Dec 13, 2016

I woke up earlier than I expected to coming off a couple of nights without a lot of sleep. I went to pick up Becca and got on the road to New York. We started off by stopping at Terri to pick up a chickpea melt and meatball sandwich along with the butterfinger milkshake that I haven't had in a long time. Definitely a good choice. We spent a while trying to find parking near the Brooklyn Bridge and sat there eating before walking out across the bridge. Becca had never done it and it was a gorgeous day. Lots of people on the walkway, but not the worst I've seen. It was a perfect day to walk around.

We planned on going to Torst, but we happened upon a little brewpub around the corner that caught our eye. I half expected it to be a bit boring, but it was such a great place! The bartender was super friendly, jovial, and energetic. There was '90s music on the radio, she was dancing, and, to my surprise, the beer was fantastic! They have an IPA that's amazing, a decent sour, and probably one of the best English bitters I've ever tried. Well done, Keg & Lantern Brewery. Thanks for giving us great beer and a place to sing Britney Spears and Savage Garden. As it turned out, Torst didn't have anything on the menu that seemed enticing for once so I'm glad we found it.

It was probably good that we didn't have more beer anyway because we had a pretty long rush-hour drive across the Queensboro Bridge to the west side of Manhattan. We stopped at Vinnie's Pizza first for dinner carbs that made us both a little sleepy. Still worth it. I got to the meeting place in Hell's Kitchen quite early so I could get all my gear set up and prepare my questions for the interview. Once I was satisfied we sat in the car while I played Battleship and crosswords on my phone until Lucinda arrived.

I met Lucinda at La Bergamote, a French cafe, where she had gotten me a coffee. She was amazingly sweet and we had a great little chat to get to know each other before we started filming. It was a perfect way to break the ice and calm the nerves on both sides. I want to integrate that into future interviews. Once that was out of the way we headed off to the secret location where we climbed 10 flights of stairs and set up the cameras in the stairwell because we needed the lighting. It was a little awkward, but I think we made it work.

The interview itself went really well for the most part. I felt like I could improve a bit by not sticking to my pre-planned questions as much and rolling with the conversation. Lucinda told some great stories and I think we got good stuff. After that we climbed up the ladder to the roof where she has done many photo shoots to get a nice view of the city and shoot a couple last things and talk about how we mysteriously ended up following each other on Snapchat. We descended the stairs, stopping to use the sink for hand washing at an apartment party along the way, and then said goodbye. It was a really fun time. Becca and I had a good drive back home, but I was ready to pass out in bed once we got back.

Dec 12, 2016

I worked at Memorial as the same English teacher from last week with the same classes and the same instructions. This time I brought movies to influence them to do their work. I told them we'd watch the movies if they all finished their work. None of the first two classes accomplished getting all the work done, but they all worked and handed things in which is an improvement. During the third block with the other teacher I didn't need to do anything and we watched Finding Nemo for a little bit after lunch. Not a bad day.

During my downtime I had sent a few emails about setting up interviews and Lucinda Grange got back to me quickly about doing the interview tomorrow. I got to work planning the whole thing and then left school to get a haircut. I finally decided to go for something different I've wanted to do for some time. I ended up liking the result. I spent the next few hours at home doing some research and getting my gear together.

I went to Ryan's later where we decided to play through the full Goldeneye game. We got a few levels from the end before we were tired and decided to save the rest for later. I went to Becca's afterward to catch up on the Walking Dead winter finale. It was a bit of a disappointing episode, but they seemed to try to cram too much into it and make it more dramatic than anyone really could care about. The show has become weird. Becca and I talked about some future plans and then I headed home to attempt to sleep.

Dec 11, 2016

I began the day waking up earlier than I planned thanks to loudness just on the other side of my wall (like too many days.) I felt pretty good anyway and got up to begin working on uploading the Frank Turner interview and writing the blog. I got into it and started posting links to the completed post which grew pretty quickly. I got retweeted by Frank himself and it started getting a good amount of views.

I was kind of beaming with excitement over finally posting the finished product and I grabbed my outdoor stuff and headed toward Delaware. On my way I stopped at Auburn Road Vineyard to pick up some Christmas presents. I continued on to Iron Hill disc golf course. My hands were freezing at first, but after about 5 holes I had warmed up. I forgot the feeling of a disc ripping into fingers in the cold. There were only a couple of other people playing so I felt like I was alone out there. I had a great time. I think it might be the best course around here.

I wanted to make the most of my time so I went to Brandywine for one more round. This one I really did have to myself. I played through the course pretty fast and it was getting colder as I went. Playing fast warmed me up again, but it was a little windy which made it more difficult sometimes. The dead trees that sparsely dotted the wide open fields were beautiful. It almost looked like they were placed there that way.

