Bono Gets Boned!

There's a lot of action in this post to be had. I got some nice comments on the last edition, so I'll see what I can whip up this time around. Most of my comments are my crew that I talk to online since I'm on 24/7 instead of them dropping in a comment on the actual page. Either way works for me, I'm not picky, always fun getting some honest opinions. This edition will work in chats about Guitar Hero II, a new TV, fantasy baseball leagues, WrestleMania, Spring Break, Bono getting boned, and whatever else I can come up with off the top of my head.



Where to start? Guitar Hero II is as good of a place as any. From guys and girls alike, this is one addicting game. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get it, but I finally gave in and am making up for lost ground. Everyone needs to own this game, it's that good and well worth the high price tag on it. The song list on it is pretty good and you get an actual storyline to follow that is nice too. Check on YouTube and view some of those vids, they're crazy what some of those guys can do. I think most of the people I talk to are into this game, I haven't heard anyone who says they dislike it. How can you go wrong jamming to Mother by Danzig or some 80s hair bands? You simply can't, so go out there and pick this bad boy up. If you're a 360 person, it comes out for that on April 3rd.

To go along with the game, I had to finally chunk down some bucks for a new TV. Usually I'm good with my money, but last weekend I figured I'd go nuts and spend a little bit out of boredom. I decided on a 37 inch Vizio LCD HDTV flat screen. This thing is a monster in my section of the house and it's about as big as my room would fit to how it's setup. It was definitely a great purchase and I'm pumped about it. I don't have HD hooked up to it yet, but have my cables and all of that stuff to get going eventually. My old TV right beside it, we were saying how we didn't realize how small of a TV we played video games on before until now.



Here's a story I heard about at work today. Remember the punk middle school kids? This goes along with that. Apparently, at lunch today, they had gravy on something. So this one kid fires it at another boy and it gets all over his chest. The dude that got hit has real light skin supposedly, so he burnt real bad and has blisters on him. I didn't get to see any of the madness, but just heard what went down from another teacher. They haven't had paddling in schools for years, but I'm all for allowing meaningful beat downs of 7th graders, that'd do the trick. Every other grade is fine to just handle their business like they're supposed to.

Fantasy baseball time. Last Sunday and Monday I had my drafts. I'll give a list of who is in each league, who is on my teams, and things of that nature. I'll try to make it quick and not bore anyone too much on that part. I'll be talking about these teams all summer I'm sure. As far as actual baseball, me and Cork are hitting up Opening Day (not the MLB Opening Day as the Bucs are on the road) in Pittsburgh on April 9th against the Cards. It's sold out and standing room only. For as many baseball games as I've been to over the years, I don't believe I've been to Opening Day, so I'm pumped. Not only that, but we get to see a good team, be in the best stadium in baseball, and it'll be a quality trip. We had to pay a good bit of money to get the tickets, but you can't put a price on some good action.



A#BL: This is the #basketball keeper league. Kasher rocks it out by being The Commish here, it's not an easy job, and often goes without praise. He'll get it from me though. This is an 18-man league that we all keep 5 players. The rule is that you have to keep at least one batter or one pitcher. My keepers are David Wright (3B-Mets), Fat Boy Prince Fielder (1B-Brewers), Billy Hall (SS-Brewers), Johan Santana (SP-Twins), and Justin Verlander (SP-Tigers). Some of these guys are locals, some are worldwide in this most competitive online baseball league you'll ever see. As far as myself we have Cork (WV), Walz (WV), Trev (WV), ManDingo (WV), DerekHood (AR), Kris3 (AR), Big Arlo (AR), Kasher (Canada), TyLaw (Canada), Neon (Canada), TMac (Canada), Blahah (Maine), Duce (PA), Dom (Germany), Wilbur (WA), Dack (NY?), and Big Play Ray (OK?). Outside of my keepers that I mentioned, here's my 15 players that I went for on Draft Day with the 12th pick. Remember, this is a crazy deep league. Your average fan won't know many prospects that we take, but this league is the real deal, we don't joke around:

St. Paul Apostles
1. Josh Barfield (2B-Indians)
2. Ervin Santana (SP-Angels)
3. Brad Hawpe (OF-Rockies)
4. Chris Ray (RP-Orioles)
5. Brian Fuentes (RP-Rockies)
6. Josh Willingham (OF-Marlins)
7. Ryan Shealy (1B-KC)
8. Jose Lopez (2B-SEA)
9. Chris Capuano (SP-Brewers)
10. Ronny Paulino (C-Bucs)
11. Lastings Milledge (OF-Mets)
12. Khalil Greene (SS-Pads)
13. Jason Hirsh (SP-Rockies)
14. Termel Sledge (OF-Pads)
15. Marcus Thames (OF-Tigers)



Now onto Shinnston's Finest Fantasy League. This is our local money league in which Ozzie is The Commish of. We have ten members apart of this madness and it should be great. Outside of myself we have Ozzie, Cork, Sweet Pea, Fortney, Walz, Bowers, Posey, Jimmy Mills, and Maulberry. I had 5th pick and this is what I ended with:

E-Town Junkies
1. David Wright (3B-Mets)
2. Grady Sizemore (OF-Indians)
3. Roy Oswalt (SP-Astros)
4. Ichiro (OF-Mariners)
5. Roy Halladay (SP-Jays)
6. Huston Street (RP-A's)
7. Felipe Lopez (2B-Nationals)
8. Chris Ray (RP-O's)
9. Delmon Young (OF-Rays)
10. Ryan Shealy (1B-Royals)
11. Justin Verlander (SP-Tigers)
12. Josh Barfield (2B-Indians)
13. Nick Markakis (OF-O's)
14. Ramon Hernandez (C-O's)
15. Howie Kendrick (2B-Angels)
16. Rich Hill (SP-Cubs)
17. Stephen Drew (SS-DBacks)
18. Josh Willingham (OF-Marlins)
19. Kei Igawa (SP-Yankees)
20. Troy Tulowitzki (SS-Rockies)



I keep my style that I normally go with for those who know me. I tend to have the youth movement as I'm not big on older guys one bit. Sure, the kiddies can get hurt too, but I'd rather go for potential and youth rather than some old has-been. Agree or disagree, that's my style. A decent bit of players I have on both teams. I'm gambling on a bunch from Ryan Shealy, he has capabilities to be a big masher. Then I have my boy David Wright on both squads, he's already one of the league's best. I feel my pitching in both leagues is pretty scary. That's on paper though, we'll know what they can do once the games begin.

Sunday night I'm getting pumped up for. Why's that? That is the night of WrestleMania 23, from Detroit. There for about an 8-year stretch or so, I got every pay per view there was. Due to lack of interest in my crew (not enough guys to get together to pitch in money) and with WWE running way too many PPVs, I've slacked on getting them nowadays. Instead, I waste my wrestling money on DVDs like a madman. It's an addiction. I'm looking forward to Mania though, as it's THE thing to see as far as wrestling goes. How about some quick predictions so you can write me and tell me how bad I was off:



Benoit (C) vs MVP. US Title Match. I'm going with Benoit here. MVP isn't good at all yet, but with Benoit, he'll be made to look great.

