Questionably 'The Best of Ann Arbor'

So I was thinking about what to write about, and I remembered that The Michigan Daily just came out with their annual 'Best of Ann Arbor' feature. The Daily staff did a nice job compiling their subjective opinions and writing up some quick, entertaining blurbs about each, so I decided to argue some of their selections. Naturally, I agreed with some of the runaway winners--Sadako for sushi--but others are down right questionable. (Note: I heard this Totoro place is really good for sushi, but I have never been.) So, onto some of my choices, and I take a lot of things into account as you will see.

Breakfast: I am tired of Angelo's winning this category. It is so overrated. Northside Grill is the best breakfast in Ann Arbor. Angelo's is where all the freshman go with their parents, and I went too and it's the only time I have been. We waited like 45 minutes and had a pretty good breakfast but the fact that everyone is obsessed with the place is a turn-off for me. Northside is off the beaten path a little bit which automatically scores it points and proves that you have to know a little bit about this city and are willing to explore lesser-know places. Lesser-know is interesting too because most students don't know about it, but Northside is always busy (not a positive but I have never waited longer than 15 minutes) mostly with AA locals who know where to eat breakfast. Their skillets filled with a mash-up of ingredients are a great range of flavors. I don't like pancakes but theirs are awesome. The huevos rancheros are super tasty and a great breakfast alternative, and they offer mouth-watering breakfast sandwiches. They even serve coffee outside to people waiting, and the service is great. One time I went, they had a fricking Elvis impersonator singing and dancing on the counter. Beat that, Angelo's.

Burger: Ok, so I don't mind Quickie Burger, and the super-nice dude who I think is the owner who is always at the cash register is really cool . They have a location to die for, and their burgers aren't bad. But, jeez, Blimpy Burger is so much better. At Blimpy, they don't hide anything. They cook three feet away from you, and if you look down the counter, you can see them individually scooping and forming each patty out of a container of freshly ground beef. Everyone knows about Blimpy's 'atmosphere' and 'experience' but aside from that, the customization of your meal at Blimpy is simply special. You literally tell them everything you want on your burger from the bun, to the number of patties, cheese, condiments, vegetables, add-ons, whatever. And the best part is yet to come when you finally get to unwrap your messy, dripping heart-attack on a bun sitting in those weird, '70s style swivel chairs and take a bite of beef heaven.

Pizza: At least Pizza House didn't win, right? Still, I don't think Cottage Inn has this city's best pizza. Granted, I have a bad taste in my mouth about Cottage Inn (the take-out version) from freshman year when I lived in West Quad and thought it was Dominos with a different name. But people have to start giving Silvio's some more credit. The place is the shit. Never in my life has pizza tasted so fresh as every time I eat at Silvio's. And I never even know what is on the pizza because most of the combinations are so awesome I have to ask the server what I'm salivating at. Luckily, our class got to enjoy Silvio's at one of our meetings at ISS. I think I ate half a pie and was kind of embarrassed to go after my fourth and fifth slices. Needless to say, it's also organic, so you can kind of convince yourself that it's healthier for you.

And I'm not even going to get into the Chipotle-won burrito category.

Getting Lucky in Kentucky

This past weekend, I traveled with 12 other guys to Slade, Kentucky for a weekend rock climbing trip, and I wanted to blog about it. I got back late last night, so I am just getting time to write it now.

So, Friday at about 2 pm, I took off for Kentucky with 3 other guys. One car had already gone down on Thursday night and camped out, and a third car was leaving late on Friday. Shooting the shit with my friends on the way down, the 6 hour ride was flying by until we hit some heavy Cincinnati rush-hour traffic. Other than that hiccup, we made it down in around six and a half hours, and it wasn't bad. We arrived at our cabin and were pleasantly surprised with what we found: two bathrooms, 8 beds, two couches, a small but functioning TV, a wrap around porch, hot tub, and usable kitchen. The stage was set for a great weekend.

