Tuesday, December 25, 2007

A Christmas on a bizarre schedule, even for me


So it's 7:39am and I'm up and wide awake on Xmas morning. I woke up at 4:30am after a sole hour of sleep yesterday and am now filling my time in the usual ways, watching movies. I expect much of the day will be filled in this manner.

Yesterday I girded my loins for a full day with my parents and went to see my brother and his family. Except for the traveling it was pretty good. Kelly made a nice lunch and I enjoyed hanging with Gabe. Also Cameron had a great time, with more presents than he could stand to open. So I considered that visit a success.

I slept through most of the drive home, completely exhausted and then climbed right into bed around 6:30pm for a "nap" that lasted until 4:30am and now I'm wide awake, having a cup of tea (Lady Grey seemed appropriate considering the movie) and preparing to watch The Queen.

Ohh the picture? Well that's the message Santa left me when I inquired about a gift. I suppose I wasn't quite good enough this year. What else is new?

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Middle age riot

Long night of work followed by long hours of slack. I watched Running With Scissors, which is based on the memoir of Augusten Burroughs' childhood. Imagine a childhood filled with batshit crazy parents and being forced to live with their even crazier psychiatrist. Scary, yet amusing.

I'm just counting down the days until I'm on vacation. It's gonna be nice. My big problem is gonna be trying to not spend all my damn money. I'm ahead of the game for a change and I need to not get it in my head that I have plenty of money, because that's always when I spend too much and end up struggling. Being poor bones.

I think I'm gonna go to bed now. Have to do pretty much the exact same shit tomorrow as I did today.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Another Christmas Beer

Last night, after I got home from work (mmm overtime) I went batshit crazy wrapping presents. In the past I haven't really wrapped gifts for any occasion. But it occured to me last year that unwrapping a gift adds an air of mystery that pulling it out of a bag doesn't supply. Even if you get a shitty gift, at least for a few seconds the possibilities are endless. That said, my wrapping skills are suspect.

Today was a busy day. I got up way early (for me). I ran a ton of errands, went to the library, got my oil changed and did some last minute xmas shopping (although I only ended up buying stuff for me). I picked up a new jacket that I like, Columbia makes good stuff too.

I bought a new office chair so I can sit my fat ass in front of the computer in comfort. My old one was screwy and had started to scratch the floor. So I shifted to the one that Danny gave me and had been in my room, which made me remember why I got rid of it. It was nice, leather upholster and everything, but it had one flaw. It felt like it was trying to eject you into the floor the whole time you sat in it.

So I spent way too much money on a new one that I like. I learned long ago that going cheap costs you more in the long run. Especially with my huge ass. I spent a good portion of the evening putting it together.

Now I'm enjoying a tasty glass of red wine a la France and watching Monday Night Football. Sweet relaxation. I got four more days of work before my vacation and I can't wait. I'm gonna be super-fucking-busy over the holiday, but it should be a good type of busy. Lots of people to see and things to do. Almost like I have a life... but not really.

Monday, December 10, 2007

See ya later jerks

A lot of topics to cover here today. Firstly, The Evil Penguin has been utterly removed from the playoff picture, sadly. It hasn't seemed likely for quite a while, but today removed even the remotest of possibilities. That coupled with the Steelers losing to the dread-Patriots has made me turn my interest from football into an even more dangerous sport... the illustrious Pro Thunderball!!! Those interested in the rules should check here first and then go here to research the league. I root for the Austin Vampirebots mostly, but also have a soft spot in my heart for the Lancaster Amish Rakefighters.

Saturday I was in Ukrops looking for something to eat for dinner in the deli. The bistro meals look good, but I never get them because you have to talk to the guy and tell him what you want. It occured to me that most people wouldn't be bothered by asking a few questions and getting what they wanted while I just avoid the social interaction.

I thought about it for a while and realized I always do that sort of thing. I mean, noone should be surprised that I'm antisocial, I suppose, but I never realize how ingrained it is until something like this happens. I put off having my haircut so I don't have to talk to whoever cuts it. I hate being forced into conversation at work. I sit as far away as possible from people in restaurants. I don't suppose I really have a point, I just noticed it.

Trip and I ended up watching the new Futurama movie, Bender's Big Score tonight and it was excellent. I love me some Futurama. My only complaint, not enough Kif. But you can't have everything.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

More upbeat? I dunno, maybe

I'm gonna try to not get all whiny on you, so I'll stick to the goofy bullshit that fills my time. Trip and I've been playing loads of Virtua Fighter 5, which is mighty. Recently he discovered a character that a retarded gorilla could play effectively and has become a bit of a challenge. Still I maintain dominance, as the gods intended. I do have to note that he won bragging rights last week on a fluke win.

I'm sick of hearing about how great the Patriots are. They pulled a win out of their asses against the Ravens and I hope the Steelers can end the streak this week. (Although I'd rather they end it in January.) Also the '72 Dolphins can suck my balls. If they weren't such pricks about the undefeated season I wouldn't care, but they are obnoxious. Put the champagne away and take your own cocks out of each other's mouths.

In other news, the Heroes finale was ok, but not as great as I had hoped. Too much left unanswered and it seemed kinda of forced. Which isn't a surprise with the writers strike in effect. I tell you television is gonna get really bad, really quick if that doesn't end. I offer you the Battle of the Choirs to prove that. Can you smell the execs sweating?

I am reading The Hunt for Red October, since I watched the movie on AMC the other night and thought to myself, the book is usually better than the movie. It's hard to say at this point, but the movie may be better. Hard to deny Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery. Still it's a good read halfway through. May look into some more of Tom Clancy's stuff.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Black-eyed zombie of television

It's been a tough week. Working loads of overtime with little or no time for myself and just feeling grumpy, bitter and generally lugubrious. So much overtime means I have plenty of time to sit around and think about how bad I feel lately.

That all sounds like a lot of whining, I'm sure, but that's how I feel. The last two months have been absurdly bad. I keep waiting for something to break out and be good, but it hasn't. Instead some small shitty thing happens to make me feel worse, like my iPod dying. Maybe December will be better... I don't know how much worse I can stand.

I finally finished Monster Planet, the final novel of David Wellington's zombie trilogy. It was ok, but the series got progressively worse. The first couple were worth the effort, don't know if I'd say the same for the third.

Watched Pushing Daisies, which continues to deliver. If this show can stay afloat ratings-wise (it's quirky and I enjoy it, which usually spells doom for a show) I predict it will get better and better.

Anyway I'm off. I have two more 12 hour shifts and then I get a few days off. I will need them desperately.

Friday, November 23, 2007

In spite of all the bullshit

Thanksgiving. Despite the fact that my Thanksgiving feast consisted of a chef's salad that had seen better days that I didn't even finish and that my life is sucking I'm still gonna talk about what I'm thankful for in an effort to not be Debbie Downer all the time.

So the first thing I'm thankful for is my mother. All the good stuff in my life can be traced back to her. Secondly I'm going with my brother, who I'm really proud of and trying to follow his example. Next up is my friends, I've got some great fucking friends that I don't get to see enough. Still I'm glad they are out there and willing to put up with my crabby ass.

Next up on my list is being thankful for the fact that I have a job and seem to at least be moving forward a little financially. My life still sucks, but it's a dream compared to where I was two years ago, unemployed and feeling completely hopeless. Now I'm only moderately hopeless. It may not seem like much, but it's a start.

Anyway that's the major stuff that I'm glad to have. Hope everyone else's Turkey Day sucked less than mine.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Dr. Rosenpenis

I have kept busy this weekend, watching both the Steelers and The Evil Penguin lose, hating my life, watching tv and movies. Great stuff.

I watched the usual battery of shows on Monday with Trip, How I met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory and Heroes. All good. Heroes is so good. We also watched Kenny vs. Spenny. I love that it's now on Comedy Central. The meat eating episode is hysterically funny, but you probably need a strong stomach to make it all the way through.

Tonight Trip and I grabbed some mexican food and played Rock Band. Man it's fun. I don't want to get into it because logistically it's bad for me. A music game doesn't fit into my late night, trying to not wake everyone up plans as well as the $160 price and the storing of everything. Still, it's cool to play. Also playing that prevents me from humiliating Trip in Virtua Fighter 5.

After coming home I watched Monsters Inc. which I had never seen. It's ok. I was a little disappointed considering it was a Pixar movie. Not to say it was bad , just not as good as I wanted it to be. I'm giving it a Meh. mostly because I wanted more.

