Zachary is a professional freelance photographer and social media consultant living in Kansas City, MO.
// February 28th, 2005 // No Comments » // Thoughts
There are some things I need to work out. I thought I finally tackled all of the problems but it seems as though there are some troubles with the top menu when you look at the site in Internet Exlorer. I am a Fire Fox user and sometimes I get lazy checking for browser compatibility. I will work on it…bear with me.
// February 28th, 2005 // 1 Comment » // Thoughts
My good friend Chris of many years turns 21 today. For those of you who don’t know, if you are not 21 it is illegal to consume alcohal. I am sure Chris is excited to taste beer for the first time so I hope the hype lives up to the expectations. If your computer has a “sarcasm meter” then I am sure it is turned up to 11 right now.
When I think of Chris a lot of things come to mind but there has always been one story that cracks me up. We used to play lacrosse in high school and before the games we would all go to “Steak ‘n Shake”. There were about 8 of us this time around and we sat down in a circular shaped booth with some in the booth and some just grabbing chairs and sitting around the table. While we were enjoying the meal Chris asked our waitress if she could give us separate tickets. She agreed and everyone continued to eat and talk about our team’s strategy that we never executed or stuck to. The meal was starting to wrap up and the waitress left us with the bill. Nobody took notice of the small slip of paper and some time passed before it was checked out. The check finally caught Chris’s eye and he looked it over. It seems as though the waitress separated each person’s meal on one ticket instead of actually making different ones. He held the ticket up for everyone to see and exclaimed in a very sarcastic voice, “Thanks for putting it on separate tickets!” Little did he know the waitress was standing right over his shoulder at the time. Everyone at the table had a horrible conflict within themselves between laughing at what he said and not laughing because of the awkwardness. As soon as he said it I had to divert my eyes from him and look at Will, who was sitting next to me. It seems as though Will was having trouble pushing back the laughter so I lost it right there. Nobody had to tell Chris why we were laughing he just noticed our expressions, hung his head, and put the check down. The whole table got a good laugh out of it. He didn’t care that it wasn’t actually on “separate tickets” but he was just trying to be an ass. The waitress thought he was being serious when he said it and didn’t appreciate the event in general.
I gave him a call and it seems as though he is studying for a marketing test. I imagine he gets a good number of those being a marketing major and all. I am not sure what his party is going to be like or if he is having a big one. But if he is you can bet it will look something like this.
// February 26th, 2005 // 2 Comments » // Thoughts
I got a pleasant unexpected suprise early Friday. A friend e-mailed me and told me my website was in the newspaper that is run by SMS called the “Southwest Standard.” I’ll be damned if I didn’t pick up a copy and see this website mentioned in an article about “blogging.” I am curious as to how this site was found by them. It could have been by word of mouth or a simple search. Either way I see it as a good opportunity for more people to get exposed to this place.
I would direct anyone who is browsing this site for the first time to the “Random Observations” page. From the e-mail I receive this seems to be the “crown jewel” of ZachIsHere.
I fixed a design flaw that was keeping people from being able to click links at the top of the page under the banner.
// February 26th, 2005 // 7 Comments » // Thoughts
I am a pretty good kid. Never been arrested, don’t really get into fights, am kind to animals. For some reason Friday just went a little nuts. As you can see I am at a crossroads. Family and friends and other people that have all kinds of different roles in my life read this site so you want to stay away from saying anything too risqué. Yet, there is also a school of thought that says you can only talk about music and school so much until users snore themselves away. I have been getting e-mails from people that tell me I don’t tell the whole story on this blog. There is one in particular from a guy named Scott in Arizona who told me this about my writing, “you can tell that you write about real things that happened to you but it’s like you take the reality and shine it then wrap it in plastic and expect your readers to think it is the real deal.” I thought about that for a while and found it interesting. I don’t go on any Hunter S. Thompson type trips or have all these dark secret things I do but I suppose in a way he is correct. I am a 21 year old guy and there is no reason to sit around and act like I play Scrabble every night.
The day started out simple. I believe I did very well on my Biology test and it was nice to get it out of the way. After packing some of my things I ventured home. Instead of stopping at my house I met my parents at the Country Club for dinner. The meal was excellent and this is where some of the drinking began. I got a chance to see one of my good friend’s parents and they are those type of people who love to just sit and drink and talk with you so I did. After that I went to the Blue Moon Bar at the urging of some of my former co-workers that were working at the CC at the time. The place was really packed and it had a lot of energy. I hung out with all of them for a really long time and even sang a little bit of karaoke. By the time last call came around I was a little drunk so I stuck around and drank some water just to be on the safe side. While I was sitting around some old friends were all plotting to do something after leaving the Blue Moon. I was urged to join in. This group of folks decided they wanted to go to a strip club.
