best of DC list

"The Pitch" always did a best of KC list every year, and McGill did his own 'best of' list. So, after living in the DC for almost 20 months, I think that its time that I did my own "Best Of DC" list. Please comment. Heavily.
Best Lunch Place - The Brown Bag, 818 18th St NW (18th St, between H and I Streets) - I love this place. Best salads and sandwiches around. Never too too crowded, like Cosi and things. And if you feel like it, you can grab lunch, sit outside, and girl watch for a little while. Awesome.
Best Restaurant - Domku, 821 Upshur St. NW - I love this place. Sometimes, the hours can get a little temperamental, as they won't be open when you want them to be. But when its open, the best food + beers in DC. Scandinavian food and things. The only downside is that its hard to Metro there - you have to drive, almost. Bad access, poor hours, and yet, I'm still recommending this place as my favorite restaurant. That says something.
Favorite Store - Logan Hardware, 1416 P St. NW - I love this place. They have everything. You can buy a basketball, speaker wire, a mixing bowl, power drill, potting soil, some screws, and a 3-prong plug all in one trip. And the people there act like they know what they're doing.
Best Happy Hour - This is a tough one, but, begrudgingly, I'm giving it to Smith and Wollensky's (1112 19th St. NW). Outdoor seating, and lots of it. Attentive servers. Enormous glasses of wine. I was a little shocked by this one myself, but I stand by it.
Best Public Gathering Place - Farragut Square - south of K, between Connecticut and 17th - Its close to my office, with plenty of seating. While DuPont Circle has its charms and fountains, this place wins. During the week, you can go and sit there for a second, and start wondering how many lobbyists, spies, and other power brokers are sitting around. As well as the homeless. I don't get this vibe from DuPont Circle.
Best Summer Place - National Sculpture Garden, on Fridays (7th and Madison) - sitting outside, beer and sangria, jazz, and art. Perfect Friday evening kick-off.
Best Street - Baltimore/Washington Parkway (295) - This one may lose out soon. Unfortunately, there are no classic streets here like in my former favorite places (Ward Parkway, Forest Park International Raceway, Providence Road, etc.) But this is kind of a beautiful road, despite not having many turns. Tree lined, but kind of wide, its amazing how you can see this place, and realize that you're only 10 minutes away from the Nation's capital, as well as Baltimore. Rock Creek Parkway may overtake this one, though - the jury's still out.
Best Bar - We all know that this is the one that awaits the Brock Seal of Approval - the Wonderland Ballroom (1101 Kenyon St. NW) My favorite bar in DC. A giant sign that says 'Kung Food', an outdoor picnic area, a little bit dangerous walking there, an upstairs dancing area with DJs and everything, good beer, good everything. I love that anybody that I talk to at this bar most likely shares many of the same thoughts and ideas as me. And I'm pretty sure that they can read. That is a huge bonus in this town. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to Glover Park.
Only Reasons to go to Georgetown - (tie) Riccardi's (3232 M St. NW) and the Puma Store (1237 Wisconsin Ave. NW) - I hate Georgetown. But these two places bring you back. Alex, owner of Riccardi's, knows how to put a suit on you, and knows his ties. And the Puma store is just plain cool, and they know how to help out a customer. I love them both. Shows that both a local guy and a national brand can coexist nearby, and treat you right. Note: thest two places are the only reason to go to Georgetown.
Best Brunch - Cafe St. Ex - 1847 14th St. NW - kind of some bittersweet memories of this place, for obvious reasons, but still - on a Saturday or Sunday morning, there is no better place to go and get an $8 quiche, some Trappist ale, and sit outside and people watch. Still overpriced for dinner, though.
Best Place to Walk Around - Eastern Market - 7th and North Carolina Ave, SE - The flea market, the farmer's market, the everything. The best thing on Capitol Hill. Where else can you buy a mid-century chair, a sushi serving set, and a bunch of basil, all within 20 minutes? Its awesome.
Best Music Venue - 930 Club - 815 V St. NW - I've seen the Smashing Pumpkins, The Good, The Bad, and the Queen, TV on the Radio, Cold War Kids, Tokyo Police Club, and I'm thinking a few other acts there. This year. And had to turn away Arctic Monkeys, Be Your Own Pet, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Peter Bjorn and John tickets this year. I love this place - I could spend every Wednesday there.
Best Place to Run To - the reflecting pool, in front of the Capitol - sometimes, its nice to wake up early, and take a run down to the Capitol. Stop for a moment, look around, look in the reflecting pool. And tell me that you don't feel kind of lucky, no matter how bad your life seems. I do.
Best Bartender/Waitress - Valarie, Science Club - 1136 19th St. NW - I may have screwed up her name - I just know that its a V name. But every time I order a Pernod and soda, she has one with me. I love it. Still, Janice, from The Point, remains the all-time best waitress/bartender ever. For multiple reasons.
Best Athlete - Gilbert Arenas - This was actually a tough one. Clinton Portis is pretty awesome, and Mike Hall (also from the Wizards) lives down the hall from me. Alexaner Ovechkin might be the best player in the NHL. Ryan Zimmerman is always a good kid, as well as Nick Johnson, who is injured or something. But Gilbert, wow. You just don't get this level of talent, weirdness, and openness from anybody. Even if he wasn't in DC, he'd still be my favorite NBA player.
Best Local University - George Mason University - Final Four appearance? Check. Nobel Prize winning economists? Check. That's all I need.
Best Grocery Store - Giant - 14th and Park St, NW - a giant, suburban grocery store in DC. And the lines are never long. While I usually go to the Whole Foods at 14th and P, the Giant is the one I actually look forward to going to. Why? Because it has bad things. Count Chocula, Nestles Cocolate Chips, Doritos, Miller Lite, and all those other things that I love that are bad for me. No snobism - just pure, bad food, for the cheap. And without hassle.
OK, one more category:
Favorite Place: The Warehouse - 1017 7th St. NW - Art studio/bar/coffee shop/performance theatre/sandwich place/concert hall. Is there anything more you can ask for? And they have free wi-fi. This place is a staple of my weekend routine - go to the gym, stop by Warehouse for an iced mocha, check email, begin the day. And the fact that i'm not so secretly in love with Sarah the Coffee Girl doesn't hurt, either. This place is closing at the end of July, and (hopefully) relocating, because property taxes became too expensive. I wish that I had been given a better opportunity to help, becuase tax appeals are part of what I do for a living. But we have a couple more weeks of this place remaining in existence. I hope to have a happy hour here, soon.

