"What The Hell Is A Bruce?!"

The first blog of 2010 huh? I'll see what kind of topics I can stir up to start the year out right with. One thing about 2009 that really bugged me was the negativity of a lot of people. If there's one message I always write about, it's to stay positive no matter what. That's usually my main theme of the blogs. I couldn't tell you, and you've all seen it as well, how many messages people posted of how awful and bad 2009 was to them. Get out of here with that mess, seriously. I'm sure some people have had it rough and hopefully they pull out of it, but don't try to get the rest of us throwing a pity party for you. I'm sure it wasn't even that bad whatever those are crying about.



Let me get to another topic of 2010 before I switch things up a bit. New Year's resolutions? I've probably written about this in the blog before at the start of a new year as I'm a bit predictable, but that's how it goes. Let's face it and I hope I'm wrong this year, but most people aren't going to come anywhere near setting their goals. I try to not write too much about exercise and staying in shape, but it's Shinnston, most of these people have no chance to stick to their workout resolutions. It's not that they can't do it, but they have no motivation to do so. It's easy to say you're going to do it, another thing to actually stick with it. I'm just being honest, I've seen it for years. They get pumped up for a week to workout and then you never see them lift a finger the rest of the year. To each their own, prove me wrong Shinnston. It doesn't affect me any, but you'd feel a lot better sticking with it, but that's just my opinion. If I had to pick any kind of resolution, it might be to be even more laid back than usual and work on being less straight up with my opinions. I joke around a lot and try to do things in a joking manner, but I'm also not a maybe guy. I'm going to give you a straight yes or no answer and as some people might sit back and not say something they want to ask, I can't do that.

Myself? I'm in an awesome mood as usual. I don't have anything major set in stone for 2010 as I'm pretty good at winging things. 2009 was good to me unlike 90% of people in Facebook or so it seemed. I do want to plan a flight again sometime fairly soon, but not sure how much in the works that can be. Posey and myself were eying the UFC debut in Boston, but right now that's tentatively scheduled for August 28th, one of his busiest weeks at work for him and my first week back to work. I'd definitely like to get something scheduled a lot sooner than that. I know I'm easier to schedule around since I'm single with no baggage, but for the road trip crew, let's get something going soon. What does Memphis Grizzlies rookie James Harden have to say on this on a tweet? "Even though its a new year ppl are still going to act the same way they did in 09..talk is cheap!!..sorry had to express myself lol".



That was a long opener, but what does this blog have in store for you today? You get several new movie reviews, the infamous #Balls Celebrity Deathpool, Jersey Shore, another family bash, CD and movie reviews both, Penelope Cruz half naked, the Clark Riley Kids For Kwanzaa Hoops Classic, and a whole lot more! If that's not enough for you, well, that's all I got. As usual, I'm always open to any blog suggestions for something new or if you ever want to ramble on and have your own little guest section, I'm sure we can work it out if it's worthy enough.

Movie section time now. We're going to review two new ones for anyone who wants my opinions on that matter. It probably doesn't mean much coming from me, but hey, I like to review them when I can for something to do. The first? It was the annual Christmas night movie tradition and we were off to see Invictus. The list of movies for this year were slim to none, we were disappointed in that action. There weren't many I was interested in seeing and the guys thought the same. By the time we planned it out, it was Cork, Spank, and myself. Funny thing about it, we were the ONLY three people in the theater at our mall, no joke. On Christmas night, really? This was the second time in my life that I had been the only person (people) in the theater from my crew. Another time was in June of 2006 when I saw a noon weekday showing of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in Morgantown. Anyways, Invictus, we were sold just due for the fact it was Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. They can't possibly have a bad movie together, right? Right. Historically and the detail put into this movie was great. I can't see a lot of chicks liking this one, but for the guys especially, go see this bad boy. The quotes, history, and racial breakthroughs are on point. Plus, Freeman plays Nelson Mandela so well. I could see though in our area with the racial overtone in this movie that some dumb rednecks wouldn't like it, but to each their own. I've ranted on that topic in my area before, but I'll be quiet this time, you know how strongly I feel on that. Final rating? 8.5 rabid rugby fans out of 10. It's that good.



