Mannyburgh, BROSKI RETURNS, & Favre's Wranglers

We're road tripping it for this blog and another one is scheduled in a few weeks, so I should have some good material to ramble about. This past weekend's action took us to Pittsburgh for our final baseball game of the year at beautiful PNC Park. We had been wanting to go to this game for quite a while and got it organized. One part is that a few weeks ago we had a bunch of guys that gave us the good ol' maybe answer. That's fine and all, but around Shinnston, we all know that after this long that "maybe" means that they aren't going at all. Either way, Spank and myself were going to trek it regardless.



What was the reason we wanted to go? One reason and one reason alone. That was to see Manny Ramirez come to town and turn things into Mannyburgh for the 3-day weekend series. The original plan was to get leftfield seats and get a group of 10 of us. We would be on the homer wall right behind Manny with fake dreadlocks and shirts that said Mannyburgh. That would've put us on TV for sure, just something stupid that we had in mind. Yes, I'll never grow up, you don't have to tell me that. Before we get to the game though, I'll set a couple of other things up.

Pittsburgh never draws a crowd, but for some reason, most of the seats online were already gone. On Saturday, they not only had the Dodgers in town, but also a Foreigner concert afterwards, followed by fireworks. Then we went to Spank's ticket hookup and we may go this route everytime from now on out. On our way to the game, we called up a ticket guy that gave us his business card. He said he had 150 tickets (!!) and we could pick wherever we wanted to sit. That sounded too good to be true, but what did we have to lose going up with no tickets anyways? We get in town and meet up with this scalper. This guy is legit and straight hooked us up. We sat 7 rows off the field, right on top of the Pirates dugout. The best part? We paid LESS than ticket value to sit here. Who does that when scalping tickets? Normally you're paying a lot more. These have to be up there with some of the best seats I've had at PNC Park, if not the best. The atmosphere I still like in leftfield better, but for the price we got these rich boy seats at, we couldn't pass it up.



We sit down and have a good enough crew around us that we can joke with. The people in front of us actually knew Shinnston when we said it, that gave them instant cred in our books. They were Wheeling guys. My favorites that we sat beside were this couple from Philly who brought up Steve Slaton since we're from West Virginia. We told them we're Notre Dame fans, but watched enough Slaton over the years when he was here. They said he went to their high school and started telling us some stories, nothing bad for those wondering. This same couple tried to move down early in the game to the front row seats. One of the ushers moved them back so our section just started messing with them the rest of the night. All in fun though, we had laughs all night. When you can joke around with people you don't even know, they take it lightly and feed in on it, that just adds to the excitement. It's the randoms that get all cranky and don't want to take any part in it.

Not only Manny, but my favorite baseball player of all time was in the house. Actually, this was my first time in person of seeing him, believe it or not. That had me stoked big time. Who is that you ask? Don Mattingly of course, Donnie Baseball himself! Mattingly is the hitting coach for the Dodgers and has done an awesome job since taking that role a few years back. While playing, a true professional. One of the best contact hitters around who rarely whiffed, popped some power when needed, and I'll still argue him as the best fielding first baseman of all time. Oh yeah, the 1985 AL MVP too. He played the game the right way, but unfortunately the Yankees weren't any good during most of his tenure. Once his back went out on him (a la Larry Bird), it was all but over for him. I still have most of Mattingly's baseball cards ever produced for whatever that's worth, quite the collection. Enough on that, but I had to get my Mattingly fandom out there.



The Bucs lose again, imagine that. It looks like they'll just miss out on losing 100 games on the season by the skin of their teeth. One thing that surprised me a bit was that a lot of fans were booing Manny. You had the roid and HGH chats and all of that. That's fine and all if he was the only one out there on the field juiced up, but we know that's nowhere near the truth. The game ended around 10:15 or so and then the setup was for Foreigner to jam afterwards on the field. For a rap guy, I don't mind Foreigner at all. In person, these guys brought it, I won't lie. They put on an awesome live show and have crazy energy. They played for about an hour and the crowd seemed to like what they saw. As an added note, Spank may be the best I've seen at karaoke type stuff and him and some of our section would go back and forth with lyrics. I don't think our section stopped laughing. We had a thing going with the section beside us to where our bunch would do something, point over and they'd do their thing back. It's cheesy, but it worked that night and Section 23 (ironic since that is Mattingly's number) was rocking. I don't classify this as a "concert" since it wasn't separate and no other acts were there. Does this mean that the only true concerts I've ever seen are still rap ones? Who knows how to answer that. The fireworks afterwards rank up with some of the best I've seen. By the time we got out of the stadium, it was almost midnight.

A little side note before I get out of the stadium though. I didn't get up once during the game to get food, ended up getting a thing or two just by staying in the section. Anyways, I didn't miss a single pitch because I loved the seats we were in. That might be the first time ever at a Bucs game that I didn't get out of my seat, even for a bathroom break. With that, I stayed there through the concert and fireworks as well. I then had to get to the bathroom before we left and of course the place was packed and there were lines upon lines for each urinal. Not a topic you want to hear I'm sure, but I bring it from all angles to keep you thinking what might be next. I might've set a record for how long it took me as even the guys in there were saying stuff and wondering if I'd finish. Then I said that I didn't miss a single pitch and they knew what was up, so they gave me the credit for holding it in so that I wouldn't miss any game action. If I didn't set a record for that, we may have for getting out of the stadium. Spank and I are alike in that we aren't that patient around slow people, especially big crowds trying to get out of a stadium. Some people are content with walking half a step and then running into others. This holds everyone up. What do we normally do? We just take off, slip in and out of holes and by the time you're out, you save a few minutes at least. Spank, nice way to be my fullback on the way out. I can't stay still, I always have to be bouncing off the walls with energy, so slow people who just take things for granted, that doesn't mix well with me. Get moving you bums.



