-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday May 31st, 2006--Waa, Waa, Waa...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, ok, quit your whining people! I'm in demand from so many quarters, I just don't know what to do... I'm gonna freak out!
Brooke and I flew back east on the 17th, went to Paul and Lorrie's wedding (fun), then toured around the Jersey shore for the weekend, before she flew out west. I stayed and did some science at PU for the next week and it was a grind--24 hour days were the norm. I did find time to watch the Lost season finale, but that's about it for fun stuff during the week. I still owe Brooke a nice letter containing a list (self, consider this a reminder). After I finished up at PU, did I sleep? Did I rest? Did I slumber? Heck no, I packed my stuff up (a huge thanks to Eric for letting me stay at his house, again) and drove to da "shore" for Memorial Day weekend! Heck yeah! I'm talking early morning surf sessions (it was waist to chest and clean) and late night bar sessions (no drinking of course, but I love the smoke-free atmosphere) and some ice cream sessions at Yum Yums (my new favorite is vanilla soft serve with hot fudge and chocolate jimmies [never "sprinkles"]). Sunday--back on da plane to the west coast for a Memorial Day get-together at my house.
I'm done writing for now, but coming soon (maybe tonight)...
Coming soon:
Paul and Lorrie's wedding
Brad Grealy was on a TV show
Essays from Brian Herron
More stories from the prafterdotcom staff writers
and....
CHICKS ON DOLPHINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...
I can't wait to see how many hits I get from google for the title of that picture.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday May 21st, 2006--The Story of Bluefish
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul and Lorrie got married and it was a good time. Yes, we call him, "Paul," but some people may know him as, "Bluefish." The story behind that name is a good one, I think...
We were all surfing at 110th street in Stone Harbor--a typical sunny day in July with waist high waves. Paul is sitting on his board, slightly off the jetty, looking for a right-hander when he feels a bite on his toe. Believe it or not, he was bit by a bluefish and it wouldn't let go (so he says). He paddles to the beach and the lifeguards took care of him (bandaging and the like) while he sat on the bulkhead. Of course, we were all gathered around to watch the bandaging and to hear the story about this vicious attack, which may have heightened the adrenaline in Paul's veins; he was freaked out. As we stood there on the bulkhead (I think it may have been Shaun Bacon, Brad Grealy, and me?) we decided right there that Paul would now be known as, "Bluefish." It's how it's done in Jersey. Your nickname has to refer back to some embarrassing situation or else it's a crap nickname. For example, John DiGenni is known as, "Tiny Dancer". That's a funny story too (I only just heard that one).
To finish this story, Paul or "P.J" or "Bluefish" married his long-time girlfriend and best friend Lorrie this weekend and here's a couple photos to whet your appetite.
Lorrie, peaking around the corner at Paul pre-marriage.
Paul and Lorrie, post-ceremony. *Note pimp cane* 
Sorry, they are blurry digital images, but I need time to get the film developed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday May 17th, 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With all there is to worry about in this world, like terrorists, poverty, remembering to floss, cleaning behind your ears, etc... with all of that to worry about, I feel special to have my friend John worried about me. Start transcript now:
hey pat and brooke, pat this is more towards pat because brooke will have a drink every once and awhile, but libby, seth, chris, emily, bob, jon vitale , ryan, cristen, charlene, and (unintelligible)'s cousin who you don't know, but her name is kira. we're all talking about how pat rafter needs to learn how to drink because we're all drinking and getting fugged up you guys when you come over here in a few days we're going to have to break this deal on pat rafter's abstinence, we were all straight edge once, but you know you're over 30 and you have to drink. brian herron is supposed to be here and we don't know where he is, but he would be saying the same thing. we're... (then he gets cut off by the answering machine). |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday May 16th, 2006 (even mo')
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Can you believe that one of the big motion picture companies made a film called, "Snakes On A Plane"? That's right, Snakes On A Freakin' Plane--that's got to be the funniest name for a movie I've ever seen. And they have Samuel Jackson as a star in it. They tried renaming the movie to, "Pacific Flight blah blah blah," but changed it back partly because SJ demanded it be called Snake On A Plane. I think that is the funniest thing I've heard all day (I hear a lot of funny things during the day--I'm a scientist and we are all so much fun we could... I'll talk about that another day).
You can search the internets and find a million fan-sites on this movie--a movie that hasn't even come out yet. The official site is www.snakesonaplane.com. I wish I had that domain name. A Wiki site on Snakes On A Plane is here.
UPDATE: Oh my god, I just read the Wiki site and I have tears coming down... this movie has already won the Wired Magazine "Best Worst Film of 2006" based solely on the premise and title of the film. And here is the funniest thing I've seen all year--a fake advertisement for the film (I am dizzy right now):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday May 16th, 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, here's some new photos:
In case you can't read that, it says, "Zonies Go Home." I didn't know what a Zonie was when I first moved here, but I now know that it refers to people from Arizona. That's funny.
