Lunatics, Dirty Thug Hoes, & Basketball: Niiiice!

Halloween is almost here for people that get pumped for that. Saturday I got into the spirit of things a little earlier than usual. Shawna and I had planned to hit up the Fright Farm in Pennsylvania. After not many of our crew was interested in going and with the weather being sort of rough, we passed on that option. Instead, we went south a bit instead of north, to Weston, West Virginia. Here, we hit up the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Yes, that's the correct naming of the place, which cracks me up everytime I hear it. Basically, it was a former crazy house and now it's revamped to where tours are given and Ghost Hunters filmed an episode there as well. They had a haunted house and we figured it'd be worthy since the building was old school and had that creepy look to it. We get there around 9:00 and the place is way packed. On top of that, I was freezing my nads off the entire time. We got to talk to some bums in the line and that kept us entertained, but the wait was 2 hours until we got in, no joke. Surprisingly, even though it was cold, we stayed patient and toughed it out. It was $15 a piece to get in for those wondering. They also had a flashlight tour that you can get during the daytime as well and supposedly that was worth it too, hard to tell.



Now it was time to enter the building. The detail they put into the haunted house and the actions the people did inside, I was pretty impressed with. One thing I was not impressed with though was how it wasn't even close to being scary inside. I'd be one to admit if I was a wuss inside, but everyone agreed that the scary factor was almost nonexistent. The little kids inside did the best job on what they were supposed to do, but I think we were laughing more than anything else. Thumbs down though to blinking lights in a way dark room, that was blinding me. It was interesting when we'd get lost and didn't know what halls to go down and then out of nowhere one of the characters inside would guide us. I actually liked the trip. The setup of the area and building was enough that I thought we got our money's worth, but if you are going purely on wanting to wizz yourself inside out of fear, it won't bring you to those levels, sorry. Wanting to know more? Click here: http://www.trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com.

You know I love random. This next topic is about as random as it gets. Since the inception of the Dirty Thug Ho section of here, it's been nothing but a hit with people who kill their time reading my writings. Thanks to The_Freak for being the mastermind behind that project. A little note if you were wondering, The_Freak wants it known that next month will mark the 2½ year point of the Dirty Thug Ho. I was checking my email the other day, and it may not even be legit, but seems to be. If one of my buddies is messing with me on it, they did a nice job of making me believe it's true. This was a comment I got on the September 1st blog and I found it in my email the other day. I'll post the email, one you'll like for sure. You've all wondered how the girls that get selected feel to be honored in the space. Some could be fired up, some might even think it's good times. This one, she's pumped, and that works for me:

So, I'm reading your blog and it is quite entertaining. I appreciate your "Dirty Thug Ho of the Week" title- http://www.myspace.com/goddessvaleria the last thing I won was a gift card from Linens n'Things for winning a company contest at my green collar job-just as good. Yay me!

I'm not the sushi fan that Shawna is, but I can eat it every so often for something different. The other day we hit up Shogun for some sushi and whatever else they throw at ya. For the first time ever, I dipped my taste buds into some cooked eel. Surprisingly, it wasn't horrible. I doubt I'd get it again, but I liked getting it just to say I tried it to make a story. I was asked what it tasted like and I had to think. My comment was that it tasted a bit like burnt trout. Yeah, that's a weird comparison, but that's just what came to my mind. I can now add that to cow brains, squirrel brains, and frog legs as weird creatures that I've eaten in the past. Who knows what will be next, stay tuned!

The next section, if you're not a basketball fan, you might not want to read. What? You're not a basketball fan? For shame, especially when it comes to the ultimate thing, NBA. Howevahhh, it's time to break down what went in action on Sunday. That would be the A#BA Fantasy NBA Draft. I ramble about it enough, but this is the #basketball mIRC chat crew that has been together for a good decade plus, some of us longer than that. Yes, we're ate up with fantasy sports and even if we're dorks for it, I'm proud to say I could be hooked on worse things. Sad to say that two thirds of my life I have been playing fantasy sports, since around the age of 10. Gotta start the kiddies early. We began the draft at 7:00 PM and it was led by Commissioner TyLaw, straight out of Canada. Who else do we have in the league? Not that you care, but they all deserved to be listed, so that's my reasoning. We have Kasher of blog fame, Neon, Chester Cheese, Wilbur, Vertigo, Cork, Chiphead, EJ, DerekHood, Don-G, Duce, Morello, TMac, Blahah, Walz, Big Play Ray, Trev, ManDingo (he's been all over the blogs lately, he's on a streak), TyLaw as mentioned, and myself. I'm big on the diversity of the league too. Not only do we get different ethnicities, but we have people spanning from all over. Just to touch on a few, Canada, West Virginia, Brazil, Arkansas, and even Maine are part of the mix.



We all keep 5 players. This is a 10-category head-to-head roto league, so it's very in depth. It's also about as competitive of a league as you'll ever find and no other league can touch our message board. 20 members of the league, that's hardcore. My 5 keepers are Dwyane Wade, Danny Granger (stud in the making), Andrew Bynum, Andre Iguodala, and Mike Conley. I had the #2 pick in Sunday's draft and went with my boy OJ Mayo, just like I have him in the EDDFL. To save you anymore anticipation, ladies and gentlemennnn, just as I intro into all of my fantasy teams, here is yourrrrrr 2008-2009 Memphis Sounds!

