RobertSpuhler.com

It's About Where You At

Long time, no update. More coming, I promise. For now:

I've spent the last two weeks on an assignment for a major online social networking site. This site just launched a Yelp competitor, and my job was to do those style of reviews. I was assigned to come up with reviews for 100 different places, trying to avoid chains as often as possible.

This was a lot more fun than it should have been. First of all, I did not know how well I know LA until undertaking this. Second, I have a strange memory - it takes me a second to remember my phone number, but that restaurant where I went on that bad first date? Know it like the back of my hand. Finally, it's reminding me that it's a lot more fun to try someplace new than get stuck going to the same Subway and/or McDonald's over and over again.

This was my list. What's yours?

(NOTE: Not all of these got positive reviews. Your mileage yada yada yada.)

Saints and Sinners, Backstage, Joxer Daly, Rush Street, The Well, Bowery, Cafe 101, Santa Maria Barbeque Company, Brass Monkey, HMS Bounty, Edison, Campos Mexican, Daily Pint, King's Head, Yankee Dandy's, Hollywood Billards, Warzawa, The Loop, Nyala, Tom Bergin's, Molly Malone's, Cat and Fiddle, Red Rock, Bigfoot Lodge, Happy Endings, Broadway Bar, Pig and Whistle, Boardwalk 11, Irish Times, Ford's Filling Station, Big Wangs, Miyagi's, Kabuki's, Bird's, White Horse, Cafe Loft, Father's Office, Tin Horn Flats, Good Luck Bar, Fred 62, Liquid Kitty, Village Idiot, Foundry, The Shack, Venice-whaler, Cabo Cantina, Duke's, Swinger's (Beverly), Swinger's (Santa Monica), Q's, Tattle Tale, 25 Degrees, La Fonda, South, Royale, The Dresden, La Cabana, Gyenari, Don Antonio’s, Talpa, Bungalow Club, Blue Room, Library Alehouse, Rainbow Bar and Grill, Tito’s Tacos, Grunions, El Rey, Hotel Café, Albano's, Z Pizza, El Guapo, Bourgeois Pig, Jones Café, Formosa Café, Tropicana Bar at the Roosevelt, Scarlet Lady, Chichen Itza, Luna Park, Sorento's Italian Market, La Rocca's, Good Microbrew, Ye Rustic Inn, Cozy’s, Avalon, Vanguard, Largo, Echoplex, Arclight Cinemas, Crumbs, Roscoe’s, Cozy Inn, Bar 21, Vanilla Bake Shop, Prado, Hennessey's Tavern, Short Stop, Circle Bar, National Sports Grill, Buffalo Wings and Things, Twains.

A Loss Not Good Enough For Inspiration

The biggest downside to a crap economy, for me at least, is that people are less willing to pay upwards of $2,000 for SAT tutoring.

So, I was downsized on Monday from the sales job I’ve been doing at the SAT company. All phone operations are leaving the state.

This has been a difficult month or so for me. My last real entry laid out a weekend’s worth of reasons. In addition, I interviewed with ESPN.com for a job as a soccer writer, but got rejected for seemingly no reason (I was told during the interview that I had more experience than anyone else who had applied – then he proceeded to ask me 20 minutes of opinion questions. So I guess I said something he disagreed with).

 Stuck stuck stuck.

Things That Can Ruin A Weekend

(in ascending order of suck)

1. My iPod ran out of battery power two hours into the lengthy drive back to Colorado that started Monday after work and ended late Tuesday. When I stopped for the night, I went to plug the player in and recharge it. No dice. Nothing will turn on. The screen remains blank and the thing just stares at me. Utah is really boring without a playlist.

2. If I was writing this bullet point in an article, the second paragraph would be something like this: "Sources within the organization are saying that a meeting in Baltimore next week could determine whether the company is salvageable, after a fall season that saw a drop in sales of nearly 50 percent."

3. I got all dressed up to go see the new Bond movie (bowtie included), and then got to the restaurant and couldn't find anyone. Texted the hostess. No response. Drove back home.

4. After a long night out, got in a new friend's car to head back to my apartment. Moments after pulling onto Venice Blvd., we were CRUSHED by a drunk driver. The car (again, NOT MINE) was totalled. Impact was on our driver-rear side, so both of us walked away. A half-second in one direction, and the driver could have been killed.

So, I am thankful that I am alive, that my heart can be broken, that even the unemployed in America live okay (in a worldly-comparison kind of way) and that Utah is only a 360-or-so mile drive.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

An Avalanche of Thanks

I hadn't expected the time period around my birthday to be this hectic. But I've got a Award-ceremony-list of people to thank and I want to get that out there first.

Thanks to:

• Everyone who donated to Fight Gone Bad, and therefore played a role in making me look like this:

Crossfits around the U.S. combined to raise over $500,000 for prostate cancer research and the Wounded Warrior Project. Then Safeway matched all of it, so more than $1,000,000 was donated!

• Dave and Rose for putting me up on their couch for a week - and putting up with me on their couch for a week.
• Everyone in DC who made time for me during my visit, especially Darren, who organized dinner one night, Erin, for breaking up her drive to Jersey to say hi, and Lilya, who got me pretty drunk.
• The U.S. National Team, for crushing Cuba 6-1 while I was in attendance. I'll forgive the loss Wednesday to T&T just for that.
• Juniper Lane, for once again setting its schedule to fit my flight plans (ha!).
• Jes, for dinner.
• Pictures will be uploaded sporadically over at Flickr.

In Conversation, Sunday Night

Him: What's the game you're watching?

Me: Estudiantes versus Boca Juniors. Argentine league.

Him: Oh. There are so many soccer leagues in Europe.

Ignore the Final Score

In Its Trip Out West, United's Fortunes Go South In Defeat - Washington Post

Saturday Nights In Neon Light

SAT season. Parents are mad at themselves for calling so late – and it’s easy to tell because they’re taking it out on me. Kids – mostly first semester seniors with early-onset Senioritis – who can’t be bothered with adding fractions, much less doing homework and practice tests.

But Saturday night? That’s for soccer.

I Can't Run Marathons

I hate distance running. If I'm not chasing a soccer ball, then why bother? This puts me at a disadvantage when trying to itch an altruistic scratch. Most fund raisers are based around running - marathons, 5K, 10K, running across the state of Massachusetts, etc.

So, what's an easily-bored-and-distracted-guy to do?

At my gym, there's a charity event later in September in which I'm proud to participate. It's centered around an event called "Fight Gone Bad." More about the event and the workout can be seen in this YouTube video (the sound is a bit obnoxious, sorry).

I've done it twice now, and both times it absolutely floored me. As in, I couldn't get off the floor. All that in 17 minutes.

The fund raiser will take place on September 27th at a location TBA. The funds will go to two different charities: Athletes for a Cure and the Wounded Warrior Project. I'm hoping to hit $500 in donations - the goal for Petranek Fitness (the gym I work out at) is $50,000 raised. You can visit my donation page at http://athletes.kintera.org/crossfit08/rmspuhler.

Law of Unintended Consequences

Today in traffic, I did not almost get run off the road by someone on their cell phone.

Instead, I almost got run off the road by someone fishing through his glove compartment, fiddling with his headset so he could still take that all-important call.

Yay progress!

It's All Gonna Break - Broken Social Scene at Sunset Junction

Few modern bands sum up the spirit of community quite like Broken Social Scene. Whether it is because of the communal nature in how the band records music (there are 17 members credited in the liner notes for the self-titled album) or the constantly rotating touring lineups, BSS is mostly about the group and not any of the individuals.