T-shirt #363 - WMU - BLACK LONG SLEEVE

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TODAY'S COUNT: 02 blog posts remaining in the T-shirt year!!
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T-shirt #363 - WMU - BLACK LONG SLEEVE

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Today's entry almost became dedicated to the shirt that was lost as I could not find this shirt for the first hour or so I tried looking.

But I did find it.

Here's some neat synergy. One of the three WMU shirts that I own that I shared in T-SHIRT #324 was given to me by AJ Avery, current forward on the WMU basketball team playing in the NCAA tournament. How's that for fun?

However, this shirt is my oldest WMU shirt, and a very nice shirt that I cannot believe was misplaced so long. WMU goes to the NCAA tournament for just the fourth time in school history. The men's basketball team also qualified for March Madness in 2004, 1998, and 1976. I taught students who played on both the 2004 and 1998 teams.

This is a big deal for WMU. Read about it here at MLIVE.

GO BRONCOS!

Though the Broncos draw a very tough match up in Syracuse. I don't expect them to prevail and advance. I will be rooting instead for my other favorite teams, including Kentucky, Kansas, and of course THE University of Michigan.

This blog began during March Madness last year, and I posted several Michigan shirts. These returned in explaining T-SHIRT #324. I think the content from #324 deserves to be rerun today even though it was only posted 38 days ago.


MARCH MADNESS UPDATE 1403.20 - 10:22 - I just completed my brackets for the NCAA tournament. Despite what I wrote last night, I decided that WMU can upset Syracuse and even win out in round 3 versus Dayton (who I pick to upset OSU).

I was somewhat inspired by President Obama's faith in the Spartans to pick them all the way through to the finals. Last year, I dumped Michigan too early, having Florida beat them in one bracket and Kansas in the other. I had no faith in my all-time favorite college team. This year I just did one bracket and picked University of Michigan to win it all. What the heck. I doubt I can win Warren Buffet's perfect bracket billion anyway. But I did not pick LOUSIVILLE, last year's winner, to get by Kentucky this year. Sorry Pitino.

First round upsets? Dayton and WMU as I already indicated. I have Harvard over Cincinnati, I have Providence taking North Carolina, and I have NC State downing Saint Louis. In tighter, games I have Pitt over Colorado and OK State over Gonzaga.

My Final Four are Florida, MSU, UofM, and Arizona.

Let the Madness begin!!

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T-shirt #324 - WMU - Big White Basketball shirt

T-shirt #324 - WMU - Big White Basketball shirt

I am not wearing this shirt.

It's a XXL. It's a little big for me.

An XL is big on me, but just big enough. That's how I like it.

I went to Western Michigan University for several undergraduate courses, even before, technically, I graduated from Kalamazoo College.

For awhile, I considered studying to be a secondary education teacher in the public school system.

I changed my mind.

I decided instead to earn degrees in literature and creative writing: fiction, and so I did graduate studies at WMU earning a Masters and a Masters of Fine Arts, the latter of which was, supposedly, a terminal degree.

This is a "short" entry because I am supposedly on "hiatus," at least that's what the boilerplate I keep pasting in here says.

READER: How's that "hiatus" working out for you, T-shirt Blogger Man?

T-SHIRT BLOGGER MAN: Not great.

READER: How come?

T-SHIRT BLOGGER MAN: I am not getting ahead as I planned. If anything, I am falling farther behind.

READER: I have noticed. I visit your blog every day and the unfinished entries are... unsettling.

T-SHIRT BLOGGER MAN: For you and me, both.

READER: Are you ever going to finish that Abbott's entry? And what do you have to say about Robin? And aren't some of your drafts in the drafts section MONTHS old, and if you promise to kick it, I promise to hold the football and not snatch it away at the last second.

T-SHIRT BLOGGER MAN: ARRRRRGGGG!!!!!!

BLOGGERY REPORT:  Thursday's Curious George entry, which I finished last night as of this writing, which was Saturday, even though this entry was published on Saturday, and now it's Sunday as I type....AND I updated it on Sunday, which is today, though in terms of when this entry was published it's tomorrow AND two days ago.

