Serious Eats profiles Skillet Street Food in Seattle. I liked it but I think my expectations were too high. I haven’t thought about going again the way I think about Marination Mobile. Probably because all my fancy burger craving thoughts are about Lunchbox Laboratory.

At the Isle of Wight Festival in England, Kanye came out to perform “Run This Town” with Jay-Z. The crowd goes nuts. Actually, if the crowd just stood there not making noise it’d still be nuts. It’s massive.

I posted this on Facebook on February 4, 2009. I feel like people skimmed it, and I don’t blame them since it was just a Facebook survey where people typically wrote single sentences. I re-read it tonight and liked it a lot. My shoulder hurts from patting myself on the back. Anyway, I’m re-posting it here because I feel like you’re more likely to read through it and most of it is still true. I’ll annotate it in italics. It’ll be like the director’s cut of the ‘25 things about me’ survey. Update: I just finished writing the italicized notes. Now it’s extremely long and ironically (I think I used ‘ironically’ correctly for once in my life) you’ll skim it again.

(My answers got way too long and I can’t think of 25 people to tag right now.)

Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1. Me and Jason felt like losers because we kept seeing this survey and nobody was tagging us. So we were thinking about filling it out and tagging each other and hoping nobody would notice. But then I got tagged and so far it’s the highlight of 2009.

I was so relieved that I got tagged before Jason. What a loser.

2. I’ve been trying to read Atlas Shrugged for a few months now but I keep getting stuck at the dead boring parts. Like right now they’re driving across the country looking at old factories. And it’s about as interesting as this survey’s gonna be.

I do the thing where I’ll read and then decide to read until the end of the chapter and look to see how much of the chapter is left. Well, one day I was on a flight to San Diego and I decided to do that. The chapter I was on was a character giving a speech so I figured it wouldn’t be too long. Guess what: it’s seventy pages. Guess what: I closed the book, went to sleep, and haven’t opened it since.

3. I really enjoy surveys. That’s what I miss most about Xanga.

I went through my Xanga posts the other day. A lot are a lot stupider than I remember. They weren’t exactly pure gold but I honestly thought they would hold up better than they have.

4. Arrested Development is the best show ever. And I’m trying to get people to watch Mad Men but “it’s about ad executives in the 1960s” isn’t exactly a winning pitch.

Mad Men truly appears to be the most boring show in the world if you stumble on an episode while channel surfing and have no idea what’s going on. I gave up on trying to convince people to watch and am satisfied with the number of friends I can with about the show now. When I first wrote the survey, that number of friends was one. Now it’s three or four.

5. I’m a bandwagon sports fan and it kills me every day. My dad lived in the bay area for more than a decade and was definitely a 49ers fan, probably an A’s fan, and he loved the Celtics. And he managed to get Dan to love the 49ers, but I got none of that and then we moved to Japan, where pro sports come on at weird hours and some of the cool teachers let their classes watch the Super Bowl live on Monday. It’s not impossible to learn to love a sports team with so few broadcasts, but it’s harder. What am I supposed to do, read the paper in the morning before doing my long subtraction? There’s always UW basketball though.

I’ve decided there’s really nothing I can do about this except to make sure my kids are diehard fans of some team.

6. I listen to basically all Bill Simmons and Dave Dameshek podcasts. And I’m pretty sure I’ve read everything Bill Simmons has written in the past five years.

I went to Bill Simmons’s book signing last fall and was starstruck. Just nodded when he asked if he was reading the post-it correctly and it was “C-E-S”. But it’s still true, I listen to all of their podcasts. I’ve even followed Dameshek after he left ESPN for Accuscore and eventually to the Adam Carolla broadcasting network, where he seems to have found a great home.

7. Gun to my head and I had to answer, my favorite movies are Big Fish and Independence Day. Another gun to my head and I had to pick one, I’d pick Independence Day. (“Mankind. Hah. That word should have new meaning for all of us today.”) But Dark Knight is probably gonna be the choice in a few years.

