First Glimpses

This weekend was both productive and completely wasted at the same time.

On one hand, I managed to complete the assembly of one of the legs. On the other, I hate how it turned out, and I need to completely re-do it. This is frustrating and exhilarating all at once. Here are some pictures:



This first image is of the piston assembly that will be featured on the feet of the costume. As you can see, this part came out awesome. I'm really pleased with the look of the assembly, and Curtis was impressed enough to decide to copy them for his own stilts. He won't have the same ladder extensions, so I do worry about the stability of his feet, but that's a bridge to cross at another time.



This second image is the completed foot. It's pretty gnarly, and I think it looks really great - except for the shape of the top and bottom pieces. They both started off as squares, but as soon as I assembled the foot, I noticed that they didn't line up. This is a result of a flaw I failed to anticipate. I bought two different sized flanges, since I wasn't certain which I would like better - a 3/4" and a 1". Each of the pistons is a 3/4" on top and a 1" on the bottom. The problem is that the holes aren't positioned the same in the different sized flanges, and I can't make a template that works for all of the blocks. I had to free-hand it, and obviously that didn't work. Then I attempted to make it look less shitty by cutting away the excess portions of the blocks, but in reality it just made the whole thing look worse. I planned to just say forget it and run with it that way, but it gnawed at me and I couldn't just let it go. I plan to correct the mistake this weekend by re-doing the whole foot. On the other foot, I've planned ahead and made 1 piston entirely out of the 3/4" flanges, and the other out of the 1". This should allow me to make a template and match the feet up the right way. I may try to fix the pistons from the first foot to do the same, but I'd rather not need to paint them again and just figure something else out.



This last picture is a close-up of the "Action" portion of the feet. I don't like the wood block I used as a spacer for the ladder part - I'm going to try and find something that's round and useable instead. I kinda wish I had a bunch of AOL discs to use...

I also managed to successfully attach the bike rack to my shoulder pads. It looks really amazing. I'm starting to get pretty excited about the whole costume, now that I'm seeing pieces of it come together. I don't have any pics ready for you on that part, but as we finish up the feet and move upward I'll keep them coming.

Last night I spent a few hours shopping for supplies and building. I've figured out a good way to make the legs function in a manner that won't result in broken bones or death, which I think is a good thing. I explained it briefly in the last post, but now that I've actually applied this guessing game to the real world, I'm gonna elaborate.

Begin with the ladder leg extensions. I've measured from the base of the foot (or, rather, the point where I'd attach it to the "foot" of the costume), and up to the top of the bracket. This is about 12". I've purchased 2 metal flanges to secure the PVC, and attachments so the PVC can screw into them. Measured these assemblies, and cut a tube of 1" PVC to fit the height. I then cut a 1.25" tube to act as the sleeve for the piston, and will attach that as a decorative piece to the outside of the 1" pipe. You can see some of the pieces here:



This picture is missing the 1" pieces, but the rest is all there. The next step is to paint the pieces the appropriate color. I bought some Rustolium textured grey spray paint that I'm pretty sure I'll use over most of the skeleton, and some really shiny chrome paint to use for the pistons. Here's the assembly in paint:



As you can see, there will be a pretty stark contrast in color, which should make a cool effect. I'll be checking to see if any more coats are needed probably tomorrow, and then I'll begin to assemble the base of the legs. I'm still trying to decide on what to make the horizontal pieces out of, since plywood is super heavy. A firm (relatively thick) plastic piece would be great, but I'm not 100% on where to get what I'm looking for. I'm going to keep working and deal with that eventually. As for the top of the legs, I've attached another 2' section of 1" PVC (painted chrome) to the upper portion of the stilt, to extend it long enough to attach to my upper calf. This should be high enough to stabilize my footing as I walk with a bunch of crap on my feet and back.

Speaking of, Curtis found this AWESOME bike rack at the thrift store that we've been working with. It's completely replaced my idea for the chair piece and for the backpack - this thing is about 100x better. I've found a great way to attach it to my shoulderpads, so it's all systems go. I'll update with more pics and details of the process as I have more time to work.

I wish this stuff was in my garage, but Curtis shipped me a key to his place, so now I can work on my own time instead of everyone else's.

