In A Nutshell

Turn That Up! I Love That Song!

2011-10-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

There are times when I'm in my car and a song comes on where I MUST blast the speakers. There are three songs that , in my opinion, are a must blast when they come on the radio.

The Breeders - Cannonball
The guitar on this song gets me every time, and I love Kim Deal's voice.

The Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
What more can I say? It's the The Pixies!

Mumford and Sons - Roll Away Your Stone
The banjo is the best part of this song. This song also does an awesome job of bringing you up to the peak then just blowing your mind! Dang these guys are so talented!

There is a fourth song which I'm debating if I should add it to this exclusive group...

The Airborne Toxic Event - All I Ever Wanted
This is a fairly new song by an up and coming band. They manage to combine strings and amazing guitars to create pure awesomeness!

What can I say I love to listen to music and I love it loud! My future hearing may be in jeopardy, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Ham, Egg, and Cheese with Green Sauce

2011-10-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

People do many things to ward off the side effects that a night's sleep brings with it upon waking up in the morning. Some cure it with caffeine, others exercise (those are the crazy ones), but I like to curb said side effects with a big, warm breakfast burrito.

I don't know exactly when I became an addict of this portable food gem, but it was probably when my mom would make us breakfast at 4:30 in the morning before we hurried off to seminary and school. I could smell the bacon or ham, cheese, and eggs as I prepared for a long day at school. I knew when I had my fill that I could take on the world!

As I have gotten older, I have become somewhat of a breakfast burrito guru. Whenever I see it on a menu, I have to order one.

Now a days, it's one of the only things that can wake me up in the morning. I usually order them from a little fast food restaurant near my workplace called Hilberto's. Past and present Arizona residents will know of the 'bertos' chain of low end fast food Mexican restaurants. People go to these familiar dives seeking cheap, fast, and very satisfying Mexican food. I usually order the ham, egg, and cheese burrito with green sauce. It's one of the best burritos I've ever had and it never disappoints.

So here's to you breakfast burrito. Fighter of morning grouchiness and filler of empty stomachs.

I'm Back!!!...To Life!!!

2011-09-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well after about a two year hiatus since my last post, I have decided to come back from the dead. I guess life just got really crazy, which it tends to do sometimes.

You're probably wondering what the heck I'm doing with my time these days.

First of all, I have applied to graduate from GCC this coming December with my Associates in Business. Yes, after a five year battle of wading through the crap storm we call GCC, I made it out alive. It wasn't easy and the enrollment and financial aid staff certainly didn't make it worth it.

I'm still trying to find a girl who finds my personality compatible with theirs. It's not that easy I've come to find out. Oh well, I guess I just can't worry about it too much.

Well that's about it for now. I promise I won't wait another two years to update.

2009-10-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Its amazing and heart breaking how quick your life changes sometimes.

Zoo/Alkaline Trio Roadie... All In Tucson

2009-09-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Well I was looking at my poor little blog today and decided that I should update it to keep the mobs at bay.

I took many trips this summer, but the most interesting one was with two of my friends, Greg and Erin. We took a day trip to the utter wasteland south of us known as Tucson to see some sweet animals and also to see an awesome band known as Alkaline Trio.

It was a sunny and friggin hot day on June 2nd as we started on our trip. Our first stop was at Tempe Marketplace to see UP!, which was an amazing addition to the Disney/Pixar collection. Unfortunately, the theater we went to didn't show it in 3D.

Our next stop was at the Tucson Zoo, which is probably one the coolest and most inexpensive zoos I've been to. We saw some cool looking animals and we even saw a polar bear! Its an awesome thing when you can see a polar bear in the good ol' AZ!After the zoo, we killed some time by getting some eegees and hanging out at Zia Records.

At long last it was time for Trio concert! This was the main reason we came to little Mexico. The opening band was horrible! The relieving band was pretty good. Finally Alkaline Trio came on and they were amazing! Totally worth the trip to the armpit of AZ!

Single Awareness Day

2009-02-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

Wow my second post in 2 weeks! I think I'm turning over a new leaf!

Well onto the subject at hand. February 14th has a many different meanings to different people. Some of which are St. Valentines Day, Arizona's B-Day, and my personal favorite Single Awareness Day (aka. S.A.D). This is the day in which you are very aware that you are in fact single. A day where you have a concrete understanding of the single life.

For the past two Single Awareness Days a few of my close compadres and I have driven 5 hours west of the AZ to the OC. Specifically Disneyland. Now my faithful blogosphere readers know how I feel about this magical place. If not read this http://brob84.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-think-i-need-intervention.html

This trip was kind of an interesting one in two ways. One, it was kind of a send off for one of my friends that is leaving for the Alabama, Birmingham Mission in 2 days from now, and two, one of my friends ended up in the hospital with appendicitis which resulted in an emergency appendectomy.

