So KGC partnered with Oprah to give away free grilled chicken, and three days later, KFC has cancelled the free giveaway! So what do we think: is it because of the influence of Oprah Winfrey that drew all these folk, or was it simply the lure of free food that started the three-day stampede aptly dubbed “Negro De Mayo?”
I heard about 90 minute waits for food, hostile customers, managers being chased out of their stores. For real for real, I think this is good for KFC! Shit, everyone is talking about y’all, tons of folks are flooding your stores! Even though most of them are there for free shit, if the free shit is good a healthy percentage of them will be back. For the three-day circus that has happened, though, KFC DID lose the business of the civilized, non- Negro De Mayo celebrating customers. I think Popeye’s took care of those folks well however.
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 10:24 PM. Add a comment
So Kentucky Fried Chicken has decided to walk away from their brand, the market of fried chicken that they have strived to corner for the last 80 years.
Why do this? When the consumer thinks “fried chicken,” KFC is the top-of-the-mind brand. All businesses want to have this position in their marketplace- to own a word or phrase in the mind of the people (like Windows own “PC;” Sprint owns “Long distance;” and Volvo owns “Safety”). KFC worked for years to be in this position. Now they are runnng an ad campaign call “Unthink KFC.” The general public’s leaning towards healthier food chocices probably plays a significant role in this move, understood. So, if KFC would’ve said, “Hey, we know we are known for fried chicken, and now we are also offering this healthier, grilled chicken,” I woud think, good move. You are maintaining your stronghold on the fried chciken market and also slightly diversifying to reflect the demamds of the times. But aiming to completely disassociate yourself from fried chicken? Remember, your name is still “KFC.” You can’t run far.
Also, KFC must consider two very important issues:
1) You probably do not make the best grilled chicken. No one owns “Grilled Chicken” in our minds, so you are in a battle with other businesses for the consumer’s dollar, as opposed to be top of the mind on fried.
2) Competitors are primed to swoop in and steal away chunks of KFC’s market share of the fried chicken market. By the looks of KGC’s ad campaign, KFC seems to be quite content with this.
- Back in Miami, I met an AAU coach named Coach Hicks at 24hr Fitness early one weekend morning; his girls’ team used the gym to practice. Hicks invited me to run pickup at a school somewhere in the city; thing is, I left for the season the week before I was set to go up to that pickup run.
I gave Coach Hicks him my info but never got his number. So, if anyone out there knows this man, have him holla at me- I need a quality run in Miami. And Coach, if you’re reading this, email me please!
- Josh Millican from Ontario: you gave me an address with no postal code! Email me (Dre@DreAllDay.com) with your complete mailing address, I have a shirt waiting for you.
********************
- At intersections here, a red light will flash yellow for a moment, before turning green.
- Gas: €1,25 / liter. By my somewhat rough mental math, and some formulas (1 gallon = 3.79 liters; 1 euro = $1.27 dollars; ), also assuming that it costs you in the neighborhood of $50 to fill your 18-gallon gas tank (at $2.75/ gallon), it would cost you $108 to fill that same tank in Germany right now. Sheesh.
(€4,74 euros for one gallon of gas… €85,32 fills your tank in Germany. Multiply that by the current exchange rate (85.32 * 1.27), you get $108.36. How did I need to take MATH 110 4 times at Penn State again???)
- Referees here are quite sensitive: They will, among other things, pause game action and approach a particular player or coach and make a direct warning of an impending technical foul (http://www.dreallday.com/blogarchive23.html). One of the refs of our last match told our coach to warn his players to stop saying “And one!” when we made shots near the basket.
(‘And one’ meaning, for those who do not know, that the player that made the shot thinks he was fouled at the same time that he scored. An indirect way, basically, of informing a referee that they should have whistled a foul on the play. )
- Another term for cell phones: Handys.
- Drivers are very courteous here; stopping for pedestrians, switching lanes on highways for a faster- moving vehicle. Always.
- The counterperson at McD’s fucked up my order last weekend. Some things do not change no matter where you go.
- Why do some smokers carry ciggarettes with them but don’t bother to possess matches or a lighter?
- The trains in Germany have these plainclothes watchdogs who come around, occaisionally, to check for tickets. The trains here are immaculately clean (with small trash recepticles next to each group of seats) and there are fines ranging from €20- 50 for riding without a ticket, littering, or putting your feet on the seats (I almost received that fine).
- Public buses’ display signs denote towns or neighborhoods instead of exact locations, like in the USA.
- In German, Aquarians are called “Water men.”
- When a bus is sitting between shifts of riding with passengers, it’s display says, “PAUSE!”
- The term “Airball” appears to be the same in German as it is in English.
Posted 1 year, 9 months ago at 7:54 AM. Add a comment
- €2.65 for bus fare. And the driver didn’t speak English, leading to a confused me trying to slide my €10 biill into a slot that didn’t exist. I came to realize that the fare depended on how far you planned to ride.