The game was at 7:05. We were in Pittsburgh by 3:00 or so. We hate pushing time for anything, so we always like to leave way early for road trips. It's no fun to us to just show up at a game right as the pitch starts and then go home. You have to make a day out of it, give yourself some time to kill to do whatever. Since we got there so early, we parked on the side opposite the river and didn't ride the boat over. We found a parking garage for only $5, not bad for what you can end up paying to park. It turned out that the $5 deal wasn't that great. We had a nice spot and then at the end of the game, madness. We were stuck in the wrong side of the garage and had about 3 other sections coming out before us who had the right of way. The people in our line were fired up because we were waiting longer than anyone in the place. That's where Spank came to the rescue with his creative idea. What's he do? He gets out of the car in the garage for our section and then stands in front of another row of cars coming through. Bingo, that's our ticket to finally get our row moving and out of the lot. I never really thought of that, but it's not like someone is actually going to run you over in most cases. They can get mad all they want, but if nobody is letting you out, you have to go to Plan B. Be a little courteous people, it's not hard to let people out in traffic every now and then. In the end, it worked out for everyone and our row was thankful to Spank for getting us out, nice.

By the time we got out of the lot, it was already 1:00 in the morning. We had a few hours drive till we got home, but we had to get Waffle House in. You knew that was going to be part of this trip, you've read enough of my Pittsburgh road trips by now to figure that out. We hit up a different one than normal, this one was at the racetrack exit and it was booming. The others we normally hit up rarely has people. When I get there, this lady about 80 years old comes up to me and just starts talking. I don't know if it's our redneck accents that made her comfortable, but she asked about the Pirates game since she grew up around there. Then she says she is from Arizona and started giving her opinions on the Diamondbacks this season and we got a little baseball chatter in. The moral as usual, you gotta respect the elders. You'll always get some good stories out of just talking to randoms. I got a ham and cheese omelette, bacon that was out of this world, toast, and sweet tea. We put down the sweet tea like no other. We even got some to go with us for the ride home, it's that good.



I have to get at least one non road trip story in, right? This Wednesday night, it's on! I've been hyping up this season's Ultimate Figher show (Spike TV, 10:00 PM EST) up for a few weeks. If you haven't seen yet, this week is the biggie. It's going to set an Ultimate Fighter TV ratings record and it has internet sensation Kimbo Slice taking on Roy "Big Country" Nelson. I predicted Nelson to win this show and I'm sticking to that. Yes, you heard it here first. Looking at Nelson, he doesn't look like much at all, I know. He is for real though as he has a quality track record over the years. He trains out of Ken Shamrock's famed Lion's Den, is a former IFL Heavyweight Champion, and a blackbelt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Renzo Gracie. Keep the spoilers to yourself on this one, but I'm saying Nelson gets this win. Now watch him get his block knocked off in the first 10 seconds. Either way, this season has been nothing short of awesome already due to the Rampage and Kimbo factor. The downfall is that Rampage now wants to "retire" and won't be fighting Evans. What a circus this is, that's why we watch.

Bird's Dirty of the Week: Reader submission time and we have some action here. Corndog gets all credit for this find. We go to a 23 year old chick Easton, Pennsylvania for this one. I'm just going to let the folders speak for themselves on this one. We get webcam pics, cartoon pics, tats, pics with her and one of her girls practically getting it on, and a folder that is titled "DIS UGLY BITCH THINK SHE LOOK BETTA THAN ME. LOL" And you think I'm making this stuff up, I couldn't if I tried. Check it out at: http://www.myspace.com/applebottom18042

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: I had another video ready to go, but we'll have to put that on hold for another time. This one when I heard news, I couldn't hold off any longer. Thanks to ManDingo, and no clue how I missed this, but we have a part two up now to my favorite YouTube vid of all time. That's right, My New Haircut 2 is out for all to see! If you're like me and loved the first edition, this one delivers as well in my opinion. The actual vid for this one doesn't start till around the 1:20 mark if you wanted to get in. My buddies and I quote the old one nonstop, so I'm sure we'll be quoting this one just as much. There's a ton of great quotes in this one. If you didn't like the first video of this to get you laughing, you have no sense of humor. Also, a word of advice, don't crank your speakers if you're at work and watching this one. Return of the Broski!



3 Quick Thangs:

1. I'm not a regular Starbucks visitor, but do have a favorite when I go. I've written about this before, but I must like the flavor enough that we'll revisit it. The cold mixes most people like I'm not much of a fan of. However, when it comes to hot stuff, you can't go wrong with some Caramel Apple Spice, that's my current favorite. Also, did you ever sit around there and check out the scenery? It's funny to me to see some people come in all stuck up with their noses in the air. Come on, you're not royalty because you're in Starbucks. You're getting a coffee, great. It doesn't mean you're high class.

2. I don't know much on cars, but I do know that I'm never wanting one of these tiny boxy toy cars. Take for example the Tata Nano. You may have heard about it, you may have not. It's one of those cars that isn't available in the United States. It only costs around $2500, but if you get in a wreck with this thing, there won't be anything left of you. These little dorky cars may look neat to some, but I'll take my chances in something a little bigger. Call me crazy.

3. We've all heard enough of Brett Favre's name over the summer to make us sick, but you have to give the old guy credit for what he did on Sunday. Two seconds left and he finds a hole that I have no clue how he threw it between and Greg Lewis had a centimer to get his foot in bounds and was able to do it with an amazing catch. I know it gets overused, but that was gunslinger type Favre there. It reminded me of his Wrangler commercials, just chucking it up for the win. Talk to you all next week.

Mall Hair Chicks, Mr. Chi City, & Paper Toss

How's it going? This should be one of those weeks where there is really no major stories to talk about, we just go with the flow. I'm good at going by the seat of my pants and we'll see where that takes us. Between IM messages, emails, and whatever else forms of media, I got quite a few comments on the last blog. I never am sure if some weeks if I throw too much sports in there for the liking, but last week it worked. We even had a lot of chicks write in last week on their football thoughts, that's not bad at all, definite bonus points on my end. Also, Habenero Kid seemed to be a hit with the video we put up, he's the area's next YouTube sensation.