So this weekend, I went hunting in the barn at my parent's house, hoping to find anything of use for the costume I could get my hands on. My dad was pretty helpful, offering to help me find anything I was looking for. The problem was, I wouldn't know what I'm looking for until I found it. Ultimately the search was fruitful, finding a plastic satchel that's used for holding vacuum cleaner accessories (no idea what I'm doing with it yet, but the shape and the material are good), and a pair of these:



I'm going to modify these into the stilts for the leg section of the costume. They're really only going to bear a resemblance to their original purpose by the time I'm done with them (originally they were ladder leg extensions), because I'll need to reinforce them if I plan to not break my neck. My intention is to use 1" and 3/4" PVC pipes to create two additional supports between my feet and the ground. This will be great for a few reasons;

First, as I learned in high school shop class, cylinders are the most stable shape to support weight on. Second, using three points of contact gives me a broad enough base to feel stable on the feet and not worry about tipping one way or the other and breaking my ankle. Third, there's a way to work the PVC so that when painted, it looks like hydraulic cylinders, which means that I can maintain a cool look with them at the same time as being functional.

I've also purchased this:



I'm going to use this as the ultimate end of one of the arms. It's got an electronic open and close which I should be able to modify into an extended arm so I can control it without my hand being inside the claw. It also looks totally badass, and I'm really excited to try and incorporate it into the design.

The backpack idea has fallen through, because 1)I couldn't find either of the frame packs I thought were at my parents, and 2)Buying a new one is more expensive than I care to pay for a metal rectangle. To circumvent that issue, I've taken apart the base of a camp chair, and I'm using the cross braces and backrest to replicate the same basic principle. My next build day should consist of attaching the frame to the shoulder pads and constructing the stilts. I'll take lots of pictures.

Welcome Back!

I've been absent for what seems like forever, and true to form, I quit about 10% of the way through my 365 project. Photography isn't really something I'm in love with, and even trying to be creative with it doesn't really make me feel much more excited about it. Some people really enjoy taking pictures of things. I'm not one of them, and that's ok.

However, I'm working on a new project and I want to share it with you as it progresses.

Since I was a little kid, I've loved Halloween. I think more than the candy, it has a lot to do with the ability to dress up in costumes and walk around and be perceived as normal. My mom is really creative when it comes to this kind of thing, and it was a ton of fun for her to help my brother and I make really awesome costumes. Of course, by help, I mean do it for us. Since I've been an adult, I've tried on a couple of occasions to make cool costumes, but for the most part, it's been a hassle. There's always some kind of obstacle in the way that I haven't wanted to expend the effort on hurdling. For example, one year, I really wanted to make a sick Wolverine costume, but the claws were next to impossible to do the way I wanted to, and too expensive for me to justify buying a really good set. So, instead I defaulted to some dumb thing or another, and carried on. One year I did make a really awesome Harry Potter themed costume, but that's basically just finding appropriate clothes. No real creativity is involved. Then, a few years ago, I bought a Bunny Suit, and I was that guy for a while. That was awesome, and really rejuvenated my enthusiasm for the holiday, but the suit has seen better days, and if I'm going to be doing a new costume, I'm going to put some effort into it with more than just my wallet.



Last year, my good friend Curtis built this cardboard Robot costume for some competitions around our town. He went "overboard" with it, and learned a lot about small electronics in the process. He did really well in the competitions, and everyone had a great time with it. This year, he decided to go a step further, and construct a new and improved robot out of sturdier materials, with much more intricate electronics involved. The other day I was at his house and he showed me the costume, and I became inspired.

I don't want to make a robot - I don't think stealing his idea or his thunder is really what kind of person I am. But I do want to take it in a new direction, and make some modifications to the process - and see what kind of craziness I can come up with on my own terms. Curtis has graciously allowed me to utilize any of his resources, including space - since Jen and I have a rather small apartment right now - so the two of us will be brewing largely together on our respective costumes.

