Hilary Duff Is Legal

Here we go for a mid week report. What’s been going on lately? Just waiting for the weekend, we all know how that goes. Other than that, things have been going pretty good except for the occasional lack of sleep. But that’s my own fault that I’m an internet junkie and stay on here way too late when I wake up at 6:00 in the morning. I’ll manage. My schedule is weird, but I’m used to it for the most part.



Stay tuned for my story on my “criminal class” shortly in this Blog. First though, baseball is coming to a close this week. As I write this now, the Yanks and Sox are tied for the AL East lead. They’re both losing as I’m typing this, so that won’t change much. Still early though, so you never know. Also, both of those teams are tied with the Indians for the AL Wild Card slot. How good does it get that most division races aren’t clinched yet and the season ends on Sunday? Now that’s what I’m talking about. Sox have all of their games at home and my Yanks are on the road the rest of the way out. Last 3 games of the season, Yanks at Sox. Hopefully it’s some good drama.

Here’s a story on one of my classes at work. In one of my classes, I like to call it the “criminal class”. I have one dude who is on home arrest and has to wear an ankle detector thing. When he gets home at night, starting at 4:00, he can’t go over 100 feet past his home. He has 16 charges on his personal record too. Also in this class, I have a girl who is bipolar, tried to kill herself before, has been in 4 or 5 detentional homes, and that’s just a few mentions. Surprisingly, the chick is on a pretty good learning level and does well with her work. Another guy in the same class has an array of tats and he’s also been in several behavioral homes. I work well with these type of kids, but it isn’t for everyone. When teachers near my room hear another teacher complain about a student’s behavior problems, they tell them to step foot in my 3rd Period class to see how well they’d like it. It’s another world in there. I should put bars up in my room for this group. It’s definitely interesting though. Funny (sad too) thing is that these kids have done every drug in the book and can tell you everything about them. I have no clue at all about drugs, maybe that’s why it surprises me.



I loaded up on some new CDs, some released and some not released yet. Thanks to my boy Dom in Germany, who is even better than me at getting the latest rap music collection. You’d be surprised how big rap is over there. All of these guys are known names and I’ll weigh in on a few..

Lloyd Banks: The Big Withdraw. This one isn’t even being mentioned on most big sites of existing, so it’ll be a while before stores have this action. Nice album here with all of the G-Unit featured. Only listened to it through one time, so can’t give a huge opinion on it.

Mack 10: Hustla’s Handbook. One of few guys who doesn’t sell out to do clubbin’ music as he prefers to keeps it real. B-Real and Chingy on this piece. Oh yeah, none other than the legendary Nate Dogg is on this thing. I’ve talked enough about Nate Dogg in this space, so you know my theory on him being on a CD.

Spice 1: The Truth. I’m staying West Coast with this one to follow Mack 10. Bay Area rap here, sweet. An underrated guy is Spice 1. If you’ve never heard Spice 1, I highly recommend any of his stuff.

Warren G: In The Mid-Nite Hour. This hits the stores on October 11th. This one is loaded up with talent. Mike Jones. Who? B-Real also on this one too. Raphael Saadiq. 213 on this beast? Who is 213? It’s the trio of Warren G, Snoop Dogg, and Nate Dogg. I don’t have to put into too many words how good G-Funk rap is. Warren G has been in the game for a long time, pick this up.



Ok, I can’t resist to say it as usual.. It ain’t a hit until Nate Dogg spit. That’s why you need both the Mack 10 and Warren G new joints, enough said.

How’d RAW look on Monday? This was the last RAW on Spike TV. Next week is WWE Homecoming, when they go back to the USA Network. Spike wasn’t going to let WWE get away with even mentioning the change on air, so during the first segment, Spike would bleep out any mention of WWE being on USA again. Later in the show, the Spike guys couldn’t hit the censor buttons fast enough. WWE shoved it to them by saying USA over and over to where Spike just gave up since they couldn’t control it. Why does Shelton Benjamin keep getting buried? I know he can’t talk, but he has skill inside the squared circle. Our main event was a Tag Team Tables Match with HBK and Cena taking on Carlito and Masters. Angle came down to help Carlito and Masters. HBK was about to hit an elbow off the top, but Angle pushes him off the top to the outside, through a table. Nice spot for sure.

Anyways, WWE Homecoming is Monday! 7:55 PM EST, be there! 3 hour show too. Even if you’re not a big wrestling fan, you know you want to watch this. Hogan, Foley, Stone Cold, and Triple H all make their returns? Piper’s Pit features Foley. Many other old school legends to be there as well. Plus as far as matches we have some great stuff to mention. How about a 30-Minute Ironman Match with HBK facing Angle? This fans, will be a clinic. If you don’t like that, how about a Loser Leaves RAW Ladder Match with Edge going toe-to-toe with Hardy. Third, we have Bischoff fighting Cena for the WWE Title. I can’t wait, it has potential to be a huge show.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. It’s yer birfday: Sweet Lou Pinella is 62. Footballer and politician Steve Largent is 51. Another former man of the pigskin, Irving Fryar, turns 42. Janeane Garofalo goes for 41. Actress Mira Sorvina is worth 35. Swimming legend Janet Evans is 34. Hey everybody, Hilary Duff is legal. Turns 18 today, nice.

