Shinnston's Excitement

I'm bringing the pain in this post. So many things to talk about that I wish I was able to spread it out better. That's how it goes in my world at times. Too much excitement for the regular person to handle, it's quality, or so I like to think anyways. Get ready for a fairly long post and we'll get this baby started..



I'll jump from day to day here, so it won't be in any certain order. Friday night was action though. It was road trip time with the crew. A crew of eleven of us (Me, Spank, Cork, Sickles, Kari, Fortney, Abbey, Swiger, Mudcat, Ozzie, and Matt Mills) roll to Uniontown, Pennsylvania for some Red Lobster feasting. Luckily for our crew, they had the all you can eat shrimp deal going for $17. You can't beat that one. I'm not a big eater, but I still was able to get my money's worth. Spank, Fortney, Mudcat, and Ozzie can straight put away some food. Thumbs up from my meal for sure. We had to wait 45 minutes, but that's no biggie when you're getting some good chats in with the crew. That's part of the entertainment. We took 3 cars for the trip. Fortney drove, which there's nothing wrong with. However, the other 2 drivers were myself and Kari, easily the worst drivers of the group. We made it back home safely though surprisingly. Also, on a sidenote, we saw this older dude wearing some MC Hammer pants from back in the day. Yep, the Zubaz ones for those in that era. Our crew laughs in his face pretty much with Mudcat being the loudest of the bunch and they got all fired up calling us hillbillies. That's good entertainment.

Also on Friday night, after we roll back from Uniontown, we stop in Morgantown. Not all eleven of us. That crew by that point was myself, Spank, and Cork. We go to the midnight showing of Borat as it finally comes to my area. And boy, was I ever pumped to see this. It was basically a sellout in there. If you haven't seen it yet, you need to jump on this one quickly. No joke here, it's way over the top, but one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. We turned down a trip to Lil Vegas to see Borat and made a good choice. Our trio joked about how old we're getting when everyone in the theater seemed like little kids. I'm sure a lot were, but that's when you know you're gaining up there in age. It's cool though, you're only as old as you feel or act. In that case, I feel like I'm about 12 years old. This dude sat by me made the movie even better. I compared him to an And1 fan you see on the DVDs of them going wild and running onto the court after a fancy play. Well, this guy would laugh like crazy at the big parts and then would turn to me (who he didn't know) and would keep asking if I heard what Borat just said. I want to see this movie again and soon.



On the video game front, we finally beat Bully for PS2. An awesome game and one that you'd be hard pressed not to be hooked to. It definitely consumed me and I put some hardcore time into playing that one. Also, we're a week away from the Nintendo Wii (and lesser news to me , the PS3) from being released. It looks slim that I'll get my hands on a Wii on the very first day, but I'm sure going to try my best to get it that day. I'm too loyal to Nintendo and I know what they bring to the table, so that's where my heart is going to go with the new systems coming out. More on that when I finally get the system.

Ping pong! Monday I stopped at Fortney's Funhouse (that'll be the working name until we find something more creative to call the hangout) for a ping pong tournament. You kidding me? That's some solid fun there, especially when there's a crew of good players and we had a football going on TV at the same time. Who all played that night? Spank, Mudcat, Ozzie, Fortney, Abbey, Matt Mills, Buck, Sweet Pea, and myself. We also had Mookie Talerico stop in the house for a few minutes so he could leave with some good luck on his side. I won both tourneys and I always say pong is like riding a bike, you get a few games in you and you're back on your game. Nothing fancy with me. I get a paddle, rip off the padding on both sides and sandpaper it down all over to make it smooth and as light as possible. Then out comes the power game. I can't stand back and play defense in pong. I'm coming straight on offense. If I lose that way, so be it, it happens. I can do the spin stuff if I have to, but that's no fun to me. If you keep your opponent backing up and having no idea where you're going to hit it, you get results. There wasn't a bad player in the house, this could be something regular that'll get some nice competition.



On Election Day (it still amazes me that a ton of people are too lazy to get out of their seat and go vote) I went with Ozzie to the mean streets of Fairmont to a legendary spot. Yep, that's right, Yann's hot dogs. You go to this place and you can either tell them you want onions or not. That's the only request you're basically allowed. The old man that runs it is a hot dog nazi and he runs a tight shop. You can't get ketchup on your dogs or he'll flip out. You go to this place for the experience alone, not just how great the food is. You're guaranteed to have the old guy be pissed off and ready to bust your head up. For what it's worth, Spank ate 18 of these one day. Anyone in the area who hasn't been to Yann's, where have you been hiding at? It's time to pull your head out of the sand and get moving up Route 19 and roll into West Fairmont.

