I'm Never Happy with Perfection...

And no, I'm not talking about being pissed that Graboids rampaged my small Nevada town and that I needed to call upon Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon (not to mention the Dad from Family Ties) to save the day. No, I'm talking about what I have come to refer to as George Lucas Syndrome (GLS). Simply put, it is never being happy with the work that you did, so you constantly edit, alter and even sometimes add new things to previous works. It's named after Lucas because of his altering of the Star Wars Trilogy for the Special Edition release in early 1997. Then, when it came out on DVD in September of 2004., he once again added scenes and touched up the special effects. Here's why I have a problem with it. When he created the trilogy, they were perfect because they were the best that could have been done at the time. The limitations that he had make the film look like it was made in the late 70's/early 80's. Once you add scenes with today's technology, the CGI doesn't match up and it makes the old CGI look funny when before it just looked normal. Lucas should let his work stand as it was then, because there's no use trying to perfect perfection.

Ok, sorry about that. He is when I explain to you why that point matters. I've started something on my website that I have named Project Rebirth 2006. Basically, I'm going through every page that I have created and enlarging all of the pictures so that my entire site has a uniform look. While this doesn't sound like GLS, because all I'm doing is enlarging pictures, here's where GLS comes into play. I have to refrain myself from adding new comments or changing some of the things that I said up to 4 years ago. What I wrote then captures how I was feeling at the time and my writing style. That says more about me at the time that anything captured in the picture. Some things I regret writing, while others I feel like I should have said more. This is a difficult struggle because I don't want to be diagnosed with GLS because I am strongly opposed to it.

Project Rebirth 2006 will guarantee that everything is uniform in size, allowing the viewer to see the image with better clarification. If I stick to my principles, the content will remain the same. Although my standards of perfection have changed, what I viewed as perfect then still is perfect in that context. I will forever change my perfection standards as I become more knowledgeable over time, but I will never be perfect until I can allow my work to represent my maturity level at the time period in which it was created. So far I'm doing a good job at keeping my GLS in check, but time can only tell if my constant suppression of it will lead to an unstoppable explosion of change. Pray to whatever God you have that that day will never come.

Until then - check out the ongoing process of Project Rebirth 2006 at pookon.com

www.pookon.com

Workin' for a livin'

I just realized this morning that I'm tired of working. I work nearly 30 hours a week at my job at UWM then another 20 at Miller Park if the Brewers are in town. I was getting angry about it this morning until I realized that I'm only 25 years old, and that I still have at least another 40 years until I retire. Then I realized that people in my generation probably won't even be able to retire because the government is messing up and spending all of the money that we pay to them. So that means that I'm not going to have another day off of work until I can no longer physically work because I'm dead. I sure hope that I find I job that I like at least a little bit so that I don't run away and become a hermit. By then, I only hope that the world's population hasn't surpassed 10 billion, for then there won't be any empty space for me to occupy and still be all alone. I guess I gotta stop being a bitch and just deal with it. That's what everyone else does; you don't see them whining about it on a web log. I gotta get back to work now so I can afford to bitch about it later on.

www.pookon.com

I'm getting real tired...

I'm getting real tired of a lot of things, and today I decided to do something about it. Let me tell you about a few things that I was getting tired of. I'm getting real tired of my messy carpets, so I went out and bought a vaccuum. I'm getting real tired of being sick all the time, so I bought some dayquil, but I had to sign my name and show my ID so that I wouldn't use the pseudoephedrine to create methamphetamine and get high. I'm getting real tired of my toothbrush, so I bought a new one. I'm getting real tired of looking like an asshole, so I bought shaving cream and a new razor. I'm getting real tired of the dark, so I bought some lightbulbs. I'm getting real tired of moldy shower cutains and bathroom mats, so I bought new ones of those too. I'm getting real tired of my broken dresser taking up space in my room, so I dragged it outside and left it on the street corner. I'm getting real tired of my clothes laying all over the floor, so I bought some hangers. I'm getting real tired of cat hair attaching itself to my clothes, so I bought a lint brush. I'm getting real tired of not getting enough vitamins in my diet, so I bought some Centrum. I'm getting pretty tired of staying sober all the time, so I had a couple beers. I'm getting real tired of being tired...so I guess I'll go to sleep right now.

www.pookon.com

I'm still here, and I'm not going away!!

Hey everyone. I just wanted to remind you that I'm still alive. I know that I haven't been posting very often, and now I'll tell you why. I've been pretty darn busy, and that's about it. I'm a full time student, plus I work 30 hours a week. Starting April 3rd, I go back to working at Miller Park for the 2006 Milwaukee Brewers season. When I'm not working, I'm trying to fit in time for website/blog updates and drinking, since those are the most important things that I do. Oh yeah, and I also try to find time to hang out with my friends and family. I still know how to have fun though, and even though I'm almost 25 now, I still act like a kid, just check out me eating pizza during my spring break trip to New York City with my Dad and my sister. Mmm that was delicious. I'd like to thank you for checking this stuff out (the posts I did from the World Series of Beer Pong were intense and I think that I was able to provide a clear example of just how cool it was, and I thank you for checking them out.) I'm going to try and blog more often, like twice a week, and just say things that are on my mind instead of posting random stuff that I view as interesting. Do I care if anyone is reading this? Yes, in a way, but this blog is more or less for me to look upon and see what I was thinking or doing at that particular moment in time when I typed these words in this space. I never expect anyone (other than friends and family) to give a shit about me and check back on a regular basis for updates on my life, but if you happen to be someone, then I thank you for taking the time out of your hectic life to care about mine. I am grateful to have you as a visitor here. If you've got a website or a blog that you'd care to share, then send the link my way, I will gladly take an interest in your activities and "repay the favor." In closing, I guess I just felt like posting because it's been a while, and I feel the need to just throw something out there just because. Life's been good, and it'll continue to get better if there's any thing that I can do about it...

www.pookon.com

Oh and by the by, everything that I wrote in this post is the truth, even though I wrote it on April Fools Day (yeah, I realize that it's April 14th by the time I'm posting it.) I'm not one of those people that goes around posting fake news stories just to draw readers in and open people's eyes. I only speak the truth, and like my man Abe Lincoln, I've never told a lie.
Oops...I just told one. Damn it!

Iceman, CHBPL teammates, Milwaukee make news

If you've been reading lately, you're well aware that I played in the World Series of Beer Pong in Mesquite, Nevada from January 2-6. We got a lot of media attention out there, with the most prolifflic one coming from playboy.com. The Milwaukee gang turned heads, and brought attention to ourselves at all times. I'm going to provide some link to some of the articles written about the World Series of Beer Pong, just so you have an idea of how huge this thing was. I can't promise that these links will always be valid, I don't know how long they'll keep the articles active on their websites. Check out these sites at your own risk, and as always, viewer discretion is advised...

playboy.com - the best article written, possibly ever. There's nudity on the site, but it's worth going to to read the article, even if you have morals. The article speaks at length about myself, as well as my friends and our beer pong league. It also has some sweet pictures of us and a video of Casey Reily playing some beer pong with Cara Zavaleta, Miss November 2004. If you read one article in your life, I suggest that you read this one. It's freakin' sweet.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal - The Las Vegas newspaper; they wrote an article about the World Series. It doesn't speak of Milwaukee or mention any of us, but there is a great picture of Matthew "Brodey" Callies and Michael "Dave" Balkman playing some beer pong. A few of us (including me) can be seen behind them trying to psych out the oposing team.

Daily Nexus - The student newspaper from the University of Santa Babera. The article was written by a member of the newspaper who attended and participated in the WSoBP. It has a nice picture on "Fresno" Chris and a couple of nice words from Matt Salmon. It's worth a read because it has a good viewpoint from a participant instead of a spectator.

