What I talk about when I talk on Modern Warfare 2

Things I said last time I played with the headseat on xbox live

GODDAMMIT (approx. 83 times)

How did it taste? (8 times)

FUCK (13 times)

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA (4 times, after knifing someone)

AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (twice, after sticking someone with a semtex)

ho ho holy shit! (once, getting the game-winning killcam by sticking someone with a semtex)

Lily, come here (once, forgot I had the mic on still)

COME ON (11 times)

*audible sip of Rye on Rye* (about 750 mL worth)

BEEYAH!!!! (lost count)

Introducing Chris Brooks and a rebellion of the French horn nature

The last line is "With buckets of popcorn." I made it up on the spot.

And yes, I realize this is probably the best possible choice to have for the first video of myself on the internet. At least the first video of which I am aware.

This was at our company outing to the Royals game, so I am surrounded by coworkers, including my manager, and my boss (both sitting to my immediate right). I am a hit, and probably the most popular guy around. That American Idol guy David (can't remember his last name) isn't the only one from KC with talent.

At the risk of making this post too awesome, I couldn't help but post this other video, too. The song is just too damn good, and the video is too damn amazing. So enjoy a little bit of Milwaukee's own French Horn Rebellion



I dig these guys. It's like Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses went electro, joined Minus the Bear, brought some 80's pop synth sounds, and damn catchy lyrical lines. Damn. I can't stop watching the video. This song is just too good.

Things that have happened to me in the past week-plus

• Went to 6 Royals games in 8 days
• Ate at a few different BBQ places
• Got my ass handed to me at an office poker tournament
• Went to Lawrence for Taco John's
• Ate probably the best bratwurst I've had in my life at a tailgate
• Drank lots of beers at a tailgate (including a smoked beer)
• Got a visit from pops Flenker
• Managed to work out twice
• Ate near my body weight in popcorn
• Have listened to a lot of pretty excellent music
• Didn't do laundry

King of the burritos (and tacos and pizza)

I'm playing around with the layout and elements and all sort of fun stuff on here, so don't be alarmed if things are a little different. I'm just bored and figured what the hell, may as well see what I can do.

Speaking of bored, that's pretty much been my life of late. I haven't written much on here because, well, not much has been happening to me. Like I mentioned, I went to 3 Royals' games in the past week, which was awesome. They won all 3, and I got a bobblehead, a hat, and a shirt. So really, I won, too. I'd post pictures, but my camera has been extremely temperamental, and I haven't taken any great shots anyways. On account of my viewfinder thing being broken. But rest assured, it was fun.

Also, something I've been doing Friday nights is heading to Lawrence, KS (about a 30-40 minute drive) with some friends to get a burrito. Not just any burrito, mind you, but a burrito from the wondrous Burrito King. It's a drive-thru place, open until 3 in the morning every day, serving the cheapest burritos I've ever seen. For the three of us, each getting a burrito and a side of nacho cheese, the total price is usually around $10. For three people. Together. It's amazing. I say usually because I don't know if it's ever cost the same amount twice, but that's just part of the fun. Last night it was $11.90, a couple of weeks ago it was $9.50, either way it was a deal. I usually go with the carnitas with rice and cheese, and it's usually delicious. But getting through a whole one can be a feat unto itself. A feat in amazing food.

An even more amazing event occured when we went a couple of weeks ago. We were going to hit up a place called Pizza Shuttle, also in Lawrence (the two other guys both went to school at KU, so they've gotten quite attached), for their $4.50 personal pizza and a soda pop special. On the way, we joked around that we should also stop at Burrito King, and hit up Taco John's while we were there. (Note: I freakin' love TJ's, but the closest one is a ways away from me.) Soon the joking turned into a frank discussion, and shortly thereafter, we had a plan: split one small pizza amongst the three of us, each get a taco from Taco John's, and each get a burrito from BK. We don't know how exactly it came about, but we had our minds set.

The eventual feast turned out to be magical. We headed to a park to sit at a picnic table, spread everything out, and just marvel for a moment. Then, we dug in. I only wish we had brought a camera to document the night. We were taking a bite of each in rapid succession, washing them down with our foutain sodapops (also part of our tradition, we stop at a Quik Trip for a 32 oz fountain drink), and even had a bite of all three at once. This bite, my dear friends, was incredible, while testing the tensile limits of the mouth.

Jared was the only one to finish all three portions, I just couldn't quite get all of the burrito. I had only about 2 or 3 bites left, but had I tried to get those in, the results would not have been pretty.

The drive home was a glorious one, recount our tale to each other, making plans for the next "ironman" night. Our rapture only slightly dampered when we thought about how many calories we had just consumed. But at the price, around $17 TOTAL, we were truly champions.

Denver, in pictures and in words. And with facial hair

Well, here's the update I've been promising for weeks now, it seems.