At first I was hesitant because my bed was calling me but then it was explained to me that someone I knew from the past was working at this place and curiosity got the best of me. So off the group went, 5 guys and 2 gals hit the road to seek out their over priced thrills. We walked in to see a very stereo typical strip club type crowd. A few loners who look like they never talked to a girl without giving their credit card number first and a group of guys who were talking really loud and “high fiving” eachother every five seconds. They also wore those t-shirts with cutsey sayings that might as well read “I need attention for validation.” As we got seated in the establishment I saw that a person I know previously was indeed dancing in a very sexually suggestive manner on the stage. It is fun catching up with people you don’t see in ages. I have found that generally “catching up” type conversations happen at grocery stores or at restaurants when you see that other person. It has occurred to me that “how are you doing these days” conversations take a life of their own in the middle of lap dances. As the lights went down and clothes went on our group realized it was time to move on.
I was ready to go to bed but my peer’s drive to stay out longer proved to be a force I could not contend with. What is there to do at 3 am when everything is closed? Go to a casino. The amount of people that are in a casino in the middle of the night is amazing. I had no idea that crowds so big could be found every hour of the day. Thank god my few ounces of discipline overtook the ounces of Grey Goose in my system. I did not get very much money at all and lost at Black Jack. Every person I was with came away with less money than they had before. Some did better than others. As I was standing and watching some people play I looked over at my friend Roy and said, “Drinking, Strippers, Gambling…we need to go to church or something.” He began laughing. I still don’t know if the laugh came from the humor of putting the night into perspective or if it was a laugh from a delirious man who wanted to go home.
The adventure was finally coming to a close. I chuckled at how it all started with a test and how everything panned out as it did. I left Springfield at 3 pm on Friday and I didn’t actually step foot in my home until 5:05 am on Saturday.
Sometimes you need wild unexpected things to happen to remind you that you are not a robot who does the same thing everyday wether it be school or work. But alas, I shall get the halo back out of the bottom drawer, dust it off and see if it still fits. I will be wearing it for a while to come.
// February 25th, 2005 // No Comments » // Thoughts
I wanted to go out last night but I studied for my Biology test. I know this is a good thing but it sucks sometimes. I am doing pretty well with school but I still waste to much time and there is no reason for that. If there is anything I need to work on it is that.
Tomorrow I take my Biology test which I have prepared for but don’t feel good about. Throughout the term the teacher has downplayed the importance of the test saying it really wasn’t a big deal and then when it is time to prepare for it he hit us with all kinds of stuff we didn’t really go over that much. It is ok to make a tough test but at least “own it” and tell us what is coming. Last semester I had a lot of classes that were just “ok” that had really great people in the class. This year I have really interesting classes that are loaded up with dumbassery. The kids in my classes this semester just are not smart. Thank god for the good faculty or I would have to just sit in a library and teach myself everything like Indian Jones’s dad in “The Last Crusade Movie.”
I decided to head home for the weekend. So after my test I will hit good ol Highway 13. I am not taking any chances; it is going to be one slow ass ride home. I am starting to think every time I turn my ignition satellites start linking up in space and a computer starts up on the ground in Texas starts relaying information that sends out a message to the Missouri Highway State Patrol who in turn coordinates a plan of attack to catch me speeding. I have found they can only catch me on two conditions though.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
// February 23rd, 2005 // 3 Comments » // Thoughts
I am an ITunes user and every Tuesday they update their system with new additions and new releases. I was thrilled with what came out this week. I don’t do as good of job of keeping up with the happenings of my favorites artists between albums like I used to. Josh Rouse just released a new CD called “Nashville.” I am a pretty big fan. Josh is a classic singer song writer and just writes good enjoyable songs. There is nothing crazy about him that makes him stand out. He just makes good music and has made good music for a long time.
The other album I am interested in is “Woman King” by Iron and Wine. Iron and Wine is fast becoming one of my favorite artists period. The group is made up of a guy named Jim Beam who writes folks songs that have a contemporary and natural feel. The music is laid back and inspiring. I suggest anyone who really enjoys music to give it a listen.
I want to take some time to say thanks to Jamie for all his hard work in keeping this site up. ZachIsHere.com and some other domains I own have been transferred to be hosted by his company. He has done a very good job. Take some time to check out his website. The technical know how and professional manner in which some of the tough issues he tackled with my site are incredible.
I am considering going home this weekend. I need to get all of my summer clothes again because it is about that time. I would also like to do some things around Lunar Bowl to improve their site. I will need to make a decision soon. I like being home every now and then but the drive is such a hassle and if I were to go I would go 10 MPH under the speed limit the whole time out of pure fear of getting another ticket. That would bump my trip to about 5 hours.
// February 22nd, 2005 // No Comments » // Thoughts
Things have been nuts with this website. After the outage problem I ended up switching servers and that caused a few hiccups. I think everything is set but knows what will happen next.
Thanks for all of the support and intrest in the site!
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