Definitely The Dark Knight now. And The Departed has entered the fray. I watch both often. Those are the go-to movies that I’ll turn on when doing chores around the house.

8. I’ve listened to Only in Dreams literally over 1000 times in the past year. I don’t really know why other than that I like it. And thinking about it, that’s a pretty good reason.

I still throw this on the end of every CD I make for the car just because it’s something I can always listen to it when I get tired of the CD and haven’t made a new one. No I don’t have an iPod dock and yes I’m aware it’s 2010. Leave me alone.

9. I leechblocked a bunch of sites but I just end up using Safari to look at them instead.

I use Chrome now and used an extension to block Facebook two weeks ago. But then I just ended up using Facebook or my iPad to look at it. So I took the extension off and decided to just stop going to Facebook so much.

10. I usually get bad haircuts but I go back because the ladies are really nice and know me now. I used to get real bad haircuts on the Ave and the people weren’t even particularly nice, so I was sort of just asking for it. One time I literally asked for it (“skin on the sides”, I thought it’d look good for some reason) and Junior was with me getting a haircut in the next chair over and he gave me the “did you just say what I think you said” bug-eyes in the mirror. I was ashamed and wore a beanie and Allison wanted to see it and she said it’s probably not bad and she wouldn’t make fun but five seconds later I showed her and she called me Frankenstein. Jon called me Dolph Lundgren.

Now I’ve been trying to tell barbers that I want to keep the sides long. And it’s not happening. They continue to rip the trimmers out. I asked for scissors-only once and the lady explained that it wouldn’t work. I’ll keep searching.

11. I was in San Jose for six months last year. Chuck Klosterman was in Germany for three months last year and he told Bill Simmons that now it feels like when someone tells you about their trip to some far off place, except that it’s you. That’s how I feel about my six months in San Jose. I feel like someone told me about what it’s like living there with some details here and there and I sort of have to remember that I actually lived there.

This is truer than ever. I feel like I remember middle school about as well as I remember living in San Jose. It seems extremely distant. I remember a ton of people that were very kind to me. And the bourgeois gym I overpaid to have a membership at.

12. I like to keep toothbrushes with me. It’s not like I enjoy the physical act of brushing my teeth. I just hate the feeling I get if I can’t brush my teeth.

I kept a toothbrush and toothpaste in my backpack. Some people thought it was weird. Fortunately, brushing teeth after lunch at the office is acceptable, I just have to deal with “are you homeless or something” comments if it’s any other time.

13. Every couple months I’ll go on YouTube and search for “literati top 20″ and ten minutes of my life will disappear.

This is more like every six months now. Mostly because I write stupid scenes (think: “That was the first night we met. That was the first time I laid eyes on her. That was the last time I wasn’t in love.”) and email them to friends. The Gilmores never fail to provide inspiration.

14. My BFFs left one by one to San Diego and sometimes when they all go out together I get that feeling of regret as if they invited me and I said no. Doesn’t make sense.

Because life happens, they rarely all have the chance to go out together now! Joke’s on them, WHOOOOOOOO.

15. I rap in the shower and in the car and I’m not gonna lie, I’m kinda nice once in a while.

I was curious about how it would turn out if I wrote a verse, so I wrote one a couple weeks ago, recorded a voice note and sent it to friends. It’s awesome because my phone got stolen last week so some stranger could be listening to me kill it right now. Also on that phone: a picture of Green Lake taken thirty minutes before it was stolen that I sent to friends with the caption “trying getting my fitness on”, lyrics I typed out to memorize J. Cole’s “Higher”, other sweet pics. And best of all, rewritten lyrics to Drake’s rap verse in “Shut it Down” that I wrote immediately before bed. (“She’s turning heads. She doesn’t even notice. You turn the lights off… she keeps glowing.”) If it helps, I was immediately and extremely embarrassed when I read them the next morning. Doesn’t help? Got it. On to thing number sixteen.

16. Movies I’m waiting for: Watchmen, Harry Potter, Transformers, Terminator. Basically the same movies everyone’s waiting for.

