Wallace Wrecks, Gypsy Hill Giants, & 90210 Day

Here we go. Let's call this the Labor Day edition. I know technically we're not at the date yet, but from here on out I like to say that fall is finally here. Too many 90+ degree days for me this summer, but if that's the worst thing I have to complain about, then I should just stay quiet. We have football here and some people have even started the countdown to Christmas. I heard from someone the other day that they know people who have a majority of their Christmas shopping already finished. Really now? I respect that they get it done early, but that's a little TOO early. To each their own and I'm a guy that absolutely loves Christmas. Anyways, it's nowhere near that time yet, we need to get into this week's topics at hand. What do we have? We have softball action, The Situation dancing, bashing my Jeep Cherokee into a moving truck, The Last Song review, flag football, and a whole lot more.



I've written a lot over the years how I'm not the world's greatest driver. I'm sure I'm in the bottom percentage out there and my buddies will back my claims up of that. Still, I (knock on wood) haven't had wrecks or at least of the major kind. Recently while in the mean streets of Wallace, West Virginia, it went down. I was backing out of the outfield side of the softball field road and had a blind spot. I didn't think much of it and just kept backing like I owned the place. Behind me was a small and narrow road. I hear a horn blow and the next I know I'm backing straight into this truck going down the road, tearing up his passenger side door and side. I ended up messing up my bumper pretty good, part of the quarter panel, and tore my light casing up.

It was all my fault and I couldn't pull some BS lie to act like it wasn't at the time. That's not my style anyways. Luckily, the dude I hit was drama free and there were no issues. We were in an area with no cell service. Yes, those exist still, imagine that. We had to knock on a local's door to use his house phone in order to phone the accident in. We sort of joked about it and not long after, Cork drives down for the softball game and probably knew right away what happened. He wasn't the least bit surprised. The good thing is that is why you pay insurance for, right? I can't cry over it, it is what it is and it's going to be fixed in no time for not much cost to me. Also, my ride is already paid for in full, so I'll just look at it as an extra monthly payment. I'm not in the market this soon, but am at least looking around for another ride down the line. If you had to put a gun to my head right now, I'd pick a blacked out Tahoe, but we'll see what happens.



I called Whitney on my way home to let her know what was up since I was heading to her house later that night. I told her I had some good news and some bad news. The good news was that I played softball great that day. The bad was that I backed into a moving truck. She probably just shook her head at me and like Cork, knew that it wouldn't be any shock to anyone. Back to softball though, if you've been reading along in the blogs for a while, you'll know the last Saturday of August we venture way out to Wallace. It's not really that far away from home, but it just seems like it is once you drive in that direction. It's an annual tradition for Cork's family to have a big reunion and to get the ball field rocking. I always go and have a blast, plus the food they have is top quality. As an added bonus, the church next to the field had a thing going on that evening where they had a band going. I was playing center field and right behind me the band was jamming as we played. That was a pretty good touch and I was rocking out while playing defense. And another mark on my side is that I got on base every time over the span of two games, not too shabby. It must've been all those wins that Gutta Connection put up over the summer that had Cork and myself doing our thing.

I've never watched much Dancing With The Stars before, but it seems that I may jump into it soon. Why's that? The Situation of Jersey Shore fame is supposedly going to be on the latest cast and you know I'm all about that. I'll give it a try for sure just due to him being on it to see what happens. That's also a great marketing tool the show did to offer him a spot because that will potentially get a lot of Shore viewers who might not have watched before (such as myself) to tune in. Some thought that the show was going to be a quick fad and fizzle out quickly, but it's still going strong and the ratings are very high for MTV standards. Season 3 is being filmed as we speak while Season 2 is currently being shown on Thursday nights. The Miami season that's on now has been really good in my opinion, but I know I'm biased anyways. It's a big hit between all of the Lobstah guys (http://ballsempire.com) which features some of the internet's biggest celebrities such as DerekHood, Blahah, DirtyKash, Corndog, Wilbur, The_Freak, and ManDingo just to name a few.



Movie review time. Friday night I went the chick flick route and I've always admitted I'm not above seeing those. Whitney picked The Last Song out of the Redbox machine and I knew she had been wanting to see it, so I was down. For those who are wondering which one this is, it's Miley Cyrus' recent movie. As a sidenote, how can you beat Redbox for just $1? You can't. Well, the only other option is to burn movies from the internet and go that route, but this is option B and it's really handy. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this movie was as it ended up receiving a really high grade from me after the credits rolled. Ironically, as it has happened a lot this summer, IMDB didn't agree with our thoughts. My final grade of this one? I went super high with an 8.9 and feel it's that good. Whitney agreed with my rating there. IMDB? 3.8. Ouch! It's also a big tearjerker if you're one of the weak at heart. If you've seen it, let me know what you thought, one way or another.

"Fly around mothas!" If you keep up with the Shinnston Flag Football League, you'll know those famous words from Commish Bart. The season is underway and I've been jacked up for this for quite a while. Well, the regular season doesn't start until September 5th (Happy Birthday to The Governor himself, Clark Riley), but everyone is zoned in and ready to rock. We've already been through mini-camps and this past weekend we had our preseason week of scrimmages. It's really organized and has talent all across the league that would open some eyes. A ton of the local legends are involved in this thing from roughly the ages of 20 through nearly 40. Our Gypsy Hill Giants are the oldest team in the league, but we're disciplined, have a great line, and still bring athleticism. I've written my season preview that is on the website, so I won't break things down here as well. As I said there, as far as my side goes, offense I can take it or leave it. I'll play some sets, but defense is my home. I've been playing safety and can't wait to roam the middle and stop the bombs from coming anywhere near my territory.



This past Sunday had a packed house at Timbertown Stadium in Lumberport. All teams were present for the preseason battles and it was intense. We had two scrimmages in our Giants jerseys, decked out from head to toe. As my softball strategy, win or lose, I want to look the best out there and our team looks sharp if I must say so myself. Farris ended up with a concussion, it gets fierce down there on the line in the trenches. That's why I stay out of that area as a little dude, I'll keep the secondary on lock. No major injuries thus far though and that's always a great start. Our first scrimmage we beat the kids from Bridgeport. They are probably the youngest team in the league and are a new addition to the league this season. We played excellent in that one and put up a shutout. The second game we played another youthful team (I guess every team is youthful to us, but these are the two youngest out there) and ended up getting beat by the North View Lions. I see a ton of promise from this team. They have that swagger, a bit of ego to go with it and they have been calling people out on the message board. It's good times, but I give my props to those guys, some of my guys I had in Liberty, home of ManDingo, when I subbed back in the day. They have a few guys who can flat out fly, we'll see what happens.

I'm just about done rambling on flag ball. This Sunday, we play the Raiders at 2:30, the second game of the day. They feature one of the best players in the league in Harmer. He had some awesome plays in Sunday's scrimmages, so he's going to be a force to be reckoned with. This team is quick and are manned by a few really good receivers with height to put our shorter secondary to the test. Again, for a cheap plug, visit our league's sites. First, we have the home page at http://sites.google.com/site/shinnstonflagfootballleague. Then we have the message board which has been rockin': http://shinnstonflagleague.proboards.com. Visit them both, you'll not be disapppointed, I can promise you that.



I sent out a tweet and asked my buddies if they had any input this week for the blog. I always like to get people involved just to switch up things and go different directions. We have a few guys who made the worthy cut and here are their exact words..

Answer: "Fun fact of the day. Answer has been to 5 of RAW's 900 episodes. Calculate that percent if u can or want." If you're lost, Monday was the 900th episode of WWE RAW for the wrestling folk out there. http://twitter.com/TheAnswer310

Walz: "Since college football starts tomorrow, throw this quote into the blog from me. I've heard WVU fans say their team will win 10 games this year. Those dumbasses are about as sharp as a pound of wet liver!" As a guy that doesn't root for WVU football, I actually think they're going to be pretty good this year. The running back crew is one of the best in the country I think and the defense all returns. Not sure I'd go 10 wins good though, we'll see. http://twitter.com/MWALZ9

Cork: This one I absolutely love. This is a tweet from Cork as he was venturing the mean streets of Clarksburg, Stealey section for this. The locals, you know the tobacco store that is located in the building that was a former house? The one near Dairy Queen and Vito's. "Taken in Clarksburg tonight. This shows in more ways than one why WV is last in everything. EGADS!!" http://twitpic.com/2k3r1r http://twitter.com/corkzillaWVU

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: An oldie but goodie. This never gets old to me and I'm sure you've seen it before, but you know you want to watch it again. A simple punch to the face.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. For a little random info, the date today is the only time it will happen. Yep, it's 90210 Day. I'm talking about the original series, not the most recent chapter, which I watched as well, but you can't compare to the original. Still lost? 9-2-10, September 2, 2010. In honor, I'll do my best Brandon Walsh impersonation by going back to 1990, greasing back my hair, and acting like a rich boy.

2. I'm itching for a new video game to buy. Why I'm bringing this up in here, who knows, but I like to just ramble even if it's to myself. I know for sure Call of Duty: Black Ops will be in my hand on 11-9-10. That's not even a debate. I may get another to hold me over and have my eye on FIFA Soccer 11 on September 28th. My theory is that there are rarely any bad soccer or hockey games. I'm not a huge "fan" of either sport as far as being dedicated, but video game wise you can't go wrong.

3. Let's end with some more fun facts. Apparently termites eat wood twice as fast when they listen to heavy metal. People really studied that and got paid for it? Amazing. Another? In New York City, approximately 1600 people are bitten by other humans each year, Tyson style. Ok, one more. Rats and horses can't vomit. You heard it here first people, go educate the world and I'll see you at the next blog!

