I'd Rather Be Fishing

Temporary Leave

2012-01-15T08:07:00.001-08:00

Life is crazy right now. I did have big plans for the blog this year. But times are super busy right now with work, and school, and everything else right now. Hopefully, if things slow down, I can start posting again. In the meantime, I'll try and update as often as I can.

Happy Shaving!!

P.S. - Happy late Christmas

P.P.S - Happy late New Year

SOTD - December 14, 2011

2011-12-14T06:06:00.000-08:00

Razor: Merkur 34C HD

Blade: Red Personna

Brush: Simpson's Special Pure Badger Hair

Cream: The Bluebeards Revenge

Alum: Razorock Alum

After Shave: Master Bay Rum

Upgrade or Downgrade?

2011-12-07T10:45:00.000-08:00

Looking back at 2009, THIS was one of the greatest pieces of technology I ever bought. However. it all came to an end this week. Yup. I did the, "sign another 2 year contract and get an upgraded phone" deal.

That's right people, I "upgraded" to a new phone...that wasn't an iphone? I went from one of the most advanced smartphones on the market and upgraded my phone to a plain phone with no smartphone abilities. I would almost consider this a downgrade actually. While I almost got one of the basic phones with simply the numeric keys, I opted instead for a phone with a full qwerty keyboard so I can still text easily (which I'm tring to cut back on). However, that's the only app, er, extra special function it has.

"Why would I do this" you ask?! Because it needed to be done. I took a stand and joined in the fight against the iPhone, and won! Even the lady at AT&T thought I was a little crazy for doing this. I even asked her if she had seen lots of people or anyone "upgrade" from an iphone to a non-iphone or any other phone. Her answer was a simple yet dramtic..."no".

I had an iPhone 3G. no s. It was working and useful and had all sorts of fun things I could do with it. However, with each new upgrade to the operating system, my phone got slower and slower as time moved on. Some apps started not working and I was obsessed! I was constantly looking at my phone and playing with it. On Twitter. On Facebook. Playing games. Texting. etc... It was too much. I grew tired and weary of my life. I felt like a zombie when I used it.

For example. If you have an iphone. I dare, NO... I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU to leave your trusty phone at home or put it away somewhere for a day or even a week. You can have it at home, just don't use it unless someone calls you. What? a phone call? "But what if I need it for work?" You have a phone at work right? "But I need it for school?" No, a pen and paper will suffice. "What if I get in an accident or have an emergency while driving?!" How do you think people lived 10 years ago before cell phones?

Even for 1 DAY, I promise you will have wanted to pick it up, text, or do SOMETHING on it multiple times throughout the day. I know I did. In fact, that was one of many major contributing factors for why I decided not to have an iPhone anymore. I was on it all the time and my nose was always in my phone. I felt like I had to make it stop.

I opted for the Panktech Link 2

It's simple, no media plan, but I can still make and recieve calls and texts. That's it...

The first week I had it, there were multiple times during the day when I would actually pick it up and wanted to do something on it, only to remember I couldn't. I wasn't able to send that tweet in, or check facebook, or send one of the Angry birds hurling through the air. This is exactly the reason I decided to get rid of it. In fact, just having it 2 weeks, I have realized how many people are addicted to their phones. People are contstantly staring at the screen or pressing those letters as fast as their wee little thumbs can type.

And PARENTS. Please stop paying for your child's to have a cell phone! You are contributing to their anti-socialism and rudeness. Just watch or add up the minutes in a day that they are on their phone. If anything, don't encourage them! Let them pay for their own phone bill! Or have a rule for your household that they can't have their phone at the dinner table or when you are together for family time or something. Create boundaries! Teenagers spend WWWAAAYYYY too much time on their cell phones.

This is my rant for the day. And just to let you know, I LOVE not having an iphone. I feel like a normal productive citizen again. However, I now feel like I live in a world full of zoombies. This is really becoming a problem...

P.S.- Don't forget to vote in the poll at the top of the page!

Future Changes

2011-12-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

Alright folks. While one of my passions is still fishing it seems the direct of this blog has made a shift.

While most of you know, my recent hobby of wetshaving seems to be the easiest and most enjoyable topic to write about. Thus, after the end of this year, I will be changing the title of the blog (not the url).

I've created a poll to provide some possible new titles. Please take a quick 30 seconds out of your day to cast your vote on your favorite title. Don't like the choices? Leave me a comment and I'll add another.

I've also got some ideas and future plans for the blog. Not sure how many people follow me or read this, but I'm hoping to have more production for the blog. I've got some ideas for posting more, creating tags for each entry, creating a shaving video(s) for my YouTube channel, possibly doing a giveaway, guest blogger posts, and some other fun ideas to increase productivity and traffic. I might also try and take down and remove some of the more personal blog entries and info for privacy.

Thanks for visiting! You can follow me on Twitter @BrandonWPS and be sure to leave a comment! Oh yeah, and don't forget to vote on the poll.

Happy Shaving!

Anniversary & Movember

2011-11-29T14:42:00.000-08:00

Mo = N. Slang for Mustache

November = 11th month in calender year

Movember. It's an annual month long event that involves growing a moustaches during the month of November. The Movember Foundation Charity is an annual event in November that encourages men to grow a mustache to raise awareness and money for men's health, most notably Testicular Cancer and Prostate Cancer. I heard about this last year right around the time I was interested and started researching about wetshaving.

Ahhh. Wetshaving. Funny. ...thinking about shaving use to be a chore and something I dreaded. Now, it's part of my morning routine that I continue to look forward to every morning. This month marks my 1 year anniversary since making "the switch". Overall, my shaving experience has been drastically changed. I went from complaining about razor burn and ingrown hairs nearly every day, to having only a few ingrown hairs over the last year. And, I honestly can't remember the last time I had razor rash. It's crazy to think that I used to grumble and complain about cartridge prices while I tossed a new $25 pack of replacement blades into my cart at Wal-Mart. While I'll admit, getting a new replacement DE blade for under 17 cents is an amazing way to save money, my AD (Acquisition Disorder) has caused me to spend much more on shaving supplies that I enjoy using. I guess that's the equivalent to a women buying clothes I guess. lol Anyways, I'm glad I made the switch. Little did I know that on that fateful day, when I googled how to get rid of shaving irritation, I would run across some quirky dude shaving on YouTube named Mantic59. My life, would never be the same. I remember I stayed up till nearly 3:00 in the morning that night. Watching his videos and learning so much. It was then that my life changed forever... or at least my shaving habits. And my mug is better for it! Thanks Mantic!

Back to Movember. I bring it up because I've decided to participate this year. I started clean shaven on November 1st and am growing my first "Mo". SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) isn't too happy with it, and I've been given grief about it from others since starting my Mo. It's even been called rather hateful names. i.e.-Molestache, Skankstache, etc... I don't care. It's for a good cause. While I don't have that many people who I think will participate by donating/giving money for men's health, I am bringing attention to myself and it's a great conversation starter to bring people aware of Men's health. I'm kind of dedicating it to my Grandpa, who is now in his 80's, and has been battling prostate cancer for around 10 years now. He's a great inspiration to me.

My Mo...

Happy Shaving!

Technical difficulties

2011-11-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks... We're having technical difficulties (or technical stupidity. sheesh!) Back to the old blog url and name. No changes here. Thanks for understanding.

*News*

Should have more shaving related blogs in the future, and I may take a stab at my first shaving video! ...maybe. However, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays may delay this.

Happy Shaving!

WPS

2011-11-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

Headin' to the game this weekend. Woo Pig Sooie!!!

Cartridge Shaving Part 3 - Final Thoughts

2011-11-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm all clean and shaven from all those cartridge shaves, let's review shall we :) As Jerry Springer would say, these are my final thoughts.

While my overall impression with the cartridge razors was a good one, I'm not going to be switching over to them anytime soon. Sorry, don't get your hopes up. However, even though I had an overall good impression with them, I would like to point out a few things I have a problem with.

First is the outrageous prices for the cartridge blades. These companies are screwing over the consumers with their overpriced replacement blades. I remember reading somewhere that the mark up on these things are like 4000%! That is just wrong. Think about it... How much does it really cost to manufacture that little bitty piece of of plastic and metal. NOT MUCH. I understand that a company has to make a profit, but my word. Paying $20 or $30 for a replacement pack is absolutely ridiculous. PERIOD!

Another problem I have is the constant battle that these two companies have to "out-blade" each other. We started out with 1 blade. Then came the duo blade. Mach 3. Then the Quatro, etc... When will this end? Really? 5 and 6 blades is just overkill people. There is just no need for it. Think about it. 5 blades?! Comon! 1 blade should be sufficient enough.

I do believe that the lube strip is a pretty good idea. I have no problem with more hydration and protection. But how is it constructed on the razor again? First the little rubber fins pull the hair, then cut, then lube the face?

Isn't this backwards? As Larry the Cable Guy says, "It's like wipin' before your poop, it don't make sense!" By removing the fins, and putting the goo strip on the bottom of the razor, you wouldn't have a need for fins or a precision trimmer. Instead, you would have the lubrication strip first, then the blades. This seems like it would work much better to me. But hey, I don't make the razors.

I don't intend to sound mean or pessimistic. It's just my general observations of marketing failures.

Now, like I said in my reviews of the razors, I did enjoy the shave I got with both razors. Like I said earlier, I won't be switching to cartridge blades anytime soon, but I think using them has now changed my mind on the fact that they are not evil anymore. In fact, with the proper hydration and preparation, they can give you a pretty darn good shave.

Going from a razor that has 1 blade to 5 was different. But, ultimately, a razor is a razor. Whether a cut-throat blade, Double Edge safety blade, cartridge, or sharp rock, all will cut and remove hair. Some prefer the traditional styles over the others, while some prefer the more modern day technology. That’s fine. “To each his own”, I say. People can argue over this all day. However, whatever gives you the most comfortable shave, I say stick with that. Me? I still plan on enjoying the nostalgia and the tradition of using a brush and DE razor. It's just my thing. However, I don't think cartridge razors are as bad as I had originally thought.

Happy Shaving!

Home Sweet Home

2011-09-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

No we're not pregnant or expecting. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the "surprise" was that we bought a house! It wasn't final at the time of writing my last post, but now that we've closed, moved out, and moved in, I would say it's now official. We're still living out of boxes but have most of the big stuff unpacked.

5 things

2011-09-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Here are 5 things that I can't keep thinking about lately.

1. Jennifer
My beautiful wife. I can’t stop thinking about her and how much I love her. We’ve been married for 7 years, 1 month and 30 days (and yes, I had to look at a calendar to add up those days haha). I’m so glad she decided to married me all those years ago. We’ve gone through our hard times and good times together. For better or worse…sickness and health… for richer and definitely for poorer… She’ stuck by me no matter what and will always be my best friend. I love you babe

2. Arkansas Razorbacks
2 years ago, we ended up going to 5 games that year, which included 4 Arkansas Razorback games and 1 Alabama game. It was awesome! Last year, we didn’t go to any. At the time, we were concentrating on paying off a lot of our debt and didn’t really have the means to go to any games. This year, even though we have some “big plans” coming up in the next month or two, we are planning to go to Fayetteville once this year. Even if we don’t really have the spare money to do so, we’re gonna make time to do it. It’s one of my favorite things to do and it’s like my sanctuary if you will. When you grow up in the state of Arkansas, the Razorbacks mean everything to everyone. The Hogs started the season and won their first game last week. It was no surprise that it was almost a shutout. They have incredible talent this year and are poised to contend for a conference championship. I’m keeping my fingers crossed...

3. 9/11
This weekend is the 10th Anniversy of September 11th. Everyone remembers where they were that day. I was a freshman in college. It happened that morning and everyone was in the lobby of the dorm watching it on TV. It was so surreal that we were being attacked…America…the greatest country in the world… I’m not a declared political party. I’m not a fan of democrats, or republicans. I was a bit critical of George Bush when he was in office. I’ve since changed my mind a bit and really appreciate how good of a president he was. Anyways, I watched an interview with Geoge W on Natgeo the other day and was very impressed with his accounts during that tragic day. It was VERY interesting to watch. You can check it out here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1OU_t8lJZI). Let’s all remember those who lost their lives and also remember those heroes who saved countless other. May they never be forgotten. God Bless America.

4. Blessings
I’m thankful for many things right now. My wife, my family, friends, our jobs. We have wonderful jobs at a great place. It’s such a blessing to work at a place like where we work. I’m so thankful for Jennifer and how much she means to me. I’m so thankful for my parents and how much they have done for Jennifer and I since we’ve been married. I’m thankful for my brother and his family. And all our friends. We’re so blessed and fail to realize how much we have and how much we should be thankful for.

5. Surprise

Another thing that I can’t get out of my mind is a big surprise happening in our life right now. I don’t think it would be good to blab about it since it’s not officially happened yet, but Jennifer and I are very excited and can’t wait. Stay tuned for more updates on that!

Cartridge shaving Part 2 - Gillette Proglide

2011-09-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

I followed my normal pre-shave, shave, and after-shave routine while using this razor. I performed my shave as normal as I could, to compare the razor as fairly as possible. Pre-shave routine consisted of a shower, washing face with a mild face wash, and showering in the shower, not at the sink. I used my badger hair brush with a few of my favoriate creams and soaps (C.O. Bigelow, D.R. Harris, Tabac, & Cyril R. Salter). The shave was my standard lather + with the grain pass, second lather + second with the grain pass. After-shave routine consisted of cold water splash, alum, cold water splash 2, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Nivea after shave Balm.

The Gillette Fusion Proglide

Packaging - Again, the first thing I noticed right off the bat, is that all of the packaging can be recycled. There's not anything that I can't easily throw into my recycle bins and take to the curb. As you can see, the entire packaging is printed cardboard paper, with a plastic shell around the razor. When the packaging is torn apart and disassembled, it's all able to be recycled. No problem. Good job Gillette!

First Impression - So my first impress of the razor is that is reminds me of a transformer. It is really cool looking. It definitely looks like high tech engineering. The razor did have a cool look and a heavy weight to it. Not made of plastic, but metal.

Handle - Lots of cool looking rubber wavy fins on the handle made this thing easy to grip and nearly impossible to drop. It's heft and easy to grip handle felt abnormal compared to an all metal handle, but easty to grip nonetheless.

Fins - *I'm stealing my quote from my Schick Hydro here*- This is where the advanced engineering and technology of today’s razors, I believe, fails. I’m not sure who first came up with the concept of little rubber fins on a razor, but in my opinion, that wasn’t the smartest move. The whole purpose of a comfortable shave is to avoid irritation and ingrown hairs. So why put rubber fins on the first part of the razor that goes over your skin first? The rubber will first swipe away the protective lather, and then “pull” and “straighten” the hair before it cuts. This causes the hair then to slightly go back into the skin. The result. A closer shave right? Genius! ...er, not so much. This means that the hair has to grow back through a closed pore and skin. The result? Ingrown hairs! Bad move here. Not only that, but in my opinon, the rubber fins removing and sweeping away the cusion of slick lather that protects your face from the blades isn't isn't the best idea. Why do this? That’s like lathering your face, wiping it off, then shaving. Doesn’t make sense to me.

Pro glide blades - It's their thinnest and most efficent blades ever! I'll agree to this claim. The blades were extremely sharp and gave me a very close shave. I didn't feel the normal "pulling" of hair as I normally do with disposables. This gave a very close comfortable shave.

Lube strip - The lube strip wasn't anything to brag about. This area probably could be improved, but it's nothing a little pre-shave oil and a good lather can't correct.

Precision trimmer - The precision trimmer was a pretty useful tool here for lining up the sideburns.

pivoting head - This is a pretty good idea here. It's old technology by cartridge razors standards. However, it allows the blade to pivot back and allow the razor to conform to the contours of your face. It's especially handy by the adams apple and those hard to reach places on the neck. I have to admit, it got the hair on my neck better than I'm accustomed to. However, I am still learning how to get those places with my DE razor comfortably.

