Buffalo Phils 28th Anniversary

I was feeling kind of hungry last Thursday around 8 o’clock so some friends and I went to Buffalo Phil’s. Little did we know that they were in the midst of a daylong celebration of their 28th anniversary. To celebrate most appetizers were half off; there were $3 pitchers, and a live band. Good times had by all, except for a few. For some unknown reason two guys started fighting on the sidewalk right outside of Phil’s, immediately everyone was crammed against the front windows and jammed in the door frame trying to get a glimpse. It almost sounded as if someone had hit a mute button, everyone had stopped taking the band stopped playing and no one moved. It was awesome. Buffalo Phil’s 28th Anniversary will always be remembered by me and all who were there.

Book Buy Back: Bullshit

When I bought my books at the beginning of the semester the $500+ checkout total didn’t bother me all that much, why you ask? Because everyone in the bookstore assured me that I would get a large part of that money back at the end of the semester when I sold the books back. Well I’m writing this now to tell you that the bookstore employees were full of shit. I took my books to the Off Campus Bookstore this morning looking to thicken my bill fold you know get a little spending money for the first few weeks of summer. But after they scanned my books, six total, they informed me that they would pay me $68.50 for the books. That’s barely 12 percent of the original cost. Needless to say I kept the books, I would rather hold on to them than let the bookstore buy them from me and then put on a 300 percent markup and sell them to next year’s freshman. I have no problem getting only $68 for my books but if I do I want to sell them to someone I know and not some company who's taking advantage of a lack of competition.

Rama Jamma's

I just ate the best breakfast I've had since ive been in tuscaloosa and as you can tell from the title it was at Ramma Jamma's. I hadnt heard much about Ramma Jamma's but from the framed newspaper clipping it seems that its a tuscaloosa legand. After driving past Ramma Jamma's for an entire semester I decided to give it a try, not what i was expecting at all. They serve breakfast until one, very good descision for a college town, and have a pretty full lunch and dinner menu. I got the number four with bacon, which is two warm fluffy pancakes with a side of bacon, delicous. If you havent gone before I highly recommend that you go try it out, I know I'm going back soon.

Paul Bryant Museum

I think in the south college football could be considered a religion, and if it were Paul Bryant would a god and this Museum would be his temple. The Museum is filled with UA football memorabilia and personal belongings of Bear Bryant. When you walk in you are immediately confronted by a bronze bust of the Bear, if you venture further in you can find a collection of trophies and rings won during the reign of Bear Bryant. The two strangest things in the entire museum are actual office quarters of Coach Bryant and a crystal sculpture of his trademark hounds tooth hat on a spinning display table.

Museum of Natural History

So the other day I went back to the Museum of Natural History to commemorate our field trip we took several months ago. Even though I had been before the Museum was as awe inspiring as the first time. It’s cool to think that most things in there were found in the state of Alabama, even the whale fossil whose name I won’t even try and spell. Here are some pictures I took.

Here's the Museum from the front.

The grizzly bear that greets all the visitors

Plaque honoring Dr. Smith

Alabamas state fossil

Mammoth skull

Flowers Bakery

Every day on the drive back to my house I am hit with a euphoric aroma as I take Hackberry over 15th street. Why? You ask because located on that corner is Flowers Bakery. I don’t know much about the company but the other day I heard that they had a store located on the premises where you could go and buy fresh baked goods. So on my way home from English I stopped and found the store. It’s called Flowers Food Discount Bakery and its right across the parking lot from Little Casers and an off campus bookstore. I went in and was a little disappointed at first because I was expecting gourmet baked goods (don’t ask why I just did), but instead I found generic loaves of bread that you can see on any grocery stores shelves. The thing that separates these loaves from those is the price. As you can probably tell from the name of the store everything in it costs well below what you would pay for it at a grocery store. The factory direct store is able to provide quality food at discounted prices to the lower income residents of Tuscaloosa and for that I applaud Flowers bakery.

Ferg Art Display

Last Thursday when we went to the art display at the ferg the gravity of the works there didn’t really hit me all that hard. But a week later I can see how profound the works really are, it’s not because they are amazing works of art but rather because of what they represent. When I think of a stereotypical rape I think of some girl being accosted in a dark alley. But from the stories by the hearts it seems that in most cases the victim is abused by someone they know well. There were a few stories there that were horrifying to even read, especially the ones were the perpetrator were parents or siblings. It’s sad that we have to have these kinds of exhibits, but as long as abuse continues to happen people need to be educated about it. I tried to go back and take some pictures today but the exhibit is already closed.

