Over at the Tampa Bay Times, I wrote a profile piece on Nick Major, a mainstay in the Tampa hip-hop scene. I have known Nick since his days with All-Stars Wrestling of Florida and in my opinion, although his wrestling promotion was a local favorite of mine, his skills at putting together a hip-hop show is far, far better.

Over at Bus Leagues Baseball, I wrote about what promotions I would like to see happen in Minor League Baseball in 2012. Among my ideas are a Star Wars night in the Florida State League and the destruction of the worst minor league movie ever.

Finally, and speaking again about wrestling, I cameoed at The Wrestling Blog again, this time with a post on why Impact Wrestling should move from its current location in Orlando.

(If you don’t want to watch the match, fast-forward to the 11:00 mark and just watch the end.)

With my creation story as inspiration, I thought it only made sense for me to want to marry a Playmate. For almost all of my teenage years, I wanted nothing more than to follow the footsteps of J. Howard Marshall, old dude extraordinaire and brief husband of Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith. I remember my exact thought process was along the lines of, “she can marry me for my money and I’ll marry her for her body. It’s a far trade.”

(In hindsight, to say I was a bit misaligned in my thoughts on a healthy adult relationship would be an understatement. Yet for some reason no one pushed me back in the right direction. Maybe they thought I was joking. Anyway …)

My odd fascination with Playboy continued while I was in the Army. While deployed to Bosnia in 1998, I started a very brief (read: three e-mail) correspondence with Miss October 1994 Jennifer Lavoie. I was so super excited to get an email from a Playmate while a few thousand miles from home. I think I even printed out the emails and hung them over my bunk. Next to making a 35-minute movie about alien invaders, my letter from Jenn Lavoie was the highlight of my Bosnia mission.

Shortly after leaving Bosnia and exiting the Army, I enrolled at FSU. Not knowing a thing about Tallahassee, I signed up to live in the dorms for my first year in college. Being a 22-year old freshman in a dorm full of 18-year olds would have completely sucked if not for meeting two people: my future apartment roommate Zheke Snow and future Playboy Coed of the Week and Road Rules contestant Mary Beth Decker.

While Zheke Snow has little Playboy affiliation that I know off outside of the fact that he dug my poster of December 1993 Playmate Elisa Bridges, Mary Beth and I were friends for her one semester at FSU. She roomed on my floor, we shared Olive Garden, and I also snuck her her first drinks at Potbelly’s bar on our first night in Tallahassee. On that balmy Tallahassee night in August 1999, Mary Beth drove me to Potbelly’s in her Mustang and we talked about Tom Green, Pearl Jam, and how she planned to eventually get a boob job because dresses didn’t fit her small-chested frame.

After only a few months at Florida State, Mary Beth transferred to Texas A&M, where she told me all of her friends from high school went. Lo and behold, in 2003, shortly before I graduated, I saw a familiar face on Playboy.com. Mary Beth had not only gotten her boob job, but changed her hair color from blond to brunette and although she was cute before, her new look made her Playboy model style pretty. A few quick internet searches later, I also found out she was on MTV’s Road Rules and made a name for herself in reality television. I guess because she wasn’t at Florida State for very long, no one in Tallahassee made a big deal of it. But I thought it was cool. We shared cheese sticks.

Playboy girls and I drifted apart after my brief friendship with Mary Beth. In 2004, Playboy made a brief visit to Tallahassee to capture a few pictures for their regular “Girls of ACC” feature. Despite having classes with hundreds, if not thousands of girls at Florida State, I didn’t have any classes with Playboy’s FSU representatives. I did however shop at the local record store where Playboy took several of the girls’ pictures. Sadly, that record store (Vinyl Fever Tallahassee) is no longer open, leaving the Playboy pictorial as one of the few reminders of the place where I could find obscure albums without having to wait five to ten days for delivery.

I went through a bit of a Playboy drought from 2004 to 2010. Although I interviewed one-time-Playboy model-now-porn star Angela McLin on my old site, blogged about one-time Playmate of the Year Carmella DeCesare’s local charity bowling event, and even saw CJ Gibson, sister of December 2005 Playmate Raquel Gibson, at a Tampa beach bar, I didn’t meet, talk to, or make acquaintance with any Playboy models in the flesh.

My Playboy drought finally ended in February 2011 when I met cover girl and then-Tampa Breeze Lingerie Football Player Mikayla Wingle. While working as Social Media Adviser and Special Projects Coordinator for All-Stars Wrestling, I learned the Girls of the LFL were going to be featured in Playboy. After discovering who the Tampa Breeze girl was and finding her contact info, I coordinated for Mikayla to visit All-Stars Wrestling, sign autographs, and even cameo on the local shock jock drive-time radio show.

