The Back 9: Golf Etiquette Tips for Weekend Hackers, Part II

Since I was overdue for a Ploomy piece in quite some time, I felt it was appropriate to finish up something I wrote almost a year ago. Especially since the golf virus is going around, I knew it was time. It might not be pertinent to everyone, but here is is anyway!

The Back 9
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The Madd Blogger

It kinda sucks that all these micro-bloggers pretty much took over the blogosphere. Are people's attention spans not capable of taking in more than 140 characters at a time? WTF is a tweet anyway? Only Tweet I know is that one singer who Missy put on a few years back. And I know I'm guilty of pasting notes into Facebook, but I've learned. All of you blogless people using FB to put up a pseudo-blogs need to recognize the real. Shoot truthfully if you don't have an actual blog, then I'm not even tryna read what you wrote. Yes I'm mad doggie. I don't know why, but all these 60 second blog thoughts kinda bug me. I know I don’t have anything substantial to say usually, but I've created my own space, generated my own followers and retained my own readership. It's pretty easy to have instant followers when you add everyone you vaguely know on these social networking sites.

I'm tired of reading pointless, forced and statuses that are trying too hard. My ish be more John Blaze than that. Yes I've toiled in the virtual world trying to carve my niche via my weblog, but damn, its getting oversaturated up in here. I liken it to American Idol syndrome, and just because there's a medium, it doesn't mean you could sing! Just as essays morphed into articles, then into blogs, then into status updates, then into tweets, then what? Actually, I'd rather see just one word updates. Maybe it'll improve our collective deteriorating vocabulary. Kinda like how albums nowadays rely on a song or 2 with a catchy hook, micro-blogs are ruining the art for me. Your voice is muddled among the other commoners vying for my attention.

So…I wonder how long it'll take me to sign up for twitter?
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___silog Appreciation

I haven't concocted a list in awhile, and I figured one about food can help me escape my blog rut. Anyways I've eaten a lot of [fill-in-the-blank]-silog dishes in my lifetime, so I can consider myself an authority on the subject. For those in the dark, Silog is a hybrid term to mean fried rice and fried eggs [at least that's how I understand it.] And my ideal combination is garlic fried rice [typically from the prior day], over-medium eggs, tomato [with them pink salted eggs as a bonus] and with vinegar as a condiment. After you have all that, you could plug in any type of meat or fish and you can enjoy a meal! These dishes are typically meant to be had for breakfast, but thanks to places like Lucky Chances, we can enjoy them 24 hours a day.

Here are Reeg's favs in order:

01. Longsilog - Served with Longanisa, which is a sweet [duh] Filipino sausage. This stuff is potent. You could brush your teeth 3 times and exhale a burp the next day which would smell like longanisa still.
02. Tapsilog - Seved with Tapa, which is a dried cured beef. When I want a somewhat healthly, protein laced meal, I'll opted for this. Avoid if you don't like chewy meat and beware of extra sticking in-between the pearlies.
03. Bangsilog - Served with Milkfish, which translates into bangus, which is not to be confused with BangBus. If I prefer a seafood version, I'll choose this, and I prefer the one near Lake Merced that we had during that one fantasy draft. I didn't eat for 24 hours after that!
04. Spamsilog - Served with Spam. I'll never order this at a restaurant but best believe I'll make it once in awhile haha. I'll include grilled onions and substitute ketchup for vinegar, then I'll mash it all up so I can enjoy a cornucopia of edible delights with each bite.
05. Tosilog - Served with Tocino, which is usually a sweetened cured pork meat. If I'm not worried about my cholestoral count for the day, then I'll order this up. It's reddish in color but it's not red meat. Beware though, since often times pieces could be more fat than meat, but at least you get to enjoy the juiciness of it!

And as a bonus, here are Reeg-approved Silog spots:
- Lucky Chances
- Sinugba
- Ongpin
- that aforementioned spot around Lake Merced

I'm sure there's more, I just can't think right now since I'm pretty hungry. Note to self: don't write about food whilst thinking about dinner.
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The Birthday Recap

Now I'ma 30 year old blogger. Anyway this past week of birthday festivities was pretty fun and enjoyable. Let's hit rewind to see what happened:

Monday - My old manager and my favorite auditor treated me to lunch at Manhattan Cafe. I didn't even know there was a Cheesesteak spot that was walkable from work! Anyway I didn't have high hopes for this place, but it gets bonus points for serving Coke Zero out of the fountain. To recap: I got a Philly Cheesesteak in San Francisco named after a burrough in New York. Good stuff.