This is Brian and Annalise after the got married (if you couldn't tell) 
We went to Tim's bon voyage party afterward. He has a really great mustache right now. However, I don't like that look in his eye.
I saw the Chanimal!!! 
I look extra bony in this picture with Meg. I also look like a banker or something.
Sander and his lady 
Meg and Brian 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday May 15th, 2006 (mo')
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the coolest thing I've seen since I looked in the mirror this morning (ha hahaha).
I was listening to NPR just now and they were talking about the "tiny house movement". Check out this house:
How cool is that house? I want one.
The link for the NPR program is here and here. Click the image for another link. They say that they cost about $15,000. I think they're my next house. Oh yeah, I'm broke.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday May 15th, 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a full week, last week. Brooke went to Phoenix to say goodbye to her grandfather Harry, who was a really cool guy who lived a full life. I first met him when Brooke and I stayed at his house en route to California. He was a sharp guy with a good personality and I'm sure that everyone will miss him. Brooke brought back some photos he took while he was in Europe during World War II and some of the photos have little stories written on the back. For example, "Louis and Mac (me) in France. Louis was in the Air Force and he died shortly after this was taken." I can't even imagine having lived through that. Maybe I'll scan some of them and put them up here because they are moments that'll never be recreated.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, Brooke flew back on Friday and we went to a wedding on Saturday and (of course) Brooke caught the bouquet. I guess that means something. Does it count if the bride looks over her shoulder before throwing it out to left field where Brooke is standing all by herself? That was Brian and Analise who got married who were our old neighbors and some good peeps.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the wedding (it ended around 10pm) we went over to Tim Chapman's house for some partying, dude. Yeah.
Seems like Timmy will be leaving for graduate school in Colorado this summer, doing some neurological stuff that I can't really describe because I don't really know. I know that he likes talking about the mechanics of the brain--depression is caused by this and happiness is caused by this and this makes you more religious. You know, the stuff your average American family discusses over a meatloaf dinner.
Anyway, I have some photos from that night, but no time to put them up now. Maybe later, check back. In attendance, were the usual suspects: Brian "Sexual" Leslie, Shea "from Idaho", Sander "I broke my leg" and his lady, Patchy and Meg, the Chanimal with his caretaker, Jaime "from Florida", Mike "Captain Insano No More" Hearon and Nicole "from Wisconsin" and a bunch of other people without funny names. We invited Josh "Bean" Hunter to walk down Manchester street to hang. He then went on to the Kraken to dance with old women. Interesting.
The night was fun, but uneventful, probably because the Chanimal's caretaker Julie made him go home early. Too bad. I have a great photo that I'll put up later involving this situation..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I got a phone message from John DiGenni the other night, while I was at Tim's house party. I will put a transcript up here later. John, drunk dialing is never a good idea...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We fly back to Philly/New Jersey on Thursday for another wedding, this time it's Paul and Lori who may actually go through with it this time. But hey, if not, third time's the charm right guys? There will be lots of photos from that wedding on the page because they are the co-presidents of the prafterdotcom fan club.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My friend Steven Ternosky wrote me to say how much he liked my reminiscing of "the days". Here's a story that I just remembered...
In the late '80s there were no mountains in the Poconos that allowed snowboarding--it was still pretty new and you had to go to Vermont to be allowed to snowboard. Of course, all of us in Avalon wanted to snowboard in the worst way, but we couldn't drive so this wasn't happening. Luckily, when I was 13, we received about a foot of snow one winter day and the snowplows made a mini-mountain of snow at the end of my street. I took an old skateboard deck, bought some waterproof griptape (from the Stone Harbor True Value), and I had a "snowboard". I had a good time on that mountain of plowed snow for a day until it all melted.
The next year, we still hadn't done any "real" snowboarding, but the fire was burning strong whenever it snowed. This time, we had only a couple inches of snow, but we had a new idea--"borrow" some of those thin, plastic real estate signs and slide down the Avalon dunes on 60th street--it was a great strategy. I was with John and Charles Donatone and maybe Matt Vecere, we had Charles and John's stepdad Tom drop us off by the dunes, we appropriated some signs and waxed them up. Hiking around the Avalon dunes after a snowfall is great, actually it's great even without snow, but it was a whole new white, cold world we found that morning. We found a cat that had been frozen to the ground--that was pretty gross. We found a great slope with little bumps we could get air on. We'd slide down while holding the front up so we wouldn't nose dive.
After about an hour or so of sliding down this snow-covered dune, we were soaking wet, sandy, bruised, and cold, but stoked. We had "snowboarded" with what we had available and we even got air a couple times. We were probably laughing at another attempt by Charles to slide down the hill all the way when we heard voices coming up the path. Awww no, it could be the cops or someone of authority coming to tell us how we were ruining the dunes and to tell us how we were bad people.
