It’s Just Justin

How I Celebrated my Independence

So yesterday was the fourth of July.  Or rather, it was the Fourth of July.  The day we celebrate our independence, here in America. Last year I was in Washington DC for the Fourth of July with best friend Landon.  We had a nearly missed the show, and in the capitol city, but it was a wonderful time.  This year was different, being in Missouri and not anywhere all that exciting.

We celebrate this by cooking out with friends and family, grilling some burgers and brats, enjoying the outdoor weather, drinking and setting off fireworks followed by watching a professional fireworks show later in the evening.

I accidentally didn’t do any of those things.  I had the intention of grilling out with Ryan at his work.  I had this idea that I’d hang out with my friend Beau and his guests for a Bar-B-Que.  I thought I’d pick up some sparklers for a photo I wanted to take.  I thought later I would go to Jefferson City or to Faruot Field and watch the fireworks show.

What happened was totally different but still a lot of fun.  I went to Harpo’s where I hung out with Colin, Kevin, Brittany, Ashley and a couple of other friendly people.  We had the idea of being on a roof equaling a great view of the fireworks.  Not so much.  The trees around the building blocked any site of the show.  But that was ok, we had our drinks and our conversation.  I had not seen Kevin in about a year so it was wonderful catching up with him. Plus, we totally matched.

Later we went to the trainwreck of a gay bar out here called, Arches and Columns.  I hear it used to be a real deal pub, and then it was a leather daddy bar and now it’s just a dive.  But always fun.

Bumped into more people I hadn’t seen in quite some time, had a drink, had a good time.  We hung out a bit more at Kevin’s before I went home and crashed.

Tags: America, Ashley, Brittany, Colin, Fireworks, Fourth of July, Gay, Going Out, Kevin, Landon, Pyrotechnics, United States, Washington DC

All a Twitter

I’ve been using Twitter for a good while now but have been such a slacker in actually using it.  While in San Francisco I made a pledge to be more active on Twitter.

For those who don’t know what Twitter is, let me explain.

Twitter, in brief, is a social network based on instant messages to a public audience.  You “twit” when you are going to a movie, when you’re stuck at the DMV (as I have been twice in the past week) or when you want company for dinner.

As people discover your tweets, they have the option to follow you.  By following you, they will receive all of your updates to Twitter on their email, their phone, their IM or whatever other format they choose.
You can direct “tweets” at something by typing @ before the person’s name.  If I wanted to ask Nick Starr out to dinner, I might say, “@NickStarr want to get dinner at Sapporo?” and he could reply “@justex07 yeah, how about 8?”.

I could also put an open invitation for people to join me at a movie by simply twittering, “going to see the 10 o’clock showing of Wanted if anyone wants to join me”.  All of your followers will get the message and can reply to you if they plan on joining.

As you begin to acquire get a large number of followers, you essentially make it impossible to be lonely.  During South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin last year, people were Twittering about the best Bar-B-Que and ending up with over 40 people joining them at places like Stub’s for dinner!

Strangers uniting in a Web 2.0 world.  It’s something else.  It’s something great.

With the iPhone 3G coming out and all of the Twitter Apps expected in the iPhone 2.0 App Store, twitting on the go will just get easier and easier.

I am going to be researching good Twitter plugins so I can have my tweets streaming through this blog on the sidebar.  If you know of any good ones, please forward them to me through a comment on this post.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, my name is justex07 and you can find me on Twitter here.

Tags: Apple, DMV, iPhone, Just My Nerdiness, Kevin, Paul, San Francisco, Social Networking, SXSW, Twitter, Web 2.0

From the DMV to Nirvana

Our last day in San Francisco found us back at the Department of Motor Vehicles.  But before we ran our last errand in The City, I picked up breakfast for us from Sugar Café.  We shared a Cinnamon Pecan Brioche and a Dark & White Chocolate Brioche.  They were very tasty.  Too tasty.  Ryan and I decided that they spelled certain death should we make that a regular breakfast.

Cafe Sugar is a neat little café.  It feels like it belongs in Los Angeles with its modern furnishings and a tiny bit pretentious employees.  The menu is full what read to be pretty delicious items though with a name like Sugar Café, you would think there would be more sweets on the menu.  I guess really though, that’s okay, we eat enough crap as it is.

I hope to enjoy an entire meal there the next time we get out to San Francisco.

This time Ryan was getting his ambulance license.  The wait was quite a bit longer this time around.

We had the same, hilarious DMV agent.  We threatened to be back and what do you know, we were and we had him.  He was really fun, made being at the DMV not so painful.

All the studying paid off as Ryan passed his ambulance test with flying colors.  We took the 24 down Divisadero to the Castro where Kevin was waiting.  The plan was shopping and then lunch at Nirvana.

I picked up a little gift for Micheal and Ryan got a couple of things for some co-workers.

Lunch at Nirvana was awesome.  Mike and Kevin used to bring me there all the time, well, at least three times haha.  I had the Tofu Panini on Focaccia while Ryan had the Mano Mango Noodles.  They have quite a few vegetarian dishes, highly recommend it.

