Hello,
The blog will certainly become more active in the up and coming months. We have a new addition to the family. Taylor Reese Allison.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Revenge of the Blog . . . .
I said that I would post twice a month well that just isn’t true. I guess that my life is too boring to post more than once a month and less than that most of the time. Anyway, I’m back with another long update for what is happening in our lives. I take my time putting them up but it gives me time to experience fun things and make a longer entry for your enjoyment.
I last left you with my 80/20 theory. I hope that you have looked at and found it to be false but I wouldn’t believe you. I did leave out the icing of the story from last time which Andrew pointed out to me. This addition puts the 80/20 theory up there with Newton’s Law of Gravity. As you know, I would talk with Andrew every morning on the way to court as Juror Number 8. I would pull into the deck and the entrance was much different from other normal parking deck entrances. Normally there is a button; you push it, get a ticket, the gate opens and you move on. At the court house, due to the 80% showing up they had to make some adjustments. You drove up to the place where you got the ticket and there was a GIANT green button that had the words PUSH HERE on it. This is apparently not enough. As you pull up a speaker would say “PUSH GREEN BUTTON, PUSH GREEN BUTTON, PUSH GREEN BUTTON” over and over until you pushed it. A ticket would then come out. In case this was confusing the speaker then yelled “TAKE TICKET, TAKE TICKET, TAKE TICKET” until you took the ticket. The gate would then open. It was very comical and Andrew and I would laugh pretty hard before I got off the phone. I’m not sure what would then happen to the people that needed these instructions. How did they park? How did they get out of their car? How on earth did they get out of the deck without the speaker’s help? I’m really not sure but I guess that they made it somehow.
I last spoke in April so I need to catch you up to the present. We went to Myrtle Beach with my family. It was a pleasant trip. We are beach people as we find that very relaxing and we enjoy seafood. I played golf 3 times and spent the rest of the time on the beach. Andrew and Lindsey left on Wednesday which was sad but really sad for Dad. He was left with the “readers”. Liz and Mom tear through books while at the beach. I read them but not at the pace that they do. Dad is not a big reader so he found himself bored at times on the beach as we were reading. He needed Andrew to play some games with him but we golfed again on Friday so everything was good.
June was pretty much a blur. I was playing softball and golf a good bit during the month. I then had my golf trip to Pinehurst at the end of the month. There were 20 guys going and Andrew was one of them this time so it was going to be more fun than usual. I played 126 holes of golf over 4 days which is pretty amazing. You can’t go wrong with that. We played a warm-up round at Beacon Ridge which was a good warm-up because it was a tight and hard course. It was the hardest course of the weekend. That night we ate at an Italian place which had good food and the worst service of all-time. One guy refused the help of other staff in order to get a large tip which sucked for the 20 guys trying to eat. We sat down at 7 and were out at 11. It was also hot in the restaurant as I guess they were saving money by keeping the air on 80. This is insane. Anything above 75 is crazy but I prefer 70.
Anyway, the tournament began the next morning. Andrew and I were playing a match together. We were playing at MidSouth which is a course designed by Arnold Palmer. It was a very nice course and I would recommend it. However, be sure to play from the whites and not the blues as we did. The course was pretty punishing and hard going. Andrew and I fell down early in our better ball match but came back and took a lead then had the lead go away again. We are not great teammates as we both can spray the ball. It’s better to have 1 consistent person which is something that we lacked. We were told that we had to skip the 10th hole because our group was too slow. Perhaps the course was just crowded but it did open up after skipping a hole. We wound up all square coming back to the 10th hole (our last). Everyone hit poor shots but Andrew got a little lucky as one of his long misses found an opening in the tall grass next to the green. I got a bogey to tie the other team and Andrew was able to par and win the match. It was pretty exciting.
The second match was a total Stabbleford match based on your individual points. It allowed weaker players like myself to play with better players. Patrick and I dominated James and Patrick’s Dad. We were +19 and the best pairing of the afternoon round. We won rather easily.
On Saturday, we were playing 2 rounds at Tobacco Road. I have to say that this is the best course that I have ever played. I wouldn’t say it is the most manicured but the design was just awesome. I was paired with Don all day. He is a guy in his late 50s but a very solid golfer. We had a better ball match in the morning followed by captain’s choice in the afternoon. Our morning round went well. We started off down 2 and eventually came back to lead by 3 and win 3 and 2. We were great partners in that one of us would get a par on each hole. Our opponents also played poorly for themselves and that always helps.
In the afternoon, we were playing Chris my boss and Pierce who is the worst player on the trip but a nice guy. As Paula Abdul would say “He looked good.” Don and I felt that we would be able to win easily. However, we started off losing the first two holes again. On the second tee, Chris asked if we would like some Jim Beam as they had 2 fifths. We held off and this became a theme for the round. Every few holes Chris would ask and we would turn him down. I did not know this but Jim Beam was Don’s favorite drink so it was tempting for him. We then took the lead by 3 on hole 14. We were feeling pretty good having just made a birdie. Chris asked again and Don took him up on it this time. He asked me and of course I said yes as well. Don took his straight which was probably not good. I took mine with some Pepsi but both were still mostly bourbon. Keep in mind, it was 94 degrees all day so we were pretty dehydrated. These drinks hit us like a ton of bricks. Don was pretty much out of it by the 15th hole. I can’t say that I was a beacon of sobriety myself. So, we lose the 15th hole and are only up 2 with 4 to play. Chris’s plan has worked. Don is almost worthless at this point as we get to the 16th tee and I am well on my way. This is a par 3 over water. I hit mine in the drink but Don manages to land his 25 yards off of the green but in play. Chris puts his 6 feet from the hole; a certain birdie. We are both pretty scared now thinking that we’ve blown it. We keep telling each other that we can half the last two holes and win. I step up to my chip and hit it . . . it has a chance . . . it’s in the HOLE! Birdie! Don and I are dancing around as you can imagine. Chris and Pierce are pissed. They do make the putt though but we halve the next two matches and win the match. It was awesome and probably the best golf shot of my life. It was actually meaningful as well.
The next day is match play. I’m playing with Andrew again. We both win and lose one match. I end up 5-1 for the weekend which I’ll take. Andrew wins the individual and our team wins so that makes it pretty fun. I doubt that we’ll be on the same team next year as we’re a great match for each other but who knows. I guess that we’ll see. I then get in Neil’s black car with black seats and the worst AC I”ve ever seen in a car. It pretty much gave me a hangover on the ride home. I got home very tired and that was the weekend. It was a great time.
That was it for June. We went back to the beach in July; this time with Liz’s family. It was also a good time for the same reasons. We did stop by to see Jamie and Leslie on the way. Their 5 month old son Brookes was very cute. It was also a good time to visit as he could pretty much sleep through the night which he did. The Kipkes also turned Elizabeth onto Twilight. She read all 4 books at the beach. She enjoyed them. I am currently on book 4 right now. They are decent but definitely slanted towards females. There are parts that make me gag a little but I can get through it. The monster mythology portions are pretty entertaining.
I believe that brings us pretty much up to date. I have Andrew’s bachelor party starting tonight then football season begins. We have UNC season tickets again so I’m sure that we’ll be up there pretty often. Take care and stay classy Ben’s Friends . . .
I last left you with my 80/20 theory. I hope that you have looked at and found it to be false but I wouldn’t believe you. I did leave out the icing of the story from last time which Andrew pointed out to me. This addition puts the 80/20 theory up there with Newton’s Law of Gravity. As you know, I would talk with Andrew every morning on the way to court as Juror Number 8. I would pull into the deck and the entrance was much different from other normal parking deck entrances. Normally there is a button; you push it, get a ticket, the gate opens and you move on. At the court house, due to the 80% showing up they had to make some adjustments. You drove up to the place where you got the ticket and there was a GIANT green button that had the words PUSH HERE on it. This is apparently not enough. As you pull up a speaker would say “PUSH GREEN BUTTON, PUSH GREEN BUTTON, PUSH GREEN BUTTON” over and over until you pushed it. A ticket would then come out. In case this was confusing the speaker then yelled “TAKE TICKET, TAKE TICKET, TAKE TICKET” until you took the ticket. The gate would then open. It was very comical and Andrew and I would laugh pretty hard before I got off the phone. I’m not sure what would then happen to the people that needed these instructions. How did they park? How did they get out of their car? How on earth did they get out of the deck without the speaker’s help? I’m really not sure but I guess that they made it somehow.
I last spoke in April so I need to catch you up to the present. We went to Myrtle Beach with my family. It was a pleasant trip. We are beach people as we find that very relaxing and we enjoy seafood. I played golf 3 times and spent the rest of the time on the beach. Andrew and Lindsey left on Wednesday which was sad but really sad for Dad. He was left with the “readers”. Liz and Mom tear through books while at the beach. I read them but not at the pace that they do. Dad is not a big reader so he found himself bored at times on the beach as we were reading. He needed Andrew to play some games with him but we golfed again on Friday so everything was good.
June was pretty much a blur. I was playing softball and golf a good bit during the month. I then had my golf trip to Pinehurst at the end of the month. There were 20 guys going and Andrew was one of them this time so it was going to be more fun than usual. I played 126 holes of golf over 4 days which is pretty amazing. You can’t go wrong with that. We played a warm-up round at Beacon Ridge which was a good warm-up because it was a tight and hard course. It was the hardest course of the weekend. That night we ate at an Italian place which had good food and the worst service of all-time. One guy refused the help of other staff in order to get a large tip which sucked for the 20 guys trying to eat. We sat down at 7 and were out at 11. It was also hot in the restaurant as I guess they were saving money by keeping the air on 80. This is insane. Anything above 75 is crazy but I prefer 70.
Anyway, the tournament began the next morning. Andrew and I were playing a match together. We were playing at MidSouth which is a course designed by Arnold Palmer. It was a very nice course and I would recommend it. However, be sure to play from the whites and not the blues as we did. The course was pretty punishing and hard going. Andrew and I fell down early in our better ball match but came back and took a lead then had the lead go away again. We are not great teammates as we both can spray the ball. It’s better to have 1 consistent person which is something that we lacked. We were told that we had to skip the 10th hole because our group was too slow. Perhaps the course was just crowded but it did open up after skipping a hole. We wound up all square coming back to the 10th hole (our last). Everyone hit poor shots but Andrew got a little lucky as one of his long misses found an opening in the tall grass next to the green. I got a bogey to tie the other team and Andrew was able to par and win the match. It was pretty exciting.
The second match was a total Stabbleford match based on your individual points. It allowed weaker players like myself to play with better players. Patrick and I dominated James and Patrick’s Dad. We were +19 and the best pairing of the afternoon round. We won rather easily.
On Saturday, we were playing 2 rounds at Tobacco Road. I have to say that this is the best course that I have ever played. I wouldn’t say it is the most manicured but the design was just awesome. I was paired with Don all day. He is a guy in his late 50s but a very solid golfer. We had a better ball match in the morning followed by captain’s choice in the afternoon. Our morning round went well. We started off down 2 and eventually came back to lead by 3 and win 3 and 2. We were great partners in that one of us would get a par on each hole. Our opponents also played poorly for themselves and that always helps.
In the afternoon, we were playing Chris my boss and Pierce who is the worst player on the trip but a nice guy. As Paula Abdul would say “He looked good.” Don and I felt that we would be able to win easily. However, we started off losing the first two holes again. On the second tee, Chris asked if we would like some Jim Beam as they had 2 fifths. We held off and this became a theme for the round. Every few holes Chris would ask and we would turn him down. I did not know this but Jim Beam was Don’s favorite drink so it was tempting for him. We then took the lead by 3 on hole 14. We were feeling pretty good having just made a birdie. Chris asked again and Don took him up on it this time. He asked me and of course I said yes as well. Don took his straight which was probably not good. I took mine with some Pepsi but both were still mostly bourbon. Keep in mind, it was 94 degrees all day so we were pretty dehydrated. These drinks hit us like a ton of bricks. Don was pretty much out of it by the 15th hole. I can’t say that I was a beacon of sobriety myself. So, we lose the 15th hole and are only up 2 with 4 to play. Chris’s plan has worked. Don is almost worthless at this point as we get to the 16th tee and I am well on my way. This is a par 3 over water. I hit mine in the drink but Don manages to land his 25 yards off of the green but in play. Chris puts his 6 feet from the hole; a certain birdie. We are both pretty scared now thinking that we’ve blown it. We keep telling each other that we can half the last two holes and win. I step up to my chip and hit it . . . it has a chance . . . it’s in the HOLE! Birdie! Don and I are dancing around as you can imagine. Chris and Pierce are pissed. They do make the putt though but we halve the next two matches and win the match. It was awesome and probably the best golf shot of my life. It was actually meaningful as well.
