Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 133

Tuesday, October 5^th was the day I wore this tie. A bold red tie. This is not what I would normally wear. I think I have a hidden fear of enraging a bull, why else would I not wear red? It used to be my favorite color.

Paisley deigns decorate the tie in groups of 3. A very nice tie, but I think it would look better with a dark jacket. Then the red would be a nice addition to an otherwise plain outfit. Uncovered and flopping around the front of my shirt, it was a bit hard on the eyes.

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 132

Come with me now as we enter the “Tie Wayback Machine.” I have fallen terribly behind in my tie posts, but I still make sure a picture is taken everyday. Eventually all ties will have their own post…

I wore tie number 132 on Monday, October 4^th, the day after a win by the Redskins! Notice the emblem on the shirt… I had to wear the shirt after beating the Eagles.

The tie is an odd one with a weave look to it, but not really a weave tie. The front end of the tie is not really smaller than the middle but I think the fabric was squished at some point. The tie is kind of on the thick side so tying the knot, was not as much fun as it usually is (it is never really fun), the knot is huge and folds the tie in an odd way.

But on this day the shirt was the most important thing. The tie was an afterthought.

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 131

Bottom of the tie barrel… There was nothing wrong with the tie I wore last Thursday, but my choices are severely limited now. Last year at this time, I could wander through my closet and have several different ties to choose from to go with any shirt. I have to be careful now. I pick a tie and then try to match a shirt.

My tie selection process more closely resembles life. Limited selections based on previous choices made. It does take far less time to pick a tie and shirt combination, which is good. But I remember when… ties would never end…

This tie has a shimmering look to it. With blue and red dots that seem to fade in and out of the finely woven silk background. I have always liked this tie, but I am partial to black.

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 130

On Wednesday September 29th, I wore this paisley tie. Surprisingly, it actually matched my shirt for the day. But no one cared, not even me. Tie number 130 was unexceptional, much like the wearer of the tie. Which reminds me…

Last week I received a call from the Red Cross. I was very excited because the last time I donated blood I was entered into a drawing for a pair of Redskins tickets. I should have known better. That was not why they called.

I was disappointed, but Joel was a nice guy, so I talked to him. Someone must have told Joel, or the Red Cross, about my personal weakness. It is my need to be the best at something in this world.

My perfectly mediocre existence has taught me that there is always someone better, stronger, faster, smarter than me, and most of the time that person is in the room. I think all people want to stand out because of something, and I am no different. I am sure that no awards are given for being the most awesomely average person in the world. If so, that would certainly be my award.

I am not interested in competing to prove anything to anyone, but when Joel said, “When we looked at your blood we saw that you have an outstanding Platelet count and you would be perfect as a donor for the sick children at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.” I heard outstanding, perfect, and sick children.

How do you turn down sick children? I am outstanding? I am perfect for something? Yes, it takes that little to bend me to your will.

For days I was walking around thinking about my awesome blood. A needle in my arm, not a big deal, I have the good stuff that the world needs! Children who have lost the ability to have blood that clots? I can fix this…

I entertained myself by thinking that my blood would be special enough to start fights at an imaginary Vampire club like some newly discovered whisky lost a hundred years ago in the Antarctic. Yes, it went to my head.

When I walked into the blood donation center at 9 am on Sunday morning, there was Joel. He seemed so excited to see me. I felt like a celebrity. He quickly pulled out a bag full of swag; a reusable water jug, 2 oven mitts, a bag to carry stuff with shoulder straps and a baseball cap. Yes, the guy with the good stuff just showed up. My fans were making sure I was happy.

Shortly afterward I was led to a room with a bunch of people donating blood! Did they lie to me? Was my blood not special? I looked around and decided my blood must be better than this guy because he was older than me. And that lady there, she couldn’t have better blood than me, could she? But as I scanned the room I saw that no one else had a goody bag. I knew then that I had the best blood in the room. Maybe even the world! Two oven mitts- none of them had even one mitt.