Kevin drove us to our Hotel 480 where we were staying to pick up our bags and then off to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to catch our flight out of San Francisco.

We used the excuse that we were on vacation one last time as Ryan got a Kona Mocha Chip ice cream and while I sipped on my Dark Chocolate Frappe from Pete’s Coffee.  I sure do miss Pete’s, they make the best cappuccino.

So here we are, waiting for the boarding for our plane to begin.  I’m hoping to get some work done on the flight so I’m not so rushed when I get home to finish this project.

Tags: Department of Motor Vehicles, Eating Out, Friends, Fun, Kevin, Los Angeles, Micheal, Mike, Nirvana, Restaurant, Ryan, San Francisco, San Francisco International Airport, Shopping, The Castro

The Pinnacles Revisited

Today, Kevin and I headed up to the great wide north of… Boone County and to The Pinnacles.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I went to The Pinnacles with Ryan. He brought me there for the first time and just opened my eyes to a beautiful part of this region which I had never even heard of.

Kevin and I had a really great time. He just knows so much about nature, especially in Missouri. It was fun climbing the rocks and enjoying the landscape and views… He also kind of saved my life today! There was this large, and beautiful, copperhead snake! He caught it just before I got to it, lucky me!

Check it out later on.

That picture is my favorite from the trip, pretty much. You all know I love flowers, this one just takes the cake.

Speaking of beautiful landscapes, check this out. The sky was just gorgeous today and the foliage this beautiful emerald green. It was just such a beautiful day.

Here’s that copperhead snake I wrote about up there. Just look at him, he looks perfect. Kevin saw a copperhead just like one we saw today, in the same place a few years ago. Craziness!

I’m not so sure about this butterfly picture. It was hard to fit his wings in total focus because he kept flapping the damned things! Quite pretty, even with all of the flapping.

While, perhaps, nothing too special, the coloring in this shot, I just adore.

Tags: Flowers, Kevin, Landscape, Photography, Ryan, Sky

Now Time to Bitch

Ok, I gave you a somewhat muted post, now I just wanna get some shit out.

• Don’t tell me we are going to hang out and not call me back, much less hang out with me.
• Don’t tell me you don’t like something about me that was month, years ago and not present.  Why would I care now?  What does it matter?
• Don’t tell me you really like me and then blow me off, you obviously don’t really like me.
• Don’t tell me we should hang out and you miss being around me and then hang out with my roommate instead.
• Don’t act like I’m not in the same room as you.
• Don’t blame everything on your period.  A menstrual cycle is rough, sure, I’ll give you that, but it isn’t a month long and you can take a god-damned Mydol you know.
• Don’t tell me you find me attractive if you don’t.
• Don’t tell me to call you if you know you aren’t going to answer your phone.
• Don’t act like you want to date me and then go out with another guy.
• Don’t schedule me for only 15 hours a week and then complain about availability when there are people wanting hours and you just won’t give them to them.
• Don’t fucking wait for the light to turn yellow before driving through the intersection, you really slow down my day.
• Don’t ignore me.
• Don’t send me anymore credit card applications.  I have too many cards already.
• Don’t push me to drink alcohol.  It won’t make you more attractive.
• Don’t dance if you can’t.
• Don’t sing if you can’t, it isn’t even funny at this point.
• Don’t keep dating the same guy and then crying when he breaks up with you, again and again.
• Don’t judge me for the music I listen to.  If I cared what you thought, I’d ask.
• Don’t leave me annoying, long-winded voice messages.
• Don’t forget that we used to be best friends.
• Don’t forget that we used to be in love.
• Don’t think that this is referring to you.
• Don’t think this is about someone else, it isn’t.
• Don’t get drunk all the time.
• Don’t judge people so much, and no, you aren’t fat so stop acting like you are.
• Don’t be so dramatic, you aren’t that special and if you were, we’d have you admitted.
• Don’t fear love so fucking much, just let it happen.
• Don’t think you are better than me because you got a promotion.  That just means they sucked you in and you won’t ever make a solid living.
• Don’t forget that in five years I will be making triple what you make.
• Don’t let your thoughts invade mine, it gets me in a fit.
• Don’t throw basketballs at my car, it costs me a-fucking-lot of money to get that shit fixed.
• Don’t be such a whore, spreading your seed isn’t safe or wholesome.
• Don’t have such low self-esteem.
• Don’t think so highly of yourself, your ego is way outta control.
• Don’t act like you’re right when you aren’t, arguing isn’t fun, especially with you.
• Don’t punch through bathroom doors.
• Don’t drop out of my sublease, you bastard.
• Don’t stress me out so much, I get all weird and make posts like this.
• Don’t tell me you love me and then take it back the next day, that’s just trashy.
• Don’t be such a bitch to me
• Don’t manage a store if you can’t handle it.
• Don’t forget all the times I did something for you.
• Don’t forget my sacrifices.
• Don’t forget my mistakes, being here is one of them.

There, I feel a little better.

Tags: Bitch, David, Geoffrey, Jim, Kevin, Kristin, Landon, Matt, Patrick, Pissed, Starbucks, Vandalism, WTF?