While this emergency was happening, the rest of us didn't know what to do so we just did what we came to do, and that is to have a fun filled day at the Magic Kingdom. We arrived there about half an hour after the park opened which made for great parking spots right by the trolley pick up spot. We then proceeded to get our Disneyland on. After about 16 hours of non-stop fun, we made the late-night trek back to AZ. We got back around 6 AM and had a few hours of sleep before my friends farewell at 11:00.

When all was said and done we had a memorable trip to the place that Walt built.Wow my second post in 2 weeks! I think I'm turning over a new leaf!

Music Im Into Right Now

2009-02-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

Holy crap its been a long time since Ive entered any submission into the blogosphere. Lets see what have I done since my last post...

Christmas... awesometastic!

New Years... frickinawesome!

Bonfire... Rad!

Super Bowl... Unlucky.

Groundhog Day... Billmurrayish...

Starting school... Umm not gonna go there.

But to get down to the nitty- gritty.... Every start of a new semester means alot of things start again, but one thing in particular is the infamous 10 minute walk across the street to the high school with ashtrays known as Glendale Community College.

Now my favorite thing to do on these daily morning walks to school is to delve into the deep tracks of my very eclectic music collection, and every once in a while I get into a genre or band rut where I just listen to a certain band for a month or two.

Well this month its a band called Bishop Allen. I first heard them when they made a cameo appearence on the movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and I thought they had a rockin' sound (wow that was very dick clark sounding)

They are a relatively new indie rock band that is just starting to gain a reputation in the music world.

I downloaded their latest album from the juggernaut know as Itunes a couple weeks and it has been non stop listening ever since. I can't get enough of their music. Its very different from the stuff I usually listen to, and thats probably why I like them.

If you get the chance I highly recommend giving them a listen. You won't regret it.

2008-11-20T12:47:00.000-08:00

A Great Night With A Great Band

So I know Ive been slacking on the whole blog scene, but Christmas break is coming up and I will have a whole month to blog my little heart out. For right now I will bring you to a place that is known as the ULTIMATE WEEZER CONCERT REVIEW!!!

So I went to the Weezer concert a month ago and it was frickin rad! It all went down at the Mad House on McDowell, The Purple Palace, The Cowboy Saddle, The Big Pancake, and formally Veterans Memorial Colliseum... Whatever you want to call it. Now you may be thinking (hmm.... a month ago it was October...) That's right! Weezer made an AZ State Fair appearance. Now at first glance you might think (hmm... Weezer must be all washed up if they're playing at the fair...) Well my poorly mistaken friends Im here to tell you that YOU ARE WRONGO CABONGO!!! That thought couldn't be further from the truth. Over the years the AZ State Fair has been graced with the presence of many a high dollar act. Namely: Depeche Mode, The Gin Blossoms, Live, and most recently, the ever popular, Meatloaf. Those are just a few of the great acts that have made their presence known at said event.

Anyways, back to the Weez. I showed up late so I missed Tokyo Police Club, and caught the tail end of Angels & Airwaves. That was a good thing because they sounded awful! Weezer opened up with the oldie but goody My Name Is Jonas (which was the first song I ever heard from them back in the elementary school days.) They proceeded to rock the crowd's face off while strategically placing a Black Sabbath and Nirvana tune in with their own stellar set list of power ballads. The highlight of the night was when they broke out with the sweet lick from their latest release "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn) Leave it to the Weez to take a hymn and turn it in to a face melting rock opera. Now this is not your regular Weezer tune. This masterpiece is filled with freestyle rap from none other than Rivers himself, a quartet choir solo, and the usual face melting Weezer guitar solos. One disappointment was when they had the whiney voiced Tom Delong from Angels & Airwaves sing Undone- The Sweater Song. It almost made my ears bleed.

In the middle of the concert, they brought out 35 contest winners with their own instruments to play a couple songs with the band. They weren't half bad either, and I was pleasantly surprised. One of the 35 was my EFY counselor friend from last summer, Emily, who played violin. It was way cool to get to see her on stage.

All in all it was a rockin concert and I left thoroughly entertained.

Another Solid Thrift Store Buy

2008-09-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

So I haven't been the best blogger lately, and I apologize to all my faithful readers. I will try and be better at it. As you may have already read in my previous blog about the wicked awesome Wembley Tie, this is going to be kind of a spin off from that one.