2. I just ate an orange, Original Flavor Starburst.

3. The Boston Sports Guy will be in DC on Tuesday night to sign his book and I can’t go, doh! http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/simmons/index

Are We There Yet?

Hey, I’ve been busy. Cut me a break. For those who waited all week for a post, hopefully this one turns out decent enough to hold you down for a bit. I got a variety of topics to touch on, so I should have some different ways to go with this one. My mood today? Happy as usual. I always say it’s no fun being in a bad mood and I try to live by that one as much as possible.



I’ll bounce all over the place on my days here, but I’ll start off on Saturday. This made back-to-back weeks that I’ve had wedding action. Last week, my boy Riley came in from the hallowed grounds of Chapel Hill, North Carolina to have his reception back home for our crew. This week, another member of the E-Town Junkies Diaper Dandies Fantasy League (EDDFL) ties the knot. Fortney’s turn this time around as him and Abbey have been an item for 6 years now, impressive. We rolled to Fairmont for this action and Cork did the driving and we picked up Abby (Riley’s sister) for the ride. Not to be confused with Abbey. What a small world.

Well, the wedding itself was in this pimpin’ old school church on Fairmont Avenue. I love a huge church with big ceilings and a balcony. It didn’t take any time either, another plus. For the locals that weren’t there, and this may surprise you, AJ Salerno did some solo work. I know what you’re thinking, AJ sings? We thought the same, but he brought it and impressed us by singing Beautiful In My Eyes. Then towards the end of the wedding, him and his wife Josie did a duet and it was very good. Their duet was Endless Love. Yep, it gave us all memories of the Happy Gilmore scene where Happy takes his chick to the hockey rink for some romantic action. Happy, a definite Top 10 movie for me.



Movie and DVD time. Friday is movie day for the job I’m at right now and this week a bunch of them wanted to see The Longest Yard. Good movie, but my local video place was out of all the copies on Thursday. So I had to go to option #2. That was Are We There Yet? This one features Ice Cube and I’ve heard some nice things about it, so of course I was interested. Funny stuff and good for all ages. Cube is underrated as an actor. Or is it because I’m just a big fan of his anyways? Nia Long is smoking in this movie. She turns 35 at the end of the month, I wouldn’t have guessed that. But I guess if you were in the first Friday movie in 1995, you’d be getting up there a little. Check her out in that too if you haven’t, yum.

Wrestling DVD time. I’ve talked about it recently and finally decided to buy as soon as possible. The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior. I got this for about $15.95 at Wal-Mart and it’s well worth it. The WWE does a great job of building up his career to show how he was at certain points in his career, but they also hold nothing back on opinions about him. And I mean nothing. It’s worth checking out just for the 90 minute documentary section and people being honest about him. I haven’t checked the matches yet is all I’ve missed so far, but they’ll be brutal to sit through of course. What a strange person, but there for a short while, the fans loved the dude.



College football action? Yesterday my Irish beat Washington to the score of 36-17. It started out slow, but they poured it on later. Nothing that wasn’t expected though as Washington is horrible. Now my guys are 3-1 and have a trip to Purdue next weekend. After that, it’s a week off to prepare for our beating that USC will give us. On Sunday, my Bears got rocked by the Bungles though. That sets my crew to a 1-2 start with next week at the Dawg Pound in Cleveland. Kyle “The Legend Killer” Orton killed himself this week by throwing INTs left and right.

Last week of regular season baseball! I’m not sure it gets more intense than this stuff. I just got done watching my Yanks beat the Jays, 8-4. Going into Monday, the Yanks and Sox are tied. But the Yanks have 7 road games left, while the Sox have 7 home games left. I’m still confident my boys can do this. There’s also a good chance the AL Wild Card could go to an AL East team if the Indians lose a few in this final week. Almost brought a tear to my eye to see Bernie Williams’ last possible home game. The fans went wild in praise for him and deservedly so. One of the best role models in sports right there.



What’s new in the world of music to add to my collection? Three more get talked about this time around, so without further ado:

P$C (Pimp Squad Click): 25 To Life. This is T.I.’s boys and this CD is hot. They do a good job of bringing the gangsta feel, but can also slow it down and go pimpin’. A nice touch.

Slim Thug: Already Platinum. I’ve had an advance copy of this for a while now, but never got around to getting the full version until a few days ago. Very good stuff here. T.I., Bun B, Pusha of Clipse fame, Pharrell, and Jazze Pha on this beast. Go get this.

Charlie Wilson: Charlie, Last Name Wilson. Time to change it up here with some big time pimpin’ music. Twista, Timberlake, Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame, and to top things off Snoop. Those guys are all featured. If you want some laid back music that sets the mood, here you go.

3 Quick Thangs:

1. Actor Michael Douglas is 61, model Cheryl Tiegs turns 58, and NBA old school stud Bob McAdoo is 54. Superman Christopher Reeve goes for 53. Is he still living? I honestly don’t know and am too lazy to check. Michael Madsen, a.k.a. The Matador of ESPN’s Tilt or Mr. Blonde of Resevoir Dogs is 47. Heather Locklear is 44, dang. Still looking great. Another NBA star is Scottie Pippen and he’s 40. Will Smith is 37. Catherine Zeta Jones is 35, nice. Bridgette Wilson is either 32 or 33, I see results for both. Billy Madison chick there (also Pete Sampras’ wife). Chauncey Billups hits the big 29. Wow, big birthday list here, whew!

