The slip and slide of moral decay

Hey Folks!
Sorry for the disappearing act. I've been really busy at the job that pays me (poorly, but pays nonetheless), and I've also been working on moving away from Blogger - the bane of my existence lately!

I'm happy to say that I've done it!!!!! I've got a new site. Ready for the address?

It's http://slipandslide.blogsome.com/ ... a real departure, right? :)

Everything's the same (as far as links and stuff go), and I've got a link on the new site that'll take people back here if they (or I , in a moment of ego stroking) want to read some of the old stuff!

So, y'all come on over and see me in my new digs!!!!!

The following is on my new site, too...

Couple of notes before I sign off til Monday.
1) BR - mailed your Palmetto Ale today. And then did as you instructed in your email. Thanks! And Thanks for the help in making the move away from Blogger…
2) I hope y’all make a note of my new address and keep on coming back, cuz now that k-ball season’s about to start, i’m gonna have a LOT of very interesting stuff on here…
3) Blogger - goodbye. farewell. and SUCK IT!

I finished an audio post Saturday night/Sunday morning (3:15AM) for the Blogging Challenge, and it's not here!!!! Our theme was Goldilocks and the Three Bears and I had a great real life example...

BR - trust me. I did NOT bail on this one (AL - saw your comment, too. and I swear to GOD i thought i posted). even the call log on my phone backs me up! (2:59AM 3/20/05)

my whole deal was themed around how crappy posting's been lately...

1) jerk roommate put a password lock on his 'puter - preventing me from posting.
2) friend's dial-up connection sucked - especially with Blogger's issues lately
3) the phone-in audio post worked just right...

dammit dammit dammit!

I've been told more than a few times that I look like Ben Savage. What celebrity do you resemble?...

We had a St. Patty's Day Party at work last night. You know - the usual cupcakes, l'il smokeys in BBQ sauce, potato decorating contest, and jello shots that could strip paint made by the college intern...

Here's the first of many beers I drank last night...I never went the green beer route, I'm proud to say.


That's me, doing the post-horrific-jello-shot-that-did-something-weird-to-my-spinal-cord dance.


Potato #9's mine - you can't see in this pic, but he's got five aces in front of him. He's the Five Card Spud! I came in second behind number 10 - A friggin' hula dancin' potato. I think the contest was rigged...


I was still fairly responsible and got myself home at 12:15, as I had a 9AM meeting this morning that required my brain to be running on at least 3/4 of a tank...

I'm gonna blow through my work today, so that I can get crackin' on the Blogger Challenge III - The City That Never Sleeps vs. The Sleepy City.

And to the person that suprised me at Dengate's last night when they told me they are a daily reader...thanks! That was kinda cool! I was flattered, embarrased, happy, and touched - as opposed to the way I like my Waffle House hash browns: shamed, defiled, disrespected, and sullied.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been paying (more) attention to the conversations that go on around me as I go through my day. I'm not eavesdropping, but you know when you're walking down the sidewalk, and you just hear a snippet of somone else's conversation? You just keep on walking, go about your business. I've just been wondering about the context in which these conversations are taking place - what was said before? what was said afterwards?

Do y'all ever wonder about this kind of stuff, too?

Well, lately I've been writing down the snippets that really jump out at me. There's no rhyme or reason to them, or the order in which they appear.

1) "We can party with the best of them!" followed by a high five between two of the dorkiest dudes i've ever seen at O'Reilly's Pub.

2) "Lindsey had yet ANOTHER tragic problem, so OF COURSE she calls ME..." One blonde with more make up on than Krusty the Klown to her girlfriend. No clue what the friend looked like, because I was freaked out by the living wax figure that was walking toward me on King Street...

3) "The women never sleeps! All she thinks about is guacomole!" y'all. i couldn't make this one up if i tried! This one was one guy talking to someone on the phone while sitting at the bar. I SOOOO WISH I KNEW WHO THIS GUACOMOLE WOMAN WAS AND WHAT SHE'S ALL ABOUT!

4) "There were some oysters slippin' out of my left tooth!"The only discernible thing that I heard from a guy singing karaoke at the Island Grill. During one of the instrumental breaks, he felt the need to tell everyone a story, and this was part of it. I wish I could go back in time and listen to it again.

Left tooth?!? Does he only have two teeth? I don't remember... Why were oysters SLIPPIN' out of his mouth to begin with?!?

DIET PEPSI AND CORNED BEEF. THAT'S WHAT WE'RE SERVING.

