Robb of the Day - Dec. 1, oops.

So I had recently been poo-pooing the Mermaid over their World AIDS Day initiative.

It being today, they promised to donate a nickel for each 'hand crafted drink' that they sell.

Well, in the interest of avoiding as much of the chill that I could, I hopped off the 36 - Broadway a stop early at Lawrence, and ducked into the S'bucks for a piping hot latte, and to finish the P.G. Wodehouse I'd been burying myself in lately.

I collected my purchase, and settled into a cozy chair to get to reading, when I spied something quite disheartening, pictured above.

Damn, how could I accidentally participate in the exact campaign that I was slinging much dirt in the direction of?

Well, now I am looking for a remedy. Anybody with suggestions should feel free to post them here.

Robb Style of the Day - Nov 29th

Beer.

Rob of the Day - Nov 25th

Not a lot to talk about today, kids. Just had a good shave, and to celebrate I decided to take a picture of it.

Tonight, I dine at the Golden Nugget on Lawrence with Joe, talk about some stories i'm writing, and then head home to watch the series finale of The Shield, which I am greatly anticipating.

Making headway on the Fairy Tale/Monster crossover concept. It is piquing interest, and may become something bigger. If not, I've still got my story to gloat about, and others cooking in the old noodle.

Popped over 10,000 pages read for the year. Though 1,100 of them are graphic novels, so really 8,900 pages of raw prose. While being assured that I could easily bridge the gap from 8,900 to my goal, I replied "Blindfolded!" Which is, I must admit, the one circumstance that would most likely stop me from crossing the finish line.

Robb of the Day - Nov 24th

I refuse to not have weird, radically distorted pictures of myself on the internet. You cannot stop me.

So, I am starting a new story tonight. All I can say at this point is that it will collide the worlds of old timey fairy tales, and old timey creatures that go bump in the night, and hilarity will ensue.

Also, I am trying to learn how to use Garage Band, so I can post pod/vodcasts here telling you all to fuck yourselves.

More later.

Robb of the Day Nov. 17

It was a dark and stormy night. The rain was beating against the age rippled glass in a constant and persistent cadence.

Ok, just kidding.

It's now November and the chill is setting in. It's crazy to think that just 11 days ago, I was wearing a T-shirt, piled in with all the other 250,000 Obama-ites at Grant Park.

The one tried and true thing about this blog that has been consistent since it's beginning is that one of us is unemployed. So far, so good. I'm finishing up my fourth month of joblessness, and it's still looking bleak for future work. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and the hungry dog population in Chicago is just getting bigger.

What I need you to do, my dear readership, is to remember me when you're tired of your job. When you are pissed that you have to work late, or that you have to be on that cash register. Just know that there are worse situations that you could be in.

Also, now that I am thinking of it, if anybody has leads on retail or office manager style jobs, keep a dude like me in mind. By this point in my search, I ain't too proud to beg.

Robb of the Day - Oct 31 ZOMBIES!!!!!

Robb of the Day - Oct 27

New Robb of the Day labeling format - thought that the Romans might be getting tired. Figured that just using the date would be nice, since I'm not updating daily, and haven't at all for about a month.

Pimping Kopi Cafe, my fave little java joint in Andersonville. They make a mean Mexican Latte and have some serious chocolate chip cookies. I must say, even though I hit up Starbucks or Caribou when necessary, I really like these local indie places. They're so much more charming.

Robb of the Day XXXII - Skyline

Ahhh... Chicago.

Robb of the Day XXXI - Warhol'd

Nothing says "Ballscratch's 50th post!" better than me giving you the finger in four fresh, pop-art, Warhol ripping off colors.

His wig is spinning in his grave.

Coming soon, I announce an official search party for Livius, whom I haven't heard from (not even via text message - his proto-communication) for at least a month.

That will consist of me saying something along the lines of: "Anybody want to take over for Livius?"

It will be good times.

Happy 50th post Ballscratch! I didn't think you'd last.

Robb of the Day XXX - No funny stuff.

