Day 104

The Junky Car Club. that is awesome. I became eligible to become a member when I bought my 1992 Ford Ranger. I think I may have become an extra special member when I put a padlock on my passenger door instead of paying a bunch of money to put in a new cylinder.

So, what is the JCC you ask? Well, visit www.junkycarclub.com to find out, and if you qualify, join. Joe Elder, not qualified. Gavin Masterson, totally qualifies. For those that don't know, Joe traded in his newer Pontiac Gran Prix GTX for a newer Honda (I think), not a junky car. Sean, er, Gavin, "drives" an older, powder blue scooter that tops out at 30mph. Definitely a junky "car".

So, what is the point behind the JCC? It is all about living within your means so that you can give more. I am proud to say that I paid cash for my truck and everything I have put in it. I certainly don't need (and can't afford) any more bills. I almost must say that I have been able to give more lately, which I really love. There was a time recently when I couldn't (read: didn't really want to) give very much.

I am proud to say that I am now a card-carrying (for real, I have a signed card in my wallet, you can see it in the picture below) member of the Junky Car Club. I have to say that part of the awesomosity for the day must go to Mike Foster, who has done some very cool stuff with his life so far. Besides starting the JCC, he is involved with the #1 Christian porn site, www.xxxchurch.com. Related to that is www.theporntalk.com, about talking to your kids about porn. He is also one of the two founding members of Deadly Viper: Character Assasins, a great book and cool website (its in my blogroll, though its not updating, I'll have to check on that). He does actually have a paying gig too, you can read more about it at www.plainjoestudios.com.

Ok, that's enough for today, besides, I gotta get rolling. Here is the promised picture of me with my JCC member card, and of course, my junky car.

Thanks everybody, see you tomorrow!

Day 103

Today's awesomeness was really easy to see. Unfortunately, I was not able to participate directly in the use of the awesomeness today, but I did help the person that was using it. Is that cryptic enough for you?


Yes, that is Nathaniel, he works at my church and he is floating in mid air. Ok, so he is on a lift. It is a Genie Z-30/20N Boom to be exact. Very awesome.

So here is the story. I had breakfast with me mother this morning, which was quite awesome. She works at our church. She got a few phone calls while we were chatting, most about work. One of them, she said, was about someone needing to get to something high, and how do they do that. My mother told them to get a hold of our facilities manager. Then I told my mother that whenever they did have a lift available, I wanted to make sure some of the lights in the ceiling got refocused in the room we have our service.

As it turns out, the lift was there today and being returned later in the day. If I wanted something to happen, I needed to get up there ASAP. So after my mom and I walked through Laumeier Sculpture Park, I headed to church. We finally refocused those lights. Now, when we have the light on the pastor during the sermon, there is not a group of people on the right side of the room with a spotlight on them. Hooray!

Here is a picture of the lift at full extension.


Part of me is glad I was not the one on the lift, even if they are a ton of fun.

Task o' The Day: I'm gonna give you two. First, do somthing that involves heights. It could be anything from going up in the Arch, to riding a lift such as this one, or even a roller coaster. Just something that involves being way off the ground. Or, if you don't do that, help someone out, preferably at your church. If you don't go to church, then help out someone you know that could need help with something. Anything from moving to landscaping to whatever else they may need. Post what you did (Thanks John for participating yesterday, I have added The Thomas Crown Affair to my queue!).

Here is my picture, taken while I controlled the lights and Nathaniel focused them.


Have a great day!

Day 102

As often my blogs do, this one revolves around an activity I found myself doing last night. First I went to a friends house for a book discussion of sorts. It was very cool. But then I went home (after a trip to McD's, I really do eat there too much during Monopoly, p.s. no prizes for me yet). At home, I found the latest delivery from Netflix, The Great Escape.

What an awesome movie! For being nearly 3 hours long, it is a fantastic film. And (with the exception of Bonnie and Clyde, which I saw when I took Film Appreciation at Meramec {gotta love community colleges}), it is by far the oldest movie I have seen (1963).

Now there were a few things special about this movie. The first thing I noticed is that, with the possible exception of extras in city scenes, there are no women in this movie. This is a movie about a bunch of guys trying to escape from a POW camp during WWII. Not one of them even mentions the lady back home. This just struck me as odd because Hollywood would never make a movie without at least a hint of a love story in it these days. It was quite refreshing.

Secondly, it was the first movie I have seen with the fabled and sexy Steve McQueen. Man, is this guy ever a giant hunk of man flesh. (totally kidding here by the way) But seriously, I have heard that name a bunch before, so I figured I should watch one of his films.

