Author Archives: brent

An Unconventional Way to Make Money in Vegas

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This past Wednesday, my brother and I munched on a delicious lunch inside the Planet Hollywood Miracle Shops on the Las Vegas strip. We were eating at La Salsa Cantina, a Mexican restaurant toward the back of the mall. Serving a mean queso dip and large burritos, we filled up while eyeing from our indoor deck seats the scene taking place right across us.

Here is my food at La Salsa Cantina

Here is my food at La Salsa Cantina

We watched as two guys standing outside of the store space across from the restaurant emerged out into the mall walkway and started asking people passing by if they would like to view a television show in exchange for $15. Because the only thing separating our table from the general walkway was a two foot fence, we could easily hear these men pitching the offer to the Planet Hollywood patrons along with the responses. It seemed like half the people said “yes” and half the people said “no”. My brother and I looked at each other and conferenced for about thirty seconds and decided that this was something we wanted to do.

Glen sitting at our table on the restaurant indoor deck right before we accepted the challenge.

Glen sitting at our table on the restaurant indoor deck right before we accepted the challenge.

To make it look like we were not purposely trying to get selected, we paid our tab and ducked out of the restaurant with our heads hung low walking the opposite direction of the two men. When we reached a point where we no longer were in eye sight we turned back and walked toward the petitioners, trying to give off the best “PLEASE pick me” look that we could. Sure enough, the guys asked us if we wanted to participate and we said yes.

One of the guys took us into the actual store and for the first time I realized what it was called…Test America. It indeed was a research center! They led us to the upstairs of the center and asked us a few questions. We answered and then they told us to hold tight. We stood on the upstairs balcony that overlooked the Planet Hollywood shops, a very nice view. Within two minutes the guy came back and he offered us a new proposition: “Hey, how would you guys like to make $85 instead of $15? All you have to do is participate in a focus group after the show. It will take no more than 2 hours of your time.”

Part of the view we got from the balcony.

Part of the view we got from the balcony.

Under most circumstances we would have said yes in a heartbeat but as we were supposed to hang out with our two Vegas friends (Brandon and Madison) in an hour, Glen had to make a quick phone call. Brandon gave us his blessing and we told the Test America guy that we were in! Before we entered the viewing room, we were grilled with a more stringent round of questions from one more employee. He prefaced the questions by telling us that he had to make sure we were qualified. I knew exactly how to answer to make sure we were “qualified” and with Glen taking my lead, we quickly answered questions about how many hours of TV we watch a week, the type of shows we watch, our yearly income, etc. We passed!

We entered the viewing room, a roughly 25 foot by 25 foot space with one table, chairs, and a flat screen television. If I remember the number correctly, 27 people including my brother and myself filled the room. I am fairly certain that we were all tourists, hungry to get a little extra Vegas spending money. Again, another employee came in and gave a short introduction to the show telling us that we were about to watch an unnamed hospital drama pilot. He asked us to watch the show closely and then get ready to give thoughtful feedback afterwards.

The show started and it was definitely a hospital drama! The actors/actresses were all attractive, the show was fast paced, and the lines pretty cheesy. Although I was mildly entertained, by the time the show ended forty minutes later, I was ready for it to be done and ready to get back to Vegas.

The employee came back in and gave us all a survey to fill out about the show. As most surveys go, it contained several scaled questions (on a scale of 1-10) and a couple of open ended response ones at the end. After we finished he collected the surveys and another employee entered and made the following announcement:

“Could I please have these three people get up, leave the room, and follow me? Thanks: Can’t Remember His Name #1, Can’t Remember Her Name #2, and Brent Reser.”

Glen did a good job giving his feedback.

Glen did a good job giving his feedback.

A bit surprised at hearing my name, and yes, it was the last one called, I looked at Glen and walked outside the viewing room into a waiting area. The three of us sat in three available chairs and joked about why we were called out and what was going to happen. Five minutes passed and the same guy came back and handed us a piece of cardstock paper, said “thank you,” and showed us the way out. As we walked out I looked at the document…my $85 check.

I did actually get paid!

I did actually get paid!

It turned out that they had chosen more people than they needed for the focus group so we got randomly selected to bypass that portion of the research and still receive full funds. I waited an hour for my brother to come out and he gave me the low down of the focus group: Many specific/tedious questions, long winded answers, many follow up prompts from the person conducting the focus group, and too many people who thought they were professional critics. As our bank did not have an ATM anywhere near the premises we went to the restaurant right next door to the center and cashed our checks….at a cut of 20%.

After the deduction, we walked away with $68 each. Although not our biggest win in Vegas, that $68 multiplied for my brother that night and it lasted me a long time. Although this is by no means one of my more interesting posts, actually, it is by far one of my most boring ones, it provided my brother and I the affirmation that participating in a quick hour or two of research can be relaxing, interesting, and profitable. Just another good memory of our Vegas trip. Don’t Blink.