My platelets are like a miniature wall building army that plugs all holes in their way. Like an elite Seabee unit. I do have special blood. And don’t even get me started about how exceptional my blood pressure is…

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 129

I decided to go bold with the tie I wore on Tuesday, September 28th. I was inspired by my trip to the outlet mall in Williamsburg the weekend before. The styles I saw placed together in the men's clothing stores made me think of an angry Garanimal cage match.

I saw vertical stripes shirts matched with diamond designed ties. I saw diagonal patterned ties with stripes and even box patterned shirts. To me, they were a little much, but I have a tie mission to fulfill. So I threw caution to the wind and embraced this shirt and tie in a men’s fashion throw down.

The polling at school that day left me with mixed results. My wife was on the hater side, while I did find a surprising number of supporters. I am not normally comfortable having what I wear scrutinized, but it was a fun day. Not that there will ever be a repeat performance…

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 128

Large purple, blue and white hibiscus flowers decorate a blue green background on this tie. The tie I wore on Monday, September 27th, has never been one of my favorites. Too flowery, and too green. But I must admit that it did work well with the shirt.

I have looked at this tie many times and could never figure out what kind of flowers were on it; until today. Looking at the picture, I finally noticed the outline of the petals and then saw the center for what it was supposed to represent- shadow.

It is funny what you notice when you really take the time to look at something. You see it for what it is and not whatever label you had previously decided to give it. Words of wisdom that I can only hope to take back with me to my everyday life…

I have changed my mind. I like this tie.

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 127

On Thursday, September 23rd, I wore this boldly striped tie. Bright, diagonal stripes. Kind of nice, but what I really want to share is the moment of enlightenment I had over the weekend…

I have always wanted to be in a gang. Specifically, a motorcycle gang like Hell's Angels or something, but it seems that owning a motorcycle is a prerequisite to membership. So I am thinking I will start my own gang. Dad's with minivans.

I will give our group a dangerous name. Something scary and powerful like, "Devil's Pit Crew." I am still working on the name, but have already turned down my wife's suggestions of "Geeks on Wheels" and "Dorky Dads." I don't think she understands what I am looking for in a gang name.

You will find us doing donuts in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It’ll be ok, one of the Dad’s will be a cop. He can get us donuts half price at Krispy Kreme.

We will be a tough group; you don't want to mess with this bunch. We will hang out and dare some skate punk to mess with us. He won't, because he knows we have 911 on cell phone speed dial. It is listed right after poison control.

And when we see agood looking woman walking by, she better watch out! You know we will fall all over ourselves trying to get the door for her. And we will offer to help her with her bags. But she will ignore us because mini vans aren't her idea of cool. But we don’t care- because we are rebels.

The only time our language will be coarse in public is when we talk smack about our Fantasy Football team. But no one will know because we will disguise our vulgar words with nonsense screens, as in, "Grebalson mack frabbit!" Just like we do when our children accidently hammer us in the privates while playing a family game of whiffle ball. Other people don't know what we are saying, and that's the way we like it. Daddy code talk.

We are powerful and we know it because we do things like vote (but that is really only so we can be late for work or leave early to go home). The issues we really care about are; When can we turn the channel off of Teletubbies? and Does McDonald’s have the right Happy Meal toy so the kids will stop screaming?

We will be easy to recognize so that you know when trouble has shown up. We will wear t-shirts that are at least ten years old with a couple of holes in it, but we don’t care because it is the most awesome t-shirt ever. We might have cargo pants to carry all the stuff our family shoves at us (because stuffed cargo pants are way cooler than carrying a man bag around). Or we might wear jeans that are too tight, or maybe too large, but they have holes in them because we hate shopping for clothes.

All groups stand for something, and ours will be no different, except that we won’t tell what our real mission is to anyone. We will tell everyone our cover story which is that we want to promote world peace. Did you really expect that the Devil’s Pit Crew would tell the truth?

We will all get cool, scary looking tattoos. But they will the water transfer kind so that if we gain a couple of sympathy pounds our tats won’t sag. Or at least not for very long.