Football Tickets

So I think we talked about this in class while we were waiting for Robin one day, but I didn’t get football tickets and I am pissed. First off I set my alarm for 6:30 so that I would have plenty of time to go to the library just in case I couldn’t pick up my neighbors wireless internet, which I couldn't. So before I went to the library I called my dad back in Atlanta and he couldn’t get my tickets either. I went to the library to see if I could get through Rolltide.com and I could, but something still wouldn’t even let me log in. RollTide.com said my bamamail address and cwid were invalid. The only thing I could think of was that there was still some sort of hold on my account from when I had to withdraw last august. Regardless of what caused me not to get tickets I think the University should guarantee tickets to all current students that want them. As a whole we the student body are the reason that the University and its athletic programs exist so why wouldn’t they put enough tickets out for all of the students.

Old Bryce

So last Saturday a group of us traveled to the old abandoned mental institution known simply as Old Bryce. I've been once before and it was still creepy as hell, right when you walk in you see a huge spray painted satan head with a swastika on his forehead. It’s like one day everyone just decided to get up and leave. There are still beds, mattresses, kitchen equipment, and papers everywhere among other things. I've heard that you can get in a lot of trouble with the police if they catch you there, I wonder if it has anything to do with the charred third floor that was supposedly set afire by trespassers? On the property there is also what looks like an old abandoned school, which is also creepy as hell. If you haven’t gone to Old Bryce I would definitely recommend it, to make it even better don’t bring a flashlight and just use your cell phones to get around.

Dance Alabama

On February 19th I went to Dance Alabama held in Morgan Hall. I went because I had to attened a cultural event for my GBA 145 class but I also went to see Leslie Trammell who is a friend of mine perform. Right when I got there I knew I wouldn’t like it; I thought tickets were free but it turns out that I had to pay nine dollars to get in. I had never been to a dance performance before so I had no idea what to expect, most of the dances were very strange and looked either hippy or very modern. The music was not bad at all some of the songs were by the Beatles and Radiohead among others. My favorite performance was “Moment 2 Reflect” which featured a live violinist who was amazing, once again the dancing was weird but the music was good. The very last dance was very interesting, the lights were turned out and black lights were put throughout the stage. Then dancers wearing black from head to toe with fluorescent strips of latex attached to them danced and ran around the room, it was very entertaining. I would recommend others to go to at least one dance performance, just to get a feel for it.

Field Trip Pictures

Confederate Memorial

Denny Chimes

Presidents Mansion

The mystery Druids

Some building

Life Without Internet

So as some of you know I moved out of my dorm about 3 1/2 weeks ago, and into a house. The transition was anything but smooth; all of the basic utilities like water and electricity were easy to get switched on. Internet however took FOREVER. I called and ordered my internet service from Bellsouth on April 4th, through a series of errors on their part and complications in the house my internet wasn’t turned on until April 23rd. Even thought the entire experience was frustrating and painfully inconvenient it did give me an excuse to do things and go places that I normally would not have done. For instance I used the McLure Library when I had to do homework or write a paper, which I normally would have done at my house or sitting in my dorm.

Wow I suck at this

So I've come to the realization that I am possibly the worst blogger ever. It has been at least two months since my last, and first, post. But dont be fooled into thinking that I haven't been frequinting amazing local establishment or exploring local areas just because I havent been posting. In fact I have been keeping a list all these months of experinces that would make great posts. So from this day forward until the end of the semester I am setting a goal for myself to make at least three posts a week. So check my blog and check it often.

more to come, Joe

Alabama Gymnastics

For a while I've been hearing a lot about the Tide Gymnastics program; ranked fourth in the conference, totally badass, packed stadium... So I decided to check it out for myself, partly because I wanted to see insane feats of physical ability but also because I didn’t believe all the hype. I was completely and utterly wrong, from the second I saw the parking lot I knew the meet would be packed. After a colorful conversation with one of the parking lot attendants I made my way inside to find myself searching yet again for a place to "park". The entire student section was filled so we sat in non-student seating, I know I’m not supposed to but what else could I do. We ended up next to a family with like twenty kids, who were constantly running to and from the concession stand with armloads of cotton candy and nachos.

I was completely amazed by the amount of people in the Coliseum. I think the announcer said that there were 15,000 people, crazy I know, when I finally was able to direct my eyes to the floor where the gymnasts were I forgot about all the other people in the building. It’s amazing what the gymnasts do, I would never even attempt what they do. I would probably end up with a broken neck, or another devastating injury.
Even though we lost to Georgia, who is ranked number one, I think the gymnastics program completely lives up to the hype and even surpasses it. Since this is my first semester at the Capstone seeing the frenzy that surrounds Alabama gymnastics makes me drool thinking about what an Alabama football game will be like.