Movie #2. This would be Nine. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Why would I go to such a movie? Whip wanted to see this one really bad last week, but wasn't able to get a day set up with her girls. I didn't mind going when I saw the cast of chicks in it. It can't be THAT bad with Penelope Cruz, Fergie, and Kate Hudson all bouncing around can it? From a guy's perspective, that part can help things. Our mall didn't have it showing, so we rolled to Morgantown for the action on Wednesday night. Counting us, there were a whopping 5 people in the theater. One girl came by herself. I've never done the theater thing by myself before, not that I wouldn't, I just haven't. With the cast of people in this movie, I'm surprised it wasn't advertised a lot more. For my liking, I don't know anything about Broadway and the musical scenes, they did too many of those, but that's probably my only complaint. The actual storyline of the movie was great and really easy to follow though. Back to my girl Penelope, she was top notch in this. As a dirty old man, she didn't even have to talk in this movie and I was fine for it, but that accent doesn't hurt anything either. Fergie's outfits and makeup made her look mean in this movie, but she still looked good to me. I have no experience to judge the musical sections, I'll let someone else handle that. Daniel Day-Lewis was also great at playing his part in this movie too, plus his character name of Guido Contini, that's classic. His chick in the movie, Marion Cotillard, she's quality too. Who would think I'd spend this much time reviewing Nine? I actually thought it was good, believe it or not. I'm not afraid to admit that. Blog reader Jodine comes at us with this, "Nine was atrocious. I want 2 hours of my life back so I can go see Sherlock Holmes instead." That's the only bad review I've seen anyways. I'm giving it a big 8.2 guidos out of 10.

Ok, it's time to get dark and demented. That's right, for it's time to unveil my picks for the 2010 #Balls Celebrity Death Pool! This is now our 6th year of running it as we started in 2005. Our champs since the beginning have been Goathead, Neon, ManDingo, Cork, and ManDingo once again. ManDingo is our only 2-time champion thus far. I've struggled overall, but have picked at least one death in the last 4 years and finished Top 3 in 2009. The only death I had in 2009 was Patrick Swayze. ManDingo won it by having both Swayze and Michael Jackson. Him and Corndog were the only guys to have more than one death in 2009. Corndog had Swayze and Walter Cronkite. These are all over the internet and karma will probably strike us, but it's still competition, even if it's not morally right. The rules are simple with how we do our league. This year everyone picks twelve celebs. If a celeb dies, you take their age at death and subtract it from 100. That's your point value. You know it's messed up, I know it's messed up, but you have to admit you're intrigued by the setup. Now, enough talk, it's time to give my list I'm working with for 2010 that you can also follow along with..



Bobby Heenan (wrestling manager)

Sabu (wrestler)

Scott Hall, Razor Ramon (wrestler)

Raven (wrestler)

Amy Winehouse (singer)

John Gosselin (John & Kate Plus 8)

Lindsay Lohan (actress)

Fidel Castro (former Cuban leader)

Jake LaMotta (boxer)

Betty Ford (first lady)

George Steinbrenner (Yankees owner)

Seve Ballesteros (golfer)

The day after Christmas it was time for a get-together of basketball days. Most of us still play a lot anyways, but when people move away and stuff, we're hardly all together like we were at this time of year. That gave us a chance to get it going for old times sake. We present to you the Clark Riley Kids For Kwanzaa Hoops Classic held at The Lighthouse in Shinnston. Thanks to Sidelli for naming the event which I got a kick out of, and will now become an annual thing. The goal to start was to get as many of our EDDFL fantasy NBA league there as possible. We did well on that front with 8 of the 12 members showing up. The eight that showed up were Clark, Spank, Cork, Fortdog, Sidelli, Big T, Posey, and myself. Outside of those eight, we had Buck, Ski, Sponge, Sonny, Ryan, and Drew Bob in the house. We all talked like we needed to videotape some of this action. For guys our age, most of us are still in pretty good shape that we can get good runs going, but there's also some ugliness as part of it too, it happens. The ball stuff is always fun, but it's busting each other with trash talk and that like that makes things worth it. That and the stories. Yep, we're getting old, but only as old as you make yourself feel. I always say that I'm still a little kid that will never grow up, gotta have fun with it.



