When I was in college, my roommate Danny, like most starving students, had very long hair and very little money. One day, he had had enough of his mop top and asked where he could get it cut “inexpensively.” I mostly ignored his question, until a spectacular idea popped into my head. I said “I’ve

Matt W on April 30th, 2014 | File Under Jack of all Trades | No Comments -


I desperately needed a haircut. I hate when my hair gets too long. It doesn’t just get long it gets wavy and wavy makes it bigger. I feared becoming one of Matt W’s old men with bad hair. As mentioned in a previous blog, even though hair grows slowly, I’m very bad at planning ahead

Joe Anaya on April 28th, 2014 | File Under Mr. Cool | 6 Comments -


It was Earth Day this week. Yea! Earth Day offers an excellent opportunity to discuss some of the issues that impact our planet in a fairly non-combative way. I’ve always liked that. Now we just need to work on the other 364 days of the year. Be good to our planet every day. Have a great

Matt W on April 25th, 2014 | File Under Jack of all Trades | No Comments -


As a father, I am very familiar with the concept of spending less time on a project if I just did it myself.  While in theory having my sons mow the lawn might have saved me time, in reality with all the time I spent asking them to get started, in addition to the amount

Matt W on April 23rd, 2014 | File Under Working Stiff | 1 Comment -


As a parent, we’re all trained to decry the existence of video games and how they’re ruining our children’s brains. God knows I’ve done my share of pointing out how mindless my son gets after playing video games all day. But there are some benefits, maybe. I once flew in a glider plane and my

Joe Anaya on April 21st, 2014 | File Under Mr. Cool | No Comments -


This is kind of what I did in Iceland, except instead of shooting things, I was watching for Northern Lights.

admin on April 18th, 2014 | File Under Jack of all Trades | No Comments -


I like to listen to something when I drive. There are times when the quiet solitude of a car ride is refreshing, but I’m usually listening to something to pass the time. And over most of my adult life, three things have been the majority of my car listening experience: books on tape, phone conversations, and NPR.

Matt W on April 16th, 2014 | File Under Mr. Cool | 1 Comment -


We, here at Male Pattern Madness, have documented many disadvantages of getting older: declining physical prowess, declining mental acuity, declining sharpness in more or less everything. There are however a few advantages to being middle aged. The biggest is the ability to throw money at any problem. Typically, by middle-age, men have reached a certain

Joe Anaya on April 14th, 2014 | File Under King of the Castle, Working Stiff | 2 Comments -


Joe A. wrote this week that people assume you are checking off items from your bucket list anytime you do something cool after a certain age.  Apparently, they are expecting you to kick the bucket shortly. I personally have a “50 things to do in my 50′s” list to eliminate the whole death thing from my current

Matt W on April 11th, 2014 | File Under Jack of all Trades | 1 Comment -


I am a big Seattle Mariners fan, so I drove the 80 mile trek to see a Jackson Generals game, the Seattle Mariners AA farm club. (Baseball is awesome.) As I’m driving, I come up behind a white SUV in the left lane that is going far slower than I want to be going. Anyone

Matt W on April 9th, 2014 | File Under Jack of all Trades | No Comments -


I recently went to Iceland. My main goal for going was to see the Northern Lights. I’ve been to Alaska; but it was in the summer and the sun never set. So, I never saw a hint of nighttime let alone the Northern Lights. It was actually my sister who suggested Iceland, “That way if

Joe Anaya on April 7th, 2014 | File Under Jack of all Trades | 2 Comments -


Matt W. wrote a review about Noah this week and it reminded me of one of my favorite cartoonists, Gary Larson and his Far Side. Enjoy.

admin on April 4th, 2014 | File Under Jack of all Trades | No Comments -


Let me just start out by saying, it is a weird movie. While I don’t want to give anything away, it definitely had a Holy Bible meets Lord of the Rings feel to me. It’s not going to win the academy award this year for best picture, but is definitely worth a watch. OK, let’s

Matt W on April 2nd, 2014 | File Under Mr. Cool | No Comments -