You were expecting some porn, or maybe a pic of Vin Diesel or Ice Cube? No such, bitches. Just me, messing with Photo Booth more.

I've got my eye on you.

Politicalized

Robb of the Day XXIX - Just... weird.

Thermal effect on Photo Booth really just interprets brightness as heat. You figure it out.

Robb of the Day XXVIII - Robb Witch Project

I'M SO SCARED!

Dude of the Day I

I'm feeling very dude today. Gotta take 'er easy before the big weekend of nonstop things going on.

Prick

I needed to kill some time before meeting with someone, so I hit up the Starbucks on Belmont and Clark.

I waited in the line while the cashier chatted with a customer in front me about stupid bullshit. After a minute or so (a minute is a long time when you're listening to annoying conversation,) annoying customer went away, and I stepped up to order my Vanilla Latte.

She was way too nice. She was so nice, I could tell she didn't care if I knew she was being fake. She was great at small talk, and was cheery to a fault. I ordered my drink, sure to say 'large'.

She chirped: "Venti Vanilla Latte." to the Barista, and I paid.

I found a seat, all the way to west side of the window facing Belmont. My phone rang, it was Shayne. I answered it, and as I did the barista called out my drink.

I walked over and thanked her, as I was talking to Shayne. Taking my latte, I walked back to my seat. As I approached, a short and pudgy black dude, probably in his sixties, was rushing toward my seat. Pushing past me, he said 'excuse me', and plopped down in my seat.

"Excuse me, I was sitting there."

"No you wasn't."

"My things are here, I just got my drin-"

"You bag is here, but you not sittin' here."

...

"Wow man. You're a fuckin PRICK, aren't you?"

I picked up my bag and went to find a new seat, which I did on the opposite side of the coffee shop. As I walked away, insults bounced unheard off of my back...

Robb of the Day XXVII - Teddy Bear

I have a story about calling an old black dude at Starbucks a prick, but for now, here's a picture of me trying to look as cool as Livius.

Tomorrow - I fight a black dude!

Robb of the Day XXVI

Rainy day, reading.

Robb of the Day XXV - random

This is what you start to feel like when you're looking for jobs, can't find any, and the G is stalling your payments... but then they come, and you have money... and now you're cooking pork chops and baked potatoes.

Robb of the Day XXIV

I'm running out of effects on Photo Booth.

Robb of the Day XXIII - Home.

Back in the homely state of Illinois a week now. Just updated the legit blog ( ROBB ), and am looking for jobs.

I am receiving unemployment, so I'd like to dedicate this post to all you taxpayers out there who make it possible for me to wake up late, hang out at coffee shops and watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas while blogging about my month in California.

Life, sometimes, feels very very fair.

Feeling politics creeping over me again, like a slow buzz. It's almost impossible to not weigh in about this or that, when things are happening at the pace they are. Here though, I'll only restate my long standing opinion that Obama has a lock on this presidency.

Liv is MIA from the blog. You can reach him, and then have long conversations via text messaging, but who really wants to?

I guess he has passed to baton of shiftless inanity onto me, and I am chucking along like FloJo at the Olympics circa a long ass time ago. That said, I think it's time to go get a library card.

What the Fuck?

Am I to be the driving force here? I'm on VACATION!

Anyway, posted my vacation notes here: Robb on Wordpress

Will share pictures when I have time. Been rockin bootleg WiFi lately, so didn't feel like uploading megs and megs of photos.

California is perfect for Livius, I think. Lots of sun and everything is expensive, plenty of bookstores and Starbucks everywhere.

As long as he could get used to wildfires and earthquakes.

Read the notes, I'll be back with a Robb of the Day soon.

Robb of the Day XXII - Snobbery!

Sitting at a Peets Coffee in the uber-yuppie part of Berkeley near the Harbor. It's like Highland Park's bastard child.

Amusing to me more than anything else is, under the bridge on the walk over, seeing the BMW and Lexus cars parked, with bums sleeping right next to them.

I want to take a picture and caption it:
Bush Administration vs. America

Robb of the Day XXI - Hippie Central

Drinking coffee at a coffee shop on Haight. I'm in the belly of the patchouli stinking beast!