World Series of Beer Pong - the official site for the WSoBP. They don't really have any good pictures up yet (although there are some nice videos of Brodey and Balkman) and the articles barely go into any depth on the events. Hopefully they'll add some more stuff to it in the coming weeks. Check it often to see if they announce any upcoming beer pong events, as well as a decision on next year's WSoBP.

WSoBP Retrospective from one of our New York buddies - Our friends Tom and Matt were in our divison and played alongside us nearly every game during the first 2 days. Their team was called the Lumberjacks, and they hail from Albany, New York. We never played against them, which was a good thing because they were so nice I would've hated to hand them a defeat. Tom wrote a daily entry of his unique perspective of the tournament, which I thought was cool because it differs from what I personally witnessed.

CHBPL - our league website. You can check out profiles of the people who went to the WSoBP. There's also information about everything that we do when it comes ot beer pong.

That's about all I can find right now. If I find any other links, I'll be sure to put them up here someday. Enjoy reading, and come on over to the Chateau Murray if you want to try out beer pong for yourself. Have a great day!!

www.pookon.com

WSoBP Day 5 (January 4) - Beer Pong Finals (long version)

You already read some highlights that I posted on January 6th. This is the full play-by-play account of the final day of play, which included the playoff round. A lot happened, but we didn;t get to play a lot because there were only 32 teams, and it was double elimination. It wasn't the greatest day ever (that was yesterday, Jan. 3) but it was still a hell of a lot of fun.

11:15 am - Waiting to begin the playoffs. I'm already 3 Miller Lite's in the hole, as well as 1 deep in Monster drinks. Playboy TV is here filming some of this for a segment. To demonstrate the game, Road Rules castmember and Playboy Playmate Novemeber 2004 Cara Zavaleta played an exhibiton game against Duncan and Billy, the event organizers. None of them were very good, so the game went on for a while. Cara asked for a volunteer to be her partner, and Casey Riley immediatly rose to the occasion. He performed well, but naturally let Cara take all of the credit. Smooth move Riley, but it won't win you the $10,000 grand prize.

11:55 am - Fresno and I won our 1st playoff game amid the onlooking of every writer there and constant video cameras in our faces. It was tough to play under all of that pressure, and our game came down to 1 - 1. I barely hit any shots, but at least we won. Brodey/Balkman lost, as did Riley/Phany. Lorge/Casey won, meaning that they will play Fresno/Iceman in round 2. I want both of us to win, but that can't be possible so I'll cheer for us. I got interviewed by Cara for Playboy TV, and told her that if I won, I'd throw a sexy party, complete with a sailor hat, tacky 70's music and scantily clad women (ala Stewie Griffin.) I invited her and anyone else whe knew from playboy to come along, which made her laugh. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and I was drunk and really didn't care.

12:20 pm - Just lost to Lorge/Casey. I guess it was expected because we're not that good in the CHBPL. It's rough, but I really shouldn't dwell on it much longer. The more I think about it, the more angry I will be. They better not make me anygry...You wouldn't like me when I'm anagry. I'll turn into the Hulk and tear this mother down. Hopefully I can manifest that anger into a victory in the next round. If not, then at least we were the #4 team going into the playoffs. They can't take that away from us. We found out later on that we may or may not have beaten them because of the redemption/rebuttle rule. Everyone was unclear about how the rules worked, so I'm calling shenanigans on this game's procedure. Who won? According to the tournament, they did, but I'm always going to question that ruling.

1:00ish pm - Brodey/Balkman are going into double overtime. They established a rebuttle rule for the playoffs, but did a poor job of describing and enforcing it. Because of that unclear ruling, they lost, but we established ourselves as the most hated group in beer pong. During Brodey/Balkman's game, most everyone in the audience was cheering against Milwaukee because we've been loud and supportive of our teams, and I guess we've rubbed too many people the wrong way. I was wasted and standing right behind Brodey and Balkman, shouting at the other team. There were times when they stopped paying attention to the game and started paying attention to me, but they were good enough to not get psyched out. Maybe it also was that Brodey/Balkman didn't bring their A game. Whatever it was, we've done our city proud.

2:20 pm - Well, this Cinderella story has come to an end. We lost, and are officially out of the tournament. When we got beat by Dixie Normous, we didn;t get a rebuttle because they hit the last 2 cups in succesion. To tell you the truth, my heart wasn't really in this game. First off, I didn't know that we were even playing at this time, and no one from Milwaukee was there to support us. Ah well, at least we showed everbody where we came from.

3:30 pm - We're all out of the tournament now, but a lot of drama has taken place. Riley almost got into a fight with Raphael from the Ninja Turtles. I know that he's cool but rude, but he didn;t have to get all upset that we razzed him a little bit. He was mad because we were cheering against him because he takes the game too seriously and he was there for the money instead of the beer pong. His team was also the #1 seed going in to the plaoffs, so naturally everyone wanted to see an upset. Riley may have taken it too far, but this guy snapped when someone made fun of him. He got enraged, and I tried to calm him down by telling jokes. I opened my wallet and asked him, "If I give you some money out of my wallet, will you promise not to kill me?" This only angered him more, and I'm surprised that I'm still alive. He blew it way out of proportion, and I'm glad we didn;t have to fight him because it would have been a lost cause and he wouldn't have learned his lesson.

4:00ish pm - Team France played against Slippery Fetus for the championship and the $10,000, but I really didn't care. I stuck around just to see how good they were, and I think that Fresno and I could've taken them easily. There was some kind of awards ceramony afterwards, where they gave away the check. They gave out some other random awards, but i really didn't care.

I may be wrong, but this is what I believe the final standings were:

Casey/Lorge - 6th
Iceman/Fresno - 10th
Riley/Phany - 15th
Brodey/Balkman - 20th
Salmon/Aaron - 50th (Despite not making the playoffs, they are still ranked 50 out of 83 teams.)

Not too bad if you ask me. Find me another city that has 4 teams ranked in the top 20 in the country in beer pong, and I'll stop telling everyone that Milwaukee's the best beer pong city.

7:30ish pm - playing beer pong in room 5130 with the Canadian guys from the tournamnet. Just like we did the other night, they stole a brown-top table from outside the convention center and set it up in the room. We were playing a 10-cup game, and I won 2 in a row with this girl named Katie. I shot over 50%, and everyone was amazed by my skill and knew that I was for real. While I was standing outside after I lost my 3rd game, Salmon came and joined us and founjd someone that he could talk soccor with. People (including Billy's Dad) were doing a beer bong out of a pink flamingo that held about 5 beers. I had a few more beers then wandered towards our room to see what was going on.

8:30 pm - about to play beer pong against the journalists; the writer from playboy.com and the one from Toro magazine. The Godfather (Brodey) and I will have to take them down. And we did.

9:39 pm - What started out as me walking to the soda machine for a Coke ended with me playing beer pong in 3 different hotel rooms. The journalists stuck around for a good while and played a bunch of games with us. I don't really remember when we ended, but I know several people stopped in to play, and we all had a great time. Beer pong truely is the one sport that will unite all mankind as one. There was so much beer pong going on. We were being so loud that the security guards were upset at us. We ended up moving the tables to the tennis courts. I don't think they played too long, because I saw everyone heading towards the casino. We were hanging out with Billy's Dad, who was like 60 but still knew how to party. I found out from some of the guys that I have a nickname other than Iceman. Some people refered to me as the OCD guy because of the shooting approach that I take. They are of course refering to obsesive compulsive disorder because I have to do the same thing every single time before I shoot the ball.It's more of a routine thatn anything else, and it just helps to steady my nerves before I shoot.