- There’s a store in this town called Louis (it appears to be a clothing outlet) that always catches my eye when I ride but because it’s logo looks eerily similar to Krispy Kreme’s.
- The last thing you wanna hear, when you’re walking around a foreign city at 8PM, with a fellow foreigner who is leading the way, in 30-something-degree weather, is, “Where the fuck are we at?”
- I have just been informed (it’s Saturday morning, 8ish AM) that there IS a wi-fi connection available in this hotel: a T-Mobile HotSpot that has to be paid for. I will be making that payment.
- Gas stations here work on the tried-and-true honor system. Remember that? Pump first, then pay? I’m old.
- The employees of a local McDonald’s all look genuinely happy to be there (they wear black jeans with the ‘M’ stitched into the back pocket!!). With some help, I was able to ask the counter lady for salt. She directed me to the stand on the side, which also housed the fountain drinks, napkins and straws (they come unwrapped). I grabbed 2 packets of “Feine Susse” and head out.
After emptying one packet over my fries, I taste a handful and my tongue registers nothing. I find the second packet, open it and stick the tip of my tongue into thr small packet. Let’s make sure this is salt.
Turns out I had grabbed two packs of sugar tablets. (“Feine Susse” translates, roughly, to “fine sugar or sweets.”)
- The city buses here are the same as the coach buses we took to road games in college.
- It’s normal here, for separate parties to share tabes in a restaurant. For example, as I sat alone at a table that could fit seven people, a man & a woman came in and seated themselves at the other end of that same table and ate (they did show courtesy, however, and ask if the seats were taken before sitting).
- Two of the quietest motorbikes I have ever seen rode past me Monday evening.
- While watching CNN International’s coverge of Election 2008, they showed a live feed from the Philadelphia Public Library’s Overbrook Branch.
- The bus drivers don’t wear uniforms- Tuesday’s driver had on a Where’s-Waldo- worthy striped shirt.
- After some communication difficulties with a counter person at a different McDonald’s, the woman asked me if I spoke English (I got the correct “salt” packet this time).
- There are bakeries, bakeries, bakeries all over the place here. Wikipedia says that over 300 types of breads are known throughout Germany.
- On Wednesday, I was asked if we had training that day. When I applied that we did not, the response: “And your coach thinks that is OK?”
- On the bus Wednesday afternoon, there was a young woman that had 3 small kids with her, none more than 5 years old. She had headphones in her ears and her music up quite loud when I was able to make out one song: C Murder’s ‘Down For My N’s.’
- The guy that helped me at T-Mobile to set up my German SIM card was from West Africa and reminded me of T-Pain. I couldn’t get the song “Please Tip the Bartender” out of my head for 15 minutes.
- Another random McD’s note (yes, every time I mention McDonald’s is another time I’ve eaten there): when the fountain drinks are prepared behind the counter, they do not come with ice unless asked for.
- In all the countries I have been in, almost everyone refers to a cell phone as a “mobile” and text messages as “SMS.”
- There is an excitement here for the Americans’ election of Obama.
- Meeting my club manager, he told me to wait “In front of the Subway.” I went to the train station, he meant the sandwich shop. Go figure.
- At the daily breakfast buffet spread, I sometimes grab a pastry that I haven’t had before, to see if I’ll like it or not. Yesterday morning I ate about 15% of one, and the woman who works the restaurant in the morning asked me to not waste so much food.
Posted 1 year, 10 months ago at 8:10 AM. Add a comment
I got a new tattoo done last week at Tattoos By Lou somewhere in Miami (who make you pay before you get in the chair, which I guess is a smart idea). It had been over a year since my last trip to the tatt chair, so the sting of the needle surprised me at first but I made it through without complication. The dude who did my work had, like, 50 tattoos on his body, even a Mike Tyson- like colored tatt on his face. Looking at Mike, Chyloe’s (the tattoo artist) tatt is actually bigger. Seeing all the work he had had done on his body, I figured that Chyloe was probably numb to the tattoo needle by now. So I was mildly surprised to his response when I asked him if the face tatt was much pain for him: “Fuck yeah it hurt!”
Chyloe said he had done at least a million tattoos in his career (and he has 3 passports filled with stamps from his travels), which got me to thinking: how many baskets have I made on basketball courts in my life? I think I may be over a million, but there is no way I could ever come close to having an accurate count.
Chyloe said he was from LA, but moved to Miami. He says Miami has more chicks, and that he was tired of the “dumb White chicks” that make up the majority of LA females (his words).
