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!"

6 Years of Debauchery! The Madhouse Still Lives!

Yes, I know exactly what you're thinking. I don't even have to say it. With that thought in your head, we can't waste anymore time than we already have. We have a lot on our plates since the last time we wrote out a blog, so that should make for an easy one to write out hopefully. It's just the idea of actually sitting down and taking time to do it when half the time I'm lazy about it. I'm not sure what it is either. I'm still online way too much, but sometimes I just end up wandering onto other things and not focusing on the blog. As an added note, we've made it to 6 years that this blog has been in existence. Time sure does fly, but I'll pat myself on the back for that. For some reason, you folks continue to read my ramblings about whatever and always give nice feedback, so it's much appreciated. It's time to focus now though, the fans are getting relentless. In this one, we talk about the new Shrek, bonfires, Gutter Sluts, Pittsburgh weekend getaway, Derek having me in tears laughing, another 5K run, and a lot more. Time to get to it!



You want an update on the fingernails huh? If you've been keeping along, I went about a week or so without biting or picking at my nails. Let me tell you, that was surprisingly very tough to do if you've never had the habit. Maybe I can relate that to smokers or people with other habits that always say it's tough to stop. It was eating up at me, so one day at work, I started going to town. Going to town on my nails and biting them like a madman. It was sort of stressing me a bit by trying to not bite them when I'd want to. Now? I am back to biting them, but doesn't seem as stressful. The downfall is that they look ugly again, but I guess guys aren't supposed to have pretty nails anyways unless you're Adam Lambert.

A few weekends ago I did my first 5K run of the year. This one was sponsored by the Relay For Life and done through scenic Shinnston, West Virginia. The turnout wasn't as good as I'd expect, but that didn't stop the diehards from showing up. I'd guess there were 30-40 people doing their duty and getting the run on. When Stacia organized the Turkey Trot last November, she had a lot bigger turnout for anyone keeping track at home and I know you are. It was a windy day, but it was about 60 degrees, perfect to get some good runs in. This ended up being my best 5K time of all time ("I'm the greatest of allllll time!"- Rickey Henderson) as I beat the trail up to the tune of 22:24. That actually was a little bit of a shock to me, I didn't go in expecting a time that good. I went in thinking anywhere from 24 to 26 minutes and I'd be a happy camper. 5th Place is what it was and that's how it goes. Spank rocked it if you didn't see on Facebook already. He was a bit over 20 minutes and came in 2nd Place, dominating that stuff, nice job man, you're on another level than the rest of us on the running scene. I hope to get in a few more races as the summer season begins, but I'll keep people posted. Even if you aren't an awesome runner, give a 5K a try one day soon, you'll feel much better about yourself once you complete it. Plus, it's not a distance that is going to make you feel miserable as something a lot farther may.



The day before the 5K we did it up bonfire style. To switch all over the place on times, I ended up running that 5K on 5 hours of sleep, like a champ. 5 hours for me? That gets me bouncing off the walls, don't need much more. Site of the bonfire was in the mean streets of Enterprise, West Virginia. We here at the blog give the big thanks for the bash to Pat and Abby. It was a real big turnout and a nice night for it. Cornhole was even involved, can you go wrong with that? And no, not the cornhole you pervs are thinking about either, the actual game. That's also not to be confused with resident blog celebrity Corndog. After that, it was a late night Denny's trip, reminiscing the old days that we'd go there all the time with nothing else to do. From the bonfire, we split up into seven of us along for the action: Cork, Kristin, Trev, Meg, Derek, Whitney, and myself. I order my traditional mix of pancakes with strawberries, bacon, and cheesesticks.

The highlight of the night at least for me was the fact that I was basically in tears from Derek's words of wisdom. Tears of laughter that is, not that he was kicking my face in with steel toe boots and I was crying tears of hurt. Basically, if you're a local and haven't heard Derek tell the story of cropdusting the elevator, the little kid cussing, Derek blaming an imaginary old lady who just got off the elevator, and the mother getting fired up at the kid, then you haven't heard one of the all time classics. Your homework assignment if you're in Shinnston for the week? Track down Derek and have him tell you this. Words can't do it justice, so I won't even begin to tell it in here. I guarantee you're gonna die laughing. I heard it several times that night and it didn't get a bit old. Also, within the next month, Derek and Meg will welcome in Baby Fonzie to the world. Everything is healthy and ready to rock, the town is just counting down the days, so send the congrats out when the time comes.



Gutter Connection you say? Yes, it's time to give the softball report from your world famous Gutter Sluts. The Sluts have been hampered by two nights of rain delays (4 games total), so those games have been rescheduled for July. We have four games in already on the season and how many have we won? Not a single one, that's bad times indeed. To our credit, we played two of the better teams in the league apparently, one team particularly that just killed us that should be in a higher level. We may be starting out like the Pirates, but the squad we have this year is a blast. The way we look at it, if we ever have to lose games, we're at least going to look the best in this league as far as gear goes. We're black and orange. The hats are custom made New Era style fitteds with Connection on the back and a big Olde English G on the front, it's sharp. The shirts are black with a roided out dude swinging a gutter. Mix in some black, orange, or white knee high socks with some eye black and you're ready to rock. The team is loving the new bats, but so far, they haven't got us far enough. The first game of the season, we took to extra innings and lost by 1. The doubleheader last week against that should-be higher level team, they annhiliated us. I won't lie. My game personally? I'm doing ok at the plate, but not where I need to be. In the outfield, that's my home. There's a lot of ground to cover, but the old man legs still are as good as ever here. Posey and I, despite the age on paper, feel we're one of the fastest in our league at running the bases. I'm not the type that is going to run a good 100 meter dash or something of the like, but I like my chances in softball/basketball quickness. If you're bored, come on and cheer the Sluts at Windmill Park in Fairmont! I can guarantee you it'll be a good time.