After exchanging emails and tweets with Mikayla for a few weeks, we finally met at the radio station prior to her going on the air. While we sat in the green room – which by the way wasn’t green – we hit it off and even kinda became quick friends. Mikayla made her appearance on the radio show and then re-met with me and we headed off to the wrestling event. While there, we took some awesome pictures and watched the show, making jokes, cheering, and booing the wrestlers along the way.

Before she left, Mikayla told me she worked at a bar in a Tampa suburb and invited me out to visit whenever she was on shift. After her visit to ASW, I visited her bar once a month to say hello, grab a beer, and catch up on her blossoming modelling and appearance career.

About a month ago, I learned Mikayla was following in the footsteps of my previous Playboy pal Mary Beth Decker and making an appearance on reality TV. But Mikayla wasn’t going to be on a seldom-watched obscure MTV show, she was going for the gusto and appearing on the one of the granddaddies of reality shows, Survivor. So far, she is doing well. Several weeks into the season she is still on the island, making more friends than enemies, and gaining fans and followers by the bushel.

Sometimes it’s weird meeting people who have been in Playboy. I know it’s a great career milestone for models, but as I get older it becomes less exciting of an accomplishment. Although I am proud of them, especially if I know them personally, I am no longer that teenager who wanted nothing more than to marry a Playmate.

These days, I’m not the type of person who will pose with a woman in a one-off meeting (unless it’s Reese Witherspoon, then all bets are off). However, if she is a fun person with a kick-ass sense of humor and she is wholly enamored by the power of the afro then you can bet your sweet bunny ears we will be taking plenty of pics.

And, if by chance, she ends up on a reality TV show, you can also guarantee I’ll be tuning in to support my friend on there as well.

Over at Rays Index, I wrote about the bliss of being at the Rays final regular season game of the season. Spoiler: they make the playoffs.

Joy, Jubilation, and the Sheer Exuberance of Victory

At The Wrestling Blog, I posted an old interview I did with e-migo and highly regarded media studies professional Sam Ford. We talked about indy wrestling and social media, especially from the promoters perspective.

Guest Blog: An Interview with Sam Ford

Finally, at Bus Leagues Baseball, I compared two baseball books I recently read.

A Literary Comparison of “Out of My League” and “Odd Man Out”

So check them out. Of course, more coming soon. Thanks for reading.

First, I did an interview with James Dively, bus driver for the Brevard County Manatees for Bus Leagues Baseball.com.

Q&A: James Dively

Long-time readers might remember my Mondays with Manson interviews with pro wrestler Bryan Manson. Since those days, Bryan Manson has re-christened himself Bryan Maddox and he was recently interviewed for the wrestling site Wrestling911.com.

My Interview with Bryan Maddox

First and foremost, I did a feature story on the musical genre of dubstep for the Tampa Bay Times:

Step To This: In Tampa Bay clubs, dubstep continues growing in popularity

The day before, I did a guest blog at The Wrestling Blog comparing recent WWE pro wrestling storylines to Freddy Krueger plots.

CM Punk, Social Media, and WWE’s New Nightmare

Then, over at Bus Leagues Baseball, I wrote about a Clearwater Threshers vs Dunedin Blue Jays game I attended.

Game Recap: Clearwater vs Dunedin 8/18/2011

Not a bad week at all.

Over at RaysIndex.com, I compared the Rays coaching staff to a military unit. There are coaches, officers, and even a few potato peelers.

The Rays Combat Coaching Corps – RaysIndex.com

Then, at BusLeaguesBaseball.com (have I ever mentioned we have a book for sale?), I wrote about a few Red Sox prospect who was highly regarded by the Topps baseball card company – but no one else.

Reviewing a Future Star: Pat Dodson – BusLeaguesBaseball.com

Now that I’ve plugged myself, here a few interesting links that I think you might enjoy written by other people.

DailyFinance.com wrote that Cap’n Crunch may be on the way out. According to the article, the makers of the fine cereal aren’t displaying it on their website or anywhere else. I will be very upset if the Cap’n is retired, as Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch is one of my all-time favorite cereals.

As a matter of fact, here is my top five:

1. Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch

2. Cinnamon Toast Crunch

3. Rice Krispie Treat Cereal

4. Cap’n Crunch Crunch Berries

5. Reese Pieces Cereal

I’ve never been much of a marshmellow cereal fan, but anything with high amounts of sugar – I’m all over it. Some people drink coffee, I eat candy cereal. It gives me the buzz I need to get going in the morning.

(Update: DailyFinance needs to check their facts. The Cap’n isn’t retiring. And I can stay sugar buzzed in the morning. Hooray!)

Speaking of getting up in the morning, lately I’ve been able to do so a lot later as I have been without a job since late January. Although there hasn’t been any money coming in, I’m feeling a lot healthier than I was when I worked at my job. According to the LA Times, people who don’t like their job or feel irregular stress because of it actually felt better after they left, even it meant losing their income.

