Robert Payne

A dog is a dog, and a bad one isn’t worth spit; but you get a good one and they’re like a member of the family. About a year ago I lost one of the best dogs a person could ever have. He died of cancer on my birthday during a trip to the North [...]

Now that I am a father, I consider what my child eats each and every day. My thoughts often turn to food production, and the place I currently call home. Phosphate and the Port of Tampa Many people do not know that Tampa is the largest port in Florida and the 10th largest in the [...]

Went bowling last night at Pin Chasers with my wife’s team from work. Should have brought my tow luggage and techie wrist guard. But the cheesy fries and buckets of Miller Lite had me feeling like a pro. Something about old school Photoshop techniques felt appropriate for this.

A photo I took of my son that I wanted to give an old comic book feel to.

Any avid surfer would agree there is no such thing as having too many surfboards. Different lengths, widths, rails, tails, fin configurations, and composites are all factors that affect the way we ride and can be adjusted depending on the particular wave conditions. It doesn’t matter how big of a shredder you are, there are [...]

Cigars are about as synonymous with Tampa as gambling is with Las Vegas. Guilty pleasures that cost money, and you can lose big when you play with them. I’m not so much of a gambler or a smoker, but despite the risks I do occasionally like to puff on a good old stogie. I found [...]

A lot has changed since Kennedy was president. To think he never had the chance to slurp down a Starbucks non-fat latte while chattering on a 3G cell phone connection and streaming YouTube videos over WiFi is a shame. He may have helped us get to the Moon, but the idea that a human being [...]

I just wanted to give a shout out to Outdoorzy and Origo for the sweet new watch. How did I win it? Well, Outdoorzy ran a contest on their snoop bloggy blog, and the blog pound rated the comments and chose the winner. What did I say? “I run a lot of class V rivers [...]

It has been soooo HOT here in Tampa lately! The humidity and heat is a stifling stew that makes me want to run rampant, pillage, plunder, wreak havoc; but then that would make me sweat. Instead, I suckle my air conditioning vent like a lover and throw ice cubes at the fan. Despite being situated [...]

Whenever my wife and I go sea kayaking around the state of Florida, we often joke about “going down for the death roll.” It is a sick joke, but it seems to slightly alleviate the stress of being surrounded by an absurd amount of highly skilled killers. I just hope I never see this view [...]