This past weekend we needed a getaway of sorts. What did that entail? Whitney and I trekked up to Pittsburgh to stay for a few nights from Friday through Sunday. I even took a half day off work to head up there, as I've only used 1½ days the entire year at work. I'm not the type that misses too much unless I have to. We couldn't have asked for better weather during the weekend. Saturday's festivities was a trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo. If you've seen our Facebook pages as most have, you'll see the pics we threw up there. I haven't been up there since I was a wee little kid, but was willing to see what they had to offer nowadays. My excitement of the zoo was wanting to see my boys, the zebras and giraffes. Unfortunately, the zebras weren't out that day, but never fear, the giraffes held me over and did it up big. Whitney and it seem like a lot of people who told us, were all about the polar bears, those things are huge in person. Overall, it's a trip I'd recommend for sure and would do again, it wasn't anything that was miserable, at least on my end.



That night, we hit up the mall at South Hills Village. Before we get to the mall, this area is one of my favorite areas of Pittsburgh. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza here across from the mall and the room setup was pretty impressive, I'd recommend staying here. It was by far the quickest check-in and checkout I've ever had at a hotel, the service was top notch. The bathroom was huge, you can't go wrong with a king size bed (although I didn't get to make any dives a la my Cleveland hotel pic on Facebook), and of course I had to take my laptop around. Like I'm going to survive a few days without internet? Speaking of the mall and technology, at the mall, we got to play with an iPad for the first time. I have been skeptical of these, but now that I've had a chance to play around with it for a bit, I come away with high praise and then some. They're the real deal. I'm a technology freak with a lot of things and could see me wanting one of these, but I'll probably hold off for a bit. Another thing I don't have that a lot of people said they are surprised I don't, a GPS. We borrowed one from Whitney's bud Jess, so it's time to send out the thanks. We rocked a TomTom and I was loving it. On trips, especially in Pittsburgh with all of the roads being a detour half the time, it's solid. I'm one that gets very impatient driving in traffic, but this thing kept me in check. I now need to decide if I want to buy a GPS just for the fun of it. I don't really need it, but they're fun.

On the way home on Sunday afternoon, it was time to hit up the Tanger Outlets in Washington, Pennsylvania. I talked about this place the first time I had went a few months ago, so I won't bore many with tales here. The moral is, basically I get stupid when I see bargains, so this place sucks me in like no other. The two of us together on a shopping trip is never good. Good for the stores because they see us coming, but you know how it goes. Still, if you're in the area and are one of few who hasn't been up there yet, it's worth the trip.



A movie update. During this time, we've been slacking on our movie watching. It happens, but we did get back on track Friday night. We hit up the local drive-in as it's one of few left in the entire state. The movie this time around? Shrek Forever After. If you're a Shrek fan, you probably already went out to see this weekend. Iron Man 2 was playing afterwards, but we had no desire to watch. I still have yet to hear a bad report of Iron Man 2 though, but just not our type of movie I guess. I'm sure I may see it one day, but I've never seen the first either. Half the place left after Shrek. Anyways, this Shrek wasn't nearly as funny as the others, but it has moments definitely. The new little fat boy in this movie was our favorite part, they needed more of him. "Do the roar!" His voice alone is enough to have you cracking up. My final grade? 7.5 big ogre roars out of 10.

I'll finish things by mentioning some action that was happening six years ago. Why six years? If you were still paying attention from earlier, you'll know that I'm doing this for the sixth anniversary of this very blog. How about 5 notes of importance (or not?) that I'm going to throw at you.



1. Highest grossing movie? Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. As a little unbelievable fact, I've never seen any of that series of movies. 2nd that year? The Da Vinci Code. 3rd? Ice Age: The Meltdown. If you want crazy, I've only seen one of the top 10 grossing films of 2006, fact. That movie? Cars.

2. 2006 sports teams who ended up being kings of their mountain? Miami Heat (the year they let Dwyane Wade get a zillion phantom foul calls to win the series over the Mavs) with NBA, Cardinals over Tigers, Steelers took the Super Bowl, Florida over UCLA in college hoops (the George Mason year), Florida over Ohio State in college football, Roger Federer won three tennis majors, and Tiger Woods won two golf majors.

3. Billboard top songs of the year? We start with #1 of Bad Day by Daniel Powter, #2 was Temperature by Sean Paul, and #3 ended up being Promiscuous from Nelly Furtado and Timbaland.

4. Some of the better video games? The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii, Gears of War for 360, New Super Mario Bros for DS. Madden 07 for PS2 apparently sold the most that year (PS2), New Super Mario Bros #2, and Kingdom Hearts II for PS2 coming in at 3rd Place.

5. Notable deaths from 2006? Saddam Hussein, President Gerald Ford, and Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin.