Kane vs The Great Khali. Ugh, this match is going to be soooo slow. Bathroom break. I'll pick Khali.

Melina (C) vs Ashley. Women's Title Match. The only way I see Ashley getting this is just due to her doing Playboy. The pics weren't bad at all, but nothing that we all haven't seen before. I'm going Melina here just because she has way more of a character and can actually wrestle.

ECW Originals vs New Breed. 8-Man Tag Match. I'm a huge fan of big tag matches with a lot of people. Somehow those seem to usually do well. The ECW guys are beat up and don't get a push. The New Breed, the average person doesn't have a clue who they are. Tough call, but I'm going with the New Breed (even though my heart is with the ECW crew) and hoping that Ariel gets naked. Hey, I'm honest.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match. The winner of this can cash in a world title match within the next year. This is what I'm looking forward to the most. In this match we have Orton, Mr. Kennedy, Finlay, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Booker T, CM Punk, and Edge. That should be an awesome match if they do it right. My pick here to win is going to be Mr. Kennedy.



Hair vs Hair Match. Umaga vs Bobby Lashley. If Umaga wins, Donald Trump gets his head shaved. If Lashley wins, Vince McMahon gets his. I can't see Trump having to shave his head, although he definitely needs it. Lashley is the pick.

Batista (C) vs Undertaker. World Title Match. Batista is a bum as far as in the ring goes. I think Taker keeps his undefeated streak going at Mania to become new champ.

John Cena (C) vs Shawn Michaels. WWE Title Match. Funny last week on RAW when HBK finally turned on Cena. The crowd also turned on Cena. HBK may have the momentum going into the show, but I have Cena retaining.

Another week of work and I get to be a bum for 11 days straight, that'll rock. I get next Friday off to start my spring break. During break it's the Bucs game with Cork. I'll also hit up a few days in the mountains with the parents to get my fish on and just to get away. Then back home for a day or two to play some ball. Then, off to Atlantic City with the crew and Washington DC on the way back home to see an NBA game. I'm a busy boy, but it has to be done. I'm sure I'll have enough things to ramble on over the next few weeks in here, no problem.

Lloyd: Street Love. This one I haven't heard yet, but a few singles on this thing are nice. Plus you can't go wrong with a CD that features Lil Wayne. Sure, he's no Nate Dogg to guarantee an instant hit, but Lil Wayne gets it done. Want some pimpin', get on the Lloyd wagon.



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

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: http://youtube.com/watch?v=F8raOmuwIWk (A must watch. The Lobstah guys already know, but if you haven't seen, you're in for a treat. I promise you'll be watching it over and over and over.)

3 Quick Thangs:

1. Birthdays for Friday, March 30th: Dick Tracy Warren Beatty, he's now 70. Rocker Eric Clapton, he's jamming to his 62nd. Stop, Hammer Time! Yep, none other than MC Hammer, Happy 45th. Steve Sanders, a.k.a. Ian Ziering, 40. Playmate Donna D'Errico, she's partying it for her 39th. Singer Celine Dion, also 39. Singer Norah Jones, 28.

2. The legendary Bono of #basketball fame. He missed our fantasy baseball draft last week with no explanation until later that night. Here's what went down, courtesy of The_Freak:

Bono: man, i totally no showed the #balls baseball draft today
Bono: whatever. the choice was balls draft or losing my virginity. i chose the latter
The_Freak: Was he a virgin too?
Bono: ha no she was a 38 year old married woman in a bad marriage
The_freak: Thick mustache?
Bono: yeah

3. Today's fun factoid? "Some species of kangaroo can produce two different types of milk at the same time from adjacent teats to feed both younger and older offspring." Teats huh? Go figure.

"Oh, King of the Castle! King of the Castle!"

The_Freak was asking about the latest Blog and he gives us this great quote: "The whory whores are clamoring for another edition of The Bird Show." I like the ring of that, whory whores. Might have to do something with that one day, creative. Anyways, he also provided us with a great pic of the legendary Bob Uecker:



Spring is here and that means it's time for people to start running around half naked with less clothes on. Usually that isn't a bad thing. But most of those people that do that have no business doing so, yet they still get out there and flaunt it around. I'm not too picky with that. I just ask for two simple rules when it comes to the season that the weather begins to warm up. If you're a crackhead anorexic chick that has bones showing everywhere, keep the clothes on. It's for everyone's own good, trust me on that. Also, we don't need chicks showing their c-section scars, white trash tats, and rolls on top of rolls out there either. Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer a chick with some thickness on her (not fat, so keep the comments to yourself, but you know what I mean) any day over some anorexic person. Once again, we speak the truth around here to make things fun. My comments might not agree with what you think, and that's fine, but it still makes for an interesting read.

Over the past week, there really hasn't been anything drastic that has went down in my mean streets. Lame, I know, but I'm just being honest about it. What that means is that we'll focus on a bunch of random thoughts and just ramble away until we get a relevant blog posted this time around. My schedule doesn't change too much as most know. I go to work, come home and either workout or play ball, get online way too much, hit up some video games, watch some NBA or wrestling, that's about it in a nutshell. I'll never grow up, but I'm not complaining.



I haven't plugged my MySpace page in a while around these parts, so now is as good of a time as any. If you don't have a page created, why not kill some time and set one up? It's highly addictive though and you find yourself on there for hours on end before you even know it. The people who already have a page (everyone and their brother basically) can vouch with my comment there and tell you it's addicting. Half of the time you're looking at bums you don't even have a clue about. How does that take up so much time you're asking? You just have to take my word on it. Anyways, I have a few old school pics added that I put up yesterday that people are getting a kick out of. Among those are me and Big Barney being dorks and jamming air guitar with brooms in 1989, my favorite all time picture of my crew (E-Town 1989, which is blown up and hangs on my wall for those who know that classic), and some 1988 action of the Catholic Connection that features Riley, Fleece, Merandi, and myself. I also have some newer current pics in there as well. Who would've guessed I'd be holding babies in a picture? My buddies always crack up at that thought and had to get a few pics of me holding the Posey clan just to say I did it. I always feel like I'm going to mangle a baby if I hold them, but I got it done. Add me if you already haven't or drop in some comments, http://www.myspace.com/drudown894.

*Fantasy baseball alert! You may want to skip the next paragraph if you're not a fan. If you stay through this paragraph anyways, much appreciated. If not, I'll see you in the following paragraphs and we'll get back with you with talks of punk middle school kids, new CDs, and whatever else..



