Wet Noodle

Yeah yeah, I know I’m due for a new post. Give me my 50 lashes with a wet noodle or better yet a Singapore cane, wrestling style. Back to waking up early for me and I’ve been doing that for a week. A few things to talk about in this one. We have fantasy football, softball, CDs, teaching, and whatever else goes down in the Madhouse. Alllll abooooard..



Cork’s annual family reunion softball game was this past Saturday. I’m always up for that action. I’ve been playing in this one for the past four or five years. Rain the day before most of the day leading up to the action. We still went to the mean streets of Wallace to get the festivities underway. About 6:00, we finally start to play. Not as an athletic of a crew as we were after, but we played nonetheless. It was raining for part of the game, but we didn’t care. We just wanted to ball. I played in center since I wanted to get out there with the speed and make some catches. Not a lot came my way, but I made a few decent plays. I only got to bat 3 times and got one hit, not what I was after. The game was called after 5 innings, but my crew won, so all is good.

My teaching setup so far this year is pretty nice to open the year. Nothing out of the ordinary, but you can’t go wrong by having small classes. Less structure that way and I can bring in my style of teaching a bit more in that situation. I try to be as laid back as I can and give the kids a break if they can work with me. Something new everyday instead of the same old boring junk. This crew knows me already from years before, so that can’t hurt. In random news with one of my kids, this one kid is roughly 5’6”/130lbs. He straight up puts the smack on people in arm wrestling, even the big dudes, it’s just nuts. They can’t hang and he puts them to shame. Three more days and I get 3 off for Labor Day.



The day after the softball extravaganza was more action. It was the first annual #basketball NCAA fantasy football league. I know that sentence sounds confusing, but that’s what it is. Do we have a league name for that? I’m not sure. Anyways, none other than ManDingo of local fame runs the show for this one. Ten guys drafting and we each have a 15-man roster. Obviously, we’re drafting college players. Cork and Walz are also in this league for the locals. Others in for the action? Corndog, DerekHood, Duce, Bo, Kasher, Dom, and of course ManDingo. Our team names were based on a former Heisman Trophy winner of our choice. I went with my boy Tim Brown, 1987 winner from Notre Dame. And my crew is as follows, Team Tim Brown:

QB: Bruce Gradowski, Toledo
QB: Sam Keller, Arizona State
QB: Kevin Kolb, Houston
QB: Clint Marks, Middle Tennessee
RB: Chris Barclay, Wake Forest
RB: Laurence Maroney, Minnesota
RB: Darius Walker, Notre Dame
RB: Garrett Wolfe, Northern Illinois
WR: David Anderson, Colorado State
WR: Jayson Boyd, UNLV
TE: Garrett Mills, Tulsa
WR: Ryne Robinson, Miami OH
K: Mason Crosby, Colorado
D: Alabama
D: Boston College



My new CDs this time around? Two to mention here and one on the way from Cork. The first is the latest of Jim Jones titled Harlem: Diary Of A Summer. The second is from D12’s Proof called Searching For Jerry Garcia. Both of these are good listens. Jim Jones brings it though. If you’re even a halfway fan of the Dipset camp, you need this CD. A reason you need the Proof album? Nate Dogg is on it. And you know we’ve said it a million times in here before, straight from Nate Dogg himself.. it ain’t a hit until Nate Dogg spit. No truer words have been spoken. Cork has Kanye’s new one, Late Registration to bring out, but he’s not that big on this one. We’ll see what I think soon.

Everyone and their brother is freaking out over gas prices. Kind of funny to me, but I’m not liking it either. Nothing we can do though. If it was $8 a gallon, we’d still pony up to the tanks and pump it in since that’d be the value set. Supposedly it’s going to hit $3 in my area tomorrow. Right now it’s around $2.60 as I type this for the cheap stuff.



In World Series Of Poker news, I just got done watching one of the smaller tables before the tourney. Three dudes were in on this call. They all had Ace/King. They didn’t know what to think. They ended up splitting and nobody gained a thing. Then there’s this other dude I’m watching now who supposedly has played over 1 million hands of online poker, sick. And I thought I was a freak. Also, there’s a dude who just got eliminated who has the name of Wing Wong. Hah, I love it. Sounds like something I’d order at the Chinese restaurant. Speaking of that, I’m due for that on Friday.

3 Quick Thangs:

1. I can’t wait till this weekend to see The Transporter 2. For those who haven’t seen the first one, you best get on that because it’s one awesome movie, trust me.

2. The Legend Killer, Kyle Orton, beats out the bum Chad Hutchinson for the Bears starting QB to open the year.

3. For what it’s worth, the Italian Heritage Festival for my area is this weekend. Good times.

4½ Year Streak... Ends!

After 4½ years, the streak is over. What streak is that you ask? You all know I don’t drink “pop” or soda or whatever you want to call in your area. But since I talk like a redneck, it’s pop for me. Without a sip of pop, like I’m an alcoholic or something, I finally gave in on Thursday. I wasn’t feeling good and needed something to fix my stomach up. I got some ginger ale in me since Mom always told me that’s a good one to help that problem. Then later in the day I went for the real stuff, some Coke and then Cherry Coke. That Cherry Coke tasted better than I don’t know how to describe. I was in my own little world with that thing. It was like porn in a bottle. I don’t want to get hooked on it again as it’s not great for ya, but now that the streak is over, it won’t hurt me to have some every now and then.