more things

Time to start recording some more random thoughts and observations, again. Its getting tougher - as Bjork would say, sometimes, I've seen it all. But this won't stop me from writing.

Farmer's markets rock. Go to them. Enjoy them. And feel free to spit in the strollers - that's what I do. I would kind of like to start a stand at one, and sell poison ivy as sage or something, just to screw with people. And so people had something to throw in strollers. I have issues.

To follow up on Gill's wise words from a month ago - you go out with a girl, you're either on the road to marriage, the road to having someone who hates you, or the road to another person who you feel awkward about seeing in public. Well, I don't feel awkward - I feel badass. Because if she's with another man, well, I saw her naked first. Take that.

I'm becoming a douchebag. I need a trip to Colorado to play golf. Maybe even a road trip to Colorado. Paul, you know you're on this.

I just saw a Target commercial, and couldn't figure out if it was Prince, or a Prince impersonator. Minnesotans love each other.

Are the White Stripes the world's biggest band? And they consist of 2 people, one of whom's influence is nominal? Just something to chew on.

Its official: I hate my apartment. It is too unnecessary. I think that I’m going to buy a tiny little studio apartment, and just make it my own. It shouldn’t be too tough. Though, looking at my living room, I just came to the painful realization that my living room is larger than most studio apartments. I’ll be chewing on this for awhile.

Sunrises are overrated. I’ve seen a couple over the last week or two, and all they remind me of is how I can never sleep.