Edge Boggess Spearing From The Boardwalk

Thanks to MrsAnswer for this week's blog title, I dig it a lot. Since I'm an admitted wrestling geek who follows it way too much, MrsAnswer thought this was fitting when she saw my name and then put that connection to it one day. As usual, we like when the readers submit things for the blog to give us some ideas. If you're not a wrestling fan, and that's basically all of you, then just keep reading and forget what I just said there.



Well well well, it's been a while and I know that. We're ready to rock and now that I'm back to work, it's time for a different schedule. I'm pumped to have things cool off a bit, but it still doesn't seem like anything is cooling considering it's early August. This is the earlier I've went to work in the year, but no complaints. I like my job a lot actually, minus waking up early, but if that's my only problem, then I have it made in the shade. TheAnswer said the other day that "I'm about ready for a trip to the Madhouse of Bird33". You can visit him at http://www.twitter.com/TheAnswer310. When people speak, I have to pay attention because this has been a drought. What does this blog have in store for everyone? You get another beach trip rundown, a movie review, flag football, CD reviews, fantasy football, dirty boardwalk time, and who knows what else is gonna go down. With that said, let's get right to it.

I must be a beach bum this year because this is the first time I've ever made two trips during the same summer. Back to Ocean City, Maryland it was. You really can't beat the drive there. 6-6½ hours is all it takes, so you're not miserable driving that distance. Plus, I'm a big fan of OC's setup and know my way around there well, so it's a winning choice and I recommend it if you've never been. For what it's worth, Cork says it is his favorite beach. Along for the ride on this trip was Whitney as it was just the two of us. I did the driving and don't really mind doing that for road trips. It's easier to ride, but I made it safe and sound. Whitney either trusts my driving by now or just accepts that I'll never be great at it, so she's locked in.



Riding along was of course our boy TomTom and Sirius radio. We had a nice mix of radio on the way down and back home. I got a big dose of my rap in, you know I need that on my road trips or I might not be able to function, Hip Hop Nation 40 and Shade 45 to be exact. Also in the rotation was Sirius Hits 1, which is a Top 40 type station. We even threw in some of The Highway in there, channel 60, country redneck style. Yes, I know I don't do hardly any of that, but some I can handle for periods, no biggie there.

As a side fact, it probably wasn't the safest thing that I brought wrestling DVDs along for the ride for when Whitney would fall asleep, but I was prepared. These were the documentary pieces more so than actual matches, so that made the drive safer than the alternative. One of my favorite wrestling DVDs of all time is The Rise and Fall of ECW. I'm obsessed by the original ECW as most know and it's probably my favorite period of wrestling ever, both to attend and watch. I watched all of it on the drive down. One of Cork's tweets while I was making the drive was this gem: "it scares me that you are driving and texting AND watching a dvd, hah". To visit Cork's Twitter, here you go: http://twitter.com/corkzillaWVU. On the way back home, I watched Straight Shootin' with Ron Killings, the artist known now as R-Truth. Probably not the safest thing to play with your phone while driving and watching DVDs, but there ya go, it made for nice drives. Plus the road trip I had random tweets and pics added on out of pure boredom: http://twitter.com/Bird33WV. Seeing a trend with all of these Twitter plugs? That's what I do.



Also along the way, it's never a bad time to do the license plate game on a road trip. It's simple and something about it, even if it is pointless, gets me interested every single time. I found a good app on my phone for it, so that was just an excuse for me to use it on the setup. The total number up and back that I counted ended up being 30 total states. This thing doesn't have Canadian provinces listed, but I did see some of those of course. Everyone has a different style with this it seems, so here's the deal and it might create some discussion. When you are on a trip, do parked cars count? I've heard both opinions on this, but I personally count the parked action too. Ozzie, I know agrees with me on this. The way I look at it, the obscure states are tough to find anyways, so you have to go that extra effort, even looking when you're not in the ride. Some of my favorites on this trip included: Colorado, Maine (Blahah territory), Minnesota, and Washington (Wilbur style). Hawaii was nowhere to be found, imagine that.

The weather on this trip was downright amazing. Once again, like the trip I had to OC a few weeks before this one, we had zero rain during the daytime. That's the most important time for the beach obviously, so we were out there doing our thing with no worries of rain. As Walz would say on his tweets, we showed the waves who was boss. Check out Walz's stuff at http://www.twitter.com/MWALZ9. I like cooler water, but this week seemed much cooler than the other recent trip I made. I liked it though, but one day a lifeguard said the water was 66 degrees. I believed it too, but it didn't keep us out of it by any means. The day after that, things warmed up in the water and it was fine. Cool, verging on cold, but that's definitely more refreshing than pool water that is as warm as wizz or however the saying goes.



Josh and Cill came down the day after we got there and stayed in the same hotel. We got to hang with them on the beach everyday and hit up some places with them at night. It worked out great and we had a blast with those two, so no complaints here. One of my favorite things to do at the beach is just to people watch on the boardwalk. Luckily, we were right on the boardwalk this time. Neither of us had ever stayed on the boardwalk before, so we were down to try it out. The place we stayed at I'd highly recommend. Safari Motel on 13th Street, it's oceanfront and was super clean. The staff went out of their way to make sure we had a great stay. If you know of OC, we were at the place with the infamous gorilla on the 4th floor balcony. That's the floor we stayed on, so that's the balcony we got to rock and people watch. We didn't see Ronnie roid rage and claim out, "One shot kid! One shot!", but it was still an entertaining experience. Speaking of the Shore clan, when we had our Shore shirts on one day, so many people kept asking us if we were from Jersey. You couldn't tell we sounded like hicks? Who knows, but we got a kick out of that.

I'll end with eats and I'm always down for some quality eating. As usual on this trip, I had to hit up my favorite place there, The Bonfire. I've talked about that before. Another place we enjoyed was Yokozuna, not to be confused with the former WWE Champion, rest in peace. This was a sushi house and all four of us hit this one up. The prices really weren't that much crazier than home, and I've quickly turned into a big sushi fan. This place is at the Gold Coast Mall, 114th Street. I'd recommend each of these. Those were my big two places, but we didn't have any bad food the entire stay. Thanks to Whitney's Grandma Lil, she loaded us up with tons of homemade pepperoni rolls. That was our beach food everyday and we could've sold those things down there and made a killing. The fellow West Virginians know what I'm talking about there. Mix all of that in with some dirty, greasy boardwalk food and you feel like a fat boy. Big props to Candy Kitchen. These stores are like a Waffle House in the south, you see them every two steps. Between the four of us, they loaded up on business that we gave them on the trip. Candy is one of my weaknesses, but I could have more addicting vices.



Movie time and this week we feature Charlie St Cloud. Yes, not a typical blood and guts guy movie, but I was down, so I went to see the action with Whitney. I wasn't sure if it'd be much of a movie or not, but you never know till you give it a try. Surprisingly, it ended up being a good movie. It was a very slow movie as far as movement, but that was probably my only complaint. The first part could've been a little shorter, but the last half hour was great. I'll warn people that it's a tearjerker, so this one may test your abilities to hold it in. IMDB at the moment has it at a rough 4.8. Dang, hard judges out there! Aside from Efron as the main star for the reason the chicks want to go see it, you also had Ray Liotta and Kim Basinger as other names. I also was surprised at Efron's age. Dude is gonna be 23 in October. My final grade? I'm dropping a big 7.7 on your heads for this movie, it's a good watch.

Football is here, so I'm going to break things down into several subtopics. First, we'll tackle (no pun intended) some flag style. That's right, the Shinnston Flag Football League returns! For those in the league last year, you know it was a great time. Plus, we also did our thing on the website as well as the message board. I'm all about message board ramblings, so that has me written all over it. This season, I signed my contract with the Gypsy Hill Giants. You can't go wrong with a team based out of Gypsy Hill, that equals toughness times twenty. The G-Men have a solid roster forming, so it should be a fun year. I played for the Green Machine last season. We had some crazy athleticism out there, at one point having the most college athletes, but it didn't mesh well and we got rocked, I won't lie. The crew we have this year, I'm just as excited about. Myself personally, I'm just ready to rock out some secondary play. This old man still has his quickness and endurance, hopefully that sticks with me for a bit longer. It's always fun to see who has zero cardio shape, even though they may have the athleticism, this league will test those types. I like playing defense much more than offense. It's definitely a speed game, but our lineman aren't left out in the hunt. If you want to get in the trenches, these guys are bringing some serious punishment. They literally get to bust each other up and blood will be a flying. Hopefully this year doesn't have many injuries because last season had quite a few, namely Big E Ferris' ACL tearing which was rough to see in person. Most of you have seen updated through Facebook already thanks to my posts and Commissioner Bart doing his thing, but I'll be sure to provide commentary as we go. Tickets are already on sale now. Come see the games at Lumberport Middle School's football field, it's Timbertown ready. Visit the league website at https://sites.google.com/site/shinnstonflagfootballleague and our message board at http://shinnstonflagleague.proboards.com. If that's not enough, we even have a Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SFLTweet2010.



