Hillbilly Horseshoes

An interesting week for me, one that was very easy anyways. Then again, I find a lot of my weeks are like that, to where I can just be a bum most of the time and not have it too rough. Let’s take for example the “work” situation I had this week for 3 days at a local high school. I had really small classes, but inside the class they had two PlayStation 2 systems and a Nintendo 64 in there. Is this heaven? And I get paid for this? The setup here is that the kids have to take care of their work and they then get to jump on some video game action or get online. I went to high school 10 years too early.



We had a few TVs hooked up and it was on. Of course I’m going to jump in there and play since that’s what I do at home anyways. The theory here is that I’ll never be too old to play video games. I’ve grown up with them all my life, so why stop now. I’ll let my buddies take care of the marriage and having kids thing right now, I’m in no way ready for that. The big games of the week were Mario Kart 64 (one of the all time greats), X-Men Legends, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Final Fantasy XI, and South Park 64.

Throughout the week at “work” I also got to watch several movies at two different high schools. I’m telling ya, a high school sub has it totally made. You just hang out for 85% of the time and just make sure the kids aren’t idiots, which they aren’t. By that time, the behavior problems are virtually gone and you can actually have a real conversation with them instead of them being crazy immature. Anyways, on the movie scene, I got to watch four this week at “work”. I got to watch Happy Gilmore (one of my all time favorites), Barbershop, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Drumline. I love all of these actually. For those who haven’t seen Drumline before, you’re missing out. You might think it’s cheesy, but it’s good times. And as Dave Chappelle’s kid would say, “Nick Cannon is hilaaarrriioouusss!”



On the CD front, just one since we last updated on Wednesday. I finally got John Cena’s debut, the buffed out WWE wrestler for those in a coma, titled You Can’t See Me. I’ve already listened to this one a few times through. So that means I must really like it. I didn’t expect much out of a wrestler putting out a rap CD, but this one delivers and my buddies think so as well. It even has the advisory sticker on it, something I’m surprised the WWE let him get away with. He brings it hard too, so hopefully he can make a name for himself doing this instead of falling flat on his face. Don’t let him being a wrestler scare you away from getting this. This isn’t a Chris Jericho CD. For as much as I like Jericho as a wrestler, his music CD is atrocious.

Remember in the last update I talked about Bizarro World when we went to Denny’s? Me and Cork hit it up again on the weekend as usual, this time after we played Hillbilly Horseshoes (more on this in detail in a bit, so hold tight) on Friday night. This is the earliest I think I’ve been to Denny’s and we ended up getting there around 11:30 or so. A completely different crowd from Bizarro World. I felt out of my element for this crowd too. This time it was the younger kids, but at least they weren’t annoying and making fools of themselves while being hammered. As usual, we ended up seeing a lot of people we know. You can’t go to Denny’s and not find people you don’t know though, at any time of the day. In attendance for the locals was Smalls Bryant, Matt Pill, Pill’s cousins Caleb and Andrew, Ferris, Mulberry, and Donnie Brasco. There were also a few high school kids that I’ve had in class too, so the place was jammed packed with action. I ended up going to an old staple of mine, the BBQ Burger. I doubt I get this one again. While good, you have to cut it with a knife it’s so big and I absolutely hate to get messy. That’s a big thing of mine. For example, I rarely eat BBQ wings due to the fact that it gets me greasy and messy. I rarely do that in public anyways. I know I’m a neat freak. I can’t help it.

So what’s Hillbilly Horseshoes? I didn’t know about it until just this weekend. The Barnes Brothers call up to get me in on this action, so me and Cork head up to battle. If you’re familiar with horseshoes, you get the basic concept. The only difference in this game is that you have two wooden platforms on each side, 3 foot long by 1 foot wide. In the middle, you have a hole that is 2¼ inches around. Instead of horseshoes, you play with 2 inch washers. If you make it in the hole (a ringer) you get 3 points. If you have it hanging on the hole, you get 2 points. And if you get the closest to the hole, you get 1 point. You play to 21. I know it might sound stupid, but this game is very addictive and fun. I played great for my first time, so I hope I have the hang of it for when we play again, because we’ll have tourneys this summer I’m sure. You also get some good trash talking going during this one, so that’s never a bad thing to get some competitive juices flowing. Me and Big Barney teamed up to form an impressive duo ton win easily on the night. Cork and Little Barney were teams, while Old Barney and one of his boys were on a team.

As I type this up, I’m about to accomplish something I’ve never done in my entire video game life, which is surprising. You all know that me, Cork, and Spank are teaming together in a dynasty season with the Colorado Rockies on MVP Baseball 2005 for GameCube. They don’t have an option for a shortened season, so you have to play the full 162-game schedule or else. It takes roughly 20-30 minutes per game and right now we’ve played 156 total without simming a thing. We’re also rocking it out. By the time I update again, we’ll be in the playoffs. Right now we’re 99-57 and just beating down the competition and should win both the MVP (Todd Helton) and Cy Young (Zach Greinke). Helton mashes like a king and has 70 homers with 6 to go. He should be able to beat the record if he doesn’t fall off pace. And Greinke has a NASTY curveball, one that comes in at 56 miles per hour and makes the batters look silly. I’ll update you guys on our season again soon. I don’t know too many people who have finished an entire 162-game baseball season on a video game. I figure we’ll get deep into other seasons since we don’t have anything to do all summer but be bums.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Did you know that Wilt Chamberlain supposedly would drink a gallon of milk at halftime of each game? I find that hard to believe, but that’s what the book I’m reading now says anyways. That’s messed up.

2. Oliver Perez Bobblehead Night, May 21st. I’ll be there at PNC Park in Pittsburgh with my MVP Baseball 2005 boys and we’re going just to see our Colorado Rockies. Should be fun times.

3. TruePoker.com is a great download for the card playing fans. Nice graphics and you even have sound and more options than most poker programs. This one even has a nicely organized tourney feature, something a lot of the others don’t have anymore as much as back in the day.