I'm not going to change it.

I have gotten a few comments. George wants me to stop fouling big throws. Which reminds me of a story. I never got to see him compete in the long jump much in HS because I was always throwing at the same time, but after the meets he would always tell me about the huge jumps that he barely fouled. After hearing those stories all year...and him never actually hitting one of those jumps, I started to doubt it(sorry buddy). Going into districts he was ranked something like 11th and he ended up PRing by like a foot and made states. It was really sweet, but he kept on saying that his jump at districts still wasn't as far as some of his fouls. So the next week at states I think he was seeded something like 13th with his new PR. I'll never forget this part...I can actually remember exactly where we were standing in Shippensburg University stadium when we had this conversation. I was hurt and had just done terrible in the shot and I was walking over to get my medal. I was really pissed about not doing well and George walked up to me and said something to the effect of "dude...I got 3rd in the long" I remember thinking that he was joking and since I was in a crappy mood I just wanted to punch him in the face and tell him that now wasn't the time to screw around with me. But, I didn't. About 2 seconds later I heard his family running over to greet him and he pulled out his medal. I couldn't believe it. It turned out that he PRed by another foot...finally hitting that big jump that he had always talked about. I remember being so happy that I completely forgot about how I did in the shot. His performance/clutchness was sick.

I decided to share that story for a few reasons. First, it's a great memory to look back on. Secondly, I have been talking about how I have hit huge PR's in practice and warm-up's all year...and I feel that it is my obligation to George to finally hit one in competition. Just like in his story, I only have two meets left. So I need to get it done.

In other news, I had to post those two videos of my hammer throwing on YouTube in order to get them on this blog. The thing I didn't really think of was that people I don't know were going to find them on YouTube and watch them. I don't really want to be "that guy" that puts videos of himself on YouTube...but after someone left this comment: "Bet this guy is a beast in the gym if he can three turn 67" haha, well maybe I throw a few more videos on there after all. Haha, ok I'm done now, thanks for reading.

Ross Tucker

2008-05-23T10:06:00.005-04:00

I was randomly looking around on ESPN.com and what did I see? A front page story called "Tucker agrees with Walsh: Patriots practiced with IR players." and there was a pretty cool Video, I clicked on it right away to see if it was in fact talking about Ross Tucker the Wyomissing graduate...and it was. I got excited for a few reasons: First, I checked the Reading Eagle newspaper to see if they had written anything about this and I didn't see anything. I don't have access to their archives so I could very easily be wrong, but I felt like my blog was now cooler than the Reading Eagle since I have some news up before them. Secondly, it's cool to read about someone on a national stage that you actually know...and by "know" I mean that he used to come back and help us when I was still in HS and we talked a few times...but he would definitely know who I am...I think. Haha, but anyway, in the article he pretty much says that the Patriots cut some corners and broke some rules for very minor advantages. I'm still bitter about the Patriots cheating their way past the Eagles in the Super Bowl a few years ago...but I won't make you sit here and read about that. Side note: I talked to Tony after that super bowl and he actually admitted to crying when the Eagles lost...I shared his emotional pain, but not the tears...what a homo.

I had no idea, but Ross has been writing for SI.com for a while now, so here is the link to his archives if you want to check out his articles. I guess it's no surprise that the Wyomissing and Princeton grad is a good writer. Ross Tucker SI.com article archive. Also, I'm going to send him the link to my blog through SI.com's email...I'm sure he is pretty busy, but I am curious to see if he will actually get my message or read my lame blog. Haha, I'll let you know if I hear anything.

The Blog Reviews and an Old Email

2008-05-22T21:58:00.006-04:00

So like I said yesterday, I let a handful of people know about my blog. The response has been pretty good. Jim thinks the title is gay, Jen just thinks I'm trying to get chicks, and everyone else that I have talked to said they enjoyed it. So the blogging goes on.

I knew I was going to get sick from throwing shot in the cold rain on Saturday and I was right. I have a cold so my training hasn't gone well the past few days. I ended up taking today off so I could rest and hopefully recover. We had to declare for regionals today...which means we had to let the NCAA know what events we are going to compete in at regionals. Clendon decided to only throw the disc since he no longer cares about shot...and he never cared about hammer. I, on the other hand, declared for both the shot and hammer...I didn't qualify in the disc...and no, it wasn't close. I can tell that coach doesn't really want me to throw the shot, but I really want to for a few reasons. First, if I don't take one more stab at hitting a PR I don't feel like I will have had good closer to my shot career. Secondly, I know I can PR...and by a few feet. My PR is 57'7", but I have gone between 58-60 probably 15 times in practice and in warm ups. I have been throwing much more consistently this year and I feel that a big PR is just around the corner. I feel like there is only a 20% chance of hitting my PR since I never practice shot...but I still am going to do it. Plus, I am going to get to nationals in the hammer even if I throw like crap, so I'm not worried about the shot affecting me.

