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Today was, without a doubt, a shitty day. The weather sucked, my alarm going off at 5:15am sucked, my one day weekend sucked, ... lots of things sucked. Highest on the sucking meter was working from 8:30am until nearly 8pm. That's just not cool. Especially when I leave my driveway at 7:20am and pull back in at 8:30pm. Just not cool. Things just felt off all day long. And I don't know why.

Then I come home to find an empty house. Actually, two sleeping dogs and a noisy bird. But I also come home to a package from a friend. Earlier in the week, he told me to watch my mailbox as he was sending me something. He also didn't mention what was in the package. Just said to keep an eye out. Well, today, it arrived.



That's right. Homeboy sent me a Bane tshirt. And not just any Bane tshirt. The first WHITE Bane tshirt the band ever made. And shockingly, this one is STILL white, despite being 9 years old. This shirt is fucking cool, in my book. I'm planning on enjoying the hell out of it. The note was pretty amusing too.

Mr. Murphy
Hope this finds you well. Consider this a gift. No, it's not Anthrax or a trip back in time to the Anthrax, nor a show featuring Scott Ian's Anthrax. I know you'll appreciate it. But as the ol Godfather saying goes, "one day, you may be called on to repay this favor." HAHA, seriously man, enjoy!
Stay True"

So there you have it. A cool free shirt, and an uplifting note. My chi and all that shit is now realigned.

I read a few blogs. I get around the internet a bit. I've been a member of NikeTalk for sometime now and watched the Neek phenomenon grow. I'd call him a blogging sensation. Well, he started up a new blog and I noticed one of the dudes "about" bio mentioned "straight edge." I had this pic from a previous trip and figured it'd be a hoot. Unfortunately, I'm not too funny so my answers are plenty plain despite trying for that "hoot" angle. I submitted it, sat back and waited. A week later, it's up AND he tacked on a comment. LOL



What up Julian? Good work dude. What up Sam Black Church? Oh fuck yeah. Let in Life!

Check out their site, and if that book comes out, you should probably buy it.

Peace.

If you don't follow my life very closely, you won't know that I had jaw surgery a while back -- May 6th, to be exact. It involved sliding my jaw forward and loads of fun times. Oddly, I never felt an ounce of pain. In fact, the most painful experience involved a catheter removal. Oooh, fuck that.

As part of my recovery, my mouth was wired shut for 6 weeks. Yeap, 6 whole weeks. You saw what I ate, how I ate. Well, here is the last meal I had blend. Yay. I believe it was a strawberry fruit and soy smoothie.



And here's a shot of my mouth on a face only a mother could love. You can see the wire that held my jaw in place. That wax prevented the wire from cutting up my lip. Good stuff.



Then the wire came off. I was pretty freaking stoked. Of course, my mouth muscles had atrophied and I could only open my mouth so wide. I have a measuring device that I use to check on my progress. Before surgery, I was a 53. In this picture, I am a 20. This is a face only a wife could love.



I no longer was forced to drink from a straw or through an enema bottle. But that didn't mean I was ready to shred a burrito. Nope. My mouth wouldn't open wide enough for that. And also, my jaw didn't really recall how to chew so well. But here is my first "solid" meal. Note how happy I am.



For the curious parties, it's bbq tofu (pan fried tofu smothered in trader joe's bbq sauce. You may or may not recall my love of trader joe's bbq sauce. I still have 3 bottles left. Only 2 are unopened). For the most part, I ended up sucking it off the straw, mashing it some with my teeth/gums and swallowing it semi-whole. Good thing those pieces were cut up small. I don't think I could have fit anything larger than 1" cube in my mouth at that time.

Please also note the goodfoot shirt. I strongly suggest you support this store AND brand from the great white north, Canada. They always come strong with product and their in-house brand is always at the top of it's game. Check their site, and if that isn't good enough, hit up ebay for some gear you may have missed.

Remember last week when I was talking about karma? Here's why.



Needless to say, I was psyched all week. I just got it back today, and the ride is smooth! Now let me give you the back story that lead to my "deep" karma discussion.

It all started about 3 weeks ago. Summer was here, and I wanted to get out and ride my bike. Of course, I don't own a bike. That was the problem. The wife and I began visiting every LBS (local bike store for the uninitiated). I would peruse the bikes and even got a kid to measure me out. I'm a 56cm if you are curious. We went to every bike store I can think of in the area. We even hit up the big city of Boston (and got an ill vegan shake too). Most of those bikes were out of my price range. I had loot but wasn't willing to blow my load on some super fancy bike. I just wanted something I could kick around on.

I also began lurking ebay and craigslist religiously. I would check once an hour on a busy day. And every 20 seconds on a slow day. Maybe not that often, but DAMN often. I came across a ton of viable bikes. Some were super expensive, some required ridiculous shipping. Most items on craigslist were "sorry, already sold" or not the right size.

I kept digging. I soon started looking at fixed gear and single speeds. I figured a mutt/conversion would be less expensive than a fancy road bike. I did plenty of digging, checked out bikesdirect.com and all those sites. Saw some good deals, but nothing that jumped out at me. The one item that came highly recommended was back ordered (it's available in my size now, fyi).



