Writing Prompt: Let’s Get Physical, Physical…

It’s a Monday—which means it’s my Sunday—so I figure I’ll ease into the week with a writing prompt from the fine folks over at Plinky.com.

What does your fitness routine consist of?

My physical routine is generally quite boring and uneventful.

During the spring/summer/fall months I generally do nothing but play softball.

Last summer/fall, I was playing softball anywhere from two to four times a week. This had a pretty good impact on my endurance and overall physical well-being.

You might not think much of slow-pitch softball—and let’s be honest, you probably shouldn’t—but if you’re playing enough and you’re anything like me (read: hypercompetitive and a centerfielder) you’re likely to spend A LOT of time running.

I can honestly say that by the time my softball seasons finally wrapped up in mid-to-late October, I was in some of the best shape I’ve been in since high school.

Remember, high school? Remember when you had Phys. Ed. like three days a week and you couldn’t be a fatty unless you really worked at it (or had a glandular problem)?

Yeah…those were the days.

In high school, I looked like an anorexic 11-year-old cheerleader, but danged if I wasn’t in some solid shape. As I got older, I spent less and less time playing sports and found myself falling into considerably worse shape.

That’s why I decided that I needed to pay outlandish amounts of money for a gym membership. This was a HUGE waste of money when I lived in Southie, but now that I live a few blocks from the gym, it’s not so bad.

In fact, this is how I spend my winters attempting to stay “in shape.”

Basically, what I do is meander into the gym 3-4 times a week and sorta stare at all the equipment.

I move some things around until the bang and clank and I assume that means I’m working out. I run on the indoor track until my knees feel like they’re going to explode and then I go sit in a sauna and read the sports section of the paper for half an hour.

That’s pretty much the extent of what I’ve got for a physical fitness routine: softball in the spring/summer/fall and ill-fated attempts at gym-rattedness in the winter.

If you’ve got a better game-plan, lemme hear it in the comments…

Join the PTQ Team Today!!

I’ve noticed a serious lack in output here at PTQ lately.

Technically, this is a good thing since the original intent of this entire blog was to get me and the two lovely ladies I write with back into the mix as regular bloggers at our own bitchin’ sites (links along the right hand column, y’all).

Things have been slow-going, but we’re definitely on the right path back to regular postingness.

I’ve attempted to recruit more writers for PTQ and the results have not been pretty. I know of at least half a dozen bloggers who are damn good writers, but have fallen off the wagon (or are back on the wagon—I can never keep it straight) in terms of their own blogging.

I have invited all of those peeps and I’ve heavily pimped PTQ to them as well. Thus far, we’ve gained one new blogger, my brother. He’s written sporadically—granted, we’ve all written sporadically—as he is just now joining the world of writers/bloggers/journalers/ranters/etc.

I’m very proud to have him not only in the mix here at PTQ, but writing in general. I’ve long been a writing pimp and tried to get anyone and everyone on the bandwagon, because—and let’s be honest here folks—writing is effing awesome.

If you’re mad; you can write about it. If you’re happy; you can write about it. If you’re in love with a zebra; there’s a whole separate section of the internet for you, but you can sure as hell write about it—likely under a pseudonym.

I’m all about writing.

My efforts here have waned considerably from posting everyday to posting once or twice a week at best. I’m down with that. It means that my own blogs are slowly (but surely) working their way back into shape.

I’m still busy out of my mind at work and in my personal life, but I really—REALLY—want nothing more in my life than to write. I think I’ve got a knack for it and I’m fairly personable in the sense that my writing often sounds exactly like the way I speak.

As such, it’s not too hard to picture yourself drinking a beer and listening to me ramble on, yet all the while I’m sitting across the world pounding on some keys and—well—drinking a beer.

Anyway, this has gotten really long-winded ( likely because I’m actually drinking whiskey and not beer tonight ) but the long and short of it is that we need some new writers here at PTQ to keep this enterprise going.

If you—or someone you know—wants to write more or needs an outlet, let me know, this is the place for you.

PTQ is meant to get writers writing.