1. Dwyane Wade: Miami
2. Danny Granger: Indiana
3. Andrew Bynum: Los Angeles Lakers
4. Andre Iguodala: Philadelphia
5. Mike Conley: Memphis
6. OJ Mayo: Memphis
7. Marc Gasol: Memphis
8. Yi Jianlian: New Jersey
9. Eric Gordon: Los Angeles Clippers
10. Nick Batum: Portland
11. Roy Hibbert: Indiana
12. Charlie Bell: Milwaukee



I'm happy with my crew. I always say if you leave Draft Day unhappy, it's going to be a sad season. I'm a positive person, so I'm going in with some good expectations. My team is insanely young, as it always is. In fact, I'm older than every single person on my team. That shows how old I'm getting when 29 is considered a trusty veteran in the NBA, it's true. Then again, at that age, The Basketball Jesus himself, Larry Bird, might've been in his absolute prime. Maybe that's a warning to all of the Shinnston ballers this fall when we start up, hah. "I keed I keed!"

My days are so screwed up that I'm a week off. On the video game scene, and I'll bore you more when it comes time for it, October 11th doesn't mean Election Day to me. Sure, I'll be voting as I never ever miss a day at the polls, even for the tiny elections that are sometimes meaningless with nobody opposing. That day marks the day that Call of Duty: World At War comes out and I'm crazy excited for it. I have it paid for already and just counting the minutes until I start to get consumed with it. Between Call of Duty 5 and the NBA starting, this is an awesome time of the year for me. We're also closer to Christmas, feel the excitement! Anyways, for the past week or so, I had been thinking that COD comes out next Tuesday, but I end up proven wrong as that would be November 4th. You'd think I'd remember that, but it somewhat shattered my hopes, but I can make the wait. Also, I was dealt a crushing blow in that they won't have a midnight release at GameStop on Monday night. Instead, I'll have to wait till Tuesday between 11:00 or 12:00 in the morning to actually pick it up. Yep, I have it rough in my life let me tell ya, I'll see if I can survive.



Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: The_Freak gets credit for being the mastermind of this section as previously mentioned. When it comes to selecting the dirties, when I go to the readers, I think Arizona Jas wins that as she's been in this section a lot with easily the most recommendations. She's back with another, this one from "Hollyhood, California". I don't think this girl has a bit of hood in her body, but she apparently thinks so. http://www.myspace.com/andreagroener

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Blood! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fVDGu82FeQ



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Let's go with birthdays from Thursday, October 30th. 1988 Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, 75. Henry Winkler, The Fonz, 63. Boxer Larry Holmes, 59. Soccer guy Diego Maradona of Italy fame, 48. 1990 Heisman Trophy winner, Ty Detmer, he's now 41. Actress Nia Long, 38. Not bad, but nothing write home about either. It's just kind of there, it happens.

2. October 28th and we've gotten the first snowfall of the year in my area. As I type this, it was coming down fairly decent during the afternoon. A few inches a predicted over the next few days. That's nothing major, but still for October, I'm pumped to see snow in the air. I'm one of those weird ones who loves winter way more so than the heat. Bring on some big snow!

3. Today's weird fact? 2500 left-handed people die each year using products designed for right-handed people. Somehow that doesn't seem correct to me, but I'll take their word for it.

Blackwater Weekend, EDDFL, & S'mores!

What does this blog feature? I'll be able to ramble on a good bit here, for it was a huge weekend for my standards. Saturday was spent hitting up Blackwater Falls with Shawna and Sunday was one of my favorite days of the entire year with my boys, the EDDFL Draft. I'll get into more here in just a few if you're lost, so stick with me and don't give up. While you're buying the Halloween costumes for next week as you go either with the funny style or if it makes you feel better to be all slutty, have at it. I'll leave that choice for you, but until then, just grab the cup of hot chocolate and dive into some reading material to keep you busy for a few. That's about all I have to offer. And away we go..



October is about over and Saturday it was time for a trip to get out of town. You know I'm all about road trips. This one wasn't far away, but it was still far enough to get out of town that it felt like I was away. Confused yet? I went about 2 hours away to Blackwater Falls in Davis, West Virginia. I know West Virginia gets a bad rep for all of the stereotypes (some true), but as far as scenery goes, we have some high quality spots to check out. I figured it'd be much colder than it was that day. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't warm, but I liked how it was. Later in the night, it got to be pretty chilly in the mountains, but a trip I enjoyed. There was probably the most people I've ever seen up there. I assume people were like us and wanted to get there as the leaves were changing and all of that. Yes, we're going to state parks, we should be 65 years old by now it seems. The way I look at it, we could be going to a lot worse places. Also, it served a purpose to get some pics that everyone has been bugging us to get for a while now. I have more on the MySpace page for anyone bored to see, but a few will get thrown up here.