The Price - In comparison to the competition, it is by far, one of the most expensive razor and replacement cartridges on the market. Replacement blades run about $3-5 a piece! This will never live up to the cost of DE blades! WAY overpriced

Overall -

While the fact that the non-eco-friendliness of the cartridge blade and the outrageously overpriced cost of the replacement razors may off put some of those in the traditional wet shaving community, the Gillette Proglide gave me a very close and wonderful shave! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised. It was very user friendly and easy to use. Pretty much dummy proof. I was very impressed by the closeness of the shave with the new thinner and sharper blades. It also got those hard to reach places on my neck which was a great feeling.

If you'd like to used the Gillette Proglide, you can find it ...well...pretty much everywhere!

Happy Shaving!

Don't think it's that big of a deal huh?

2011-07-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

It was the summer of 2003. I was engaged to my present day wife and I was out of college for the summer working at the local Hastings. During that summer, the 5th Harry Potter book, The Order of the Phoenix, was released. Because it was a midnight release of the book, we were scheduled to work the midnight release of the book.

At the time, I had never read any of the Harry Potter books. I had heard of them, and had even watched the 1st movie. I knew it was popular, but never in my life would I have guess what was to come. I thought that we would sell some books, and be out within the next 30 mins to hour. Boy was I wrong. The line of people was endless! We live in a small community, so I didn’t think that there would be this many people who showed up! We stayed and sold book after book. It was nearly 3:30 a.m. by the time we were closing up and going home. I went home in amazement at the number of people who stood in line for a book… A BOOK! A stupid fantasy book!

About a year later, I somehow obtained a copy of the first Harry Potter book. I’m not sure how I got it, or where it came from, or even why I bothered to pick it up. I’ve NEVER been one who likes to read…ever. I’ve never enjoyed it and never had to read anything other than what was assigned in school. However, for some reason, I got this book and opened it up. I read the first page…first chapter…first book… and from those lowly beginnings at privet drive, my world would never be the same.

Since then, I have stood in line during the midnight release of the last book (it was even more insane than that night I worked at Hastings). We’ve also got all of the movies up to date and have enjoyed many many hours of reading and watching Harry Potter.

But last night, the final installment of the Harry Potter movies has come to an end. The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is the last movie in the series. We’re going to see it this weekend, and it’ll definitely be a bittersweet moment when the credits roll.

If you think Harry Potter is a joke, a kiddy thing, or just plain dumb, you have to realize that Harry Potter is one of the most successful franchises in the world! Still think it’s not worth seeing? Still think it’s a waste of time?

I guess you’ve heard of Twilight haven’t you? You may think that’s a big deal and a huge phenomenon? Guess again. That’s a teenage girl American thing. Stephanie Myer’s net worth is only about 125 million dollars. How bout Tom Clancy? Big time author, been writing books for year? Net worth 300 million dollars. Stephen King? Horror, suspense, fiction writer. 400 million dollars.

No…this is junk change to the creator of Harry Potter.

J.K. Rowling. Author of the International best-selling series of all time, Harry Potter is the first billion dollar author… That’s right, net worth is approximately, 1 Billion dollars…

Harry Potter's not so dumb anymore huh?

Suck it Stephanie Myer!!!

late....Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

Happy July 4th!

2011-07-01T08:19:00.001-07:00

I've been behind on blogging lately. It's been a busy time in our household. But I hope to get back on track this weekend and work on some more blogs. In the meantime...

I wish everyone a happy 4th of July. I'll be doing the usual grilling out, family time, and watching National Treasure! I might even try and do an American theme Shave of the Day this weekend.

This weekend, if you have time, google Independance Day and what it means to our country. *Here's a hint* It's not just about grilling, and fireworks...

Happy Shaving!

Infinity miles to the gallon

2011-06-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

So to help save on gas, commute to work, and our motivation to be more active and loose some weight, SWMBO and I got some bikes.

Mine is a 2011 Jamis Explorer 2

Jennifer's is a 2011 Jamis Citizen 1

We LOVE them and have had so much fun riding them! We'll try and start riding them to work next week to see how we can handle being hot and sweaty by the time we get to work. Wish us luck!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Cartridge shaving Part 1 - Schick Hydro 5

2011-06-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

The Schick Hydro 5

Packaging - The first thing I noticed right off the bat, is that all of the packaging can be recycled. There's not anything that I can't easily throw into my recycle bins and take to the curb. Yes, it's plastic, but it really is hard to find anything packaged in anything that isn't plastic now-a-days. It's cheap and convenient. The inserts in the packaging are all paper and cardboard, and can be easily recycled, too. Good job Schick!

First Impression - After taking the razor out of the packaging, the first thing you notice is the weight of the razor. When I stopped using cartridge blades back in December, I was using a Mach 3 or Mach 3 disposable. Both of these are very lightweight and are cheaply made. The Schick Hydro 5 feels surprisingly hefty in your hand. The razor is alot heavier than I was expecting. Not so much where your arm gets tired of using it, but enough to feel as though it's not made of cheap plastic materials.

Handle - The website and packaging information says it's got a premium high gloss metal handle. I also noticed that it also has a lot of rubber on the handle for a better grip.The handle is supposedly "ergonomic"... While I'm not sure about that last one, you can definitely tell it's a quality handle. It's hefty and has a nice grip and feel to it. Not flimsy, cheap, or light.

Fins - This is where the advanced engineering and technology of today’s razors, I believe, fails. I’m not sure who first came up with the concept of little rubber fins on a razor, but in my opinion, that wasn’t the smartest move. The whole purpose of a comfortable shave is to avoid irritation and ingrown hairs. So why put rubber fins on the first part of the razor that goes over your skin first? The rubber will first swipe away the protective lather, and then “pull” and “straighten” the hair before it cuts. This causes the hair then to slightly go back into the skin. The result...a closer shave right? Genius! ...er, not so much. This means that the hair has to grow back through a closed pore and skin. The result? Ingrown hairs! Bad move here. Not only that, but in my opinion, the rubber fins remove and sweep away the cushion of slick lather that protects your face from the blades isn't the best idea. Why do this? That’s like lathering your face, wiping it off, then shaving. Doesn’t make sense to me.

Lube strip - This is where this razor really shined! We’ve all seen the commercials. Water activated gel compartment for a smooth glide. This was by far the best thing about the razor. Not only did my lather create a layer of protection and comfort for the razor, but once the gel from the smooth strip hit my face, a slick, gooey substance was immediately created. I’m sure this stuff has got to be artificial, but It was definitely slicker than any cream, oil, or lube I could smear on my face. Amazing! After swiping with the razor and picking the razor up off my face to make another pass, you could see the lube and shaving cream mixed and literally “string” to the razor as I made another pass. It was pretty gross really. Kinda like snot, but it was the slickest stuff I’ve ever felt. It reminded me of that non-caloric silicone based kitchen lubricant that is 500x's more slippery than ordinary kitchen oil (Thanks Clark Grizwald).

Ultra guide blades - The Schick Hydro features unique skin guards on each of the blades. Doubling the point of impact the blade has with the skin, helping to reduce irritation. This is something that was hard for me to feel and pick up on because I’m not accustomed to how a normal cartridge blade feels on my skin. However, reverting back to my days of using the Mach 3, I can tell that my face was not irritated by the feel of these blades. I could hardly feel that the blades were even present. I believe this is what this technology was aiming for. I didn’t feel or get any irritation here, and that was good.

Pull back precision trimmer - This little feature was pretty cool. You flip back that goo strip on the top of the razor on a pivot and only the blades are visible on the head of the razor for precise trimming. While it sounds like a good idea and worked pretty well right under my nose, in that hard to get place, I’m not so sure this is necessary. Could be eliminated for less moving parts and easier to manufacture which could possibly be less cost.

Pivoting head - This is a pretty good idea here. It's old technology by cartridge razors standards. However, it allows the blade to pivot back and allow the razor to conform to the contours of your face. It's especially handy by the Adam's Apple and those hard to reach places on the neck. I have to admit, it got the hair on my neck better than I'm accustomed to. However, I am still learning how to get those places with my DE razor comfortably.

The Price - In comparison to the competition (Gillette Proglide), it's easier on the wallet. Replacement blades run about $2-3 a piece. This will still never beat the cost of DE blades, but a decent deal on good replacement cartridge blades.

Overall - While the fact that the non-eco-friendliness of the cartridge blade and the price of the razors may off put some of those in the traditional wet shaving community, the Schick Hydro 5 gave me a wonderful shave! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised. Although it missed a few spots here and there during the week, It honestly was very user friendly and easy to use. Pretty much dummy proof. I was very impressed by the hydro gel strip and the softness of the blades on my face. It also got those hard to reach places on my neck which was a great feeling.

Stay tuned for part 2 and 3 coming soon!

Happy Shaving!

Bluebeard's Revenge

2011-05-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

"Designed by a real life Blue Beard who was bored to death with being a Desperate Dan look-alike, The Bluebeards Revenge™ is a paraben free, premium quality shaving cream with added ingredients like Decelerine ™ to specifically combat tough stubble. It has been formulated to our unique specification in one of the UK's premier male cosmetics laboratories who are renowned experts in the field of shaving cream."

- Courtesy of Bluebeard's Revenge Website -

So as I mentioned in my earlier blog post, the wonderful people over at Bluebeard’s Revenge were awesome enough to contact me via Twitter and ask if I would like to do a review on my blog if they sent me a tub of their shaving cream. I, of course, was much obliged.

When receiving the cream in the mail, I was VERY excited to use it. As you can see, their packaging is like no other; a pleasure to read and quite humorous. Both the box and the jar definitely have the best packaging and branding of any other product I’ve used or seen. I mean, just look at it! It’s got a skull and crossbones on it for crying out loud! Wicked awesome!

Bluebeard’s Revenge is, "The Ultimate Shaving Experience for Real Men". A Paraben free high quality shaving cream. However, it does contain a decelerine ingredient that claims to slow down and reduce the growth of hair. I’ve only been using the cream for a few short weeks, so I can’t attest to this claim. Me personally, I’m not patient enough to wait 60 days to test out the results, but it’s an interesting claim, none-the-less. Some have been hesitant about putting such a “chemical” on their face. If I’m being honest, as long as I don’t start growing an ear or extra limb on my face, I could care less about the extra chemical.

Of course the packaging is cool, but what about the smell? You can’t enjoy something that’s going to make you turn up your nose. THIS, however, wasn’t the case with Bluebeard’s Revenge Shave Cream. I can’t really put my finger on the scent. It’s just got a “zing” to it. It’s not a strong scent but very subtle. It’s a classic barbershop smell with a hint of clean powdery citrus (or so I think). Once you lather it up, the scent intensifies, but not enough to choke you. It’s a very pleasant clean smell. I really enjoyed the scent. It made the shave that much more enjoyable.

Now down to business. How was the lather… Honestly, the lather was one of the best, if not the best lathers I’ve ever used. Seriously, it only took just a small amount to create a wonderful lather. At first, I was swirling my wet badger brush directly into the jar to pick up the cream and face lathering. While I did this initially, I found it to be overkill and produced WAY more cream than I needed. I also dipped some out with my finger and "bowl lathered" as well. And just to try it out, I used my hands a time or two. It only took a very small amount and adding a little H2O at a time to produce a LOT of lather. It was thick and cushioned my face with ease. Think after-school snack Fluffernutter and you get the idea. The “latherability” definitely gets an A+ in my book.

Once lathered, the shave was incredible. I used both a DE razor and a cartridge razor for the shaves. The cream had no problem holding up for a 2 pass shave and some touch up. I had plenty left over. The lather protected my face from razor burn and any irritation and was very slick. I tend to have slightly sensitive skin, so I was concerned about how the “decelerine” might affect me. The result? A clean, well shaven, irritation-free shave. I was impressed how great of a shave I got with this cream. I even went against the grain on some portions of my neck (gasp!) to see how well it protected me. It did WONDERS! I personally can’t shave against the grain that much because of irritation. Some men can and some just can’t. However, I was able to do a single one swipe ATG pass on my neck with Bluebeard’s Revenge... Impressive. The razor glided across my face with ease without any skipping or dragging.

After shaving, the cream and residue rinses off cleanly and leaves no soapy feeling. It’s wasn’t “hot” or dry at all, and didn't leave me feeling greasy. It did, however, leave my face feeling moisturized and soft. I followed up with my regular after shave routine of Alum and Witch Hazel or sometimes an Aftershave splash and didn’t notice any effect on my skin (other than the soft and moisturized part).

The Verdict

I want to personally thank Bluebeard’s Revenge for sending me a tub of their wonderful cream. I can’t speak to the claim of reducing hair. However, the packaging is cool, the lather smells great, and it really did give me one of the best shaves I’ve had in a long time. Even though I was sent a complimentary tub, I can guarantee that when I run out, I will be purchasing more. A google search looks like the cream cost around $20-25 US dollars. This may be pretty pricey for shave cream, but for the amount of lather you get out of so little cream and the quality of it, I would highly recommend picking up a tub of Bluebeard’s Revenge.

Argghh!

Blade prices

2011-05-19T11:15:00.001-07:00

I totally forgot the best part about using Double Edge (DE) blades.

THE COST!!!

While those cartridge blades are taking a toll your wallet at $2-4 a piece, DE blades are much cheaper. Example? You got it!

Gillette Proglide replacement blades - $3-4 a piece
Schick Hydro replacement blades - $2-3 a piece
Derby DE blades - $0.30 – 0.35 a piece
Red Personna DE blades - $0.35 – 0.40 a piece
Feather DE blades - $0.40 – 0.45 a piece

You can’t argue with that.
Happy Shaving!

Blades

2011-05-06T11:33:00.001-07:00

So when I started researching wetshaving, I was concerned that I wasn't sure which blade to use. I had my razor, but now I don't know which brand of blade to choose? I read all sorts of online guides on which blades to use. None of which directly pointed me toward one specific blade. Everything said, it depends. Even mantic told me so :) Well, not specifically to me but he did here...

This is because all blades are made and manufactured different. They all have different levels of sharpness and forgiveness. So everything I read, said to get a “sampler” of different blades to try out, which I did.

I got a sampler of 5 different blades from West Coast Shaving. I thought this was a good variety to start with. It’s taken me a while to try and test out each blade. I wanted to go through at least 3 blades each before really deciding on what I like best, what worked best with different razors, etc…

A good source of information I found was at www.shaving101.com. They had an article about different blades and which one worked best for which skin type and beard type. I personally, do not have thick wiry harsh hair. However, I don’t have fine thin hair either. I think I’m pretty normal, but on the sensitive skin side, so the more aggressive and harsh blades weren’t for me.

I started out using a Derby and Red persona blades. These were my favorite blades. They were mild, but seem to cut my beard relatively well. They were not harsh or aggressive in any way, and had a smooth feeling. I like to use these blades for my Merkur HD razor, as I feel it has a more open and aggressive cutting angle than my other razors.

The Merkur and Crystal blades I didn’t like so much. The Merkur’s just plain sucked. They didn’t feel good on my skin and were pretty rough and left my face feeling "hot." The Crystal blades on the other hand were good and sharp, but were not as comfortable as the Derby’s or Personna’s. I liked them better than the Merkur blades though. I think these blades are best used with my Gillette Superspeed. Not as aggressive to me, but not a mild or light shave.

The feather blades were by far the sharpest of the 5 brands I got. They were fairly a smooth shave, but we VERY sharp and I did happen to knick my nose, even though I had a lot of practice with the other blades and hadn’t done that yet (my knick stick cured that pretty quickly). I didn’t like the feather blades because they were so incredibly sharp, but they did give me the closest shave I had gotten. I am using these blades in my Gillette Travel Tech because this razor is the mildest of the three I own. I feel that the aggressiveness of the blade is toned down in this razor.

