Summer has officially arrived, and for me, that means lots of activities over the coming months. Summer is by far my favorite season, so what better time to get out and do something fun?!
Independence day is less than a month away, and I am already looking forward to it. Last year, we hit downtown Memphis for their annual fireworks show. This was my first opportunity to test out my photography skills at shooting fireworks, and I think I got some pretty decent shots. Hopefully we will be doing the same thing this year.
On July 5, we will be heading to Buffalo Wild Wings to check out UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is my favorite UFC fighter. He has some devastating power slams, is also from Memphis and is an absolute trip! He will be defending his title against Forrest Griffin, winner of the very first Ultimate Fighter in the light heavyweight division. Rampage FTW!!
Camping trip… sort of
I was trying to think of something that would be fun to do this year with “the gang” and decided that a camping trip of sorts would be really fun. My original plans were to hit Spring River, Arkansas for a weekend of canoing / rafting. I talked to a few people and everyone was game, but then Keith mentioned that we might be able to use his Aunt’s condo in Hot Springs. The condo is right on a lake, so we could rent a pontoon boat and hang out on the lake for the weekend. He is going to find out about the condo tomorrow. The condo would be awesome because, well we wouldn’t be “roughing it” in tents and such… but really, either way is cool with me and should be a lot of fun. I estimate around 7-8 people for the trip - most certainly the highlight of the summer. We are aiming for sometime mid-late July for this trip.
Fishing
It’s been nearly two years since I last went fishing, which is of course way too long! Our last trip was in September of 2006, when we went out on Sardis Lake with Molly’s dad on their pontoon boat. We caught a ton of fish, took them back, cleaned them and had one heck of a fresh fish meal. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it! There are no specific plans for this just yet, but hopefully we can find time to make it happen. I know everyone had a blast last time!
Jet Skiing
Jet skiing is something I have done with Adam the past two years and it is so much fun. I was a bit apprehensive my first time, but after getting out in the water, that all quickly went away. Word of wisdom - don’t drink a lot the night before! Other than that on my first trip, it was really cool. Again, nothing solid is planned yet, but hopefully we can do this again this year.
Moving, Finally!
August 1 can’t get here fast enough! That is the day I will be moving back closer to my hometown. I have been “stuck” an hour away from all of my friends for the past 15 months and am anxious to get back closer to everyone. I already have my new apartment picked out and am just waiting for an opening. I still have plenty of time so I am not worried about it… yet.
Stone Temple Pilots
I heard on the radio a few weeks ago that Stone Temple Pilots were going to be playing at the DeSoto Civic Center on August 3. I am not a huge STP fan, but they do have a dozen or so songs that I really like, so I thought it would be fun to go check out. Unfortunately, it seems that not many of my friends like them, so it seemed I was out of luck.
I was talking to Stephanie the other day and mentioned the concert and she said she was def. going and that it would be cool if I tagged along, sweet! They have access to a suite, even better! I think this will be a really fun concert, and I am looking forward to hanging out with Steph since I haven’t done that much since she moved from Oxford over a year ago.
Birthday
My birthday is August 5, and although I have absolutely no idea what I will be doing, I am sure there will be something or another going on, especially since I will be back closer to everyone. Any ideas??
College Football Season
Ole Miss kicks off the 2008 college football season on August 30 at 5:00 p.m. in Oxford against local rival Memphis. I am a huge Ole Miss football fan and have attended every home game since 2003. I keep a close eye on recruiting, practices and such during the offseason, so by the time the season starts, I am itching for it! My predictions for the year: 7-5 and a bowl game bid!
The Total Money Makeover Live Event
Financial expert Dave Ramsey will be hosting a live Total Money Makeover event Saturday, October 11, 2008 in Birmingham, Alabama. Josh and I will be attending the event and decided it will be a “once in a lifetime” type thing, so we are going “all out” and getting a pair of Platinum Seating Tickets. This gives us access to “Dinner with Dave” before the event with catered food and the opportunity for a meet-and-greet. We also get priority seating at the event (aka front and center), an autographed copy of his latest book as well as several other goodies and access to the platinum break room (the event is five hours long).