Tuesday - Happy Mardi Gras guys. While trying to enjoy my final day of being in my twomps, I also needed to figure out what to sacrifice for lent. G took me to BIX, where my indecisive self ordered the Prix Fixe menu and G ordered the Kobe Beef. We flanked our order with Truffle Cheese "Croques," which isn't your ordinary grilled cheese! Anyway I had my last Diet Coke to wash it all down while enjoying a fine dinner. It was kind of weird though, since the dude put my jacket on me as we were leaving, like he was Fansworth Bentley to my Puff. Anyway I just slid him a couple Washy's.

So we proceeded towards G's whip and that's where I received my gift. So big THANKS G for getting me an 8GB iPhone and for Jeff for upgrading it to a 16GB! I'm picking it up this weekend guys, so hope these blogs will be more frequent haha.

Wednesday - The Big 3-0 arrived. Honestly it felt kinda weird. The age gap between me and my siblings went away like Keyshia Cole's gap in her grill. We're all in our 30s now! Yikes.

So starting in 2009, our work went away with celebrating birthdays because that $20 cake is killer on the P&L. But since I'm special and all they decided to get one for me haha. It was a mocha-chocolate one from Andersen's [not Arthur] Bakery. I requested to leave early so I could make it to the most crowded mass ever, which would be Ash Wednesday at Saint Augustine. You would think the Pope was there, but nope, it was only me.

G then cooked my dinner that I requested - blackened catfish with grilled asparagus. It was really good and I probably still have crap in my teeth from the seasoning [j/p kids - believe I stay flossin'].

Thursday/Friday - I don't remember doing anything different so I guess it's back to the ordinary!

Saturday Morning- Woohoo time for the real celebrations to start! Thinking about wanting to do something physical for my birthday, I just said screw it and let's book a tee-time. Sorry non-golfers but I'm a grown man now, no need to climb walls and stuff haha. So myself, Francis, UglyStick, MosJef, Down with the Kingsbury, Pan Jr, MethodMik and Team Seabass ventured down to Burlingame to play 18. It was a rough start, as I started in the rough on the first few holes. My score ballooned to a 48 at the turn, but I calmed down a bit and sunk a couple putts in the back, posting a 48-39 for an 87. Guess I'll take it.

But the highlight of the day had to be MosJef jumping out of a haywire cart, slipping on a slope and soiling his pants haha. Damn you had to be there. Luckily Eric had a pair of jeans in his cart so he was able to change. OMG probably the funniest thing I've seen on a golf course.

Another warning: Make sure Mike doesn't drive the golf cart in the parking lot, otherwise he'll run into your parked car.

Saturday Afternoon - Gorrilla BBQ. Hands down the best BBQ place in the Bay Area. It even has G's stamp of approval. Just know that 45 minutes really means 1.5 hours. Go and order the ribs, brisket, chicken and hot links. And even the Mac N Cheese was hella good.

Saturday Night - I wanted to go somewhere simple and nearby, and thanks to Rach's swaying we went to Tropisuneo in Yerba Buena Lane. The food was pretty flavorful and the prices were fair [well what do I know, I didn't pay]. The drinks were good and they even had one named the Duende, which I totally forgot to try haha. Their dessert too was good, and their giant Cinnamon Toast Crunch pieces and Fondue stuff fulfilled me, or maybe it was just the BBQ from the afternoon?

Afterwards we proceeded to Azul, and I don't remember much. Thanks to the pics though, it helped me vaguely remember the evening. I do remember seeing Mike in the bathroom line, and I gave him that "I'ma yack and you hit my whip earlier so let me cut" look. And thanks dude, I think I couldn't hold it much longer. So big thanks to everyone that came out and shared a drink with me. I guess Arv is the only brother who loves me haha.

So we hopped into MosJef's whip and headed out to G's, where we crashed. And I think I got up every hour to go suka. Then G started to frequently suka too! Just like in Stand By Me when they all yacked after the pie-eating contest, but we actaully made it to the toilet at least. So each time we went Jeff had to hear it since he crashed on the sofa haha.

Sunday Morning - My family scheduled brunch at Park Chow's, and I was crazy hungover like a drunk horse. I don't know how I drove there, but I managed since G couldn't make it due to her being gone too. I mean who's birthday was it?! Anyway I get there, can't really eat abut I managed to get some calories in. Ryan gives me a bottle of Grey Goose for my present and I almost yacked upon sight, but I held it in. I also received more Apple money since my Apple fanboy transformation is now complete!

Whew, so that's my 30th celebration thus far. It isn't over until we have a DSK night as the capper.

So thanks guys for the 100 Facebook messages, thanks for coming out to Azul, thanks for breaking bread and sharing a drink with me, thanks for organizing everything for venues to restuarants to invitations, thanks for answering my questions, thanks for making it out to the golf course and the 2 course BBQ meal, thanks to the fam for your presents, thanks for being a homeboy and homegirl, and thanks for making my 30th a memorable one!

Enjoy the pictures! Hopefully they'll be up on FB this weekend.


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