Here's a random observation I recently noticed. Maybe not just recently since it's been out there for a while, but I'll bring it up. I think it's the same everywhere, but have you checked out the hair cutting places in a mall lately? I'm sure these people do a fine job, I'm not debating that part, but some of the characters that cut hair there are characters to say the least. It reminds me of a time machine going back to the 80s when you step into one of these places with some of these hair styles the women support. And these are the ones that are offering advice on the latest styles? They know more than me and are good at what they do, but a first impression can be deceiving. I'm definitely out of touch with girl hair styles of course, but what gives? I guess some of that stuff is still in. Maybe I'm too picky on a girl's hair, and I'm not trying to bash these girls, but how come you rarely see a normal hair style at these businesses? Just something to ponder on.

This happened last week as well and has been talked about. I'll bring it up though and that's Patrick Swayze's death. Corndog had a great quote not long after it happened: "Something I didnt know.....just about every girl on my MySpace or Facebook must have known Patrick Swayze personally." He might have a point there. Swayze was in bad shape the past year or so and was just hanging on. Every girl loves Dirty Dancing and most guys are big on Road House for Swayze's best. Road House probably didn't cost much to make, but that's a good movie and you can't go wrong with some bar fighting scenes. As an added bonus, wrestling legend Terry Funk was also in that movie. In our demented ways, 6 of the 8 people in our Celebrity Deathpool had Swayze this year, giving out 43 points due to him being 57 years old. That's my first on the board this year. ManDingo is leading with 93 as he's had both Swayze and pulled out the shocker with Michael Jackson. Corndog is second with 51 as he had Swayze of course and Walter Cronkite to go with it.



I'm not afraid to say it. I'm a terrible carpenter and want no part of that type of work. Even simple things like putting things together I'll find ways to royally screw it up. I don't have much common sense to begin with, but let's take Monday night for example. I was putting together a new bookshelf I planned to rock out in a matter of a few hours. First off, the directions it came with were some of the worst I've seen in my life. You need a PhD to figure out how to handle this thing and even then, I'm not sure you could do it. I'm not a complete idiot, despite what some may think, but this thing was brutal and ruined my night. As most know me, I'm calm 99% of the time, but during this fiasco, it made you want to bash holes into the walls and cuss like a madman. It happens to the best of us. After the thing wouldn't work, even after calling their hotline quite a few times, I figured I would donate it to the local dump. That's where it's going anyways. This week's finger of shame goes to the fine folks of Ameriwood, they're worthless piles of garbage if you ever order off of them. The only thing I got out of trying to construct this piece of junk was a mangled back. Maybe that's an excuse to schedule a trip for a massage. Unless any chicks out there want to give me one for free, I won't turn that down, so step on up. You have nothing to lose.

With writing things a week at a time, some will get lost in the shuffle and not be as current. So be it, that's how it goes. One thing that ended last week was Big Brother 11. As you all know, I was instantly hooked when I gave it a try this summer. For some reason, I never had seen any of the past seasons and I somewhat regret that. Now I'm locked in and ready for next summer's action. Why can't this be on more than once a year? You know it'd draw big ratings. Jordan ended up getting the win, which I was cool with, she didn't bother anyone and looked good while doing it. Jeff, you gotta go for that kiss at the end of the show though, that was an epic fail. You talked about it and then didn't come through? Then you joked that Jordan is on the short list for your Hawaii trip? You can't lead her on a string like that, get with it dude. I did like seeing the rest of the house who got booted come back and voice their opinions. I think I could've watched that part for hours and not have been bored.



Speaking of TV, on Wednesday I gave another a try. I'll admit, I watched the first episode of Glee on FOX. I don't care for the singing and dancing part of things, but the actual storyline and drama seemed fairly good on the first attempt. The stuff with the black chick and gay dude was cracking me up. Why is it though in these shows do they just have the token black person and gay person? Can there never be more than one? That's always seemed weird and unfair to me, but you see that far too often. And another storyline we have is of the main chick on the show, going after the quarterback. That chick would be Lea Michele and she's of high quality. If she's not on your radar by now, make sure you look her up, she's that good. Or so I think, but what do I know? She comes at us with a mix of an Italian and Spanish background. With that combo, her temper might have her busting bottles over your head or slicing your tires if you ever stare at her the wrong way, but she does look good, so I'll give credit where it's due.

I recently went about two weeks without having my Sirius in my ride. You don't appreciate things you have until they're gone. People don't just say that to say it. It's not a life or death situation being without it, but I'm ate up with my satellite radio in the car, it's that good. I've written about it a bunch in the past and rightfully so. The local radio stations are a joke around here, at least for someone like myself who is after some quality rap or sports radio. I had to get my car rewired thanks to the great people of Circuit City who have zero clue on how to do that type of work. Maybe that's why they went bankrupt because they're about as good at car stereo installations as I am with putting together bookshelves. I knew better than to deal with those guys at the time, although it worked fairly well until just recently. The guys who ended up having to fix it said Circuit City had things in a big bird's next and now have things rock solid. Now Sirius is back in the ride and life is good. Life is always good for me, but it can't ever hurt to make it even better, that's the way I look at things. You've heard me say it a zillion times, gotta stay positive. Negative people, ugh.



It's time for a flag football plug. Two weeks are in the books and it's been nothing short of a blast. We have the website rockin' like no other though in part to Commish Bart who has things held on lock. Check out the website for the Shinnston Flag Football League, you won't be disappointed: http://sites.google.com/site/shinnstonflagfootballleague. I have a little column I write up after the games each week titled 3 And Out if you're wanting something else to read. Bart's SFL Illustrated posts are a must read too, it's my favorite thing on the site along with the SFL Live updates that break on ESPNEWS. Also, we've started up a message board for the league as well, but not sure how quick that will get off the ground. If you're wanting to visit that, feel free. That address: http://shinnstonflagleague.proboards.com/index.cgi.

