Day 33: Back in Phili with a new look

Yup, thats me. I decided to put my head hair in a race with my facial hair to see which grows the fastest.

Day 31: Back in DC

I was just in DC a couple weeks ago but didn't really post anything about it. It just so happens that my cousin's girlfriend moved to DC this last week and he was going to see her. So, with car still on the sidelines I hopped aboard with him and made it back here in the afternoon. I was put immediately to work rearranging some furniture, which I didn't mind. She had already let me stay at her place for a couple nights.

I had made plans to go out to this country western bar with two of my college fraternity brothers Chris and Ryan, pictured to the right. I actually befriended some UT longhorn people and cajoled one girl to give the Aggies Gig' em thumbs up while I did the opposite.

Day 29: Deep in the Forest of Valley Forge

Right now I reside near the very top of a "mountain" (anything with enough elevation to cause a broken leg if dropped from the peak is considered a mountain in Houston. Seriously, you can step on a water cooler and see the entire city) in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. This is where Washington moved his troops during the revolutionary war for the winter to get them ready to fight the British who had over taken Philadelphia, about 30 miles to the east.

I am staying with my cousin's Godparents who have been exceptionally welcoming. Every night (its been 3 now) they have fixed me breakfast lunch and dinner with dessert. In return I provided them with my exceptional raking ability as well as some useless gardening tips.

Tomorrow I think I am going to be heading back to DC with my cousin whom is seeing his girlfriend. Speaking of DC, it was cherry blossom season when I went last week and much of the city was covered by all these beautiful blossoms.

Below is my first attempt at one of those articles that I promised I would write.

BCS vs Playoffs: Why is there so much emphasis on one game?

I’ve never really understood the uproar in Division I College football about the need for a playoff system. It seems as though every sports pundit out there is overwhelmingly in favor of a playoff system. Yes, every other sporting league crowns their champion using a form of a playoff system, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a playoff is the optimal strategy for choosing a champion. A playoff doesn’t guarantee a “true” champion nor necessarily add excitement. In fact, a playoff in college football can detract from both areas.

There are 110 or so teams in Division 1 College football and if there were a playoff only one team would be able to win the championship. The system in place right now allows for multiple champions while a playoff, of course does not. Does anyone else think it completely sucks that there can only be one champion out of all 110 teams? Our society and media coverage seem to be focused on crowing champions and basically making kings out of our superstars (Can I be the next Andre Ware). Why can’t multiple teams have the chance to call themselves champions? Is it really that horrible that there is not a single champion? The top division in high school football in the state of Texas crowns two champions every year. Nobody seems to complain about this.

Football is a game of very high variance and incredible randomness in each and every game. Many games are decided by a couple very fluky plays. Take for instance, last year’s SEC championship game that matched up the eventual champion Florida vs. Arkansas. The game was pretty even except for one huge, terrible mistake on special teams by one of the return men for Arkansas. He called for a fair catch while backing up in his own end zone, something most junior high players don’t do. He fumbled and Florida pounced on it for an easy seven points. If the return guy has a heart attack and falls dead instead of trying to catch the punt then Arkansas might win. The point I am trying to make is that no one game should determine a champion. Also, we put way too much emphasis on championship games. Games can go either way with one person having an enormous impact. Why must we always award this randomness to one team? It really is OK to have multiple champions.

Was UT really so much more deserving of the title two years ago over USC? They were just one play away from being “losers”. I wonder how Vince Young would have been perceived if he was brought down just before the goal line on UT’s final possession that won them the game. Would he have still come out early to the NFL and still have been picked at the same spot? I remember so many people calling in on talk shows right after the game saying how little of an impact Reggie Bush had on the game. He only had almost 200 total yards and a touchdown for that game. Actually, if he doesn’t try his ‘And one’ street ball going full speed lateral in the second quarter then USC probably wins.

A playoff will one day produce a winner with two or even three losses. There has never been a champion with 2 losses in the history of college football. I can’t imagine all the hysteria that will ensue when a three loss team takes down the national title. Not that I believe this to be a bad thing but I’m sure most everyone else will.