Is your mind blown yet?

ANYWAY, the Curious George post, T-shirt #322, has sky-rocketed the page views of the blog for today and the WEEK. In just a few hours, T-shirt #322, has vaulted into the top five posts most viewed this week AND climbing... It just gained one more page view since I started typing these comments. It's about to overtake the top post just since this morning.

This is the power of Sunday. Maybe I should wait and announce all my posts on Sundays.

Oh, right, short.

I am sure I can come up with more to say about WMU, but I have at least one other WMU shirt, so I will wait.

I will restrict myself here to how I came by this shirt.

For the last few years, I have been teaching a reading class at WMU. The day before WMU had its big basketball game with the University of Michigan, I wore this shirt, seen above right, to class (It's Michigan in Chinese) without thinking about my student, one A.J. Avery who was on the WMU Varsity Basketball team.

Talk about rubbing it in his face. Geez.

WMU lost, of course. But the next class period, A.J. brought me this nice, white WMU Basketball shirt as a gift.

Now, who was feeling ashamed of himself?

Not so much that I did not wear the shirt to the left later that semester.


Even more embarrassing is the way that the Michigan basketball team was thumped by Iowa yesterday as of this writing (which is the "today" of this entry's original publication). UGH.

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TODAY'S ITEM - WHY T-SHIRTS #9: FANDOM - GO TEAM!

REPRESENT!! Wearing a T-shirt that features a sporting team shows how I represent for my team. This is like wearing GREEN on St. Patrick's Day (which I don't do). I show allegiance.

Also, wearing the team logos, team colors, team art on my body, I keep it close to the heart, where it belongs.

AND ANOTHER also, by wearing the shirt of the team I want to win, I focus positive energy on that team, on that game, on that event, and try to affect the outcome.

Or I am just a goofy fan.

WHY T-SHIRTS EXPLANATORY BLURB: I am doing a series of snippets that will add up to a larger whole answering the "Why T-shirts?" or "What's with all the T-shirts?" question. I have also decided to include the previous items in an ever growing list, hence the "previous items" section next.

PREVIOUS ITEMS
#1: T-SHIRTS ARE COOL
#2: I BE BRANDED - CHOOSING TO ADVERTISE
#3: It's my tattoo
#4 PRIDE AND STATUS - "It's my thing."
#5 -  "LET ME GEEK FLAG FLY!!"
#6 - UNIFORM SHIRTS ARE COOL
#7. PROOF THAT I DID IT - SHIRTS FOR EVENTS
#8. THE FICTIONAL REALITY - THIS T-SHIRT WOULD EXIST
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OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUNTDOWN: Hi. Thanks for reading. I am posting this "boilerplate" text everyday for the last TWENTY posts in the T-SHIRT blog year, which started on March 22, 2013. I will close out daily transmission on March 21st, day 365 of my T-shirt blog-tastic extravaganza spectacular. I will give myself a short hiatus of total non-transmission or  publication for an as yet undetermined period of time, though I am estimating about two weeks. After my blog vacation hiatus, I will resume T-shirt posts on a regular basis, also as yet to be determined (weekly? Twice monthly?) to finish blogging about all the T-shirts that were not featured in the blog year. At some point, once I feel I am rolling along nicely, I will begin regular posting through my main blog: SENSE OF DOUBT. T-shirt posts will direct to the T-shirt blog from SENSE OF DOUBT. I will continue to post THE WEEKLY COMIC LIST, the features of occasional T-SHIRTS I AM WEARING THIS WEEK, book reviews, comic book reviews, and other popular culture nonsense as I have been for a year now but all will go up at SENSE OF DOUBT and some will direct back here to 365 T-SHIRTS. Ultimately, I will begin Internet publication of my fiction, primarily the comic book satire episodic story called POP! among other projects. So, in summary, 365 T-SHIRTS will continue though intermittently. SENSE OF DOUBT will host my main blog presence and fiction writing as well as links to any T-shirt posts shared here. I hope you will continue to follow me in my journey as a writer and a content provider. Thank you for your kind attention and time you have spent with me on this and/or any other day this year. I am humbled and blessed by your readership. - chris tower, blogger, originated 1403.02
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COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 02 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1403.19 - 20:01
UPDATED - 1403.20 - 10:22

T-shirt #352 - Cub Fan - Bart Man

TODAY'S COUNT: 13 blog posts remaining in the T-shirt year!!

