They call me mellow yellow

I've always considered my musical tastes to be fairly broad. And even though I do like listening to everything from rap to the rat pack, I've recently discovered that my preference have slowly shifted to all things soft alternative/indie/bluegrass/rock. Basically, I'm just soft.

After trying to figure out why I'm such of raging vagina when it comes to my musical choices, I stumbled upon a startling realization; I'm high strung. That's right. I have a lot of energy. My mind goes a mile a minute. And I have a hard time sitting still. I guess it makes sense that I need to indulge in mellow music in order to balance myself out and decompress.

If I listened to too many hardcore riffs, my heart would probably explode. In fact, every time I think about being relaxed, it usually was when I was listening to music. And that's about it. Besides those moments, I'm usually thinking about the next new slogan, or how I'm going to build my deck, or why now is the perfect time to invest in the stock market.

Music is about the only thing that keeps me mellow...at least as mellow as I can allow myself to be. And I'm okay with that. As it turns out, I'm not a vagina. I merely need a counter weight to my life.

Ah Ha!

Apparently I agreed to run an 8K in two weeks. I need to quit promising people that I will run races with them and then forgetting about it. Granted, it's only 5 miles. But I hate running 5 miles at a mediocre pace. In fact, I hate doing anything mediocre. Maybe that's why I gets so depressed all the time.

Climb On

So I will be climbing Mt. St. Helens this summer. Sounds like it could be fun. 

Chris Brown makes me Pun Happy

Chris Brown sent Rihanna an iPod Touch for her birthday. Considering the circumstances, he probably should have sent her an iPod No Touch. Or better yet, an iPod Quit Punching Me In The Face. Those aren't expected to hit the streets until early next year, but I'm sure Chris could get his hands on one. He's got plenty of solid connections.

**check out all of my cheesy puns. They're italicized. 

Great Viral Commercial:

Did You Know?

I always thought that energy drink were super bad for you. Granted, they're not the best for you, but they're no worse for you that a 20-ounce Coke - regarding calories, sugar, etc. A 20-ounce Coke has 65 grams of sugar and 240 calories while a 16-ounce Full Throttle energy drinks contains 57 grams of sugar and 220 calories. The energy drink does double the Coke in the sodium department at 160mg and has just over 2 times the caffeine at 141mg. But all in all, that's not a huge difference.

I'm not saying that they are good for you, but in comparison, drink up.

Bowling? Kind of.

I went bowling last night. Dropped a solid 100 followed by a 95. Wow! I can't remember the last time I sucked that hard at bowling. I guess I can scratch 'be a professional bowler' off my list of things to do. No sense in wasting my time.

Fortunately, it tired my arm out enough to make me money from the three-point line during my city league basketball game. Awwwe, the silver lining.

Mayday, Mayday.

What's up with all of these planes dropping out of the sky? Luckily, the total fatalities is way down, but it's still a little disheartening. 

iStereo iPod Docking Station

I bought the iStereo Docking Station at Wal-Mart this weekend for $49.88 and crossed my fingers. You see, I'm by-and-large a cheapskate. I needed some form of stereo in my living room but didn't want to fork out a lot of coin for one - $50 was my limit. Unfortunately, at this price point you're bound to find more rough than diamonds. Hence the crossing of my fingers. After a limited search of Fred Meyer, Circuit City, and Target, I finally found what I was looking for at the Wally's World. 

Observations:

The iStereo is considerably heavier than all of the other options at this price. It may not mean a thing, but it sure feels like it will work better because of it. The wood grain finish actually looks pretty nice. Unfortunately, it has no CD player, so your totally bound to your iPod's playlist - not a big deal for me. It has a remote that works well. And finally, it produces a pretty darned good sound for $50 speakers. 

All in all, if you're looking for a cheap set of docking speakers that look more expensive than they really are, I would totally recommend the iStereo. Granted, I've only had it for one weekend. It might break tomorrow. But as of now, I'm happy with my bargain purchase.

Probably one of my favorite possessions.

I love my John Wayne coffee mug. It's 20 ounces of ass kickin' goodness. 

Oscars Smoscars.

Don't get me wrong, 'Slumdog Millionaire' was good, but not Best Picture good. It was cute and fun but that's about it. 

Why Soccer Sucks.

You should never work your tail off for 90 minutes and have to go home with a tie (or a draw as they call it). That is fundamentally flawed. You compete to either win or lose, plain and simple. 