I can smell it. Yep, that's the smell of baseball in the air. That also means that it's time for fantasy baseball drafts and I am totally pumped for that madness that is about to ensue. For me, I'm one of the weird ones out of my bunch that doesn't put football on a pedestal as my favorite sport. Basketball is easily my favorite sport, with baseball a fairly close second. Not that I'm not (some good English there huh?) a huge football fan, but it pales in comparison to basketball and baseball for me anyways. Baseball starts on April 1st and I'm part of two fantasy leagues this year. The first is the ultimate of all baseball leagues. It's the #basketball edition, A#BL, which features a whopping 18 people involved. Kasher is the brains behind being the commish of this league and he gets big props from me for having a smoothly operated league. This is a keeper league in which we keep 5 players each year (mine are uberstud David Wright of the Mets, Fat Boy Prince Fielder, Billy Hall, Johan Santana, and Justin Verlander). I'm very happy with my keepers and look to improve on last year's squad that did rather well. The draft for that will be this Sunday, 3:00 PM EST, live from the hallowed grounds of mIRC. The other league? This one is our local money league. Cousin Ozzie will be the man in charge of this. We have ten as part of this league and we'll be drafting that one through Yahoo more than likely this weekend. In that one we have Ozzie, Sweet Pea, Walz, Posey, Fortdog, Matty Cakes, Jimmy Mills, Bowers, Maulberry, and myself. I won't bore everyone today with the details, I'll save that for next week's edition when I break down my teams.

7th grade kids need slapped around every now and then just to teach them a lesson. I've subbed around my area and have done just about every grade and every subject you can think of. I'm not too picky though. I'm a super laid back dude and get along with just about everyone. Go to work, handle my business, have some fun with it, roll on out. Nothing too major. Outside of doing like preschool ages, 7th grade kids aren't cool for the most part, my least favorite. 6th grade kids I like a lot. They do their thing, still seem like wee little kids, and are easy to teach. 8th graders, for the most part, they're maturing a bit (then they turn to punks again when they get to 9th only to improve at 10th) and as Borat would say, they're the king of the castle in middle school and I like teaching them. 7th grade, ugh. So today these punks weren't necessarily "bad", but they wouldn't shut up. So I had a little fun. I normally don't go nuts and scream, but I figured, why not. So I go nuts and thinking in my head it's hilarious and these kids are asking me if I've ever been in the military before. That cracked me up. Still, one of my least favorite groups. There, I said it, for those keeping track at home and wanting some teaching insight.



Speaking of kids at school. I was doing some middle school work today and I was part of the end of the day intramural thing they have once a month. Each homeroom competes in a 3-minute foul shooting contest. The kids line up around the paint and keep rotating till the time stops. For some reason, the kids eat this up and the winner has some major bragging points for that age, go figure. Anyways, through 3 minutes, this one homeroom didn't hit a single foul shot. Are you kidding me? Even if they can't ball at all, at least one of those kids can get lucky and hit one by just chucking it up, right? Wrong. It's a foul shot, not like they're dunking the ball. I didn't understand it and other teachers got a kick out of it too.

It's time to unveil some new CDs to the vast collection..



Dr. Dre: Back 'N The Day. This is a 1996 release that I never had in the collection for some reason. A lot of this isn't Dre's raps, but he produced it. Then he also mixes in some of his mid 80s work from the World Class Wrecking Cru and things of that era. It's not what you're thinking, but if you're a true Dre fan like me, you need it in the collection just to say you have this rare album.

Ghostface Killah: Hidden Darts - Special Edition. It seems like Ghostface has been all over new stuff lately. This one is a comp of a lot of past things that haven't been released or not in the mainstream yet. A lot of the Wu Tang guys are on this one, so you can't go wrong with that.

Marques Houston: Veteran. We move to some pimpin' music here. I'm not sure you can consider yourself a veteran if you're not even 30 years old yet, but we'll take MH's name for it and he makes a good case for it. His past CDs have been very good and I don't think he gets enough credit. Excellent CD here.

Mista Cane: In My Life. Now it's time for some Cali rap and Cane tells it how it is. He's got some good appearances on this one such as Snoop, The Game, and San Quinn. A throwback if you will, Cane's style brings it and he has the lyrics to go with it.

Musiq Soulchild: Luvanmusiq. Here we go with some underrated pimp music. I'm not sure why Musiq hasn't been more of a name over the years, but those that are fans of R&B definitely give this cat some respect. He's been around and gets it done, very good stuff here, check it out. In fact, for the pimp fans, both the MH and Musiq CDs here are awesome if you're wanting something to pick up.

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

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: This comes straight to us from the mean streets of Canada, from blog commenter Carolina. I'm not a country music fan, but even I gotta admit this is good. Check out the 4-year old kid getting down, good stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQPEsa5e7K0



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Since this was posted on Wednesday night, let's jump to Thursday for some birthdays. Thursday, March 22nd: Former Celtic and the answer to one of my favorite trivia questions ever, Don Chaney, he turns 61. Wolf Blitzer goes for 60, I would've guessed a lot older. Sportscaster Bob Costas (who I think is one of the best ever at doing baseball) hits 55. Actor Matthew Modine, 48. MILF Reese Witherspoon, she's 31 and gets it done for me.

2. Oh yeah, my favorite trivia question ever. I've told it before to my crew, so it won't be new to them, but I always like to ask. Who is the only player to be a teammate of BOTH Bill Russell and Larry Bird? Answer? Don Chaney.

3. Today's fun fact? People who drink coffee are less likely to commit suicide than people who don’t.

Skipper's Treat

So I'm sitting here at "work" and figured I'd get some blog action rolling on the good ol' world wide web. What shall we talk about in this one? As usual, just be patient, I'll have stories upon stories (true ones at that). Now that I have you in the palm of my hands, just kick your feet up and enjoy the show, or words if you will, and see what it can do to cure your boredom.



I went to Wal-Mart with Spank the other night after eating Japanese. I'll have stories on the Japanese trip, so don't worry. I had to pick up a copy of Borat since it came out last week on DVD. For some reason, it was only $14 instead of the full price, so I wasn't complaining. If you haven't seen Borat yet, you're totally missing out, plus the extra footage on here is hilarious. Anyways, at Wal-Mart, you go up to pay at the counter, and if you buy a Rated R movie, it beeps for them to check ID. I kid you not, they check me a lot for that. The chick looks at me and says that she thinks I look 17, so she'll take my word for it and let me buy it. That's when Spank says, "Dude is like 30 years old!" The chick didn't know what to think and asked me if Spank was telling the truth and how old I really was. I tell her 28 and she said if I ever bought cigs or beer, she wouldn't believe me even with an ID. That cracked me up. Hopefully I can continue to keep looking halfway young for a while. Like I always joke with, I have kids in class that have full grown beards when I can't even grow a true beard. Sad, I know, but we tell the truth around here.

You know what time of season it is now? Yep, you guessed it. Girl Scout Cookies! I just got my order in a few days ago and have been rocking it out ever since. Samoas are the downfall of me around this time of year. I can easily eat an entire box like nothing of those bad boys. I like the other kinds, but they can't compare to Samoas in my opinion. So far I've bought 5 boxes of Samoas and I'm sure I'll end up getting more. Cadbury Eggs and Samoas at the same time of year? You serious? That's about as good as it can get for a person.