The next day is match play. I’m playing with Andrew again. We both win and lose one match. I end up 5-1 for the weekend which I’ll take. Andrew wins the individual and our team wins so that makes it pretty fun. I doubt that we’ll be on the same team next year as we’re a great match for each other but who knows. I guess that we’ll see. I then get in Neil’s black car with black seats and the worst AC I”ve ever seen in a car. It pretty much gave me a hangover on the ride home. I got home very tired and that was the weekend. It was a great time.
That was it for June. We went back to the beach in July; this time with Liz’s family. It was also a good time for the same reasons. We did stop by to see Jamie and Leslie on the way. Their 5 month old son Brookes was very cute. It was also a good time to visit as he could pretty much sleep through the night which he did. The Kipkes also turned Elizabeth onto Twilight. She read all 4 books at the beach. She enjoyed them. I am currently on book 4 right now. They are decent but definitely slanted towards females. There are parts that make me gag a little but I can get through it. The monster mythology portions are pretty entertaining.
I believe that brings us pretty much up to date. I have Andrew’s bachelor party starting tonight then football season begins. We have UNC season tickets again so I’m sure that we’ll be up there pretty often. Take care and stay classy Ben’s Friends . . .
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
80/20 Theory
The 80/20 theory is one that I put together last November and I somehow did not share this with all of you. This is one of my best theories that I have put together. You are welcome to debate this theory with me but time and time again it holds true. The essence of this theory is that 80% of all people are dumb and 20% are smart. The theory can be broken down further than that but that is theory’s most basic ideal. Your goal; in most cases should be to be part of the 20%.
You are thinking right now that 80% is crazy high. You’re looking around at your co-workers or the other people in the room and thinking NO WAY are 80% of us stupid. You are probably correct. This theory applies to all people. If you are reading this blog then you are likely an educated person and thus surround yourself with equally intelligent people because that is what people do. They like to be around people that are like them. It’s basic psychology. You have to step outside of your little intelligent box and look at a true cross-section of people to appreciate the theory.
I had the opportunity to do such a thing last November. I did not share this story at the time because I was pretty busy. You see, I was selected to serve jury duty. At the time, I was going to jury duty during the day and working in the evenings or during breaks at the courthouse. They take lots of breaks but they are needed. So, to back up my theory I will tell you the story of how I came up with it.
I was selected to serve as a juror for Mecklenburg County. I went there thinking that I would sign in, sit around for a day, and then be gone. Well, it didn’t turn out that way. I went to the court house and checked in around 9:30. I filled out some paper work and then sat around until I watched the video on how to be a juror.
Now, I have to say that the Charlotte courthouse is the Ferrari of courthouses. This place was pretty pimped out. The juror assembly room in particular was amazing. As a juror you have to sit in the juror assembly room and can’t leave until you are dismissed or put on a jury. This room is new and covers two floors. The bottom floor has 3 big sections with some seats that face some large plasma TVs. These sections are used to call jurors as well as show videos and movies to the potential jurors. There is a quiet separate room for work folks. There are 10 computers that people can use. There is a kitchen and then another lounge room on the bottom floor. The upstairs room is an arcade room with pool tables, foosball and a couple pinball machines. There are free lockers for your stuff and wi-fi throughout. There are a couple of bathrooms as well. Like I said, it is pretty sweet. So, I sat there the first day and watched some shows on Liz’s iPod including highlights of the WVU/UGA Sugar Bowl game. I enjoyed that. We had a break around 10; I’m not sure why because we hadn’t done anything but I think that it was mainly for smokers to be able to go outside. We came back and then had a lunch break at from 11:30 to 1. Not a peep about jurors so I didn’t worry about. I’m thinking that I’m out at 2. Then the deputies start pouring in.
The call everyone into the 3 main rooms; you can’t have foot outside the main room for some reason. The lady is calling names out over speakers and on the TVs but you better be in those three rooms. The first 30 people are called and I’m safe. It’s a scary time. It’s a lottery that you don’t want to win. So, everyone starts to leave and another deputy comes in to get people. They get through 26 of the 35 names and then my name is called. I’ve WON! Not really, but I walk to the lobby with the other chosen 35. No one is happy but what can you do?
From there we all go into the hall; our deputy is named Dunbar. I have to say that this man was great and made the time serving as a juror as pleasant as he could. It started right when I walked into the hallway. He says “OK, How many of you don’t want to be here?” A couple people raise their hands. He then says “Wow, we have some dishonest people in this group, I know that none of you want to be here so I’ll ask again; How many of you don’t want to be here?” Everyone raises their hand. He says “Now, that’s more like it and I’m going to help you all out. I’m getting you out of here.” He pauses long enough to confuse us a little. “We’re going straight into this courtroom. “ It was pretty funny and set the tone that he was going to make it as fun as possible. He knows that he is dealing with 35 pissed off people that want to be somewhere else.
We then go into the court room. It is kind of weird because everyone is in there looking at you. By everyone, I mean the judge, two prosecutors, two defense lawyers, the defendant, a couple bailiffs and a couple people sitting in the courtroom. Anyone can go and listen to court cases; if you didn’t know and you were bored completely out of your mind one day then go for it. They call the first twelve people up into the box. This is when the fun begins and what created the 80/20 theory.
They call you in the order that they call you the first time so I’m pretty deep in the pool and think that I may not be selected. Bear in mind, this is around 3 PM and I realize that I will certainly be back the next day. Bummer, on the bright side, I will earn another $12 for the day of serving! Score! They tell you that you have been selected for a murder trial and give you some details about the case. They then begin questioning the jurors. As it turns out, this murder was rather brutal. One of the questions that is asked is if you can handle some real life gore. The murder was a stabbing; more on that later. The prosecution starts interviewing the jurors; this is awful. They ask really simple questions. Have you been to prison? Do you have relatives that have been to prison? Etc . . . The questions are always followed up if there is a positive answer with the same question. The follow up is “Despite whatever, can you be fair in hearing this case?” This is a simple yes or no question. You say Yes or No. A proper response is not “I don’t know.” Know sounds like No but it does not mean the same thing. So, the dumb people which is 80% of the people answer “I don’t know” or something equivalent. This takes forever. The prosecutors try to bounce these people because they can’t answer but the defense wants to keep them because the dumber you are the better it is for the defense or at least that is way it looked to me. Of course that makes sense because you sometimes can’t rationally argue with dumb people. It’s like arguing with people that think gay people are possessed by the Devil. Although, I have a comeback for that you simply say “By that rational then you could wake up gay tomorrow.” This usually confuses them and they can’t speak. Yes, they are part of the 80%. But I digress.
The prosecution continues asking people questions and after a day they have bounced 10 of the dumb people that can’t say Yes or No. I am then called on Monday morning. I started on a Thursday. Monday is also my last day as an inexperienced juror. I am set to get a raise up to $20 the next day. They ask me the questions and I answer them fairly. People kept telling to try and get off by saying crazy stuff but I couldn’t really do that. It’s totally unethical and you can’t really do it in front of all those people unless you truly are crazy or have no ethics. The way people got off from the prosecution is if they owned their own business and couldn’t be away because they would not be able to focus on the case; thus they would not be fair. To get off jury duty, you can’t be fair. The prosecution basically wanted to have decent and smart people. The defense wanted the dumb folks because I guess they thought that they could trick them or they would hang the jury. The prosecution said that they were satisfied with the twelve. I was juror number 8. It's infinity sideways. 8 is a cool number; second to 58 in my favorite number list but that’s another story. Now, the defense starts in with their questioning. They ask more questions about different hardships that you have faced and such. It does get rather personal. I had to answer questions that I normally would never talk about. Those questions don’t really apply to the 80/20 theory. I’ll just say that 1997 really sucked and I will never support the Boy Scouts. As it turns out both of those relate to the reason that I was kept on the jury. The defense basically kicked anyone off that was well educated and could not relate to the defendant who grew up in a terrible and abusive environment. So the questioning of the jurors goes on and on. With each ejection by the defense comes a new juror and they have to face all the questions from both sides which takes a good 30 minutes for the people in 20% and much longer for those in the 80%. We go through about 45 jurors and finally get to the 12 and 2 alternates. By this point, I have formed the theory that 80% of all people are dumb. I will tell you how to apply it later but I’ll go ahead and finish the jury story for you because it is pretty interesting.
The courtroom is pretty sweet. It is new and you have a personal monitor in front of you and there are 2 giant plasmas hung up behind the judge so that the lawyers can present evidence that everyone can see. It is called publishing evidence just FYI. So, they both give their opening arguments. The prosecution tells us that Fergie (defendant, fake name) stabbed Blake (fake name) 79 times. This is why we were asked all the gore questions. It makes sense now. It is not a “who did it” case but why? Fergie admits to it but claims manslaughter not murder.
The prosecution then lays out the facts. They show the brutal pictures. It was right out of a crime drama. What you see on TV is what happens in the court room. I felt like I was on CSI. After the case, the judge and prosecutors tell us that this was the most brutal case that they have ever seen. Sweet, I’m so glad that I was able to be there for it. We see all these pictures and they were pretty graphic as you can imagine. 79 times is a lot. They show the interrogation tapes. The detectives are as good as the ones on TV. Fergie makes up a big story and then the detectives break him and he admits it. We watched about 3 hours of this. We are likely on day 6 at this point. We are all now seasoned jurors and are maxing out our pay at $40 a day. Awesome! They then bring in the CSI team that goes over the scene. The coroner comes in and describes all of the 79 blows as well as the wounds on the defendant. Fergie cut up his hands during the incident. Not shocking since he stabbed someone 79 times. I don’t know how that guy does his job. He was so calm talking about it all. The prosecution then rests.
The defense then calls Fergie to the stand. We had a break and then came back into the court room. He was sitting in the stand as we walked in and we were a couple feet from him. It gave you chills to be that close after seeing the stuff that he had done.
I’ll take a break to tell you about our breaks. We went from 9 to 10:30, 15 minute break, then to 12, 1.5 hour break for lunch, then to 3:15 break, then we left at 5 or 10 after because we had to talk to the bailiff before leaving. During the 15 minute breaks I would normally take a bathroom break and check email in the morning if I could get a computer. The fresh jurors were sometimes on them. They weren’t on Fridays though because there is no jury duty on Friday unless you are in a trial. I bet you didn’t know that, only veterans like me do. During lunch, I would log on to work and work for an hour after eating my lunch. I did this upstairs with the pool table because no one came up there during lunch. I would always try and get a game of Galaga in during the afternoon break. That game is still fun.
I hope you enjoyed your break now back to the trial. We came out and he was sitting there. It was chilling like I said. He then told his story of the events and how his abuses as a child lead him to black out during the killing. It was a stretch for me but I fully believe that he was abused as a child. The defense then brought in two expert psychologists that backed up the abuse. They tried to say other things as well but they were dismantled by the prosecution. They both gave their closing arguments on the trial and then we were sent to deliberate. They used power point for their closing arguments; crazy huh?
There are rules as a juror. The hardest one is that you aren’t supposed to discuss the case with anyone especially the other jurors. I didn’t talk to the other jurors but everyone morning during my 45 minute commute to the courthouse, I called Andrew to discuss the case. It was fun to report in as juror number 8. It was mostly me talking about how insanely dumb the people were during selection then it was about the case which was pretty crazy. You also can’t talk to the defense or prosecution at anytime. I took a lunch one Friday to Showmars and the prosecution walked in. They saw me said “Shit!” and left. They weren’t supposed to be close to me at all. Sucked for them.
