Watch me now.

Posted on August 31, 2011August 31, 2011 by Jake

I have a small collection of watches that I like to rotate. I have a few sportier/chunkier designs for the weekend, and others that are a bit less casual looking. The less casual looking are the only ones that really jive with the getup that I normally wear into the office. So, when the batteries started dying off about 8 months ago, I was eventually relegated to a solitary black chronograph. A million times, I thought to myself “I should drop off those watches for service.” But I perpetually put it off. Yesterday, the battery finally gave way on black chrono piece, as well. So, I packed up all three of the watches above and dropped them off for service today. I will be retrieving them in the morning. Until then, my wrist will just have to remain naked during business hours. It’s like the macro drawn-out version of putting off laundry until you finally have to throw on a pair of board shorts (since your skivvies are all in the hamper), and a musty seldom worn t-shirt, then do the march of shame to the laundromat.

This concludes another lesson on procrastination.

Central Park Monster?

Posted on August 31, 2011August 31, 2011 by Jake

In 2008, there was the Montauk Monster. Then there was the other Montauk Monster in 2009. Earlier this week there was the Longbeach Monster. Above, I present the most recent chapter of the saga: the Central Park Monster. I’m pretty sure that the little monster was flooded out of his sewery home onto the sidewalk over the weekend. It could also be (as experts have suggested) that the monster is just taking a nap.

On “rad”

Posted on July 20, 2011June 8, 2022 by Jake

[above: some photos of youngish me, when I freely used the word “rad”]

Unfortunately, this post is not a synopsis of the 1986 BMX movie RAD. Instead, it is actually a carryover from a discussion that originally took place on Facebook. I posted a semi-priggish blurb about people trying to bring back 80’s skate culture vernacular. It has the same effect on me, as if my mom would have said “gnarly” to me when I was 6th grade. I would have been disgusted, and probably dropped the word from my vocabulary. Not that there was anything wrong with my mom. But I mean, from an adolescent point of view parents tend to fall short when it comes to pushing the boundaries of social trends. Such has been my experience when hearing the term in question used by unlikely individuals describing things that certainly would not have been considered “rad” by the 1989 version of myself.

Anyway, I have noticed the term “rad” coming back pretty strongly over the last while. Overall, I think it is great. But, from my observations it appears that the connotation of rad has evolved from the days of yore, when it was was a frequent (probably too frequent) part of the jargon that poured out of my adolescent mouth. I’m considering re-adding “rad” to my conversational vocabulary. But first of all, I need to make sure that I fully understand what constitutes “rad” in 2011. So, I’m going to include a little survey below, to try and gain a better understanding of what rad means, based on how (and by whom) I have heard it used, as of late.

Which, if any, of the following items could be considered “rad” in 2011?

Brooks Brothers
Knife fights
Shark fin soup
Shark attacking a bear
“Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffet
“Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols
Drinking Starbucks, while perusing your collection of old Domino Magazines
Eating Dominoes pizza while perusing your collection of old Thrasher Magazines
The Bieber movie
Search for Animal Chin
Taking your foam roller with you on vacation
Taking your machete slingshot with you on vacation
Rodeo Drive
Rodeo flips
Baking
Breakin’
Xanax
X-games
House Cats
Laser Cats