Whew.. I'm glad the weekend is here. I've had a rough week as far as being sick goes. I rarely get sick, so this wasn't fun times. Around Tuesday night or so, I started getting crazy hot and then a minute later I'd be freezing cold. I lost my appetite and couldn't keep anything down. Thursday rolls around and I've lost 8 pounds over the course of a few days. I don't need to be losing any weight, let alone 8 pounds. Towards the end of the week, I was able to start eating decent again. What I hated the most was not being able to workout for a stretch.

I started back to work this week as well. I'm in a long term sub job (possible it can last all year, but also possible it can only last a few weeks) and things seem to be going well. I'm doing 10th Grade Special Ed and have VERY small classes. My biggest class has 8 kids and one of those didn’t show on the first day. I have another class that has 4 kids. If you think that's wild, I even have a class with 2, count em, 2 kids. I have two English classes and one History class. The History class is the one with 2 kids, so that'll be interesting to see how I go about that one. Weird that the kids started back to school here on a Friday and got out 2 hours early. Enrollment at my school today was 595, but should be boosted up a bit on Monday when the ones who skipped on Friday show up.



On Saturday I hit up Cork's annual reunion and we battle in softball. Usually we have some nice competition and we can only hope the rain stays away. My knee is still oozing green stuff (go figure) from my volleyball injury, but I'm ready to go. More than likely I'll be playing centerfield so I can run down whatever is in my path. I like to get out there and make some fancy catches if possible. 2nd Base is my favorite to play, but I figure I'll be in center for my speed. Either way, I'm happy. As far as batting, I've always had one theory. I don't pack huge power, but can hit for a little dude. Most of the times in bum softball, if you hit one deep, it's a popup and someone catches it. I want to get on base everytime. I'll hit for contact to get on base and then gain my extra bases by running like a madman. I'm sure in a few years this strategy could catch up for me, but so far these 26 year-old legs still have the same quickness as ever. I'll update this next week sometime.

Real World this week had some happy storylines again. Maybe not happy, but at least it didn't involve death. The chicks who watch that I talk to are all pumped that their boy Danny decided to make the trek back to Austin. It pretty much hyped up his relationship with Mel and showed him taking care of her drunken self. Next week Nehemiah and Rachel get into something. Hopefully the previews are worthy and it's a good show.



Could this be Jericho's last RAW? It's been a rumor for a while, but I'll believe it when I see it. Monday's main event was Jericho taking on Cena for a You're Fired Match. Jericho ends up losing and Bischoff sends him packing. Is this just a spoof to take time off or is he really leaving for TNA? On Y2J's frontpage of his website this week, it had him standing in front of a TNA logo. He’s since taken that down. I'd love to see it, but I figure it's just a work. We'll see. A great TV match had Shelton Benjamin and Angle going against each other. Please give us more of this! Hands down, Angle is as good as it gets in wrestling right now and he really proved that in a fast paced match with Shelton. Angle is back in the main event hunt as they have him being a maniacal mat technician. I’m looking forward to the new tag team of Cade and Murdoch. No relation and not even the same real last name, but it’s interesting how much the Murdoch character looks like the legendary Bill Murdoch.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Today’s birthdays? Jazz guy Branford Marsalis hits 45. Chris Burke, better known as Corky of Life Goes On (where my boy Cork got his nickname) is 40. I thought he was dead, I guessed wrong. Thalia the hot singing chick is 34. Macaulay Culkin turns 25, but has been through enough stuff that he seems about 80, dude is a mess.

2. My Dad turns 56 on Sunday and my girl Yvonne turns 19 on Saturday.

3. In the 1997-98 NBA season, Antoine Walker had 60 blocked shots.

The 40-Year Old Virgin

After a break since Thursday, we’re back to start the week off for the loyal readers out there. This is my last week of sleeping in, so I better enjoy it while I can. I need to get on a decent sleep schedule again, but I doubt I give much effort to that. Should be fun to see how big of a coma I’m in once I start back to work.



A movie everyone reading this needs to see. The 40-Year Old Virgin. I went to a midnight showing of this in Fairmont on Thursday with Cork, Abby, and Nuzum. I was literally laughing the entire time. The best movie I’ve seen in theaters all year. Granted, my favorite type of movie is a comedy, but this one is well worth your money to go see. Take my word on this one. Nothing you want to see with your parents though as it’s pretty bad, but hilarious indeed. And for the wrestling fans, Diamond Dallas Page’s wife Kimberly, former Nitro Girl, gets naked in it.

Friday was an interesting day. As everyone knows, I’m way too much of an internet freak. I woke up early that day and had to take care of some business. I get back home and sit down at my computer chair to get online around 1:00 PM after a shower. So I’m sitting here all day as usual, nothing out of the ordinary. Around 6:00 PM or so, I take an hour off to eat. Then I get right back in this chair to do absolutely nothing. 6:00 AM rolls around and I finally call it quits for the night. I barely got out of my seat except for just a few times to wizz or get some junk food. So that day, I went a stretch of being on the internet nonstop for 14 of 15 hours. And the sad part is that probably isn’t near my longest streak.