Yesterday was day 1 for my costume, although Curtis is much further along in his own development. I'm not entirely sure what my end result will look like, but my inspiration comes from a few sources. First, this site has inspired a lot of what I think is cool. This guy is really a champ when it comes to this style of costume, and I think using his experience in not only the mechwarrior costume, but the other two he has made will allow me to shortcut a lot of the technical inefficiencies he's had over the years of production. I think his style is all there, but I also think my costume will generally be more reminiscent of this one:



On the downside, this guy kinda looks like a choad, and his costume looks cheap and fake. The foam pieces he used to flesh out the suit look exactly like painted foam, which bums me out, and functionally, it doesn't do anything. He just kinda stands there or walks around and looks intimidating. Meanwhile, anything he fights will kill him immediately since his entire body is exposed. Nice abs, though. I think his concept is sound, but we can build it better. We have the technology.

My concept is more robust, and probably bigger. That doesn't make it better, but it will be anyway. Originally, I had planned to make inverted knee legs (like on the mech in the first link) but Curtis pointed out how it takes a large amount of focus away from the costume when you see these really obvious legs, and I agree - so I decided to make my knees bend the right way and will be constructing "stilts" to give me additional height, along with devices to mask my legs.

The upper portion of the costume will consist of three main parts.
First, I've procured a set of football (American, not 'rest of the world-ian') shoulderpads in order to be able to build forward, back, and up simultaneously. In order to give the structure the right weight distribution, I'm planning to attach a pack frame to the rear of the shoulder pads and expand from that.



Second, the arms will be constructed in a manner that allows them to be permanently attached to the body, but at the same time disconnected. This will give them freedom of movement, but can allow any electrical systems to be powered in the main body, with wires being free to travel out as necessary. This connection consist of, but not be limited to, electrical conduit which gives practicality to the attachment as well as aesthetics.



The third portion of the upper body is the head. My initial plan is to use a welding mask, with the blackout screen removed, for the helmet, and modifying it to fit the theme of the final product. This was the first thing Curtis and I delved into, and so far it is a major success. The tricky part to this will be the power supply to any lighting in the helmet, but even this can be accomplished with the conduit system I'd be using for the arms. Any wires encased in this type of tubing would look entirely appropriate for the costume, and should be secure enough to not be rattled by moving about.



This weekend should bring time for some more construction, and I'll be sure to keep updating as we progress!

Optimist

I just looked over the past few posts, and noticed the general trend of pessimism and negativity that they contain. I don't want to give the wrong impression.
I love my life. Man, it's pretty awesome. I've got to admit that when I look over the lives of the people I know and surround myself with, I wouldn't trade places with any of them. That's not to say that their lives are in any way worse than mine - I'm sure that in their eyes they're right where they want to be - or in some cases are at least trying to get their lives to that stage - but my point is that overall, which is really what counts, I'm happy.
I've been really lax on updating this thing lately, mostly because I only half care, but I don't think its worth writing bullshit if I don't actually feel like I have something to say. So if you're still RSSing this, or reading it some other way, then thanks! In addition to my disinterest in writing, I've been in the middle of moving for the last few weeks. Bret (my roommate from my previous apartment) and I found a house about 10 mins away from our old apartment that is so much nicer than the place we were at that we couldn't allow ourselves to not live there. We'll be joined by Zachary Tartell of Watertown, NY, who is a good friend of ours who is looking to take up the moderate societal upgrade that Syracuse promises. I'll be posting some pics of the new crib at some point in the near future, once we get our stuff all moved in.
Outside the move, not much has been going on outside the normal day-to-day. Unless you count the break-in, I suppose. For those of you not reading the Magic Blog (how many of you are there?), the story is this:
A few Tuesday nights ago, sometime between 11pm and 7am Wednesday, my car was broken into. The thief stole my iPod and a backpack which contained two Magic decks which were chock full of expensive and irreplaceable cards. I'm out approximately $2000. I'm not excited about it, and as it turns out, it's not covered by either my car nor my renter's insurance. This is YEARS of investment and trading and tournament wins and all kinds of work, gone in an instant.