Speaking of football, let's now focus on fantasy football. This year I'm going to be in three fantasy leagues. I don't like being in a ton, that way you can give focus to just a few and really concentrate. The guys that end up doing that, in my opinion, don't put as much effort into the individual league if it's too much to handle. On the NFL side of things, I'm in the infamous A#FL that consists of 18 of the internet's finest. This is ran by Commish Uncle Wilbur as he's one of the quality people out there. Wilbur is also a regular reader and contributor to this very blog, so it's much appreciated. That league is already drafted and I'll post my roster in a second, not that you care. The second league I'm in is Shinnston Fantasy Football. Our draft for that is on Monday, September 6th. This is a super rare case that I won't be watching wrestling live as it happens. I know, shocker to anyone who knows me. Life isn't easy sometimes, but we all have sacrifices to make. That is a 10-man league and we draft that one in person, ran by Commish Sweet P.

To give a rundown of A#FL, here is your list of internet celebrities and local legends making up this beast of a crew. In no particular order, we have Kasher (Canada), Neon (Canada), TMac (Canada), Blahah the Great (Maine), Trev (WV), Posey (WV), Duce (Philly), Cork (WV), MrsAnswer (PA, formerly Vegas), The_Freak (MD), Don-G (Canada), TheAnswer (PA, formerly Vegas), Walz (WV), Wilbur (the state of Washington), DerekHood (Arkansas), Bono (Houston), Corndog (WV), and myself. We always joke that our online leagues are West Virginia and Canadian dudes, mixed in with people from all areas scattered in between. Also, our leagues are competitive, so you better be on top of your game to win these things, it's not for the weak at heart.



And now.. yourrrr 2010 Cincinnati Celtics! Yes, the A#FL comes from the AFL and our team names are based on former AFL league teams. I knew you were wondering. Remember, it's a deep league so you gotta dig after a while late in the rounds to show you know your stuff in order to succeed. The third league I'm in is our college keeper league and it's pretty intense. Duce Heisman Trophy League is what that one runs as, but I'll talk about that at a later time. Anywhere, here are your Celts!

QB: Tom Brady - New England (keeper from 2009-2010)
QB: Matt Leinart - Arizona
QB: Jimmy Clausen - Carolina
RB: Beanie Wells - Arizona (keeper)
RB: Matt Forte - Chicago (keeper)
RB: Marshawn Lynch - Buffalo
RB: Glen Coffee - San Francisco (retired at age 23?!)
WR: Mike Sims-Walker - Jacksonville
WR: TJ Houshmanzadeh - Seattle
WR: Demaryius Thomas - Denver
WR: Brandon Gibson - St Louis
TE: Kellen "Soldjah" Winslow - Tampa Bay
TE: Anthony Fasano - Miami
K: Stephen Gostkowski - New England
D: Tampa Bay

You want a few CD reviews? Ok, since you asked nicely, here you go..



Eminem: Recovery. This couldn't possibly be any worse than Em's last release. His last one, we'll pretend that one didn't even exist. Now he's back with a vengeance and this one is impressive in my mind. Lyrically, Em speaks it this time instead of going with the comedy route and tells a good story on his recovery. I'm not sure there's any I disliked much on this, so you can't go wrong. Ones to get are Talkin' 2 Myself, Going Through Changes which features a mix of Ozzy, No Love with Lil Wayne, and a slow down with Rihanna that has been relased, Love The Way You Lie. We're giving this two thumbs up, a nice "recovery" from that last CD which was garbage.

Nas & Damian Marley: Distant Relatives. Going into getting this CD, I was confused at this mix of talent. I'll be honest, I know basically nothing on Damian Marley other than who he is and having heard just a few songs. Nas on the other hand, one of the best that has done it if you ask me. Apparently from the Damian fans, he's solid too. It seems like a weird concept on paper, but it actually worked very well. I enjoyed this change of pace here and they fit in together. How about trying to find Leaders, As We Enter, and Count Your Blessings. Nas kills it on his verses of Count Your Blessings.

Rick Ross: Teflon Don. This is solid here, although I've heard some of my buddies say he comes off too soft in this one. He's cheesy, but plays his "character" great I think, even if he's been called out for it numerous times. I still like his jams. Every song features someone with him, so not sure how I totally feel about that, but it works for the most part on this album. Who is on this to give some examples? Jay-Z, T.I., Gucci Mane, Jadakiss, Kanye, Cee-Lo, Ne-Yo, Trey Songz, Diddy, Styles P, Drake, and Raphael Saadiq. That's power. Ones I like best on this are: Tears of Joy with Cee-Lo, Live Fast, Die Young featuring Kanye, Free Mason with Jay-Z, and the banger known as Blowin' Money Fast that you've all heard with Styles P, "I think I'm big Meech Larry Hoover, whipping work, halleujah.."



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: We go to DerekHood for this week's submission. If you're an internet freak, you're familiar with the "no homo" comment and how you use that line. If you're not, then maybe this video won't be as funny to you, but this one goes with the "no racial". Good stuff.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Did you know that Brett Favre cooked honey chicken tonight? Did you know he tied his shoes four minutes ago? Did you know he sat on his couch? I crack up how ESPN reports every single move this guy does and I'm a person that doesn't mind Favre. Corndog is pumped up though like no other. I think the old man still has game left, just don't update me every 2.3 seconds.

2. Polls show that 40% of dog and cat owners carry a picture of their pet in their wallet.. In Los Angeles, there are more cars than people.. An average person laughs 15 times per day.

3. Did You Know? In the epic movie Scarface, the f-bomb is thrown a total of 207 times. That's an average of 1.22 per minute. And my theory as always here? The censored version of Scarface and uncensored versions are two completely different things. The censored version doesn't exist to me.

"A Mouthful of Gravel or Shit"

Yep, I still exist. The good thing is that I have a bunch of topics to throw in here each time you read these now. I never set a certain time to get a blog in by. I usually judge it by instinct. The crew that reads these, you guys are usually good at letting me know when I'm way overdue. Either that or I'll wait till I have a nice selection of topics to ramble and rumble about. That's what it's all about anyways, just going with the flow of randomness and I love getting in these just for the pure fun of it. That or maybe I have nothing else better to do. Probably a little bit of both. You're asking, what does this issue hold? I'm going to tell you. We go to my first beach trip in six years, Kari and Matty Cakes' Bash, Echofon's greatness, Beavis and Butt-head returning (oh my!), another beach trip in the works soon, Jersey Shore, being a sucker for cheap t-shirts, Wade F. Maley Field, Whitman Creek, roid freaks, and whatever else we want to throw in the mix. Here we go, it's time to rock yet again!



The title of this blog? I threw up a FB topic the other day saying how I must be missing out on all of this Jimmy Buffett and/or Dave Matthews Band frenzy that a ton of people are into. I said that's definitely cool, I'm not a hater of those, but they just never appealed to me. That topic blew up and got tons of opinions on the matter, check it out if you already haven't. You get opinions from all walks of life on that one, with some agreeing, while others like one and not the other, and some like both. Anyways, Corndog gave me the idea to use one of those classic quotes from my FB comments as this week's title. Thanks to Chrissy DeMarco, she gets all credit for this quote. Also, bonus points for her being a Class of 97 member and one of my friends who has always kept things real and honest, didn't change a bit, I like that. Here is what she said exactly: "I like Buffett, he has some entertaining lyrics...if you like to drink lol...that's the only time I listen to him. I started liking him when I lived in Florida and went to the bars on the beach, go figure ;-] As for Dave Matthews Band, I absolutely HATE that guys voice, sounds like he has a mouthful of either gravel or shit lol.." There you go folks, that's your topic this week. Also in that mix of comments are words of wisdom from DerekHood and Corndog just to name a few, you can't go wrong.

Really, one of the greatest TV shows of all time may return soon? Say it ain't so! I hope it is so. What's that you ask? Beavis and Butt-head, what else? I know at least in my age group of old dudes, all of my buddies who have seen this are all about the possibilities and want it to happen. To this day, if Beavis reruns are on TV, I'm going to stop and check it out. That doesn't count for the fact that I have every episode here at the house regardless, but you know how it goes. Creator Mike Judge apparently has been working on 30 episodes. I may be an old man or on my way to being, but I'll never grow up in a lot of ways. Beavis is one for sure that hasn't turned old on me, so I'm all about this return if it's really going to happen. Thanks to TheAnswer, he provided us with this link, check it for yourself on the details: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/geekboymovienews/news/?a=19873.



Speaking of TV, I'm a TV junkie like no other. As everyone else would say, without DVR, we'd all be in trouble. It's a big TV time of the year for me. For one, we have July 29th being a huge one in my point of view. Jersey Shore, Season 2! Yes, this crew is cheesy, but it makes for great entertainment, even if they are characters more so than "reality". I'm also excited that the entire crew (minus Angelina) will be back for Season 3 as they will get $40,000 per episode, big ballin'. I'm a big supporter and it seems like it's been a long wait since the inaugural season. I may break down Big Brother in one of my upcoming blogs as well, this is a show I can't miss and even though I've just started getting into it over the past year or so, I'm hooked. It's a commitment though, as you have three nights a week to watch, but once you start watching, chances are you'll enjoy it, but what do I know. More reality? This one I have no reason why I watch, but Teen Mom on MTV. These pointless MTV shows suck me in and the people on this show are over the top. It's a drama fest, which I why I watch Jersey, Real World, Big Brother, etc, so it's in my wheelhouse. Kids having kids, ridiculous. There was a marathon on the other day and it's so bad it's good, so I just kept watching like an idiot. Thanks MTV for shrinking my brain cells.