When Lifetime does the movie, does Amy Winehouse play Sarah Silverman, or vice versa?

Nothing sums up Darfur quite like a Green Day video.

Yes, I am drinking wine and watching morning MTV.

I am convinced that the people who work at MTV do not listen to half the crap they show on the air. And by on the air, I mean Young Berg. Nobody is Young anymore. Young MC ruined it all for everybody. There is nothing less.

Do you think that Akon and T-Pain are going to have an actual fistfight? I want to see this. If there have ever been two more contrived personalities, I want factual evidence. Neither is good enough to be even remotely famous.

Even better, a T-Pain and Akon duet. Again, can you ever type the letters T_Pain, and not laugh? I can only imagine the contract deal with a recording studio.

“Hello, Mr. Robinson.”

“My name is T-Pain”

Tupac must be laughing on his island right now.

Did Bruce Lee go commando in his movies? I’m watching Game of Death this afternoon, and notice that there are no pantylines or anything on him. Maybe he’s rocking a man-thong, since I don’t see his junk all over the place, either. This is not what I should be pondering while watching Game of Death.

The movie ‘Predator’ stars the current governor of California, and the former governor of Minnesota. I don’t even know what this means, but it has to be significant, somehow.

still ranting, still raving

More thoughts:

After spending the night with, honestly, an amazing girl, I grabbed lunch with my friend Gill, who simply quipped "back on the road to marriage?". Great. Technically, any first date is, in reality, the first step on the road to marriage. Perfect. Thanks, Gill. Seriously. I needed that hanging over my head. Really.

The Hussey just visited for the quickest 3 day weekend I've ever had. And I got to have lunch with the Luttrulls, who were passing through town, in a sort of small scale DC Pimlico Foundation reunion. As I've said before, I love my friends very very much. I really really do. Thanks, guys.

I had a 10 minute reading with a fortune teller this weekend. Her head didn't asplode. She told me I have a very nice name, that my income will increase dramatically in February, that about 3 weeks ago I had a very difficult confrontation, and that there are two women in my life - one is a coworker, and the other is a very dominating, manly type presence. Awesome. Here comes the sexual harassment suit from work!

Maybe Elliott Smith was on to something.

Quote of the weekend of the Hussey visiting: "that's a bitch move, Santa." I love the Boondocks. If you don't have these DVDs, go buy them, and listen to the wisdom of Riley all day. It works.

After three solid years, I believe that computerzilla has died. Let us reflect on the life of this great computer (if you ever visited, you know about this thing: laptop, approximately 3 feet wide, 75 lbs, and operates at approximately 425 degrees)
I purchased it as the display model. Meaning no warranty, and they gave me the wrong power cord when I walked out with it. Less than thirty minutes into ownership, and we already had problems.
It once caught so many viruses that I had to completely reinstall Windows. Windows Explorer failed to work.
It was nicknamed the Nut Roaster
Currently, there are approximately 4,500 songs on the itunes library on the thing, and I'm guessing about 1,000 hours of porno has passed through the hard drive.
The decline began when I spilled the chicken noodle soup on it this winter, while ill.
Its still the emails, though. So many sent on that machine. I can't even begin to describe. I really can't. Makes me cry.
Things in life it has helped me with: booking initial tickets out to California, finding apartments in Washington DC when I lived in KC, looking up statistics regarding games played vs career strikeouts, listening to the song "i'm not okay (i promise) no fewer than 1,000 times one weekend, having various Gorillaz wallpapers, playing music in my office, watching The Royal Tenenbaums with my neighbor, being transported across the country, becoming a permanent jukebox for my stereo, making house buying spreadsheets, and receiving emails about monkeys eating fingers and asses.

I'm not going to lie - I'm a little bit attached to that computer. I don't want to see it go. But now I need a new dedicated itunes machine. If any of you have suggestions, I'm open to them. Let's face it - I don't have the same attachment to my Toshiba. But the old Hewlitt Packard Satellite, with the Harmon/Kardon speakers? I love that machine. Godspeed, gentle soldier.