Basically, I don’t see too much wrong with the system in place. There will never be a way to crown a true champion so why not let there be many.

Road Trip Potpouri

Here are a couple videos of me. The first one is me at a golf range letting off some steam after finding out what happened to my car.

The second is me singing in my car to the song "Simple Man". Ive never heard myself sing on camera and I always thought I was bad. It turns out I was wrong and I am just worse.

Day 27: My car is near busto in Phili

And so as it was foretold many moons ago by its predecesors, that one day the blue Saturn SL with no power steering will eventually run no mo on the road and go busto. It was a beautiful brilliant Friday afternoon and I had just picked up my brother from the airport. The weather had finally turned around as it was about 75 degees outside without a hint of the horrid constant drizzle I had in DC just a couple days ago. We headed into the old town immediately after I picked him up to go see where the forefathers of this country laid the framework for us today. The streets of downtown Phili are ridiculously tiny, so much so that they don't even have those little cross walk lights. Phili is pretty much the birthplace of our country. Independence hall is where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed. The liberty bell was directly across the street so we decided to go by there as well. Apparently it has cracked about 3 or 4 times getting recasted every time.

On the way back from downtown my brother noticed a strange smell inside my car and since I am no stranger to odd smells I ignored it and kept on going. Less than five minutes later I was on the shoulder unable to get out of first gear. My clutch had completely shut down and was loose like it had fallen asleep. I made it to metered parking area where I could keep it for the night. I actually leave the car here for the next couple days because we had planned to go Altantic City the next morning.

AC was similar to Tunica (the last place I went to gamble) in that there seems to be extreme poverty except for the mammoth casinos that dot the boardwalk. All three of us went immediately to play poker at the Trump Taj Mahal. There was actually only 2 spots available at the table and since we all wanted to play together I offered 25 bucks for the first person to leave. I instantly got action on my proposition, payed the man in chips and was instantly down for my session. We ended up degenerating it up until about 5 a.m. My cousin claimed to put down 15 whiskey cokes in the 12 or so straight hours that we were there. Since it was so late and the cheapest hotel in town was 250 dollars we decided to pay 5 dollars to sleep in the parking lot in our car.

We came back Sunday afternoon where I had to wait 4 hours for AAA to come get me. It is now at a local mechanic shop where I will get the verdic tomorrow morning.

Day 23: Philadelphia

I am alive and fully functioning, except for possibly my liver which has gone through a few rough outings the past week. I just drove in to Philadelphia yesterday and staying with my cousin Chris whom I just saw in Birmingham a couple weeks ago. I have full albums of pictures that will hopefully be updated soon as well as some candid video of myself singing in the car. Its truly amazing how someone, a human no less, can produce such a spectacular cacophony of sound whilst trying so hard to sing proper.

One other random road trip moment: On my way to Memphis from Ft. Worth I heard this R&B song by a group of chicks (possibly Beyonce). The main chorus in the song goes something like "Run away girl, Run away girl ..." Since I am 25 I am hard of hearing and believe I say "what?" during conversation more than most 80 year old men, I thought the song was saying "Winnebago, Winnebago" . I thought what a perfect song for my road trip. I then started listening to the other words of the song and finally put it together that they were not indeed singing about a motor home.

Go ahead and say "Run away girl" fast and see what happens. Dont babies turn their r's into w's.

One more thing. There is a website called googlefight.com where you can match up two phrases to see which one has more hits (yes you can do it yourself but its more fun this way and there is a little video of two stick figures fighting it out). Well tonight I think we are going to use it to play a drinking game or to make degen prop bets. Out.

Day 13: Heading to Atlanta

I am just about to head out to Atlanta for the evening to see my Dad's youngest brother John. I have been very blessed to have an immediate family that has placed so much emphasis on staying close together..think my Big Fat Greek Wedding. We are always traveling to visit our close relatives and they are always traveling to see us. I feel very fortunate to have so many relatives that are "close" by and to have actually visited with them my entire life. Much of the family thinks I look a LOT like my uncle. Atlanta is very much a foreign place to me. I have only passed through it a couple times before. Unfortunately I don't have long to stay because I have to be in Washington D.C by Thursday afternoon.