Sunday was big action for me. At 5:45, we had the A#FL Fantasy Football Draft. This is the crew from #basketball/Lobstah who know how to get it done big. We had 18 guys in the draft this year and in a football league, that means some true bums are going to be taken in setup this big. I had 16th pick of the whole deal, but it wasn’t bad since it’s a snake draft. I’ll run down my roster here for the 2 or 3 people who might even care a little about that. As usual, as everyone normally is after it’s over, I like the draft that I prepared myself for. Here we go:

QB: Marc Bulger (Rams)
Byron Leftwich (Jags)
Billy Volek (Titans)
Aaron Rodgers (Packers)

RB: Julius Jones (Cowboys)
Thomas Jones (Bears)
William Henderson (Packers)
Anthony Thomas (Cowboys)

WR: Drew Bennett (Titans)
Jerry Porter (Raiders)
Cedrick Wilson (Steelers)
Dez White (Falcons)

TE: Chris Cooley (Redskins)

K: David Akers (Eagles)

Defense: Tampa Bay



I will of course have updates on the progress of my team throughout the year. I’m the only guy in the league who has more than 2 quarterbacks, but I’ve always went that route, just to be safe. Running back is a tough spot in a deep league, but I’m happy with my first two to lead me there. And guess what, they’re brothers. One for my Bears and the other used to play for my college boys, Notre Dame. My wide receiver crew should be able to hold it down as well. I look for huge things out of Bennett this year. Chris Cooley is underrated, but he catches a lot of balls, so I think I like my chances there. Kicker and defense I feel that I’m rock solid. We’ll see how it turns out.

Yesterday was also WWE SummerSlam. Be prepared for a big paragraph here. This is one of the big four Pay Per Views of the year. The other three for those in a coma are Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, and Survivor Series. After last month’s brutal showing, WWE came back strong with this one. I really liked this show from top to bottom. There were only a couple of matches that weren’t good and even those were better than I expected. I’ll go in order here to what went down and give a fast cap. First match had Benoit becoming new US Champion from Orlando Jordan in less than a minute. I’m serious, this match was a total squash, I didn’t get it. Our second match was the brawl between Edge and Hardy. Pretty much what you’d expect as it wasn’t much of a “wrestling” match in this situation. The end had Edge kick Hardy in the head and put him out and the ref called for the bell as he was gushing blood. The next match everyone needs to see. It was worth the price of admission by itself. Rey Mysterio beat Eddie Guerrero in one of the best Ladder Matches I’ve seen in my entire life. Totally amazing stuff here, it’s that good. Then we had Angle tear Eugene a new one. The Washington DC crowd was interesting in that they cheered the heels (bad guys) most of the night. Eugene got booed out of the arena. After that, it’s Randy Orton getting revenge on The Undertaker with the help of his dad, Cowboy Bob Orton. Cena regained his WWE Title against Jericho in which the crowd was going wild during this one. Mixed reactions for both guys, it blew up. Maybe Cena’s best match so far. Hopefully he can keep improving in the ring like this or was it Jericho making him look good? Batista beat JBL to keep his World Title, blah. Nothing good here. The main event had Hogan take down HBK. Hogan bled like a pig, it was insane. As HBK was beaten, he offered a handshake to Hogan to which he accepted and the crowd respected that. Will HBK turn on him tonight? Or what’s the storyline here? Put him with HHH again please.



The only CD I got this time was The Longest Yard Soundtrack. A ton of people on this and a very good listen. Who all is on this you ask? Nelly, Lil Wayne, T.I., Murphy Lee, Akon, WC, Chamillionaire, David Banner, Trillville, D12, Eminem, and a few others. My favorites are Shorty Bounce from Lil Wayne, So Fly by Akon, and Talkin’ That Talk of Chamillionaire and Banner doing a collabo.

3 Quick Thangs:

1. Today’s celebrity birthday list is a joke, so I won’t even mention that part. I would like to give a Happy Birthday to my boy Spank who turned 25 yesterday and my girl Chrissy who has her birthday today.

2. 17 days till NFL Opening Kickoff.

3. Hey The Lexie and Britt, keep up the good work with your balloon trick. Good times there.

Moo Tubes

Wondering about the topic there? It's from my girl Lexie and she used that since she's eating some of the yogurt out of a tube deal. I didn't have a clue what she was talking about, but I like having random stuff in here, so there ya go. I better at least get a comment on this one for giving you props Lexie. :)

It must be because it’s summer time and I have nothing else to do, but I’m hooked on these weird MTV dating shows. I never was that big on Date My Mom before, but now I think I’m immersed as they would say on SportsCenter. For those who don’t know that one, it’s where a dude goes on 3 dates. He goes on a date with the Mom of the girl that, based on the date with her, he gets to go on a date with their daughter. He only gets to pick one at the end of the show. It just cracks me up how messed up some of these people are. Then again, that makes for good TV. It isn’t as good as Next, but it’s worth checking out.



Then we had Real World going on this week as well. Finally, after two weeks in a row of death and sadness, we got drama back. This one was between Wes and Johanna. Wes is jealous because Johanna wants this bartender. Wes thinks she leads him on when she really doesn’t want him. So Wes’ plan is to play games as well. He brings this chick home and gets some off her. He thought that’d make Johanna jealous, but hard to tell if it will work or not. Some dirty games on both sides there, but at least it’s better than the last 2 weeks of stuff. Next week, Danny returns, so hopefully that gets something going.

Beach volleyball? Well, sort of. I’ve been on a volleyball kick lately and it’s good times. Don’t knock it for a good workout until you’ve tried. The past few times, we’ve played on solid ground with shoes on (most people anyways). Last night we played in Bridgeport in the sand. Definitely different playing in sand, but I think I like it better. We had roughly 14 or so of us and split into 3 teams. I was bleeding after the first play though. I’m the type who loves to dive around and play as hard as I can at any sport, so I can’t just let a close ball drop on the ground. My left knee was gushing pretty good and then sand started getting in it once I kept diving more through the night. 3 hours of play, all in all, a fun time to be had. After that, it was a Denny’s trip with Cork. Nothing spectacular went down in this one. I went back to my original combo of pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream and then some cheesesticks. Raspberry tea too.



Always trying to get different exercise in, yesterday I was bored without having to workout, so I went on the bike trail with Dad. He goes about 14 miles a day, 5 times a week or so, doing it real big. He gets it done for an old man. I went 7 on Tuesday and it was a pretty good workout. Once I got off the bike, I could already tell how crazy sore I was going to be.

RAW this week I loved. It was from Montreal and with HBK around, that was going to get the crowd rowdy due to the 97 Survivor Series saga that everyone knows about. He starts off by bashing Bret Hart and they were ready to kill him. Then Hart’s music plays and the roof about blows off the building. HBK then starts laughing and said that he had them believing the return. The main event was Hogan against Angle. HBK runs down and interferes, causing for the bell. Then HBK sets up for Chin Music and stops in midkick and takes Hogan down and locks on the Sharpshooter. The crowd was insane during all of this action and the show ends right there. Very nicely done.



SummerSlam is on Sunday and what does that hold in store for us? A few matches I’m really excited for. The main match is HBK and Hogan. Hogan can’t do anything, but the crowd will be wild for this one regardless and HBK will hold more than his own and Hogan’s as well. I’m looking forward to the SmackDown Ladder Match and that’s Eddie Guerrero against Rey Mysterio. They could fight every PPV for all I’m concerned, I hope it delivers. Two big title matches, although I doubt either of them will be anything spectacular. On the RAW side, we have WWE Champion John Cena taking on Jericho. I still think Cena needs a lot better ringwork, but the fans like him, so that’s all that matters I guess. On the other side, we have World Champion Batista facing JBL. This one should be your basic slugfest and lots of blood. For internet fans, a big one is Matt Hardy matching skills with Edge. I think this one has lost its luster a bit, but should still be worth watching. The Legend Killer Randy Orton comes back from injury to battle The Undertaker. Angle gets a match with Eugene at one of the biggest shows of the year? At least both can wrestle a quality match, so hopefully it turns out even though I wish Angle was in a higher standing bout. And lastly, we get Benoit versus Orlando Jordan. I think this one could surprise a lot of people. They’ve been working a good bit together and should know each other well by this point. Some great and some not so great matches, but I’m pumped up and will be tuned in.



A few CDs to make note of. The first is the latest from Haystak and it’s called From Start To Finish. If you don’t know him, think of him as another Bubba Sparxxx. They rap about the same type of New South stuff and they’re both whiteys. The other one is a mixtape from Paul Wall. You know what you get with mixtapes. Most songs are about 2 minutes in length and it’s done over beats of popular items out there currently.

3 Quick Thangs:

1. My Yanks can’t beat the Devil Rays of all teams. What gives? This season, they are 4-8 or 4-9 against those bums. Now that’s bad times.

2. The CD collection is now up to 638.

3. Sunday is the A#FL Fantasy Football Draft, which pits the best of the best from #basketball! w00t!

Poop On Ryan Seacrest's Star

A contest you all might enjoy and we have it right here to deliver. I’m sure everybody knows of the Hollywood sidewalk that has the stars laid in it if they make it big time. They get a dedication and all of that glitzy stuff. Anyways, my boy The_Freak came across this gem to share in this space. It’s from another Blog and was posted in April, but it’s still pretty funny in my opinion. The subject of my Blog today tells exactly what this is all about, but it’s better if you read some of this article and what this dude has in store. Here is that link, enjoy: http://assistantatlas.blogspot.com/2005/04/poop-on-ryan-seacrests-star-contest.html



I was bored last night before playing some Poker on PokerChamps. I get hungry late at night as everyone knows and I can’t just sit around and not eat. I know I’m a little dude, but I can put away some junk food. So on Saturday night I got a craving to make cinnamon rolls. You know the kind that is in the little tube and you turn it and it pops so you can lay them on an oven tray. The popping part gets me everytime, but I guess I’m easily excited. Well, the directions say to heat the oven to 400 degrees (not to be confused with an album from Juvenile called 400 Degreez) and cook them on a greased up tray for 8-12 minutes. Sounds easy huh? I set my timer for 8 minutes and check them after 4 minutes. A lot of them are burnt bad on the bottom already, ugh. And I hate burnt stuff. So I put them on lower heat for another minute or so and then cranked the icing all over them. Quick and easy to make, but I guess I better put it down to like 300 or so next time. And you know what gets me? They give you this tiny packet of icing to put on 8 rolls. I want a ton on each one of them. It’s kind of like getting McNuggets at McDonald’s and they give you those BBQ sauce things big enough for a 2 year old. Come on now, give me a tub of that stuff.. I’m not asking for a fat boy portion, but anything is better than that little thing. I can’t be the only one with this problem can I?