Overall, it was a good decision for me to get the sampler. If I had just got a bunch of feather or Merkur blades instead of going with the sampler, then I wouldn’t have been so thrilled with this new way of shaving and probably would have given it up. Yikes! Glad I got a sampler, because now I can match the blades that work best for my face with the razor that I have.

I’m using up all the blades even though I don’t like some. I don’t want to waste them. Besides, when I put them in the desired razors, then I can get the best results out of them. If you would like a sampler of blades, then check out www.westcoastshaving.com or www.qedusa.com and look at their selection.

Happy Shaving!

Coming Soon!

2011-05-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

Wow! I really cannot believe it. Bluebeards Revenge contacted me via Twitter and asked if I would mind testing out and reviewing their shaving cream! How cool is that?!

I have been looking forward to receiving my cream in the mail for nearly a week and finally got it in the mail today! You can check out their website at www.http://www.bluebeards-revenge.co.uk/ Stay tuned for my review!

Happy Shaving!

P.S. - One of these days, I'm gonna make a video review or vlog. Just waiting to save up for an iPhone 5. Hurry up Apple!!!

Future plans

2011-05-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to traditional wetshaving back in November, when I started researching it. By the time I received my first brush and DE razor, I was hooked! I have not shaved with a cartridge razor since.

6 months later, I decided to look back at my blog posts and see what I’ve been blogging about. I came to the realization that I’ve been using a DE razor for this long and I have been downplaying (to say the least) cartridge razors and the big US companies. So I decided to try out a cartridge razor after going Cold Turkey for so long to see if it’s really as bad as I remember it being.

I’ve decided to try out the two most popular cartridge razors on the market; the Gillette Proglide and the Schick Hydro 5. In the coming weeks I'll test out and give my lowly opinion about how I feel these razors stack up to my traditional wetshaving methods. It'll be interesting, but I promise to be fair and open minded.

Happy Shaving!

Pinaud Clubman

2011-05-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

If you ever want that classic barbershop smell, this is the after shave for you. Being readily available and very inexpensive, this after shave could be a great way for you to start the day off right.

Pinaud Clubman has been around forever. It's commonly found in most large chain retails stores, so it's readily available and very inexpensive. I've seen it at Sally's Beauty Supply, Wal-Mart, and a couple of different drug stores in town. It's one of those all too common alcohol based after shave lotions/splashes. It doesn't have much benefit for your skin, so a lot of people I hear use it as a substitute for a cologne. Most after shave splash scents don't last that long, but this one I find that the sent lasts a long time. Even though it's mostly alcohol, I tend to have oily skin in the summer and anytime that Arkansas humidity kicks in (which is all the time). So I can usually use it without the product drying out my skin. It does burn on a freshly shaven face, but it tones and that initial burn really feels good and is very soothing.

The scent is where this splash really shines. Like I said, it has that classic old time barbershop smell. It makes you think of your grandpa or your youth. Not really spicy or sweet, but more of a fresh feeling and smell. It will likely remind you of yesteryear and the old style of America.

In addition to the After Shave Lotion, Pinaud Clubman also makes a Talc product. Talc is an old type of after shave product. This natual mineral form of after shave is very soft and velvety. It feels much better than the normal corn starch baby powders. Basically, you sprinkle this and rub it all over your shaven face. It hides blemishes, redness, cuts, and the like. It leaves you feeling dry, clean, and feeling good. Not to mention, it smells great! That classic barbershop scent in a powder form. My barber still uses this on my neck and fresh cut hairline with a brush after a haircut. It really soothes that fresh cut skin. I also use it for anytime I want to feel dry and fresh or after I get out of the shower.

I really like both of these products. The splash/lotion is my normal every day go to scent or whenever I feel like using it. Both are great products and are very reasonably priced. I found these at my local Sally's Beauty Supply store. I got both for under $10. A bargin!

Happy Shaving!

*BTW - sorry for the poor light. It's rainy and stormy here and didn't have any natural light to use. Just the florescence bulbs.

Another find

2011-04-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weekends ago, I scored these old school goodies at a flea market. I know it's not much, but I like them.

The brush and pack of blades are not to be used. They're strickly decorative. I'm not sure how old the brush is, but I thought it was cool looking.

The guys over at the B&B helped me date the razors to the 4th quarter of 1943. Yeah...68 years old. How crazy is that?!

The razor is a Gillette Travel Tech from 1966. See how small the handle is? The travel tech usually came in a leather or plastic carry case that held about 1 pack of blades. Obviously, it was just thrown in a junk drawer and didn't have anything else with it. After cleaning and sterilizing, It's been the least aggressive razor I've used. Very mild. And, it's a really cool 3 piece.

It was a bargain. I paid 5 bucks for all three pieces.

Happy Shaving!

Samples

2011-04-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

So I ordered some samples from Geo F Trumper from their website, www.trumpers.com. Cost me nearly $10, which I didn't think was all that bad that for an international order.

They all smell really good. This is a little older, so I've used all of them or partially because I don't wanna use them all up! ha-ha. By far, my favorite was the Wild Fern scent. I also love the GFT scent, it was Jennifer's favorite, but that Wild Fern was amazing. Contemplating investing in some of that scent specifically. Just wish they would make it into a shave cream. They may eventually. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I received 7 cologne samples, 6 shave cream samples (I got about 2 uses out of each), and a shower cream/soap. They all smell wonderful and are a great product to use. I suggest you get a sample pack and try them out.

Happy Shaving!

Spring is over...or has it just begun?

2011-04-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

Easter is this Sunday, and I feel like Spring has already left. Yes, the weather is getting warmer, the grass is getting greener, and flowers are just starting to bloom. But spring football for 2011 is officially in the books.

The past 5 years, Jennifer and I have gone to Fayetteville for the Spring Red & White Game. This year, we weren't able to go. It was just bad timing, and we were in between checks at the time and couldn't afford the gas there and back, plus meals and possibly a hotel. So we opted to stay home.

However, this year, the game was televised on ESPN. Coach Petrino said he divided the teams pretty evenly, but Tyler Wilson stole the show. Wilson was Mallett's predecessor last year and at times showed that he could take over the leadership role. When Mallett was knocked out of the Auburn game last year, Wilson stepped in and took control and nearly lead the Razorbacks to a miracle come back victory. But we all know the story... Late interceptions ended the game, and Auburn eventually went on to go undefeated and win the National Championship.

Now, Mallett is headed for the NFL to be a superstar. Tyler Wison was a shoe in for the starting quarterback position. Although nothing is set in stone, Petrino always has a game plan in mind. We’ll see what all happens before fall camp and eventually the start of College football in August.

Here is a video of Tyler Wilson’s performance in the Auburn game last year to give you a sneak peak of what is in store for the Razorbacks in 2011.

Woo Pig Sooie!!!

Best purchase in a long time.

2011-04-20T16:11:00.001-07:00

King of Shave AlphaGel Shave Gel Sensitive Skin

2011-04-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

Being within an hour of the capital, it's always a nice treat to spend the weekend in a big ...er... bigger city than where we live. So while shopping in Little Rock this weekend, we stopped by Target to look around and buy a few things that Wal-Mart doesn't carry.

Since picking up the wet shaving hobby several months ago, I have been more aware and wanting to check out the shaving and men's grooming sections of most every store I go into. Just to look and check it out to see what I can find. Most of the time, you find the usuals; cans and cans of Edge and Barbasol shave cream, and about a billion different cartridges and blades for the disposable razors. Big name brand companies filling up the entire section.

However, low and behold, I came across a brand that I wasn't used to seeing in the isle. King of Shaves!

King of Shaves (KOS) is like the big name company in the UK that is similar to the popularity of Gillette here in the U.S.

The only KOS item they had was one particular tube of their AlphaGel Sensitive Skin Shave gel. I quickly grabbed it up and began to browse the labeling, the content, ingredients, packaging,...

-BRANDON!!!

... Huh? What?

-Are you done?

Oh, yeah, lets go. And I dropped the tube in the cart to purchase.

So off we went and strolled around some more and spent the rest of the day in LR and shopping (gotta love Whole Foods).

One noticeable quality of KOS is that their product is not in an aerosol can. Instead, it’s it a plastic squeeze tube, much better for your skin. No propellants or preservatives. So when the tube is empty, rinse and throw in the recycle bucket.

This product was a low foaming gel, so I didn’t use my brush (which felt weird now that I was so used to it). I smeared it on with my fingers and massaged it into my beard. The smell was the most notable thing. It wasn’t as fragrant and luxurious as some of my other shaving products. I could definitely smell the tea tree/aloe (I think). It reminded me very much of my sun burn aloe “goop”. Not that it was a bad thing, but it did have that menthol cooling smell and sensation. Hm, not bad.

It was very weird to use this product and it not foam on me. I wasn’t used to that either, so it was different. It went on smooth and slippery. The gel stayed clear which was nice because I could see where I was cutting, especially nice around the sideburns. I noticed that the gel was very slick and protective.

I used my regular DE razor and blade so I could compare with a brush and cream. I could tell that it had a little more drag than usual (I wonder if it was my blade because it was about the 5^th use). Usually, when using a brush and cream, the whiskers are thoroughly massaged and coated in cream from the brush. My facial hair has softened and is completely slick and hydrated quite a bit because of this and I usually don’t experience much drag from the razor. It wasn’t really “pulling” but wasn’t cutting as smoothly as usual.

After completing my first pass, I give my face a little rinse and was pleasantly surprise and how slick my face still felt. I don’t usually rinse my face well after the first pass just to keep most of the slickness on my face. However, the second application was even more protective. I was very impressed with this.

After the second application, the second pass was way better than the first. Very moisturizing and protective with the slick gel. I was most impressed with this aspect since most of razor burn, knicks and cuts come after the initial pass of a DE shave.

After finishing up, I took a minute to wash all the gel completely off my skin. I was impressed at how moisturizing my face was. It wasn’t “hot” or red and wasn’t dry at all, but wasn’t oily in the least. I finished up with my regular AS routine and was pleased with the days shave.

My overall impression was a good one. I enjoyed the eco/non-aresol quality of the gel and the slickness it produced. I don’t think it’ll replace my traditional creams and soaps and my badger brush, but for a quick shave or for travel, it was a great product. I enjoyed it much better than some of the more popular brands of shave cream.

If you’re interested in King of shaves products, they do have a website at www.shave.com

And you can follow one of my twitter friends Diane Wood who's a spokesperson for KOS on twitter @Queenofshaves (She was nice enough to send samples of their lady's shave cream to my wife)

Happy Shaving!

Just more reasons why...

2011-04-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

Words of the Day

Shaving = to remove a growth of beard with a razor.

Electric shaving = to remove a growth of beard with a razor powered by a source of electricity or battery power.

Wet Shaving = To remove a growth of beard with a razor when the area to be shaved is kept wet with hot water, shaving soap or shaving cream.

Tradition = The body of customs, thought, practices, etc, belonging to a particular country, people, family, or institution over a relatively long period

Traditional Wet Shaving = The same method as wet shaving, but with the use of a shaving brush, shaving soaps/creams, and a double edge razor (DE) or straight razor (cutthroat).

I know in my earlier blog post, I said it’s hard to define or pin down what traditional wet shaving (TWS) is. However, I have tried to simplify it above. The idea for this post came from the Badger and Blade forum. One of the guys posted a topic about a conversation with his 86 year old uncle about shaving using a double edge safety razor. The post basically explained how his uncle thought he was crazy for shaving with a DE razor today. The article got me to thinking a little more about this new hobby of mine and I had to write my thoughts down for the blog. A lot of it will just be my version of the forum post and in my own words. I’ll give credit for most of the ideas to that post, but these are my own personal thoughts about it.

I personally asked both of my grandfathers if they had used or still use a double edge safety razor. Interestingly enough, they both did when they were younger. However, they both are now using electric shavers. This really threw me for a loop. In the B&B post, the author said, “It seems that some of us (me included) seem to think that all the old guys secretly long for the days of yore, when all they had was a bowl, a puck of soap, a brush, and a DE....yet, this doesn't seem to be the case. Apparently, a lot of them love the fact that carts and shaving gel save them a heck of a lot of time, effort, and nicks/weepers”.

I guess most men are like this. I know I was until I converted to TWS. My dad and brother both use cartridge/disposable razors and the gel/foam aerosol cans. I know from my bringing up the hobby to my father, his response was, “well I just use a mach 3 and edge shaving cream”. He kind of has this, whatever floats your boat, mentality about TWS. I know he could probably care less about really thinking about his shave. I’m cool with that and that’s fine and dandy… It’s just what I’ve observed.

Probably a lot of people wonder what my reason is for using traditional shaving methods. I would assume that most would say what a waste of time. Why spend all morning using a little brush and soap when you can just squirt goo on your face and be done with it? Why would you want to cut yourself up and slice and dice your face like Edward scissorhands with one of them thar safety razors (btw, I have yet to “cut myself or slice and dice my face)? I guess because I find it enjoyable. I enjoy the nostalgia of using older traditional means of shaving than the new age products. I guess I really want to wish myself to simpler times. I love my iPod and iPhone because of the capability of listening to lots of music at the touch of a button. Faster, more convenient, and portable, but I still have vinyl records. I LOVE listening to vinyl records because of the sound quality and nostalgia of it. There’s just something about it. The same thing could be said about guys who want to build and remodel that classic muscle car. Why spend the time and money on something so old, when you can easily go to a car dealership to buy a new vehicle that would run better? It’s the nostalgia of it. It’s fun and it makes rebuilding cars more of a fun hobby other than a “chore” like cleaning the car or drive from A to B. Just enjoy the ride.

I guess this hobby is similar to any other hobby. If you enjoy doing it, you’ll want to spend more time in your hobby. Maybe research it a little, practice a little, and spend time, energy, and your finances a little right? (Note – Isn’t it funny/ironic how the use of modern technology and computers has helped those who wish to go back and learn and use techniques that were so popular back in the 1900’s?) The forum post author said something similar to this. He said, “To an outsider (the typical guy who views shaving in the same light as brushing his teeth or clipping his toe nails..something, which must be done, but which is hardly "fun" or enjoyable) we are insane for making shaving more complicated and time consuming than it NEEDS to be.”

This cool little way of shaving started off so innocently; a cheapo $5 “natural” brush from Wal-Mart and a little $0.99 puck of Williams soap. Now…well… just ask my wife how far it’s gone. Ha-ha. She’ll tell ya I’m a little obsessed. But ya know, she honestly hasn’t made fun of me or complained one single time about me shaving this way, or saving my money up to splurge on certain shaving products and things. This wasn’t always the case. She used to always complain when I had facial hair. She hated it (and still does). Before I started TWS, I, maybe, shaved once or twice a week because of irritation and laziness. It was a chore and it wasn’t enjoyable. But NOW…yeah, she doesn’t complain anymore J

The feeling I get from my morning shave is a great way to start off the day. Remember that feeling when you were a kid and you yearned to go shopping for school supplies before school starts? Or how about that feeling you get when you buy a new pair of shoes and wear them for the first time? How about when you walk out of the barbershop/salon with a new due? Combine all those feelings and you understand why I love my hobby of traditional wet shaving. It’s that personal feeling of accomplishment. That feeling that makes me hold my head up high. That feeling that makes you start the day off right.

This is why I practice Traditional wet shaving.

Happy Shaving!

Shave Den

2011-04-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

Only been into the traditional wet shaving for about 5-6 months now. This is my current "Shave Den". It's not much, but it's a start!

Happy shaving!

What's in my pants?

2011-03-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

So I stole this blog idea from Beverly. In her blog post, she talked about What’s In My Purse. Well, I don’t carry a purse around with me, and neither do any other guys I know (unless you’re Joey from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. or Alan from the Hangover).