Let me know if you need that push.

Writing Prompt: Laying Down the Law

Plinky asks: “If you could enact one new law, what would it be?”

In the spirit of the season, I’m going to say I would make it illegal to drive around with snow left on top of your car. I’ve seen far, far too many lazy people tearing down the road with snow and ice flying off their car roofs, and even though I don’t drive, it still pisses me off.

I get especially disheartened at the state of humanity when I see tiny cars with the snow still piled on top. Really, people? Can’t be arsed to pull out that snow brush and do a little stretching? It’s not that hard, is it?

I feel like SUV and truck drivers think they have an excuse, since the roofs of their cars are tall enough to make snow clearing impossible to a normal-sized human. To them, I point to the gentleman in the picture above. This man knows how it is. If you own a big car, you should also own a big brush. Or a broom. Your propensity for large vehicles does not excuse you of the responsibility!

I suppose I get so riled up about this because it’s a safety issue, and lazy people are putting the lives of fellow drivers in danger. When I experienced my first snowfall as a licensed driver, I couldn’t be arsed to reach across my car roof to get all the snow off. Then my mum explained about how ice can launch off cars and into the windshields of vehicles behind them, cracking the glass on one end of the damage spectrum, and causing a multi-car pile-up on the other. That’s all it took; my car was brushed meticulously clean each storm after that.

If a 16-year-old can understand the concept, I think it’s only fair to expect adults to get it too. Which is why I would enact a law imposing a strict fine on anyone driving with a dangerously snowy car. After some research, I found that New Hampshire already has this law; drivers get fined between $250 and $500 for the first offense, then up to $1,000 for the second. My fine would be the average cost of a windshield replacement plus the average ER and hospital costs – sans insurance – for car accident victims… some Googling of these costs brings my estimated fine amount to $4000 on the low end.

Would the threat of this fine be enough to motivate people to get off their butts and spend 5-10 minutes clearing their cars off for the good of society? My tiny faith in humanity says probably not, but then again, you know what they say about assuming things…

Immoral

Immorality, it’s a problem that’s been plaguing America for years. Lately it seems like there are no people with morals anywhere. You listen to the news and hear about shootings and robberies. Then you watch politics and they seem even more corrupt than ever. I am starting to lose my faith in this “great” country.

For example, in the generally mundane and patently boring place that I live, there have been many immoral acts lately. I am not one to preach but this is getting ridiculous. There are eight families, that I know of personally, who have been torn apart as a result of cheating. That means eight more divorces in Iowa. One of the couples had been married for almost 20 years. Three others were married anywhere from eight to twelve years. The other four I’m not entirely sure how long they were married, but the point is they were married. I feel that this is utterly unimaginable. I have been married for almost five years now and can’t imagine being with anyone else.

The kicker in these situations is that the cheaters feel they truly did nothing wrong. They won’t take the blame for ruining the marriages. All of the families have children that will now have to meet new people and adjust to them as their “new family.” In total, there are (give-or-take) 23 children between these families. This is what makes it so hard to stomach. Each family already has one parent trying to turn the children against the other parent for personal gain. The worst part of writing this is that I keep remembering more couple that have recently been split as a result of cheating. I started with two sets of families and at this point I’m up to eight families that have been divided.

I may not be the most moral person, but when I look around and listen to everything going on right now, I look pretty good. This is coming from the guy who was “Mr. Immoral” in high school. Many people, most of whom I haven’t talked to since high school, would probably think that I am still the same guy. I’m not. Not by a long shot, but it is hard to change a person’s mindset on who you are – as opposed to who you were – when you’ve changed for the better. When you do something bad, however, it changes in a heartbeat.

I feel that we, as a people, need to change the direction this country is headed. All I see is bad, worse, and worst. I challenge all of you (even if it is only one or two people) to make a change. We have to try to correct this mess of a country that we all live in. I want my daughter or daughters (not sure if new baby is boy or girl yet) to grow up in a place where you can trust people. Where your children are safe and so are you. Where you don’t need to wonder what your wife or husband or girlfriend or boyfriend is doing. Where your wedding vows mean something other than “I get half of everything you have” or “you get to pay me to do nothing.”

