Oh The Wonders of TV

My Friend Matt posted about his new found love, The Office. I am going to be honest when I say that I am sure Matt has found a good one with this. He has yet to steer me wrong when it comes to programs on "the moving picture box." Honestly one of my favorite new shows, Entourage, was a Matt Pick of the Week.

I thought I might suggest some really good programs that I watch for the enjoyment of the readers:

• Comedy - Scrubs, Entourage, Sports Night, Arrested Development
• Drama - The West Wing (an old standby), Lost, House, Numbers,
• Reality - ummm.... Extreme Home Makeover (I like some of the cool things they do with the Kids' Rooms)
• Education - Underground cities (I think this is what it is called, it is on the History Channel), Iron Chef, Food Network Challenge
• Animated - Family Guy, Avatar (This is a really good show on Nickelodeon, give it a chance)
• Talk/News - The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Mike and Mike in the Morning, PTI, Around the Horn

If you want to know why I like any of these leave me a comment and I will answer it.

Moving, Life and Updates

Hello My Peeps,

Life has continued down some interesting paths. I began the process of moving... yes it is a process, and I should be done at sometime this coming weekend.

Yesterday was my first day/night in the new place, and of course I have noticed some things. First I am super afraid of electric bills. Halpern was not there all the time, so he didn't use alot of electricity, and having heard the horrors of BG&E (thanks Gerard) I am worried about the extra cost. So AC will be used sparingly, and I am sure I will no longer keep my PC on when it is not in use.

The gym at the place is pretty nice. All updated machines, with TVs in front of each one. Normally I will use headphones, though when I am on the bike I am a little to tall to have the ear buds reach the jack on the TV. It is one of those sit back and relax type bikes. Maybe I will read... yeah... read. There are also some nice weight machines, I will probably use those ever couple of days as well.

Having those three hours back is really nice, though yesterday I only had 1.5 back. I feel like I am going to be able to be much more productive, healthier and happier. It is going to be hard not having a roommate. Living with Elan has been really good, though he does need to figure out his whole work - life balance thing.

The UMBC peeps went to this place, Mongolian Grill, last night. It was really good. It is an all you can eat place, where you grab your veggies and noodles, choose a meat, or not, put it all into a bowl with some sauces, spices and hand it off to be cooked. It is delivered to your table when it is done. It was a little reminiscent to the Dining Hall, but much better.

I am going to a Couple of Yankee Games next week. Game one is Sogeti night at the ballpark. It sounds interesting and there should be a bunch of people from work there. They buy food and such that you pickup in the parking lot before the game. I am looking forward to that. The nest night is UMBC night at the park, which will have a bullpen party before the game and then an upper reserve seat for the game. I am excited to get to see the Yanks... Most of the time the game is sold out, but they are so bad right now that I can get to see them.

Dad has an appointment today, keep your fingers crossed.

My sunglasses broke the other night. I was taking them off of my head and they just snapped. I had these things for just over a month. I go another pair on the way back from Philly this weekend, they are comfortable, but look a little silly.

I cannot get the Plain White T's song "Hey There Delilah" out of my head. It is amazing, and it, without a doubt, is the way I feel right now. It is what she does to me.

I started to watch Arrested Development last night. It is really good and really funny. If you have not seen it, just watch the extended pilot, it is hilarious. And yes, I got season one on DVD.

A little here there and everywhere for this post, but I had alot to say and I am a little worried, as you can imagine, but things are going to be great.

What is in a Name

So as many of you know I have had two major nicknames over the course of my life. Before we talk about them in detail, lets talk about nicknames in general. A person's given name is just that, given, but your parents, or the state, before you have had any time to really bring forward any part of your own personality. And while a rose by any other name smells just as sweet, it still is still not a rose. Names are important. Nicknames are more important.

As stated earlier, I have had two major nicknames most of my list. The first, Brick, is a clear derivation from my last name, Bricklemyer. It may be a sign that most people who use this are just initially to lazy to use my last name, granted this still means they are pronouncing an additional letter as opposed to using my first name. There is no really story around Brick, but I will answer to it. It just is luck of the draw on that one.

The second of my two nicknames, well that is a different story. Here goes...
I spent many years at JCC Klien Branch Day Camps in Philadelphia. Around my junior year in high school, I was a junior councilor, and was paired up with a senior councilor who was the older brother of a good friend of mine. He was kinda a pompous ass, but he was a good guy deep down. Anyway, one day, during afternoon line-up, where the kids are picked up by their parents. My senior councilor and another councilor start to have a little shoving match in the middle of the road. I, of course, decide that this is probably not the best thing, so I get in the middle of it, and push my senior councilor away. The fight diffused at this point and everything seemed ok.

So what does this have to do with my nickname? Well, little known to me, two other councilors, who would later become two of my very closest friends, were standing on the side on the street, not knowing who I was. One turned to the other and goes "Who is that kid who broke that up" and the other says "I don't know, some Bryan Bricknhymr Kid". It stuck. Twelve years later I am still known as bricknhymr.