Anyways, I thought I would do the dude’s version of What’s In My Purse. Since guys don’t have purses, I thought I would label this blog appropriately by calling it What’s In My Pants.

1) KEYS. Never leave home without em… no, literally… I wouldn’t go many places if I had to walk. They’re boring, but essential.

2) POCKET KNIFE. Old Timer brand is a sturdy well built knife that’s easy on the wallet. It’s not flimsy or light. Heavy duty and has a sharp blade. Good for opening envelopes, cutting fishing line, trimming finger nails, cutting open any bag that can’t otherwise be opened easily, or anything else a southern boy would need it for.

3) CARMEX. It’s not a big guy thing. Not a whole lotta guys like to wear chapstick or Carmex. But I have a habit of biting my lip. It helps my lips to heal from that and also sooths my windburn lips in case I’m outside too much. It also keeps my lips soft. And it's wife approved (ask the ladies. They don’t wanna be kissin up on yo stanky flaky lips)

4) WALLET. It’s a dude’s mini purse. It carries all the essentials like I.D.’s, License (driving and hunting/fishing), credit/debit cards, Cash, entertainment rental cards, Insurance cards, business cards, hole punch discount cards, etc… Besides. You ever get pulled over without it, you’re screwed!

5) iPhone. Yes, everyone’s got one or some sort of smart phone. It seems now-a-days, that it’s a necessity. While I do love mine and feel naked without it, I can certainly live without it (I know Adam is now having a heart attack while reading this). I love it because I can use it as my alarm, I can text, surf the internet, take pictures, play games, do bills, and update twitter or Facebook! Oh yeah, I can call people too. It’s a phone after all

6) ADDITIONAL ITEMS NOT PICTURED. Of course sometimes, we dude’s need other things as well. These things can range from lighters, to mini flashlights, sunglasses, condoms, gum or mints, to even equal packets! Yes, equal packets. If you live in the South but are trying to cut back on your sugar intake or prefer Equal to sugar, you better keep some in your pocket or wallet just in case! You may love that restaurant, but if the only option is sweet-n-low, you’re drinkin that iced tea unsweetened buddy. (Note - Splenda can sometimes be substituted for Equal)

Not sure if the above would make people think of, “You can tell a lot about a man by his ____.” If so, well then keep your thoughts to yourself! ....wait...no, comment on this post instead!

Either way, there you have it. What’s in my pants… The Dude’s essentials. Please, NO man purses!

Hippies Part 2 (without the shaggy beard)

2011-03-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

In keeping with the theme of Part 1 of being more environmentally friendly, this part focuses on how i became interested in traditional wet shaving because of this.

I knew that Americans were wasteful, but check out this survey I found over at PBS:

If the rest of the world consumed at the rate Americans do, how many planets worth of resources would be needed to cover this consumption?

Five planets worth of resources would be needed to enable the rest of the world to consume at the rate Americans do. Source: ABC News:Diapers and Showers and Sodas, Oh My!

How many gallons of water does an American use over a lifetime?

1.8 millions gallons of water are used over a lifetime, enough to fill almost three Olympic size swimming pools. Source: National Geographic: Human Footprint

Less than 4 percent of the world's children are American. Whatpercent of the world's toys do American children consume?

American kids consume more than 40% of the world's toys. Source: The Morning News: Garbage Night

How many plastic bottles does the U.S. throw away every second?
America discards 694 plastic bottles every second or 60 million plastic bottles each day. Source: National Geographic: Human Footprint

How much garbage does the average American produce everyday?
The average American produces 4.6 pounds of waste per person per dayor 1,657pounds a year. Source: EPA: Municipal Solid Waste

In America, how many pounds of fooda year go to waste?

About 96 billion pounds of food go to waste each year in the United States. Source: EPA: Waste Not/Want Not WASTES

If just 5 percent of the food Americans waste was used, how many people could be fed daily?
Four million people could be fed each day if 5 percent of the food Americans wasted was used. Source: NY Times: One Country's Table Scraps, Another Country's Meal

With 5 percent of the world's population, America uses what percentage of the world's energy?

America uses 25% of the world's energy. Source: BostonGlobe: Alarm sounds on US population boom

America is responsible for what percentage of the world's automotivecarbon dioxide emissions?

The U.S. is responsible for 45% of the world's automotive carbon dioxideemissions. Source: EnvironmentNewsService

Kinda puts things into perspective huh? I've very proud to live in a countrywhere I'm free and have the luxuries that I do. I have so many things I take for granted. When reading that survey and looking at pictures of the waste impact of Americans I feel ashamed. I feel like I want to help. How can I start? How does this have anything to do with Traditional Wet Shaving?

Picture this... It's still dark outside when your alarm goes off in the morning. You drag yourself out of bed to hop in the shower. After your shower, you're feeling refreshed and clean. Now that you’re a little bit more awake it's time to shave. After finishing shaving you realize that you've been using that razor for about a week now. Now it's time get rid of it. Where does it go after it's dull and you no longer use it? That's right, the trash.

You've just thrown away something that could ultimately have been recycled andreused into something else! Instead it's going to go into the landfill to be piled up among the other things that American’s throw away. If you use a plastic disposable non cartridge razor, how long does it last? Maybe 4 or 5 shaves? Alright I’ll give you points that you saved a few bucks by using the plastic disposable razor. However, you can't just toss it you’re your recyclebin because of the metal blade inside of the plastic handle. Although, you can ultimately figure out a way to recycle it, but that requires the time to figure out how to crush or break the razor enough for you to dislodge the tiny piece of metal blade; and if that's the case then good luck not cutting up yourhands or anything else. If you do happen to separate the two, you can recycle it. That's a lot of work don’t yathink? I wonder how many people go through that? Too much hassle.

So it's added to the garbage like everything else.

You don't use a disposable razor? Then you must use a cartridge razor. Yes, that Mach 3 has been a good faithful razor the last few years. I agree, it's a good razor, and the new Gillette Proglide fusion is a better razor than the mach 3, but how is it made? Yep, more plastic. Now you can argue that cartridge razors are more environmentally friendly than disposable razors. Yeah, I'll buy that. Instead of throwing away the whole razor, you only throwing away that little cartridge head. Less waste. Good for you. Only... you can't recycle that either. You can't keep that from ending up in a land fill. A fusion or Mach three razor has LOTS of plastic, rubber strips, and metalblades. I dare you to try and take that apart after every shave to recycle it.

So it's added to the garbage like everything else.

What kind of shaving cream do you use? barbasol? Edge? Any type of "Goo in a can"? Yes, most people use that stuff. The problem is. When it's empty, what do you do? Do you take the time to pop off the plastic nozzle and spout? Do you take the time do make sure it's completely empty before throwing it away? do you throw it in your metal/aluminum recycle bin? no.

So it's added to the garbage like everything else.

Traditional wet shaving can be one of the more green and eco-friendly ways to shave. If you use a metal DE razor, they are constructed so well, that you can easily get a lifetime worth of shaves from it. They are constructed so well, that I even have a Gillette razor from the 1940's. You think that little flimsy Mach 3 handle will last 70 years? And I doubt those mach 3 cartridgeswill be around in 70 years.

Blades for the DE razor? Paper thin, all metal, no plastic, completely recyclable. I've got an aluminum blade "bank" that will hold several years worth of blades. When it's full, I place it in my aluminum recycle bin. Not waste!

Nothing added to the garbage.

Shave cream? Most creams today come in either plastic squeeze tubs (rinse after use and recycle), metal tubes (rinse and recycle) or plastic screw top tubes (keep and refill with same cream from a refill tub... which will happen to be plastic and can be recyclable) which can be rinsed and recycled as well.

Nothing added to the garbage.

Shave soap? Most shave soaps come in a cardboard or paper box both of which can be recycled. Some come in wooden bowls (it's wood. Naturally decaying matter. not artificial, so when you're done, you can either throw it in the trash and not worry because it will eventually be broken down over the years. Or, you could toss it on your next campfire or in your fireplace.) Also most buy a refill puck (paper box - recycled) to drop in the bowl. And I've seen some that come in either glass bowls or plastic bowls, both which can eventually be recycled when done.

Nothing added to the garbage...

Are you detecting a trend? You see, not only are DE blades a mere fraction the price of Cartridge replacement blades, but they take up way less space and are much easier to recycle.

My only disclaimer is to watch out for how much water you're using. If you're used to shaving in the shower (with the water running) then opt for shaving in the sink after your shower. If you shave at the sink, opt for filling up the sink with hot water and using the sink full of water to rinse your blade and face afterwards instead of leaving the faucet running while rinsing your razor and face.

As you can see, not only is traditional wet shaving a fun hobby, able to give you a better shave, and make you feel like a million bucks, but traditional wet shaving can help you in your efforts to be a better steward of the earth and want to be more green. Recycle, reduce, reuse.

For more information and tips on how to be more eco-friendly, I would suggest visiting this website (www.earth911.com). No, this isn't an endorsement or anything.

Happy Shaving!

Hippies Part 1

2011-03-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

I decided to make this one of those fancy 2 part series blog. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. The blog will focus on how we started to become more environmentally aware. It's more just background info on us, but it leads to Part 2 which is about how to be more environmentally-friendly while shaving.

I wouldn't go so far as to label Jennifer and I as tree hugging hippies, but we do like to be more green and eco-friendly. I mean, we aren’t going to the extreme like not showering, using indoor plumbing, and not living without electricity. However, we do try and make a conscientious effort to help by reducing our waste. However, in the beginning, I honestly wasn’t really all that on board with this whole “recycle” thing. I thought it was just a joke. I mean, who cares ya know?

We really started to think about our environmental impact about 2 years ago. We had moved into a new rent house. Our city has curbside trash pickup twice a week. However, the city sent us curbside recycle bins as well. You place your designated recycled products in the bin and they are collected once a week when the recycle truck comes along and takes it to the recycle center in town. There are three bins that are color coded for Plastic, paper, and aluminum/metal. We thought that we’d might as well give this a try. I mean, we've got the given to us, so might at well utilize them. So before we thought about throwing something in the trash, we decided if it could be recycled. If so, we rinsed if needed (soap/Landry detergent/shampoo bottles) then we put it in the recycle bins outside.

Now just a little background about our household, I am “responsible” for taking out the trash. In an average week, I would say I took out about 4-5 tall kitchen trash bags full of garbage to the trash can outside. Well, after about a month of this, I started to notice a difference. I was ASTOUNDED how I was only taking 1-2 trash bags a week to the trash can outside! What the heck?!

So now instead of thinking recycling was dumb, it turned into, hey it’s helping me not take out the trash so much! Ha-ha (Anything to help me stay in my "Man Chair" watching ESPN or DBZ)! Then our garbage production really started to make sense when I saw that by the end of the week our recycle bins were literally overflowing with items in them to be recycled. It was not very hard. Just making sure that all the little things like coke cans, coke bottles, boxes, paper, plastic (seems like EVERYTHING is made of plastic), milk jugs, cereal boxes, etc… were put into the bins. Not really that hard. Jennifer and I both agreed that we could see how just doing this simple thingas recycling can really help. I mean think about it. We cut our household trash production in half! And most of the stuff we were putting in the trash now is biodegradable. Mostly food scraps and paper towels. Our trash out by the curb turned from 4-5 bags piled up to about 1-2 with the recycle bins OVERFLOWING beside them. And that really made me realize that by justa little effort and thinking/common sense, we can cut our waste production in half AND help recycle and reuse.

Some other things that we try to do is not use the Plastic bags; yep…those bags from Wal-Mart. Most of those won’t ever biodegrade. They’ll be here on earth for a LONG time after we are. Most aren't biodegradable and If they are, then it’ll take a LONG time for them to break down. So another effort we have started is to use the reusable recycle grocery bags. Take em into the store with ya and have your grocer use those instead of the plastic sacks. I’m starting to see more and more people with them. Think about it... Personally, replacing those plastic bags with the recycled reusable bags, we’ve probably saved 20-30 bags per grocery shopping trip every 2 weeks. That could possibly be up to 700+ bags a year! We do keep some of the bags on-hand, but most of them are taken to the recycle center or BACK to walmart where they have a recycle box to put them in.

Try growing a garden! Not only have we had fun watching our plants grow during the summer, but it gets us outside, working in the yard, burning calories, but helps us eat healthier too! Less processed foods and more natural and healthy foods like fruits and vegetables will make you feel better! And those food and vegetable scraps from the garden can be made into a compost pile! Even less that goes into your trash bag!

Shop your local farmers market! And take your recycled bags with you! Not only are you helping out your community by giving back and purchasing from local farmers and growers, but you’re not pumping money into that powerhouse monster called Wal-Mart! Besides, dairy, eggs, meats, vegetables, and fruits from the farmers market taste SO much better thanthe mega market. Trust me on this one...I know good food.

Eat less fast food and eat more home cooked meals. You’ll enjoy the time with your family; spend less money on overpriced and poisoned fast food (yes poison. It’s killing America!). And you don’t have those plastic cups, paper bags, ketchup packets, and napkins that you have to throw in the garbage!

Use less hot water when washing clothes, taking a shower, or washing dishes. Just turn down the knob on your water heater. Using less hot water means the hot water heater uses less energy to heat the water.

Turn off lights when you leave the room (I personally struggle with this one). Conserve what you have and be sparing with it.

Some people, like me, are visual people. So when i see or learn about something visual, i really can pick up and learn and understand it better. So here are some movie choices for your weekend.

MOVIE SUGGESTIONS:These movies have really changed the way we look at food and how we view and consume food. Be ready for it to change your life. It did for us!

Super Size me (documentary by Morgan Spurlock)

Food Inc. (documentary by Robert Kenner)

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Present day… we’re still recycling from 2 years ago when we started! It’s become second nature now. We both know what to recycle and it has become second nature. I’m now realizing that almost everything can be recycled. I know there is LOTS more than can be done, and we aren’t perfect and are probably missing a lot of key concepts, but at least our little bit is making a difference. I know it would be a hopeless situation if we went all out hippie living on the land, but that doesn’t fit into our lifestyle. It’s about making the biggest impact with single everyday things. Not changing the world.

Now…those of you who have stayed awake long enough to read this, you might be wondering how any of this fits into my new hobby of traditional wet shaving?

Stay tuned for part 2!

Dominica Bay Rum

2011-03-12T14:52:00.000-08:00

After shaving, your face is in serious need of conditioning. Not only have you removed most all of the hair on your face, you've also removed some of the top layer of skin along with the hair, which means that your face is very vulnerable.

Most people, me included, suggest using an After Shave balm. The balms usually give back moisture to your skin and leaves it feeling soft and healthy. Usually, balms also include things like aloe and vitamin E and other essential oils for your skin, and most do not include alcohol which can dry out you skin.

However, some people who don't like balms for the "oily sheen" they give off, opt for an after shave splash.

Personally, I like to us both! I like the cooling sensation and moisturizing effects of the balm on my face. It gives my skin back the moisture it needs. However, I love the smell and "stinging" sensation I get with an after shave splash. I usually put balm on my freshly shaven face, and splash some of the after shave splash in my hands. I then pat the splash on my lower neck, back of my neck on my arms, chest, and then rub whatever is left in my hair.

Dominica Bay Rum after shave is your typical splash. It's very heavy in alcohol, so it tones and tightens your skin while the alcohol gives it an antiseptic sting. Yes, it will sting, but only for a few seconds. The scent of Dominica Bay Rum is the classic bay rum smell you get when you walk into the barbershop.

Dominica Bay Rum is actually distilled using alcohol and Bay leaves. The scent is very nice and strong. However, the scent doesn't linger very long like a cologne would. The light scented bay rum is a light, fresh, crisp smell, leaving you feeling clean. It's free of artificial dyes, fragrances, and any synthetic enhancers of any kind.