I AM SICK OF THIS.

I know many may not like this post, but I’m venting. I will probably post many topics like this. Anger management and venting is one major goal of my blogging. Along with just telling my stories. Stay tuned for the “Blown Cellulose Chronicles” starting soon. This will be writings about the job sites, the people, and the general crap I put up with each day as I work insulating.

Writing Prompt: A Picture is Worth One Gigantic Smile

I’d really hoped to get more blogging done today, but between pounding out the epic year-end recap to my “Cheeseburger Chronicles”, writing yet another entry in the “A Moment with Grace” series and updating some stuff at my fantasy baseball blog…time just sort of got away from me.

As such, y’all are getting another writing prompt courtesy of Plinky.com.

Share a photo of something that makes you smile.

I think I love this photo so much because we weren’t even aware a photo was being taken at the time. Grace and I have been together for more than eight years now and I still get all giddy and nervous around her like she’s some sort of high school crush.

I dig this.

I dig this a lot.

My hope is that it’ll always be like this and you’ll be able to randomly snap a photo of us 50 years from now and we’ll still be grabbing at each others’ asses blissfully unaware that anyone is paying any attention to us.

Workaholic…

This word has been used very often to describe me. My parents say it, my in-laws say it, and my wife definitely says that I’m a workaholic. I’m positive it’s the first word she uses when telling someone about me. It makes a guy wonder if it’s a good thing or a bad thing to be given such a label. I feel that your job, and how you are devoted to it, show more about who you are than your other daily actions do. If a person works hard day in and day out it shows they love or enjoy what they do. Seeing the pleasure that a person gets out of fulfilling a dream or goal is priceless. Personally, the more I work, the happier I am. This doesn’t mean that I’m not happy when not working. Right now while writing this I am having my daddy daughter night and couldn’t be happier.

The idea of happiness at work seems to be an oddity to many people. They show up just in time in the morning and run to the door at lunch. They struggle to drag themselves back in for the last half of the day. Then they just count down the minutes till the five-o-clock whistle. It takes two afternoons worth of work in the typical work environment to equal the productivity that one typical morning produces. A person who loves their job or at least enjoys it and has a passion for it has steady production all day.

This is where I reach out to all the people who dislike their job. QUIT!!!! If you don’t like what you’re doing you are not only cheating yourself but your employer and everyone around you. Your family will suffer because you won’t have true happiness no matter what you think. Yes, having a well-paying job is nice, but like everyone says “money can’t buy happiness.” I have some very nice things and I appreciate them because I worked hard for them. Every moment I get with my family I make the most of. These moments come and go way too quickly. You never know when your family will be taken from you. One day you could get a call to hear that a good friend has cancer; that in their scans they look like a Dalmatian with all the cancer spots. These are the reasons that I never get a break about working so much.

I work from seven to five, five days a week. Saturdays I work from when my babysitter shows up till whenever I stop. Sundays are my day off, to spend with family. With our work we go just about anywhere so I leave home at six-thirty and usually don’t get home till six-thirty. When I am home at night I play with my daughter and sit and talk with my wife. If I have time and they don’t mind I work on our house. Does this make me a workaholic? Or just a guy that wants to get something done in a day? What is so wrong with making as much progress as you can? There are only so many hours in a day and I intend to use as many as I can to get done what I need to.

This work ethic was installed in me at a young age. My father is a great man, I give him a lot of shit but I really look up to him. He had all three of us boys by the time he was my age. He worked a normal nine to five and took care of hogs during his free time to earn extra cash. At one point he had pigs at three different places. From the time I was deemed old enough, I was his ride along buddy right there on the passenger seat. These are memories that I’ll never forget. He would work from sun-up to sun-down. He did anything he had to do put food on the table (which took a lot) and clothes on our backs. If he had a little extra money he would improve something. This is a virtue that I have kept with me a tried to help other people understand. Do what you can, Rome wasn’t built in a day, your house can be redone one window at a time. Every little bit will help and get you that much closer. I work with my dad every day this has created a bond I wouldn’t trade for millions of dollars.