A quick CD review..

Joe Budden: Padded Room. Joe leaves Def Jam and goes the independent route with this. This was from earlier in the year, but I haven't had a chance to get it till now. The past few things Joey Buddens has done, I would give a thumbs down to outside of his first release. He was verging too far into the cheesy mainstream type of music. Now in this one? He's back with a vengeance and I'm back on board. One getting a lot of talk over the year is his diss track to Prodigy, Blood On The Wall with borrowing some Life Goes On from 2Pac. Other recommendations are The Future featuring The Game, Now I Lay, and In My Sleep. Another good CD to get here. Hopefully this streak for me continues as I haven't got a bad one in quite a while. Since this CD, he's now in a Slaughterhouse, a powered up group consisting of Royce Da 5'9", Crooked I, and Joell Ortiz.



Bird's Dirty of the Week: We hit up Los Angeles for this week's version. 26 years old, 5'1" and has a lot of pics. We get the traditional Halloween outfit pics that every girl seems to have, party pics, and whatever else you might need. There aren't any funny quotes to laugh at or too much to pick on her about though. The pics should do justice, she seems worthy enough to use this time around. Here we go: http://www.myspace.com/shawnessie

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Corndog introduced me to Mr. Chi City and now I'm a big fan. This guy has some great vids out there, but so far this one is my favorite. He lucks into getting floor seats for a Celtics/Bulls game. The stuff he's telling everyone as he's walking around is great. It could be just me, who knows, but this was 9 minutes of me laughing nonstop and it was worth it. It gets better as it goes, one of those.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. I'm totally addicted to the Paper Toss app on the iPhone. It might not look like anything special, but it's a great time killer. You can pick it up and play anytime for a few minutes if needed. I'm dominating that thing. Hit me up with any apps you like and we'll share some ideas. I have too many already, but I guess that's what it's for.

2. Anyone know Moran Atias? Maybe you do, maybe not. If not, she's in the latest issue of Men's Fitness with Floyd "Money" Mayweather on the cover. Just like we did with the Glee chick, we like to represent all ethnicities in here. This chick is an Israeli model/actress and gets the blog's two thumbs up and then some.

3. A few animal facts to end up on.. Armadillos, opossums and sloths spend up to 80 percent of their lives sleeping.. The Basenji is the only dog which does not bark. I've never even heard of such a thing.. Beavers can hold their breathe for 45 minutes under water.

The Green Machine

We're back in action and it's the middle of September. What do we have in store for this week? We'll go over a bit from the MTV Video Music Awards, touch a bit on Kanye and Taylor Swift's involvement, Real World, flag football season begins, more fantasy football, Raekwon, habaneros, the drive-thru at Dairy Queen, and of course some other things. We're here to deliver the goodies. As usual, let me know if you have ideas to throw in here. Why not get the people involved? I do that a few times in this blog, so stay tuned for those shoutouts. Anyways, here we go..



Anyone catch the MTV Video Music Awards over the weekend? It was an interesting show to say the least, but I enjoyed it. One of these days I'll be too old to watch this stuff and Real World, but hopefully that's no time soon. During the show, I was online for most of it and would fire off random thoughts to Chrissy in Webster County and Jodine. I do that a lot with Real World too, it's better to joke around with someone else that is watching so you can laugh at some bums. Lady GaGa, what was that mess?!? Wow. If she (he?) wanted a reaction, I guess that's what they got. Fortunately, I didn't have any nightmares that night, but I'm sure she can give them. Everyone I was talking to about it had the same opinion. I'm sure she has her fans, but eh. Hearing Dad's opinions on her was classic. And Russell Brand as the host? This guy is really relevant? Seriously? He wasn't funny one bit to me, this guy got a huge thumbs down. The talk of course is about the Kanye West/Taylor Swift (more on her in a bit) saga that I'm sure everyone has seen by now, whether you watched the show or not. Beyonce gets a lot of respect for bringing Taylor back out later in the show to give her the glory that Kanye took away. Kanye is a punk, but at times he cracks me up, I'm not sure what it is. Also, I thought Jay-Z and Alicia Keys doing Empire State of Mind that I've talked about before, they rocked that out. The entrance of Jay showed a huge ego, but at the moment, he's running New York, so he can do whatever he pleases. I'm not much of a Pink fan, but I gave her props for the acrobatic stuff she did, that was pretty sick. Also, we need more Tracy Morgan. You can't ever have too much of him for some comedy. New Moon trailer on the show too, not bad at all. November 20th. The Michael Jackson tribute? That was a great job in my mind, especially when they had Janet come out. 43 years old and still gets it in done in a major way in my book.

Here's one I must be on the opposite of most. What would that be? Taylor Swift. I don't know a whole lot about her music, but you see her everywhere, so at least I know about the chick. No, I'm not going to rank her music and talk about that since I have very little experience on it anyways. I didn't care for what Kanye did to her at the VMAs, but that doesn't quite deal with this. I'm going to bring up her hotness level. Some people go crazy for this chick like she's the most beautiful thing ever. Let me wipe the crust out of my eyes and take another look. Nope. I must be missing out. Is it because she's a celebrity that people up her to another level as far as what she looks like? I personally don't see it, just throwing an opinion out there. She looks like a little kid to me and doesn't do a whole lot on my end. Kristen wrote me the other day about this same topic. Since girls are always so evil to each other, you can always count on honest opinions when asking a girl her opinion on another girl. That's always guaranteed to get a good result. Kristen apparently isn't a big fan of Swift either, here we go with her thoughts:

Me: Ok..
Me: Guess it's just me..
Me: Taylor Swift..
Me: Not crazy hot.
Kristen: she's ugly
Me: She looks 12.
Kristen: like 15 yrs old
Bird33: Hah, good timing there.
Kristen: what's the big deal?
Kristen: her face is all scrunched up
Kristen: but not hot asian scrunched up
Kristen: but like run over by a mack truck scrunched up
Me: Hah!
Kristen: <---probably shouldnt be so judgmental
Me: That's good stuff right there.
Kristen: "that's some funny shit right there"..

