This Week in Blogs, Volume XI
Hi Friends. I hope you all had a nice week. It has been a busy week here. Well, not really, but I’ve done some things that I’ve been putting off for awhile.
1. Kate and I went and met the new neighbors down the street. They moved in about a month ago, and we wanted to go introduce ourselves for quite some time, as they looked young and childless. That said, we didn’t want to look like the creepy neighbors who are trying too hard to be friends. I’m convinced that it’s impossible to go introduce yourself to new neighbors without looking/acting like a complete jackass. Kate made brownies. I bought beer. I guess we didn’t even need to stick around to say hello…the brownies and beer probably would’ve told them what we’re all about. Anyway,they seem nice. We probably seem crazy. Check that one off the list.
2. I got a haircut. Things were getting pretty out of control. I think this might have been my first haircut since the inauguration, and that was like four months ago. You know you’re looking pretty good when the lady at the haircut place says “I’m guessing you don’t work in an office with other people, do you.” I’m not exactly sure what gave away my work from home lifestyle. I’m guessing it was either the lack of pockets, my 3:00 PM on a weekday walk-in, my urban Amish facial hair, or the Bob Ross style afro. Either way, I’m now about five pounds lighter.
3. I went to the doctor. I’m not sick or anything, but I haven’t been to the doctor for a check-up since the late 1990s. I wish I was exaggerating, but my last physical was in 1998. So this week I went in for the blood work, and then next week is my actual appointment. I’m going to feel like a pretty big chach if el doctor finds something that would’ve been way better to find like five years ago or something. So I’m going to make a deal right here. With blog as my witness, I promise I’ll go to the doctor every year or so, as long as I don’t get stuck with some horrible illness or disease at next week’s appointment. Deal? Cool.
Alright. That’s what I’ve been doing. I also watched The Real Housewives of New Jersey. I have been looking for a copy of Danielle’s book (Cop Without a Badge) but it’s going for $189 on Amazon. I love my housewives, but not that much. No new inventions this week, so I’ll just get going to the blog review.
HangryPants remains in the #1 slot this week, which means I didn’t get any free shiz this week. Anyway, Ms. Hangry is currently getting ready for her “Cleaner Life Month’ which she describes in this post. From what I understand, it has something to do with eating healthy stuff. These month long challenges are great. They seem to fly by, and then the challenge blogger talks about their progress, and I just sit back and think “what the hell did I do in the last 30 days” and it’s usually pretty depressing. I don’t think I’ll be participating, but I’ll be cheering from the sidelines (diet mountain dew in hand). I’m going to start my own challenge. I’m not going to eat any peaches for the next month. Who’s with me? No real reason, other than the fact that I don’t like eating peaches, but there ya go. Follow me to a peach free June. In other news, Kate told me about some health food guy who said something about how you shouldn’t eat foods that weren’t around 50 years ago. I guess that sort of makes sense for things like gogurt (whatever the hell that is) and other overprocessed stuff. But I doubt the greatest generation sat around drinking vanilla almond milk either, so I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do. Alright, I’m rambling now. Next blog…
Brooke at Homegirl Can Eat wrote a great post about a perverted teacher in this post. If you aren’t reading this blog yet, you really, really should. It’s probably one of the best written blogs out there, even though I don’t understand half the shit that homegirl is talking about (mostly because I’m old). Whenever I go to the mall and start hating ‘those damn teens’ I just think of Homegirl and her good writing, and it makes me not hate the kids as much as I did before. I do often wonder if homegirl’s principal or teachers are aware of the blog and how they feel about it, but I’m sure she has that under control.I’ve noticed that homegirl commentors like to comment using homegirl-speak. That is, they adjust their language and slang to match that of the blog they are reading. I always want to comment on her posts, but I refrain for two reasons:
1. Kate is convinced I’d come off as a creepy old man
2. I’d write something like “Great post, I love how you did XYZ” which would really stand out amongst the comments like “Yay for graduation again! You and mama cynth look gorgey-poo! ” and other comments in Homegirl-speak. So I just lurk instead.
Fortunately the same thing hasn’t caught on here on The Blogstalker, otherwise y’all would comment using my backcountry gibberish and we’d all be a little dumber. So the moral of the story is, read Homegirl’s blog.