It's not bad, less hippies, more punks and boutique rats. Kinda strange. Certainly no peace and love vibe.

As lame as it gets (hopefully)

My my, how the tables have turned. I'm working and Robb is lazily sunning himelf and doing nothing constructive. I try to write and Robb takes photos. I have taken a break from reading and Robb is desperately looking for a new author. I'm playing with crosswords and Robb is playing with himself....wait, maybe that's still the same. Anyway, I've been lazy lately and Robb is taking a much needed break from life. My apologies again loyal readers (both of you).

We'll call this another lame update. My new employer is pretty good to me. Training is kinda boring but that's the case anywhere. They have some pretty cool systems in place and I'm looking forward to getting my training into practice. And the hours are nice, considerably better than I'm used to.

I've been still managing some Starbucks time but my tan is suffering. As I mentioned earlier, I have reconnected with crosswords over the last couple of weeks and even managed to fully complete one New York Times puzzle. It's quite satisfying. I took a break from reading but am still putzing around with the Sandman graphic novels.

I'm promising myself that I'll get back to posting more regularly starting this week. It just came easier when I had nothing to do all day. Like a friend of mine used to say all the time....a job ain't nuthin but work.

Co-ed Prison Sluts is less than two weeks away. This'll be my 4th time since the beginning of July. Tickets are going to probably sell out this week so grab em if you're going.

No joke though, Robb is looking for some new authors. Feel free to post some suggestions for the poor fella in the comments section.


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Robb of the Day XX

In the boat, looking out at blue skies and sails all over the damn place.

Robb of the Day XIX

Inside the little boat. I'm sitting on my little bunk, thinking my little thoughts.

SLUTS!

Now that I have your attention...... My sincerest apologies to Robb and the other 2 regular readers of this blog for my absence. It seems just the thought of returning to work has completely shut me down.



Co-ed Prison Sluts is what I want to talk about today. Unfortunately our group for Friday's show was whittled down to the four people who purchased tickets in advance. So, effectively, we are planning another group outing for the 22nd of August (2 weeks and 4 days from now). I encourage everyone to attend.



I'm sure I must have covered this with everyone I know at some point, but what's one more time?



Co-ed Prison Sluts is still the longest running musical in Chicagoland history. There is a good reason for this. IT'S FUCKING FUNNY! The entirety of the show takes place in a co-ed prison. For those of you who don't know what that means, it's a prison with boys and girls. I don't want to ruin any part of this for anyone so I'll save the description and review for perhaps another time. I will say this though, there's music and vulgarity and I have yet to find someone that didn't enjoy it. The show is not for the easily offended but I figure if any of you know Dan or Chris you'll be just fine.

And fine, if you don't believe me here's the Tribune review and the Chicago Free Press here. I know what you're thinking...musicals are gay. Well, here is the Windy City Times (gay newspaper....well, not exactly, newspapers much like Muppets can't be gay. I guess it's just the writers that are gay) review. The only one I've found that isn't glowing.

Co-ed had originally returned for a limited two month run but inside sources tell me that due to its popularity (read ability to make a lot more money than the other shows) it may stick around a tad longer.

Tickets are a mere $15. Show starts at 10:01. The theater has a nice little bar and parking hasn't been a real issue. It is fully our intention to drink before, during and probably after the show for those of you with alcohol dependencies. If you have to work, call in sick. You know you've done it for less. If you have issues with childcare, I know a guy who will watch your child for the night for a bottle of ripple. I'm not sure what that is, but he seems very fond of it. He will also provide your child with stories of great historical significance in which he partook. Watts riots, Rodney King and The Million Man March are some of his favorites. He's not only inexpensive but he will come to you. Mostly because he doesn't have a place of his own.

For more info and to purchase your tickets go here. If you are interested feel free to email me at the email address for the blog or text me if you have the number. I may even work on carpooling if there is an interest. The metra/el combination drops you off about a block away from the theater if you're a hippie.



Until then jaqueez....I slap my ass at you!