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: You can't go wrong with cheesy commercials. This one is for The Red House, a furniture store. In it you get Big Head and 10 Gauge. "I'm white and the Red House is for me.. I'm a black woman and I love the Red House.. At the Red House, where black people and white people buy furniture!" I can't make this up if I tried. It's getting a good buzz online for being creative, but some people aren't big fans of it. Straight from High Point, North Carolina.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Since we talked about deaths of 2006, you're probably wondering, 5 months in, how is the Lobstah Celebrity Deathpool going? With the recent death of Ronnie James Dio, that put both Corndog and ManDingo on the list with 33 points. ManDingo is a machine at this, he's on a streak of picking a death in every single year since 2005, crazy. Corndog has a death in 5 of our 6 years of playing. Blahah is on the board with 32 points for Ali Hassan al-Majid and Kasher is the only person to have two deaths with Zelda Rubenstein and Ernie Harwell, 32 points as well.

2. Oh my, getting into a zone right now with my Celtics. I didn't expect them to get nearly this far and I've watched them all year long. I'm pleasantly surprised though as they put LeBron in his place and thus far are doing the same for the vastly overrated (at least offensively) Dwight Howard. Howard is a defensive freak, but outside of a dunk, he can shoot the ball anytime as far as I'm concerned outside of 5 feet. Here's hoping they don't blow the 2-0 lead and get to face Kobe and the Lakers, the team I have been predicting all along to win it all.

3. Facts to end the day on? An elephant has no bones in its trunk, but 40,000 muscles.. Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper.. Dolphins sleep with one eye open.. Did you know that there are no ants in Iceland, Antarctica, and Greenland?

"Lenny Kravitz, only with cholesterol added and talent subtracted."

It's time for another edition for the folks to read upon. This will be the last of the April blogs. Next month we'll have hit six years, but I'll talk more about that when the actual date comes. Anything else happening? Of course we're going to start out with a movie, then get into Idol which I haven't talked about much this year. This Idol report features some classic comments from a buddy of mine on last week's talent, the ever imfamous DerekHood. Even if you're not an Idol fan or don't watch, his stuff will have you cracking up. We'll also touch base on softball season opening soon for our crew and thoughts on Ben Roethlisberger, even though that story has been beat into the ground. Not beat into the ground Jersey Shore style by beating up the beat, but you know where I'm getting at. I'm not biting my fingernails now? Upcoming movies? We hit all of that, it's time to get business started..



It's time for another movie review. Saturday night at the scenic Meadowbrook Mall's cinema. What'd we end up seeing on this night? The Back-Up Plan. You've seen the previews if you aren't sure of the movie based on name. It's the Jennifer Lopez flick with not very many others I recognized in it. This is also going to be a tough review for me to do. How so? I'm not even sure how to classify the type of movie this is. Whip and I agreed it wouldn't be in the chick flick category, I can handle those. This one is a total girly movie though for the most part, I can't see too many guys being pumped for this one. A quick plot rundown is that J-Lo can't find the right guy and has been wanting a baby, so she goes to a donor shop to become pregnant. I didn't think it was bad though, but I'm sure girls would like it much more than I did. A funny cameo in this one was Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. He had me laughing good in a few parts. Another role I was big on was Anthony Anderson. He didn't have a huge part, but you can't ever go wrong with his comedy, one of the funniest guys out there if you ask me. J-Lo looked good and she'll be 41 in July, kind of surprising. During this movie a few weird things went down. One couple brought in a tiny baby. I could see if this was an early movie. This movie started at 10:10. Yep, you guessed it, this baby was crying its eyes out, imagine that. Come on now. I don't even have to give my thoughts on that one. Another piece in the crowd was this guy behind us a bit who was out cold for practically the entire movie. Everyone could hear him snoring too, I'm surprised someone didn't walk up the aisle and crack him in the teeth, but I kept my patience as good as I could. Again, from a guy's perspective, this is a tough grade. I'm going to go 6.2 artificially inseminated girls out of 10. IMDB is bashing it, they have it at 4.2 out of 10 as of Wednesday. Ouch.

I haven't commented much on American Idol this season. I'm watching every episode still, so no worries there. Now that we're down to a handful of people, it's time to give an update of what I think of each and if they have much potential to win this thing. I'll also list some comments from the infamous DerekHood about last week's episode, as he's unique in his style and will let you know what he thinks in a humorous way. Also, his comments are uncensored, be ready. Consider yourselves warned. Even if you don't like Idol, you still might enjoy this little section before I move onto other things.



Bowersox: To me, she's on a completely different level of talent than the rest of this bunch. She's not your typical Idol style potential winner though, but I think that will be able to help her as we get to these final weeks. She's been my #1 seed since the beginning of this thing, so we'll see what goes down. It seems like they've done a little coloring on her teeth. Early on, her teeth in HD were all yellow and ugh. Derek, what do you have to say? "Bowersox was decent, but that decent was the performance of the night. She rolled out the 4/20 special mic stand, cried a little, had some forced cleavage and revealed a shitty back tattoo and paraded her white trash dad in front of the cameras. It was all a pile of shit."

Casey: All the chicks seem to be rooting for this dude. He has the greasy long hair and a guitar, so apparently that gets it done. Kara also drools over this dude or did in the beginning. I think he's a good talent, although his last few weeks he's slacked a bit on his song choices. I don't see him winning the title though, but there's enough time that he can change that around. I like his songs better with the guitar as with not. Derek's thoughts on Casey last week? "He was probably busy huffing smoke out of tubesox's mic stand bong all week to give a fuck to try to pick anything that required effort. But hey, he's good at playing electric guitar so leave him alone, dudes."

