BillyStyle

This next week I’ll be trekking across the country to my new home in Clermont, FL. Being so close to the Atlantic coast, I figured I should probably make it a coast-to-coast road trip. So I went to Lincoln City, OR with the family over Thanksgiving. I frolicked around in the Pacific Ocean waters and had a jolly old time.

I’m using this week to get all my stuff packed up and clear out my condo so I can sell it, then I’m off again. So here’s a map of where I’ve driven so far. I’ve got 1,207 miles out of the way, it’ll be well over 3,000 when I’m all done!

View Larger Map

Whenever I hear someone say “Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start” I feel sorry for them. Mostly though, I laugh because I know they had no friends when they were trying to beat Contra or Life Force or any other Konami game back in the day.

The way I’ve got it in my head is:

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Select Start

Don’t know what I’m talking about? That’s a shame.

Yesterday I got the wind knocked out of me. It was no big deal, I didn’t think much about it for the rest of the day. Today my back is a little sore from the wakeboard wreck that made me lose my breath for a bit. That got me thinking about some stuff hardly blog-worthy, which is exactly why I’m blogging about it!

As a wakeboarder, I get the wind knocked out of me from time to time. It’s kind of funny when it happens whilst floating in the water. Usually after a hard wreck, I struggle to get my mouth to where I can breath in some air, because I have just exhaled most of it upon impact. When I can’t breath when I get to that point, it’s a pretty unique feeling I suppose. I’m used to it now and just wait it out, but I imagine there are people who can’t remember the last time they had their wind knocked out. I love that phrase. It’s the only time our breath is referred to as wind, neat.

Anyway, I bet most people won’t get the wind knocked out of them 5 times their whole lives. Something I’ve only done once that I remember though, is falling down a flight of stairs. That’s another panic inducing moment. It’s one of the worst feelings because it lasts for what seems to be a very long time, and you feel like you should be able to stop yourself with each bounce, but just can’t stop until eventually you land on the floor. At that moment, your brain catches up to your body and you realize what just happened and wait for the pain to set in.

There’s no real point to this post I guess. I think I just realized that my panic level got much lower with getting my wind knocked out because of the frequency with which it happens. I wonder if other panic situations are similar in that aspect.

Neat, I just found an explanation of what happens when the wind is knocked out of a person. And as we know from Michael Scott, anybody who wants can edit Wikipedia, so we know we are getting the best possible information:
Having the wind knocked out of you.

So today something happened that hasn’t happened to me before. I saw some friends (well, due to circumstances, more acquaintances, but I could see us as good friends if the chance was there) at the local grocery store who are readers of this here blog. It was funny.

I don’t know if they (the Niederhausers) felt the same awkwardness that I felt at first, but it was pretty good stuff. The blog took care of the initial small talk that usually occurs when people see each other for the first time in a good while. It didn’t help that my mind locks up whenever I see them because both of their names are androgynous (Kelly and Casey), and that’s too much for my brain to handle. It always takes me a minute to remember which K-sounding name belongs to whom. So sorry, if you guys are reading this, but that’s why I was so stupid there at first!

So after a bit of good awkwardness and an awesome why-did-I-ask-that question, normality ensued. My question was “Is that your girl?” I was referring to their daughter, who was in Casey’s arms at the time. Yeah, I’m sure they go around kidnapping at the local grocery store.

It was cool though, the rest of the conversation picked up like we’d been hanging out, keeping current on things. They asked about Florida and stuff like that. I mentioned Casey’s pictures, since he’s a man of images, not words, at least online.

Anyway, I found that it was kind of a weird thing that wouldn’t have happened if I had no blog. With all that said, I think you guys, Kelly and Casey, need to get a blog going so I can ask more up-to-date questions during our next random encounter!

I just got offered my dream job, woo! How much money does my dream job offer? Not much at all! Neat! So what is it? Coaching at The Wakeboard Camp in Clermont, FL. Freaking sweet.

Most people who know me don’t need to ask why it’s my dream job. But I’ll ramble on about it anyway because I’m as giddy as a school girl about it. For the past decade or so, I’ve been addicted to wakeboarding. I’ve been lucky enough to meet most of the pro riders who show up in videos and magazines. I’ve met Tony Finn, the inventor of the Skurfer, the original wakeboard. I’ve seen some pretty sweet things and been to some cool places because of wakeboarding. But with all of that, I’ve just kind of been a lurker around the wakeboard world. Most of these events have been for a day or two, then it’s back to normal life.

So now, I have a chance to live inside of the wakeboard world. I’ll explain. Wakeboarding was invented in California, and has spread world wide. People everywhere ride. But the Mecca (if you will) of the sport is Florida. And not just Florida, but more central Florida, around Orlando. And not just central Florida, but namely, Clermont, Florida. That’s because The Wakeboard Camp is in Clermont. It’s been there since 1996 and has been the starting place for many pro riders like Dallas Friday and Aaron Reed, to name two. Many top pro riders live right around the camp and stop by often to ride there and dial in some of their more difficult moves.

Many videos have been, and still are, filmed on Lake Minneola, where the camp property sits. New products are shipped there for testing and reviews. It’s THE hot spot in the wakeboarding world. And I’m planning on becoming a broke board bum who resides right there in the thick of it!

Now, the pay I’ll get to start off isn’t even worth mentioning. I’ll probably have to get a job in the evenings to even make a buck or two, but it will be well worth it. My riding will be all paid for, and with top riders from all over. This isn’t just getting my foot inside the door of the wakeboard world, this is diving in head first. I can’t wait!

Update: I just saw this awesome site linked to from the main Wakeboard Camp site: Why One Camp is Better. See, they have the best coaches, that means I’m one of them! Jolly good fun!

I saw the best infomercial ever last week. Why aren’t all of them like this? It seems obvious to me that 2 beautiful busty girls (that ought to bring me some awesome search engine traffic, haha) showing the goods would be the industry standard. I know it got my attention.

So I went out on the series of tubes and found the actual video! The product is a total scam, but you see what I’m talking about with the ladies. Well played Jeff Paul, well played.

Radiohead is awesome. They just released their new album, In Rainbows today. I guess their contract with their record company is expired, and so they’re taking a completely unique approach with this new album. You can download it from the album’s website, InRainbows.com. At the time of this posting, the site is not loading, but I got the album late last night, so it does work.

The catch is this. You decide how much to pay for it, really! You can pay less than a dollar or a thousand dollars if you wish. You can also pre-order the discbox edition, which will ship later this year. It has all kinds of stuff. Extra songs, vinyl records, artwork, sweet. I’m listening to the album for the first time as I type this, and I must say, it’s blasted good.