Perhaps you've noticed the links off to the side of this window, where it says "My Blog List." This is something I've been playing with recently while exploring the features available in blog publishing that I don't necessarily use. There are a few blogs out there I like to follow so I've started building a list here on Summer Vacation. Probably will be a few more there in the coming days as well.
But I'm sure there are other interesting blogs I don't know about. So I'm putting the idea out there -- is there anyone who reads "Summer Vacation" at all and keeps their own blog who would like to be included on my blog list? I know from my perspective that when I write something the ultimate goal is for people to read it. I'm not aware of anyone who has me included on a blog list, but I know that when I get comments on the Facebook links that steer most of the readers here, or even likes after a post, those things seem to get more people to check it out. And on rare occasions when someone has "shared" a link on their own wall or sent it on to other people as a forward -- rare, but it has happened -- it really bumps up the hit count and gives me a nice little sense of validation for an hour or two.
So in the spirit of networking and community and all that, I'm offering anyone with a blog the chance to get listed here. And you know, even if you don't want to be linked, I'd still love to see what other people are doing. I think reading what someone takes the time to write about gives you added insight into who they are and what they think about, and I'd like to see those things if they're already out there anyway. And on the flip side, if anyone does read something here they feel strongly enough to share, hey, go right ahead. The fact that I maintain a blog should be proof enough of how starved for attention I am.
I've also seen a lot of blogs and writers that will write up guest posts for each other, which is something else that could be interesting. So I'll throw that out there too; if anyone would like to write a guest post on Summer Vacation or would like me to write one for them, or just has ideas for me to write about at some point, let's get some wordplay rolling around out there on the Internets. I know that in all likelihood this will be one of those posts that just kind of gets rolled over and politely ignored, but hey. You gotta ask the question to get an answer.
So, anyone out there with something to share, whether you want it linked here or not -- please let me know. I'd love to see it.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Pointless Observations
I can't be the only person who walks around with an internal monologue. The unceasing narrative observations, the snarky DVD commentary track of my day. Since 99 out of 100 visits I make to the grocery store I do alone, this seems to happen frequently while I'm shopping. Since it's been a few days since I've posted last, I decided to keep track of a few things that crossed my mind while I made my way through the aisles of my local grocer this afternoon. Maybe you'll find some of them amusing, maybe they'll remind you of the kinds of things you think about, or maybe reading this will be the most pointless thing you do all weekend. Let's find out....
**Seriously? Do they not have at least one pear without the imprint of a thumbnail carved into its side?
**No ma'am, that's fine. Stop right there by that empty cart. Block the whole aisle. Be sure you make the right choice about which Snack Pack you want. I've got nothing but time here.
**Now they have potato chips that are "slow-cooked rib" flavored? What exactly do they season these with to make them taste like not just ribs, but slow-cooked ribs? That's some food science going on there.
**Do I know that weird kid staring at me? Sorry, dude. It's summer. The mental database is in the "off" position.
**So Budweiser makes a wing sauce. I don't know why I find this surprising. If a beer company made an oatmeal someone would buy it and serve it to their friends during pre-season football.
**The Black-Eyed Peas have now fallen to the point where they've made the eternal loop of the grocery store music reel. A well-earned plummet into obscurity. See you guys on a VH1 millennial nostalgia countdown in a few years.
**I wouldn't mind buying some sweet corn, if this stuff didn't look like the raccoons came in here and had their way with it last night.
**JAZZ apples? That's a new one. Don't we already have enough varieties of apples to keep everyone happy?
**They always have that carton sitting there with the sign screaming "FREE APPLES FOR THE KIDS," and yet I've never seen a kid in here walking around eating an apple. Now, walking around with an open bag of chips the family hasn't paid for yet... different story.
**Okay, the produce section is very disappointing today. I'll grab some raspberries so I have a token fruit in my cart if anyone I know sees me in here.
**Are you kidding? "Jawlipop?" They sure named it right, because that's the body part that the doctor will have to examine after any kid tries to eat one.
**Those are the last two guys I would ever expect to see debating over brownie mixes.
**They have bacon-flavored Spam? Now I know where all the low-sodium foods get rid of the stuff they don't use. My hands feel puffy just walking by.
**So I guess it takes the average preschooler four whining attempts at choosing a cereal before they give up.
**WHAT?! They have a new 5 gum? I'm totally getting that. (By the way, it's called Swerve, and it's pretty good stuff.)
**The guy ahead of me at the register is only buying bacon and cheese dip. He might be a genius.
**I don't think I want to know why the floor at the end of the register is sticky....
**Seriously? Do they not have at least one pear without the imprint of a thumbnail carved into its side?
**No ma'am, that's fine. Stop right there by that empty cart. Block the whole aisle. Be sure you make the right choice about which Snack Pack you want. I've got nothing but time here.
