March 2k13: it happened

Boston sauntered into March with the expectation that Winter would peacefully transform into Spring, as it is wont to do every year.  Jokes on us, because instead of a calm transition into outdoor funtimes, I was obliged to deal with multiple snow storms and temperatures that never went above 55 degrees.  THANKS SO MUCH, IT'S BEEN GREAT.

However, this March has still managed to be eventful despite the horrible weather.  It included a trip to Blue Hills Brewery (followed by a night at the Harpoon Beerhall, which has yet to end in a sober night), a St. Patty's Day shindig complete with 20 lbs of corned beef and 20 lbs of potatoes, and the return of old highschool LAN parties in the form of online Age of Empires II.  Awesome.

In addition to this, we had the annual Boston St. Patty's Day Parade, complete with the traditional pre-parade Power Hour.  It was somehow a struggle.  But it's ok, because after a long T ride on a very full train, we saw the parade for about 30 seconds before needing to go to the bathroom and heading to a party in Southie.

Who needs elbow room when everyone on the T is un-sober?

After the parade, I then went to meet Sarah.  I managed to take the T three stops in the wrong direction before realizing my error, but who doesn't do that?  I then made a Bee-line to a Brazilian BBQ place and got a to-go plate of "all the steak you have."  After giving me an insane amount of meat, I then repeated myself until he gave me all of the steak they had available.  So that was a $30 plate of only meat.  But I wasn't done there.  We then went to Stop n Shop, where I procured 4 lobsters, because why the fuck not?

March for me culminated in an excellent Dodgeball Haus reunion trip to Seattle.  Lord Michael 9/3 Cronin moved out there for his pre-med residency (that's what I'm calling it now), and 6 of us helped destroy his new apartment with our extreme raditude.

Kyle and I arrived Wednesday night to the shock and awe of an amazing view of the city from Cronin's rooftop.  It was magical and there weren't even Unicorns or anything.  The next morning, while Cronin was at work "helping" "children" at "hospitals," Kyle and I pumped our bodies full of delicious food (and I tried Seattle coffee, which still has that barf-like taste just like coffee from anywhere else) and then walked around Lake Union.  We met up with Nate and then proceeded to travel across Fremont, going into costume stores and breweries before meeting up with Cronin at Von Trapp's German beerhall.  James joined as well for a night of merryness that did not lack in ALL THE SAUSAGE and liter-sized beer mugs.

Friday was another working day for Cronin, but with the arrival of Matt, we were all set to take a Ferry over to Bainbridge Island.  We filled our faces with some fine breakfast (this trip was more than just eating even though it doesn't seem that way) and strolled along the waterfront/neighborhoods/wherever the sign told us to go.  It was ok, but the best part was the view of the city on our return Ferry trip.  So awesome.

This is normal

 Kyle and I then visited James at his place of business, which was awesome because they just had rocket parts strewn about.  The night ended in a series of Ramen/Bar establishments and it was a great series.  And Jordan arrived!  Just one more to go.

Saturday was gorgeous.  We got some noms, went to Pike Place, got disgusted at the gum wall: pretty much a fairly touristy morning.  We then collected Arlen, our final companion, at the train station and took the monorail (MONORAIL) over to the Space Needle.  After two previous visits, the weather was finally nice enough for me to pay the troll toll up to the top.  And holy crap, it was worth it.  The views of the mountains and the Sound and the city were amazing.

Seattle, in all it's glory

No but really

 SO NICE OUT.

I forgot how packed this day was.  After the Space Needle and the fountain, we wound up at the REI flagship store, which is like Jurassic Park with a climbing wall.  Our fatigue called for a dude's night in with pizza and about 14 episodes of Archer.  Just like old times.

The whole Seattle gang perfectly blocking the view of the city from Cronin's roof (thanks for letting me steal your pictures BTW Kyle)

Sunday morning included a great trip to the EMP Music Museum.  This horrific barf-pile of an architectural structure housed some pretty great stuff, including some great Nirvana/Hendirx exhibits, a Sci-Fi exhibit, and a great piece on Horror movies.  There was also a little bit on the Evolution of Videogames, which Jordan and I ate up with a spoon.  We were also able to do a surprise studio recording of Wonderwall and Wild Horses.  Unfortunately, this was the downswing of the weekend, because Matt, Nate, and Kyle had flights to catch that evening.  Jordan, Arlen, and I walked around the hills of Seattle before grabbing some steak and having a nice BBQ on Cronin's roof.

Monday turned out to be perfect weather, AND Cronin didn't have to work, so we were able to hike a nearby mountain (Mt. Tiger)!  The Cascades are so friggn close to the city.  So easy to go out and hike.  And we got back in time to check out some of the beaches in Ballard (beautiful views of the Olympic Mountains) and we got some great seafood right on the water.  Definitely a good bookend to the trip.