Alli of Green Dog Wine had a busy week. Her blog found a new home (the URL that I used), got a new logo, and it was also her husband’s birthday and she devoted this post to her husband. As I mentioned last week, I’m a big fan of photo trips down memory lane in blogland. Sure, pictures of food are great, but I would much rather look at pictures of people doing funny things. Think of it this way, I wouldn’t go watch a movie about a bowl of oatmeal, but there’s a good chance that I’d go see a romantic comedy involving a man with a mohawk singing karaoke or lifting his wife over her head. So I vote for more personal pictures in blogland. Except on my blog. Because I’m lazy and our camera is pretty lame. But everyone else…please include more pictures. And if they can be photo slide shows with sappy music, that would win you bonus points. Now get to work! Also, I’ve been reading this blog for quite some time and didn’t really know where the name came from. I had some good theories going on in my head, but never thought to look at the ‘about me’ page, which pretty much explains it. I liked my theories better.
Postgraduate Meghannnn did a recap of the San Diego Marathon in this post. Congrats to Meghannnn and everyone else who completed some sort of distance race this weekend. We were also happy to see that the easter bunny made the trip to San Diego. What really blows my mind is that people are videotaping and twittering while running a damn marathon. I’ve run my share of marathons, but have never videotaped or used any other type of technology during the process. After mile 13, I don’t think that I’d have a single thing to say that would be family friendly - I guess you could call it exercise-induced Tourettes. Also, I think I sweat too much to carry something electronic while running. I’ll just stick to the pictures that the race people take to document how miserable I was feeling during the race. Or I can just think really hard and remember it.
Stock Up
Graduation - I’m happy for all of the graduating bloggers, I just hope that they keep blogging. See previous post re: not a big fan of change in my blogs.
House/Apartment/Room Tours - There was basically a full episode of Cribs this week. Unfortunately, none of the video tours included classic Cribs cliches like “this is where the magic happens.” I think at least one blogger should have used that line when showing off their kitchen or something.
Detailed Exercise Recaps - Including, but not limited to: calories burned, distance traveled (down to the hundredth or a mile), music listened to, energy foods and drinks consumed, etc. I think you’re burning off calories just doing the exercise recap.
Puffins (the cereal, not the bird) - Always a fan favorite among bloggers, but really growing in popularity in recent weeks. I just can’t eat this stuff. I once saw Puffin on a menu in Iceland, and it wasn’t the cereal. So now I can’t eat the cereal without thinking about people eating the cute little bird, so there’s my excuse.
Stock Down
Flip Phones - The entire blog world seemed to get on iPhone or Blackberry bandwagon in the last week or two. Still waiting for someone to bring back the Zach Morris brick phone as a retro smart phone
Bagels - Not sure if this is because of the high caloric content, or the fact that it’s national donut day. Mentions to donut day should probably be stock up.
Alltel’s Commercials - Chad (the Alltel guy) is kinda hot and nice enough, but those other jackasses are really pissing me off. Sorry for the bad language, but I’m passionate about this one. Their last two commercials have butchered some pretty funny bits by Chris Farley and Willy Wonka. Sorry…this has nothing to do with blogs or bloggers, but I really really dislike these commercials, especially the Sprint guy.
Drogging - Drogging (drunk blogging) references are still stock up (thanks to Caitlin Pancake), but actual drunk blogging hasn’t been happening as much (as far as I can tell). I would like this to be stock up this weekend - especially for the Charlotte bloggers who are going to dive bar karaoke with me tomorrow night. You know who you are.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading, and I’ll try to do better next time.
Re: 50-year rule and almond milk… so true. What a double standard.
Re: the Puffins… have you ever actually tried the peanut butter ones? The taste will have you forgetting all previous impressions of cute birds. I’m a vegetarian, but I would eat those birds alive if they tasted anything like this heavenly cereal.
LOL - I’d love to hear the theories - DEFINITELY way more interesting. I totally fall into your “things you like make your blog title” group which = BORING! :p
thanks for stalking nate - i feel like i just received “the emmy” of all blogging awards - a shout out in the friday roundup! you officially made my week!
HILARIOUS comments re: Green Dog Wine. I would love to know what you thought her blog name came from!
Always love and look forward to your updates
I almost choked on the granola in my green monster reading this post. Twice!
I agree that blogs need a nice combo of food and people pics. I take pictures of My Little Ponies jumping off castles but I think that’s going over like a lead balloon.
Flip phones are only now stock down? I’d ditched mine about a year ago for a good ol’ crackberry. I’m so ahead of the trends
I just recently started keeping up with your blog roundup…HILARIOUS. You always hit the nail on the head with your reviews, love it! PS I noticed you run on the greenway trail and wanted to comment, I witnessed someone running with a medical mask on last week…swine flu or gnat related I am unsure…people watching at its finest
now that ive found your ramblings, what reason do i have to read anything else? you are really enabling my ability to slack ass on blog reading.
it’s too bad i didn’t know about your chronicles of stalking earlier. but now that i’ve stumbled upon your little spot on the internet, i’ll be sure to check back. your writing style wins at life.
lol… Running with the camera entertained me during the marathon! 4.5 hours is a long time to just stare at the ground!!