Quote of the weekend via text message: "I have the hottest fucking uterus in Manhatten!"

I may have agreed to go on a float trip this weekend. And I've already agreed to a couple of beach weekends. Why do people insist on bringing me near water? I hate explaining my hatred of water to people.

Thinking about joining a wiffle ball league, but then thought otherwise. I don't think that I could play with strangers. Its such an odd, social game, that I'm not sure that it is a good thing to play with strangers. Kind of a personal thing. But I just don't think that it'd feel right.

Coldplay made a good song, once. It's called Politik.

Maybe Kurt Cobain was on to something.

Starting to wonder as to whether or not I'm a good person to know. You know - as in the international connections and crap like that. I do love the fact that many of my friends, I would know them through several chattels. But still. I'm not a connector. I'm a follower. Perfect.

From Jim Caple's latest article:
"If only this conversation could have been on YouTube. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting San Francisco with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, went to a Giants game last week and sat with Willie Mays. People who saw them said they were having a great time. Turns out that Rice's mother taught Willie at Fairfield Industrial School in one of the poorest parts of Birmingham, Ala.. If this isn't an encouraging story, I don't know what is: the daughter of a teacher who taught in the segregated South winds up Secretary of State."
Tell me that sports don't matter.

Still thinking about that soundtrack thing. I'll get a good list put together, I promise.

a new list of thoughts and rants

Time to blog again. To answer one of McGill’s earlier comments, yes, sometimes I do start to write these things down, and then go back and edit. But for the most part they come as a little spurt of ire. Though this one is two, melded together. And actually, there is some really mean spirited stuff in here that I’d like to get to, misogynistic and hateful and honestly, things that I didn’t even know I was capable of thinking of. But we didn’t post those. You’ll have to get a couple of vodker and tonics in me to get the good rants. So here we go.

Anyone who doesn't believe that sports matter needs to read Scoop Jackson's column, here. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/070510&sportCat=nba Read this and tell me that sports don't matter. I really hope that this column is still up.

Mother's day came, mother's day went. Fortunately, I was able to call Diane Hansen, and talk to her for awhile. I love Diane.

I started an herb garden on my back balcony recently. This is really exciting. I couldn't wait to get home from work today and see if my plants had grown any. I'm pretty happy about my little garden.

I started to put together a blog about my music listenings, but decided to cancel it. It got a little personal and one sided, and I didn't think that it was entirely appropriate to share. But I do have a spreadsheet put together of my current listenings, with comments, that I will be more than happy to share with anyone who is interested.

I recently had to force somebody from my life who was very very important to me, but I had to do it anyways. But never an easy thing to do, and I feel like I've done it enough already in my short life. But this was the toughest, by far, as I feel that in a lot of ways I've told my best friend to go away. But it was the right thing to do.

My coworker has only a couple of weeks left to live, after a brief bout with brain cancer. I never worked really closely with him, but definitely crossed his path on more than one occasion, and befriended many people on his team. Its not easy. I'm really getting tired of people dying.

Woke up with another nosebleed today. I'm really getting tired of nosebleeds.

Saturday afternoon I got to hear the Silversun Pickups play an outdoor concert from my back porch. I love living in DC sometimes.

Bought a $100 chef's knife this weekend. I have issues.

I missed the Metro the other day by about 10 seconds. Amazingly enough, there was some old couple who insisted on using the entire escalator to just stand there and go down the thing. Without walking down it. How on earth do you just stand there and look at the escalator? I mean, for good god, the DuPont one will take about 2 minutes, if you just stand there. Now, everybody in their life should miss a train because they just stood on the escalator, and it should serve as a lesson: walk down the damn escalator. And don’t get in the way of me when I’m trying to walk down the thing (this may go back to the original ‘walk like you mean it’ blog). I was about 2 inches from going all Ari Gold on them about how valuable my time is, and how I can’t just wait around for the next train (an aside – I was at the gym, contemplating whether or not to finish out my 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, and decided that I couldn’t go another 6 or 7 minutes, because I needed to get back to work. Ironically, in hindsight, I could have gone those extra minutes, and made the same train I ended up taking, due to this old couple.) And I probably would have, seeing as how I was positively steaming at this point, except there was this cute girl also waiting on the next train, and it probably wouldn’t look good for me to yell at this middle aged couple. So instead I paced violently back and forth, inwardly stewing, until the next train came. I’m sure that made me look a lot better.