Lee: I never realized how tiny Lee was until he was next to Alicia Keys last week. Alicia was looking great by the way, even if she is way tall or so it seemed on TV. Talent wise, I think Lee is very good and seems to have a legit shot at this when all is over with. He has that rough gravely voice to an extent and plays it off well. Definitely not the same look, but I see a bit of Daughtry out of him or maybe Nickelback, Pearl Jam, or groups along that line. Derek? "Lee DeWyze got his coin purse licked by all the judges and all he did was go up there and sing "lalalaliellliillilillili there's a boxer lalalalallililililili" for two minutes. That's a moment? A moment I would like back."



Big Mike: Musically, I don't think he's top notch. He's good, but not going to shock the world with his voice. Personality wise, this dude has the tools for sure. I, like a lot of other people were surprised when he got booted a few weeks back, but they did use the save on him. I'm also convinced Big Mike's arms weigh more than my entire total body weight. That doesn't say a lot, but still. People like this guy. Derek with some choice words about Mike: "Titties Lynche went off the rails trying, for some god-awful reason, to recreate a Chad Kroeger/Nickelback/Whatever shitpile. That wasn't very good at all. It could have been, if he'd kept it simple and soft but no sir ... he had to show us he's a fucking rocker. It's like Lenny Kravitz, only with cholesterol added and talent subtracted."

Aaron Kelly: R. Kelly? Well, he did a Kells song last week if that counts. This kid is 16 (17 now, he corrected the judges this week) and he's an annoying little midget to me. I'll give him a bit of credit that he does have a voice. He doesn't have much else however. I just hope this goofball doesn't go much farther, he doesn't bring much to the table in my mind, but I could be in the minority. Derek gives his candid comments on Aaron, not for the weak hearted folks: "What's up with his hair? He looks like a goofy cloning failure of Brandon Walsh that got left in the dryer too long and shrunk up. Get a haircut, lose the gel, lose the makeup, lose your virginity to a man, and leave the fucking show. But hey it's country time next week, right in his wheelhouse, and Tim is gone so he'll get a larger chunk of the 'tween votes and the votes from fat old women who are reminded of their grandson when they see his AIDS-in-waiting ass up there on stage. So hooray for more Aaron."

Siobhan Magnus: Is this a made up name? It has to be, right? Anyways, this chick scores insanely high on the unique factor. It doesn't seem like many people care for her at all, at least of my crew, but she's hanging on each week. Singing ability, I think this girl is one of the best of the bunch. That's probably not saying much though. She's a weirdo though, but to each their own. Derek, you still there? "Magnus ... whatever. She needs to STFU. I don't want to hear her talk for five minutes after the judges have talked for 10, only to have the rest of the show be done in double time to make up for it. Don't let that weird bitch talk. She has nothing worthwhile to say and her lisp is irritating and her eyes are creepy as hell. And she has fangs. There is a pentagram tattoo somewhere on that girl's body." *Last night, she was the one cut for anyone that hasn't seen or is in a cave.



It's almost softball season, it's right around the corner. The past three years as you know, I was part of the Morgantown leagues as I played for Mario's Fish Bowl for a year and two years we were sponsored by Dyno Nobel. This year, we're moving shop to Fairmont and going to rip Windmill Park apart, or so we think anyways. We're sponsored by Gutter Connection and have a lot of the same crew we've been running with for the most part and then added some youth to the mix this season. I'm sure I'll have updates to bore you all on as the season goes on all summer long. If nothing else, we're going to look the sharpest in the league with our custom made New Era fitted hats, jerseys with a roided out dude swinging a gutter, and gear is pimped out. The past three years we've been in leagues where we had restrictions on the bats we can use. I'm excited this year that those restrictions are now pulled. I bought a few bats this year and one I'm loving as it's a green Easton Synergy Reveal. 34 inches, 27 ounces, it's crazy light and twice as good as the bats we've used in the past. I do miss the first year where we played in a wooden bat format though, that was fun. The other bat I have is a green Easton Cyclone, 34 inch, 27 ounces. It's a cheap bat that I bought just for the fun of it, but the Synergy is the real deal. Anyways, next week, season opens for the Gutter Sluts!

It's well after the fact, but I might as well give some opinions on Big Ben Roethlisberger. Is this guy a knucklehead? Sure. Has he made mistakes off the field? Definitely. One thing I don't get. You're a pro athlete. I don't care how ugly, weird, or whatever a person may be, you should never have problems getting chicks, ever. To the point that you have to get a chick in the bathroom and have your boys stand in front of the door on guard at a club? Get out of here. I don't have the issue with him hanging with college girls. It's not like the dude is 50 years old. He's 28, more likely than not, he's going after younger chicks, and college chicks aren't that much younger than him. I see you working there Ben and I can't argue. I think the suspension was warranted and he deserved it for his conduct. Take the girls home next time, it's not tough Big Ben. You're famous and are always going to be watched.



Also, it'll be fun to see how much trash talk he takes from visiting teams, that's going to be worthy indeed. All of last week's "rumors" of the Steelers trading this guy? I never believed that for a second, although I guess it could happen as with any player. Some sports fans act like a 2-time Super Bowl champion who is durable, accurate, and a consistent winner grows on trees. If he keeps this behavior up, maybe down the line, but for now, I personally think Pittsburgh would be stupid to trade him. It's football, not a choir group. Maybe my thoughts will change on this, but on the field, the guy delivers. He's just got to grow up off of it.