After a week of letting the town's card dealers know, checking eBay constantly, getting the car fixed, buying a new iPod, etc., I get a phone call from a friend who says he's going to make my day. He forwards me a private message on mtgTheSource.com (the website I admin) which says:

Thru a google search I found the post that says "Bret Weed is coming" to some event about a Boston Roll call....I live in Syracuse and found a bag under my front porch with some merchandise in it, for playing wizard games...in one of the pockets I found a card with Bret Weed on it...the bag has broken glass in it, so I am assuming his car was broken into and this was taken...i would like to return it to him... my # is 315-XXX-XXXX...

Thank you
Amy

As I said above, Bret is my roommate. I was borrowing his bag at the time. This woman went out of her way to track down the owner of the bag she found, and managed to find them on a random website - which I happen to be intricately involved with. I called her, and she lived less than a block from my old apartment. She had the bag, with all the cards in it. The assumption is, the thief stole the bag, looked in it, saw nothing of value (to them), and ditched it on the way to wherever they were going. Since this thief threw it under a porch, it was protected from the rain, which persisted the entire week I was missing the cards. I was obviously floored at the generosity and integrity of this benefactor, and made sure to give her some token of my gratitude - although anything I could have given her wouldn't have been enough.

I hope the thief enjoys his new iPod, or the 20 bucks he'll get for it. I'm glad, for my own sake, that he was too stupid to realize that the real value was in the backpack he threw away.

I've often told my closest friends that while some people always claim "My life sucks," I can't say the same - my life doesn't suck, it's just a little annoying sometimes. This is a perfect example. Should my cards have disappeared forever, it would have SUCKED. As it stands, it sucked for a week, and then became altogether better. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

I've battled with my weight my entire life. As far back as I can recall, I've been what I consider "a fat kid." The entire time I've thought that, the people I love, the people I've surrounded myself with, have been encouraging me to think differently. To think I'm normal, or at least, not fat. I've never believed them. I've always thought "you're only saying that because you don't know how else to make me feel better." I've always known that sure, I'm not on the extreme end of the scale, but I'm sure as hell not skinny, either.

I can remember very distinct points in time in my life, where weight has been an issue. I remember when I was in fifth grade, and a kid called me "fatso" on the playground. I tried to talk to my teacher about it, but they told me "you're not fat. You're healthy."

I remember in sixth grade, when I had to buy a pair of "Husky" jeans, because the regular ones didn't come in my size anymore. I'm not fat, I'm "husky."

I remember the first time I heard "You're not my type." I remember the first time I heard "I don't see you that way." I remember the first time I heard "What made you think you even had a chance?"

I'm not a depressed person. I'm not overly focused on my outward appearance. I'm not one of those people who needs the approval of everyone else, and kills themself to look the way the people in magazines look. But I'd be lying if I said that it didn't hurt me just a little when I see people all around me who treat themselves like shit, and somehow maintain that look. They never go to the gym. They eat like hell. And yet, they manage to have a 32 inch waist nonetheless. I realize its genetics. It still fucking hurts the fat kid trapped inside my somewhat overweight body. It still makes me feel like I've done something wrong.

So I'm doing something about it.

Not all prisons have bars

Let's talk about work.

I'm 26 (holy shit, I'm 26).  I've done very little with my life in terms of those things that people consider "experiences."  I haven't gone on any vision quests, I haven't seen the world.  I haven't jumped out of any airplanes, and I haven't gone backpacking through Europe.  I spent my entire youth living out a plan that was set in front of me by my cultural sense of obligation from the time I was fourteen.

Get good grades in school.  Learn, so that you're prepared for the next step.  Get into a good school.  Get good grades, so you'll be prepared for the next step.  Get a good job.  Get yourself a girl.  Start a family.  Go to work every day and work hard, so you'll be successful.  Get that promotion so you can get more money to buy more things.  He who dies with the most shit, wins.

I've been questioning that path in the back of my mind for the last decade, and I'm far too much of a coward to actually stray from it.  The ramifications of that are staggering.  If I don't have a job, I can't afford to live.  I've too much responsibility to be able to just cut and run.  So here I am, in an 8 by 8 cell, working every day to assure that the money I earn lines someone else's pockets.