**Now they have potato chips that are "slow-cooked rib" flavored? What exactly do they season these with to make them taste like not just ribs, but slow-cooked ribs? That's some food science going on there.
**Do I know that weird kid staring at me? Sorry, dude. It's summer. The mental database is in the "off" position.
**So Budweiser makes a wing sauce. I don't know why I find this surprising. If a beer company made an oatmeal someone would buy it and serve it to their friends during pre-season football.
**The Black-Eyed Peas have now fallen to the point where they've made the eternal loop of the grocery store music reel. A well-earned plummet into obscurity. See you guys on a VH1 millennial nostalgia countdown in a few years.
**I wouldn't mind buying some sweet corn, if this stuff didn't look like the raccoons came in here and had their way with it last night.
**JAZZ apples? That's a new one. Don't we already have enough varieties of apples to keep everyone happy?
**They always have that carton sitting there with the sign screaming "FREE APPLES FOR THE KIDS," and yet I've never seen a kid in here walking around eating an apple. Now, walking around with an open bag of chips the family hasn't paid for yet... different story.
**Okay, the produce section is very disappointing today. I'll grab some raspberries so I have a token fruit in my cart if anyone I know sees me in here.
**Are you kidding? "Jawlipop?" They sure named it right, because that's the body part that the doctor will have to examine after any kid tries to eat one.
**Those are the last two guys I would ever expect to see debating over brownie mixes.
**They have bacon-flavored Spam? Now I know where all the low-sodium foods get rid of the stuff they don't use. My hands feel puffy just walking by.
**So I guess it takes the average preschooler four whining attempts at choosing a cereal before they give up.
**WHAT?! They have a new 5 gum? I'm totally getting that. (By the way, it's called Swerve, and it's pretty good stuff.)
**The guy ahead of me at the register is only buying bacon and cheese dip. He might be a genius.
**I don't think I want to know why the floor at the end of the register is sticky....
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Purple "Pride"
I’d call this one of my more controversial posts since it touches on subjects that are way too important to some people, but since very few people will even see this I’ll just call it “potentially controversial.”
I’d define myself as a very casual sports fan. Really. You’ve heard of that mythical person living in the Northern Suburbs who doesn’t live and die by local sports teams? Yeah. Me. I follow the Vikings’ season as intently as I follow any professional sports team, which is to say that I’ll watch each game they play during a season, usually without napping for more than ten or fifteen minutes. I’ll occasionally watch the Twins play if I come across a game while flipping channels or they’re on a TV while I’m on the treadmill at the Y, but I don’t have the patience to care about one hundred sixty-two games played over a season. Basketball can be very exciting, but I’d much rather watch “Hoosiers” again than sit through the carnage of a Timberwolves game. And hockey? Yeesh. I have seen maybe five entire hockey games played at any level in my life. So really it’s not physically possible to care less about the Wild than I do, to say nothing of my theory that youth hockey is closer to being an athletic cult than a recreational program. And I haven’t even scratched the surface here about golf, tennis, lacrosse... fishing... Nascar....
A lot of people I know would call that last paragraph heresy and question my standing as an American for feeling the way I do. Don’t get me wrong -- I’m not saying any of this to be critical of sports, or sports fans. Sports can be great entertainment. Athletes working at a professional level have some truly impressive physical abilities that can be fun to see on display. A team that works together well is inspiring to watch. And for someone who’s a fan of a particular team, they can be exciting to follow. I can get caught up in post-season media saturation for just about any local team; it’s like skipping ahead to the end of reading a thriller without having to wade through all of the back story that led up to it. I always get caught up in the Olympics. And I totally get the passion that goes into someone cheering for a team that represents their school, or supporting their friends or family who are competing. And sports can be great fun to play, as long as there isn’t anyone involved who becomes obnoxiously over-competitive and you don’t wind up with some injury that requires three weeks in a knee brace simply because you fall in the wrong direction.
Let’s face it -- professional sports should not be life or death for anyone except the people who depend on them to make a living and hopefully don’t end their careers with debilitating injuries. I don’t have the same brain chemistry as people who think it’s a good idea to paint their entire upper body to psyche themselves up for a game they’ll only be passively watching at Buffalo Wild Wings. Whenever groups of people start getting into prolonged discussions about the sports topics of the moment, I’ll stand there and nod like I care and quietly wait for the conversation to shift away from what would be the lowest common denominator of conversation if the weather didn’t constantly change. And if you’re one of these people who gets upset over the hundreds or thousands of dollars you risk in playing fantasy football? Chances are you knew it wasn’t one of the more sound investments choices out there. So deal with it, chump. Lot of people out there do it for free, just for the thrill of being able to claim dominance over their circle of high school buddies.
