Why

In my latest installment of “WHY?!” I ask, what do the thousands of concert goers across the country do with the crappy cell phone photos and videos they are taking at concerts?

Cara and I attended a She & Him concert last night and while I should be reflecting on the rare talent that is Zooey Daschanel, I can’t get camera phones out of my mind. I must have seen every third person at some point in the show pull out their cell phone and snap a dark, blurry photo of the stage. Most cell phones don’t have flashes and even if they do, you end up flashing some bald guy’s head and the stage comes out all dark and worthless. Some guys even took repeated shitty photos, back to back to back! I know they couldn’t discern what was in the shot because I was standing right behind them and all I could see was their stupid phone blocking my view of Zooey!

I am not talking about a dozen or so super fans, I am talking about a third of the concert crowd recording entire songs into their phones?! I mean really. You know that when they get back home to look or listen to what they captured, more than likely they will be disappointed and end up deleting it immediately. And in the aftermath is the inconvenience they placed on every other person standing behind them trying to actually watch the show LIVE and not on youtube! Well everyone except the other poor schmucks that were glued to their iPhone screens recording garbage versions of the band. 

PitchMan

I had some extra time on my hands this weekend and I used it to spend an incredibly wasteful amount of time in front of the television. If it weren’t for a brilliant idea such as Netflix streaming, I may never have been able to watch all 12 episodes of Pitchmen in just two days. As sad as that might seem on the surface, it was sort of inspiring. 

When I was a kid I used to make little drawing of little gadgets that I wanted to invent. I lived for the science fair in grade school. I wanted to be an inventor. I guess over time that urge sort of left me, which sucks. But then I watched Anthony Sullivan and Billy Mays (R.I.P.) and all the aspiring inventors that they met with on the A&E show, Pitchmen. 

I am having a renewed sense of innovation. I am looking forward to solving some everyday problems. Who knows if anything will come of it, but I do have my sketch-a-day notebook that I can use to sketch up some ideas! 

It will be interesting to see how my priorities have changed since 4th grade. I will probably look to fix things that are less about getting a girl to like me, or winning at four-square. Now days it will probably be closer to curing hangovers and keeping the house clean! So if you have daily issues that you want to bring to my attention, maybe I can invent something to fix it. 

Compete, or don’t

I am the least non-competitive person I know. So non-competitive I think I win the award for non-competitiveness (I have to win something right! ha) 

But really anytime a situation comes up, mainly situations that deal with me playing sports, I just fade into this emotionless void of self doubt.  I don’t go the extra mile, I forget the score, I do everything in my power to avoid winning or losing. It just makes me uncomfortable. I feel like I have to justify every mistake I make, assuring others that I don’t care one way or the other what the outcome is.

This spills over into other parts of life too I suppose. I won’t race for the last cookie, I don’t like to play “not it”. Something happened to me in my childhood that makes me completely aloof when it comes to competition. 

Now that isn’t to say that I don’t like to enter contests or play the lottery. I am very much interested in things that are individual sports or challenges, something I can beat myself at or not have direct competitors or teammates.  

Cara wants me to enter in tennis tourneys with her, not interested.

Work has a softball team they want me to play on, not interested. 

The pressure is getting to me, I don’t want to suck or let anyone down. I am a bench coach, a side line observer. 

I know I am weird, just something I was thinking about it. 

One Step Closer

Today after work I came one step closer to doing the one thing in my life that I never thought I would do. As far back as I can remember I would wet my lips at the thought of going through with it, space off in class wondering what it would be like. Is it hard? Is it easy? Will I end up in the hospital at some point as a result? 

So for me, as I pulled into the parking lot with a light drizzle clinging to my mini cooper, this was an anxious moment. My youthful converse shoes were scrapping against the wet pavement as I approached the double paned glass door, tinted a thick black to deter thieves.

When I entered the small office, I was greeted by a woman who exchanged a general inquiry as to my intentions there. I asked for ‘Tim’ and told her that he had something to show me. She scoffed as if that was the last thing entering into possibility and before she could beseech another word, Tim poked his head around the corner and interrupted.

His smile calmed my nerves and the pitch of my voice rose slightly as if we were old friends. He approached me with a large folder, the contents of which to guide me on the next steps of my life. He cracked a joke about sometimes wishing he could take what he was about to show me and join in the fun. I brushed it off, only realizing later that I should have laughed.

Out of the folder came a proof printing of a set of five ‘Save the Date’ invitations to Cara and I’s wedding. The color was muted and the words printed across the front still managed to make me grin. They are going to turn out great!  I get to see the final product on Friday and then before you know it these little guys will make their way through the struggling postal system and into the homes of our friends and loved ones. 