But we're just looking for a quick bite, like a couple of sandw-

NO CORNED BEEF?! YOU MUST WANT STEAK THEN! YOU LOOK LIKE A STEAK GUY! THE OUTBACK'S JUST A COUPLE BLOCKS DOWN THE ROAD, AND -

hiches cuz we're heading home and we really aren't in the moo-

TWO BLOCKS DOWN TAKE A RIGHT AND IT'S RIGHT THERE. YOU CAN'T MISS IT!

d for that kinda stuff.

Bless New Bern's heart. They mean well.

In Other News:

After moving through the WAKA ranks like crabs through a dorm room, I'm setting my presidential term of Charleston Kickball down for a season. In the past year, I've been a Team Captain, Social Chair (2x), the Ghost Man (newsletter writer/editor), and President.

I'm going to take it easy this season, and just write your friendly neighborhood Ghost Man on Third weekly newsletter this season. The first edition will be out two weeks from today! I email it to our 400+ players each week from now through July...

I'll be sure to post each addition on here for your reading pleasure, too...Can't friggin' WAIT for k-ball to start!

This site is getting ready to wake from a loooooong winter's nap, and step it up a bit...

Thanks, Viv, for giving a bonehead that thinks everyone gets his 7th grade sense of humor some credit.

And I mean that sincerely...

I just realized that the last two posts I put up were chock full o' baby pictures! The first was just a random photo pulled from Google, and the one right below this is my best friend's beautiful newborn baby daughter...

But just to even the field a little, here's a burp, and Grave Digger kickin' some ass for you! Hell Yeah!

...I'm all gooey inside right now!

One of my best friends - we've been friends since we met in fourth grade - just had a baby daughter. Well, actually his wife gave birth to her...

Love ya, Doc - and Mrs. Doc. And I haven't met you yet, little booger, but I love you, too.

I haven't gotten a really good night's sleep in about a week. Last night, I went to sleep after watching "The Contender" (I really liked the show, by the way). I woke up, feeling a little tired, but otherwise pretty refreshed. When I picked my head up off the pillow and looked at my clock, IT WAS ONLY 12:30!!!!! I still had 6 1/2 hours to sleep!!! I friggin' LOVE when that happens! I actually laughed out loud before putting my head back on the pillow and dreaming about racing go-carts with Cute Girl With Whom I've Been Spending My Time.

And if you're reading this, CG, we were racing on a dirt track and we totally left everyone else in the dust...strange, I know, but true... Probably all the talk about Frankie's and our Dinner at King Street Grill...

"mmmm...go-carts...hamburgers...boobies..."

I was recently asked to comment on whether or not I thought that dodgeball was olympic sport material or a monumental waste of time.

No-brainer here, people.

While many of you might think that Kickball and Dodgeball are playground pals, and the two live happily after, mocking tetherball and that weird basketball hoop thing with the four chutes coming out of it, you'd be sorely mistaken. Kickball and dodgeball are mortal enemies.

That's right - mortal enemies. Oil and water. Sharks and Jets. Salt and Coffee.

I know that dodgeball has met with some recent popularity what with Vince Vaughn/Ben Stiller movie, but that's all it's got going for it.

I played both sports when I was growing up, and liked 'em both - but then again, I was usually one of the biggest kids in class. I've pegged many a kid on the dodgeball court, and booted my share of deep balls on the kickball field. But after about 14, I realized something.

Dodgeball is mean.

The smaller kids get picked last, the nerds and geeks (who are now the bosses and CEO's of people like me) were the first to taste room-temperature rubber. It's a sport of exclusion where the goal is to get rid of kids on the other side, til you've got no one to play with.

Kickball, on the other hand, is open to any and all. Sure it helps to be faster or stronger, but you don't have to be. As long as you can kick (even if it's just the dreaded bunt), and catch, you can play. And instead of eliminating the other team from the field, you play your little hearts out against each other the whole time, and shake hands when it's over.

Over the past year, the opportunity to play both sports as an adult has come to our sleepy little town. I can proudly say:

I'm not only a kickballer, but I'm also the President.

And we are 400 strong in town - and tens of thousands strong across the country. Guys and girls drinking beers, 40's (OE - it busts a cap in all the other malt liquors, yo!), "go-juice" and the occaissional bottle of water or Gatorade. Hell, I've been known to smoke a cig while waiting for my pitch. We're approaching our 4th season in a few weeks, and I can't wait to see everyone on the fields again. I explain our cadre of kickers as "A drinking club with a kickball problem."

