Author: Erwin

All through the day, I was trying to think of what I’d be writing tonight. I had a very big post in mind but I think I’ll save that for later in the week. I also thought of a rant I’d like to write but then again, I went to the Atlantic Trap and Gill last night which was also interesting. So I’m gonna mash those topics into one poorly written post.

I’ve decided that my former and beloved graduate residence, St. John’s College is a lot less fun that it used to be. This is only my opinion but all the interesting characters that used to be drawn to that place have been replaced by boring morons. Where’s my evidence? I ask you to find a single person that plays croquet at SJC. Yep, I’m basing it on the fact that no one at SJC even uses the two croquet sets that are sitting in the pool room closet. Back when I used to walk to school uphill both ways, croquet was the sport to play in the courtyard. From the likes of Dana, Bryan, and Kent, newbie residents were taught the finer points of ball striking and mallet handling.

Croquet was a social sport that brought together residents and initiated friendships. As the finest residents that SJC had ever seen began to move out, they were replaced with asshats who didn’t care for croquet. Not only did they not care for croquet, they did not care for tradition, SJC tradition to be exact. They went about their own business, not even realizing for a moment that the place they stayed in had a history that pre-dated even their own egotistical undergrad days.

Ok, it’s getting late so I have no time to talk about the Trap and Gill. Suffice to say, the place is a lot more interesting when you’re the only non-white person there except for Tim and Ron.

“A man who acted as a modern-day bridge troll faces charges in Boulder after he and his companion allegedly got into a confrontation with an off-duty sheriff’s deputy.

According to a police report obtained by 7NEWS, Robert Hibbs, 19, was arrested Friday in a park near Foothills Highway and Colorado Avenue after demanding money and attacking the deputy.”

The story goes on to reveal how LSD and a golf club was involved but for that you’ll have to read the full article here.

Because of a required oil filter change, tonight’s blog post will have to be diminished in capacity. Instead, think of your loved ones or failing that, think about products that you might purchase in the near future.

In my previous post, I wrote about my all-time favourite teacher, Mrs. K. That got me thinking about contacting her again. I wonder if she ever thinks about her former students. I’m sure she thought a few of them would end up in jail. I wonder if she ever thinks about me. Would she be disappointed at how I turned out?

I think she still teaches at a local high school. Maybe I’ll go e-mail her in a few days time. Now that I’m an adult maybe she might tell me stories about my other junior high school teachers.

As I look back on my years, I’ve discovered that I’ve had my fair share of nicknames. That kinda surprises me because I’ve never thought of myself as a guy that was prone to being nicknamed. I have no distinguishing physical features, except for maybe a large, unwieldy head or perhaps being slight in stature.

The very first nickname I can remember having was given to me by my all-time favourite teacher, Mrs. S. Kilpatrick. She was my homeroom teacher for grades 8, 9, and 10. She called me “orange flavoured crystals”. I don’t think anyone else called me that but she did. Mrs. K. also introduced me and the other students in English 8 to the book, The Outsiders. If you ever hear me say, “Stay gold Ponyboy,” you know I mean it.

In junior high, I also garnered another nickname. One Andrew Brown began calling me “Irv”, a play on my first name. I actually liked that moniker and several people picked up on it. It stayed with me through high school but it eventually fell by the wayside after we graduated.

I don’t remember any nicknames during my undergrad days, which is weird since a lot of rabble-rousing occurs in your school days. Maybe people called me names behind my back but I never heard those.

It wasn’t until the heady days of grad school where I would once again be known by another name. Fellow SJC resident, Miriam, the pride of Creston (or was it Lytton?), began calling me E-dawg. Then again, she started calling everyone something-dawg so I suppose I shouldn’t feel too special. Just today, a former co-worker of mine called me E-dawg. Small world!

I forget if this was slightly after grad school but I gained another nickname from the infamous lawyer of SJC, Joel himself. He took to calling me Winnie. Independently, during the summer of 2005, my co-worker Dave, started calling me Winnie as well. I have to admit, I quite like Winnie. Some people are reminded of Pooh the bear but most people think of Winnie from The Wonder Years. If you may indulge me in a slight tangent… hey, maybe that could be a nickname too… anyways, the actress that played Winnie, Danica McKellar, went onto attend Stanford where she received a degree in mathematics. She even got a proof published. A girl that knows her math is hawt! The special spelling denotes extra hawtness. If anyone is interested, here’s her photo shoot from Stuff magazine. In the interview, they discuss the proof.