I haven’t given you the story behind the murder so let me go over that with you. Blake was a black gay drug dealer. He had hired Fergie as one of his sub-dealers or soldiers (street lingo). They had a pretty good business going. So good that Blake would front Fergie the drugs and get the money after Blake sold them. This was risky for Blake because if Fergie wanted to he could jet with the drugs. Well, one time Fergie didn’t pay Blake back. Fergie claimed that he was mugged which is possible but Blake didn’t care and wasn’t going to front him anymore. Fergie went to Blake’s home to try and sort that out or so he said. Fergie claims that Blake said that he would trade the debt for sex and that set him off due to the abuse that he received as a child. The prosecution painted a picture of Fergie killing Blake to get the drugs then go sell them. The true story will never be known but I think that Fergie went there to work things out and it didn’t go how he wanted and thus he killed Blake. There were other things like stolen cars, hiding the knife, girlfriends, other drug dealers, other customers, etc . . . but the jest is above. The prosecution did some interesting things in that they would bring in giant packages and have them sitting there but then they would not submit it for evidence; it was weird.
Deliberation; we were finally allowed to talk about the case. The first thing that we had to do was pick a foreman. There was one guy that was a head HR guy and he and I had talked about a process and wanting to be done so I nominated him. He nominated me but he won the votes mainly because I nominated him before anyone said anything. He was a little upset with me but we both knew that it was good. We started on a Friday after lunch. I was hoping to get done and out of there that day but it was not to be. Some of the people that I had thought were in the 20% were really in the 80%. It was like they weren’t at the trial at all. They didn’t remember anything. I will say that being a juror is tiring. Even though you only listen for 6 hours a day, it is tiring. I was more tired after those six hours than I was after 10 hours of work. We requested the pictures and other things and started talking. The foreman had the idea to go through every piece of the law and vote on it then move to the next all the way through. It was a great plan and helped the 80%. We came to a guilty verdict Monday by lunch. We had lunch came back and finished up. So, it was basically two weeks and 3 days.
The court dude reads the verdict then the defense polled us in that we each had to say yes twice. The questions were “Is this your verdict?” and “Is this still your verdict?” Luckily, no one failed those questions. We were done and went back to the little room. The judge then came and talked to us for 45 minutes about the case and thanked us. He was a really cool dude. He was being promoted to a State court because he was so good. He told us that it was the most brutal case he had ever seen and that he had to make the 2 alternates stay during our deliberation because of the brutality. Normally, alternates are released once deliberation begins. In this case, if we had found the defendant not guilty then the state could have made some brutality motion that the judge would have granted which would have restarted the trial in that new evidence would be submitted. Luckily, we got it right the first time. He signed our sheets and we were dismissed.
When we walked out of the juror room the prosecution was waiting for us. They wanted to discuss the case with us. They wanted to see how they could improve and what not. The defense did not. I wonder if the winner gets to talk to the jury or if the prosecution always does? We talked with them for another 45 minutes. They revealed to us that the different bags of stuff that they were bringing in were nothing. They brought them in when Fergie was on the stand to mess with his mind. It kind of worked because his story was never the same from the confession, to what other people said he said, to the stand. Each story had different things in it. They told us that he is being tried for another murder in Virginia and believe that he has killed dozens of people up and down the east coast. They also said that it was the most brutal case that they had ever seen.
That was the court experience. I drove out of the deck and headed to work. It was month-end so the end of the trial could not have come sooner.
Throughout this process, I kept thinking about the 80/20 theory and how it applies to life. Like I said earlier most people fall into one of the two groups. You could also break it down from there and relate it to different subjects. We all move across the 80/20 line when it comes to different subjects. For such things as 18th century art; I am squarely in the 80%. For picking college football games, I’d put myself in the 20%. I’d hate to say that 80% of everyone is in that 80% all the time. I think that everyone grades into the 20% at some point. I did mention that you don’t always want to be in that 20%. For example, the subject of obtaining and smoking crack rock would be a subject that I hope most you would fall into the 80%. I believe that there is a strong correlation between people scoring 20% on the crack rock subject and scoring in the 80% for pretty much everything else. If you’re not buying into the 80% then you need to get out of your bubble. Go to Wal-mart and walk around for 30 minutes. Just take it in and you’ll see that the 80% is out there.
You are thinking right now that 80% is crazy high. You’re looking around at your co-workers or the other people in the room and thinking NO WAY are 80% of us stupid. You are probably correct. This theory applies to all people. If you are reading this blog then you are likely an educated person and thus surround yourself with equally intelligent people because that is what people do. They like to be around people that are like them. It’s basic psychology. You have to step outside of your little intelligent box and look at a true cross-section of people to appreciate the theory.
I had the opportunity to do such a thing last November. I did not share this story at the time because I was pretty busy. You see, I was selected to serve jury duty. At the time, I was going to jury duty during the day and working in the evenings or during breaks at the courthouse. They take lots of breaks but they are needed. So, to back up my theory I will tell you the story of how I came up with it.
I was selected to serve as a juror for Mecklenburg County. I went there thinking that I would sign in, sit around for a day, and then be gone. Well, it didn’t turn out that way. I went to the court house and checked in around 9:30. I filled out some paper work and then sat around until I watched the video on how to be a juror.
Now, I have to say that the Charlotte courthouse is the Ferrari of courthouses. This place was pretty pimped out. The juror assembly room in particular was amazing. As a juror you have to sit in the juror assembly room and can’t leave until you are dismissed or put on a jury. This room is new and covers two floors. The bottom floor has 3 big sections with some seats that face some large plasma TVs. These sections are used to call jurors as well as show videos and movies to the potential jurors. There is a quiet separate room for work folks. There are 10 computers that people can use. There is a kitchen and then another lounge room on the bottom floor. The upstairs room is an arcade room with pool tables, foosball and a couple pinball machines. There are free lockers for your stuff and wi-fi throughout. There are a couple of bathrooms as well. Like I said, it is pretty sweet. So, I sat there the first day and watched some shows on Liz’s iPod including highlights of the WVU/UGA Sugar Bowl game. I enjoyed that. We had a break around 10; I’m not sure why because we hadn’t done anything but I think that it was mainly for smokers to be able to go outside. We came back and then had a lunch break at from 11:30 to 1. Not a peep about jurors so I didn’t worry about. I’m thinking that I’m out at 2. Then the deputies start pouring in.
The call everyone into the 3 main rooms; you can’t have foot outside the main room for some reason. The lady is calling names out over speakers and on the TVs but you better be in those three rooms. The first 30 people are called and I’m safe. It’s a scary time. It’s a lottery that you don’t want to win. So, everyone starts to leave and another deputy comes in to get people. They get through 26 of the 35 names and then my name is called. I’ve WON! Not really, but I walk to the lobby with the other chosen 35. No one is happy but what can you do?
From there we all go into the hall; our deputy is named Dunbar. I have to say that this man was great and made the time serving as a juror as pleasant as he could. It started right when I walked into the hallway. He says “OK, How many of you don’t want to be here?” A couple people raise their hands. He then says “Wow, we have some dishonest people in this group, I know that none of you want to be here so I’ll ask again; How many of you don’t want to be here?” Everyone raises their hand. He says “Now, that’s more like it and I’m going to help you all out. I’m getting you out of here.” He pauses long enough to confuse us a little. “We’re going straight into this courtroom. “ It was pretty funny and set the tone that he was going to make it as fun as possible. He knows that he is dealing with 35 pissed off people that want to be somewhere else.
We then go into the court room. It is kind of weird because everyone is in there looking at you. By everyone, I mean the judge, two prosecutors, two defense lawyers, the defendant, a couple bailiffs and a couple people sitting in the courtroom. Anyone can go and listen to court cases; if you didn’t know and you were bored completely out of your mind one day then go for it. They call the first twelve people up into the box. This is when the fun begins and what created the 80/20 theory.
They call you in the order that they call you the first time so I’m pretty deep in the pool and think that I may not be selected. Bear in mind, this is around 3 PM and I realize that I will certainly be back the next day. Bummer, on the bright side, I will earn another $12 for the day of serving! Score! They tell you that you have been selected for a murder trial and give you some details about the case. They then begin questioning the jurors. As it turns out, this murder was rather brutal. One of the questions that is asked is if you can handle some real life gore. The murder was a stabbing; more on that later. The prosecution starts interviewing the jurors; this is awful. They ask really simple questions. Have you been to prison? Do you have relatives that have been to prison? Etc . . . The questions are always followed up if there is a positive answer with the same question. The follow up is “Despite whatever, can you be fair in hearing this case?” This is a simple yes or no question. You say Yes or No. A proper response is not “I don’t know.” Know sounds like No but it does not mean the same thing. So, the dumb people which is 80% of the people answer “I don’t know” or something equivalent. This takes forever. The prosecutors try to bounce these people because they can’t answer but the defense wants to keep them because the dumber you are the better it is for the defense or at least that is way it looked to me. Of course that makes sense because you sometimes can’t rationally argue with dumb people. It’s like arguing with people that think gay people are possessed by the Devil. Although, I have a comeback for that you simply say “By that rational then you could wake up gay tomorrow.” This usually confuses them and they can’t speak. Yes, they are part of the 80%. But I digress.
The prosecution continues asking people questions and after a day they have bounced 10 of the dumb people that can’t say Yes or No. I am then called on Monday morning. I started on a Thursday. Monday is also my last day as an inexperienced juror. I am set to get a raise up to $20 the next day. They ask me the questions and I answer them fairly. People kept telling to try and get off by saying crazy stuff but I couldn’t really do that. It’s totally unethical and you can’t really do it in front of all those people unless you truly are crazy or have no ethics. The way people got off from the prosecution is if they owned their own business and couldn’t be away because they would not be able to focus on the case; thus they would not be fair. To get off jury duty, you can’t be fair. The prosecution basically wanted to have decent and smart people. The defense wanted the dumb folks because I guess they thought that they could trick them or they would hang the jury. The prosecution said that they were satisfied with the twelve. I was juror number 8. It's infinity sideways. 8 is a cool number; second to 58 in my favorite number list but that’s another story. Now, the defense starts in with their questioning. They ask more questions about different hardships that you have faced and such. It does get rather personal. I had to answer questions that I normally would never talk about. Those questions don’t really apply to the 80/20 theory. I’ll just say that 1997 really sucked and I will never support the Boy Scouts. As it turns out both of those relate to the reason that I was kept on the jury. The defense basically kicked anyone off that was well educated and could not relate to the defendant who grew up in a terrible and abusive environment. So the questioning of the jurors goes on and on. With each ejection by the defense comes a new juror and they have to face all the questions from both sides which takes a good 30 minutes for the people in 20% and much longer for those in the 80%. We go through about 45 jurors and finally get to the 12 and 2 alternates. By this point, I have formed the theory that 80% of all people are dumb. I will tell you how to apply it later but I’ll go ahead and finish the jury story for you because it is pretty interesting.
The courtroom is pretty sweet. It is new and you have a personal monitor in front of you and there are 2 giant plasmas hung up behind the judge so that the lawyers can present evidence that everyone can see. It is called publishing evidence just FYI. So, they both give their opening arguments. The prosecution tells us that Fergie (defendant, fake name) stabbed Blake (fake name) 79 times. This is why we were asked all the gore questions. It makes sense now. It is not a “who did it” case but why? Fergie admits to it but claims manslaughter not murder.
The prosecution then lays out the facts. They show the brutal pictures. It was right out of a crime drama. What you see on TV is what happens in the court room. I felt like I was on CSI. After the case, the judge and prosecutors tell us that this was the most brutal case that they have ever seen. Sweet, I’m so glad that I was able to be there for it. We see all these pictures and they were pretty graphic as you can imagine. 79 times is a lot. They show the interrogation tapes. The detectives are as good as the ones on TV. Fergie makes up a big story and then the detectives break him and he admits it. We watched about 3 hours of this. We are likely on day 6 at this point. We are all now seasoned jurors and are maxing out our pay at $40 a day. Awesome! They then bring in the CSI team that goes over the scene. The coroner comes in and describes all of the 79 blows as well as the wounds on the defendant. Fergie cut up his hands during the incident. Not shocking since he stabbed someone 79 times. I don’t know how that guy does his job. He was so calm talking about it all. The prosecution then rests.
