The Pit Preservation Project

I am pleased to announce the formation of The Pit Preservation Project!



The brainchild of Andrew Person, the Pit Preservation Project (PPP or "P-Cubed" or "The P's") is a new initiative designed to preserve the history of such an important part of our American culture. The PPP is also pleased to announce the formation of the Pit Preservation Project Principle Property (PPPPP) which houses the vast archives of the PPP.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, the PPP is re-releasing from its archives two very important items: "The Pit Does Something Incredibly Stupid" and its trailer.

A Note:
The low quality of "The Pit Does Something Incredibly Stupid" is due to the 2002 era digital photo camera used for the video and the Palm Pilot used for the sound. One day, with your help, we might be able to put these videos, and all Pit related materials, in a format that future generations will be able to see. In order to fund this, The PPP is pleased to announce The Pit Preservation Project's Powerful Pelf Phund (PPPPP)! This fund will help pay for the costs associated with locating and preserving our dearest of treasures. More to follow...

Enjoy the videos!
(Click the "Google Video" Button if you want to see the videos larger)

Trailer:


Pheature Length Philm:


We need your support to make this a success. Find the photos, videos, cds, tapes that document the past of such an important organization and make them available to our archivists so that we can preserve them for our future.

SMACK!

HA! A couple of internet distractions for ya... and a discussion of Larry Potter.

I know, this is probably obnoxious. But... here's some funny Internet stuff to keep you company.



1) "Excuse me, Mrs. Embalmo..." NEW Teen Girl Squad. For those of you who don't know/remember, TGS is a hand drawn comic made by Strong Bad. It's a combination of high school girl stereotypes and boy-ish humor (hence the needless violence). Anyway, the new one is very funny.


2) For SOME reason, Bobby Knight had a Golf show at some point. Here are some outtakes! That's all I need to say. (2:15 ish... is probably the best).

3) THIS woman tried to sue J.K. Rowling claiming copyright infringement. She claims to have created a character named "Larry Potter" in the 80's and also wrote a book about Muggles. It turns out that she fabricated a bunch of documents and ended up owing Scholastic Press money... but I do find the whole thing humorous. Not only are her attempts at connecting herself to Harry Potter funny... but also just the fact that SHE ended up having to pay. It's all on wikipedia.

Let me know what you think!

sub fun!

So I subbed this past Thursday. My first time ever subbing. I wasn't worried cause it was just a half day and it was for third grade, how hard could that be....right. Before I get started, quick question. Is it good if the principal has to come to your room after only an hour? Ok anyway so I'm in the room waitin for the kiddies. The file in and are very excited to have a guy sub. (awesome) So they start with silent reading, everything is fine. Then we do a writers workshop where they just have to write a story. shit i could do this in my sleep, no problem. I notice a small boy walking around a lot and not really doing any work. I was pretty content to let him busy himself with other matters until those matters turned into ripping up papers and breaking pens. ok a little odd, but im still good. So I go over and talk with little Bishop. freakin awesome name. I ask him whats going on, makes some jokes, get on his good side. easy. So then it starts to escalate to where Bishop is now recklessly creating messes everywhere and freakin out the other kids, stay calm im twice his size i can take him. So I go over and explain his options, write a story, go to the nurse, or go to the office. He chose to rip up more paper and throw books on the floor. funny i dont remember that as an option. So I pull out the big guns, I go ask another teacher what in the hell I'm sposed to do! She comes over and tries to get him to go to the office. He decides to run around. We page the office for some backup, and the principal shows up. wow, we really went strait to the top on that one. The principal uses his index finger to give him the come here signal and Bishop walks right on over....!!!!!!....WHAT! why didn't i think of the index finger move!? The rest of the day all 2 hours of it were pretty uneventful considering. Some kids cried over some accusations, messes were made, Lucas was frustrated. ahh back to normal. So there's day .5 of subbing, no problem....right


to sum up: I'm ready for the Chief controversy to be over, but I will kinda miss him...probably till tomorrow.

Even though I don't think anybody reads this...

Just writing to say that my infamous "eye horn" is now GONE! It plum fell off. I was pretty excited. I know, I know... not very exciting, right? I'm sure there's OTHER stuff that people could talk about that would be MUCH more exciting.