After that I watched Black Sheep, which is a movie about vicious genetic-engineered predatory sheep that can create were-sheep if they bite a person (+1 chainmail). Gotta love that absurd horror vibe. It was enjoyable just because of the silly premise and the humor. When the hero hits a were-sheep with mint jelly I had to laugh.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

ROFL for reals



This video made me spew out my RC cola.

Sad excuse

So it's been a week, sue me. I've been busy with my hollow excuse for a life. Lots of Halo 3 and Virtua Fighter 5 to fill in the voids.

Ohh, and football. The Steelers continue to please and the Evil Penguin has climbed back to .500, clawing out a win over The Cellar Dwellers (formerly Heavens Own). So I guess things don't completely suck... just mostly.

I suppose that's it. I probably shouldn't have even bothered.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

A whole nation of gutless whores

So I'm six beers in and pulling out the scotch. OK I'm probably not gonna drink much scotch, I have no need for a mega hangover, but I felt there was need for celebration. Firstly, and probably most importantly, the Steelers kicked the everlovin' shit outta the Ravens tonight. That always brings me joy. Secondly, that Steelers win allowed the Evil Penguin to defeat Mike's Danglers in Techmo Lucky Breaks action. (A win I didn't really expect.)

Finally, as of midnight, I am now 33 years old. Yes, the old BDay. I'm making an effort not to get all depressed and ignore all the crap going on I don't like. So I'm savoring my victories, Hoegaarden and the little things. Almost a third of a century. Think of the changes... when I was born you couldn't even log on to the intarwebs and listen to an overweight white American male complain about how horrible his life is.

Bodie and Rocket got me a cool Steelers t-shirt for my BDay. They are, of course, Trip's Boston Terriers. What's most impressive is not that they figured out how to use the internet with no opposable thumb, but that they pay that much attention to the things I like. They seem so focused on me giving them food or scratching them behind the ears most of the time.

Monday, November 05, 2007

All World's Cowboy Romance

I just watched The Mission of Burma Story: Not a Photograph and it was awesome. I love Mission of Burma. I know that of my "regular" readership here there is maybe two people, maybe, that could give a shit about MOB, but I shall rant about their greatness nonetheless. They are this Boston band that never hit it big and broke up just as they were starting to get any national recognition.

They reformed in 2002 for a reunion and have recorded a couple of albums since that are as good as the original stuff, maybe better. They are a thinking man's punk band. They have a definite edge, but underneath they are technically proficient, have smart lyrics and create these waves of noise that you can snuggle into like a warm blanket. In the DVD, music journalist Michael Azerrad (who's book is awesome) draws a line from Mission of Burma, through the Pixies to Nirvana. So if you dug grunge you owe MOB some thanks.

Anyway, other than watch that movie and football I did very little today. Played some Virtua Fighter 5, which is awesome. Watched some Adult Swim and trolled about the internets. Very slack. I'm debating whether I'm gonna just stay in tomorrow and do nothing again. The Steelers are on Monday night, but I'm not sure if I'll be doing them a disservice by watching. Every game I watch they lose of late.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Here's the mutiny I promised you

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Monday, October 29, 2007

Seeking coma state

It's been a while since I wrote. Frankly I've been having a shitty week. In fact, it's been a shitty month and when everything is tallied it may even be a shitty year, although it'll be close in the end on that. But I'm not going to bitch about how much work, my love life, everything sucks. I'm just gonna say some things about the good stuff that has happened recently.

Firstly I got to hang with my brother last Sunday. He came in and we just lounged around the house all day, watching football, playing video games and talking. It was cool. I miss getting to do that with him. Reminded me of the old days.

Secondly I sold my Jeep for close to my asking price. It was relatively painless, despite standing in the pouring rain for over an hour to close the deal. Now I just have to decide whether I want to be responsible with the money or not. Reality vs. a wide screen tv. Oddly I'm leaning toward holding on to most of the money in an "Oh shit" fund. That would probably be the smartest thing to do. The problem is my tendency to dip into that sort of fund for shit I don't really need. Bah, whatever. I am getting some new Dr. Marten's tho, my old one's have holes that let water in with the greatest of ease.

The Red Sox won the World Series. I don't normally give a grizzled fuck about the Red Sox, but they did it in four straight games, making my life considerably easier. So here's to them.

Here's to hoping November does a better job of not giving me the cockpunch. Off to bed.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Vinegar chips, gypsy rock and Dr. Strange

Another wholly average day in my life. I did get a good night's sleep tho. Which was nice.

Anyway, this post is gonna be some random thoughts that occured to me today. So without further ado:
  • Cape Cod Sea Salt and Vinegar chips are super awesome. It's like crack except for fat guys.
  • Slurpee kicks the ass of Icee in every possible way. It's not close. I only lament that 7-11 is so far out of my normal drive and, hence, Slurpees are harder to procure.
  • The new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, is exquisite.
  • Kitchen Nightmares is great. Why do I love a show about a guy yelling at people to get their act together when I'd smack someone who treated me that way?
  • The weather needs to move back toward fall. I'm sick of days in the 80s. Fuck all that, I want it brisk! I want those beautiful leaves on the trees.
  • I also would like more rain.
That is all for now.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The stench of mediocrity

Alas my weekend is drawing to a close. We're still training the new guy and so, I get to work an extra night this week. I won't be complaining when I get the overtime pay, but I do likes my time off. Doesn't help that I have to run playoff baseball, which is a huge pain in the ass. Friday was a clusterfuck I won't get into. I don't look forward to doing it again this weekend.

Trip and I went to Danville for dinner tonight with the intention of spending some cash afterward at Toy R Us. They are having a buy two get one free deal there and we were both gonna pick up the Orange Box and I was gonna grab something else, maybe Madden or NCAA. Maybe a DS game to play at work. But, sadly, TRU was out of The Orange Box, so we just browsed the toys and came home to watch Heroes and How I Met Your Mother.

Not my fav. episode of Heroes, but still good. Having a Hiro-free episode really showed how captivating he is. Also no Peter Petrelli. Seems they are trying to make you care more about some of the other characters, which is ok, but I miss those two.

Good fantasy weekend for me, tho. I took part in an anti-Jessup weekend as Adam and I took down the brothers. The Evil Penguin beat Greg's Innsmouoth Fish Eyes, to prevent him from sweeping our series this season and the Leghounds remained undefeated, pounding Mike's Danglers (huh huh, huh huh). I'm starting to believe we need some injuries on Adam's squad so the rest of us can pick up the Lucky Breaks.

Gonna try to rise early and check the Roanoke TRU to spend my money on more video games I don't have time to play. I consider it an investment... ok I can't even justify that to be funny, I'm silly. I spend money, it's who I am. Leave me alone, I'm doomed to be poor, but at least entertained.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Who remembers the Armenians?

Certainly not our president. Or rather, he wishes he didn't. He vetoed a bill to recognize the 1915 slaying of 1.5 million Armenians by Turkey as a genocide. I mean, really, what's 1.5 million people? Bush is on a veto streak and didn't want to break it. Genocide? Nah. Healthcare for kids? Who needs it? Incidently, the title of this post is a quote from our old pal Adolf Hitler to justify his genocide on the Jews. Hmm, Bush and Hitler mentioned in the same paragraph... interesting.

Anyway, fall seems to finally have arrived, thankfully. I love brisk weather (it's my penguin nature). Work was blah, not surprisingly. Gonna be stressful tomorrow, with the baseball game crushing my usual routine.

When I got home I plunged forth into Halo 3, playing the second level on Legendary difficulty, which lives up to the name. I tell you, playing that stuff co-op is soo much easier than alone. I may try to play through the whole damn campaign alone, but I may run out of steam before that. Still, I'm really enjoying the game now. It's engrossing.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Too much entertainment

So my weekend continued to be fun after my Sunday drive. I got called into work on Monday and had a nice 12 hour shift. Ohh yeah, nothing better. I did get to watch most of the stuff I usually watch on Monday nights, How I met Your Mother (still excellent) and Heroes, which I wish I could just wait and watch in a marathon at the end of the season, but I can't wait. It's soooo damn good.

I also watched a lot of the Cowboys-Bills game. I was rooting for the Bills, both in order to win my fantasy game and to spite Mike. Neither payed any dividends. The Bills screwed themselves and the Cowboys got just enough luck to turn a certain loss into a win. Screwy. I still think the Steelers are better.