Last Saturday we had another family bash at Ozzie and Maria's. As usual, you don't need me reminding everyone how good our food is when the fam is together. But that's always a big part of the events no matter whose house we're at. Throw some bowl games on top of that on TV and it's a good night. As a side note, my bowl picks this year are as bad as they've ever been. I'm taking a serious beating like no other, but it happens. Towards the end of the night we busted out the board games. I'm always in for that, no matter the age. It's just we don't play as much anymore as I'd like. The choice of the night? Would You Rather, one I've never played before, nor had any of the other crew. I liked this and by the time we were done playing, we sort of made our own rules to make it better. It can turn perverted pretty quick, which makes for an interesting atmosphere. It's worth a try for sure. It's not Balderdash, but it's good. Monopoly people of the crew, let's get that going sometime soon too.

We had half the crew playing poker and half going with board games. It was getting late in the night and Kari was ready to go home. She wanted to check on her dog Bruce, which is a name I love for a dog, that's classic. Matty Cakes said Bruce would be ok out in the cold for a bit longer, but they eventually left to check on him. Jim had a classic line from the poker table when he was halfway listening in to the conversation, "What the hell is a Bruce?!" I said then, that could be a great title for a blog and that's this week's reason for the title. As usual with the fam, another good productive night together. An as an added bonus, we all got together again on the next Saturday and went to Colasessano's for lunch. I'm in heaven around here with all of this good food.



You want a Jersey Shore update from the past week? Like it or not, it seems that most of you are watching, just as I am myself. I'm hooked like no other to the point me and my buddies are always doing quotes or acting like these idiots. It's partly lame, which I can see, but it's some quality TV entertainment and these characters are growing on me by the week. This week my boy Vinny finally got some more TV time, which he hasn't got a ton of to begin with. He seems to come across as a very likable guy and I could watch him do the goofy fist pumps all day and never get tired of it. Besides, he's just beating the beat back when the music comes on, right? This week he ended up stealing his boss' chick, which he didn't know was his boss' until after the fact. I'm also liking JWoww's character a lot more. Before this week, I didn't care much for her, but she took up for my girl Snooki and busted up another chick for calling her fat. Then next week, Ronnie roid rages and busts some dude's head up on the boardwalk, should be interesting. What does Kasher have to say on this episode? "And also how they had to treat those girls as human beings, as opposed to other girls, with Pauly D adding that "they're not whores". I love how they don't sugarcoat these comments. Next week, we get more comments from Vinny about how Situation's sister looks like a tranny Situation. Awesome."

So did everyone have a good New Year;s Eve? We planned a fam party, but that got the cancel button hit after a while. For myself, since I'm not a party guy, I really enjoyed a nice chill night to myself. I know, to some that'd be way boring, but it's nice to just do your own thing at times. I'm an only child, I know how to find things to get into, no worries. That night I tore up some A's food, watched wrestling DVDs, hung out online, and played 5 straight hours of Call of Duty with my crew. I ended up going to bed at 6:45 in the morning, so mission accomplished. As I think about it, since I've been off for Christmas break, I doubt I've went to bed before 3:00 on any night. Let's skip back to Tuesday night. That night I went to bed at 8:00 in the morning (yes, stupid) and set the alarm for 10:30. On 2½ hours, it was time to tear it up with a workout and run. Lack of sleep isn't going to stop me from working out. I'll let the rest of Shinnston quit on their workouts. Later in the day I got a 2 hour nap and went back at it by being up till daylight again. The moral as usual, I'm an idiot and never learn, my sleep schedule is all over the place.