I started working full-time during the summer when I was twelve. I fell in love with hard work, it sounds odd I know. With this job I quit playing baseball, I love baseball, but work came first. My brother on the other hand loves baseball more than anything. Instead of working construction he worked making pizza. The pay wasn’t nearly as good. I didn’t understand back then why he would choose to work there and make less. Now I see that with that job it gave him the time to do things that he loved and he didn’t care for construction. When I realized this I gained a new respect for my brother.

Every person has the potential to do something they care about. The hard part is having the drive to do it. Many people still criticize me for quitting college after one year. I was 3.0 and hardly there. It just wasn’t for me. They all say you had potential to do so much could have done something more. Is what I do not good enough?? Is being a carpenter/electrician/plumber/landscapers/etc. not enough? This is why I let my wife choose what she wanted to do. I wanted her to have the same happiness that I have with my job.

With all of this is it bad to be a workaholic??

Photo Evidence: Al Davis is a Zombie

I know, right?!

I probably should have prefaced this post with some sort of warning about hiding the children and keeping an empty trashcan nearby, you know, just in case. Unfortunately, I did not and now you’ve all been privy to my photographic evidence that Al Davis, owner/dictator of the Oakland Raiders, is–unquestionably–a freakin’ zombie!!

Seriously, take another long, hard look at all-o-that.

Do you wanna try and refute my statement?

I didn’t think so.

I’m sorry I didn’t have any sort of “real” post in me today, but when I stumbled upon this photo, I just figured the world should be made aware that the dead do, in fact, walk among us.

Lock your doors and draw the shades, y’all…because Al Davis could be peepin’ in your windows right now.

Sleep tight.

Writing Prompt: Bad for Business

It’s been a few days since I posted here at PTQ and that figures to be the norm whilst I work on fazing myself out of the regular writing crew here.

I did, however, figure that I should post a little something and thus I’ve gone with a writing prompt from the fine folks at Plinky.com.

Have you ever thought about starting your own business?

I thought for a brief period of time that I could somehow start my own website and offer fantasy baseball consulting.

Logic eventually set in and I remembered that there are roughly 30,000 websites out there that offer fantasy baseball advice, tips, tricks and strategies for absolutely no cost whatsoever.

Needless to say, it wasn’t going to be the bountiful business venture I’d once dreamed. It turns out that people have absolutely zero incentive to pay some random dude with questionable facial hair for baseball advice when they can get the same basic advice—or at least just advice—for free elsewhere.

It’s the old “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free” thing and let’s be honest, it makes perfect sense. I mean seriously, I’m a pretty competitive fantasy baseballerizer and I’d never pay some schmuck for fantasy baseball advice because I know that I know more than 90% of the peeps out there.

I assume any fantasy baseballer worth their salt feels the same way. That having been said, to think it’s worth not only asking for but paying for someone else’s advice is straight up poppycock.

So yeah, my fantasy baseball consulting business hasn’t really gotten off the ground floor and doesn’t really figure to anytime in the near future.

I guess I’ll have to go back to my other game plan of releasing a line of zombie apocalypse preparation-themed workout DVDs.

Writing Prompt: Stage Presence

Plinky asks, “Have you ever been on stage?”

Why yes, Plinky, I have indeed been on stage once or twice, despite my penchant for shyness around lots of people. Let me share some of the best moments:

1) My first time going onstage not to receive a Books & Beyond award in elementary school (I read a lot) was at the illustrious Mechanics Hall in downtown Worcester, MA. I went on countless field trips here as a kid, and one time got picked to hop up onstage to take part in a random performance. I forget if it was 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade… I’m leaning toward 5th… but the show centered on this guy who sang songs about the environment and diversity, etc. I got to hold up the “L” sign in his aptly titled song “Ecology” while some of my classmates were quickly taught ridiculously complicated clapping routines to accompany the song. It was weird.

