nate mcguire

Why is she so happy?

I’ve told you about Ramen’s birthday. You know my birthday is this weekend (or you damn well should). But you know why this week is the best week ever?

College Football is BACK!

The most exciting, heart pounding, beer drinking time of year is back for another too-short 12 week installment of some of the happiest times in your life. From the Big 12 to the SEC and Pac-10, true fans, college students, and the random guy wearing your team’s colors who definitely did not go to college rejoice! Today I give you College Football Eve.

“It’s College Football Eve and there’s a good chance some of the guys and girls you’re working with are a bit giddy today. Jumpy in ways they aren’t ordinarily. It’s not the alcohol or drug withdrawal, it’s just because those of us who are college football fans can feel it in the pit of our stomachs—the most glorious, and shortest, sports season of the year is less than 24 hours away. We’ve only got 12 weeks out of 52 to watch our teams play, and by God, we’re going to pack as much life into those 12 weeks as is humanly possible. We’re going to drink, we’re going to tailgate, we’re going to scream louder than anyone ever thought was possible, and, inevitably, we’re going to want to cry. Yep, it’s Christmas Eve for football fans. Because, at long last, college football season is here again.”

Continue Reading…

Oh no. What will you do? I’m reviewing something other than a burger!

Mi Cocina is a Tex-Mex restaurant in the West Village of Uptown Dallas.  Its a pretty hoity-toity area, and there are plenty of popped collars to go around.  Outside of those obvious pitfalls, Mi Cocina is an excellent lunch spot that seems much pricier than the fare would actually indicate. We sat down and were immediately greeted by a waiter, who to my surprise, was in a Mexican restaurant actually speaking Spanish. What a concept!  So we were started off with some chips and salsa, the typical tex-mex way, but in an unexpected fashion.  The salsa seemed…fresh! The chips were actual corn tortilla chips. Again, I am amazed.  Something that I tend to do, as I’m sure is the case with most of us, is eat the entire bowl of chips before the meal, sometimes three or four times, making me excessively full after the meal and somewhat unhappy.  This problem is solved at Mi Cocina by using small bowls for the chips.  Innovation is amazing.

On to the food. In record fashion, my fajitas were in front of me, wafting of deliciousness. I got the mixed lunch fajitas, and for a reasonable price, the portion was quite large. The flavor was some of the best fajitas I’ve had in a while, I would say even better than Dallas staple Mattitos. This portion to cost ratio was great, I couldn’t even finish my plate, which is a rare occasion.

This is something a little random also; and not really a knock on Mi Cocina. Where the hell is my cheese? It seems like all of the fajitas that I’ve had in the past few months have been without cheese. Is there a milk shortage or something? Someone tell me what is going on. Fortunately for Mi Cocina my fajitas were so good, I didn’t need cheese.

Go here, especially for a change of pace from the typical “American” food for lunch. Moderately priced ($$) for lunch, I think I spent around 11 dollars, but superior atmosphere and most importantly, food.

So it’s Wednesday. You’re checked out already for the long weekend, I understand. Well check back in you worthless reader, because you’re about to get a knowledge smackdown.

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelpia. Wildly entertaining and hilariously inappropriate.  I just started watching this show, yes, I realize that I am far behind the curve on this one, but you haven’t seen it either, have you?  This show is on FX, but currently I’m dominating it on hulu.com, which I may have mentioned once or twice, and tylerjameslee.com has reviewed extensively. FX has some pretty good shows, like The Riches, and I’m not sure what else right now, but IASIP takes the cake.

This show is essentially what I would hope to be like if I was a loser, like you.  It centers around some guys who run a bar in south philly and are politically incorrect, socially insensitive, and spot on hilarious. You need to get on to watching this show, soon.  You have also been warned, this is not for the faint of heart or easily offended. Get a sense of humor already!

Smackdown over. What would you do without me?

In one of the divine plans of the gods, my birthday and the birthday of a poor college student staple, Top Ramen, are in the same week!  Say happy birthday to Nissin’s Instant Ramen, who turned 50 today. I’m pretty sure that you either love ramen or you’re so sick of it because you ate it daily for too long of a time. In celebration, go cook up some ramen and pretend (or continue) to be poor!

“Fifty years ago, the first instant ramen package was sold in Japan, an idea created by Nissin Foods founder Momofuku Ando. Then 48 years old, he went on to invent Cup of Noodles at age 61. Not just a man of curly noodles, Ando was also a man of eloquence before he died last year. He once said, “In life, there is no such thing as too late.” [Serious Eats]

In other news that actually does kind of matter, someone apparently want’s to assassinate Barack Obama. In case you have been living in a cave somewhere, the Democratic National Convention is occurring as we speak in Denver, and will be followed by the GOP National Convention after labor day. If we didn’t already know this country was full of nutballs, we have more proof.  Go progress!

“Sources told CBS4 police found two high-powered, scoped rifles in the car along with camouflage clothing, walkie-talkies, wigs, a bulletproof vest, a spotting scope, licenses in the names of other people and 44 grams of methamphetamine. One of the rifles is listed as stolen from Kansas.”

My favorite. Cracked-out rednecks. Here’s the whole article.

this isn’t typical fare for my site, but how could I not? If anyone has a good 50k to spare, my birthday is Saturday. Seriously, anybody?

“Ready for order on August 26th (shipping in September for Japan) for ¥5.6 million or a bit more than $50k — a steep, $20k price drop since February. But at 7-feet wide and nearly 6-feet tall you’ll be paying a bit extra for professional installation to keep this 756-pound (343-kg) beast off your toes and out of your milkshake.” - Engadget

In the celebration/agony of the end of summer, I give you the Summer Movies Poll 2008.  This gives you a little chance to rate the blockbusters of this summer season, or for those of you that are worthless out there, something to show you what you’ve been missing. They’re taking a look at some of the summer’s best (or worst depending on your view) movies like batman returns, indiana jones part 9, sex and the shitty, etc…

Enjoy!

Summer Movies Poll 2008

Now that the Olympics are over and the US still dominates, you need to get back to your usual useless couch potato self and watch some tv.

We’re getting so close to the new seasons of all of my favorite shows, just a little while longer and the tv drought of summer will be over.

Mad Men was on yesterday on AMC, and this show just keeps getting better and better. The intricacies that are being developed this season are done beautifully. I really thought that a decrease in debauchery was going to decrease my desire to watch this show, but they have moved it up to a whole new level. Get on it.

Also, like I hoped, Weeds actually got interesting again. Nancy is back to what she does best, selling some drugs, and getting spanked by men. Yeah, now you’re definitely going to watch.

Burn Notice and In Plain Sight have been highly entertaining as usual, and you should continue to watch them. I’m serious, do it.

This should be enough to keep you busy, along with getting prepared for my ‘horns to dominate the college football world starting Saturday.

Oh, and its almost MY BIRTHDAY.

Sometimes, this is what Monday feels like.  Not for me today, though, because I’m awesome.

Update: For some reason college humor took this video down. Here it is from youtube.

Bucket of Awesome is a new site dedicated to all that is awesome.  Tyler is a contributing writer to my site and the creator/designer/head of awesome over at BoA. This is from him.

BucketofAwesome.com is almost done. Go ahead and go there, bookmark the feeds, add it to your favorite technorati sites, etc…. and then submit some content. There are still one or two pages that aren’t there or need work, but the basic system is in place.

Currently, the top post is Jon LaJoie’s - Show me your genitals…. a classic by all standards. Thats the type of high brow posting you can expect there.

-Tyler