*****
Strolling through a mall in the city, I went into a Finish Line store that had the usual set up, with music playing over the store speaker system. The odd thing was that the profanity in the songs was coming through, loud and clear. I clearly remember working at Kid’s Foot Locker back in 2005, with my favorite radio show playing: The Wendy Williams Experience. One day while I had the show playing on our store stereo (I was assistant manager and spent a good amount of weekday afternoons manning the store alone), a Caucasian woman came in with her kids, just as Wendy began talking about how comfortable the bra she was wearing felt against her breasts. The customer turned red and asked me, presumptuously, to turn the stereo down.
*****
One of the worst things that can happen to anyone going through a fast food drive-thru window isn’t the order being wrong- it’s the food not being fresh and crisp. I’ve found the solution, though, kind of: Go to these places when there’s a line and the store’s busy! Think about it: when it’s busy, there’s no food just sitting under those warmers and heating lamps, waiting for someone to buy it. With so much demand at the busy times, there is constant fresh food being made. Try it and thank me later.
*****
Happy belated 10th birthday to Google!
*****
At Dave & Buster’s last week, a girl at the ticket-counting counter asked me if I played any basketball. I told her yes, that’s what I do for a living. She looked at me as if waiting for the punch line, like there should be more to the story. “That’s ALL you do?? That’s it??”
… And 6,500 tickets will buy you this clock (6 feet tall!).
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago at 11:58 PM. Add a comment
Firstly, a few orders of business…
This is a limited edition shirt that will probably not be available for public consumption. Maybe. We’ll see.
These Priority Mail packages represent DreAllDay.com t-shirts sent out to early responders. More are scheduled to be mailed!
Eating in a Tampa- area Miami Subs, I caught a glimpse (and photo) of ESPN Baseball analyst Peter Gammons (yes, that’s him. And yes, I’m a groupie for ESPN personalities. Not really.):
- I made a phone call to someone the other day, and I heard a statement that I hadn’t heard in years as I waited:
“Please wait while the Nextel subscriber you’re tyring to reach is located.”
**********
Now.
The vid I posted in my last blog entry (reposted here for clarity)
has stirred up a lot of interest, in the form of comments on Youtube. Some people have found it funny. Some say they appreciate the quality of the basketball. Some have applauded me for doing it. There are some folks who enjoy Wes and I trashing the victimized player.
And I love it all. I will respond, however, to the trivial few who feel I was out of line in making light of the kid I was playing against. A few points you should remember:
1. This is Youtube, whose slogan is “Broadcast yourself.” Meaning, whatever I choose to upload, as long as it’s within Youtube’s Terms Of Service, is my prerogative.
2. The kid KNEW we were filming the game!! Before the one on one took place, we had played a couple of games of 2 on 2, with me and the kid matched up. My team won both games, but the kid had made several jumpshots in the second game after it was out of reach for his team (think 14 to 3), and I felt his confidence was a bit too high (even after the two losses, the kid ran over to Wes- who was holding the camera- to watch himself). hence, the one on one game.
3. Some opinion-makers have said I shouldn’t talk shit about the kid since he “didn’t say anything about me.” Well, how would you know if he did? But that’s besides the point. My comment about his “parents being from Afghanistan” was a direct play on Wes’ blog entry about sub par players claiming to be pros. That is also besides the point. The point is, I called the kid “a garbage player.” Well, he was/ is. Calling a garbage player a Garbage Player isn’t talking shit, it’s merely a statement of fact.
4. A common refrain is, “You are a pro. Why are you playing against these bums to prove a point?” My answer: I am a man of the people. Even though I have achieved some level of success in basketball, I will never deny a player the chance to try their hand vs. Dre Baldwin. If you don’t like me beating up on bums, I’ll play YOU and post in on Youtube. email me at Dre@dreallday.com and we’ll set it up.
**********
Anyway, I’m not excited about the above topic as much as i just felt the need to have something of substance to write about today. As you were…
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago at 12:08 AM. Add a comment
We went to a local Costco today and had some observations…
I have heard of J.D. Power and Associates awards for years, mostly from car commercials touting their products. Today was the first time I actually saw one of the awards in the flesh, though:
While waiting in line at the food stand (10 inch Polish sausage and 20 ounce beverage for $1.60!!), I looked at the workers and couldn’t help but to have visions of Fast Food Nation:
Which reminds me of a story:
***
July 2006, Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia. Tone and I are at the BK 3 on 3, along with my brother in law Will, waiting to play our first game. with a lot of people walking around nervously before they lace ‘em up, a large group of hooopers and observers gather at what looks like the best game going on at the moment. One team features a dude Tone knows. Said dude is chubby, out of shape, and a loudmouth- typical Philly streetball player. Anyway, a teammate of said dude plays in college somewhere in Ohio, and he goes for, and misses, a layup. The team they’re playing against has 4 players, so one guy- 5’10″, fat, and also 5x better at talking than he is at playing- is on the sideline, verbally supporting his team and trashing the other team.