Now it's time for the Japanese trip to Shogun. We're totally hooked on this place and this was yet another eventful evening. Our crew hit this one up on Saturday night. There were seven of us along for this one and they were Spank, Ozzie, Maulberry, Ferris, two people from Sears that Ozzie and Maul work with, and myself. My order? I may not change this one for a while but I went with filet mignon and scallops. The difference in their regular steak and filet is in another world. You get the filet for the same price here too is what confuses me, so I looked at that as ripping them off. We had a new cook and he was entertainment. The cook was dishing out some ginger sauce for us to dip in. While he was doing that, he was putting in some joke about Mary Ann and Ginger. That's when Ozzie pointed to Maul and said that the Skipper was at the other end sitting. Uh oh, an open hole for the cook to totally bash someone. He was ragging on Maul all night and Maul was getting pissed. The cook told him that he was scaring him after a while, but it was getting a huge laugh out of our bunch. The cook would throw eggs shells into Maul's drink, mess with his food, and do the fake ketchup bottle trick. It reminded me of one of those comedy roasts where the guy gets laid into with joke after joke. And Maul is the type that wasn't thinking it was funny at all, so that to the rest of us, made it quality times. All in all, a good time for everyone, I think even Maul would agree at night's end. I'm ready to go again.

The NCAA 64 Tourney is upon us starting on Thursday. We had a bum game on Tuesday night (the pointless play-in game), but that doesn't count. To make things quick, I'll give my predictions which I'm sure won't end up too great, but it's always fun to play in a few pools each year. I'm also one of those guys that has one bracket the entire way. I never did understand people who pick a zillion different brackets. Then when some trashpile team pulls an upset, they act like they knew all along it would happen. Get out of here people, just pick one and if you do great, fine. If not, deal with it, it's all in fun. I'll give my Elite 8 as a starting point: Florida, Notre Dame, Kansas, Indiana, UNC, Georgetown, Ohio State, and Texas A&M. After that, my Final Four will be Florida, Kansas, Georgetown, and A&M. At the end, cutting down the nets, I have Kansas taking down A&M, to the tune of 75-67. Any crazy upsets? My big one is Long Beach State (LBC!) going to the Sweet 16. I also have Arkansas, Oral Roberts, and Illinois as upset specials. I'm due for a good year, let's get this thing started!



The wheels are in motion for my 10th reunion this summer. We're setting it up for August and hope to get a bunch of the epic Class of 97 on board. If that doesn't make me feel old, nothing will. I'm excited to see a lot of people that will come out of the woodwork though, should be interesting to say the least. Blog commenter C-Note will be part of the festivities as he's one of the crew of us getting a hold of everyone. And me, to a guy who could care less about dances and stuff in high school, being excited for a reunion sounds weird, but I'll be there decked out to get my pimp on, you know how it goes.



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

Bird's Video Moment of the Week:

3 Quick Thangs: A classic Ali G clip here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4IdPKsdCDE

1. Here's a weird combo I had for dinner tonight, but it did rule. A few pieces of pizza, some Rice A Roni (yep, the San Francisco treat), and a big cold glass of milk. Give it a try.

2. Let's celebrate some birthdays. Dee Snider of Twisted Sister fame, hair and all, turns 52. Baseballer Harold Baines shoots for 48. Underrated 1980s NBA baller Terry Cummings, Happy 46th. Fabio also hits 46, the ladies still love it. Bret Michaels, guitarist of Poison (we're hitting the hair bands good today), he's 44. Hottie Eva Longoria, she's partying with Tony for her 32nd. Rapper Young Buck, 26. That's a pretty solid crew I think, I'm happy to announce that bunch.

3. Today's interesting fact? The collecting of beer coasters is called tegestology.

Gyroball

It's been a minute, but I'm back with something new for everyone to read. There's never any rhyme or reason to how often I get a post in, but I know I'm due for one when a few people start hitting me up for some fresh material. Today's mood? Pumped up as usual, no point of being in a bad mood is what I always say. Onto our business..



Even though it's been over a week, I don't have any earth shattering stories to break in this one. But that doesn't stop the production line from running at its absolute peak. I may start a new thing and get some input from the people reading out there with some questions so we can branch out and get more of my thoughts of rambling.

How's the American Idol crew been doing? Some out there don't want to admit, but they're closet fans and we know they watch. I know I'm guilty of being hooked, but I admit it. Anyways, tonight we get some cuts going down, yet another night of two dudes and two chicks. So far (and I don't know too much about singing talent), the chicks are just demolishing the dudes in this competition. Last year overall I thought the guys were better, this year it's not close. There's only a few that I'm into so far in the dudes as seeing some talent. I'm rooting for Beat Box Boy Blake and CRich Timberlake as I like to call those guys. They're original, unique, and don't do the same things. Brandon can sing as good as any guy, but he needs something else to stay around. The chicks? This is wide open, but we have three or four that are just awesome. People first just need to get off Lakisha. She's no joke, straight brings it and is out to slice some heads, she's that good. Also vying for a spot in her range is Doolittle. Voice wise, Steph is right there too and last night I thought Gina really did her thing. If you're reading this before tonight's show, here's who I predict to get the boot: Brandon, Bald Phil, Hot Haley, and Sabrina. Sanjaya is garbage, but I feel he'll get the teenie bopper votes as well as the Indian votes, that could be big.



Another series I've been writing about in here lately is The White Rapper Show on VH1. If you didn't get to see any of this, try to catch replays, it's actually pretty good and addicting. The finale was last week and we had $hamrock taking down John Brown. The Rucker Park performances were worth seeing early in in the finale. $ham was doing his thing and in mid-rap, his grill falls out and he has to shove it back in and keep rhyming. When they got to the stage in front of the crowd and voters, $ham definitely had the stage presence. Again, check out their MySpace pages that I linked to in the last post.

Nice comment in the last one there Coop. I like to bring stuff that people might not guess and you've known me for a while and didn't know. That's when I know I'm at least being interesting in here. And to answer your comment Coop, I just like being all smooth in most places, you know how it goes. Makes me feel more comfy. Yep, I'm weird, but we speak the truth in here. Here's a good pic from The_Freak:



Video game news? I don't see any Nintendo Wii games that are out now that are a must buy, so I'll hold off on that. Instead, I went for the Nintendo DS (which I love and it doesn't get enough credit) and bought Diddy Kong Racing. A very good game and if you liked the old Diddy Kong Racing from N64, you'll really enjoy this one. The touch screen adds a ton of innovative ways compared to the old version and you got a lot of added features. It's worth the purchase, go get it. The next game I'll buy? I'm not sure. Baseball wise, there's not much out there this spring for my systems. I'm behind times in the Guitar Hero series, so I may drop the bucks and get that one day, who knows.

I am however real close to spending money on a new TV. With everyone else and their brother already in the HDTV genre, I might as well go for it myself. Currently, I'm looking at a 37 inch Vizio from Sam's Club and it's gotten some great reviews. With how my room is setup, that's going to look way big. A 32 inch may be a better fit, but for the price, I might as well load up. Plus, it's income tax time and I'm usually not a big spender anyways, so we'll go for it. Hopefully I decide to get it this month so I'll be geared up for WrestleMania on April 1st.



Speaking of wrestling, I won't harp on WrestleMania as of yet, but I'm sure I'll talk about it when then time comes. I did pick up a new book on Tuesday and it's another creation from Mick Foley, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author. It came out on Tuesday and luckily I was able to find a copy at my mall. It's called The Hardcore Diaries and I can't put it down yet. For the wrestling fans, based on my early reads through this book, buy buy buy.

