"Gym, Tan, Laundry"

Hey everybody, what do we have in store for you this week? It's one where I shouldn't be short of things to write about. You'll get another movie review, doubling up days on playing board games, birthday wishes, Japanese action, Jersey Shore, Real World, CD updates, and of course whatever else we mix in. As I dust off a jumbo sized box of Nerds, it's time to get the show rolling..



I'll start off by thanking everyone for the birthday wishes last week. I was blowing up with messages on Facebook, Twitter, texts, chat IMs, message boards, you name it. As usual, you can tell I'm online WAY too much. It's much appreciated though and I made sure to thank every message I got. 40 will be here before I know it and then I can turn into Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State fame with his classic speech. Sports fan or not, you've more than likely seen it and it's always a running joke with our crew. It's easily found on YouTube of course. "It's garbage! And the editor that let it come out, it's garbage! Attacking an amateur athlete for doing everything right! And then you want to write articles about guys who don't do anything right and downgrade them to the ones that do make plays. Are you kidding me? Where are we at in society today? Come after me! I'm a man! I'm 40! I'm not a kid!" That to me, never gets old just to see Gundy go nuts.

I'll go to the movie review first since that was on the birthday night. Whip has been my partner in crime with the movie watching and we checked out Did You Hear About The Morgans that night. At that point, there weren't many others that I haven't seen that were out that I really wanted to make a point to. I'm one of few who hasn't seen Avatar. I've heard nothing but good reviews for it, but at the moment I have no interest. I'm sure I'll see it one day, who knows. As far as this one goes, it has Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker in it for those who don't know. SJP has that weird complex with guys. I've heard some guys say she looks good, others go with brutal. I'm more on the brutal end, she never did much for me and she only weight 82 pounds, come on. She wasn't too horrible as far as looks in this movie though I guess. I kind of get a kick out of Hugh Grant and his accent, so it was watchable to us.



Sam Elliott (65) and Mary Steenburgen (56) were awesome in their roles and help make the movie if you ask me. Is it weird to say that Steenburgen (who was also in The Proposal that I reviewed) at 56 is hotter than SJP? I'm not afraid to say it. Elliott is the man though and has a great presence in all of his movies. I did like the small town Wyoming lifestyle they had when they left New York in this movie, reminded me of Shinnston. Ok, rank time. I gave this one 6.7 English accents out of 10. Whip gave it a 7.0 due to the fact she's a big SJP fan. Others who reviewed it? IMDB users have it at a pathetic 2.7 out of 10. Boyles and his Caragh said it was the worst movie they've ever seen, ouch. Vanilla Sky still gets my vote for worst ever. This movie wasn't bad at all to me though, maybe we were just weird and halfway liked it. The ending was good and the storyline easy to follow. Either that or we just wanted out of the house. For the locals on FB, check out Farris' movie reviews, they're impressive. He just did one for Up In The Air.

Before we get to some reality TV action, let's first tackle board game night(s). Yes, plural. Since I'm such a rebel around here, the past two Saturday nights I was able to battle in board games. That might not be exciting to some, but count me in for this every single time. Last Saturday we had a crew of six of us doing our thing. Along for the ride were the Riley girls, Pat, Court, Whip, and myself. I hit up Abby and Pat's house and we rolled with some Monopoly and Balderdash. I wrote about those last week in the blog and then joked that a few hours later, I was invited to play the very same games. If I had to pick, those are my top two board games, so I'm all about it. I didn't win either, but I'll take a good enough performance. I finished up 3rd in Monopoly behind Ally and Court. Ally, you're ruthless at that game, hah. That was cracking me up. In Balderdash, I tied for 2nd, so I'll settle for that. No trophy to take home for the night on my end though, but we'll get em next time. Homemade milkshakes though, can you really go wrong with that? Props to Abby for doing that part up big.