By the way, if you’re confused on how to make a comment on here, at the end of the post there is a thing that will say “0 comments” or how many ever are already posted. The envelope will just email it to one of your buddies, but just click to the left of that and you’re in business.



Some of you might appreciate this next tidbit too. Maybe I’m weird since I still laugh at middle school type humor, but you can’t go wrong with that stuff. We’ll go old school with this one and present a site that you may or may not know about. We’ve all heard a zillion Your Mom jokes and I could listen to those for hours on end. Told ya it doesn’t take much to excite me. Anyways, they have it branched off on the site to a certain subject of the jokes. My girl Lexie got me hooked on this one last night. Here’s the site and then I’ll put a few good ones up that I liked for a preview after I post the site address: http://yourmom.com.

Your Mom is so poor, she can’t even pay attention.
Your Mom’s like a bus, 50 cents and she’s ready to ride.
Your Mom is so hairy, I thought she was my uncle.
Your Mom is so fat, she walked by the TV and I missed 3 episodes.
Your Mom’s so nasty that when she got in the bathtub, the water jumped out.

I started up my Madden franchise the other day. I’m using my Bears and they’re not exactly ranked high on there. I’m rocking things out defensively so far and love playing that side of the ball. Offensively, I’m picking it up big time. After going undefeated in preseason, I’m off to a 2-1 start so far in the regular season. Not that anyone cares, but you get all of that extra information, free of charge. I am proud to say that I have a 107-yard interception return TD with Jerry Azumah. He straight burnt those guys like there was no tomorrow.



As an ECW faithful, I’m really pumped about some news I read the other day. Their founder, Tod Gordon is coming out with a tell-all book about his side of the action with ECW. Granted, Gordon is no Paul E., but I still have respect for him for what he was able to help bring up from the bottom. Then again, Paul E. is near god-like status for me.

Next edition, whenever that is will feature talks about volleyball action I’m playing tonight, TV happenings, RAW, and whatever else you guys have an idea for me to chat it up about. Until next time, we end as we usually do..



3 Quick Thangs:

1. I was mowing grass yesterday when it was 94 out with a heat index of 97. I don’t know how you people in the Dirty South handle the crazy hot stuff. Bring on the snow.

2. A nice article from The Boston Sports Guy on an underrated sports movie in my opinion, Blue Chips. Check out this article at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/movies/bluechips.

3. Sure you don’t want any GMail action? Let me know, it’s good times.

Football Season

I know it's not an exciting topic there, but I have to give props out when it's due, especially when it comes from someone in the mean streets of West Virginia. A lot of times I ask my buddies for a topic I can use for my Blog. Some go blank and can't figure out anything. See, it's not that easy. I just asked my girl Ashlee and she gives me this reply:

"can you just title it Football Season. lol because i cant stop thinking about football"

It’s time for another post in here. Where will this one end up? Who knows? I don’t have any earth-shattering stories to speak of this time, but as usual, I can’t let that stop the production of a much needed void I fill in each and every one of your lives. Well, maybe I won’t go to that extreme, but that’ll give me a good start in what I’m getting into this time around.



I realize if I talk about wrestling or video games right off the bat, I might lose some people. But what else do I really do other than live on the internet? I actually didn’t load up on any CDs this time around. Imagine that! I could recommend a certain album during each of my posts for something new, but then I thought that roughly 2% of the readers would even listen to half of the junk that I do. So I guess I’ll scratch that.

The past few nights I’ve surprised myself. In a few weeks, I’ll be having to wake up at 6:00 in the morning once again, doh! I’m not a morning person at all, but once I wake up, I’m good to go. The actual “work” part of my job is not a problem, it’s waking up early on not much sleep. Those first few weeks are always an adjustment considering all summer long I’m going to bed at that time and now I get to wake up then. I’ll be teaching while in a coma, always fun. Anyways, two nights ago I went to bed at 5:00 and last night at 4:00, that’s real good for me lately. I even woke up today at 10:45. 10:45 in the summer! I didn’t think it was possible, but I have to start gearing down a little bit anyways. It’s been a while since I remember what 10:45 in the morning looked like.



On Monday night at midnight, I was at my mall and was waiting in line with the rest of the GameStop faithful. It was Midnight Madness for Madden ’06 and I wanted my hands on it. The crowd wasn’t as big as I expected, but it was still a good time. They made us wait till 12:01 exactly until we got the copies to take home. Funny thing is that they had junk food and drinks for everyone. Most of the guys getting the game were in their mid 20s and one group was cussing because they didn’t put beer in the cooler for everybody, hah. Then one of the Rent-a-Cop guys on duty got a call on his cell phone. Picture this guy about 40 years old and out of nowhere, Back Then from Mike Jones starts popping off. That got a good reaction from the crowd and it cracked me up. Then again, I’ll be listening to that stuff too more than likely when I’m 40 too, so go figure.

As far as the game itself? I’m really liking the feel of it so far. The main additions come on the offensive side of the ball. First, we get QB Vision and that can have you lock on one receiver or have it show where the quarterback’s eyes are at. You can combine this with Precision Passing and it’s a good combo. Another thing they added is the Truck Stick. You know how on defense you have the Hit Stick? First off, I’m a HUGE fan of the Hit Stick. Just laying someone one out on a video game and messing them up is a thrill. Yes, I realize I just said that last line and I’m almost 30 years old, but so be it. Anyways, the Truck Stick works well on the goal line and other sets when you have to bowl over a defensive player. It causes a lot of fumbles though, so be careful. I started a franchise with my Bears, who are rated very low on this game (rightfully so since they’re no good in person either), so I figure I’ll have updates on that soon enough.