We kept on playing until everyone got tired. I then joined Brodey at the bar where he was playing alongside 1/2 of Team France. They were wiping out the competion as only the Godfather and a $10,000 winner could. I watched them for a little while, but decided that my time would be better spent gambling or surfing the internet.

1:30 - 3:30 am - I just figured out what a big dork I am. I spent 2 hours in a casino, but I wasn't gambling...I was on the internet.I've been feeling a little deprived, and I get all giddy whenever the connection bars glow green.

After that, I went back to the room to get a few hours of sleep. We are supposed to be out of the hotel by 9:30, and we plan on spending the entire day in Las Vegas before starting the 30-hour drive home. I know I'm skipping out on my sleep, but I've been having way too much fun to waste what precious time I have out here on sleep. I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I get home...

www.pookon.com

WSoBP Day 5 (January 5) - Beer Pong Finals (short version)

I'm not going to have enough time today to type up an entry for the finals, but I just wanted to get on here and give you a couple of tidbits so I don't leave you hanging until Sunday. The next time I'll have internet access is on Sunday when I'm back home in Milwaukee, so here are a couple of highlights from Thursday's events. I'll expand more on them Sunday afternoon.

- Casey Riley played an exhibition match with a Playboy Playmate against Billy and Duncan, the event organizers and members of the bpong.com staff.
- Casey/Lorge and Iceman/Fresno won their opening round games.
- Brodey/Balkman and Riley/Phany did not.
- we played Casey/Lorge in round two and lost to them.
- we established ourselves as the most hated group in beer pong. Everyone there was cheering against us every time we stepped up to the table.
- won our next 2 game before losing in the 4th round (out of 8) of the losers bracket.
- Casey/Lorge made it to 6th round and ended up as the 6th team overall out of the 32 who made it into the playoffs. Ice/Fresno tied for 12th, Riley/Phany tied for 20th and Brodey/Blakman tied for 24th. Not too bad if you ask me.
- Riley almost got into a fight with this guy who looks like Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- played beer pong in about 3 different hotel rooms with people from the tournament. We even played with the writers from playboy.com and Toro magazine, both of which were just learning the game of beer pong.
- went to bed around 4:00 am, preparing to spend entire day in Las Vegas on Friday 1/6.

Like I said, I'll expand on this more when I get home, but at least now you have a general idea of what happened during the final day of this event. Take care, and I'll see you on Sunday. Thanks for reading, and also thanks for your comments to my blog. It's good to see someone who cares.

www.pookon.com

WSoBP Day 4 (January 4) - 2nd Day of Beer Pong

10:55 am – Waiting for the games to begin. Once again, I didn’t eat breakfast (Fresno went to McDonald’s again) and I immediately drank a beer as soon as I got out of bed. I am currently consuming a Monster energy drink, and I’m hyped beyond belief right now. The 10 of us are just hanging out on the bleachers like a bunch of 3rd graders, except that we drink something other than juice boxes and 25 cent milk cartons.

11:30 am – We’re now 4-2 after beating the Idaho Potato Peelers. These guys told me that they were in Las Vegas all night, and didn’t get back to Mesquite until 8:00 am. Looking rather ragged and tired/hung over, they actually came within 2 cups of beating us. We were a little off at first, but we got the W, and that’s all that really matters.

12:05 pm – The Cleveland Steamers failed to show up, so the game resulted in a forfeit. After our easiest victory yet, we’re now 5-2, with 4 games left to play today.

1:10 pm – We just beat Peer Bong Squenis Wad by 2 cups. They were arguably the best team that we have faced yet. We shot solidly, going cup for cup against them. We 1-2d them, meaning Fresno hit the 1st cup and I hit the 2nd to secure us a victory. It was old school TYGB style. We’re now 6-2 and riding high. There’s no “half time” intermission today, meaning that there’s little rest until the next game. Hopefully we can ride this high into the next game. During this tournament, I’m all decked out in old “ball and glove” logo Brewers gear from head to toe, making my love for the team publicly known. They also know that I’m proud to be from Milwaukee and Wisconsin. They tried to taunt me with saying, “You work at the stadium!” Like that’s even close to a taunt, seeing as how I love my job more than anyone really should. When I hit the kill, I jumped up and yelled, “YOU’RE G D RIGHT I DO!” I apologize now for the brash language, but I couldn’t help it at the time and I needed to preserve that quote as it was said.

2:15 pm – Beat the Motherchuggers by 4 cups. We’re 7-2 now and I hit another kill shot.

3:40 pm – Went back to the room to grab a beer and get my buzz back after eating lunch. I ate lunch with Brodey, Balkman and Fresno, and our food was actually warm today, which was a big improvement over yesterday’s food.

3:45ish pm – Played round #11 against Cat Griz, and beat them by 4 cups. This increased our cup margin and gave me one more kill shot.

4:15ish pm – Won our 6th game of the day against F.A.C.E. and finished at 9-2. This game was huge because there was seriously like 30 people gathering around to watch us. There were photographers, journalists, fans and the event organizers rooting us to victory. I had to hit the kill shot, because I didn’t want to let any of them down. This victory guarantees us a spot in tomorrow’s double elimination playoff tournament. When I hit the kill shot, Balkman said, “The Ice is nice” and it was the truth. But I could’ve never done it without my partner Fresno Chris. He’s been shooting well in every game and he’s always there to back me up. I feel bad because all of the “media” attention is on me, and he once again has to take a back seat to me in the beer pong universe. He’s a good sport about it, and next time I’ll put in a good word for him. He did have the best taunt ever though. The FACE guys weren’t drinking their beer. We were screaming at them to man up and drink, but they wouldn’t. Fresno walked over, picked up their cup, and chugged it. The crowd went nuts and I think they lost because they let us get in their heads.

Around 5:00ish day 2 was complete, and all of the teams fared better on the second day that they did on the first. The final results after 2 days of beer pong are:

Iceman/Fresno: 6-0 day two, 9-2 overall
Casey/Lorge: 4-2 day two, 8-3 overall
Brodey/Balkman: 4-2 day two, 7-4 overall
Riley/Phany: 4-2 day two, 7-4 overall
Aaron/Salmon 3-3 day two, 5-6 overall
That puts Milwaukee at 36-19 after two days.

At 8:00 the 32 teams that make the playoffs will be announced. Until then, we’re gonna be watching the USC/Texas Rose Bowl game. A lot of us have money riding on this game, but Fresno was the only one who bet on Texas to win and cover the spread.

6:05 pm – Balkman is passed out already. It turns out that he didn’t sleep last night because he spent the night in the casino at the blackjack table. Sounds stupid if you ask me, but winning $500 is worth more than a good night’s sleep.

Watched the game, and Fresno ended up winning some money because Texas covered the spread in the game. I bet on USC to win, so I lost again. I also bet on the Milwaukee Bucks to win, but they lost, so I lost money yet again. I decided that I’m giving up on gambling for the rest of this trip. One thing that I’m not giving up on is beer pong. Our 9-2 record gave us the #4 seed in the playoffs, loosely meaning that we were the 4th best out of the 80-some teams that entered this tournament. CHBPL (Casey/Lorge) enter into the playoffs at #13, the Greatest Show on Plywood (Brodey/Balkman) are #21 and Milwaukee’s Best (Riley/Phany) are at #26. Sadly, Aaron and Salmon did not make the playoffs, but we still have 4 Milwaukee teams representing tomorrow. Check back to see how we did, but know this – if Fresno and I win the $10,000 grand prize, you won’t have to wait until the next day to read about it, I’ll be calling you to let you know immediately.

www.pookon.com

WSoBP Day 3 (January 3) - 1st Day of Beer Pong

8:30 am – woke up and bummed around. I remember watching Saved By the Bell, I only mention it because it will have relevance later on today. You’ll see. I know that Chris and I started drinking pretty much after we got out of bed. We gotta be prepared for today’s events. At 9 am, I was watching Dawson’s Creek, which just gave Chris another reason to make fun of me.

