My Big Fat Blog - ACleverGuy.com Full Post View | List View
Life, love, relationships and the plus-size community. This professional DJ and marketing guru puts it all in the mix!
- Daniel doesn't blog here anymore
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Since the days of the dearly departed blog platform Diary-X, there have been whiners about the candid opinions I’ve expressed on this blog. Whenever there’s been an instance I’ve called some internet pu**y on their bulls**t, they’ve invoked their version of “telling the teacher”, which is contact the owner of the blog platform that they were being unfairly berated by the big fat bully on his big fat blog.
It would invariably result in me having to edit or remove my comments to keep within the platform’s nebulous Terms of Service regarding being “unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable”.
Don’t get me wrong…I can completely understand why the likes of Diary-X or Blogger or Yahoo don’t want to be in the business of mediating seemingly meaningless feuds between faceless people. It’s enough of an undertaking for me to try keeping one Yahoo group drama-free!
So today when I got yet another Terms of Service letter from Yahoo - no doubt precipitated by one of the people I took on with my blog comments, I finally decided to take matters, and this blog, into my own hands and host it my damn self on my own web space.
My Big Fat Blog now continues at ACleverGuy.com
I will little by little be moving all the previously posted Yahoo360 entries there in the coming weeks.Starting your own blog on your own site wasn’t easy in the relatively prehistoric days of Diary-X, but with the development of the open source WordPress platform, just about anyone with a basic understanding of websites and databases can make it happen.
I don’t plan on the new iteration of My Big Fat Blog to be unduly venomous. Everyone who knows me knows I’m really just a harmless little fuzzball. But I will continue to call ‘em like I see ‘em. And this time, TOS be damned!
Yaaaahoo! I’m free, I’m free!
[Note: I apologize to those who've read this before...I noticed the entry was marked "mature" which means those not logged in couldn't read it.]
Sunday May 4, 2008 - 02:50pm (PDT) Permanent Link - 50 and fabulous!
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I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about Burger King's fabulous Whopper® sandwich!
According to the press release issued today:
From its humble beginnings in a Miami restaurant, Burger King's signature sandwich today embodies pop culture cool, preceding The Rolling Stones and outliving The Beatles, the Rat Pack and drive-in movie theaters. The famous Burger "King" will be immortalized today in Madame Tussauds wax attraction in New York City's Times Square.
I have to confess when I think about "pop culture cool" the Whopper doesn't quite come to mind. A little more tongue-in-cheek announcement of this "event" is here. But it is indeed my favorite (locally available) fast food burger.
And when I "have it my way"? No onions, no ketchup, extra pickles, mustard and mayo. Yum!
Watch for a new Burger King ad campaign and a new site WhopperFreakout.com featuring "an unprecedented social experiment" showing real customers "to imagine life without their beloved burger."
Let's all sing!
Hold the pickle
Hold the lettuce
All we ask is that you let us
Serve it your way!
Have it your way at Burger King now...
Hmmmph...if I really wanted it MY way, I'd be traveling here!Thursday December 6, 2007 - 12:19pm (PST) Permanent Link - Neither snow nor rain...
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I won't put BBWNorthwest bashes in the same category as delivering the mail, but due to the atrocious weather last Saturday, only about 35 brave souls made the trek to Tacoma for our Hollywood Holiday Ball. In the 8 year history of our group, it's the smallest number we've ever had in attendance for a dance party. Only 6 weeks earlier, the same venue was bursting at the seams with over 200 revelers at our annual Boo Bash Halloween costume ball.
Yet surprisingly, some of those who came said they had an absolute blast! One gal even said it was better than Boo Bash! I prefer to think of it as more party per person and am glad it spread some holiday cheer, despite the fact it was the first event on which BBWNorthwest actually lost money.
For 2008, our hall is hitting us with a 42% price increase for rental. To maintain our present schedule and amenities without raising ticket prices, it's going to be more critical than ever that we get at least 100 people at each event.
That was practically a given in previous years...our usual crowd for Tacoma events was 120-150 people every time.
Perhaps fat people are becoming more comfortable with their size, or they're finding more acceptance at "regular" venues. Those are both terrific and welcome advancements, but the flip side is that it diminishes the need for BBWNorthwest to promote events especially for plus-size people.