There was a wallet stolen in our office today, which also means that there was an magnetic card key to the office stolen. At one point tonight my coworker kind of startled me, first because he called me when I wasn’t expecting, but primarily because he was walking up and down the hallway with a large stick, ready to beat any potential breakers-in. I did about another 30 minutes of work and grabbed my stuff to leave. I love my coworkers.

Since joining the new yuppie gym, I have honestly enjoyed going to the gym again. And I finally figured it out: they use the same air handlers that Vegas Casinos use, to pump extra oxygen or cocaine or whatever into the air, to make you feel better and not want to leave. I need one of those in my office.

Took on New York last weekend, and folks, it may be time for the official countdown until I move there. Maybe by November, because that’s when we’ll have to move offices. Note: I am not a fan of the new office location, for all sorts of reasons; some greedy, some personal, all Brock.

Excited about the Hussey visiting this weekend. We may make the Brockumentary: DC this weekend.

I really wish that I could describe some of the sounds that the old (chicken soup casualty) computer is making. It’s a little odd – kind of like the hydraulics have given out.

I am completely underwater at work right now, but honestly, I am happier right now than I have been since last summer. Thank you to all my friends who have helped me out over these last months, and who have helped keep me away from total meltdown, because I was probably a little too close to it sometimes. Have fun - b

life, in general - never published

So what can you say about your life right now?

I can say almost, sadly, verbatim, everything I imagined on a bad night at Harpos back in early 2002. When I was questioning how much money I would need to live in different cities, if I would be recreating scenes from Boiler Room, and maybe more, if I would travel to different cities to gloat, and whatnot. I always, always, back in those days, imagined myself as a 28 year old burnout, living in what should be his victory place, vodka + tonic in hand, wondering how he became so lonely. And it has almost become completely true. For more reference, I suggest the Lush album, “Lovelife.” First, I am younger than I imagined in this fantasy. Second, I make more money than imagined in this fantasy. And third, the reality is a little rougher than I thought it would be. So how does this compare to you? I never thought that I’d reevaluate life like this. But I did. And have. And its not familiar to me, nor should it be. And its not comfortable. Which is of utmost importance right now. I have become a great fan of comfortable things lately.

another one

I am not even kidding, this is how I live.