Maybe that’s me.

Speaking of me, here is a post I swear I probably would have written if I wasn’t beaten to it. Over at BusLeaguesBaseball, fellow writer Brian Moynahan discusses the history and future of a minor league team in Pensacola. Hey, I thought Florida minor league news was my beat?

Indiana definitely isn’t my beat, but it is home to the greatest fictional athlete ever, Jimmy Chitwood. Did you know he had five times the impact of any current NBA player? Can you imagine what he would be worth in the open market? Instead, he was regulated by The Man and his socialist school zoning areas. Which, in 1950-something Indiana, was the whole town of Hickory. Except for the black kids, they had to go to school outside of town.

And finally, because I think it is in my contract as proprietor of this fine site, here is Deadspin.com’s latest “Dead Wrestler of the Week” post – a tribute to the late, great Captain Lou Albano.

(Perhaps you are wondering, why the pic of Snoop and Darth Vader? Why not?)

Besides hanging with a Playboy cover model, dancing to afro-tastic grooves, saying what’s up to the Florida State Fair’s human block head (the man seriously hammered a nail into his nose), and gallivanting across Tropicana Field and giving quotes to reporters, I’ve actually been doing some serious stuff.

For one, I wrote another article for Rays Index yesterday. I discussed three types of Rays fans: the optimist, the pessimist, and the realist. My goal is to write over there much more often this year. So definitely check it out.

Keeping Faith in the Cowbell

I’ve also been doing a lot of media work recently with All-Stars Wrestling of Florida, a Tampa-based pro wrestling organization. I’m in charge of their Facebook and Twitter sites and seen great growth in both of those. So if you are interested, those are at:

ASWFlorida Facebook

ASWFLTweetTeam

As part of their big media push to raise awareness throughout Tampa, I was recently on a local sports radio show talking about them. That was very cool, as it was the first time I was ever on the air for a reason other than to win a prize.

Third, TheManInc is back on Twitter. For the last two weeks I’ve restarted chronicling the exploits of The Man. Good to know I took six months off and the account still has over 800 Twitter followers and people were still mentioning the account while I was gone.

Of course, I’m also still working the comedy jive. I have a show in late March in Lakeland as a five minute guest spot for national comic Artie Fletcher. Fellow comic Eric Prae should be also be there. So that should be a lot of fun. Both of those guys are very funny. I’ll have more info on tickets and showtime as we get closer.

(Admission: I have no idea where that picture is from. But how cool is Chewbacca on a squirrel fighting Nazis? Pretty damn cool, if you ask me.)

• According to Dallas Maverick owner and media maven Mark Cuban, TV will not be replaced by the Internet anytime soon because peoples’ media habits change as they get more engaged in life. As they get older and more stressed by the everyday rigmarole, they want to be less engaged, not more. Unfortunately for me, I have the media habits of a 20-something with the lifestyle of a 30-something, hence I stay up until 2AM every morning.
• National Geographic explains the phenomenon of the chupacabra. It is not a mythical monster as portrayed in local legend or low-budget cinema, it is only a coyote with a bad case of mange.
• Here is an article on a 6’9 female pro wrestler named Isis the Amazon. I have seen her in person around Tampa. She is a legit giant. The question remains however, how successful will she be in entertainment?
• Here is a very cool Wu-Tang Clan shirt. I normally don’t like the _____&_____&_____-themed shirts, but for Wu it fits.
• If you have ever been curious how much it costs to employ Boba Fett to capture someone who dumped a cargo-load of spice in the presence of an Imperial Star Destoyer, here is your answer.
• Also on the Star Wars tip, here are some awesome travel agency posters for places in the Star Wars galaxy. Depending on popular consensus, the person who designed them may sell them. (Christmas hint, yo!)
• Here is one of the 5 million articles on LeBron James and his new commercial. I care less and less about LeBron everyday, but the reason I like this post is because of this quote from the book “Only the Paranoid Survive“:

Your career is literally your business. You own it as a sole proprietor. You have one employee: yourself. You are in competition with millions of similar businesses: millions of other employees all over the world. You need to accept ownership of your career, your skills and the timing of your moves. It is your responsibility to protect this personal business of yours from harm and to position it to benefit from the changes in the environment. Nobody else can do that for you.

• Finally, because it’s Halloween weekend, here is a link to more pictures like the one on the right from National Geographic of costumes from the early 20th Century.

(Ok, I’ll admit, we took one and didn’t think it came out well, so we took a second. And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t mind.)

Anyway, she is one of the final contestants for the 2010 Maxim Hometown Hottie Contest. Since I didn’t have a favorite before, Ashley Ann is now who I am going to vote for.

So here is a lesson for all of you folks aspiring to bigger and better things, if you are running for anything – mayor, congress, president of your class – take a picture with me and I will vote for you.

I’m simple like that.