Homeless Bums, Waffle House, & More!

It's been a bit over a week and I know some are getting restless with a post. The time is here, so I better get my fingers ready to type out some madness. The main part of this post is yet another road trip. I always seem to be able to pull out some quality stories on those, so strap up and get ready for some reading entertainment. As usual, all stories are true.



Wednesday night/Thursday morning will be the basis for a lot of action in this blog. I'll set the story straight to show how messed up my sleep was for a few days. I wake up at 6:00 for work on Wednesday morning. After teaching the kiddies, I leave work early at around 1:45. My cousin Ozzie is waiting in the parking lot and I go straight from work. In the car, I'm changing into comfy clothes and the road trip to Cleveland is on it's way.

The destination was Quicken Loans Arena (always Gund Arena to me). I hate when corporations change the arena names so much in sports, but I guess it's all about money. We went to see the Sixers (Ozzie's team) take on LeBron's Cavs. The ride up part of the road trip is always the best time. We spent a lot of that time reliving old local legends in basketball. For some reason, we were stuck on naming many of the b-ballers from the 1994 class at our old high school. Once in town, we ate at one of the best places ever, Alesci's. It's in downtown Cleveland and you MUST go there if you're in town. It doesn't look like much. It's half deli/half bar and has homemade Italian stuff. It reminds me a lot of back home, something similar to the infamous Tate's Fruit Market. Anyways, we ended up getting a stromboli (loaded with salami, capicola ham, provolone cheese, mozzarella cheese, etc) and a calzone, which is pretty much like a WV pepperoni roll to go with a side of sauce. I'm telling ya, me and Ozzie both think it's worth the trip to Cleveland just for that. You can offer me some rich boy restaurant, but I'd still pick this place. It rocks.



At the game itself, we had good seats and I can't complain. First off, LeBron is a straight up GOD up in that town. He can do no wrong. Second, the Cavs really aren't that great of a team, despite their good record. They're in the East which is brutal. Barkley was right a week or so ago when he was saying that. While at the game, I waited in line for a while to get some fries for $4 and a $4 pop at the concession stand. They mangled the orders and I ended up getting a $15 box of chicken wings for $4. I kept a straight face, paid $8 total and loaded up like a machine. I get back to the seat and this dude in front of me turns around and say how it's been 23 days since he's had any wings. I asked why so, he pointed to his belly and said he has to slack off. That's when Ozzie was cracking up that this guy was pounding beers and said that the beers will really help his belly. Then he had to show off all his cell phone pics to me. Mind you, he's never met me in his life and he was just rambling on. I didn't mind, it was funny, but strange in the same part too.

During the game, there were a few interesting things. The Cavs have this PA/DJ type guy that runs around all game and screams stuff. He's similar to the And1 hype man, but he does a pretty good job of getting the crowd into it. That crowd is hot and they really support their team. They packed in the place for the Sixers to come into town on a night it was brutally cold and snowing, props to them on that. When an opponent would go to the foul line, they would flash either the Michigan or Pittsburgh Steelers logo on the screen and the crowd would go insane with boos. I'm serious, it was nuts. Very creative and I of course liked the Michigan boos, sorry Fortney. Igoudala put on a show, he was on that night. The game went into Double OT, so we definitely got our money's worth. Philly pulled off the road shocker.



The trip home was interesting. If you're counting at home, I gave $3 to the homeless bums. One guy was honest and said he needed beer money. I respected that, but for some reason just kept going by him. I gave to two random dudes and then one dude who was jamming away with his music. Of course we had to hit up Waffle House when we saw it near Akron. That was a must. I got some kind of Texas bacon, steak, and cheese sandwich or something with some hash browns to go with a Cherry Coke. Excellent stuff, you can't hardly beat greasy dirty food. We also got hooked up with some free bacon after we told the chick our story about how we're 4 hours away and all of that. They must love our redneck accents and how we just can ramble on, who knows. While at the Waffle House, we walked into a blizzard basically. 5 minutes after we got in, we couldn't see our tracks outside from the car. We saw cars on the sides of roads, in ditches, barely making it up the exit ramps, it was entertainment at it's best. I love me some snow, even if that's not correct grammar, we switch it up in here. Then about an hour or so away from home, I crashed. I hated doing that since there was just two of us, but I couldn't make it any longer. I barely remember the last half of drive back since I was in a coma from being tired, nodding off.

