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MartyMcBenji
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Name: Benji
Country: United States
State: Ohio
Metro: Toledo
Birthday: 10/21/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: People are interesting beyond everything else.
Ben Folds interests me.
Expertise: The 80's and movies
Occupation: Government
Industry: Other
Message: message me
AIM:  Mgnt4babes
Member Since:
8/3/2003
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| A new site, for my out of town blogging Everyone.
I am in California, and I made it safe.
I am going to relocate my blog (temporarily) to a site where I can just upload stories and pictures. Xanga isn't the easiest to update fast and I just want to get in and get out. Also I just want something else where I can save everything from my trip to Yosemite.
I will link it here in the next 24 hours, because I am still deciding which site to jump to.
I have pictures and a couple stories. Fun fun fun.
*Edit*
http://coolbenji.tumblr.com/
there you go. Go there. It will be fun.
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| Sooo like.. It has been forever. I wish I could write down everything EVER, but whatever.
For starters, I am going to Yosemite National Park this summer, all summer, to work in some food service position. I don't really know what this means, but since I am a boy, I guarantee it will be a lot of work, since the girls always get the good jobs. I am leaving in 6 days actually. I am really excited. I want to take pictures of everything and find my inner soul.... or just hang out and love life.
I have been reading more, surprisingly. I have read a lot and I plan on reading a WHOLE lot more this summer. Give me your suggestions, so i can start buying them!
More recently, I have been into jazz music. This all spawns from the history of jazz class I took sophomore year. Go figure. I have listened to some Miles Davis and a bit of Coltrane. Does anyone have anything really good? I am into the older Miles Davis stuff, so things like that.
I played ultimate frisbee today with the Columbus people for the first time in 7 months and the last time for 3 months. They are so much fun to play with and I played so hard and good today. I am going to miss competitive ultimate a lot.
College is over for the summer.. all of my friends who graduate on time are leaving. I am not sure how I feel about this yet. I am very carpe diem lately, so I am embracing what I can get with them and just going on with life from there. I keep telling myself that I will meet other friends who will give me the emotional output that they supplied...but will I? Who knows :]
I can't wait to finish college.
I can't wait to be a dictator/math teacher..
I am going to try to update this a whole lot while in Yosemite. Should be fun :]
PEACE
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| We measure snow in yards..Why does it snow so much?
I am stationed in Cleveland with the previous notion to arrive in Toledo today.
Most of you reading this are probably stuck indoors similarly to myself. They advised most of Northern and Central Ohio not to attempt to drive anywhere. WHO ARE THEY TO STOP THE HURRICANE THAT IS BENJI?
Only joking..
I am pretty sure when I get home I am going to attempt a project.
It is called project no-tv-for-a-week.
I am going to unplug everything connected to it. Will I pass?
I really hope so. It says poopstains about me if I can't go a week without Television.
Oh yeah, and our electric bill was really high this month.
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| The long drive homeAs the title suggests, we are coming back today. This was due to funding and lack of lodging.
Yesterday we spent the entire day at Asheville. It is a very trendy town, nearly too trendy. Everyone walks around with a sense of being every bit as unique as the next person. I think I saw almost 56 pairs of chuck taylor's on people's feet here. Do they really think that they are all special unique different? Sure, they all dressed the part, but when it comes down to it, they all are wearing straight legged jeans with the cuffs rolled up, a tight t-shirt, the occasional cardigan or a home made hoodie sweatshirt. Nearly all of them smoked and made it dignified. I had no problem with them, I just didn't see why they had to be so high and mighty about it all the time.
I bought a new book yesterday. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (props to Bailey). I plan on stopping at a Half-Priced books tomorrow and picking up at least 3-4 more books, since they are such a good deal.
I hear that it was supposed to snow 6-10 inches in Ohio today.
They really know how to have homecomings for vacationers...
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| Appalachian (app-puhl-at-chin)Last night we arrive in Asheville, North Carolina, my favoritest of the small-big cities of what we have visited in the past. It is a very trendy city and filled with college students alike. Someone of my age and likes about things can really enjoy this town. For example, they have tons of vegetarian places as well as open late/all night coffee shops. The people are generally friendly here too.
We are staying at a bed and kitchen room that we found for really cheap on craigslist. The lady we are staying with is a, easiest way to say it, "free spirit". Her name is Gayatri, and has lots of incense around. It is interesting to say the least. Last night she had a bunch of friends over for a movie night. We were convinced we would arrive back from Asheville and there would be the least of flattering sexual orgy of some crazy type. To our surprise not one person was awake when we came back.
As we rolled into Asheville, we saw a concert line for 311. They were playing at the Orange Peel in town. We went to the Orange Peel last time and saw a concert, it was pretty cool. Driving up to the line, some guy flashed tickets at us. He originally offered the tickets for 80 bucks a piece. Trying to tell him we don't have a lot of money and were looking for dinner, we "talked him down" to 40 bucks. We did nothing to entice this. Just kept saying "we are really hungry" and he would fire back with "Alright alright, fine. 50. No? 40 cmon man, this is a hot spot". We drove away in confusion.
We entered a bar that was having a quiz night. This was fun. We helped a table of ladies behind us get second place and we took a picture with them. Get this... they were traveling nurses. Yeah. The three of them were from completely different parts of the country. One was from DC, another from Missouri and the last from Southern California. Apparently they just travel across the country hopping from hospitals? I don't really recall what their story was, but thats how it came out.
I am filling this last part with something I thought a lot about last night. It has to deal with tipping waiters and waitresses. There is something unbalanced and unfair to other waiters/waitresses and to the buyer. This has to deal with how much money certain waiters are getting depending on where they work.
Now, they are both doing practically the same job. Some do it better than others, some are terrible. That should judge what their tip should be like. Let's say that we get two identical waitresses and one goes to a well known but low priced Diner. The other goes to a top chef semi-casual yet extremely expensive restaurant. Should the amount that WE spend depend on how much money the person is getting? I spend 9 bucks at the diner and I give her a 2 dollar (ish) tip. I go to the nice restaurant and my meal runs me up 45 dollars... why does it mean that I have to tip my waitress somewhere around a ridiculous 9 dollars? As much food as I could buy at a diner to fill me up.
I understand the argument that "HEY THEY ARE MAKING BELOW MINIMUM WAGE" Yeah, well if they're getting 2 bucks from me and 2 bucks from the 2 other people I am with, thats a 6 dollar tip. They have more than 1 table an hour and they are already making more money than I do at my job... and I feel like I should get tipped to keep kids happy for 8 hours.
All I am saying is that the percentage tipping doesn't work for me. There should be a new standard. The waitresses at the expensive restaurants are probably getting 30 dollar tips for every table and having at least 2-3 tables an hour. 90 bucks an hour. Engineers don't make that much.
I was figuring it out in my head while laying in bed last night. It should be based on what type of food you buy and how friendly or helpful they are and whether or not they did their job correctly. If I have a waiter who doesn't talk to me or be overly nice but he does everything perfect. Refills drinks on time, doesn't mess up orders, keeps us updated on food and such. He is getting a good tip from me. The standard I came up with is if you order an appetizer that should be 50 cents toward the tip. Entrees that are regularly sized is 1 dollar. Larger than normal (more to carry) is 1.50. Drinks are 50 cents. All sides and desserts are 25 cents. You can add extra money if they perform well. This won't catch on, and if I do this at the "expensive" restaurants then I will be scolded. Probably means I won't be going there.
I really want to give my money to the chef or whoever chose to buy the expensive food. Then I recall I am paying 15 dollars for a bowl of soup, and that probably covers the chef and the cost.
That was too much writing.
see you tomorrow.
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