I have to be honest, I wan't a big fan of it when I first got it. In fact, I didn't like it at all. But I figured I would keep it and give it a little more time. Boy, I am glad I did! The scent is one of my favorite after shaves there is! The strong cedar/cinnamon/CLOVE smell is very nice and refreshing. It doesn't' smell fake or like a deodorant. The natural Caribbean scent reminds me of sipping beverages on the beach listening to Jimmy Buffet singing Margaritaville. (Jennifer wasn't so impressed with it at first either. Now if she smells even a faint hint of it, she likes to snuggle right up to my neck. :) That's always a plus! ha ha)

If you are a fan of alcohol based antiseptic after shave splashes, I recommend you pick up a bottle today! I got mine from www.westcoastshaving.com Below are some pictures of my bottle.

Happy Shaving!

Hole in the wall

2011-03-05T17:32:00.000-08:00

My barber told me a story recently that I found fascinating.

I was telling her about my new hobby of Traditional Wet Shaving. She thought that it was very interesting and congratulated me. She then proceeded to tell me that her father still uses his old DE razor to this day and still drops his razors in the medicine cabinet.

...excuse me? drops them in the medicine cabinet? She said yes, the medicine cabinet. She then told me that in older houses, the medicine cabinets in the bathrooms were built partially into the wall. These medicine cabinets usually have a little slit about 1-2 inches wide in the back of the medicine cabinet. When your razor blade gets dull and you're ready to throw it away, just push it in the hole in the medicine cabinet. The blade falls between the walls. it eventually rusts and corrodes over time. No throwing away, no cutting through trash bags, no one getting hurt. Yeah...it just falls between the walls! How crazy is that!

We live in an older house ourselves. So when I got home, I headed straight to the bathroom. I knew what awaited me. I had always seen it there but had never paid attention. I never used it, and never really wondered why it was there, but lo and behold...as soon as I opened up my medicine cabinet, guess what I saw. Yep, the hole in my medicine cabinet! Crazy! So I immediately grabbed an old razor and I had to test it out. We made sure that it was very quiet when we pushed it through...

...crickets....silence...

... clink, clunk, tink, rattle....

"THAT WAS AWESOME!", Jennifer said. ha ha. After doing a quick search online, I read how a lot of construction workers and guys who build houses for a living say how they have come across houses and bathroom construction with just hundreds of corroded and rusty razor blades.

Anyways, kinda dumb, but I thought it was a pretty interesting piece of information. Kinda makes you wanna go check out your medicine cabinet now huh?

Happy shaving!

P.S. - Oh yeah, and my friend Adam is a traitor. His blog talks about how he went over to the "dark side." He abandoned Wet Shaving and got a new Electric Razor to go along with his other one... He said that he might have started a shaving war...

May we meet on the battlefield, friend.

A welcomed suprise

2011-03-03T15:41:00.000-08:00

John, and the good people at www.westcoastshaving.com, were gracious enough to provide me with some samples to try before i purchased some more products from them. I was sent the following:

Geo F Trumper Shave Cream - Rose scent

Taylor of Old Bond Street Shave Cream - Mr. Taylor's scent

D.R. Harris Shave Cream - Arlington scent

It was a very welcomed surprise in the mail today.

Happy shaving!

Vintage Gillette Superspeed

2011-02-27T08:47:00.000-08:00

Being new to the traditional style of wet shaving, I have been an avid reader of many blogs, posts, forums, websites, and watched lots and lots of videos on youtube... Ok, I admit, I have been a little, well, ...obsessed about it. haha

I have recently been trying to persuade my friend Adam, to give wetshaving a try and leave The Dark Side to become a wet shaver. He ended up purchasing a boar brush last weekend and I was happy to donate some of my creams for him to use and try out. Obviously, he had much better shaves and was interested in finding out more about wet shaving. I pointed him to some of my favorite websites and blogs, most notably mantic59's youtube channel. He has a very extensive collection of videos. They are great sources of information about wetshaving and are quite entertaining as well (just in case you are interested yourself, you can find his youtube channel here).

During my recent knowledge of wet shaving, I've noticed that a lot of guys are particularly interested in finding and collecting vintage razors. One of the most popular razors was Gillette's superspeed model razors made in the 40's and 50's. They were enormously popular back in the day (like today's Mach 3 razors) and made of quality materials and metal.

Anyways, yesterday Adam, Jenn, and I went on an outing to find some vintage DE razors. Adam was really interested in getting a DE razor and thought it would be cool to find a vintage razor to use from an antique store or flea market. I agreed and was eager to go.

Anyways, as you can imagine, we ended up finding a very good stash of DE razors, straight razors, brushes, and all sorts of goodies. Most of them were in pretty decent condition. Yes, they were crudded with gunk, worn, faded, tarnished, but had very little rust or major damage to them. Once I saw them, I immediately knew how all those guys on the forums and blogs felt about finding old school DE razors! We were thrilled to have a very extensive collection to look through and purchase. However, I didn't think I needed ALL of them, even though I wanted to buy them all! haha So I ended up getting a vintage Gillette razor and old straight razor. I wasn't sure about the Gillette other than I seeing the Gillette symbol on the razor, so I figured we would research it when we got home. I don't use straight razors because I don't know how and am kind of afraid to use them! haha. But none the less, I got one anyways, to "decorate" with. Maybe one day I'll send it off to be professional cleaned, polished, and sharpened.

After getting home with our purchases, we checked out all the information we needed to clean them up. We soaked them in a water/vinegar solution first. Then we used some scrubbing bubbles and a toothbrush to clean up the gunk and corrosion on them. After rinsing with hot water, we let them soak in hydrogen peroxide to kill any germs or diseases. We rinsed and used some toothpaste to polish it up a bit. I wish I had some quality metal cleaners and polish to really make it shine, but I used what I had.

We used the Badger and Blade forum to date our razors and figure out the brand, name, model, year, etc. Come to find out, we both purchased the same razor. A 1948-50 Gillette Superspeed DE razor. I find it pretty amazing that for $5, I obtained a razor that is 60 years old and works great! I'm really excited to use it and compare it to my Merkur HD.

Below are the pictures. Enjoy!

Box of goodies we found

My purchases:

Straight Razor $8

1948-50 Gillette Superspeed $5

Soaking in scrubbing bubbles

Watching the gunk drain away

Twist to open (TTO) still works great!

After a bit of cleaning and polishing

look at that shine!

Still in great working condition!

I'm very happy with my purchase

Stay tuned for more reviews!

Happy Shaving!

Product review: Tabac Shave Soap

2011-02-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

Another great shaving product is Tabac Shaving soap. My previous post was about a traditional shaving cream. Tabac, however, is a shaving soap. it's not a cream product, but more like a hard puck of soap.

Tabac comes in a handsome, heavy ceramic bowl with a brown lid. It looks really nice on the shelf next to all the mens' products. There is no mistaking it's a men's product.

As you can see, it's a hard compact soap. Instead of creams that are easily incorporated with water in a mug to create lather, shaving soaps are usually "face lathered". The scent of this product is great. It's very distinct and unique. It reminds me of a cross between Old English leather with a hint of the classic Old Spice scent and fresh tobacco. It's a very strong, spicy, masculine scent. It reminds me of a 1970's nightclub (or what I would think one smelled like anyways). It's very pleasant in the morning to help wake you up.

For blogging demonstrations, I'll be hand lathering so you can see the amount of cream we can get with the soap.

First, you'll need to soak your badger hair brush in some warm/hot water to hydrate the brush and soften the bristles. Also, with soaps, since they are so hard and concentrated, I like to pour a little warm water on the soap to soften it a little so you can load the brush really well with the soap.

After soaking, shake out the excess water on your brush and pour out the water on top of the soap. Then give the brush a few good swirls on top of the soap to start loading the brush with the soap.

You'll start to see the soap foam up a bit while loading the brush. Give it a few more good swirls when you start to see this.

Now we're talkin'! See how the brush looks thoroughly doused with soap? We're in a good position to start making some good creamy lather.

I would usually start making a lather on my wet face with the brush, but again, I'll use my hand so we can see how this product works.

As you can see, there's not much to it a first. It's thin and runny like a hand soap. Keep brushing and you'll start creating the lather.

You might notice that the shave cream will become dry and sticky. That's OK! Don't panic, just simply add more water to hydrate the lather.

After adding water, you see that the lather starts to become creamy again. Keep working the lather.

If it's still a little dry, add a little bit more water. You'll start to see the lather build and hydrate more and more.

Now we're getting somewhere. We're starting to get that good creamy lather we need. Just a little bit more.

Here's what we're looking for. A thick, slick, creamy lather. This product takes some getting used to because I am accustomed to creams. However, it was easy to get the hang of. It smells great and applies easily to the face. The slimy, slick cream easily protects from knicks and cuts from your razor. A real quality product.

You can find it easily online and it's quite affordable. Because this is a hard soap and pretty concentrated, this product should last a very long time. I picked up mine from www.westcoastshaving.com for about $17. They also sell a refill puck for about $12 so you don't have to purchase another jar. You can simply drop the puck in your previous glass jar.

Stay tuned for more reviews.

Happy shaving!

Cyril R Salter Indian Sandalwood Shave Cream Review

2011-01-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

I've got lots of pictures on this post!

A lot of the higher quality shaving products come from England or somewhere in the UK. Cyril R Salter is one of those brands. For as best as I can tell, London is the headquarters to some of the most popular and well established barber shops and shaving companies. Most of your better products will probably originate from London. We Americans have sold out to those big shaving companies... Look where that's got us... pitiful shaves.

Anywho, this shaving cream was a GREAT purchase. This fantastic cream lathers, hydrates, and performs just as well as the mighty "3T's" products and at half the price! The first thing you notice is the LARGE sturdy blue tub it comes in.

The cream itself is a velvety and rich cream. When you open the lid, you are immediately met by the wonderful aroma. The smell has a clean warm woodsy smell but with a little bit of a sweet note to it. Almost like a spicy cinnamon smell. Very masculine. There's no fru-fru girly scent about this one!

The tub looks nice beside my cup and brush huh?

To prepare for the lather, you need to soak your badger brush in some warm water for a minute or two to soften the bristles.

Simpson brush soaking...

Once thoroughly hydrated, shake out the excess water, but not all of it.

Give the brush a few good swirls in the cream. The cream is soft, so you wont have any problems loading the brush with the cream. I just gave it a good 2 or 3 swirls with light pressure.

Once you have the brush loaded with lots of hydrated cream, you can start to make your later.

For this demonstration I will use my hand so you can see the lather building stages. As you begin, you can see that the cream is very runny. This is only about 5 seconds of brushing. The lather is very "watery" and has lots of bubbles. Continue building lather...

After about 30 seconds, you will start to see the lather coming together. Below, is what I'm talking about, but it still looks a little weak. It's definitely not ready yet. It's still got that soft peak look. Continue building lather...

Now we're getting somewhere. See how the lather has started to whip up to a nice peak?

This wonderful stuff has a wonderful aroma and a very soft, slick, and thick feeling. The shaving cream is well hydrated and protected my skin from the razor with ease. No nicks or cuts with this stuff!

Cyril R Salter shaving cream is a wonderful product. It was a pretty good price too! I got mine for around $15 at www.westcoastshaving.com. To those who haven't use a quality shaving cream, that might sound pretty steep. However, compared to those mass marketed shaving gels in a can, this shave cream will last me about 5-6 months of shaving. Does you shaving goop in a can last that long? Didn't think so...

Happy Shaving.

Stay tuned for more reviews!

I'm no expert

2011-01-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

I give you fair warning...

I'm no expert!

Please don't think I'm an expert in traditional wet shaving. I'm not, by any means. This is simply my personal blog where i can put my thoughts out there and write to say what's in my head these days. Sometimes I'm into fishing, and other times I might obsess about Arkansas Football (OK OK, I'm always obsessing about that!). Right now, my new hobby is this new way of shaving.

I am, however, new to this new hobby. Whether you call me a "noob" or "newb", I am new to this. Which means I don't have much experience. So if you're reading this and think I'm all wrong with my information. Please, feel free to correct me and let me know so we can both learn :)

So, those haters out there who think I'm an amateur or don't know what I'm talking about...well,...you're probably right. ha ha!

Anyways, this is just something I find interesting, appealing, fun, and makes me feel good about myself.

I'll probably have a new blog coming in the next week or two. Stay tuned!

Later.

The Shaving Brush (Simpson Special Pure Badger)

2011-01-22T12:25:00.000-08:00

One of the most highly recognizable things about Traditional Wet Shaving is the Shaving Brush. The Shaving brush is one of the best tools for shaving. However most men don't use one. It is a very nostalgic thing that you might have only seen your grandfather use or in those old-time movies. However, the brush does have some great value to your shave.

There are many benefits to using a shaving brush. First, it is used to make and whip up a lather to use for your face. You can do this by using a bowl, mug, scuttle, or even hand lathering (making a lather on the palm of your hand with the brush). It's also a great tool for exfoliating your skin. It lifts the hairs on your face and massages the lather so that it get all around your hair for a clean shave. And the best part about using the brush? It's fun!

The Shaving Brush is often made with a handle and some sort of natural or synthetic hair. The handles are often very decorative, sometimes made from porcelain, wood, ivory, and even gold. Today, however, most are made with either a wooden, plastic, or porcelain handle. This Simpson brush is made from plastic.

The bristles of the brush are often made from synthetic or natural hair. The cheaper brushes you may find in the mega-marts and corner drug stores are usually the brushes made from synthetic hair. These brushes usually are in the $5 price range. The bristles of these brushes are usually made from Nylon. However, some may be made from "natural" hair, i.e - Boar hair.

By far, the most popular and most useful brushes are made from Badger hair. Badger hair holds more water than any other natural or synthetic hair. This means that your creams and soaps will be more hydrated and create a more creamy, fluffy, and slick lather. Which transitions into less razor skipping and dragging.

The Badger hair can come from many parts of the badger. The closer to the belly and neck of the badger, the softer and more luxurious the hair can get (in other words, the more expensive it can get.) My Simpson Special Badger brush is made from pure badger hair. This is a less expensive brush than most badger hair brushes. Most pure badger hair brushes, like mine, will run you in the $20-$40 range. A step up would be best badger hair. These brushes will be more soft and fuller than the pure hair. These usually will be in the $40-$80 range. Then you start getting into the Super and Silvertip Badger hair. However, I don't see paying upwards to $150-$300 for a shaving brush...Yikes!

These pictures are when I first got my brush in the mail. As you can see, it looks pretty new. No bristles are out of array (except for just a couple), there isn't any discoloring, and the head of the hair hasn't really "bloomed" yet from use (It usually takes about 2 weeks worth of use for the bristles to fully bloom and get softer, wider, and hold more water).

When I first started out, I used one of those cheapo Wal-Mart specials. the $5 boar hair brush. After about 3 weeks of use, the bristles didn't bloom, they were very stiff and not soft, and the brush started loosing the hairs when it was used and put away. I loved using it, but was frustrated with the fact that it wasn't doing a good job. Just Ok. Then I got my Simpson brush and I was AMAZED at how different the brush felt and performed! It produced and much better lather, it was softer, and it look a whole lot better!

If you're interested in owning a shaving brush, you can read reviews about different brands at the Badger and Blade forum (http://badgerandblade.com/), check out Mantic59's Youtube videos (He's got a special review of brushes in this video http://www.youtube.com/user/mantic59#p/u/57/bEX7BnD595A), or you can browse around on one my favorite sites to purchase shaving items - West Coast Shaving (http://www.westcoastshaving.com/).

If you'd like more information, or have any questions, just leave a comment.

Stay tuned for more reviews...

