You’d make the worst gymnasticitee’s partner

Kassem G.  There it’s said.  The man is inappropriate, timely, and exceptionally foul. — All great qualities of a beautiful comedian.

I found him a few nights ago while on a late night YouTube trail of desperate-for-entertainment kick.  I was watching RayWilliamJohnson and on one of the webisodes, Kassem G filled in.. and did miserably well.  The trail continued and I watch about 6 hours of his shit.

His motif to comedy is split into three categories:  Street Music, Going Deep, and California On.  I’ll let you do the deciding on which of his aliases is more laughable, but here’s a sample clip of Kassam invading the street intelligence of California:

I personally had the best laugh to this clip (CLICK HERE).  Thanks Kassem G, for the laugh and the cry.  Now I’m on to go cook up some bacon.

Check out more of his stuff at: http://www.youtube.com/user/KassemG/featured

Now go and do it.

Twitter: Reasons you should follow me

First off, @chris_stringham

Go to Twitter, follow —^  .. and let me tweet in your face.

Going forward I am going to deliver to you all the top 100 reasons as to why you should follow me on twitter.  Most of the reasons will contain meaningless information and may confuse or perhaps titillate you.  But I will also validate my initial request by mixing in some life changing statements about how to grow a desirable and attractive amount of chest hair.  #takemychestforexample

SNEAK PEEK:

Reason 86:  I was born in 86′.  Year of the fanny pack.  The year Lunchables was introduced. #followmytwits @chris_stringham

Reason 73:  Instead of voting for Obama in 2008, I voted for Kobe Bryant #nbamvp. #greattotweetyou @chris_stringham

Reason 29:  Still the only elementary student to steal ground duty’s whistle right from her lips #pimpinainteasy.  #bluebirdday @chris_stringham

…and yes, I am just a dork on the interweb – just look:

Life is too short.. not to get tweeted in the face. Follow @chris_stringham

Reminisce: or don’t..

I woke up feeling like a weirdo.. Seriously just had the coolest/strangest dream…

I was sent back in time 10 years ago with the strength I have and the intelligence I’ve collected — advantaged like Tom Brady.  Then like Nostradamus, I had the ability to predict the future; however, every event and it’s forthcoming was subjective to change depending on how differently I would re-do the moment.  Needless to say, as each year went by I began to go through each monumental event, friend, hot crush, and heart break in my life.  I felt the full range of emotions come over me as the dream became even more real.  I changed everything.. the activities, the schooling efforts, my actions, even how I talked and dressed.  I then woke up in a duality of perspective.  I realized I was still the same person making mistakes.. I wouldn’t have changed my past given the advantages or opportunity.  Why?  Because without that stride through life through those important years of experimenting, the streams wouldn’t have led to one and I would have never come upon living here in Beantown..

You gotta come out here.  These were taken a few weeks ago upon the arrival of Spring:

This was taken from across the Longfellow Bridge.  This kind of dips into South Central Boston, where the best shopping can be had.  This place gives birth to the most glamorous of shoes and the most broken of wallets [speaking for myself].

To be perfectly honest, I don’t actually live in the city of Boston, moreover just across the way from it, in Cambridge.  This picture was taken closer to my neck of the woods.  This is right next to MIT, who houses one of the best Taquerias in all of Boston area: Anna’s.  It’s no Cafe Rio, but it’s the next best thing.

Here’s a glance down the stroll from Boston into Cambridge.  This bridge, in short, is pretty sweet.  It use to be called the Cambridge bridge but later renamed to the Longfellow bridge, named after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a poet.  It was first erected in 1812 but was rebuilt in the early 1900’s.

Here’s a better side profile of the bridge:

This was taken from the Boston side shore line.

Here’s a shot from the flip side (Cambridge going into Boston – Beacon Hill):

This city is so sick.  There’s the skyline for the financial district, where I usually spend most my leisure time when I have my days off.

And here’s my trusted steed, the famous chariot waltzing over the Longfellow.  They call it the Red line:

Skye likes to drop stink bombers on this train.  Not really cool, we all suffer, especially the elderly folk.

So in the heart of Boston lays a pretty cool park called Boston Commons.  It’s the oldest park in the US (1634).  At first it was a place to graze cattle, then it was used for hanging men – gallows were removed later, and now it’s a park with a parking lot underneath it:

Gets a statue for reading?.. Where’s mine for ping pong?

Notice the building in the deep depth of field in this picture.  This is the Massachusetts State House.  It was built on land once owned by John Hancock, who also became Massachusetts first elected governor.  Do you see that gold bling of-a- dome on top?  That’s cash money – $300,000 in 23k gold.  Bling kings.

This is over in the North end, right off the Haymarket stop.  Love this one:

Below me is the Old State House:

Built in 1713, it is the oldest surviving public building in Boston, and the seat of the first elected legislature in the New World – thank you Wiki.