The plan all along was to get back home around 2:00 or 2:30. With the Double OT game and cars going like 25mph in the snow on the way home on the interstate, I walked in the door at 4:00 AM. I jumped in bed at 4:15 and woke up at 5:45 AM. Yep, that's right, 90 minutes of sleep. I wake up, shower, shave, eat breakfast, and head to work to be at morning bus duty around 7:05. I'm a machine. That day, we got out of school early for the snow and I came home and got a 4 hour nap to refresh me. The moral of this story, even if work is involved and you have to go in on 90 minutes of sleep, NBA has bigger priorities over work.



I feel like I'm a kid working with the elementary bunch. I'll never grow up as most know, so I at least try to feel young at all times. A lot of my kids are big video game or wrestling fans, so I get a kick out of that. They bring in their Nintendo DS systems and link up with each other. I always say I'll never be too old for that stuff. So far, I'm true on my word.

It's time for an update on my latest CDs..

Dru Down: Got Purp - Volume 1 Mixtape. With my boy Dru Down involved, I was interested in this. I haven't heard all of this yet, but it sounds pretty good for mixtape standards.

Messy Marv: What You Know Bout Me? Some more Yay Area rap here, which is my favorite. A very good CD, Marv brings it big. A nice collection of artists on this one too such as David Banner, Andre Nickatina, Pastor Troy, San Quinn, The Outlawz, and Keyshia Cole. Currently, I have a Marv track as my MySpace theme for whatever that's worth.

Andre Nickatina: The Wrath Of Khan Mixtape. Yet another guy from the Yay. I haven't checked this one out yet, but if it's anything like Nickatina's stuff from the past, it should be worth the listen. I first heard about Nickatina from a recommendation of #basketball's Flaze years ago.

Pretty Ricky: Late Night Special. Time to slow it down with pimpin' music from the kids. Their first CD was good and made a lot of money. Will there be a sophomore jinx here? We shall soon find out.



Styles P: Time Is Money. One of D-Block's finest here. I know I say it a lot, but this is a quality CD. He comes with it and has a ton of people on this beast. We get Talib, Gerald Levert, Swizz Beatz, Akon, Mario Winans, and Jagged Edge to name a few. Testify with Talib is a good one to check out from this album.

Trae: Tha Truth Show. Are you into Houston rap? This guy is for you. Mad Linx, Yung Joc, T.I., Bun-B, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Yukmouth, and Big Tigger on this beast. From start to finish, Trae is impressive.

Nobody tried to tackle the trivia this week, we may try that again some day. In our comments last week we had 2 people from Germany (Dom & Kristen), one from Canada (Carolina), and one in New Zealand (Coop). Dang, that's production, nice job everyone. Good stuff to see.



Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: Thanks to my girl Felisha for finding this dirty. She came through big on this one. Nice find, hah. I gotta give credit due where it's due. http://www.myspace.com/jumpbackandkissmyself

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Adrian Wilson, sick stuff right here off a 3-step drop. Amazing athlete. http://youtube.com/watch?v=7vL19q8yL54

3 Quick Thangs:

1. January is almost over. But we'll go with birthdays for Monday, January 29th: Tom Selleck, Happy 62nd. Oprah Winfrey celebrates her 53rd. Former Yankee Steve Sax goes for his 47th. Actor Nick Turturro, he's 45. Former Bills wideout Andre Reed, 43. Goalie Dom Hasek turns 42. Heather "Roller Girl" Graham is now 37, wow. Hottie Gabrielle Union is 35, everyone is getting old. Sara Gilbert who was Darlene on Roseanne, Happy 32nd. There you have it.