As the third and final carload of climbers arrived, we began plotting the rest of our night and the next day. Despite setting a goal of leaving the cabin at 7 am on Saturday, the group still decided to stay up, hang out, and do the sorts of things you would do in the middle of Kentucky. Luckily, the hangovers weren't too bad at 6:30 the next morning and before I knew it, the 36 eggs I had scrambled were devoured and we were on the road to 'Roadside Crag' our first stop of the day.

Needless to say, we were all pretty excited and motivated to have a good day, and it powered us through the early wake up. Hanging out with the group's leader and two of his climbing friends the night before, I had watched numerous climbing highlight videos and seen many photos of them in action so I was super pumped. I had also noticed the climbing lingo they were using and admired it, so I came back with some new sayings as well. Before getting to the wall, there was one other thing. I am scared of heights. Not deathly scared but it's still pretty significant, so that was surely on my mind while approaching the first challenge.

Boy, did our early start really help. We were the first people to the wall that we wanted to start on and by the time we left there were probably 25 people there, clogging up the routes and creating waiting lines. We had a large group of 13 people too, so it was nice to be able to establish our territory. The first wall was fun; the three most experienced guys 'led' three routes and set up ropes so that everyone else could top-rope climb those same routes. I made it to the top of probably the second toughest route of these three, roughly 60-70 feet, (they were all relatively easy) and was the most uncomfortable that I felt all weekend. I didn't really look down at all because I was so focused on climbing, but my inexperience with something this challenging plus my fear of heights combined for a tense experience. When I got down though, the natural high I experienced was so awesome, and I felt really good.

The rest of the day, we traveled to at least three more crags, usually driving to another spot and then hiking from there. One of the coolest things I did all day was whats called a dynamic movement or a 'dyno' on one of the later routes. Basically, there was two low holds where I could stand on with my left foot and grip with my right hand, however, the next good hold was a solid few feet about my head. At first, I tried to jump and get it, but I couldn't and after a few tries, I found another way up and finished the climb. Feeling good after making it up, I got lowered to the ground and wanted to try again. After a bunch of close calls, I finally jumped high enough, got my left hand on the grip and was able to pull my right hand and the rest of my body up to the ledge. Nothing like the adrenaline after the initial climb that gave me the extra push, it was a great feeling.

The last stop on Saturday was one of the most interesting parts of the trip for me. While most of the group went back to cabin, the three experienced guys wanted to go to a harder route on another crag so one other guy and I tagged along. What we came across was basically a behemoth of a route that was rated a 5.11a, and by far the most difficult one of the day. Honestly, I made my backpack into a pillow and laid down to watch and take pictures; I didn't think any of them could make it. Well, one after another, all three of them made it pretty smoothly, including two who stopped for a rest in the human-sized cave that was 3/4 up to the top. Literally just watching and hearing them exert energy while climbing 'Bathtub Mary', my hands were sweating, and I was getting nervous. It was awesome to see the really good guys get challenged like the rest of us did.

Following a good Saturday night with a big bonfire, we slept in on Sunday but had time for one last climb that was fun but very hard for the group lacking experience, myself included. After that, we started the trek home. Overall, the trip was excellent, and I loved it. The leader said something on Saturday night that was really fitting: "The one thing about climbing is that everyone climbs hard. No matter your skill level, everyone goes hard. That's what I love about climbing," he said. And he's right. All 13 of us were thoroughly challenged at least once over the weekend and put everything we had into overcoming that challenge. It was really rewarding, I would definitely go again.

Hopefully, I can get some pictures up soon.

UHS Story

As our group project comes together, I have been having some thoughts about how it might/could look as an end product. On Wednesday, our group spoke with Dr. Robert Ernst, head medical doctor and an internist at UHS, for over an hour, and it would have gone on longer if we didn't have class and meetings to attend. By 'our group spoke', I really mean that Dr. Ernst spoke, and we listened. The interview had two parts, first, we asked him our predetermined questions for roughly 40 minutes and second, he presented a seemingly endless Powerpoint on patient satisfaction. In the interview, it literally seemed like Doc tried saying as many words as he could after each question, continuously going on tangents into left field and repeating himself as many times as he could, slightly changing the version every time but not the message. After the interview, the three of us were all a little lost. "I never zone out," said one of my partners. "But I have no idea what he said." And she was taking notes.

