Blog on hiatus

I have started a new job so this blog will go on hiatus. Hopefully I can restart blogging again once I have some time. Thanks to anyone who has visited and has added to my hit counter.

Stephen

Dogfish Head Brewery and Going Veg Day 1

Yesterday, I went to the Dogfish Head Brewery for a tour and it was pretty amazing. The tour guide pretty much explained every facet of beer-making and introduced us to the many tubes, pipes, and containers needed to produce all of their delicious brews. After the tour we had a tasting of four different beers the 60 Min IPA, the 90 Min IPA, the Palo Santo, and the Lawnmower Light. Each beer was very hoppy but had a distinct character all on its own.

Today, I have decided to go vegetarian. Well not today per se but I have been mulling it over the past few weeks...and I'm only trying it for a month. The reason I am doing it is mostly for health reasons but also as sort of a challenge to myself. I am also trying to see if cutting meat can help me lose weight without changing my activity level. I am going to chronicle all 30 days right here. After the 30 days is up I am going to decide whether to continue or maybe just cut my meat consumption.

First off the rules:

1. I am going lacto-ovo vegetarian which means eggs and milk are okay.
2. No meat or fish will be consumed.
3. My vegetarian diet will start today July 6, 2008 and end on August 6, 2008
4. I will post my weight every seventh day.
5. Every meal I eat will be chronicled daily like so:

Day 1: July 6, 2008

Breakfast consisted of whole wheat pancakes with blueberry syrup. I kind of cheated a bit today because I had shrimp in my soup at lunch but that was my last indulgence for the next 30 days. My main course was a tofu curry with mixed veg from Bua Thai Restaurant. The tofu was fried and then cooked in a red curry sauce. It tasted pretty good because the tofu had soaked up much of the curry flavor. I wouldn't mind eating it on a weekly basis. Snack was a sourdough roll with some butter. For dinner I tried making some vegetable curry but I didn't turn out quite how I wanted it. It tasted decently like curry so I ate it anyway with some Naan, an Indian flatbread. I was still a bit hungry after dinner so I ate a slice of leftover cheese pizza. Dessert was an orange. All in all not a bad first all vegetarian day.

Ten Things To Do During A Power Outage

There were recently some heavy storms in the DC Metropolitan area and as a result my power was out. Without cable, internet, TV, or light I found myself excruciatingly bored. In times like these I come to appreciate my modern conveniences. This inspired me to create a list of things that might make that summer blackout a little more tolerable:

1. Play a game of cards

2. Read your favorite book

3. Listen to the radio

4. Meditate

5. Play flashlight tag

The person who is "it" waits at the "jail" counting to a high number while everyone else hides. Then, armed with a flashlight, this person searches for the others who may be switching hiding spots. The flashlight must remain on at all times and may not be covered. When "it " spots someone, s/he must use the flashlight to get a close enough look at the person to identify him/er and call out his/er name. Each caught person is sent to "jail" to wait until everyone is caught. The first person caught then becomes "it." Another variation is to have more than one person (or a team) be "it." With this configuration, people who are not "it" can tag other people (or team members) free from "jail." One of the "its" may stay near to guard the "jail."

6. Tell ghost stories

7. Ponder life's mysteries

8. Bust out the portable electronics and use them 'til the batteries run dry

9. Prepare for the next blackout

10. Print out this list and think of things to add to it

Nats! Still jobless...

I have been a Washington Nationals fan ever since they moved here from Montreal. I was never much of an Orioles fan, mostly because Camden Yards was too far to see Os games with any regularity. The easy access by Metro to RFK Stadium, and now Nationals Park, fueled my Nats passion even more. So I had high hopes for this season. But alas, the baseball gods are not smiling favorably on my Nats. The signings of Paul Lo Duca, Lastings Milledge, and Elijah Dukes seemed like just the thing to round out a good but not great starting lineup. Lo Duca is on the DL, Milledge is only hitting .244, and Dukes is averaging below the Mendoza line. The starting rotation is sorely in need of some consistency and veteran leadership to help mold the young talent that is already there. The Nationals are currently 24-34 and have gone 4-6 in their last ten. But it is still June and there is lots of baseball yet to be played.

I am still unemployed, but today I applied with a temp agency that will hopefully put some cash in my pocket while I look for some more permanent employment.

Graduation...and then real life

I had hoped that this blog would not be another testament to my procrastination abilities, but alas it has. In the past two months that this blog has been empty I have graduated college, looked for employment, went on interviews, and then kept on looking for employment. The job market has not been kind to me but I will keep on looking. Good news is that I got paid by PayPerPost which was nice. I am grateful that I have kind parents who welcomed me back with open arms, a roof over my head, and food to eat, if every college grad should be so lucky. I should be writing more from here on out about the events that populate this limbo of a life I currently live.

Atlantic City....was kind of a bust

Being a college student I am always looking for the best bargains in anything, so I thought by going to Atlantic City I thought I could find some cheap $5 Blackjack tables at maybe around 3 or 4 am. Whoo, boy was I wrong. Most tables were running at about $25 dollars a hand at the Tropicana and Trump Plaza casinos, and these weren't even the high roller tables. I talked to a bartender at the Liquid Lounge in Trump Plaza and he said that I probably wouldn't find any cheap tables, there are only 13 casinos in AC and none of them are going to slash minimums anytime soon. So I was forced to play slots, mostly penny and nickel. Here is the breakdown of my gambling over the course of Friday night:

Penny Slots
Bet $2
Win $2.66
Bet $2.66
Lose $2.66

Nickel Slots
Bet $5
Lose $5

Thats it.

There was one bright spot in the evening, the food. We ate at Carmine's, an Italian Restaurant in the Tropicana and it was pretty delicious. Our party of seven shared sausage linguine, spaghetti with red clam sauce, and veal cutlets. Everything was great and it came out to be about $15 a person, less than a hand of Blackjack each.

My advice for any bargain hunters going to AC, stick to the food. I'm hoping to go to Vegas later this year so hopefully I'll have better luck there.

PayPerPost Approved!

Just found out that PayPerPost approved my blog, so I'm writing my first post for them. I hope that by writing for PPP I can make writing about myself a little more worthwhile. The money that I receive from PayPerPost will supplement my already meager income so hopefully I can take advantage of PPP's many opportunities. Getting paid to write about myself is definitely a plus when it comes to blogging.

I have already met some people that have joined PPP and the consensus is that it is a good way to make money through blogging. PayPerPost's blog network is a better way for me to monetize my blog because my writing does not conform to a general theme and it is harder for some ads to target my readers effectively. The sponsored posts will let me advertise while also blogging about what I want to blog about.

Banner ads have been my only source of ad income prior to PPP and they don’t really work to well for me so this is a welcome change of pace. I will still use banner ads but if PayPerPost turns out to be the better option, I will most likely use PPP exclusively for the near future.