Yes, I think it is time for the Devil’s Pit Crew to form…

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 126

Bugs Bunny sits at the piano in his tuxedo while he ponders the composition he is about to play. Musical notes fill the background as if they have spilled out from his enormous ears. This Looney Tunes tie is fun to wear, but I am afraid it is a little misplaced since I am terribly unmusical. Unless playing the air guitar counts as musical...

This was the tie I wore on Wednesday, September 22nd, and I felt like a musical faker when I was wearing it. Luckily for me, I can now distract you with some useless cartoon information!

I think the idea for this tie came from the Bugs Bunny Cartoon, “Rhapsody Rabbit.” The cartoon was released to theaters in 1946 as a Merry Melodies short. The main differences are that on my tie, Bug's tie is red and the jacket is blue, but I will let you decide.

"Rhapsody Rabbit," from Google Videos.

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 125

The tie I wore on Tuesday, September 21^st, was one of my all time favorite ties. This was the best tie picture that my new Droid X has taken of my ties. I think Calvin kept a steady hand on this one.

Purple is one of my favorite colors, and I love paisley so it is easy to see why this tie ranks high on my “Like” scale. Matched with the purple dress shirt and this was a very good tie day for me.

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 124

Continuing the blurry trend from the week before, the tie I wore on Monday, September 20^th was pretty nice, but you will have to take my word for it.

The light blue pastel background is not my favorite but it is offset by the tiny purple paisley designs that alternate across the face of the tie. I like the tie but it always makes me think of spring and specifically, Easter. So it felt a little out of place for me.

This past weekend I went to the outlet mall in Williamsburg. I stopped in a few men’s clothing stores and found myself judging the tie and shirt combinations that they used for the displays. Many of the sets that were used were not to my taste but I could see how they matched. This kind of bothered me.

I think I have become too conservative and set in my ways. I need to make a bold statement with tomorrow’s outfit. Maybe it is time to bring out the forgotten Christmas tie…

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 123

A solid week behind tie postings… Still trying to catch up!

The tie I wore on September 16^th was a Countess Mara tie that had some interesting diagonal designs on it. Black, maroon, and blue with paisley on it. You know it was a winner with me!

You will notice that the picture is a bit blurry. I have been experimenting with my new Droid X and have still not figured out how I will be using it from day to day. Taking snapshots is great but I think my son’s hand wiggles a bit and it is not always easy to see how blurry the image is until you zoom in. I obviously did not check this picture out before I rushed out the door for work.

Tie a Day (Year 2), Number 122

It is early in the year and I have already fallen behind on my tie postings! I am sure that this is not looked at as any kind of a tragedy by anyone but me, but I hope to get things straight asap.

The tie I wore last Wednesday was a conservative tie from the 80’s. The stitching gives the colors a muted feel so the tie is not a bold colored “in your face” tie, but a more subtle version with pastel colors. This tie was easy to match with a shirt and pants (thank goodness).

I am getting worried about the ties I have left… They are going to challenge me.

Tie a Day- It's a Wrap!

On September 16, 2009, I decided that I would wear a different tie every day of school for the entire school year.

I know, 116 ties does not sound like a lot of ties when the school year consists of 182 days, but here is how it breaks down; Every Friday is jeans day. There are roughly 36 Fridays in the school year, so that leaves 146 days. I missed maybe 10 days this school year between personal sick days, family sick days, and professional leave days, so that knocks down the number to 136. One day a month we have an optional jeans day that you can participate in if you donate $2 to the Relay for Life team we have at school. There are 10 months in the school year, so the number now drops to 126 possible tie days. For the last 10 days that I did not wear a tie that I could have, I have to say that maybe I didn’t because it was a half day of school (3 days), I had a ton of cleanup work to do and didn’t want a tie to get in the way (4 days), or I just got plain ornery and decided I was not wearing a tie just because I didn’t want to that day (3 Days). This is how I justified wearing only 116 ties in 182 days of school.