When the Ohio College Player misses the layup, Bench Guy yells out, loud enough for everyone to hear, “He plays in COLLEGE??? For who, Division 8??!!”
Ohio College Player’s retort: “Who you play for? A fucking hot dog stand?!?!?”
Verbally defeated, Bench Guy changes the subject from basketball to money (also a typical Philly Streetballer tactic), and yells out about where he works (some petroleum company) and how much he allegedly makes doing this job ($80,000 per year).
***
I did a great job- one I should be commended for- for resisting the urge to buy this:
On the way out (after VisionWorks, for some reason, had to “go through corporate” to fax my contact lens prescription to Costco, forcing me to leave without said lenses), I noticed this sign:
This sign is basically an excuse for Costco to have employees posted up at the entrance and exit, probably to curtail shoplifting. No way that guy checked everything on our receipt and matched it to the items in the cart. And, excuse me- this guy knows the price of every item just by looking at it?
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago at 12:03 AM. Add a comment
I went to the local Target to purchase the Sex & The City DVD (special Target Edition!!) Tuesday morning.
I was surprised to see the guy in front of me was purchasing it as well. I made sure to keep mine shielded by my body when he peeked back at me- not because of embarrassment (I am impossible to embarrass), just to avoid him attempting to strike up a conversation with me. But in this city, I probably had nothing to worry about.
In Ross, I made a trip to the restroom, which was just as disgusting as you’d expect it to be. Then the sign pictured below made it all make sense:
For the uninformed, or those who have never worked in any type of food service or retail business, the above sign can be found inside any restroom in a McDonald’s or Burger King. It represents a check sheet for the person who, presumably, checks and/ or cleans the bathroom each hour. The above photographed sign shows that no one ever checks this restroom, or at least never bothers to note that they did so on the sign.
Information for receiving DreAllDay shirts can now be found here.
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago at 12:01 AM. Add a comment
I love to travel- road trips, visiting friends, vacation weekends. One thing that disturbs me, however, about traveling is the terrible eating habits that seem to be a requirement of being on the road.
McDonald’s.
Wendy’s.
Checkers.
Room service.
Chicken fingers.
French Fries.
McDonald’s again.
Gas station food.
Though I’m in great shape, eating more than one meal of this type of food over any 48-hour span makes me feel like grease is stuck in my throat. Even worse is when I have some sort of physical performance scheduled over the course of this grease-fest. One meal doesn’t affect my level of play, but playing well with a Quarter Pounder with Cheese as my body’s fuel feels like driving an extra 1,000 miles without an oil change- yes, it worked, but I’m cheating myself. My day always feels better when I eat right.
Anyway, now that I’m back off the road, I can work on flushing my system back to it’s normal state- which means 2 gallons of water to consume over the course of the day. And I guess the Papa John’s Sicilian Classic pizza I ordered at 10PM last night won’t help my progress… 3 gallons.
Even at home, though, for some of us, the artery-clogging stuff I hate to eat too much of can consume much of your day-to-day life as well. That’s why it’s good to be able to cook (or, as in my case, know someone who does).
Anyone here ever had one of those mail-order meals?
The area I live in is a golfer’s dream- golf courses everywhere that, in the hood that I’m from, would house recreation centers. I mean, you could play golf at a different course every day for 2 weeks without driving more than 30 minutes each way. We went to a local golf course that featured a driving range yesterday (see the photos page for a shot or two), and purchased two small buckets of balls ad rented two golf clubs for a total of $12. There were about 30 balls in each bucket, and the longest drive I could muster topped 175 feet.
Golf is a much more difficult sport than it looks on TV. Yesterday was my first ever time playing (except for some putt-putt in college), and Phu & I combined for about 30 “air-swings,” in which the only thing we managed to hit was the rubber tee. Watching a short clip of myself swinging, I saw I wasn’t even bringing the club back as far as I see pros doing it- which probably led me to not reaching my goal of a 200- foot drive. I’ll get it though- soon.
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I’m a fan of hot dogs- the all- beef variety. I love them most when they’re fresh of the grill at a cookout, but a couple boiled on the kitchen stove works too. One of my problems, however, with the homemade version is that I seem to forget I have them cooking on the stove once in awhile. At the beginning of my senior year in college, I started two dogs on the stove in the kitchen, then went into my room and closed the door (even though I was the only one there- don’t ask me why). Only when I saw a lot of smoke from my bedroom window did I remember the hot dogs- the complex I lived in allowed smoking so there were no detectors. I mean, there was so much smoke coming out of the kitchen window I wouldn’t have been mad at anyone for calling the police or fire department. Whenever I would make hot dogs at my parents’ house, my mother would get mad as hell when I would forget about the hot dogs I had cooking and the smoke alarm would go off. If you’ve ever seen this happen, you know that the smoky smell fills up the entire floor on which the transgression takes place. And the pot containing the burnt pig scraps gets fucked up. Soak- it- overnight- and- have- a- go- at- it- in- the- morning fucked up.