You know the type of office chairs that spin? Well there weren't any fixed-base chairs to seat him in unfortunately, but I could tell he was getting a little uneasy when he would lean back in his chair cross and uncross his legs, and most notably, spin in the chair. I think clips from the video that I recorded will be very telling. Understandably, he seemed much more comfortable when giving his canned Powerpoint which didn't "answer all of our questions" as he claimed it would from the start. Lucky, we insisted on doing the interview part before his presentation or we might not have gotten a word in at all.

Overall, I think we have the type of interview that can frame our story. That is, open as one of the first key sequences and end the entire piece, providing good organization.

Based on our interview with Dr. Ernst and testimonials from students, there is one aspect that needs to be included in our video: the people that have the bad experiences and the complaints to voice, don't. For whatever reason, it seems to me that they are not represented in the statistics that Dr. Ernst cited. In my opinion, and I can relate, I think these people are so upset over their misfortune with UHS that they basically want to be done with it forever. So when it comes time to complain or fill out a survey, there is no way they are going to waste another second on something like UHS that has provided such a terrible experience for them in the past. Regardless of how much their testimonies could help, I think their understandable bitterness toward UHS angers them to the point of not realizing the usefulness of their experience to help not only other students but also UHS. For this reason, one of the most important questions we need to ask every student is, "Did you complain or tell someone at UHS about your bad experience?" I would be shocked if most answers were no; this hopefully can be strung together to form another key sequence for our video.

Why 64 Is Enough.

In the midst of an incredible NCAA Tournament, there are still idiots out there who think the 64 (65) team tournament should be expanded to include as many as 128(!) teams. So I might be quite opinionated about this because I think the system is working pretty well as is. Have these guys been watching the tournament this year? It has been amazing and worth every second I have devoted to it over homework or any other trivial matter.

Two of expansions proponents, Jay Wright, head coach at Villanova and Jim Boeheim, head coach at Syracuse seem to think a bigger tournament is better. Maybe that's because they envision an easier path to glory than the current system? Both Villanova, a #2 seed, and Syracuse, a #1 and a favorite to win the whole dance, were knocked off by underdogs: #10 Saint Mary's beat 'Nova in second round after they struggled in a double-overtime victory over the #15 seed and 'Cuse lost in the Sweet Sixteen to #5 Butler.

There are many other reasons against expanding the field. For one, it would completely eliminate late season competitiveness down the stretch of schedules and into conference tournaments. In the current system, the teams on the bubble of making the tournament are the most exciting to watch; they scrap and battle at the end of the year trying to impress the selection committee enough to earn a bid. Take Michigan this year for example. We weren't even close to the bubble entering the Big-10 Conference Tournament. But, every conference tournament winner gets an automatic bid to the tournament; it was our last and only chance to make. So after dispatching Iowa in the first round we went against #7 nationally-ranked Ohio State and played inspired basketball giving them a run for there money and positioned ourselves to win until this happened. That hurt just linking that. Regardless of my pain, Michigan would never have played with the urgency that we did in that game if the tournament was 128 or even 96 teams because we would have already had a bid locked up. We would have had nothing to play for.

Additionally, who really wants to see the 128th or 96th best team in the nation, who are under-.500, play? Let alone get smacked by a far superior opponent. Giving high ranked teams byes into later rounds of a larger tournament is also stupid. The appeal of March Madness is watching even the best teams have to win night in and night out, which allows for the upsets and Cinderella runs to happen. Giving byes is like saying you don't like upsets because it directs delays the inevitable upsets until later. And if the NCAA even cares about athletes and their academics as they say they do, a larger tournament would keep student-athletes out of the classroom for even longer.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Individual News Story Brainstorming

I absolutely love food. I like talking about food, cooking, smelling, eating, whatever about it, I like it. With the amount I eat, I'm pretty lucky that I don't weigh 300 pounds. I thank my metabolism, parents, and active life for that. To give you an idea of what I eat, you need to understand my role in 'The Breakfast Club', a group of friends and I who visit various Ann Arbor breakfast establishments on the weekends typically around noon or 1 pm.