I think it’ll go fine with the neighbors. Most people actually like making friends. I think it boils down to one of three things will happen:
1. They will start talking about Jesus and that will be your cue to run away.
2. They will turn out to be weird and irritating in some other way, in which case, fake some jesus crazy talk and you’ll scare them off.
3. You’ll end up with awesome new friends, or at least acquaintances.
I love the backcountry gibberish, and I totally get all of it. I live in a town with NO STOPLIGHTS. Seriously.
and….I still have a flip phone and have never texted, sexted, or anything of the sort. Maybe I’ll be a “technology-less” post…no iPod, no iPhone, no minicomputer, no twittering. I might as well still be on dial-up (which, by the way, we just switched over from that a year or so ago when they offered cable out here in the sticks!)
great recap as usual!
GOgurt totally freaks me out. Good luck at the doc!
I am contemplating being the creepy neighbour and baking muffins for my new neighbors. Except I’m the one who just moved in. I’m lonely!
Great summary, with a dash of twisted humor! I’m so far behind in reading everyone’s blogs that I didn’t even know the GDW had moved yet-so thanks for giving me the heads up! Have fun with the new neighbors. I wish my neighbors had tried to bring me beer and brownies (which is probably the best combo ever) I think the one guy a few doors down tried to sell me some weed, but that surely doesn’t count as “housewarming.” If I ever move to Charlotte I’m finding your neighborhood! haha…if that didn’t sound stalkerish blog or no, I’m not sure what will.
This Charlotte blogger will be documenting drinking excessive amounts of alcohol tomorrow night– but there will be no drogging.. I prefer hangogging (hangover blogging)..
In the last week I have become a food blog addict, so the next natural step was to find your blog. Thank’s for feeding the fire.
Good luck at the doctor, some of them suck, some are not sucking so much.
this is my favorite blog ever.
I’m scared about tomorrow!!!
Brownies and beer, you can’t go wrong! I still rock the flip phone and will be until my contract goes up on 9/9/09. Then I’m leaving that boat!!
By the way, I hope you got my email! I felt like a drug dealer giving you the extra Housewives info. There better be a karaoke video!
Love it.. as usual… but I didn’t get any brownies yet. I’m assuming they’re in the mail!
Was your last physical the one mandated before entry into college?
I was also impressed with the texting, twittering, videotaping of the marathon. I only ran half that and needed my hands for … I don’t know what.
Also, as for the 30 Day Challenges. I am not saying I invented them, but I was doing them way before they were stock up. Meatless Month was almost a year ago and not one person cared. Now I’m doing a challenge and Mark is opting out … and it’s HIS blog!
P.S. We wish we were your neighbors!
I had never seen your site before…absolutely hilarious. I live in nyc and it’s always SO awkweird when someone moves. In do you make the move and try to be friends? Ignore them coolly in the elevator? So many choices…
Homeboooooy thanks for that shoutout! I have a lot to say about this post. First off, I don’t talk about shit on my blog, I only talk about sh!t. This is due to me wondering how many readers would turn their backs on me if I started taking out the ! in sh!t and throwing down the occasional f-bomb. We will see what the future holds.
Second of all, I am officially out of the Catholic school so even if that establishment knew what wassup (and knew my talking sh!t abilities have skyrocketed past Facebook), bitches couldn’t do sh!t! Holla!
Third of all, sounds like you had some big POOKIE hair (enter http://homegirlcaneat.wordpress.com/dictionary) that you got chopped off. Dzayum shawty, I was hoping for a before and afta picta.
Fourthly, did you happen to watch the PBS documentary on the Appalachian Mountains and the homies that live there? I’m only mentioning this because it turned me away from mountain dew for forev.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HvWTv9TM-c)
Sh!t ain’t right.
Fifthly, you wouldn’t sound like a creep commenting about Cynthia’s presidential-like hair or my gorgey-a$$ cereal bowls, just a stalker. Just sayin’.
Shit…24 comments. I gotta get going…
Anna - Yeah, I’ve had the PB Puffins. I think the envirokids PB panda puffs kick the pants off of puffins, but that’s just this girl’s opinion.
GreenDog Alli - Yeah, it’s sort of like a big fancy award. Please put it on your resume.
Janetha - Thanks. I’ve never won at life before, so that makes my day.
