i’m leaving today…..see you monday.

you know, when onerythym and i set out on this blog adventure worthy of a major motion picture adaptation, i didn’t expect any real fame and fortune.  i just wanted a place to share all the things that we think are entertaining, without actually having to tell them to people face to face or repeat them to different friends at different times.  some might say i’m lazy.  i would agree.  but i’m also efficient.

however, i came to realize the real magnitude of internet punch today.  as i was pouring through the many comments awaiting to be approved (read: 62), i said to myself “by golly! we’ve arrived!”  ok, i didn’t say that.  saying “by golly” would be rediculous.  but i did realize, this fame thing has sort of snuck up on us.  how, you might ask?  well let me explain because it would be rude to just tease you without offering a resolution.

so back to the massive ammount of comments and their link to fame.  i used to think that the insurance companies, gambling sites, and other web incarnations that are posting in languages i don’t hablo were just trying to push their own agenda of insuring you, taking your money, and confusing you with their strange dialects.  but no, that is not the case.

it’s obvious to me now, they all are competing to ink a huge endoresment deal with us.  and why wouldn’t they be?  have you been keeping up with this site?  if you have, you are probably are getting calls from your friends, family and work, wondering where you have been. simply tell them “i’ve been in a paralyitic state of entertainment,” and then send them over here.  they will stop bothering you then.

now some of you would might say, “wait just a minute guy.  those are just spammers.  they are trying to use your internet space for free to push their own agenda.”  and i will say to you sir or madaam, stop being a jerk.  first of all, spam is delicious and to try and use it as a put down is just unfair to that retangularish can of meat.  secondly i would say, you are just jealous.  don’t be.  i don’t plan on selling out anytime soon.  i can’t speak the language of half of these posters, i’m very happy with my insurance, and i don’t have any money to gamble because of (insert complaint about gas prices here).

so no worries internet punch faithful.  i’m staying true to the cause.  besides, i don’t do deals that don’t go through my agent (hint:  contact my agent and we can talk money! i’m talking to you hot iron poker dot com!)

no one really expects anything awesome to happen at home when they are at work.  usually i go in, do my radio duty, and get back to my life when i leave the station.  sometimes you come home and someone has left you a message on instant messenger about hanging out or maybe linked you to a funny story, but today, my friendswere overachieving.

first up jeff.  he and i are both avid soccer fans and euro 2008 is currently underway. not to mention the us blasted bardbados on sunday 8-0 in their 2010 world cup qualifier. so today i came home to this message from him on my  computer screen:

jeff: barbados sucks
jeff: i want obama in midfield by WC2010instead of bradley

world cup in usa?  si se puede! that was almost as great as this story my buddy jason im’d me:

jason:  omg. i am in a hippie coffee shop in c-ville and the chick working here was reading some email that she got out loud (she is a loud talker) and apparently someone sent a link to icanhascheezburger. she didnt click it, just said “i dont even eat meat”

man, nothing worse than a hippy.  except a hippy n00b.  lolz.

then there is this awesome link from onerythym.  you might know him from such other interweb hits as this blog.  his awesome contribution while i was at work was this amazing pic of barack obama:

you know how i know he will be a good president?  he is obviously owning that go kart.  if he got stuck on one of the ones that just spins in the middle and gets nailed by everyone, then i would have my doubts.   yes we can, indeed.

hanging out. bikes. parties. soccer. it’s all very awesome. i guess i’m starting to realize that i do a lot more inside and alone things in the winter, and really get out more in the summer. even when the temperature is about 100 like it was early last week. or when the state of north carolina is on fire, but somehow we get the smell and smoke here in virginia. i still haven’t figured that one out completely.

the euro 2008 tournament has been amazing so far. since my job is sports and i try and keep home life and work life separate, i don’t usually want to get on that topic here, but there isn’t a ton of soccer talk on our show, so futbol has remained “my thing.” spain is looking sharp (see david villa and his hat trick against the russians), but not nearly as awesome as the netherlands have been. and while i do have a place in my heart for the orange jerseys of holland, spain is my pick. outside of that, the turkey story is really turning out to be amazing as well. they could be this year’s greece.

two weeks away from a trip to new york and i keep adding things to the list of what i want to do. it’s a short list, and i’m going with a lot of other people who i think will all come up with equally amazing things to do so it should be a blast. and somehow despite all the madness, i managed to not empty my back account on a ps3 and become a shut in, hanging out with only solid snake. besides, the rebirth of super dodgeball on the nintendo ds is about all my life is allowing me for video game time anyway. viva espana!