To go along with us feeling like we're 65 years old, we hit up a few shops along the way. I'm a sucker for buying homemade products from around the area. I like buying random things, especially on a little getaway. I ended up getting a bottle of wine from Lambert's for the parents, gotta hook them up. Lambert's is in the rough streets of Weston, West Virginia. At Hiawatha's in Elkins, I loaded up on a jar of homemade strawberry jam from Gap Mills and a WV History activity book to use at school with my kids since I have a class of that. Before going to Sirianni's (more on that in a second), we rolled into Nanny's, a small bakery/deli. If I see a deli, I'm in, you have to at least check one out. We walk in and smell fresh bread cooking, not a good idea since we're doing this before eating a big meal. There I get a thing of pepperoni rolls and a bag of fresh wheat hoagie buns. I'm not even going to explain either of those for anyone that doesn't know. And no, the "hoagies" in your area are not the same from the ones in our area, you have no idea, but I won't argue that.



Part of the trip was a stop to Sirianni's Cafe. This is a place I've written about before that I hit up a decent bit when we're up there for trout fishing season. If you're ever in that area, it's a spot you need to drop in on just to say you've been. It doesn't look like much, but has an old school traditional feel when you walk in that makes the atmosphere. I always say it's like getting my haircut. I don't pay for the haircut with my barber, I pay for the experience and wise words of wisdom that one can get. You never know what to expect. The only downfall to Sirianni's is that normally you have to wait. This time, we only had to wait about 20 minutes, so I'll take that. They tried to split groups up and sit us at a table with about 10 other people, but they didn't need to be all up in our business. I could've rambled on to these bums with no problem, but it wouldn't be the same, so we wanted a table just for us. Hey, I'm a hopeless romantic, deal with it. As far as the food goes, I loaded up on a dish called Sal's, which is a pasta dish with spinach, cheese, pinenuts, garlic, and tomatoes. I'm telling you, that thing rocked big time and it's one of my favorites on their list.

Sunday! Yes, the day that me and my boys have been waiting for. With NBA right around the corner, that means it's fantasy basketball time and we are consumed with that to which words can't even describe. I listed the guys in the league last week, but it can't hurt to recognize the E-Town Diaper Dandies Fantasy League (EDDFL) members for your enjoyment in the order we drafted: Spank, myself, Fortney, Riley, TJ, Cork, Posey, Mudcat, ManDingo, Sidell, Fleece, and Ozzie. The setting? That'd be the Fairmont Sports Garden, filled with machines for the gamblers to blow their money on as well as enough smoke to burn our eyes for days. Everyone knows my thoughts on smoke anyways, so I won't bore you to death with that. I still always love the Ozzie quote from an Atlanta road trip a few years back of how he wants to get someone's cigarette and burn it on their eyeballs. That's pretty brutal, although I do like the way Ozzie thinks, but the moral of this story? Put the smokes down or your eyeballs might get sizzled in fire. Anyways, enough of the educational advice, it's time to jump into the heart of what makes our year go by so smoothly, NBA!



The place we draft at is perfect for us. It's nothing fancy by any means. We have to bring our own food in and all of that, but it adds to the excitement. We do have a big TV that Fortney is a king of operating the remote on as we flipped between endless NFL games all afternoon. Also, since it's somewhat of a bar setup, the chick tells us that our pop (soda for you weirdos) is free. She didn't know what she was getting herself into is what Dingo was laughing about. We did tip her real good and some of the crew bought beer, so it wasn't a lost cause on the establishment, but we tore those pops up. As an added flavor, the hit of the day as far as food goes was thanks to Mom making sausage and peppers for the bunch. I credit Spank with that idea and convincing her to make it, which she didn't mind at all, gotta love her. On a sidenote, this is my 2nd favorite meal at home, next to manicotti. Then we had Posey doing his Lay's thing and dropping in some free stuff as well as Ozzie and Cork getting sugar cookies that got wiped out in no time.

If anyone is in our league to win money, that's just a bonus if you ask me. From October through April, we're all over it. The best thing I like about our crew is that even if you're getting mangled and in dead last, you're still keeping up with your team and turning in lineups at record paces. It's a huge hobby to me, so I like putting money into the league since I know the fun that returns from it can't be priced. We have a new addition to the league. Not a person, but this idea is in trophy form. We presented the trophy this year to TJ who won the league last year and has bragging rights till the end of time for being an EDDFL Champion. He gets to hold the trophy for a year and present this year's winner with the trophy. Just something extra to play for other than the usual cash they'll get. The draft board is a must for our league as well. I'll be getting this for a long time I hope and it's very handy in person. If you've never had a draft board for your live drafts, you seriously are missing out, it adds so much.