Family bash a few weeks ago, hosted by Kari and Matty Cakes. I'm a family guy and it never gets old hanging around my fam. Dad always jokes that a "family man" is one that has a family here, a family there, something you don't want to be, but I'll be the other kind of family guy. Shawn Kemp style. No stray kids for me running around the streets, forget that mess. Anyways, the food as usual, top notch. You've heard my speeches before, I'll put my family's cooking up against anyone out there and fairly confident it's going to hold up to be legit. The winner of the cooking side of things this time was my Aunt Linda. She was presented with the golden engraved trophy and gets to hold onto it till the next family eating celebration. The question is, will she hold onto that trophy and remain champion or will someone swoop in out of nowhere and snatch it up? A new one to me were meatballs she brought in that were cooked in grape jelly as one ingredient I know for sure. It sounds weird, I know. I said the exact same, but I'm never above at least trying different foods. It's a good thing I did, because these things were out of this world! I'm not joking either, I could've made a meal just on that alone. Another hit of hers was the spinach dip she made. A few were asking for the recipe on that one. That's not even mentioning the other great food the rest of the fam brought in, mmmm mmmm good! Also we had cornhole excitement happening in the back yard. I love Kari and Matty Cakes' house, it's an awesome setup. We had several couple duos and Whitney stepped up on my side and showed she has some quality cornhole skills, so we'll continue our run. We won our first matchup by a pretty big margin, but ended up losing in the 2nd Round. After that, it was go time since I had to wake up for the beach trip at 4:00 in the morning.



I hadn't been to the beach since 2004. Yep, six years. I used to go just about every single year and then after a while, we stopped going. Dad and myself aren't really beach bums, but we know Mom has been wanting to go back for a long time now. Out of nowhere, Dad said that we should take Mom and make it a family trip. I was down, so why not roll with it. The destination? Ocean City, Maryland. I think I'm the only person in Shinnston who hasn't been to Myrtle. The way I look at it, I'm sure Myrtle is awesome, but I've always been a big OC fan and it's a much shorter drive. I've done Virginia Beach too and liked it there as well. It's a bit over 6 hours and we went in a new way this year. We came in on the Delaware side, ending up in the Fenwick section and coming in at North Ocean City. We stayed on 126th, so that was to our benefit anyways. TomTom was at our side and good ol' Tom got us there exactly. Even when we had a detour due to a big wreck, that ended up taking us on the Delaware side and that's the direction I may go from now on, a lot of that drive on that side is easy. That part of Delaware was all country for the most part, farm lands and had a redneck feel, I liked it.

The amount of food I ate that week, no clue how I'm not 400 pounds. Luckily, I'm glad of that and my high metabolism, but I'm sure it'll catch up to me soon enough. By far my favorite place to eat at OC is The Bonfire, on 71st Street. It's an all you can eat seafood/prime rib place and it booms the business. I was a fat boy and had a few prime ribs and enough crab legs to feed Zimbabwe, not to mention salmon, shrimp, and whatever else you can think of. If you leave this place hungry, something is definitely wrong with you. It's a place I'll hit up on every trip here and I highly recommend it if you're in the area.



As far as the beach side of things is considered, we couldn't have asked for a better week. We didn't have one single day where it rained during beach time. It rained one morning lightly and then one evening around 5:00 it was a little downpour, but nothing else. We were as lucky as you could get there. Plus, the water temperature was just about perfect. It didn't feel like warm pool water nor was it on the way cold side, it was right in the middle, refreshing. The waves were also rockin' this week too. We were in high tide levels for many parts of our days and some warnings were out, so that gave us some big ones to fight through. As Walz said on Twitter (http://twitter.com/mwalz9) that week, "Enough sleeping in...@Bird33WV needs to get up and show the waves who's boss!" That I did too. Speaking of Twitter, more on that here in a bit.

On the workout scene, I hit up Gold's Gym a few days and really liked their setup they had in OC. I would've hated myself by missing workout time, always have been that way. I know I'm a little dude, but one thing I've been dedicated to for a long time is working out and staying in good shape. The area we were at, there weren't many so-called in shape people like you'd expect on the beach. Gold's had just about all types of people working out, so you didn't feel out of place, but they had some insanely roided out freaks too. Heavy juicing going on with some of these guys and not that I'd ever wanna be on roids, but these dudes were literally oozing, freaks of nature to see. They could floss their teeth with me, not like that is saying much, tipping the scales at 158.3 today, beastly. It'll be interesting to see what they are like years down the line, to if they are injured somehow. I hope not though for their case. Or they may end up like some of the old local roiders, looked great back in the day, but when they got off the juice, turned into a complete mess. It's sad to see happen, but just how it goes a lot of times.



Dirty boardwalk time. I'm a fan of the boardwalk scene. I know it's mainly cheap shops and the like, but you also see some true characters down there. I'm a total sucker for cheap and goofy t-shirts too and loaded up on more than I need while there. Like I need anymore clothes. Since I brought up Jersey Shore, I got several shirts of that line being the dork I am. One of my faves is one of The Godfather logo, except this one has Italian colors and The Situation on it instead. A fist pump shirt or two, some Italian soccer tees and you see what I was after. And I had to a classic Italian Stallion shirt just because it's funny to me in my weird sense of humor. The only non-Italian shirt I got on this trip was an old school Legend of Zelda creation. You know you're whistling the theme music right now for Zelda. What else was I a big fan of on the boardwalk? Since everyone needs a little bit of a kid mentality at times not to feel old, say hello to Candy Kitchen. These stores seemed like they were every two feet in OC and they saw me coming. Yes, I'm a total candy freak as everyone knows, good stuff. I could be hooked on worse I always say. The beach trip was well overdue, so much that Whitney and I are hitting it back up during the first week of August, the week before I start back up to work, that should be a quality trip, more on that as it happens. I'm pretty pumped up to say the least on that one, it'll be even better than the first I predict.

Everyone is probably sick of my plugging of Twitter, but I'm zoned into that like no other. I'll branch a different route and give my favorite Twitter app. What is that one? Echofon. There are so many out there, but this in my opinion gets two big thumbs up. I even have a version of Echofon through the Firefox browser if you use that. The thing I like about the phone version is that you can do a "nearby tweets" search. In my area at home, Twitter use is fairly low scale and not much happens as far as tons of people using it. At the beach, I clicked the nearby thing and tweets pop up all the time. It pinpoints the exact area to the street if you're nosy and for some reason, reading random tweets and going back and forth with bums was highly entertaining to me. To the locals, the pinpoints of my area even shows such landmarks as Wade F. Maley Field, Stydahar Field, and the Barnes Cemetery. It lists them exactly as that through, which cracks me up. Wade F. Maley Field, home of the infamous camel we have in town named Punjab. Yes, a camel in Shinnston. Well, Bethlehem if you want to get technical, but less than a mile or two from my house.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Corndog is providing once again. He texted me and says, "Did u see the logan county water slide?" We're going to scenic Logan County, West Virginia for this one. Apparently someone (Corndog probably even knows them since he's the Mayor of Whitman Creek and a popular internet commodity) made a homemade 100 foot water slide. Only in West Virginia, but I have to admit, I'd get on that "slide" and would have a blast. I'm not sure what that says for myself, but I bet most of you would too. Here is the short clip:



3 Quick Thangs:

1. I asked The_Freak if he had anything to contribute to the blog this week. Right on cue, he says..

The_Freak: There's a dude I know of. I went to high school with him. He is a cheerleader for a professional team. He always refers to them as "we", and has actually referred to himself as "part of the team". Dude, you're a cheerleader, not a guy on the practice squad, or even on special teams.
The_Freak: I hate when people say "we" when they're NOT on a team.
Me: I fall victim to the "we" thing too much too, guilty.
The_Freak: yes but you didn't put a big status with "this hurts so bad, it's the hardest part of being a part of this team. i'm sick to my stomach".

Zing! I laughed anyways.

2. The one and only Slider the Great is getting excited for this day and glad I can be a part of it. In his latest tweet, he pulls out this gem: "New Simmons mailbag and a possibly a new blog from @Bird33WV in the same day?! This is going to be a good Friday." I hope I have a worthy blog for him this time around, it's a tough judging panel to make proud and filled with pressure, but they still crave the action. Slider's Twitter can be found here: http://twitter.com/mchapman3.

3. I might as well keep the trend and roll with the basis on a lot of my regular blog readers/buds/Twitter posters and give out another plug. You've all heard about the smooth and clever DirtyKash. If you haven't, either you're living under a rock or haven't read many of my blogs. We go all the way to northeast Canada for his stomping grounds. I may have even plugged it before, probably so, but that shows it's packed with goodness. Check it out at http://twitter.com/notdirtykash.

Real World: West Virginia, July 4th Bash For Sodahead13!

Maybe I just take breaks between blogs so I have a lot of stories to write about. Who knows, but that sounds like a good enough explanation. July 4th has passed and technically, over half the year is over with around this time of year. That means it's the prime time of summer and we've been getting scorched. Get your sunblock ready because this is gonna be a ride along the road of a variety of topics. What are you getting in this edition? Here's a quick preview: Two movie reviews of Valentine's Day and Eclipse, Tosh.0, Real World: New Orleans, two July 4th celebration bashes, Sodahead13, UFC 116, and whatever else we deem worthy. Away we go!