Watching the American Country Awards in Person

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My brother, his friend Brandon, and myself were sitting at an outdoor venue in Vegas called the Corner Bar. It is right between Bill’s Gambling Hall and the Flamingo and it offers an elevated deck to sit at and enjoy a cold drink while watching the Vegas throngs walk every direction on the strip. Drenched in the December sunshine and getting a kick out of the people that walked by, we were having an awesome time. The hour approached 4 p.m. and even though I could have been content to sit there the rest of the night, I knew I would kick myself for a long time if I didn’t get up and start heading north on the strip.

“Glen, we have to go down to Mandalay Bay,” I told my brother as we sat in our stools. “I will regret it if I don’t see this show. “

I was referring to the American Country Awards, a mega celebration honoring the superstars of the business annually held at the Mandalay Bay. My brother graciously agreed to walk down with me even though it meant that he might have to hang by himself for a couple hours. You see, we had actually ventured to the Mandalay Bay earlier in the day and tried to get tickets. However, most of the only seats available were in the ultra expensive section and the remaining few left in the more affordable sections were obstructed views and were not together. However, the people at the box office told us to come back right before the show and check again as sometimes seats would open up.

I was prepared to just buy a single seat with an obstructed view and watch the show by myself. However, because we had waited so long I thought that option might had even passed me by. The show started at 5 p.m. and we got to the Mandalay Bay box office at around 4:35 p.m. Expecting the worst, I actually received the best case scenario. Seats actually had opened up, and good ones too! I quickly called Glen over and asked if he wanted to see the show and before he could even answer I told the ticket lady that we would take two tickets…Glen was not going to miss this with me. At $75 per ticket to see the people we listen to on the radio every day, I was not going to let either of us pass this by.

Tickets

Our tickets to the American Country Awards.

We got our tickets and ventured right to the Mandalay Bay events center. First thing I noticed upon entering besides the thousands of cowboys and cowgirls surrounding us? The pristine condition of the arena’s concourse. The place was spotless. We got to our great seats (second level, to the right of the stage) and settled in for the show. Before the show started there were several announcements over the public address system notifying us when it would start, what a great time we were in for, and that the production would be live. The voice also encouraged us to take our seats and to be loud. A few minutes before the show started, a GAC personality came out and gave us a pep talk pretty much echoing what the public address voice had said. He told us to sing along to every song, cheer loudly, and have a great time. He said if we performed all three of these things, we would have a chance to get on television. Finally, the show started…

The voice counted down to the start of the show and Luke Bryan came out and rocked the house, singing “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.” It got me so pumped up and excited to have a seat at the show. Out of all the performers, he was one of my favorites. Besides Bryan, I got to see all of these other stars perform: Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Jake Owen, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Lynard Skynard + Trace Adkins, Kip Moore, Little Big Town, and Lady Antebellum. My other two top performances were by the Lynard Kkynard + Trace Adkins combo and Kip Moore.

Kip Moore performing during the ACA's.

Kip Moore performing during the ACA’s.

Trace Adkins and Kristin Chenoweth hosted the show. Although I didn’t know much about Chenoweth going in, I know a lot now, especially that she is small and that she has an unmistakable voice. The duo did a great job hosting and made me laugh a lot. I will always remember Kristin coming out on stage dressed as Honey Boo Boo.


This was my first ever awards show and let me tell you, they got it down to a science. The show started promptly at 5 p.m. and ended right at 7 p.m. I guess I expected to see more chaos and running around with set changes and stage managers trying to direct people all over the place but none of that occurred. The production ran flawlessly and set changes were quiet and quick. When a performance ended, a simple wall would close sectioning off the old set while the new set was constructed in. You ever wonder what happens during commercial breaks for audience entertainment? At the ACA’s they replayed performances on the big screens from last year’s show. At the conclusion of the old video, the voice over the public address system would countdown to the show beginning again and ask for applause.

Lady A receiving Group of the Year honors.

Lady A receiving Group of the Year honors.

One of my favorite parts of the experience was just to look down on all the talent that sat stage side. I enjoyed watching them interact with each other and mingle from seat to seat during the commercial breaks. Of course you had all of the major country superstars but you also had general celebrities there as well. Carmen Electra, Ron White, Penn and Teller, Natasha Bedingfield, and a couple San Francisco Giants players all presented awards. Even though I don’t get star struck, I do get a little caught up in so much talent being under one roof.

