Tag Archives: Books

Aloha Mahalo Da Kine

hawaiivinI found this book that I haven’t read in a long time and I was leafing through the pages and I found the one way plane ticket to Hawaii that I bought way back when. Looking back it’s been three years since that flight and it’s crazy how much has changed. In some ways I don’t even feel like I’m the same person, in other ways I feel like I am finally doing what I was trying to do way back then.

When I moved back to Wisconsin in 2005, the plan was to stay at my dad’s for awhile and make some money. Once I saved up some money I was going to move to either Seattle or LA. The idea being that I was going to start my screenwriting career. I thought Wisconsin would be a great place to go because the winters fucking suck and I could just sit home in the cold all the time and just do some writing. This, of course, never happened. You start hanging out with some dudes and you just end up drinking way too much like always. I think that I’ve always had some really good ideas and if I ever sat down and wrote them that I could be a screenwriter, but I am a master procrastinator and if I get the chance to go and get drunk instead I usually take it. Anyways, time goes by and I don’t write a thing. I don’t save a thing and I really have no idea what I am doing.

Then I meet this girl. read more »

Look at me accomplishing goals, writing professionally

writerPretty much since I can remember wanting to do something I wanted to be a writer. Movies, books, magazines, in flight catalogs, anything. It didn’t matter. I just knew that it was something that I could do and something that I thought I would enjoy doing. Well, after years of NOT doing anything to make that a reality I have finally made my first step.

In February of this year I started Miller Park Drunk. It was meant to just be a distraction, something to get me through the days while filling the void in my life to talk/write about baseball. Well, as it got going I started to realize more and more that it was better off as a comedy blog about baseball than any sort of serious baseball blog that featured comedy. As soon as I realized that the blog really took off. Currently, it’s averaging over 300 a day and has had almost 20,000 visitors since it’s debut. Of course, there is no money involved. I do it for the adulation. People don’t make money off the internet. Unless they get an email like this:

I’m the Milwaukee city editor for Decider.com, the local version of The Onion A.V. Club. I’m writing because I’m a fan of your blog and I was wondering if you’d like to write a guest column for our weekly “Talkin’ Baseball” feature devoted to the Brewers.

I’m basically looking for you to bring some of that Miller Park Drunk magic to Decider. I envision the column being a lot like a Miller Park Drunk post, except a little longer and maybe with a few more swear words.

If you’re interested, we can start talking about ideas and deadlines. And, yes, we will pay you for this.

Of course I said yes and today that article is running. I did as I was asked and made it longer with more swear words, then turned it into an editor who didn’t make too many changes. They titled it Miller Park Drunk’s Guide To How Not Be a Brewers Fan (which I’m not sure makes complete sense when read aloud) and I can now call myself a professional writer. Why? Because professional’s get paid. No matter how immature they are. ;)

God bless the Moneyball script

Well, my favorite baseball book of all time Moneyball is not going to be made into a movie anymore. Brad Pitt and Steven Soderbergh were connected, which makes the entire thing even more insane. If I had those two connected to a project I would greenlight a movie version of last week’s O Magazine. Regardless, these things happen when you deal with Hollywood. Nobody wants to take chances and The Warriors gets a remake.

A version of the Moneyball script got posted online and I have been reading it instead of doing anything productive. My favorite part thus far:

moneyballscript

Amen to that.

This book looks LEGENDARY

The Bro Code is a new book written by none other than Barney Stinson of How I Met Your Mother.

Whether we know it or not, each of us lives a life governed by an internalized code of conduct. Some call it morality. Others call it religion. I call it “the Bro Code.”

For centuries men have attempted to follow this code with no universal understanding of what such an arrangement meant: Is it okay to hug a Bro?* If I’m invited to a Bro’s wedding, do I really have to bring a gift?  Can I sleep with a Bro’s sister or mother or both?

I have to have this.