SO, after I clean my plate, usually before anyone else, I wait patiently at the table, drink my water, and eye the half-full plates of my colleagues. They all know what's coming. Sometimes I jump the gun and ask them if they are finished before they are, and I feel bad. But when they are finished, they shuffle their leftovers toward me, and I go to work (again). And usually again. I typically end with at least three empty plates stacked on top of one another by the end of breakfast. I acquired this skill from my dad who I now have to battle to call rights to my mom's plates at dinner. He calls it 'batting clean-up' or simply being the garbage disposal.

To return to the point of this post, as much as I love food, I also love the institution and phenomenon behind drunk food, especially at Michigan. There are so many choices: pizza, Mexican, sandwiches, more pizza, hot dogs, more Mexican, etc. And I have enjoyed all of them, multiple times. For my individual story, I am interested in doing a story primarily around Panchero's Mexican Grill, one my favorites from this group. It's probably a good problem to have, but there are many aspects to this story that I could take. For now, I want to combine aspects of a few of them. Fortunately, many of my friends also share my love for Panchero's.

Here snippets of stuff they said, remember they are my friends and these were small, informal conversations:

• Chris: "The tortilla is the best, that's the main reason. The way they distribute the sour cream as well, although they do it differently now. The packaging (aluminum foil) also retains heat very well. Also the free burrito after 10 (burrito card)." Chris is obviously an engineer commenting on the heat retention; he also has received his fair number of free burritos.
• Tom: "They mix the burritos, bro. You don't get uneven bites of meat and then rice; it's all even."
• Adam: "I like Francisco. Good staff and their tortillas."
• Pat: "Nice people, and they are patient with drunk people."
• Jordan: he first mentioned proximity but after I pointed out that it's right next to BTB, Jimmy John's, and Backroom, Jordan said, "The queso sauce is amazing. Other places don't even offer it. The tortilla is also good."
• Nate: he and I had an interesting conversation about Panchero's while drunk versus sober. Most of the others liked it while sober too but Nate said, "I don't like it as much sober, but it's soo good drunk."

These small quotes illustrate some interesting points about the restaurant, and I like how some aspects were repeated multiple times but others liked specific, unique parts of the burritos or experience.

Again, other angles to the story are endless. For one, I want to interview the staff/manager and get his opinion about why Panchero's has this almost cult following and how they deal with competition. I'm also curious about how the staff deals with the odd hours and very late nights, especially Thursday-Saturday.

Relating back to my Panera and McDonald's post, Panchero's is not the healthiest food out there. Especially coupled with a night of drinking hundreds of empty calories of alcohol, a burrito makes for a night that could easily eclipse 2,000 calories. Panchero's website doesn't provide nutritional facts but there are various sites that do, and they aren't so pretty. According to the first site, a plain chicken burrito has almost 900 calories and 24 grams of fat. Remember, that's without fat-filled cheese, queso sauce, sour cream, guacamole, etc.

As you can probably guess, I am pretty excited about doing this story.

Weird Allergy

So, I have an interesting allergy that decided to rear its ugly head at one of worst possible times of my life. I am allergic to liquor. In college.

One of the interesting aspects of my allergy is that it just developed during second semester last year. I was enjoying a screwdriver out of a half-gallon of orange juice while driving home from a Detroit Pistons game when...well, my friend was driving, but I was still enjoying the screwdriver nonetheless. So, I was starting to feel all warm and happy inside and talking more when my face started to feel hot. I brushed it off because this happens often when I drink.