Brandi - Sexting probably deserves it’s own post. Thanks for bringing it up. I’m not sure how or when it made it into conversational english, but it’s pretty ridiculous.
Nicole - Go for it. You’re the new kid. You can do no wrong.
B+B - I have wireless. We’re all drogging tomorrow night after the bar.
K Dizzle - LOVE the Housewives info. Reading it now. Rockin Friday night up in here.
Pantaloons - Yup. Last physical was the pre college physical that was required to play NCAA sports. And you and Mr. Hangry can be our neighbors whenever you’re ready to move. We have some lame neighbors down the street, so you can take their place whenever you’re ready.
Homegirl - We’re so happy that you graduated. Well, it’s good for you, but mostly I’m happy that there is no longer a high schooler with a better/better written blog than me. Now it’s a college freshman to be with a better blog. Kate tells me that she watched the PBS Mountain Dew show (about the miners) but she says it was regular mountain dew…hopefully diet doesn’t have the same impact. Also, the Thomas Jefferson/Michelle Obama references on Cynthia’s hair were brilliant.
hahaha…loved your linking in the last line. Drogging? Never tried it…maybe tonight?
You are hands-down one of the funniest people I have ever read. My husband is not at all into blogs and I always read yours aloud to him because I find it to be soooo hilarious! My only complaint would be that you only post weekly.
oh my god i just found your blog and i am absolutely obsessed.. i love this! you’re hilarous. Can’t wait to continue reading
I LOVE THIS!!!!!!
Puffins will ALWAYS be stock up….but I’m surprised that raw food isn’t?! I’ve been seeing it everywhere, and even more this past week!
So funny Nate.
I just finished reading that health food guy’s book, and no I don’t think grandma and grandpa were drinking vanilla almond milk, eating Puffins, or drinking green smoothies.
Homegirl is hilarious, but her blog makes me feel pretty old as well. However, she does leave me the sweetest comments, and so I really should de-lurk.
Hope you and Kate are having a good weekend. Enjoy karaoke night, best of luck at your doctor’s appt.
i recruited a new drogger: http://meganerdruns.blogspot.com/2009/06/blogger-bowling.html
Oh you guys so make me want to move to the US or Canada or somewhere that side of the Pacific Ocean anyway. You sound like you have so much fun! And you have some really cool places to eat and such.
Funny how you all have Australian accents when I read the blogs though…
rofl @ all this sh!T, as usual.
Hey Nate!!!
How about you give up Peaches and I’ll give up Mt. Dew. Cool? I lived on Mt. Dew in college. Heavens, I must have been spazzier that I usually am.
Have a great week! Love your blog… it’s peachy.
p.s. TAYLOR SWIFT is so awesome in person. Can you belive we MET her?
Thanks for wearing pockets and cutting your hair before you came into my office on Friday though I’m sure the client would have loved Amish styles! And i had to get the physical too…damn blood work for wellness bucks!
The Zach Morris flip phone is so rad man. R-A-D.
LOL, Brooke’s blog is bananas and I love it. Makes me feel like a lass of 23 again. Which was a Long Time Ago.
Haha, I laughed out loud when I read the Zach Morris comment. Gotta love the clunker phone.
I always feel a nice to tell you which of your words made me laugh the most for some reason. This time it was: ” I’ll just stick to the pictures that the race people take to document how miserable I was feeling during the race. Or I can just think really hard and remember it.”
Love it!
Stock up — using the word “favorite” to describe EVERYTHING. No names will be mentioned…
I know we all love food and can’t get enough raw-ness, green-ness, juice-ness…. but it can’t all be a “favorite”, people!!!!
Ok, so I guess it’s “stock up” in blog world and “stock down” in Stephanie’s world.
Just found your blog and love it. Looking forward to future posts.
I want to find good pop music. Help me please.
I love that you hit up the could-possibly-be-our-friends-if-we-try-hard-enough neighbors with brownies and beer! I need some neighbors like that to bake cookies for because I am also lacking childless-couple friends. Hmmm…
Also, you’re hilarious, but I know you know that. Hope you’re appointment goes well so your deal with the big guy upstairs or whomever you were making the deal with goes through!
I drunk blog a lot, but no one seems to notice, so I think I’m super good at it.
Is it sad that I went to 4 libraries in NYC looking for that Danielle incriminating book? I have jury duty next week, I’m totally going to see if the DA has it on record.
Ohhh the Zack Morris phone. When will Apple realize that everyone wants THAT very phone and produce it already?! Who needs “apps” when you can have a phone the size of a loaf bread? Clearly, that screams success. The bigger the better.