Picking up the slack

Apparently Livius is too good to post to this blog anymore, so i'm going to have to do double duty. I know most of you people come here specifically to see my pretty face... but even I get sick of my after seeing five pictures in a row.

So, i'm in California now, until Aug. 22nd, at which point, i'll be making my return to the land of flatness, heat and rain. Here, it's in the seventies and sunny. I'm chillin at the Berkeley Harbor, which offers me a great view of the SF Bay, directly across toward the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge. I'll post pics later, not many taken yet.

So, being the hippie that I am, I was investigating the public transportation system they are sporting here, and it turns out that the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) trains run only until midnight! What's going on with that? But now that I think of it, some El lines don't run after 2AM or so... but this is a cause for concern for me, as I was hoping to catch a night or two on the beach in the moonlight.

Sigh.

I'll work it out. I saw other people sleeping on benches, why not me?

The plane was a total bitch today. I got to the airport at 6:30AM for a flight that was scheduled to leave a little after 8. Due to the Transportation Safety Administration of Total Douchebags (sic), You have to get to the airport like three days before your flight. Only to get through security in like 10 minutes and spend the rest of the time waiting for the flight to board.

A quick aside, someone named Dave who is in some band that played at Lolla (I suspect) was on my flight. I don't know what band, but apparently they opened for ZZ Top at one point in life.

Anyway, the flight boards as some mean looking clouds pass over the terminal... and we proceed to spend the next 90 minutes (just to make it tough on you Livius, I know I could have said an hour and a half) sitting around waiting to be cleared to take off. Consequently, my flight arrived at 12:30 here time, instead of the scheduled 10:30.

No worries, I got on the bus that takes you to the train, then got on the train, and then finally got to Berkeley, where I eventually snapped that bitchin picture of my squinting like a dufus in the sun. Tomorrow? Into Berkeley, expect pictures of crazy liberals and stuff.

Peace!

Robb of the Day XVIII

Really, i'm squinting, my eyes are open.

All I gotta say is, THIS BOAT HAS WI-FI!

Robb of the Day XVII

Meh. I'm blue, because I'm leaving soon.

Robb of the Day XVI

Robb of the day XV

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Robb of the Day XIV - Last Day of Work.

Last time I'll be seeing a hard earned buck in a while. After couch surfing in California for three weeks, I fully intend to live off of your tax dollars for as long as legally permitted, while simultaneously writing the next Great American Novel, and plotting my next great business venture - Book Store/Coffee Shop/Indie Press.

And, a possible side effect of that would be seeing more of me on here. Or possibly showing up at your place in the middle of the night, begging for a place to stay.

Lame update

I'm not feeling particularly inspired to come up with a blog post today. It could be that the very thought of returning to the workforce has sapped all of my creative desire (not that it was much to begin with).

Regardless of the reason for my lack of enthusiasm, I do have a couple of quick mentions : as you may notice to the right of the page (if you're viewing this in a regular browser) I have added a twitter widget. Those of you checking it out in its mobile form may find it toward the bottom of the page. Twitter.com is a website which allows you to post a quick update on whatever you're doing at a particular point in time. I don't intend to use twitter per se but I did think it would be a good way for me to get short thoughts or events out. Incidentally, you wouldn't think that Livius was already taken as a twitter ID.

I have also made this blog available in Hindi should it ever get the international recognition it deserves.

Lastly, I'd like to thank all of those that have taken the time to comment. I'm not sure how much Robb cares but I appreciate knowing that someone takes the time to check this blog out occasionally. Maybe one day I'll figure out that hit counter thing...

Until next time, I hope all of you are enjoying the new Rick Springfield CD.


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Robb of the Day XIII - Robb o the mornin to ya!

Well, what do you look like when sleeping? I don't care what you say, you can't look cool and be asleep.

Come to think of it, there's probably a solid chance that Livius sleeps with sunglasses on. Nevertheless, he probably looks like a teddy bear still.

Robb of the Day XII - My Fridge Is Running.

How vain are we?