I make a good wage.  I went to a highly reputable school, and got a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering.  I spend my days working for the Electrical Utility doing High Voltage System planning.  That sounds pretty awesome, right?  At the least, it sounds like I have a real technical job that keeps me on my toes, since I'm responsible for keeping the lights on.  In reality, I play on the internet most of the day, when I'm not in a meeting or my boss isn't looking, and then cram as much work as possible in at the last possible moment.  It's a fucking HARD job to look busy all day.  It's slowly burning me out, and I'm genuinely concerned that if I keep at it for the next twenty years, I'll go insane.  Part of me thinks in the back of my mind that if I sap this place for all I can, I can get to the point where I can escape into another job, or another profession, or what have you.  But that isn't how the system works.

By the time I graduated from college, I managed to rack up about 75 THOUSAND dollars in student loans.  The collegiate process is such a racket in this country that I feel like I've been robbed over and over again, and will continue to get robbed until well into my 30s.  Even having the reliable and generous income I do, I still feel broke every week.  I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I pay more out in student loan payments than anyone I know pays in rent, or car payments, or insurance.  Many of them combined.  It's absurd.  Once I miraculously dig myself out from under that mountain of debt, I'll still be left with the reality of a family.  The ten year payment plan seems fine before you start paying it, because once you're done, you're rich, right?  Wrong.  What you don't understand as an 18 year old is that you're likely to be about the right age to start dealing with kids when you finally get them paid off.  Wonderful.

I'm scared as hell that I'm stuck.  Every day I wake up thinking that there's no end in sight.  All I really want to do is drop everything, and see the frigging world.  There's so much out there that people don't get the opportunity to see.  There's so much that people don't get to experience because they, like me, are stuck as mice in a maze, looking for that piece of cheese.  Except there is no cheese, and the reality of the situation is that you're just smelling cheese essence that the fucking lab coats have pumped into the maze to get your ass in gear.

It's not like there are no options.  As I said, I have to keep thinking that at some point, I'll break out of the cage.  And by no means does my life completely suck.  I have the fortune (and misfortune) of bearing witness to the steady decline of my friends due to their lives crumbling in front of them.  I still have a job.  I still have my health.  I have an amazing girlfriend and a great relationship with her.  My family is still together, and my friends are always there when I need them.  So I grind it out - as much for all of them as for myself.

Recently my friend Alex posted a picture on facebook with descriptive squares, which you're supposed to tag with friends' names.  Most likely to get you drunk, most likely to be arrested, etc.  I was blown away when he tagged me as "Most Likely to Bail You Out."  The picture associated with the square was the Superman Shield.  It's amazing to me that even when I think my world is upside down, and I have no idea how I'll be able to stand another day in my self-imposed cage, that my friends still look to me as the stable one, the one they can depend on.  And if that's my lot in life, then I guess I'm alright with it.  It could be a lot worse.

More Bacon than the Pan Can Handle

Yes, although I was writing out each day of my vacation, and how awesome they were, I quickly tired of the play-by-play, so I bailed on it.  Deal.

The rest of the vacation was a great time.  Although the weather was uncooperative, we found plenty to do to occupy our time, and made the best of what we could.  There were a few breaks in the rain to catch some sun, and I managed to get a bit of color even without the beach days I was hoping for.  I also got to rock some killer sushi, so that worked out as well.

While riding out the increment weather, I decided to take a trip to Seminole, and check out the new Terminator joint.  For those of you completely in the dark, it's the one that came out last weekend, and although it hefted a fair margin of the box office, it still got crushed by Night at the Museum 2.  I'm telling you guys, never underestimate the draw of American history at the box office.  People LOVE stuff like this, and kids absolutely lap it up.  I'm in the same boat, these movies are all gold in my book, but I wanted to wait on NatM2 until I can see it in IMAX.

Brief aside - Syracuse is home to the MOST (Museum of Science and Technology), which is in turn home to the Bristol Omnitheater.  This is one of the first IMAX movie theaters in the region, which is great for the museum.  Unfortunately, as its an older projector, it lacks the equipment needed to show feature-length films, so it's uncommon for the theater to show the big blockbuster movies.  At the same time, it's unlikely they would be willing to pay for the reels to do so anyway, especially for movies like Spiderman or what have you, since they have no real educational value.  It is a museum, after all.  Still, they are proud to be showing NatM2 in IMAX, which is a great step in the right direction.  I think should they open the gates to more of these kid-friendly movies, there could be real interest in it here, as the nearest feature IMAX theater is hours away.  In a time when the museum needs the attention the most (no pun intended), they could really benefit from the draw these films could provide.