Getting married is something that I am really looking forward to and I wish I could just fast forward to next summer and experience it now! In the meantime it is the little things that are starting to stack up as we make arrangements and set things in motion that make me more and more excited to be a Husband! I love you Cara and I can’t wait! 

Sticking it to the man!

So every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I go to Panera Bread to get breakfast with Adam. Well I tend to almost get the same thing every day. I always get a medium iced tea and either a pumpkin muffin top (muffie to Panera lovers) or a cinnamon crunch bagel. When I get the bagel, my total is $3.19. Well a few days ago I went and ordered my usual and when the cashier handed me my change, I noticed that the penny looked a little different. It turns out instead of an American penny, she handed me a 1906 Austria 2 heller coin.

Might not seem like a big deal as I am sure everyone has gotten an errant Canadian penny once or twice in their life. Well I looked up the coin online since it was seemingly so strange, and discovered that it is actually worth $12.50! Panera paid ME for breakfast for a change! That’s right!  

It’s Science!

This past week I came into possession of some rare earth magnets, they have been packaged and marketed to the public as “Buckyballs” and considered a toy. Stupid name aside, these things are awesome. I have been geeking out all week as I sit at home watching TV. True, Cara stares at me blankly every time I hold up another magical magnetic design, but I love them. I highly suggest picking some up for yourself. If you have ever wondered what the mysteries of the earth are and have managed to avoid the piece of crap, Indiana Jones 4 movie, then these are your answer!

I got mine at www.thinkgeek.com  

BBQ

For my birthday this year, Cara was kind enough to get me a gas grill for the deck. I have never had one of my own, so it is going to be an exciting summer! I am going to finally go get a propane tank tonight and it will be a steakfest at my house this weekend! 

We don’t eat a lot of red meat anymore, but rest assured we will be suckling on a juicy steak, grilled at my hands. I love steak! I wish I could eat it everyday! 

This is my Facebook

Just kidding! This is my web site! But now you can “Like” it just like on the old facer page and then everyone will know you dug my blog post! Give it a try! 

My Hat

Even though the Royals have continuously let me down, my navy blue Royals hat never has. This hat has been all over with me. I bought it shortly after I got back from california to replace my LA Dodgers hat (which I had bought to try to look more like a local in L.A.). 

Since my hat has been on many journeys. So many in fact that I can’t list them all here. But I do have some special moments I would like to share with the world…

One of the most amazing views my hat has ever seen was on the top of the South Sister mountain in Oregon. It was one of the toughest climbs of my life and my hat was there to see it all. Without it, my super sunburned neck would have had a sunburned forehead to match! My hat also made the climb up Mt. Yale last year as well. At over 14,000 feet, it is definitely the highest point my hat has ever traveled! 

Another interesting place my hat has been is a little closer to home, but one could argue that the view was equal to the breathtaking views of the mountains. At my little brother’s bachelor party, we made our way to a local strip club. Now I found myself very uncomfortable in that setting and ended up striking up a conversation with one of the only clothed girls in the place, our waitress. She was doing her part to earn her tips and I was being my usual geeky self by finding all the off the cuff topics I could come up with to make myself more comfortable. So I started to talk about baseball, a topic our waitress seemed to know a bit about. As we talked my hat soon ended up on her head and was bouncing around the room to my chagrin. I soon lost track and as we were getting ready to leave had resigned myself to the loss of my hat. That was until one of my brother’s friends stumbles out of the “lap dance room”. As the door opened, I caught a glimpse of my hat sitting on a chair. Now admittedly part of me was a bit grossed out at the location of my hat, but the other part of me was convinced a run through the washing machine would cure any icky feelings I had. I mean I already let a chick who spent most of the night trying to get me to pay her to go topless wear the hat, so I was already living in it. So it turns out it is frowned upon to barge into the lap dance room without an escort, I did just that to rescue my little hat. He was safe and I made it out unscathed. 

Now that I have told the strip club story, it is only appropriate that I mention that I was wearing this hat on one of Cara and I’s first dates. The night ended up at one of her friend’s house and eventually Cara was wearing the hat and looking super cute doing it! I knew then and there that she was someone I wanted to stick around, just so long as she didn’t take my hat into a lap dance! haha. Maybe my hat is like that sorting hat in the Harry Potter books, it knows who is good and bad. 

The other day I was thinking about my hat and how long I have had it. I am actually quite surprised it has held up this long. I promise that I will keep it for as long as I can and share more adventures as they come up and when the time comes to replace the old standard, I just hope that the next one gets to embark on the same types of experiences that this hat has! 

Basketball

As a kid I was never quite that athletic. I know, I know it is shocking! One of the worst things for me to do was to play basketball. I was particularly awful at shooting hoops. Maybe it was my left handedness, maybe it was my lack of interest in the sport, but for whatever reason, it was and is always a struggle to play the sport.