::sigh::

o well.

--nova

The Chief is no more.

Check it out!

Challahin' back (and Eye Horn Updates)

In an effort to show a direct comparison between my life in central illinois and Eric's in New York City... I'm going to talk about my Thursday-Sunday last week.

Thursday Night: After rehearsal for My Fair Lady, I came home and watched the tv shows that I had missed earlier in the night (The Office, Scrubs and 30 Rock... all are HYSTERICAL by the way). I probably hung out with leslie... but to be honest I don't remember. (Eric saw David Cross)

Friday Night: I went to the 4H formal with Scout (real name = Amanda). It was in Bloomington. I don't know what I expected, but this was not a very interesting night. There was no DJ and somebody had just asked all of the girls to send her a list of songs they wanted to hear. SO... we ended up with song after song AFTER SONG of country ballads. Seriously... how are you supposed to get your groove on to that? While Amanda and I had a good time just hanging out, we agreed that it could've been better (as illustrated below):

(Eric saw cool concert on his Friday Night)

Saturday Night: Basically hung out and did some score study for my first My Fair Lady Orchestra rehearsal (we got an orchestra of nearly 30... I'm pretty excited). After that, I picked up Leslie and one of her friends and we went to go see "Catch and Release". Umm... the movie is terrible. That's all I'll say about that. (Eric attended a crazy party with brawls and cops)

Sunday Night: My first My Fair Lady rehearsal started at 6:30. So I was working on that all day and then doing that until 9. After that, I kicked myself for not having watched the Grammys and for missing the Obama interview on 60 Minutes. (<- great resource, btw.) (Eric went to an improv show)

SOOO... there you have it. I think Eric wins. :) Man, a lot of that stuff sounds cool, dude. We gotta get out there at some point.

Also, the update I KNOW you've all been waiting for... news about my EYE HORN!

Some of you may know that since November I've had a small thing growing right below my eye. I've dubbed it an "eye horn" and originally thought it was a cutaneous horn. (I tried to find a picture online that looked like what I have, but everything I found was just to gross) SO... it's probably just 1/8 of an inch long and it's just weird looking. So, yesterday morning I had an appointment with a dermatologist. I showed up. He walks in the office and the following exchange occurred:

Doctor Patel: Welcome. You've never been here before?
Me: No.
Patel: Then what brings you to us today?
Me: I've got this thing on my face... and I'd like it to be taken off.
Patel: Let me see. (Patel walks up to me. Glances at eye horn)
Patel: Ah, yes. I see. (Sends out nurse). You have what is called a ::insert medical jargon here:: (Gestures at chart in room) The best way to get rid of them is to just freeze it off. (Nurse re-enters with Styrofoam cup with long q-tips in it... the cup is sizzling).
Patel: Alright, just take your glasses off and look up.
Me: Do you need to cover my eye?
Patel: No... just lean your head back against the wall. ::Puts liquid nitrogen on face, near eye:: All I'm doing is I'm freezing the root of the growth. Once the cells die, the growth will fall right off. (After about 25 seconds, he removes q-tip) Alright, I cut you a break. I'm only going to charge you for the visit.
Me: Thanks a lot! That didn't hurt too bad... OW!
Patel: Yeah, it'll hurt in a couple of minutes, but it shouldn't be that bad. Thanks for coming in!

Then I went out and paid. SOOO... total $70. Time in office (no joke): 4 minutes. That works out to a wage of $17.50 per minute!!!

Anyway, i've got a small blister at the bottom of my horn now (apparently that's normal, Dr. Patel gave me a flyer that said that). And i'm looking forward to not having to think about it anymore. Maybe I'll save it and show y'all!!!!!! I'm still mad that nobody saw my ear wax the last time I had my ears flushed out.

I'll shut up now. Although, I'd LOVE to hear about Andrew's new car! ::hint, hint::

-nova

So this is "blogging," eh?