2. Did You Know? In Denmark, there are twice as many pigs as people.

3. Did You Know? China uses 45 billion chopsticks per year. 25 million trees are chopped down to make those bad boys. Don't say you haven't learned anything around here.

E City: Taking Over New York

Hola to everyone out there. Anything new in your part of the world? Once again, we come to you broadcasting worldwide to the masses. It's time to add some excitement to an otherwise boring day you might be having. How do we add the excitement? By telling you about my boring schedule that I can somehow whip up into some good (but true) stories. It sort of reminds me of Seinfeld. There's no storyline to that show, but everyone watched it back in the day and still does with reruns.



So how did the genius kids treat me after one week of being with them? I think I'm really going to enjoy it and they're a good bunch. I have a different grade each day. Monday I have my 1st and 2nd grade groups. Tuesday is 3rd, Wednesday is 4th grade, and Thursday is 5th. On Fridays, I have meetings scheduled around the county. If no meetings are scheduled, I get to sit around all day online and do absolutely nothing and get paid for it. Now that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, I'm supposed to plan out my following week, but how long can that take? I'm organized anyways and do that ahead of time.

Speaking of those geniuses, my 4th and 5th graders are learning how to write checks and keep a balance in their register. You kidding me? And they're all over it too, like nothing. I didn't have a checking account till I was about 25 or later, no lie. I'm old school and normally would rather carry around cash than use checks, but I'm getting better. Anyways, I have a kid I'll call Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman style. He was doing his final balances (adding or subtracting his payments and deposits) in his head. Who does that? I'm used to having the special ed kids on the other end of the learning spectrum and now I get to deal with these insanely creative cats. And LEGO blocks? Yep, the ones we played with when we were kids, they can do anything with these. Making machines, cars, you name it. Enough on that, but I'm enjoying it so far.



This coming Wednesday it'll be my first NBA trip of the season. I could go to an NBA game at the spur of the moment if someone asked me. I'm rolling to Cleveland as I stated before in a previous post, courtesy of my cousin Ozzie. Thanks to cousin Kari for buying him tickets for Christmas, and to Ozzie for asking me to go as his guest. You seriously can't beat that with a stick. I'll be riding on this road trip (4 hours, but a very easy drive to Cleveland and an easy city to get around in). Since I just got this long term job, I can't really take off that soon, so I'm working till around 1:30 on Wednesday, Ozzie is picking me up and we'll be there by the 7:00 tipoff easily. Then I come home and hopefully it'll be around 2:30 or so. I get in my car at work, drive home and hopefully be showered up by no later than 3:30. Then I wake up the next day around 6:00, have morning bus duty at 7:10, so I'll be rocking it out in a span of 2 days for being up 2 hours and having to work on top of that. Should be interesting, but no way am I missing a chance to go to an NBA game. I may set a record for Cherry Coke drinking that day to wire me up. Not like I need it.

Oh no, I have definitely not left you all hanging on my American Idol thoughts. First off, I'm not ashamed to admit I'm hooked on this show. As sad as it may sound, there's no point of hiding behind the fact, it's quality entertainment. You know you are just as hooked. Tuesday (Minneapolis) and Wednesday (Seattle) both had a 2-hour showing this past week. We're in the bum section as we get some real winners that want to be seen on TV. Tuesday night? The Wizard of Oz lion chick was scaring me big time. The juggler dude? He was classic, he cracked me up for how bad he was. They should advance a few bums out of nowhere just because. Paula is a total crackhead now, a few years ago she was still smokin' hot. Now? She's all hopped up on who knows what. Jewel and her mangled teeth (although one of very very few girls with mangled teeth that I'd admit to being hot as that's not a turn-on, but Jewel I could handle for sure) was a guest judge for Minneapolis. She's still got the great face, hair, and awesome body, so I won't complain.