10:00 am – Went to the convention room to play beer pong. We were supposed to meet and hear some opening comments, get placed into division, go over rules, etc. You know, get all of that official stuff out of the way early. It seems like some of the teams didn’t feel like showing up, so they delayed this meeting until 11. Salmon and I went to the Casino to play penny slots. While there, the waitress brought me a beer, and seeing as I didn’t eat any breakfast, I was feeling pretty good by the time 11:00 came around.

11:00 am – Met at the conference center to play some beer pong. We were devided into 6 division, each comprised of 13-14 teams each. The Team You’re Gonna Beat (Fresno Chris and myself) were in division 2, the Professors of Pong (Aaron and Salmon) were in #3, CHBPL (Casey V. and Lorge) were in #4, the Greatest Show on Plywood (Brodey and Balkman) were in #5 and Milwaukee’s Best (Casey R. and Ryan “Phany”) were in #6. It was nice that we didn’t have to play anyone else from our group, because then we could play some teams we’ve never seen before. A little bit later, round 1 began.

12:00ish am – Chris and I beat the Sloshballers from Pacifia, CA in 9 shots. Out of the 14 tables playing simultaneously, we were the 1st team to win in the 1st World Series of Beer Pong. I was als o the 1st person to hit a kill shot. Those are two firsts that I’ll always be proud of, and no matter what happens in this tournament, they can’t take it away from me. The rest of Milwaukee’s finest were cheering me on, shouting “Iceman, Iceman!” every time I had a ball in my hand. We won by 3 cups, and amazed everyone by hitting the last 4 in a row. We turned some heads with our playing style and our support group.

12:30 pm – a writer from the Canadian magazine Toro interviewed me. They asked me some standard questions, and they also took some photographs of me while I played. Casey/Lorge and Salmon/Aaron had 1st round byes. Brodey/Balkman won by 1 cup, and Casey/Phaney won as well, giving Milwaukee a 3-0 record so far. A writer for Playboy.com interviewed Brodey and asked him questions about our group.

1:40 pm – After our second win, where we won by 4 cups and I hit my second kill shot, there was a lot of hype surrounding this guy named Iceman. The writer from Playboy.com interviewed me, and we sat down and talked for 10 minutes. I told him a lot of interesting things, about our group, our league, why I draw a line with my middle finger before shooting, why they call me Iceman, and things of that nature. If any of my information gets posted in his article, I’ll be sure to include it in this blog in a future posting. Throughout the rest of the day, he also took some pictures of us, which hopefully will be viewed by someone and we can all win free beer or something. The people from Toro magazine had me and Fresno Chris sign a release waiver so that they could use our pictures. The line that I signed said model name, so that now means that I’m a male model because I’m really really really ridiculously good looking. I’m working on my “ice glare” as we speak. We’ve been talking with other teams from around the country, and everyone that’s here is really cool. We’ve been hanging out with a lot of the other teams, and joke and goof around like we’re old friends.

2:00ish pm – Finished our 3rd game of the day, and won that one as well. We then went outside on the tennis courts for some burgers and hot dogs. The food was cold, but we ate with these two guys who have been playing next to us. We’ve been talking and laughing and enjoying some good beer pong moments. They think that we’re hyped, and I hope that I can live up to that.

We then had a 45 minute break “halftime” as they called it, and we had a bye during the first game back, giving us close to 2 hours to wait to play some more beer pong. During this time, I went to Starbucks to upload yesterday’s blog entry, then waited until my next match. Tom Petty said that the waiting is the hardest part, but I’m sure that he wasn’t talking about beer pong, even though it applies here as well. When we finally did get to play again, I was tired, and really didn’t feel like playing or drinking.

5:00ish pm – We lost both of our games in the afternoon, not because they were better than us, but because we failed to make shots. We both were off and not into the grove. I felt bad because I had built up so much hype that photographers were waiting to take a picture of me when I nailed the kill shot and I let them down. All of our teams had a disappointing 2nd half, and Brodey had a stern talk with us about improving tomorrow and not looking like a bunch of flunkies (my interpretation of the Godfather’s wisdom.) Tomorrow is another day, but today these are how the teams stand:
Casey/Lorge: 4-1 with a bye.
Iceman/Fresno: 3-2 with a bye.
Brodey/Balkman: 3-2 with a bye.
Casey/Phany: - 3-2 with a bye.
Aaron/Salmon: 2-3 with a bye.

Overall: Milwaukee is 15-10, which is above .500 but we know we’re better than this.

I don't remember much from the rest of the evening, because I was dissapointed by my performance in the 2nd half of today's events. Here are some highlights from the rest of the evening...
- We found a table (those brown folding ones like the ones we had in the St. Catherine’s cafeteria when I was in grade school) and carried it to Aaron and Brodey’s room. We put it in the doorway between rooms 5119 and 5118 and played some beer pong. The guys in 5118 are from New York and rock at beer pong. They won at least 7 games in a row before Aaron and Brodey took over and dominated the table until I left. Playing beer pong in a hotel room kicks ass.
- I went to the casino again, playing penny slots. I lost money again. I then decided to do a little experiment. I took 300 nickels ($15) and played the maximum (3) on a slot machine to see 1. how long I could last, 2. whether or not the machine would go “cold” or get “hot”, 3. see if I could actually win any money. I started at 12:10 am, and finished at 12:36 am with no money left over. $15 only lasted 26 minutes, and the most I ever won was approximately 130 nickels, which only put me back at the 300 mark at that time. I have concluded that I suck at gambling and cannot win no matter what I play.
- I walked around trying to get a picture of the Oasis casino sign that said Welcome to the World Series of Beer Pong. I also noticed that the neighboring casino, the Casablanca, had a similar sign. I finally made it close enough to get a decent picture, and decided that since I had made the walk over here, I might as well go inside and check it out. The Casablanca was designed better than the Oasis, and there were fountains and palm trees inside and stuff. I played the Price is Right nickel slot machine after perusing the casino, and immediatly won $5.15. It's too bad that I put it right back in the machine plus some. I think I've pretty much given up on gambling.
- I walked back from the Casino and stopped at the Shell gas station to buy some Monster energy drink, a rice krispie bar, a snickers bar, and some Ruffles potato chips. When I got back, it was around 1:30 am, and I had to be up at 8:00 am for another day of drinking. Life is rough.

www.pookon.com

WSoBP Day 2 (January 2) - First Day in Mesquite

As I previously mentioned, we arrived in Las Vegas at about 6:30 am. I was super excited to be in Vegas again, and I quite literally could not hold in my enthusiasm. No one else showed an ounce of excitement, so we barely even looked at anything or went anywhere. We did agree to come back on Friday, so I guess we could look at things then…

1/02/06 – 6:30ish am – 9:30ish - arrived in Las Vegas and drove down the strip for like 2 blocks. We parked in the Bellagio parking lot because no one else would make decisions (Brodey was driving.) We went inside the casino and gambled for a little while. We lost track of each other, and when we reconvened, I decided that we should go and check some things out. We walked outside for a brief moment, stood outside of Caesar’s Palace, then went inside to do some gambling. We were in there for too long if you ask me, mostly because we were watching TV in the sports gambling area. To its’ credit, it did have a lot of really huge monitors and projectors playing multiple channel at the same time, but I didn’t care because I didn’t come to Vegas to watch TV. When we did get outside, all that they wanted to do was drive to Mesquite. I was mad because I wanted to wander the streets of both downtown and the strip, but I guess I’ll have to wait until later in the week…

8:20 am (wrote this inside of the Caesar’s Palace sports betting room) – Just got carded by a hardcore security guard/rent-a-cop. So did Salmon, but not Brodey, Balkman or Aaron. Some m-fers are always trying to iceskate uphill.