The defense then calls Fergie to the stand. We had a break and then came back into the court room. He was sitting in the stand as we walked in and we were a couple feet from him. It gave you chills to be that close after seeing the stuff that he had done.
I’ll take a break to tell you about our breaks. We went from 9 to 10:30, 15 minute break, then to 12, 1.5 hour break for lunch, then to 3:15 break, then we left at 5 or 10 after because we had to talk to the bailiff before leaving. During the 15 minute breaks I would normally take a bathroom break and check email in the morning if I could get a computer. The fresh jurors were sometimes on them. They weren’t on Fridays though because there is no jury duty on Friday unless you are in a trial. I bet you didn’t know that, only veterans like me do. During lunch, I would log on to work and work for an hour after eating my lunch. I did this upstairs with the pool table because no one came up there during lunch. I would always try and get a game of Galaga in during the afternoon break. That game is still fun.
I hope you enjoyed your break now back to the trial. We came out and he was sitting there. It was chilling like I said. He then told his story of the events and how his abuses as a child lead him to black out during the killing. It was a stretch for me but I fully believe that he was abused as a child. The defense then brought in two expert psychologists that backed up the abuse. They tried to say other things as well but they were dismantled by the prosecution. They both gave their closing arguments on the trial and then we were sent to deliberate. They used power point for their closing arguments; crazy huh?
There are rules as a juror. The hardest one is that you aren’t supposed to discuss the case with anyone especially the other jurors. I didn’t talk to the other jurors but everyone morning during my 45 minute commute to the courthouse, I called Andrew to discuss the case. It was fun to report in as juror number 8. It was mostly me talking about how insanely dumb the people were during selection then it was about the case which was pretty crazy. You also can’t talk to the defense or prosecution at anytime. I took a lunch one Friday to Showmars and the prosecution walked in. They saw me said “Shit!” and left. They weren’t supposed to be close to me at all. Sucked for them.
I haven’t given you the story behind the murder so let me go over that with you. Blake was a black gay drug dealer. He had hired Fergie as one of his sub-dealers or soldiers (street lingo). They had a pretty good business going. So good that Blake would front Fergie the drugs and get the money after Blake sold them. This was risky for Blake because if Fergie wanted to he could jet with the drugs. Well, one time Fergie didn’t pay Blake back. Fergie claimed that he was mugged which is possible but Blake didn’t care and wasn’t going to front him anymore. Fergie went to Blake’s home to try and sort that out or so he said. Fergie claims that Blake said that he would trade the debt for sex and that set him off due to the abuse that he received as a child. The prosecution painted a picture of Fergie killing Blake to get the drugs then go sell them. The true story will never be known but I think that Fergie went there to work things out and it didn’t go how he wanted and thus he killed Blake. There were other things like stolen cars, hiding the knife, girlfriends, other drug dealers, other customers, etc . . . but the jest is above. The prosecution did some interesting things in that they would bring in giant packages and have them sitting there but then they would not submit it for evidence; it was weird.
Deliberation; we were finally allowed to talk about the case. The first thing that we had to do was pick a foreman. There was one guy that was a head HR guy and he and I had talked about a process and wanting to be done so I nominated him. He nominated me but he won the votes mainly because I nominated him before anyone said anything. He was a little upset with me but we both knew that it was good. We started on a Friday after lunch. I was hoping to get done and out of there that day but it was not to be. Some of the people that I had thought were in the 20% were really in the 80%. It was like they weren’t at the trial at all. They didn’t remember anything. I will say that being a juror is tiring. Even though you only listen for 6 hours a day, it is tiring. I was more tired after those six hours than I was after 10 hours of work. We requested the pictures and other things and started talking. The foreman had the idea to go through every piece of the law and vote on it then move to the next all the way through. It was a great plan and helped the 80%. We came to a guilty verdict Monday by lunch. We had lunch came back and finished up. So, it was basically two weeks and 3 days.
The court dude reads the verdict then the defense polled us in that we each had to say yes twice. The questions were “Is this your verdict?” and “Is this still your verdict?” Luckily, no one failed those questions. We were done and went back to the little room. The judge then came and talked to us for 45 minutes about the case and thanked us. He was a really cool dude. He was being promoted to a State court because he was so good. He told us that it was the most brutal case he had ever seen and that he had to make the 2 alternates stay during our deliberation because of the brutality. Normally, alternates are released once deliberation begins. In this case, if we had found the defendant not guilty then the state could have made some brutality motion that the judge would have granted which would have restarted the trial in that new evidence would be submitted. Luckily, we got it right the first time. He signed our sheets and we were dismissed.
When we walked out of the juror room the prosecution was waiting for us. They wanted to discuss the case with us. They wanted to see how they could improve and what not. The defense did not. I wonder if the winner gets to talk to the jury or if the prosecution always does? We talked with them for another 45 minutes. They revealed to us that the different bags of stuff that they were bringing in were nothing. They brought them in when Fergie was on the stand to mess with his mind. It kind of worked because his story was never the same from the confession, to what other people said he said, to the stand. Each story had different things in it. They told us that he is being tried for another murder in Virginia and believe that he has killed dozens of people up and down the east coast. They also said that it was the most brutal case that they had ever seen.
That was the court experience. I drove out of the deck and headed to work. It was month-end so the end of the trial could not have come sooner.
Throughout this process, I kept thinking about the 80/20 theory and how it applies to life. Like I said earlier most people fall into one of the two groups. You could also break it down from there and relate it to different subjects. We all move across the 80/20 line when it comes to different subjects. For such things as 18th century art; I am squarely in the 80%. For picking college football games, I’d put myself in the 20%. I’d hate to say that 80% of everyone is in that 80% all the time. I think that everyone grades into the 20% at some point. I did mention that you don’t always want to be in that 20%. For example, the subject of obtaining and smoking crack rock would be a subject that I hope most you would fall into the 80%. I believe that there is a strong correlation between people scoring 20% on the crack rock subject and scoring in the 80% for pretty much everything else. If you’re not buying into the 80% then you need to get out of your bubble. Go to Wal-mart and walk around for 30 minutes. Just take it in and you’ll see that the 80% is out there.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Hark the sound . . .
Of Tarheel voices; singing clear and true . . .
This is a little late in coming as the Championship game was three weeks ago tonight. However, it still deserves mentioning that we the North Carolina Tar Heels are the National Champs and it doesn’t really get old talking about it. As you know, I am a devoted fan of both the football and basketball programs. It’s great to have another National Championship. I’m also excited to talk to Roy about it over dinner tomorrow night. True Story.
I do have to take a little credit for the title. I did scream at Wayne Ellington for two years for sucking. I also constantly badgered Deon Thompson for not pulling his weight and often times resembling a sea lion on the court. I also encouraged Ty Lawson to stop being such a wuss and just play. They all turned it around and helped Tyler Hansbrough win the Title for UNC.
Tyler is easily my favorite UNC basketball player of all time. He played with such energy and emotion that it was hard not to love him unless you cheered for other teams. He always wanted to win no matter what and it showed in how he played on the court. His inner white-boy came out often in the victories. I’ll never forget his dance after beating Clemson in early 2008. I find it very funny that these mannerisms lead more and more people to hate him. Those things just made me love him even more. It made him appear a little more human than the other athletes that never show any emotion in their wins. His list of accomplishments is long at UNC, in the ACC, and even the NCAA.
I have my favorites from those lists. Tyler like the rest of us hated Duke. One favorite thing that he did was knocking off JJ Reddick as the all-time scorer of the ACC. It’s really hard to like JJ but he did call Hansbrough to congratulate him and I think that he wrote a poem as about it as well. I find that pretty classy. I wonder if JJ knows that one of Hansbrough’s personal favorite achievements is ruining JJ’s Senior Day when UNC beat Duke at Cameron Indoor; excuse me at Hansbrough Indoor Stadium during his freshman year. He also won there all 4 years which has not been done in a long time. It’s really going to be sad watching games without him on the court next season. At least he is leaving on top where he belongs.
Some of you may recall we won the title in 2005. At that time, I really wanted to win so that we could be back on the map. After Gutheridge ran our program into the ground; the fan in me really wanted to be on top. A lot of people blame Daugherty for that 8 win season but it wasn’t his fault. Gutheridge never took the time to recruit anyone. He thought that Carter and Jamison could be on the team for 8 years be in reality they couldn’t. In 2005, I wanted to win it for me which sounds silly but I did. This season, I wanted it for Hansbrough. You can really love a player when they play at such a high level and stay 4 years. It is sad that it is so rare due to the NBA stealing the best NCAA talent. I remember him getting punched in the face by Henderson and it angers me to think about. But I’ll always remember his hustle, intensity, heart and dorkiness which made him more real.
I have nothing major to report on the personal front. We went home and visited the families for Easter as Elizabeth finally finished her busy season. Michael got to pass me in go-karts with computer assistance. It’s strange to have her home before 8 PM but it is a welcomed change. Kipnasty and Leslie had their son (Brooks) on March 12th if you hadn’t heard. He missed greatness by two days but we still have high hopes for the youngster. The Crafts are quickly approaching parenthood as Katie is due the first of June. Babies popping out all over the place these days as the Mitchells are due in May as well.
I don’t know if many of you know but Elizabeth’s brother Peter is heading to NC State next fall. We were going over meal plans and other things with him last week. It is an exciting time. As we were talking about it, I let out a wolfpack howl for him. I then talked about how cool it would be to be able to be drinking and then howl like a wolf in college. There are not any ram noises that I know of. I then went on to talk about the cool little hand wolfpack symbol that you could do. I would have loved to do that too but again UNC has nothing. NC State has all of these awesome little things!! At UNC, we don’t have anything really cool like that. I was telling this to Peter and Elizabeth and she looked down and pointed at her UNC National Championship Shirt and she said “Yeah, they have a couple cool things but they don’t have THIS!”
This is a little late in coming as the Championship game was three weeks ago tonight. However, it still deserves mentioning that we the North Carolina Tar Heels are the National Champs and it doesn’t really get old talking about it. As you know, I am a devoted fan of both the football and basketball programs. It’s great to have another National Championship. I’m also excited to talk to Roy about it over dinner tomorrow night. True Story.
I do have to take a little credit for the title. I did scream at Wayne Ellington for two years for sucking. I also constantly badgered Deon Thompson for not pulling his weight and often times resembling a sea lion on the court. I also encouraged Ty Lawson to stop being such a wuss and just play. They all turned it around and helped Tyler Hansbrough win the Title for UNC.
Tyler is easily my favorite UNC basketball player of all time. He played with such energy and emotion that it was hard not to love him unless you cheered for other teams. He always wanted to win no matter what and it showed in how he played on the court. His inner white-boy came out often in the victories. I’ll never forget his dance after beating Clemson in early 2008. I find it very funny that these mannerisms lead more and more people to hate him. Those things just made me love him even more. It made him appear a little more human than the other athletes that never show any emotion in their wins. His list of accomplishments is long at UNC, in the ACC, and even the NCAA.
I have my favorites from those lists. Tyler like the rest of us hated Duke. One favorite thing that he did was knocking off JJ Reddick as the all-time scorer of the ACC. It’s really hard to like JJ but he did call Hansbrough to congratulate him and I think that he wrote a poem as about it as well. I find that pretty classy. I wonder if JJ knows that one of Hansbrough’s personal favorite achievements is ruining JJ’s Senior Day when UNC beat Duke at Cameron Indoor; excuse me at Hansbrough Indoor Stadium during his freshman year. He also won there all 4 years which has not been done in a long time. It’s really going to be sad watching games without him on the court next season. At least he is leaving on top where he belongs.