CHL Hockey Season
The Mississippi Riverkings hockey season kicks off sometime in mid October (couldn’t find a specific date on their website). Yeah, I know, hockey is about as boring as golf… when you are watching it on TV. Being there in person is a totally different experience and it is so much fun! I only went to one game last year, since I live so far away. But now, I will be about one mile from the Civic Center, so I plan to hit a lot more games with Josh this year.
This looks to be a pretty action-packed summer / fall and I am totally looking forward to it after sitting at home doing nothing all winter! What type of activities do you have planned for this summer?
Last Sunday during Music Fest, we stopped in at Bigfoot Lodge for lunch. Bigfoot Lodge is located a few blocks from Beale Street in downtown Memphis, TN.
This was my first time at the Lodge and unfortunately, I had already eaten just a few hours before so I wasn’t hungry at all. Bigfoot Lodge is famous for their seven and a half pound Sasquatch burger - four pounds of fresh ground-chuck, two pounds of their handmade hamburger bun, and one and a half pounds of lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and cheese…SEVEN AND A HALF POUNDS TOTAL.
If you can finish it all in under one hour, it’s free! This is very similar to the deal at The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas that Josh tried (and failed at) back in 2007, were you are required to eat a 72 oz. and all the side items in under an hour.
You can check out the video below to see what everyone ordered at Bigfoot Lodge. I just wish I had been hungry, because that prime rib sandwich looked outstanding!
Here is a video I put together a few minutes ago from the weekend. Please excuse my horrible video editing skills / Windows Movie Maker - such a terrible program! Does anyone know of a good video editing program that is free?
I spent some time today going through all of the photos I took at Music Fest. I was not allowed to bring my real camera since its considered “professional” because it has a detachable lens (lame), so I had to settle with the CG6 and thus, didn’t take near as many photos as I normally do.
Myself, Astrid and Kiwi in the back of the Mini.
It was a little chilly after the bad weather Friday night, but not too bad.
You can’t go to Music Fest without eating something! Astrid was having a burger here, and we shared some Corky’s BBQ Nachos during Seether.
I made sure to get Sarah plenty drunk! Hey, we needed entertainment between sets!
Another beer, imagine that!
Astrid, Sarah, Adam and Kiwi.
Rockin’ out!
Give someone in Memphis a black marker, this is what you get.
During Finger Eleven…
During Disturbed, which was totally awesome!
Speaking of, here is another clip from their performance…
I sent an OCIA.net shirt to my friend Ashley several months back, but due to computer issues, she wasn’t able to get me her picture until now. That’s fine; better late than never, right?
Ashley and I have been friends since we were kids, but since we live so far apart (about 8 hours), we rarely get to hang out together. Adam and I took a trip to visit her about two years ago, and next month, she is planning to head down my way for a visit. Should be fun!
Don’t forget, I am still running my t-shirt promotion! If you purchase a shirt, take a picture of yourself wearing it and post it on your blog, I will give you a FREE link back and also send you $5 via Paypal to help cover the expenses (shirts are only $12.99 each)! So, you get a cool t-shirt and a free link back all for just $7.99 !
April 1. I always seem to get suckered into falling for at least one prank each year, simply because the prankster does a good job at convincing me that whatever it is “could” be true. I have seen a lot of really good blog posts and some not-so-great ones in the past few years. So, instead of trying to pull one myself, I am going to give you some tips on how to create a successful April Fools post.
It Must Be Believable and Original
A post about you hitting the lottery or finding buried treasure isn’t very believable simply because things like that are extremely rare. Your post needs to have at least some sort of credibility to it, something that could actually happen and wouldn’t raise suspicion immediately. For example, a video post from Shoemoney describing how to make $1,000 in one hour is credible, because he is a well known blogger who makes a lot of money from the internet.
Lead Up To The Planned Post
In the blogging world, its good practice to make posts as frequent as possible (a few per day is optimum). If you do this, then completely stop a few days before April 1, your readers will begin to wonder “what’s up”. This can help add to the suspense of your post when you do post it.
Posting Early: The New Fad?
What better way to catch someone off guard than to publish your post a day early? My buddy John pulled this stunt by releasing his John Chow Blogger Cola a day early. The majority of the comments so far have “figured it out”, but some seem to have totally fallen for it. By posting early, this leaves John totally open to post something even wilder on April 1!