9:30ish – I drove home from Vegas, and once again Balkman and Salmon played some Mario Party.

10:30ish – Got to the Oasis Hotel in Mesquite, but the rooms wouldn’t be ready to check in to until after 12:00 noon. We figured that gambling was the best thing to do in this situation. I sat down on a penny slot machine and the waitress asked if I wanted anything, so I got a beer. That was pretty much how my afternoon played out – sit at a machine, gamble and win/lose money, and drink beer. By 12:30, I was good and drunk. Balkman and I sat down side by side at the penny slots and discussed strategy over countless Miller Lite beers. We walked around, but mostly stuck to the penny slots. I know at one time we played roulette, and I lost that money real quick.

12:30ish pm – Fresno, Casey V., Casey R., Ryan and Lorge arrived in Mesquite and found me good and drunk and winning money. I didn’t get to talk to them much because I was too busy drinking and gambling.

2:30 pm - (maybe not the real time, I was drinking after all) – “just finished winning $53.54 in pennies from the pirate game. From now on, every time that I play pirate games, I’m wearing a bandana and an eye patch.” And, “So I’m drunk right now because of all the free drinks. By accident, I hit the wrong button and turned $2.50 into $45.00!” That was a big oops that paid off this time. And on Balkman’s gambling follies, “Kenny Rogers and his Gambler slot machines are a bunch of cheap bastards.”

The rest of the afternoon is a blur, but here are some things that I know for sure happened - checked into hotel, registered for WSoBP, chose which bed I wanted - (around 4:00) I bought some alcohol at the Oasis mini mart across the street, created a home-made fridge by putting ice and beer into a trash can - I ate dinner at McDonald’s, which is right across the street from the casino - played some exhibition beer pong with Fresno Chris, we went 0-4. The other teams aren’t super good but the official tables are higher than ours by a few inches. The cups are also thinner and taller than we are used to, which made all of my shots fall short by a few inches. I’ll have to adjust that so I can make some shots while we’re out here. - I gambled some more because I couldn’t stay away. I played some fun games, like one called Jamaica Me Money that featured a Rastafarian lion. Things didn’t go too well, and I lost a little more money. I’m not upset because I’m not here to make money, I’m here to play beer pong.

That pretty much sums it all up. Chris and I decided that we weren’t going to be very serious about our game, we’d just be loose and try and have some fun. If we happen to win $10,000, then that would be awesome because then I could don a sailor suit, circle around some women, and throw a sexy party Stewie Griffin style.

http://www.pookon.com/

WSoBP Day 1/2 (January 1-2) - The Drive

For those of you who do not know, I'm going to Mesquite, Nevada to compete in the World Series of Beer Pong. Along with 9 friends (4 of which who drove out here with me) we will represent not only our league (chbpl.com) but our city and state as well. The following is a daily blog entry describing what went on each particular day...

1/01/06 - 2:57 am - 7 minutes into the trip, we're trying to leave Milwaukee and we've already lost Balkman and Aaron's girlfriend has already called to check in on him.

1/01/06 - 3:00 am - We just got pulled over by a Shorewood Cop because Aaron was driving without his headlights on. We calmly spoke with the cop and reassured her that we were not drinking (it was New Years after all) and that we were on our way to Nevada to compete in a beer pong tournament for a grand prize of $10,000. She gave us a friendly reminder to keep the headlights on at night and wished us well.

1/01/01 - 4:45 am - leaving for Mesquite for real now. Brodey finally decided to finish up working. We had been waiting for him for over 3 hours now (Salmon and I were at Aaron's at 1:30 am). I suggested that the people in the car (Brodey, Balkman, Aaron and Salmon) call me the enemy because I will be able to see all and I will write what I see (referring of course to Almost Famous.) Brodey responded with "My only enemies are Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MaDD). I'll try and use my writings to get them on the cover of Obscure Sports Quarterly (OSQ) or coverage on ESPN 8 - the Ocho. Aaron was coming up with possible comeback taunts to the opposing team when they try to taunts his team, including this clever one, "I live in the town that invented beer...don't give me that bullshit." Balkman said that it could possibly be a future t-shirt for members of the chbpl.

1/01/01 - 9:05 am - we're 70 miles from Des Moines and in the middle of Iowa.
1/01/01 - 9:45 am - Salmon is driving and raced a dude driving a VW Bora with a license plate reading VWPower. This is the greatest race that Iowa's freeway has seen since the Corvette/Pontiac GTO race of 1964, and we all know how that turned out. Salmon's Honda won the race, finishing ahead of the Bora in laps 1 and 3, before totally losing sight of it when he pulled ahead of it for good.

1/01/01 - 12:25 pm - crossed over the Mississippi river and into Nebraska - the home of Arbor Day. Seriously, that's what it says on the sign. The display sign for the city of Omaha did feature full signs trains though - woo woo!

1/01/01 - 7:47 pm (Mountain time) - Stopping in the Denver outskirts at a Burger King for some grindage. Along the way here, we saw...
- a semi truck flipped onto its side
- a burned out semi trailer that caught in fire
- a semi that almost hit a fox 50 feet in front of the car when I was driving and swerved
around it just in time.

That pretty much sums up the last 6 hours. I drove and Salmon and Balkman played Mario Party on Game Cube. Brodey was asleep on the backseat still, where he would be until Balkman drove, which was arguably the most exciting part of the entire drive out.

01/01/01 - 8:00ish pm - Balkman got behind the wheel for the first time and had to endure the worst driving conditions of the trip. He drove through the Rocky Mountains, in the dark and with snow on the ground. The turns were sharp, the visibility was low, the downhill grade was steep and I was hiding underneath my hood listening to my headphones and shielding my eyes from the road. I seriously thought we were going to die, but I was confident in Balkman's ability to keep me alive. He came through on his promise, and we made it. It's so beautiful up in the mountains, especially around Vail and Colorado Springs; places that I could never afford to live, but I couldn't bring myself to look out the window.

01/02/01 - 12:00ish am - 6:30ish am - Balkman and Brodey took turns driving through Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. We arrived it Las Vegas at about 6:30 am. We decided to skip stopping in Mesquite for now because it was far too early to check in to the hotel. Since Brodey, Balkman and Aaron had never been to Vegas, we thought it would be nice to check it out once in the daytime and once again at night (when we go back on January 6th before driving home.) I was super psyched to be in Las Vegas again, but everyone was so tired and didn't feel like staying long. I'll talk more on this when I bring it up on the entry about January 2nd's events. We got to the hotel in Mesquite at about 9:30-10:00 am, but out hotel room wasn't ready yet. Arriving at our final destination meant that this road trip was complete for now, and the fun can now begin. Stay tuned for Day 2 of my trip out here and the beginning of the WSoBP.