Guys, you'll have to excuse me if I screw this up... believe it or not this is my FIRST blog entry. My thoughts so far are that I would prefer getting delightful yet more frequent emails (and phone calls) from you guys rather than checking a blog site, but I'll give this ish a shot. Here's a brief rundown of the late-itude:

• On Thursday night, my girlfriend and I were eating at a great little Italian restaurant in the Lower East Side called Frankie's Spuntino 17 (which was delicious) and as we were finishing up, you'd never believe who sat down at the table next to us! David Cross! (not David Spade) I tried to be nonchalant, but I'm pretty sure I gave him the "I think you're a celebrity and now I'm sure of it because I'm repeatedly and not-really-that-discretely glancing" look. Thought of you guys, and of Mr. Show...
• Friday night I went to a bar/music venue called Pianos (which apparently used to be a piano shop, but is no longer) to a girl who is on her way up in the music scene named Sara Bareilles... you guys would totally dig her - comparisons to Norah Jones and Fiona Apple sound about right to me. Check her out... there's a player on her site, and she also has MySpace. She just signed with Epic records... now you're in on the ground floor!
• Saturday I went up to New Haven, CT to visit one of my best friends from Duke (she's up at Yale for a PhD) ... she and her roommate were having a party, which was pretty fun, but then took a turn for the freaky when her roommate got into a brawl with some dude who came to the party and was giving another guest some trouble at the end of the night... this wound up with a call to and subsequent visit by the cops, and then another (mostly verbal) fight between him and his girlfriend and another visit by the New Haven police. Yikes... things wrapped up around 6:30 in the morning.
• Sunday I came back and went out to an improv show at a place in the village called the Comedy Cellar - they did some sketch and played some neat games

OK, so that's a (probably pretty long) update for now...

Additionally:

• I wish I had some Turducken, and think it's awesome that you ordered and cooked one.
• Way to dance and run Lucas, and way to advise him AP... good luck on keeping your "head" warm. How about a [jimmy] hat?
• That ballooning thing rules... but what I don't get is how it supports the AHA... I see that he has some sponsors that give him some dough, but does he wind up giving some of that to the charity, or is just a publicity thing for them?

Party on, bloggists.

If you guys haven't seen this... you HAVE to.

I wasn't able to see it live last night, i was running the My Fair Lady orchestra rehearsal. BUT, here it is. THE POLICE LIVE AT THE GRAMMYS!

Don't question me. Just watch it... they rock and I want to have Stewart Copeland's love-child.

They're announcing tour dates later. How much would YOU pay to see them!? I've already stated my price.

-nova

I just want crack brownies...

-Rumor has it that Andrew bought himself a car. A RAV4... maybe we'll get some pictures?

-I'm really tired right now and don't want to do any work but I've got a lot to do.

-I really just want to make what they call "crack brownies". See the recipe here.

Not much else. I'll try to be more interesting later.

Lookin for some customizable health food...any ideas?

Just got back from workin out and I have to say I'm kinda starting to like this. Now if I could just start eating healthier I could probably take over the world. I sure wish someone I knew sold scientifically customized food that did things like, give me energy, all my vitamins, and just was awesome in general. Do any of my 4 other friends have any idea what I should do?

Just call me NOVA!

after listening to a fair amount of Jay-Z over the last several days i've decided to henceforth be known as:

NOVA!

That's N to the Izzo, V to the Izza.

That's the anthem. Get your damn hands up.

Thanks for reading this blog right now. you could've read any blog in the world, but you read this one.

i appreciate that.

ceci n'est pas une humongous locomotive

Apparently a crazy man is trying to suspend a gigantic locomotive from a train above the LA County Museum of Art. That's his sketch of it, taken from this story in LA Weekly.

What was I going to say?

Seriously, when i wrote the title... I had forgotten what I wanted to say.

BUT... i remembered.

"H to the Izzo". What does that mean? Anybody?

Well, here are some interesting facts for you:

1)Jay-Z refers to himself as "J- HOVA". Obviously a pun on Jehovah. Also, his way of saying that he's the God of the rap world.
2)I read somewhere that "H to the Izzo" also means "let's HEAD OUT". To put it in context, "dude, let's h to the izzo, this party is lame." I don't know if I believe that, but sure.
3)Anyway, the song itself is supposed to be autobiographical. It's about Jay-Z growing up, "including how he sold crack in Brooklyn and showed his entrepreneurial streak by going to Virginia and Maryland to peddle drugs there for a bigger profit. Proceeds from drug dealing allowed him to finance his first album and start Roc-A-Fella Records."
4) The song totally rocks.