Seattle on Wednesday? They started out the show with the cop from Wheeling, WV who did I Shot The Sheriff last season. Great times and he was rough as usual. He bombed again, this time coming out in an Uncle Sam outfit, but hopefully we see him next season. I like Tommy Daniel, the thug with a fro. He quit his gas station job and slept beside the garbage cans at the arena for the audition. He's going to Hollywood. So isn't my early favorite out of the first few nights (Beat Box Boy). That name alone for those who watched should know who I'm talking about. Shyamali, yummy. This is a 19 year old Indian chick who is gorgeous. She made it and so didn't her bro Sanjaya who rocked it out with some Stevie Wonder action. Zitzmann is a dork and frightened me. Bug eyed monkey boy and his fatty buddy? I told my Lobstah guys that these two definitely need their own sitcom. I'd never miss an episode. Philippi Sparks' (former Giants NFL baller) daughter makes it to Hollywood at age 16.

Good to hear from Coop all the way down in New Zealand in our last blog comments. Dom writes in here often in comments from Germany, so we really do branch out worldwide. As rappers would say, I don't play no games, I spit the truth. It might be boring truth, but I'm not one to hold my opinion in. 99% of the time I'm calm and laid back, so it's not like I'm going to be a big punk about it, but I'll always give my two cents into a situation. And it's always fun to morph into "The Love Doctor" online as Ashlee in a blog a while back joked with me using that name for dating advice. Dr. Phil can't hang. If your dude is a punk to ya, I'll let ya know my thoughts. If your chick is being a dirty, the staff here will get right on that and give you better options. Considering I've never really been in many big time relationships, I always think it's funny to give advice on other people's love life, it's a good time. After all, it's just an opinion, we all are entitled to one. Speaking of dirties, that's a good step into our Dirty Thug Ho of the Week!



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

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLyjJjnIGTk

Bird's Trivia of the Week: This is a new feature I'm going to try every now and then. Whatever I ask will more than likely be able to be found online with enough searching, so I might as well go in that route and have you search since you'd do it anyways. Today's question? First, add the current ages of Tony Danza, William Shatner, and George W. Bush together. Then take that number and subtract 33. Then add the four-digit year number in which the Yankees swept the Pirates at the World Series (example, 1990). Finally, multiply your total number so far by the year that the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off was released. Complicated? Nah. You're bored, you can spare a few minutes to work that one up. Here's our formula (Danza's age + Shatner's age + Bush's age = Age total.. Age total - 33 = New total.. New total + World Series year = New total.. New total x Bueller's release year = your answer.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Today's lunch as I'm sitting here typing this section up? Bologna sandwich on wheat with provolone and mustard. Also a pack of Gold n Chees (spelled like that) crackers, a pack of peanut butter crackers, Hostess cupcake with the curly squiggly lines old school style, a Rice Krispies square, and two packs of Welch's fruit snacks that are out of this world. I know I'm a little guy and wouldn't do well in an eating contest of actual "real" food, but nobody wants a piece of me in a Rice Krispies Squares eating contest.

2. Here's one quote that has my fantasy basketball guys from #basketball all riled up. So I had to post it on our board to get some chat going. I'm a big Eddy Curry guy and nobody else is out of our group: "We're calling him 'E City' because he's taking over New York."- Starbury on Eddy Curry

3. Birthdays for Saturday, January 20th: Ivana Trump, The Donald's ex goes for 58. Bill Maher turns 51. Manager of the White Sox, Ozzie Guillen, Happy 43rd. Stacey Dash is 40, wow. Big Snoop Dogg smokes it up for his 36th. Rae Carruth celebrates his 33rd in prison. A lot of B-list celebs that I'm not going to bother with this time.

Pee Wee's Playhouse

Thanks to The_Freak for today's title..



Yep, I know I'm due to get this post out. You've all been holding tightly to your computer chairs in anticipation of the latest from my world. If that's true, you don't have anything else going on in your town either. But that's what I'm here for, to bring you the random happenings and some thoughts from an average Joe. Let's get this thing started..