Some of you may recall we won the title in 2005. At that time, I really wanted to win so that we could be back on the map. After Gutheridge ran our program into the ground; the fan in me really wanted to be on top. A lot of people blame Daugherty for that 8 win season but it wasn’t his fault. Gutheridge never took the time to recruit anyone. He thought that Carter and Jamison could be on the team for 8 years be in reality they couldn’t. In 2005, I wanted to win it for me which sounds silly but I did. This season, I wanted it for Hansbrough. You can really love a player when they play at such a high level and stay 4 years. It is sad that it is so rare due to the NBA stealing the best NCAA talent. I remember him getting punched in the face by Henderson and it angers me to think about. But I’ll always remember his hustle, intensity, heart and dorkiness which made him more real.
I have nothing major to report on the personal front. We went home and visited the families for Easter as Elizabeth finally finished her busy season. Michael got to pass me in go-karts with computer assistance. It’s strange to have her home before 8 PM but it is a welcomed change. Kipnasty and Leslie had their son (Brooks) on March 12th if you hadn’t heard. He missed greatness by two days but we still have high hopes for the youngster. The Crafts are quickly approaching parenthood as Katie is due the first of June. Babies popping out all over the place these days as the Mitchells are due in May as well.
I don’t know if many of you know but Elizabeth’s brother Peter is heading to NC State next fall. We were going over meal plans and other things with him last week. It is an exciting time. As we were talking about it, I let out a wolfpack howl for him. I then talked about how cool it would be to be able to be drinking and then howl like a wolf in college. There are not any ram noises that I know of. I then went on to talk about the cool little hand wolfpack symbol that you could do. I would have loved to do that too but again UNC has nothing. NC State has all of these awesome little things!! At UNC, we don’t have anything really cool like that. I was telling this to Peter and Elizabeth and she looked down and pointed at her UNC National Championship Shirt and she said “Yeah, they have a couple cool things but they don’t have THIS!”
Monday, March 2, 2009
Welcome back,
February was a pretty slow month so I didn’t focus getting anything up. It is also a pretty fast month as there are only 28 days. They also renamed Cameron Indoor Stadium if you didn't know.
We did have a fun trip up to Asheville to visit Ryan and Penina. I’m pretty sure that I spelled that wrong so if I did then I am sorry. I just know that it isn’t spelled like the sandwich so I’m going with that. Anyway, we drove up on Saturday after the gym. It was a quick 2 hour trip; not too bad from Charlotte. I had never been to Asheville so everything was new to me. It was Liz’s first trip as well.
We got there in time for lunch and then went to a barbeque place that was quite good. They had a couple dozen types of sauce which was cool. We then walked around the town. It was a cool day but not too cool to take in the town. Asheville is an interesting mix of big mountain dudes and hippies. For you PC people, it’s not just those people as there are normal people too but the majority of the people could fit into one of those two categories.
We then went back to the Ryan and Penina’s place to hang out. They live in a very cool apartment that was once a car dealership. It iss a large and open apartment that has wall to wall windows. We played a little Wii and took a nap as Shaun White won X-games gold on the TV.
There is one very interesting thing in their apartment. In their guest room, there is a window with blurred glass. You know the glass that you can’t see through. Anyway, this window is in the bedroom and bathroom of the guest room. Every once in a while a light comes on from the other side of this window. The funny thing is that the light is not controlled by anything in their apartment. It is also in such a place that it is not part of their neighbor’s apartment either. It is a mystery. Someone has a switch that they flip and say “I wonder what that does.”
After our nap, it was time to rally up for dinner. After much debate, we decided on the closet place because it had gotten much colder. The Asheville Pizzeria and Pub was our destination. Ryan promised good beer and he delivered. They had a type called Ninja something. Whenever something has ninja in the name then it’s safe to say that it is good. We had several pitchers of that ate pizza and headed home. Here is a shot of us at dinner.
Nothing else too terribly exciting occurred in February. Mom an Dad did come down as Dad was flying out of Charlotte for his golf trip to Florida. Mom stayed the weekend which was a nice visit. It isn’t very often that we just visit with one other family member. We went and saw Slum Dog and went out to dinner. We all left Slum Dog thinking that it was pretty terrible but the more that we thought about the more that we liked it. It was a good movie just a little rough in parts that we didn’t expect.
On to March, this is the month of the year when true geniuses are born. I could list them all but it would take too long. We are heading to Elton John/Billy Joel this weekend which should be a good time.
Until next time . . . go buy something the economy needs you.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Closing Down 2008
I come to you to close down 2008. Overall, it was a pretty good year. I left you last at Thanksgiving which we celebrated in the Greater Greensboro/Burlington area. All of our relatives from West Virginia visited the Allison House and Aunt Susan came down to Burlington. We enjoyed some great food at both houses. Peter was able to join us for both meals as well. He enjoys fried turkey which we were doing at my house.
We had some difficulties this time as the pot boiled over a little. We feel that this was not user error but design error in the pot. As you can see there is a basket and not a normal turkey holder contraption that comes with other fryers. This other turkey holder (not pictured) lines the turkey up vertically so that when the breast cooks it splatters up the middle of the pot and not to the side. The pot boiled over a second time two weeks later when I fried another turkey at work for our Xmas lunch. We are on the lookout for the other type of turkey holder contraption.
Below is Andrew with the turkey and hockey gloves as a precaution. Safety first!
We played our annual turkey bowl. This was the 5th year in a row that we have done that. It seems like longer but it started in 2003 when we played tackle. I believe that only lasted one season and I bought some flags. Ironically, no one was ever injured when we played tackle. This year’s game was competitive. Both teams won a few games. The people below are: top row: Ben, Jamie, Andrew, Jimmy, Douche, Craft, Charlite, Brandon, Mike; bottom row: Peter, Lindsey, Adam, Brian, Walters.
Andrew and I tried to play one game on the same team but it was deemed unfair. Everyone got really pissed off if they were on the other team. We have accepted the fact that we can never be on the same team. I guess that we are just that good. We name an MVP every year after the game but it was pretty tough this year. You have the obvious choices of Peter and Charlie as they are the best athletes and would win if the media picked the winner. However, we try to look beyond that and pick who was the most fun as well. The pick this year for the Turkey bowl was Jamie Kipke. He was very funny and scored a couple touchdowns. The highlight of the whole day came when he kept running and juking in the end zone after he had already scored. It had many of us literally rolling on the ground in laughter. Another highlight occurred at a halftime when Michael’s nephews chased Charlie around with a soccer ball. The 4 little kids were no match for Charlie’s skills with a ball. It was amazing to watch. He should be playing on AC Milan or something.
After Thanksgiving was over we started to focus on shopping. This was pretty exciting for me because it was a video game Christmas. I enjoy video games as most of you know so I got do a good bit of the shopping. I bought 2 Wiis and 2 360s. Wiis are starting to actually sit in stores for a day or two so both were pretty easy to find.
The real challenge was the WiiFit. This is a balance board that goes with the Wii and gives the user special exercises to do that relate to all types of fitness. It was THE item to try and purchase this year. It was like the cabbage patch kids in the 80s. The hunt started after Thanksgiving as we wanted one for Debbie and one for Lindsey. Andrew and I were calling places every day to try and find them. Finally, one day I called a Best Buy and they had them. I got there and they had 3 left. I picked up two and was excited. I called Liz and Andrew to let them know of my triumph. Then it got interesting. I got in line and was about to pay and the Best Buy guy said “I can only sell you one.” At that exact moment 120 miles away in Greensboro, Andrew was thinking to himself: “What if they only let Ben buy one.” Andrew would then have keep looking for Lindsey. I got out of line and started calling people. I was about to call Liz when I saw a co-worker walk in. I grabbed her and asked her to buy one for me and it worked out fine. If you know me at all then you know that I called Andrew and said “Dude, this really sucks but they only would let me buy one.” He said: “Are you serious?” I said: “Yeah, dude it was some only one per person gay rule that they had.” He said: “Crap! I just thought of that; I’ll have to keep looking. Darn it!” The written words don’t give justice to the defeat in his voice. So, I let him off the hook “You’re lucky a co-worker came in and I was able to buy two.” It was great.
So, the video game Christmas came and was a great one for everyone. We packed the week full of activities. I played in a mini golf tournament one day. Charlie and I dominated the field by shooting a 2 under. Second place was 1 over so it was pretty close although everyone cried a lot about our team being stacked. We then had wonderful Christmases at both houses. Here a couple of pictures from them. I have to say that a lot of pictures turned out very poorly for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I believe that it is user error in that we move before the picture is done taking. We have fixed the problem and hope to clean it up going forward.
Here is Ryan and Penina. I really wanted to have a picture of Debbie with the Wii and WiiFit but they failed miserably. The Wii was the most exciting gift of the morning.
Next up are the two Christmas fanatics doing a pre-present opening dance.
The video game Christmas was in full gear on Christmas night as you see here. Mario Kart was played for hours.
After Christmas, we went to the Meinke Car Care bowl which featured my two favorite schools in UNC and WVU. Liz was going to where UNC stuff so I did that with her. There was some concern over this because we were going to sit in the WVU section but it was all right. WVU is definitely more of a football school as they sold 2/3 of the bowl tickets. UNC only had a third and the game was in our state. It’s a little sad if you ask me but UNC is a basketball school. I’m hoping that Butch can change that in the next couple of years and get us up to a Florida level. I guess that we will see.
The whole family drove down to Charlotte from Greensboro. We parked at our house consolidated cars and went to lunch then the game. At lunch, we ran into my Uncle Joe’s brother and his family. It is crazy that we ended up eating at the exact some place. Crazy.
The game was extremely exciting. There were 5 touchdowns in the first quarter. There were some great plays the rest of the game. I also would say that Hakeem Nicks made the most amazing catch this side of David Tyree. You should got to Youtube and look at it if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
WVU ended up winning the game 31-30. Liz realized sitting in the middle of the WVU section, why I love WVU football so much. The fans were very awesome and loved their team much more than most UNC fans. Yes, I’m badmouthing myself but its true. I think that it goes back to the one thing in the state thing that I touched on in my last entry. Some fans were crying with joy and everyone was very happy. You don’t see that often in Kenan. It is just a different level of passion. All of the fans around us shook my hand and we talked a lot during the game. Not one of them talked trash to me and Liz. It was a blast. I also loved yelling underneath the road on the way to the game. I did get in trouble with Will who scolded me for “starting a ruckus”.
We also had the 5th annual Xmas Bowl which was a big blowout this year. Bradon, Peter and I dominated the games and ended up with a 4-0 record. We actually have HD Video of the game but we have not yet figured out how to get that on the computer. I beleive that will be a summer project. Here is a picture of Drew, Mom-mom, and me.
After that, we had a Rock Band/UNC New Year’s with Phillip and Mel. It was a good time. I believe that is it for 2008. I’ll be back next time to chronicle our trip to Asheville and other events . . .
Stay classy Ben’s Friends . . .
We had some difficulties this time as the pot boiled over a little. We feel that this was not user error but design error in the pot. As you can see there is a basket and not a normal turkey holder contraption that comes with other fryers. This other turkey holder (not pictured) lines the turkey up vertically so that when the breast cooks it splatters up the middle of the pot and not to the side. The pot boiled over a second time two weeks later when I fried another turkey at work for our Xmas lunch. We are on the lookout for the other type of turkey holder contraption.
Below is Andrew with the turkey and hockey gloves as a precaution. Safety first!
We played our annual turkey bowl. This was the 5th year in a row that we have done that. It seems like longer but it started in 2003 when we played tackle. I believe that only lasted one season and I bought some flags. Ironically, no one was ever injured when we played tackle. This year’s game was competitive. Both teams won a few games. The people below are: top row: Ben, Jamie, Andrew, Jimmy, Douche, Craft, Charlite, Brandon, Mike; bottom row: Peter, Lindsey, Adam, Brian, Walters.
Andrew and I tried to play one game on the same team but it was deemed unfair. Everyone got really pissed off if they were on the other team. We have accepted the fact that we can never be on the same team. I guess that we are just that good. We name an MVP every year after the game but it was pretty tough this year. You have the obvious choices of Peter and Charlie as they are the best athletes and would win if the media picked the winner. However, we try to look beyond that and pick who was the most fun as well. The pick this year for the Turkey bowl was Jamie Kipke. He was very funny and scored a couple touchdowns. The highlight of the whole day came when he kept running and juking in the end zone after he had already scored. It had many of us literally rolling on the ground in laughter. Another highlight occurred at a halftime when Michael’s nephews chased Charlie around with a soccer ball. The 4 little kids were no match for Charlie’s skills with a ball. It was amazing to watch. He should be playing on AC Milan or something.