We've made lots of terrific friends; that will never go away. But depending on the attendance of upcoming events, we might well be forced to trim our calendar from six to four events a year (seasonally) or just continue with a once-a-year Halloween party.
Mardi Gras Madness is our next bash on Saturday February 2. Hope everyone puts it on their calendar and will be in the house to celebrate with us!
That is of course, as they say, if the creek don't rise!
UPDATE: I won't say misery loves company, but my friend and fellow dance promoter Ron Bolin was similarly affected last weekend. He wrote in his newsletter (a great resource for singles dances all over town!):
LAST SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, the snow was coming down in the afternoon so we had a very light turnout for ROCKIN' AT THE BARN. There were just 41 people, which is way down from the 213 people we had at the prior dance. It was a pleasant evening regardless and the people who came seemed to have no problems getting there. It snowed some more during the dance, but by the time I left it was raining . . . and we all know that the rain caused a lot more problems than the snow!
So he got about 19% of his usual crowd; we got 27%. I feel better now. I think.Monday December 3, 2007 - 04:17pm (PST) Permanent Link | 1 Comment - The deadly sins continue
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Speaking of gluttony, they've got it down to a science in Las Vegas.
D and I are here for three orgiastic nights of fun in a belated celebration of my official mid-life crisis.
The original Delmonico Restaurant is near Lee Circle in New Orleans. I went there often with my Dad and stepmom and it was the scene of my brother's rehearsal dinner. I never thought that since Emeril bought the place and opened one in Las Vegas that the food would be even better at lunch today.
The menu has always been traditional New Orleans and Creole, but I almost needed a stretcher after the Barbecued Shrimp appetizer (with petite rosemary biscuit, of course!).
All the way to the housemade rum raisin and pistachio ice creams it was beyond ridiculous. As it should be.
Last night we also caught Wayne Brady whose show "Making $#it Up!" was a non-stop ride of music, impersonations, improv and audience interaction. If ever there was someone heir-apparent to the consummate Vegas performer, I'm in Brady's bunch.
Back to hit the strip...the orgy continues.Monday November 19, 2007 - 03:04pm (PST) Permanent Link | 1 Comment - Eat, eat, eat, eat, EAT!
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Forget about lust, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Even though they qualify as deadly sins, in moderation they perhaps can be overlooked as a natural human foible.
But gluttony? There are no degrees of that.
As much as I love to eat, sitting down to gorge isn't only unappealing to me, it's downright disgusting.
You've probably heard of the annual July 4 hot dog eating competition at Nathan's in Coney Island. You may even know for many years that this All-American event was won by a guy from Japan. Until this year and a man named Joey Chestnut.
But bringing home the mustard-yellow hot dog eating championship belt simply wasn't enough for the 23-year-old San Diego native. In fact, these gluttonous displays have now become a sport of sorts, thanks to the International Federation of Competitive Eating.
A look at their event calendar shows recent I.F.O.C.E. spectacles like inhaling cannolis in New York, sucking down jalapeno peppers in Chicago, and, in a series of national events sponsored by Krystal Hamburgers, the gorging of the little square sliders by a field of entrants who consider themselves "professional eaters".
So Joey Chestnut is fighting the gluttonous fight. This fall he took the Krystal championship with 87 burgers. Then I just read in another competition 2 weeks ago he bested himself by eating 103. You read right...103 hamburgers in just 8 minutes.
I guess what really got my goat (which might well be an ingredient of Krystals) is that I absolutely love these tiny treasures and here Joey is drowning them in water so they'll slide - practically tasteless - more quickly down his gullet.
Take a look at Joey's technique on YouTube.
Although I prefer the definitive in the genre, White Castle, I remember lovingly savoring stacks of Krystals when I lived near their restaurant in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Yeah, there are frozen White Castles at the supermarket, but they just ain't the same as those steamed bun delights fresh off the grill.
Alas now I'm thousands of miles away from savoring even one Krystal or White Castle and Joey is just gluttonizing them.
I still love an indulgence at my favorite local burger place, but you can bet I'll be eating just one and much more slowly.Sunday November 11, 2007 - 12:55am (PST) Permanent Link | 1 Comment