1 bar down and the 1st live challenge

Greetings Super Friends,

This past weekend marked two incredible men's birthdays smooched into a single event.  Starting at Dolores Park, during a Cinco de Mayo celebration, many gathered to see Andrew and Elliot tick over another year.  There was music, there were open container violations, and there were Sriracha and green curry cupcakes.  I don't know how Christina does it but her superpower has to be gestalt cooking.

Dolores Park was definitely a blast, but as the day wore on, the fog rolled in and it was time for everyone to head indoors to Five Hundred Club.  It's a great bar and luckily it wasn't too crowded.

We set up in the back by the pac-man game and photo booth.

Here is where the first live challenge started.  I met a gentleman there named Mike who challenged me to eat a stick of butter.  Without haste I headed out to the nearest tienda and was back in a second.  That's when this video happened.  Skip past the first minute to get to the good stuff.  Videography provided by the lovely Erica, who's badassery knows no bounds:

Here's the view from the photo booth:

In the grand scheme of things it was a very easy challenge.  There is a hamburger in the Mission where the meat is ground with two sticks of butter.  It was relatively easy to get down and keep down.  The real challenge was getting over the idea that I ate a stick of butter.  It isn't something that anyone deserves accolades for and watching myself do it makes me wonder if college taught me anything.  The point, though, is to push through the disgust.  The lesson learned is to persevere despite what we've done in the past.  And possibly most important, I had fun and I entertained my friends while doing it.

I've received a couple of challenges from you all that I am currently planning on implementing.  I've just got to get the logistics together.  This weekend I will probably add a bar or two to my list and another personal challenge:  Run Bay to Breakers.

Challenge 1: One Drink in Every Bar in San Francisco

This is a challenge to myself.  I've been wanting to do this for a while, but while I was doing research on it I found out someone's been giving it a shot for over a year now.  You can check out her progress at everybarinsanfrancisco.wordpress.com.  I got a little discouraged and decided to abandon the challenge.  But then I heard some great advise from Chris Hardwick's Nerdist podcast, "Just because someone invented dinner doesn't mean you can't eat." 

So I'm doing it, and I'm going to do it faster and gruffer, the way a hardcore alcoholic would approch something like this.  As I knock them back, I'll keep my progress updated with photos and maybe a few lines on what I liked or hated.  Anyone is San Francisco is free to join in my travels or play the home game and just have a drink for every bar that I post. 

Here's a quick map of what I'm attempting, give or take some dots:

This one was easy.

So my first personal challenge to start a blog about accepting challenges is over and, I won!  The next challenge is to get everyone else to start challenging me.  This is where you, the Super Friends, come in.  I need you to be the crucible by which I sharpen my mind, harden my body, and hone my wits to become a Super Friend like all of you. 

Let's lay down some ground rules first, because what fun is doing stuff if there aren't strict rules involved.  These are actually pretty simple and will probably be bent from time to time:

1) No challenges involving serious bodily injury or death.  What can I say, I want to live.  I do love a good physical challenge, and encourage them, just nothing that will break or maim me or anyone else.

2) No financially harmful challenges.  I know there's someone out there who wants to dare me to take out a high interest loan just to create a 3D remake of Dolemite.  And as great as that sounds, I don't think it will make it's money back at the box office.

3) Nothing illegal.  I definitely won't take a challenge to smuggle the most black tar heroin balloons in my body cavity, but I might be down for streaking. 

Outside of that, plumb your imaginations.  Have your co-workers, hairdresser, or mother challenge me.  I'll give it my best shot or fail before the world.  I'll be documenting my progress for every challenge and I'll try to make them as funny and entertaining as possible.