I found out the other day that I have an interesting job for a while. Until the first week of April or so, I'll be working with the gifted kids. Yep, the geniuses of my county, so it should be interesting. I'm used to working with the lowest of low levels, but for a few months, I'll have these little kids teaching me stuff probably. I don't have any kids on Friday, my classes don't start till 9:00, and they go home at 1:30. That sounds like a quality schedule. I'll update everyone on how it goes once I actually get started. Last week I did a day of 1st grade and was worn out by the time I got home. During one of their snack breaks, I bet half of them spilled their cups they were drinking out of, doh, all over the floor.



On Saturday (my birthday), we rolled 12 deep to Huntington (Me, Spank, Cork, Trev, Mule, Ozzie, Maulberry, Sweet Pea, Salentro, Mudcat, Darway, and Rob. We took 3 cars and got to watch some big time high school basketball. I know what you're thinking, I drove 3 hours to watch high school kids ball? Yep and it was very well worth it. The level of ball we saw was nothing like our area ever sees. These guys are crazy impressive, with half of their players on both teams already signed by D-I teams. It was a sellout and most came to see OJ Mayo (Huntington High), who some productions claim as the best baller in the nation. He had 28 so smooth that we barely noticed. He didn't have a great shooting night, but he's a god down there in that area. He missed the game before and didn't come out for the first part of warmups. The crowd was restless that they made the drive and wouldn't be able to see him play. About 2 minutes before warmups were over, he runs out of the locker room and the place erupts, chanting his name and basically bowing down to the kid. I sure don't remember 18 year olders looking like that when I was around. It was run and gun ball and none of the half court slow down ball we see with our whiteys in the area, so that made it great to watch. It seemed like Huntington didn't have a set offense outside of setting a few picks and let them create on their own, which is probably the best idea for that team. DeMatha had an organized plan and had this kid that is going to Georgetown who was lights out. Mayo's boys ended up with the solid victory featuring two of the nation's Top 5 teams. Patrick Patterson needs to get more credit for Huntington, he's going to be legit in the paint wherever he signs at.

Outside of the game, the road trip was a good time. I drove and probably scared the guys riding with me to death (Spank, Cork, Trev, and Mule). I don't drive fast or anything, but I'm awful with changing lanes, parking, and that kind of thing. Needless to say, I'm not a good driver, but at least I admit it. It's funny how I've driven the past few road trips with my bunch though. The drive down was spent listening to the WVU b-ball game, rap music, and tearing up a lot of candy. Driving in Huntington is a mess. We were probably in a 20-block radius of where we had to go and had zero clue with all of the one way streets and things of the like. We even asked for directions a few times and still mangled it. We also got a kick out of how just outside of Marshall's campus (where the game was at) a few blocks away was this dirty thug section. Filthy, but I guess every town has that. We rolled to Red Lobster before the game and waited an hour. That wasn't fun, but the food was good at least. The service was horrible. We got into this argument about how someone couldn't stick a glass into another glass (the glasses we drank out of at Red Lobster) and have someone stand on it without it breaking. I thought the pressure would give and it'd just demolish. They thought to put me on the glasses at first and stand on them since I'm little, but we wanted to know the full effect of our Myth Busters argument. Spank stands on the glasses and they didn't shatter with 240 pounds on top of them. Myth proven, I was wrong on that one. Yep, that's what we do in our spare time.



MLK Day! Hopefully most reading this get the day off on Monday to party it up. Even whiteys can celebrate this one, it's fun for the whole family. You just can't beat 3-day weekends. I always wondered, does anyone really plan anything for this day? Being that I'm in racist redneck land here, it's an honest question that I don't know the answer to. BET always puts on some good stuff that day, so I'll watch that madness. Plus, NBA games start in the afternoon that day, so I guess there is some excitement going down in my area. Maybe I can celebrate it by going to watch Stomp The Yard. I didn't think this movie would come to my area, but I am surprised. Cork is the only one I know of out of my crew who would be interested in this movie and we're trying to work out something.