www.pookon.com

Beer Pong Death Match

(9:15 pm) December 29th, 2005 is a day that I will remember until I'm 70 and senile and no longer able to remember things. That was the day that me and my friends played a beer pong death match. If you aren't familiar with beer pong, our games are played like this. Each player puts 6 cups in a triangle formation in front of them on a table measuring 4 feet wide by 8 feet long. Players take turn throwing ping pong balls into the cups, and when they are made, the person drinks the cup. This continues until one person's cups are all made. A death match setup consists of the entire table filled with cups side-to-side, eventually resulting in 144 total cups per side. At 1 beer for every 6 cups, each team is responsible for drinking 24 beers. We decided to play 2 on 2, with 1 person playing at each time. The partner is able to tag in when they feel like it, and the person playing can sit down when they need a rest. This particular night featured "Fresno" Chris and "Iceman" Scott vs. "Salmon" Matt and "Hundley" Ryan. The night started out with Hundley vs. Iceman, then Salmon vs. Fresno. These were the typical matchups throughout the night. At the beginning, when each side had 144 cups, it was common for each player to shoot 2 for 2. As the game progressed, and cups began to disappear from each side, each person began to make 1 for every 2 shots. A 50% shooting average is nothing to scoff at, mind you. The game began at 8:45 pm, and now at 10:15 pm, the beer is warming and the drunkenness is quickly setting in. Each side has roughly 72 cups left, give or take, making now the unofficial "official" halfway point of tonight's main event. Every so often, a gamebreak is needed to show some highlights from around the league (which is just a fancy NFL way to say that a player needs to take a break to use the restroom.) (11:05 pm) Fresno just tagged me out, and promptly informed me that "all we have left is kill shots" meaning that we only have single cups left and none that exist in triangle-like groups. As of now, Fresno and Iceman have 40 cups vs. Salmon and Hundley's 24 cups, giving them a 16-cup advantage. Although this seems like a one-sided match up, anything can still happen because there is a lot of beer pong to play tonight. (11:15 pm) The game has been going on for 2 1/2 figured that I would be. I took a quick survey of the participants, and they agreed with my prior statement. According to ponger Matt Salmon, "I'm good, but not good enough to drive." That puts him over the legal limit, but leaves him with the ability to make rational decisions and function as a human being. Beer pong continues, and Fresno and I have yet to hit the 12 cups that line the back row of the beer pong table. For a guaranteed victory, we need to make the cups that lie furthest from our outstretched hands. Every shot that leaves Salmon's hand makes one cup for every two shots. (11:55 pm) Fresno and Iceman have combined Salmon and Hundley's cups, although Salmon/Hundley are close to combination. (12:00 midnight) 3 hours 15 minutes into the game, both teams are combined with Fresno/Iceman leading Salmon/Hundley by 3 cups. If Fresno goes 0 for 2, Iceman will have to come in to seal the deal. We now know that Salmon wears green underwear, proving his Irish heritage. The game is down to 6 (Salmon/Hundley) to 2 (Fresno/Iceman) and we are down to 2 kill shots. It now comes to the final shot. Fresno is left with 1 shot to hit for the victory. IT'S GOOD!!! FRESNO HITS THE WINNING CUP TO PROPEL FRESNO/ICEMAN TO VICTORY! After 3 1/2 grueling hours of beer pong, one team is declared to winner. Let's hope that this transcends to Mesquite, NV and the Team You're Gonna Beat can become the most ironic team to claim the World Series of Beer Pong Championship. (12:30 pm) Salmon/Hundley gains a little bit of retribution by beating Iceman/Fresno in a Vegas Style 6-cup exhibition match. Alls well that ends well, and each team has something to brag about. So the night comes to an end, and I finish this blog entry with the declaration that Iceman/Fresno won the inaugural Chateau Murray League Death match. This certainly won't be the last time we play a match of this style, and I look forward to providing you with insight from the front lines once again. For Pookon's Ill Blog, this is Scott "Iceman" Reck, signing off.

http://www.pookon.com/

World Series of Beer Pong in Mesquite, NV

Chris and I have signed up to play against the elite members of beer pong. We have officially entered the World Series of Beer Pong in Mesquite, NV, which is taking place in early January of 2006. We will travel to the entertainment mecca of this fine country and compete against the best of the best in the greatest sport known to mankind. Beer pong has become such an integral part of my life that I feel that it is necessary to defend my hobby at every moment that arises. I look forward to squaring off against my peers in mankind's most competitive game since Twister. Along with 10 friends from the chbpl (http://www.chbpl.com/) we will represent not only our state, city and college, but also our need to play competitive sports. I now consider myself a professional athlete, seeing as how our league is organized to put the game ahead of fun. I will not stop until I have reached that unreachable plateau of beer pong; coming home with the World Series title and 1/2 of the $10,000 prize in my back pocket. Until that day comes (we'll certainly know on January 5th of 2006) I will keep practicing in hope of being the best. The countdown has begun! 34 days until I can emerge as one of the beer pong legends that will stand the test of time. I guess we'll just have to wait until January 2nd to see if this Cinderella story has a happy ending. Until then....MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!!

http://www.pookon.com/

You Got Served

Is it wrong to tell someone that they just got served? I was thinking about this at work today when handing (aka serving) the customer their food. Would it be wrong if I was to tell the customer that they just got served? According to the Urban Dictionary, "you got served" means "to be schooled or beaten very badly, A slang expression that is usually used when someone proves that they are better than someone else, Another way of saying 'You just got owned', or Colloquial vernacular to express the status of one who is the recipient of a subpoena, which more commonly would be expressed as 'You've been served' or 'Consider yourself served.'"

Having defined being served, telling a customer that they got served would mean me stating that I am superior to them, and that they are now owned by me. What are the social, ethical, and institutional ramifications of "serving" people? A lot of people, mostly the urban youth, throw this term around lightly, but they don't understand exactly what they are implying when they utter the line "you got served!" MTV and feature films such as You Got Served (2004, courtesy of Columbia Tristar, with Sony pumping out a hip hop soundtrack that will appeal to the lost youth of today and be forgotten in 3 months) have desensitized America's youth into believing that words have no power and cannot make an impact on their peers. When the unmindful younglings fail to recognize the denotative meaning of the word or phrase they are uttering, the meaning is forever lost and the phrase will become part of popular culture and assimilated into our language. When this does happen, all hope for the future of mankind is squandered, and the leaders of tomorrow will wander helplessly in search of the society that they have destroyed by their uneducated methods of information transfer. God help us all.

Oh, and by the way, y'all just got served.

www.pookon.com

Making an impact on this world

One of man's greatest thoughts is that when they leave this world, they will be remembered in some way, shape or form. Everyone wants to make a lasting impact, no matter how that is. Look at people like Albert Einstein or Michael Jordan; people that will be remembered until history is no longer taken because society itself has crumbled. Throughout time, people have struggled to leave their mark in this world, accomplishing such feats as painting a masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel like Michelangelo or writing the framework for our country's behavior like John Hancock, these people will be remembered no matter what happens. That puts a lot of pressure on people like me who have nothing to offer to this world. Lynyrd Skynyrd had it right when they penned the song Freebird, "If I leave here tomorrow, will you still remember me?" Well, will you? What have I done in my life that people will talk about me in 20 years? Do I really mean anything to anyone? What could I possibly do to make myself stand out in front of these 6 billion people in this world? Unfortunately, I'll never know, and it will never get any easier. Geez...

I guess I'll keep on trying to accomplish something so spectacular that not even the failure to record history can keep my story from being passed down from generation to generation. And if I don't, I won't be any different than the billions of other names that time has forgotten. All I hope is that I've positively impacted the people that are a part of my life, and that they are better off because of what I've done...

www.pookon.com

The Incredible Hulk

Sometimes, I wish that I could manifest my anger just as Bruce Banner does, and become the Incredible Hulk. Becoming huge and green, smashing all obstacles that stand in my way; that is all that I've ever hoped to be. My anger boils inside of me even as I type, and I yet have no method to channel it through. Although cursed, the Hulk is lucky because he has a shape and form to channel his anger through, and that comes in the form of a monstrous green being. When someone pisses him off, he becomes enraptured, and basically f***s shit up. I hate to be vulgar, but that is exactly the way that it is. The Hulk does some damage when he is angry. I would certainly would like to be in his situation because then I could do something when I am mad. Instead, I just sit here and make excuses and type meaningless rants about wanting to be the Hulk. Look at what I have become. I used to be a prominent figure within this community, but know I'm just a useless has been that never was who can't even turn into the Hulk. I'm not even the pointless brilliant scientist that Bruce Banner was, he at least was respected by his peers. I am nothing, and cannot live up to the anger that I bring across. If only I was saturated with gamma radiation then this world would be a darker and more fearful place to anyone that would come into contact with me...

