Trey Willis's Blog, page 5

Commencement Unvitations

Earlier this year, as droves of college graduates donned their caps and gowns to celebrate the completion of their education, a disturbing pattern became clear. It wasn’t that the vast majority of these new degree holders poured out into the world only to be immediately decimated by the reality of how truly worthless their shiny new piece of paper is (he said, spoken like a true psychology major).

Nay – Graduation Season 2014 was the year of the speaker unvitation.

Students and staff at several...

Personally Branded Esteem

Oneaspectof the internet, especially with regard to social media, that impactsself-esteem is the ability for each of us to control how we are perceived by others. We are now our own personal brands; and like any responsible business owner, we gear our actions toward protecting, promoting, and growing that brand.

When life happens to be less than glamorous, webrood and lament about the average, semi-successful life wehave been able to achieve. We generally spend a significant amount of time on...

Elitism, Esteem, and You

Jimmy Kimmel has made something of a hobby out ofexposing elitist douchery for everyone’s amusement. He’s done it at New York Fashion Week, and also at the SXSW music festival, which I find much more amusing. If you’ve had the misfortune of never seeing this, do yourself a solid and watch one or both of these videos, you deserve it:

Hilarious, right?

The degree to which people will flat out lie in order to seem informed or hip to the undercurrents of their chosen scene is borderline insane. Eli...

The Esteemables

Let’s be clear right out of the gate:I thinkThe Expendablesten kinds of awesome.

This is mostly because I think it’s a comedy series, but still, I enjoy it. It’s like someone walked up to my dad (or your dad, or literally anyone’s middle-aged dad) and said “We are making an action movie. Tell us what you think would be cool.” And he responds with the names of all of his favorite action movie stars from the eighties and nineties, and says crazy shit like “They should all hang out in a bar/motor...

Crowdfunded Esteem

Let’s talk about crowdfunding – you know, those websites where people can solicit the entire internet for money for whatever they want. But before we begin, allow me to preemptively do some damage control – there are good and appropriate uses for crowdfunding. I have a childhood friend that currently has cancer and is using a crowdfunding site to help cover some of her living expenses while she is unable to work. I’m not talking about her, or anyone like her. I’ve seen guitar effects companie...

Customer Service is Dead

I have been told of a time, long before my birth, a time before everyone was a snowflake of unfathomable worth, where something called ‘customer service’ existed universally. A time in which you could walk into a place of commerce, and be greeted by a knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly staff. Being on the receiving end of good service didn’t leave you with a sense of amazement and renewed hope for your species – it’s just how things worked. Customer service was part of your job if you worke...

Collectible Esteem

Or: Why MyComics Aren’t Worth Shit and Never Will Be. As thirty looms closer and closer, I’ve come to embrace my dorkiness, it’s cheeky and likeable in many situations. I’ve always been a dork, regardless of my willingness to acknowledge this truth. I collected comics, toys, and trading cards of all sorts as a kid. Being a collector in the early ninetiesmeans that I completely fellvictim to the collector’s society that was evident in comic culture at the time. Everythingwas an investment. Any...

Narcissists Watching Narcissists

Everyone loves Breaking Bad, and for a multitude of good reasons. The thing I love most about the series is that it made us care for and empathize with Walter White, who became one of the most narcissistic characters put on a screen of any size. Realistically, we should all have hated Walter White by the end of the show, but most of us didn’t.

I was rooting for Walter like he was my hometown baseball team. I wanted him to beat the cancer, decimate his enemies, take his millions of dollars, dis...

The Esteemed Uncle Acid

Low self-esteem is generally considered a bad thing. It’s hard to disagree with that statement. I’m not talking about having low self-esteem in comparisonto the maniacal levels of esteem we are currently expected to have, either. I’m talking about real despair here, people. There are times, though, this negativity spawns something amazing.

Case in point – Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats.

If you aren’t acquainted with Uncle Acid, do yourself a solidand click on this:

This is some seriously good shit...

Dogfish Esteem

Like most men in their late twenties, I’m a pretty big fan of craft beer. Ialso brew my own beer, which only exacerbates my subtle beer snobbery. Sam Calagione founded Dogfish Head brewery in 1995, making it one of the oldest craft breweries inoperation, which is quite the feather to have in your cap in such a saturated market. I’m a pretty avid fan of Sam’s stuff, and the marketing for their 90 Minute IPA lives up to the hype – it really is one of the best IPA’s in America.

But we aren’t here...