In order: Good, great, bad, and so disappointing that people are tired of me saying how disappointing it was. Now: Airbender, Inception, Expendables, Predators, and Harry Potter.

17. I save emails, IM logs, and texts. And it used to freak me out that Dan deleted all his texts regularly, but then I realized that I’m actually the one that in the minority. I found this CD a couple years ago with an ICQ chat log from 6th grade. And I downloaded a program that plays them back (because the chats were real-time so you could see other people typing). It was sort of awesome to watch me call myself ceseroo and say kewl and hehe every other sentence.

I’m not as OCD about saving these sorts of things. I realized that I rarely go back to read this things, and it’s typically to just be annoying and prove to someone that I said or they said such and such.

18. I have a full size bed but basically only use half so sometimes I wish it was a twin so that I’d have more space in my room.

Now I wish I had a full size bed.

19. Cheesy jokes and puns are my favorite thing in the world. The Reese Witherspoon joke kills me. And it’s even good if you mess it up. Speaking of jokes, here are my favorite comedians (can’t get more cliche than this): Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and Norm MacDonald.

Still fun to me. My friends were thinking of “brag” puns (because it’s a good time, can I live?) basically until we ran out. Here are a few of my contributions: Andre Bragassi; WMD in Braghdad; Sultan of Bragrabah; GUTS #1 competitor and winner of a piece of the Braggro Crag.

20. I just remembered Valentine’s Day is in a couple weeks. I’m gonna go pretend to grab some shorts in my closet then slam the door on my head a few dozen times. BRB

This year I found a yard stick to tip the cast iron dutch oven over the counter onto my head while laying on my back in the kitchen.

21. Back. Sometimes I’ll go on streaks that last a few weeks where I’ll record what I did during the day in Google Calendar. July is full of gems like “(Saturday) watched 9 episodes of Mad Men” and “(Saturday) didn’t get into Club Envy ULR” and “(Tuesday) Napped”. I call it the loser reminder calendar system (LRCS).

March entries: “(Sunday) Battlefield Bad Company 2 opening morning with Jason”; “(Sunday) MW2 then BF2″. This was the same Sunday, by the way. My guess is the second entry was to record what I did at night. And to record the life of a loser in case someone needs insight for a future movie script.

22. Favorite food: steak. Or crab. If I had to choose between a nice ribeye steak or a dungeness crab with clarified butter and a bowl of rice, well, that’s like making me choose between I don’t know OK I’m getting frustrated because I can’t decided which one I’d take.

Ok I closed my eyes for a minute and imagined I was at the front of a line in a restaurant serving both for free. Anyway, I decided I’d go with the steak.

All still true.

23. Here I am online: flickr.com/ces ; twitter.com/cesperson ; boringperson.com ; cesnotseth.com

24. I gotta say, after all these years, I don’t really like Starcraft anymore.

When I re-read this, I actually stopped and thought, “Wait, there was a time when I didn’t like Starcraft? Did I play it too much or something? Was I mad at my friends? Was this an inside joke? At what point did I start liking it again? Why can’t I remember thinking this at all?”

25. I love it.

iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO & HTC EVO vs. iPhone 4. So ridiculously true on both sides. If I had to pick sides, I’d rather be someone who wants an iPhone because it’s an iPhone than that guy that spouts tech specs thinking that explains the entire story.

Hulu Plus is official. $9.99 a month for full current seasons of some shows and every season of others. Streams over 3G to the iPhone and iPad. Coming to the PS3 “soon” and the Xbox 360 in early 2011 (seems kind of far away). It makes me wonder how often people watch back episodes outside of stumbling on them while channel surfing.

Speaking of back episodes, there are a bunch of old Doug episodes on YouTube. Here’s “Doug and Patti Sittin’ in a Tree”, where Patti asks Doug to the movies then everyone calls it a date and Doug and Skeeter do some research beforehand so Doug will be able to tell if it’s a date or not. If that doesn’t ring a bell, I’m guessing you never watched Doug.

shitmykidsruined.tumblr.com showcases all the great things kids bring to their parents’ lives.

