Nervous Energy.

I read somewhere that if you have dogs that bark at everything outside you most likely don’t need a dog. The post was about properly engaging your pet to make sure they weren’t left with energy enough to become neurotic and a nuisance to your neighbors.

I hear the dogs next door barking at every strong breeze and squirrel visit. I empathize with them. My finances are strict enough that I have to limit the amount of money I spend on going out or even using too much gas. If the neighborhood felt safe enough I’d surely just bike or walk to get out of the house. The agoraphobia might be the cause, or the perceived danger of the criminal element here.  Regardless it means that I don’t have the means to leave the house and the house is too empty.

I am an extrovert. People give me energy and I need them to think clearly. I thought that being near family would bring a pool of people to draw strength and energy from. They’ve helped me gain some financial stability, but they’ve become accustomed to my absence.

A social circle is necessary.

ROCKET LAUNCHER!

Unfortunately the free WordPress software and hosting suite isn’t very friendly with embedding code. When I’m able too I’ll have lots of little fun bits of flash. For now though, enjoy staring at this code. Not to sound ungrateful but it is really annoying of WordPress.

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Paloma.

One of my favorite cocktails in the world is the Paloma (spanish for dove). It’s a tequila cocktail with a grapefruit soda (think Squirt) served on the rocks. You can garnish it with a lime wedge or serve it in a highball glass with a salted rim. Spring weather has hit TikiMexico so refreshing drinks on the porch are a must.

My usual choice is a cheap but tasty tequila in a pretty slick bottle. Drink it down to about a fourth and fill the rest of it with Squirt. If I’ve got the cash I’ll upgrade to Cazadores or Patron. Try one and let me know what you think about it.

Breaks.

“These are the breaks!”

-Kurtis Blow

Amen Brek

I was banging out some loops in the studio in the afternoon and I brought up the Amen Break with a friend. Usually when you name drop that bad boy you get somebody to start tapping it out. Instead he just looked at me blankly. I started explaining the provenance of Gregory Coleman drumming out this little loop in The Winston’s song “Amen, Brother” and I started tapping it out for him. He recognized it as being close to the loop in the opening of the Powerpuff Girls. That’s fair enough as it’s an incredibly popular and often sampled drum break. It did get me thinking though. There is a lack of respect for the original creators of some incredibly popular drum breaks. We’re in an odd 3rd (at least) generation of sampling where we are hearing samples of samples. When this happens the original drummer gets zero credit unless mentioned by name in the song itself.

Big Mac vs. Big Carl

It’s been a slow news season. Anything interesting enough to talk about gets fucked apart pretty quickly by the major news networks and by the time I get a chance to crack wise about it all the good one-liners have been taken. I’m probably guilty of setting my Obama bar too high and am still waiting on some huge news before I even address his presidency. That basically leaves me to discuss insignificant points. That being said:

Crystal Head Vodka.

Sometimes I’m a sucker for gimmicks. This has to be one of my most impulsive buys, and it went against a lot of my buying rules. I was intoxicated, I did no price matching, and I bought it while out with some ladies. All of those things tend to make me overspend. Easy road to buyer’s remorse.

However, there have been occasions where I’ve  been grateful to have splurged and this is definitely one of them. Check this out:

RYO.

The theme for life these days is to save a buck and stop borrowing money. In that spirit I’ve stopped paying back any of my loans and expelled the official banks from TikiMexico. In a further effort to decrease spending an official decree will be announced that all cigarettes should be hand rolled. I let loose an unofficial decree at the gas station when the attendant attempted to charge me $7 for a pack of smokes. I could shred 7 dollar bills and roll those into more than 20 little cancer sticks. I bought a cigarette making machine and it’s too damn easy to use to not recommend it. Check it:

Hoarders.

Just so you know, this is another television review. Hoarders is an A&E series that shows people who suffer from a pathological need to hoard stuff. It’s more than just watching packrats argue with their loved ones about clutter. A&E actually brings in professional organizers and therapists to help people deal with the issue. It’s fascinating how worked up these people get and the attachment they have to their stuff. I don’t suffer from any mental disorders so it’s impossible for me to imagine how their compulsion makes them feel, but watching how it manifests is amazing.

Haircuts.

I’m not a big fan of the barber/stylist/hair-butcher. They’re charging me for something that I could easily do on my own if my arms were a few inches longer or I had an extra set of elbows. I understand that they go to school and read a lot of magazines to keep up on trends for molding hair. Still, I harbor resentment for them charging me as much as the next customer. There should be a sliding scale for guys like there is for girls. There’s a difference between my 10 minute clipper trim and the guy sitting next to me who wants the metroest hairstyle he can find in a magazine. The worst part is I end up in the chair almost twice as often as other people because my hair grows back fast and is lusciously thick. If there were some time-fare box like you see in cabs I wouldn’t feel like I’d be getting screwed. I’d see the person working on me struggling with my head shape and I’d be fine seeing that price go up.

Rebranding.

I like a lot of products and I like some to the extent that they integrate into my routine. I buy the same canned soup every time I go to the grocery store, and I buy one of a few brands of beers. One of my favorites is Red Nectar made by Nectar Ales. It’s a quality beer with strong caramel and spice flavors with one of the sweetest finishes to a full flavored beer. Besides the ability for the alcohol to lift my spirits the bottle cap definitely gives me a smile. Look at it: