Under Armour

Under Armour


For Christmas, I received a gift card to Under Armour.


Under Armour is one of the few brands that I will use anything they make. I'll wear pretty much anything from Under Armour and have a good amount of clothing made by them. Their clothes are usually more expensive but are better quality and outlast other similar clothing that I have worn.


I used the gift card online this month and the clothes came in. Everything fits. The sizing is a bit different and runs big for the size. I fit somewhere between a small (yellow shirt) and a medium (gray shirt). With Under Armour, I prefer the small for t-shirts and medium for long sleeves.

This is the first time I bought their shoes. I bought their running shoes for the first time. I've never had a pair like these before. They are super light. The soles seem firm and durable. They grab to the concrete when I walk. They also fit like a sock on the top meaning they stretch around your foot so the laces are not the only thing keeping a snug fit. The color is interesting; they appear to be charcoal gray in low light and while not being worn. When they stretch out while I wear them, they become forest green in color.

Yes, that is me with "bed-head" and unshaven in the photos. I didn't comb my hair for the selfies, sorry. I'm trying to get these posts going before I worry about looking good. 



New Year's Eve

Now that I have this blog started, I can get to writing about what I started this site for in the first place.


I wanted to start with telling you about New Year’s Eve. So here it went:

For New Year’s Eve, into New Year’s Day, I went to Epcot Center in Disneyworld Orlando, FL. It was a bit of a drive to get there, as usual, but the drive back is always the hardest.


I got there about 3:00 pm and, as predicted, Magic Kingdom was already full even though that park can host over 100,000 people. That’s why I bought tickets to Epcot, because it doesn’t fill up as fast. I have been to Epcot for New Year’s in 2012 but haven’t been for several years. This time, just like last, I could see that Magic Kingdom had a better fireworks show but I don’t want to spend 12-14 hours in Magic Kingdom plus drive time on each end for a better fireworks show. The show at Epcot is already good, and it is actually two fireworks shows, one at sunset and one at midnight.


Once in the park, I got a few obligatory photos to document me being there under the iconic globe, “giant golf ball”, whatever you want to call it. Since I was there for the experience, I didn’t go on any rides but that is not why people go to Epcot, they go for the attractions.

 

The first place I went was the gift shop and got some Christmas ornaments while they were still being sold. Two were of Pinocchio and the other was a poseable key chain of Mickey Mouse.

After the gift shop and some walking around, it was already time for dinner. The line for food in the Mexico village was ridiculous. Everyone loves Mexican food. Passing the German village, I knew I wanted to come back for the cookies and caramel popcorn. Once I got to the Japanese village, it was sunset and the beginning of the first fireworks show was about to start so this was a good time to get some food and actually get a table. There was a table open in the Japanese garden outside of the restaurant and it wasn’t too hot to eat outside which made for a pleasant atmosphere. I saw the fireworks over dinner and had plenty of time to eat before the post-fireworks show rush of customers came in.

After that, it was more walking but only for a little while. At 7:00 pm the live music started and nearly every village had some sort of DJ or band playing. In the American village, there was a Cuban band playing, in the Japanese village there was a house DJ playing a silent concert (yes the fad where no one can hear the music unless you have special headphones), the Chinese village had a top-40 mix, and Future World had another house DJ. I ended up going to Germany/Italy again this year and there was a house DJ from the northeast. It was an all-ages show of course and a lot of kids were dancing until the music drew all the adults in and forced the kids back to the sidelines. 

 

That was fun for a while but I went back to walking around. The glowing cosmopolitan was of particular interest to many people there which I walked all the way to the French village for. The seemingly obligatory purchase was made for $15 which included the fruity drink and glowing red plastic fake ice cube inside. Later on, I did get my cookies and caramel popcorn from the German village. At checkout, I told the cashier “Guten Rutsch”. Apparently I pronounced it correctly my first time so she gave me a big smile and thumbs up.  

 

After this, it was back towards the park entrance with a stop in Mexico for a break. There was another house DJ at Future World and I stayed there until the countdown ceremonies began.

 

The countdown ceremony seemed to be the same as a few years ago, but still good. The fireworks were better than any other New Year’s show and everyone in the park had a good view. Afterwards, it was back to the gift shop and some more time with the DJ at Future World before sitting in traffic to leave and enduring the long drive home.

 

So was this New Year’s experience better than last year seeing Pitbull’s New Year’s Eve Revolution 2015 in Miami? The answer would be yes. While a free Pitbull concert in downtown Miami was good last year, the consensus was that there were way too many drunks and not enough bathrooms. I’ll spare you the details of that.

Happy New Year 2016.

Introduction

Hello. I am creating this blog for friends and family since I do not keep in touch as much as I’d like to. I had considered other forms of social media but wanted to keep the posts anonymous to people I do not know but available to those I do know without all of the advertisements, social networking, and other distractions. I simply want to let friends and family know what I’m doing since I don’t get to call as much as I’d like to and I do not like to use Skype, FaceTime, or anything with a webcam. I just can’t sit in one spot and talk, I need to be doing something else too.

What I will inevitably discuss will include events with other people, I’m going to try to keep posts limited to just mentioning me and keep the photos neutral or, again, just of me. What will I talk about? Whatever is going on that is worth mentioning and probably much of what no one is interested in. Basically whatever people chit-chat about on the phone, except now I get to add pictures.

The name. I thought of several names to title this blog. I wanted to keep it anonymous like I said before. My original choice dates back to Zoology class in college when I decided that the best pseudonyms came from binomial nomenclature. My original, preferred alias, (whether as a pseudonym or as the name of a band I was in) is Diphyllobothrium Latum. I liked the sound of the name but it is a type of tape worm so that is not pleasant. The name I was closest to titling this blog was Phlyum Cnidaria since this represents marine wildlife I encounter when I go to the beach and that I associate that with a pleasant summer day. Ultimately, I chose not to use this name either. I figured too many high school and college students would do an internet image or name search while trying to learn about marine biology and then my stories come up. This wouldn’t be good because current internet searches for “phylum cnidaria” only reveal educational material or underwater photography. Anything in this blog would stand out during such a search. I settled on IndiaOneSixTwo which is the phonetic pronunciation for I-162, an old call-sign of mine which has since been passed to another. It is used by thousands of people across the U.S. so it cannot be attributed directly to me. Also various forms of this title in internet searches currently yields ambiguous data.

My goal was to start this blog at the beginning of 2016 and post about past and present activities. I also want to keep improving on the blog to make it better but I’ll be learning as I go.

I’m not really interested in comments here so if you have something to say, you know how to reach me. If you don’t know how to reach me, I probably don’t know you.