I do admit that probably after the first hour, the show started to run together for me a little bit. When you see so many stars perform and so many celebrities present in such a short time span, you get a little overwhelmed. So naturally, when I mentioned all of the performers above, I know I probably left out one or two…same goes with the presenters. I wouldn’t even dare recapping the show in fear of leaving out significant pieces of the night.

What a great time my brother and I had!

What a great time my brother and I had!

The American Country Awards will go down as a very fond memory for me. Of course the reason that predictably stands out for making this event so memorable was that I got to see my favorite musicians perform under one roof. However, it goes deeper than that. This experience was so awesome because I got to see it in my favorite city, view it in a cool venue, and share it with the one person who I would most want to. I feel very fortunate to have made this part of my Vegas experience. Don’t Blink.

A Successful Vegas Trip With My Bro (December 2012)

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On Thursday night I returned to Missoula after spending the first half of the week down in Las Vegas. I had a wonderful time and I must say, it turned out to be one of the most (if not the most) successful trips I have had down there. How do I count success? Just by the fact that it was probably the least amount of money I have ever spent on a Vegas trip. When it came to gambling, I am pretty sure with everything added in, I actually came up ahead. Of course with all the entertainment and food we indulged in, it made me return home in the red a little but as I was saying it was not nearly as bad as usual. I would just like to briefly summarize my trip.

Glen and I had a great trip in Vegas with our friends, Brandon and Madison.

Glen and I had a great trip in Vegas with our friends, Brandon and Madison.

If you read my previous post, you knew that Glen (my brother) and I stayed in Bill’s Gambling Hall. I said from the onset that it would probably be one of the least glamorous hotels we would stay in and upon checking in my assumption was correct. I got off my shuttle and went to the registration desk. There was absolutely no line at the pint sized check in area. I got my room assignment….floor 1! In Vegas I had always stayed on some ridiculously high floor. Not this go around. I got on the elevator that was ten feet from the check in area and took the shaky one floor ride. The elevator doors opened and our hotel room was right there! Least strenuous trek to a Vegas hotel room ever! I was quite pleased at this because as I looked down the hallway it looked quite dark and scary. The room itself was outdated and weirdly shaped and the bathroom had strange stained glass in it. But we also got a flat screen television and the beds were very comfortable! The room definitely grew on us and it served as a great spot to hang out, listen to music, and gather ourselves before we hit the town. We will never see Bill’s again because it is closing in February but we would definitely stay there again.

 

Not a high roller room, but it did its purpose.

Not a high roller room, but it did its purpose.

My brother and I enjoyed the fantastic weather in Vegas. Especially on Monday and Tuesday the weather was sunny and warm and we pretty much basked in it! T-shirts and shorts were the norm. There was a café/bar right in the middle of the strip that overlooked everything that we enjoyed sitting at and people watching as all the Vegas foot traffic would pass us by. During the night the weather did get a little cool but it was a far cry from the harshness of Montana and Washington.

The weather was sunny most of the time we were in Vegas.

The weather was sunny most of the time we were in Vegas.

Glen and I spent a lot of time on the strip and in downtown Vegas but we also spent some of each day at a place called the Stage Door. The Stage Door is a lounge area specializing in cheap drinks, fifty cent hot dogs, and other cheap food. Located off the strip about two minutes from our hotel, Glen and I would walk down and enjoy ourselves with some of the Vegas locals. We made great friends with one of the workers, Brittany, and she treated us very well. With great music, interesting people, and a completely different take on Vegas, we enjoyed our time at Stage Door and have many fond memories.

Glen and I with Brittany

A really cool part of this trip was that we got to hang with a couple of Glen’s friends who live in Vegas, Brandon and Madison. Glen played baseball with Brandon at Walla Walla Community College and met Madison in the town as well. Brandon and Madison started dating and when Brandon moved back to Vegas after baseball was over, Madison went with him. Two different nights Brandon and Madison drove to the strip and hung out with us. We watched sports together at the Mandalay Bay, laughed out loud as we witnessed people trying to sing karaoke, hung out at the Stage Door, met an old rocker, and had an epic night in downtown Vegas. The couple treated us so well and gave us rides everywhere. Thank you so much Brandon and Madison, we had a great time with you guys!

 

The four of us! (From l-r: Brandon, Madison, me, and Glen).

The four of us! (From l-r: Brandon, Madison, me, and Glen).