After getting back from the game, we all walked into my fraternity house and my friend, knowledgeable about the 'Asian Glow' because he's Chinese, asked me what was wrong with my face. I replied that I didn't know, so I immediately went to the bathroom to look at the mirror. In the place of my normally fair complexion was a sea of red splotches on my face, forehead, and neck. I was pretty alarmed to say the least. So I stopped drinking my screwdriver, replacing it with water, and took some generic allergy medicine which I do occasionally when this happens.

The warm feeling in my face, and subsequent throbbing, soon decreased to normal levels. The discoloration and redness in my face, however, took longer to disappear and was gone within an hour probably. Other than those symptoms and the resulting embarrassment, I was fine. I didn't experience any swelling, hives, or difficulty breathing, thankfully. Needless to say, the whole reaction caught me off guard, and I was pretty confused. I think it happened once more last spring, and then not again until last summer/early fall.

The first few times I experienced the reaction, I was drinking vodka. Naturally, I thought I had an allergy to vodka, which was weird in itself because the faithful screwdriver on the way home from the Pistons game was not the first time I drank vodka. But, as many are already aware, allergies can develop later in life. To make the situation even more strange, this year I started experiencing the reaction to other types of liquor like rum, whiskey, and most recently, tequila. Most times it happens when I'm drinking mixed drinks.

My allergy also doesn't take the form of traditional symptoms. Instead of a more even spread of redness like a flushing reaction, mine is much more blotchy or spotty like I explained earlier. Lastly, the thing that always throws me for a loop is the inconsistency of how often and when the reaction happens. For instance, it didn't happen on my 21st birthday this past fall, and I did not drink a single beer the whole night, strictly drinking liquor. It also doesn't happen on random nights when I have small quantities of many different types of liquor, which I think points to the fact that it typically occurs when I'm drinking high quantities of the same type and brand of liquor.

If you're shaking your head after reading that, you're probably just as confused as I am. Go figure.

My Code of Ethics

Don't hurt anyone:

So first and foremost, I don't want to hurt anyone through the posts on my blog. This is my first blog, and I'm only a handful of posts in; causing harm to anyone through any of my entries doesn't make sense to me, so I will do my best to avoid it at all costs. Additionally, this is a class requirement, it's not like this is my job, people getting hurt is just not worth it.

Tell the truth:

One of the best ways, in my opinion, to not hurt anyone through my work is to tell the truth to the best of my ability. That being said, I will fact check my information through multiple sources. If the truth could be potentially harmful, I will leave it up to my discretion whether or not to post the information, erring on the side of caution.

Speaking of sources:

If I get information from outside of my dome piece, and it's not general knowledge, I will do my best to either link to or give credit to the initial article/author. Giving credit where credit is due is fair, so all cliches aside, I won't feign other's information/opinions as my own.

Rumors:

If I encounter rumors about topics that I'm interested in or related to subjects/stories that I'm writing about, I will use my discretion about publishing them. I will find the same rumor reported by multiple sources and only publish it if there's beyond reasonable doubt that it's true. If I do eventually publish what is referred to as a rumor, I will make sure to publish and note it as such.

Correcting errors:

When it's necessary, I will edit posts for small mistakes or typos that I make or that are pointed out to me. This might be announced but are more than likely to not be announced. If I make large mistakes, such as publishing rumors that are not true, I will devote a new post to correcting my mistakes and revealing what I did wrong.

More on editing posts:

If I feel like something I wrote was stupid, incorrect, or poorly written, I will delete it on my own accord. This is for my good as well as yours.

Feedback from you:

I welcome any and all feedback from you. Let me know if I spelled something wrong, or call me out if I published a post chalk full of lies. This will not only benefit me by improving my blog but also help save you from reading terrible posts.

Bias(es):

I will do my best to remain unbiased in all of my writing. HOWEVER, here are some of my biases right off of the top: I am a Michigan sports homer through and through, I am a Philadelphia sports homer as well, I like many college sports (basketball, football primarily) a lot or slightly more than their professional equivalent, and that's all I can think of right now.