Feel the BURN!

Well... It is about that time of the year when you start thinking about the changing weather, which signifies spring, which segways into summer which translates to beach time, which triggers the thought "I'm a fat ass... I need to lose weight."



So with the weather pretty decent in the NYC, this weekend was the Official start of the "Brian Millman Get Fit Campaign 2009." (NOTE: There will be merchandise on sale in a couple weeks. You can expect items like head bands, sweat towels and potentially barf bags to be featured items.)



Below will be a couple staples of the BM Get Fit regime:

• Aloha Means Goodbye Elevator- Living on the 8th floor of my building provides me with the natural opportunity to use the stairs. Conditions of usage: The stairs will be the default unless i am drunk, or i am carrying more than a $5 Footlong.


• BOOM!- I plan to frequent Boom Fitness at the corner of Park and 33rd. There you will find me on the elliptical in the far right corner doing about 35 minutes on the Cross Training program. Conditions of Usage: this will only happen if i have clean socks and i'm not hungover.


• Sedale Threat School of Jump Shots- I plan on going to the ghetto courts on 26th and 2nd to get a little clinic going. I will bring my Mar Vista hoops style game to the east coast. Again, Richard Page was the coach and i credit him for my denfensive tenacity but also credit him, for my poor left hand and lack of height.


• Food- I am not really going to change my eating habits too much, however i foresee less pigs in a blanket for dinner and more salads +protein shakes.
• Alcohol- I will most likely continue to hydrate after workouts with Bud Light. Occasionally, after a very good workout i will have a Jack on the rocks.

I guess with any good campaign, i should set out goals and thus here is a another bullet point list of randomness:

1. I would like to run for more than 4 blocks without stopping to stretch. By stretching it is a clever ploy to actually catch my breath.


2. I would like to be able to fit into my board shorts which i left in Los Angeles. I am not switching to a pair of board shorts with an elastic waist. I graduated from that when i was 7 years old.


3. Currently, i have a naturally place to rest my beer while laying on the couch (See picture). Ideally, that would not there.


4. Be able to dunk a basketball on a six foot rim.

New York Dogs

Well... let me say that i'm completely biased on this subject. My views are tainted. They are completely one sided.



First, the best dog in the world is Brandy. My parent's beagle. It doesnt matter that she chews through the carpet or wakes up at 5 am, or even eats an entire wheel of cheese when no one is looking. Just know Brandy is the best.



Second, i am sick an tired of the inhumane treatment that the majority of new yorkers engage in towards animals on a daily basis.



Here is a list of grievances I would file with PETA:

• Hideous fashion- I dont understand why people feel compelled to put stupid sweaters and hats on dogs to make them cute. Does it make them cute? No? Usually the dog is a whimpy little nothing dog that is hideous to begin with. Its a smoke and mirrors mission. You can't put something cute on a hideous dog and expect people to think the dog is cute.


• Fuu Fuu Dogs- 90% of dogs in New York are little nothing dogs as described above. They walk outside and shiver and whimper. You see them being carried as an accessory and not walked as a dog. They are no different than a purse. Next thing you will see are girls bedazzling their fuu fuu dogs.


• Sidewalk bathrooms- Honestly, this stems back to an incident in 9th grade when i stepped in poop en route to Bling Bling at the Whiskey on Sunset (a lot of LA references there... sorry if you are lost). There is no reason why a dog should poop on cement. Its not natural. Its not fresh. Its prone for bad things and disgusting smells. Further... there aren't many hoses to clean your shoes in New York and it behooves me to clean fecal matter in my sink or bathtub.


• Freedom to be a Dog- Dogs love to sniff and chill, sniff and chill, then go meander to a new spot and sniff and chill. In an apartment, there is only so much sniffing and new smells available. That is why dogs have such a negative rep... You always find dogs near the toilet because that provides the most unique smells. Everything else in an apartment probably smells like pinesol and frebreeze.

A couple tri-state dog shout-outs:

• Casey Schulweis- Always up to no good. The King Golden Retriever of the UES.
• "Go" Blue Mintz- You think you are a small fuu fuu dog but you weigh 70 lbs and love eating my rainbow sandals.
• Lacey Azus- Always a cutie.

The White Zone is for Loading and Unloading...

Well… This isn’t a long blog post but I wanted to thank everyone for the support thus far. I am going to post a couple times a week. Its hard to claim a productive day at work when I devote time to posting.


So here is the only thing I want to comment on…


This is specific for people that travel and have been to Detroit via the McNamara Terminal… the fountain is the most soothing thing ever. You know what I’m talking about!


I contend that if you have a hangover, you would simply need to sit down and get lost in its greatness.


It’s a miniature version of the Bellagio Fountains.

In all the hustle and bustle of a major airport, the fountain is an eye opening window of tranquility.

In the middle of the criss-cross of travelers, the families searching for their flights, the friends hustling to make their connections, the fountain transcends all barriers (language, race, collegiate affiliation) by providing a subtle touch of reassurance about the persons pending flight. The jets of water pierce up in a perfect flight plan and descend back to the water for an easy and gentle landing. (Look at the little kid in the picture... Mesmerized!)

Easy.

Simple.


Smooooooth.


So, next time you are at an airport, notice the small things. They may distract you from the angst of travel.