I almost had it happen to me today- but i heard the frying sound coming from the kitchen and headed off a smelly disaster.
——————————————————————————–
I saw on ESPN today Brett Favre’s comments about how “it’s obvious [the Packers] don’t want [him] anymore.” Really, Brett, you didn’t know this? Favr’e did retire months ago, and in the spring told the organization that he was not 100% mentally committed, so he would remain retired. Then, days before training camp began, he decided he wanted back at it. Of course Favre is one of the best ever, and means everything to the Green Bay Packers. BUT, if you give your word that you’re out, you don’t come back months later and say you want in because you’ve changed your mind, and then appear hurt because the organization has moved on and doesn’t want to deal with you. Favre seems to me like the kid none of the other kids want to play with- and he knows this- but the kid continues to come and force himself on the group amidst the uneasy energy. Just my opinion.
Posted 2 years, 1 month ago at 8:15 AM. Add a comment
- Do NOT go to play basketball at the LA Fitness in Clearwater, FL on Sunday afternoons unless you wish to partake in some terrible games.
- the “lemonade” from McDonald’s tastes like urine… Not that I’ve ever tasted urine… You know what the hell I mean.
- speaking of piss, don’t you just HATE the smell of piss that has been sitting in a toilet that someone didn’t care to flush?
- for the first time all summer, I’ve got invites to two different leagues… And the games are at the same time. (Summer bball aint as plentiful as, say, Philadelphia.) There was actually another league to get in, but I’ve been told it’s not even worth the cost of gas to drive there.
- doesn’t it suck when you drive an hour to a summer league game and only two of your teammates show up?
- halfway through 2008… Reaching your goals?
- i spent the 4th of July at a BBQ of somefolks i didnt even know; they were the friends of the sister of my gilrfriend’s friend. anyway, we ended the night at 1AM after playing a very entertaining game- onw which is new to me, called CatchPhrase. great game fro when you have a large group.
Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 6:56 PM. Add a comment
I know many of you have been asking me for websites or stats- and if they were readily available for you to access, you’d have them. But since theyre not, here’s a snippet from Eurobasket.com’s Montenegro section from Monday morning:
by Dragan Scepanovic – Feb 4, 2008
Basketball club Niksic win agains Primorje H.Novi 86-69 in the game of 13 Round of MNT1A Opportunity Division.In team of BC Niksic best was Nemanja Vranjes (188-G/F-88) with 19 points.Good game play Goran Gajovic (199-G-88) 14 points,6 rebounds,Nikola Pavlicevic 16 points and Marko Kuveljic 13 Points. In team of Primorje best was new player from USA, G-F Baldwin wit 13 points
yeah, we got killed last weekend.
onto the program:
What I Want You To Know, Pt. 5: 2/10/2008
- first off, Thank You! To everyone who wished me a happy birthday. This blanket thanks is actually not needed; since, unlike some of my MySpace and Facebook “friends,” I personally respond to EVERY bday comment / message I get. And yes, that makes me a better person than you. And yes, I’m bitter, lol.
- I met a married couple that are native Montenegrins but have lived for 10+ years, in the restaurant Sunday. The female began referring to me as “Mr. Philadelphia” when she wanted to get my attention to say something.
* aside: I’m starting to dread the “Old Person Registering (OPR)” look. You ever notice when you talk to a person that’s some age over 45, and they ask you a question, to which your answer somewhat surprises them? You know what happens next, but probably have never really thought about it: the old person’s eyes grow wide, and they stare deeply at you eyes for an extra two or three beats before speaking. That’s the OPR look! Look for it next time you talk tp an older individual. This look is ALWAYS accompanied by an extra 2-4 questions (average), prolonging a conversation you presumed was over.
- I asked two people a series of open-ended questions Monday morning.
[for those who may not know, an open-ended question is one that must be answered in a complete sentence. These are good conversation- starter questions. Example: "How can we get more people to come to our party?"
Conversely, a close-ended question is a yes- or- no inquiry; i.e. "Are you coming to our party?"
For those of you who already know this, I apologize for insulting your intelligence]
So back to the story. I had both these folks together, one of which can speak a bit of English but not as much as I thought, apparently. I asked them 3 open- ended questions. The answers I received, in order: “yes,” “ok,” and “good,” followed by a high five.
- in meeting some new people this week, I’ve come to find out that lots of folks think ill ignore them if they were to approach me in public. Note to everyone: the only people I ignore are the ones telling me to pass them the ball (that may or may not be a joke).
- the whole “guy walking while blasting music from his phone” thing got re-enacted Tuesday night, but with G-Unit replaced by some Serbian hip-hop. But still equally annoying.
