Manlio Rules

just a heads up, there is a good chance i will be password protecting the blog for the indefinite future sometime this weekend. no big deal, but i’m going to start teaching a class next week and while i dont’ feel that htere is anything on my blog that is innappropriate, i think that maybe it’s best I not have quite as much public persona stuff out there, at least for starters.

Rest assured if i do this, i will send out an email with a login/password so everyone who wants to read can still do so.

the other benefit is that with a private blog, i may get a little more “R” rated. cause i know you’ve all been dying for that

Also, thing-a-day 2 starts tomorrow. for those not familiar, it’s a project where people are tasked with making one new thing every day for the month of February. I missed it last year but am excited to participate this year. the link to my page of creations will be here.

Also, super bowl. go pats! boo giants!

1. If the Patriots lose the super bowl, will that be the worst sports moment i’ve ever seen or taken part in? the current contenders are:
   • The red sox losing game 7 of the 2003 series to Aaron Boone
   • The 2006 AFC championship game last year that gave the Colts their first SB win
   • One time when i was a kid, i was in a race in camp. it was something like a mile and was part of a camper field day. my team was doing pretty well and i was going to run the last event, the long race. Coming around the bend, i was securely holding onto 3rd place, having been blown out of the water by the 1st and 2nd place runners but a good length ahead of the pack. maybe 100 yards before the end of the race, i took a wrong turn, and ended up coming in 8th place. My counselor coach wouldn’t even look at me. i’m pretty sure i cried.
   • One time in softball in NY, we were winning by like 5 runs. i was playing 1st base. there were men on 2nd and 3rd. The batter smoked a ball that got by me at 1st, then slowed down into the long OF grass. instead of running it down like i should have, i stopped, making the RF take a long run in and subsequently fire the ball into the dugout. we eventually lost the game

   so if the pats lose the super bowl, i think they will replace the previous pats loss. honestly, the damn camp race will probably always be #1. i was so humiliated by that.

2. Is Rock Band the best game ever? We were talking about it last night and decided that it should also have numerous “background” vocal tracks that require the dancers to do dance-dance-revolution moves in sync. that would make it better. also, horns with accelerometers.
3. Should I just resign myself to staying in my cold small apartment and buy a $300 space heater that appears to be able to heat a small warehouse?
4. Does chewing on water bottle caps give you latent carbs?
5. What gym will i join in SF?
6. Am i going to be ready to teach 20 students flash in 10 days?

#50: Eat at Peter Luger’s.

#128: Hit a softball out of the park.

#8: Hit a steak from Peter Luger’s out of the park.

last weekend i got my first snowboarding trip of the season out of the way. trish and i went up to tahoe city to our ski house on wednesday night, and stayed up there (though not at the house the entire time) till monday night. I got one day at Alpine and two days at Squaw.

the conditions were pretty good up there. i didn’t realize how exhausted i would be after the first day, it took me way too long to get my body back into shape for snowboarding. my legs still hurt. i took one semi major fall, caught an edge going a little too fast and flipped over onto my head. yes, i was wearing a helmet, but i bit my lip pretty bad and was spitting blood on the mountain for a little while.

we stayed a few nights at the Resort at Squaw, which is very comfortable, they even have a ski concierge who takes your board at the end of the day and stores it till the next morning! fancy! i felt like i should be skiing with President Lincoln or something.

and last night i skipped the pownce party that all the kids are talking about to go and have drinks at the page, in a throwback to my first year in SF with micah. i also learned that some people get annoyed when you destroy them at foosball for hours on end. i guess next time i will pretend that i’m not very good.

#48: Run a triathalon

#199: go skydiving

#10: skydive into a triathalon.

in case you haven’t been paying attention to the national weather news (and why wouldn’t you?), it’s been raining a lot here.

see what i mean? crazy.

friday night trish and I hit Pete’s tavern along with Ron, Daisy, and Daisy’s co-worker. we had some nachos (Daisy claims the best nachos ever are from TGIFridays, can i get confirmation?) played some pool (i played one of the best games i’ve had in years) and had a few drinks. then it was time to go home.

saturday we drove around in the rain and went shopping. I confirmed that REI is not a good place for me to be when i’m feeling like spending, because i bought new gloves that i don’t really need, a snowboarding toolkit that i probably don’t need, and a new sigg water bottle that i absolutely don’t need. and i snowboarding multi tool that is awesome and will save my life someday, i’m sure of it. and then we went to sports basement and i got new running shoes. and then patagonia so i could finally use the gc my mom got me for xmas… ummm, xmas 2006. btw, patagonia? you’re very expensive. i hope your snowboarding pants are as good as your ability to charge high prices.

then i went bowling with Mike, Sarah, Ron and others. I started out terrible (i had a 13 after 3 frames) but came on strong in the 2nd half after discovering the magic burgundy ball that sarah was using and the grey ball that Ron was using both seemed to be pretty awesome. I ended up with a 119, which still sucks, but if you consider that i had a 43 after 5 frames, you can see my last 5 frames were pretty decent, at least for me.

saturday night we hit up Lavenda lounge and i for one, had a little too much to drink. shout out to Jen’s friends who shared their cab with us even though we were going in different directions.

sunday i was a little hungover. I headed for McDonalds at 10:30, hoping for a QP with cheese. guess who doesn’t serve lunch till 11?

so sunday was mostly movie and guitar day. Guitar Rig 3? solid.

i thought it would be a little bit colder. odd.

new york and was great. i hung out with everyone, played some music, rode a mechanical bull, ate at rosario’s twice, watched the patriots get to 16-0, and had a few libations.

so, with it being the new year, i thought i should bust out some resolutions:

1. play more guitar. matt, neil, michael and i played some music and i realized exactly how terrible i have let myself become. i didn’t achieve my “record an album” resolution for 2007, but i will be better at guitar by the end of 2008

2. lose weight. i don’t have a number in mind, but i’d like to finish the year thinner.

3. photos. Alex and Karen were a real inspiration with their Take One A Day project in 07, and i’m nothing if not an elegant copycat. here is where the set will live.

4. 15 days of snowboarding. hopefully this one will be wrapped up by march.

5. take a class. i’m not particular, but i will take a formal class before the year is up. maybe music theory from berklee online, maybe something from the MIT open course ware program, maybe some berkley extension school class in finance… but something.

6. i think 5 will do, don’t you?