Long story: So I subscribe to a ton of blogs in my google reader. Every day i’m reading/seeing/learning about new stuff.  I mainly read about technology, start ups, education, sports, design and business. I see a lot of different things though. Sometimes I tweet about it.

I’m not a very good traditional blogger because it usually takes too long.  I don’t feel like I have a lot time.  That’s why I update this blog so infrequently.  And that’s why I tweet often.  Tweeting is easy and short.  Takes very little of my time.  

So basically I decided to start a new blog that consisted of all the short and small stuff that I see everyday.  Not a lot of words (cuz that’s what takes long).  Usually just images, videos, etc. I didn’t wanna use this blog because this is for more personal, family updates….also for longer posts w/ lots of words.  Dweebist is for simple, less-word posts.  I tried some of those on this blog and I didn’t find it very effective or organized.  Things got crazy.

And when I would do stuff on my wife’s blog, Elegance Redefined, she would always get bugged w/ my content.  Her stuff is more girly…and my stuff isn’t.  So that didn’t work out.  The only option I had was to just do a separate blog.  So I did.

Meet Dweebist.com.

From my new blog, Dweebist.

Sock Head Pixi from Mick Hagen on Vimeo.

Your video guide:
0:24 – Hammer and Ice chilling at the front of the stage together.
1:03 – Hammer does some sick moves right in front of us.
1:36 – Vanilla Ice sees my hot wife &gives a handshake, or whatever that was.
2:00 – A chubby girl goes and gets freak nasty with Vanilla Ice. Kinda funny.
2:27 – You see Rachel and I for a sec. I turn the phone around.
2:44 – I have a bunch of Hammer’s moves, edited to just capture the good stuff
3:40 – Too Legit to Quit. One of Hammer’s classics
4:10 – Old School “Too Legit” choreo.
4:48 – One of Hammer’s background dancers looks like Sanjaya from American Idol a few seasons ago. Gotta pause it exactly on 4:48 to see it.
5:05 – Vanilla Ice doing his “Ice Ice Baby.” It was dark, so quality isn’t very good here. But you get the idea. I edited this…taking out all the really poor quality segments.

It was a friend of ours who hooked us up with the tickets. Thanks Matt Anderson. We appreciate it. Anyway, the concert was alotta fun. I knew Vanilla was gonna be entertaining cuz I had seen him perform at a house party while I was Princeton (I was front and center there too, believe it or not, giving him high fives left and right). And Hammer was awesome too. He brought a crew of dancers (including his son, very talented) and brought some moves of his own as well. We ended up at the very front of the stage after a lot of pushing, shoving, elbowing, wiggling our way up to the front of the crowd. It took a lot of angry people, looks, and murmers by the people around us…but we finally got there. It was well worth it.

Vanilla Ice was talked about how family/friends were the most important thing in the world; He also gave a huge shout out to soldiers who had recently returned from Iraq. Hammer told us that prayer was the solution to the world’s problems…and he did a nice song to it. Hammer also gave a Twitter shout out. I didn’t like it. I like how Twitter is not mainstream yet. I feel special on it. The underground party ya know.

Anyway, we’ve all been able to get to know Shaq a little better these days cuz of his twitter account. Yes that’s the real him and yes he’s funny slash awesome.

Anyway…during intros of the game, Shaq did a little dance with the Jabbawockeez, winners of America’s Best Dance Crew. The dance was quite entertaining. Shaq knows how to move and groove with that big body of his. See video below.

View the what the original dance from the movie looks like. It’s cool.

So I have to admit…this little adventure of ours is probably the most terrifying experience I have ever had.  Terrifying in the sense that I basically thought I was gonna die. I thought my life was gonna end.  I fell into these level 5 rapids a couple times…I’m convinced I felt the early sensations of drowning.  I panicked. I freaked out. Cold cold ice water.  It freezes you up.  The rocks….they bang you up and mug you.  White water splashing everywhere…if you fall in….getting a good breath of air is practically impossible. This was a level V run according to our guides. Not for beginners.  We were all beginners. We wanted something tough.  Little did we know it would be this tough.

Someone at the beach later in the day told us that someone recently died in that same river doing the same thing we were doing. This river run was intense.  It was dangerous.  It was terrifying.

Having survived it all, now a little bruised and a little battered (emotionally and physically) I can now say I have never had such a huge adrenaline rush.  My heart has never raced faster than in those rapids. If you asked me to do it again, i’m not sure i’d say yes. I’d have to really think about that one.  I’m just glad we all made it out alive.  The helpless feeling like a rag doll in those rapids isn’t very pleasant.  Here are a few pics from the adventure.

 

Yes…it was very intense.  Yes, I would go river rafting again. I’m just not sure i’d do Level 5 rapids.  Maybe 3. The company also does other levels in other parts of the river or in other rivers.  h20 adventures did a great job and we all really enjoyed it (only after knowing we were gonna live another day).  

This was by far the most exhilarating experience of the trip and probably of my life up to this point. I was staring at death in the face on multiple occassions.