After Thanksgiving was over we started to focus on shopping. This was pretty exciting for me because it was a video game Christmas. I enjoy video games as most of you know so I got do a good bit of the shopping. I bought 2 Wiis and 2 360s. Wiis are starting to actually sit in stores for a day or two so both were pretty easy to find.
The real challenge was the WiiFit. This is a balance board that goes with the Wii and gives the user special exercises to do that relate to all types of fitness. It was THE item to try and purchase this year. It was like the cabbage patch kids in the 80s. The hunt started after Thanksgiving as we wanted one for Debbie and one for Lindsey. Andrew and I were calling places every day to try and find them. Finally, one day I called a Best Buy and they had them. I got there and they had 3 left. I picked up two and was excited. I called Liz and Andrew to let them know of my triumph. Then it got interesting. I got in line and was about to pay and the Best Buy guy said “I can only sell you one.” At that exact moment 120 miles away in Greensboro, Andrew was thinking to himself: “What if they only let Ben buy one.” Andrew would then have keep looking for Lindsey. I got out of line and started calling people. I was about to call Liz when I saw a co-worker walk in. I grabbed her and asked her to buy one for me and it worked out fine. If you know me at all then you know that I called Andrew and said “Dude, this really sucks but they only would let me buy one.” He said: “Are you serious?” I said: “Yeah, dude it was some only one per person gay rule that they had.” He said: “Crap! I just thought of that; I’ll have to keep looking. Darn it!” The written words don’t give justice to the defeat in his voice. So, I let him off the hook “You’re lucky a co-worker came in and I was able to buy two.” It was great.
So, the video game Christmas came and was a great one for everyone. We packed the week full of activities. I played in a mini golf tournament one day. Charlie and I dominated the field by shooting a 2 under. Second place was 1 over so it was pretty close although everyone cried a lot about our team being stacked. We then had wonderful Christmases at both houses. Here a couple of pictures from them. I have to say that a lot of pictures turned out very poorly for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I believe that it is user error in that we move before the picture is done taking. We have fixed the problem and hope to clean it up going forward.
Here is Ryan and Penina. I really wanted to have a picture of Debbie with the Wii and WiiFit but they failed miserably. The Wii was the most exciting gift of the morning.
Next up are the two Christmas fanatics doing a pre-present opening dance.
The video game Christmas was in full gear on Christmas night as you see here. Mario Kart was played for hours.
After Christmas, we went to the Meinke Car Care bowl which featured my two favorite schools in UNC and WVU. Liz was going to where UNC stuff so I did that with her. There was some concern over this because we were going to sit in the WVU section but it was all right. WVU is definitely more of a football school as they sold 2/3 of the bowl tickets. UNC only had a third and the game was in our state. It’s a little sad if you ask me but UNC is a basketball school. I’m hoping that Butch can change that in the next couple of years and get us up to a Florida level. I guess that we will see.
The whole family drove down to Charlotte from Greensboro. We parked at our house consolidated cars and went to lunch then the game. At lunch, we ran into my Uncle Joe’s brother and his family. It is crazy that we ended up eating at the exact some place. Crazy.
The game was extremely exciting. There were 5 touchdowns in the first quarter. There were some great plays the rest of the game. I also would say that Hakeem Nicks made the most amazing catch this side of David Tyree. You should got to Youtube and look at it if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
WVU ended up winning the game 31-30. Liz realized sitting in the middle of the WVU section, why I love WVU football so much. The fans were very awesome and loved their team much more than most UNC fans. Yes, I’m badmouthing myself but its true. I think that it goes back to the one thing in the state thing that I touched on in my last entry. Some fans were crying with joy and everyone was very happy. You don’t see that often in Kenan. It is just a different level of passion. All of the fans around us shook my hand and we talked a lot during the game. Not one of them talked trash to me and Liz. It was a blast. I also loved yelling underneath the road on the way to the game. I did get in trouble with Will who scolded me for “starting a ruckus”.
We also had the 5th annual Xmas Bowl which was a big blowout this year. Bradon, Peter and I dominated the games and ended up with a 4-0 record. We actually have HD Video of the game but we have not yet figured out how to get that on the computer. I beleive that will be a summer project. Here is a picture of Drew, Mom-mom, and me.
After that, we had a Rock Band/UNC New Year’s with Phillip and Mel. It was a good time. I believe that is it for 2008. I’ll be back next time to chronicle our trip to Asheville and other events . . .
Stay classy Ben’s Friends . . .
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Blog Returns . . .
Well, it never really left in the first place. I just haven't been updating it like I should. I have received many complaints on the lack of posting so I promise to deliver 2 posts a month in 2009.
Towards the end of the summer, we took a trip up to West Virginia to visit my family. It was a pretty long trip for a day. For some reason, I thought that I could get there in 3 hours but it definitely took a solid 4 and half. This trip coincided with the gas shortage in Charlotte which is still one of the dumbest things of all time. Gas was everywhere but Charlotte. It's the main reason that McCory lost my vote. Anyway, the trip was great visit. Elizabeth had the opportunity see many of places that I grew up. I have such great memories of West Virginia and it was nice to be able to share those experiences. 
Towards the end of summer we took on a couple house improvements. We (when I say we I mean us as a home not necessarily me) added a light to the dining room and cut down some trees. Tom, Debbie, Liz, and Ryan attacked the light in the house while Peter and myself chopped down some trees. The light people were very excited at the time to be put on the blog because I was active with it at that time. However, they didn't take very good pictures of themselves so we will honor them with a much sexier picture. Even though you can't see it here. They did an excellent job on the dining room and bath room lights.
2008 was the year to go HD. If you don't have an HD TV then you are really missing out on some great deals out there on TVs. We added our second HD TV as we couldn't pass up on the deals that we found on Black Friday. The 5 AM trip was an attempt to get a Kitchen Aid mixer that failed but we instead bought a TV which is and obvious big win. We have this same TV shown below except ours is located in our living room which is almost complete at this point. You'll have to come visit to see it.
2008 was the year to go HD. If you don't have an HD TV then you are really missing out on some great deals out there on TVs. We added our second HD TV as we couldn't pass up on the deals that we found on Black Friday. The 5 AM trip was an attempt to get a Kitchen Aid mixer that failed but we instead bought a TV which is and obvious big win. We have this same TV shown below except ours is located in our living room which is almost complete at this point. You'll have to come visit to see it.
Towards the end of the summer, we took a trip up to West Virginia to visit my family. It was a pretty long trip for a day. For some reason, I thought that I could get there in 3 hours but it definitely took a solid 4 and half. This trip coincided with the gas shortage in Charlotte which is still one of the dumbest things of all time. Gas was everywhere but Charlotte. It's the main reason that McCory lost my vote. Anyway, the trip was great visit. Elizabeth had the opportunity see many of places that I grew up. I have such great memories of West Virginia and it was nice to be able to share those experiences. The below picture is of part of the Lake. The Lake is a place where we would all go over to feed the ducks, go fishing, or just to play. It's basically a little park within my grandparents community but it is a little more than that to me as it was always a fun time. A trip to visit West Virginia is not complete without a trip to the lake.
Who are those little people on the swings with Liz? Those are my cousins John and Will. There is a better picture of them below. We got to see them a good bit in 2008 as they came down for Thanksgiving and the Car Care Bowl. John like most teenagers loves video games but he is also loves karate and has an amazing hidden talent of playing the violin. Let's hope that he continues to find time for music. After all, Liz was a band geek too. Will is a ball of fun. However, be careful when playing games with him. He is a little sneaky and finds unfair ways to win. He met his match when he went up against Liz. She figured out his little tricks.
This is the bridge across the river to the high school. Yes, that sounds pretty strange but it's true. I imagine that it would be pretty cold in the winter. It's pretty old and little scary but I've also been across it many times. Across the bridge is a football field where Andrew, Dad, and I would always go to throw and kick the ball around. Andrew and I could kick 40 yard field goals on that field. We couldn't make any from longer than that. So, when a kicker misses anything shorter than 40 then they choked pretty bad.
West Virginia was a quick but fun trip. I was able to pick a nice supply of WVU gear as it is hard to come by down here. Liz also noticed that everyone up there loves WVU. It's hard to imagine if North Carolina had only one school. WVU is almost the only school in the state. Marshall is the only competition and it's not a fair one. There is no State, Duke, Wake, App, or ECU. It would be interesting if UNC was the only school in the state. We visited one store that had anything that you could imagine in WVU stuff. It was unlike anything that you can find in North Carolina for any of our teams.
One excuse for me not keeping up the blog is due to having UNC season tickets for the first time since I lived in Chapel Hill. There were 7 home games and we went to 5 of them. It kept us quite busy in the fall. We were either driving up to Chapel Hill on the weekend or doing something around the house because we would be gone the following weekend. We also added in trips to Las Vegas to celebrate my 30th birthday and a trip to Morgantown for the WVU/Cincinnati game.
Season tickets were pretty fun overall. We were 3-2 as fans. The first game was a wash because of the crazy Thunderstorm that came in. We ended up leaving after the second delay. We had fun pre-gaming at Ham's in the afternoon as we took in the first games of the year. The Virginia Tech game was pretty good and the team would have easily won had our QB not gone out with injury. The Notre Dame game was a blast as there were tons of Irish in the stadium. I don't understand why UNC will build temporary stands for visiting fans on the field but won't do that for their own fans. It does not make sense. We escaped with that win. We (UNC football team) didn't show up for the NC State game. It's like I said at Thanksgiving "Our team beat all of the good teams and choked against the bottom of the league." Overall the season was fun and we'll be there again in 2009.
The trip to the WVU game was a fun trip. Andrew, Lindsey, Liz, and I went up. I forgot to even mention that Andrew is now engaged. Congrats to him and Lindsey! She is very cool person and I don't think that Andrew could have done better. I will have a picture and more on her in my next entry.
Our trip to Vegas was with the Kipkes and Crafts. I love Vegas. I have to say that I was not very lucky this time. I lost all of the money that we took to gamble with. I did poorly at the tables but hit some football games. I should really stick to the football games but the tables are so much fun. I learned a lot from Kipnasty on the trip. He is a Vegas vet and I feel pretty comfortable playing all the games now. I especially enjoyed craps. I will be better prepared for my next visit out there.
In the next post I'll discuss Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Meinke Car Care Bowl. I leave you with one last picture. There is something truly amazing in this picture. It may take a little work to figure out. If you can't see it then you'll have to ask Andrew because he knows.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
DON"T TOUCH THE CORAL REEF!
I want to apologize for not updating this sooner. Life has been busy and will continue to be busy until next year with football season being in full-swing. It’s better to not be busy but having season football tickets keeps you moving. I have a ton of stories and updates but I haven’t taken time to update the system but I will; hopefully soon. I will try and do some of that this weekend.
Anyway, I thought of a story that made me laugh out loud just thinking about it so I’m going to share it with you. This chronicles my spring break trip my senior year of college.
It actually started the day after my 22nd birthday. That’s March 11th, 2000 for those of you keeping score at home. We went out in Chapel Hill for my birthday then Kipke and I started off on our journey to Key West the following morning. I was not up to par if you can imagine. Kipke took it easy the night before so he could drive the first leg of the trip starting at 8 AM. I slept in the passenger seat until about noon when I woke up to see a tractor trailer about 4 feet from the front of my green Mazda protégé. I said “What the hell are you doing!?” Kipke calmly replied “Drafting. Watch.” He then backed up and the car shook from the air then he pulled back into the draft and it was noticeably smoother and helped mileage according to him. I told him to make sure not to hit the truck and went back to sleep.