2) In 8th grade, I was part of the not-so-illustrious “Chorus 2″ in my middle school’s production of Leader of the Pack. Chorus 2 was where the musical director stuck all the kids who couldn’t sing or act, since no one was allowed to be cut from the cast in middle school. I got to wear 1960s-era clothes, plus more makeup than I’ve ever worn any other time in my life, and sing and dance to hits such as “Be My Baby,” “Do Wah Diddy,” and “Chapel of Love.” I also got pretty good at dancing the Hanky Panky, but sadly all those moves have escaped from my memory.

3) During a random fit of inspiration to participate in as many diverse things as possible during my sophomore year of college (the year in which I played indoor soccer for the first time, wrote sporadically for the school paper, and several other things), I tried out for a small production of the third act of Our Town, and landed the role of dead Mrs. Gibbs. (With my track record of being pegged as a bad actor – see above – I was pretty pumped that I was actually given a significant speaking role). It was a pretty fun experience, and also occurred right before my hatred for all-things theatre developed fully, so I’m glad I was able to sneak it in there.

There you have it, Plinky… evidence of my brief history as a thespian. They say nature abhors a vacuum; well, DGobs abhors actors, actresses, musicals, and most-things theatrical, so I’m pretty sure these were my last moments onstage as an actress. Do with those memories what you will.

Writing Prompt: Mix It Up

I realize I haven’t exactly committed to posting everyday here at PTQ as a I work on phasing out and (hopefully) bringing in some new writers in need of a kick-start, but I just felt like I should at least make a post-a-day for my first week back in the swing of things.

With that in mind, I’m going to an old standby here today, a writing prompt from the fine folks at Plinky.com.

Name three songs you’d put on a road trip mix tape.

In an effort to make this as realistic as possible, I’ve only included songs that were actually featured on mix tapes and burnt CDs back when I was regularly driving. It doesn’t seem fair to toss in a bunch of Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood or Glee songs, because I’ve never really road tripped to ‘em.

As such, here are three songs that were constantly on repeat back in my driving days:

“Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey

Since high school, “Don’t Stop Believin’” has served as the unofficial anthem or soundtrack to the lives of me and my best friends. We used to listen to this song while cruising around our dinky hometown and talking about the future and it’s served us all well as a reminder to keep believin’ there’s more out there for us, no matter how bad things can get some times. Also, Steve Motherf’n Perry!

“Hanging By a Moment” by Lifehouse

Back in high school when I used to burn a new CD nearly every two or three days (remember CDs?) this song always seemed to find its way into the mix. I’ve always liked this song and I find it always pumps me up, no matter what kind of day I’m having. My friends and I started playing a guessing game with my mixed CDs to see what song would be next—my CDs tended to vary widely in genre—and this song was generally the safest bet of the bunch.

“Why Part 2” by Collective Soul

This song rules. Period. Every time this song comes on in the car, I find my right foot getting a lot heavier and–even though I drive an automatic–an overwhelming urge to shift gears and slalom through traffic takes over. As such, it pretty much HAD to make the cut.

It Might Be About Damn Time To Get My Shit Together

Much of my adult—or whatever you call your mid-twenties—life has been spent dreaming of a career that involves either writing or baseball or—in some perfect world—writing about baseball.

(Note: I’ve recently made peace with the fact that I won’t be playing baseball or, more than likely, working in baseball for a living.)

Instead, I’ve made my millions multiple-hundreds in the “library services” world.

There was, however, a glorious period of time (ie: the fall/winter of ’09) in which my baseball writing was top-notch and I eventually become the top-ranked baseball writer at the burgeoning sports website, “BleacherReport.”

As is often the case, my writing was hindered by Christmas vacation and then was absolutely obliterated by a dang-near year-long battle with writer’s block.

As has proven to be the case in the past, a trip home to Iowa was enough to re-charge the batteries and get me feeling the need/urge/craving/etc. to write again.

Unfortunately, I’ve yet to really get my ass back into gear in regards to my baseball writing. Most of this is because my beloved Minnesota Twins haven’t really done a damn thing beyond trade away the shortstop I have a man-crush on.