Speaking of big names of people whose films I have not seen yet, the list includes: Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, James Dean, and I am sure quite a few more. But I am on the way to rectifying this situation. My Netflix queue includes plenty of older movies with a lot of these stars in them. I have also just added a few more Steve McQueen titles to the list.

The last thing that was pretty cool about this movie is seeing people that I know as older actors when they just started making it big. This movie had Charles Bronson (why aren't there "facts" about him?) and James Garner (who I previously only know from the Rockford Files). It was like seeing Al Pacino in the Godfather for the first time, or Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider. It is just hard to picture them ever being young.

Task o' the Day: See a classic movie. Black and White if possible. Need a suggestion? Ask. Have a suggestion? Leave it as a comment. Want someone to watch it with? Call me. 636-Benjamin. Yes, that's my phone number (you don't dial the last "n" before you ask).

What is not awesome? Roofs and attics on a sunny day. But that's part of my job sometimes. Here is a picture of me from today in an attic.


Thanks always for reading, I hope to see you again tomorrow!!

Oh! And it looks like Dexter just squeezed out the victory in my one day poll! Congratulations Dexter! I'll add it to the queue now, and I'll have a new poll tomorrow.

Day 101

I'm thinking today's awesomeness should be dalmatians or something. But they're not. Not that dalmatians aren't awesome, all dogs are awesome. Some dogs are definitely more awesome than others, and in my opinion, dalmatians aren't at the top of the awesome dogs list, but dogs in general are nonetheless very awesome. Ok, now I'm way off track. How does that happen all the time. Oh well.

Today's awesomeness comes from a good friend of mine's wife (not that she is not also my friend, but Greg was my friend first, so she is still Greg's wife). Jackie Higgins. You may know her from First Free, or you may know her from her Baby Blog. Well, she has a new blog and it is awesome.

It's called The Savvy Shopper. I have added it the the long list of "Other Sweetness" and to blogs I follow, but you should totally check it out. She just started it last week I think (her first post was at 4:59am, boy am I glad I don't have kids!!). The most recent post, from yesterday, shows how you can go to Shop n' Save and get $50 worth of groceries for $11.80. Seriously!

Now, as many of you may guess, I am not really the "Coupon clipping" type of person, but if I can save almost $40 by shopping on a certain day and having some coupons, I'm all about that. I will totally be checking out Jackie's blog regularly to see how I can save some money, because really, who can't stand to save some money?

By the way, if you click on the link, it will probably tell you that it is not a legitimate blog or something. Blogger.com for some reason thinks its a spam blog. I don't quite understand it, but I do assure you that it is legitimate. Click on through and enjoy the savings!

Task o' The Day: Ok, so this is the second time I've had to edit this post. Holy Cow. I think it is obvious today, but I'll spell it out anyway. Clip a coupon. For anything. I will accept a discount code for an online order, but you gotta go save some money next time you buy anything. Post what you did as a comment so others can enjoy the savings as well.

I had to go outside to take my picture today, on a day the epitomizes "a crisp fall day". I love it!


Thanks for reading ya'll! See you in the AM!

OH! I almost forgot! OK, so I did forget and I had to edit the post, but I really need your help! I have a tie in my latest poll, so I will have a one day only poll between "Dexter" and "Lost". I will watch both series, but I need to know which one to get first. So PLEASE VOTE!

Day 100

I can't believe I've made it to triple digits. I am very excited about the surprise party all you faithful blog readers will be throwing me later tonight! What? No surprise party? Then why am I writing this thing?

I'm just kidding. Now, on to some awesomeness. Monopoly. No, I'm serious. One of the oldest board games I know of is still awesome today. And they just released the new "World Edition" where all the properties are now International Cities, not places in Atlantic City (did you know that's where the original was set?).

Now, I haven't played Monopoly in quite a while, so why is it today's awesomosity? The annual Monopoly game at McDonald's started today. Now, just to be clear, McDonald's is not awesome. Quite the opposite, aside from RedBox, McDonald's pretty well sucks. But I always find myself more willing to go to McD's this time of year. Usually I will get breakfast there, since it is probably the best of their food, and I like the hash browns. So I will order a Egg McMuffin of Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit meal with an extra hash browns. Then I play the game. I have yet to win anything, but someone's got to win, right?

You can check out all the rules and prizes and krap at www.playatmcd.com.

So, a couple of things. Wait, I'll just make them the TOD.