I'm going to start off with TV action. Come to think of it, I write a lot about TV stuff, guess I have too much time on my hands. I think that's a good thing though, it could be much worse. We're going the Comedy Central route. For being a guy that likes to goof off and laugh, I surprisingly don't watch a lot of that channel. Some things I will, but it's surely not in my regular rotation like it is to some other people. This one comes to the blog with a recommendation from Abby and Pat and it's one you have to put on the DVR circuit. Tosh.0. Daniel Tosh is the host if you know of him and the concept of this show is right up my alley. It uses a lot of internet clips and spins it in a hilarious way. Some of the things on here are over the top, but that makes it great. Think of a web version of Talk Soup. Why didn't I get to this job first? Each week they also do a segment showing a web redemption. These will feature popular internet vids we've all seen and watched a zillion times of people failing. Tosh brings these people in and recreates the vid and gives them a chance to make good of it. There's been a lot, one of the better ones was having Afro Ninja appear. You all know him, the dude who tries the backflip with his nunchucks and gets mangled. Wednesday nights, 10:30 EST.

Let's now jump from TV and hit the movie scene. Don't worry, we'll get back to the TV talk before we're finished up. Two movies to talk about and give my review, both of which receive big time grades from me. The first was a rental as I didn't see it when it came out in theaters, Valentine's Day. Yes, a chick flick, but you know my theory on those. Maybe it's not super manly of me to admit, but I don't mind a good chick flick at all, I'm down for that. The cast of this movie alone is pretty impressive as there are names upon names. Who? Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, George Lopez, Anne Hathaway, Queen Latifah, Jacob of Twilight fame, Taylor Swift, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, and that's just some. The storyline of this I thought was really good too. You had a mix of things going on with all of these characters and they all got nice time throughout the movie. I'm going with a high grade on this one. IMDB at the moment has it at a 5.7. I'm going much higher and Whitney would agree. How about 8.5 Hollywood stars out of 10?



We now hit up the theater. On Monday afternoon, Whitney and myself trekked it to our mall to see the action known as The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. I'm a person that has wrote about the books before and even the movies. The books were great. You may enjoy them even if it's not a topic you'd think you would be into. I thought the same, I will call it the Harry Potter theory. The Harry trailers are great as well if you haven't seen yet if you're into that type of thing. Now onto Eclipse, not to get sidetracked. I'm going to start off by saying this is the best of the three released movies so far of the Twilight group, at least in my opinion. The second I didn't fully see though as I fell asleep through a lot of it, but did wake up for the ending scenes. This one is legit and even if you haven't read the books, you'd be able to follow along for this movie. The fight scenes I thought were very well done. Outside of the wolves looking cheesy to me, everything else was smooth as all gets. A woman answered her cell phone during the later part of this movie and people weren't happy. She soon told the person she'd call them later, smart move. Her phone almost got smashed into pieces. Also, if you've yet to see the Jersey Shore parody of this, you have to search for that video, it's awesome. July 29th, Season 2 of Jersey Shore! Anyways, for some reason this one got ripped apart on IMDB, a 4.5 as we type this up. In my ranks? I'm going to actually double this thing up. Yes, I'm not kidding. We're going 9 bloody vampires out of 10, go see it.

How'd the fireworks of July 4th treat everyone? Since I'm in a booming metropolis, we not only had one, but two fireworks specials in my area. The population is so huge, that's the only way they were able to do it. Friday night, the crew rolled up to Nutter Fort, home of Cork and fellow internet celebrity ManDingo. The name of the event? The Cork and Kristin Rife Nutter Fort July 4th Extravaganza. It's never a bad time when you get the gang together, mix that in with some great food and you're set. I was there to retain my cornhole title from last year that Spank and I won. Due to that, we rode through the streets of Nutter Fort on a golden float and hoisted our trophies for the world to see. This year? Spank went bigger city and went to the Bucs game to watch the fireworks, so I was in need of a partner. In steps Big Zo Daddy, always one that will get the party laughing good, so we became the Italian machismo as we teamed up together. We didn't play bad, but not anything worth writing home about. After the loss, I walked down to the park which is only a little over a block away from Cork's house which makes it easy. It was a madhouse down there with booths upon booths of vendors and people running galore. Our mission was to hit up the funnel cake stand. Can you ever pass up a funnel cake? Nope, you can't. These people made a killing! Not only the funnel cake people, but every other booth was jammed packed. How much? $5 per cake. Ouch! Since it was a special day, you pay that for the cake and get on with it. The crazy thing is that you waited in a line to pay and then after paying you were sent to another line to pick it up. It was a good 30-45 minutes waiting on that beast, but yum!



As we walked back, the fireworks had started up. No hands were blown off that I know of, so chalk one up for the good guys this year. Last year at Nutter Fort, the fireworks side of things, everyone was a bit disappointed about. This year, upon hearing the criticism of the year before, they brought their game and flexed their guns. A very solid display and everyone went home, happy due to it. The weird thing and maybe since it's more city limit type thing, I didn't hear hardly any redneck shotguns going off during the night. You hear that a lot closer to my town though, but more on that in a second. The night was ended with beer pong festivities. I played a game, but since I don't drink at all, it was kind of pointless for me since there were no consequences to myself. It wasn't like my basketball shooting ability, I wasn't anything special during this and I'll retire from the sport after one game. However, the big war was Cork and Trev teaming up against Ozzie and Matty Cakes. That was epic stuff while the fans watched as you had Cork and Trev on fire for a while and doing some major trash talk. Then you'd have the other side get on a run and out would come the infamous Ozzie Dance. You know it's a serious series of games when you have the trash talk on one side and the dancing on the other. Needless to say, the fans watching were the winners here. Cork and Trev were on a massive run to where they were almost unbeatable and then Ozzie and Matty Cakes pulled the rug under their feet to swoop in for the series win. They are this year's winners and will ride in the parade. All in all, a great time and the blog would once again like to thank Cork and Kristin for throwing the bash.

If Friday's fireworks weren't enough, how about Sunday? That was the actual July 4th day, so the pressure was on. Nutter Fort set the bar and basically told Shinnston to beat that one. Since Shinnston is now considered unsafe and ran by terrorists, anything was bound to happen on this night. By the way, that's a little inside thing that nobody outside of our area is going to pick up on. Fellow blog readers from lands of afar, I always say, there's something in here for everyone. The good of this night was that it was walking distance. Our fireworks are always in the mean streets of East Shinnston, my territory and my house is about a block or two away from the park. Yep, you get a great view without even walking out to the park from where we are. Another good thing, four houses down was Whitney's family bash, so we had two spots within a few steps from each other. You can't beat that with a stick. I may have ate the best ribs of my entire life that night, thanks to some mix of them being soaked in Coke and then the ultimate was put on, Sweet Baby Ray's. This night also featured cornhole action and we had some great battles. I teamed up with Big Ev and during one game against Simzilla and Ski, we were up 18-0 before we pulled the win. Another game we were down 19-9 (playing to 21 of course) and came back to get the epic comeback. I think after we stuffed ourselves with food, our cornhole mentality of wanting to slice the opponents' throats died down a bit. We started out as Kobe and ended up as LeBron I guess you could say.



The fireworks in Shinnston are almost always good. I think that's where we spend a lot of the town budget on. As of a few years ago, I'd definitely say that as we had very little, but our park is pretty nice and then we finally got our new basketball courts a while back that we've desperately been in need of 20 years prior. I'm giving the slight nod this year in the battle of fireworks to Shinnston, but Nutter Fort put up the valiant fight this year as compared to next. For what it's worth, the town of Enterprise didn't get blown into little pieces this year either like it did last time around. Word has it that they may be doing it there this weekend? Ouch. Should be interesting. Anyways, like we thanked the Nutter Fort bunch at Cork and Kristin's bash, we'd like to thank the Boggess and Southern clans for doing it up large in East Shinnston.

Let's flip the switch back to TV. I told you we'd be here soon enough and you were patient to wait for it. Real World: New Orleans started up last week and after the first episode, it's time to rock. It can't be any worse than last year, so that's a plus if nothing else. I'll give a real quick character analysis not to bore everyone with. This is a show that I watch every single season and still haven't lost my luster to want to stop doing so. I'll list them in the order they were presented on the first episode. Knight (his last name, but he wants to go by it) is 23 and from Wisconsin. He's a hockey player who got hurt and then addicted to pain pills. He's been through drug rehab. That is a great mix for a Real World character, he should fit in just fine for our weekly TV watching. Then we get Jemmye, who is 21 and from Mississippi. Yes, it's a girl's name, but it's pronounced like the name Jimmy. Strange. She has a crazy accent which I love, but the rest of her, thumbs down. She, at least on first appearance, is the slutty chick of this bunch and has been called out for that already. She's also been called white trash and has her unknown parts pierced is what I'll say. McKenzie, 21 from Florida. She's the typical beach girl. She's cute, but seems like a cookie cutter blonde to me. I don't know much on her actual character thus far into the season though.



Next up is Preston, 22 from Boston. He's the gay dude of the bunch and has been getting reviews online for looking a whole lot like Rajon Rondo. I'd agree to that too. Sometime this season, apparently he wizzes on Ryan's toothbrush, scrubs it around the toilet bowl, and then puts it back. Ryan gets sick and then it breaks bad? I dunno on that, just internet rumors I've heard. That's messed up, but again, that's awesome TV. Ashley, 23, also from Boston. She's originally from Jersey. She's a basketball chick, sells power tools, and has Jolie lips. She's not blow away gorgeous, but she's cute on a scale that she seems like a regular girl hanging out. Eric, 24 and from Virginia. He's the grandpa of this group. He's an international diplomat that is part of security, whatever that entails. He's also supposedly a comedian, but early on hasn't been funny. He hasn't generated a huge character yet either. Sahar, 21 from Michigan. She's never lived away and is one that has somewhat of a man back home. That basically means she'll cheat on him and it'll be crying on the phone with this guy. Those types of characters are brutal, but she's my favorite one so far based on looks if nothing else. Last but not least, Ryan, 21 from Arizona. He's a hair stylist and has already created so much hate that it's been awesome for TV. He bounces off the walls more than I do, way hyper, and has been drugged out before. On the first day, he already had the house fired up with him. He acted like a baby because he didn't want to stay with Knight, bashed Preston for being gay, and called Jimmy a white trash bum in other terms. Jump in on this season, it's a must!