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T-shirt #352 - Cub Fan - Bart Man

Baseball season is upon us, and I am making my nefarious plans for my Fantasy Baseball Empire with my first draft tonight.

Actually, I am going to wing it. I don't have time to prepare my own stats log and analysis, so I am going with the work of Baseball Forecaster and my own reasonable intuition for this league, in which I placed eighth of twelve last year. I think I can beat that record.

I did not win any of my leagues last year. The best I finished was second out of eight. I finished fourth in the league I run (TIGER TOWNE), third of eight in a league run by my friend Craig, and sixth of twelve in a New England league. I was kicked out of a rotisserie league run by a crazy madman, so I decided to reboot his league with the other players who may well be disgruntled.

Today, I am renewing the "hiatus shirt" mandate in order to possibly catch up by Monday on the seven incomplete blog entries found elsewhere via my main address. They are now sufficiently buried so as not be so persistent to my psyche's wellness, and yet, I know they are there.

Several gravitational anomalies aligned in the galaxy to produce this blog, which originally had been schedule as not one other but two other shirts.

And then I saw this: 365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 66: The Finkatronic Ray, which reminded me of my Cub Fan Bart Man T-shirt as a herald (get it? If you're a comic geek given my picture of Homer-Galactus below, you will get it.) of SPRING and BASEBALL SEASON.

I have given shouts to both the BULLY SAYS COMICS OUGHTA BE FUN and the wonderful Pencil Ink blog, and this morning I decided to let those bloggers know of my appreciation for their efforts with comments on their sites.

Bully is doing a 365 Days of Kirby Tech series, which, yesterday, manifested as tech from the Simpsons comic. Wonderful stuff. Here's one of the pics he shared from Panels from "Captain Cupcake and Pieboy!" in Simpsons Super Spectacular #5 (July 2007), script by Mike W. Barr, pencils by James Lloyd, inks by Andrew Pepoy, colors by Rick Reese, letters by Karen Bates.

Meanwhile, I decided to post -- pretty much -- just pictures today. So here, we go (with a little text in between, D'oh!!) Okay, Don't have a cow, man.

There are 21 entries (including today's) in my Baseball category, which is a sport name that -- as you may or may not know -- I like to deify with a capital letter.

I featured the shirt that goes with this hat in T-shirt #182.

Here's some text from that blog:

T-shirt #80: Detroit Tigers est. 1901 may be my best  Baseball post so far, though T-shirt #115: Chicago Cubs est. 1876 also shares a great deal of good Baseball stuff. I love the sense of history. I love the stats. I love my teams.

But it's all best summed up by this quote from the great Ernie Harwell:

"Baseball is a ballet without music. Drama without words. A carnival without kewpie dolls. Baseball is continuity. Pitch to pitch. Inning to inning. Season to season."

When I saw this T-shirt, I had to have one. I like the Simpsons, but I would not characterize myself as a massive Simpsons fan like some folks.

"Don't Have a Cow, Harry!" refers to Harry Caray, former announcer for the Chicago Cubs, who always used to say "Holy Cow!" and since Bart Simpson often says "Don't Have a Cow, Man" then this is a great joke connection.

Harry Caray died in 1998. Here's a little weird irony: in the 2003 playoffs, one of the Cubs few post-season appearances in the last 20 years. In October of 2003, the Cubs were playing in the National League Championship series against the Florida Marlins (who won the World Series that year), there's one incident that is defined as the losing moment for that Cubs team, preventing them from advancing to the World Series. It has come to be known as the STEVE BARTMAN INCIDENT.

