You'd never know that you were in a theme park.
Or that I took these with my phone.

Last Thursday is a day that has already jumped into my top 5 of best days ever. Here's how it went down:

Rach and I woke up very casually because we both had the day off, and it seems that happens not as frequently as we would like of to, so we took full advantage. Upon fully waking up and getting dressed we headed to the delicious Dunkin Donuts, and as anyone from the northeast will tell you, it was wicked awesome. I know we have Dunkin Donuts brand coffee at home, but it just doesn't compare. Anyway after that tasty put stop we went to Ripley's Believe It Or Not for some touristy type fun, but mostly because it was free to all Sea World employees and guests on that day. We got some sweet pictures of us sitting in obnoxiously large chairs and standing inside insanely large and heavy tires, and capping it all off was a techo fueled walk through a black lit swirling tunnel. Not bad for zero dollars.
Upon returning to the car the day was still very young and Rach made the suggestion to use her free pass and my always free admission to Universal. It was a very nice day so we were worried about there being a lot of people there, and since waiting in line at all, let alone insanely huge lines, is neither of our sting suits you can imagine our hesitation. However it was the middle of the week so we decided to chance it. Good thing we did because the longest line lasted about 10 minutes! This came as a very sharp contradiction to the time last year with Rachel and her Mom where the shortest line lasted about 2 hours!!! So we rode all the roller coasters that we felt necessary and even enjoyed a 6 dollar beer each while waiting to get on Dueling Dragons. We bid Islands of Adventure ado and headed home to rest before our date night dinner.
Now I could probably write a short story describing the awesomeness of our dinner, but I will keep it brief. We ate our romantic dinner at Roy's which, for being a chain restaurant, has better service and food than almost any other place in Orlando. We ate and drank to our hearts content, but only because of a generous gift card from my family and a $20 off card that the restaurant had send me only two days prior, what timing.
This day was by no means crazy, lavish, or exotic which some people might say it has to be to go into a top 5. It was just a very nice day. We did a lot but were never rushed, and because of the for mentioned free passes and gift cards it barely cost us a penny, although it felt like a million bucks.

With The Power Of Ale You Can Not Fail!!

Being an huge "music in general" fan I was beginning to believe that I wasn't going to be seeing any new styles of music again, until maybe a new instrument was invented. However, the other night at Backbooth the impossible happened. I was introduced to "True Scottish Pirate Metal" though the music of Alestorm. Looking at the four individuals that make up Alestorm, you wouldn't immediately think, "My face is about to be melted by these guys." You, however, would be wrong. The lead singer, and keytar player, (let that sink in) looks like Weird Al in both physical build and in hair and the bassist looks like Eric Foreman, from That 70s Show, with long hair. Only their guitarist looks like he would actually be in a metal band.
Now with general looks aside I'd like to go back to the fact that the lead singer plays a keytar... Before attending this show I listened to some samples of their music on the internet and really enjoyed the organ that plays throughout the record. It never dawned on me that these noises were emanating from anything other than an actual organ let alone a keytar. Now, with all preconceived notions about the keytar aside, because the music sounded so good, I watched this man proceed to go into about 7-10 keytar solos throughout the set and never once shook my head in disappointment.
The set left me with a smile that wouldn't quit for days and a new found hope that there actually is still original music to be made. if you get the chance, and there's no reason you shouldn't, give Alestorm a listen if for nothing more than a few laughs. A simple search on YouTube will give you a pleathora of songs to listen to, and I'm sure they have a myspace as well. My suggestions are: Set Sail and Conquer, Over the Seas, and Nancy the Tavern Wench.

So my parents were in town this weekend and it was seeming more and more like Rachel wasn't going to be able to get out of bed let alone join us on any of our outings. However, through devine intervention or maybe it was the amazing combination of meds that she was on Rach rose on Saturday morning and exclaimed to me, "I feel better!" And with that, we were off. The day started off fairly simply with a trip to BJs to buy large quantities of food and paper goods. This included the largest bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee that is manufactured. Seriously it says "our largest size" right on the label. Anyway, then we went to target to get more food because our house was barren. Following our epic food buying binge we ventures to Orlando RV, which turned out to be quite an adventure. Exploring all the different models and the vegas-like interior of most was very entertaining. After pretending to be gypsies for an hour or so we visited Found and followed that up with a delicious beer at Mcraineys, which if becoming more and more a favorite haunt of Rach and I.
We all returned home to wind down a bit before dinner and to put away the mass of groceries that we had amassed.
Dinner was at Wazzabi and was amazing. Sushi just never leaves us feeling unsatisfied and when it's really great sushi there is nothing better.
Dinner was followed by a night cap at The Red Fox Lounge, which is also becoming a frequent haunt of ours. However, for totaly different reasons. I could write a whole post just explaining The Red Fox, and very well might, but just do a google search for "The Red Fox Lounge" in Winter Park and you might begin to understand why it is so amazing. Fantastic day and evening all around.