It was too late to hide, plus our footsteps were clearly visible in the snow, so we just sat there with our asses in the sandy snow as Mr. T. walked down the path. For those in the know, Mr. T. is not a big black guy who wore too much gold and was on the A-Team, he is Mike Ternosky Sr. and following him was two little kids with two plastic snowboards! We hadn't seen an actual snowboard before and these looked like toys, but were still light years ahead of what we were using. Mr. T and his kids said, "Hi" and went over to another side of the slope and started using their snowboards. We were jealous as hell, but proceeded to show off our skills on our homemade boards. I think the kids were impressed, but I can't really say for sure, were you Steve?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday May 12th, 2006 (update)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Found this very interesting website that lets you see what any house in the U.S. is worth (according to the tax assessment I guess). This site raises some issues in regards to privacy (as brought up by some TV show I just saw), but it's really interesting to see what houses are worth all over the country. It's right here: www.zillow.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday May 12th, 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The May Gray is still in effect, but I am battling it. Going to a wedding tomorrow (Brian and Analise) and picking Brooke up at the airport in 20 minutes. I put more photos up for Brooke's birthday skate go there NOW!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday May 11th, 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh man, this May Gray is killing me. The sun did poke its head in for a little yesterday, but it quickly was shut out.
Sorry to all the prafterdotcom fanatics--Brooke is out of town and I've been working straight to my beddie bye. I think those two are related.
I did get out to assess the cost of Paul and Lori's wedding gift (two weekends from now) and I happened to stop into Whole Foods (not related). I got a couple things and the bill was $40! Damn, that's a lot of money. Whole Paycheck. But they do have some really crazy stuff in there, a lot of food that is marketed exactly to me.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just was reading the newest issue of Adbusters and (like usual) it provokes me. Look up the word provoke if you don't really understand the definition--it's a powerful word.
Anyway, the new Adbusters has an article on how Nike finally found its way into skateboarding and at the very end they talk about how skateboarding and snowboarding are mainstream now. I know this, I've seen Tony Hawk in advertising for McDonalds. Had I thought about it? Not really, I've got my own thing going now, but I did give it a good couple minutes of thought just now--picturing myself growing up in the '00s...
I'd rather not. Would you? It's a mess nowadays. I like the fact that I had 4 TV channels to choose from when I was a little kid (3, 6, 10, and 29!). Oh yeah and PBS for Sesame Street. I look back to those days and I feel like it was the wild west--wide open horizons with nothing to do, but explore the neighborhood with my brother on our bikes, meet kids from the next town, throw rocks in a creek/river (aiming for the snapping turtles, but never hitting them), roam around the woods looking under dead trees at nasty bugs, building ramshackle "forts" out of found wood...
Then, when I got older and moved to the beach, cruising the town on my bike, exploring empty houses that were being torn down (not really too safe or legal), throwing shells into the bay (aiming for, but never hitting seagulls... well except for that one time), perhaps finding a dock that broke free after the last Nor'easter, jumping on it and paddling around the bay until the marine police asked you, just what the heck are you doing?
Later on in High School mode, surfing in the day-time (if there was waves) and skateboarding in a (usually) empty basketball court all night because it's smooth and it's lit-up until 10pm. Zeus would bring the radio, and some girls would come to watch (usually the twinnies). Wearing gloves and beanies if it was cold, but eventually skating in a T-shirt because we were skating that hard.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enough of the day-dreaming. Back to reality, which is that... the summer is coming! Yeah! That's great, except I haven't seen the sun in some time because of the May Gray and I don't get any time off because I'm a scientist, man. I'm always thinking science. Oh yeah, so, Frank Camp has a business teaching sailing back in Avalon, NJ and here's his new advertisement:
Make sure to look him up if you're wantin' some learnin' on sailin'.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, here's some photos for you--this is a place in Baja Norte:
pretty
As for those photos of Brooke's birthday... wasn't that almost a month ago? Almost time to forget about it... ok, ok, sorry, I'll get those up here soon. bye.
alright, I put up the photos. Here's one and here's a link.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday May 8th, 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't want to hear any complaints... especially from you Soens.
The website is now officially updated.
I've put all the links from my very own computer on this page! Yeah, you get to waste all your time looking at paintings and photography (see, "people that paint" to your bottom right) or perhaps you would like to search for a sediment core in the Southern Ocean? Yes, we have that too (to your bottom right). Do you want to see what the water quality is at your local San Diego beachbreak? We have that too.
My apologies to Emily... Chris will undoubtedly be viewing many of these websites for weeks.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday May 1st, 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah, we made it to May. Now it's overcast and crappy in San Diego. Yeah.
Just a note on the site--there will be some serious reorganization going on and a lot of links might not work. Mostly, this will be constrained to image files, but may affect some pages as well. Do not fear. The end of the world is not nigh.