Co-ed Dodgeball is struggling here. But what do you expect? K-ball is a great way to meet singles in a quasi-active, fully social environment. How do you expect to get a girl's number in dodgeball after beaning her in the face?!? "How 'bout a cold beer for that shiner I gave you?" Ain't cuttin' in my book.

Dodgeball? Please.

Now if you'll excuse me, this President of Kickball has a summit to attend, where I'm meeting the Premier of Tetherball, and the Shah of Four-Square to impose sanctions on dodgeball and draft the Playground Peace Accords...

Dearest Vivian,

you screwed me. All my old comments are gone now. Miss Nobody tried to help me, but when I put her fix in, it made my site text get smaller and smaller until you couldn't read it...

Woman - you best hit me back and help me here...

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

...ahh....can you feel the tension leave? Do you hear the calm in my voice? Can you smell what the rock is cooking?


Thanks, Viv. Blogger's commenting capabilities have been Sucky McDon'tWork lately. So I dropped 'em like they was hot once I learned how easy it was to do! I kinda screwed it up though, cuz now all the comments that used to be on my posts are gone...little help? anyone? bueller? steve?

...you should, too...

Oh. And Minnesotans - I haven't forgotten...we's about to drop some knowledge on thee.

Shit - Do I have to pay Michael Buffer now?

So the fight's resolved and all's well with the world.

or so one would think...

The Clash in South Carolina made waves all the way to NYC, Texas, and Minnesota. That's right...Minnesota!

It seems that our little Lowcounty lovefest of bloggers has dopplegangers in other parts of the world.

But as the Highlander says, "There can be only one."

Bathroom Reading devised a great way to settle the argument of who are the kings and queens of this little hill.

So this week, Chucktown goes against Minnesota. Our topic is Dodgeball: Olympic Sport or Waste of Time? Little Miss Nobody, K-Lo, Jemima, and I will all be posting our thoughts, while simultaneously, in the Land that Time Forgot - and where Prince lives, bitches - they will be doing the same.

The Other Side stars:

MooCow at Bottling Up the Crazy, Jesster at Poor Role Model, Darkling_Child at First and Last and Always, Grend31 at Grend31’s Lair, and Mr. K at The Adventures of Mr. K

The gauntlet has been thrown...Stay tuned...

The posts were flying today, people. Like pigeons in St. Peter's Square, shit was flying everywhere.

I just got in my first blogfight.

Let me start by admitting that I do have a penchant for chatting about my friends, family, job, shoe size, and the sheer joy of reduced-fat wheat thins. A few months ago, I made a comment to a couple of co-workers about a friend of mine who is a fellow blogger, at which time I gave her address. I then competely forgot about the issue.

Recently, said person was "outed" after trying to remain quasi-anonymous all these many months. Said person has begun (?) to hear about and be asked about her blog quite a bit lately. So, after initially directing her venomous posting and subsequent yanking of my link from her site, I apologized but politely informed that I haven't said JACK about her site in many moons.

There are some inquisitive folks in our sleepy little burg, it seems.

Just last night, I learned that there’s someone in town looking to do a story on Charleston bloggers. Why? Slow news week, and a year behind the curve are my only guesses. But to each his/her own...

Back to the fight.

After said venom-spitting and link-pulling, some not-so-nice comments were made about me. Pretty much the standard, garden-variety “you suck” type deal, but they stung nonetheless (I can be a delicate flower at times).

I defended myself as best I could, but was rapidly becoming the pariah of the Lowcountry Bloggers (Similar to the Pink Ladies, but without the jackets, and close calls with Kinicky).

Luckily, an anonymous poster from Boston came to my aid, pointing out that while one may think their blog is similar to whispering and passing notes in homeroom, it’s more akin to grabbing a bullhorn and shouting from the top of The Capitol.

Things have smoothed over, and I am now back in the good graces of my compadres.

Funny thing about this internet, it speeds EVERYTHING up. While a fight like this might normally take a week or so to blossom, blow up, and resolve, we knocked this one out of the park in about 72 hours.God bless Al Gore.

LMN - You're a peach.

Sorry for the delay, everyone. I went out on an impromptu date last night, and well, let's see...new post on my site...smooch on the cute girl i recently started seeing...

I'm going to go with "Smooch the Cute Girl" for $200, Alex...

Anyway,
While there were a bunch of funny captions that y'all submitted (thanks by the way!), there were two that I thought rose to the top.

They are:

Jim was a little shy but he thought the best thing for him to do was to jump right in, get his feet wet and then introduce himself to the woman monitoring the surveilance camera.

AND