Wednesday night was the finale of Real World: Cancun. To me, this was one of the better Real World seasons in a long time. The past few have been not been up to par in my mind, but this one delivered in a major way. You had some crazy drama throughout and tons of little storylines that you wanted to stay on top of. The ending was great I thought, just an hour of craziness. Joey and Ayiiia hooking up after hating each other? Good stuff. This season had it all though. A few things I'm talking about are threesomes, lesbian hookups, Bronne getting kicked out of the house, Joey getting kicked out of the house, Ayiiia being all bi-polar, cheaters, and much more I could talk about. This makes me even more pumped up to see the next season they have to show us. 22 seasons in and I've been there since the beginning. Outside of just a couple seasons randomly in the middle, I've seen them all. To me, and a lot of people hated them, Joey and Bronne made this season, they cracked me up every single time. Tomorrow night is the season finale of Big Brother 11 as well, time to get pumped up. 9:00 PM EST for 2 hours! Starting on September 30th, we do have one of the best "reality" shows out there as Real World/Road Rules: The Ruins begins! No CT on this season unfortunately, but we'll still have a mix of roided up guys wanting to throw down constantly and the high maintenance chicks. Excellent TV right there.



Sunday started up Week 1 of the Shinnston Flag Football League. A few years ago we started playing on Sundays as pickup games on Lincoln's practice field. Last year was the first official season of flag in my area, but I never jumped into it then, but this is my inaugural year. At the moment we have four teams and a few others are being built. Our team had 12 show up for the opener, a nice turnout. We play 8-on-8 at Lumberport Middle's field and it's pretty organized. Outside from Big E Ferris, I'm the second oldest guy in the entire league, as we're the only 30-somethings. I take a little pride in that to where my body isn't broken down into pieces nor am I lazy like half of town who just wants to sit on the couch and be druggies. I like to sit on the couch too, but you have to do a bit with yourself every now and then as well. As a little extra piece, Ferris had a brutal knee injury yesterday to where people on the field heard it pop. That's nasty.

It's mostly a league of 25-and-unders with some quality athletes. Most of these kiddies (they are to me anyways) I've had over the years when I did some subbing. I like it in that it's a super fast paced league and for the most part, you need some sort of speed to be decent. I'm playing on The Green Machine and our crew of guys is a fun bunch. We don't have any egos on the team and we get to come on and off the field as we please and make a nice rotation. Unfortunately, we're a bunch of little guy speedsters and not much beef. That's fine and dandy until you play a bigger team. That's who we met up with in Week 1 as Team Bart crushed us. As a side stat from Bart, our team has the most NCAA athletes in the league, so there's talent all over, it's just inexperienced. I won't sugarcoat anything to make it seem like we did better because we did not. Bart's team is the heavy favorite as they have a nice mix of players. The thing that did us in was that Bart is 6'5" with speed and Linville is probably 6'3" with speed and we have guys 5'10" or under guarding them as cornerbacks. Me personally, I love playing defense a lot more than offense since I get to run around with energy that doesn't stop. I would bounce around between cornerback and a rover safety/linebacker spot. Football isn't one of my main sports as is basketball and softball, but I had a blast after the first week. Also, to end things, this is how little attention there is with sports around here. Jim Tichenor, one of the local paper guys, came up and shot team photos and did interviews. How can you beat that? It's classic. You go play some flag football and suddenly there are 50+ people up there between two different games. Bart, nice start with Week 1, you have this thing organized well, I'm impressed.



Monday night there was action out in Willard. Most reading probably don't even know where Willard is at unless you live near my area. Even then you might not even know. The setting was at Sweet P's house and a group of ten of us return to get our fantasy football teams underway. The Shinnston Fantasy Football League consists of Commish P, Ozzie, Matty Cakes, Sims, Maulberry, Jimmy, Bart, Fortdog, Pill, and myself. As we drew the numbered golf balls out of the plastic box, I ended up pulling the #1 ball for myself, meaning I got the #1 pick of the draft. It's been a while since I've had a #1 pick, so I might as well try to profit from it. I'll break my team down in a few of course, not that you care. Between ten of us, we mauled through five pizzas like it was nothing and had the Miami/Florida State game on TV as we got to trash talk each other and just have a good time. The only downfall was that we sweated our nads off in Willard. Sims said P did that just to throw off our draft game and to make us want to get our picks in faster. Overall, an in-person live draft is twenty times better than having things online. As a weird stat, we didn't have a single Steelers fan in the house. The NFL teams supported in the house were the Niners, Raiders, Bills, Falcons, Ravens, Bengals, Colts, and Bears. Now, onto your 2009 E-Town Junkies roster..

1. Adrian Peterson: RB (Vikings)
2. Thomas Jones: RB (Jets)
3. Tony Romo: QB (Cowboys)
4. Antonio Bryant: WR (Bucs)
5. Roy Williams: WR (Cowboys)
6. Greg Olsen: TE (Bears)
7. Lee Evans: WR (Bills)
8. Torry Holt: WR (Jags)
9. Ted Ginn, Jr.: WR (Dolphins)
10. Mason Crosby: K (Packers)
11. David Garrard: QB (Jags)
12. Julius Jones: RB (Seahawks)
13. Mark Bradley: WR (Chiefs)
14. Buffalo Bills: D
15. Zach Miller: TE (Raiders)
16. Mark Sanchez: QB (Jets)
17. Tim Hightower: RB (Cardinals)
18. Josh Reed: WR (Bills)