Any Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Duel fans out there? Everyone knows how big of a CT fan I am and he's the entertainment for this season. The season is about over, but last night's episode he straight up had one of his classic roid rages of yelling and screaming. I'm telling ya, it's worth the watch. If you can't find the replay, check it out on Overdrive on MTV's website. I won't spoil who got booted this week though, but it's a good episode.

I loaded up some quality CDs since the last time we talked. Of course, most reading won't care, but this is my space, so I'm going to tell you what I ended up getting this time around.



Bow Wow: The Prince Of Fame. Hard to believe this guy is 19 already. He'll always be Lil Bow Wow to me, but I like his stuff for some reason. He's tried to get a lot harder as of late (no pun intended), but he's not gangsta. Just stick to the pimpin stuff and you'll be ok. Not a bad actor either. I haven't listened to this CD yet to give a good opinion.

Eminem Presents...: The Re-Up. This has been out for a month, but I'm just now picking this one up. It's basically a compilation that Em put together of his entire crew. Who all is on it? Just to name a few we get Em himself, Obie Trice, Akon, Bizarre, Proof (obviously before he died), Lloyd Banks, and Nate Dogg. Yep, I said Nate Dogg. And I've said a zillion times, if Nate Dogg is on the CD, any CD, it's worth owning.

Mos Def: True Magic. If this is anything like old Mos Def, it should be one of the better lyrical CDs out there. I'm excited to hear this one as Mos Def doesn't get his credit that he deserves. More people probably know him from movies rather than his rap game, which is somewhat sad that his music isn't bigger. Check it out.

Nas: Hip Hop Is Dead. One of rap's legendary figures, one of the greatest of all time. If you're a Nas fan, this one will surely deliver upon the high expectations that Nas always sets for himself. He pays tribute to rap's pioneers of old, goes at the younger generation of rappers who think they're all bad, and ties it in with some of the best lyrics out there. Snoop, Jay-Z (who would've ever thought these two would do a track together), Kelis, will.i.am, and The Game are all on this beast. It's very good.

Trick Daddy: Back By Thug Demand. Ok, so if you're not into the pimpin or lyrical rap, you must be into the dirty and mean thug rap. Trick Daddy hasn't changed his style. It's the same stuff of old he's used to and you can't go wrong with that. If you like hearing about thuggin' and what Trick thinks of everything, this is for you. I highly recommend this one. TDD is one of the funniest interludes I've heard in a while, that's Track #10 on this thing. Song wise that I'm big on, you get the single that is out with Chamillionaire, Bet That, and you better check out Born A Thug, which goes along with 2Pac's beat from Shorty Wanna Be A Thug, it's great.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: http://youtube.com/watch?v=U4du3EAZoT4 (Once again, I dig deep into Lobstah's video archive and this is yet another Kasher find, props to him on this one. Poker fans will enjoy it.)

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

3 Quick Thangs:

1. A quick plug from a buddy of mine in Turkey. Jammah (from old #basketball fame) has a new track up called All Comes Back. It features his partner RuffNick and they have a chick in this one named Sophie B. We were talking about how it sounds a little like older Do Or Die pimpin' rap or some Bone Thugs. They've been at it for a while and are talented. http:// www. soundclick.com/ruffnick_music.htm

2. It's birthdays you demand and that's what you shall receive. Saturday, January 13th we'll roll with. Elaine on Seinfeld (she'll never be Julia Louis-Dreyfus) turns 46 and is still smokin' hot to me. Actor Patrick Dempsey goes for 41. Actor Steve Zahn parties it up for his 40th. Skater Nancy Kerrigan ("WHYYYYY?"), Happy 38th. Charles In Charge and Baywatch chick Nicole Eggert, 35. Crackhead Bam Morris of Steelers fame in the early 90s goes for 35 as well. Actress Rose McGowan, she's 33, dang. Actor Orlando Bloom lands on the big 3-0. American Idol bum who ended up making millions, William Hung, he bangs to his 24th.