- there’s a two-day “Cup” tournament tua weekend hosted by our team. Tuesday night, every player received a laminate for entry to the building, and a ticket. I asked a player what the ticket was for. His response: “the ticket is for, if you want some bitches to come to the game. ”
- Wednesday morning: another music- playing cell phone. This person asked me who I like: “Jay-Z. ” his phone contained no Jay-Z. “Dr. Dre. ” he doesn’t like Dr. Dre. Searching for American music, he played a Barry White song, stating, “he is the best. ”
- either A: it is normal in this country for folks to reach over your food while you eat, or B: my teammates are just rude and lack manners. Somebody fill me in.
- we had a late practice session Thursday night, so I went to the restaurant around 6PM for dinner. Before I could even take a seat, Young Waiter spoke:
“Dre. Sandwiches. Internet cafe.”
FUCK!!!
(refer to my previous entry if you don’t know what this means. And the sandwiches get a 3/10)
- new words learned for: pickle, “how are you”, numbers 1-10, “how do you say…”
I was in the hamburger joint at 11PM Thursday night, and I had to use the Serbian term for “how do you say” 4X before the nice lady understood that I wanted her to tell me how to say “pickles.” We got through it, though. With too many pickles on my burger.
- Saturday afternoon at lunch, the Young Waiter served a dish to one of my teammates before I had finished my soup. The teammate looked over the dish for a minute or so, then told the waiter he didn’t want it; he wanted something else. I like the particular meal my teammate had turned down, I knew the waiter was bringing me the same thing. Only the waiter brought out the new meal for my teammate and handed me the same plate my teammate hadn’t wanted. Now, I don’t know all the customs here when it comes to food, but I don’t eat a plate that another person has breathed and talked over and then given to me. That is unacceptable. I made this known to the waiter and I could tell by his facial expression that he was less than pleased. The three people at the table with me were looking at me with a sorta, “Is he really doing this?” look. I’m very particular about germs- I prefer a fist pound to a high five with teammates because of rolling sicknesses amongst them, don’t share water bottles, and don’t ever let my skin touch anything in public bathrooms (except water faucets)- and this situation just seemed less than kosher to me. Maybe I’m crazy. But I’ll stay that way.
- I have yet to purchase hair clippers (not so easy to find- help me out, locals!) or cut my hair since arriving here.
- kind of a slow week for interesting things here (by my standards). im looking for the right topic for my next non-journal blog post; i think it’s about time. right?
Posted 2 years, 7 months ago at 4:58 PM. Add a comment
- February 3rd. I’ve experienced 26 of these??? Dam.
- my first road game with this team occurs this week. I’m interested to see how things are arranged.
[UPDATE: ill just bullet point my observations from the road trip:
* there are about 35 people on our bus, all told.
* what is it about putting a bunch of people on a bus that brings out so much immaturity? I’ve seen this amongst all walks of people: corporate employees, 30 something adults, athletes. Unnecessary yelling, obnoxious song singing, fart noises, you name it.
* there is a guy on the bus in the back row, about 2 rows behind me. I have met him, though I don’t recall his name; and seen him around the team a few times, though I can tell he is not a club employee. But he is a staunch enough supporter to have a spot in the travel party. You ever know a person that acts like what you’d expect from a drunk at a football game, but the person hasn’t had a drop of liquor? That’s this guy (will be referred to from now on as ‘Superfan’).
* it never ceases to amuse me when a less-than-intelligent person attempts to appear interested in the contents of a newspaper.
* the same teammate who loved 50 Cent’s movie was seated across from me on the trip, and offered me a section of a newspaper: “Dre, you want to read?” I decline while only half- acknowledging him, yet hilarity ensues.
* we stop at a cafe/ gas station for 25 minutes about 3 hours into the trip. Some teenager, who has been sitting up front and was one of the last to board the bus, offer me some of his bag of chips, which I decline. I ask the teammate sitting across from me (who can speak some English), “who is this kid?” my teammate looks, and responds with a smile, “I don’t know, I’m seeing him for the first time. ” I can do nothing but shake my head and laugh.
* apparently, broadcasting your favorite music via your cell phone speaker is the thing to do here. So the guy I clowned a couple weeks back for blasting G-Unit was just being normal.
* according to a teammate, when we win an away game, we stop at a restaurant and a member of management pays for the meals. But, when we lose a road game, the players are on their own when it comes to securing dinner (don’t worry, I laughed when I heard this, too). Well, we lost Saturday night (I really would like to tell you all about what is happening on the court, but I’m practicing great restraint until summer). I managed to have my dinner comped.
- I had a casual conversation with the register clerk at the local supermarket. After learning that I spoke little-to-none of the local language, she taught me a few basic words (which I don’t remember). I asked her name (don’t remember, even though I’m writing this 4.5 minutes after it occurred) and if she was from this town (yes). Then I asked what was there to do here for fun, a good time. She waved both hands in front of her, “Oh, no! I am (pointed the her wedding ring). ” so does this mean that married people don’t have fun or good times? Someone fill me in.