It's past the fact, but UFC 116 was awesome. If you saw my FB posts during the show, it was in my opinion, one of the better all around UFC shows in quite some time. There wasn't a bad match on the show in my mind and there were three that ended up being off the chain good. The main event was why everyone got it, but it was only the third best fight on my ranks and that's saying quite a lot because the main was amazing. Fight of the night to me was my boy Chris "The Crippler" Leben going at it against Sexyama. These guys went at it like no other. The crazy thing was that Leben did this fight on less than 2 WEEKS notice. That shows how nuts Leben is and he won this thing on top. Afterwards, he called out none other than The Axe Murderer himself, Wanderlei Silva. I'm not quite sure that's the smart move to make, but I'm a huge fan of both of those dudes and want to see this fight happen. Another that could've been fight of the night was Stephan Bonnar being yet another bloody mess by winning against Krzysztof Soszynski. Bonnar really is the American Psycho. This dude takes a pounding and keeps going forward like no other. Then we go to the main. Lesnar was absolutely mangled in the 1st Round, taking a crushing and if it weren't Lesnar, it would've been called. 2nd Round, Carwin was gassed and then got locked up in a submission and it was all but over with. Carwin got some major respect after this one, but Lesnar shows again that he's a beast. Time for Velasquez/Lesnar.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Sodahead13 makes it on Tosh.0. In this one, he's chugging his Coke. One weird looking dude and his expressions and saying are quality. "That was Sodahead13 and he likes to crank music and chug soda." Ok, here we go. "YEEEEEEEEAAAAHHHHYUH!" It wouldn't let me embed from that vid, so here's just the regular link, click on this thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLosTy6nOj8&feature=related

3 Quick Thangs:

1. Gutter Connection softball, only a few more weeks left of play for some of Shinnston's finest. I'll be sure to keep everyone up to date as I have all year long, with FB and especially Twitter. Yep, time for another cheap Twitter plug: http://twitter.com/Bird33WV.

2. Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, Season 3: Monday, July 12th on MTV. Of course, that's on wrestling night for me, so it'll have to take the DVR seat because nothing trumps WWE RAW for me on Monday TV. Yes, I realize I'm a dork, but to me, that's what Mondays are all about.

3. As if the world hasn't already been waiting for it, both Mike Tyson and LeBron James finally have Twitter accounts. Get on that.

Hangin' With The King in Charleston

Hola to all who are sitting around their computers and reading this action. We're due for a post and I know that, but with the few week absence, we have a ton of good stories to tell. Quickly, our stories this time include the Charleston trip with Whitney and Corndog, hanging with Jerry "The King" Lawler, Cupcake Pebbles, World Cup, vuvuzelas, Gutter Connection, podcasts, iPod games, Lakers/Celtics, possibly the best CD of 2010, and a ton more! Gear up, here we go for this ride!



I'm going to start off road trip style. As you all know by now, these blogs are easy to write up when a road trip is concerned. This one takes us to scenic Charleston, West Virginia. The reason we went was to see a West Virginia Power baseball game. If you remember from last summer, this was the team that we saw last summer where Corndog and myself got to meet and hang with none other than Mr. Belding of Saved By The Bell fame. This year another celebrity was involved, wrestling legend Jerry "The King" Lawler, but more on him in a bit. First, I have to set the tone, right? Along for the ride was Whitney and then we were to meet up with fellow internet celebrity Corndog. You know a good time is about to ensue when Corndog is involved. Whitney had never met him in person before, so she was in for a treat as Corndog is one of the true good guys out there. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he makes our redneck accents sound tame and he's a funny cat on top of that. He's a big goofball like myself.

With our Lobstah message board crew, which is my #1 bookmark that I check every day about four zillion times, Corndog has an idea he wants to start up. I'm not sure how well it'll work, but I think several of us would be on board. His idea is to have a Lobstah cheap t-shirt trade of sorts where you send out random shirts true to your own area out to others in the crew. Just off the top of my head, and the locals bear with me a second while I go through a few things for the internet guys, I think these guys would be interested right away: DerekHood, Wilbur, TheAnswer, ManDingo, Walz, and Blahah. I'd also guess that blog residents The_Freak and Kasher would be on board possibly. Corndog hooked me up good with a "Jersey Shore Fist Pump Champ" shirt that I'll proudly rock. In turn, I came in with goodies too as I brought in four Goodwill shirts that I got earlier that week in Corndog's size just because they are out there and weird. One was for some ATV run in our area, another was a challenger's division of Little League around here that is the handicapped league in Bridgeport, a book shirt that said something about just saying no and it was just strange, and lastly I had a local basketball shirt in the mix. Maybe I'm easily entertained, but I like going to Goodwill every so often to get random shirts to cut up to workout or play ball in. You never know what kind of reactions you'll get wearing these shirts. A new one of mine for example? It says Old Bats up top and ladies softball at the bottom with girls crossed out. In the middle is a logo of two bats crossing and a walker next to it. On the back, #6, Bill Russell style. Yep, I have no problems wearing abnormal stuff out like this in public.



We drive to Appalachian Power Park, which again is beautiful. Another trip may be scheduled next month. We arrived by the Corndog Navigation System as he got us right on point. Outside of that part, TomTom was my buddy. While at the game, we at first wanted to meet up with Lawler. I'm not a huge autograph buff, but since it was a bit different, I had him sign a baseball for me. Corn steps up first in line and chit chats it up. First off, Lawler seemed like he really wanted to be there and wasn't being miserable as a guest. He gave everyone time to talk and is super personal. Corndog told Lawler a story from years ago to see if he remembered. In a nutshell and I may be off a bit, but Lawler was at an indy wrestling show in Corndog Land at the time. One of Corndog's buddies was running the sound for the show and nobody brought in Lawler's music. A call to Corndog and that was fixed, he saved the night. Of course, Lawler remembered the action.

This was the lead in for the conversation and then Corndog asked the ultimate. I told him I doubt he would let him, but he asked Lawler if he could get a pic with the infamous crown. He obliged and it wasn't a problem at all. Meanwhile, as Corn had the crown on, Lawler was messing with him and telling him how huge of a head he has. The crowd in line got a big kick out of that. I took my turn next and needed a way to bust into conversation too, I'm never short of that. I've been reading Dirty Dutch Mantell's new book (which is great) and asked Lawler if he had read it yet since they are buds. In the 80s while in the Memphis territory, these two wrestled a ton and had an awesome feud that drew big money. Lawler hadn't read it yet, but I told him that Dutch had nothing but good words to say about him in the book. He then asked if Dutch mentioned in the book that they both have the same birthday and yes he did. To make a long story short, meeting The King was something I really enjoyed.



Now it's time for the game to rock. Our seats were great, as pretty much wherever you sit in a minor league stadium, you're going to get quality seats. We were 6 rows directly behind the plate and sat right beside the dude running the radar gun. Our view was about as good as it could get. Outside of it being insanely hot that night as we were dripping sweat, the action was a blast. The promotions for minor league baseball are at times cheesy, but I personally love how they do things. During one inning, they had Lawler go after one of the visting players, put him in the Airplane Spin and the crowd was all about it. Of course, Corndog and I were all about that part too. Then another inning, they turned the press box into a rave with the lights and all. Fist pumps start going and even Lawler is in the mix. Be on the lookout on Corndog's FB page for the video of this scene.

Between the works of Corn and Whitney, they had me listening to some country music. Yes, I know what you're all thinking, rare stuff. Don't worry, I'm going to review rap CDs down low, but here's my take. I figured, we were driving south anyways and we needed a little bit of a country feel for part of the ride, so why not test out the Sirius and see how the redneck side of things roll. If it's true country, I'm down. The whiny love song type country stuff, not for me. I'm not sure what country type is for me actually, but I did listen to a good bit on the ride, I will admit that. Corndog was surprised when we he rode with us and country was on. I also want a good story to be told and not just random blabbering. No reason to faint though, rap was a big part of the road trip too.



Cereal time. Yes, we hit all cylinders around here. One I've heard nothing but rave reviews about and I finally got to try it out. One of the biggest fans of this is wrestler Shawn Daivari who tweeted on this recently. Cupcake Pebbles! I'm telling you, these are really good and a definite must purchase. Believe it or not, I ate an entire box in one day, no joke. They're that good. I had one bowl with milk and ate the rest of the box dry. I was a beast with that. Fruity Pebbles are my #1 cereal of all time probably, with Lucky Charms a close second, but these have to go in the debate. Maybe it's a kids cereal, but if it's good, I'm going to give it the trusty try. Go get these bad boys, you won't be disappointed.

World Cup huh? I'm not a soccer guy at all as most will tell you. Most of my buddies are in the same boat, but World Cup action? That's what it's all about. It seems like even the non-soccer fans like myself get amped up when the Cup hits its stride. I watch hardly no soccer during the regular seasons of these clubs, but I've watched tons and tons of Cup already. Another fascination with our crew is the vuvuzelas. You've surely heard these by now, even if you don't know the actual term of vuvuzela. It's the horns you hear in South Africa that the fans crank the entire time. If you've watched ANY soccer at all these past few weeks, you know the buzzing sound you hear. Not only that, but our crew is talking about ordering a few of these just because, partly to annoy people and partly to entertain ourselves. Thanks to Walz, or more so Big Ben, we've all downloaded the vuvuzela app to our phones. This thing is addicting and then some. As Walz gracefully tweets, "Vuvuzelas all day!" Yes, everyone needs in on this fad. My Italian boys need to get it going, Sunday's tie with New Zealand of all teams is not acceptable. Cali Jas, I know you're proud that all of us out here are getting the soccer going for ya. I even see some luchadore masks in the crowd, that's always good times.