Lifelong Cubs fan Steve Bartman interfered with a catch by Cubs outfielder Moisés Alou. Had Alou caught that ball for the out, the Cubs would have been four outs from the National League title and the World Series. As it turned out, the Cubs lost the game and eventually the series.

Get it? The shirt is "Bart Man" and is from Cubs merchandise no later than 1998 and possibly earlier, and yet it foreshadows the infamous "villain" of the Cubs' 2003 loss. Really, it's a sad thing. Steve Bartman is a well meaning Cubs fan who got caught up in the excitement of a ball coming his way and made a mistake, like we all do (make mistakes that is). It just so happened to be a mistake that is believed to have cost the Cubs a National League title and a shot at winning the World Series.

Remember how in yesterday's blog I mentioned saving time for date night with my lovely wife? Well, here's our sashimi/sushi dinner from Friday the 7th of March using a gift certificate given to use for Christmas.

We love delicious sashimi/sushi at KUMO.

YUM.

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This is the shirt I am actually
wearing today

OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUNTDOWN: Hi. Thanks for reading. I am posting this "boilerplate" text everyday for the last TWENTY posts in the T-SHIRT blog year, which started on March 22, 2013. I will close out daily transmission on March 21st, day 365 of my T-shirt blog-tastic extravaganza spectacular. I will give myself a short hiatus of total non-transmission or  publication for an as yet undetermined period of time, though I am estimating about two weeks. After my blog vacation hiatus, I will resume T-shirt posts on a regular basis, also as yet to be determined (weekly? Twice monthly?) to finish blogging about all the T-shirts that were not featured in the blog year. At some point, once I feel I am rolling along nicely, I will begin regular posting through my main blog: SENSE OF DOUBT. T-shirt posts will direct to the T-shirt blog from SENSE OF DOUBT. I will continue to post THE WEEKLY COMIC LIST, the features of occasional T-SHIRTS I AM WEARING THIS WEEK, book reviews, comic book reviews, and other popular culture nonsense as I have been for a year now but all will go up at SENSE OF DOUBT and some will direct back here to 365 T-SHIRTS. Ultimately, I will begin Internet publication of my fiction, primarily the comic book satire episodic story called POP! among other projects. So, in summary, 365 T-SHIRTS will continue though intermittently. SENSE OF DOUBT will host my main blog presence and fiction writing as well as links to any T-shirt posts shared here. I hope you will continue to follow me in my journey as a writer and a content provider. Thank you for your kind attention and time you have spent with me on this and/or any other day this year. I am humbled and blessed by your readership. - chris tower, blogger, originated 1403.02
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HIATUS TEXT: REVISED 1402.18:  I have been trying to maintain a hiatus from large or over involved blog posts beginning with the start date of my hiatus on January 20th (almost a month ago) during which time I logged 21 posts, which I consider "Hiatus Shirts." By this term, Hiatus Shirt, I mean the shirt is not one that would cause me to write a great deal on the subject it features. These are shirts about which I can write anything, either a lot or a very little. The hiatus will continue, though as it has for the last few weeks, not consecutively as I will continue to mix Hiatus and Non-Hiatus shirts. The blog's year (365 shirts) draws close to a close. (I like the double word use in that previous sentence.) I hope to finish strong with some good entries with high quality content and imagery on some beloved subjects. To earn this time, I will need to intersperse shirts of little consequence, what I have come to call Hiatus Shirts.

My original goal of working ahead remains. I need time to write the enormously lengthy text to complete the extensive love letter to certain beloved popular culture icons featured on my many special shirts. Even with "Hiatus Shirts," I will try to share some worthy content as I have either an idea, a new suggestion of something to read/look at/listen to, or another installment of my various features, such as the WHY T-SHIRTS item, the WEEKLY COMIC BOOK LISTS, and the SHIRT I AM ACTUALLY WEARING TODAY among others. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

Thanks for reading. I am always honored that people have taken some of their valuable time to look at my ongoing web writing project. Keep checking this address. I promise to make it worthwhile.
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COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 13 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1403.08 - 13:11

T-shirt #324 - WMU - Big White Basketball shirt

T-shirt #324 - WMU - Big White Basketball shirt

I am not wearing this shirt.