2. That #1 might’ve been the longest Quick Thangs ever, that was too much.

3. For old school fans, the latest version of ICQ is pimped out. I like it.

Blog, Blog, & More Blog

So I'm sitting here on a Tuesday and going on about 4 hours of sleep. I went to bed at 1:30 and wake up at 6:00. I never learn, so I just keep being an internet junkie. I'm not tired at all though, but I'm sure towards the afternoon, I'll be a mess and I have to workout when I get home. Should be interesting.



I have a lot to talk about in this one. I might have to make short comments on each topic. We know I could ramble on and on with some huge post, but we'll see how it goes. The action last left off in here on Sunday, so I'm popping out a quicker than usual post for the millions and millions of fans. Or maybe it's just a number I can count on my hands instead. Either way, I'm out to do it big.

I'll start with a new food creation, at least for me anyways. My parents got some bigger banana wax hot peppers. They used the red ones for this. They cut the top off and hull out the middle and leave a good bit of seeds still there for flavor and hotness. Then inside, they stuffed hot Italian sausage grounded up into the pepper, filling it up. Throw it in the oven, no idea how long or anything. But it's some quality stuff. Crazy hot and it'll mess you up, but it's worth that. I knew what'd happen before I ate it, but I must want punishment on myself.



My Irish with the loss on Saturday as mentioned, but Sunday my Bears helped my football mood a lot. They put the smack on the Lions to the score of 38-6. My boys scored 31 in the first half. What's up with that?? No idea, but that's nice to see. Our defense is straight up for real. I'm still not hoping for a huge season, but maybe it'll end up a lot better than I expected. Go Thomas Jones.

Gear up for two paragraphs of wrestling. First, Sunday was WWE Unforgiven. I really liked this show and it delivered. I also delivered on my predictions, just missing one, when I picked Snitsky to beat Big Show. Not undefeated, but I'm proud of it either way. The best match in my opinion was easily the Cage Match. Matt Hardy finally got his win out of this series and these guys took a beating and put on a clinic. Maybe the best thing of the night was Flair winning the IC Title in classic fashion. He even hit a move off the top rope, something he never is able to do, and the crowd went wild. Then afterwards through the night, they showed segments of him in a limo with 4 chicks. Funny when he downed the bottle of Viagra before getting his swerve on. Say what you want about him being old, but he's still the man. And to be the man, you gotta beat the man as he always says. He can't be beat, at least historically speaking. There weren't many bum moments and it was fun to watch.



We move onto RAW the next night. The show opens up with Bischoff presenting Angle with the WWE Title since he feels it was deserved since Angle beat Cena the night before. He won by DQ though, so the title can't change hands. Vinnie Mac then comes down and does his thing. The strut is great first off, but he was in his yelling and evil tone when he brought Bischoff down to another level and said the title belongs to Cena. Then he hyped up WWE Homecoming, which is 2 weeks away, as RAW returns to the USA Network. On that night, RAW starts a bit before 8:00 and goes for 3 hours. Did I die and go into wrestling heaven? Must be. On that night, Vince is making Bischoff face Cena. There's also a Ladder Match in a Loser Leaves RAW stipulation between Edge and Hardy. Are you kidding me? I'm pumped crazy for that one. Then we get returns of many legends and guys who haven't been on TV for a bit such as Triple H, Hogan, Foley, and even Stone Cold. Then we'll have old school guys appear as well. Anyways, this is getting long, but Flair and Carlito had an IC Title Rematch that went on for a good half hour. Flair gets to carry one forth of RAW and then some? Great to see. Flair's eye got swelled shut and it was mangled. Crazy chopfest here. The main event was an 8-Way Tag Match. I mark out for big tag matches. This one had HBK, Cena, Big Show, and Hardy beat Masters, Angle, Snitsky, and Edge. Very good stuff.

My fantasy football team is off to a nice 2-0 start. I squeaked by in a close one this week and hopefully can continue to roll. 18-man league and just 4 of us start the year out undefeated. For those holding onto their seats wanting to know who else is undefeated, it's fellow Lincoln grad Walz, one of Houston's finest in Bono, and the pride of Maine, Blahah. I face a good buddy of mine in Week 3, the infamous DerekHood. He got romped this week in his matchup, so I'm sure he's ready to come swinging.

TV time? Tonight it's Real World action and I hope it's a good one. It seems to be a dramafest and that's always good TV. They have to be getting fairly close to the end of this season or am I wrong? Usually late in every season, one episode gets pre-empted out of nowhere with no warning. Also, I'll be watching Dog The Bounty Hunter on A&E before that. Great show for those who haven't caught onto this craze yet. Other than that, I figure I'll fit in some baseball or whatever else seems to be on other than BET and my usual.