Over coffee with a friend earlier this evening the topic of googling ones self came up. This practice consists of typing your own name in the google.com search box just to see what the internet has to say about you.

My friend has, and does quite regularly I would imagine google himself. I, on the other hand never had. I know Robb googles himself as is evident in Robb of the Day VII. This, as always, led to a split view on how the rest of the world sees things.

We quickly constucted a highly scientific clinical study using text messages and my address book.

I guess I should mention this ahead of time, this study has a error margin of 4%. This is somewhat do to my math skills as well as that we don't how how credible the test subjects are.

27 people were attempted to be surveyed.

62% responded to the question : have you googled yourself.

76% admittedly googled themselves

5% wanted to know why, maybe thinking I'd found some dirt on them.

One test subject said he only did so because his brother googled him.

Another subject offered this suggestion : Yes...fun game google "livius is" 2 c what u've been up 2. I'm usually recovering from heartworm or spaying:-)

....and my favorite response of all : Forever ago when I was naked online.

Turns out my friend Dan was right. The vast majority of people have googled themselves. I'm still not sure why people do it other than having been googled by family members or having been naked online...or whatever the hell that other answer meant.

I hate to admit this but by the end of our highly scientific clinical study, I also googled myself. I'm fairly certain that the 4 guinea pigs who hadn't can probably be added to the list at this point as well.

So if you are in that vast majority share your google stories in the comments section. Let us know why you do it and what you've found. And if you haven't, don't worry, I'm sure my friend Dan already has.

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Flash Fiction

The freedom that unemployment affords has led me to look at some different things over the last few months. One of the things that drew my attention is flash fiction. Flash fiction are short short stories. Word count is extremely limited with 1000 words being the widely agreed to standard. Get more concise details from wikipedia > here.



I decided in all my new found freedom (read boredom) to take a shot at it. Managing to compose a few short stories in an even smaller writing genre, micro fiction, I've posted a few here > editred.



Some of the short stories here are very good, some are very bad and mine I think squarely fall in the mediocre middle of the pile. Feel free to give them a read, but be warned, they tend to be dark and morbid and not something you want to start your day off with.



In the event you would like to make comments or criticisms, feel free to post them here and don't bother with setting up your own account at editred unless you'd like to take a crack and writing yourself....

Robb of the Day XI - Drunk.

Robb of the Day X

Robb of the Day IX - This is me all the time.

Seriously, I read more than I see my girlfriend. I probably put in more hours reading in a week than I actually do productive work while on the clock.

Musings on music

This wasn't originally intended to be an actual post but went on too long for the comments section.

It's funny that Robb mentions headphones and stereotypical listening habits as I often wonder the same thing. Now granted, I haven't been on a bus in about 20 years. Being that I have a car...and am not a hippie, I have little opportunity to use public transportation. However, I do spend a few hours at the gym every week. (Side note for Robb:that's the place where people go to get some exercise. Not to be confused with a gay bath house).

The gym is also an interesting place to play the headphone guessing game. All walks of life wander around there, a good percentage of them in their own blissful music oblivion. Some do seem rather obvious, but others are downright perplexing. Let's take Robb for example. You've all seen the Robb pics of the day. Let's picture him on a southbound Clark street bus wearing his Kangol and other Robb hippiewear. I can see him sitting there unknowingly mouthing the words to something. Rap , emo, Bjork...who can tell? Maybe books on tape...

As for me, I am indeed a huge Rick Springfield fan. His new album is etitled Venus in Overdrive and will be out on July 29th. Amazon has it available for preorder if you're interested. I heard a few songs at his show a couple months ago. He still sounds great. I'd like to thank Robb for giving me this opportunity to plug the new CD.

This being said, I haven't rocked any Rick on my mp3 in quite some time. Could be that at the gym I look for a slightly different sound. Lately it has been the recent Alkaline Trio release Irony and Agony, The Lawrence Arms and The Spill Canvas. All of which you can check out at lastfm.com.

If you're not familiar with lastfm it's a free website where you can stream full songs to your pc from all musical artists. It offers suggestions for other artists based on what you choose to listen to.