That's what i've been listenin' to. And I always think of Eric whenever I hear Jay-Z. Possibly because he's big pimpin'.

Bert Questions

Greetings Bert,

Is there any Turduckin left? I spell it in this manner due to my belief that it relays the true meaning of the idea; TURky, DUCk, and chicKIN...my apologies kind sir for I have just realized that I misspell chickin. I hope this blog finds you well.

With the Fondest of Regards,
Lucas

Eric Questions

Dude, how's it goin? I haven't talked to you in a while and I miss my brotha from anotha motha. I don't need a Eric version of the Iliad, just a I'm dating blah, hangin with blah, goin to the hot spots such as blah and blah, rubin elbows with Bill Gates....Bill is too important to get a blah. To be honest I been sorta possibly maybe considering comin to visit the NY cause I've never been and I'd love to hang with my boi! Hit me back, peace out.

Andrew Questions

What up my nigggaaaaa! Ok seriously how you been bro? I have a few running questions you might (hell I'm sure you will) be able to help me out with. I was running today and at the end of the 4th km I got a bad cramp in my upper ab area. Was that due to me running with bad form, bad breathing technique(somehow), something I ate, or the fact that I haven't run in over a week? Also, right now I've been running 5km during the week and about 6miles on the weekend.(really I've only done that for 1 week so far but that is the plan. What is a respectable 5km time for someone who is starting out running? I'm at around 30min right now. Right now I am running to get in better shape but I do have aspirations of a half and full marathon in the future. Last question, does you penis ever get cold while you are running? I wear sweat pants (obviously) but when I stop I notice my boys are FREEZIN! Just checkin.

sweat pants are still frickin awesome!

Ok, honestly guys ask yourselves, when was the last time you wore sweat pants? Now ask yourself, why in the hell did I ever take them off? What could be more comfortable than comfy blankets tailored to be pants?! (cause that's really what they are) I know what you're thinkin, ol Lucas is regressing to junior high days, but why the hell not? If I don't leave my house much why shouldn't I be as comfortable as possible?...I need to get out more.

So in recent news I've fallin off the running horse. Rather, I've gotten out of my running groove. This week I'm gonna rock it though, I found someplace where I can run inside and my goal is 3 miles a day and 6 on the weekend. (sure do wish I had a friend who could comment on whether this is a good idea or not, and give me suggestions for improving...)

to sum up; i love corn and would love to find out if there's any way we can grow it with as little water as possible

Random St. Louis Notes...

This was on the cover of cnn.com just now.

It's an article that talks about the revitalization of Downtown St. Louis... pretty interesting I must say.

Also, Peyton Manning had this to say last night when asked if he'd really want to celebrate in the cold Indiana weather after his Super Bowl victory:

"I've always been envious of those St. Louis parades." - Peyton Manning

Then he went on to talk about other sports cities (New York, Boston), but the first thing he said was about St. Louis.

Hell yeah.

Just short of 24 hours...

Just to bring keep everybody up-to-date, my Uncle Rich landed JUST SHORT of 24 hours. The unofficial time was 23 hours, 13 minutes. Temperatures got as low as -20 degrees on the ground, I don't even want to think about spending 24 hours aloft in a balloon following the current around.

ew.

I also just found out that some Chicago schools closed due to cold temperatures. seemed odd.

I wasn't lyin about the sex as evidenced by the fact that I'm post TWICE in one day!

Ok so today I attended Bert and Jenny's WILDLY publicized and incredibly awesome Superbowl Party. (I use awesome a lot...I'm gonna look into that) Basically the party was a blast because very interesting people attended and the food was amazing. First they started off with wonderful finger foods, both delicious and interesting. Then they hit it out of the park with a freakin TURDUCKIN...pause for awes and ooos. In the end I had a wonderful time and was a little sad to go. But alas, Ariel wanted someone to show her the way home and watch her get gas cause it was late at night. I like Ariel but, freakin learn your way around St. Louis. It turned out that watching her get gas wasn't a waste of time cause she sorta locked her keys in the car, thus requiring me to drive her to the Wash U Medical Campus off Kings Highway (I think) to get her spare keys...and back.

to sum up...I just talked to a pinup model that I met through a online dating service and she was pretty interesting.

