EVCO: HOUSE OF HOSE.

"Evco. house of hose. everything in hose but pantyhose...we have teflon hose, silicon hose, vinyl hose, fire hose, fda approved hose, edible oil hose, dairy hose, creamery washdown hose, pvc hose, rubber hose, mining hose and even bulk hose. we have everything from nylon tubing to black pipe nipples to hose bibs to hose menders and protectors. also, ask us about our air hose assemblies and hose reels." http://www.houseofhose.com/index.htm

alright, this one needs a bit of explaining. i work for byu maintenance (a religious university). i dont do any actual maintenance, however. i am a clerk/erand boy. i sit at a desk most of the day and do paper work and order parts and tools from various vendors around town. most of our vendors deliver their parts to us for free. but some of the smaller stores dont deliver or they charge an arm and a leg to do it. so i get to go there and pick it up. i have no complaints. it gets me out of the warehouse for a little bit. so, one day my boss tells me to go to this one store in orem, utah (familytown, usa) and replace a couple of hoses. he says it is called evco and it is just off center street. so i pull into the parking lot and read the sign for the first time: "Evco. House of Hose." baffled, i tell my co-workers about it as soon as i get back. we all have a good laugh. later i tell my friend marc about how i went to the house of hose the other day and bought some hose with my byu credit card. as it turns out, he has actually heard of it before. and then he tops it. back east somewhere near boston there is a furniture store called "the sofa king." anyway, i recently got evco's business card, which is why i thought of it.

'08

i just got a new tee shirt. normally i dont get excited over clothes and stuff like that, but this one is hilarious. for those who cant figure out what it is from the picture, it is a campaign shirt for jon stewart and steven colbert for the '08 presidential elections. they are from the comedy central shows "the daily show" and "the colbert report."

WoW, IM AN IDIOT!

i play world of warcraft (WoW). "gasp, you play an MMORPG? i thought you were a jock." yaya, so i have a nerdy side too. so what? i also have my own blog! recently i had a blunder in the game. i know not every one is familiar with the game so i will try to make it understandable for everyone. wish me luck.

so i have a level 60 mage--the highest level in the game. at level 60, mages get this really cool quest to go to a dungeon and kill this guy made of water. the quest requires you to take a "hydrdo essence" from the watery corpse after you defeat him; as a reward, you learn a new ability to make some water which regenerates mana (determines how many spells you can cast) at a much faster rate than normal. needless to say, in the game it is valuable. everyone with me still? good. so i finally get around to doing the final part of the quest and i form a group with other players to help me with it. we head out to the other side of the world and enter the dungeon. everything is going great and one of the guys suggests we go outside and try to kill this random dragon boss just for fun before we get too far into the dungeon. so we go to where the dragon is. this is where i have to use more nerdy lingo. the dragon is in a pvp arena (meaning its a freeforall and anyone who isnt in your group can kill you). this poses an interesting situation when other groups are also trying to kill the dragon. only one group can kill the dragon at a time and get credit for it.

so we enter the arena and, surprise, we find another group. so naturally we kick their trash all over the place. lots of fun, but time for business right--kill the dragon. the dragon boss is really tough for even a highly organized group, so we offer to join up with the other group and help them if they help us. seems like a good deal, right? so i am the leader of our group and i switch the group settings to a raid to accomadate the extra people (sorry for the geek speak). well, they attack us again...whatever, so we wipe them out once again. this time, however, right before their last guy dies he casts a fear spell on one of our guys, which causes him to run right for the dragon. bad news for us. now we are at half strength and so naturally the dragon eats us without a problem. when we get back to the arena the other group is already there trying to kill the dragon! hehe...when they get the dragon to about a third of its health we jump in and wipe out the group and finish off the dragon and get the loot. good times for all...well at least for us.

so after all this we go back into the dungeon to finish my quest. we fight and fight until we find the water dude, kill him and something goes terribly wrong. i cant get my quest item off the body. we try to figure out what we could have done to screw it up, maybe i forgot something for the quest, who knows? we cant figure anything out. so, we kill a few more guys in the dungoen and go back to the main city. when we start to disassemble the group we notice that the group settings are still set for a raid. without explaining it in anymore lingo no one understands, basically that was the reason for it not working. offering to help another group made me not get my special magic water. dont worry, i am not mad. i think it is funny. the point is that i should have known better. anyway, now you all know just how nerdy a jock can be.

THE VILLA STRIKES AGAIN

anyone who has talked to me in the last year has heard my two cents about the apartment complex i live in. here's a little background info for those who havent heard it yet. i have lived in the University Villa for over three years now. for the first two years i had virtually no complaints. the social aspect was great and i have made lots of friends there. it is a great location even for byu students. it isnt the nicest complex around, but you get what you pay for, right? appearantly not. the original managment sold out to some dumb ____ (insert explitive) and nothing has been up to par since. actually, i have never met the new owner of the place, but he has hired a dozen sets of managers since he took over (they dont seem to last too long anymore). all of which have rubbed me the wrong way more than once. anyway, i could go on and on about the crap residents have had to put up with lately, but i'll save that for another time. time for the real topic--last night.

i guess the villa is hard for cash. they have started renting the place out to random groups of people for short periods and events. kind of like a hotel. except they didnt let the actual residents of the place know about it. i suppose it is no big deal. they can do whatever they want with "their" complex, right? in fact, they have done similar things before and i never noticed it happen. last night was different, however. at about 5pm my roommate pointed out that the pool area (just outside my apartment window) was swarming with 14-18 year old boys and girls. they were everywhere. probably about 50 or so not counting their supervisors. k, problem easily sovled--just stay inside the apartment for a while till they all go home. after all, we have seen lots of random parties show up from other complexes or local neighborhood kids crash'n'trash the place. and why not, its a good pool with an even better hottub next to it. so far i really have nothing to complain about. but this is still just background info.

the real problem started at about 8pm. we were hosting a party in my apartment at this time and had nearly forgotten about the circus outside. and then from out of nowhere we hear freakishly loud music. the kiddy party just got live performers with 3' high speakers pointed directly at our living room window. needless to say, our party was nearly drowned out. so for the next 90+ minutes we got to listen to a black guy and a white chick sing/rap some semi-inspirational music for the kiddies. it is at this point that i realize that this is probably a mini religious conference for youth and that this shin-dig is their treat for not leaving early...

so the villa did it again. they managed to enrage everyone who pays rent money while making some extra cash--all while not even being on the premises at the time. that's right, they weren't even there to supervise or anything. how do i know this? hehe...kat and em (both at our party) and myself decided that we shouldn't be the only ones to enjoy the festivities so forcefully provided for us lowly residents. so we called the villa office and left a few messages full of the great music and cheering that we got to hear all evening. this way they could hear what they missed in the morning. after all, they booked them, so they they must like them too! i left at least two messages myself.