Get Your Friends To Help
The odds of you pulling off a successful prank can increase greatly if you get your friends involved. Have someone do a guest post on your site, announcing something tragic, like a motorcycle accident, then take it one step further and have a few others post comments with their condolences, prayers, etc. This will get your readers thinking, “hey, maybe something bad DID actually happen”. So evil!
These are just a few ideas that you can use to help create a really great April Fools post.
Have you ever pulled off a prank of “epic proportion”?
I received a Sanyo Xacti CG6 digital camera / camcorder in to review a few days ago.
I owned a Sony camcorder a few years ago but since it was so big, I rarely took it out with me and ended up getting rid of it. It recorded to Hi 8 tapes, and now I have no way to even view those recordings. Fail.
The Xacti is absolutely tiny. Weighing in at just over 5 ounces, this camcorder can easily fit in your pocket and even doubles as a 6 MP digital camera. One of the coolest things about this unit is the fact that it records directly to an SD / SDHC memory card in MPEG-4 format. I can either connect the Xacti directly to my computer via USB cable or use a card reader with the SD card and load my videos quickly without having to convert anything.
I’ve tested the Xacti a little so far around my apartment, but I am waiting for the weather to clear up so I can get some decent outdoor videos. Oh, and if Keith’s car is out of the shop by Friday, I am sure we will get some videos of that too.
The complete (as of now) lineup for the 2008 Beale Street Music Fest was posted earlier today. I have reproduced that list below:
Friday, May 2, 2008:
My Chemical Romance, Sheryl Crow, The Roots, Keb’ Mo’, Richard Johnston, Hellogoodbye, Jonny Lang, Ben Folds, Charlie Musselwhite, Robert Wolfman Belfour, Flyleaf, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Project Pat, Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, Lord T. and Eloise, Amy LaVere, JJ Greg & Mofro, Lurrie Bell.
Saturday, May 3, 2008:
Santana, Disturbed, Matisyahu, Bettye LaVette, Richard Johnston, Lou Reed, Seether, the John Butler Trio, Pinetop Perkins & Hubert Sumlin w/ Billy Gibson, Blind Mississippi Morris, Buddy Guy, Simple Plan, Arrested Development, Watermelon Slim, Cat Power, The Whigs, Colbie Caillat, Back Door Slam, Duman, Saving Abel, Tegan and Sara, Kenny Neal, Muck Sticky, Oracle and the Mountain, Al Kapone, Preston Shannon, Eli “Paperboy” Reed.
Sunday, May 4, 2008:
Fergie, Michael McDonald, the Black Crowes, Doyle Bramhall, Richard Johnston, Finger Eleven, Aretha Franklin, O.A.R., Magic Slim & the Teardrops, Robert Belfour, Gavin DeGraw, Jerry Lee Lewis, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Nick Moss & the Flip Tops, Rue Melo, Duman, Umphrey’s McGee, Samuel James, Carney, Billy Lee Riley, Pete Francis, Calvin Cooke.
Tickets for the 2008 Beale Street Music Festival are on sale now at Ticketmaster, online at ticketmaster.com and by phone at (901) 525-1515. Three-day passes cost $63.50 and will be available through April 30; single-day admission costs $27.50 in advance.
The drag strip at the Memphis Motorsports Park re-opened for the season last night. The track shut down for the season back in November and was supposed to re-open at the beginning of February, but management decided to do some maintenance to the track to help cars hook better and offer an overall safer racing environment.
Keith and I hit the track, along with Matt, Jake and Josh, shortly after it opened. Keith’s Mustang is between mods, so he won’t be able to run for another couple of weeks, but Matt and Jake ran their Camaros.
Matt only ran marginally better than last time (12.7 last time, 12.6 @ 111 mph this trip), despite his new gears and drag radials. There are a few reasons for the small gain. First, the new wheels weight a lot more than his stock ones (40 lbs. vs. 60-65 lbs. per wheel). Also, his new lowering springs didn’t help any with weight transfer.
Jake just bought his car a few weeks ago and ran a really great time for a stock 98′ Z28 (13.4 @ 104 mph), not to mention he got one heck of a deal for it ($6,200).
Sexiest car of the night goes to this Viper… I LOVE those cars!
Hopefully we will be back at the track in a few weeks once Keith gets his car back. A new cam, gears and rear end (along with extensive head work) should net him a much faster time than his last effort (14.4 - slow, but not bad for a basically stock 92 GT with 160+ miles and highway gears).