There are a few highlights from this trip that I will always remember: 1. While we were down in Vegas, the NFR was going on. I have never seen so many cowboys in my life! They had definitely taken over the city. 2. Thanks to my brother’s amazing eye, we saw Jason Aldean up close and personal as he was playing Black Jack at one of the tables in Mandalay Bay. We watched him keep reaching for money and puffing on cigarettes. As other people started to notice it was him, he got up and left. 3. Glen and I had the opportunity to attend the American Country Awards (ACAs). It was a very special experience as we saw our favorite country superstars perform live. It was also my first ever awards show. I will blog about this exclusively in tomorrow’s post. 4. I cashed at a poker tournament!! In my life, I have never finished in the money at a real casino poker tournament. Glen and I played in one at Bill’s. In a field of about 30 players, I lasted until only four of us were left. After about 20 minutes of the four of us taking each other’s chips back and forth, we made a group decision to chop the pot (split up the prize pool four ways). I felt so accomplished! 5. We participated in a focus group! After eating lunch in Planet Hollywood, we were asked to participate in a focus group. We got paid $85 to watch a 40 minute show and then give our opinion about it. This was definitely something I have never done in Vegas and I will also write a post about it soon.

Can you spot Jason Aldean?!?!

Can you spot Jason Aldean?!?!

 

Luke Bryan performing at the ACA's to open the show!

Luke Bryan performing at the ACA’s to open the show!

 

I want to thank my brother, Brandon, and Madison for a great Vegas trip. Of course we have many other fond memories that won’t make it into this post but I think from what I did offer, you can tell that we had a good time. I already miss Vegas and want to go back. Who wants to go with Glen and I next time? Don’t Blink.

Reser Boys Annual December Vegas Vacation

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If you start reading this post and ask yourself “Hey, haven’t I read this once before?” you might want to call up your doctor and ask for a psychological exam. I say this because chances are you have read a post similar to this one NOT JUST ONCE but several times. Yes, you guessed it, I am off to Las Vegas again.

I know I need to explore a little more but for me there is only one vacation spot and that spot is located in the desert of Nevada. Each year I take vacation for a few days in June and then for a few days in December and for both of those months I prefer to go to Las Vegas. Because I held true to my schedule in the summer, it was only proper to return to Vegas this December.

Funny story, this trip almost got off to a catastrophic start. I checked my flight itinerary several times and was convinced that my flight departed at 6:10 p.m. I planned my whole day around that departure time and at 3:30 p.m. while I was nowhere near my apartment I got a call from my friend Mike (and chauffeur to the airport) informing me that my flight was to take off at 5:15 p.m. After telling him a couple times that he was crazy I checked my itinerary on my phone and saw that he in fact was correct. I mistakenly kept referencing my arrival time in Vegas as my departure time from Missoula (I gain an hour because of a time zone change). I busted out of my office, hurried back home, packed like a mad man, and hopped in Mike’s car. We got to the airport in enough time for the original 5:15 p.m. departure but I quickly learned that my mad dash was a little in vain as the Allegiant worker announced that my flight was an hour delayed.

So that brings me to where I am at now. Sitting in the Missoula Airport waiting out my delay, I can’t wait to get to Vegas. I am ready to leave the snow covered landscape and icy roads of Missoula for the sunny skies and 60 degree weather of Las Vegas. Making this trip even better is that I get to spend it with my brother. This will be our third straight Vegas December trip together. The two of us always have a great time when we are together and it is amplified even more when we are in Las Vegas. In fact, we have so much fun that it doesn’t even matter that we are staying in one of the, how shall I put it, less upscale properties on the strip. This go-around, we will be staying in Bill’s Gambling Hall. How sad is Bill’s? Well, just two weeks ago, Harrah’s Properties announced the closure of the hotel in February. With closure imminent, who knows what shape it will be in when we get there. But we couldn’t care less, my brother and I love poker and Bill’s offers fun and affordable tournaments.

Besides poker what else do we expect to do? Relax. The atmosphere of Las Vegas is like no other and that is what draws my brother and I there twice a year. We have no set agenda, we just want to hang out and enjoy ourselves.

So while I am in the desert over the next few days I will not be posting to Don’t Blink. However, I will be back posting once I return. Have a great week everyone and get some Christmas shopping done! Don’t Blink.

Bad Eating

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One of my major philosophies in life centers on my belief that we can do pretty much anything we want to do through positive self talk. More to the point, we can do whatever we want as long as our mind is telling us that we can. My whole life I have used my mind to continually reinforce to my body that I can accomplish any goal, workout regimen, test, or simple day-to-day task that I want to. Constantly I am running positive thoughts throughout my body from my brain, telling myself to stay on task and stick with my goals. However, sometimes in certain areas my mind lets my body slack off a little bit.

For the past three months, I have struggled with my eating habits. No, I have not struggled in a way that I am eating too little (I wish) but rather the opposite. My discipline has lowered quite a bit and my diet has taken a turn for the worst. Last year I have documented the onslaught of food that comes the way of myself and my co-workers once the fall sports season kicks off in late August. But this year there seems to be even more obstacles than just the typical availability of tasty and high caloric food around the office and in the press box. I think a combination of traveling with the football team on the road this season, going out to eat way too much, having a lot more food in my apartment available, and simply letting my self-discipline slip has contributed to a significant decline in my diet. But there is something more depressing than what I have let my body digest in the recent past. Brent, what could possibly be more depressing? Thanks for asking! What leaves me feeling less than optimistic are the opportunities to eat even worse over this next month.