Anyway, I finally did get to relax some today. Trip and I had some BBQ for dinner and then played some NHL 08. High quality game, really feels like hockey. I schooled Trip, but tried the A.I. tonight and yesh, not pretty. I also played some Halo 3, although not exactly the way I wanted. But I managed to achieve officer status finally.

I also downloaded Puzzle Quest, which is pretty sweet. It's like a puzzle game with a RPG thrown in as spice. Way too many good games coming out now. Halo 3, NHL, Puzzle Quest... I want to get The Orange Box, which has three distinct games in it, but seems a little silly with all the stuff I've already got. Also Virtua Fighter 5 comes out at the end of the month and I'm def. getting that. I'm inundated.

I also picked up the new Douglas Coupland book, The Gum Thief. I'm about a third of the way through and his insight into the lives of the underemployed is impressive. That is to say, he writes about the stuff I think a lot. Which is both amazing and sad.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Why not commute for fun?

Maybe I should just quit watching football. I slept through the Steelers game today and they dominate Seattle, I'm winning my fantasy game until I tune into the second half of the Bears game and Desmond Clark catches a TD to make my 12-point lead a 1-point deficit. Stunned. Now I need Lee Evans to outscore the Dallas defense by two points... I don't like my chances.

It's been that kind of weekend tho. Everything I go to do has not turned out how I wanted this weekend. An example you ask? Well last night I was told I needed to work today (which is a long drawn out story that I will not bother with) so I drive in to work and find that Misty is already there to do the job, in spite of everyone's expectations. So I got a nice two hours in the car today for no reason at all.

I think I'm gonna open a bottle of wine and finish it. Cheers.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Overly aware of my own insignificance

It's been a fairly shitty day. Both the Steelers and The Evil Penguin lost. Steelers pissed the game away and the Penguin was never really in it. Ohh and the Mets lost, dropping a seven game lead in the last couple of week. I doomed them by rooting for them I suppose.

I did enjoy playing some Halo 3 for a while... yep, that's the highlight of my life, a video game.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Finishing the fight


No time for blogging, I'm playing Halo 3. It's awesome. It's a simple return to all the things I loved about the old Halo games with a few new tweaks to make it even better. I tried some of the online coop the other night with Trip and Danny and it's sweet. I wish I had more time to do that. Now I'm forced to settle for randomly shooting tards in multiplayer... ok so it's not that bad. Lovin' it!

Monday, September 24, 2007

Black sun in a white world

Soooooooo tonight is the night that Halo 3 drops. Yes, I'm completely aware of how nerdy I am. I care not, for I have nothing to prove. Nerdy is where it's at folks. I will be in waiting in line with my fellow geeks at my local Gamestop. I'm hoping my stomach settles down a bit, it's been in an uproar all day.

Part of that may be that I had to rise early to carry my Grandma to the doctor. I'm not good at pre-noon times. After I finished with that I went to get a haircut. Now there are four women cutting hair at the mall. Three of these woman fall within the standards I have for attractiveness. Guess which one cuts my hair? Ding, the one who looks like she has a dog's ass for a face. Also, she seems to think "I want to keep most of the length on top, just trim it." to mean cut off 3/4 of it. These are the reasons I wear a hat all the time.

In fantasy football news, The Evil Penguin has a hefty 192-105 lead heading into Monday night football, with only Deuce McAllister left to play for my opponent, Warchant. Looking pretty good. My team finally showed up for the most part, although Lee Evans and Maurice Jones-Drew continue to freeze out the Evil Penguin squad.

The Steelers also steamrolled the Niners and are 3-0! We may be for real! It's good stuff. We got the Cardinals next week in Arizona. That's not a gimme, considering that their coach, Ken Wisenhut, was offensive coordinator last year. Lots of motivation for him to win, but I'm not sure their defense can get it done.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Are you shitting me?

Work really sucked tonight. Just every-fucking-thing being annoying. It's a pain in the ass. Too much nonsense. I have to attend one of three sexual harassment seminars, all of which are scheduled in the a.m. How convenient to the nocturnal. Also, fuck sexual harassment training, it's fucking stupid. I haven't harassed anyone and really, only see like three people when I work.

I watched Because I Said So last night, because it had lots of attractive women in it. It was ok, not especially great (Meh.). I also watched a couple of Upright Citizen's Brigade, Season 2 episodes. I was lured into buying it the other night when I hung with Kevin and Reed and we hit Walmart. I love the UCB, great absurd humor. The mythos is awesome. Astronauts are social pariahs, Supercool is a drug and The Titte Bros. are a popular band. Very silly.

I'm off to watch Hot Fuzz now, ta.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Monday, September 17, 2007

Dreadful


It was a bad weekend for fantasy football. The Evil Penguin was dealt a loss by the rookie Fish Eyes... the horror. It wasn't close. By the end of the 1pm games I knew I was done and went to get dinner. Bleah. Ahh well, on to next week. At least the Steelers won in dominating fashion.

I haven't posted a lot lately. Seems like all my time is accounted for, of late, although I have no idea what I'm actually doing with it.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

See what all the howlin's for

In deference to my non-football fan readers, I will start with topics other than my fantasy team. Not that there is a lot to report. It's been a relatively blah kinda time. I'm suffering from some kind of emotional constipation and just having difficulty finding joy in anything. Not really sure why, just nothing is overly exciting of late. I dunno, maybe I'm overstating it, but I think since my vacation is over and I've nothing major to look forward to until Dec. I'm just feeling depressed.

I did finish the new William Gibson book, Spook Country, which is a sorta sequel to Pattern Recognition (one of my top five of all time). It didn't wow me. It took forever to claw my way into it and only really captivated me in the final 100 or so pages. Still it's an interesting concept and Gibson knows how to turn a phrase, so it coulda been a lot worse. I'm going to say +1 chainmail, but only because of my deep love of Gibson.

On to the football! It was a good weekend on the gridiron with both the Steelers and The Evil Penguin notching wins. Pittsburgh looked pretty damn good routing Cleveland. Here's hoping that is going to be the norm this season. The Evil Penguin struggled out of the gates, but came on strong late to condemn Heavens Own. Here's to Lamont Jordan racking up the yardage.

Anyway I'm gonna go find something to read while defragging my hard drive.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Expressway to your skull

Had an annoying night at work. Little bullshit piling on that will end up pissing me off. That catapulted me into a depressive state, which sucked. I finally picked myself up a little after getting home and listening to some NFL related podcasts. Tomorrow being opening day helped.

I'm finally starting to recover from the weekend. Sunday I worked and then stayed up all night before heading to Fayetteville to hang with Gabe, Kelly and Cameron. We had a good time and I was surprisingly not a total bastard. We stopped for some PF Chang's on the way home and that was tasty. I finally got some sleep at 8pm after around 30 hours of being awake.

I then slept for more or less 16 solid hours. That tied my all time record I do believe (achieved in college in a competitive sleep off against Noel). I finally got my car street legal after rising and then spent too much money on clothes. Gotta love end of summer sales.

Anyway now I'm eagerly waiting to see some real football tomorrow, even if I do have to work through it. I'm thinking the Colts are gonna win the game, just because history says they will. I'm also hoping for Reggie Bush to have a bad game, as Kevin will be starting him against me this week.

Monday, September 03, 2007

His moment of power and fame

Hooray, I get to rise early tomorrow. Going to Fayetteville to visit my brother. Sigh, I've been booked for like the last month doing stuff every weekend. I shouldn't complain, I suppose. It's nice to feel like I have a large contingent of people not only willing to put up with me, but who make an actual effort to be in my presence.

Still it can be tiring for someone who is heavy on the antisocial tendencies. I should probably just shut my noise tube and get over it. Although I do proclaim loudly to anyone who will listen that next weekend is sacred and will be a day of rest, but probably not relaxation. Nay, I will be pouring over fantasy stats all day and reveling in the glory that is NFL football. I get so giddy this time of year.

It was nice to have meaningful games being played this weekend a la the collegiate realm, but it's not the same as the pro game. I face Heavens Own in the opening weekend and believe The Evil Penguin can crush them under his razor-clawed flipper and dispatch these holy infidels back to whatever "heaven" they call home.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Curious development

So it has been brought to my attention that my draft rankings were pretty much in the exact same order as the draft itself (with only Heavens Own rising three spots). This was purely unintentional and just the way things panned out in my opinion, which has been known to be wrong on occasion.