Anyway, on Terminator: Salvation, I've this to say - it was a movie.  And really, that's the best I can do for it.  While I did enjoy the film, it wasn't as revolutionary as T2, but it wasn't the trash heap that T3 was, either.  I'm glad they've breathed new life into the franchise, and Christian Bale is easily the best John Connor we've seen, but there wasn't a lot to cling on to in the movie.

First of all, I went into Terminator with relatively high expectations for the cast, but pretty low expectations of the director and effects.  I'll make no apologies about the fact that I have literally no respect for the directorial prowess of McG - and it only has a bit to do with the ridiculous moniker he's labelled himself with.  Seriously, man.  You're a professional.  At least pretend you have some credibility.  You're resume certainly isn't doing that for you, Mr. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.  At least Demi Moore looked hot in it.  So, I went in expecting a weakly driven plot and some mediocre special effects, but looked to Bale et al to make up for it with badassery.  What I got was a contrived story, with extremely cliched plot points, filled with really well done effects and direction, and mediocre performances.

Wait, what?  Yes, I said it, McG actually has a worthwhile credit to his account after T:S.  The movie looked great, with the exception of a few small CGI flaws here and there, but they were easily overlooked as the rest of the film was excellently shot, rendered, and toned.  The actors' performances overall were fine, although there were plenty of "Batman Voice" moments for Bale, and there was a real slippage of accents for Sam Worthington (who played the actual lead role of Marcus Wright).  It was quite obvious that while Bale has a mastery of dialect - I've seen him do a variety of accurate accents in other films - that Worthington hasn't quite gotten his American down yet.  The Australian slips back through.

These quibbles aside, the real sticking point of the movie for me was the absolute deluge of cliches in the movie.  It was near impossible for me to overlook the obvious foreshadowing points along the way (Your heart is sooo stroooong), and the characters' motivation - aside from survival - was completely absurd.  Moon Bloodgood's character in particular left me wondering "why would she even care?" about a hundred times.  By the end of the movie, I was simply no longer capable of believing that the characters gave a shit about each other at all, with the exception of John Connor trying to save Kyle Reese, in order to assure his own survival in the past-future(?).  I'll leave the time travel paradoxes out of the issue, since it's always been a problem with the franchise, and if you really want to complain about that, you probably shouldn't be watching the movies.

And yet, even with all these issues, I did enjoy Terminator, in the sense that I was entertained for 130 minutes.  After leaving the theater, I realized that I would have a difficult time really describing my opinion on the movie, since there wasn't much to it.  It's another of those franchise films that feels like a plot mover - it's a means to facilitate the next sequel.  Frankly, I've had enough of those movies at this point, and I'd like to get to some real story.  There's no money in real endings, though, so I don't know why I would expect to see one.

All in all, it was a fine movie.  As summer approaches, I wonder how many more "I liked it because I shut my head off" movies I'll be able to take.  Hopefully just enough to get me through September, and into Oscar season.

This week, I'm hoping to catch Night at the Museum, and when it hits this weekend, Pixar's new one, Up.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Sea Oats Obamacation - Day 2

Much less to say about Sunday, because, well, we didn't really do a lot. After waking up around 9, I walked over to the other condo for coffee and the morning buzz, which was mostly about Steph's birthday. She's had a birthday every year we've been here, so it kind of goes hand in hand with the beginning of the week. When she and Weston went to explore a thrift store, Jack and Sandie walked to the Circle K across the street, and picked up decorations and such. They returned with a bag of water balloons and an inflatable whale. I don't get it either. We all hurt ourselves blowing them all up, and waited to get things started on Steph's return. When she got back, we sang Happy B'Day, and laughed about the decor.