Holiday dinners are one reason for why my eating habits are so bad during this time of the year.

I am a realistic person and I know I will not be kind to my body this month. With the holiday season upon us, I don’t have the necessary self-control to put a halt to the past few months of garbage eating. Throughout my life leading up through graduating from college I would practice good eating habits during the first 11 months of the year and then use December as my month to let loose and enjoy good food, drinks, and sweets. So obviously if I ate terrible in December back in the day when I would actually eat good majority of the time, I am for sure going to eat like a pig during this month when I have already been doing so for the past 100 days. Ay caramba!

I seriously need to stop eating hot dogs this big.

I leave for Las Vegas on Sunday. That whole week I will most likely fill up on greasy food, buffets, and early morning snacks. Making matters even worse, I won’t be working out during that time either. When I return from Vegas, it will be December 13 and the holiday season will be in full swing. Our department will have Christmas treats available for the taking, well-wishers will drop off tasty and heart-hating plates of candy and food, and yummy holiday spreads will doom me at Christmas parties. Once the actual Christmas week comes around, I will gorge myself on even more yuletide confections and of course I will go way over the top consuming my mom’s cooking. Then of course comes the last week of 2012 and along with it all the appetizers and junk food that accompanies New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

I want to say that I will turn the ship once 2013 starts. Although I have a trip to Orlando right in the middle of the month which will no doubt make any type of revamped diet of mine difficult to follow, I do have confidence that I can make some positive changes. I do feel awful pretty much conceding December as a lost cause. I feel bad that I am negating much of my hard work in the gym with the poor eating habits I have let take over my life. I feel worthless that I have not let the most powerful tool I have, my brain, clamp down on my needless eating. But you want to know the silver lining in all of this? I can blame myself for everything. No one is forcing food down my throat, no one is holding a gun to my head telling me to go eat out at a restaurant for the third time in a week. It all starts and ends with me. I have the power to make changes and get back to where I need and want to be. The ball is in my court and I like my chances….just after December is over of course. Don’t Blink.

Bob Costas

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We live in a society where it is extremely easy to be critical of people who make a living on television, especially the media. Many times we minimize the precision, preparation, and stress that it takes to go in front of a small screen audience. As I have said several times, I enjoy following members of the media and watching their careers develop, and yes, I am critical of many of them myself.

Although I enjoy following all media, I am a sports guy so naturally I have even a sharper eye on the men and women who have the opportunity to cover athletics. I have the people I enjoy and I also have the people I despise. One of these days I plan to write a post detailing my 3 most loved ESPN personalities along with my 3 most hated ESPN personalities. It should be quite a rather fun one that should garner some conversation from all of you.

But tonight’s post is about just one member of the sports media and this person doesn’t even work for ESPN. Rather, this person has served as the face for NBC Sports for many years and has too many Emmy Awards to count. He covers all major sporting events from the Olympics to Sunday Night Football and is widely respected among his peers and his viewing audience. His voice is distinctive, his face is unmistakable, and his credibility is unblemished. I am talking about Bob Costas.

I first became familiar with Bob Costas during the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta where I watched NBC’s coverage of the games as an awe-struck boy from the opening ceremonies all the way through to the closing ceremonies. To say the least, I got exposed to Bob a lot over those two and a half weeks as he covered all the primetime coverage (the 1996 games also introduced me to Greg Gumbel who was working for NBC at the time and anchored the daytime coverage). The way that Costas covered the games with the utmost clarity and respect was so evident that even a ten year old boy like myself could clearly see it.

Fast forward sixteen years later to the present time and Bob Costas is still doing incredible work. Still at NBC, still doing the marquee events, and still looking the exact same as he did back then, he is the best in the business. I think he stands out so much because of his professionalism. He covers everything with complete sincerity and reverence, he doesn’t mess up his lines and he is never caught off guard. He also can cover any event with complete impartiality. So many studio hosts and play by play announcers fail to do this as flawlessly as Bob does. He sets the stage perfectly for the audience to decide which way they will lean when it comes to a certain game or story. He delivers sports in the exact same way as I felt Tom Brokaw delivered the news. Costas never shows ego while on the air, he simply does his job and tells the story and then tosses it over to us to decide.