Board game night #2 is upon us. Let's fast forward to the following Saturday, which would be this past Saturday. Follow me so far? We did the Japanese trip to Shogun as we were due and that was a crew of ten in total, doing it up. In attendance, not that you care, but I amuse myself with lists of just about anything: three married couples in Ozzie and Maria, The Fortneys, and Cork and Kristin. Then we have a couple that will probably get married eventually in Boyles and Caragh. Mudcat and myself played our roles of wingman. I went with lobster and shrimp as my main courses, yum yum. On a note, it happens at least twice, it's "someone's" birthday. Come on, stop banging that stupid gong that has your ears ringing for 3 weeks. For as nice as this place is, the guys can back me up, the men's bathroom is beyond filthy and the smell, ouch. Health department, let's get it clean in there. Afterwards, we had a different crew for board game night. In attendance? Ozzie and Maria as the hosts, Cork and Kristin, Boyles and Caragh, Matty Cakes and Kari, and myself. We went old school and dusted off Scattergories. It's been a long time since I've played this one, but I'm a huge fan. You wouldn't think it'd be much, but you can get some pretty off the wall answers when you battle, especially when 9 of us are in one game. The winner ended up being Cork with Maria coming in 2nd, and if memory serves me right, I ended up with 3rd. So in the past 3 board games duels, I had two 3rd Place and one 2nd Place finish, not too shabby. Still a loser though, I'm due for a win soon.

Time for the weekly Jersey Shore update. I know, you either hate it or love it. There is no in between with this show. Myself, you know where I stand, I'm all about it. This week featured quite a few nice storylines. One is that The Situation's girl he tried to hook up with in a previous episode came back to the house, but also brought along "the grenade" with her and a buddy. That put a dagger in his heart. Through all of that, Snooki tried to run the other two girls out so Situation could be with his chick, but then she ended up getting punched by the big chick. Cops were soon on the scene and put Situation's chick in cuffs. My favorite part of this whole scene was when the garbage truck was there and Situation kept telling them that their ride is there. This episode also had the infamous fight scene with Ronnie and an annoying guy that kept messing with them. It started with this dude saying stuff to Pauly D at a bar, but Pauly shrugged it off. Later in the night, this guy started with Ronnie, bad move buddy. In short, Sammy Sweetheart basically got Ronnie involved in this fight. He literally roid raged on this dude, dropped him with a haymaker and then landed a knee. After that, it was ground and pound and he punished this guy something awful. Maybe I'm awful for watching this scene, getting all pumped up, and telling Ronnie to mangle that guy, but that's how it was. Rumor has it that our crew is wanting to film a spoof video and make our own Jersey Shore. We'll see.. As an added bonus, for those who watch ESPN's SportsNation on ESPN2 at 4:00 EST, you saw The Situation as a guest and he was great of course. SportsNation is one awesome show that is hosted by my boy Colin Cowherd (a buddy of Uncle Wilbur of the blog) and the little hottie Michelle Beadle.



You're also wanting my thoughts on the new season of Real World based out of Washington D.C.? Ok, ask and you shall receive. After two episodes, we're starting to get a feel for these people. Opinions change by the week on these characters, so I'm sure you'll see me go back and forth. I just hope it doesn't turn into a season full of religion/political arguments. That to me doesn't make good TV. What makes for good TV is Ty who has a short fuse and is going to let people know what he thinks. He blows up in some future episodes according to the previews, so I can't wait for that. Then we get Ashley who I'm not liking one bit so far. She looks nice, but seems to be nothing but drama early on. Mike, the bisexual, he's back and forth between dudes and chicks, whatever. The girls all think he's hot though. Andrew might be my favorite dude so far because he's a total goofball. He's weird, but is real good at trying to be funny and BSing around, plus his mission is to finally hook up with a chick. That story writes itself, does it not?