So here's what I'd like to do. If you can be bothered to, post the last three things that you listened to in the comments section. Or email your photo via the handy link at the top p the page and we'll let Robb take a guess.

One other note....yes I would imagine that this blog comes off a tad boring at times. I will say this though, it has and continues to provide me with minutes of mindless entertainment every week. And after all what is life other than an endless search to amuse ourselves.

What have we done?

Jesus, it just occurred to me that the only thing more boring than me blogging would have to be me and Livius blogging.

But I'll make a vague attempt at being interesting. I was having great thoughts and inspirations this morning, and I forgot them until just now. Hence, the post.

I was thinking this morning, as I rode the #22 bus north on Clark, that I always try to imagine what people are listening to when I see them with headphones. Then I got to thinking how biased my guesses were based on the person's appearance.

Some people do my work for me. The kids blasting the latest hip hop are tough to miss. But, then there's the thirty-somethings in business gear on their way to (presumably) the office. They can't all be listening to Kenny G, can they?

So, I have made it one of my many doomed-to-be-unfulfilled missions to get snapshots of people in their commute rocking out, and survey what it is they're listening to. The goal of course, would be to either confirm that my biases are generally justified, or to dispel the myth.

Livius, of course, will be tipping the scales in favor of biases being justified. He totally looks like he's jammin out to Rick Springfield.

robb of the Day VIII

Gainful Employment

Well, the days off sunning myself at Starbucks are close to an end. I have accepted a position with a large office supply retailer. Thanks to federal privacy acts I didn't need to disclose my love for fuzzy boots and my strong desire to own a midget. Thus, assuming my heroin binges and crack usage of late dont show up on the mandated drug screening and no one discovers the corpses of 4 girl scouts in my basement, I will be returning to the ranks of retail management on August 4th.

I have mixed feelings about returning to work. I initially saw my demise with my former employer as a setback and brooded over it for some time. But this opportunity to start over with a new employer has brightened my outlook on the world. New ladders to climb, new challeges to overcome and best of all a different type of customer. Hell, I'm a bit excited about it!

On the other hand, I will miss reading 4 books a week and spending countless hours perplexing baristas who must often wonder how I can spend entire days on their patio. It seems I'll have to return to some type of normal sleep pattern which may prove to be challenging. And wearing pants....pants may be tough.

I will continue to maintain this blog along with other writing projects I've begun undertaking. Hey...you never know, my new employment may become fodder for this little infant blog. Stay tuned, I may soon be boring you with stories from the underbelly of the office supply industry.


Sent via BlackBerry probably from outside Starbucks

TV, the solitary sport

I read a book yesterday that consisted of intertwined short stories spanning 30 years that took place in a small Ohio town. The book is called Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock. Its a quick read and very well written. I'm going to highly recommend this book to those of you that might read. This book is also what kept me from an update yesterday.

While reading these stories I came across a couple of mentions of a TV show called Armchair Theater. Originally a British show, it was revived by ABC in the early 70's. The author passingly mentions a characters comfort at knowing that all the neighbors would all be watching the same movie as he was.

Although I'm not old enough to have lived through the time period during which these particular stories took place it did strike a chord in me. You see, I am old enough to remember pre-cable. The cool thing about TV before cable was that if you watched something on TV there was a high percentage chance that you could have a conversation about it with someone the next day. It seemed to bring people together in conversation. Movies of the week or a miniseries were things to tune into because people would be talking about them the next day. While I was in elementary school there were 3 major networks and 3 minor networks. That was it, 6 choices. At the outset of cable there was a company called OnTV. They offered exactly one movie channel. This had a similar effect. Everyone that had OnTV watched the same primetime movie and shared their opinions with friends and family the next day. It was nice.

The advent of cable was spectacular. 100 channels! Specialty chanels, sport channels ad movie channels...it was a TV junkies dream come true. The choices went from 6 to 106. And no two people you knew tuned in to the same thing.