Ooh, almost time to seriously start planning for the EDDFL, the fantasy NBA league that I run with the help of a big crew of my boys. We're drafting on Saturday this year on October 29th, more than likely in the evening. Of course we'll have the big draft board again and plenty of pics if all goes right. Much much more on that towards next month though, as it's the one thing I look forward to all year long.

I have a lot of time to kill at work right now and could write and write and write. But I'll spare you all this time. Hopefully you were able to follow along and there was at least one thing you enjoyed in The Madhouse. Until next time..

3 Quick Thangs:

1. Ever sit around and wonder what it'd be like to randomly walk up to someone at Wal-Mart and do a spin kick to their face? Maybe it's just me and my buddies, hah.

2. Today is a rough time for celebrity birthdays, so we'll turn the corner and get a cheap shot in on some D-List celebs. Drumroll since it's the Nelson Twins' 38th birthday. I can't be the only one to remember these bums can I? I know you're secretely jamming to one of their CDs right now.

3. Leave comments. Much appreciated.

Urlacher: 55 Sacks

We’re due for a weekend update. Not Norm McDonald style, but I’ll try my best to compare to his old pieces of work. So what’s been going on since the middle of last week? I’ve had a sore throat now for about 4 days. On Saturday, I wake up and roll to the doctor at 9:00 as soon as they open. They load me up on some medicine and I’m out of there in no time. So far, the medicine seems to be doing decent. Had a cough and headache to go along with it, but I’ll survive.



On Friday at “work” I watched Hitch for the movie of the week. First time I’ve seen it and it was really good I thought. I thought it’d be too much of a love story, but I was wrong. That’s in there, sure, but there’s a lot of funny parts too. Eva Mendes is one quality chick. And so isn’t Amber Valletta, the same girl who is in The Transporter 2.

My boy Riley’s wedding reception was on Saturday night and it was a big turnout. Basically everyone in our crew showed up, some I haven’t seen for a long time. We had guys coming in from Florida, South Carolina, Ohio, you name it. The food rocked as well. Zitis, chicken, green beans, salad, and some cake that was good times. I was one of few, at least in my crew, who wasn’t drinking. My buddies always give me a hard time on not drinking, but hey, I do my own thing, always been that way. I always crack up at that. So there I was drinking my Coke, hah. I’m a rebel.



My Irish suffered their first loss of the year. They can’t seem to get Michigan State off their backs. Michigan State owns us, especially in Notre Dame. They’ve beaten us there 5 times in a row, ouch. Yesterday it was 44-41 in OT. I can’t complain with how my boys’ season has went so far though, they’re off to a real good start. On the road for the next two weeks and that’s Washington who sucks bad and then Purdue, a year after Kyle “The Legend Killer” Orton leaves for the Bears. Then we get a week off to prepare for USC to mangle us on October 15th.

Tonight is the next pay per view action. WWE Unforgiven. Here’s my quick predictions and hopefully I do well enough to brag about it during the next post, but if I do horrible, I’ll be the first to admit. The main event is Cena defending the WWE Title against Angle. Great buildup to this one and I’m loving Angle’s character. I’m picking Cena to retain though. Carlito has his IC Title up against Flair in what I’m hoping is a good match. I’m picking Flair to win, to be his first time holding that title. HBK taking on Masters in an actual match. HBK is usually great against big guys, so we’ll see how good he can make Masters. I’m picking HBK to win by DQ. Edge and Hardy in a cage? I think this one has big potential if they get to beat on each other good. I’m going with Hardy to get his first win in this series. Big Show against Snitsky, ugh. I guess I’ll take Snitsky in this one for some reason I’m feeling. The Tag Titles should change hands as Cade and Murdoch look to be the new champs there against Hurricane and Rosey. In the chicks bout, I have Trish and Ashley defeating Torrie and Victoria. The last announced match at the time I type this is Benjamin against Kerwin White. I can’t see White losing in his new character, but I’m mad since Benjamin isn’t getting pushed. Toughie here, but I’m picking Benjamin. Back during the next post to see how I did.



One last wrestling thing to mention. On the DVD scene, here’s a link you have to see if you’re an Ultimate Warrior fan or not. This is the trailer for his DVD and the WWE totally buries him, which kind of surprised me. They should make some money off of this one. Here it is, you need to see the comments that the WWE guys make about the Warrior: mms://wmsvod.wwe.com/dvdtrailers/200508/ultimatewarriordvd300.wmv

New CDs this time around? It’s a big collection of Bay Area stuff. My boy Dom sent me the information on where to get these at and so far I’m liking them. I haven’t listened to them all though. The series is titled Dopegame and features most of the big Bay Area names you can think of, plus a lot of guys you haven’t heard of. Dopegame, Dopegame 2, Dopegame 3, and Dopegame: Da Mix Tape are all part of my new collection for whatever that is worth to you, probably nothing.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Today’s birthdays? Old school singer Frankie Avalon is 65. Cubbies Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is 46. Sopranos headbuster James Gandolfini is 45. Ricky Bell of Bell Biv Devoe fame turns 38. Basketballer Toni Kukoc goes for 37. Lance Armstrong is 34. Seems older than that. Jada Pinkett Smith is also 34.

2. As I type this, my Bears are up on the Lions 10-6. Hopefully in the next Blog I can hype that one up as a win, but it’s way early.