Today, however, I received reason enough to get my shit together in the form of an email from the fine folks at BleacherReport that read:

“We want the members of the Bleacher Report community of writers to be the first to know about this coming opportunity.

Bleacher Report will start hiring a small number of writers for part-time paid writing positions immediately – a limited number at first, but more over time. These paid writers will be given specific assignments by Bleacher Report editors and be responsible for meeting goals – volume, traffic and engagement, and quality.

We will accept some external applications but, for the most part, Bleacher Report will look to source candidates for these paid writing positions from our existing writer base. Our best Featured Columnists will be considered for these positions.

Newer writers may qualify for the Featured Columnist program by proving themselves consistent contributors of high-quality entertaining content and demonstrating expertise in a specific relevant subject area.

There is no need to apply directly for these paid positions; over the course of several months, our editors will reach out to writers who qualify.”

I know, right?!

Now, I don’t want to get the cart ahead of the horse here, because I’m certainly not the world’s greatest baseball writer. I’m not big into sabermetrics and I’ve got no real cable, so I don’t get to watch 1,000 games a year, but I generally know what I’m talking about despite a lack of live games and ESPN-infused insight.

I’m a dude who does his research and legitimately loves the game more than he does some of his family members (sorry, Aunt Linda). This is all because of my Pappy.

As a kid, baseball was my major connection with my Pappy.

He is much, much, much more of a “manly man” than I’ll ever be and he has that particular connection with my brother, G-Doggy. I’ll never have that.

I’m not the kind of guy who wakes up at 5am, ready to go work and roof a house. I’m the kind of guy who wakes up at 5am and rolls back over to sleep for a few more hours before waking up and getting stoked to write about something moderately amusing that happened at his library job the day before.

As an adult, baseball is just as important between me and my Pappy. I’ll never fully understand his stories about working in the cold to fix up a crappy run-down house and he’ll never fully understand (or perhaps really respect) my stories about working in a dusty old library, and that’s okay. That’s life. We live in different worlds.

The important thing is that when we’re chatting about who will be starting in left field for the Mets or who will be the Twins designated hitter against southpaws, we’re on the same page.

My Pappy is—without a doubt—the reason I love baseball as much as I do and for that, I am eternally grateful. There is nothing else in my life that is as simple and pure and beautiful as a game of baseball. It is the ideal way to spend a day/morning/afternoon/life.

As I said, I’m not the greatest baseball writer, but I’m also not the worst.

I’m sure I’m either far too technical and impersonal or way too personal and unprofessional—I have some serious troubles finding that middle ground—but I do know what the hell I’m doing.

And when I’m “on,” by golly I am motherf’n “ON.”

The problem is that I’ve yet to really get my shit together on the baseball writing since my recent battle with writer’s block came to an end.

I’m still incredibly overworked and likely in WAY over my head at work, but you know what…I’m gonna handle that like a champ. If I don’t, well then I’m going to go down swinging.

I’m going to find a way to factor what I really want to do—(ie: write)—into my ridiculously busy work life and also comically busy social life.

This is a legitimate chance for me to finally do what I really want to do and, by golly, I’m gonna make this shit happen.

…or go down swinging, that’s kinda my thing.

Boots!

I’m super giddy (and therefore super lame) because I just bought myself a totally kick-ass pair of winter boots. In fact, these are the first winter boots I ever bought for myself, so it’s a pretty exciting evening, let me tell you.

I always rocked the boots during my childhood… I was even one of the few kids who was allowed to play in the snow during recess because my mum packed me off to school with boots, and other kids wore sneakers because they wanted to be cool. Well who was the cool one after all?! The girl climbing snow mountains with a handful of other people, or all the losers standing on the cement and looking sad? Haha, I say. Haha!

Even in high school I always had some boots handy. Something changed when I went to college though. Maybe it’s because my campus was so uber-tiny that I wasn’t outside in the snow for more than 45 seconds at a time, so I just always wore sneakers. I upgraded to some vaguely boot-like Skechers that I still rock to this day, but unfortunately they have no traction whatsoever and are low-top, so they’re not the best for traversing icy roads or climbing through snow drifts.