Channel surfing became a more solitary sport. Sure people still watched Monday night football and other top rated TV shows but the choices made it hard to share a viewing experience with others. When I was younger I watched a lot of TV because I could talk about it with others much like I wish I could do now with books

I gave up TV for the most part for a few years finding the programming weak and lacking. Only over the last 4 years or so have I reimmersed myself in television. And although I do find that there is programming I love, I find that its not very often that it's open to discussion with others. Television over the last 20 years has become something you watch and chew over....alone.
Sent via BlackBerry probably from outside Starbucks

Robb of the Day VII - Robb OLSEN - HA!

Did a Google search, and found this handsome chap. So there you go, your Robb of the day.

Out in public...

Its funny the things you see and the realizations you make when you're home away from home is a public place.



As I was sitting at Starbucks with a friend today, our attention was drawn to the road where we were sure we would find a car full of screeching teenagers. Much to our surprise the commotion was caused by an adult male who was shrieking rather unintelligible words and flailing his arms about. He was 10 or 15 cars back from a red light and causing quite a scene. At this point a woman, I'm assuming was his wife and three children proceeded to exit the vehicle and walk away from him. This seemed to further infuriate the driver who then began pounding his fists on the steering wheel and flinging his body back into his seat. The shrieking at this point sounded much like a female victim in a particularly loud slasher flick. Once his family(?) was out of the car he attempted to pull over almost hitting or of the children. Seeing that this wouldn't get him clear of the road he very quickly pulled into the parking lot adjacent to where we were sitting. Getting out of the car he began his tirade again as he started walking next to the woman. The woman was very calm during this whole time even pausing to light a cigarette as this lunatic was demanding she get back in the car. We lost sight of them for a bit and 5 minutes later they returned to car and drove off.



Needless to say this was fairly entertaining until I realized that woman and childrens calm demeanor was probably due to the fact that this wasn't the first time they'd seen this type behavior.



The other observation I made at Starbucks today is that when deaf people drop change they don't realize it. Nor do they notice their dog's incessant whining.



The things you learn at Starbucks...





Sent via BlackBerry probably from outside Starbucks

Robb of the day VI - Iconic Macedonia Picture

I am so vain, I printed an 8 x 10 picture that I 'shopped and hung it on my wall in my bedroom.

This is so, when I die, everyone will know what pictures of me need to be used in posters and memorial websites, T-shirts and all that.

Robb of the Day V - Pen on Moleskin

Photos

This is not a real update as I plan to take weekends off due to a very hectic weekday schedule of sleep, Starbucks coffee, books and sun. I just wanted to share some photos from a recent outing with some of mine and Robb's former coworkers. Follow this link to flickr> photos

Robb of the Day IV - @ 12 mos.

Robb of the Day III - Sweating at a Party

Pickled tink

This blog certainly isn't intended to be a site where rants are prevalent, I'll leave that to our friend Chris at hippiehater , but at times it needs to be done.

The long standing adage of the burger flipper has never been one I particularly put any faith in. I always viewed fast food as a job for teens or immigrants to put a few bucks in their pockets with little or no work experience. The pay is, I would imagine, low but the job is a very necessary part of our culture. The fattest nation in the world certainly needs the people that fill our 32 ounce sodas and put the fries in the oil that will certainly kill us one day. This being said, I have rarely been terribly upset at the mistakes that frequently occur when dining in one of these establishments (something I do with alarming frequency).

Here is the one complaint I do have and this one can throw me into a near murderous rage...IS IT THAT DIFFICULT TO SPREAD PICKLES EVENLY ON A FUCKING CHEESEBURGER ? Without fail I find a stack of 4 or 5 pickle slices on one side of my burger. Before the pickle lovers start a boycott of an infant web blog I guess I should say I like pickles. They often provide just the right amount of tang and cool sensation to a sandwich. Unfortunately not when they are stacked together on a quarter of a maybe meat patty, then they are just gross.

