I'm not complaining
So I downloaded Loopy for the iPhone, and I’ve been recording lame beatbox songs on my way home from work. Here was my first take at Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton Mixtape. There are a few spots where I mess up the lyrics, but I was driving, remember lyrics was secondary….
Of Course I’m a Cardinals Fan
I realized last week that when I woke up and put on my Cardinals hat that I didn’t know how they finished in the previous evening’s game. Granted, I only knew there was a game because I had texted my brother to see if he wanted to play frisbee and he was at “The Game”.
Last Monday there was a game as well. I know this because the new Ticker feature of Facebook was filled with play-by-play and reactions from my more dedicated friends.
Perhaps my lack of enjoyment when it comes to baseball is because I didn’t drink until long after I was 21, and now going to a game and paying $20 for 2 beers just doesn’t seem appealing. I love watching ESPN’s top 10, but I’m not so much into sweating for 3 hours to see a good hit.
I like the MetroLink, though. And I like Busch Stadium. I enjoy the atmosphere, but I just don’t get into the Cards. It’s not because I don’t care for sports, though. I have had many a night ruined by a Tar Heel loss (Heck, we had a whole season of them 2 years ago).
I love St. Louis. I love the toughness, the rough downtown nights, the dirty parking garages and the people. However, I just can’t find myself caring about baseball. Or football, while we’re at it.
Maybe if it was a contact sport. XBL, anyone?
My 1 month Hobbies
I enjoy frisbee. I’ve played in organized leagues for the past 7 or 8 years. I enjoy playing xBox, specifically the Call of Duty franchise. However, other than that, my hobbies last about 30 days, and they’re immersive during that time. Here are a few recent ones:
1. BMX Biking
So after taking a trip to RampRiders while babysitting, I thought, “I still have my trick bike in the garage.” $20 later, my tire is fixed and I’m dropping in from a 12’ lip. I maxed out around 3 feet of air over the next 4 weeks and 6 (or so) trips to RampRiders and Plan Nine. I think I did half of an X-Up one time. Epic. I stopped before I hurt myself too badly.
2. Charcoal Drawing
After taking a drawing class in college, when I was on the road, I found an art store and bought myself a few sticks of vine charcoal, a paper pad, and some fixative. I made it a point to find a quiet park one day to draw. I drew a trash can. It looked like a piece of ham. After about 8 pages of “art” that paled in comparison to finger-painting and paint-by-numbers, I retired the pad. It sits about 2 feet from my trick-bike helmet.
3. Fiddle
Nashville for the 4th of July was amazing. Amazing fireworks display, BBQ, Haunted Pub Tours and sweatshirts. The most notable moment for me, though, was listening to The Travis Mann Band at the Full Moon Saloon. Good Nashville country. Dirty. Gritty. Manly. The cherry on top was the fiddle player. Effortless. Inspiring. SO inspiring that I couldn’t want to get back to St. Louis, so I went to Sam Ash in Nashville and bought a violin. After a week of dealing with horse parts, I put it in it’s case to keep the next 3 years of dust off of it.
4. Beer Brewing
Okay, this one took longer than a month, but that’s only because it fermented with my boredom in the basement. Though I actually enjoyed the brewing process and drinking the fruits of my labor, the tedious nature of cleaning reminded me too much of the least favorite parts of earning my biology degree. So in my basement, just one story below a helmet and charcoal, is a clean 6 gallon carboy and about 50 dirty beer bottles.
5. Painting
So I built an easel, stretched some canvas, and mixed some colors. I laid down a drop cloth, got a fresh brush, and then stared at the canvas looking for inspiration. None came. I finally just traced the shadow of my own head that was projected on the canvas. I hung it up and let the extra paint dry out next to the charcoal.
So now I’m playing disc golf and enjoying it with the full passion that I take on most hobbies. Check back in a month to see if it’s close enough to ultimate to be maintained as a hobby.
There’s something profound about seeing the boom logo on a sign with the St. Louis skyline behind it. Just two years ago, I was in Illustrator making that logo, and now we’re on the 11th floor, downtown, with two full time employees. That kinda makes me proud.
I had a profound moment earlier today when I saw our new boom sign with the city of St. Louis in the background. It’s neat to think that two years ago, I was designing that logo in Photoshop in my bedroom. It’s humbling to see the journey that it’s made from bedroom to skyline, and it makes me very grateful for everyone who has been a part of this with me. Thanks and I look forward to next year.
Captionless.
Roger, you will be missed.
.
My great grandmother passed away last week. At 94. In a hospital. She will be missed.
However, this weekend, a man was taken from us all too soon. As soon as I heard the news, I thought first of his family, and then of myself. Roger was my mentor in many ways. His help with my business is one of the only reasons we’re still able to do it. His guidance, honesty, and generosity were unrivaled.
I was sad. I lost someone. Someone I was close with and not prepared to lose. Someone who meant a lot to me and had given me more than I could ever have given back. And he knew this. However, I realized something as I thought about my own, selfish loss:
I wasn’t Roger’s only friend. In fact, very few people had ever “met Roger.” People didn’t “know who Roger was” or “yeah, you’ve mentioned him before.” With Roger, if you met him, he knew you, he remembered you, and he thought of you. If he ever met someone who you’d get along with, he’d introduce you. Good at guitar? He knew a drummer for you. Have a camera? He knew people who needed photos.
Roger’s dream was helping the little guys with skills and quality become the big guys. He was a dreamer, in that regard. Yet he wasn’t just a dreamer. He was a man who made dreams come true. He was a doer, and a passionate one. He never stopped finding opportunities for me, or any of his other friends.
With as busy as this would make a person, Roger was still a family man. I’ve never had beers with a man who talked more about how much he loved his wife and daughters. I’d never heard the fairytale from someone who lived it. Roger was all that a family could as for. He was all that a friend could ask for. And if that wasn’t enough, he was all that a man could ever ask for: A fisherman, A BBQ wizard, a tractor restoration enthusiast, heck, he even WELDED as a hobby.
I’m honored to have known him and been affiliated with his family in any regard. I can’t count the number of times I shared a beer with Roger, but I’m thankful for every one of them. And of all those times I had a beer with him, I never once got to pay, because he’d tell me every time, “You get the next one.”
I miss you.
The new iPhone is great for capturing hi red pictures of rear-window wolf murals while driving.
Entertaining Quotes from this weekend.
“…You’ve seen Brokeback, right?” -Lenny
Lenny was banging his fork on the plates and glasses hard enough to break them when the Mother of the Groom approached him and said, “We should have given you the kiddie meal with finger foods!” Poking his glass of whiskey with the fork, he replied, “You should have given me the Kiddie Liquor….”
