Being Tall
A lot of people ask me, “What is it like being tall?”
Well I'm gonna give you a simple breakdown of the pros and cons of being tall:
Pros
- It's ok for me to ask for the exit row at the airplane
- I can hide things in places that no one will ever find
- It doesn’t hurt when playing basketball, volleyball, or tetherball
- I get called cool nicknames like Stretch, Big Guy, Big Fella, Tall Drink of Water, and Humungo
- I don't have to be picky about a girl's height because none of them are taller than me
- I get the biggest short size all the time because I have the longest legs
- I get automatic shotgun at all times
- When I order a lot more food than what I can eat they always give me a quick look then say "I guess you need to eat; you're such a big boy.”
Cons
- Growing up I could never get any of the cool shoes in my size
- No matter what I wear, unless it’s a basketball jersey, I feel like it's just not made for people my size (I personally just make it look good)
- Even though small cars are cool I can't fit comfortably in any of them. I try and save the earth by conserving gas but I can't fit in a Subaru or Honda, so I ride in a realy simple Tahoe. I try to do my part.
- No matter what seat I have on an airplane, unless it's the team plane, NOTHING is comfortable -- absolutely nothing. It’s a mental battle the whole trip trying to keep my knees from the people in front of me smashing them with their seats. I mean, seriously, do you not see the 7-ft man behind you? Do you think it's cool to slam your chair back on our 330-hr flight?
Other than that, I mean, there really aren't any other cons. Being tall is great. I love it and wouldn’t change it in the world.
My dog, Milton…and other ugly dogs
A lot of my boys have brand new English Bulldog puppies. I showed them a picture of my puppy who's almost a year old now; Milton is his name. I emailed it to everyone and the responses I got back really hurt my feelings.
This is my little boy. Yes, his left eye is crazy like the guy off Mr. Deeds sometimes. And he's tiny and he really can't exercise for more than 5 minutes, but all those things are the things that make him the tightest dog ever.
A newer photo of Milton:
This is Milton in his younger days:
But that’s not what this blog is about. It's about ugly dogs. Everyone in Portland has a dog. If they don’t, they did, or they will, or they have a pet of some sort. It's just what Oregonians do. They have pets.
Whenever I go eat around the Pearl, people are walking around with their dogs all the time. It's hilarious to see some of these dogs dressed up, fancied up, wearing clothes. Shoot, some of the pets get better treatment than humans would at the Benson. Hey, to each their own, but what I want to know is if we can get some pictures of either the ugliest dog you can find or a picture of a dog so dressed up it should be at the Emmy awards.
The car I want
I'm thinking about getting a new car: a convertible. The car that I want is a 1965 Lincoln Continental, black convertible. Suicide doors; either black or tan interior; completely refurbished.
I love that car and I want to try and get it before the end of the season so that when it starts to get a little warmer in PDX I can roll around with the top down. Maybe even ride that bad boy to the coast. So if you see one or have one, send a picture.
Technology in the good ol’ days
I was thinking the other day about how far the cellphone and technology has come. I can remember in the 6th grade that if I wanted some of my boys to come out 'n hoop or play football, I had to call their house and leave a message. If that didn’t work, I'd have to go outside and ride my bike around to see if they were already at the field or at the hoop we had. When I got a cell phone it was for emergencies only. I didn’t even turn the thing on. Nobody had a cell phone so who was I gonna call?
I will never forget when my dad got this old Merceedes. It was like a 1983 diesel. The thing always had something wrong with it. I hated the big, heavy, ol' stupid car, but the only thing good from that car was the cell phone. I guess the previous owner had it. We used that bad boy once to call my grandma. We sat in the car in front of the house and we talked to my grandma for about 5 mins. We never used it again. My dad said it was broke but I'm pretty sure that he saw the bill and his cheap-self shut project carphone down immediately - lol.
I alremeber that we used to have an extensive collection of cassestte tapes, which were great until we got CDs. Then I figured out that having tapes was the worst, most annoying thing ever. Having to rewind or fast-forward to get to the beginning of a song; maybe having to flip the tape over...
Finally, when it comes to video games, I remember I got my first Nintendo in 1989 when I turned six. I stayed up for what seemed like 48 hours playing Mario. Of course, I only got to maybe level 3, but still, I played it until the Nintendo almost burned itself out. Those were the days when if the system wasn’t working, you'd have to blow in it or blow into the catridge. Whoever made that up or discovered that was a genius because it worked every single time. I doubt it did anything, but for me it was just a habit. Man, I loved my Nintendo.