More football? I know. The weekend wasn't kind to me as far as my teams I root for goes. Saturday, my Irish went to The Big House and was taken out by Rich Rod and his Wolverines. Michigan is better than people give credit. The WVU fans around here, they can whine all the way and I know they root against the guy. Fair enough, but you have to give him some due. I said last year that to give this guy a couple of years and he's going to rock out the Big Ten with his offense. Like him or not, through whatever scandal or not, the dude can coach. Look at his past track record. He'd come into places and in a matter of a few years, he'd have them crushing skulls. I can't stand Michigan as most know, but I've tipped the hat to my Michigan buddies and can't hate too much. Also, it was weird for a lot of WVU fans to be cheering for Notre Dame last week, that rarely ever happens. I still think my boys will be fine though, but that pass defense was beyond brutal. Jeremy Harmer of Team Bart would've thrown for 300 yards on that D. In the NFL? Sunday night, my Bears didn't have ANY offense. Not a great start for Crybaby Cutler, but I like the acquisition a lot, regardless. We'll see if he can get any of those bum receivers to do anything at all. Now Urlacher is mangled for the season, great.

It's time for a CD update. I've went through a bunch of them recently. This week, just one to talk about and it's one you need to know about.

Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx - Part 2. You know I was excited when this came out. If you know me at all as far as my music tastes, you know that Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx in 1995, I have always put into the greatest rap albums of all time. It's that good. Now, Raekwon The Chef comes to us with Part 2, 14 years later. How does it live up? Amazingly well actually. You can't compare it to the original since it's a classic, but what a summer this has been for rap CDs. The hits just keep coming between this, Mos, and Jay-Z in the past month, pretty crazy. We get 22 tracks here and none are bad, seriously. A ton of people on this thing. Of course you get the entire Wu Tang Clan basically, as well as Jadakiss, Styles P, Busta Rhymes, Lyfe Jennings, and Beanie Sigel. I recommend the entire thing and then some, but I'll give a few songs to start you out with. Cold Outside with Ghostface Killah, Catalina with Lyfe, About Me with Busta, and Black Mozart with RZA and Inspectah Deck. Some more true hip hop coming to your ears.



Bird's Dirty of the Week: We go to one of those pages with a bunch of "friends" on it. I wonder what the real percentage of this chick's list that she actually knows is. I say just a handful. Either way, it's an interesting one. In some pics, she looks great, in others, as Borat would say, "NOT". She has a bunch of pics on her front page to see. Some of her quotes and things of that nature are so bad that they're good type of thing. In her actual pics, there's not hundreds like some we put in here, but it'll work. Pretty good body here too if that counts for anything. Here ya go folks, Monique Starr apparently: www.myspace.com/moniquestarr

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: I always like to get some local flavor in here whenever I can. I also like when some of my buddies will send in things for the blog. That lets me know at least some of you are bored enough to read my ramblings. Why, I'm not sure, but I do appreciate it. This time we have a submission from Erica who fired off a message the other day if we could get her son's vid up. Sure, why not? This one has Kaden at the infamous El Rincon restaurant as he's going at the habanero sauce. It's getting a ton of views (2500+ at the moment) and comments, so check it out. Also, I can see a Lil Jaggs here in the making as he's jamming around doing the dance thing in another vid. As usual, let me know if you guys have ideas for any section of the blog and I'll always consider it. "Heck yeah!"





3 Quick Thangs:

1. Maybe it's just me, but what is the point of the drive-thru at Dairy Queen? I can understand if you get something quick, but that's rare. I see it all the time at my local DQ. You have a string of cars and they're probably ordering cheeseburgers and whatever else. They have the best burgers, don't get me wrong, but if you have to wait for it, go inside. It's not going to be done in 2 seconds like McD's. Don't hold up the rest of town. There should be a rule to that. I never get in that line, but it gets a laugh out of me when I see it.

2. A book update for anyone that wants to hear. I'm usually reading a lot of things, mostly in the sports or wrestling genre. I've also read a lot of the mainstream type series deals that everyone else into as well. The latest book, I'm going the wrestling route and it's getting some great reviews. It's called The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend. It's the story of 1940s and 1950s women's wrestling and in particular Mildred Burke. It doesn't sound like much, but even non-wrestling fans are giving it some dap. Some crazy behind the scenes stuff and it looks to be worth checking out. We'll see when I'm done with this thing how it is.

3. Remember how within the past year I said that I just recently tried hard boiled eggs for the first time? If you remember, that experience was awful, but at least I tried the thing. I was sitting at lunch today and some guys had pickled eggs. Now that's bad times. I can make some mean scrambled eggs with cheese, peppers, ham, whatever else or even an over easy egg. Outside of that, those funky styles of eggs, they're not for me. And the hard boiled/pickled, how can people even be around that smell? I'm not picky on much food, but that is one for sure that I'm not wanting any of.

Kettle Corn, Ocho Cinco, & Tila Choked Out!

I was laying on the couch the other night and flipping through the TV channels. Where did I stop at? Cheaters. You all know the show. It's so bad that it's good, one of those. Anyways, this episode I saw was so horribly done that it had to be seen. I'll set it up, but won't take much of your time on this. This guy lives with his girlfriend. The deal is that he thinks she's cheating on him and wants the show to investigate to see if he's correct or not. It turns out, the chick is cheating on him with the guy's boss! No, that's not the bad part. A while back, the dude cheated on the girl. Now he's getting all worked up that she's cheating on him? Get with it you loser. I don't justify her cheating on him to get him back, but I also have a problem with him getting all bent out of shape on the show due to that. You did the same thing you bum. Fortunately I've never been on either side of a cheating scandal, but it happens way way too much and one of the dirtiest things you can do to someone in my opinion. We all know tons of people who have done it. Why not just man up and tell the person you don't want to be with them anymore instead of causing drama? I never understand that, but back to the show. In the end, the boss gets all fired up and peels out of the parking lot in his truck, acting all big and bad. The guy that accused his chick of cheating, he had no backbone and you could already tell they were going to work it out. They go back home to "talk it over". Can I go to Vegas and get odds on the chances that either of these two cheat again? Can I put that at 100%? Ok, I'll be a nice guy and give them each the benefit of the doubt and say there's only a 95% chance it'll happen again. I wonder how much of that show is set up though, but it's still worth a watch from time to time.