While I am occasionally concerned that teams with one of the premier running backs have a bit of an unfair advantage, I wouldn't say it makes the whole draft unfair. And I wouldn't say a team with the best RB in the game is a shoo in to the championship, although it certainly helps. Between injuries and little known players coming out of nowhere, anything can happen.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

One through 10

I know some of you are waiting on my fantasy football ratings (and some of you definitely aren't). But here they are, either way. Before I'd start I'd like to note that this is the most even draft we've had in the Techmo Lucky Break League and ranking them is incredibly difficult. Anyone could win and if a couple of things pan out or an injury occurs these will be way off. Still, as of two days after the draft, here's how I think things are:

  1. Team Vipperman - He had LaDainian Tomlinson and a powerhouse trio of WRs. I don't know how Nick manages it, but he always has a monster draft. His biggest questions is his second RB, E. James. No guarantees, but Team Vip looks like a contender.
  2. Warchant - Almost rated Cal first, it's really close. His WRs could be a bit better, with TO being the only standout. But he does have a nice stable of RBs and Carson Palmer. Gonna be a tough opponent.
  3. The Evil Penguin - Honestly I could have rated myself a couple of spots lower and it wouldn't be unreasonable, but I believe in my guys. My RBs are pretty solid (so far) and my starting WRs are good as well. MY WR depth could be better, but I don't have a glaring fault out of the draft, although I really need Maurice Jones-Drew to come through again this season.
  4. LEESBURG LEGHOUNDS - Again, I could have pretty much interchanged the 3-6 spots and been reasonable, we are all neck and neck. The Leghounds big questions are his WRs and the question of how Larry Johnson is gonna be with a less than stellar O-Line. Pretty good top to bottom.
  5. DALLAS DANGLERS - Last year's champ did not have the killer draft he had last season, but remained respectable. He went with a lot of unproven talent that if it pans out could be dominant, but at this point the questions are big. Also QB could turn into a big problem if his longshots don't pay off.
  6. Heavens Own - May be underrating the heavenly host here, but I'm allowed some flaws. He is pretty solid across the board, my biggest knock on him being depth both among RBs and WRs. If his starters stay healthy he will be in contention, but if not it could be bedlam.
  7. Hudson Street Hellraisers - Solid QBs, but some questions at RB and WR. Also I'm not sold on his defenses. Again depth is the big problem here.
  8. Innsmouth Fish-eyes - A solid rookie outing, with a couple of rookie mistakes. Running back depth is a serious concern, (particularly with Brian Westbrook). Honestly that's about the only big problem, but it's a big, big problem if things go awry.
  9. St. Nick Kringles - His draft philosophy is completely different from mine, so the low ranking may be partly caused by that. Still his RBs have questions and aren't terribly deep. Of course, Peyton could pick this team up and carry them to victory.
  10. The Zors - Another rookie, who has some questions on his squad. His RB depth is suspect (particularly with Portis). Also not sure about his defenses being top notch.
Well there you have it. I would like to restate that there are no gimmes this season. Every week you need your team to show up or you are gonna suffer an ignominous defeat. It's gonna be nerve racking, but I gotta tell you, I'm gonna win this motherfucker. The Evil Penguin refuses to lose!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Filled with football


Been a long day. I didn't get to sleep as much as I would have liked after a totally hellish night of work. I then got up and headed on down to the Vipperman residence for the Techmo Lucky Breaks League fantasy football draft. Draft was fun, but longish. I think I did pretty well, but there was no one who was that bad. It's anybodies guess. I'll probably rank the drafts a little later on, but right now I'm too beat to bother.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Once more into the breach

I go back to work today. Blah. I could use another week off. Alas.

The last couple of days I've kept myself busy. I cleaned my room up some (it was filthy) and I have been trying to take care of some last minute fantasy football stuff for this weekend's draft. I'm trying to get t-shirt's hooked up, but there seems to be road blocks at every turn. Ahh well.

I also am trying to cram in as much fantasy knowledge as possible, although it's hard to come by. Too much crap out there and most of it's for beginners. I know to wait until late to draft a kicker, I need more substantial information.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Boop

I have returned from my beach trip and must say that it was quite awesome. Everyone seemed to have a great time start to finish, myself included. I drank too much, got too much sun on the first day and tore the hell out of my tender feet. Ohh and I petted a baby tiger (no that's not a euphemism), which was a lot more fun than I initially thought it was gonna be, despite some serious time constraints.

My drive back was an exercise in frustration and I took a wrong turn early and had to backtrack and then got routed wrong again later taking alternate 220 through the backwater of N.C. instead of cruising comfortably at 75 m.p.h. I would attempt to recreate the cursing that went on, but fear that it may strike the more faint hearted blind in its fury.

Today Trip and I went to see Superbad, which was so fucking funny. My only complaint is that it lacked gratuitous boobage. Still, it lived up to the hype and for that it receives filet mignon stature with headcavingly orgasmic potential.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Love those Myrtle Beach waves


I am heading to the beach, folks, for some well deserved R and R.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Go Steely McBeam!

Only two more work days to go! Of course, I still haven't packed. That will be a last minute activity I suppose. Ahh well.

So it's fucking hot. Man I hate the heat. I wake up sweating. You aren't supposed to sweat when you sleep, the whole point of sleeping is the opposite of sweating. It's brutal. At least I have an air conditioned car now. If I was still driving the Jeep I would have killed someone at work by now.

So some of you have heard of the new Steelers' mascot, Steely McBeam. I have ot admit I was put off by him initially, that is, until I heard his porn star-esque name. He's goofy, but still better than the Cowboys' guy... He's not wearing chaps after all. I would have preferred cheerleaders, but bah, who cares? Football is upon us and we should all drink deep it's heady flavor!

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

I'm the champ!

"N****s want me dead,
but they scared to step to me.
Rip your guts out,
like a hysterectomy."
- Ghostface Killah

Thought I'd start things off with some poetry. It's rather new school, I suppose. Striking.

I spent a large portion of the night sitting in front of my computer and listening to music. I've been too wrapped up with podcasts of late and have neglected the joys of music. I put together a nice mix for the beach drive and whatnot. Only four workdays until vacation.

I also switched up some music on my iPod to tune into the laid back party vibe of the beach, as opposed to my usual need for depressive or angry music.

I still need to get started packing... May do that tomorrow. We'll see.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Plunging forth into newfound debt

Well I bought a car. Yup. A 2002 Toyota Corolla that I got a decent deal on. It was relatively painless. Mom got me up early and we looked at a couple of dealerships around Winston-Salem before heading to Carmax. There I was well treated and not hard sold. It went fairly quickly and I drove it home.

Now I just gotta pay for it... blah.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Financially drowning

I'm debating buying a car tomorrow. I looked for a while on the internet and found a couple of things that are suitable. Trip and I rode around Martinsville for a while and looked at all the goddamn Nelson dealerships (I really hate that guy.) I looked at Martinsville Toyota (which seems to be one of the few non-Nelson places left running) and I liked the look of the Yaris, but I don't wanna drop $17K. I don't think I can really afford that.

Honestly, throwing myself back into debt makes my stomach hurt. Looking at car prices reinforces how little money I really make and I hate it. I don't need to be wealthy, I just want to not have to worry. But whatever.

What's funny is I saw loads of commercials this month about super special deals in Roanoke. So I looked those up, particularly at Haley Toyota. Hmmm, Funny how I could buy a brand new Yaris in Martinsville for less than I could buy one with 15K miles on it at Haley. Hate that shit. Guess he has to pay for advertising somehow.

I found a couple of things at CarMax (no haggling is more my speed) that look decent. I dunno, I know fuck all about cars really. I just want fuel efficiency and dependability. I'm leaning toward the Lancer, just because it's three grand cheaper, power locks/windows and automatic. We'll see what I think about it tomorrow.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

I'm tied to a clock

Tired, tired, tired. I should be heading to bed, but I listened to This American Life on my way home and wanted to talk about it. It was a show called "Special Ed" about mentally disabled people and various stories about them.

The one that stuck out to me was about this mentally handicapped child who became obsessed with black holes at the age of three. He drew them all the time and talked about them eating the whole world. It was strangle. I mean, sure, lots of times I'm wishing a black hole would swallow the world, but I'm a jaded fuck, not a three-year old.