I created a video so show most of the ties that I wore. I left out some ties because you may notice from the first tie post that I decided to record the ties after the school year had begun. I tried to catch up quickly and take pictures of the ties I had already worn, but of course I took the pictures of the first ties differently from all the rest, and it created problems for me when I decided to make the video below.

If you are interested, here is how I made the video; I used Paint Shop pro to cut out all of the extra stuff in each picture and just leave the tie. Then I converted the file to a transparent png file. I had my oldest son, Calvin, take a picture of me wearing a shirt all buttoned up without a tie. Next, I opened up PowerPoint 2007 and clicked on create a photo album. By selecting all of the plain tie pictures I inserted them all into PowerPoint at once. Then I went into the slideshow and inserted the picture of my buttoned up shirt as the background on all slides. I had to make minor adjustments to align the ties on each slide onto the shirt correctly. I have a Camtasia add on in my PowerPoint, so I recorded the slideshow playing. I saved the file as an AVI and then opened it in Movie Maker and added a Soundzabound’s file as background music. It sounds like a lot of jumping around from program to program, but it was a rather fast and smooth process.

Highlights of the year in ties
I invented the words- tie-cation and tieja vu , or at least I believe I invented them.

I created a new World Record- Most Neckties Worn By A Computer Resource Specialist, sort of a bogus record because of the limitations of the record I created.

Lowlight of the year in ties
I still have 30 or so ties still waiting for their chance to be worn.

The Final Tie, Number 116

Large blue and pink paisley designs, I finished up the year wearing a good tie. I love paisley and blue is one of my color mainstays. The only thing that’s bad about ties that I like is that they are worn out much more quickly. This tie has had the tie loop that holds the back half of the tie down, ripped so that it just dangles.

I am kind of sad that the Tie a Day project is over. While there was always work involved in the process for me, it was something to look forward to each day. Many days went by that I didn’t wear a tie, but I wore one everyday that I needed to and some when I didn’t.

Tomorrow I will post my ties video that will show almost all the ties I wore for the past school year.

Tie a Day, Number 113

This tie is only the second tie that I have purchased for myself. Tie number 107 is the other tie that I bought for myself. I don’t know why but that really seems odd to me. I have somewhere around 160 ties and I have purchased only two.

I guess it is enough to say that I like the tie, it has the color blue in it, and it is made of fine silk.

I have often wondered what to do with all of these ties that I have. I mean, giving them away is always an option, but since most of these ties are from my father, it feels wrong to just drop off a pile of ties at the Salvation Army. Wearing all of the ties on a regular basis is not really an option because there are just too many.

In my quest for tie information I came across a blog called Ties to Pillows. I am pretty sure that I don’t have any skills to pull off such a crafty tie transformation, but I really like this idea!

I wonder if I can talk my mother-in-law into making a tie pillow for me, or maybe a tie quilt. I think that would be a meaningful thing for me to hang onto, and maybe even be passed onto to my kids.

Tie a Day, Number 112

Tie number 112 is another from Countess Mara. I am estimating that about a fifth of my ties fit into this category. I can tell because they all have the little CM and the crown on the front of the tie.

The black background with the small blue ovoid shapes is sure to not upset me as some of the previous ties have done. The tan trim, around the blue shapes, means that the tie will go with brown without a problem. So wearing the tie is a win for me. I can almost wear it with anything in my wardrobe.

Looking up Countess Mara, I found out that Lucille Mara de Vescovi was a real person but not an actual Countess. Perhaps that is not very interesting, but she did build a men’s neckwear empire by making tie that appealed to the elite buyer. At the bottom of the article I saw that Countess Mara ties stopped using the CM and the crown at the bottom of the ties before the 1990’s.

That would make this tie over 20 years old. I feel Like Kramer with my extensive vintage-wear collection.

"Giddy-Up!"

Tie a Day, Number 111

The tie that I chose to wear on Tuesday continued the ugly tie theme. This hideous red, black, grey and tan monstrosity tested my physical limits. Just as I cannot look into the sun without damaging my eyesight, I could not look at this tie without a fear of being blinded.