Last weekend, a few of us from work went to Denver. The main reason? Illegal Pete's. A couple of the guys had eaten at this place once, and, since we had a three-day weekend, they thought what the hell, may as well make a weekend of it and head back there. Especially since it was right near the end of the mutton chop competition, we thought it'd be a fun time.

Here we each are, starting off on the about 9-hour drive

me

Jared

Nick

Josh

(Did I mention we all had matching hats, too? Just to complete the ridiculousness of our look) You'll notice I don't have much of a chop going on there. Sadly, I had been "growing" my facial hair for the same amount of time that Josh had. All I had was a creepy-looking mustache, and a few patches of light red hair on my cheeks. Not really visible to the naked eye.

Anyways, the drive out was fun. There was a convoy of 4 cars, made up by what looked like high school students, who were very entertained by the chops. They gave us the thumbs up, took some pictures, and made a sign that read "Nice Chops." All while we were driving. We felt it was a good start to the trip. We stopped for gas near Hays, KS, where we spotted our first (and only) thong appearance of the trip. But it was a memorable one. Not only was the whale tail there, but this girl (who was obviously of good repute), lowered the front of her pants, so the front of the thong was showing. And she did the lowering right in front of us, as we were walking out of the gas station. We were able to make it into the car before we busted out laughing. Our only regret was that we didn't say anything to her. The consensus was that one of us should have just said "nice," and gotten into the car. Oh well.

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, just some periods of heavy rain and menacing clouds. It wasn't until we had made it to Illegal Pete's for our burritos that we heard there had been 3 confirmed tornadoes along I-70. The road we had just been on for 9 hours. Jared was taken aback by the news, but it didn't have an impact on my appetite.

2? No, it was 3 tornadoes

Yum

The rest of that first night was spent wandering around, taking stupid pictures. Like these:

These two are twins. My cousin couldn't tell they were even related

Outside of Coors Field, where the Rockies made a furious comeback late in the game, to win in 13 innings. We didn't go, we just stood around outside. The guy who took this picture took off like he was stealing the camera, but stopped after about 10 steps. He feared the mustache.

I think Josh was the most photogenic.

Although Nick was pretty good, too.

Especially when paired in a picture with me, getting fake advice for our imaginary chess game.

The next morning, we tore the shit out of our hotel room. It was the facial hair acting up.

After we put it back together, we wandered around, taking more stupid pictures. I'll save a couple of these for later, as they may be the best pictures ever taken.

We went to the see the Rockies take on the Mets, spending $4 on each ticket, sitting in the "Rock Pile." It was awesome. Sure, we were about 600 feet from homeplate, but we had an awesome view, and surrounded by people our age, having a good time. After a while, since the Mets were up 8-2, we started people watching more than game watching. Nick made a kid cry. The whole section almost made a drunk girl cry. But she had it coming, she was trying to start the wave. Here are some of the views from our seats


And, another friendly mutton that we spotted at the game!This was the first of two other friendlies that we ran into, here's the second:



The rest of Saturday, we took more pictures, went to some bars, I got a little drunk, and talked with a bear.

Sunday, we climbed a mountain. Like a real mountain! Actually, two! We hiked up the Twin Sisters, making it all the way to the peaks, about 4-miles, one way, with around a 2300 foot climb, and some amazing views

The Twin Sisters (borrowed from some other site)

Impressive, no?

Studly

Us at the top, with Long's Peak in the background

That was an awesome hike, I'm glad we did it.

The whole trip was pretty amazing. I met up with a cousin I hadn't seen in years, and our days were busy without rushing around, something quite impressive for our only plan being to eat a burrito, which we accomplished our first night (it was a delicious burrito, by the way).

Now, for my two favorite pics from the trip. First, Josh

and secondly, me, in every else's favorite picture, a picture that basically sums up the whole trip

If you're really interested in seeing more pictures, you can check out my albums here:

Part 1

Part 2

Now in the past week, I've shaved and gotten a haircut, so I'm no longer the kind of gross, creepy looking dude I was in those photos. I'll get a picture or two of my new look up soon. And I'm working on creating a flickr account or something, so I can share photos other than through Facebook. But until then, this will have to do

I hate to say I told you so. . .

All the way back in November I said that Vampire Weekend was going to be big. Remember? Well, tonight they're going to be on Saturday Night Live, so I think that counts, doesn't it?

For a weekend music suggestion, I'll recommend Acid House Kings! They have a similar kind of feel to Vampire Weekend, a little more mellow, and more Swedish, but I can kind of hear a resemblance. Maybe to Belle and Sebastien, too.

As for my prediction for another band that's going to be huge someday soon, I'm going to go with Bell X1. Now they're already getting some decent airplay, so this might be a little to late for any cred points, but I'll stick with them. I like them, and I think they have a sound that's going to catch on big time. Just you wait!

Until next time, enjoy stuff. Stuff is fun!