3. I ended my Madden season last night. Urlacher had 55 sacks, crazy stuff. Only in video games.

Triple Whopper Anyone?

Middle of September in West Virginia and we're still hitting 90 degrees. Something isn't right with this picture. The hot weather fans have had their fun, let's bring on the cool weather, I've had enough. I am in a good mood though as usual, so I'll see what I can whip up for you all in this piece of work.



This from my boy Walz that I have to post. Dude just did some SEROIUS eating. I’m impressed with this one. I’ll post what he said about the adventure:

Today...I did it...I ordered and finished the Triple Whopper.

I just got off work at stopped at the Burger King right beside Target, but I ordered a Triple Whopper Value Meal, King Sized, with a Sweet Iced Tea.

I ate the entire meal, including the king size fry, not wasting one single bite of fry or burger. It was indeed a beast.

I had to drink 2 entire King size glasses of sweet tea to wash that bad boy down!

To make matters worse, that bad boy set me back $7.19.

The Triple is enough to surprise me, that’ll do a person in. But add on the King fries and 2 King teas and you’re looking at something that’d have me on the ground. Some of my buddies could tear stuff up in an eating contest I’m sure.

In a rare feat, I got to watch my Bears on Sunday. My crew is hardly ever on TV, let alone to open the season up. It was against the Redskins. The offense, ugh. Nothing there. But the defense is hardcore. We lost, 9-7, but put up a valiant fight. Next week they do battle against #basketball’s own Kris3’s Lions. This one is at Soldier Field, so hopefully my guys can get to the .500 mark. In video game news, I have one game left in my regular season of Madden 2006 with the Bears. I’m 12-3 and Urlacher has a ricockulous 43 sacks with one game left! In one game I had a crazy 9 sacks.



Real World last night was a good one I thought. First the crew goes to stay at this ranch. Most of them don’t like it since there’s nothing to do, but it seemed pretty laid back. Danny and Melinda are rumbling though. Danny thinks they are going way too fast, but Melinda just wants to keep going and let things happen. Next week’s preview has them screaming at each other and Danny saying the first month has been a waste. Should be some nice drama there. Also, Wes’ chick Wren caught him kissing another chick, so she told him to beat the trail.

RAW this week in Little Rock? It's the show before this weekend's WWE Unforgiven, so they had to deliver. We actually had some long matches on this show, which I'm always a fan of rather than talking segments that go on forever. A team I think I'm going to like and I've said it before is Cade and Murdoch. Murdoch's character is classic. He's out there with a big chew in his mouth as he's wrestling and his facial expressions are dead on. HBK and Flair together on the mic? It didn't get drawn out, so I liked that. These two fed off of each other so well. Flair's match with Masters was a bit short, but it did set up for Masters to face HBK on Sunday and Flair to go against Carlito. HBK has always made good matches out of the huge guys, so we'll see on this one. Flair and Carlito should have no problem having a good match. The main event had Angle and Tomko beating up on Cena. Cena has no buddies to help or what? They messed him up good at the end of the show and Angle was being a maniac. He’s playing this character very well. Maybe I’ll be back before the week is up to give a preview of Unforgiven?

How about this CDs this time around? The first on the list is from a group of Alabama rappers named Dirty. They've been in the game for a while and I have one of their older albums called The Pimp And Da Gangsta. These guys bring the southern type rap and I'm into this one a lot. They remind me of a bit like Field Mob, Nappy Roots, and some of Luda if you're up on that stuff. Their new one is Hood Stories. Another I got is a dude named Jay Tee and his CD is The Thousandaire. I didn't know this guy, but what the heck. He's a Latino rapper from the Bay Area who used to be the main man in the group N2DEEP, which supposedly went platinum? Who knows. Speaking of Bay Area, I got yet one more JT The Bigga Figga joint. This one also is from 2005, called Who Grind Like Us? I told you this guy releases stuff every 5 minutes. I haven't heard it yet, but The Game, San Quinn, and Young Buck are on it.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. One peanut butter cracker has over 80 grams of sodium in it. Loaded up with the salt.

2. I’m 98% a rap guy, but can listen to other things. Download the theme to Dog The Bounty Hunter that Ozzy does. Good times. It jams.

3. A 3-day sore throat is bad times. This thing better get better soon.

Hey Michigan.. Notre Dame 0wnz j00!

Weekend time, so here we go to weigh in what has been going down. I’m going on a big TV rant in the next paragraph, so be ready for that action. Nothing happening over the next few days, but NFL season opens up today. Well, the opening game was on Thursday, but today is when the rest of the league starts, so it’s good times. My Bears go on the road to face the Redskins. Could be in for a long season, but I’m ready for it to begin.



Ok, here we go. I’m still mad as I type this, so I’m going to let it off. I was geared up all weekend for Saturday. I wake up at 11:30 to get ready for the Notre Dame game as they face Michigan. Michigan is probably my most hated sports team if I had to say. Anyways, noon rolls around and it’s kickoff time. I flip on ABC and it’s Penn State and Cincy. Are you kidding me? Then I turn to another channel and FOX is running the same exact thing. I figured in a bit it’d change over. I then call my boy Fortney and then my cousin Ozzie is there watching with him. Or so they planned anyways. Fortney is a big Michigan guy and Ozzie is a Notre Dame guy like me. Needless to say, we were all kinds of fired up. Let’s roll to 1:05 and then the Yanks and Sox are in a heated battle. FOX is showing this one. Or are they? Nope, doh! FOX is running another feed of the Penn State game from ESPN Plus, rough times. So my day is ruined.. Notre Dame did win though and that’s the one win I want to my Irish to get every year. So for this year at least I can say proudly, suck it Michigan. The Yanks got romped though.