This medusian neckwear offended me; its pattern a visual vulgarity. The colors by themselves are harmless, like an insect pollinating a flower. Arranged in this pattern, the colors become a dangerous swarm, capable of killing a man.

Perhaps I exaggerate, but not by much.

Tie a Day, Number 110

I have decided to wear ties when they; 1) go with the clothes I want to wear, and 2) whichever tie matches first. Regardless of how ugly the tie is, I pick one tie that matches and move on. It is important to me that I give them all an equal opportunity to be worn and shared with the world.

I imagine that when I am not around all of my ties have secret meetings about me and discuss how fair, or unfair my choices are to each tie. My cat, Ducky, sits in judgment of each case and determines what punishment is appropriate for each infraction, and then acts accordingly.

When I mistreat a particular tie, and the offense is minor, she might try out the annoying meow that is amazingly loud for such a small animal. This punishment is administered when I am almost asleep, and she is somewhere on the floor. It is like a small siren that makes my heart race as if an ambulance is paying a visit to the house.

As level of tie offense escalates, so does my penalty. I might find a tasty hairball right where I step to get on, or off the bed- just to remind me that every tie should get a chance to leave the house for a little tie-cation.

Sometimes I awake in the middle of the night to find Ducky with her behind just inches away from my nose. I am sure this is some sort of cat threat, but I can’t exactly place it on the tie penalty scale. Even though nothing really happens, it is a scary event, and she knows I don’t like it.

The worst thing I can do is to totally disrespect a tie in front of his peers. Maybe I hold it up and say something like, “Oh God no! I can’t wear this tie. It is butt ugly!” The penalty, if you can imagine, is extreme. Ducky will climb up on the bed, and urinate right where I sleep.

Having animals and small children, my wife and I do have a plastic bed cover that protects the mattress from such harsh judgments. So no permanent damage is done, just an assault on my sleeping zone and the annoyance of being forced to change the sheets. My cat is smart, being 15 years old, she knows exactly how to upset me.

And all the ties in my closet rejoice…

Like this ugly one that I wore yesterday. Red background with a blue, yellow and white paisley design; I have never really liked this tie, but I was careful to not announce it in front of the other ties before leaving the house on Monday. The cat was watching me the whole time!

Tie a Day, Number 109

Last Monday I wore this tie. It seems like I am far behind in my tie blog, but I am not. Last week was the beginning of online SOL testing in my school and I decided to eliminate all extra things that were not SOL related, from my daily worries. So, I only wore one tie the whole week.

It sounds like overkill, but the SOL’s really stressed me out. I think they are wrong for students. My fear was that I would subconsciously do something to sabotage the test. I spent many days leading up to the tests, and during the tests, staying busy double and triple checking things, and mostly worrying. I did not want to be the SOL Test screw up poster boy!

Oddly enough, even thinking about what tie to go with what shirt seemed too much to do. I spent the whole week working hard at school, exercising and sleeping. And I killed a half gallon or more of ice cream. That is not normally my style, worrying about SOL’s, or anything else, but this was our first time testing on computers, and specifically laptops. Everything went well, so, back to the tie-

This tie is very earthy with its green background and brown and tan paisley design across it. It is not one of my favorite ties. I knew I was in trouble on Monday when it took me 10 minutes to pick out this tie. I basically gave up and decided I could not make any more tie choices for the week.

Tie a Day, Number 108

Last Thursday’s tie was one that I think is seriously ugly. It has a lot of blue in it so I have plenty of choices to go with it, but the design it where it goes wrong for me.

I think this was one of my father’s hand-me-downs because I don’t remember receiving it as a gift. I am certain that I have never worn it before last Thursday.

The only redeeming quality of this tie is that it reminds me of Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon,” album cover, which is one of the greatest albums of all time. Although I must confess that hearing any of the songs now depresses me. Nothing against the music, it is wonderful, but the album is a tribute to a founding member’s struggle with mental illness. It is not the most uplifting music you will ever hear.

But back to the tie; ugly! Just because I wanted to do something I haven’t done before, I wore it.