(www.pookon.com)

I Wanna Be... (The July/August Edition)

a dude rancher, writer of those catchy advertising jingles, featured as the King of Clubs in the "Most Notorious/Most Wanted" deck of cards, the in-house Pro at the local archery range, judge, jury, and executioner just like Judge Dredd, a Monday morning armchair quarterback, a consultant/analyst for the Food Network, a gummy bear, the kid on the front of the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese box, the owner of a local tavern so I can sponsor an adult softball team comprised of former Major League Baseball players, lookin' stylish in Hammer pants, insane in the membrane, shrunk by Rick Moranis and lost in my own backyard, a college graduate in Spring 2006, an ice cream flavor like Cherry Garcia or Phish Phood, Obi-Wan Kenobi's apprentice, an early visitor to the newest Jurassic Park, rebuilt with technology to be better, stronger, faster, an iconic 1980's wrestler like Macho Man Randy Savage or the Ultimate Warrior, a railroad conductor (woo woo!), a muppet/puppet performer on Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, along with Chris Lomascola "Two Wild and Crazy Guys!", at Denny's to order one Moons Over Mi-Hami, able to come up with new things that I want to be every month instead of every other month...

(to be continued)

www.pookon.com

Great googly-moogly

And other things that don't make sense -

Why would the dish run away with the spoon? Seriously, did the dish really have nothing going for them that he/she had to vanish with the least deadliest of all utensils? Who ever heard of someone injured in a spoon incident? Talk about being badass....

What is a growing child like Little Miss Muffet eating some crap like curds and whey? Curds are some form of cheese, so that alone brings about high calorie and fat intake, and whey is protein, so I guess that offsets the curds somehow. But who ever goes on lunch break and says "Hey Larry, sorry I can't meet you at Ponderosa for lunch, the wife packed me some curds and whey..."

Wilbur the pig put way too much of his trust in that spider Charlotte. She could have easily written "who wants bacon?" in her web and the pig would have been Sunday morning brunch. That pig would have been the garnish on a McDonald's McMuffin...

The Count on Sesame Street was up to something. No one on the block thought that it was weird that a blood sucking pimp walked the streets mindlessly shouting random numbers would be of any harm to anyone. When the Count bites Telly and Grover on the neck and turns Snufelupegous into a vampire people will wonder what went wrong. Then I'll walk around and say "I told you so" and everyone will be like "I didn't see that coming" and the world will be doomed because everyone in the world is a freakin' idiot...

Pee-wee's playhouse was a messed up place to go to. Everything in the godforsaken house could talk, but none of them had a soul and they all were bound to spend all eternity in limbo. If in fact they were to all be annihilated, all of them would scream in unison, much as they always do, and clown around the house like dumbasses until they meet their timely demise...

"You got it, dude" and "You're in big trouble mister!" might have gotten them plenty of money as children, but it could never stop them from becoming weird drug addicts and scary rich adults...

Cody had it right. Every one's cousin from Wisconsin really did talk like a stoned out surfer and refer to themselves as the "Codeman" and say clever things like "Woah! A Canadian penny! Now I can buy bubble gum! That is, if I go to Canadia." If only he didn't get all weird and try to replace Jean-Claude Van Damme as the newest Kickboxer...

One character actors like Jaleel White and Dustin Diamond are screwed because for the rest of their lives, people will see them and yell "Hey Urkel!" or "Hey Screech!" and there is nothing that they can do about it...

It was a really scary place outside of Fraggle Rock. Once you exit the tunnel, a big muppet dog tried to chew on you, a crazy old Doc wanted to examine you, a trash heap tried to offer you advice on life, enormous Gorgs wanted to rip you apart and eat your insides for lunch, and heaven forbid you run into any of the silly creatures that Uncle Traveling Matt wrote home to Gobo about...

Wow - I gotta lay off the drink a little bit and stop writing things as soon as they creep up in there. Mybe I should stop talking for a while and just sit the next couple of plays out...

www.pookon.com

I Wanna Be... (The May/June Edition)

in the driver's seat (literally and figuratively), posthumously honored by having a memorial freeway named after me, a roadie for the Electric Mayhem, a real boy, Evel Knievel's stunt double, an inmate at Alcatraz, back in the U.S.S.R., the Jack of Diamonds, a constellation in the sky, bulimic so that I can read minds (see the movie Zoolander), good at gambling so that I don't lose lots of money in Las Vegas, a painter for the Golden Gate Bridge, like Scooter and have no eyes underneath my glasses, a world-class chef and have my own chain of 5-star themed restaurants, metal on the inside like the Terminator, a deep sea diver searching for buried treasure, stackable like Tetris pieces, Chewbacca, able to trust the Midas touch, Canadian money so that I have no real value in the world outside of Canada, on the log ride at Great America right now, Danny Tanner's co-host on 'Wake Up San Francisco', a successful comedian so that I can use material from my stand-up act as a basis for an ABC primetime sitcom, water soluble, the owner/operator of a neighborhood lemonade stand, the sole survivor and win $1 million dollars, a better inventor than Ben Franklin, one of those weirdos at Venice Beach, cool enough to have Daniel Stern be the voice of my inner monoluge throughout my wonder years, smarter than the average bear, the mayor of Bald Knob, Arkansas, the voice of the Bop-It! game (twist it! pull it! BOP IT!), a member of the News or the Heartbreakers or the Miracles or the Wailers or the Blowfish or the Blue Notes or the Family Band or the Revolution, Sugar Bear and save someone's life tonight, ready to rumble, uncredited in a major motion picture, the king of the world, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, rockin' down the highway, a street vendor in Tijuana, bananas b-a-n-a-n-a-s, Airbud's owner in Air Bud: We Ran Out of Clever Sports References so the Dog Will Just Run Around and be Cute for 80 Minutes, Peter Griffin for Halloween so that my friends can dress up as the rest of the Griffin Family, Donald Trump for the sole purpose of saying the "You're Fired" line without sounding like an imitator, fluent in HTML, C++, Visual Basic, Unix and Navajo, the face on the $7 Bill, married to the Girl sitting on the moon on the Miler High Life logo, Commander to Michael Jackson's Captain EO in the 3D movie/attraction of the same name, coo coo cookoo for Coco Puffs, representin' for my homies no matter where I go, the person who finds out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, able to come up with more random things that I wanna to be...

(to be continued)

www.pookon.com

Life without internet

Sounds simple enough, eh? Because after all, the internet only became a major player in our lives in the mid 1990's. Before that, we actually looked things up in books, or God forbid, actually talked to people to find out information about everything that we needed to know. I recently took a little trip through time and lived in a pre-internet world for the past 3 weeks. And let me tell you, for a technologically savvy guy such as me, this was the closest thing to a living hell that could ever happen (well, besides actually living in hell for all eternity.) I was vacationing for half of the time, then moving and working during the other, but I still missed my internet. I felt like part of me was missing, and I think on some occasions I cried myself to sleep. But now that I have internet once again, I can stop thinking about life and just mindlessly search for interesting bits of trivia about Star Wars and play idiotic internet games. Oh yeah, now that I have internet I can resume my blog entries on a more regular basis. Take care of your selves and each other -

www.pookon.com

oh so COLD COLD COLD!!!