How about your ol' Gutter Connection? The boys were hot recently and got their first win of the season. Not only that, but the two games following, we took the doubleheader and swept that thing. Morale is as high as it's been all season for the Gutter Sluts and we have a lot of ball left to be played. One night Spank had four homers and 12 RBI, he was in a zone like no other out there. I'm still not totally happy with my bat this season, but it has picked up quite a bit. I have a blast each and every game and just being part of the action. On the crowd front, we're getting people to come. Either they're bored to death with nothing to do or they just like seeing the ups and downs of Gutta. We don't play at all this week, an off week, but next week it gets serious! Next week we play on Monday, Thursday, and Friday nights, with all nights including doubleheaders at 6:00 and 7:00. Come to Windmill Park, I can guarantee you'll have a blast watching the games and being one of the thousands upon thousands of fans we have attending each game.

Not that many care, but every now and then I get people asking what podcasts I'm listening to on a regular basis. Right now, I have five pods that I download everyday through iTunes. These are all free of course and if you're lost in the dark on podcasts, give them a try. There are pods for any kind of topic you can think of, but I go strictly sports to nobody's surprise. My favorite pod is probably The Tony Kornheiser Show. Yeah, Mr. Tony from PTI fame. He does a daily show through the week and talks about anything and everything: sports, TV shows, celebrity news, whatever the hot topics at the moment include. Another is Bill Simmons, the Boston Sports Guy who I've hyped countless times over the years. I've been a BSG guy since before he hit it big, when he was doing his online articles in the 90s. His show is titled The B.S. Report and it's through ESPN. He'll have a few pods a week usually and is really good in my opinion. A third is Colin Cowherd's show, The Thundering Herd. Fourth? NBA Today, self explanatory. Last is a wrestling pod from the Pro Wrestling Torch guys if you're familiar with those. Their show is through the weekday and is titled BTR: Pro Wrestling Torch Livecast. Again, not that anyone cares, but that's what I listen to more than anything on my iPod when I'm working out or just laying around the house.



Speaking along that line, what games have I been into lately on my phone? I'm always adding things at random times, so here's your chance to get deep into my mind and see what pointless games have my attention at the moment. The main one at the moment would be Coin Dozer. You know those machines at carnivals with the bed of coins? You drop a coin in and the piece pushes the rest of the coins across and you get whatever falls off? This one is that style and for some reason it's addicting to gather up your prizes and unlock things. Second, we have Angry Birds. This is a very fun game that is one of the higher ranked iPhone apps going the past few weeks. The concept is that you shoot different types of birds (think Kitty Cannon if you've played those style of games online) into structures with green pigs. The object is that you want to kill the pigs with the birds being fired off from the slingshot. Weird, I know, but it's worthy. The last I will hype this week is called iMorra. I was looking for an Italian style of the game Morra, but wasn't able to find the exact thing. Instead, this one is more Rock, Paper, Scissors, which in a sense is the same basis of Morra. Another game that can consume you and have you wanting to get the high score. There you have it, now get on those phones and download these games as soon as possible.

Two NBA topics to finish up on. One is the Finals and the other features my favorite day of the year. It's after the fact, but if anyone didn't see on FB or Twitter, I sent the congrats out to all the Lakers fans out there. That's tough for me to do as a Celtics fan, but I try to never be a sore loser and give credit where it's due. At the beginning of the year, I predicted that Kobe and the boys would get another title and they did. Unfortunately, it was to my boys' expense. I'll be one to admit that I never expected my boys to make it nearly this far. One, they beat up LeBron and the boys without homecourt. The next round after that, they beat up the overrated Dwight Howard and his Magic without homecourt. Then they stole one in Kobe Land by taking homecourt away. That ended shortly though as LA won it in Game 7. Some people cry that officiating cost them the game. Get out of here with that nonsense. You will never hear me blame the refs for costing any of my teams I support. I always say, if you play bad enough that you're blaming the refs, your team didn't play hard enough to win. Simple as that. Sure, there is human error and we can argue that till the end of eternity, but the Lakers beat the Celtics and that's that. Ray Allen, what a total bum you were this series. Outside of the game you went into a coma launching threes, you were not a factor at all, you took off the table.



To end, Thursday marks THE greatest day of the entire year for me. What's that? If you haven't seen the FB posts, it's the NBA Draft. I've had this date marked since probably this time last year and can't be anymore excited for this than I am. It's a tradition for me since as long as I can remember, but I get locked into a total zone during this action. I might scare some with my schedule during this day. I still write out the picks by hand, pencil and paper style. Yes, I can get the picks instantaneously online as they happen, but I'm a creature of habit for the most part. I am in NBA mode 24/7 anyways, regardless if it's NBA season or not, but I like getting into this and researching it till no end. I so much just want to ramble and ramble and ramble on NBA stuff, but I'll stop now before I lose every single person. How I wish more true hardcore NBA fans existed in today's world, it's a rare breed.

Drake: Thank Me Later. I wrote about this on FB a few weeks ago, but I'll mention it again. The online reviews are correct, at least from my observation. I like Drake as a mixtape guy and think he's talented, but this album, not so much. The release of this was so overrated and it didn't deliver in my mind. I don't recommend this unless you want to complete your Drake collection. I will throw out a few songs to get though if you're wanting to test the waters. Light Up with Jay-Z, Up All Night with Nicki Minaj, and Miss Me featuring Lil Wayne.

Devin The Dude: Suite 420. You know what you're getting with Dev. Lyrically, I think he's always been pretty good. He has his own VERY laid back style and the 420 reference in the album's title will show where he's coming from. The stuff he raps about doesn't pertain to me at all, but I've always liked his flow. This CD, my complaint was that they put too much emphasis on bass and it drowns out some of the good lyrics. A few things to get are That Ain't Cool, What We Be On (love this beat), and All You Need.

8Ball & MJG: Ten Toes Down. Now this one comes hard. As with Dev, you know what you're getting here, straight gutta with this great duo. These guys should come and perform live at Gutter Connection softball games. This I'm definitely giving a thumbs up to and you need to get it. Without keeping you waiting much longer, it's time for you to check out some of these tunes: It's Going Down, Ten Toes Down with Lil Boosie, and What They Do featuring T.I. You can almost recommend the whole CD here, but it still pales in comparison to our next and final review..



Reflection Eternal - Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek: Revolutions Per Minute. This may be a bold statement, but it's surely in the argument for me if it isn't my winner. This could be my pick for best CD of the year so far at least on the styles of music that I listen to. I'm a huge Talib fan and have been for a good while anyways, but getting him and Hi-Tek back together makes things even that much better. Really, you can't go wrong with anything at all, the whole track listing jams. Talib is one of the better lyricists out there, plus he's great at telling a story in his raps and not just making up stories about his bling, the club, and his cars that nobody cares about or will be out of date in a few months anyways. Recommendations include In This World, Midnight Hour with Estelle, Ballad of the Black Gold, and Ends featuring Bilal. Ladies and gentlemen, this is some true hip hop at its finest.

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: This comes to us from one of the blog's best contributors, Kasher. "Best of the week: Haspop. I see robot impersonations all the time, but they're always great" Well said Kasher, well said. I was impressed with this dude. I don't watch any America's Got Talent, but guess I'm missing out. Plus, how can you go wrong with a name like Haspop? What's that? Enjoy, dude breaks it down.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Not along the same tastes as the epic Cupcake Pebbles, but another snack thing I've been big on lately. What's that? We'll go the healthy route for those who want that. Blue Diamond almonds, whole natural. I'm tearing these things up like no other. Why do almonds have to be so expensive though? I mean come on. But they're good!

2. Let's stay on food and go back to the unhealthy route. What's the worst burger in America? Apparently it's the Denny’s Smokin' Q Three Pack. It has 2020 calories (ugh), 110 grams of fat (what??), and 3570 mg of sodium (for real?!). I found this on the Yahoo front page the other day. Here's a breakdown of the seven worst as well as alternatives: http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/worst-burgers-america-2010. Also, I saw an updated thing on the news the other night in how West Virginia is once again the most unhealthy state according to one poll. No surprise.

3. Quick Jerry Lawler facts to finish up with: Hulk Hogan has never defeated Lawler in a match.. Overall, he has held more titles than any other current WWE star.. He is an accomplished artist.

Sticky Icky Icky, Oooh Weee!

Hey people, what's happening? Our first post of June and it's time to get things done as only we can. The heat is beating on us and it feels like Atlanta in August. Sticky icky icky. And not the ooooh weeee Snoop Dogg kind, the weather style I am referring to. I won't complain a lot though, even though I'm a winter guy, for it's almost time for me to be a bum all summer. Just a few days left with the kiddies and it's time to kick back and sleep in while getting paid for it, I give a big thumbs up to that for sure and then some. I like my job a lot actually, but time off in the summer is where it's at. What's on tap for this edition? Bingo, Idol thoughts, TomTom, Red Dead Redemption, Chrome, Part-A for Big-A, Celts/Lakers, and much more!