I know football season isn’t officially here yet, but my mouth is watering for NBA all the time. The new 2005-06 schedule came out a few days ago and I’m jacked up huge for that. NBA is basically my life and I’m very dedicated to it, especially fantasy basketball. We run a weekly league and games that each team plays per week is a huge thing to consider. So every year when the schedules come out, I’m counting away every single team in the league and how many games they play each week. Yes, I’m weird. It takes forever to do, but it usually pays off in the long run to be prepared so early for what I like to do best.

As we’re in the middle of August, that means we’re getting closer to WWE SummerSlam. What happened on RAW this week? This one was in Pittsburgh and I hate that I missed seeing it in person. The opening was nice as Eugene got booed like crazy in Kurt Angle’s hometown. Angle could do no wrong this week as the crowd ate it up. He gets a match against Eugene at the PPV. Really now? Eugene is as good as you could get to face the best worker in the WWE right now? This isn’t some bum PPV, this is SummerSlam. Oh well. I’m liking Rob Conway’s gimmick a lot so far. Mmm.. Victoria. Matt Hardy had his first WWE match since they brought him back and he beat Snitsky. Edge cut a great promo on the whole storyline, but I think some of the luster has worn off a little for their match at the PPV. The big thing of the night and it would’ve been worth getting tickets for on that alone was the showdown between HBK and Hogan. They had a debate type setting on their feud to build up their match. HBK cut some great words in this one and did the majority of the talking in this segment. HBK also plays off the Bret Hart stuff very well too. Batista, take notes on this guy, he really is an icon. He doesn’t need a script out there to talk or to be fed words. He can act on instinct. Hogan then asks HBK what he’s going to do when Hulkamania runs wild on him. King asks the same question and gets some perfect Sweet Chin Music that drops him. Good stuff. Hogan and HBK stare each other down and then Hogan boots HBK out of the ring. Nice setup.



And yes, none of my pics today have any meaning whatsoever to what I wrote about. I like to go random every now and then.

3 Quick Thangs:

1. NBA season starts on November 1st!

2. Theater movies opening tomorrow? Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Four Brothers (I want to see this one bad), The Great Raid, and The Skeleton Key.

3. Birthdays for August 11th? Some good, some not so good. The Immortal Hulk Hogan turns 52. B-baller Craig Ehlo is 44. J-Boog of former B2K fame is 20. Dang, pretty bad day for birthdays. I searched a while too, I’m sure I’m missing a lot, but you get the point here. Maybe better luck next time.

"I Rock Peas On My Head"

For all of the good Denny’s trips late at night, Saturday night (we got there around 3:30) was rough. For some reason, it was jammed packed at that time. The bar crew usually arrives around 2:30 or so, but by 3:30, it clears out. I’m always there late at night as everyone knows and normally it’s laid back and we can just be bums. Last night I think me and Cork were the only sober people in the place. First, we had some off duty cops sitting next to us and just acting all big and bad, screaming and yelling. Of course, they drive home drunk, but so doesn’t everyone there. I won’t get on a rant for that, that’s another story for another time. Then another matter had this dirty girl almost get into a rumble with this other chick. People in the place were standing up and waiting to go outside to see the melee. Unfortunately, no heads were busted, so there was no excitement with that. Everyone loves a fight, admit it. I can see why I definitely am not a bar guy. Within about 5 minutes, I’d want to get out of there because those guys are annoying, plus I’m not wanting to deal with smoke all up on me and being the only person not drinking. I’m sure I’m in the minority with that, but that’s why I like to do my own thing.



With that opening, you’d think that I was ready to start pimp slapping my monitor. Nope, I’m actually in a real good mood. Rarely am I in a bad mood as I think I’m pretty easy to get along with. Before Denny’s though, we got our Wal-Mart on. Cork had to load up on some things for his beach trip this week and I was bored and wanted to get out of the house. We hit up the DVD section, as that’s part of any Wal-Mart trip pretty much. The new $4.88 bins are pretty good. Some quality movies in there. And then you go to the $5.50 bin and those are just trash. I don’t get it. Why would better movies be in the $4.88 bin? I went to the $7.50 section and picked up a classic that I’ve seen before, but never owned. That one is Swingers, starring Vince Vaughn and John Favreau. There’s also some Roller Girl action. Heather Graham for the ones who don’t know, but she’ll always be Roller Girl to me for her Boogie Nights character. Boogie Nights is in my Top 5 movies of all time for whatever that is worth. Anyways, if you haven’t seen Swingers, you’re really missing out. It’s some good stuff that doesn’t get as much credit as it should.

I’ll play just about any sport if asked. I get a call on Sunday afternoon to play some ball. What kind you ask? Tackle football. I’m sure I’d do just fine playing, but I don’t think tackle football is a good idea to play with no pads when you’re pushing 30 years old. The speed is there as always with me as I haven’t lost that, but I don’t want to be breaking anything and I’m not exactly the biggest guy out there. Funny thing is, the dude who called me is smaller than me (even has the nickname of Smalls), and then there’s another dude who is about 5’5”/120 who played. Go figure. How those guys don’t get broken in half, I have no idea.