At work on Friday, I watched The Pacifier. Going into it, I didn’t expect much from this one and didn’t think Vin Diesel would be able to pull off the role. It’s real good stuff and one you need to see if you already haven’t. A funny movie and even has some good fighting action in it as well. If you think it’s cheezy, take my word on it that it’s a nice flick. My kids were hooked on it. A movie any age would like.



I went to Wal-Mart and Arby’s on Saturday night. I do the shopping thing at Wal-Mart in Fairmont and nothing big goes down. I then head to Arby’s. I literally waited in the drive-thru line for a good 20 minutes, no joke. Some thug chick messed up the guy’s order in front of me and people were all fired up. Taco Bell is right beside it and their drive-thru line was insane. I’m not sure what the connection was, drug deal, drunks getting home from the WVU game, or whatever.. but people were running back and forth between each place, running up to other cars in the lines and yelling and screaming to their boys. Was strange. I just wanted my food. I get to the chick and she is all in a panic and has to ask me what I ordered. I did get all of my stuff with no problems though, so props to her for that. I tore up 3 junior roast beefs, doing it big. I like eating like a fat boy at times.

I’m not sure what this upcoming week holds. Nothing out of the ordinary that I know of. On Saturday though, I get to go to my boy Clark’s wedding reception. He was married in North Carolina, but is coming back home for the crew here to have a dinner deal. Should be some good eating I’d imagine. Then the week after that, my boy Fortney (same dude mentioned above) is getting married. All kinds of marriage action going down in my crew. I think I’ll wait for a long while and let them do that thing.



I loaded up on a bunch of CDs once again. Here we go in alphabetical order:

David Banner: Certified. I really liked this one. I’m a huge Banner guy to begin with. Tons of artists on this album. Who all? Lil Jon, Jadakiss, Three 6 Mafia, 8-Ball, MJG, Jagged Edge, Jazze Pha, Twista, Lil Boosie, Too $hort, Carl Thomas, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, and others. He comes with some hard lyrics on this one. Can’t go wrong with this.

Lil Ty: I’m Bad. Yep, another one I didn’t have a clue on, but got decent reviews. Think of this guy as an Easy-E clone. He even uses some of his lines and beats as inspirations.

San Quinn: 457 Is The Code Part 2. Bay Area rap, sweet. My first San Quinn album. I have tons of stuff with him on other albums, but none that he’s the main feature of.

Paul Wall: The People’s Champ. This one really impressed me. Paul Wall improved a bunch on this one if you ask me. Some nice appearances on this beast too. I’m most excited that Freeway is here in the song State To State which is awesome. Others on the album include T.I., Lil Wayne, Bun B., and B.G. The second disc is chopped and screwed, which is garbage. I don’t download that junk, guess I’m not feeling it. The regular speed version though on the first disc is great, check it out.

Young Bleed: Rise Thru Da Ranks. This one I didn’t know either, but figured I’d download it. 18 tracks on this one and they all feature people on them. I don’t know a single one that is on the tracks with him. After doing research, I find he was with No Limit Records in the 90s. Didn’t have any idea. He also goes by Young Bleed Carleone.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Birthdays you want? It’s birthdays you get. Not many to give, one of the saddest excuses for celebrity birthdays. These guys aren’t even worth the time, so here’s a link: http://www.brainyhistory.com/daysbirth/birth_september_11.html.

2. For the big internet junkies like we all are, download Internet Goin Nuts from Paul Wall. It’s a funny one.

3. Saturday night as I type this and I’m going to bed before 1:30. I know, sad.

Thoughts Of A Predicate Felon

An action filled weekend here to mention that recently went down. I’ll try to fit it all in this space without boring everyone to death and me rambling on and on. Again, I'm typing the first part of this at "work", so I'm accomplishing something and getting paid for it at the same time. Off we go with my random topics that went down in the mean streets..



Saturday I wake up at 11:00 to hit up the Tally Rally (Italian Heritage Festival) with Cork. We got there around 12:30 or so and I was surprised the parking situation and crowds weren't bad. Then again, we stayed away from the night crowd when it's just a mess up there. Two reasons to go to the Tally Rally and that is the food obviously and the chicks. Both met my standards that day. It doesn’t get any better than an Italian chick for me, nothing compares. For the locals, I got a sausage sandwich with hot peppers and cheese from Marino Brothers. They put it on a huge bun and it was good. After that, I went to stand in the fritti line, but it was taking forever, so I bailed out to the funnel cake area. Dumb move, but oh well. I told this woman I wanted a funnel cake and a large lemonade. She tells me my total is $9. What?! OK! What?! Anyways, after paying, I come to find out that the lemonade was a whopping $5 and the funnel cake for $4. A $4 funnel cake? What does that thing do? Give me a massage and drive me to work?