Well fast forward to today and I still don’t really like the sport, I rank it somewhere behind Nascar and Soccer if that gives you any idea. Yet somehow the sport has creeped into my life. I bought a house last year that happened to have a basketball goal in the driveway. My father got me a basketball and now when the weather is nice I go out and practice my non-existent skills at b-ball. For the record I did beat Marty at HORSE the other night with a thrilling 26 ft shot!

Also, for the first time in my life I am still alive in my office NCAA bracket pool. I have never made it out of the Elite 8 with a scrap of a chance and now I have a chance to win the whole thing! I just need Duke to win their game on Saturday and go to the Finals. Let’s hope for my sake that they do. Who knows it might open up a whole new world for me.

Luckily before this basketball thing gets out of hand, Royals Opening Day is Monday, so I can focus on the boys in blue again. They know just how to let me down over and over through the course of 162 games. That will be more like it!  

The iPad and the Future of Me

Being a new home owner, I have just now realized that I can’t call the Super (Joe Pesci anyone?) whenever something breaks. Last night the garage door when a little haywire and the wire came off on one side. It was crazy and I started to imagine my checking account draining. Luckily it was an easy fix and I can do it myself. It is scary to think of all the potential things that could go wrong in the house and all the money that I will be spending to fix it. This summer is going to be full of little projects to improve things that will probably screw up later! 

That being said, I have been thinking a lot about the new Apple iPad. I am going back and forth on reasons why I need one. It has a lot of potential (I think) but at the end of the day, Cara and I both have Macbooks AND iphones, to which the iPad in my opinion is simply falling somewhere in between them both. What does it do?! Why do I need it? I could take the easy way out and proclaim that I am just an Apple fanboy that needs it because it is the new thing, but I like to think I am smarter than that! 

So an iPad isn’t going to make my life easier…or is it? I use my phone for the following things: Talking, Surfing, and Gaming. I don’t see this changing as I do these things outside of the house as well as on the couch. Now on the other side of the coin, here is what I have been using my macbook for recently: Surfing, Word Processing and occasionally Netflix streaming. Now I can stream Netflix on my TV using my PS3, so that becomes a moot point. So where does it leave me? I can surf on the iPad, on a smaller screen. I can do minimal word processing as well. 

Here are some potential uses for the iPad that I have come up with.

1) I no longer have to bring my macbook on trips. Most hotels have Wifi now and it would be a lot easier to bring an ipad in a carry on bag and avoid the extra bag charges.

2) My macbook is portable, I can take it into the kitchen to look at a recipe, in bed to check out a TV Show, I can even take it out to the back deck to surf the net. However, I am bound by battery life and the awkwardness of a laptop. With the iPad I can do all those things in a lighter easier to manage package.

3) The iPad comes with a book store. I am terrible at reading, but maybe I would read more if I had all the book I want to read in all the places in the house. I can quickly read a few pages and jump right back out to the net or a doc I am working on. I can now do this anywhere in the house! 

4) My macbook is clean and white, do I want to take it to the garage or outside? Nope. But an iPad with a protective case, I might take it on little trips around the places in the house I normally wouldn’t. 

All in all I imagine the iPad being sort of the hub of the household. I can bring it with me everywhere in the house to help me track repairs, create spreadsheets for replacing filters and light bulbs. I can take it into the bedroom to read, into the kitchen to cook, into the back yard to chill. All things I could be doing with my macbook, only slimmer and lighter leaving the macbook for bigger things like streaming TV, working on photoshop, working on heavy lifting word files, storing photos, downloading and storing music. And the best part is, my macbook is 3yrs plus in age, so like everything else in the house, I am sure it will break down soon, leaving the iPad as a good back up!  

Well Crap

iancahill.com has laid dormant for far too long. I realized it this morning when my hosting and domain provider emailed my yearly renewal. I have been a very sorry internet junky. I am on the interwebs all day and I have avoided my blog for far too long. Probably one of the main reasons I have avoided it is because I didn’t want to have to write a post like this. Sorry I have been gone, it won’t happen again is just not going to cut it and likely isn’t true. 

What I can offer to those of you that don’t already follow me on facebook or twitter, is I got engaged, I joined a fantasy baseball league and I think the Royals will be competitive this year. Ha. Two references to baseball and one for my soon to be wife. I know I am a jerk. I love you Cara! 

The thing is, I think I am getting tired of television, tired of politics and tired of media in general. I mean I still read tons of articles a day on those very topics, but when I get home at night, I am no longer satisfied with my TV or the net. I think what is missing is my commentary! Now whether or not that will be a trend for me remains to be seen. I will give it another try (is there an echo?). I am going to be 30 soon for God’s sake.