He also had some other problems like trying to kill the cat and destroying everything that meant something to someone in the house, himself included. The Marquis de Sade would have loved this kid. Fortunately he was finally diagnosed as bipolar and medicated so he's not a hellion, much to the relief of his mother. He now spends his time drawing rainbows, hearts and bunnies. While I'm certain that medication is the best thing for both the child, his mother and society at large, part of me does enjoy the idea of an inherently evil child. Ahh well.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Vote Independent! Vote Evil!

As an Evilpenguin I find that sometimes it is best to find a candidate that represents my evil needs. Sure the Republicans usually have that covered, but what if it's just not enough? Why not go Lovecraftian on their asses? Cthulhu's platform of devouring and madness is something I can get behind.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Maintaining Steeltown's safety


Troy Polamalu signed a huge deal and will definitely be a Steeler through 2011! Yay! That's with a year still left on his current contract. I gotta tell you that Polamalu is everything I want in a player. He's spectacular on the field (in a position that is normally only gets its name called when the player screws up), he's a team guy willing to do whatever it takes for the whole squad to succeed and finally he's never gonna be in the papers for having screwed up (drinking and driving, fighting or, the worst, dog fighting.

Go 43!

Monday, July 23, 2007

This is what I came to do

I've been fighting off a low grade depression the last few weeks with some success, but it's still there in the back of my mind. I've been trying to distract myself with some things, but a lot of little things keep coming up. For one, I can't log on to my fantasy football site. I know that seems like a dumb thing to be depressed by, but it's just one little thing that gnaws at the back of my mind. It has sapped all my fantasy football interest at the moment, since there is nothing I can do about it until EA contacts me again and fixes it.

One of the less minimal things is that my Jeep is still not running at 100%. It will do ok for a day and then I'll notice a familar, albeit brief flutter in the engine. I wouldn't worry about it so much, except I'm certain that when I drive it to the beach it'll break down completely. That's how these things work. I've been debating buying a new car, but I'd like to have a substantial down payment to start things off. I dunno.

I read the new Harry Potter book at work Saturday night. I enjoyed it, although some of the reasoning behind why things happened seemed very deus ex machina to me. Still it was good. I won't get into the details yet. Give some of you people a chance to finish it without finding out the whole plot ahead of time.

Further thoughts on All Pro Football 2K8: I really, really miss the dynasty mode. I liked constructing my team from the ground up, but it seems like there is nothing to do after that. Also I was playing last night, got to halftime and the whole thing locked up on me. Annoying.

All right, I suppose I'm done. I'm just looking forward to going to the beach in a couple of weeks. I need a real break from everything.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Automotive issues

Driving home tonight my Jeep showed signs of an imminent problem. It would lose power for a split second and then go back to running normally. I guess I'm gonna have to take it in tomorrow and find out what's wrong. I just got it tuned up and now this. I was really hoping for it to last for another couple of months so I can buy a new(to me) car and move on, but if this repair is gonna cost a ton then I have to debate just buying a new car now... which would suck as I was hoping to have a decent down payment so I could keep my payments down without paying tons of interest...

I picked up All Pro Football 2K8 this week and have been playing it some. It's not as phenomenal as I had hoped, but it's solid. As I break myself away from being used to EA's control scheme it gets better. I really do like drafting my team, although they could use a little more variety in the pros. Still it's fun overall and I can't say I regret not getting NCAA 08 as of yet. I'll be able to rent it or something if the urge truly strikes.

Anyway here's hoping I can make it to work tomorrow... we'll see.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Behold the grandeur!



With fantasy football season mere weeks away I have once again commissioned Trip to bring forth a mighty logo that will set fear into the hearts of mine opponents. He has done well with this demand and so now you all can try to comprehend the glory that is The Evil Penguin!

Friday, July 13, 2007

Ooooohhhhhh on the Edge of...

Couple of things I wanna talk about. I'll start with Harry Potter. The final book is coming out next week and I've got a few predictions for things that will happen and want them on the record. Basically so I can say "I told you so" if I'm right and let them drift into obscurity if I'm not. Here goes:
  1. Harry will not die. Don't think J.K. Rowling is gonna want to let him go like that. He may be a horcrux, but that doesn't mean he has to die. It is a magical world after all.
  2. Snape will die. He will die protecting Harry and prove Dumbledore right. It just doesn't make sense to have a major character like Dumbledore give second chances to someone not deserving of them.
  3. Harry and Ginny will end up together. As will Ron and Hermione. Also Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom will end up romantically linked.
  4. The person who stole the last horcrux, (R.A.B) is Sirius' brother Regulus. That may be obvious, but I thought I'd get it down in case it's only obvious to me.
That'll wrap that up. I'm expecting a happy ending overall. I'm hoping for one, actually.

I'd like to welcome Nick to the ranks of XBox 360 owners. He's probably only gonna be playing football games on it, but he'll still enjoy it I'm sure. I'm hoping to play him at something, but may have trouble finding a time when we're both awake and available to play.

I started playing TMNT last night, which is an awful game. It's just not very well designed. That said, I'm enjoying it. It's been a long time since I played a game with these platform elements and I find I'm enjoying them more than I remembered doing... well aside from playing Super Mario Bros. 3 with Trip and Corb a few years back.

I finished reading A. Lee Martinez's A Nameless Witch (foot massage) and it's pretty good. He write these pulpy books with a dry wit and humor. My favorite so far has been Gil's All-Fright Diner, which combines goofy vampires and werewolves with Lovecraftian themes for pure chewing satisfaction.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Drafts, demos and cleaning up my queue

Today I have done relatively little. But while doing that little I've gotten a lot done. Sounds odd huh? Well let me rephrase, I've done a lot of stuff that is a waste of time. I played some video games (and may be playing more soon enough), I read some more of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (which I'm re-reading to reacquaint myself before the Deathly Hallows drops on July 21st), I made up a bunch of Harry Potter trivia questions for my mom (library thingie and, yes, I am a huge nerd), listened to a bunch of podcasts, followed the opening of E3, especially the Microsoft press conference (woo Halo 3 footage), chatted with Adam about fantasy football, researched some fantasy football websites (still searching for some really good ones, taking suggestions), watched some video podcasts and ate way too much.

Pretty busy to have done fuck all, huh.

Let's see, yesterday Nick determined the draft order for the Techmo Lucky Breaks Fantasy Football League and I am fairly pleased with my third overall pick. Not sure who I'm gonna take in the three spot, leaning toward Larry Johnson, Frank Gore and maybe Brian Westbrook. Ehh, the jury is still out with so much time before the draft.

I downloaded the NCAA 08 demo on XBox Live and it's ok. I'm not as sold on it as I thought I would be. Maybe I just need to get used to the interface, I'm often offput by how they change them every year. I'm still debating between buying that or 2K's All Pro Football, which sounds pretty cool. Have to check the ratings and maybe try a demo for that if it's available before I settle into one of em, but I'm leaning toward All Pro at the moment.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Back on the horse

I managed to talk to both Adam and Mike this week and naturally the discussion turned to football. Because of that I broke down and bought my first fantasy football magazine of the season (ESPN's version, which is not as good as last year, but decent overall). I'd been trying to hold off on my football mania, as last season I started following it before the NFL Draft and stayed with it through the Super Bowl. I gotta tell you those last few weeks of the regular season I kinda was over it.

That sounds like heresy, but if you want to win you gotta pay attention to the details. After nine months of it you can get wore down. But now, with a substantial break, my fervor has been rekindled! It started with that magazine and now I'm watching Sportscenter and NFL Live, looking for podcasts and thinking about draft positions. I'm an addict.

The sporting podcast world is a mixed bag to say the least. I've found a couple of good ones, but also a lot of crap. Just because you like football and have a microphone doesn't mean you should record your thoughts. So far my favorite is the Mysportsradio podcasts. Their "One for the Thumb" Steelers show is mighty. They have other teams represented, so you other guys might want to partake.

Saw Ratatouille with Trip last night and it was awesome. Pixar does not miss. Ok, well Cars wasn't my fav., but considering it was NASCAR related it was pretty good. There is no reason not to see Ratatouille, it's got great voice acting, amazing animation and a charming plot. It's Filet Mignon with upward mobility. I'm not too surprised, the writer/director Brad Byrd did The Incredibles and that is my all time fav. Pixar movie.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Wolf moon

I've kept busy this weekend. Sunday I went to Greensboro with Trip and Jill and we had a nice dinner at PF Chang's and saw Evan Almighty. The movie was pretty good, about what I expected really. I'd rate it a +1 chainmail viewing.