is it possibly to be 40 and 16 at the same time?  i would say yes.  i find myself in these “adult” situations more and more these days.  and i’m not talking about work, or paying taxes or things of that nature.  i’ve always been sort of ahead of the game on those things, working at an early age.  heck, i knew what i was going to go to college for and what field i was going to work in when i was a freshman in high school, and it’s pretty much been spot on.

but i mean more like, sitting around at a bar or coffee shop with friends talking about work, the weather, and gas prices.  the other day it was so bad, because i found myself with some of my nearest and dearest at a restaurant and we were talking about the show “friends.”  i never liked that show, but i did work at a tv station that aired it for an hour a night during my shift, so i can’t pretend i don’t know about it.  i was in that conversation too.  when did this happen?

now to the kid part.  last year i had two must-haves in the spring: a bike and a nintendo ds.  i now have both and when you combine that with the manga i can’t stop reading, i’m totally a kid.  i guess it’s a nice balance because i’m not sure if i have ever been happier.

staying in that vein, while it’s been a while since i’ve bought any legos, i still can’t help but get really excited when i see something like johnny 5 made from those magical bricks.   (ps. short circut 4 is rumored to be on the way)

speaking of movies, i watched the trailer for “choke” this morning and you can do if you click that link.   it looks pretty funny even tho the lead guy seems slightly annoying to me.  his best friend in the quasi-creepy neighbor in “me you and everyone we know.” back and forth forever, indeed.

uncrate also took me back today with the unfortunate return of british knights.  i can’t completely hate on this development because i had a pair.  they were like the ones pictured but yellow and white instead of black.  and i mean, highlighter yellow.  that’s the price you have to pay to be the coolest kid in fifth grade.

and finally, i’m not uncovering any real secret here (lol@ me.  i’m clever), but each sunday i really enjoy reading postsecret. frank warren started this project a long time ago.  maybe you;ve never heard of it.  maybe you just forgot about it.  also, his new facebook page offers bonus secrets!  don’t tell anyone or do.

so im terrified to open my rss feed reader. not because of bad news, but because i know i won’t sleep for hours. there hasn’t been a web dump lately because honestly, it would become a web explosion. between obama getting the nomination and being just less than a week away from metal gear 4, there is too much goodness going on. i won’t be able to sleep because of the unadulterated joy i will get from reading all of this. plus, to be honest, if i read much more about mgs 4, i’m going to drive to wal-mart at 3 am and buy the ps3. watch out for falling prices and emptied savings accounts!

i started to think more about why i’ve been slack on the posts and i guess i have just taken an internet break. i’ve been reading more. trust me, i was just as suprised as you to know they still print words on paper, bind them, and sell them as books. i’ve also gotten back into some comics and that has been really fun. it reminds me of some of my really happy times from high school and college where i could finally just dive into something totally mindless and fun because it was summer and i had no prior responsibility. of course this only applies now to the hours outside of work, but it’s still satisfying.

then also, there has just been a lot going on irl. friends coming and going, vacations, trips, people getting sick and then getting much better, bikes, food, shows, writing, lunches, playing with cats and dogs all over the city. good times. but i have decided to wait for now on the metal gear 4/ps3 purchase. i just figure, with a three day trip to nyc, and an already mounting pile of things to digest (read: books, movies, tv shows, podcasts, music, anime, manga, and video games i already own and have yet to complete or in some cases even play), my money and time can be spent more wisely.

and a good example of that is what i did today. in the ever competing world of internet content, both free (podcasts!) and stolen (stop all the downloading!) , i decided to pay for something that i didn’t have to, but that i greatly enjoy. “the sound of young america” is this great podcast that is also aired on some pri and npr stations around the country. jesse thorn is the host, and he refers to himself as america’s radio sweetheart, which i think is hilarious, but also makes me jealous that i didn’t think of it first.

while i missed the deadline, i e-mailed jesse and found out i could still donate to the maximumfun.org drive. that is the site that that distributes tsoya. if you like what you read here, i know you would enjoy jesse’s work and the guests he talks to as well. either way, my t-shirt comes in six to eight weeks. ^_^

to the four of you that read this (hi mom!), my apologies for not posting much. life outside of the internet has been getting in the way, but all is well now. i am heading out for some camping tomorrow, but when i return, i will get back into the swing of things with some good punch and also my official johnny bunko review. enjoy the memorial day holiday.