Here’s René Higuita performing a scorpion kick, where he blocks an incoming goal by launching himself parallel to the ground and kicking the ball with his heels (think of the lying leg curl machine in the gym). René Higuita was the goalie for Colombia’s national team during their glory years in the early nineties. ESPN’s most recent film in their 30 for 30 series is The Two Escobars, which focuses on the Colombian team and shows the connections Pablo Escobar, the national team, and the murder of team captain Andrés Escobar. I watched it last week and it was one of the best in the series, which is saying a lot considering most of the films have ranged from very good to great.

P.S. There are a number of good clips related to that particular Colombian national team, but the film is put together as a narrative and it’s not the most well known story so it’s spoilable and I hate spoiling things.

Kevin Pritchard was fired a few hours before the NBA Draft and still took care of team business during the draft as if, well, he wasn’t fired a few hours before. He wrote an open letter to Blazers fans.

None of this is to be taken too seriously. It is just basketball. And, as strange as it may sound, none of the highlights from the past seven years had to do with anything on the court; it was everything off the court that meant the most to me. The little jibs and jabs with my co-workers and the media or enjoying dinner with great NBA friends and counterparts or talking with a passionate fan in the grocery store. In the end, it’s all about sticking together and helping each other out.

On his last podcast, Bill Simmons spent some time discussing the situation with Chad Ford and both only had good things to say about Pritchard—Simmons emphasized that Pritchard always credits his team right down to the scouts. Classy.

Rumor was that Chris Brown was banned from last year’s BET Awards and wasn’t able to participate in the Michael Jackson tribute. He made up for it this year. Even if you felt saturated by Jackson tributes last year, this one’s probably worth watching. Spoiler alert: he breaks down and doesn’t make it through singing “Man in the Mirror”. Pretty emotional.

Some think he was acting. I saw a dumb online poll centered around whether he really missed Jackson enough to break down crying about it. I think it had less to do with missing Michael Jackson and a lot more to do with slowly being forgiven by the public and being overwhelmed by the chance to perform in front of thousands of people. And of course the whole idea of “Man in the Mirror”. I’m gullible, so good job tricking me if he was acting and if not then good job period.

This post is way too long, but I’m kind of a fan, mostly because of his appearance on Sesame Street and his performance at the 2007 VMAs—I’ve watched both many many times.

Nah Right talks about Drake’s Thank Me Later sales. It reportedly sold sold 462,989 copies.

Hype is a helluva drug. It clouds the judgement of rappers, fans and critics alike. It can also hurt just as much as it can help, if not more. If Drake wasn’t so over hyped, this 462K he did would seem like an epic debut. But with expectations what they were, anything short of a million first week will be viewed by many as a failure. Which is completely absurd. To put things in perspective, Jay-Z, arguably the most famous rapper living, did 475K his first week out with Blueprint 3. And you’re out of your mind if you think this Drake album isn’t eventually going platinum.

The album really grew on me after a few listens and I find myself going back to some of the first leaked tracks and enjoying them again. Eskay says he tolerates the singing on Thank Me Later more than the singing on So Far Gone. I agree with that. I pretty much skipped all the singing tracks on So Far Gone but I really like “Karaoke” and “Shut it Down” (which really grew on me because I didn’t want to listen to it at all when it leaked on its lonesome).

So what does all of this mean for the music industry? Probably nothing except that it’s just as hard to sell records as it was last year and the year before, and that the Carter 3 numbers were an anomaly.

I was thinking about how much exposure Thank Me later had on its release and it seemed like a lot of people were listening to it. But then I remembered what it was like when Tha Carter III came out and it seemed like everyone was listening to it. My guess is Kanye’s going to do huge numbers with his next album. Graduation did 957,000 its first week and 808s & Heartbreak did 450,145 its first week and that was all singing. Unless all his antics (before becoming a studio hermit) hurt the public’s perception of him more than I think it did.