Then we move to Emily, the youngest of them all at 20. She grew up in a religious cult that now has her totally against religion. She's also one that claims to be bi and is ready to experience new things and be free since she wasn't as a kid. Callie is a little cutie. 21 and from Texas, she's the dumb blonde/small town girl. She's clueless on the big city stuff, similar to how I would be I'm sure. Andrew wants her bad, but when she gets in the middle of a girl he brought home, that lowered her status in his mind. Erika and Josh are the rockers of the group. They instantly are all about each other. They started out rooming, but Erika had to switch up because she knew she'd end up hooking up with Josh. Neither of them are single, so you can see where this will end up. I like Josh, he's from South Philly (one of my favorite places), dropped out of high school twice, has been locked up, grew up around gangs, but walks with a strut that gets some of the other dudes bothered. He reminds me in looks to somewhat like Prince. There's your quick 2-paragraph wrap up on Real World so far. I hope you're along for the ride.



Yes, it's time for more CD reviews. I have a ton to review over the next few weeks, so I should have a busy space here to provide that. This week, we'll go with three and branch out from there..

Chris Brown: Graffiti. Yeah, I know he's a woman beater so he doesn't get any respect for me on that end. I'm not judging that on a CD review though. His last CD got a thumbs down in my book, but this one seems like a worthy enough candidate to check out. It has both good and bad on it, but overall I think the good outweighs the bad if you're into his stuff to begin with. I'm not big on I Can Transform Ya since it's been way overplayed, plus Swizz Beatz is is more miss than hit for me lately. Outside of that though, I'm into Sing Like Me and Crawl. Still one of the best dancers out there, him and Ursh need to have a battle.

Glasses Malone: F Glasses Malone, The Mixtape. He's been rocking the mixtapes for a while now. If you haven't heard of Glasses, he's a West Coast guy from the Watts section of LA. It's not club rap or any of that garbage, this stuff if you're into the West Coast sound, this is for you. He doesn't pull any punches and just straight brings it with his lyrics. This mix features Lil Wayne, Birdman, and Maino to name a few bigger names. The whole CD is worth the listen as he's going to make a name for himself in 2010 when his first full CD will be released. Go find Like Suge, the self titled F G Malone, Where Itz At featuring Lil Wayne where he kills it with his verse, and Lonely At The Top which might be my favorite. The beat on that one is quality.

Tech N9ne: K.O.D. If you can get past the demented stuff, this is a fine CD. It's not as good as Glasses', but still it has some tracks worth listening to. Also, you rarely see skits anymore on rap CDs. You used to get those all the time back in the day, but this one has a good bit. Sometimes that can either be good or bad. A whopping 23 tracks on this beast. One I've mentioned in a previous blog, Leave Me Alone, very good. Others to consider? The Martini, Strange Music Box, and also K.O.D. He packs about all the minutes onto this CD instead of just releasing a half version.



Bird's Dirty of the Week: Layla Meyer and she's a Florida fan? Hmm.. Ok, we'll run with that. 21 years old and from the mean streets of Decatur, Georgia. Unfortunately she doesn't have any outrageous things in her info or a zillion pics. The ones she does have, the staff around here considered into detail. A rare one where I'm not posting any quotes or anything of that nature, but it's lacking from that end. We branch out though. Here she is, this week's winner: http://www.myspace.com/492323170

Bird's Video of the Week: When I saw this, it had to go up for this week's vid, no questions asked. I'm stealing this from Klimek's FB and he'll get credit for throwing it up there. I can't get enough of this. I don't even have to describe things, you'll be amazed too. Apparently she's shouting out to her Stickam buddies and throws in some "Ms. Moogoo". Oh, how great YouTube is. Enjoy.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. The world's greatest candy is back in stores once again! Why can't they be out all year long? I've never figured that one out either, but you know where I'm going with this. Cadbury Eggs! That's my crack when it comes to candy. Put em in the fridge and you can't go wrong, just trust me on this.

2. Fact time, here we go.. The average secretary's left hand does 56% of the typing.. Polar bears can eat more than 50 pounds of meat in one setting.. Billy goats wizz on their own heads to smell more attractive to females.

3. American Idol starts tonight! I'm sure I'll ramble on this all through the season, so get used to it. Yes, I admit to watching this mess. Another TV show I'm addicted to, imagine that.