Friday I was out of the office for work, inspecting buildings and whatnot. Which, on this day, meant that I slept in until sometime between 7:30 and 8:00, and killed a wounded soldier that was in the fridge before heading out the door. So I finished up about 4:00 or so in the afternoon. Note: when working from home, I will never cease to be amazed at how often things tend to wind down around 4:00. Feeling a powerful combination of hunger and thirst, I packed up my computer and headed out to one of my favorite places in the DC – Kramerbooks and Afterwards. This place is a beautiful combination of bookstore (a pretty large bookstore, by the way), bar, and restaurant. And again, by restaurant, I mean real food – definitely a step above typical bar far. And $4 Magic Hats for happy hour. And the service is also great. I really do love this place. And so I’m answering emails, realizing that I have a few new assignments for this month that will pay me handsomely. Have I ever spoken about these high stress finance and real estate work environments? Seriously, I live a dream – I don’t see how I can be so miserable sometimes. So I’m answering emails, drinking beers, and this girl sits down next to me and starts drinking vodka + cranberries and working on a sodoku puzzle. So obviously after striking up a conversation we realize that she a) likes to drink, b) has an undergrad degree in economics and a minor or emphasis or something in environmental policy from Boston University, and c) is meeting friends later at one of my favorite bars, where the bartender, who is also her neighbor, always hooks me up. So after a brief discussion about the merits of humanzees and the true champion of any bear vs. shark competition (BvsS was also one of her favorite bands. Always a good conversation piece – ask somebody their five favorite bands. The first four always come quickly, but that fifth one is scary, because you don’t want to screw up and realize that you’re done. You might actually start shaking on the fifth one.) So at this point I am completely bailing on my coworkers who I was meeting up with after work and walking down the streets arm in arm with this girl, laptop bag dutifully dangling from my back, on our way to the next bar. And at this point we realize that maybe we’ve had a bit to drink on the day. So, at the next bar we walk in as the two most obviously wrecked human beings on the planet. So I’m downing PBRs and cracking on anything I can, discussing the merits of the National Press Building (a beautiful building in downtown DC) with a guy and his wife at the bar. By this point the girl is woefully passed out – thank god that she has caring and nice friends, because I forget sometimes that maybe I’m capable of consuming more alcohol than most people should and remaining semi-coherent. And those times that I am not at all coherent, well, then, we just know how much of everything I have consumed on those days, don’t we? Turns out this guy is the owner of the place, and as of today I may or may not be involved in a condotel deal. But my final bar tab was $3, so no complaints. At this point the members of the team that I was originally drinking with decided that it was time to go home, as the girl was more or less passed out. So, settling up my $3 tab I decide to head home. And by head home I mean get distracted by the fact that one of my neighbors on the block appears to be having a party. And, as it was a beautiful day, the doors and everything are open. Not being one to pass up on a social experience and a party, I decide, computer bag and all, to waltz on in and have a drink and start chatting. Two things I notice at this party: 1) I couldn’t find a keg, just an open array of liquors, and 2) there are exactly 2 girls and 100 men at this party. And this was a case where there were a lot of men, not because these are the alpha-male jock types who maybe just don’t associate well with women; au contraire, these men would associate with and empathize extremely well with women, right down to discussions about manicures and Hugh Grant movies, if you follow. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m pretty sure I introduced myself to one of the women by saying “hi. I live on this block, and I’m straight.” And I think that I argued with one guy that Allen Iverson is the best player in the NBA. I love AI. So I leave, rum + coke in hand while walking down the street, and head home. Upon awaking on Saturday morning, I am thankfully alone, half of a rum + coke sitting on the counter, somehow my email checking and spreadsheets are up to date on my computer, socks are inexplicably located next to my head in my bed, and it is way too early, something like 7:30 Saturday morning.

This, my friends, is what happens when I work from home. This is also why I miss hanging out with a lot of you – though it certainly isn’t an everytime occurrence, we all know that I occasionally embark on an exploratory mission like this. Friday truly was one of those days.

This week, on my way to lunch, a Greenpeace guy on the street asked me if I had a minute to care about global warming. It was 18 degrees outside. I laughed all the way to Chipotle.

I love Chipotle.

I’m listening to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness right now. My cd collection may grow, but its heart will always live in 1995.

Go to youtube, and type in ‘giada’. You owe this to yourself. I love the food network.

I really am scheduling my next 72 hours around MU v KU.

Are The Troggs maybe the most underrated band ever? Pick up The Best of The Troggs – you’ll be a better person for it.

A man was beaten to death a block from my front door about two weeks ago. I live in a building full of $500,000 condominiums. This world is ridiculous, and its cases like this that make me glad that I don’t really live in reality, though it would be nice if everybody else had a chance to escape the real world every now and then, too. Especially the man who died a block away from my front door.

Astronaut stalked and may have had intent to kill a woman. Anna Nicole Smith died. All in Florida. Loveline scares me.