Merkur 34C Heavy Duty

2011-01-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

One of the most obvious tools of traditional Wet Shaving is the Double Edge razor or "DE" for short. Also called a safety razor. These photos are of my personal razor, the Merkur 34C Heavy Duty. While researching my first razor, this model came up over and over again in all forums and website I could find for beginner razors. However, the thing is, not only beginners use this razor! It's such a well constructed razor that beginners and experienced shavers use this razor all the time. Those that start off with this razor and tend to purchase others seem to always come back to this one. Good ole' faithful.

The initial investment into a DE razor can be significant with the up front cost. Some Razors can cost from $30 to several hundred. The Merkur 34C Heavy duty ran me about $39. This might be an expensive up front cost, but when you consider that the replacement blades are dirt cheap, it pays for itself pretty quickly. (I'll be reviewing blades later on the blog.)

Granted, I haven't been shaving for more than 15 years or so, but during my time, I've probably tried dozens of disposable razors. And let me tell ya, there is nothing that compares to the traditional safety razor. The shaves are much better, much closer, and give you far less irritation than the disposable cartridge razors.

The Merkur is made of stainless steel. And as the name indicates, it's "Heavy Duty". The weight of the razor is significantly heavier than you would think. Although the razor is perfectly balanced so that when you use it, you let the weight of the razor do the cutting for you.

As you can see, the razor is constructed so that you have a base handle with a top head that unscrews from the base. The twist knob at the base of the handle will unscrew the top. Once unscrewed, you are able to align your choice of razor blade with the head.

Then simply screw back together. Very simple to operate. Simply hold the razor on the handle as you would a throwing dart with your first two fingers and thumb. Then, simply let the razor slide down your face with short slow strokes, never going over the same spot twice. You should never put too much pressure on the blade when shaving. That's asking for trouble! There's not a degree required to use it. I mean, come on...it's not rocket science here!

As you can see, it's a beautiful razor with a great look and feel to it. How it shaves you ask? WONDERFUL!!! Granted this is the only DE razor I've tried, but I'd say it's the best! haha I love this razor!

If you are interested in learning how to use a DE razor, I would suggest visiting a few of my personal favorite websites. *NOTE*-These are in no way endorsements to these people or their products. These are simply some of my personal favorite websites I choose to visit on a regular basis.

http://www.shaving101.com/

http://badgerandblade.com/

http://mantic59.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/mantic59

...stay tuned for more reviews!

Wet Shaving

2011-01-13T15:48:00.002-08:00

What is Traditional Wet Shaving? It's a lost art. It's something that the men in our culture don't know how to do, or have lost the desire to do. It's something yourgrandpadid. It's how John Wayne would do it!

Traditional Wet Shaving is not really something you can define or pin down. It's almost a "Zen-like" feeling. And yes, it is a skill (some may laugh). It usually involves applying a warm, fragrant lather with a brush, and using a single blade razor. Usually, the lather is made with the brush from soaps and creams of much higher quality than you would find in the super discount stores. Most have natural ingredients, oils, and moisturizing effects.

If you're around my age, then you probably grew up using disposable or cartridge razors to shave, and using that blue or green goop that comes in a pressurized can! The problem with this is that every year, there is a new razor or new product that is better, helps reduce irritation, or has more blades, and usually has some type of vibrating mechanism in it!

Wow... This is useless. These companies makes it sound like ingrown hairs, shave bumps, and irritation are a normal everyday common thing. Well, it didn't used to be, back in the good 'ole days (or so I've heard). I've noticed that within the last 10-15 years, I've seen at least one commercial a day about having better and more improved products on the shelves. Let me tell ya, men are still irritated (pun intended) with their razors! And that shaving goop in a can? Yeah, it's worthless. You still get cut, they dry out your skin, don't last long, and take up space in landfills.

STOP THE MADNESS!

I'm very new at this. But from what I've read, and have now personally experienced, I see no turning back to the old ways of using those over-priced plastic razors and chemical enhanced goop to shave with.

I've recently learned that proper hydration of the face, using quality products, applying with a brush, and using a single blade razor can turn shaving from a chore into an enjoyable hobby. Let me explain a typical wet shaving session and you can read for yourself.

First, a hot shower to cleanse the body and soften the facial hair. Next, soak your badger brush in hot water or a mug to temper the hairs in the brush and to soften them a bit. Next, use a face soap or scrub, and thoroughly wash the face. This helps exfoliate the skin and help rid the face of dirt, debris, and dead skin cells. Once the face is clean, some men prefer to use a shave oil or other product to soften the whiskers and massage into the beard. Next, using a high quality shave cream or soap, one would then start making a lather with their badger brush in a mug or bowl.

Shaving cream - If using a shave cream, most would place about an almond size dollop into a bowl. The shave cream usually resembles toothpaste or thick suntan lotion. Then start swirling and mixing the cream with the soaked badger brush. This will take a few minutes. Once thoroughly mixed, the mixture will be warm, fragrant, and thick. Shaving cream shouldn't smell like deodorant. It should smell fragrant and natural. Like spices, woods, herbs, and floral. Find something you would enjoy! There are many choices out there.

Shave soap - Most shave soaps are made into "pucks" that you drop into a mug, or are made to fit into bowls. While soaking your badger brush, some men like to soak their soap in warm water for a minute or two to soften the soap, then drain off the excess water. Then, taking your badger brush, give it a few good swirls on the soap, then brush the soap onto your beard to create the lather on your face instead of in the bowl or mug like the shave cream. You can make the lather on top of the soap in the mug, but i find it a waste and a little overkill.

Once you have made your lather, use your brush to massage it into the beard for a good minute or so. This seems like a long time, but the brush is lifting the hairs, any remaining dirt, and exfoliating the skin as well. This also helps hydrate your skin and hair properly. Once you have lathered up, you should have a soft, thick cream on your beard. You are ready to start shaving!

The razor usually is either a straight razor for those who like danger, skill, or like to be a bad A, or a double edge single razor. The double edge razor is usually is much safer to handle, and is easier to use than a straight razor. For blog purposes, and my informational knowledge, I'll go with the double edge razor here. The double edge razor uses a stout metal body housing, usually made of stainless steel or chrome. Some razors are more fancy than others, plated with titanium and even gold. Usually, the top of the razor head either unscrews from the body, or has a twist to open top. Then you are able to place your safety razors in.

Because you have thoroughly prepped your beard and have moisturized your face using the traditional method, you won't have the need for a moisture strip from your razor's head, or little rubber fins to help pull and straighten your hair as you cut. No. Your goal here is hair REDUCTION, not hair removal. Instead of smearing goop on your face and hacking with the disposable razor and removing hair in 60 seconds flat, you'll take your time. You'll enjoy shaving. You want to let the weight of the razor do the cutting for you. You'll go WITH the grain of the hair and not go over the same spot more than once because you have already removed the lather from that spot on your face. Because you have properly prepped your face, you'll have no problems lathering up again for the second pass, which will go ACROSS, not against the grain. If you're new to the process, you may want to stop here and let your face handle this new way of shaving. After a while, once you get the hang of it, you'll be comfortable going 3 passes. With the grain, across the grain, and against the grain for that "smooth as a baby's butt" feel.

Once completed, you'll need to rinse VERY thoroughly with warm water to remove any leftover soap or cream residue, and then splash and rinse with COLD water to close the pores of your face. You'll want to make sure and take care of your investment by rinsing your razor and brush very well, and storing it in a well ventilated area. To help your face recover, you'll want to use a high quality shaving balm, lotion, or splash to help your skin heal and retain the moisture. I usually tend to use balms in the winter because the cold weather dries my skin, and splashes during the summer or hot months.

Too extreme of a procedure for you? Well, if you are tired of spending an average of less than 5 minutes shaving to get a poor result, then you may want to try the Traditional method of Wet Shaving. Me personally, I had lots of ingrown hairs, I had never been able to get the hair in those hard to get areas on my neck, and was never really satisfied with my shave. Now that I've made the switch, I've had better and more close shaves, and haven't had any problems!

Stay tuned for some reviews of some products that I use personally!

It's been a while

2011-01-11T16:38:00.000-08:00

Woah... My last post was in May?! Outrageous! Eh, who cares. ha ha! Anyways, I'm not really sure how long or how often I'll be blogging, but I do have some ideas and some things I'd like to "jot" down. Don't really think anyone reads this other than my wife anyways.

Update:

The Arkansas Razorbacks went 10-2 this year in the regular season! The only losses were to then #1 Alabama and the current National Champion Auburn. We made it to the Sugar Bowl and almost had one of those miracle comeback victories, but ended up loosing in the final seconds of the game. (not really sure why I didn't blog any during football season. hm)

My weight loss journey has had it's ups and downs. Every time I feel like I'm making progress, I slip back into my old ways of eating and not exercising. But with a new year, comes new commitments. We'll just see how I handle it.

I took a big weekend fishing trip with "The Pfiefers". It was a bust, and I ended up not catching any fish. But we still had fun anyways! I don't have any pictures from the trip. :(

I've got a new hobby! Like I said earlier, I'll be blogging about it pretty soon. I've got lots of things to talk about and review! Here's a sneak peak!

Colors of Spring

2010-05-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

check out Jennifer's blog for pictures of our Spring flowers!

http://jlowesblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/springtime-flowers.html

Videos from Spring Game

2010-05-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

2010 Spring Red and White game

2010-05-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

That's right friends! It was here before you knew it. The Arkansas Spring Red & White game. Jennifer and I went once again and had a blast as usual.

Here they come! Running through the "A" is an exciting part of the pre-game show.

There was actually a nice crowd today.

And the other side of the field. They esitmated 30,000 people! I thought was kind of a stretch but when I got up to get us a drink, I noticed that the lower and upper endzone charback seats were absolutely FULL!

...until the rain hit. The crowds started to thin out a little then.

Other than being rained on the second half of the game, it was a pretty fun day. WOO PIG SOOIE!!!

Spring Garden

2010-04-20T09:46:00.001-07:00

It really sucks being poor. Well, not really being poor, but have higher priorities that take up most of your paycheck before you can spend it on fun things. For example, we ALWAYS love to buy plants and flowers every spring. We love taking care of them and watching them grow and really enjoy sprucing up the house with them. But this year we have other things that our paychecks are going toward, so we have to deal with what we had. We had JUST ENOUGH money to buy our plants for our garden. The rest is what we planted 2 years ago that are perennials that come back every year. So even though we haven't bought any flowers or plants, we still have a couple things that make the house spiffy.

Rose Bush we planted last year. It was about half this size originally!

These are the suprise Lilly's in early March! The first sign of spring!

Compost bin

These are the flower bed in the front. They will have Cala Lilly's all in them once they bloom :(

inside the compost bin. That's the good stuff!

FINALLY got the garden planted this weekend.

The Cala Lilly's are showing signs of life!

Hasta's compliments of Sara Starnes. She gave us about this much two years ago and we split it up in two spots along the side of the shed that you will see in the next picture. They have REALLY grown well. I would say they have doubled since we planted them two years ago.

From Left to Right: Suprise Lilly's, Hasta's, Pink Rose bush, Hasta's, and suprise Lilly's.

March 8, 2010

2010-03-08T12:40:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of things going on this weekend. It started out with the Totally Trout expo in Little Rock on Saturday morning. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with it. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission put this event on for people and families in Central Arkansas. It was extremely well advertised for such a small event. For anglers and people who know quite a bit about trout fishing, it was pretty uneventful. However, it WAS geared toward families and children in central Arkansas who had never been trout fishing before. There are numerous lakes, ponds, and streams in and around the Little Rock area that the AGFC are now stocking with Rainbow Trout. I think it was more for these type of people. It was defiantly not for experienced anglers.

Anyways, I went with my Grandpa and uncle to this event. All 3 of us have literally been raised on the Little Red River 25 miles away. I have SO many memories of when I was younger of those miserably HOT summer days when I would go with them to the river. Most of the time, we were in a boat, but sometimes we would park and walk to the river bank and wade. I remember these days like they were yesterday. My brother and me fighting the whole way in the back seat of the pickup and hearin those fishing poles rattling around in the back of the truck. But as soon as we got there and started fishing, I could care less about fighting with my brother. Haha. I remember my granddad would always entertain us with funny stories and “drive like the dukes”.

Anyways, other than sitting through a 10 minutes class about the basics of fishing (I know, what dummy doesn’t know how to fish), we visited a few of the booths, stopped by the Trout magnet both to shake hands with Jeff Smith and say hello, they were ready to go. We drove all the way to Little Rock to stay 20 minutes! I agree that I was disappointed like they were, but they were giving away door prizes all morning long! I could have won a brand new rod and reel or a new fly rod! Oh well.

…sigh, anyways, so after they were done, we stopped by Gander Mountain on the way home. I just got some new fishing line to restring my poles.

Once back home, Jennifer and I had plans to go to Little Rock (yes…I was just there) with our friend Adam to go enjoy some of the Lobster fest that was going on at Red Lobster and to do some shopping. We enjoyed our Red Lobster and I at way too many Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Afterwards, we went to the Woodland Heights shopping center so I could get some new shoes to workout/walk in. We went to the Easy Runner store. The place was packed and I they had 4 different employees working with people. We stood and waited our turn for about 15 minutes. I was getting frustrated that it was taking a while and aggravated. Then, in walks this girl she was about our age with her mom and Butch lesbian sister (yes, I was profiling…shut up) and they had this I’m better than everybody else look on their face and thought their crap doesn’t stink, so they just walked in and started looking at shoes on the wall. I thought, they better not try and do what I think they are gonna do… Sure enough, they did. They pulled that I don’t have to wait crap and just butted in and started talking to one of the employees who was in the middle of helping someone. I soughed and said out loud, are you kidding me? But they ignored me and I gave them the evil eye look and stared at them for the next 15 more minutes while I waited for someone to help me. They didn’t look my way one time. You can’t tell me they didn’t know what they were doing. I called them a few choice words in my head…

Anyways, after a while, I FINALLY got somebody to help me try on some shoes. I tried on 5 different pairs and walked out on the sidewalk a whole bunch of times before they outfitted me with the right shoes.

I ended up getting The Beast by Brooks. I was pleasantly surprised how good they felt on my feet. They were perfect for me. The “Runner’s World” review of this shoes says,

“This is the most stable shoe in running. New wider overlays and extra midsole foam wrap up onto the upper to hold the foot over the supportive sole. These changes add to the shoe's stability but make it nearly an ounce heavier. While Brooks has made the Beast (the women's version is the Ariel) softer and more pliable in recent years, it's still the stiffest shoe in this guide. Recommended for heavy runners with pancake-flat feet who need maximum support.”

Pretty neat huh? Afterwards, we went to a few different shops, went to the Fresh Market (Awesome!!!) and Bed, Bath, and Beyond before getting some TCBY and heading home. We went back to Adam’s house and watched Food Inc to end the night. This movie was life changing. It was CRAZY!

OH!!! And I’ve lost another 4 pounds. I’m down 22 pounds so far. Although, that Red Lobster might have set me back a day or so. I may have to do some extra work this week.

I feel Mcfat

2010-03-02T11:08:00.000-08:00

I felt a little bit like Morgan Suprlock this weekend. Know who that is? Recognize the name? He is a film director. He is probably most famous for his documentary film “Super Size Me”. I know it’s a little old and it’s been around a while, but if you haven’t seen it or haven’t seen it in a while, I recommend you watch it (again).

The reason I say I felt like him this weekend, is because when he went on his McDiet, he would feel the adrenaline rush and the blood sugar spike when he went to eat or was about to consume his McMeal. He was so happy and excited about it. He consumed it in a glutton-isk fashion. However, after eating his McDonalds meal, 30 minutes later he would feel depressed, lazy, and lethargic.