In the end, professional sports are nothing but another form of entertainment, just like movies, books, music, or theater. And following that idea, professional sports teams are, above everything else, business organizations. One of my favorite Jerry Seinfeld jokes is about how hard it is to justify the loyalty people show professional sports teams, since in the end “you’re actually rooting for the clothes.” Few organizations illustrate this better than the Minnesota Vikings. Some examples:
Brett Favre: Here you have a guy who Vikings fans hated to their very core of their collective self, but then was treated like a messiah when came to play on the other side of the St. Croix. (I know I’m overlooking his stint with the Jets; he’d probably like to overlook it as well.) There were people following him from the airport, lining the streets and waving, ready to throw palm fronds at his feet as he made his way to Winter Park. Local TV interrupted programming to show him getting a ride from the airport. He sure seemed to enjoy being the prettiest princess at the ball for that first season, but things changed drastically when he eventually returned. He needed team members to deliver him both candy and flowers before he decided to play again, and then as the season unfolded and he was revealed to be an actual fallible human being, the fan support evaporated. My take? He never should have played here. Granted, it was exciting to watch him play in that first season, but even while I was enjoying that I felt all he was doing was damaging any idea of legacy he may have hoped to have.
Donavan McNabb: The new quarterback, a veteran player brought in to mentor the draft pick. I have nothing for or against him at this point. But this guy is indicative of how there are about thirty or so big-name NFL players who rotate through so many teams during a career it’s hard to associate them with any team other than the one currently paying them. News broke yesterday that Payton Manning was paid an unholy amount of money to stay with Indianapolis. I actually get that. He’s become so identified with the team it would be a huge blow to lose him. Joe Mauer was in the same situation with the Twins not long ago. No human on Earth does a job so well they should make that much money for it, but in the ridiculously inflated marketplace of professional sports, signing a local hero to a career contract like that makes sense to keep the fans buying their tickets, jerseys, caps, hot dogs, bobbleheads....
Sidney Rice: This guy had a great season a couple years back, then the too predictable injuries came along. This year he went somewhere else when they offered him a more appealing professional situation than he thought he’d have here. Can’t blame the guy, and he seemed like a nice guy from the little I saw during interviews so I wish him well. But there are Vikings fans who see this as an outright betrayal. My head spins.
Randy Moss: Gifted athlete? Without question. He could not be more self-involved or attention-loving if he was Bret Michaels. He comes back to the Vikings for, what was it? One game last year? If the people of Minnesota had been as fired up and opinionated about the state budget as they had been about Randy Moss returning to the Vikings, a government shutdown never would have been allowed to happen. Such are the priorities that fuel our society.
Greg Camarillo: I hadn’t heard of him before he was traded to the Vikings. He doesn’t seem to be a big showboating superstar, but a pretty reliable, get-the-job-done kind of guy. I like him as a player for these reasons, much the same way I was a fan of Chester Taylor before he was traded away. But will I follow Camarillo’s career if he gets sent to another team, which is always possible because he’s not one of the superstars?
No. Because he’ll be wearing different clothes.
I’d define myself as a very casual sports fan. Really. You’ve heard of that mythical person living in the Northern Suburbs who doesn’t live and die by local sports teams? Yeah. Me. I follow the Vikings’ season as intently as I follow any professional sports team, which is to say that I’ll watch each game they play during a season, usually without napping for more than ten or fifteen minutes. I’ll occasionally watch the Twins play if I come across a game while flipping channels or they’re on a TV while I’m on the treadmill at the Y, but I don’t have the patience to care about one hundred sixty-two games played over a season. Basketball can be very exciting, but I’d much rather watch “Hoosiers” again than sit through the carnage of a Timberwolves game. And hockey? Yeesh. I have seen maybe five entire hockey games played at any level in my life. So really it’s not physically possible to care less about the Wild than I do, to say nothing of my theory that youth hockey is closer to being an athletic cult than a recreational program. And I haven’t even scratched the surface here about golf, tennis, lacrosse... fishing... Nascar....
