Friday, August 26, 2011

Commuter Illiterate: Yogi and the Bear

Here is a fun exchange I noticed on the train. I think these guys knew each other. One of them decided to humiliate the other one. He said it would be good for him or something. The other guy didn't appreciate it very much, and they started going into it.

It's a little out of sync because of my phone camera, and I couldn't fix it. It's a little over 6 minutes, and it's laced with some four letter words. Enjoy.



I'm not sure what a yogi is. I guess it's some guy who teaches yoga or something. Anyways, at least they didn't come to blows. I can hardly care about them beating each other but there were passengers around them that could have gotten hurt.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Chum Bucket: It's a small world after all.

I'm not quite too sure exactly how I became chums with Don Surlylight.  We had some classes together at college, but I can't remember our first conversations and other stuff like that.  I don't even think we had any group projects that would have drawn us together.

He didn't play an instrument but I remember him being at my basement while I was jamming with my other friends.  I don't think we even liked the same music because I remember him being into that emo shit.  The only thing we really had in common is that we are both Filipino.  I vaguely remember some classmate presenting a video about heritage that I liked, so it may have been him and I may have complimented him.

I remember specifically another classmate named Noah Shark, who pretty much became friends with me because we were both from the Philippines.  Now that I think about it, he probably introduced us or something.  But the point was that after Little Lost Guy went back to Ecuador, I was suddenly hanging out with Don Surlylight, talking about projects and girls and whatnot.

One Spring day in 2004, we spontaneously decided to look into getting internships.  So we walked over to this building to inquire.  We were told to wait, and we sat down on the couch in the department's office (I forget the name: Job Placement?  Career Development?  Iono, something).  Anyways, I was seated facing out the door, and across from us was the reception desk for the Advisement Center.  It was one of those funny serendipity things because Don was right next to me, and his eye line was towards the wall and mine was towards what was an empty chair behind the desk at the time.

We were waiting for a while, but I wasn't complaining because a beautiful girl came by and occupied that empty chair at the reception desk across from me.


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Timeout Boy at the Reception.

My wife's former co-worker invited us to her wedding reception a few weeks ago.  I was hesitant at first because we didn't have anything to wear and we didn't know any of the other guests.  Mostly, I was concerned about how Timeout Boy would behave at that fancy restaurant.

We got there pretty early.  We were the second group to arrive.  We found our table and waited a while for things to get started.

Timeout Boy sat in a high chair at the end of the table.  He had his friend Red with him, a MegaBlok mini-figure which he played with for a while until he started banging it on the table and we had to take the toy away.  He also had his milk and crackers.

A couple who was at our table commented that he was very well behaved, which kind of surprised me.  I thought, yes, I guess he was.  My son had been a good boy all night.  They said they had a kid about the same age, and he would have been running around all over.  We figured if Timeout Boy knew the people there, he would probably be doing the same.

Here is my son enjoying the music:


The other day before the Jets game, we stopped by Fun Buffet and were seated at a booth.  I sat on one side with my friend, and my wife and son were on the other.  When my wife left to get food, Timeout Boy sat there quietly drinking his milk.  The group across from us stared at him and asked how old he was.  I said two, and they looked surprised.

"Wow, he is so well mannered," said one of them.  I simply smiled.  Yes, he is, I thought to myself.

Funny thing is, growing up, "well mannered" kids seemed to be the norm, if I remember correctly.  Even when I visited the Philippines, I don't remember seeing kids acting out.  I'm not sure why that is.

Maybe it's the culture?  Parents there aren't worried about spanking their kids if they had to.  Or the teachers in school, for that matter.  Maybe it's the economy?  Parents are working more and have less time at thome?  I'm not sure.  I don't know why I'm even going into it.

I must say, though, it's a big relief to be able to go to a restaurant and not have your two year old kicking and screaming like we sometimes see.

Oh yeah, here's some more dance:




Monday, August 22, 2011

Timeout Boy at the Jets Game

This Sunday night I took my two year old boy to his first ever Jets game.  A good friend of mine gave us his preseason tickets against the Bengals, so after checking that the weather would be partly cloudy, I decided to take them.  Of course, the weather suddenly changed once we started actually making plans.

We went looking for a jersey for the kid, and it took some searching to finally find one.  We tried Target, Babies R Us and Modell's, but none of them had it.  We found a really nice one at Sports Authority, but we didn't feel like spending $60 for something he would only wear a few times really.  We ended up at Kohl's and were surprised to find a Mark Sanchez jersey for $32, so we went for it.

Here is a picture of my kid in his number 6 and me in my Wayne Chrebet 80:

We couldn't find one small enough for Monkey the Bear though, so he had to settle for a bib:

One of my best friends happened to be vacationing in the country, so I figured since we had an extra ticket, he could come with us.  He decided to come along even though he's not exactly into sports.  It took some time for Timeout Boy to warm up to "Uncle", but by the end of the night he was holding his hand on the escalator.  Here we are on the way up the "alligator", as Timeout Boy would say:

We were all the way up in section 340, so he enjoyed a lot of escalator rides:

I would admit I'm not an expert with the whole game experience.  Even though the whole forecast had changed, I guess my wife and I were both a little overwhelmed with the excitement because we totally forgot to bring ponchos, towels or even hats for the rain.  Also, I passed by some tailgaters that I was familiar with via Twitter so I stopped by to say hello.  But when I was asked, "Who else do you know on Twitter?" I kind of drew a blank.  Haha!  O-welles.  Also, we had to change the little kiddo's diaper and his green pants were soaked so we had to find another one and I was worried the extra one would be blue and I would never want him to wear blue to a Jets game and so on.

So anyways, as we settled in our seats all the way up in the heavens, we looked up at the darkening sky and realized, we left the hats in the car.  Timeout Boy was happy though.  He would feel the drops on his face and smile so wide.  We would never let him out in the rain in any other circumstance.  We sat there for a while, but then common sense took over and we seeked shelter.  I told my friend he was lucky that my son was there because if not, we would have stayed all game in the rain.

We went back for a few minutes during player introductions, and my son looked so excited.  He was mostly staring up at the crowds, so I had to point him down towards the field.  He turned around just in time to see Sanchise running out.  And then Santonio Holmes after.  Timeout Boy had such a terrific wide-eyed look of awe and wonder.  It was totally worth it just for that.

We then sat around the sheltered part of the stadium.  We walked up and down some of the stairs, which Timeout Boy totally loved.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that the whole night, he would see the fans in their Jets jerseys and say, "Look, it's Jets."  And, "There's another Jets."

The wife was kind enough to offer that my friend and I watch while she stayed with Timeout Boy.  So I said yes.  But we only watched the first quarter before deciding to leave.  Here is my son enjoying his milk and goldfish as they waited for us:

It was kind of a short night, but it turned out fine because we ended up getting home just at his bedtime.  (Okay, it was about a half hour later than, but still).