But something strange has happened over the past twelve years, bricknhymr has become his own persona. For example, bricknhymr can fix things. I can't fix things, I mean my father is great at fixing things, but in comparison, I have less talent in my whole body than he has in his little finger. Yet, bricknhymr can fix things. Bricknhymr is funny... I am a little lame. Bricknhymr is larger than life... I am large at least.

The nickname is important to me. It is part of who I am and I really like it.

I am bricknhymr and bricknhymr is me!!

no more crazy posts.... until the next one.

Updates: I have sunglasses... they are ok, we will see how long they last. We have picked a date for Dad - June 19th, 2012. Paul Bricklemyer, Cancer Survivor. Mom, she wants to go to a baseball game. I am moving on Thursday-Friday. I am madly in love and chasing a person I may never get to hold again, but I am going to keep trying.

I got memed

I was tagged by Twinkie for a meme the other day. While I don't really get the whole meme thing, I will play along.

Here are the rules:

Each player starts with 7 random facts or habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write in their own blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. Remember to leave a comment for them letting them know they have been tagged and to read your blog.

Here we go.

1. I guess you would call me a gamer - I have played in tournaments for Chess, a yearly Pichnocle tournament, which I have won 4 times, and yes, I play magic the gathering. I know, I am supper lame.


2. I have a fear of heights - This gets me to a general rule that I do not do activities where my butt has a decent potential to be physically above my head. It just seems unnatural. I do make the exception for Roller Coasters, which I am a huge fan of, but that is about it.


3. I have a propensity for international foods - I am the guy who spends the most time in the international food aisle in the market and will suggest Indian food whenever possible. What can I say, I am a fan.


4. Yes, I also watch wrestling - I mean I mostly use it as background noise while playing my DS, but I enjoy the bumps these guys take. It is a male soap opera, so if you watch General Hospital or Guiding Light, no flack.


5. I am not really sure I should be here - By that I mean I always wonder if I should pick up and move out west. To see if I can hang with the electronic elite and get back in touch with my creative side.


6. Speaking of creative - I used to paint and sing, seriously. I was in drama club in High School, painted in Middle school and High school and sang from elementary school on. I even had a spat with the flute and a trombone, and yes, I know what those references mean. Seriously, I have not really done alot of traditional creating in the past years, but maybe I can get back to that soon.


7. Ok, last one - I am currently working on my fear of small woodland creatures. So at UMBC we have half squirrels half rats... better known as sqrats. They are feisty little devils and well, they are not afraid to take away a napkin you have used from you hand or scare the bejebus out of you by jumping out of an unassuming trash can. lets just say that many have played upon this fear, though since where I am currently has Black Squirrels I have had a much better time with them as opposed to the Sqrats.

Well that is it, that is the list. As for tagging others, I don't really have many people who blog or even read this, but here goes. Matt, Janice, Amanda, Danielle, Elan, Jordan, Dom.... lets see if that works.

Off for the weekend. WHOOO HOOOOO.

And Now for Something Different

Ok, I am taking a small break from lamenting. I have good reason to lament, but it is time to get some humor back.

I am a big ol' manly man. I like sports, played basketball for years, need to shave on a regular basis and no one can really argue with the Big ol' part. Today I may have swayed from my manliness.

I had Soy milk. Yeah, Soy Milk. Worst part - I may have liked it.

Now lets get one thing perfectly clear. The idea that what I had was milk, well that is just crazy. It was Juice. That is right Juice. What do I say this... well I went to pre-school, and learned important things, like milk comes from cows. As Lewis Black would say "moo-moo F*ck cows". Soy milk comes from... not cows.

So I sat here with my Cereal and Soy Juice. Took a deep breath, poured, spooned, chewed, tasted and went huh??? It tasted good. I may be a Soy Juice convert.

Who knows what this my bring? I don't really drink that much milk anyway, so probably nothing, but you never know.

Viva La Soy Revolution!!!

What am I still doing on the East Coast

This is the week of Memorial Day, and for the first time in six years and have not been traveling to an institution of higher learning, to see friends, debate and hopefully do some good for residential students across the country. That is right, I said six years. That is a long time. If this was any point in the past six years I would have been at NACURH.



NACURH, or the National Association of College and University Residence Halls, was a huge part of my life. It is an organization that works to improve the lives of students, living in residence halls, across North America and slightly beyond. It has been around for just over 50 years and has come along way, becoming the largest student run incorporation in the world. Over the seven years that I went to school I was part of NACURH, from conference participant to voting representative for my school, to conference chair, regional board member, national board member and National Chair. Clearly this took up alot of my life, but the best parts were the people.



I made amazing friends throughout my time in NACURH. They are the type of people that I may not talked to in months, but as soon as we are on the phone things pick up right where they left off. They are fantastic.