I could write and write about NBA stuff, but I'll try not to force a ton on you. You'll get enough through the year, but I might as well at least break down my team to open the season with. I had the #2 pick overall and went with The Black Mamba, Kobe Bryant. Also, for those who don't know how our league is setup, rookies are a big factor. We start 6 players per week at any position. One spot must be a rookie no matter what. Ladies and gentlemennnnn, here is yourrrr E-Town Junkies:

1. Kobe Bryant: Los Angeles Lakers
2. OJ Mayo (R): Memphis
3. Rudy Gay: Memphis
4. Zach Randolph: New York
5. Devin Harris: New Jersey
6. Andrew Bogut: Milwaukee
7. Ty Chander: New Orleans
8. Randy Foye: Minnesota
9. Joakim Noah: Chicago
10. Marreese Speights (R): Philadelphia
11. Marcus Camby: Los Angeles Clippers
12. Boris Diaw: Phoenix
13. Ramon Sessions: Milwaukee
14. DeShawn Stevenson: Washington
15. Antonio Daniels: Washington



I'm happy with my team. I always say if you leave a draft unhappy, that's bad news and can't ever end well. Being a Celtics guy, you'd think I'd hate Kobe, but he's actually one of my favorite players in the game. I'm sure this year will add to that, praying that he doesn't get hurt like a little girl. In Mayo, it's like we raised the guy, being in West Virginia. We've heard about this kid since his early middle school days and now he's on our fantasy rosters, that makes me feel old. For the #3 pick, I was debating between Rudy Gay and David West. West starts out the season with 5 straight weeks of 3 games and that's a tough hole, so I go with the Gay man in that situation, no homo. I joked that I wouldn't have any Bulls or Knicks and I end up with one on each team. Z-Bo Randolph is going to be a knucklehead for sure, but I'm hoping I can get some games out of him that'll be productive. Ok, I'll slow my roll and stop analyzing every player. As much as it hurts me to move away from this topic, I'll do it for the sake of the readers out there.

Sometimes I review brand new theater movies. Other times I switch the game on you. This time, I'm going to review one that isn't brand new, but it was new enough to me that I haven't seen it. What's that one? Shawna brought over The Heartbreak Kid the other day. No, for the wrestling fans, Shawn Michaels wasn't hanging in my room. That'd be a story in and of itself as I might have gotten some Sweet Chin Music down a flight of stairs. This one features Ben Stiller, Jerry Stiller (hilarious), Carlos Mencia, and Michelle Monaghan of the recently reviewed Eagle Eye just to name a few. It's a comedy/romance, so it's a good date movie. I won't get all sappy, but just giving a recommendation if you're into that. On the scale, we'll go with 6.5 out of 10. It's worth watching and is a fine movie. Nothing that is going to amaze you, but it's worth giving a few hours time to and I thought it was pretty funny. IMDB gave it a 5.9 for whatever that's worth to you readers.



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

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: I actually got a few user requests this week for videos. Corndog, your vid was decent, but didn't keep my attention the whole way as did Matty Cakes'. I feel fine in saying that because I know normally Corndog brings out the goodies as far as blog contributions, but no harm done. This week's winner instead comes to us from Matty Cakes. Even if you're not a sports fan, you probably know or recognize Chris Berman. I actually haven't seen this one before, but it's of Berman flipping out and going on a cussing tirade, good stuff:





3 Quick Thangs:

1. I'm going to try Wednesday, October 22nd for our birthdays to celebrate upon. Howard Stern's mother Ray, she's 81 if she's still living, which I assume she is. Bad News Brown, a wrestler who passed away in 2007, would have been 65. Actor Jeff Goldblum, 56. Ichiro of baseball fame, 35. Hockey player Miroslav Satan, 34, and only because he has a cool name. Zac Hanson of the dorky Hanson band kids, he's 23. Not much of a list there unfortunately, but I don't assign the birthdays. I only tell you what's up.

2. Here's another quick road rage pet peeve. I'm driving over to the Westside to get my workout in. Nothing out of the ordinary so far. I pull into a road and here comes this old woman out of an alley. I'm on the main street and have the right-away. She then just pulls out without even looking and acts like she owns the place. Now come on woman, get out of here. Pay attention at least. I know I'm not good at paying attention when I drive, but at least I'd own up to the mistake. She was just in her own little world, in a coma. I held it in though and didn't have to take a ball bat to her windshield or whatever those psycho people do, hah.

3. Right now as I type this section, I'm tearing into some ice cream. What is it exactly? I knew inquiring minds want to know, so I'll give in and tell you what to buy at the store the next time. That'd be Ben & Jerry's S'mores. It's similar to rocky road if you're into that. Yum yum yummy!

Saying No Homo Doesn't Make It Not Homo

We go to a user-title this week. If I'm stumped or want a different topic, I'll randomly ask people and there you have it. Onto the latest blog, a little over a week overdue..