It is because of this impartiality and “goody-two-shoes” type personality of Bob Costas that I have become very fond of his commentary spots he is now given at halftime during the Sunday Night Football broadcasts. Although I love him for his unbiased and non-preaching ways, I equally enjoy his well-crafted weekly bites of wisdom that NBC gives him the chance to do. Last night he took a big shot at gun rights the day after the tragedy in Kansas City. Because I am friends with and follow a large amount of people from Montana (where gun rights are supported), my Twitter feed blew up with anger over his opinion. In fact, his little halftime sermon actually picked up quite a bit of national attention and criticism as well. Right or wrong, I just kind of admire the fact that Costas can be renowned for his superior straight arrow type broadcasting but every once in a while he can speak his mind and ruffle some feathers.

Bob Costas is a journalist in every sense of the word. Anyone who has any idea about sports knows that if he is covering an event, it is a big deal and that they are going to get a first class production. I think NBC has the perfect plan on utilizing Bob….have him cover sports in his impeccable impartial way 90% of the time and then let him loose for his commentary the other 10% of the time. Costas stands atop the mountain of sports journalism and I will forever watch him. Don’t Blink.

15,000/1,500 Club

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This morning I hit a huge milestone for myself when I simultaneously sent out my 15,000th Tweet and my 1,500th Instagram picture.

This morning I pulled off my biggest social media milestone to date as I managed to hit the 15,000 Tweet mark and the 1,500 Instagram mark at the exact same time. It was truly a day of celebration for me as I managed to coincide these two accomplishments with one tap of the “share” button on my phone, putting a successful end to a personal campaign that I started to eye last week.

At around this time one week ago, I became aware that I was approaching my 15,000th Tweet and my 1,500th Instagram. Upon this realization I immediately thought it would be pretty cool to hit both of these marks at the same time. However, a week ago I was at around 14,800 tweets and 1,425 Instagram pictures, thus I was 200 and 75 posts away respectively from the big milestones. It was at this point where I decided that I would just continue to post as usual to both Twitter and Instagram, knowing that by going at my regular pace I would naturally come upon both marks at around the same time.

My strategy roughly worked. On Monday of this week, I found myself about 20 Tweets out from 15,000 and 25 Instagram pictures out from 1,500. Well, if you know me, even though I Instagram like it is going out of style, I am more known for my prolific Tweeting. Also, Tweeting in general is just something that is much easier to do than posting pictures to Instagram. For most people who utilize both social media services, one Instagram picture is equivalent to about four Tweets. For me, the ratio is a little lower, probably one Instagram picture to every three Tweets. Even at that ratio, I knew I needed to slam on the brakes when it came to Tweeting and amp up my Instagramming if I was going to hit both milestones at the same time.

Yesterday came and I found myself 10 tweets away from 15,000 and 19 Instagram pictures away from 1,500. Now was the time where I really needed to buckle down and force myself to tilt the scale towards Instagramming more. But I couldn’t control myself…I tweeted a few times when I didn’t really need to and then mindlessly replied to my followers via twitter as well. When I got to my 11 a.m. meeting I realized I was three tweets from 15,000 but 15 pictures away from 1,500. Now was the time more than ever to get serious.

I put myself on a “Tweeting Freeze.” I mapped it out and made a plan. I told myself that I would only tweet once that night to promote my blog post, once the next morning (today) to send out my daily “Life’s Little Instruction,” and then finally of course my dual Twitter/Instagram post that would commemorate the benchmarks. So obviously I had the Twitter half of my plan but what about the Instagram half? Well, that part was very simple…post like crazy!

I get annoyed when people Instagram continuously in a short amount of time, filling up the feed with several of their own pictures in a row. However, when it came to Tuesday and today, I became a hypocrite. I started posting the most insignificant content possible. Oh, is that a milk truck? Let’s Instagram it! Should I take a second picture of our office’s blown up dinosaurs? Definitely. Go take a picture of my boss’ mini Christmas tree? You bet! How about snapping a picture of my key chain? Trashy, but I better do it anyway! It went on and on like this until at about 10 a.m. this morning I had caught up and was finally ready to send out my ground breaking post. I was at 14,999 Tweets and 1,499 Instagrams.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do to commemorate the milestone visual wise. I have always laughed at the Wilt Chamberlin photo of him marking his 100 point game by simply holding up a piece of paper with a hand written “100” sloppily depicted on it. Although extremely tacky for such an amazing feat, the picture has lived on in history. In a tribute to Will, I wanted to go for the same thing. On a piece of printing paper I jotted down “15,000 TWEETS” and “1,500 INSTAGRAMS”. Off to the side in small letters I wrote “Don’t Blink”. My co-worker Jerek snapped the picture for me and then I drafted the text to go with it: Thank you for your support! This is my 15,000th Tweet and 1,500th Instagram. Don’t Blink. I then sent it out to the world via my two favorite social media outlets, successfully completing my 15,000/1,500 campaign.