- Monday morning, I returned to my flat to find the power out in my place. After checking the lights outsuide to be sure it wasn’t some kind of Montenegrin mob scare tactic (it wasn’t), I spent the next hour reading ESPN the Magazine (thanks Phu) and listening to podcasts on my laptop as I watched its battery slowly drain to nothing. With no juice left, I got the warning message on my computer screen; and just as I clicked “Hibernate,” the power came back on.
- Monday night after training, we go into the restaurant to eat. The older waiter is working this time- a very well- groomed man in his 40s who always wears a suit. The restaurant’s radio began playing “Livin’ in America” by James Brown. The waiter turned the radio up near full- blast and danced for about 10 seconds.
- two teammates butted heads (literally) during a drill in practice Monday evening. One of them came say out the remainder of training with a small cut above his right eye. About 15 minutes after I had began eating, he entered the restaurant. I asked him about the condition of his face. With a proud grin, he pointed to the 1/2 inch cut and said, “Scarface!” (UPDATE: as a result of this scar, the player sat out training the next day. No comment. )
- Gatorade does not exist here.
- a friend of mine here is an older guy who has spent some time in the states, so he can translate some things when I speak with certain individuals. Whenever me and this guy are in the same place, and he sees an even mildly attractive female, he says, “Dre! (draws my attention to the mildly attractive female) Good pussy!”
- I happened to receive my 30,000th profile view on MySpace this week. Not sure what this means. Thanks for, um, looking.
- vocab: “idemo:” let’s go!
“dobro:” OK, good
- in the gym (weight room) Thursday morning, I challenged a 6’10″ teammate to a pull-up bar contest: most reps in one set. The teammate in question promptly declined, reasoning that “it’s harder for (the teammate) because your (Dre) arms are shorter. ” Is this a credible excuse?
(I’d like to hear your opinion, though I already have an answer: 1: NO excuse is credible; 2: if a 5’2″ guy challenged me {I’m 6’4″}, I’m in. )
- there’s a place here that makes 1/4 pound hamburgers for 1,5€. And they don’t even charge extra for cheese (vocab: “seer”. Not sure on the spelling; all these Serbian words are being spelled phonetically). Eat your heart out, McDonald’s.
- the restaurant we eat at closes at 10 PM, the kitchen shuts down around 9:15. On game nights, and nights we have practices that end late, the cooks there make us sandwiches with a couple pieces of thin sliced meat and lite mayonnaise. Compared to the meals we get when we sit down at the restaurant (always with soup, salad, and rolls), these sandwich meals are about 12% of the quality.
- it’s Friday night now, and I’m in the lobby of our sport hall; we just finished training. I’m going to descriptively tell you about the funniest thing that I have seen on a basketball court in 5 years:
Ok, so if you have ever seen the And1 Mixtape, or any streetball game or DVD, you probably have seen this: a short player (read: under 6 feet tall) gets a running start towards the basket with the ball in his hands. Another player (usually a big, tall guy at least 6’8″) is waiting for him under the basket. As the short guy gathers momentum, he jumps up as if to dunk, and the big, tall guy gives him a boost of sorts, grabbing and lifting the short guy by the waist and/ or hips. The short guy, now propelled high up in the air above the rim, dunks the ball.
So the funny part, you ask? Friday evening after training, there are about 7 players who have stuck around- shooting, dunking, playing 1-on-1, etc. Two of my teammates- one of them about 5’10″ (think Allen Iverson) and the other 6’8″ (think Deebo from the movie Friday- but less muscle and not as mean)- attempt to recreate the dunk described above. Only, the small guy eschews the running start and only takes 2 small steps to gather momentum, AND his big guy partner is not strong enough to make this work successfully. So you know what happens next, right?
Small guy (our point guard) jumps, gets a slight boost from big guy (power forward), but not nearly high enough. As he attempts to dunk, the ball meets the front of the rim and small guy goes crashing to the floor on his back. He rolls over on his stomach and writhes in pain for almost 3 minutes. I can see that he’s not seriously hurt, and I cannot control my hysterical laughter (and to keep it all the way real, I woulda laughed anyway).
This had to be the most I laughed about anything I witnessed on a court since 2003, when Me and a dude named Jay were playing against Wes and some White guy named Jim 2 on 2 in Altoona. It wasn’t even really a 2 on 2. See, Jim (Wes’ teammate in the 2 on 2) and Jay (my teammate) had a long- standing conflict over some comments Jim had made about a game both had played in a year or two before either had come to Altoona. So even though we were in the game, Wes & I became mere observers as Jay (a talented, Iverson-like player from the ‘hood) trash talked, cheap-shotted, and completely DESTROYED Jim (a spiked haired pretty boy from some Pennsylvania suburb) that afternoon, culminating in Jay (who goes about 5’9 1/2″) LeBron James- power- dunking on Jim so forcefully that I ran out of Adler Gym laughing and declared the game over (note: I don’t think Jim has played a competitive game of basketball since- I heard he became a model. If anyone sees Jim out there, tell him that his bball- playing days live on in my blog!)