Task o' The Day: Play Monopoly. In real life (I would love to play a good game, let me know when you want to play) or at McDonalds (If you go to McD's but don't want to play, send me your codes, and I will enter them in). It's pretty easy.

So, with a few exceptions, most of you have either:
a. Not been doing the Task o' The Day or
b. Not been letting others know of your awesome feats.
Therefore, my question is that if you want me to keep putting up a Task o' The Day, then you have to play along. You can totally tel me you think its a dumb TOD, or that you did it, or that you'll never do it, but let me know something.

Ok, sorry about that, I get flustered sometimes. You all don't have to do anything. You don't even have to read this thing. Who am I? Just some guy going around and being awesome.

Here is my picture, thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!

Day 99

Man, my last double-digit blog. Holy cow, I guess I better make it good. This is a lot of pressure, I don't know if I can handle the possible upcoming ridicule of the 7 people who read my blog. Oh no!

Ok, I've come to my senses. Phew! That was close. Awesome today? Jaydogg Jay.

JDJ (as his friends, like myself, like to call him) is going to make the Rams. He's got a great 4 step plan:

1. Get Huge. He's working on this currently with Gatorade and Protien. What else do you need?
2. Get an agent. Know any good agents?
3. Get a tryout. Rams Park 12 minutes away. He is always about 14 minutes from a spot on the Rams.
4. Get paid. Great players like JDJ will get some serious cash, even on the Rams, the worst team in Missouri.

But why am I telling you all this? I'll just let you see for yourself:



See what I mean? How can a guy like this not make the Rams?

I know my friend John already had a blog about this, but when something this awesome comes around, its gonna get blogged about a lot.

Oh, and if you want to try to be friends with JDJ on Facebook, here's the link. But just a warning, a guy as awesome as that probably doesn't accept all his friend requests.

Task o' The Day: Find a sweet YouTube video and post the URL as a comment. We all know there are some great vids out there, lets all share with each other, eh? Now, the last time I told everyone to comment, no one did, which makes you all not awesome. Let's not do that again, OK?

Here is the picture of the day, of me wishing I was napping. I am extremely tired after a very long weekend. Oh, and notice anything different about me? That's right, I'm wearing a logoed polo.


Thanks everybody! Have an awesome day!

Day 98

Well, this has been quite a ridiculous weekend for me. This weekend was Oktoberfest in Soulard. I know you all thought that Mardi Gras was the only party that happens in Soulard, but oh contrare mi amigo, Oktoberfest is one of the many other celebrations that unite the neighborhood that is Soulard.

I have experienced working one Mardi Gras at Llywelyns in Soulard, but this is my first Oktoberfest. Friday night was odd. There were a ton of people right down the block for most of the night at the big celebration. Well, that closed at midnight, we close at one. That means that we got a whole lot of really drunk ignorant people walking in to Llywelyns at midnight.

We were overstaffed to begin with, which is always the rule when Soulard hosts a big party such as Oktoberfest. Therefore, most of the night we had business, but we weren't busy. At midnight, busy doesn't quite describe what happened. We rang more from 12-1 than we did the rest of the night almost. It was crazy.

Then Saturday happened. Saturday was just a giant mess start to finish. There were no breathers or breaks, it was just nuts all night. Plus we had a great band (Audio Diary) playing, so it was just absurd. Kinda fun, kinda sucked. There were definitely moments when things were better or worse. Kicking people out sucks, hearing awesome music is very cool. It was all right, but I'm not looking forward to it next year.

I now work Sunday nights (come see me, I'm serving Sunday's now!), so today was the third and final day of Oktoberfest 2008. It was probably a little busier and people were definitely drunker than normal, but it wasn't too bad. I haven't counted my money yet, but I think I did pretty well. The picture below is what I took when I was walking in to work this afternoon.

So, to be clear, the awesomosity for today is cultural celebrations. Saint Louis has some great and proud cultural districts, all of which have their seperate festivals, and it seems like Soulard gets all the ones without a home. Dogtown has St. Patty's, the Hill has all the Italians, Soulard has drinkers.

Task o' The Day: Go to a cultural (or at least a giant neighborhood) festival soon. If you come to Soulard, it can be really fun to just watch all the drunk people (that's one of the mayn perks of being sober in a bar in Soulard). You can find a list of a bunch of upcoming festivals in the Saint Louis area at http://www.stlouis.com. I think I may check out the Pirate festival next year myself, that sounds like fun.

Today's picture was also taken walking into work, and while the email kinda screwed up the picture, I like it and I'm leaving it that way.

Thanks for reading, I'll see you all tomorrow!