Monday is going to be my last day with the gifted genius kids and I'm going to miss that. I've been there since early January and it's an awesome job. The schedule was great (never kids on Fridays or if there was a 2-hour delay) as their classes would start at 9:00 and they'd be done for the day at 1:30. Outside of a lot of paperwork, there wasn't much stress to this job. It doesn't hurt when you can get a lot of bummin' around the internet time in while getting paid. Not that I don't do that enough when I get home anyways, but that's my addiction.

For the local ballers, we're trying for Tuesday and Thursdays both. Tuesday at The Lighthouse and Thursday at School Square. Both are 7:00-9:00. Tell whoever, we don't mind who shows up. Some good competition and no punks, so it's a good crew. Also, it looks like we have another trip to Shogun on Saturday night. Of course I had to say yes to the chance to hit up some excellent food, it'll rock like no other. I'm getting excited.



Just one new CD to mention this time around:

Paul Wall: Ain't No 401K For A Hustler - NBA All Star Edition. I found this one courtesy of my boy Dom from Germany. It's a 2-CD set, but the second CD is a bunch of chopped and screwed junk. I still don't get chopped and screwed, it does nothing for me, but many are into that. You get a lot of Paul Wall stuff of course, but you also get some things by Luda, Baby Huey, Lil Scrappy, E-40, Michael 5000 Watts, Slim Thug, Trick Daddy, Lil Boosie, Birdman, and others. Break Em Off, the new single Paul Wall has out with Lil Keke is on this thing. It's more of a mixtape feel as he has an official album coming out this spring, stay tuned.

Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: http://www.myspace.com/108110695

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_56v3vgJTE

3 Quick Thangs:

1. Today's lunch? Ham, provolone cheese, and mustard on wheat, a Hostess cupcake, a pack of Gold n Chees crackers, and two things of fun fruits (Scooby Doo & Looney Tunes) washed down with some water. I don't care how old I am, fun fruits never ever get old.

2. I still don't get how Daisuke Matsuzaka can live up to this insane hype with the Sox, but I'll be curious to see what goes down. The gyroball? Great topic there, I'm loving the info we're getting with the mysterious pitch from Japan. Does that mean the eephus will make a comeback?

3. How about a quick fact? The largest toy distributor in the world is McDonald's.

Emperor's Delight

It's now time to get back to our normal blog style. I should have a lot of topics to cover since the last one featured the interview with Thug Chuc. Again, thanks to Thug Chuc for stopping by the Madhouse and giving us some of his goodies, it was a lot of fun. This will be the last post in the month of February and we know that time is just breezing by. The question is where do we begin? I don't think it matters where we start out, just as long as it all ties together somehow. With that in mind, let's get things crackin'.



I'll bounce all over the place on days here, but that's the style I like to do. Switch it up, hit you all from left field so you don't know what's coming. That way, you keep reading the action. Saturday night it was another trip to Shogun for some Japanese hibachi times. The purpose was to celebrate the birthday of Ozzie (Friday) and Sweet Pea (Thursday). There were 8 of us on this trip: Ozzie, Sweet Pea, his chick Aubrey, Ferris, Fortney, Abbey, Maulberry, and myself. Once again, I didn't leave disappointed. I got the steak (medium rare) and scallops again. Scallops rock big time, I'm telling ya. If you leave here hungry, something is wrong. I usually have to give some of my food away, so my buddies never complain about that part of the night. Maul went huge with the Emperor's Delight (filet, lobstah, steak, and scallops I believe was what was there) and tore that stuff up like no other. His bill was $45, but as we said, you can't put a price on food, you just go at it. We also had the birthday gongs going right in our ear, that left us deaf. It also didn't hurt that me and Ozzie got a great view at this smokin' hot chick at the table next to us. It's funny how the goofy dudes get these type of chicks more than you'd expect. The guy she was with was a bum, but he either had money or something else to keep her going, who knows, he could've been Dirk Diggler for all we know. Then at the end of the night, Fortney ran out of there as fast as possible as he screamed, "I'm going to shit myself if I don't get out of here right now!" It was perfect timing too. I'm close to that quote, so that will have to work. I need to carry a notepad around me for those moments, but that one cracked me up.

On Wednesday, it was field trip time with my kiddies. The main thing was that I didn't get sick on the bus ride up, so that is huge. Usually I'm horrible on a bus, but I took my car sick pills and that helped. Plus, it wasn't a school bus at least, so we got to ride in style. I would've been in bad shape on a school bus, being jarred around. We went to Wheeling Jesuit College for a science program. The kids loved it and I thought it was a pretty good time too. They got to be in stations as if a comet came crashing down and how to fix their space shuttle in that situation. On headsets, sending messages back and forth from room to room, they were all over it. On the bus, we watched Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. I've never seen Star Wars stuff and am not interested at all, but this movie wasn't too bad actually. They liked it, so that kept them quiet. If it wasn't that, most of them had a Nintendo DS on the bus and they battled with those, good times.



We're rocking it out pretty good on American Idol now. Last week they booted 2 chicks and 2 dudes, so we're down to 20. They got rid of Barefoot Paul, Rudy, Tranquillo, and Boring Amy. I'm fine with those, although I wish Sundance got the shaft, he was brutal. This past week, the chicks straight up dominated the dudes. Not many of the dudes brought much to set them apart from each other. In the dudes, I'm pulling for Beat Box Boy Blake, he pimped it out and showed that he can also sing well too. Brandon is pretty good too and Jack Osbourne should last a while due to his personality. On the chicks, there's a ton of really good ones so far, but it's early. Far and away, Lakisha means business out there. Not that I know much about singing, but she put on one of the best single night performances I've ever seen on the show. Just ricockulous stuff. The judges said she was on a completely different level than anyone else. Simon told the rest of the 23 people to book their plane ticket because we have our winner right here. Steph, Sabrina, and Doolittle also were very good. Although Antonella can't sing that great, she has some nice almost porn level pics floating around on the internet. If she keeps that up, she'll earn an elite spot in the Dirty Thug Ho of the Week.

What's been going down with Real World lately? One main thing and it makes for great TV watching. Brooke, the black haired hottie I was huge on early on in the show due to that, her body, and the accent (I get hooked on those too easy) has now turned crazy psycho. She's a disaster now and just freaks out when someone jumps her case. You gotta see her go nuts on these other chicks. The thing that gets me, I doubt she could whip anyone, she just cusses them like crazy, then a minute later, she's bawling her eyes out. Get out of here with that garbage, go cry to someone else.



The season is almost over, but for those who have been following The White Rapper Show on VH1, it's great in my opinion, but I'm weird. Monday night (Feb 26th) at 10:00 PM EST is the finale and we're down to two rappers. They are John Brown (http://www.myspace.com/johnbrownghettorevival) and $hamrock (http://www.myspace.com/shamrockmusic). Both of these guys are talented I think. John Brown brings some NY vibe as he's the self titled King of Da Burbz and his Ghetto Revival. $hamrock reps the ATL to its fullest and goes more with a club type rap, but he does it great. Tough pick here, but I'm going to pick John Brown to win this thing.