If it's more movie reviews you ask for, that's what we'll give you. I have two to talk about this time around, both were theater movies. The first I went with Shawna to see and it was Eagle Eye. This one has Shia LaBeouf (I still crack up at that name), Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson (yummy), Billy Bob, and Michael Chiklis as the main members. Since I always comment on the chicks, Shawna says she needs to get some comments on the guy celebs out there. Since I'm being a nice guy this week, she wants to add that she's big on Shia for whatever that's worth to the readers out there. The_Freak, that'll give ya more fuel for the Miracle Whip nickname, but I get a kick out of it. Now time to rank this flick. I was disappointed with it in the sense that it was WAY over the top. I like my movies to be somewhat realistic. I didn't feel like I wasted my money, but it only deserves a 5.8 out of 10. Sunday night, I went along with Cork and his girl Kristin to see Body Of Lies. It features Leo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. I figured with those two together, it had to be good. I'll start off by saying it was better than Eagle Eye. It was 2 hours and 8 minutes, a bit long and it dragged on for a while. However, it was a good storyline and not a bad movie. I'll be generous and give this one a 7.0 out of 10. EJ in Cali and ManDingo want to weigh in on this movie too. EJ says, "Body of Lies was fucking terrible. There was an early screening of it last week on campus. Thank god i didnt pay for that shit." ManDingo says, "Also hated it. Unfortunately paid for the screening though." I'm digging that I'm getting back up to date on some movies, I was slacking there for a while. Sex Drive comes out this week (my kind of movie that is stupid, funny, and no plot), some buddies want to see Saw V (which I've never seen any of the previous reincarnations and am not a fan of scary movies, but I'll probably go to take one for the team), and next month has Transporter 3 which I'm way pumped up for.



Blog contributor and a buddy from way back in the old school #basketball days, Kasher is at it again. He's always bringing about the creativity on our message boards to keep things rockin'. Remember the Idol chick list he did over the summer? This time he's calling his latest creation the Hottest Babe Tournament. A pretty simple name, but in theory, it has the message board on fire. What he did was to have everyone on the board who was interested to list 5 famous chicks they thought was at the top of their lists. After the responses were sent, Kasher chopped that down to a 64-person tourney. I like these because there is always arguments. Also, dudes and chicks alike can have an opinion for this. Round One is already over and I'll quickly go through those. He broke it down between an actress region, models, singers, and an others category. Of course, a lot of these votes are going to get a heated debate and they have, which makes things fun, just like the Idol deal we did a while back. Kasher also seeded each chick according to popularity in his mind. Here we go with results as we speak and I'm going in no order here with the section of the bracket..



(1) Jessica Alba over (16) Catherine Zeta-Jones
(8) Scarlett Johansson over (9) Eva Mendes
(5) Elisha Cuthbert over (12) Charlize Theron
(4) Alyssa Milano over (13) Mischa Barton
(11) Hayden Panettiere over (6) Jennifer Love Hewitt
(3) Salma Hayek over (14) Shannon Elizabeth
(7) Angelina Jolie over (10) Halle Berry
(2) Megan Fox over(15) Brittany Snow
(16) Gina Gershon over (1) Gisele Bundchen
(8) Brooke Burke over (9) Molly Sims
(12) Alessandra Ambrosio over (5) Vida Guerra
(4) Tyra Banks TIE (13) Rebecca Romijn
(6) Marisa Miller over (11) Jaime Pressly
(3) Keeley Hazell over (14) Brittny Gastineau
(7) Lucy Pinder over (10) Izabel Goulart
(2) Adriana Lima over (15) Kelly Monaco
(16) Christina Aguilera over (1) Mariah Carey
(8) Shakira over (9) Christina Milian
(5) Kate Beckinsale over (12) Paulina Rubio
(13) Rosario Dawson over (4) Taylor Swift
(11) Rachel Bilson over (6) Jennifer Lopez
(3) Carrie Underwood over (14) Rihanna
(7) Beyonce Knowles over (10) Lindsay Lohan
(2) Katharine McPhee over (15) Ashanti
(1) Anna Kournikova over (16) Vanessa Hudgens
(9) Vanessa Minnillo over (8) Jillian Barberie
(5) Maria Menounos TIE (12) Carmen Electra
(4) Allison Stokke over (13) Danica Patrick
(6) Stacy Keibler over (11) Anna Benson
(3) Erin Andrews over (14) Kim Kardashian
(7) Jill Wagner over (10) Maria Sharapova
(2) Elin Nordegren-Woods over (5) Layla El



There you have it. That's where we stand at the moment. I'm sure it's probably sexist, but what else do us guys have to do online than argue on message boards about pointless things? If you'd like to see the comments in each section, you're able to do that through TMac Lobstah. Go to www.theballsempire.com and get a login name for the best board out there. Then, you'll see all of our topics and threads. Go to the bottom to "Girls, Girls, Girls", Blahah's section, and you'll see in there what's up. Feel free to comment and say what you want, anything goes. I figure I'll update you as things go. Admit it, you know you're definitely interested in what goes down, whether you agree with the votes so far or not, we have you hooked.