The very next weekend was Easter, so Sarah and I saddled up for a drive down to Philly for a relaxing weekend at home.  And when I say relaxing, I obviously mean we ran a 5k in the morning followed by smashing all of the fencing around our yard down with an ax.  My Mom took us to Longwood Gardens for a crazy brunch and a lot of walking around flowers.  Sarah really enjoyed the flowers.  I really enjoyed the Longwood Cat, who is still in the same place as he was two years ago and still looks like he might be dead but actually isn't.  To sum up the weekend, it was great food and a good chance to see the gentlemen of Malvern: Geoff, Colin, and Gary.

The ride back to Boston, however, was atrocious.  Eight hours of driving in traffic.  But then it was ok, because we watched the Walking Dead season Finale and Game of Thrones season Premier and they were everything I could every hope for.

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 9

Haikus: greatest method of recapping ever? Yes.

Caturday 9/3/2011
Hong Kong hangover
Jordan arrives: Joe's pool day
North End for dinner

Sunday 9/4/2011
Smashing our brains out
Brunch, BBQ, pumpkin beer
Smash: I love that game

Monday 9/5/2011
Ball Square Cafe brunch
SO FUCKING GOOD. It's insane.
Goodbyes to D. Haus

Tuesday 9/6/2011
Replace pilfered bike
Can't buy bikes when it's raining
Burritos instead

Wednesday 9/7/2011
Advanced Fluids? UGH.
Last Tufts class started tonight
Sleep: I will miss you...

Thursday 9/8/2011
Small camping potluck
First game of football tonight
Fall is upon us

Friday 9/9/2011
Med center session
My shoulder is killing me
But hey: free massage

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 8

It's finally happened. I've started dreaming in Haiku. It's ok though, because I was also a dinosaur in this dream.

Caturday 8/27/2011
Hiked Moosilauke
Waterfalls n shit: so good
Nap before FAMAP*

Sunday 8/28/2011
FAMAP aftermath
Broken bed, vomsing, horserace
Punched a hurricane

Monday 8/29/2011
Computer broken
You Fucking Kidding Me Bro?
Fixed it on my own

Tuesday 8/30/2011
Best kickball game yet
Got three outs in one inning
China Deright: EARNED

Wednesday 8/31/2011
Brewed some pungent beer
Pump-kablooey Oatmeal Stout
More pumpkin: YES PLEASE
I just learned that I say "meal" as if it were two syllables, but it is actually one. MY ENTIRE MIND HAS JUST BEEN BLOWN.

Thursday 9/1/2011
Excellent potluck
D-Haus Reunion begins
The Bear has arrived

Friday 9/2/2011
Taking a half-day
Drinks outside with Joe and Kyle
Better than working

*FAMAP = Finish All My Alcohol Party

Haiku-a-Day Challenge

I was going through some old emails from when I first got gmail and was inundated with tons of emails from my summer after my junior year. Most of the Dodgeball House residents had some intense email correspondence via haiku. Every day. All summer. It was, needless to say, awesome. Here's one of the last messages of the summer, right before our internships ended before school started up again:

Thus ends a summer
of exquisite poetry.
See you at home LOL
-Chris Last day as a GE Intern

As I am wont to do, I just randomly came up with a new challenge for the year, for no reason. To write a haiku per day. My intention is to maybe update my interblag once a week with all of the week's haikus (is it still "haiku" when plural? I don't think I care enough to take the ten seconds and research it). I know, most of you are saying "but Chris lololol, that sounds stupid and I don't think you can do it!" Well guess what. Challenge Accepted. And I'm sure you need some friggn culture in your lives, so get ready to be amazed at the EXTREME shittiness of my poetry skills. Did I mention I took a poetry class at Tufts? Yeah, that was... uncomfortable.


Anyway, here are my haikus from this past week:


Friday 7/8/11
Black hand-print face paint
Capture the Flag was epic
Even though we tied

Caturday 7/9/11
Ate the Vermonster
so much ice cream, so little room
But: hey! Free bucket!


Sunday 7/10/11
Grand trip to Six Flags
Sun poisoning? Possibly.
Awesome? Fucking yes!


Monday 7/11/11
Work and thesising
Two things I'd rather not do
Time for food? Probs not.


Tuesday 7/12/11
Kickball was cancelled
but watched Jurassic Park and
played Ninja instead


Wednesday 7/13/11
Thesis work at Tufts
Definitely sucks big time
fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
That's just good poetry right there


Thursday 7/14/11
Butterbeer potlucks?
Dressed as Dementors and Elves?
HP Midnight show!