Posted 2 years, 7 months ago at 5:01 PM. Add a comment
i sent out a message to a few folks that are close to me, and asked them to relay a story i could blog about. Wes mention that i should speak about how Sheetz became Dre-Proofed.
good idea.
for those of you who do not know, Sheetz is a gas station- mini mart- snack spot that i discovered when i drove into Altoona for the first time in the summer of 2001. there’s gas and a mini- mart inside, just like any BP, Hess, Sunoco, what- have- you across the country. but you can also order an MTO (Made To Order) inside the marts, kinda like a store called Wawa in Philly. according to Sheetz‘ website,
Sheetz is about providing kicked-up convenience while being more than just a
convenience store. Sheetz is a mecca for people on the go. If you need to refuel
your car or refresh your body, we have what you need to keep you moving on to
whatever comes next.
defined perfectly, but this doesn’t give you the whole idea. the food sold at Sheetz was/is better than anything that has ever been concocted in PSUAltoona’s Port-Sky Cafe (shout out to Phil Sky!! thanks for the internship!). it is one of the few places in the world whose food tastes as good as it looks in the pictures. and it’s on par with the buffet- style Commons in State College, PA.
(ask Wes about the girl from State College who had a very enticing photo on HotOrNot.com, got bagged by myself and by Wes on separate occasions, met both of us at the same time unknowing that Wes & i were friends, was about HALF as hot in person as her photo was, but held down me, B, and Wes in the Commons in State College one day after we had played pickup ball in the IM bldg. i wont go into detail about the girl, but the dining experience that day had us searching for live-on-campus chicks in State College from that day on.)
Sheetz is open 24 hours, everything they have to offer.
the food is reasonably priced for work study- $6/hour- job- having college students.
Sheetz has, on some level, whatever you need. ice cream. a 6″ sub. condoms. a consistent police presence. new issues of your favorite magazine. krispykreme doughnuts. plain ruffles chips.
i could go on and on, and since the only people still reading this are people who have experienced Sheetz and everyone else X’ed out this blog about 250 words ago, i will continue.
Sheetz‘ home offices are actually based in altoona, and Steve Sheetzhas a strong influence in and around the campus.
the photo here is of the super Sheetz in Altoona, which played a MAJOR role in the summer of 2004. it was actually the location of an infamous clowning of a guy we’ll call Big Hess (“Why you guys always gotta clown on me?” “We’re not clowning on you, Hess. You’re already a clown. I’m just pointing it out.”), a place Wes & i did lunch at several times, and the club-let out- hangout spot for some lame-at-best Altoona clubs (but dont get me wrong, we did what we had to do with what was available in those lame-at-best clubs) . but i digress.
i instantly fell in love with Sheetz when i arrived in central PA, and even stole $10-$20 of gas a few times (yeah, i was driving back when you pumped gas before you had to pay for it. does this make me old??) but my major coup was getting myself a free meal.
the way the food ordering was set up was this: you used the touch-screen to place you order, and a receipt would print, which you presented at the register to pay for your food. being that the honor system was in place, the person preparing the orders would call out an order number and hand the food over to the customer, often before the person had even gotten in line to pay. with the tried- and true system in place, this method seemed to work for Sheetz.
i threw a wrench in the program by ordering food, purchasing some other things (say, a soda, bag of chips, and a box of Mike & Ikes), and with the paid- for items in a bag, calmly walk over and claim my MTO. nothing seemed funny, since i HAD just purchased other things , and often, petroleum as well.
well, like any good business, Sheetz knows what it should be making in relation to the amount of materials it was using. so,over a matter of time, they realized the error in their ways (an honor system doesn’t mean shit to a college student making $100 a week) and the changing times (you can believe people will come in and pay for their gas if you wanna), and fixed their systems. the gas policy seemed to be coming all over the USA at the time. so that was no amazing feat. so what, you ask, was what Wes referred to as the “Dre-Proofing” of Sheetz?
they changed to MTO process.
after an order was prepared and ready, the employee making the food would walk it up to the register person, who held on to paid- for receipts and then handed the orders out to customers as they were matched up with the receipts. i wont take credit for bringing on the entire process change; I’m sure there were others doing the same thing at the time, maybe even on a grander scale. but, i was the champion of the scam in our circle, so this policy was named after me.
this change in policy cost me roughly $500 in my senior year of college.
Wes is probably laughing right now.
but i still love Sheetz.
Posted 2 years, 8 months ago at 7:51 AM. Add a comment
