My Story

The Offspring Helped Me Find My Self Esteem

The Offspring’s “Self Esteem” lyrics got me through some rough years.

Damn you, Samantha.

I never trusted you, and I was right.

But logic has zero ability to defend itself against the deluge of hormones that release during your teenage years.

In particular, there’s that remarkable age range where getting fucked over is magnified by knowing you’re getting fucked over. Then you get “rewarded” with the double bonus of beating yourself up for walking right into the torture chamber.

The only song for me while Samantha held me in her web was “Self Esteem” by The Offspring.

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Are Mets Season Tickets Worth It? My 2021 Baseball Experiment.

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

Mets season ticket holders received a commemorative ticket as a “gift.”

Are you debating whether or not to pull the trigger on Mets season tickets? I made the plunge this past season. And like you, I reached the end of the Internet to help make my decision. After trolling Reddit and obsessively Googling questions like, “are baseball season tickets worth it” and “how do season tickets work?” and “Mets season ticket packages”– I took the calculated risk and went with a 20-game package.

Despite my intense research, I found very few answers, making me wonder if the Mets season ticket experience is purposely shrouded in secrecy, a pact made by MLB teams and super fans to preserve a host of benefits only unlocked for the fortunate few who make the plunge.

This article aims to talk about some of the lesser-discussed nuances of being a baseball season ticket holder.

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Spring Break 1995: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Have the Pictures to Prove It

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This is the story of four boys from Queens making their way to Cancun, Mexico for Spring Break in the 1990s. With a legal drinking age of 18, going south of the border was the only viable destination.

Thanks to an old school travel agency, the kind where you sit on the other side of a desk from a human being and plan a trip, we were able to make our booking and pay in installments. Without the “layaway” option, that $600 trip would have never been a reality.

Every other week, I would stop by Empress Travel in Bayside to drop off an envelope filled with cash. All told, I probably had to work over 100 hours to pay for the trip. But as we all learn, the sacrifice to make “forever” memories are always worth it.

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Ariel Rider Rideal Review – One of the Best Electric Bikes Under $1,000

By Drew Rosen 9 Comments

Ariel Rider Rideal high-step bike in black.

With working-from-home days for the masses winding down, I knew it was time to up my bicycle commuting game.

I’ve biked back-and-forth to the office a handful of times a year. But given the advancements in the electric bike category, including hill-flattening PAS systems and more affordable entry points, there is no excuse for me NOT to make an e-bike my primary mode of transportation back-and-forth to work.

However, I was unprepared for the number of lightweight electric bike choices currently on the market.

I quickly found myself spiraling down a rabbit hole, and indecision paralysis set in. What started as an innocent hunt for a solid bike turned into a quest for perfection. My budget ballooned from a $1,000 e-bike to $5,000. I became consumed with torque sensors vs. cadence sensors. I obsessed over bike classes and weight. Honestly, there was a time when I spent as much time watching Court Rye on ElectricBikeReview.com than with my kid!

I needed to break out of the rut. I had taken enough test drives and done enough reading. So armed with all of the data I collected over several months, I did what any logical human being would do: I bought a bike that didn’t have a single review available on the Web.

The Ariel Rider Rideal

And it is easily one of the best electric bikes under $1,000.

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Tom Petty’s “Walls” Paved the Way for the 1996 New York Yankees Championship

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

Sports and superstitious rituals go together like baseball and chicken.

Well, that’s true if you ask Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, who correlated his hitting success to chowing down on pre-game chicken.

And that’s not even the strangest sports ritual.

We can pick apart Wayne Gretzky’s baby powdered hockey stick, Jason Giambi’s golden thong, and Moises Alou’s “pee hands.” But today, we are here to talk about how I single-handily helped the New York Yankees win their 23rd world championship after an 18-year dry spell back in 1996.

OK, OK. I didn’t help the Yanks win alone.

My sister helped.

Tom Petty helped, too.

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Kmart Radio Network: The Soundtrack of Minimum Wage

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

As a Kmart employee back in the 90s, I spent many days and nights having my ears infiltrated by the Kmart Radio Network.

It was never a smooth transition from Bryan Adams, “Everything I Do” to an ad for two-ply paper towels. There was no easy way to shift from the Muzak version of “Always” by Atlantic Starr into “Save with Layway!”

But that was the Kmart way.

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