In recent years, I’ve taken to wearing my Docs (with Yak Trax when it’s wicked icy), but they also don’t have much traction and aren’t much warmer than wearing a pair of Chucks. Actually, Chucks might be warmer.

Anyway. All this rambling to say that today I finally bit the bullet and splurged on a new pair of fancy-shmancy boots. (Thanks to my grandpa, Bop, for the Christmas money that went directly to purchasing these bad boys!) Now watch… as soon as I get these boots in the mail it won’t snow for the rest of the winter here. Oh well, from what I hear these puppies will last me a long time. **NERD**

My 2010 Reading List

Today’s post was originally posted at “Blank Stares and Blank Pages.“

It has become a tradition of mine to track what I read every year. I realize this is super dorky and is probably deserving of a wedgie or some other sophomoric punishment, but it is what it is. I’m a nerd, deal.

Anyway, a year ago I read a whopping total of 14 books and set the bar just a tad higher for 2010 when I vowed to read 15 books.

I definitely got the job done in that regard. I read a grand total of 16 books and an additional 18 graphic novels.

Out of those 16 books, some were awesome and some were quite forgettable. Luckily, I did read two books that had a major impact on me.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War was such a well-written and engrossing book that is pretty much jump-started my long simmering zombie obsession to borderline psychotic levels. As you can tell from much of the list, I spent a BIG part of 2010 reading about zombies.

The second “big impact” book of the year was Stephen King’s The Stand. King has long been in the running to be deemed my favorite author and after plowing through his epic post-apocalyptic novel he’s officially taken the crown. I’m sure he’ll be super stoked to know he’s obtained such a high honor.

In addition, I’ve become obsessed with all things related to The Stand. As such, I plowed through the graphic novel adaptation of the book and sat through the abysmal miniseries from the early ‘90s. I’ve spent time on message boards—I told you I was a nerd—talking with fellow Standaholics about how we’d recast it if it were to be remade as a movie or miniseries.

Anyway, without any further ass-rambling, here is my reading list from 2010:

Books

“I’m Next:The Strange Journey of America’s Most Unlikely Superhero” by Bill Goldberg and Steve Goldberg
“Controversy Creates Ca$h” by Eric Bischoff
“World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” by Max Brooks
“The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead” by Max Brooks
“Blockade Billy” by Stephen King
“Cell” by Stephen King
“The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition” by Stephen King
“Full Dark, No Stars” by Stephen King
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
“Eating the Dinosaur” by Chuck Klosterman
“Feed” by Mia Grant
“Day by Day Armageddon” by J.L. Bourne
“Beyond Exile: Day by Day Armageddon” by J.L. Bourne
“Are We Winning?: Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball” by Will Leitch
“Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection” by Don Roff
“Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men” by Michael Kimmel

Graphic Novels

“The Zombie Survival Guide: The Recorded Attacks” by Max Brooks and Ibraim Roberson
“Marvel Zombies” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 4: The Heart’s Desire” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 5: The Best Defense” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 6: This Sorrowful Life” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 7: The Calm Before” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 8: Made To Suffer” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 9: Here We Remain” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 10: What We Become” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 11: Fear the Hunters” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 12: Life Among Them” by Robert Kirkman
“The Stand vol. 1: Captain Trips” by Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins
“The Stand vol. 2: American Nightmares” by Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins
“The Stand vol. 3: Soul Survivors” by Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins
“Kick-Ass ” by Mark Millar

I’m pretty sure I had a few more books in there somewhere. I have this sneaking suspicion that I’m forgetting a few baseball books that I read last spring, but that’s the type of thing that happens when your hard drive dies and gobbles up your reading list with it.

I’ll be backing up my 2011 reading list all year long as I aim for this year’s lofty new goal of reading 20 books. I’m not including graphic novels in that count, even though many of them read like a book and take as long as a book.