How's pickup basketball been going? Two big nights of play this week, Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday, we played at my old high school's gym. We rolled with 10 guys exactly. Who all was in attendance? I know you don't care, but I'm typing it up anyways, so there. Me, Ozzie, Fortdog, Little Sinclair, Barron, Lil Romeo, Ski, Sweet Pea, Buck, Parsons, and Sponge. I love this court since it's straight up run and gun. I had one of my worst shooting nights in quite some time though, but still had fun that I got good runs in. Thursday night was where it was at though. This will be our last Thursday at School Square. For those reading in the area, we'll be back at The Lighthouse on Thursdays from 7:00-9:00. Anyways, the Thursday crew? Me, Ozzie, Sweet Pea, Fortdog, Spank, Big Barney, TJ, Sonny, Posey, and Buck. I rocked it out that night or felt so anyways. The team I had was Spank, Fortney, Big Barney, Ozzie, and myself. We ended up winning the series, 4 games to 2. I like to get out and go. My theory is to make the other guys tired. Take off running as fast as you can or press defense in their face and they're bound to mess up or get mad. I shot well here too, but my favorite is getting steals and getting a fast break going. 2nd hour you really can run and gun when some start getting tired. Our team had everything. We had Fortney and Ozzie dominating the paint like no other. They're a force down there, they need to shoot more. Barney is always on, he plays half speed and still nobody can touch him. I also never complain about being up on defense with Spank as the other guard as we get to use some press D.



I lost my voice over the past few days and it's rough. It started out with sinuses and a sore throat, but as I type this now on late Friday night, I can barely get a voice out. You never appreciate something until you lose it. Not that my voice won't come back, but maybe that's my body telling me that I ramble on and talk too much and it's shutting me up for a few days. Give it the ol' pimp slap if you will. It could be worse though.

My Bears lost, doh. I wasn't one of these crazy people who actually think they were going to go 16-0. I can't see a NFL team doing that nowadays, but maybe I'll be proven wrong eventually. My guys are now 7-1 and playing well, but it's early. I see them losing several more before all is said and done, but they'll still be playoff bound. My Irish have been getting things going as well. Currently they are 8-1 as they go into Saturday's game against Air Force and are a Top 10 team in the BCS. Air Force and Army are winnable games, but knowing my luck, they'll lose one of those. Then it's the season ended against rival USC, out there, ouch. You never know.

It's time to put more into my addiction. That time would be new CDs I've gotten in the past few days. Here's what we have added:



Ron Artest: My World. Yes, that Ron Artest of the NBA. You never know what you're going to get with him, so why not get this CD? You know if you're a basketball fan you're interested in this one just to see what he says or does.

C-Murder: The TRU Story - Continued. The brother of Master P is at it again as he's done pretty well after getting out of jail. He keeps his style the same and if you're after some mean rap, here you go.

Coolio: The Return Of The Gangsta. Another one I was curious about. Coolio hasn't done much of anything lately, so I figured I'd give it a try. Bad mistake. This is a brual CD. The only decent song on the CD is one with Snoop. Don't waste your time here.

The Dayton Family: Return To Dayton Ave. Shoestring and Bootleg are at it again. These dirty guys are from the streets of Flint, Michigan. They'll never be mainstream rap as they're too hardcore for that. If you're into some thug raps, here you go. They're very good.

De La Soul: The Impossible Mission. This is a mix between rap and R&B as these guys have been around for a long time. If you're into the smooth flows, don't sleep on this crew.

Flavor Flav: Hollywood. Flav's solo project here. He doesn't once talk about the Flavor of Love show, which was surprising. A very good CD here and Flav is probably the best hype man in the business. He has a few songs where he brings it with the lyrics as he can do, but he also has several funny pimpin love type songs. He still gets it done in the rap game, even at his age. You get a mixture here, pick it up.

Ice-T: Gangsta Rap. He hasn't done much lately, but he's still the same Ice-T. Most know him now as the actor, but he was real good back in the day. O.G. is still one of the most underrated rap albums. I remember being a kid when Cop Killa came out and they banned it from the stores.

Jibbs: Jibbs Feat. Jibbs. We're going with more of the club rap here. This kid has been rapping since he was 8. A St. Louis native who says, "I was murdering 21-year-olds, 25-year-olds when I was 11 and 12, Jibbs recalls with a laugh." The song everyone knows so far from him is Chain Hang Low.

Jim Jones: Hustler's P.O.M.E. (Product Of My Environment). This one is worth the get for the street anthem We Fly High. It's blowing up all over. The New York Giants come out to it each game and you'll see all kinds of people doing the "Baaaaalllinnn'!" stuff made famous by Jim.

Tek: I Got This. When getting this, I thought it was the Tek of Real World fame as he's a low budget rapper. But this is the Tek that is a member of Smif-N-Wessun. I haven't listened to this one yet to give a review, but it can't be too bad.

Z-Ro: 1 Deep. If you haven't heard of Z-Ro, you need to. This Texas rapper can spit out the lyrics and does it in a big way. I have a few of his other albums and like all that I've heard so far.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: http://nonk.nonk.info/pages/pool/pool.swf (This isn't for the weak at heart, but something the famed Rahl sent me a few days ago at random. It's messed up for sure, but you'll still check it out.)

Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: http://www.myspace.com/ricanbaby84

3 Quick Thangs:

1. I haven't done birthdays in a while, so here we go. Let's go with Sunday, November 12th. First off, we'd like to wish my boy Cork a happy one. He gets to celebrate his 25th, one fourth of the way to 100. Charles Manson is 72. Singer Neil Young goes for 61 and so doesn't Hall of Fame announcer Al Michaels. Sammy "I cheat and use corked bat" Sosa turns 38. Tonya Harding of figure skating fame hits 36. That'll do it.

2. This video is so good that I had to include it. Heard about the deer that ran into a Target store in Iowa? Check this masterpiece out, it's great: http://www.wlwt.com/news/10284183/detail.html

3. For what it's worth, I just finished some chicken ramen noodles and a glass of OJ. Not bad.