A lot of people I know would call that last paragraph heresy and question my standing as an American for feeling the way I do. Don’t get me wrong -- I’m not saying any of this to be critical of sports, or sports fans. Sports can be great entertainment. Athletes working at a professional level have some truly impressive physical abilities that can be fun to see on display. A team that works together well is inspiring to watch. And for someone who’s a fan of a particular team, they can be exciting to follow. I can get caught up in post-season media saturation for just about any local team; it’s like skipping ahead to the end of reading a thriller without having to wade through all of the back story that led up to it. I always get caught up in the Olympics. And I totally get the passion that goes into someone cheering for a team that represents their school, or supporting their friends or family who are competing. And sports can be great fun to play, as long as there isn’t anyone involved who becomes obnoxiously over-competitive and you don’t wind up with some injury that requires three weeks in a knee brace simply because you fall in the wrong direction.
Let’s face it -- professional sports should not be life or death for anyone except the people who depend on them to make a living and hopefully don’t end their careers with debilitating injuries. I don’t have the same brain chemistry as people who think it’s a good idea to paint their entire upper body to psyche themselves up for a game they’ll only be passively watching at Buffalo Wild Wings. Whenever groups of people start getting into prolonged discussions about the sports topics of the moment, I’ll stand there and nod like I care and quietly wait for the conversation to shift away from what would be the lowest common denominator of conversation if the weather didn’t constantly change. And if you’re one of these people who gets upset over the hundreds or thousands of dollars you risk in playing fantasy football? Chances are you knew it wasn’t one of the more sound investments choices out there. So deal with it, chump. Lot of people out there do it for free, just for the thrill of being able to claim dominance over their circle of high school buddies.
In the end, professional sports are nothing but another form of entertainment, just like movies, books, music, or theater. And following that idea, professional sports teams are, above everything else, business organizations. One of my favorite Jerry Seinfeld jokes is about how hard it is to justify the loyalty people show professional sports teams, since in the end “you’re actually rooting for the clothes.” Few organizations illustrate this better than the Minnesota Vikings. Some examples:
Brett Favre: Here you have a guy who Vikings fans hated to their very core of their collective self, but then was treated like a messiah when came to play on the other side of the St. Croix. (I know I’m overlooking his stint with the Jets; he’d probably like to overlook it as well.) There were people following him from the airport, lining the streets and waving, ready to throw palm fronds at his feet as he made his way to Winter Park. Local TV interrupted programming to show him getting a ride from the airport. He sure seemed to enjoy being the prettiest princess at the ball for that first season, but things changed drastically when he eventually returned. He needed team members to deliver him both candy and flowers before he decided to play again, and then as the season unfolded and he was revealed to be an actual fallible human being, the fan support evaporated. My take? He never should have played here. Granted, it was exciting to watch him play in that first season, but even while I was enjoying that I felt all he was doing was damaging any idea of legacy he may have hoped to have.
Donavan McNabb: The new quarterback, a veteran player brought in to mentor the draft pick. I have nothing for or against him at this point. But this guy is indicative of how there are about thirty or so big-name NFL players who rotate through so many teams during a career it’s hard to associate them with any team other than the one currently paying them. News broke yesterday that Payton Manning was paid an unholy amount of money to stay with Indianapolis. I actually get that. He’s become so identified with the team it would be a huge blow to lose him. Joe Mauer was in the same situation with the Twins not long ago. No human on Earth does a job so well they should make that much money for it, but in the ridiculously inflated marketplace of professional sports, signing a local hero to a career contract like that makes sense to keep the fans buying their tickets, jerseys, caps, hot dogs, bobbleheads....
Sidney Rice: This guy had a great season a couple years back, then the too predictable injuries came along. This year he went somewhere else when they offered him a more appealing professional situation than he thought he’d have here. Can’t blame the guy, and he seemed like a nice guy from the little I saw during interviews so I wish him well. But there are Vikings fans who see this as an outright betrayal. My head spins.
Randy Moss: Gifted athlete? Without question. He could not be more self-involved or attention-loving if he was Bret Michaels. He comes back to the Vikings for, what was it? One game last year? If the people of Minnesota had been as fired up and opinionated about the state budget as they had been about Randy Moss returning to the Vikings, a government shutdown never would have been allowed to happen. Such are the priorities that fuel our society.
Greg Camarillo: I hadn’t heard of him before he was traded to the Vikings. He doesn’t seem to be a big showboating superstar, but a pretty reliable, get-the-job-done kind of guy. I like him as a player for these reasons, much the same way I was a fan of Chester Taylor before he was traded away. But will I follow Camarillo’s career if he gets sent to another team, which is always possible because he’s not one of the superstars?
No. Because he’ll be wearing different clothes.
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