Thanks to my Aunt I was given a huge load of some famous southern Barbequed pork. Fantastic

Day 12: Birmingham, Al

I think I made Dr. Atkins proud these last couple days with the endless intake of meat that has nearly exceeded the challenge I proposed for my stomach following the end of lent. I have tried to disregard any food that wasn’t eaten lamb, steak, or chili hot dogs the last couple days. I still crave more.

Yesterday was very peaceful and relaxing much like the other 12 days have been. This road trip by definition can do little other than put my mind at rest. The only things even remotely close to resembling stress were the two phone interviews I had this afternoon. Both were with two insurance firms that needed to fill associate actuarial positions. I have no clue as to whether I would enjoy this line of work, only that I seem to be well qualified and that it would have my yiayia (grandma) be able to brag endlessly to all her friends about me. She’s in the other room as I write doing this right now. This job searching seems to be one main reason why I decided to go on this road trip. I don’t believe I am ready to grow up. Who is by the way? Does anyone actually grow up? I think I will be using this expression when I’m 70. I still played video games all weekend long and still cursed my horrendously bad golf shots wanting to turn a club into a walking stick for a midget on Saturday no different than I did 10 years ago. I still found myself wanting to beat the hell out of my brother when he was being beyond annoyingly difficult.

My mom bought me this little device used to locate a lost set of keys by ringing loudly whenever it hears a whistle (a la Jennifer Anniston’s (Shes half greek) key ring in “Along came Polly”). This silly thing doesn’t even have an off button. So once you find it, the sound never goes off. I actually thought it was a one-time use device and about to test swing the hammer in my toolset (another present from mom) until I unfortunately had the brilliant idea of taking the batteries out and putting it back in (kin of a fire alarm??). This wasn’t even in the 2 lines of instructions. Was this a joke to the user? Did the inventor of this wretched device never grow up either? I suppose if I had it my way I would just never grow up. Staying at 25 seems swell to me. Staying on the road trip indefinitely also seems optimal.

My family had left in the morning and then my cousin Chris this evening back to Philadelphia. Afterword I went with my uncle to his work place at City hall. He showed me his office where he was won about 20 distinguished awards for producing an exemplary budget scheme every year for the city. From here we went to one of the highest points in Birmingham to eat dollar hot dogs. B-ham is basically in a valley enclosed by small rolling hills. The diner we stopped at overlooked the western edge of the city which was richly laden by the newly emerged Spring greenery. extra

We also stopped at an adult book shop that used to be the proud building that housed my Papou's (grandpa) restaurant the Gold Star about 30 years ago.

Day 10, Birmingham, Alabama

Tunica is situated just a few miles South of Memphis directly alongside the banks of the Mississippi, River. Heading to Tunica is comparable to passing through the gates of hell and then to a forbidden Garden of Eden. Southern Memphis is completely desolate with abandoned decrepit buildings for miles on end and then out of nowhere mammoth Casinos light up the sky and completely change the atmosphere. I now feel safe to leave my tomato and basil in the car for the night. I chose the Gold Strike to stay and play for the night, being one of the two casinos in town that have poker rooms available. I got my room on the 21^st floor of this bastion of false hope and went immediately to play poker, which I don’t technically consider gambling. It is the only casino game that is beatable. Saying this, I lost both days that I played. I got struck with copious amounts of bad luck that never ceased to go away. The worst was when I lost a pot where my opponent had about a 1 percent chance at winning when the money went in the middle. I won’t have to cut my trip short but the Red Cross might not get their yearly donation from me. The only thing good was the 9.99 buffet where I used all the space in my stomach to get back some that was lost at the tables. I ate ferociously and quickly, and randomly. I hit the shrimp and crawfish hard. With no more gamble in me, and no room to spare in my belly I happily left hell Thursday evening to Birmingham, Alabama where my Mom’s brother and their family live.