Yesterday I hung with Danny and Trip and we goofed off for a while. Played some Forza 2, which kinda made me want to pick the game up, but I'm not sure if I wanna drop $60 on it. Especially with so many games I really, really want on the not too distant horizon. Also tried Rainbow Six Vegas, which Danny is addicted to, did not really care for that.

After Danny bailed Trip and I watched the abortion that is Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I knew it wasn't going to be great, just judging from the first FF movie, but I hope that maybe the inclusion of my all-time favorite comic book hero would make it better. Was not to be. Sooooo many things wrong with that movie. Jessica Alba=hot ass, horrible actress. She's just not good. All in all, this movie gave me a torn colon.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

nice warm glass of shut the fuck up

Grumble, complain, bitch, piss and moan. There I've summed up my usual Saturday morning post into six words. I don't have much to add to that really. I'm tired and looking forward to having three days off after tonight's work. It can't happen soon enough.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Please remove this cutlery from my knees

Nothing much remarkable going on in these parts, just the usual heartbreak, malaise and antipathy... ohhh I almost forgot misanthropy. Stick with what you know, I always say.

Hmmmm, highlights... I think I don't have to work any overtime this week, but I may be wrong. The new guy should be trained, but who knows. Of course, for the fourth I'll be getting a couple of extra hours because of Donny's vacation, but no big. When you add in holiday pay it makes for a nice check.

Been playing Virtua Tennis 3 for the past coupla days and it's pretty good, if you like tennis. I'm glad it's a rental tho, as paying retail for it would have been a bit much. Still it's a fun game and I may buy it when it gets under $20.

Watched Ghost Rider last night, the less said the better (Shaq-fu, I still need a replacement for this rating. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has em.). Well that's a little harsh, I had exceedingly low expectations so it wasn't as bad as I imagined. Still, I'm not a big Nick Cage fan and the writers didn't do him any favors. It was pleasant looking at Eva Mendes tho, rowwwrrrr.

I also watched Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, which was exactly as I expected. It's got a totally convoluted plot, really nice animation and schloads of fan service. Decent, if you are a fan of the game. Sadly I must admit I never beat it, basically because I watched Gabe go through it twice. I got about halfway in and decided I didn't need to see Shinra and Sephiroth go down a third time. Anyway I give the movie a +1 chainmail because of the animation and nostagia factors.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

ETNTWDY

Soooo last night I took the night off work and joined Kevin for an evening of Wilco. We drove to Charlotte and enjoyed some quality music. Kevin is a big Wilco fan, to say the least. So naturally I have to berate him for enjoying them, even tho I like them too. It's the law of the west.

Somehow while we're waiting for the doors to open and watching some of the members of the band wander around and talk to fans I go on a tirade about Kevin talking to them about eating his ass or him eating there ass. Basically just going on an ass eating tear to amuse myself. It kinda colored the whole evening, which was amusing.

After the show Kevin got a picture and autograph from the lead singer Jeff Tweedy, which he was excited about. He mentioned that if he was rich he'd follow them around and see all their shows. I suggested he get a VW bus and eat Tweedy's ass in every town in North America. He mentioned that he license plate would be ETNTWDY and it got zanier from there. It occurs to me that the ass eating topic doesn't translate here into the humor we had going at the time, but it still amuses me.

Anyway we had a kickass time and it was good to spend the day with Kev, since our hanging out time is getting more and more rare.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Fuck with me and I'll saw off your legs

I'm in a foul mood. Working nights can just make you feel lonely and alienated sometimes and last night was one of those times. Just lots of little bullshit that doesn't matter stacking itself on the important bullshit that does matter to make me pissed off and angsty.

It didn't help that there was fuckall on tv last night. I watched Hitch, which isn't bad, but isn't great. Other than that it was utter crap. I mean Van Helsing was on TNT all night. That movie is so shitty that Hugh Jackman is still picking corn out of his hair.

Anyway I'm off to bed and hope tomorrow is less sucky.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

I owe you for the thing at the place with the guy

Been keeping kinda quiet. Between working overtime and the heat I'm drained when I get home, so I don't write much. Also work is fairly dull, so who wants to hear about that?

Tonight Trip and I went to see Ocean's 13, which I enjoyed immensely (Filet Mignon). I love caper movies, especially with a laundry list of stars. Those movies just have this aura of cool that is undeniable. I'd say 13 is better than 12, actually. The first still may be the best, just because I initially wasn't sure what to expect. Ohh and for the record, don't see the Sinatra version of Ocean's 11, because it's total garbage.

I don't really have a lot of other stuff going on. The new Dinosaur Jr. is excellent, if you're into that kinda music. I'm still playing tons of Catan and I'm trying out NHL 2k7 and it's ok. I prefer NHL 07 (which seems like the exact same thing if you aren't in the know) just for the controls. I'm gonna be getting a soccer game in the mail soon and we'll see how it goes. Can I lead some nation to World Cup glory?

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

You've lost control of the bottom line

So it's been a nice coupla days off. Stayed lowkey. Watched Pan's Labyrinth with Trip on Monday. It was good, but didn't captivate me quite as much as I expected. Still it had a nice grim fairy tale vibe and some cool costuming. I'd say foot massage all told.

After that we played a little NHL 2k7 and I had to dispense a swift beating. We then watched the season premiere of Hell's Kitchen, which I love. I don't know why watching a bunch of people squabble and then a British guy yelling at them is so entertaining, but it damn sure is. Tuesday we grabbed some Mexican food and then did some minor shopping.

I've been playing tons of games until the wee small hours, but nothing important to report there, except that Madden 06 is pretty terrible. Soooooo many little things they fucked up. I'm telling you, 07 isn't a gem, but it's lots better than 06. Of course, since EA has some competition this year, 08 will be even better, but the Steelers will suck ass. That is the way things work out for me.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Unjustifiable existence

Last night's work went fairly quickly, which was nice. I then came home, had a few beers and played Catan for a while. I actually won a second game and should have won another, but I got schiested.

Now it's super late (or early) and I'm listening/watching Type O Negative videos on Youtube. The lead singer, Peter Steele, has this baritone voice that is simply striking. I'm betting that guy is swimming in goth chick poontang. (This is a pre-emptive apology to my female readers for that potentially offensive statement. It was written with humorous intent.) I need to listen to their new album, but I need to listen to a lot of new music that I've been ignoring for podcasts. But yeah, if you dig gothy metal music this is right in your wheelhouse.

Speaking of podcasts, I listened to a couple of good ones yesterday that weren't video game related. The first was a This American Life episode about how the American Psychological Association reclassified homosexuality from a disease to normal behavior and the battle that went into it. I find stories about people fighting for their rights to be very interesting.

The second was an episode of The Ungodly Hour, an industrial music show. I like this show a lot, but it runs three hours (despite the word hour in the title) and it's hard to sit down and listen to anything for three solid hours, ya know. I listened to around two hours of it before callign it quits and I love me some hard industrial music.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Dispensing wisdom to the uninitiated

Work was a motherfucker once again. I was busy all damn night. Where does it all end?

Having some trouble thinking of something else to write now. I had an idea on the way home, but it eludes me. Ahh fuck it, I'm tired.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Freaky ducky


She's a very freaky girl.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

You dirty motorboating bastard

Before I start I'd like to link to a site that every young man should visit and know about. Don't get your nuts in a knot!

Not much to report. Played some Top Spin 2 and I'm not overly impressed. It seems too hard to get the power shots to land. Think I'm gonna mail it back today. I then shifted into Catan, which remains fun despite my marked lack of skills.

Work was blah. The assistant GM told us she was trying to get our department paid better, which is nice. But, of course, trying doesn't mean it's gonna happen. I would love for it to happen, but am not getting too hopeful. It's when I get my hopes up that life makes a special trip to dash them with vigor. I'd site examples, but it's all too painful.

I'll be pulling some OT for the next few weeks, at least, as we are understaffed. I'm looking forward to the overtime pay, but not working Sundays.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

an adventure in musky

Decided to be completely slack today and didn't leave the house. Basically I just played video games all day, with a little tv mixed in. I watched Around the Horn and when those people talk about UFC the ignorance is astounding. Somehow two guys punching each other in the head for 12 rounds is fine, but you add in grappling aspects and they are "mongrels." Somehow jiu jitsu requires less skill... bah, the old people never overcome the shock of the new.