Here's one that can pertain to everyone which you'll have an opinion, even if you're not a football fan. The topic is that of Shawne "Lights Out" Merriman, linebacker for the San Diego Chargers. Not a lot of information is out so far, but on Sunday, he got into a bit of a ruckus with none other than his chick Tila Tequila. Now let's set this story up. Merriman in the past has been suspended by the NFL for roids. It's funny how if someone is busted for roids in baseball, it's a huge story and an outrage begins. In football, it's just kind of taken for granted most of these guys are juiced out of their minds and they get a little slap on the wrist if caught. Merriman stands 6'4 and weights 265. Dude is a freak of nature as far as being buffed out. Now Tila. A lot of online sites have her listed at either 4'11" or 5'0" and anywhere from 98 to 100 pounds. Basically, she's a midget or close enough. I'll also give you $20 if she's 98 pounds, I'm not even going a guess close to that. She needs to eat. I won't bash her in that I think she's way overrated and to me, not hot one bit, but that's not what we're going to mention. Apparently, Merriman is accused of choking out Tila and throwing her to the ground as she tried to leave. The police say she didn't have marks on her, but even if this is a bit true, Merriman has lost all respect. I went off on Chris Brown in the blog for being a little punk and beating down Rihanna, same with this bum. Really? You're going to roid rage on someone you could break in half with your pinky finger? I don't care how big the chick is, you don't hit on chicks. You'd think that's an easy rule to follow and goes without saying, but you see it far too often. This week's Finger of Shame goes to Merriman. In one that is too early to be said, but creative if nothing else, TheAnswer posted a message on his Facebook after the action. "Know what I wonder? If Shawne Merriman did the Lights Out Dance after he beat Tila Tequila's Ass". He probably did knowing Merriman. As an update, Tila is tweeting about this already, so is it just to get attention or is it for real? Should be interesting to find out.

Labor Day Weekend huh? It's nothing but a festivus for the rest of us. Fairs and things of the like all over the place. I ended up on Friday night going to the Jackson's Mill Jubilee, it's been a tradition for my family to go to each year. The number of people going there the past few years has dropped off. There were even rumors that they were going to shut it down, but they supposedly had enough money backing to keep it going. Food alone is worth going to here. I ate like a fat boy that night and tore it up. The first food stop is always at the stand the Madia's have as they're local people we know well. I got a sirloin sandwich with hot peppers on grilled garlic bread. You can hardly beat that, it's high quality. They told us a story how they were one of ten vendors this year invited to the NFL Hall of Fame ceremonies. They had to turn it down since they had a booking somewhere else though, but their food is that good. As far as the rest, after that I hit up a homemade ice cream stand in a waffle cone. Then I moved onto a huge fritti (fried dough for the non Italians). On the way out of there, I had to get some of my favorite local hot mustard and then a huge bag of fresh kettle corn. By the way, kettle corn is so underrated.



I didn't make it to the Tally Rally this year in Clarksburg. I didn't figure I was missing much anyways. It's the same every year, although that's not a bad thing, it's just eh. Plus, I eat that type of food pretty much all the time anyways. It's always good to go up and talk to everyone and get a shirt for tradition, but after you've walked through once, that's about it. The late night is where the action is at as you can guarantee fights and that sort of thing. The same guys end up fighting each year which cracks me up.It usually starts up during the bocce games or the morra tournaments. Nothing big to report on that end since I didn't go. Moving on..

Say it ain't so Ocho Cinco. Yep, due to the NFL regulations they are putting on Twitter to their players, Chad Johnson tapped out of the Twitter game and has had enough. He planned to tweet during games this year. Although I would've liked to have seen him try, I don't think he should be allowed. Then to counter that, his new idea is to find a mariachi band and they will jam once he scores a touchdown. Now that's creative and I want to see that for sure. In Week 2, he's talked about wanting to do the Lambeau Leap at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. He sent a message off to Ryan Grant of the Packers and told him to try to get the fans to embrace him. He was my favorite of anyone out there on the posts he'd make. Now that he's out of the tweeting business, my favorites at the moment to follow are Terrell Owens, Jeremy Borash of TNA fame, Chris Jericho, and Matt Hardy. I'm still updating mine a good bit and it's been fun after the first week or so. I started about a week ago and have about 80 some tweets already. It's really quick and easy and doesn't take any time of your day to get a page going. Plus it gives me an excuse if I'm not at home and want something to do on my phone. I plug enough things of mine that you get tired of the way it is, so go to last week's post if you want my link. Happy tweeting.



First of the month, a la Bone Thugs to give a dated reference, which means it is also time for others to get out their welfare checks that we all pay for. In general, these bums sit at home, don't bother one bit about finding an actual job, and smoke enough cigs to give the entire country of Uganda lung cancer. Some people actually have a legit claim for these checks, but overall, I don't think many deserve it. I'm getting off track, but first of the month means big savings for me at GNC. I'm still taking amino acids, glutamine, and fish oil everyday, but figured I'd load up on some others. I'm back on the Amplified Creatine 189 that I've talked about before. I also got Altered State from Muscle Asylum Project which are nitric oxide tablets and it's up there on the level of No-Xplode in my books as far as the pump. It's hardcore stuff and works very well. I'm also switching up my protein as I've been on Pro-NOS which I'm a big fan of and now going with some Muscle Milk. I'd say this is by far the best tasting protein I've had and it mixes great. I've had their pre-made mixes before from stores, but this is the first I've got the powder to mix myself, go get some of this stuff. I've lost enough people in this paragraph, so I won't ramble on anymore about the exercise and supplements side of things. I'm always down to talk about that stuff though, so hit me up. As an old man at 30, I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life, so I hope that continues.