Additionally, I’ll be keeping my previous personal rule that states I MUST purchase a book every time I go into a bookstore. If I’m dropping some serious coin on books over the course of a year, I’ve gotta read ‘em, right?!

If anyone out there in blogland has read or is interested in reading anything on my list, lemme know what you thought or if you’ve got any questions. I’d love to hear what y’all have to say.

Snowmageddon is Upon Us…Maybe

If the fine folks in the weather prophecy business can be trusted, it is supposed to dump somewhere between one to two feet of snow on the greater Boston metro area in the next 24 hours or so.

Personally, I’m firmly in the “believe it when I see it” camp on this one.

This is largely a result of numerous—and I do mean NUMEROUS—instances in my 4+ years in Boston where the weather peeps, the town folk and pretty much everyone else spent days predicting our impending doom via snow/rain/hail/moths/locusts/etc. only to have absolutely nothing happen.

A little over a year ago, they put the entire city on lockdown and shut down just about everything that could possibly be shutdown in preparation for the Snowpocalypse that was to be the end of days.

Obviously, since I’m still here to bore you with my cynical Midwestern rhetoric, there was no calamity, no death and destruction. In the end, we nabbed roughly a quarter inch of snow and all was right with the world.

As such, the current parade of overblown hoopla—and trust me there is a metric butt-ton of hoopla—over the impending blizzard/nor’easter/snowstorm/whatevs is no surprise.

This is not the first—and most certainly won’t be the last—time that Boston flips out over weather that isn’t here and may or may not ever show up.

All signs point to this storm actually being quite a doozy and I’m down with that, mostly because I dig a good snowstorm. Granted, that is because I’m not responsible for scooping any snow and I don’t have to dig out a car. Also my “commute” to work is about ten minutes (max) on foot, so I won’t be inconvenienced in any way.

Unfortunately, even if the heavens do upon up and drop a couple feet of the white stuff, I don’t get a day off. That’s right, even if MIT shuts down for the day, the ever-diligent MIT Libraries will be open. That’s right, bitches. We stare adversity in the face and offer it a term loan on all textbooks that may prove useful over the entirety of the semester, we’re THAT bad-ass.

On the plus side, if the campus does close down, I’ll snag time and a half for dragging my ass in and checking out books to the two people who meandered over from their dorms in search of a book on kinetic energy or mechanics of rock excavation. Likely these two peeps will be from the Midwest and won’t even realize that it was snowing.

You see, in the Midwest we cancel classes when a building containing all of the teachers collapses. We shut down an entire university when the frozen gas lines cause a tragic explosion that claims thousands of lives. We shut down an entire city when…um…well, honestly I can’t imagine we’d ever do that in the Midwest. There’s work to be done, y’all.

Anyway, here’s hoping this storm does a little something to shut my mouth, because if it’s another dud, you can rest assured all of my New England-lovin’ friends will NEVER hear the end of it.

Since Jeremiah Brought It Up…

I have really fallen off the post-every-day wagon. Or gotten back on the wagon — much like that episode of Seinfeld, I’m confused.

Anyway, I have done an overly crappy job of posting every day. If we take a look back on what I did post a majority of the days where I posted every day, it’s not like I had a lot of high quality, gee-Lindsey-you-do-a-great-job posts. So I might bow out of PTQ soon, in the hopes that I find my voice again and write things that I’m proud to put out there, not things that make me say, “Yikes! I hope no one I know is reading this!” PTQ definitely helped me to get back to my blog and back into caring about my stats. Unfortunately I let other things in life, like work, bring me down and squash any creative ligament in my body (I know that isn’t a catchy phrase, but why is it always the bones that are creative?).

Moving on.

I am going to work harder at blogging, but I’m going to do it on my more public blogs, only because I know I will work harder to put quality content there than I do here. And by putting out content that I don’t find to be of relatively decent quality, it just beats down on my ambition that much more.

So I’m going to spend some time finding my voice again, then hopefully I’ll post to my other blogs again. Then maybe this group can decide what the fate of PTQ is…?