In other news, I got a text from Ty, my good friend and old throwing coach from Wyo, and he said that we got another thrower to states in the shot and the disc. I also had realized that I forgot to send him the link to my blog so I was looking for his email address and found an old email that he sent me in 2004 when I was a freshman at Liberty. Hopefully he won't mind that I am going to share it with everyone, but it was really cool for me to look at this email over 4 years after he wrote it. Here is the important stuff:

Thu 4/8/2004 1:29 PM
"Hey Dude,

Congrats with your throws, that is great about the hammer!!! Stick with it, you will only get better and you know that for yourself. If you do transfer, make sure you do track, your to good to let it go. Thanks for the nice statements, you know how much you mean to me...not meant to me...but mean. I want to thank you again, for coming up to the track the kids loved it. Oh, James Bryant is throwing, 45'8, 130' disc nothing great, and Henne threw 181'1 so far.

Well, talk to you soon, and I told you so, you would miss me...HAHAHAHA. Good luck, say in shape and out of trouble. You will never have this oppt again, don't let in slip through your hands, your too good of an athlete and person.

Take Care
Ty

PS: No Chick? any ones down there for me???"

Ok, I edited some stuff in the middle of th email just because he was talking about 4 year old high school results and nobody cares about them, but I left in the part about Chad Henne only throwing 181 in Jav...16 feet less than my record:). I mostly wanted to post this just to show how much I appreciate the amazing support that I have and have always had. Ty is just one example of someone that has always believed in my potential and abilities. Its kind of crazy how he knew that I would get better and really wanted me to keep on training. He is also very verbal with his encouragement. So next time you have something nice to say about someone...say it, you never know how much of an impact a few words or a friendly email can have. It's funny that he was writing me this email to congratulate me on a new PR in hammer...170 feet. Haha, 170 feet...I can't believe how much progress I have made in a few years. From 170 to 222. From trying to place in the Big South to trying to get ranked top 100 in the world. God has really blessed me.

Going Public

2008-05-21T17:59:00.002-04:00

So today I emailed about 15 people the link to this blog. You are probably one of them since I haven't told many people that I have been doing this. Take a look around...I've only posted about 10 times. I just started getting fancy with adding links and videos, but there will definitely be more to come. Let me know what you think of it...especially if it sucks, because then I would stop. I try to update it every day or two, so thanks for reading. And sorry if you think I'm gay for doing this.

Results and Links

2008-05-21T17:06:00.008-04:00

I always end up forgetting to write or add things in my blog and yesterday was no different. I wanted to add the link to the IC4A results so that you could see how our entire team did. Here it is:
2008 IC4A Championships

Also I wanted to add the links of my current NCAA ranking, USA ranking, what place I am expected to get, and some other junk...

NCAA Division 1 Ranking

USA Ranking

Runners Space Predictions

College Hammer Blog Rankings

The NCAA and USA rankings are based purely on each persons best throw this season. The other two rankings take consistency and recent results into consideration. Also, here are the IAAF World Rankings...it takes 70 meters to get ranked, so I'm not on there...but give me a few weeks...or years.
IAAF World Rankings

Dropping Bombs

2008-05-20T16:27:00.007-04:00

Believe it or not, I actually backed up everything I've been saying about having good practices and being ready to throw a PR. Here is how the IC4A hammer competition went down. Clendon and I were both in the third flight. For some reason they don't seed this meet so we were lucky to be in this flight. I never really thought that someone might challenge me for the win and after seeing everyone else throw 62 meters or less, it didn't even cross my mind. I took my first warm up really slow and easy. It went about 206 and I knew that everyone was watching to see what kind of day I was going to have. I put a little bit of mustard on my second warm up and it went about 221. At this point I knew that the competition was over and I was going to PR. I didn't take any more warm ups. Here was my series:

1st throw - 63.97 - 210
I couldn't believe it went that far. It was a really crappy throw, but it was conservative and I didn't want to foul.

2nd throw- 67.76 - 222
I finished this throw really hard and I knew as soon as I let go that it was going to be a PR. But I also knew that I wasn't really aggressive with my winds so there was plenty more in the tank.

3rd throw- 66.91 - 219
Again, I couldn't believe that this throw went this far. I was going to foul it on purpose, but then I saw it land and thought it might be another PR...it wasn't.