Friday 7/15/11
Bro-B-Q tonight
Gonna eat ALL the burgers
Red eyes from Xbox

Let's see if I can actually keep this challenge going all year...

Animal Fight Tournament Bracket

One of the best things about Dodgeball House was that when we moved in, there were a bunch of random poster-sized pieces of paper strewed about in one of the closets. We eventually started making "D. Haus lists" or other thoughts that we would write down while all hanging out in the living room and then put them up on the walls. Some of these included:

Life's Little Pleasures (pushing the "other" button on a McDonald's drink lid, pulling the plastic off a new LCD screen, popping packing bubbles, etc.)
People You Want to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse With and Why (Sevs - you could eat all the cheese you find, Matt - all his videogame training would make him ideal at the shotgun, etc.)
People You Would Like to Kill as Zombies (Jordan - his abs would no longer haunt your nightmares, James - he would finally stop saying "Goddamnit Chewbacca," etc.)

But my favorite one was the day when we decided to have a bracket of what animal would win a fight to the death. I remember the day well. I was sitting in the living room trying to finish my Radio Astronomy take-home final. Think about how boring that sounds, and then multiply it by the density of a Black Hole (see what I did there?) Yeah; it's THAT BORING. So I was most likely just watching whatever videogame Matt was playing that day. We start talking about who would win in a fight: a flying shark or a flying crocodile. We start getting really scientific about the environment they would fight in, body mass, stuff like that. Before I know it, all 6 of us are discussing which animals would win in fights. So we did what any group of guys who are avoiding studying for finals would do: we made a 16-animal bracket to determine who is the champion of all the animal kingdom. Pretty standard.

We had to lay down some ground rules first. It had to be a pound-for-pound battle with every fight. They had to fight in a neutral environment, so camouflage or whatever didn't matter. The 6 of us voted on a winner, and if the battle came out to be a tie, we would either wikipedia the animals and re-vote with newfound animal logic, or call Jizz Jizz to cast a tie-breaker vote. We all know that Jizz Jizz is the greatest and most potent human being to walk the face of the Earth, so we were ok with that rule. Our first animal battles were mostly fair fights, and pretty friggn awesome. We had battles like Tiger vs. Cheetah, Bald Eagle vs. Perigrin Falcon, Grizzly Bear vs. Polar Bear, Shark vs. Crocodile, Elephant vs. Hippo, etc. One of my favorites was when we had to find a contender for Arlen's favorite animal: the tortoise. We decided that 600 lbs of slugs would be a fair fight. Here's what I remember about some of the topics of discussion:
Polar Bears are about twice the size of Grizzly Bears, which I previously had not known, and their claws are like 8 feet long. Polar Bear wins for sure. Cheetahs can run fast, but only for about 10 seconds. The rest of the time Cheetahs are some little bitches. Tiger wins. Elephant ended up winning even though Hippos are pretty much the biggest assholes the world has ever seen. Tortoise ended up winning against 600 pounds of slugs. I don't think I believe that. I don't really remember the less important battles. But I DO remember having to call Jizz Jizz about one heated debate. We had a gorilla vs. Matt and Joe with baseball bats. I voted the gorilla winning because it is pure fucking muscle and doesn't give a shit about baseball bats. But I actually change my opinion 4 years later. If it is pound-for-pound, it isn't that big of a gorilla. Plus, with Matt and Joe, there are TWO people. So if the gorilla takes down one, the other can smash its brains in. Lastly, a baseball bat's range is drastically longer than a gorilla's arms. I think I voted incorrectly. But Jizz Jizz agreed, so I guess by definition, that is the truth.

The Elite 8 battles are where things start getting shitty. We thought of some pretty great match-ups for the Sweet 16, but we didn't consider how the next battles would go. We had a Tiger vs. a Tortoise, Shark vs. Gorilla, Eagle vs Elephant. It was all bullshit. None of those were good fights. We eventually made it down to the Final 4; Shark, Tiger, Elephant, Polar Bear, but we soon learned that we could no longer continue the debates. They were ridiculous battles that would never happen and absolutely depended on environment. A Great White Shark is definitely going to win any battle in the water and lose on land. We made the rule that they were fighting in space with no environment, but then not having gravity starting getting insane. Basically it went from an awesome idea in which we wasted about 4 hours we could have used to study for finals to a debate about how a Tiger would breath while orbiting the Earth fighting with a Shark. It was an unfortunate ending to the greatest bracket ever created. But oh man, if only there were some awesome combo of all of those Final 4 animals...

Street Sharks - most extreme animal ever conceived?