Even golf makes competitors play until someone comes out on top. Golf! Soccer, did you realize you're a bigger nancy than golf? Do you just not want to have anybody's feelings get hurt, or are you too much of a pansy to finish a game?

I admit that soccer is hard and exhausting. But I'm also not scared to say that if you're happy with a draw in any sport, you might as well be giving out purple participation ribbons instead of trophies. 

Nike, behave.

I'm sick of writing campaign ideas at work and having Nike come out with them the next day. I don't know if I should be pissed because I'm one step behind a corporate giant or excited because I'm only one step behind a corporate giant.

Or maybe my computer is bugged, and they're listening to everything I have to say. 

Side Note

I'm not writing reviews on energy drinks because I want to be as cool as all of the blogs that are devoted to such reviews. I'm actually researching them for work, and I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. 

Suck on some granite sea gull and crow.

SoBe Energy:

My quest to research a variety of energy drinks has led me to the lizard. SoBe energy drinks as we know them have been discontinued, and I’m now among the mourners.  Adrenaline Rush has a light, crisp passion fruit flavor that goes down easy. It ventures far from the traditional energy drink taste (Red Bull/Rock Star) by delivering fruity bliss.

A 16-ounce can is packed with 66 grams of sugar (ouch) and 260 calories. It also has plenty of taurine, B vitamins, D-ribose, and L-carnitine. Like most energy drinks, it full of artificial ingredients. But compared to a cola, it’s not that bad.

Adrenaline Rush proved to be a delicious pick-me-up without a horrendous crash. Word on the street is that SoBe has dropped its name on the product because it was hindering sales. However, SoBe continues to make energy drinks. It’s just under the No Fear label. 

Duffel Bag or Duffle Bag?

That's a trick question. According to the online dictionary it can be spelled both ways. Nothing drives me nuts more than when the rules of grammar can be twisted. Pick a spelling Webster. Give me a right and a wrong so I can move on with my life. This same dilemma comes up with commas all of the time. Nearly half of the rules are either suggestions or user's choice. I think I'm going to write my own book on grammar where there are definitive rules. No one gets to slide by anymore. Duffle is spelled with an 'le' and use must always use a comma before the 'and' in a list of three or more items. Done!

Doom and Gloom

I know the economy is lagging, but the media is making it worse by beating it into the ground. It's just like the gas crisis we faced this last summer. Things are bad enough, but when the media shoves negative story after negative story down our throats, it makes it seem much worse than it really is. The result is a snowball effect of fear smothering our spending, which perpetuates the downturn. 

Take the wife and I for example. We have largely been unaffected by the recession. But every time I think about buying something, I stop and think, "well what if I lose my job? What if my life goes to hell tomorrow?" And the only reason it crosses my mind is because every article I read is telling me that this is going to happen.

Sure, we won't be selling our house anytime soon and we lost a little in our stocks. But we have a place to live, and we didn't plan on using our retirement anytime soon anyway. I know some people have been crippled by the economic downturn and that sucks, but the media is helping the cause with their constant doom and gloom. It's scaring off those who actually have the ability to spend. And we won't be able to right the ship until the willing and able start opening their wallets.

Change is Fun!

According to a recent news article President Barack Obama approved adding some 17,000U.S. troops for the flagging war in Afghanistan.

I wouldn't say I'm for or against the wars in the Middle East. I'm all about keeping America safe, and I put my faith in the President to make the decisions that do that. At the same time, I find it interesting that you can run a campaign predicated on pulling troops out of Iraq but piggy back it with sending them to Afghanistan.

Maybe I'm just ill-informed, but I remember an awful lot of people protesting our overseas involvement. I guess we'll see if those voices remain silent now that it is Obama calling for the troops.

I also have to wonder if it was just a coincidence that he signed the economic stimulus plan on the same day he announced the troop surge. A little slight of hand...maybe.

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist

While tacking a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, the wife and I decided to give ‘Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ a shot. The story revolves around two high school kids who are connected by mutual friends but have never met until a chance encounter brings them together in NYC.

The young actors handled their roles nicely. The supporting cast was quirky but fun, and the screenplay was solid enough. Ari Graynor, the drunken friend, stole most of the scenes she was in while Michael Cera’s band mates walked the line of being just too gay. 

All in all, it was a good movie that came together nicely. Granted, a bottle of wine always ramps up my acceptance of cute and cliché, but I think this high school love story would hold up on a wine-free night as well.

Coming Attractions

I just saw a preview for 'Gomorrah,' an Italian film about the mafioso directed by Matteo Gorrone. It looks intense. Check it out.