My thoughts on the end of American Idol? Of course I watched every episode as usual. This season, as a lot have said, it didn't jump out at me. I didn't think it was very good, but just out of habit, I continued to watch. It wasn't beyond brutal, but it didn't have that spark I was looking for I guess. Next year is going to be really weird now that my boy Simon won't be on the show anymore. He made the show if you ask me. Also, with Lee winning, he's good, but I don't see much charisma there. He might prove me wrong with some star quality, but we'll find out what goes down. We now go to the expert opinions of DerekHood. What are Derek's thoughts on the season ending?

Lee DeWyze won and Simon's leaving the show - just thought I'd put this in here for historical purposes in case the world blows up but the eBays live on and some creature stumbles upon this thread in 2172 and wants to know how the season concluded after reading all the exciting buildup we've put here.

The season finale had a lot of shitty, unfunny tributes. Joe Cocker looked like a paranoid drunk who had no idea where he was. Casey James and Bret Michaels was pretty good – most of the other stuff was not. David Cook was the only past winner smart enough to realize how big a pile of shit it was going to be and stayed the hell away. Janet Jackson once again put on display just how weird the Jackson family is, showcasing for the world that they had Michael's voice taken out and inserted into her body. There was way too much Siobhan Magnus on display - and not enough Carrie Underwood.

Mercifully, it ends. Now Lee DeWyze can look forward to selling thousands of albums.

I haven't bought a different video game since November. Crazy I know, especially with the collection I have over the years. That's how addicting Call of Duty is each year, it can last a long time without getting bored on it. I'm not bored with it now at all, but I wanted to switch things up for the summer when I'll have more time to be a bum. Enter Red Dead Redemption. For all the hype you've heard on this game, it truly delivers. It's very addicting, I'll warn you on that, but I guess that's why it has received several perfect scores from magazines, which is fairly rare. Both the storyline single player mode and the multiplayer online action are great in their own ways. Rockstar Games is the developer of this, so if you're familiar with the Grand Theft Auto styles of play, you're going to love this one from the same maker. The graphics are great and the setting of the game is worth it and then some. Stop wasting time, go buy this game and begin your quest on a horse. I know it might not sound addicting, but let me know what you think once you play if you already haven't. It's getting the blog approval and we're not easy judges when it comes to video games.

I've been seeing countless ads for Google Chrome. At first I wasn't interested in trying out a new browser. I've been using Mozilla Firefox for years now and still love it. The other day I was bored though and went to download Chrome just for the fun of it. First off, it's a very quick download, especially considering when you download other browsers, they're huge files. Not this one so much. It's also really basic, but rather quick as the ads hype up. It has a clean look and doesn't have a lot of junk attached to it that you don't want to see around. I still am using Firefox as my default, but I'm playing around with Chrome some as well too. If you want something that is simple to use and you're wanting to switch up browsers, it can't hurt to give it a try. A good recommendation I am giving.



Speaking of things I got just for the fun of it, let's now move to a new GPS purchase. After using some others from buddies on road trips, I figured I needed one for myself. The other day I loaded up and went with a TomTom XXL 540 TM. This thing is a beast and I'm hooked on it already. It is probably more than I needed, but I'm a technology dork and want to have quality stuff with that. I guess that's always been an addiction of mine whether it be with video games, computers, phones, music, whatever. This thing is the real deal though. It has a 5-inch touchscreen and free lifetime updates. The options this thing has are pretty impressive. It's crazy how exact these things are. It's also funny to me how they have the tiniest places listed, such as my alley on the backside of the house where our basketball court is. The locals will know what I'm talking about. If it has that, it has anything. Go get ya one, why not? Another recommendation from the blog this week. That's three recommendations in the last three paragraphs, w00t!

Bingo huh? Yep, it was time for yet another Bingo trip to Village Square in Clarksburg. We had planned to get a big crew to go, but that didn't line up. Regardless, we rolled three deep, Westside Connection style (you're not a true longtime rap fan if you don't appreciate that) and went to take old ladies' money. In attendance was Cork, Kristin, and myself. We did this on Saturday night and I know it may sound worthless to try, and maybe we have nothing else to do, but you can't go wrong with some Bingo action. The end result was that the old ladies ended up taking our money, doh! Even when you lose though, you still have a blast playing. I was close several times, but that doesn't get us anywhere. Kristin has never won and has the worst luck it seems when we play, she's due for a big hit. It's always fun (or not so fun) when someone calls out Bingo and the rest of the place gets all fired up. We even had an old lady near us dropping f-bombs, that's some good times right there. You may bash Bingo, but give it a try, jump in with us the next time you go, I promise you'll enjoy it.



A few weekends ago was the "Part-A for Big A" as it was advertised all across the Facebook world. Yep, cousin Big Ashton's graduation party from the infamous Sunny Days Nursery School. As a side note, way back in the day, I was in the first 3 year old class they had, so I'm down in the record books if you're keeping track at home. Anyways, that night featured some quality cooking as always when our family gets together. The feast of the night was from a past blog's choice Dad of the Year, Gayle. Once you're Dad of the Year in the blog, you're set. So far we've given out two of these awards. One to Gayle as he won the original, and last year we gave one to the one and only Dave Posey. Speaking of Posey, Lil Kierstn Posey is soccer phenom of Shinnston. She dominates her league like no other and had a whopping four goals in a game last week. That's getting things done. Oh, I had another story to tell. If you haven't tried any of Gayle's homemade pizza, you're straight missing out. We were joking that he was probably sick of my dad, Uncle Bill, Ozzie, and myself for literally tearing that pizza up to where he had to keep making new. Mix that in with being able to watch both the Yankees and Celtics games that night and it was a good night indeed. Thanks again to Jill and Gayle for putting up with our gang, much appreciated.

Everyone is asking me the thoughts I have on the Celtics/Lakers series. I can't be anymore stoked. First off, myself included, I never imagined the Celts would make it to the Finals. They were underdogs, at least on paper, the past two series matchups. They didn't have homecourt on either the Cavs or Magic games and ended up rocking things by sending LeBron and Dwight Howard home. I'm not the type that brags, but I've heard a lot of trash talk to my boys this year and how they were old, washed up, injured, the whole works. I'd even agree to that for most of the year. They didn't have that same passion and motivation that they did in 2008 when they won it all. That's until the playoffs started at least. Something clicked in, whether it was the old boys just coasting during the regular season or they weren't quite as banged up towards season's end, who knows. As an NBA nutcase, Celtics versus Lakers is the mecca. I'm also realistic. I think it's going to be a great series. Two fairly deep teams who play solid team and fundamental ball. Los Angeles is super tough place to pick up wins though and that's one thing Boston has to do if they want the title. Plus, Kobe doesn't lay down and quit like LeBron and Dwight Howard, no way. Yeah, I said it. I've been saying all year how I think LA wins it all. Now that it's Finals time, I surely hope I'm wrong, but Thursday night it all begins! Good luck to all the Lakers crew, and even for as big of a Kobe guy I am (ironic from a Celtics fan), I bleed green.



I'll keep to the sports theme. On Saturday after Bingo, we rolled to Posey's for UFC 114. In attendance for this action? Posey, Scherri, Kaiden, Kierstn, Spank, Pimpin' Money Mike, Porter, New Dude, Tyrus, Whitney, and myself. I haven't seen the last few live, so I was due for a pay per view outing. I don't miss too many. I had predicted Rampage to knockout Sugar Rashad Evans in the 2nd round, but I was off on that. It wasn't an exciting fight, but Evans took things by decision. The highlight of the night for me was when Mike Russow, who had been getting rocked by Todd Duffee who was ripped out of his mind, knocks Duffee out into another world out of nowhere. I'm also hoping that Diego Sanchez after this loss drops back down to 155, but he's had troubles in the past of making weight there. Dong Hyun Kim! UFC 115 is on June 12th and it's not a card I'm excited about. The main is Chuck Liddell against Rich Franklin, ugh. My boy Cro Cop doesn't have much left anymore, but he's facing Pat Berry in the semi. Big Ben Rothwell against Gilbert Yvel could be a nice darkhorse match for something that can deliver. I'm also looking forward to Mac Danzig versus Handsome Matty Wiman.

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: In the 'it's definitely strange department', this one wins hands down. I'm all about the random vids and have seen a ton of stuff out there, but this is brand new to me, maybe not to you others. It's worth posting though. All credit goes to Arizona Jas. It's so messed up and weird that I'm not sure how to react to it. Do you laugh or not? Usually I'm a wuss when it comes to seeing handicapped folks and what they go through, but at least they're having fun here? Bizarre if nothing else. I will go on record and say the dude in the back in the black shirt, he's all about it. 20 seconds in with the howl. Then we get him again at the 35 second mark and apparently he likes to make werewolf movies.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. I've debated it with my buddies, but I'll give a very quick blurb here on it. Thanks to the controversial "almost" perfect game of Armando Galarraga, umpire Jim Joyce screwed up a call with one out left for Galarraga's perfecto. I still am in the minority in not wanting baseball to go an instant replay system. I love human reasoning and am a weird traditional fan. Plus, baseball games are long enough. I love baseball (it ranks #2 to my love of basketball), but the average fan complains that they are too long. I vote no to instant replay.

2. What's the whole fascination with these silly bands? They're becoming enormously popular. Guess I'm too old to get it, even though I act like a kid most of the time anyways.

3. Tweet of the Day: This one comes from Roy Johnson, editor of Men's Fitness: "Just 'cause u go 2 gym dsn't mean you workout. 2 women 2day spent 20 mins getting on bikes and talking. But they'll say: We went 2 the gym!"