Some NBA news? Last week the NBA invaded Vegas and I thought it was definitely an entertaining weekend. My predictions weren't too bad, I had Mikey Miller winning the 3 Point Shootout (Jason Kapono won there), but I had my boy G-Money Gerald Green doing his thing by winning the Dunk Contest and bringing the pain, I had that one right, as well as the West thumping the East's heads in the actual game. That weekend is always one of my favorites of the entire year, it's excitement at it's best. That's the happy side of basketball. We were also dealt with the sad side of things as former Celtic great Dennis Johnson had a heart attack at the age of 52 and passed away. That totally shocked me and it's not a good thing to hear about. DJ doesn't get enough credit for the kind of baller he was in the day. The Basketball Jesus himself, Larry Bird, says he's the best teammate he's ever had. Magic Johnson said DJ was the best defensive guard of all time. That's high praise. A 3-time world champion and 1979 Finals MVP, he played well in the clutch and rarely made dumb mistakes. Get him in the Hall of Fame, you'll be missed DJ. A quick memory I have of DJ is when I went to a Clippers/Hornets game a few years back with my crew. We had front row seats on the floor thanks to Mikey Darway. That's when DJ was an assistant on the Clips and he was at one point about 15 feet from me. I was in awe, that made my trip. So long DJ, you always got my respect.



It's time for an update to my CD collection. What did I get recently? I'm about to tell ya..

Frost: Blunts & Ballerz. A surprisingly good CD from this Cali rapper in the LBC. If you haven't heard anything of Frost before, give it a chance. I have a few of his albums and they're nice.

Ginuwine: I Apologize. Into pimpin' music? This CD works just fine. Ginuwine isn't on every song, but don't let that stop you from picking this bad boy up. After normally vibing with rap, it never hurts to pop in some pimp stuff every now and then as well.

JR Writer: Writer's Block 4. One of Dipset's members is at it again. JR goes unheralded, but he can spit it. Cork was saying how all of the Dipset guys sound the same and that's fairly true, but this is still worthy of owning.

Keak Da Sneak, P.S.D. Tha Drivah, & Messy Marv: Da Bidness. These three guys together doing it for the Yay Area. I like Messy Marv the best out of this bunch personally, but when you get them all jumping in together it makes for some impressive flows.

MC Eiht: Representin'. True gangsta rap hasn't quite left us. Eiht comes from Compton and has been around the game for a long time. He tells it like it is and has a story in his raps that come out solid. Eiht is a big name, but he still needs more credit.

RZA Presents: Afro Samurai Soundtrack. Ugh, what a waste of time this was. I'm a huge RZA guy, but I was wishing this was more of a solo RZA CD rather than what they gave us with this junk. Sure, the few RZA songs on this thing are great, but then you're also flooded with weird instrumental beats from the show, dumb skits, and not nearly as much rapping as you'd want. Give us something soon RZA, we're due.



Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: http://www.myspace.com/sexy_haliey (I gotta give my girl Jas in Arizona props on finding this filthy. Nice work indeed. I'm never above giving someone credit who drops in some ideas for the blog, it's always appreciated.)

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: For those who haven't seen Britney going nuts on the paparazzi, you're in for a treat. What an absolute mess she is, but we can't turn our head from it, we want to see how she screws herself up even more. Sad, but you all know it's true. Thanks to Kasher for usually providing a lot of our video footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eipl1yzFXAE



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Let's roll with our birthdays for Monday, February 26th: Singer Michael Bolton, he turns 54. Singer Erykah Badu goes for 36. Footballer Marshall Faulk, he's 34 and wants to come back next year. Jenny Thompson, US 2-time gold medal Olympic swimmer, she's also 34. There's a lot of C-list athletes, but they don't deserve a mention. What a horrible list today, that's a joke, unacceptable. February 26th, no soup for you!

2.Today's Fun Fact? The average bra size today is 36C. That seems high to me, but I'll take the fact's word for it. Ten years ago it was 34B. This was in 2003, so close enough. We're moving up, always good in my book of course, you know how I am with that.

3. Note to self.. Not good times when you shave your nipple. The chicks wouldn't know, but the dudes who shave their chest, it's bad times. Burns like crazy, hah. I got a little too close and then doh. Just a little cut is all it takes, it's not like I sliced it big or tried to obviously, but there ya go for this week's shaving story.

20 Questions With Thug Chuc

As promised, I wanted everyone to be patient for a while. I had been wanting to try something a little different to switch up the normal happenings around here. Things changed late in 2006 when I was in contact with Thug Chuc and through working on some ideas the past few months, we finally have something ready to go. First off, I'd like to send a big thanks Thug Chuc for the opportunity to get this out to the masses to read. It was a blast setting it up and figuring out how to put it into action.

I won't keep everyone waiting. You already know I can ramble on and on, so I'll get right at it. The idea we're rolling with is to do a 20 Questions theme and Thug Chuc holds nothing back, trust me on that one. You will soon see some insight into the man and what his thoughts are. As they say, you think you know, but you have no idea.

Ladies and gentlemen.. I present to you.. Thug Chuc!

1. Take us back to the beginning. Give a basic idea of your childhood before you jumped into the rap game.

Thug Chuc: "My childhood was interesting; and although surrounded totally in poverty, I never knew it. In my neighborhood all of the bums, drunks, drug addicts, prostitutes, and all other types of street people knew me well and loved me. I don’t know if it was because of my Great Grand Mother who was a devout church woman; or my Grand Mother who was a devout street woman; however they loved me. They would give me money for candy, sodas, etc…, but never drugs and alcohol or any wrong doings."



2. We've talked before about your accomplishments in high school and collegiate sports. For those who have not been to your website (http://lockdownrecordsllc.com), explain how sports played a role in your life to make you a successful person.

Thug Chuc: "Sports gave me my first father figure in the form of a coach, and also gave me an identity and respect because I was a winner. Before sports I really was ridiculed and picked on by people, except for the street people I mentioned earlier. Once people witnessed my talents, their whole attitude changed and they treated me different."

3. Who were some of your inspirations (both at a personal level in your area or family or a celebrity you looked up to) at a young age and why?

Thug Chuc: "My uncle Charles Ray???????? (I won’t mention his last name), but he was strong, athletic, cool, loved, respected, could dance, had a good sense of humor, pretty women on his team, and he was a major person in the streets, if you know what I mean."

4. I know you don't hold anything back. You go into detail on your website about your long stay in prison. Give us things that were both good and bad about that situation. In your words, paint the picture for those who have no idea what the prison system is about and what it is like going through it.

Thug Chuc: "The prison system is designed to house you, and it’s up to you to correct or rehabilitate yourself in an environment that you would not believe how negative it is. Small things that you take for granted everyday is taken away from you when you go to prison. Stuff you never even think about until it’s taken away from you. Like making a regular phone call… huh? I can’t give it justice in this interview, but I’m working on a book about it called “Jail Tales” and there is excerpts of it on my web site http://www.lockdownrecordsllc.com"



5. What is your opinion on rappers out there who "claim" to be bred from a life of crime only to find out that they are just doing it to sell albums?