I headed up to Philly after the round to get some dinner at Whole Foods. I sat on the roof of the parking garage in the car and ate before I went to The Foodery to check out the beers and find more Christmas presents.

I decided to head to Union Transfer early to see the opening bands. Petal played first, and they were okay. Pinegrove played next. I've heard of them, but I have never listened to them. Their live set was incredible. They were energetic and their songs were unique and catchy. I definitely will be checking out their record.

Kevin Devine came up last and played a heavier, faster set than I've seen him play before. It was great and I loved the energy. He played a mash up of his song and a song from each of the openers so that was fun. He also did his signature freestyle rap, this time about a beautiful man named Sebastian who interns at a Boston venue they recently played at. Besides the music always being great, half the reason I love seeing him is because he's hilarious and just makes me smile every time. The set ended late after a lot of talking since it was the last night of the tour. I headed home to grab some stuff and then went to Becca's to stay since she just got back from the Grand Canyon.

Dec 10, 2016

Today's post is all photos of computer screens or screenshots, because that's all I looked at for the whole day. I woke up early, considering going to yoga. Since no one else was going I decided against it which began my day of choices that kept me in the house. When it comes down to it, I'm not exactly sure how I passed all of that time, but I did watch the last 3 or 4 episodes of Westworld so that was a good chunk of it.

I did do something mildly productive: I joined in a live webcast that a photographer did as a free training for making a better portfolio and marketing yourself. I enjoyed most of the presentation and took a bunch of notes. I will say it did inspire me. One thing he said stuck with me. To paraphrase, he basically said that when you're stuck, you just need to learn something to get past it. That really made sense to me and, interestingly enough, worked out exactly that way for me later.

After the tutorial I got some dinner, did the iOS update on my phone finally, and proceeded to play with that, create a bitmoji in my likeness and then download games to play through iMessage. Between finishing Westworld, playing Battleship on iMessage, and then starting to watch some New Girl and Casey Neistat videos, that was pretty much my night.

Around midnight I decided I should really get to work on that Frank Turner interview I did on Halloween. I did a big chunk of the work and then I just lost steam on it because the video splicing between the two camera views was a pain. I guess I didn't find the information I was looking for previously because when I searched this time I found right away what I needed to learn for insanely simple multi-cam editing. Once I had that information I was off to the races. I ended up staying up until 4am finishing the edit. All I ever need to do is get started. Why is that first step so hard??

Dec 9, 2016

It's funny that when I'm coming from Philly I'm early to work, but when I'm 5 minutes from the building I'm always running late. I skipped breakfast because I knew I had first block off at Memorial this morning, but then they were running short on subs so I had to cover all of first block after all. Luckily it was a co-teaching class with another sub who was cool with me dipping out long enough to go to Shop Rite for a banana, almonds, and tofurky for lunch. That was good enough. The first class was challenging, but overall it was fine.

I spent the rest of the day in the gym. 2 of the 3 blocks the other teacher took over, pitching and all the rest. I got a chance to pitch once for a bit, but mostly I stood in the corner on my phone, watching them play. I also bought tickets for Dashboard and NFG whilst I whiled away the time. The last block we went to the weight room for a short time and then I came back and ran my own game of mat ball until the end of the day.

Alycia came down to meet me and we grabbed some growlers before heading off to Cape May Brewing. We met Jess there once she found her way and we proceeded to order our flights. They only had one new beer on since last I was there a week or so ago, but it was a good one: Sour Apple Corrosion. The Corrosion is their sour IPA, which is fantastic on its own, but tonight I liked the apple version even more.

We got a table and hung out watching the people wander in and out. The bar never got so crowded that it felt like a Friday night, but that's probably in part because it was still before 5pm. It just felt really late. I thought I saw Mike from NJCB, but for some reason I didn't go see if it was him. We talked about Mandy Moore a lot because Alycia mentioned her being in a new show, and I like her as an actor. Funny enough, a song of hers was playing when we walked into the brewery. And the I Know What You Did Last Shandy tastes like Candy and that led to a whole thing about her old songs.

Jess was really hungry so Alycia and I got growlers and headed out to find a Wawa. Jess managed to follow a totally wrong car and ended up going to a different Wawa while Alycia and I made our way around the corner to 7 Mile Brewery. We had already ordered our flights when Jess texted to say she was just going to head out because she was meeting a friend soon. The beer at 7 Mile wasn't very good overall. They had a few pretty decent ones, but it's hard to compare after being at Cape May, where everything is so good. They're also considerably more expensive for everything, which is hard to reconcile with their lower quality. If I'm ever in the area, I'm definitely just going to Cape May.