3. It doesn't get much better than a tub of white chocolate pretzels.

Abdullah Acrobat

It's time to welcome everyone to 2007 with our first post of the year. We're nearing a few months away from this place going strong for 3 years, not bad if I must say so myself. I got some different topics to hit this time of course, so I'll see if my jumping around style will get anyone's attention. Any resolutions for the new year? I didn't set any this year if you were wondering, I never set too many goals with that sort of thing. The question is, where do we begin our blog at this time around? I'll start it off with the annual #Balls Celebrity Deathpool 2007..



What is that you ask? For those who haven't heard me talk about this, it's a sick, yet addicting concept that I do with my boys. The creator of this madness is the creative Kasher. He gets props in the blog a good bit, so you all should know him by now, he's a quality dude. Anyways, the rules are simple. We each pick 10 people who we think has a chance of dying in the year. We turn our picks in before January of the new year. Yes, I told you that it's sick and twisted, but you're crazy if you don't think it's interesting. Now I have you wanting to play. In the past years, I've taken too many gambles of younger dudes or people that would be a shock for them to die. This year? I went a different route and went with 9 people who are 80 years or older. If you have a person on your list who dies, you take their age and subtract it from 100. That's how many points you get. This year, Kasher added a twist. You put a "lock" pick to which one you think is your best bet to die. If they go down, you get extra points. After studying it up and putting some research into this madness, here is who I have for 2007 if you want to keep track:

1. Jimmy Carter: Former US President (82)
2. Kirk Douglas: Actor (90)
3. Bob Feller: Baseballer (88)
4. Lady Bird Johnson: Widow of former US President Lyndon B. Johnson (94) [Walz's LOCCCKKKKKKKK!]
5. BB King: Blues artist (81)
6. Barbara Billingsley: Leave It To Beaver's Mom (84)
7. Charlton Heston: Actor (83)
8. Raven: Wrestler (44)
9. Zsa Zsa Gabor: Actress (87)
10. Nancy Reagan: Widow of former US President Ronald Reagan (85)



I like bouncing all over on days, so it's time to go to New Year's Eve. I didn't feel like doing much that night, but I got a call from my crew to battle in Monopoly and Wii, so of course I was in. We rolled to Alicia's new place in Bridgeport, it's a pimpin setup. The crew that night was me, Spank, Alicia, Posey, Scherri, Allison Toth, and her dude. I didn't do so hot in Monopoly, I've struggled the last few times I've played, but we got a long game in and that's all that matters to me is that I have fun. The first five I mentioned were part of that game and I finished 4th out of 5th. Posey was able to take down Spank, so props to him on that since Spank rarely gets beat in Monopoly. Then the rest of the night we got some Wii bowling in on a 50-inch TV similar to what Posey has, you can't go wrong with those. I joked that I was playing wingman that night since everyone else had a chick, so no midnight kiss for me, no biggie.

This Saturday is a big b-ball trip for the crew. I've probably wrote about it before, but maybe not. About 12 or so of us are rolling out of town and heading to Huntington to see the #3 high school basketball team in the nation against the #5. That is Huntington High against DeMatha Catholic from Maryland. The reason to go is to see OJ Mayo from Huntington High, the best b-ball player in the nation this season. Imagine that and playing in WV, you don't see that often. Road trips rock and I'm sure I'll have some nice stories from that day. It's also my birthday, so that goes hand in hand as a double dose of fun.



The locals will appreciate my anger on this next paragraph. On Friday, we were feeling a trip to Fairmont to Yann's world famous hot dogs. Ozzie and Posey were in for the festivites. We get down there around 2:00 and the place is closed, doh. The thing is, if he sells all of his dogs out early, he doesn't stock up and just goes with what he has and heads home. This is the hot dog nazi and you can't go in there with a specific order. You just basically tell him how many hot dogs you want. And one rule he has, you can't order ketchup on them. He'll literally flip out on ya and has all these classic old school signs up about how to order. The experience is great to see the old man do his thing. On top of that, the dogs rule and you can't beat it as ya wash it down with an orange pop. I'm always in for a Yann's trip.