So this week I normally would have packed my things and headed out to Oshkosh Wisconsin to live, learn and enjoy 2900 of my closest friends. I miss it, but I am glad that I have been able to keep the friends and leave some of the Drama.

I also feel like the org is in good hands, Jacob Dixon, Former CAACURH Regional Director, AD and Conference Chair, is the new National Chair, and he is going to do amazing things. Congrats Jay!!

In the OC

So I am here with 7 of my brothers and good friends. It has been an interesting couple of days, a hard couple of days, and as much as I want to just relax and let everything go, I just can't. It is to hard. I guess it is time to figure out this stuff, and how I need to deal with it. It is just stacking and building. I am really glad that I am here with my friends, though I feel like I should be in two other places as well, each of them having their own reasons. I need to make sure that things get better, I believe they will, but this is going to be another hard time. I need to not make the mistakes that I made previously, rather face the issues that are at hand and turn them into opportunities. There will be good that comes from all of this, there needs to be.

Between the health issues of my father, the girl I want back more than anything, my friend in the hospital with his stomach in a container behind him, well lets just say there is quite a bit going on. This is on top of my soon to be roommate leaving the country, my mother needing an MRI for vertigo and me looking for an apartment. busy and stressful, and what I really need is... I am not sure what I really need.

An Interesting Reflection

So I took some time today to read over some of the oldest posts I did in a previous blog and it was some interesting reading. I clearly lamented for a long time in my early college years. I struggled with spelling (the url was misspelled), my emotions, and particularly women. Amazingly, even back then I knew. July 23rd 2005, I knew. I was in love, and I still am.



Okay, good post, see you later :)

It was bound to happen

You all knew at some point I would post about my personal life. In particular, you were going to hear musings about my misfortunes with the opposite sex. Well, this time it is different. IT is different because I am no longer musing about the gender as a whole, or even the girls I have been chasing. This time it is time to get serious and talk about the one that may have gotten away, that I pushed away.

I am in love with Janice. I love the way she feels, the way she talks, the way she looks at me and the way she can comfort me. She is the most amazing person I have ever met. A couple of months ago I made the biggest mistake of my life as I pushed the person that I wanted away.

I was dumb and confused. I wanted to be her everything and couldn't be. I guess I thought it would be better to be her nothing, I was so wrong. I pushed her away. I don't know what I was thinking.

I took the time that we were separated to get my life together, get a handle on bills and really have a plan to improve my life. I realize that I did these things for her. I mean I did them for me, but really I did them for her. I wanted to be the best possible man for her. She is my everything.

Well it has been a couple of months and I had such a horrible pain in me that I had to call her. Just hearing her voice was amazing. I wanted to hold her and kiss her. I wanted to be near her again. I profusely apologized for the hurt I had caused her, knowing that nothing I said would make it better. I wanted to to everything I could to make things better and get back on track, the track where we would live our lives together. And then it happened...

She told me that she started seeing someone else. My heart sunk, crashed in the pit of my stomach and broke into a million pieces. How could this have happened. How could the girl of my dreams, the one who is meant to be with be have found someone else. My heart has been in those pieces, still sitting in my stomach ever since.

We have talked the past couple of days. It has been good to hear her, but hard to listen. I want her back so badly; and I have hope that we will get back together. I am still madly in love with her, and I believe that she is still in love with me.

I am going to try to do the things that made her fall for me. I really just want to see her, cause I think when we look into each others eye it will get better. I know that they will.

I am hopeful that I can make right the biggest mistake I have ever made.

My Dad is Proud of Me

I love my family, and I am a momma's boy through and through, but something happened this weekend. My father stopped me and said "I am really proud of you". Now, for you this may not be a big deal, but for me the was one of the greatest things I have ever been told.

My father, who I believe is the epitome of living live genuinely, is notably not what many people would consider a success. For example, he dropped out of high school in the 10th grade. Has been a mechanic for the City of Philadelphia, and the SEPTA all his live. He works hard, with long nights and mandated overtime when it snows. He goes to work each day, to a place that most of us would never consider an ideal working environment. He lives in a small row home in North Philadelphia, not a dangerous neighborhood, but not one you want to walk around in wearing an iPod, or at night (I guess that actually is dangerous). But my father has never made excuses and makes the best out of his situation.

He works hard, harder than I do, and performs beyond expectations, consistently wowing his peers with incredible innovation in his work. Outside of Mr. Paul, the name thrown around the shop to describe my father is MacGuiver. He keeps fire trucks and police cars on the road, and while that may not seem like a big deal, he, and I, find a great deal of pride in that. While no one would say he is living in the lap of luxury, he is somewhat comfortable. I find him to be incredible, and he said he was proud of me.

As cliche as it may be, I think my Dad is my hero. It is a constant that you have pride in your heroes. It is something special when your heroes have pride in you.