It's a XXL. It's a little big for me.

An XL is big on me, but just big enough. That's how I like it.

I went to Western Michigan University for several undergraduate courses, even before, technically, I graduated from Kalamazoo College.

For awhile, I considered studying to be a secondary education teacher in the public school system.

I changed my mind.

I decided instead to earn degrees in literature and creative writing: fiction, and so I did graduate studies at WMU earning a Masters and a Masters of Fine Arts, the latter of which was, supposedly, a terminal degree.

This is a "short" entry because I am supposedly on "hiatus," at least that's what the boilerplate I keep pasting in here says.

READER: How's that "hiatus" working out for you, T-shirt Blogger Man?

T-SHIRT BLOGGER MAN: Not great.

READER: How come?

T-SHIRT BLOGGER MAN: I am not getting ahead as I planned. If anything, I am falling farther behind.

READER: I have noticed. I visit your blog every day and the unfinished entries are... unsettling.

T-SHIRT BLOGGER MAN: For you and me, both.

READER: Are you ever going to finish that Abbott's entry? And what do you have to say about Robin? And aren't some of your drafts in the drafts section MONTHS old, and if you promise to kick it, I promise to hold the football and not snatch it away at the last second.

T-SHIRT BLOGGER MAN: ARRRRRGGGG!!!!!!

BLOGGERY REPORT:  Thursday's Curious George entry, which I finished last night as of this writing, which was Saturday, even though this entry was published on Saturday, and now it's Sunday as I type....AND I updated it on Sunday, which is today, though in terms of when this entry was published it's tomorrow AND two days ago.

Is your mind blown yet?

ANYWAY, the Curious George post, T-shirt #322, has sky-rocketed the page views of the blog for today and the WEEK. In just a few hours, T-shirt #322, has vaulted into the top five posts most viewed this week AND climbing... It just gained one more page view since I started typing these comments. It's about to overtake the top post just since this morning.

This is the power of Sunday. Maybe I should wait and announce all my posts on Sundays.

Oh, right, short.

I am sure I can come up with more to say about WMU, but I have at least one other WMU shirt, so I will wait.

I will restrict myself here to how I came by this shirt.

For the last few years, I have been teaching a reading class at WMU. The day before WMU had its big basketball game with the University of Michigan, I wore this shirt, seen above right, to class (It's Michigan in Chinese) without thinking about my student, one A.J. Avery who was on the WMU Varsity Basketball team.

Talk about rubbing it in his face. Geez.

WMU lost, of course. But the next class period, A.J. brought me this nice, white WMU Basketball shirt as a gift.

Now, who was feeling ashamed of himself?

Not so much that I did not wear the shirt to the left later that semester.


Even more embarrassing is the way that the Michigan basketball team was thumped by Iowa yesterday as of this writing (which is the "today" of this entry's original publication). UGH.

After posting the Curious George entry via Twitter, this band started following me, so I am following them back.

Described as a "drunken Steroelab," I was intrigued. Not bad.

Monkeys In Love - An Owl With Hands

HIATUS TEXT: I am taking a short hiatus. A "hiatus" for the 365 T-shirts Blog does not mean that there will not be shirts or that I will skip posting on any forthcoming day. There will be shirts. But the shirts will not be exciting or the featured shirts will not require me to write a small novel to properly generate the content I feel is sufficient. I created a category for my hiatus so as to group together those "easy" shirts that I consider to be "hiatus shirts." The goal of the hiatus is to fill in many blog days with easy shirts in order to complete longer love letters to beloved popular culture icons on more special shirts and to write more complex entries AHEAD OF TIME. The daily grind is becoming too much and causing me to fall behind and to be forced to post incomplete entries. I am hoping that a series of hiatus shirts will allow me to catch up, get ahead, and stay ahead. Ideally, I would like to be writing the bulk of each entry three days ahead while always working on at least one other. I have a lot of great shirts to share before the end of my blog year (after all I was just given SIXTEEN shirts for my birthday). Stay tuned. I promise to post the more interesting and longer T-shirt entries as I finish them. Thanks for reading. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 41 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1402.08 - 20:32
final publication - 1402.09 - 14:34