We were visited by a group of local friends thereafter - Chris Olds, whom Jack went to high school with, and his wife, newborn son, and another friend of theirs, Andrea. We all spent a while lounging poolside, where I picked up a solid start on sunburn. I managed to put sunblock on the back of my neck and shoulders, but there's a line on my chest where the sunblock ended, and the sunburn starts. I've gotta keep an eye on it this week so it doesn't get any worse. The intention is to turn it into a tan, which is usually easy on my arms and legs and face, but my chest and back don't get enough sun to make that as easy a prospect. Sometimes I wish I had my Dad's complexion, because every summer he turns to leather.

Once we got sick of the pool, Brett and I came upstairs for some drinks and watched game 1 of the NHL Western Conference Finals, and saw the Redwings beat the Blackhawks 5-2. Both of us are Wings fans, so it was a happy afternoon. Once the game was over, we started considering dinner, which was BBQ again. After dinner, we all came back up for cake and Ice cream, which I chose to abstain from, and we all watched the new Dane Cook special. I'm not a big Dane Cook fan, but I think I only heard like 2 jokes I'm pretty sure he stole from other comedians, so it's a halfway decent special I guess.

After cake, Brett, Laura and I went for a night swim, and then came upstairs and crashed. A mellow day, certainly, but overall the exact day we're looking for here. Plenty of relaxation, plenty of sun, and no stress to be seen. Vacation.

Sea Oats Obamacation - Day 1

Waking up at 4am is not fun. Even if you know you're planning to get on a plane to head to Tampa, Florida, you still hate the alarm clock with every ounce of your effort - which, on the tired side of 4am, isn't much. Still, you roll your ass out of bed and get your stuff ready so you can be sure you don't miss your flight. Unfortunately for Jen, she was my ride to the airport. She's even less excited at the prospect, since she won't be joining me. She's got all the bad parts, and none of the anticipation. Still, she's a great girlfriend, so she sucked it up and helped me out.

Flight 1 was uneventful. Slept the whole way to NYC. It was too early for me to even consider anything else. I did wake up for the landing, though, and it was awesome, since the entire airport was covered in a thick fog. I didn't see the ground until we hit it. It's landings like that that make you appreciate how good your pilots must be at their jobs, and how much technology there must be helping them out.

Once I got to New York, I really didn't have enough time to do or see anything, so I headed to see if any bars were serving yet. As it was only 7:30, they were not. Lame. So I boarded flight 2 to Tampa, and watched Travel Channel the whole way down. Jet Blue, baby. If I can manage it, I try to fly them everywhere. They really do have more leg room, and the TVs make the flights go so much smoother. Consider me a loyal customer.

Once arriving in Tampa and meeting everyone, we piled nine of us - Brett Gobe, Jack Collier and his wife Steph, her sister Sandie, Sarah Labombard, Chris Page, Laura Kroening, Weston Ruthven, and myself - into a seven passenger van and took off. First stop, as always, was this interesting Chinese food place called the Palace of the Orient (we just learned the name, although some of us have been going there for five years). They have passable food, but its a solid choice after a few hours in the air. We eat some MSG and drink some TsingTao beer, and head on to Sea Oats.

The place we stay is a condo complex literally on the beach in Reddington Shores, FL. We have two condos, which have between two and three bedrooms, and two bathrooms. They have balconies which are overlooking the Gulf, with an absolutely stunning view. There's a beachfront pool, and lots of space for BBQ. It's an excellent place for a vacation, but it's a little too tourist-y for my tastes, living there -wise.

Most days, we try to eat from groceries we purchase, because it's much cheaper than dinner out for a week. Brett and I were on shopping patrol for the first day, and we headed to Winn Dixie, where we picked up all the staples - lots of BBQ food, and a shit-ton of alcohol. There's a liquor store right next to the Winn Dixie, and I was responsible for buying the $100+ of liquor for day 1. We brought it all back to the Oats, and took in some sun before putting dinner together. By this time, we're all a little on the tipsy side, and exhausted from a long day. We came upstairs to play some Beirut (beer pong with quarters instead of balls, basically), and relaxed before finally making dinner around seven thirty. After dinner, I was pretty much drunk and spent, so I volunteered to be the puss and crash first. I passed out around 9, and was dead to the world until this morning, when I woke at 9am. The best part about going to bed at 9 is that when you sleep for 12 hours, you still wake up at a reasonable time.

Stay tuned for more highlights from the trip!