A few new CDs since the last update on Friday. What are those you ask? The first is from a group that I’ve been listening to now for about a decade. They are The Dayton Family from Flint, Michigan. They had a big break in putting out stuff due to a few members being locked up. From 1996 to 2002, nothing really happened. Now they’re back an in action after jail time with Family Feud. Check it out if you want some gangsta rap that’ll remind you of the old days. These guys get it done. The other CD I loaded up on is from Lil Wayne. It’s not released in stores and I can’t really find much out about it, but it’s called C Squared and it came out this year. It’s good though, but I’ve always been into Lil Wayne’s stuff. “Weezie F Baby, don’t forget the Baby.”

Tonight at midnight, I’ll finally have Madden 2006 in my hands. I’m sure I’ll have a lot of updates on that in the upcoming posts for the video game fans out there. I know a lot of guys are in the middle of getting NCAA or Madden this year. It’s tough to get both and devote big time to each, so I normally go for one or the other each year and switch it up.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Right now I have 8 icons on my desktop.

2. I’m sitting around chatting around and nothing is on TV. A few girls are telling me about Talk Sex with Sue Johanson on the Oxygen Channel. It’s just funny because it’s this old chick telling porn stories and people call in. I might be hooked, too funny. Girls are just as porned out as us guys, they just won't admit it.

3. “I rock peas on my head, but don’t call me a pea head. Bees on my head, but don’t call me a bee head. Bruce Lee’s on my head, but don’t call me a Lee head.”- Andy Milonakis

Raspberry Tea

I always consider myself to be in pretty good shape, but Wednesday was a different test. That night I was called by my buddies to play some volleyball. I’ve heard they were playing the past few weeks, so I was interested. If it’s a sport, more than likely, I’ll give it a try. After I was done playing the night, I was crazy sore with my calves and feet. I guess it’s a different kind of workout than what I’m used to doing, but it was a lot of fun. I know what you’re thinking, volleyball is a girlie game. We had 10 of us that night with the notable locals being Ozzie, Fortney, and Sweet Pea. It’s been a while since I played before, but I thought I did pretty good. My serving was probably the best part of my game. I’m not the best at the net though, but you’ll have that. It was fun diving all over the place though, that made it worth it.



Last night I hit up another late night Denny’s trip. I went with Cork and Abby. No huge action was going down, but it got us out of the house. We got there a little before 2:00 or so. Not a bad crowd, but like I said, nothing worth writing home about either. I got what I had last time and it may become a staple. Super Bird with no tomatoes, a thing of rice, and raspberry tea. My bill was $8.05. Not too shabby.

Earlier that day, my boy Spank came running in my room at 1:30. Of course I was asleep. I had earplugs in (quality to sleep with) and he had to yell at me to get me up. It was worth it though as he wanted some Chinese. That’s always good times. Hopefully our Chinese place in town opens up soon. Spank can do some serious eating. He needs to be in one of those eating contests they show on ESPN2. I get my usual. General Tso’s Chicken, pork fried rice, cheese wontons, fried shrimp, Sweet & Sour Chicken, and some lo mein noodles. Then to end things, I get a plate of pineapples, peaches, and jello. Sweet tea to wash all of that down. Our bill together was a little over $11. Can’t beat that with a stick.



For the ESPN Radio fans who don’t know, you need to know this one. Starting today, and every Friday from now on, The Dan Patrick Show will feature none other than Keith Olbermann as his sidekick. They did a great job together from what I was able to listen to. They had Reggie Miller on when I was driving home from working out.

I really don’t have a lot to talk about today, but I was due for an update. So I have to please the masses in here and just ramble on as I usually do. For once, I won’t have a lot of wrestling talk to mention. I will note that Bret Hart and Vince McMahon shook hands this week and have agreed to work together on Hart’s DVD due out later in the year. That one will sell like hotcakes. It’s rough to see Hart in the shape he’s in now (still looks fine, but just can’t wrestle anymore due to concussions), but as far as his wrestling goes, he’s one of the best ever if you ask me.



Only 1 CD this time around. I’ve been sending a lot out, but haven’t got much new ones in the past few days. The one I did get is I Gotta Make It from Trey Songz. This is a young dude who does it big with pimpin’ music. You’ve heard the song already released from that album, Gotta Make It featuring Twista. He likes to do most songs by himself as there is only one other song that features people. That one is with Aretha Franklin (old school fans will appreciate that) and Juvenile.

I know Real World fans are reading this, mostly girls probably, but some of them will like this too. You know how it goes these days, they can swing both ways and that's fine by me. Anyways, thanks to Blahah for posting these on Lobstah. You may need to get a username to get in there, but I’m not sure if it’ll load up without having a name or not. Either way, it’s Melinda being all dirty at a bar and showing her stuff. I’m not big on her character, but you can’t argue the body. Check that stuff out at: http://www.lobsterrodeo.com/balls/viewtopic.php?t=2048.



I haven’t ended with any rap lyrics in a while, so I’ll leave you all with some pieces of Badd from the Ying Yang Twins and Mike Jones. The opening to the song should be funny to the rap fans as it’s just a bunch of jibber. Then there’s one of my favorite chorus pieces and Mike Jones does that. It’s just a part of it, but it cracks me up with how Mike Jones says it. It’s on the Ying Yang Twins’ CD, United States Of Atlanta.