And that’s my collection of nicknames thus far.

I’m sure almost everyone who surfs the Internet has viewed at least one video via YouTube. Allowing people to easily post videos for others to see seems like a simple idea but YouTube did it better anyone else. Sure there was some luck involved but it’s the favoured site to post your videos to.

Because anyone can post their videos and because the site is so popular now, YouTube has created Internet stars. As far as the Web goes, these people are genuine celebrities. Their videos are viewed by the thousands. In a course of a week, a video can generate as many as 100 000 views. A single video can elicit over a thousand comments in the same time frame. I can only dream of a blog post with that many comments.

One such Internet sensation is a twenty-something male from Toronto, Ontario. His name is Tony but he’s much better known as “The Wine Kone”. He’s a bit of rarity on YouTube since most stars there are teenage girls. TWK’s videos, for the most part, are funny, well-edited, and entertaining. There’s no doubt he has a sense of humour, which skews at times towards the self-deprecating. Now where have I seen that before? Hmm…

Strangely, TWK has garnered YouTube groupies. These are girls who find TWK attractive and funny. They leave flattering comments for him to read. It’s almost rock star in nature.

Now with stardom does has his price and in this case, it comes in the form of detractors. I believe the kids these days refer to them as “haters”. On the Internet, it’s much easier to criticize than to create and TWK has dealt with his fair share of critics.

Nonetheless, I find it fascinating that in this day and age, you can be well known to hundreds of thousands of people without being a TV star, movie star, or serial killer. Be sure to check out one of TWK’s latest videos above where he describes his university graduation. I know it might seem long but it’s well worth your time. Funny stuff indeed. His entire collection can be viewed here.

If you’ve seen me in person in the last week or so, let me explain something. Yeah, I know my hair looks terrible. I’ve run out of that wax crap that usually tames my wild locks. Plus it kinda gives it a shine that I like. On top of that, I’ve let my hair grow out so much it looks like a bird’s nest.

I know this post is useless without pics but I’m not about to go take a picture of my hair just to upload it. Instead, trying doing a Google image search on “bad hair“.

Well another late night at work has left tonight’s blog post in disarray. I can only offer you this link, which reports that US President Bush, has his poop and pee flown back to the US when he visits foreign countries. Label the report as unverifiable at this point.

Over the weekend I played hockey at SJC for the first time in many months. After we were done, Tyson was nice enough to let me shower in his bathroom. He had to go pick up Tom at the airport so he showered first. Adam also needed to cleanse but I jumped into the shower before he could wedge his naked body in there.

After I was done, he went into the bathroom but quickly came back out. He made mention of the slight evidence of talcum powder on the floor. I admitted that yes, that was my baby powder and it’s part of my shower routine.

As I explained to Adam the rationale behind using talc after a shower, he seemed intrigued. As a service to all the other guys out there, I thought I’d share this tidbit. Applying baby powder is an excellent way to keep your body dry and fresh-smelling well after you’ve left the shower. Residual water left behind after towelling off can sometimes linger on the body. Especially during the summer, this can be quite uncomfortable. The use of talc will dry up the remaining bit of moisture. It can also combat any new moisture that can arise due to sweating.

Baby powder will additionally leave your skin feeling smooth to the touch. For an added bonus, the lavender scented talcs can truly enhance your fragrance profile.

I usually use a small amount underneath each arm and underneath “the boys”. During the summer, talcing the boys can mean the difference have a great, trouble-free day or a day of shattered confidence.

If you’re adventurous, you can also try a bit of baby powder in or around the area of your backside. Try covering all areas that you think might need some help.

And that’s your daily lifestyle helper!

Because I spent too much time tonight playing video games and since I worked late as well, I got no gems o’ wisdom for you. Instead, if you click here, you’ll get a random web site. I did this once before and it worked pretty well. Let us know what you got. I’ll start it off. Check for my comment below.