How about those Cougs? For the locals, you know my old high school's football team for the past say 10 years has been brutal at best. We've had 3 or 4 ok years in that time. That's probably giving more credit than is due, but I still have enjoyed going to most of the games this year because there's not much else to do on a Friday night. Besides, how bad can it be to watch football on a cool night, eat junk food, hang with my crew, and still have it be an affordable night? It's just a bonus that we get to hear Ozzie's great calls as he's the PA guy for the games. I'm serious on the great calls too, not just being funny in saying that. Our crew loves to hear whatever random thing he'll come out with next, it keeps us on our toes. The other night, he was giving us live baseball playoff scores and even recognized the opposing team's waterboys out of nowhere. If there's a birthday to be mentioned, he'll also take care of that. All for a $5 entrance fee. Last season, my boys didn't win a single game. This year, up until Friday, they were winless as well. I thought maybe they'd have a chance for a win this season, but that was a big maybe. I was proven wrong on Friday as it was a 17-16 thriller over Ritchie County (actually, it was an ugly game with tons of penalty flags, but oh well) as they got to party in the streets for Homecoming. The weird thing to me was the ending. I believe it was 4th and 10 on the Cougs' 28. Ritchie had the ball and were passing decent most of the game. You'd think on this level, you'd go for it since nobody around here can kick. But no, they set up for the 45-yard field goal, correct me if I'm wrong. We all thought this kicker had to be amazing. He goes for the kick and it barely goes into the end zone, terrible. Not for my boys though, they get the win and the fans were rockin', good to see.



Oh my! It's getting here. It's that time of year where I get so ate up with NBA that my eyes might pop out of my head. I'm always in NBA mode as most people know, but this time it gets to be the real deal Holyfield. Sunday, it was time for the EDDFL Draft Lottery. That means, on October 19th, we'll have the 2008-2009 EDDFL Draft! Fantasy basketball for those who don't know what I'm talking about. We hold our lottery a week before the draft so everyone knows what order they will be picking ahead of time. The next blog will feature the happenings of the draft, so I won't bore anyone with that yet, but it's easily one of my favorite days of the entire year. I will however, for no reason at all, give you the results of this year's lottery so you can begin to get a feel of what's about to go down. Through an intense process of drawing cards for each person, that determined what number we'll have next Sunday, plus you'll get to know who all is in the league this year. This is the exact twelve we had last year and we have a decent waiting list for this league too, hopefully I can keep it going as strong as ever:

1st Pick: Spank
2nd: Ed
3rd: Fortney
4th: Riley
5th: Cork
6th: TJ
7th: Posey
8th: Mudcat
9th: ManDingo
10th: Sidell
11th: Fleece
12th: Ozzie



You know how people say once you leave a little small town, you always return? I'm not sure if it's like that everywhere, but it's true for Shinnston in more cases than not. I'll give a good example of that in this paragraph. Cousin Jill, Blog's Dad of the Year Gayle, Big Ashton, and Max are about to make the return, this time coming to my neck of the woods on the Eastside. It could be a temporary move, but still it's always a good time to have family around. Some people want to be as far away from their family as possible, but I'm going the opposite route on that one, call me weird. That's what keeps us going, so if you see Jill and Gayle around town in the next week or so, you heard it here first. As usual though, you can leave this town for 10 years, come back, and it's still basically the same as when you left. It's just the little things such as the town's characters and the stories you hear that make it worthwhile.

Speaking of small little towns, I did that on Saturday. Me and Shawna hit up an 8 year old's birthday party/cookout. We figured we'd be there for an hour, be miserable, and roll out of there after eating. Surprisingly, we were there for about 4 hours. I'm not sure what got into us, but that shows how exciting we are I guess. That's not the real story, but the locals will pick up on this next thing. We went out to the mean streets of Doddridge County. Big Isaac territory, out past the Jarvisville exit. 12 miles off the exit on a narrow road. I wish people from the big cities could come to our towns and check out some interesting sights. I'm not sure I've ever been out there actually. I forgot to tell you I was out there ManDingo because I know you are familiar with that area. I liked it out there, some nice land and everything is wide open. Just a little piece of info for you to munch on.



Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: Arizona Jas is back in action with this one. Here is what she thinks: "Not the dirtiest I've seen, but she's definitely more ho-ish than your last pick. Forsure." http://www.myspace.com/jennifergagliardo

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: It's probably funny just to me as half of these usually are, but it's going in this week. We have a guy in an astronaut suit messing with some golfers. Pointless, but that's what we're putting in.

3 Quick Thangs:

1. Birthday time! We'll go with Wednesday, October 15th. We start out with actor Anthony Hopkins, 71. Actress Penny Marshall, 66. Former Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer, and one of The_Freak's favorite people, 63. Tito Jackson of Jackson 5 fame, 55. Tanya Roberts of Charlie's Angels and weird commercials, 53. That's not a bad list there. It's a short one, but I'll give it a 6.5 out of 10 for power.

2. A new video game is in my possession. What'd I go with? I didn't go with the usual next generation game. Instead, I picked up Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood for the Nintendo DS. It's a role playing Sonic game, so things are switched up a bit. So far, it's been fairly easy to get a grasp of and there's a lot to the game. The DS is one underrated system. I guess it's not underrated since the sales are still through the roof, but for people who haven't tried it yet, you're missing out. I'm still playing way too much Call of Duty 4 on XBox 360 though. On November 11th, Call of Duty 5 comes out! I'm off that day of work and may take the next day off just out of being ate up with COD.