After the Tally Rally, we hit up a 2:15 movie. It's been a long time since I've seen a day movie. We hit up The Transporter 2 and it's a good one. The first one is great and this one lived up to my expectations. The daytime theater crowd is interesting. We had old ladies in there well over 70 and then you have little kids. We thought we walked into the wrong theater at first. Anyways, go see the movie. Within 5 minutes, heads are being busted.



The day didn't end there. At 8:00, I geared myself to watch the Notre Dame game as they faced Pitt. They were going into the game as 3 point underdogs. They straight whipped the Panthers to the tune of 42-21. Sweet Chin Music! I hope our offense keeps looking like this, I was impressed. This weekend will be a huge test though as we go on the road to The Big House and play Michigan. Michigan is probably my most hated sports team. I'm not the world's biggest West Virginia football fan either, but I'd more than likely root for them over Michigan. The rivalry between Notre Dame and Michigan is legendary though, so I hope it's a good game. It won't come easy.

More money to be spent after the game. It's still Saturday night and Cork gets home from work and is starving. He asks if I'm bored for a Denny's trip. I don't pass this one up, even if I'm not that hungry. We first roll to Wal-Mart and I load up on blank CDs. We go through these like it's our job. At Denny’s, I get the wild buffalo chicken strips, yum. Not as good as Dairy Queen’s, but still worth the purchase. Speaking of blank CDs, I got a bunch of new CDs in the past couple of days. Here's the rundown:



AZ: A.W.O.L. If you're into true New York hip hop, this album is for you. AZ doesn't get a lot of credit, but he can flow it lyrically. Nas, Ghostface, and Raekwon The Chef are on this.

Eminem: Rap Attack. This one isn't released in stores, but it's a nice mix of rare things. You get some older Em rap battles that he tears the house down against Royce Da 5'9" and others, some live performances with Dre and Snoop on SNL, the MTV Music Awards of old, and a few other things.

JT The Bigga Figga: Neighborhood Superstarz. Want your Bay Area rap fix? Here you go. This one is loaded up with stars. Juvenile, The Game, Young Buck, E-40, Dat Nigga Daz, San Quinn, and more. It seems that JT puts out a new album each month. He probably doesn't leave the studio.

Thug Chuc: In Remembrance Of Thug Chuc. This is one of the albums I find randomly and have no clue about the person. I figure some of those are worth checking out, so I do it. A little background that I found. Thug Chuc is a laid back rapper from Kansas City who raps in a fast way. Laid back and fast? I know, seems weird, but that's the best way I can describe it. Very good CD here. Also, Thug Chuc isn't dead, he's just saying his ways and character of old is dead.

Vanilla Ice: Platinum Underground. A 2005 release here that I'm not big on at all. I was curious since I read a few good reviews. I never was one that is a fan of a rapper trying to add metal type lyrics and guitar riffs to the scene. You do get a new version of Ice Ice Baby on this one, but I don't think it's worth the buy for ya.

Tony Yayo: Thoughts Of A Predicate Felon. Awesome CD and one you need to get. Yayo has a nice selection of his boys on this piece and one girl. Who all is featured? 50 Cent, Eminem, Obie Trice, Lloyd Banks, Olivia, Jagged Edge, and Joe. Not Fat Joe as he bashes on him, but the R&B pimpin' guy.



RAW last night? Not too bad of a show. Unforgiven is shaping up to be a pretty nice Pay Per View on September 18th. Carlito trashed new diva Ashley during Carlito’s Cabana. Her mic work was horrible, but she looked good at least. Then Flair comes down to save her and as usual, he put on a show. He ran Carlito out of the ring after some brutal chops and then started dropping elbows on Carlito’s apples and doing knee drops. Benjamin facing Rob Conway and that’s two wrestlers who are very good in the ring. Kerwin White (Chavo) interferes and we should have a Benjamin/White feud. Interesting. Could be some good wrestling for a change. Main event was The Masterlock Challenge with HBK going against Masters. HBK gets out of it by busting Masters in the nads. Masters comes back and blasts HBK with a chair to bloody him up as the show ended.

A quick DVD mention. On Friday, I wanted to get a new wrestling DVD to treat myself after the first week of work. I ended up going to Suncoast and buying Before They Were Famous. This has a ton of old school matches on it with guys such as Lance Storm, Chris Jericho, Jerry Lynn, Taz, Cactus Jack, etc. 2 hours worth of matches on this thing. I’ve seen a bit of it so far and it’s been worth it.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Birthday time. Jeff Foxworthy is 47. Michael Winslow of Police Academy fame is 45. Rosie Perez turns 41. Not a strong showing today, but that’s what you get.

2. 5 days till Chicago Bears season opens, sweet.

3. A pen you need to get? Bic Cristal Gel Roller. A pack of 10 for like under $3. Some quality writing there. I’m hooked. Yep, spelled cristal. I feel like it’s the thug drink.

Labor Day Weekend

I'm typing up the first part of this at work. I come in to work every morning and have literally 2 hours and 10 minutes before my first class. So, I use my bum time well. I'm organized, so I have most of my plans ready to go by the time I'm here anyways for my classes. So I use it to be an internet junkie. I do that when I get home too, oh well.



