Men are competitive or: How I started growing a beard.

Men are natural competitors.  We will fight, compete, squabble, or brag about anything.  Chalk it up to our evolutionary need to hunt and gather I suppose.  Perhaps it is the need to show off in order to impress the opposite sex; usually ending in utter failure I might add.  Try as we might to resist, there is always that deep seeded urge to dominate in something.  While some are dominate in sports, others are dominate in intelligence and the arts.  The ones that aren’t dominate in something, are probably trying to find something they can succeed in.

No where does this seem to be more prevalent than the workplace.  

Jeans or Camo?

Somehow my number has gotten into the wrong hands.  It all started a few days ago when I got a phone call from a random number.  I didn’t answer it figuring it to be a wrong number.  This was followed by a simple text of:

what is Ashley’s number

Since I don’t know any “Ashley” of whom I have a number for I passed it off as a fumble of the fingers.   The next morning at 6:45 I got another text message that said:

Tony Hawk’s Twitter Hunt (#THTH)

In the past I have posted blog entries about twitter here where I mentioned Tony Hawk or as some of you know him @tonyhawk.  Today Tony once again impressed me with his excellent use of Twitter to directly engage his fans.

I’ve been a fan of Tony for years.  It all started back in Jr. High when I first picked up a skateboard and took to the streets.  In 1987, I saw a little movie by Powell Peralta called, “The Search for Animal Chin”.  Tony Hawk was one of the stars of that movie.  At the age of only 19 he had been skating professionally for 5 years.

Flash forward 20 years, instead of a movie my kids have fallen in love with Tony Hawk’s ever popular series of video games.  It’s pretty cool that someone who graced posters on my wall as a kid is so popular with my own kids.  Tony has done an excellent job at creating a skating empire and still manages to rock the ramp to this day.  Landing 900’s at age 41 doesn’t make you a pro, it makes you a legend.

This morning I stayed home from work to watch my boys since they were out of school for fall break.  While making breakfast I picked up the phone and started checking to see what was running across my twitter stream.  

Forbidden

Forbidden

Originally uploaded by okbeatnik

Ni‘ihau is the forbidden island of Hawaii. Located 17 miles off the coast of Kauai is the smallest inhabitted island in the chain. Famous for its very expensive shell leis.

no one is coming to the watch party

A friend from work and I visited the soon to be ghost town of Picher, OK this weekend. We both left with an empty sick feeling. ASARCO, which operated in Picher as “Federal Mining and Smelting Company” is responsible for 20 superfund sites. It’s amazing the damage that bad corporations can cause. What the after effects of the lead didn’t destroy, the 2008 tornado did.  As of srping 2009 the school closed it’s doors.  Then on the 1st of September 2009 the town ceased operations for good.

You can see more photos of Picher here. I will be loading more as the next week or so goes by.