[Opening]
Collipark, hannnh
Chea! Yoh!
Mike Jones! Who? Mike Jones Jones!
Hannnh...
Holla atcha boy baby, you killed it on this one man, uhuh
Chea!
We got Ying Yang Twins and Mike Jones in the house tonight! Yo yo.
Collipark and Swishahouse in this bitch,
check it out, yo yo,

[Mike Jones Chorus Piece]
I'm lookin' for a dime that's top of the line
Cute face slim waist with a big behind
I need a dime that's top of the line
Cute face slim waist with a big behind

3 Quick Thangs:

1. I made some good garlic bread tonight. Put some butter in a pan, oregano, and garlic power. Heat it up.. layer it on top of your bread.. then put the bread in the toaster oven and it’s good times.

2. Today’s birthdays? Neil Armstrong is a big three quarters of a century, 75. Rick Derringer who is famous to me for doing the Real American Hulk Hogan theme turns 58. Marsha Brady is 49, dang. Patrick Ewing hits 43. Jonathan Silverman of Weekend At Bernie’s fame turns 39. And lastly, our very own Walz is a whopping 25.

3. I woke up today at 2:30 for whatever that is worth.

Chicken Fries

You know what? I pretty much live on the internet and the things we do for fun late at nights are stupid, but that still doesn’t take away from the fun factor. Anyways, for the past week or so, I haven’t been to bed before 6:00 AM. Outside of my own Blog, I’m a big fan of others out there as well. I randomly start searching people in my area or just anywhere after a while and you see some characters out there. I’m sure people think my Blog is different and filled with a bunch of junk, so to each their own. I got to the point where I would leave comments to random people just because there was nothing else to do. That and the fact that when they read a comment and don’t have a clue who I am, that makes it even more funny. Is more funny correct? Close enough. Blogger, Xanga, My Space, MSN My Space.. Tons of journals out there that you can search in your spare time. It’s quality.



For those who never know, you can check out my comments to a post at the bottom of each one. To comment or read, click the where it says "0 comments" or how many ever and you can read those or comment yourself. I appreciate the faithful who give me comments.

Hard to believe August is here already. That means it’s video game football season. As I said in the last one, I was counting the days until Madden 2006 comes out. I reserved it the other day and got some good news in return. This Sunday, my local mall is having a huge Madden tournament. I’m wondering a few things. Can they have a tourney with nobody even playing the new version yet? Will it be last year’s version? Will all systems be represented? Me being a GameCube guy, I’m not going to smack heads on XBox people and them vice versa with me. I may check that out, who knows. Also, they’re having a Midnight Madness on Monday so people can get it early. They’re opening the store at midnight just so the maniacs who need it right at that instant can get it. Of course I’ll be there. What else do I have to do after RAW?



Speaking of RAW, this will be the wrestling paragraph. Stay with me or jump to the next, whatever you feel like. Not much along the lines of matches this week which is never good, but you can’t win every week. We did have one of my favorite skits in a long time and it featured HBK re-enacting the Hogan interview he recently did with Larry King. HBK dressed like Hogan and they had a fake King doing the interview. Afterwards, he rips his stuff off and hits some Sweet Chin Music on King. It’s worth watching Heat or any of the weekend shows to see this skit if you missed it. Also, we got the first words from Matt Hardy in a WWE ring since he’s been out of action due to the controversy. I thought it came across nicely and hopefully him and Edge can tear the house down at SummerSlam. We’ll see. Interesting seeing Tatanka tonight. Rob Conway is all jacked out now. The end saw Cena take down Carlito, nothing out of the ordinary. Please don’t put Rob Schneider on RAW ever again unless he’s going through a flaming table.

Since the last post, there hasn’t been that much action going down really. I would like to congratulate my boy Riley for getting married on Saturday in North Carolina. He’s doing things big by living in Chapel Hill. For those in a coma, that’s where the Tarheels are located at. Which brings up a funny thing I saw tonight. One of the ESPN college basketball analysts made a bold statement. Be prepared for this now. I forget who said it exactly, but they said that UNC won’t be as good as they were last year. Really junior? They lost their starting 5 and 6th Man. Great prediction you bum, it took a lot of thought to figure that out. And I’ll put this at the end of this paragraph since it’s also basketball related. I reserved the new And1 Mixtape DVD Volume 8 the other day. Won’t get it for a week or more, but it’ll be worth it hopefully. I already have the first 7 volumes, so I might as well load up on this one too.



Super fast Sunday night TV recap. Canseco might be the most civil person of the cast of this season’s The Surreal Life. Bam’s Hummer is done for good. Don Vito got revenge on him and had it demolished at a rock quarry. Busey is the man on Celebrity Fit Club. Buddy threatened to shoot one of the trainers. I think I’m the only person into The Andy Milonakis Show. It’s so stupid that it’s hilarious. I doubt it lasts another season though.

3 Quick Thangs:

1. I thought Burger King had some creative commercials there for a while with the huge king mascot and even some of those goofy ones with Darius Rucker jamming out. Now they’re going downhill with these new chicken fingers (great food idea, bad commercials) ones with this stupid chicken band. It’s awful.

2. For the allergy sufferers, Zyrtec does the trick.

3. What’s the fascination with anime? I’m not hating on it, but don’t understand it I guess. Fill me in if you know.