Right across the way from here is the famous Faneuil Hall.  Which happens to be, in my humble opinion, the most enjoyable place in Boston to act a complete fool (and/or tourist).  This is Quincy Market – it’s part of many freedom trail landmarks, with countless shops and restaurants:

Nasty times and memories here.  I’ll spare the details, but let’s just say she was only wearing sandals and baby poop was everywhere.

In the backdrop of the Faneiul Hall you have the famous Marriott Custom House Hotel:

..Which really isn’t famous.  I lied about that.  But the clock is pretty cool and reminds me of the Disney Peter Pan.

Last shot and we’ll end it with a luxury shot of the Cambridge shore to the Charles River:

Life is too short.. forget changing your past, live in the present, look to the future.

Adventure: taking it to the beach

Finding gold in a river bed.  Hitting the state lottery the first time you buy a raffle ticket.  Boston and sunny days.  Having a full fridge of food.  Having a full tank of gas.  Having a day off… are all examples of what I call rare.  Fortunately, sometimes I have see some of these rarities (I’m still waiting on finding my gold and winning the lottery…can’t have it all I guess).  And when I do – I go explore.  Cold, rain, snow, wind, or sunshine;  it’s the only time I get to do anything close to the word discovery.

On this rare day, I decided I wanted to see the ocean.  As like most days, it started with a T Ride:

*That’s me.. in the froth.

Skye, my partner in crime and epic sidekick decided to join the adventure:

*She’s a freakin’ babe.. it’s nice to show her off in public.

I took this guy with a small digital camera, so it’s pretty raw.  I pretty much had all the elements on my side though.. but I love this shot.  It definitely tells you the story of what Boston overcast looks like, which is pretty much all of the time..

 

Anyway.. we got to a new place off the Blue Line called Revere Beach.  It’s pretty cool – makes me really wish for better weather.  Upon getting there I ran into a local, whose accent was probably one of the thickest.. so for fun, I decided to talk to him about life in my best fake Boston accent.  It was humoring, I thought at first he was just a homeless guy with a giddy go-happy personality but it turned out he was a World Class swimmer and had two rings the size of baby carrots on both of his index fingers.  This guy went from homeless kickin-it to ghetto fabulous in one firm handshake.

 

So it’s really cold by the beach.  In most of these coming pictures, you’ll notice my face goes from a sexy rosy cheek red, to a disgusting deep purple.  This beach brings with it some serious wind, and with that, also brings some serious sport.. I give you wind surfing in it’s coldest form:

*This guy is the balls!!

And with tons of wind and bad weather, comes the sea level and it’s many inhabitants catching a good surf.. probably too much surf

CLAMS!!! New England’s reign to glory.  These massive little shelled dudes were all over and still in tact (no cracks).  At home I thought kick the can was fun.. forget that nonsense.  Kick the clam is so much more rewarding.

This place is sweet but the cold really kills the time that you can bear being here.  Just look at my face.. I’m so cold my face has swelled up and I’ve now lost my national identity; just the cold, my girl, and my Asian face.

In the sun [different day] this place is a little more vibrant..

This is right off the Wonderland stop.  To my surprise, it wasn’t so wonderful when we first got off the stop, but a five minute walk later I changed my mind.

This is Cory James Lowe (as legend has it, “K Jam”).  Recently he expressed his feelings of let down because I had failed to include his presence in my blog.  He was right to feel that way.  After all, if it wasn’t for him and his nice gesture of taking Skye and I in when we first got here, we probably would have been reduced to life in the streets, then later mugged, and eventually killed…

Below is Cory, showing the camera his glam and glory..

So we left the beach but our adventures didn’t seem to want to stop.  As prize of crossing the Charles River on the Red Line.. the clouds decided to open up a bit and I stole this frame through my lens and the window to the subway:

Traveled down the road and through the creek and found ourselves outside Harvard.. Here’s a cool shade of the Ivy:

I probably wouldn’t survive a day here.  Anyway so we kept walking through my neighborhood and then we passed our favorite night bar and club:

We just love this place.. great spirits, vibe, and social atmosphere.  It’s a boogie of a time.

It’s rare I blog, but even more rare I have these days off to find adventure.  Having both combined them together has just made history.

Life is too short.. to not call in sick.  Expand, explore.

LoveSac pt.1: the shenanigans

You’re only as good as the company you keep. . So in order to make yourself successful, you need to make the people around you successful first.. even if they are just a wild pack of holligans:

Taken at the eve of Shawny D’s infamous front line operation – we were stop number one [for obvious reasons].  So I give you the “Hustler’s Club”.. take it in like a tall glass of ice water.  I know you’re probably thinking to yourself..”this looks like a meat locker”.  Well at one point you were right, but since then we’ve expanded our horizons – a new class photo to come.

Below is my Assistant Mgr, Tyler Perry; kid tiger fury, t bonez, angry irish man, T:

It’s a really good thing Tyler is not a computer geek or illiterate with computers for that matter, he’d kill me if he saw this posted.

This is Eric, and he can juggle a Squattoman.. that’s right, I said a Squattoman. (Video to come!)