T-shirt #319 - Ultimate Centrals Regionals 2001 Orange Shirt

T-shirt #319 - Ultimate Centrals Regionals 2001 Orange Shirt

Yes, another Ultimate shirt. And why not? It's Ultimate Mondays.

I featured the blue version and long sleeved shirt of this design and from this tournament in T-shirt #277.


I am still in hiatus mode. But I am also still behind schedule and struggling to work ahead.

Is there really anything to say about this shirt? Not really. It's a nice burnt orange color, unlike the blue one I shared in T-shirt #277.

Today, a bit of text to make a post-Super Bowl point and a bunch of pictures. Atop the blog today, a stack of shirts waiting to be photographed (with me in them). Just a little preview of what's to come because this is the 365 T-shirts blog. I like having a lot of pictures in the folder ready to go. I also like choosing a shirt just for that day and getting the photos once the inspiration strikes. But as I close in on the end of the blog year, I suspect I will be a little less motivated by inspiration. In fact, soon, I may have an accurate count of how many shirts I have left. I suspect I have more than the number remaining in my year, which is forty-six.

On winning and attracting and receiving

The Super Bowl from last night was very disappointing, especially since I picked Denver, and Seattle spanked them 43-8. I feel badly for Peyton Manning.

People claim that prayer works. There's actual evidence that focusing positive energy on an outcome affects the outcome. This concept reminds me of a movie called The Secret, which I have seen several times. The film purports to be a documentary about the secret to prosperity, which is the law of attraction. There's some good content in the movie, and I have written about it the times I have written about gratitude (such as here in T-shirt #252).

I am more interested in the way to attract love and positive things rather using this secret to attract money. However, one person interviewed described envisioning checks in the mail rather than bills, and when he did, checks started to arrive, money for him in his mailbox, rather than bills to pay. I always thought this was an  stupid example, especially since the guy is an INVESTMENT BANKER.
So, of course, he's going to get checks in the mail.

Lately, I have been waiting for a check to arrive. I visualized daily, and ever day, for over a month, there were no checks. Then finally, today, there was a check. I think this shows that the mind attracts when it is NOT FOCUSED on the thing desired. Serendipity is much more powerful than visualizing and attracting and receiving consciously. This connects to how I met Liesel. I had been looking for love so much and had received so little. And then, when I did not expect it, when I was not looking, my life totally changed.

There's a power of the Collective Unconscious at work here, but the attraction, the magic, happens as a result of the consciousness turning AWAY from the thing desired and not actively desiring it. Only when the mind is occupied elsewhere can the thing materialize.

This also proves that Denver may win the Super Bowl next year.

And now some pictures.

On the left, a "selfie" from today. This is the shirt I am actually wearing. I am anticipating the release of the Veronica Mars movie, which is March 14.

Below, I have included a picture of my pal Tom Meyers (the Loc or Lord of Chaos), my wife Liesel, and me at Food Dance from Friday night January 31st celebrating good news that Liesel received that day (which may not yet be for public transmission) and Tom's imminent interview with a prospective employer.




Next, because I am a bit obsessive about documentation, I have several pictures of my birthday cards (also Ivan's cards as he is a "grandson"). My family has always been big on cards. I wrote about the card Liesel gave me in T-shirt #302: Green Lantern.

The next two pictures document the upcoming T-shirts to some extent. The first picture shows the stacks in my office and the recent gifts of cool, retro, re-issue toys and a Star Trek game.

