Breakfast of Champions

Today, I awoke a bit early. Before 7 on a Friday is kinda weird! But maybe its because I knew what was coming next: the true breakfast of champions. No, I'm not talking about calling up your favorite Wheaties cereal box heroes, I'm talking mutherfuckin' Power Malt.

The funny thing is, it's been sitting in my fridge forever. To be honest, I was somehow fearing the drink. Not sure why! Anyway, after a discussion last night with my benefactor and provider of said Power Malt, I decided it was time to bust it out.

It's pretty difficult to describe the taste. Take Raisin Bran, pulverize it, and add 10 spoons of sugar and you're starting to get there. It's strong, rich, syrup. Not the kind of thing you would want to give a seven-year-old. But the kind of thing that if a youngster found out about, they'd be downing it like no tomorrow. In essence, it's a healthy Beavis and Butthead drink. And the cool part is, everybody at work thinks I'm drinking beer.

Getting Back in Touch

So my new thing this week has been getting back in touch. With old friends! So far, I've managed to locate 4: 1 in Brooklyn, 1 in Vermont, 1 in Turkey, and 1 in Texas. Spread all over! Other than my New York friends, some of these go back years, and in particular, my friend in Texas, we're talking two decades. That's some time!

I attribute google and facebook to these discoveries. While google searches can in fact help, without a picture to match to the mug, it's a pretty tricky thing to do. Certainly, the searching plus popularity gains of FB have made it the weapon of choice. But anyway, great!

UPDATE:
Make that 6 people. Got a hold of a former neighbor from OU who now lives in Tokyo of all places (he spoke no Japanese when he left Athens in 2003 but was clearly interested), and another friend in Cincinnati.

To the Dentist!

Had an interesting trip to the dentist yesterday. Hadn't been in a while and it was time! First time ever at the place, since my old dentist was scheduling something like 2 months out. As if! So, to a new dentist I went.

Right off the bat I had something new - or at least I couldn't remember if the old one had it. It's the panorama style X-ray machine. I stood forward, teeth clinching some little plastic piece to get my teeth in line where they should be. Then this giant arm swung around my head, firing off massive amounts of X-rays at my noggin. Afterwards, I took a seat in the cleaning area where they pulled all kinds of tarter and plaque and the like from my teeth. The lady even questioned if I had my wisdom teeth removed as there was so much build-up in the back. Several hundred scrapes later she got it, after cleaning the blood out. Yeah! And then the X-ray came: they somehow had managed to miss most of jaw, and instead got an excellent image of my... spine. Yes, that's pretty much not what we're looking for. Though! I did get a complement for my spine.

One more X-Ray and some cleaning later, I found out I was cavity free. He did recommend me to seeing an orthodontist for getting some invisible braces. Which I'll probably get...once I figure out what's next. I passed up scheduling for my 6-months checkup and went about my way. Nice!

A Free Night's Stay in Town

So this past Saturday, Reiko and I checked into a local Drury Inn and Suites. Pretty nice place! They have an excellent drink and snack service in the evening time, as well as a free hot breakfast. Throw in a nice-sized suite room with a jacuzzi and separate shower, alright! Paul came up and the three of us went to dinner at Little York Tavern, a highly recommended pizzeria / bar.

And the price was right, too: I won the free night's stay from our company picnic.

Ironically, this was not the first time I had stayed there. No! Just last summer, I had won the same exact comp through a raffle we held at the office. (This year it became a "prize"... we basically get a free one for every ten stays or so we have there). A bit different this time than last summer, when my roommate and brother and I chugged beer and went to a show in Columbus, only to come back and drink more and watch Billy Madison until 4am. But hey, what can I say, time's are a-changin'.

No Camera

One thing I've noticed over the past few months, is the fact that since I no longer have a regular working camera, I'm much much less inclined to try and snap a few pics or even shoot that random-on-the-spot movie clip. And for shame! I enjoy taking countless pics. It's basically a numbers game, a quantity over quality situation, when working with your average consumer digital cam. Sure, you can get good pictures with it, but it does take a bit of effort.

Anyway, I think it's really changed the way I look at things. Before, it was always, stop, gotta try this one from a few different angles to see if I got it... then check it out on the laptop, upload it to Facebook or wherever else, repeat. Now it's like from one thing to the next.

By far the biggest feature I miss is being able to have the video camera wherever I go. Because you never know what you're going to find!

Now comes the true test: how much longer I'll wait after posting this before I actually get around to fixing my camera!

Amusing! Movies!

Movies. Simply put, I'm not much of a movies guy. Not that I don't like them, I've just got an issue with paying a lot of money to see something on the big screen. Seems like such a scam! If I can't take it home with me, then I'm already up in arms with it. At $9 a pop for the new runs, if I'm not 100% I'm going to like it, then I rarely go. Couldn't even tell you the last movie I saw in a theater.

These days those, it's all about the renting. Joined up with the local Hollywood Video to this extent recently. That, and bit torrent... heh. Anyway!

First on the list was Ratatouille. My kind of Pixar! I end up watching only a few of these movies, and this one happened to be one I was actually interested in. And liked it very well!

And after watching the well made "Be Kind, Rewind" recently, I decided it was about damn time to watch Ghostbusters again. And quickly realized that I have not seen this movie since I first saw it, twenty plus years ago (scary!). I think I've seen the ending a few times, and I know I've seen the second film, but man! I forgot how much the player Bill Murray was back then.

Then, last night it was Sweeney Todd. Not much of my cup of tea per se, but visually interesting. A bit too long for me, a bit too much of singing, and not surprisingly, a very predictable ending. Though, I liked the darkness factor here.

Air Show For The Win!

It's July! And what could be more patriotic than an air show?

Yep! Fire up those engines! Dayton is the proud holder of an annual air show. Even have their own dedicated field for it. So! Once a year, there it is.

And quite a show, too. No Blue Angels this year, but they had some other good squadrons. In place of the Angels, we saw a 4-plane squadron from the South who flew (in style!) in old trick prop planes. Jets really set the stage though, with their body-shakin' boomin'. And! To top it off, the new F-22 Raptor.

Anyway, nothing screams American quite like an air show. "Proud to be an American!" this and "only in the US!!!!! OMG!" that. Well! Sometimes, that's just fine with me, too.