all the best,
jels

between the weather, smoky parties, and not sleeping enough, my sinuses have officially kicked me in the face. so i’m home sick today, waiting for the meds to get me back to working fashion. i have to say, that i’m starting to doubt this socialized medicine thing. i mean sure, i’d love free health care. However considering how long i waited today at a private practice where my insurance is accepted, i would probably be seeing a doctor sometime next week if things were socialized. sure it’s selfish, but isn’t that really what this country is all about? i knew you would see it your way!

and i have to share this reader commentary from across the pond. i love great sarcasm (see above paragraph), but when it is published in a newspaper, even better. you might have to enlarge the image once you click it. now i’m off for some sleep. if you hear a loud pop and you are in the mid-atlantic, it was probably me. my head asplode.

internetpunchacon was awesome, but unfortunately it is over.  i returned back to the river city on saturday night, and spent most of sunday riding bikes and catching up with friends.  i forget where we last left off.  i think the memphis zoo.  it was great.  without a doubt the best zoo i have ever been to.  awesome animals and a cool layout.  and on the way home, the super sweet special edition of gta 4 was purchased.  we were going to do an exclusive, but we figured there were a bajillion diggs with the same thing, so we spent more time playing it.

wednesday the fishcapades continued with onerythym and i moving up to catfish. he caught two, one being the biggest in the pond probably.  and i was just happy to get the one i got, take the hook out of his mouth, and get him back to the water safely.  his name was winston by the way.  the other two were trevor and denise (her parents, big cosby show fans).

on thursday it was back to memphis for some baseball.  but first, a sneaker quest.  for those of you who know me, and as the rest of you who stick around to read this will learn, i have a shoe problem.  i like sneakers a lot.  i don’t buy a ton of them.  i’m pretty restrained, but i love looking at them, reading about them, and seeing all the cool designs.  but when i do decide to buy a pair, i will go all out to track them down  (including calling a puma outlet store in hawaii.)

so anyway, on the way back form the zoo, we stopped at a galleria.  what is that you ask?  a mall, with a fancy name.  i found this pair of puma’s i liked, but they didn’t have them in my size.   i thought, oh i’ll just track them down when i get home, but when i checked the web later, i found out none of the stores within 100 miles of home had them in my size.  and only one store in my half of tennessee where i was at, had them either.  so at that point, i knew, these shoes would be mine.  and they are.  and when i got home, i realized, they match my cat exactly.  it’s pretty amazing.

so anyway, the baseball was magical.  get at me on facebook for a full gallery there.  i don’t even want to think about the baseball situation in my town after visiting such a top-class facility.  on friday, the week of greatness was closed out with iron man and some steaks on the grill.  go see iron man.  i’m not even going to tell you how great it is.  just effing go.

a super special thanks to onerythym and his family for putting me up for the week.  it was an absolute blast.  everything we did was awesome and i’m already looking forward to the next time.

if the river was a pond. no, i’m not talking about the nintendo fishing classic. (but it is being revamped for the ds and releasing tomorrow) but internetpunchacon has had some fishing action. onerythym is my spiritual guide. today i made it to level 11. i went from a spinning caster to a spinning reel and i even caught a fish!

other than the great outdoors, we started a group on rock band for the xbox 360. our band is called “time fuxorz” and we are currently in amsterdam on tour. today we also at amazing bbq because this is tennessee and that is what you do here. the pigs were smoked for 12 plus hours then drenched with amazing sauce, and served with baked beans, potato salad, and mac and cheese. magical.

yesterday we saw harold and kumar and that was funny. really silly, but good. then we went to my roommate’s 15 minute b-day party thanks to skype and the webcam. also we had a really weird experience at this chinese place. no matter what we did, pay the bill, say thank you, leave a tip, the lady would not stop standing at our table alternating between saying bye and thank you.

saturday the flying part was pretty chill. slight delay in charlotte, but smooth for the most part. on the connecting flight from richmond, a friend of mine from one of the fm stations in my cluster was also headed for a connecting flight in nc, and then i talked with a psych professor from memphis on my connecting flight. he was a really awesome guy. tomorrow is the zoo.