I also watched House, which was pretty good. Season finale and all. Afterward I kicked Trip's Zerg ass off my planet with extreme Protoss prejudice. Loads of fun to be had there. I suppose that's about it.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Spawn more overlords

This is gonna be a video game-centric blog, so if you're not interested in gaming stop reading now. I am up to my ass in games these days. I have been playing, consistently, the following games:Pokemon Diamond, Advance Wars DS, Madden 07, Lego Star Wars, Catan and Geometry Wars. So I've been busy.

I'll start by making a bold statement, I like my DS better than my XBox 360. Sure the 360 has all the graphics and next gen leetness, but I love my portable. Work is sooooo much better with the DS. I used to hit 3am and time would slow down to a crawl, now I blink and it's 6am and I can go. It's sweet. Plus the games I've gotten on the DS have managed to hook me more. I love Advance Wars, the turn-based strategy is maybe my favorite type of game. Nothing on the 360 has made me yearn to play it, except maybe Geometry Wars, but that's a short term thing, a quick game and I'm done.

But, I do make an effort to get involved with the 360, since I paid for it. Lego Star Wars is ok, not great, but kinda fun. I'm running out of patience with it, tho. I bought Madden 07 on a whim and initially I really hated it. But I figured I'd give it more of a shot and started a franchise. It made me like it more in franchise mode. Things started to click and I can move the ball. Of course, I am playing the team that won the Super Bowl the year before this game dropped. So not moving the ball would be embarrassing.

I need to buy a system selector for my tv so I can hook up my old XBox (which is modded and plays lots of cool stuff now) and my PS2. I'm considering trying Final Fantasy 12, but don't want to have to fiddle with loads of cords everytime I want to shift consoles. I'm also gonna start playing Starcraft again since all the Starcraft 2 hype has rekindled my love. I've never beat the game, hell I've never played the Zerg in campaign mode, so I'm kinda weak.

Ok, that's enough nerdity for now. Come back later for something less geeky... maybe.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Public facilities

Sooooooooooooo I have no been up for 24 straight hours. Yep, got up at 3pm yesterday, went to work, came home and went on a family outing. A long day, I tells ya. But it was worth it to see my brother, who recently returned from Iraq. Not to mention my nephew Cameron and sister-in-law Kelly. So yeah, it was fun.

I will admit that dealing with my parents during this type of event is a special challenge. Especially when sleep deprived, but I managed to keep my cool and not let my inner bastard out. We started off with breakfast at Ryan's, which we probably should have skipped, but that's hindsight. I purposely didn't eat a lot, as food at that time of day turns into an uncomfortable brick in my stomach and I feel ill for the whole day.

After that, we headed up to Philpott and claimed the roofed shelter area as our own, which was fortuitous as when your were in the sun it was hot as two fat hairy bikers fucking in a desert in hell. The view was nice and the breeze made it bearable.

Anyway I'm now making a beeline for bed. I'm exhausted and probably gonna fuck up my sleep schedule for a week.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

The Gonzo Fucktards

Well it turns out there was a mistake on my evaluation, so I am not as unappreciated as I thought. So that's a good thing. The bad part is that I get to once again prove my attendance is exemplary by working lots of overtime. Since one of our group got a promotion and her day slot was filled by a night person, I get to work more. I shouldn't complain, not like I'll do anything constructive with the time anyway.

So I finally worked my way through the first season of Heroes. It's a really good show, really good. Anyone that wants to watch it can, legally even, by going to NBC.com and watching it there with fairly limited commercial interruption. The season finale was good, but it didn't have quite the payoff I was hoping for. Still I can't wait for Sept. to see more, although there are no shortage of things to occupy my time these days... just not the things I wish were occupying my time.

But anyway, sweeps is finally over, I believe, with the American Idol nonsense done. It was a highly stressful night at Fox, although it wasn't really my problem. I was broadcasting the fabulous One Tree Hill season ender. I'm sure all of you caught that... (insert sarcastic tone here).

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Cliff notes of my life

My weekend so far: slight depression, 28 Weeks Later, Red Lobster, Halo 3 beta, Viva Pinata, sleep, Mexican food, Gamestop, Madden, more Halo 3 beta, Corbin, Heroes episodes 8-11, sleep, phone ringing.

That sums it all up. I live a product driven life, apparently.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Unappreciated

So I got my employee evaluation yesterday. I was whisked into an office, handed a paper with lots of arbitrary numbers and no points of reference. I noted that my attendance and punctuality score was a little low and signed off on it.

It was only later that I connected those numbers with the self evaluation I filled out weeks ago. I realized that three meant "adequate" and that my overall rating was 2.777, which means that I am perceived as less than adequate. That is complete bullshit. I'm not claiming to be the best worker out there or even exceptional, but I am more than fucking adequate.

I've been stewing on this all night. I work the worst fucking hours, nights, weekends, holidays for shit pay and try my damnedest to make it all work well. I worked all kinds of overtime when we were shortstaffed and always try to help out my coworkers when they need time off. When I make a mistake I try to not do it again, even when it's not my mistake but them changing shit on me week to week. But still I'm less than adequate.

I'm gonna let them know I disagree and I'm gonna start looking for a different job. I know I'm looking at another fabulous nine cent raise this year. Fuck this bullshit.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Festus pulled out his Roscoe

Sooo my weekend has come and gone. It was fun, had sushi, played games, watched a bunch of episodes of Heroes. So good times.

Today I made my way back to work and well into my drive I realized I had forgotten my cell phone. I felt completely isolated. I'm telling ya, it was disconcerting. It's not like I'm constantly on the thing, like a lot of people, but it's good to know I can be reached if necessary. Orrrrr should my Jeep decide to crap out it's nice to know I can have someone fetch me. But I survived.

Today the Halo 3 beta started, but I'm not taking part. I resisted the temptation to spend $55 for a game I don't really want just for the privilege of testing Halo 3 for three weeks. I tried to rent it from Gamefly, but plenty of other people had the same thought I imagine. Still I'm hearing good things and will be able to try it out a little next week at Trip's (he did get Crackdown via Gamefly and so can play the beta). Plus the release date for Halo 3 is set for Sept. 25 now so that's not too long anyway.

Well I'm off to play some games and try to catch up on my podcasts. I'm way behind with like 30-odd podcasts in my queue. Gotta start cutting some of them out.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

I sever the ties

So I find myself in a good mood and I'm not really sure why. It's the oddest thing. I mean, sure, it's the beginning of my weekend and I don't have to run any more shitty night NASCAR races, but this is a greater sense of joy that those things would merit. I did listen to a nice playlist I made on my drive home. Lots of good songs in a row always helps.

But yeah, my night of work wasn't particularly great, as I did run baseball and had a rained out race. Lots of little bullshit to annoy, especially when you add in emergency broadcasts for thunderstorms. So yeah, it's unusual that I'm happy in the face of all that garbage.

Ohhh I also listened to an episode of This American Life, a radio show from public radio, about prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Man that's scary. They interviewed two guys that had been released after four years of detainment. Neither had ever been anyway related to terrorism or being an enemy combatant, aside from someone turning them in for a $5-10,000 reward. Four years oftheir life stolen, forced into a cage, regularly humiliated and interrogated for no reason. Imagine.

I could go on a huge rant about that. I mean we are a nation allegedly based on freedom and the "inalienable rights" of all men, yet we detain these people without habeus corpus, without any reasonable appeal process and with minimal evidence of their guilt. It's astounding. I'm letting it go, but I may post more about it later, if my mood worsens.

Friday, May 11, 2007

I'd like to snarl at the world

So I've had a shitty day. Just something not right all day long. I didn't even sleep well. Had lots of really weird dreams about zombies (the rage-infected, fast ones from 28 Days Later) and while it wasn't scary, not really, it was offputting. Then work sucks, every little thing seemed to get on my nerves.

For example, the cleaning lady. She's nice enough, but she managed to be right in my way constantly. I decided to go prepare my dinner in the break room, she's in there cleaning. I want to go get my jacket from my Jeep, she's vacuuming the stairs and completely fucking oblivious of my desire to get around her. Not her fault, but annoying to me.