I took my turn and he slept around 2. We stopped only to gas up and eat. We got into Miami around 10 PM. Miami was pretty scary. It would be fine one block then you would be in the heart of the ghetto the next. Interesting zoning that they have there. So, we had to gas up before we headed out to the island roads. We pulled into what looked like a normal gas station. We tried to pump gas but it blocked us until we prepaid. Shortly after that a couple big black dudes with 40s in paper bags came out from behind the store and were watching us. We looked like two preppy college kids in our cargo shorts and golf shirts (mine was likely frat tucked). I wonder if they noticed the NY MAFIA license tag on the front of the car. I went into the bathroom. I stood there for 5 seconds and the light went out. I thought “Oh Shit, I’m going to die.” I then thought, I have to go so I might as well finish up. So, I left and realized that it was just a timer on the light. I went towards the car and Kipke headed to the bathroom. I thought “I should warm him about the light, then I thought no, that’s no fun.” He got as scared as me. By this time, the two black guys with 40s had grown to 4 and they began to fight each other. We quickly got in the car and went on our way. It was pretty intimidating.
We then drove through Miami and on to the Keys. We got in around 1 AM to stay with his cousin. We were staying in a tent in the back yard. No big deal if you’re young. The first night was hard to fall asleep but the rest were easy.
Key West is a cool town. However, I have no desire to go back now that I am older. It’s perfect for spring break but nothing much else is there. I don’t know what I would do.
We would wake up fairly early for us around 10 then go to the beach and hangout and nap. Michael Klett, Troy, Organ, and Johnner were all down there as well. They were staying at Jabronies camp site. It’s not really called Jabronies but it is close to that and that’s what I called it. Jabor’s is the real name I think. We hung out with them the whole week.
They called Kipke and I the ambiguously gay duo the whole weekend because we had a scooter to get around on. Yes, imagine Kipke driving and me on the back of the scooter going around town. I’m sure that it was pretty comical to see. Of course, Key West is known for its gay population so no one ever gave us a second glance but our group made fun of us; deservedly so.
All week we went out to a place called Mike’s; I think. They had a special from 6-10 for all that you could drink for $20. This was an amazing deal so we did that each night. We would go in about 7 and play bubble hockey until the rest of the normal people would show up around 11. Kipke and I dominated but that should be expected. Like most things in life UNC enacts domination over NC State. It’s just life so accept it State fans. We love you anyway. That includes you Andrew. The highlight of bubble hockey came in a game between Kipke and I vs. Chea and Klett (the best NC State team). It was all tied and the time was out so the next goal was going to win. I had the puck in front of the net manned by Klett. I scored the most amazing goal in bubble hockey history. Everyone who saw it agreed so I’m not bragging. Well, I am but it has been confirmed by others as the best bubble hockey goal of all time. I used a crossover move to score. I tipped the puck one way spun around and then tipped it back and slammed it in. I could never replicate it but it was a thing of beauty. We actually acted it out many times over the week.
One day, we were on the beach and a salesman came up to us. He was selling 8 AM snorkel cruises. We all said “No way in hell I’m getting up at 7 to go on a snorkel cruise.” Well, the guy sold Klett on it and Klett sold us on the idea that “we may never be here again, let’s go look at the coral reef, a group of girls signed up for the morning cruise, all you can drink on the way back included” So, $40 later we are all signed up for the following morning. We went out like normal. Did you actually think that we would go easy and prepare for AM snorkeling? Not a chance. The next morning came early and was quite painful. It was a great time to go out on a boat let me tell you.
There was our group and then a group of girls on the boat. It became apparent that the girls choose the morning trip because they didn’t want to be around any guys. Yeah for us! So, on the trip to the coral reef they go over all the rules for snorkeling and they beat into us the main rule. DO NOT TOUCH THE REEF! If they said it once, they said it at least 37 times. DO NOT TOUCH THE REEF! It is a living organism that dies if you touch it. So, we continue on our long ride and finally get there. Did I mention that a boat ride is totally awesome when you drank too much the night before?
So, we get to the reef. We have to swim a half mile to get to it but there are buoys around it so you can find it. The water is pretty choppy that morning. It is white capping in some spots but we make the swim out there. The reef is not very large but there are some pretty fish. Sadly, you cannot see that far because the water is so choppy. It’s also only 20 feet big and maybe 5 feet from the surface so there isn’t much to see.
We swam the half mile out to this little rock to see a couple fish. It’s not that great and no one is feeling good so many people begin to get tired and need to rest. Several of us are just floating there relaxing in our life jackets when I decide to swim around and look some more. I see Chea standing on the middle of the reef and then he starts walking around on it like he’s in a pool. I laughed so hard that I started to choke on salt water. He was not heeding the DO NOT TOUCH THE REEF! warning. It was classic. This is what inspired me to write this story. I can still see his flippers standing on the reef. “Killing it”
The water started to get a little worse so we were called back to the boat. I about gave up life for five minutes on this swim. I was not feeling first-rate. The choppy water made the swim very tough. I began to swallow large amounts of salt water. I then began to put that salt water back in the ocean along with my breakfast. This happened several times over the swim and at one point. I thought “This is it. I’m going to drown, no need to fight it anymore.” I sat there and didn’t drown. The life vest was working. So, I thought “I’m not going to die. I have to swim to the boat.” So, I did. I then slept the entire ride back and got a little sunburn on my back.
We spent a couple more days there but nothing really of note happened.
So, we drove to Jacksonville to stop off and visit our neighbor who was having break there. We stopped on Friday. No one was home so we walked over to a bar to watch the UNC NCAA tournament game. I went to bed around 10 because the people there were driving me insane. I woke up and was going to drive back even though Kipke said he was staying Saturday. I got up at 7 and told him to get up because I was going back due to rain in the area. He decided to get up and we were back in Chapel Hill that afternoon.
I think that we slept until Monday getting up only to watch basketball and then we were back to normal. Good Times.
Anyway, I thought of a story that made me laugh out loud just thinking about it so I’m going to share it with you. This chronicles my spring break trip my senior year of college.
It actually started the day after my 22nd birthday. That’s March 11th, 2000 for those of you keeping score at home. We went out in Chapel Hill for my birthday then Kipke and I started off on our journey to Key West the following morning. I was not up to par if you can imagine. Kipke took it easy the night before so he could drive the first leg of the trip starting at 8 AM. I slept in the passenger seat until about noon when I woke up to see a tractor trailer about 4 feet from the front of my green Mazda protégé. I said “What the hell are you doing!?” Kipke calmly replied “Drafting. Watch.” He then backed up and the car shook from the air then he pulled back into the draft and it was noticeably smoother and helped mileage according to him. I told him to make sure not to hit the truck and went back to sleep.
I took my turn and he slept around 2. We stopped only to gas up and eat. We got into Miami around 10 PM. Miami was pretty scary. It would be fine one block then you would be in the heart of the ghetto the next. Interesting zoning that they have there. So, we had to gas up before we headed out to the island roads. We pulled into what looked like a normal gas station. We tried to pump gas but it blocked us until we prepaid. Shortly after that a couple big black dudes with 40s in paper bags came out from behind the store and were watching us. We looked like two preppy college kids in our cargo shorts and golf shirts (mine was likely frat tucked). I wonder if they noticed the NY MAFIA license tag on the front of the car. I went into the bathroom. I stood there for 5 seconds and the light went out. I thought “Oh Shit, I’m going to die.” I then thought, I have to go so I might as well finish up. So, I left and realized that it was just a timer on the light. I went towards the car and Kipke headed to the bathroom. I thought “I should warm him about the light, then I thought no, that’s no fun.” He got as scared as me. By this time, the two black guys with 40s had grown to 4 and they began to fight each other. We quickly got in the car and went on our way. It was pretty intimidating.
We then drove through Miami and on to the Keys. We got in around 1 AM to stay with his cousin. We were staying in a tent in the back yard. No big deal if you’re young. The first night was hard to fall asleep but the rest were easy.
Key West is a cool town. However, I have no desire to go back now that I am older. It’s perfect for spring break but nothing much else is there. I don’t know what I would do.
We would wake up fairly early for us around 10 then go to the beach and hangout and nap. Michael Klett, Troy, Organ, and Johnner were all down there as well. They were staying at Jabronies camp site. It’s not really called Jabronies but it is close to that and that’s what I called it. Jabor’s is the real name I think. We hung out with them the whole week.
They called Kipke and I the ambiguously gay duo the whole weekend because we had a scooter to get around on. Yes, imagine Kipke driving and me on the back of the scooter going around town. I’m sure that it was pretty comical to see. Of course, Key West is known for its gay population so no one ever gave us a second glance but our group made fun of us; deservedly so.
All week we went out to a place called Mike’s; I think. They had a special from 6-10 for all that you could drink for $20. This was an amazing deal so we did that each night. We would go in about 7 and play bubble hockey until the rest of the normal people would show up around 11. Kipke and I dominated but that should be expected. Like most things in life UNC enacts domination over NC State. It’s just life so accept it State fans. We love you anyway. That includes you Andrew. The highlight of bubble hockey came in a game between Kipke and I vs. Chea and Klett (the best NC State team). It was all tied and the time was out so the next goal was going to win. I had the puck in front of the net manned by Klett. I scored the most amazing goal in bubble hockey history. Everyone who saw it agreed so I’m not bragging. Well, I am but it has been confirmed by others as the best bubble hockey goal of all time. I used a crossover move to score. I tipped the puck one way spun around and then tipped it back and slammed it in. I could never replicate it but it was a thing of beauty. We actually acted it out many times over the week.
One day, we were on the beach and a salesman came up to us. He was selling 8 AM snorkel cruises. We all said “No way in hell I’m getting up at 7 to go on a snorkel cruise.” Well, the guy sold Klett on it and Klett sold us on the idea that “we may never be here again, let’s go look at the coral reef, a group of girls signed up for the morning cruise, all you can drink on the way back included” So, $40 later we are all signed up for the following morning. We went out like normal. Did you actually think that we would go easy and prepare for AM snorkeling? Not a chance. The next morning came early and was quite painful. It was a great time to go out on a boat let me tell you.
There was our group and then a group of girls on the boat. It became apparent that the girls choose the morning trip because they didn’t want to be around any guys. Yeah for us! So, on the trip to the coral reef they go over all the rules for snorkeling and they beat into us the main rule. DO NOT TOUCH THE REEF! If they said it once, they said it at least 37 times. DO NOT TOUCH THE REEF! It is a living organism that dies if you touch it. So, we continue on our long ride and finally get there. Did I mention that a boat ride is totally awesome when you drank too much the night before?
So, we get to the reef. We have to swim a half mile to get to it but there are buoys around it so you can find it. The water is pretty choppy that morning. It is white capping in some spots but we make the swim out there. The reef is not very large but there are some pretty fish. Sadly, you cannot see that far because the water is so choppy. It’s also only 20 feet big and maybe 5 feet from the surface so there isn’t much to see.
We swam the half mile out to this little rock to see a couple fish. It’s not that great and no one is feeling good so many people begin to get tired and need to rest. Several of us are just floating there relaxing in our life jackets when I decide to swim around and look some more. I see Chea standing on the middle of the reef and then he starts walking around on it like he’s in a pool. I laughed so hard that I started to choke on salt water. He was not heeding the DO NOT TOUCH THE REEF! warning. It was classic. This is what inspired me to write this story. I can still see his flippers standing on the reef. “Killing it”
The water started to get a little worse so we were called back to the boat. I about gave up life for five minutes on this swim. I was not feeling first-rate. The choppy water made the swim very tough. I began to swallow large amounts of salt water. I then began to put that salt water back in the ocean along with my breakfast. This happened several times over the swim and at one point. I thought “This is it. I’m going to drown, no need to fight it anymore.” I sat there and didn’t drown. The life vest was working. So, I thought “I’m not going to die. I have to swim to the boat.” So, I did. I then slept the entire ride back and got a little sunburn on my back.
We spent a couple more days there but nothing really of note happened.
So, we drove to Jacksonville to stop off and visit our neighbor who was having break there. We stopped on Friday. No one was home so we walked over to a bar to watch the UNC NCAA tournament game. I went to bed around 10 because the people there were driving me insane. I woke up and was going to drive back even though Kipke said he was staying Saturday. I got up at 7 and told him to get up because I was going back due to rain in the area. He decided to get up and we were back in Chapel Hill that afternoon.