This is Team Blue – the Elite of the Elite amongst LoveSac managers.. don’t believe me?  Check out our store blog: http://lovesacnatick.wordpress.com and check out the blog entitled “ManagerFest”.  Read all about how we became legends:

Meet Max.  He’s a solid college graduate from BU.  He’s a Natick Hustler.. but most of all he’s an epic hero – A GamerSac w/Moss Microsuede (we recommend you spot clean before machine washing).  He’s not guaranteed for life, but guaranteed to drop it like it hot 40% off the time, all the time.

Life is too short.. to not be doing shenanigans.. to be continued.

Winter: the cold shivery

I thought I knew cold.. or better yet, thought I was immune to immediate climate change.  But when it’s December 16th, 2009, 56 degrees and sunny outside, then it’s December 17th, 2009, 18 degrees and a snow blizzard outside – I don’t care who you are,  survivor man Bear Grills, the head leader in your eskimo tribe, or the top Boy Scout of his land, whatever – that kind of climate change immediately sucks.  What makes it worse is the wind chill out here..believe me, misery loves company with a coat.

So this storm swallowed my car..

The drive that followed this escapade of digging my car out was life threatening, just how I like it. After crossing the MA-1 into Boston, I took the risk of shooting this shot out of my driver’s side window while driving.. hopefully my insurance agent never catches drift of my blog..

It was ice skating on wheels at this point, kind of like when I got out of bed that morning without any socks (wood floors) and wheels.

Life is too short.. to let winter and it’s life threatening obstacles prevent you from taking a sweet photo.

Fall: the picturesque

Well.. it’s beginning to look like that mess we call picturesque down my street:

All I can say is there is leaves everywhere.  It was admirable at first, but now they crowd my sidewalks, doorways, my windshield, my gates; they’re everywhere.. but seriously, check them out:

Ripe as a delicious skittle.  Weird enough, I was tempted to eat these little guys.

This tree below me is religious in color..

One fall morning, I was killing some time over by MIT — seeing that it’s in my backyard, I decided to go check out the Charles River, famed for it’s glory for sailboats, rowers, and shenanigans.

..Kinda cool; if you look close up you can see the Charles MGM bridge, a Red Line MBTA marvel.  If you’re lucky and clouds don’t exist, hit the T around 5:30PM inbound and you’ll crawl over the bridge’s (and Boston’s for that matter) best scenic sunset shot possible.  It’s specter is definitely post card material.. just like this picture below:

..uh huh, aimed one right. I grew a mustache, so you could eat your heart out. Halloweens’ never seen such a role model. Take notes.

This picture was my favorite, caught this frothy badger at night. Despite the light qualities, this dry shot took zero edits and a VERY steady hand:

Life is too short.. to not be accessorizing your clothing apparel with glued on barbies and eating leafs.

Books: the Boston library

. . Probably the coolest and most extensive library I’ve ever been to. One section of the library is bland, boring, with an 80’s touch on design. But once you step through the doors to the next side of the library the atmosphere, look, and style completely changes.. Here’s a few pictures Skye took while we were checking things out:

This is how all the book shelves look like, it reminds me of France and what it would look like in side of their chateau’s for some reason..

A look down the Social Sciences corridor..

Thought this was a sweet dual elemental shot Skye took..

If only libraries were this cool back home, I might actually go to one..

Life is too short.. to be letting Skye hog the camera for all of the glamor op’s

Tourist pt.1: the walk through Back Bay

Here’s a cool view right outside the Back Bay station — on our way to the Boston Library…

Church hopping Sundays has become mine and Skye’s newest fad. The churches up here in Boston are INCREDIBLE by design. Just about every square or block has one. They’re all at least 100+ years old and surprisingly really restored/preserved.

This church is just kiddie-corner from the Boston Library:

It’s right next to one of the Green line subway stops. Apparently, there’s been some construction down in this tunnel and not long ago a worker was drilling on some of the foundation. The drilling accidentally caused too much tension on the foundation under the church (above) and caused a major crack through the south wall of the building. The church sued the MBTA (Metro Boston Transit Authority) for a huge lump sum and as a result, among other reasons, the MBTA recently filed for bankruptcy.

Life is too short.. to be hiring curb jocks to do a construction man’s job.

MBTA: the public transit is in

Just minutes away from reaching Track 7’s platform in the Back Bay’s commuter rail station, my beloved Skye; master of the artistic three element snap shot, decided it be best if we quickly took that diesel model shot we’ve always wanted to do. Initially I had no idea she was taking this surprise snapshot, so I felt no pressure going into to it. The natural wondering look on my face came from a real life moment in which I was caught looking down the station tracks, curious as to where my train was.. Minutes later we would find out we had missed our train due to a small error in the details — it was Saturday and the we had banked on the week day schedule. Our train had come and passed over a half hour earlier. If there is one area of opportunity to be had as a new member of society to the Boston area, it’s to learn how to read a map and follow it’s details carefully

Life is too short.. to be walking up these stairs.  Where’d I miss the escalator?