Posey, you sure put high hopes on me for 2010 and hopefully karma won't bite me. I'm not sure I like having that much pressure put on me, hah. The Twitter fans have been following it (by the way, we're way too ate up right now with Twitter that it's a problem), but Posey released the Annual Posey Tank Hill Twitter Awards a few days ago. I wasn't there to pick up my trophy though. In his words, "hands down 2009 award winner for best human in shinnston! Next year may I try to be more like u and less like me!" Posey, you're doing great man and I'm excited for you to start the workout plan you have set up. In my ranks, Posey now joins Gayle as one of the past winners from the blog of Dad of the Year. I'm in the process of hand molding Posey's trophy as we speak, but I'm always impressed how great of a job him and Scherri do with the kids and you can see he enjoys every second of it to make them happy. Hey, we go deep around here sometimes in the blog, but we give credit where credit is due.

Onto lighter things and to start finishing up this blog up.. Here's a few CD reviews for the rap fans.

Bizzy Bone & Bad Azz: Thug Pound. Terrible. That's as quick as I can put this into one word. The lyrics on this one were brutal and I expected a good bit better than this mix. I'd recommend things, but I'd rather not, just to save you all the pain. And this is coming from a guy that is normally big into most Bone related things, but this is one to stay away from.

Z-Ro: Cocaine. Quite the change from the Bizzy/Bad CD. It's like night and day. Z-Ro comes strong the entire time and has a great flow if you haven't heard any of his stuff previously. He's a Houston guy, so if you're familiar with that rap scene, he's one of the best the town has to offer. There's not a track on this that I didn't like, but I might as well narrow it down for just a few if you're wanting to get an initial taste of Z-Ro's music. Quarterback Vision, Can't Leave Drank Alone featuring Lil O, Haters Got Me Wrong with Gucci Mane and Chris Ward, and Thank You along with Lil Flip. This CD has a high replay ability to it, you'll give it a thumbs up too I hope.



Bird's New Year's Dirty of the Week: We're going to the midwest this week for our little journey. Where we land is in the mean streets of Chicago. Her info says 25 years old, but her about me says 22, who knows? Apparently you (or any of us) can't touch this, according to her tagline. I do have to hand it to her, she's looking great. Here is her quick bio in her words and what she's looking for. Have at it guys, or girls is you roll in that direction. "hi everyone my name is jasmine im 22 years old. im a very out going person i love to drink sorry i dont smoke.i am puerto rican im 5"7 weight about 126.i am looking for a sweet guy who likes to have a good time thats very kind and truthful and know how to respect a women.im looking for a guy that would keep it real with me at all times that aint on any games." That doesn't seem like they are asking too much, so maybe she has a good head on her shoulders. And a girl that tells her weight out in the open, you rarely see that. That's a question I still feel guys should never ever ask a girl, but you'd be surprised at ones who do. Here we go, she's single fellas. www.myspace.com/shortygd06

Bird's New Year's Video of the Week: This week we're joined by the great Corndog with a video submission. He's been all about the prank videos lately and has sent some my way to check out. One in particular I liked is what we're going to post this week. Hoepfully not everyone has seen this, but it could be true since it has over a half million views so far. It's titled the Couch Airbag Explosion Prank and that pretty much tells you all you need to know. The slow-mo part of this video makes it in my mind. I hope you enjoy.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. I'm caught up on most of my TV watching, but not yet with the new season of Real World. It started on Wednesday for those who don't know and is based from Washington, DC. I've heard there is crazy drama from week one, so that has me down for sure. I have it on DVR, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Of course, I've been around Real World since the first season, so I'm not about to quit now. Yeah, that shows my age, I know. Wait till next week for any kind of review.

2. Want some facts on New Year's that I dug up? Did you know that the first use of a Times Square New Year's Eve Ball was the result of New York city banning fireworks because they were too dangerous? Did you know that losing weight is the most common New Year's resolution? A stat we all know is that more than 60 percent of American adults are overweight and the number of overweight kids has more than tripled since 1980. Hey, I just report on it. And finally, did you know that Julius Caesar was the first to set January 1st as the New Year? Now ya know.

3. According to the 10-day forecast which won't be too accurate, there is only one day in the next 10 in my area that it will reach 30 degrees. I hope you people like the cold. Time to get out of here for the week, but everyone have a great 2010!