Thug Chuc: "Well I can see the temptation of a situation like that, you know the fame and all and the benefits thereof; but I just hope the guy/girl who is faking it don’t get caught up in a real life situation because of it, and also realize that there could be some consequences to their reputation or to their person."

6. As you were growing up, who were some of the earlier rappers that you looked up to? Did you try to pattern your style after a mixture of any of those?

Thug Chuc: "All man L.L. Cool J was the shit in my eyes, and the first time I saw the video, I Ain’t No Joke by Rakim, I damn near lost my mind. I recorded that video and watched it over and over and over. I didn’t even go back outside to play football that day. I would say I was inspired, but I didn’t emulate their styles, it just made me wanna be a rapper."

7. What current singles are you digging at the moment?

Thug Chuc: "That’s That Shit by Snoop Dogg w/ R. Kelly."

8. Are there any certain rappers that you would one day like to do a collaboration with?

Thug Chuc: "Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, D.J. Quik, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Scareface, Jay Z, 50 Cent, and although he’s not a rapper I would love to do several songs with R. Kelly."

9. Lyrically, who do you believe is the best rapper of all time and why?

Thug Chuc: "Very hard question, hmmmmmmmm…… I have a few because I can’t settle on one and I love lyrics so…..Rakim, Scarface, Ice Cube, and I got to give it up for Ice T., you just gotta go back and listen to him bruh."

10. What is the landscape of the current rap game in the Shreveport area? Who are some up and coming cats from the area that you are high on? If there are any at the moment.

Thug Chuc: "Well it’s like this with me since ‘Port City hasn’t broke out yet so to speak, I love all Shreveport rappers and wish them success because we have enough hating going on to run over. And the current landscape could be a whole lot better because of the potential."



11. With the craze of MySpace hitting the internet the past few years, have you thought of branching out and creating your own page through MySpace to showcase your music?

Thug Chuc: "My page is http://www.myspace.com/thugchuc2"

12. Through our chats, you've noted that one of the most inspirational things you try to tie yourself up in, deals with your writings. What's your focus for that and share some of your favorite ideas over the years.

Thug Chuc: "The printed word is the best form of communication in the world and the best way one can express himself/herself to the fullest. Writing is eternal and you can leave your thoughts to generations to come. Like this one that was written about my album:"



13. As always, there is beef between the new, younger rappers with the veterans. One example is Young Jeezy going at it in a war of words with Nas. Jeezy says it's time for the new and that Nas can't be doing it forever. What is your take on each side, in general (not necessarily with Jeezy and Nas) of this beef that happens all the time?

Thug Chuc: "Beef is for sales, and if it’s not prove it. You say how? If I am so upset with someone that I have to make a song about him for all to hear, then why don’t I just go to the guy and punch him in his shit, or we can meet up and fight. Or if he wants everybody to know our business and it has to be public, shit we can fight and set it up to be on pay per view. Otherwise all of that talk is cheap. On the real streets and in prison, all of that talk will get your hat brought to you – POTNAH!"



14. Do you get a chance to travel much to showcase your music? What are some of the more memorable places you have been and how did they take to the Shreveport style?

Thug Chuc: "I travel a lot, that’s one of the reasons it took me so long to get back with you on this but, I get good responses everywhere I go, they love my flow in La, Ca, Tx, Ks, Mo, Ok, Ark, Ms. Ga, Fl, Ny, Va, Mass, Nj, Nc, Sc, and all the states I go to I have product (cd’s & videos) with me and it just confirms that I will hit, it’s just a matter of time and opportunity."



15. Who do you feel are some of the most overrated rappers out there today and why?

Thug Chuc: "Those who sacrifice song substance for that bullshit. It’s like lyrics these days don’t mean anything when it comes to songs, but we about to bring it back to the real. Like Star Wars, it’s about to be Return of the Lyricist."

16. What's the most powerful line of lyrics (from any song, including yours if you wish) that you've ever heard?

Thug Chuc: "I like all of my shit so that wouldn’t be fairly objective but, the first line in Jay Z song Lost Ones is the shit. And I quote “I heard muthafuckas sayin’ they made Hov/Made Hov say, Ok, so make another Hov/” – That shit right there is some heat for ya ass! (If you know the history behind it)"

17. What are some additions you plan to add to your website in the future? Anything the fans should be looking forward to?

Thug Chuc: "All of my progression will be documented and also videos, commercials, and anything relevant to the business."

18. Do you ever plan to get on the production side of things and either distribute your beats for someone or eventually being part of management in a production company?

Thug Chuc: "Yes because that’s an excellent way to give back, you know, if you make it or if someone give you your break, well you owe that same favor to the next guy who has potential but no opportunity."

19. Do you have any ideas for future videos that you will be shooting? Where I'm From
(http://youtube.com/watch?v=dOfFq2lu79A) was solid and I thought it showed the city and people rather well. Do you plan to go another route for your next videos?

Thug Chuc: "Of course and I don’t wanna give it all away but just know that my videos will have a concept and story line to it, and some kind of theme and not just a thoughtless bunch of flatteries."

20. What does 2007 have in store for Thug Chuc?

Thug Chuc: "No one knows the future, but I have faith in mines!!!!!!!!!"

Once again, I'd like to thank my man Thug Chuc for the interview. I had a lot of fun doing it, so I hope everyone enjoyed the read. Do me a favor and definitely check out his website (http://lockdownrecordsllc.com), MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/thugchuc2), and the video for Where I'm From (http://youtube.com/watch?v=dOfFq2lu79A). Also, I'd like to give him credit for providing the pics to use in the interview, he did it big. Feel free to drop comments in here or better yet, go straight to Thug Chuc's pages and either leave a comment or email, it'd be greatly appreciated.

A hot thing that a lot of people look for at the end of my regular posts is the infamous Dirty Thug Ho of the Week. Chuc gave me a heads up and said he always cracks up at that part. I will end the interview with this chick I found on his page. Jas, in my next regular post, your chick will be going in, I didn't forget about ya. Every other section I normally do can wait till next time, but I can't forget about this:

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

Joe Rogan & Valentine's Day Thoughts

We're back in action after last week's post. It's time to recharge and see what has been going on for the past week and what we'll be getting into soon. This is one of those where I'll have topics and opinions all over the place, so I should hopefully have at least one interesting thing in here for everyone reading. I have one that might catch people's attention on a holiday, so we'll see. Grab your bag of Doritos, crank some hot sauce on them (trust me on this), and enjoy your boredom.



Finally, it's no longer a weak winter in my area. Last year we hardly got anything which is kind of rare, but this year we're rocking it out. For the past two or three weeks, I've barely had school. If I do, it's either been a delay or they'd send us home early. You can't beat that with a stick. Then next week I only have one actual day of classes with my kids, have a field trip another day, then the other three days to just show up and play online. I'll take that.

It looks like the wheels are in motion for my crew's next road trip and I'm excited. We're rolling 8 deep on this trip and it isn't until April. We'll be hitting up Atlantic City for 2 days and then on the backside of the trip, we're rolling to DC to watch the Wiz and Bulls battle in NBA action, as both should be battling for high playoff spots. I'm not much of a gambling guy, but I'm always in for a road trip, especially with a lot of people. We'll be renting a big van so we'll have plenty of room and we'll all be together instead of taking a few different cars. Who all is part of this action? Other than myself of course, we have Ozzie, Spank, Cork, Kari, Matty Cakes, Fortney, and Abbey along for the action. Props to Ozzie for already booking the hotel (the hotel looks pimped out from the website I saw), getting the game tickets, and getting the van ready to go. That's organization at it's best, you know I'm all about that.