I think that we slept until Monday getting up only to watch basketball and then we were back to normal. Good Times.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Our New Car!
As promised, we got a new car last weekend. We wanted to get a larger vehicle that we could haul things around in. This will primarily be driven by me so it won't be traveling very far each day. It will pretty much take me to work and back which is only a 12 minute drive. Here are a couple of shots of the car.
Here is a picture from the tailgate. That thing across the back is there to hide your stuff from people looking in. It comes down and stores below that mat there and then you can pull up the third row of seats. They are not spacious but they actually aren't terrible either. Elizabeth could fit back there pretty good. So, we can haul around visitors when we have them. We can also haul around stuff like new vanities, toilets, lawnmowers and other things that were impossible in our older cars.
That was our excitement from last weekend. This weekend I took my final test for school so as long as I pass the two classes that I took this semester then I will have my masters in business degree. Now, we just need the economy to get better. I'll write next about some of my coolest classes and experiences. Have a good one!
Here is a picture from the tailgate. That thing across the back is there to hide your stuff from people looking in. It comes down and stores below that mat there and then you can pull up the third row of seats. They are not spacious but they actually aren't terrible either. Elizabeth could fit back there pretty good. So, we can haul around visitors when we have them. We can also haul around stuff like new vanities, toilets, lawnmowers and other things that were impossible in our older cars.
That was our excitement from last weekend. This weekend I took my final test for school so as long as I pass the two classes that I took this semester then I will have my masters in business degree. Now, we just need the economy to get better. I'll write next about some of my coolest classes and experiences. Have a good one!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
New Bathroom!!
We recently renovated our bathroom. We did some of the work but we didn't try and handle the hard core plumbing of the job. I'm not a skilled craftsman by a long shot so we hired some help for that. However, we did some of the work and we did all of the painting. I'll take you through what we did.
The first thing that we did was take down the molding in the bathroom. Does a bathroom need molding around the middle of it? No, Elizabeth didn't think so and she took it off. She is responsible for the majority of the work in the bathroom as I was more of an assistant. So, the "we" could really be Elizabeth 90%; Ben 10%. I had a ton of school work this summer so I was doing that a lot of the time. When she took the molding down she had to put joint compound in it's place.
As you can see, we have a little bathroom but it works. We also took out both medicine cabinets that we had. There is some new drywall up there on the left of the second picture. Elizabeth and Ryan put that in place.
After that was complete, we decided to paint the bathroom before the plumber came in to install everything. Here is the primed bathroom.
We then had the plumbers and then a handyman come in and complete the work. One of the coolest things is the seat on the toilet. It does not slam. It goes down extremely slowly. It's very cool. It's right there with tissues as the coolest things in the house that don't require batteries or power to work. Here is the finished product.
The first thing that we did was take down the molding in the bathroom. Does a bathroom need molding around the middle of it? No, Elizabeth didn't think so and she took it off. She is responsible for the majority of the work in the bathroom as I was more of an assistant. So, the "we" could really be Elizabeth 90%; Ben 10%. I had a ton of school work this summer so I was doing that a lot of the time. When she took the molding down she had to put joint compound in it's place.
As you can see, we have a little bathroom but it works. We also took out both medicine cabinets that we had. There is some new drywall up there on the left of the second picture. Elizabeth and Ryan put that in place.
After that was complete, we decided to paint the bathroom before the plumber came in to install everything. Here is the primed bathroom.
We then had the plumbers and then a handyman come in and complete the work. One of the coolest things is the seat on the toilet. It does not slam. It goes down extremely slowly. It's very cool. It's right there with tissues as the coolest things in the house that don't require batteries or power to work. Here is the finished product.
Next Week . . . A NEW CAR!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Snap Shots
As I look through the pictures on my computer I keep finding some good ones that have a good story behind them. So, this entry will include some random pictures that have a story attached to them.
So, I am starting off with this one.
This is a great picture of the Crafts and myself. This was us at the table before or after dinner I believe. They had their wedding at Olde Beau in the mountains. It was a very beautiful place. I was best man and had to come up with a speech. I had a million different stories to tell but as luck would have it. I was able to tell the story of our morning round of golf.
Olde Beau has a golf course attached to it as most nice places do. It is a challenging course in the mountains. Here is a picture of one ravine.
As you can see, there were some pretty steep hills on the course. On the hole after this one, you go a pretty steep hill. We drove up the hill then saw that our balls were down the hill so we turned and started to go down. Bear in mind, this was a 60 degree slope and I started to lose control of the cart. We start flying down the hill towards a ravine and the cart began to spin and we did a 360. I got control for a second and then it started to spin out again. At this point, Craft bailed and being a good friend yelled "BEN, JUMP!" Taking his advice, I jumped out of the cart as well. We were both in tact. As soon as I jumped out; the cart rolled to a stop under a tree just before falling over the hill into some rocks. It was pretty exciting.
Everyone then of course had a good laugh, and I had my speech. It was a fun weekend. David Carmen still owes Ondrea Van Hoever for his room if you see him.
Our next couple of pictures take place at our annual turkey bowl football game. We have gotten together for the past 6 years and celebrated Thanksgiving with a Turkey Bowl football game. It is generally my friends vs. my brother's friends who are all 5 years younger. We usually win one game and then they win one once we are tired out.
This a group shot; I'll stop with the top row going left to right. The first person is Ryan Gunyan (Liz's brother). He once played for a National Championship in flag football. He is easily one of the best players on the field even though you might not expect it. The next person is Keshaun Walters. He is Brian Snipes roommate. Then there is some weird girl touching my brother. The red hat guy is my brother. He's got good looks but I have a bigger brain. 84 is Russell. He's pretty much a wimp. Girls beat him up all the time. That's Vince Young there in the middle. Wait, my mistake that's me. I wear a Young jersey because his game is almost as good as mine. Next is the Kipke brothers; Mike and Jamie. Mike is a stud in the Turkey bowl but he tends to fall apart for the Xmas bowl. Jamie is a big dude that most people get out of the way for. There on the end is Forest.
The lower row is: Mike Wiggins; he is Andrew's buddy that travels around and dates supermodels. He lives pretty well. Next to him is Sniper. He is a world renown pet enthusiast. The next guy is a douche. I don't know his name but I know that I don't like him. The next guy is Craft, you should no him now. Next is Peter Gunyan, Liz's other brother. He's 17 and his brain is mush right now according to all the books that I have read this summer. Next to him is little Wiggins and Jimmy Mullins. Jimmy was once quoted in the local news paper after beating Greensboro Day in high school lacrosse. He said "We don't like them public school types."
Below is an American Hero:
If you look closely you can see Tyler Hansbrough on the line getting ready to shoot some free throws. We went to Chapel Hill for New Year's Eve last year and we took in a game which was a lot of fun. We got to see the team beat Valpo. I love Tyler. He is my favorite UNC player of all time. I just hope that he can win at Duke again this year so that we can call it Hansbrough Indoor Stadium forever.
Roy will have a lot of pressure on himself this year to add to the arena.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Where we're going we don't need roads . . .
We are taking another trip this week. This time we are headed to Bristol, TN. If you don't know why Bristol is not a great town then you've never been there for a race. It's easily the best NASCAR race of the season mainly because there are a lot of wrecks. Everyone likes a good wreck as long as nobody gets hurts of course. So, I'll take you on our last trip to Bristol because I have some pictures which is key for everyone. Pictures make everything better unless you did something illegal.
I have taken 3 trips to Bristol. One with the Wizard, Drew, Dad, and myself which was a lot of fun and worked out very similar to the story you're about to be told except Russell is subbed in for the Wizard. The Wizard has his own page which I may try and link to this one if I can. Anyway, we went back a year later and got to go to the luxury suite; which Mom decided to go to because girls like luxury suites. It was also fun but we all decided that outside is better because you can hear the cars better which is really the coolest thing about the race.
So, the trip starts out at 8 AM leaving from G-town on the way over the Bristol. It takes about 3 hours maybe 3.5 but I can't remember. You try to get there around 11/12 so that you can park and hang out until a couple hours before race time. We always park at the same church because you can hang out in gym which has AC and play some hoops in their gym all for $10. It's very nice. It's also a good place to eat snacks which must include sweet nuts. This trip Russ and Dad thought that it would be a great idea to sell some Goodyear posters to people as we walked up.
As nice as they are; people don't want to carry around a poster so they donated them to the church.
It was a hot August day and we walked the mile up to the track to do some of the free tent stuff that is found around the track.
We were were walking around outside and were amazed to find out that they had created a monument to the Allison family. It is true that we are a great clan but this honor was unexpected. Here we are at the monument. It's nice to know that the people at Bristol Motor Speedway love us so much.
We then went in and experienced our first little hiccup with our seats. We thought that we were near the top which is where we sat the first time that we arrived. If you don't know, NASCAR seats are better the further away you are. The first few rows are called the "chicken bone" section because people throw their chicken bones on you from above.
So, we thought that we were sitting here. Nice high status area.
It turns out that we were wrong and were sitting here.
I have taken 3 trips to Bristol. One with the Wizard, Drew, Dad, and myself which was a lot of fun and worked out very similar to the story you're about to be told except Russell is subbed in for the Wizard. The Wizard has his own page which I may try and link to this one if I can. Anyway, we went back a year later and got to go to the luxury suite; which Mom decided to go to because girls like luxury suites. It was also fun but we all decided that outside is better because you can hear the cars better which is really the coolest thing about the race.
So, the trip starts out at 8 AM leaving from G-town on the way over the Bristol. It takes about 3 hours maybe 3.5 but I can't remember. You try to get there around 11/12 so that you can park and hang out until a couple hours before race time. We always park at the same church because you can hang out in gym which has AC and play some hoops in their gym all for $10. It's very nice. It's also a good place to eat snacks which must include sweet nuts. This trip Russ and Dad thought that it would be a great idea to sell some Goodyear posters to people as we walked up.
As nice as they are; people don't want to carry around a poster so they donated them to the church.
It was a hot August day and we walked the mile up to the track to do some of the free tent stuff that is found around the track.
We were were walking around outside and were amazed to find out that they had created a monument to the Allison family. It is true that we are a great clan but this honor was unexpected. Here we are at the monument. It's nice to know that the people at Bristol Motor Speedway love us so much.
We then went in and experienced our first little hiccup with our seats. We thought that we were near the top which is where we sat the first time that we arrived. If you don't know, NASCAR seats are better the further away you are. The first few rows are called the "chicken bone" section because people throw their chicken bones on you from above.
So, we thought that we were sitting here. Nice high status area.
It turns out that we were wrong and were sitting here.
If you can't tell that's row 6. Yes, the heart of the "chicken bone" section. It turned out to be fine but I wasn't happy when we got there. You could actually see the whole track from these seats which was surprising as you normally can't see much this close. You get a different type of fan when you are this close though. One fan that we got to see a lot of was this guy.
He didn't really know where he was all night. I'm not sure where his tickets were actually but we were only with him during the opening ceremonies. He did pop up in every section throughout the night much like a whack a mole and constantly went back to the concourse.
Also, on this night, we broke a world-record. Bristol seats 230K I think. But we were part of the biggest fan participation event ever! This is Russ and our friend participating in that event. You are supposed to hold it like Russ not the other guy. Here is what it looked it.
Our friend there didn't quite understand how to do it.
This is just a cool parachute guy.
We stayed for the whole race which was nice. It ended about 11:30 and there weren't near as many wrecks as usual which was disappointing but it was still a good time.
On they way back, we found another problem with our seats. We were all hearing impaired. Andrew and I were not too bad because I got ear plugs. Dad however, could not hear a thing. I drove back and Andrew road upfront to keep me awake and Dad and Russ were in the back. We would keep talking about the race and other things and ask Dad what he thought . . . . . . . . . nothing. We would then laugh because he couldn't hear a word that we were saying and it became a joke the rest of the way.
One of us: Hey Dad . . . Nothing; We would laugh hysterically. Dad can still hear; the loss was just for the ride home and for a couple weeks after the race.
Good Times.
I asked Dad and Andrew to rate the experience.
Until Next time . . .
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