Then one day, Casali asked me if I wanted a Wishingwell logo shirt. He knew some guy who was selling one. I told him I couldn't buy one (despite how awesome it looked) because I was focusing all my loot on a bike. He was surprised and asked what kind of bike. When I said "road bike," it all started "coming up Brian."

He commented that his brother in law left a road bike in his basement. He couldn't ride it because it was too small for him. Too small for the brother in law, not Casali. A bike too small for Casali would assuredly be too small for me. This was his brother in law who I remembered was a semi-giant. I asked what kind of bike it was. He told me "it was only rode twice and not for a very far distant." Not exactly the answer I was looking for, but apparently the bike was in the basement. He didn't want to go down there just then.

He eventually went down and came back. It turns out, it was a Specialized Allez bike. Now that frame is probably a $800 setup. I wasn't sure if I wanted to drop that kind of loot right then and there. I asked him what size it was. He didn't know. He didn't want to go down to the basement again.

I drove home in a happy fog. I found a bike in my friend's basement but wasn't sure if it was my size. On the ride home, I got a text from Casali. "56" Who could fucking believe that? Then later, he told me the brother wanted $500 for it. Bike, cage pedals, clip pedals with specialized sneakers, helmet, gloves and a roof rack. I was a little astonished. I didn't really want the rack and threw back $400. The brother accepted then tossed in the roof rack "just because."

I drove down the next night and picked it up. And the last bit of karma, the sneakers were size 11.5-12. Yeap, they fit like a glove.

And now the previous karma post is explained. Full circle.

ps. If you have a fixed gear bike in a 56-58cm and want to trade for hardcore vinyl, I'm game. Hit me up.

I think a lot can be said about a person based on what they are watching on ebay. Here's what I've been watching lately. I wonder what it says about me?



Duh, I love Bane. I don't have this hood. I have the tshirt, but not the hood. I'd like to get this hood. I was outbid in the last minute.



I love this design. The front has the pocket X print. I wasn't too keen on the navy blue or the yellow front. It wasn't worth $70 to me.



I have this shirt. I almost shit my pants when I saw the final price. Holy crap, who knew?



C'mon, no bids? Wack. Less than 6 were printed on pink shirts. They were gags, basically. Somehow, they all were printed on XLs. Try to think of one giant friend who wants to rock a pink HYE? shirt. D'oh!



Not my size, but one of the limited Savier Trainers I need to complete my collection. If they had been cheap, I would have scooped. Obviously not cheap.



Just a little single speed/fixed gear conversion. Like Freddy Mercury said, "I want to ride my bicycle."



I was pretty stoked on this little guy. Good bike, barely used. And I could have drive to pick it up. When it was under $250, I was stoked. When it bumped over $390, I blew it off. Wasn't worth that much to me.

Wait until you see my latest pickup. Its coming soon. Getting tuned up as we speak. Freddy Mercury would be proud.

If you know me, you know I'm not a religious man. I don't hang with buddha, mohammed or jehovah. It isn't my deal. I grew up in a quiet, hands off Christian household. No overbearing catholics, no crazy zealots. But still it wasn't something I could hang with. I don't know, it just wasn't something I felt deep down. But a few points come out of this discussion.

1) If someone is religious, I let them be. I'm not pushing my non religion on people, and I hope they aren't pushing their religion on me. I let them do their thing, and I hope they let me do my thing.

2) When an animal or pet dies, some part of me knows they are going to a better place. Is that hypocritical? Maybe. But just like I don't push my non religious views on other people, I don't push my beliefs on animals either. For instance, my pet bird Baby died a few weeks back. Baby had been with us for a few years. She lead a rough life. She was found outside 5 years back, dirty and missing a claw. We brought her in, and she chilled. It wasn't always peaches and cream, but she was a good bird. And then she died. A part of me knew she was going to a place with endless millet. Strange? Yes, probably.

3) Karma. Karma isn't a Christian belief. Not under that name at least. But for some reason, that concept has always stuck strong with me. Cosmic balance? I don't know. I always do my best to put good things out there. Add positivity rather than negativity. Another example. No idea why, but I'm obsessed with Massachusetts Saftey Inspection stickers on cars. Once a year, each car has to be inspected. They check safety, emissions, ... the usual car load. And if the sticker expires, expect a stupid ticket. So now, whenever I see an expired sticker, I try to make sure the person is made aware. This has been much harder lately with a mouth wired shut, but yesterday, I saw a sticker expired. I pulled a 3"x5" card out of my pocket (that's how I communicate with people for the next 15 hours - fuck yes) and wrote a quick note about the sticker. I was worried the note would fade in the rain. Today when I parked my car, I saw the expired sticker car. Guess what? It had a brand new 2008 inspection sticker on it. That was me elevating the positivity in my little parking lot.

Going forward, I hope all you folks add a little positivity to your small world. Don't push your beliefs on others, let people do their own thing. Skip that burger, get a big salad. Up the positive.

Oh yeah, go Celtics! 2008, baby.

Here goes. Selling a Shepard Fairey Barack Obama Progress 2008 print. You know you want this!



You better bid soon. It'll probably get crazy. That's what I'm hoping. Vote Obama in 2008.