I'm sure late in April I'll have a blog talking just about that road trip with who knows what kind of stories. I don't look to gamble, but I have just as much fun in Atlantic City watching the big time rich boys just throw money around like water. And there's always somewhere to walk around at up there, it's impressive. I'm probably the only one on in the trip going solely for the NBA game. I don't care what kind of trip or who is in involved, if a NBA trip is part of the plans, count me in. The rest of the trip should just be icing on the cake. I'm still deciding what I'll spend my money on in Atlantic City. Being that there aren't too many single guys on the trip, a possible tittie bar trip for the few singles has to be in the works, but not sure how that'll work out. Hey, at least I'm honest. Might as well see some quality dirties instead of the bums around here. That's why I very rarely go around here.

The streak is snapped! What's that you ask? Yep, my Celtics are finally out of the losing manner. They were on an 18-game losing streak. Yeah, it was that bad. On Wednesday night, the tide was turned as they smacked around the hapless Bucks. I'll take it though. My guys are still the worst in the league, but it sure beats going after a losing streak. Greg Oden, hopefully we get a shot at you this year man. Pierce is back, so that can't hurt, but we're still awful. At least they get a break now due to All Star Weekend. Oh yeah, great branch off into our next scene..



This weekend is one of my favorites and has been since I was a little guy. First off, this year's festivities are in Vegas for NBA All Star Weekend. They're seriously going to put a bunch of NBA players and dirty skanks following them around in Vegas? That'll be lovely and nothing but pure entertainment. We need cameras rolling at all times with that action. I look for a record to be set with how many illegitimate kids will be produced during the weekend. Anyways, I look forward to three things basically. The Rookie/Sophomore Game on Friday, the Dunk Contest, and Three Point Shootout. Some quick predictions? I look for the sophomores to mangle the rookies this year. In the Dunk Contest, I look for my boy G-Money Gerald Green of the Celts to dominate, and the 3 Point Shootout winner is going to be Mikey Miller with his girly hair. Saturday night is where it's at for me. Sure, we got the actual game on Sunday, but it's become a joke recently to where they all want to be And1 and they don't take it as passionately as they did back in the day.

Here's a topic that will surely get some people riled up. There's no point of just writing all bland and plain without some real emotion behind it. You get pure honesty around here. Like I always say, I don't think it comes across as being a punk or I hope not anyways, but this is what we'll work on: Valentine's Day. If you get offended, just jump to the next paragraph because I'm bringing it here, Joe Rogan style (more on him later). Yep, we had that action go down on Wednesday. I never have a problem with this day. I rarely have to spend money on it anyways and I can't complain about getting candy. Cadbury Eggs are out! They're only THE greatest candy in the history, I will not argue that. Candy is my weakness. Anyways, I know I'm not a chick and can't get into their heads, but the single chicks literally freak out and go totally psycho on this day because they're either A) jealous, B) say how pointless the day is when really they want to be part of it but won't admit, or C) complain about their friends being all over their dudes or chicks. "Ugh!! The worst day of all tiiiimme! This is horrible! People put too much into this day! Wahhhh!" Cry me a rivahhh. Sure, I can play that route and complain too since I'm single, but stay positive with it people. It's not going to ruin your year, trust me. Besides, the single life normally is awesome anyways. I'm sure girls see that totally different than I do, but that's my side of the story. It's a holiday that won't go away and will forever make huge bucks, so deal with it. And no, I'm not in a bad mood (99% of the time I'm pumped up), I'm just telling things how they truly are, that's what you get around here. I hit all topics.



Now that we got that out of the way, I'm on a roll. I haven't talked about my workout habits lately, so I might as well touch on something with that. I'll try not to bore anyone as this shouldn't be crazy long, but maybe someone out there can take it as being useful. I've always been on and off supplements for a long time now. In a few months, it'll mark my 13th year of working out (free weights) without ever taking more than a week off at a time. I'm always proud of that. Sure, I'm no roid freak, I'm a little guy, but I still like to stay in good shape. With that in mind (and I might've talked about this before, I have no clue), I'm on a new creatine product from Pro Performance called Mega Creatine Extreme. I haven't used creatine in a while, so I was due. A lot of supplements don't settle too well with me since I have a weak stomach, but this stuff is very good. The taste isn't bad, I have lemon lime and it's similar to Gatorade. You can feel it kicking in with energy as soon as you take it. So far I'm giving it a thumbs up and it's paying off in the gym. I got off No-Xplode for a while and tried something different. No-Xplode works so good that it's scary. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing because it got you insanely hyped up for a workout like nothing else. I can't even describe it, but so far the creatine mix is working well too.

Idol thoughts? Yes, we're down to 24 after Wednesday night's show. We have 12 dudes and 12 chicks. I'm sure we'll all change our mind a zillion times on who we'll be rooting for, that's the fun part about it. I can't pinpoint it down to one person I'm for quite yet, but here are some of the ones right now that I'm pulling for. Will they make me turn on them eventually or will I stick with them? On the guys side, I'm pulling for Sanjaya, Jack Osbourne, or Beat Box Boy. The people who watch will know who I mean with those names. On the girls? It's tougher because I have it narrowed down to five: Antonella, Alaina, Lakisha, Hot Haley, and Jordan Sparks just because her dad is Philippi. If we're basing it on hotness, Antonella right now blows the rest of them away, she's incredible. And how can ya not be hot with a name like that? And if we're going on the singing end of things, Lakisha so far is on a whole different level than these other girls. That's just my opinion, I don't know much about singing of course.



Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: http://www.myspace.com/victoria2004

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: http://youtube.com/watch?v=B2TDUybA2eI

3 Quick Thangs:

1. It's time to celebrate the birthdays on Friday, February 16th: Kim Jong-Il, president of North Korea is now 65. Fans of the great Team America: World Police movie will know him as they made fun of him good in that one. LeVar Burton of Roots and Reading Rainbow fame, 50. Rapper Ice-T is 49, dang. Tennis great John McEnroe volleys along for his 48th. NBA baller Kelly Tripuka is also 48, he was way underrated as one of the greatest pure scorers ever. Another NBA baller, Mark Price, Happy 43rd. Running back Jerome Bettis, 35. In #basketball news, we have Bono going for his 28th on Saturday, while Blog reader Kristen in Germany, goes for the big 21 if I'm right on that, have a good one over there. :)

2. I'm getting in another video in here because this is well worth it. Thanks to Blahah of #basketball fame for finding this gem. Anyone seen Joe Rogan simply OWN Carlos Mencia to his face? p0wnz! f not, you're in for a treat. 10 minutes of Mencia looking like a total fool and Rogan going absolutely crazy. YouTube has been putting it down due to copyright laws from Mencia, but we still have a link: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1943001565

3. Today's fun fact? Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms everyday.