(When I first intended to write this, it was coming 2 weeks to the day of a previous blog that I wrote entitled oh so HOT HOT HOT!!! It has been about 3 weeks since I wrote that entry, and it is no longer cold but oh so hot again. This blog has no relevance whatsoever than to point out the fact that I complain too much about some things and that I should be careful what I wish for.)
Ok, so 2 weeks ago I was complaining how hot and humid it was, so much to the point that I was drinking gallons of ice water, I had all of the windows open, and still was unable to fall asleep on account of the heat. There was nothing that I could do to solve the heat wave crisis. How I wish I had never opened my mouth and complained about the heat because now I wish that it would come back. Weather.com tells me that it is "41 degrees F, feels like 34 degrees F" versus 71 degrees 2 weeks ago. Now I'm no scientist or anything, but I think that 34 is a rather low number and it sure as hell feels like cold outside to me. I tried to open the window to get some fresh air in the apartment, but couldn't because it was frozen shut! Ok, so I lie about that but I couldn't stand to have the cold air come into my peaceful world. So I shut myself away from the outdoors and settled in for a good, warm night's sleep. Now that I know not to complain about the weather here in Wisconsin because it varies so frequently, I'm going to continue to complain about the weather here in Wisconsin because I don't learn from my mistakes.

www.pookon.com

update on my life

Two months ago (on April 2) I posted some rather interesting comments about my situation at the time, which led to a bit of concern from the people who care for me and some random people who offered their thoughts on my state of emotions. Thanks to all who took the time to try and make me put it in perspective and make me realize that I'm not a bad person, I'm just a little uncertain about my life and maybe a bit too stressed out. There were many factors that played a part in this emotional outburst, from school, to my living situation, turning 24 and having no purpose in life, uncertainty about my future, financial difficulties, loneliness, etc. I'm one of those people who internalizes their problems and has no way of working them out until one day BOOM - like a volcano I just loose it and usually do something stupid. I've never really been too stressed out about anything because I always thought that all of those things really didn't have any effect on me, and I could just go on living without dealing with my problems. Things are a bit better now, I'm most likely going to finish this semester with A's in both of my classes, am financially stable at least for now, goin to talk with my academic advisor and set a plan for graduation, and most importantly I am going to be moving out of where I live now and am finally going to have my own bedroom and a space that I can claim as my own. I think that is a pretty big factor because everyone needs a place to go to get away from everything and just chill out and relax and take some time to figure out how to handle the situation. For 1 1/2 years I haven't had that luxury, so I taken to internalizing these difficulties when they arrive. I also started taking a look into Internet dating websites, trying to find someone out there for me. If you happen to come across this and have used them yourself, or know someone else who has, toss me a line at pookon@hotmail.com and give me some advice.

- pookon -

www.pookon.com

random thoughts and observations

money - who in the hell decided that money was so damn important? If you don't have it, you are frowned upon and stepped on by those who do, and if you do have it you are frowned upon and ridiculed by those who don't. It's a vicious never ending cycle, the more money you have, the more you want and you will keep going because you will never be satisfied because there will always be someone with more. Whatever happened to surrounding yourself with good friends and family?

big words - I hate it when people use big words just to sound important. They most often will incorrectly use them or use them for the sole purpose of convincing you that they are more intelligent than you are. Their incoherent self-righteous wrongdoings unjustly land them in quite an interesting debacle. When countless generations mercilessly abandon all sense of individualistic thought and subscribe to the wrongful logic of their predecessors, it rarely results in good fortune for every party involved in process. Nevertheless, it irrevocably fails to change the beliefs, attitudes and eventual demise of said individuals partaking in such reckless abandonment.

scan-tron tests - does abbacadabba actually work?

living in debt - it's inevitable in today's society because the price of living is so high that no one can afford to exist anymore because everything is so expensive. Most people need to work 2 jobs just to make ends meet. Student loans, credit cards, car payments, rent, bills, food, an eventual mortgage, then paying for the kid's college? Screw this, I'm going to a deserted island so I can live as a hermit.

Boston Tea Party - sounds like a great time. Why didn't I receive an invitation? I wonder if they played pin the tail on the donkey and had cake and ice cream. I wonder what the treat bags would have been like...

being busy - remember the good ol' days when you could curl up with a good book beside a nice warm fire? Me neither, because I've been too busy being busy. When I'm not at work or work or work, I'm somewhere else that requires me to be there. Geez, even God took a day off after creating existence. I'm lucky to squeeze in a 15 minute break.

http://www.pookon.com/

Oh and by the by, happy birthday to me on this day (May 6) as I celebrate 24 years of life.

I wanna be... (the April Edition)

a surfer that rides exclusively on Conan O'Brien's hair waves, the only white person in the newest black ensemble comedy centered around a neighborhood establishment (The Wash, Barbershop, Beautyshop, etc.), eaten by Graboids like 3 Ninja's Grandpa in Tremors, such a bad actor that I lose the best actor Oscar at the Academy Awards 5 years in a row to Keanu Reeves, Vin Diesel, every rapper/actor (DMX, LL Cool J, Ice Cube) all of the Baldwin Brothers and my Nicholas Cage/John Kerry/Mr. ED/Tom Brokaw/Jimmy Stewart impression, an inspiration to someone else, able to rearrange my face like Mr. Potato Head, allowed to write, direct and star in my own movie and cast Natalie Portman as my love interest so that I could make out with her, the leader of McDonaldland like Mayor McCheese, able to leap giant buildings in a single bound, in an Octopuss's garden with you, wanted dead or alive, one of the Hungry Hungry Hippos, the first mate on a pirate ship, the next contestant on The Price is Right, the cure for sadness, one bad mutha...shut yo' mouth, Chris Farley's stunt double, an astronaut when I grow up, a Toys-R-Us kid, a ga-zillionaire so I can swim in my money like Uncle $crooge, a video so that I can kill the radio star, someone's guardian angel like Clarence and guide that person into earning me my wings, a rock star in an 80's cover band, in a world of pure imagination, left alone with my average wife but why do I always feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, clever enough to come up with a zany catch phrase that everyone repeats, able to come up with some new things that I wanna be next month...

(to be continued)

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Oh so HOT HOT HOT!!!

So the last few days it has been uncharacteristically warm here in Milwaukee Wisconsin. I even live by the lake (Michigan) and it is still sweltering, even at night as I try and prepare for sleep. I laugh when I go to weather.com and look up the temperature - "74 degrees F, feels like 74 degrees F." Damn right it feels like 74! I could've told you that by sitting inside of my apartment, at the computer, sweating bullets and shooting them far far away from here. I've already drank about 64 ounces of ice water, and planning on 32 more before I try and pass out. When it gets hot like this in Milwaukee, it gets muggy and humid. Sleeping in this weather is nearly impossible. You just kind of lay there only on the sheets and hope that it cools off enough so you don't feel like you just got out of the shower, which doesn't sound like a bad idea right about now. So instead, I'm here, typing away, imagining being in an igloo instead of my hot apartment. Brrrrrrrrr......Maybe if I think cold, and I'll be cold. Try out one of those old mind over matter trickeries that can get people quicker than if you open your eyes in Marco Polo. Did Marco Polo really exist? Was there a guy named that, and if so, why did they call his name so much that it became a call and response pool game. Why do you play it in a pool anyway? Was it because Mr. Polo liked the sea as a child? Would his mother would yell "MARCO!!" and he would run in from the surf shouting "POLO!!" and then she would scold him for being in the sea without a flotation device or a swim buddy. I really don't know what Marco Polo has to do with the hot weather, but he had to be cool enough to get a pool game named after him.

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