I'm currently on one of the longest stints of my life of not biting my fingernails. It's a terrible habit I've had basically for as long as I can remember. I can't stay still the way it is, so I'm always going to town on my nails. I've heard all the suggestions of what to do to beat it (like I'm a druggie in rehab or something), but none seem to do much. I've heard people say to put that gunk on my nails so when I bite them, it'd taste nasty. That wouldn't change much on my end. If I'm not biting them, I'm constantly picking at them like I'm nervous 24/7. I don't feel nervous anyways, maybe I'm just tense all the time and don't relax well. Either that or way hyper. To my knowledge, I've not used nail clippers ever on my fingernails. Yes, hard to believe I'm sure. Right now though, I'm moving in on a week without biting them, easily an all-time record. It's been a challenge for sure. By the time you've all read this, I'll probably have bitten all of them down to little nubs and blood coming out, you know how it goes.

It's been fairly quiet lately as far as movies that I'm wanting to see, but the upcoming ones seem worthy. Here's just a small list of things I'm interested in. Whether I see them or not before they come out on DVD, it's hard to tell. What are they? Robin Hood, just due to I doubt Russell Crowe can make a bad movie of that type. Just Wright seems decent due to the basketball tie-in, plus it has Common in it, hopefully he delivers it up. I can't see this being a big seller though, but who knows. Shrek Forever After. Yep, everyone has seen Shrek and has probably liked at least a bit of it. I admit, you can't really go wrong with those types of movies. It's a good change and this one looks interesting for sure. Those are all in the next month. The Karate Kid opens on June 11th and the Twilight people, Eclipse busts out on June 30th. For seeing both of the first two movies and reading all of the books, I've never seen one of these movies at the theater though for whatever that's worth.




Bird's Dirty of the Week: I haven't put these up on a regular basis lately. One is that not many people it seems anymore are hardcore into MySpace. I know I'm not, I rarely ever even log into mine anyone and haven't made updates in ages, so I basically don't use it. It's more of a Facebook and Twitter era now it seems, although I'm sure that will jump the shark eventually too. Either way, we have a submission and it comes to us from a regular, Kristen in Florida. That's the same Kristen in Germany and soon to be Kristen in Alabama. Yep, confusing. This girl in the submission is from Panama City, Florida. She says she's ready for a new start. Is the new start as a stripper? What was the old life like? I digress. Some interesting pics to say the least. She's not shy. I just wish we had some classic quotes to go with this page to make it even better. Here's the link: http://www.myspace.com/508230550.

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: I was talking to good ol' Corndog and he asked if I've ever seen the Chapstick video? He sends the link and I've never seen it before and he was wondering how we've never seen it as much as we're online. Some slip through the cracks. Hopefully not everyone has seen it already, but who knows. Anyways, this is so bad it's good. "Where's the Chapstick?!" Yes, you know you're doing those stupid sounds as you sit next to your computer. And as this chick says at the end as she finds it, "I need to get a life." Apparently we do too, but anyways, this is good stuff. Or maybe it's our weird sense of humor.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Random, but I'm becoming a bigger fan of sushi by the day. I'm willing to try most kinds of foods at least to see how it is. I like to switch it up when I order at a restaurant too. Sushi has been a hit lately and I see that staying in the regular rotation. Opinions on it are either you hate it or love it, no in between. My favorites early on are the Spider Roll which has soft shell crab inside mixed with other things and also an Alaskan Roll. Mmmmm, good stuff right there.

2. A month after Easter and I still have a ton of Cadbury Eggs left. Gotta stock em up like crazy since they don't sell them all year long. I never understood that one. Put em in the fridge and you can't go wrong, quality eats. Yep, I'll never grow up with my love of candy.

3. Tweet of the Day? Our winner is going to be Joe Rogan, comedian and UFC announcer. "Top 10 worst staph infections in MMA history: http://middleeasy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2056. FUUUUUUCK!!" http://twitter.com/joerogan. If you have a weak stomach, some of these pics might not be the best for you. These are messed up.

Hot Tub, Snakes, & Dark Cherry Mocha

Yes, I still exist. I guess I'm a busy guy or sometimes I like to think that way at least. Since the last time I wrote, I should have some goodies to throw into this edition. What will I be rambling on? I'm glad you asked. We will review another movie, which is becoming a regular part of the blogs now that I'm back on track to seeing regular theater movies again. Also, you'll get my 4-day getaway to the mountains on the annual Spring Break tradition. A few other things? MLB Extra Innings, my encounters with snakes and how I react, new Call of Duty maps, the end of EDDFL season, board game action, and the other usual things to toss in. Let's get it done..



I'll start with the movie theme yet again. It seems to be an easy way to get everyone's feet wet before we touch on other subjects. I had wanted to see it when I first saw previews and what is it? Hot Tub Time Machine. If you're not into cheesy comedies with not a lot of plotline, this probably isn't for you. If you're like me and like that goofy off the wall laughter, you should enjoy it. The casting of this movie was well done and the two guys I thought who did the best were Craig Robinson who played Nick Webber and Clark Duke who was Jacob. Team Edward versus Team Jacob? The "names" in this one are John Cusack and Chevy Chase if that does anything for you. Cusack has a big part, while Chase does not. It's a quick watch and won't take up too much of your time. That night, Whip and I were both almost falling asleep in the theater, we were in comas. However, the theater had a pretty good crowd and it was worthy enough. As I type this part up on Sunday, IMDB has it at a 7.5 out of 10. I personally find that a bit high and this is coming from a guy who likes these types of movies. My final grade? I'm giving this one 6.6 black Michael Jacksons out of 10. It's worth seeing, but it's not going to have you jumping out of your seat. Funny for sure though. As a side note, Corndog said it was hilarious and approves. Cork, in one I can't figure out, says it was way better than The Hangover. He's one of few who I know who wasn't too big on The Hangover.