There are not enough Satchel pictures on my blog. The last image is one that I found on the Internet to go in my first computer program in my C# programming class.

HIATUS TEXT: I am taking a short hiatus. A "hiatus" for the 365 T-shirts Blog does not mean that there will not be shirts or that I will skip posting on any forthcoming day. There will be shirts. But the shirts will not be exciting or the featured shirts will not require me to write a small novel to properly generate the content I feel is sufficient. I created a category for my hiatus so as to group together those "easy" shirts that I consider to be "hiatus shirts." The goal of the hiatus is to fill in many blog days with easy shirts in order to complete longer love letters to beloved popular culture icons on more special shirts and to write more complex entries AHEAD OF TIME. The daily grind is becoming too much and causing me to fall behind and to be forced to post incomplete entries. I am hoping that a series of hiatus shirts will allow me to catch up, get ahead, and stay ahead. Ideally, I would like to be writing the bulk of each entry three days ahead while always working on at least one other. I have a lot of great shirts to share before the end of my blog year (after all I was just given SIXTEEN shirts for my birthday). Stay tuned. I promise to post the more interesting and longer T-shirt entries as I finish them. Thanks for reading. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 46 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1402.03 - 20:11
final publication - 1402.04 - 8:11
(ooooh... weird synchronicity. Blog entry and update published 12 hours apart!)

T-shirt #318 - TPTA Corporate Olympics Shirt B

T-shirt #318 - TPTA Corporate Olympics Shirt B

Watching the Super Bowl.

I am blurry.

I am tempted to leave the entry alone with only the text above.

This is the second of two shirts that I have that are the same. My other shirt was posted as T-shirt #309.

HIATUS TEXT: I am taking a short hiatus. A "hiatus" for the 365 T-shirts Blog does not mean that there will not be shirts or that I will skip posting on any forthcoming day. There will be shirts. But the shirts will not be exciting or the featured shirts will not require me to write a small novel to properly generate the content I feel is sufficient. I created a category for my hiatus so as to group together those "easy" shirts that I consider to be "hiatus shirts." The goal of the hiatus is to fill in many blog days with easy shirts in order to complete longer love letters to beloved popular culture icons on more special shirts and to write more complex entries AHEAD OF TIME. The daily grind is becoming too much and causing me to fall behind and to be forced to post incomplete entries. I am hoping that a series of hiatus shirts will allow me to catch up, get ahead, and stay ahead. Ideally, I would like to be writing the bulk of each entry three days ahead while always working on at least one other. I have a lot of great shirts to share before the end of my blog year (after all I was just given SIXTEEN shirts for my birthday). Stay tuned. I promise to post the more interesting and longer T-shirt entries as I finish them. Thanks for reading. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

Today, Sunday February 2nd, Ground Hog's Day, was actually a day off. I did NO WORK at all, which is very rare for me.

Since my friend is visiting, we played D&D (Pathfinder) in the afternoon, and enjoyed a lavish food spread created by my wife in the evening as we watched the Super Bowl.

My wife continually proves that she is an amazing human being, and I continually renew my knowledge that I am very lucky to be married to her.

TODAY'S PHOTOS

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 47 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1402.02 - 20:32
final publication - 1402.04 - 8:27

T-shirt #317 - Cubs - Blue Stripes

T-shirt #317 - Cubs - Blue Stripes


I misnumbered yesterday. Once the URL is set, it cannot be changed.

I need to catch up, so I am leaving this one with very little text.

The next WHY T-SHIRTS is going to be about team sports, but since I have other team shirts, I will write the full explanation of this concept later.

Though I doubt the concept is too strange.

REPRESENT.



















Team love is close to the heart.

Wear the gear, infuse the team with positive energy to overcome adversity and win out against all opponents.

WHY T-SHIRTS EXPLANATORY BLURB
I am doing a series of snippets that will add up to a larger whole answering the "Why T-shirts?" or "What's with all the T-shirts?" question. I have also decided to include the previous items in an ever growing list, hence the "previous items" section next.