Toyota posted a record profit. Ford posted a record loss. Which goes again to prove, that when fuel efficient car companies are making record gains, so does Exxonmobil, who is obviously very anti-Detroit. And anti-Americain.

sometimes i am convinced that bill simmons is reading my email and reading my blogs:

quoth Brock (11/25/2006):

"All machismo aside: is it ok for us to like Justin Timberlake? The guy got in, did Britney during the hot years, thinks its alright to walk around in a buzzcut, took a swipe at Janet Jackson during the "i can't believe she's still hot" years on TV, works with Pharrell Williams from time to time, and honestly, I think he knew exactly what he was doing during the boy band years, and the "Cry Me a River" song/video is great, and in tone, nearly the same song as "You Know You're Right" (released at roughly the same time - how often do you get two simultaneous 'god i hate this bitch' songs on the radio at the same time? especially since i always thought that Britney Spears was the next Courtney Love - we're only one drugged out appearance from this being reality, methinks). I mean, we're not mad at Dwayne Wade for what he's done, are we? The falsetto, though..."

quoth Bill (2/12/2007):

8:34 -- It's a tie between Justin Timberlake and Chase Budinger for "white guy who does the best job transcending his whiteness." Justin Timberlake is performing right now, although he made the tragic decision not to sing "D*** in a Box." Hey, it's OK to think he's talented, right? Two hit albums AND he's one of the best SNL hosts ever AND he sold at the highest point possible on Britney's stock AND he wrote the best revenge song ever (the "Cry Me A River" song that pretty much murdered Britney's soul) AND he's plowing through every hot female in Hollywood right now. He's a hero, I say.

something needs to be done.

I know some of my friends out here are teachers. How do we improve schools? Even as a hardcore economist who does lean right, I just cannot believe in charter schools. While competition and free market strategies are absolutely essential in my mind for frivolous things, when it comes to education and the basic necessities of life, at some point I have to think that we just need to have the best people planning these programs. Possibly ironically, I do not believe that universal healthcare is a necessity of life. But a decent chance at a solid education, this I do believe in. I would like to hear everybody’s thoughts. I think at one point I had the answer to this scrawled out on a bar napkin, but after a few too many bourbons my handwriting was not worth the ideas that it was carrying.

One of my friends actually tried to set me up for a fight one night with a girl whose job was to educate people about the importance of voting. And I have written papers on the complete lunacy involved with anybody who actually votes. Yes, these are my friends.

The middle finger on my right hand is still seriously swollen and jammed after the super bowl. But at least the knee bruise and thigh bruise are starting to heal. Because this is how I celebrate February football.

A woman and a black man are the two front runners for the democratic candidacy in 2008. Why don’t they just find some other guy named Jacques and complete the trifecta? I don’t know who the republicans are going to come up with, but you’re going to hate him. And he’ll win.

Allen Iverson is a short man who is taller than most people I know.

Sometimes I think of myself as a failure. Especially when I see somebody having a huge position with a firm, making huge phone calls every morning at 5:30am, and making a lot more than me, and they’re only 31. And that’s only four years away from me. And four years ago at 5:30 in the morning I was puking my ass off after too many beers at Big 12 – campus. So maybe there’s hope for me yet. And everyone else too.

Even though I really want to quit for a year and work in a record store.

It was pointed out to me in Vegas how scary 27 is for people. At the last craps table I played. And we went over the whole list. I thought 24 was much scarier. At least at this point I’ve given up on ever being creative. Fuck Hemingway. And Cobain. They’re both dead anyways.

I need a new hobby. And suggestions. I think that I’m going to take up flyfishing again. Its not a sexy hobby, but Brad Pitt did it in a movie once. And 6 -10 years later he was doing it with Jennifer Aniston. And maybe Gwyneth Paltrow in the middle, but lets not fool ourselves – I walk by at least 20 women everyday who are cuter than the Paltrow. Here’s to being 33 someday!

This brings up another point – back in college, we all drooled over these random women in Maxim, saying how hot they were and such. And every day, I walked on campus, and it didn’t take 15 minutes to see at least 10 girls who were that attractive. Which brings me back to an earlier point – girls are pretty. Stop complaining about your noses and things.

OK, I’m done ranting for now. Please feel free to comment and enhance our discussion from today.