While watching the Olympics, we have seen lots of commercials for McDonald’s. McDonald’s is the “proud sponsor” of the Olympics. (THIS, I find Hilarious. A company that sponsor’s an athletic event like the Olympics yet has the worst food in the world. I find it ironic that the people who eat at McDonald’s are usually not making the right choices when eating, don’t usually care about their health, and who are on the bottom of the economic food chain usually. Thus, let’s make this company the official Sponsor of the Olympics, an event in which athletes from all over the world train their body for YEARS to compete against the best in their field. I hardly think they are eating at McDonalds. I’m not sure about you, but when I drive by my McDonald’s, I don’t see people like Apolo Ohno eating there…)

Anyways, while watching the Olympics, we’ve seen these commercials for McDonald’s and we start getting hungry. So we decide to “treat” (more irony) ourselves to a fast food meal and go off the diet for a bit. I order the advertised filet-o-fish meal with Large fry and diet coke and add the additional filet-o-fish for $1. Jennifer orders the Chicken McNuggets meal. Once we pull up to the drive through, we order our food and proceed to the windows to pay and pick up our food. The aroma coming through the window is like blowing cocaine in the air toward an addict. On the short drive home, we pick at the fries and sip on the coke as our mouth’s water as we wait in anticipation for our feast.

Once home, we know the drill. We tag team like we have so many times before. Whoever has the food bag in hand knows the drill. They are solely responsible for heading directly to the kitchen to prepare our food onto plates, salt the food accordingly, prepare napkins, drinks, and any other accessory’s we would need to eat our bountiful meal. The other person’s responsibility is to open the door and coach the dog to the backyard for him to do his business QUICKLY. Once inside, they are to get the TV ready, surround sound on, move in player, and get it started. By the time our chores are done we have not wasted a single minute of our food getting cold and have used our time wisely enough to eat our food quickly without wasting any time while it is still hot. We look like a smooth, well-oiled, Olympic event of tag team McDonald’s eating gold Medalist (if you would pardon the Olympic reference.).

We fall back into our old rhythm like Bonnie and Clyde…

…45 minutes later, we look like a different story. We are well into the movie, but we have been preserved like mummies by the vast amounts of processed nastiness, MSG’s, and salt. We have sunken down in our seats, plates have been turned over, crumbs are everywhere, oily napkins are surrounding our bodies, and our dog is being decayed by the overload of leftover cold French fries. Our eyes are glazed over, we have dark circles under them, and our bodies are dehydrating from too much diet coke and salt. We’re a poor sight to see.

After the movie, we slowing drag ourselves upward from our sitting position to a slouchy standing position to take our dishes to the kitchen and clean our mess. We then proceed to say multiple times over how bad we feel, how bad our tummy’s hurt, and how nasty that food was (45 mins earlier we were stuffing our faces faster than a fat person sweats going up a flight of steps.).

So after that, we didn’t want any more fast food. We cleaned our system later that night with a salad, sweet potato, and grilled swordfish for me and a steak salad for Jennifer. We ended the night feeling much better now that 10-12 hours later that nasty food was ending its course in our body.

February 17, 2010

2010-02-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

The New Year’s resolution is still going strong in February. Not sure if anyone else in America is sticking with theirs, but I am.

So the fight against Obesity is back on! It’s back to the slow process of weight loss. Two weeks ago, the bad week killed me. Jennifer’s birthday turned into a birthWEEK. With the lack of exercise and diet, I had gained back 9 pounds…Yep…9! In a week. I’m thinking that’s got to be some kind of record. But maybe my body was in total shock of itself. Plus I was clothed when I weighed, and was late in the afternoon …who knows

Anyways, so with that behind me, I went to the doctor to go get lots of labs/blood work done and a physical of where I am and what I need to do. Everything checked out fine. All of the blood work was great and nothing to be worried about and I was cleared to exercise and diet for a healthier lifestyle.

Turns out my leg hurting was my body telling me it was having a hard time hauling around an extra 200+ lbs. I was going too often too quickly. The doctor told me to start SLOWLY, and work my way up. My legs were telling me to slow down and take it easy. Since then, I’ve paced myself and allowed my legs and shins to rest in between walking and I haven’t had a problem with them since.

200 pounds… That is the magic number. 200 lbs is my long term goal for weight loss. That still seems a little high and is still consider “overweight”, but for me personally, that is the goal that I am aiming for. My other Long term goal is to walk into ANY store I want to and pick ANYTHING up from the rack to try on and fit and wear. A lot of people take for granted and don’t realize how fortunate they are to be able to walk into any store and pick up and wear anything they want. Try not being able to do that…see how that goes for ya. However, just looking at my long term goal right now is a little depressing. So I’ve started looking for other short term goals to set for myself.

A couple of those being working my way from exercising 40 mins a day 3X’s a week to exercising 50 minutes a day 3 X’s a week. Gradually adding to my workouts and ending up eventually working out 1 hour a day 5 X’s a week. Another short term goal is to lose enough weight to where my clothes don’t fit and the notches on my belt have run out so I can buy new clothes and a new belt (I would consider this about 50-60 pounds from now). Another short term goal is to lose enough weight to not ask for a seat belt extender when boarding an airplane. Seems like we ride on a plane once a year or so (I would consider this between 40-50 pounds from now. It’s just an inch or so away). I’ve got others, but you get the point.

Right now my goal is to lose ANY number of pounds per week and not gain. If I am not gaining or staying the same, I am on the right track.

Right now with my weight loss and the bad week, I am at a weight loss of 15 pounds. We’ll see in another week or two when I post how much more I’ve lost. Wish me luck!!!

February 5, 2010 update

2010-02-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

So the 2010 Signing day has come and gone. Yet again, the SEC leads all other conferences at getting the most ESPNU 150 top recruits. The SEC led and ended up with eight Top 25 Classes. Unfortunately, Arkansas didn’t have a top 25 class. They were in the mid 30’s-40’s which isn’t impressive, until you understand what kind of players they recruited.

The coaches this year said the main focus was to recruit those position’s that needed to be filled right away and recruit players that could jump in and compete for a starting position. They needed defensive players for up front in the “trenches” and in the secondary. According to Scouts.com and rivals.com, Arkansas had the number 3 top defensive class in the country…woah.

Let’s hope our defense improves drastically than last years. And with almost ALL of the big offensive players returning, there could possibly be a big BCS game next year for those Razorbacks. And a possibly Heisman candidate…Go Hogs!

In other news, the weight loss is still going well. I’m at a total loss of 17 lbs in 3 weeks. This week hasn’t been the greatest though. Because of my leg injury, the walking has halted for my legs to recover and heal. I was going too far, too fast, too many days back to back.

Also, Jennifer’s birthday was this week. If you want to see the flowers I got her, check out her blog here. Also, I fixed her favorite meal this week, which wasn’t the healthiest. Bayou Chicken pasta is one of our favorites. If you want the recipe, check it out here! If you make it, I suggest replacing the habanero with a Jalapeno pepper. The habanero is a little too warm for us. Also, replacing the tomatoes with a drained can of rotel is a nice flavor and heat with the chilies.

So with the lack of exercise and having not so great of meals this week, I’m sure the weight loss has not been as great. But next week, I am back on track eating better (and less) and pacing myself and walking again.

That’s all for now.

long overdue

2010-01-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

I’m in a slump.

I’ve run out of ideas for the blog. I originally created it for myself so I could talk into the dark vastness of nothingness. I mean, I don’t think I have hardly any readers, so I pretend I’m writing to the blogging gods, or just throwing random useless thoughts out into cyberspace.

Here lately (the last 6 months really) I’ve rarely posted anything. It’s probably because I don’t think about it that much. However, I read a lot of other people’s blogs daily. I think it really boils down to not really having anything to blog about. If I try really hard (or probably not very hard at all) I could probably blog pretty easily with anything I wanted to or anything that comes up.

…here goes…

Let us hop in the time machine and go back to November 5^th, 1955… er, I mean, January 2009. A New Year’s resolution was made. We WERE going to lose weight and get healthier. So we signed up for the gym. At the time we were all gung-ho about this and instead of signing up for the 6 month contract we opted for the 12 month contract. It was an automated bank withdrawal from our account. Every… Single… Month…

January and the first part of February went great. We were doing well those couple weeks after Christmas and all the holidays. Then Jennifer’s birthday rolled around and we treated ourselves with a good meal and a night in Little Rock. Little did I know then what would soon take place and my exercising halted.

In February I had an illness that prevented me from doing any exercising without severe pain. I went to the doctor. Then I had surgery. After surgery, the doctor told me that I shouldn't be doing any “strenuous exercising”, but movement and walking were ok. WRONG! They may have been ok to do, but the repercussions of doing so were far worse.

So the dieting and exercising stopped. Yes, I could have continued to eat healthier in light of my lack of exercising, but one’s brain starts to work and the thoughts of “well, if I can’t exercise, what is the point of dieting?”. So the weight loss stopped completely.

Present day: Another New Year’s resolution to eat healthier and get in shape. This time with future impacts heeding. So far, it’s going good. I'm starting out just walking 30-40 minutes every other day. I'm taking it easy. Besides, at this point, it's proabably the best thing for me.

The second week has gotten easier, but I personally still need to work on my portion control. I may be eating the correct foods, but I’m still eating the same portions as I have before. It’s hard to crack that pyscological “habbit” when I am preparing for a meal, I still think I need the same amount as I’ve always eaten…yeah…look where that’s gotten me.

I haven’t weight since last weekend, but I had lost 10 pounds that week. WOW! 10 POUNDS?! …yeah, for me, that’s not much. My goal is to loose 175 pounds… I’ve got 165 more to go…

Sigh…

Here lately

2009-12-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

Jennifer and I have had a pretty crazy last couple months. Nothing really new happened but we did a lot of traveling this year to more football games than I’ve ever been too! It sure was a LOT of fun. We ended up going to the Alabama vs. Florida International game, the Arkansas vs. Georgia game, the Arkansas vs. Eastern Michigan game, the Arkansas vs. Troy game, and the Arkansas vs. Mississippi State game! Sheesh, that’s a lot of traveling on the road!

The Hogs did as good as expected this year. They had a better season that last, had a LOT of improvement from last year, and came close to winning a couple of the games that they lost. They went 7-5 this year as compared to their 5-7 record last year. And if Ryan Mallet and all the talented players come back next year, who knows what will happen?! But they GOT to work on their defense! All in all, it was a pretty good year for Arkansas Football.

Other than traveling a lot, nothing much else has happened. We stayed home, enjoyed ourselves, went to Little Rock a couple times, and have been raking leaves and gumballs when we have the time.

That’s all the updates I have for now. I haven’t been fishing lately because of all the traveling we’ve been doing. But I may go just one more time before the really cold weather hits. Below are some of the pictures from some of the games we went to this year

"Arkansas vs. Mississippi State"

"Arkansas vs. Troy"

"Arkansas vs. Georgia"

"Alabama vs. Florida International"

I spent the whole weekend in a Tattoo shop!

2009-10-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

It was something I thought I would never have the opportunity to do...

And although it hurt...

I'm SO glad I did it!

Nothing new

2009-10-15T05:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't had time to update the blog in a while. My bad. But I'll be posting some of my "art" as soon as I have a little time to work on a new blog.

Later!

funny video

2009-09-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

With all the trash talk stopping between Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin and Florida Coach Urban Myer, I found this funny video I thought I would share with us. The scene is from Tombstone. It's really funny!

Check it out!

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2009/09/sec-commissioner-tells-both-meyer-and-kiffin-to-zip-it/1

Call those HOGS!

2009-09-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

Sigh… What can I say? Probably nothing that hasn’t already been said. Wow! That quarterback is really something. Ryan Mallett has got so much talent and athleticism it’s not even funny. The hogs REALLY have a stellar offense this year!

On the other hand, the Arkansas defense just plain sucked. No other way of putting it. They gave up 52 points to a Georgia team who, up to this game, was struggling to find out what kind of team they were since they lost their star players from last year to the draft. Although, if you look at the other side of this, the Georgia defense gave up 41 points to an unranked and untested Arkansas team. The Razorbacks have a long road ahead of them. They have some tough road games coming up and if Coach Petrino and Robinson don’t figure out something, we’re gonna have another year like last year.

Now, with that said, although we lost the game, it was one heck-of-a game! There were big plays the whole night. The Hogs and Dawgs went back and forth all nice in a scoring shootout! That stadium was rockin let me tell ya! At multiple times during the game, the crowd got so loud, I could hardly hear myself scream myself! Even though we lost it was a great game! We have really improved from a year ago, but we still have a lot of things to work on.

Jennifer and I had a great time at the game. Here are some photo’s from the game!

us before the game

Yup, that's Erin Andrews

Band performing

running through the "A"

Calling those Hogs!

Packed Stadium

Fayetteville here we come!

2009-09-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

Well, Arkansas had a bye week this last weekend, so they’ve had 2 weeks to prepare for Georgia’s game. Georgia, currently ranked #23, lost their season opener to OSU. This past weekend, they won their first conference game against South Carolina. In week 3, Arkansas (1-0) plays Georgia (1-1) in the first conference game for the Hogs. Most Razorback fans would say this could make or break the whole season for the HOGS. They were a re-building team last year with a LOT of freshman. Now this year, we’ve got more experience and more talent, the guys are more physical and have fine tuning their abilities since last season.

The bulldogs are a favorite by a touchdown I’ve heard, but we’ll just have to see. This first home game in Fayetteville will let everyone know if the Razorbacks will be a contender again in the SEC. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed…

Oh, and by the way, I just found out that I get to go to the game this weekend!!!

Aren’t you jealous…

Football Rules

2009-09-16T07:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, my dad can get me tickets. Yes I am VERY lucky. No, I don’t take it for granted. I have been very privileged to see some amazing sights and places and some amazing and very historical stadiums. Although, I can’t just get tickets, dress up and up and go to a game.

When getting the tickets to a football game from the officials, we are then guests of the SEC. The SEC is providing complimentary tickets to the official’s family. It’s a family atmosphere and can be a good place to take your family and they want to promote that.

Because the tickets come from the SEC officials and directors, we are not allowed to show favoritism in what we wear and the way we act. Stupid and ignorant fans have ruined the enjoyment of the game for others, and situations and lawsuits have come up from people who think the officials are “cheating” or calling the game a certain way by what the families are wearing. The officials in the booth know where the guest tickets are and can see you from the booth or with binoculars.

Why do fans have to be so ignorant? Why ruin it for everyone else? I know you’re passionate about your sport, but geez!!! Although think about it… If I went to an Arkansas game, and I saw the officials leaving the field or if I saw them with their family and the family had opposing team colors, I would probably think the same thing. Especially if the officials called penalties I didn’t like during that game. That’s just the way passionate sports fans are. So I can see the justification of it…

Anyways, because the tickets come from the officials and SEC know where the family and friends of the officials sit, they know if people are wearing colors and are discouraged from doing so. However, we can wear SEC or football gear if it isn’t a supporting team color or team logo! So Jennifer and I wear SEC football shirts! They are football t-shirts, but support the entire conference and not a single team. We can cheer and root for whichever team we want, but we can’t show support in what we wear.