This is probably part of the reason that years ago I began going to Wendys more and more. They put your food together after you order it. Calling for no pickles there doesn't seem like it will cause saliva to be the ingredient replacing pickles on your sandwich because its less work for little Collin or aging Rosalinda. And let's be honest, I don't have a debilitating fear of having my food spit upon but who is not frightened of a 50 year old Mexican womans spit? So I find myself spending less time at good old McDonalds and more at Daves place. I don't think that I'm being unrealistic here, I understand that Emeril Lagasse isn't slaving over a grill or microwaving my burger back there, I would just like some diligence in the process. Some time ago I found a sort of kindred spirit here on the web. Someone who takes pictures of the food they get and compare them with the actual menu photo. Take a peek here.... www.thewvsr.com/adsvsreality.htm

The point here is to understand. Over the years I've formed some questions due to the indignities I've suffered at the hands of the pickle people. Is it that the stereotype about fast food coworkers started because of this behavior? Does the business itself, with the lousy pay, just draw the people incompetent of evenly distributing pickles across the face of a sandwich to its doors? Or have we, the general public, with our jokes and disdain for the average golden arches employee fostered some sort of hate that requires them to get back at us in this particularly foul way? A seemingly unintentional way to ruin our lunch on a regular basis? I realize this is a bit which came first the chicken or the egg but it's a bit too widespread for there to be more than one cause.

I will continue to eat the majority of my meals from fast food venues, it's just that I'd like to know what causes this behavior. If any of our readers have worked in fast food or have some insight please enlighten me. And maybe after we tackle this problem we can look at what would possess a McDonalds manager to finger your Big Mac....

Robb of the Day II

It's much like a plague

Ok....so Robb jokingly came up with the title for this blog to which my reply was that I was willing to name it that if he promised to never bring up someones ball scratching habits again. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and I am now well on that road.

Have you ever bought a car or a phone or anything for that matter because it seemed cool and you didn't see a lot of other people with the same item? Days later its everywhere you look. Its human nature to notice things more once you have them in your possession. Well, guess what? I now have a blog called The Ball Scratch and can't get away from the act.

Put up the blog yesterday....saw a guy tonight at 7-11 scratching his balls like fire ants had invaded his Jockeys. This occurred while he was waiting in line with his friend. I'm hoping he didn't draw blood...or maybe I'm hoping he did....

Page 235 of the book I finished reading tonight.....He'd have plenty of time to scratch his nuts and ponder the myriad possibilities after he quit.

Maybe the ball scratch has always surrounded us and I never took the time to pay attention. Hopefully I don't start to feel the need to partake in this pass time myself. Share your ball scratching stories either in the comments section or via email and we'll make sure they get published here. FYI, it doesn't have to be your balls you discuss.

One final disclaimer.... ball scratching will hopefully not be a regular feature on this blog.

Robb of the Day

Begin, at the beginning.

Welcome to The Ball Scratch! A tiny spot on the web where my friend
Robb and I can amuse ourselves in front of an audience. This
particular Blog has no real direction and may never have a point but
we are hoping that will work itself out in time.

Intoductions are probably in order. My name is Livius. I'm 35 and
currently unemployed (the latter of those two allowing me the time and boredom to come up with The Ball Scratch). I'm more of a critic than a creator with my only hobby nowadays being spending many hours at Starbucks engrossed in mostly crappy fiction books. Other interests are music, mostly punk and alternative and a fascination for off beat movies.

Robb, on the other hand, is a writer(both social commentary and
fiction). Sometimes modern day hippie and activist, Robb is a
intellectual with a good wit about him. Soon to be unemployed himself he maintains a couple other blogs and has some writing projects in the works.

We met some three years ago at work and found that our differences in opinion made for a good way to pass time at an otherwise boring place of employment. The name of this Blog comes directly from those conversations where one of us constantly scratched his balls (out of courtesy for my fellow blogger I won't say which one of us that was).

The only thing certain about this Blog at this point is that Robb will
be posting a pic of the day...most days at least.... and that we'll
drop some words on you hopefully with some frequency. Its our sincere hope that we can make this a fun experience that we can share with tens of people....or fives of people, well whatever we can get.

Feel free to comment and share with your friends. You can email us
directly at ballscratch@gmail.com if you so desire. We'll be sharing
that email for this site. We hope you enjoy The Ball Scratch....