A Tribute

I'm writing this post as a tribute to a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. Well, the blood is an overstatement and I don't know about the tears, although it COULD be true. The hard work and sweat are dead on, however. The subject of my tribute goes by many names... most of which have the six-letter word
D - O - N - K - E - Y in them (but that's a completely different story and one better told by him). I knew him simply as:
La Capitan de el Constipaciono'... sounds pretty regal, doesn't it? It was a title bequeathed to him by myself and our good friend Ryan. His legal, and Christian name is Jason Roberts...yeah, I too prefer the other one's.

It was around the end of June or early July of '05 when he showed up at the YES Youngdo branch in Yeongtong, South Korea where both Ryan and I were working. I was introduced quickly in-between classes and took note that this "New Guy" was from Mississppi, right next door to my home state, the most interesting state in the entire US, home of the previous NCAA National football champions and multiple College Baseball World Champions, known for its cuisine, friendly people, Southern hospitality, Mardi Gras parades, and site of the largest single addition of land to the USA bought from France....LOUISIANA. Now, just to let you know, this school had some 22 foreign teachers and a whole mix of different personalities so becoming friends with them (and in some cases staying on speaking terms) was almost an impossibility. While me and Ryan were good friends and had worked together for nearly a year at a different branch of the same school, and the pickings were slim when it came to finding cool people to hang out with after work (besisdes ourselves of course), we decided to see what this "Newbie" was made of.

Now Mr. Roberts, or the "Donkey tamer" as I like to call him, was a big guy when we first met. But all that soon changed once we became friends, started hanging out, and when he finally decided to join me and my other new recruit, Ryan, at the gym. Along with a lot of hard work and early mornings, strange face contortions and grunting, claims of being 6'6", and of course the obligatory making up of names for the hot chicks in the gym, he shedded those pounds and took on a new air of confidence. So, you don't believe me huh? Just take a look at some photos of him before and after on his web album (sorry blogger's not lettin me upload photos at the moment).

I decided to post this after chatting with Jason today at which time he thanked me again for the help, and told me a pretty awesome story of people noticing his results. J.R. As I said to you earlier on messenger, you couldn't have done it without putting in all the effort yourself...I was jut there to crack the whip so to speak. Next step = Quit Smoking!!!