PREVIOUS ITEMS
#1: T-SHIRTS ARE COOL
#2: I BE BRANDED - CHOOSING TO ADVERTISE
#3: It's my tattoo
#4 PRIDE AND STATUS - "It's my thing."
#5 -  "LET ME GEEK FLAG FLY!!"
#6 - UNIFORM SHIRTS ARE COOL
#7. PROOF THAT I DID IT - SHIRTS FOR EVENTS

TODAY'S ITEM - WHY T-SHIRTS #8 - FANDOM - GO TEAM!

REPRESENT!!

More on this subject later.

HIATUS TEXT: I am taking a short hiatus. A "hiatus" for the 365 T-shirts Blog does not mean that there will not be shirts or that I will skip posting on any forthcoming day. There will be shirts. But the shirts will not be exciting or the featured shirts will not require me to write a small novel to properly generate the content I feel is sufficient. I created a category for my hiatus so as to group together those "easy" shirts that I consider to be "hiatus shirts." The goal of the hiatus is to fill in many blog days with easy shirts in order to complete longer love letters to beloved popular culture icons on more special shirts and to write more complex entries AHEAD OF TIME. The daily grind is becoming too much and causing me to fall behind and to be forced to post incomplete entries. I am hoping that a series of hiatus shirts will allow me to catch up, get ahead, and stay ahead. Ideally, I would like to be writing the bulk of each entry three days ahead while always working on at least one other. I have a lot of great shirts to share before the end of my blog year (after all I was just given SIXTEEN shirts for my birthday). Stay tuned. I promise to post the more interesting and longer T-shirt entries as I finish them. Thanks for reading. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 48 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1402.01 - 18:57
final publication - 1404.04 - 8:41

T-shirt #286 - Michigan - The Rose Bowl 2005

T-shirt #286 - Michigan - The Rose Bowl 2005 - Happy New Year!

I do not own any Michigan State University Spartans gear. I wish the Spartans well and a victory today in the Rose Bowl.

I am ashamed of Michigan's performance in the so coveted (that's sarcasm) Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. I don't even want to write about it.

I know I promised comic book content today, but that will have to wait. Today's entry will be short. But I will share a few photos or images that have been sitting in my T-shirts blog folder. I know I did photos yesterday, but I promise to only share a few.

Hey, it's New Year's Day!! Happy New Year to you and yours. 

Oh, and I don't make New Year's Resolutions. I make resolutions all year. I have lived up to many of mine as evidenced by this damn thing.

So instead of resolutions, some geeky and sundry various nonsense. Enjoy.

But I do like this resolution that I posted to Facebook (via Warren Ellis via someone else).

These next two links may not work unless you are registered to and/or logged in to Facebook and/or Good Reads. But I post them here for posterity or my own reference. But give them a try. Or try them via my Facebook and/or Good Reads pages.

YEAR IN REVIEW - FACEBOOK

My books from 2013 on Good Reads

If not, here's the books.

I love this cartoon. I am posting it separately to Facebook to make sure more people see it. Thank you Twitter-world.

I also love the following cartoon.

Along with yesterday's Roald Dahl quote, this was one of my favorite things Liesel posted all year.

Just because.

Well, not really.

A student of mine got this as a tattoo.

And I am teaching mythology, so it was meaningful.

From my wife, just this morning.

THE BEST TIME TO BLOG

I may return to the subject above in a future post.

Crazy big win in fantasy football.

The awesome New Yorker cover by Chris Ware.

If you do not know Chris Ware, click his name. Or Google Search images of Chris Ware to see his amazing art.

The equally awesome New Yorker cover by Adrian Tomine. I wrote about Adrian Tomine most notably in T-shirt #98 - Optic Nerve. 

The pets, recent photos. First Vespers and then Satchel.

Sleeping puppy...

sleepy puppy.

'Nuff said. (following photo via Warren Ellis)

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 79 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1401.01 - 10:16