Another lost competition

my submission. look familiar?

the obvious, hands down winner.

my rejection letter.

My hometown of Collingswood is a great place to live.  Great little community with tons of things to do, great places to eat, and a great train line that connects us to Philadelphia at all hours of the night. So it was no surprise that when Reader's Digest sponsored a competition for the best community in America, the residents of Collingswood came together and got out the vote like they should.  Some 66,000 votes were cast which was good enough for 16th place in the country and $5,000 in cash for the town to spend it however they wished.  Our Mayor, to his credit, thought it would be best spent for an art piece in one of the town's parks.  They announced a competition, and were going to select three finalists to faceoff in an online vote and announce the winner.  Without sounding like some pompous ass, I thought I'd have a pretty good shot at winning it.  Nope. I got my rejection letter from the borough, and then to add insult to injury, ugh...nevermind.  I'm not a sore loser, but if I can't beat out that dragon, I think I should consider a different career path.  For more on the story, click here. This one hurt.

ambulances

You know how ambulance drivers never let the siren be anymore? Like they'll play little snippets of the siren when they go through an intersection or someone is in their way. Whoop whoop whoop... kinda like an arcade sound.  I was thinking about that the other day as an ambulance passed.  Like-what's that guy doing in there to make that sound? Are there little paddles on the steering wheel that he presses like he's changing the radio station?  Nah.  I picture him with DJ headphones on one ear and a little turntable next to him on the console between his seat and the passenger seat... whoop whoop whoop.... whupwhu---whhhhhhhup.  Get out the way! whuwhuuup!

E'er body in the club gettin' tipsy...

For being a rap song this is pretty tame.  If e'er body in the club's gettin' tipsy, it's a pretty lame ass bar... they just got a little tipsy and then they left... didn't want to drive home all dirty... had a big meeting in the morning.

Sir Lance A lot

Although some of my blogs are topical, most of them are just random musings of mine. This one is more topical.  Often I think I have a good point in the blogs I write.  (full disclosure, I write this blog for the three people that I think might be reading it) But the recent news you hear about Lance Armstrong is just silly.  Why we put athletes on pedestals or why we hold politicians to such a high standard is beyond me.  Yeah, when I was a kid I was obsessed with Lenny Dykstra. He was a seriously flawed individual and definitely not a role model.  Maybe sometimes I emulated him, but I never thought he was a necessarily good role model.  He chewed tobacco, he ate "magic vitamins" which were really steroids, he drove fast cars drunk, and he probably slept around a lot and blew all of his money on much worse.  But I didn't like him for those things. I accepted him for his flaws. I just wanted to play baseball like him; steal bases, get hits in the clutch after fouling off a dozen pitches, make diving catches slamming into the outfield wall.  Those were the reasons why I loved him... and the fact that he just didn't care what anyone thought about him.  He even had a tougher time after baseball.
    So back to Lance Armstrong.  Sure, he probably did "cheat", and I am sure 100 percent of everyone else he ever rode against in the Tour de France cheated as well.  That doesnt make it right, but maybe it levels the playing field.  I am not being cynical, I really think 90 percent of all athletes anymore are taking some kind of performance enhancing something or other, whether it's Cortisone shots, Creatine shakes, or some other kind of drug we've never heard of.  It's the nature of sports. Always has been and always will be.  I think if there was a performance enhancing drug for accounting or a performance enhancing drug for some other bullshit desk job people would take them all the time.  If it was the difference of making 30,000 bucks a year and a 300,000 bucks a year we'd all consider doing it. Our performance enhancing drugs are recreational.
The funny parts of this though, that recently people think they can just erase the past. Like actual events.  If they say it didn't happen, it didn't happen.  Just like Joe Paterno didn't really win all those games he really won.  Lance Armstrong didn't really win those 7 Tour de Frances.... I didn't really draw those buildings that I drew the last few years.
And the worst part... he is banned from the sport.  Banned from bicycling... the sport of bicycling. can't ride a bike... in a race. Aw man.. But I bet he can still ride his "bike" really fast if he wants to. Not allowed to race his kids on his bike... If I were him I would train really hard, do as many performance enhancing drugs as I want to and ride my bike as fast as I wanted to. Downhill! With wind at my back! and a Titanium frame!.....with no clothes on! ...and a jet pack!
On a side note, I thought of Donnie Jeffcoat the other day... from Wild and Crazy kids.  Most random thought I ever thought.  I can't believe he was still in my memory bank somewhere.

Karate

I never really had any interest in karate in my entire life except maybe for the ten minutes after I saw Karate Kid part one when I was six.  I recall "karatying" a tree in my front yard pretending to be Ralph Macchio in training.  But other than those ten minutes, and every time I put on a bathrobe, I never give much thought to karate.  But the other day walking home from work I saw a mother and a few kids getting picked up from karate practice. A few of the kids (the couldn't have been more than seven years old) had black belts.  I couldn't help but think how they could have black belts. If I owned a karate shop, I'd just give out black belts to everyone.  I mean why not.  It obviously doesn't mean anything.  If a seven year old can achieve the highest award in your sport there's something wrong with that.  I am pretty sure I could beat that kid's ass if he wanted to fight me. I wouldn't feel good about beating up a seven year old but if he attacked me first... you know...just sayin.  Pretty sure I would win the fight with no prior training.  I'd be all like Howard Dean! hiiiyaaaahhhh!!!

Indian Food

I was enjoying a nice meal recently at an Indian restaurant and got to thinking about all the stigmas people have with Indian food. Everyone has an opinion about Indian food.  I personally enjoy it.  I personally enjoy all food actually.  But I was thinking about when people change a baby's diaper and they're all like, "ewww, it looks like Indian food!"   Those people first of all are ignorant.  But then it got me wondering... When Indian people change a diaper are they just like, "Hey, this looks like food."

sketches

I'm not on the same pace I was last year at this time filling up sketchbooks but I am getting back into the swing of it and enjoying it.  I hope to keep doing a few a week. Here's a select few.  I've also posted a bunch recently to my etsy page. Yeah the quality isn't so good, that's why you should go to the etsy page.