It just so happened that my family had previously planned to come to “the ham” this Easter. Our family has never gone out of Houston for Easter except this year. It’s crazy how my road trip coincided exactly with them meeting me here. I was far from homesick but I was still excited to see everyone when they got in on Friday morning. My family from Birmingham is truly awesome. They basically roll out the red carpet when we come in town. I have come here no less than 15 times and each time it’s a non-stop thrill ride until we leave. I was immediately praised by everybody on how my first two blog entries were skillfully written. My dad had actually printed it out, pictures and all and showed it to the rest of the family. The weather here was significantly colder than in Houston, at about 50 degrees that morning. I decided to take my friends Tom and Basil inside to warm up and keep them from dying.

This week is the most important for the Greek Orthodox faithful as we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Great Friday is explained here and has highlights here, 2, 3. For the 7 weeks leading up to Easter it is suggested by the Church to perform a fast or basically abstain from certain foods for the entire period, in a similar manner that Jesus did. For me, this is an exercise in self-control and by doing so will hopefully manifest itself to other undesirable indulgences that seem to be amidst in my everyday life. I have abstained from all non-fish meat this Lenten season and so in approximately one hour I will taste the succulent lemon and oil basted rack of lamb that my Aunt has prepared. Fasting actually makes meat taste much better. This might be taking a few hundred steps too far but, I suppose it’s similar to how a blind person would feel about their vision if it were to suddenly come back and see again. I am about to see meat again.

Today I went to Church to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. Afterword we went to go play golf at Highlands golf club just Southeast of downtown. The course is immaculate and absolutely a delight to play on. It overlooks the entire downtown of Birmingham. Me and my bro swinging. I think I look worse but only cause my jeans make me look awkward.

Here are some pics of the Greek style house I spoke about in the last entry. 1, 2, 3, 4

Day 7; Mile 0 - Mile 800 Memphis, TN

I think I told a vast majority of you all that I would indeed do this blog and since I abhor the idea of not following through with verbal commitments I will attempt to post updates for all of the rest of my journey. I am not a big writer so these posts will probably be pretty short and hopefully filled with pictures.

Before I get started, I must note that this blog will not be entirely about my trip but will hopefully be an area where I can express some views on subjects that I hold strong opinions on that may differ than the common onlooker. Most of these "articles" will be sports related and have an underlying theme relating to statistics, both of which are my most passionate subjects.

My journey began last Thursday when I took off to Ft. Worth, last Thursday to visit my long lost but never forgotten love from Goya, Tina. Tina ended up spoiling me like no other than my own yiayia (grandma) could. She cooked marvelously, cleaned up everything, even did my laundry, and for good measure removed some acne from my back. I always thought of Ft. Worth and Dallas as pretty much the same city. Apparently Ft. Worth is more country-western, more laid back and less pretentious than Dallas which seems to fit my personality well, despite the honkies everywhere. I really enjoyed most everything about Ft. Worth. It was with great pleasure to see two awkwardly but perfectly out of place majestic Greek homes in two separate neighborhoods. It was as if the Parthenon was rebuilt and made with walls. There were even replica ruins in the backyard. The houses truly are beyond imagination.

Much of the nightlife was spent in small smoky bars which I decided to go a little nuts thanks to being virtually anonymous on this road trip. I think the following pictures do me enough justice.
1 2 3


I left honky tonk cowtown Texas and made my way to Little Rock, Arkansas which from the highway seemed nothing more than a couple banks and a hospital. I managed to find the capitol building and get a couple kind ladies to take my picture on the steps. After a quick stop at a local bar I headed to the small town of Tunica in NW Mississippi just 30 minutes south of Memphis. It hosts the largest compilation of casinos outside of Vegas and Atlantic City. I am here in Tunica Mississippi until Thursday morning when I will go down to Birmingham, AL to celebrate Easter.


Before I left for Memphis I decided to create a small garden in my car so I stopped at Home Depot and got a big pot some soil a tomato plant and some basil and now have a friend sitting with me in the passenger seat