I apologize to everyone who follows me on Instagram. I cluttered up your feed simply for the pursuit of my own personal milestone. Rest assured that I will go back to posting at a more normal rate. As I said in my post this morning, thank you all so much for following me through social media. It has and will continue to be a fun ride. Don’t Blink.

Confrontation at the Gym

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Last Wednesday, a tense situation occurred at the gym that I work out at. Maybe this confrontation took place because everyone was anxious to get their workout done and move onto the Thanksgiving holiday or maybe it was because the aggressor I am about to talk about is just a jerk but either way, the situation I witnessed added a little excitement to what was looking to be just another routine day at The University of Montana Campus Recreation Center.

As I just mentioned, I work out at the campus rec gym located on campus. Sitting literally right next door to my place of work at the Adams Center, it is a two second walk from my office to the gym’s locker room. Besides being extremely convenient, the facility has everything I need, the rates are the best in town, and it is a nice way to stay involved in the campus community. The main drawback is that on a campus of roughly 15,000 people, the gym many times gets very crowded and quite frequently equipment that people would like to use is occupied. This dilemma led to the run-in on Wednesday.

Obviously for some reason I was meant to witness this little spat because it occurred in its entirety right in front of me the second I got off the track from my daily run. A guy probably a couple years younger than me who just happens to be ripped out of his mind needed to use a squat rack. At the campus rec, there are only two such squat racks, a definite disadvantage considering the popularity/necessity of that certain piece of equipment. On this day, of course, both squat racks were currently utilized, putting the agitated guy on the outside looking in. One of the squat racks had the person who was using it, a fit and cute young woman, working admirably as she punched out squat after squat. Although occupied, the other rack, however, did not have a person using it at that specific time. Instead it was just fully loaded with someone’s water bottle sitting right in the middle of the rack. About ten feet behind the squat rack and about five feet to the right are mats used for people who want to do abs, stretch out, or work with the medicine balls. This mat area was where a tall guy who was about the same age as the ripped guy but much less built was sitting at. The water bottle that I just mentioned? It belonged to the tall guy who was trying to work in his squat workout while alternating it with some ab work. This did not sit well with the ripped guy who marched right over to the tall guy to tell him what he thought.

Ripped Guy: (In an angry, accusatory voice) HEY, how many sets do you have left over there.
Tall Guy: (In a respectful, earnest voice) I just have two more.
Ripped Guy: (In an angry, pissed off voice) There are only two squat racks in this whole gym. If you are going to use it, USE IT!
Tall Guy: (In a peacemaking, somewhat surprised voice) You can work in with me, I am almost done.
Ripped Guy: (In an even angrier voice) The weight you are using does not work for me. You gotta move faster, man.
Tall Guy: (Defensive voice, getting angry) I said you can work in with me!
Ripped Guy: (In his angriest voice yet) There are only two fu@#$%^ squat racks in… **I intervene**

At the point that I intervened, the ripped guy was still giving the tall guy a respectable amount of space so it was not like a fight was about to occur but the argument had gone on long enough and voices were escalating. As much as I hate to get in other people’s business I needed to do something at that time, people in the gym were starting to look over and I was by far the closest person to the incident. The least I could do was show a small amount of leadership and step in.

Although I had never said one word to the ripped guy prior to my intervention, we always see each other on a daily basis at the gym so there was that mutual respect that two guys who work hard have for one another. I simply just told him to give the tall guy five more minutes and walked with him down to the other end of the floor.
Point of this post is not to talk about my mediation skills though. It is not to talk about roid rage either. Rather, I just want to get the discussion going on gym etiquette for this particular situation. It is my belief that it is acceptable for a person to occupy two stations of a gym (whether it be a machine, a bench, a mat, a bike, etc) as long as the person is making an above and beyond effort to work back and forth between the two stations in a short amount of time. For example, the tall guy who was doing the squat/ab combo…he should have worked at a pace where after he finished his squat set and moved over to the mat he should have returned to the squat rack for his ensuing set in a time that took no longer than the break someone would take if he/she simply stayed at the squat rack for every set. So, to quantify it, if the guy was leaving the squat rack unattended for no more than about two minutes at a time, there should not be a problem. If he was taking more time and basically letting the squat rack sit idle and neglecting other gym users the opportunity to use the equipment then he was definitely in the wrong and the ripped guy had a very valid point. However, that does not justify the classless and confrontational attitude that the ripped guy took on…he was simply just being a bully.

Like any subculture, life at the gym has its own intricacies and unwritten rules. Everyone who goes into this type of environment should have a basic understanding of how to act. Most people who go to the gym go with the underlying motivation to improve their body and health. This is a very noble goal and something that is especially needed in this country. While achieving this goal for ourselves in the gym, we also need to do whatever is possible to make sure we are allowing others to do the same. Don’t Blink.