3. The new fat boy charts are out. West Virginia is #2 on the list among the United States in obesity levels. For a while, we rocked it out as the #1 in that level along with #1 (that's not a good #1 to have by the way) in heart disease, teenage pregnancy, and tobacco use. I guess that doesn't surprise anyone, but some people just don't care either way I guess.

Febreeze: Roscoe Jenkins Style

We've made it to October for whatever that's worth to everyone out there. To me, that means one thing. Towards the end of the month, the NBA season opens! I won't bore everyone with that talk yet, but you'll get enough of it soon I'm sure as that's pretty much one of my main things I'm ate up with. I'll be sure to ramble on about my fantasy NBA drafts coming up this month, but we'll hold off on that for now as we have other business to take care of. It's back to some randomness as this time around on the post, we'll hit on topics that you might not expect, but you'll still get my opinion on.



I was driving to work the other day. Nothing out of the ordinary. I was driving half asleep as usual and listening to Howard Stern on Sirius, the normal routine for the quick drive. I'm glancing around and up drives this guy in the other lane. What's he doing? He's shaving while driving. Come on dude, you can't be in that big of a hurry that you have to shave in the car while you're driving. I'm sure a lot of people do it, but I just never understood that one I guess. Besides, if you're going for the babyface look, you can't possibly do that great of a job in the car as compared to home can you? Then again, I can barely get the driving part down right without screwing it up, let alone if I tried shaving in there too. That'd be something worth filming as I'm sure I'd make it a disaster.

Here's an annoying thing. As most know, I've been having a pretty good running schedule for a while. On most days, I run on my town's trail which is next to the scenic West Fork River. Actually, it's not too scenic as it's nothing but filth, but it's all we have, so scenic will have to work. The annoying thing is that you're running along and then out of nowhere, bugs will go in your mouth. With it being near the water, you have tons of little mosquitoes and stuff going around and when one of these bad boys hit ya while you're running, it's bad times. It screws the breathing all up and you just have to get through it. It's not a big deal, but you know it's not fun when it happens to ya.



I was at Wal-Mart the other night around 10:00 or so. I had less than 20 items in my cart, so I figured why not go to the express line. The logical thing, right? On a side note, who really follows that 20 item limit? Not many. That's not the point though. At this time, they only had a few lanes open to where you could check out. You'd think they would try to open a few other lanes to get the people through as it was fairly busy for this time of night, but nope. The line I was in moved really slow. I had an older Italian dude behind me that was close to 80 and I always get a kick out of striking up a random conversation with people I don't even know. You never know what kind of stories you'll end up receiving. He had one thing of frozen food in his hand and that's all he was going to buy. As the line wasn't moving much, the dude starts complaining that his frozen stuff is going to thaw out completely before he even gets the chance to pay for it. Of course I'm going to egg him on to keep complaining because he was cracking me up, thus making my longer wait seem shorter than it really was. The moral? A lot of people say not to talk to strangers, but give it a try, it'll make your day go that much better.

Speaking of that same Wal-Mart trip, here's one that had me all confused. On my list that night, I had to pick up some Febreeze. You can't go wrong with this stuff in most cases. People always says that Febreeze is a guy's version of cleaning up and I guess that's fairly true. I consider myself a pretty neat guy and I have my section of the house usually clean, but I need to dust more than I should and little things like that. Who doesn't? Well, I'm going around the aisles and in the candles section, then to the home section, and still can't find my Febreeze. The girls reading this know I wasn't even close to the Febreeze, but guys, isn't that where you'd normally look? I had enough and ended up asking some of the worker chicks where it was at. I'm never above asking questions to find something out. They tell me to go to the grocery section and gave me the aisle number. Grocery section?! Someone tell me the reasoning behind that. I guess it's strategy to get me to buy groceries when I don't need them, but put it in a better section than groceries. I can't be the only one whose life would be much easier if it was done this way.



I need to get out more, I know. I'm still and probably always will be, a little small town guy. I'm all up on new technology usually (outside of cell phones), but found a new one to me the other day. It's not a new concept, but just one I've never verged out to try. Me and Shawna have been renting a good bit of movies lately as I talk about some of those in here. We go to Blockbuster about 15-20 minutes away as our regular spot, which is sometimes out of the way if you want a quick trip. The other day we were at Shop N Save (our grocery store in the mean streets) and wanted to try the $1 movie rentals. It has the touch screen and all of that deal, you know how it goes. I didn't know that newer movies would be part of this though, so that had me surprised. Also, there's a ton of choices in these machines too. For just $1, you can get these for a night and return them the next day. I'm like a little kid and thought it was pretty neat how you order them and the movie pops out after processing. We rented Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins on Thursday night. This one features a huge cast of good characters: Martin, Mike Epps, Ced The Entertainer, Mo'Nique (who I usually can't stand, but was great in this movie), James Earl Jones, Michael Clarke Duncan, and others. I guess this means it's time for a movie review? If you haven't, go pick up this movie, it's hilarious. How can you go wrong with that cast together and it not be any good? Exactly. On a 10 laugh scale, I'm giving it a rank of 7.8. Ironically, on imdb.com, from 3457 votes as I type this, it only garnered a 3.8 out of 10. You kidding me on that? I'm not sure what those voters are smoking on, but it's nowhere near that 3.8. Take my rank on this instead, you'll appreciate it in the long run. For a funny movie, it might even make you shed a tear towards the end. I know you tough guys don't want to admit that, but call me crazy. To end, Nicole Ari Parker was looking awesome in this movie.