There's actually a place in Portland that has nothing but old-school video games. When my friends came into town we all went there. I sat down, had an Arizona iced tea, and played games like the first NBA Jam with Rony Seikaly and Dan Marjle, Duck Hunt, Super Mario Brothers, Ms Pacman, and I mean about 60 others. It was hilarious how tight those games were and now the graphics on a PSP is sometimes beter than playing on a big screen.
Wow, how much life has changed...
My brother, Logan
On the subject of my brother, I have mixed emotions because here I thought that he would see that the University of Arizona is the greatest college in the history of colleges and go there -- that he would continue the legacy.
But this lone wolf has to be different and he took his fat head to the cold, terrible, frozen tundra of Michigan. On the other hand, he is a nerd to a brainiac so I guess it's sort of a good school for that. Not the best school ever like UofA, but maybe it comes in a close 45th because UofA takes up the top 44 places as the best school ever. So, congrats, Logan, on being accepted into igloo school.
K.P.W.
Now, I don’t think a lot of people really understand what that means so I’m going to give them a brief history lesson on the origin of K.P.W: It means Keep Portland Weird and the true Oregonians, the ones who wear Birkenstocks, ride in a Subaru, wear earthtones 90% of the time, these are the people that have this bumper sticker on their car.
When I first moved to Portland, I truly didn’t understand or realize the greatness of that meaning until I saw some of the ... how do I put this … very INTERESTING people that walk the beautiful streets of our fair city.
So my new little project is if you see anything in any city -- especially in Portland -- take a picture and send it to info@channingfrye.com.
We’ll give out a prize to the winner of the K.P.W. Award so that the INTERESTING people can be seen not only by you but by the world and they can truly, truly be appreciated.
Fellow Gamers…
Hey guys, I just had to brag: I beat Halo 3 in about 2 days. Yeah, I know, Halo 3 came out awhile ago but my boy Brian aka Bryno' got me back on it so once I get my Xbox Live fixed up I'll give everyone my screen name and we can see how good your Xbox video game skills are. I'm also kinda nice at Guitar Hero and I definitely will be good from after the All Star break at Call of Duty 4 ,which my brother (the stupid Michigan kid) swears by, so I'm gonna get my game up. Y'all should too after work or after homework.
Valentine’s Day
Guys: Valentine’s Day is coming and I have an idea about what I’m gonna do, but I’d like to hear some ideas from ya’ll.
Write and tell me either your best or your worst story. Be honest please, cause I have a lie detector on my computer. I’m interested to hear about everyone else’s big V-day.
Yup, Careful Before You Bet
Well if ya’ll haven’t noticed yet, yes I cut my hair. My head feels weird. My ears feel exposed but a bet is a bet. Darn you Eli Manning and especially darn you Giants defense. I have to say it was a great game. Extremely entertaining but a terrible outcome.
For me, I think through it all I’ve learned two lessons:
#1 - Do like the real bettors do. If I ever decide to bet on something again I’ll get the inside information, get the inside scoop.
#2 – Don’t make bets on top of bets because you think that your team is gonna win. Long story short, I made a bet to cut my hair with my parents on the Patriots cause I was so over confident in Tom Brady and Randy Moss and my fellow U of A alumni, Teddy Bruschi.
What’s up with steroids?
I’ve been watching TV and looking at the Internet of different stories about steroids not only in sports but in the music industry. I’m confused. Why do musicians, athletes, or anyone else - want to be super human huge? Did one day they look at the TV and say to themselves: I like that look:
The whole “I can’t move my arms, I’m so big” look. Maybe the ‘roids help them with their music or their sport. Maybe that’s it. I could be confused -- they might think that being that huge could get them girls. Guys: you’re rich ‘n famous already.
They wanted you any way you were.
I don’t know what’s up with society and for the baseball players and everybody about Barry Bonds. C’mon guys, just leave the man alone. We’re starting to learn that the pitchers and everyone else were doing it so basically all his achievements were legit because he was hitting the pitches by a pitcher on ‘roids. They should just give that whole case up. MLB is losing fans and bringing a lot of bad publicity to the sport. Those guys work hard. Penalize the guys that got caught or do a silent private investigation, but let’s keep the scandals and books and TV shows and all that other stuff to a minimum. Let’s hear about stories other than what happened in the mid 80s.