Yet another quick Wii story. On that same night as Yann's (Friday), we head off to Posey's to do battle. It was me, Spank, Alicia, Posey, Scherri, and their little girl Kierstyn which I'm sure I mangled that spelling bad. I was high man of the night with a 213 in bowling, so I was proud of myself for that one. It's pretty wild how addicting this system is and I'm not just saying that since I'm a Nintendo homer. Speaking of that, I can't put Final Fantasy III down on my Nintendo DS. It's one awesome game. The good thing about the DS is that I can take it to work and play it on my breaks. Getting paid to play video games? Quality. Between Final Fantasy, Zelda, and Wii Sports, I don't have time to get in all of the game play I'm after, but I make the best of it.

Confused about the title of this week's blog? It came from a recommendation from The_Freak, the famed supporter of this very space. This is one of those quick survey deals where you put in your name and you get a result back. This is the Wrestling Name Generator: http://www.blogthings.com/wrestlernamegenerator. You know you're bored and want to do it. It only takes a few seconds.



We need to talk about the last two weeks of Real World. Only two small things to mention on the December 27th episode. First, we had Colie getting the dreaded mono. She's in the hospital bed crying for her mom. Come on now. Then for the second half of the episode, we have Brooke going all emotional and flipping out. It didn't take me long to be on her bad side. Going in, I was huge into her, now she's just a regular dirty. I don't like any of the chicks on this season. On January 3rd's episode, we had a special one hour deal. The first half is basically them learning about their job, which will be some kind of rock climbing/touring type thing. They also get not one, but two Jeep type things to drive around in. Then Jenn goes off on Alex for not giving her any respect and thinking she's just a filthy (she is) by pretty much laughing at how easy she is. At least Alex can make fun of the fact that he sleeps around. Jenn does it with everyone, then cries like a little girl when everyone calls her out on it. Get out of here. The second part of this week had the crew camping out for 5 days with no running water, TV, or anything like that. Brooke goes psycho and is bawling her eyes out (I've rambled on and on on this topic in here before, but are there no tough chicks out there anymore? The girls that post comments in here, I know they're not whining like babies, but most get all crazy dramatized.) since she isn't used to doing athletic stuff and is afraid of heights, etc. Next week Brooke gets in trouble for wearing her panties out to do her daily work by saying they look like little shorts. Then the boss man gets on her for taking a dump near the tent they stay in and wiping it there. It's funny though, but she went over the top and now is on our bad side.

Here's an interesting thing to me. I know Americans are fat and lazy bums for the most part with zero motivation. It's true, you know it. Not everyone, but when you take our entire population, that's pretty much what it boils down to. Anyways, I was subbing around today and was at a school that seems to get a lot of foreign exchange students. The Asian kids don't mess around. First off, they go 100 miles an hour no matter what they do. When the bell rings, they take care of business and get their books and are NEVER late for classes. This one chick had to throw a piece of paper away. She zooms to the garbage and runs back to her seat, it's great. No wonder most of them are in shape looking and we're sitting here with Big Macs oozing out of our veins. Also, a few were telling me how easy the education system is over here compared to back home for them. I can see that being true as well. This type of analysis, you just don't get in your average blog, admit it.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Maybe I'm weird, but this is worth spending 2 minutes and watching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVn0uxVUsNM

Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: http://www.myspace.com/astratt (The_Freak gets credit for finding this one, not too shabby at all.)



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Want to try some birthdays for Friday, January 5th? Actor Robert Duvall is 75. Former Steelers coach Chuck Noll is 74. Former NFL coach Sam Wyche goes for 61. Actress Diane Keaton, she turns 60. Marilyn Manson celebrates his 37th. NFL baller Warrick Dunn, have a good 31st. That's all we have. And mine is on Saturday. I gotta get a cheap plug in there.

2. NBA trip on January 24th to Cleveland thanks to my cousin Ozzie! I'm getting pumped up big for that.

3. Right now I'm tearing up some Triple Threat Bubble Tape that features 6 feet of strawberry, blueberry, and watermelon. Now if that's not good, I just don't know what is in your mind.