Even though these rules suck and I can’t wear home team colors, I have started to work the system. After going to numerous games as a “Guest” of the SEC, I’ve been to Little Rock, Fayetteville, Auburn, Tennessee, and just this past weekend, Alabama. I’ve come to practice the dress code to an art. I’ve even got a couple of rules that I live by when it comes to game day and I can get by with…

NEVER announce or bring up the topic that you are here with an official or referee. If you are at the game and others around you notice this and “bad plays” start getting called, you can be harassed. Especially if people around you are intoxicated….not good! Number one rule!
If you take pictures, NEVER let those around you look at what you are taking a picture of. Since my dad is on the field and part of the action, I take lots of pictures of him and his crew. If you have a digital camera, people behind you and around you can see on your little display screen what you are taking. If this happens, press the button on your camera that takes off the imagines on your screen and will only project them through the eye piece. If you don’t have a button similar to this, get another camera or use a film based camera.
Never tell anyone where your seats are! Usually, the guest tickets are VERY good seats. I don’t think we’ve ever been higher or farther away than 25 rows up and have been with the 10 and 10 yard lines. People will know where you sit, or will want to trade/swap/buy your tickets. If you have to find your seats, always use either an armed officer or usher to find your seats! I made this mistake in Auburn. I asked a random guy which gate I go into. He said where are you seats, and I proceeded to look at my ticket and show him where they are. He said, woah! Those are good tickets. How much do you want for them? I don’t remember the rest of the conversation, but I will remember to never ask a stranger that again…
Have a designated person in your group with a bag or purse. My Jennifer always wears an athletic sling bag. Don’t have to carry it, just throw it over your back and go! It holds everything you don’t want pick-pocketed or can hold other things. The tickets, poncho’s in case of rain, money, I.D.’s, sun glasses, binoculars, other accessories to wear while not in your seat (example hats), hand sanitizer, camera, etc. You can even put your souvenir cups or whatever in when you leave.
*BLEND! (This has become a ninja mastery technique that should only be attempted by experienced game day non-home-team-wearing persons.) You can wear colors, just not in your seat! You can wear something similar that everyone else wears and get by as a home team fan. While in your seat, wear a white (usually always blends with any major home color) SEC shirt or collared shirt, and Kahki shorts with athletic shoes. This is what just about every other male person wears to a college game. However, while not in your seat, to go to the bathroom, or walking in and out of the stadium, wear a home team accessory that the SEC officials will not know you are wearing and not any other person would know the difference that you are there for any other reason. For example, wear a home team hat (preferably major home color) and carry some other accessory or souvenir like a “stick-pom” that everyone shakes in the air. No one else knows you are there as a guest, and you’re not gonna bring it up because you have not broken rule #1!

*Although, there is controversy over this rule. You have to be careful not to get the person you got the tickets from in trouble. So don’t wear home colors or attempt the blending technique if you stand out clearly as a fan or are not experienced. You don’t want to get your host in trouble or not be invited back…

Example of why blending could be crucial! I remember vividly at a game I went to, I wore neutral colors (white polo collared short-sleeve shirt and khaki shorts) and a group of college guys were walking along side of us toward the stadium. One of the guys noticed that I was a very peculiar person out of 100,000 people at the game, that wasn’t wearing the home team colors. We made eye contact and he asked me, who are you rooting for? He seemed like he had mastered the art of intoxication and was puzzled I wasn’t wearing the same colors. I remember saying I’m cheering on the ___’_ (to keep the sake of the school innocent, I won’t tell you which game I was attending Tennessee fans…whoops!) His reply was, “Oh, I didn’t know because you weren’t wearing ______ (insert color here).” A fellow associate that was with me at the time going to the game shouted after my “conversation” with the drunk frat, “We’re here with the officials. We are neutral!) She had just broken Rule number 1 AND 5!!! I quickly led my horde to an opposite direction toward another gate while getting strange looks from the intoxicated bunch. Although I had a very fun time with this person on our whole trip, they are not invited back to a football game with me!

There are many other little things I do whenever I go to games. However, these are the number one rules to get you in and out safely and while having a good time and enjoying the game. It’s not a “game-day rule”, but one last final reminder is to ALWAYS check gameday rules and stadium policies and procedures when planning your trip. Some stadiums won’t allow umbrellas, poncho’s, camera’s, videocamera’s, seats or charbacks, etc. So always check those before your trip so you can plan accordingly!

Please enjoy the game and WOO PIG SOOIE!!!

Road Trip!!!

2009-09-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Alabama, here we come! As everyone knows, I am a true Razorback fan! However, since my dad was working the Alabama vs. Florida International game this last weekend and the Razorbacks had a bye week, we took a road trip!

My dad left early Friday morning and Jennifer, my good friend Adam, and I, headed out on Friday afternoon and hit the road since the Tuscaloosa campus isn’t too far of a drive from us. My dad had to leave Friday morning, but we didn’t leave until around 1:30 or so. We stayed in Tupelo which isn’t too far outside of Tuscaloosa while my dad stayed a little closer to Tuscaloosa. Just a side note, no hotel rooms are available in Tuscaloosa on game day…So in case you are ever going for a game, just a little info for ya.

We made a couple stops on the way, and eventually made it to Tupelo Mississippi. We got checked into our hotel and check out some of the hotel amenities. Then, we took off into town to find some dinner. We ended up eating at Red Lobster. We all ordered the endless shrimp dinner. I won’t tell how much shrimp I ate, but they about tapped me out ;) Love that shrimp scampi!

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and went swimming. The pool was outside and it wasn’t anything fancy, but we had it all too our selves! We swam and then got in the hot tub and then back in the cold pool, and back in the hot tub, then back in the cold pool, etc… It was fun! We ended up swimming for about 3 hours and went to bed kinda late.

The next day, we slept in a little bit and got up and grabbed a quick bite to eat at McDonald’s before heading across town to see the birthplace of Elvis Presley! The admission was a little more than we wanted to spend to see the chapel, museum, and his house. Although, we did pay to walk through his house and we went to the gift shop. One of the most interesting facts is that Elvis’s dad got a loan from the bank for $180 for materials to build their house. After being built, they couldn’t afford to pay it back. CRAZY!!! Anyways, we stayed there and took the little tour and checked out the gift shop.

After the Elvis thing, we got gassed up and headed to Tuscaloosa! Once in Tuscaloosa, we went shopping for some Alabama souvenirs and such. The best place to look….yep, you guessed it. WAL-MART!

We went to Wal-Mart and found a couple things. I usually get a souvenir junior football from whichever team we go see. I’ve got a Tennessee and Alabama football. I haven’t been able to get an Arkansas or Auburn one yet, but I will soon! We also got a couple of other things. Jennifer got some ribbon to put in her hair and a few other things.

After Wal-Mart, we headed over to Dreamland BBQ (http://www.dreamlandbbq.com/default.aspx?id=5) for some game day tradition! Before we saw anything we smelled it and knew we were getting close! We saw the smoke before we saw the place! When we pulled up, we saw a big tent set up next to the building. So we headed that direction and there were outside tables and chairs and people eating so we had a seat and asked the lady what she recommended.

It was SO GOOD! The ribs were amazing and the potato salad was excellent! Definitely worth the trip! We ate outside with a live band. It was a fun atmosphere, however, when we left, we noticed that people were going inside the building as well to eat. I bet there was a more historic atmosphere in there than there was outside in the tent. Oh well, maybe next time.

From there, I still hadn’t found an Alabama hat that I liked (I’m picky about hats…don’t judge me, women! It’s the only accessory we men have. You have shoes, purses, and earrings!) So we headed to the closest Hibbett store that our iPhone led us to! It just happened to be in a Mall. So when we arrived at University Mall a few minutes later, we pulled in the parking lot and noticed that there were shuttles to the game! About 10 or 15 Greyhound size busses all ready to go! We got lucky on that one. We still had a few hours before game time. So we headed inside the mall, paid for our round trip shuttle bus ticket and took a gander in the mall. We walked around a bit and found the Hibbett Sports store. Inside I finally found a mass selection of Alabama hats to choose from. I got one.

Afterwards, we still had barbeque taste in our mouth and I just needed that sweet tooth something after the rich BBQ. So we stopped at the Great American Cooke and got a cookie. After enjoying our desert, we headed over to the shuttle. We didn’t have to wait too long but by the time we left, there was a long line forming. The 2 mile drive was a tight crammed squeeze, but we finally arrived and saw the Stadium. It was awesome!

The bus drove us right up to the front of the stadium. We got out and still had a little bit of time left. There was a LOT of people there, but there was also some booths and vendors and things outside the stadium so we window shopped for a while and ended up buying two little “stick-poms” for a $1 a piece to cheer with.

Then we headed toward the stadium. First, we headed to the first gate, thinking we we could just go in and walk to our seat. The first entrance we walked up to the lady was telling people NO CAMERAS! Ain’t gettin’ by me with a camera! And we said, well what do we do? Why no cameras? She was like, I don’t know, but you can’t bring it in here. This is the first stadium I’ve ever been to that didn’t allow cameras! That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Maybe not professional telephoto lens, but a regular digital camera? Stupid!

Anyways, we walked away and huddled for a meeting and Jennifer and Adam were like what now? And I stuffed our camera down in the bottom of Jennifer’s sling bag and said lets find another entrance. The next entrance we came to we snuck by the camera checkers (this wasn’t hard because of all the people) and go the to guy checking the tickets. He then told us that we couldn’t get to our seats from that entrance, so we had to walk back around. Long story short, we got in with our camera and found our seats.

When we walked in to the stadium, we walked out on field level and on the ground. Then we walked up to our seats 25 rows up. These were great seats. We enjoyed the game and took lots of pictures too!

We left in the 4^thquarter and got on the shuttle and went back to the mall. After getting back to our vechicle, we went to get some dinner and stop by Krispy Kreme because the Hot and Ready sign was still on!

The next morning, we got up and checked out of our hotel and went and got breakfast at Cracker Barrel. After that we hit the road and came home.

It was a fun trip but I was dog tired morning. There is just something about driving that makes you really tired and wears you out. It was a GREAT trip and was a blast. The trip was great, the game was a lot of fun, and we just had an all around good time. Hopefully, we’ll get to go back again one day!

If you want to see more pictures, check out my facebook page!

SEC dominates!!!

2009-09-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

Other than being one of the biggest (no pun intended) Razorback fans around, I am secondly an SEC fan. I love that we (Arkansas) are in one of the, if not debatable, THE best college football conferences in Division IA football. I mean, think about it. Look at the teams we have!

As everyone knows, or should know, College football officially began it’s season last week. The first game to kick off the season was South Carolina’s win over North Caroline State on Thursday night. Then, as the weekend neared, I told Jennifer, “I’ll see you Sunday”. The reason being is that my weekend consisted of watching the Kentucky game, the Georgia game (which was disappointing. Or course, when you loose 3 star players like Matthew Stafford, Mohamed Massaquoi, and Knowshon Moreno, things aren’t looking all that good), the Tennessee game, the Razorback game on PPV, the last half of the Alabama game, and the LSU game that night. Yeah, I was home…but I wasn’t aware of much else. Haha!

Anyways, one thing I did last year, is post the schedule for the SEC teams on my door at work. I then update the wins and losses and scores of each game on each teams roster. Yeah, I know, I’m a dork. But other people look at it too! Anyways, Just thought I would share with you my spreadsheets I made last year and updated this year. I had to create them in Excel first. But, since you can only post “pictures” on the blog, I had to covert those to a PDF file, then covert them to JPEG image. The full schedule is in landscape mode. It's not stretched like that on paper. If anyone wants a copy of these, let me know and I'll e-mail them to you.

OH, and one more thing. The highlighted games are my dad's first six weeks of his officiating schedule. For your view pleasure :)

I've be a bbbaaadddd blogger.

2009-09-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been forever since I've blogged about...well...ANYTHING!!! My Aunt Trish should be happy that she will see a new post here. Last time I saw them, she teased me that I need tO blog more. I'll try Aunt Trish!

Anyways, how about we start with an update on the garden. First things first, The squash plants don't do well in hot humid Arkansas weather. Even though I don't think it has spiked over 100 degrees all summer long, the humidity and heat and little rain in June, July, and August, killed them. I think we had gotten only a couple yellow fruit before they killed over. The cucumber plants did VERY well the beginning of the summer when it wasn't so hot and we had plenty of rain, but toward the end of the summer they started to yellow and brown. The sun won that battle. The tomatoes are still hanging in there...barely. We still get plenty from them and have started giving them away... the homemade spaghetti sauce was good! We haven't pulled up our onions yet. We checked them about a month ago and they have gotten considerably bigger than they were, but they are still not big enough to consume. However, the Bell pepper and Jalapeno pepper plants have flourished! We have made 2 LARGE batches of Jalapeono Jelly, and could have made more, but we have used and given away and sadly had to throw away the ones that we can't get to. We only planted two small plants and we are picking more than a dozen a week seems like! They do VERY well in Arkansas weather.

Also, our flowers from this spring have stayed with us in the humid weather. Although, we have probably 90% of them up on the front porch out of the sun! haha! They are doing well if they stay out of that heat! We've got almost all of them left and they all still look great!

Well, the last post I mentioned that my dad got a boat! It's true, he got a boat! It's AWESOME! I love going to the lake. It's a blast. Here are a few pictures from our outing!

My dad, the Captain!

his new boat!

Yeah, I'm just chillin...

Sadly, the warm weather season has started, the lake water is getting colder, and the warm weather is slowly going away. Which makes me sad that we only got a couple of good weekends to go to the lake. But makes me happy because I know what time is coming next. FALL!

Dude I love Fall weather so much! I'm not being a homo or anything, but I love fall. I've got a green thumb, so I look foward to the pumpkins, mums, hay bale's, corn stalks, etc. I love the cool weather where you have to wear jeans or you get chilly, a long sleeve t-shirt and sometimes a light jacket because you'll get cold otherwise. That 60-70 degree weather that is so nice (although it's not quite here yet)! It also reminds me that FOOTBALL IS HERE!!!

OH MY GOSH! Waiting for months and months and months. Not having highlights and games to watch. Having to resort to watching games on ESPN classic sucks! And I predict the HOGS will be the most improved team in the conference by far this year, if not in the country.

My football starts in April with the spring practices. Its nice to see who's comeing back, who's got potential for this year, who they're gonna redshirt, what they wanna do, etc. Reading up on it and see the improvment. Then ending Spring Practice with the Red & White game. But then you have your break from april until August with hot summer. Nothing to look forward to.

Then comes August. I watch the news, follow blogs, and listen to sports radio all preseason long. Thats when you start finding out your starters, what potential you have, see the improvement, then people start making their stupid wild predictions. I love it!

This year, it looks like we'll have a great SEC caliber quarterback by the name of Ryan Mallet! Dude's got an arm. Rumors are that he is clocked throwing the ball 115 MPH...woah! but he's not the only offensive weapon we have either. Our other backup quarterback Tyler wilson has got some skills too! Although, not as impressive as Mallet I don't think. But he'll get some playing time this year to prepare for his future Razorback career when Mallet leaves for the NFL!

Rounding out the offense this year we have DJ Williams, Brodrick Green, Dennis Johnson, Jarius Wright, Michale Smith, Joe Adams, and many many more. Although, London Crawford is out with a collarbone injury. That's said because he's a good player. Hopefully, he'll be back by midseason.

The opening game against MSU was an eye opener. Thank you Bobby Petrino for turning this team into something when you didn't have hardly anything to work with last year. It's nice to know that we have potential and could once again win enough games to go to a Bowl. Although, if they keep this up, and put up a good fight, Bobby Petrino may put this team in the limelight of the College Football Live guys and they may get some recognizition. But it's not all pretty for the road ahead. Check out their schedule for this year...

(W) Missouri State
OPEN
Georgia
at Alabama
at Texas A&M
Auburn
at Florida
at Ole Miss
Eastern Michigan
South Carolina
Troy
Mississippi State
at LSU

Yeah, I know right. That's a TOUGH schedule! I put in bold some of the games, I think, will be the toughest. If we could squeeze by a win at home against Georgia, and maybe put up a good fight against A&M, I would expect we could loose to Alabama, Florida, possibly Ole Miss, and LSU and still come out 8-4. Although I love my Hogs and will stand by them no matter how many games we win or loose, lets be real here folks. Alabama, Florida, and LSU are powerhouses. But who knows, maybe the Hogs ARE that good and COULD go undefeated. Put us in the national spotlight, move up in the rankings, knock out Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and LSU in the AP polls...slowly move our way up to the #1 or #2 spot, and go to the BCS Championship game! WHOO PIG SOOIE!!!

...I'm an optimist...

Stay tuned next week! I'm going on a road trip to Alabama to watch Ingram and the Tide whoop up on some Florida International players. Should be fun and I'll have pictures!