It all started on Wednesday night when my Dad got a call from my sister, Tammy, who needed some milk for my nephew Bing who is on the DL right now because of a broken funny bone. My Dad gets off the phone and tells me to go bring the milk over to them so I did, and the first thing I saw when I was there was 3 intricately designed ties sitting on the table. At first sight they looked like works of art that had been painstakingly designed. Then my brother-in-law Brigham showed me the maufacturer of these fine pieces of menswear. You guessed it! It was the awesomeness that is Wembley! At that moment there was no doubt in my mind that they really were works of art that had been painstakingly designed This was a glorious sight after my horrible day at school, which consisted of a psychology test and a speech in my communications class.

Now what are the chances that he could have walked into a thrift store (specifically Value Village on Glendale Ave.) on a Wednesday afternoon and finding not 1, not 2, but 3 Wembley ties waiting for a customer to take them to a happy home? I guess those chances were pretty dang good that day.

You may be wondering where the third tie is. Well Brigham gave me two of them and kept the third one.

Kudos to BBB for donating the thrifty revolution.

Gee That's A Nice Suit Mister. Thanks I Got It For $20.

2008-08-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not that big of shopper, but when I do I go all out. I especially like to shop at thrift stores. I have a special place in my heart for them. I live by the old saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure." I have found many a treasure while frequenting these blessed stores.

When I step inside a thrift store I first think I've gone back in time about 10 years. Some of the clothes really are 10 or more years old there. Then there's the smell. A thrift store has a very distinct smell, and they all smell the same. It smells like a mix of body odor and febreeze. I'll admit when get home from many hours of patronizing these fine places of business, I feel like I have to take a shower. Some of the stores I've been in are not very hygienically friendly, but that's all part of the experience. My most recent thrift store purchase is probably one of my greatest finds. I have included a picture of it above. On the particular day I found this awesome sauce article of clothing I was shopping for a purpose. That purpose was to find a suit appropriate for my summer job. This suit had to be flashy, noticeable, and most of all really ugly. Sure enough the second store I went to, which was Savers (my favorite!), I found what was possibly the coolest suit I had ever seen. From the looks of it I thought it would never fit, but I tried it on, and It fit better than OJ's glove on trial day. I then had to find a tie to match this awesome suit. As I looked through the plethora of ties, some of which were unusually dirty, I found a very colorful Wembley.

Now Wembleys are a great tie for a number of reasons. First of all the little tag that holds what I like to call the "the little tie" says what color of suit goes with this tie. Now this is very helpful in deciding which suit you should wear. Second of all these ties are as rare as the coelacanth fish found off the coast of Madagascar. When you find one its a must buy. These things are like gold! They were the most coveted in my mission.

On a side note the sunglasses were a find by my brother-in-law, Brigham, at a St. Vincent De Paul store across the street from our old Glendale office.

When all was said and done the suit and tie ended up costing me $20 and some change. I left that Savers feeling like a million bucks!

I Think I Need An Intervention

2008-07-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

So every couple of months, for the past year and a half, I have been going to a place where people rarely get to go to. This is a place filled with happiness. A place where you can get a corn dog and a churro for nothing under $5. You know what place I'm talking about. If you don't you're missing out. This magical place is called Disneyland! Located in the in heart of Anaheim, CA, it is the perfect place to have fun and just chill.

The only problem is that I go there ALOT and my family and friends have started to worry about me. It all started last February when I bought an annual pass. Now this pass is probably the best deal in the whole entire park. For $390 you can come to this magical land WHENEVER YOU WANT! Plus you get free parking, and parking can cost you a pretty penny as with all things in the park do. The best thing is you only have to use it on three different occasions and then it pays for itself! Anyways back to my story... After I bought this pass, my sister said don't be surprised if when you come back from Disneyland one weekend and there's a camera crew in the house filming an episode of Intervention.

Now Intervention is a TV show that focuses on drug users, alcoholics, and people that generally have major addictions. They use the addict's family to basically force them into rehab. I know she was just joking, but what if she wasn't? I could see it now... my family is gathered around, and I come home, churro in one hand, corndog in the other, and Mickey Mouse ears on my head. They would tell me how much they loved me and read what they wrote about me. Then a gray haired, moustached specialist would hand me a plane ticket to some deserted island off the coast of Madagascar that has a Mickey Mouse rehab facility that no one knows about. I would resist like everybody does on the show and then I would come to grips with reality and go peacefully to the rehab center where Disneyland DOESN'T EXIST!

WOW! I'm glad that will never happen cause that would suck!

The Awkward First Post

2008-07-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! So I decided to join the club and make a blog. It isn't much now, but I'll have more posts up as soon as I figure out what I'm doing.