There's a few things that I admit scare me and mine are fairly common with a lot of other people. Heights and spiders are two of my biggies. Not that I'm terrified completely of them, but they each make me uneasy if nothing else. The third? Snakes. I'll admit, I'm a big wuss when it comes to snakes. I'm not the type that is going to run and scream bloody murder when I see one as Mom does, but they will have me going in the other direction and it gets the heart pounding. I've seen two this year, which I guess isn't too bad considering our area. One was on the trail last week on one of my runs. It was a longer greenish snake, but wasn't thick. I didn't stay around to inspect it much further but as I was getting the run going, I look down and it's going all across the trail, ugh. Goosebumps and I did a little jump over it and kept going like a chicken with my head cut off. The other? I was in the mountains over Spring Break and was about to head into the stream to hit up another fishing spot. As I look down, I notice something wrapped around a tree and I kept glancing. The next thing I know as I make a step down the hill, this snake slithers (hey Corndog, it was Randy Orton style) its way down the tree and goes into the water where I'm about to stand. I still wanted to hit up that spot, but I stayed back for a minute to get my focus in order until I went down. I know people say they're just as scared as you as you are of them, but still, snakes, not good times for me.



Speaking of snakes, that gets me to the next topic. Since I was about 6 or 7 years old, it's been tradition to go with my parents over Spring Break to the "mountains" as people in my area call it. They have a place in Harman that we stay at a good bit. If it were up to Dad, during trout fishing season, he could live there and be totally happy. We stay there a good bit and like it, but during this week, we usually rent a place and all pitch in on it. This year we picked a quality setup in Timberline in the Canaan Valley area. 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, internet, a hot tub time machine, a big kitchen, deck and grill, all sitting with an awesome view of a lake. Come on people, you expected me to be gone for three or four days with no internet? I might not make it alive if I did that. You remember in the past when I've been gone that long, that I'd actually drive 20 minutes or so out of the way, park in a wi-fi area and get my web on. Yes, that's pathetic I know, but I'm an internet junkie, have admitted that for many many years.

We couldn't have asked for any better weather than we had. I'm talking 80 degrees plus every single day with no rain at all. The funny thing about it all was that there were areas up there that still had snow on the ground. My area got dumped big time this year with the snow as did just about everyone who lives in the eastern part of the country. Our mountain area of the state though, it's a completely different world up there. If you're not from around here, only words can say how bad it gets up there when it snows. Some of the biggest snow areas in the country are located there, but as far as scenery, it's a great place to stop. West Virginia gets a bad reputation, I know, but this area we go to features some of the best views and sites you'll see.



I won't bore people with too much of the trip though, but a big part of the trip is to hit up some good trout fishing. Some people say I don't look the part to be much of a fisherman, but people also say I don't look the part to be a huge rap fan either. The way I look at it, if I like it, I like it. I don't have to look any certain part, but those comments always get me laughing a bit. I'm not the type of fisherman to make up stories just to make them up. Many times, just like the rest of you, I've been out and not even had a bite. This week I did pretty well. We were there when they stocked all of our favorite streams, so that always helps. I ended up catching 15 in three days, so I'm happy with that for sure. Most of the ones on this trip were brook trout and I also caught a few rainbow trout. The bait of choice on the streams for me, almost always, minnows. For the locals, my favorite place to trout fish is either in Riverton on the North Fork, if not there, it'd be in the Franklin/Upper Tract/Smoke Hole area. I do hope to get some bass fishing going this summer though, that's easy fishing right there.

On Saturday it was time for the crew to get together to go out to eat and rock out some board games. We rolled 11 deep for a Shogun trip for great Japanese food. Since people like the roll call, who was in attendance? Ozzie and Maria set the night up, Kari (minus Matty Cakes who was sick), Cork and Kristin, The Fortneys with Gracey, Mudcat, Whitney, and myself. I'm the type that changes up my order a lot when I go out to eat, but I don't change too often at Shogun. You can't go wrong with filet and scallops if you ask me, so I went that route again and it received a big thumbs up. Fortney joked that he set the tables up so he'd sit beside me because I always have leftovers for the crew. I'm generous like that I guess, hah.



After we were done with Japanese, some of us made a quick coffee run to Starbucks on the way there. I wouldn't say I'm a huge Starbucks guy, but it has grown on me some, so a stop I hit up every now and then. I tried a new one, the Dark Cherry Mocha. I'd recommend this for sure. You can get it iced or hot, I chose hot for sure. The cold coffees, I'm not a fan of that. When it comes down to it, I'm not a huge coffee guy in general, but a cup or two here and there is no biggie. At work, I get a few cups every morning cranked with sugar just to get me going and get my teach on.