I'm almost always in a pretty pumped up mood. I always say take the positive approach because nobody wants to hear you whine like a little baby nonstop. Sure, it's ok every now and then, but you can't get used to being "that person". Talk about something else for once. You've all been around these types of people. It can happen at work, hanging with your crew, or anywhere basically. I also never understood people who let a bad day at work ruin their actual home life when they get home either. Are all of my days at work great? No, but in most cases, I come out in a real good mood regardless and never let things affect me. If I'm going to let some tiny thing bother me and make me cry to everyone, I'd be hating myself for having everyone listen to that garbage. I know there's a time and place to vent and I'm a very good listener, that's not what I'm arguing against. If you have to vent, go for it, but don't become that person who vents all the time and you never hear anything else from that person. But what do I know..



We're due for a new CD update. Basically now, they're used to add to the iPod if they're worthy as CDs are becoming extinct. I still keep them all and do the alphabetical listing and keep them in a specific order that I like. Weird, I know, but it works for my organized way I like to have things. Most of these I haven't had time to listen to yet as I just got them a few days ago, but I'll still give comments..

Daz: Only On The Left Side. This is Daz's 10th album, which I wouldn't have guessed. On this beast are Snoop, Swizz Beatz, Krayzie Bone, running mate Kurupt, Obie Trice, and Tyrese. We follow this one up with another West Coast CD..

The Game: LAX. This is one of the better albums I've heard in a long time. 50 Cent got fired up at this one and leaked the album a few months ago on a website. Why? Because he says every song on here features other people it seems. I'm not huge on that either, but The Game made it work here and then some. It has great replay value and I still like how The Game keeps the West Coast feel going on this album. Ones you need to check out? State of Emergency is a must own and it features Ice Cube. The first verse that Cube enters in puts some old school aggression to it, it's quality. My Life with Lil Wayne and Bulletproof Diaries with Raekwon The Chef are others to check out.

Kardinal Offishall: Not 4 Sale. Here's a Canadian rapper for you to check out if you don't already know the guy. This features some names as well. Who you ask? The Clipse (my favorite live rap performance I've seen thus far), The Dream, Akon, Rihanna, and T-Pain. He brings about a rap and R&B mix that works real well. You've probably heard Dangerous with Akon and didn't know it was Kardinal.

Donnie Klang: Just A Rolling Stone. If anyone watched MTV's Making The Band 4, you'll know Donnie. He's the whitey that could fit into a boy band. To get a feel of pimpin R&B, I got this one just because it can't be half bad I wouldn't think. No reviews on it yet.



Terrence Howard: Shine Through It. I saw this one on the latest releases list. I didn't have an idea Howard was putting an album out, so I was intrigued. Based on his performance in Hustle & Flow (one amazing movie by the way), I had to at least add this to the collection. Just for his songs It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp and Whoop That Trick, we'll see what he has to offer in this CD.

Young Jeezy: The Recession. This is Jeezy's 3rd album of his career. Downloads you need from this? What You Want, Word Play, Put On, and Crazy World. I'd gamble that Put On had to be one of the most played songs all summer on Sirius. Me and Spank would joke on how many times a day we'd hear it in the car. Either way, Jeezy I'm a fan of and think he can deliver. Go pick this thing up.

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

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: This is sent in to us by none other than The_Freak. It comes from his territory and it cracked me up at least. I like how people on the comments are taking it all serious and the dude is just being a big goofball.





3 Quick Thangs:

1. Birthdays for Monday, October 6th. He's not "famous" so to speak, but I always liked his name growing up and thought it was something when I'd get his baseball cards. That's Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, he's 49 on this day. For any bowling fans, 2-time bowler of the year, Walter Ray Williams Jr., also 49. Another former baseballer, Ruben Sierra, 43. I would've guessed a lot older. Basketball chick who looks like a horse, Rebecca Lobo, 35. This list has to be among one of the worst days ever as far as celebs go. Are any of these names even showing up on the radar? I don't think so, but every now and then I like showing how bad of a list we have. If ya don't believe me, check it out for yourself: http://www.brainyhistory.com/daysbirth/birth_october_6.html

2. I was driving home on Saturday night after getting a half pound double cheeseburger (best burgers by far) and fries from DQ. Yep, fat boy food. I see this kid that I'm guessing was about 18 or so. He was walking and must've thought he was some tough guy. He was tatted up and was doing this gangsta walk. I was cracking up at it and then while he was doing this walk, he steps into this hole in the ground and about drops himself. A few cars were ahead of me and he's looking around like nobody saw him, but he knew that slowed down his tough guy image. It's times like this that I wish I had video of certain things.

3. Today's fact to give you more knowledge? The average person supposedly falls asleep in 7 minutes.