The plan tomorrow (it’s late Friday night as I type this part) is to hit up the Tally Rally (Italian Heritage Festival) with Cork for some great food and then go watch The Transporter 2 in the afternoon before he works. I'm pumped up big to see this movie and hopefully it's nearly as good as the first one was. Then later that night, Notre Dame takes on Pitt. Why I didn't get tickets to this one? I don't know. They sold like crazy though and it would've been expensive. Always a tough schedule for my boys, but I think we'll have a nice year under Charlie Weis' new regime. Ironic how my Irish are taking on a former Chicago Bears coach (my NFL team) in Dave Wannstedt. But for this week, I'll be rooting against Wanny and his porno mustache.

I'm almost to the playoffs in my first Madden season of the '06 version. Right now off the top of my head, typing this from work, I'm 10-3 going into Week 15. My last game I had 9 sacks with Urlacher. He's a beast in this game, for real. I'm not much of a zone type player, so I'll take my chances with rushing the QB every time and trying to take their heads off with the Hit Stick. I hurt at least one player a game and most of those times I mess the QB up good. I like playing defense a lot better than offense on this one. As far as playing a real life person, I've had this problem for years on the newer systems. I usually get my brains beat in by Cork and Spank. Not sure what gives. I feel like I'm a good player, not an expert, but I shouldn't get handed on a plate most times I play a real person. Go figure. Old school Tecmo Bowl it's a different story, the greatest video game of all time.



For the locals, I just got back from the Jackson’s Mill Jubilee or whatever they call it nowadays. I was bored and went with my parents for this action. I expected it to be your typical redneck West Virginia carnival. That wasn’t it at all, so I was excited it wasn’t dirty like that. It’s not a carnival and doesn’t have rides. It’s out in the country and the food is awesome. They have Civil War re-enactments and things of the like, but they also have some old school cooking places set up all around this huge area. Funnel cakes, kettle corn, apple butter, jelly, and a ton of other things. I loaded up on a rib eye steak sandwich with hot peppers and cheese. It rocked, was from an Italian family close to my hometown, so I knew that’d be good. Then after that, I hit up a fritti. Or if you’re not with the Italian vernacular there, it’s fried bread and they do it big. They have a dough presser and flatten it out and then throw it into a real hot tub of grease and once it’s out, they crank sugar on it. That alone was worth the trip. I can’t wait for the food at the Tally Rally though.

I forgot a big thing last time in the Blog. Most people won't care, but I didn't talk any about Monday Night RAW. I won't give a big review, just a few thoughts. The segment with Carlito and HBK was very well done to set up the main event Tag Match with HBK and Flair teaming up (two of my all time favorites) against Carlito and Masters, up and comers. The Street Fight with Hardy and Edge was awesome in my opinion. This one surpassed the SummerSlam meeting easily I thought. And the good thing is that RAW gave them time for a long match. The end saw both men go off the stage into the power supply area. Angle and Cena had a nice war of words too. I am loving the new edge they have given Angle the past few weeks. He's going to straight up make Cena a much better wrestler by the time this feud is over. "I won an Olympic gold medal with a broken freakin' neck!" That gets me every single time. The main event had Flair come out all bloody after being attacked earlier in the show. He was put in the Master Lock and faded out. HBK, Angle, Flair, Benoit.. These guys know how to elevate the younger generation, nice to see. Next week we do get the Master Lock Challenge with HBK.



Two CDs this time around for your pleasure. The first is Kanye West’s newest, Late Registration. The second is from Kurupt and called Against The Grain. The Kurupt CD isn’t anything spectacular, but I love the appearance by The Dayton Family on this one. As far as Kanye’s, I’ll paste what I wrote in Lobstah (http://lobsterrodeo.com/balls) to my reaction:

Kanye weigh-in here.. Wow.. I'm not sure I'd go horrible after just one listen, but it's nothing I'm going to hype up by any means. What happened to the pissed Kanye who talked about stuff on the streets and what happened to him rapping about making it big time? This one is more pimpin' R&B music than normal Kanye stuff, he doesn't come hard at all. Hopefully I'm wrong on this, because I like some of his stuff, but he's much better being a beat guy in my opinion than rapping if he's doing this new style. And I won't get in a big argument, but he can't hold Timbaland's jock in beats. And I won't even throw Dre into the mix since he’s a god. Kanye is talented, don't get me wrong, but I'm just a bit let down after one listen through.



Watched Taxi at school and I was surprised with it. I never was a Fallon guy at all, but my boys told me that I should still watch it anyways because it’s hilarious. Was worth the watched, I enjoyed it. Queen Latifah is an underrated actress. She did it big.

3 Quick Thangs:

1. Today’s birthdays? NBA legendary coach Dick Motta is 74, former footballers Ernest Givens gives salute to the Electric Slide celebration by turning 41, Charlie Sheen is 40, Luis Gonzalez of the DBacks is 38, and Damon Stoudamire of NBA fame is 32.

2. I ate Chinese yesterday for the first time in probably 3 or 4 weeks. For shame. I better get back into it.

3. 100 invites I have on GMail now, dang.