The Jaworski's are up, up, AND AWAY!

Ah yes... I'm so clever.

Apparently, my Uncle Rich is 14 hours into a hot-air balloon world record attempt.
Read all about it HERE.

Also, I could talk about the Bears losing or about the long weekend I've had, but I'll spare everybody all of that until somebody else besides Lucas comes around here. How's THAT for a guilt trip? (even if you're not here to see it).

peace, bros.

WOW this is almost as much fun as having sex, Eric Bert and Andrew really are missing out!

Ok so here is my first official blog on our new site. I must say that I really think it's cool that we have a real site. I really hope this becomes something awesome (enter Hafiz website greatness here), as opposed to just a blog. Ok so to catch yall up on my intersing goings on.

Friday I hosted Boogie Night. (no s apperantly) Goin in I really had no idea what to expect so I decided to do what I do best...I winged the shit out of it. In the end I did perfectly well simply because all the people running it were women and they were doing what all women do best...freakin out. I basically put a smile on, said "no problem!" a lot and had a great time. Alas, by the end of the night I had reached my dance threshold and was unbelievably glad to leave. Some positive things to come out of it: $50 gift certificate to Best Buy, learned some new break dancing moves, Nick now has more free scoops of Culvers ice cream than he knows what to do with, the Boys and Girls Club of Champiagn now have a few more bucks in the bank.

to wrap up...I'm reading Eragon right now and I freakin love it...aka I'm a dork

Gonna keep truckin'... hopefully the rest of you will join in on the "fun".

Several key things:

1) Tonight is Lucas' big hosting debut as the host of "Boogie Nights". It's a dance-a-thon up here @ Illinois that's supposed to last from 9 PM to 5 am! I, will not be staying the whole time. I've got My Fair Lady callbacks tomorrow morning.

2) This American Life is FINALLY coming to Showtime. I've been subscribing to it since I moved and I've just been waiting and waiting. If you're bored... which you probably are if you remembered to come here, there are two places you should visit.

The Showtime Website and THIS video on youtube has some little clips on it. I think Bert will really dig it.

Let me know! I'm sure Lucas will post about his first hosting duties sometime tomorrow. Maybe pictures!

bah!

Bringin' back the Ramen...

Apparently Ramen Noodles were named the greatest Japanesse invention of the 20th Century... in a poll conducted in Japan! They really like their Ramen and I must go on the record by saying that I do too!

yes. i've brought the Ramen back.

I would like to tell you it's in honor of the Meiji Period in Japanesse history when Ramen Noodles first became popular. I'd also like to tell you that I've been doing lots of research on the Showa period and that eating Ramen is part of my research. But, alas... neither of those are true.

I can feed myself for twenty cents. TWENTY CENTS! So... me and the beef Ramen have been enjoying many a meal together (well, I'VE been enjoying them. I doubt being eaten is that enjoyable). It reminds me of the days back in the first apartment back on W. Elm with Lucas. Ahh... those were the good ol' days (although if you asked either of us, we would probably say it was our worst year).

That's all I got... but I'll suggest that you guys go pick up some of the ol' Ramen... just to reminisce.

In the words of the Pastafarians, RAmen.

Welcome!

It seems that NMFOED2K7 is as good a day as any to introduce the latest feature in The Pit's continued dominance of cyberspace:

The Pit Site!

To be honest, I don't really know what kind of things we would do with this. I would assume it's more for things that we'd want our public to see than more personal issues (like Bert's BO, for example). However, I do think this is a good place to start our campaign for our The Pit wikipedia entry.

Here's the plan:
1) We need to create an entry that is full of enough bullshit that we have enough stuff to put on wikipedia.
2) Put it up on wikipedia and see how long it stays.

Who is with me?!

Me = Nick, btw.

I'll email you the access information to the blog right now. Thanks to ol' e-pit.