My Holiday Message Tradition

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About 5 years ago I started a holiday tradition that I still carry on to this day. Fed up and annoyed with mass texts that people would send simply saying “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Thanksgiving” I wanted to do something that would distance itself from the superficial crap that other people were sending out while at the same time giving my friends and family something to look forward to, laugh at, and maybe even enjoy.

Many of the people who will read this blog post have had the honor (or the horror) of receiving a holiday text from me. Some of you have consistently gotten them over the years, some of you may have just gotten your first one this Thanksgiving, and some of you may have received them before but not anymore. I estimate that I probably send it out to 75% of my current contact list. I try to leave off people who I barely know, people who are easily offended, and people who probably don’t want to put up with my BS. But all in all, I try to share my holiday spirit with everyone.

So what exactly is a Brent Reser holiday text? Well, as I said, I completely despise the impersonal mass texts that people lazily send out during the holidays. So what I decided to do was still reach my friends and family with a holiday greeting but do it in a way that took a little bit of effort. Thus, each major holiday I started to dress up in some ridiculous seasonal garb that matched the specific holiday, choose a cool setting to be in front of, take a picture, accompany the picture with an over the top message, and then send the picture/message out to my contacts.

Although my holiday texts are very goofy and ridiculous, I do take them very seriously. I start thinking about what I want to do several weeks in advance of the holiday. Then, as the holiday draws near, I will go to a party store and purchase supplies for my costume and props. I always spend more money than I should on stupid things that I will only use once for the sole purpose of the picture but I don’t really care. After doing something for five years, you have to keep coming up with different gags and ideas. I usually always take the picture on the actual holiday although a couple times in the past I have taken it the day before for the sake of time such as if I was traveling or if I would be at a place where I could not get my desired setting. My two main photographers of my picture over the years have been either my mom or my brother. I have driven both of them NUTS with the numerous takes I have them do, making sure I get the perfect picture. I mean I am sending it out to 200 people, I got to make sure it is looking good!

I always send holiday texts out on Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. In the past, I have also sent out holiday texts on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and Halloween. Everyone who has received my texts knows that each one will ALWAYS contain a couple of elements. I like to keep the integrity of my holiday messages within the friends and family that I send them to so I won’t disclose fully what those elements are over this blog but I will say it centers around a certain facial expression and a certain beverage. For most of the holidays, my messages will be on the goofier side but I do send out a classier one for the Christmas Day version.

Wow, I have not even got to the actual text part of the message. Accompanying the picture I send out is also a heartfelt, rather long, special holiday greeting from myself. Take the generic “Merry Christmas” text message and multiply it by a thousand to get what I put into it. Although the length of my message might be likened to a book and although many people probably exit out of the message after reading the first sentence, I just like to put the effort into it. As with the picture, there are a couple of constants that I make sure to always include in the text portion. Again, I won’t say exactly what those constants are but I always try to add some humor along with a genuine message. Oh yeah, I also like to include at the end a certain phrase that I am very fond of using…any guesses on that?

Over the years, my messages have evolved a little bit. With the amazing invention of the iPhone, no longer does it take 4 hours and a whole life’s worth of battery to send out my message to my contacts. The process goes much quicker now since the iPhone is much faster and I have the option to send it out to more than 10 people at a time. It is interesting to note, however, that I mostly still send my message out in groups of 10. With the ability of group messaging, I just don’t want to send out a message to 50 people and have a bunch of them replying back to everyone. Let’s just say that not everyone responds to my holiday cheer in an appropriate manner. In fact, the holiday message I sent out this Thanksgiving was the first one where I literally put a disclaimer at the very end reminding people that it was a group message they were receiving and to please take that into consideration if they decided to respond. One drawback of using the iPhone is the inability to insert music with my messages. In the past, I would always have a song/music accompanying the picture and text. It really added a lot to the overall message but unfortunately that option is no longer available.

I know many of you right now are wondering if I am going to include any past holiday message examples in this post. I am not. Again, these messages are reserved exclusively for my dear friends and family through their mobile devices. If you would like to see an example of one or if you would like to get on the list for future holiday messages, please text me to apply.

In closing, are there any other reasons why I continue to do these messages besides the fact that I hate the generic ones that people send out? The answer is yes. Believe it or not, many of my contacts who receive these messages actually enjoy seeing me make a fool out of myself. Many say that each holiday they anxiously await my special message…I am not making this up. Some say that it helps make their holiday. Others say they take it and immediately forward it on to their friends and family. As long as I can continue to add a little more joy to someone else’s holiday, I will continue to keep producing these messages. Don’t Blink.