College football season opened up during the weekend and it's a great start. I won't go into major detail with that, but I know most reading at least keep up with football a bit. My Irish put up a shutout against the pistol offense of Nevada. I figured it'd be closer than the 35-0 score, but they had it going on all cylinders. Michael Floyd was in a coma out there, 4 catches for 189 yards and 3 touchdowns. I think they'll be pretty good this year. I won't be a homer and predict them to be crazy good as some have said, but I think Top 10 is a legitimate place to be, maybe higher. We'll find out when we play some tougher teams coming up. On the local scene, WVU only beat the School of the Deaf and Blind by only 13 points. Schedule some actual teams, not the level of a local sandlot team, but that's all I'll say on that. WVU fans think they're going to win the national title every year, so I'll just let their words come back to bite them.



Here's a topic that really doesn't go in any certain place, but I'll talk about it anyways. Space exploration. I don't get this stuff one bit at all. I saw an article on the front page of Yahoo about how much this garbage costs. Really, we need to find out what's on Mars and wherever else? It might be neat for some, but use that money down here for something useful instead of that. Maybe I'm crazy on that thinking, but I don't get the point at all. If you want to do that as a hobby, go for it. Let some rich guy back it. I just see it as a big waste, so it gets a thumbs down on my end.

It's time for a few new CDs to talk about. We're going with two rap ones and one R&B for the fans out there. Let's jump right into the reviews..

Drake: So Far Gone. Drake has been put under a ton of pressure due to the expectations of this album. Those expectations are tough to live up to if you ask me. Was it an excellent CD? No, but it's not bad. I like it, but I didn't go wild for it either. Uptown featuring Bun. B and Lil Wayne gets my vote for best track, but also try to find Sooner Than Later as well as A Night Off with Lloyd. Successful is on this thing, which ironically is on another CD we'll mention here in a few and Best I Ever Had. You've all heard those. This kid is a talent and will be around for a good while I believe. Out of the three I'm reviewing this week, this is #3 on the list, so be ready for the next two..



Jay-Z: The Blueprint 3. You know how a few weeks ago I claimed Mos Def's The Ecstatic the best rap album of 2009? Jay-Z might have a good argument to that. I'll admit, in the past I never cared one bit about Jay-Z and thought he was overrated. In the last year or so, he's really impressed me and I'll give him the due he deserves. This CD helps that matter a whole lot though, it's one you need to get even if you're not a rap fan. I'm not sure there's a bad track on this thing. As usual, I'm here to give a few for you to go find. Those would be Run This Town with Kanye and Rihanna, Empire State Of Mind with Alicia Keys, and Young Forever that has Mr. Hudson involved. It comes out in stores this Tuesday, but it's been blowing up online with great reviews, go get this bad boy.

Trey Songz: Ready. We're going with some straight pimpin' R&B in this review. I know, normally I'm basically rap and not much else, but I know how to appreciate some quality R&B. This we'll chalk up as quality. This is Trey's third career album and he keeps getting better and better. Chicks are going to be all all about this CD too, it's a mood setter. Put this CD in, it can't hurt your chances of setting that mood. Don't say I didn't warn you, that's my advice for the day. Now onto a few songs I'll recommend from Songz. Fitting? Maybe so. Neighbors Know My Name is probably my favorite, Does He Do It, Panty Droppa, and of course Successful with Lil Wayne and Drake is on this. You want the money? Money and the cars? Cars and the clothes? You know it's stuck in your head now.



Bird's Dirty of the Week: 476 total pics should be enough to work for us this week. A buddy of mine is going to a Poison concert coming up. I figured enough dirties are fans of Poison from the hair band days and so I went to their MySpace page. Lo and behold, it was pretty easy to find some winners for our selection this week. We go to Huntington Beach, California for this one. 27 years old and pics of just about whatever. Some strange, some revealing, some off the wall. That's how we do it around here. We'll post one of her quotes, "I'll write more when I care to oh and most importantly... sorry for the confusion but, I AM NOT A MYSPACE WHORE! god knows theres enough of those on here so look elsewhere for that shit." Easy killer. Hold that anger in, your day will be just fine. www.myspace.com/queenofhate

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Felisha comes to us with this week's submission. She posted this on my Facebook, so some may have already seen it there. Or maybe you've seen it online before that anyways? Here's a kid that just wants his bacon and junk food and he's had enough of the rules. It was on an episode of Wife Swap, I think you'll enjoy this:



3 Quick Thangs:

1. I run a good bit on our local trail. You see some characters, but overall, you rarely see people on it since people around here just want to be fat and lazy and then complain about it. To each their own. The other day I saw one that I had to do a double take on though. This guy was on his bike and had a milk crate attached to the back. In that crate? He had one of those wee little dogs that do nothing but yap and bark nonstop. I'm surprised he didn't have it dressed up. And as he would hit bumps, the dog would be all over the place bouncing around. I just shook my head, but had to laugh.

2. I'm a HUGE Gatorade guy. In one fridge, I have it is always stocked up all the time with nothing but Gatorade. That's how much of it I have. I made the mistake of buying one I normally never buy though the other day. What's that? Fruit Punch Low Calorie G2 Gatorade. This stuff is some of the worst I've had. It tastes like a cross between metal and medicine. I'll stick with the original flavors for the most part, stay far away from the G2. Don't say I didn't warn you. It's watered down and doesn't even taste like regular Gatorade.

3. Here's one from the great Boston Sports Guy, Bill Simmons. I liked his thoughts on McDonald's, so I'll end with that: "Hey, did you ever wonder why McDonald's doesn't just start lying about how many customers they've had? Currently, it's 'billions and billions served.' Couldn't they go with 'trillions?' Or even 'kajillions?' What's the highest they could say where you'd believe what they claimed? For me it's 'kajillion.' I would absolutely believe 'kajillion.'