NOTE: People from Ohio St do not have the mental capacity to realize the fountain is a piece of art. They would either interpret it as a water fountain or toilet.

Grass Patterns in the Outfield

Well... with the start of baseball season you begin to think about the little things that make baseball great.

• The little helmets filled with ice cream
  
  
• People filling out box scores and struggling to know what to do when a team bats through the line-up


• The impeccably good accuracy of peanut ushers


• Seeing a fan camped under a foul ball, boxing out the sweaty guy with mustard stains on his shirt, only for it to doink off his hands and the stadium boo-ing (not singling anyone out... but there was a remarkably similar instance involving my roommate last season)
• How teams pay homage to St. Patrick's day by wearing Green hats, jerseys and chalk the lines green.

It signifies the start of spring, the beginning of summer and the familiar chatter of a stadium.

For me, i immediately think of Dodger/Doyer Baseball and many many afternoons and nights spent at Chavez Ravine rooting on Dave Hansen (HOF utility infielder... I made up the HOF part) and Kaz Ishii as they battled to entice LA fans to come early and stay late.

It also brings me back to my days of North Venice Little League where i played as a catcher for the minor league St. Louis Cardinals (Coached by Richard Page) and the major SF Giants. Let's just say that i made benito santiago's arm strength look whimpy.

While playing at North Venice, i mowed the three fields and always wanted to make patterns in the outfield.

I think the grass pattern in the outfield is very much under-utilized. The Red Sox and Mets do it all the time (pictured below). It serves no purpose other than make the blimp shot really really cool.

But, if you take a deep dive into the patterns, you realize its a work of art. Mainly because they are working with a canvas which is 90 feet x 90 feet. Think about what Van Gogh did with a canvas which was 36 inches x 48 inches.

The primary question that i have is: How do they make it look SO good when they are SO close and its SO big??? Is the grass cut in different lengths to make the designs or is it cut in a different direction?

Editors Note: This is when I get quasi-weird and relate it to business.

Is it outside the realm of possibility, that teams will convert this into sellable inventory? When teams become a sponsors, they can put their logo in the infield grass? Imagine the McDonald's Arches or something like that.

PS... I think its slightly funny that I inserted an "editor's note" as I am the Editor. Somehow I felt like it would bring a little more credibility to my disclaimer.

Side note: I think after this week, im going to reduce the frequency of my blog to one to two times a week and send an email when i post. Still trying to figure out how people can sign up to receive an alert but not trying all that hard. Send me an email if you want to be on the distribution list.

Lunch and Water Coolers

Well... I dont really care what anyone says but lunch is by far the most important meal of the day.

I can understand why it is so underrated and frequnetly overlooked. It is a meal that gains appreciation over time. This conclusion came to me only since i joined the work force.

Lunch serves mutiple purpose beyond just stuffing your face with food.

1. It serves as the natural break in the middle of your work day
2. It provides a widely accepted reason for the daze you are in for the 30 minutes after lunch (i.e. Food coma)
3. It provides a reasonable exit strategy to avoid important meetings (sorry, i cant make that meeting. I'm having lunch with someone outside the office).

While people always talk about the water cooler talk, i think the lunch table talk has more substance behind it. How in depth can you really get at the water cooler? Lunch is an hour of time to talk about whatever. At the water cooler, you only have a tiny dixie cup or one of those cones to fill up. That can't be more than 5 ounces of water. SIDENOTE: Why the Cone? Never understood that... I have only seen ut work at The Apple Pan

If someone was doing an efficiency study, priority #1 would be the water cooler. Why are the cups soooo small? Don't you think they would provide at a minimum 12 ounce cups which will quench the thirst but not result in frequent refills???

Just a thought...

Day 1 etc...

Well... what i realized after Day 1 is that i am probably going to start most of my blogs with "well..."



So i had a clocks widget that didnt really function at work but now that i'm home i pretty much realize its garbage.



The benefits of the Blog:

• I can say what I want...


• The content of my blog is whatever I want...

Thus, here is what i'm think about right now...

As we start baseball season, we have to recognize change. The Dodgers have recently switched their Spring Training facility from Vero Beach, FL to Glendale, AZ.

Here is a youtibe video from the AP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3lutF1HfNw&eurl=http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=tdi.closingBell&utm_source=cb_email&utm_medium=email&utm&feature=player_embedded

Enjoy!

The Office Life Style

As I sit at my desk, and stare at my picture of the Ohio St cheerleaders running across the Super Dome field with flags spelling their school, O-O-H-I, i wonder what i can do to make my desk a little bit more fun without a visit from HR.

Is a massage chair appropriate?

Could I watch Family Guy on my second computer?

Can I replace my lower filing cabinets with a cooler filled with.... errrr..... Diet Coke?

Should i set up a meeting notice every day at 2:30 and check out the freeway congestion in LA on sigalert.com?

Maybe, i can cut pictures out of a national geographic and make a jungle scene.

Ultimately, i think enjoyment in a cube lifestyle is directly correlated to the amount of sun in the office space. My building hardly has any and the long endurance/low sun foliage that they have on the counters is slowly turning yellow.

Im pretty envious of Reg, who you would assume to work in a funny environment, seeing that he organizes comedy shows. Or Mitch that plays tic-tac-toe on the white board and call it work. For everyone else, you know what i'm talking about.

Well, i guess that is the life style... no sun + TPS reports.