Then it was off with the entire gang yet again for board games, hosted by Ozzie and Maria. I'm very simple and low key, so a night like this is always great in my book. You get to BS around and plus we flipped between a few NBA games, so you know I'm in. If NBA is involved, I'm easily swayed to be a part of whatever it is. The game of the night? As the last time we played, we busted out Scattergories. A very underrated game if I must say so myself. Especially when we have that many people involved. Erica joined later in the night to bump our number up one more. Was it a repeat from the last time? It seemed to be. Cork was yet again crowned champion and gets to ride around in the next parade in town on his float as Scattergories King. Or something like that. Coming in second? Just like last time, Maria nabs that spot. These two own the game, no doubt. Ozzie and myself? Not so much. We both were at the bottom. I did well last time, but this one, brutal. Either way though, I'm a board game dork and had a blast. Thanks to Ozzie and Maria for having us all out again, much appreciated. Fortney and Ozzie, let's get to work on that Michigan/Notre Dame game this year, I'm down, regardless of price. We should bust out the van, Atlantic City style trip and relive it.



The Notre Dame comment has me in sports mode, but I'm always in that mode anyways. Now that baseball season is here, I'm super pumped up. At this time of year, at least for me, it's one of the better times for me as a sports fan. You have the NBA regular season ending and playoffs are already here. Also, we're a week plus into the baseball season. Every single year with DirecTV, I always make sure to order NBA League Pass, which basically gives you access to every game for every team all season long. That's the best money I spend every single year and this marked the 13th year in a row I've bought the package. For what you get, it's a steal at that price. I'm ripping DirecTV off big time it seems. Baseball I had never bought until this season. I'm not sure why either. I get a ton of Yankees game anyways nationally and here in this area we get most of the Bucs game. Now? I'm going the whole boat and ordered MLB Extra Innings. It's been amazing and I've only had it for a short time so far. One of the key features I love is Game Mix on the DirecTV setup. When you go to that channel, you have 8 screens up at once. When games are rocking, it's filled up with nonstop action that you can track all at the same time. If you want a closer look, just go to the channel that the actual game is on and you get full screen HD. Money well spent!

After a long wait, they've been here now for a few weeks. What's that you ask? Yep, the new Call of Duty maps, the Stimulus Package if you will. I'm not sure what took them so long to release these as we've all been itching to get some new maps to battle with online. I'm a big fan of these new maps and I like how they added a few of the old maps from the first Modern Warfare, Crash and Overgrown. Bailout, Storm, and Salvage are also part of the mix. There's not a one of these I dislike. I know I've written about these when they first came back, but that was pretty much before I had played them. My favorite of the bunch if I had to pick? That's a toughie, but I'm going to with Crash or Salvage since it's a smaller board. Since I play 99% Free-For-All, I much prefer the smaller boards that are tight instead of having a zillion miles to run arond. You know how it goes. Hit me up on 360 and look for Bird33WV if you want your head shot off with the P90 or any other gun of your choice.



To end, I'll get another sports piece in. My passion of fantasy NBA is now over for the season. I might even shed a tear. Our league that I run, the EDDFL is going as strong as ever. We ran 12-deep again and I'd still put it up against any league out there not automated by a computer. It takes an insane amount of work to do, but I still love each season we rock it out and I've been doing it now for roughly 20 years, true story, been doing stats by hand since I was 10. I have all records back on paper and computer from the 92 or 93 era, but nothing the previous few years before that. We'd like to send the big congrats out to Spank who had one of the best EDDFL seasons of all time. Coming in 2nd was Ozzie in his best finish ever and since he's joined our leagues, he gets better each season. I took the last money spot, 3rd Place as it's my third straight finish in 3rd Place, the irony. I'm due for a 1st Place win though, but still hold the mark for a 3-peat a while back. The rest of the gang? 4. Riley, 5. TJ, 6. ManDingo, 7. Mudcat, 8. Sidell, 9. Cork, 10. Fortney/Posey (TIE), 11. Fleece. I'm already awaiting October's EDDFL Draft Day, thanks to the guys involved for making it a blast for me to work on still.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Kasher tweeted about this the other day. It's a short hockey clip, but to me, it's good stuff since it's so random. Yep, it's time for green men upside down..



3 Quick Thangs:

1. I try not to bring much religion or politics arguments into the blog. I will mention something from church the other night, although not religion related. Most know my stance on not caring to see people out and about all over each other. Get a room, but I saw this couple doing basically that during the church service. Really? Really?? Yep. I mean, they weren't all over each other, but they had their arms around each other, holding hands, and the dude gave her a kiss while stuff was going on. Maybe I'm wrong, but thumbs down to that couple, they fail.

2. Want a few weird facts? A crocodile can't stick out it's tongue.. many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.. Until President Kennedy was killed, it wasn't a federal crime to assassinate the president.. To sell your home faster, and for more money, paint it yellow. Who knew??

3. Softball season is back in gear very soon. Come May, our team moves from its Morgantown roots and now we'll be ballin' at Fairmont's Windmill Park. We're now sponsored by Gutter Connection and will be the Gutter Sluts, decked out in black and orange. I'll have reports through the year I'm sure.