The rest of my throws were fouls...but not just any fouls. One of them was 226 and another was 231. I know this because I went out in the field after the competition and looked. I was really close to saving them and I think that if my angle was a little bit better I wouldn't have a problem. My very last throw hit the circle before I threw because I was too steep, but this was easily going to be my best throw. It's hard to say how far it would have gone, but it felt great...until I hit the ground with it. Ok, hopefully this works. I tried to add the video of my 67.76. And I know...my form needs some work...but I wish I had an old video to prove how much I have improved, so get off me

So I ended up winning with the 67.76. I was really encouraged with the way things went even though I would have really liked to go between 68-70 meters. A bunch of my teammates, my parents, two aunts, and a friend were all there to see it which was pretty cool too.

About two hours later Clendon threw the discus. He went 58.10 on his first throw and looked really nice. His second throw was about 59 or 60, but after his balancing act...he ended up fouling it. The rest of his throws were really crappy. Sometimes he isn't patient and he dips his arm, those throws don't go anywhere. He ended up losing to Yemi from Virginia. Clendon hadn't lost all season so he was pretty disappointed. Everyone else besides Deca Dan a.k.a DOM, did really crappy that day.

I didn't look like we were going to win the meet unless Clendon and I did really well in the shot the next day. When the shot started it was really nice outside, but by the time my fight started it was pouring. I was completely soaked from head to toe. On my first throw the shot fell out of my neck and almost broke my foot. I ended up flying into the sector while my shot remained in the circle. My second throw was also a foul... it went 46 feet, haha, but that wasn't bad compared to some of the other throwers...one or two of them sub 40. My third throw was actually not that bad, however the one thing I forgot to take into account was that since I was wearing my sneakers instead of throwing shoes, because of the rain, I didn't rotate all the way around and I threw it 54 feet, but out of the sector. So I fouled out and Clendon ended up getting 6th with a 52. Right after the shot was over we found out that Matt was one of two people to clear a bar in the high jump so he got 2nd, everyone else didn't place. Since he made that bar we ended up winning the meet. It was pretty clutch of him since it was raining really hard and everyone else gave up. Clarence also went over 50 feet in the triple and got 3rd. That was some nice production out of a freshman. Our 4x100 just had to finish the race to get 2 points, but they ended up getting disqualified for a hand off violation...lame.

So we won the meet. I thought it was kind of funny that when we were posing for the picture, it seemed that all the people that didn't even score a point were acting like we were awesome. It's funny how our team is ranked top 20 in the nation and everyone acts like they have something to do with it...but its really because of a few really good people. But anyway, the meet was fun, the drive was long, and now we are one week closer to regionals and nationals.

Here is the video of my 231 foot foul...and yes, I know my fat gut hangs out when I wind the hammer.

Trowing Balls

2008-05-15T23:51:00.002-04:00

I think this post should actually be called “throwing like balls” in reference to how I have thrown in practice these past two days. In the past two weeks I couldn't believe the progress that I had made in my hammer technique, but it seems to have crumbled away in the past two days. In my last post I wrote about my awesome series of throws with the 16lb at 212, 214, 219. Yesterday my best throw of the day was 201. Then today I threw like crap again, but a little bit better. I think I am dragging it too much, but hopefully I can figure it out.

Meanwhile, Joel told me that Matt has been hitting the ball well for his summerset Patriots which is good since he was also in a bit of a slum for a while.

Ok, so this weekend I am rooming with coach Jimmer. I just took a break from writing this blog to explain to him why I'm not dating anyone and what my past history has been with women. It was a pretty funny conversation that ranged from my cruise ship girlfriend to the girl that I danced the night away with. It brought up some good memories and plenty of funny stories...it actually seems that Jimmer and I would be pretty good friends if we hung out more often.

We had a good time today on our trip up to Princeton. I was getting a tone of use from my new ipod that my parents got me for my b-day and I also told some funny stories to all the teammates. They got a kick out of the time that Jaime tried to show my family that her uncle was in the movie X-Men by going to xmen.com. We were all crowded round the computer and it turns out that the real web site was x-men.com... The previously stated web site turned out to be a porn site. Haha, she was really embarrassed.

Well anyway, I tried to make a post last night but my computer wasn't working correctly. I wrote it down on paper and I will type it up once I get back to Lynchburg.

I just watched the show “George Lopez” or whatever it is called and I decided thats its gay and I won't be watching it again...sorry if you like it

Also, I will be posting results of the IC4A championships tomorrow when I get back to the room. Hopefully I can my hands on a few pictures and videos to upload as well.

Ciao