Today I'm at work and it's raining, which means it'll be a very quiet day here at the world of seas. Tonight the lady and I, she doesn't know if she's coming yet but I've already decided that she is, are going to Back Booth to see Adam's band open up for Alestorm (see pirate punk rock). Needless to say it should be pretty fun.

I've got three hours to kill here at work and I'd like to take this time to talk about an epidemic that I've been noticing more and more lately. What follows will probably end up being more of a rant than a proper essay and please forgive my misspellings and gramatical errors because I am typing this on my phone.

The lack of common curtesy of the general public has become rather aparent to me over the last few weeks. Now to be fair I do notice it more when I am at work, at a theme park, than when I'm out around town but I think it's just because I am at work so much. Whether it is not holding the door for the person behind you, walking directally into someone elses path so as causing them to stop abruptly or trip, not being able to wait your turn in any sort of line, or simply just saying thank you when someone manages to exercise common curtesy towards you. Now I know that people can be busy or having a bad day, but really does it take a lot of time or energy to do any of these things? How much of your time could it take to look behind you to see if someone is walking out a door that you're opening anyway and then hold that door till they walk through? And if you're having a bad day is it really going to make you feel worse to say thank you to someone who just did something nice for you?
So I am calling for a radical change in everyones outlook towards common curtesy. I'm not asking for a lot and it really shouldn't be that hard to do. Just take an extra minute to observe what's going on around you. Maybe if others see you making the effort they will get in line as well. Thank you.

I'm using Ping.fm for the first time to see if it is a viable way to update my blog using my phone.

Blink 182 Reuniting

P.S. the fact that AC Slater is doing this interview makes it like 50 times more amazing.

Two Tongues

This album doesn't come out until Feb. 3rd, but I have had the opportunity to listen to the whole album, it's streaming on their myspace and is also available on some of the torrent networks, and I must say the although this year is barely a month old this record could be one of the best of the year. This record is the epitome of the word collaboration as Max Bemis of Say Anything and Chris Conley of Saves The Day clearly wrote this record together and didn't each just write a few tunes and call it a record. There really is not a dud on the record, but I would have to say that If I Could Make You Do Things and Don't You Want to Come Home are my favorite tracks by far.
I, personally, really couldn't ask for a better collaboration of two minds. I've loved Saves The Day for a very long time (see: my collar bone) and I believe that Max is a lyrical genius. If you get a chance give this record a listen I promise you will not be disappointed.

Inauguration Day

I've been pondering whether or not to post a blog about the happening of today. I woke up this morning under the impression that I definitely would, but as the day progressed and I watched more and more coverage of the events I wasn't sure if my thoughts could at all equal that comments and observations that I had seen and heard already. However, this is my blog and I helped elect this man, so here, my commentary matters.

Rachel and I started off the morning by watching the early events unfold from the comforts of our warm bed. I know you may be thinking that, "Hey you live in Florida, it's always warm there!" You, however, would be wrong. We started out by watching Katie Couric on CBS which was pretty good, but I felt that their commentary and observations were all very boring. After rising and getting delicious cups of Dunkin Donuts coffee, the hot variety because again it was cold, we switch the station to CNN which proved to be much more entertaining. I really enjoyed the speakings of Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper because at least they seemed to really enjoy the proceedings and the fact that they were really a part of history. Also the technology that CNN employed was really fun and exciting. Here's a link to their 3D and 360 degree view of "The Moment" that Obama took over as the 44th president of the United States.

I also wore a special shirt in honor of today. Call me cheesy, call me lame, but this was a incredible moment in U.S. history and it was one of the ways that I could commemorate it.

Here's my shirt

FOUND Fashion Show

I know it took me a bit to post my real official post, besides that one about why I started this blog in the first place....blah blah blah. Well here it is.

Monday night marked the first real promotional event for FOUND (a vintage shop) and it was held at Tatame Saki Lounge. For those of you who don't know FOUND is the brainchild of my amazing girlfriend, Rachel, and her business partner/best friend Amy. If you havn't figured it out by the title it is a vintage clothing store for both men and women. Now that geneal introductions are out of the way I will revert back to what this post is really about, the fashion show. It was a brisk Monday evening here in Orlando and we no one really knew what kind of crowd was going to come out on a Monday night. Well I must hand it to the Orlando fashion crowd for turning out in droves and making the night a rousisng success. I clearly also have to hand it to Rachel and Amy for working so tirelessly in putting the whole show together.

Here are some photos from the night.








Found will have a working website up, hopefully, by the end of next week. You will be able to shop, hear about promotions and upcoming events, and talk to the FOUND girls themselves. It will be located at www.found-vintage.com So check back often.

¿Porque?

I've found that many of the people I used to refer to as best friends when I was younger have started blogs, and I have really enjoyed reading them. I guess I hope they enjoy reading mine, or at least have something to read and compare to the comments that I intend to leave on their respective blogs. If all else fails then I'm hoping that someone in 100 years stumbles upon in and wastes a few hours of their life reading about me.