We finished our Wawa foods and most of the beer in our flights and got on our way back home. Somewhere at the brewery Alycia made a comment about how she always finishes, so I asked "your beer, you mean?" That started a whole series of jokes for the rest of the night about how she always finishes. We also drank the last beer in our glasses simultaneously so she said "we finished at the same time!" It was a fun night and I was ready to do more, but once I got home and no one was up for anything I was happy enough to get in bed early. I talked to Becca on the phone for a bit about her amazing day hiking at the Grand Canyon before I put on Westworld and kept my eyes open for about half an episode.

Dec 8, 2016

We got up at 4:18am on the second alarm to get ready and go to the airport. Becca and I left Millville after a quick visit to Wawa for a hash brown, coffee, and gas. When we got to her friend Dan's house he was seemingly still sleeping and definitely not packed so we sat and waited for 15 minutes while he did that. Annoying but no big deal in the end as we made it to the airport an hour before their flight. They were off to Arizona, and I headed back to Millville to work.

I went in for my first Insight mystery job at Memorial which turned out to be Mr. Sloan's English class. It was mostly fine if a little boring. I spent one class reading October Sky to the students and the next ones browsing online and unsubscribing from mailing lists that I am consistently amazed that I end up on. I had off fourth block so after waiting and watching Westworld for a bit I was able to leave a little early.

It was pretty chilly and gray, but I went to South Vineland Park for a fast round of disc golf by myself. I kept myself entertained by taking a Snapchat video of each basket putting in a different way. I sent them all to Becca, but I kind of wish I saved them to watch the compilation together. I had a decent round, and it definitely went quick.

I had to be fast because I had an eye exam to get my new contacts prescription and also to check my new glasses that just didn't feel right. The doctor didn't seem to find anything wrong with the new prescription, but I went to Wal*Mart where I got them and the women who work there were very helpful and offered to change my prescription back to what it was before. Hopefully that's the last time I'll have to deal with these particular glasses. I also gave out a couple of business cards to those ladies and hopefully they'll be calling me about holiday photos.

I tried to take a short nap with mild success, and then I headed to Philly. I picked up a ticket at Union Transfer for Becca then shot over to the Foundry for Copeland. I got there as they were playing (I assume) their first song, "Chin Up." A little bummed I missed that one, but the rest of the set was so good. They played a ton of songs, making little best-of sets of each album. It flowed really well and it was nice and chill. I really enjoyed the whole vibe of the show. Before playing some older songs Aaron said, "If you're looking at your phone I have to assume you're logging into your LiveJournal.. or Xanga." Great reference. I really should be sleeping now.

Dec 7, 2016

After a long, long hiatus I am going to try to daily blog again. Even if it's just for me, I would really like to have this record as I totally enjoyed being able to look back on my life in this way for the 4+ years that I kept up with it. It might change in style, and I want to keep it totally truthful as much as I can. Previously I would gloss over things like bad nights or times I had arguments with people. In continuing I want to be more honest like I would in a diary. I remember having a conversation with Joanna in college about me putting myself out there on this blog and she mentioned that it was a watered down version of reality. I had to agree, but I'm sure I argued the point.

When I went to work yesterday morning at Silver Run I sat in the break room and looked up this blog to find a photo of the Grand Canyon from last time I went. Becca is going there for this weekend and I wanted to send it to her. I thought it was a fun coincidence that I happened to look at this blog for the first time in years on the anniversary of the day I created it back in 2007. So that, along with my current desire to get back into writing and blogging, inspired me to start doing it again. So here goes.

I worked Child Study Team meetings at Silver Run with a somewhat strange schedule. I almost left during a 45-minute break, but something kept me there and I ended up being needed anyway. The office staff at Silver Run are grumpy and not at all helpful. I asked about a teacher's whereabouts since I needed them for a meeting and they didn't even bother trying to help. Once I found out she was on break I took off for my hour-and-a-half lunch break. I hate people that can't be bothered to do their job. Anyway, on my lunch break I was very productive (relatively) by booking a vision and dentist appointment, finally sending in my license renewal form, and working out some photo packages for a possible family shoot I'm doing this weekend.

After work I had hopes of being productive, but it was cold and gray and I was lazy so instead I just came home and ended up downloading and watching two episodes of Westworld while I ate dinner and browsed the internet. Among other things I looked at the Reddit post that Chuck made yesterday from a conversation we had over text comparing Donald Trump to Kramer and making Seinfeld references. Someone posted "This is two people who think they're funny" as a comment. I thought it was hilarious since that's basically the title of our comedy videos, Don & Chuck Think They're Funny. Moving on.

I came to Becca's for the rest of the night and we played Mario Wii for a while and then watched the last two episodes of Master of None. I really like that show. It makes me laugh, but it's also really poignant and well-written. The last episode was pretty serious and strangely emotional. It reminds of Atlanta in a way. So many good shows out right now. After that it was early bedtime because Becca flies out in the morning heading to Arizona! End Day One of the Stories Unfinished Renaissance.

dm