I've felt like I've had this submerged scream in my chest all day long and I don't know why. I'm gonna try to ease that burden now by eating Cheezit Crisps, drinking Belgian beer and shooting people in Halo 2. We'll see if it works. If I manage to calm down i may read some of the new Palahniuk book, Rant, that my mom checked out for me.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Please check my balls

Sooooo I had originally planned to stay in today and waste away in front of my XBox 36o, but when I arose I found my modem had died again. So I decided to take care of that and since I was out I may as well be somewhat social. So I traded in my old modem for a new one at Comcast and then met up with Trip to grab some pizza.

We then went to Advance Auto Parts (which is far out of our usual roaming grounds) too look for seat covers for him. You see he bought a shiny new PT Cruiser recently and now I'm all jealous. The highlight of the trip was the Chrome skull shifter knob with the light up eyes.

After our manly shopping escapade (yes I know escapade detracts from the manliness, that's the point), we headed back to his place and watched How I Met Your Mother, which continues to be enjoyable and Fast Food Nation, which moved at a nigh-glacial pace. I'd read the book, so I was well aware of how horrible the meat packing industry is (I've read The Jungle too, so I have historical perspective as well).

The one scene I did like was when the activist kids try to free the cows at the slaughterhouse and the cattle refuse to escape. They just won't listen even though someone is telling them they are going to die. Sadly I have to include myself among those cattle, but my apathy and laziness will not let me break free.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Badonkadonk red and the hostess

So apparently some of you Ramblers are upset with my lack of recent updates. Well, tough. I write when I feel like it and I've been distracted lately. You see, last week I impulse bought a Nintendo DS (which is a handheld gaming system for those of you not in the know) and have been playing the new Pokemon game pretty consistently since. It's like crack for kids... and I'm still pretty much a kid, even at age 32.

I did hit a snag last night when I found out that there is a "fashion" portion of the game where you have to dress up your Pokemon in accessories you get through the game. Not so much on playing dress up. Gotta see how much of that crap I have to do before I can progress.

In other news, I saw the new Spiderman movie, it's ok, but probably not something I'm gonna want to see a lot. Too many stupid jokes, kids thrown in for cuteness factor and just too long. Why do we need three villains in one movie? Why do they all take off their masks regularly? (I know it's to show off the actors underneath, but it's just stupid.) Why is Spiderman acting like a 70s pimp? I think the first viewing merited a +1 chainmail rating, but subsequent viewings are likely to drop it down to Meh. and possibly beyond.

I also watched Rocky Balboa, which was ok (in the +1 chainmail area, as well). It went back to the roots of the Rocky series and worked through those fairly well, with a few rocky moments (ba dump tshhhh). I'd rank it roughly on the same level as Rocky 4, definitely better than Rocky 5. They just never were the same without Burgess Meredith tho.

Monday, April 30, 2007

I can't see anything at all, all I see is me

Had an interesting day. Went to Eoghan's Birthday party (Eoghan is Jill's 8-year-old son, for those of you out of the know). Now contrary to what my sicko friends might tell you, I don't frequent lots of BDay parties for minors. Apparently you can celebrate a birthday without buying the BDay boy a shot. Who knew? Anyway it wasn't bad, just kinda hung out at Rollabout. Hadn't been there since like ninth grade maybe.

Headed to Trip's after that for a bit, where we watched some of that new, yet already cancelled Andy Richter show. It's hilarious and hence it had to die. I'm sure we'll get another fat guy with a hot wife sitcom on the air to replace it next season. Don't have enough of that.

Hit "The Walmart" after leaving Trip's, as I had to get a FM transmitter for my iPod, since my tape deck has decided to reject my tape adapter. Apparently the relationship just wasn't working out between them and the tape deck wanted to be alone. Found one that works pretty good so far.

Got home and tried to build up my gamer score on XBox Live. I swear, it's addictive. Not quite crack, but maybe prescription painkillers. I managed to get over 1,000 without playing any new games and have now built it up to 1,065 only playing through a tad of Tony Hawk Project 8, which I borrowed from Trip. Some of the more thorough of you Ramblers (the new nickname for people who read my blog) will note that I have linked my score at the bottom of my blog. So you folks can see both the depths of my nerdiness and what I am playing to keep said nerdiness at such high levels.

I should probably just delete the last.fm link thingie since I can't get the software to work right with my iPod. Bleh, I may try to fiddle with it sometime, so I'll leave it where it is for the moment.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Innovation is not the be all, end all of design

Had my meeting today and it wasn't as bad as I suspected. It wasn't good, meetings never are, but it wasn't horrible. But I did get more free pizza, woo. But yeah, the crux of the meetings was that sweeps are starting so we needed to do things right. Like that isn't our goal normally. Somehow I normally fuck things up intentionally, but now it's sweeps so I should stop that.

So my podcast addiction continues. The quality of podcasts varies wildly, but the good ones are really good. I have been listening to way too many video game discussions tho. I'm informed to say the least. Listened to a cool discussion about how important the Halo franchise in the grand scheme of the video games. The usual arguments of how PC FPS's always have done it better, blah blah blah. (Some of you completely got lost with that last sentence, but then i suppose it wasn't really for you then. So feel free to ignore it.)

I subscribed to Gamefly, which is basically a Netflix equivalent for games. Happy so far. Been playing last year's college football game and it's ok, not anything special. I prefer some of the older versions of it. Ehh, it's doing a nice job of pumping up my gamer score. (Those are the nerd points you get for playing games on XBox 360. When you meet certain goals in the game you get points added to your total score, which is posted for everyone online to see. It adds a cool little tweak to gaming. Adding another tier to satisfy the nerdy gaming/collecting urge and allow geeks to further rank themselves.)

Monday, April 23, 2007

Take that causality!

So my cable modem decided to end it's strike peaceably, before I sent the riot police in. At least that's the best reason I can think of, so I'm going with it. So I am back online and all is well. I'm currently listening to a podcast called "The Ungodly Hour" that features lots of industrial/gothy type music. Some pretty good stuff on there, think I may subscribe, songs in German always sound delightfully brutal!

So while in my hotel room I kept my nerd levels high by reading the new Halo novel, Ghosts of Onyx. It's hard to get nerdier than reading a book based on a video game. You usually have to dress up in some sort of costume to do it and I'm not doing that. Anyway, the book was one of the better ones in the series. Eric Nylund makes it readable and I like knowing all the backstory.

I'm now diving into Absurdistan, which is pretty good. The lead character has some wonderfully humorous moments, that he's totally unaware of. Like when he inherits $35 million and complains about his poverty. That said, he's very likable despite all his flaws. I'm only halfway through, so we'll see where it goes.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

The chick blamed the snake

Well I have returned to my homestead, but remained isolated from the outside world. My cable modem seems to have revolted against the lack of power. Can't get that taken care of until tomorrow. So I'm now at Trip's letting all of you know my difficulties.

We're watching Planet Earth, which is astounding. Monkeys eating figs... good stuff.

Don't really have much else to say, so I'll go.

Friday, April 20, 2007

It's all about failure

Now listening to: My Bloody Valentine

So this is my final night in the luxurious Quality Inn. It's been a decent stay, aside from the lack of a microwave and talkative people at 7 a.m. when I'm trying to fall asleep. The heating unit has two modes, blazing hot and ice cold. I lean toward the cold, of course, but it's annoying to realize you're shivering while sitting in front of the computer.

Also I need to get out of here because I keep buying crappy food to eat. Fucking Cheez-its and that whore Little Debbie screw me over at every turn. I got a nice low fat sub from Subway, loaded with veggies for dinner to try to offset some of that garbage. I get to work and they are having a going away party for Kasper and free pizza, cookies and cake were all laid out. How do I say no to that? So my plan to be healthy was foiled again by both my coworkers and my weak will.

I continue to plow my way through the Venture Bros. commentary and it amuses me. It's completely random, one minute talking about the show, next talking about having sex with tattooed women. Anything can happen.

I watched the new episode of The Ultimate Fighter at work, which was followed by a preview of this weekend's free UFC broadcast on Spike. It's free because you've probably only heard of one of the fighters going at it. Still, one of the guys is a Pride FC veteran I do believe, so it'll be good.

I must go now, as I will be forced to rise well before I'd like to so I can check out and then proceed to kill 7 hours until work. Hello book store and coffee shop. Maybe I'll get a hair cut, since I desperately need one.