-Honey Pecan Salmon-

I kind of held this one out for a while mainly because for about a week, there weren't many worthy stories in my opinion. I could've winged something together, have done that many times in the past, but maybe I was just being lazy this time. Either way, it's go time and we're ready to rock with a bevy of the latest action in and around North Central West Virginia. I know you've all been holding tight to your seats, wondering what has been going on lately. Well, you probably haven't, but at least you're bored for a few minutes today to glance through this and get a quick read in. What do we have in store for the good folks of ye ol interwebs? We'll get things in order with March Madness, fighting the flu, WrestleMania 26, Call of Duty news, Eazy-E, yet another movie review, fantasy baseball, a mini road trip to Pennsylvania, and whatever else we find interesting.



It's movie time and that seems to be a common theme that most can relate to. Whether you're into the other things I ramble about in the blog, you at least are interested in the latest movie selection or most of you are. What was the latest? She's Out of My League. This, from the previews, looked like my kind of movie. You know the drill, give me some pointless comedy that will get me laughing and that's my favorite kind of movie. How did this one end up? One I didn't know until I started watching was that the movie is based in Pittsburgh. For the locals, it's real neat to watch a movie filmed in places we go to all the time, maybe that will have me a bit biased. Anyways, this is one you'll enjoy seeing. Cork gave me the recommendation as him and Kristin watched it earlier in the week. The girl in this one, Alice Eve, gets a big thumbs up from me. Apparently that's her real name, but I find that strange. As a trivia note, she has one blue eye and one green eye. Jay Baruchel, the main male character, he's hilarious in my mind. Maybe the best cast of a character was TJ Miller who played the role of Stainer. You don't like him at first, but he eventually grows on you. IMDB currently has it at a 6.6, but I'm going to go a decent bit higher. My final grade? It's getting a score of 7.7 dorks who end up with the hot chick out of 10. Go see it, you'll laugh.

I don't usually get the flu too often, but it hit me a few weeks ago. Out of nowhere, I wake up for work as usual. Except this time, at 6:00 AM, I'm in a sweat and know it's about to get bad. You all know the feeling. I won't make it too detailed for the weak at heart, but started throwing up then. For some reason, I tried to be a champ and tough it out at work despite doing that and feeling brutal. I was a zombie that day at work, but luckily the kiddies stepped up and were on good behavior as usual. However, around 9:30, there I was at work throwing up some more. I manned up and dragged on until lunch time and then had to tap out and go home. I get home around 11:30 and slept all the way till 7:00 that night. I get enough energy to get a shower and munch on some crackers with jelly and then go back to bed around 9:00. When do I wake up? I sleep around the clock almost and wake up at 8:00 in the morning. Later that day I slept another 3 hours from 3:00 until 6:00 for a nap. Needless to say, I missed all of the March Madness games as well as NBA action that night for the entire Friday. I must have been down and out. In a 31½ hour stretch, I was asleep for 21½ of those hours, not too shabby if I must say so myself. Seems everyone is getting it this time of year. Then the week after, my sinuses were brutal, but I always have problems with those. No biggie, we're back in action now and ready to bounce off the walls.



March Madness has been nothing short of nuts lately. Especially in my area, unless you live under a rock, West Virginia is now in the Final Four. If you remember my prediction in one of the previous blogs, I had a Four of Syracuse, Baylor, New Mexico, and Ohio State. None made it in there, ouch. Up until Cuse was still alive, I was doing very good in the pools, but then the wheels fell off the wagon. I'm glad that WVU is doing well in hoops. For those who know me, I have no problems whatsoever with WVU hoops and actually hope they do well. Huggins knows how to recruit and has a nice squad indeed. It's WVU football where I definitely have my problems, but no reason to get into that to cause any arguments in the offseason, you know my stance on that as a Notre Dame homer. I like the fact that the area is buzzing and people are going insane for the season that the Eers have put together. It will at least give them a national name and give the state a little bit of something good for people to talk about rather than always bashing us. Maybe people will realize we're an actual state, but I doubt that happens anytime soon. Also, it's been out there on the internet, but I can't get enough of the hotel room videos some of the basketball team has thrown together. They're acting like kids, but then again, I'd be doing the same thing probably if I was cooped up in a hotel room, not like they were harming anything. The pillow fight video had me rolling, maybe it was just me. Check em out if you haven't yet.

Speaking of the area, on Saturday I pulled a mini road trip. I guess it's not actually a road trip when it's less than 2 hours away, but to me, that feels like I'm getting away from the big city of Shinnston. Where was I off to on Saturday? I rolled to the mean streets of Washington, Pennsylvania. I either had too much time on my hands, or for a guy, I don't actually mind to shop a bit. Yeah, I can admit. I know I'm in rare company as a straight guy that actually likes to shop. I had Whip along for the ride (Whip in the whip?) and we hit up the Tanger Outlets. I've never been to these outlets, but most people in our area I'm sure have. They've only been there a few years, but it's a good trip, I was impressed with the setup. One thing that fired me up was the Adidas store. As I came upon it, they had a huge Kevin Garnett poster up in the window. For those who don't know, Adidas is the gear sponsor for the Celtics. I figured, I'm going to spend stupid money on Celtics gear, like I need anymore of that, but I can't ever have enough. I go in and that's the first thing I ask for. Dude says they have none in the store. Get out of here, really? That put a little hamper on me for a few minutes, but I got things in order and kept at it.



I wouldn't have had time to get home before the WVU game started, so off to TGI Friday's it was for some good food. This was my second time at one of these and they're not too bad in my mind. I ended up watching the first half of the WVU game here and listening to updates on the radio on the way home, so all worked out on the basketball scene. My meal? I ended up getting the honey pecan salmon that was awesome. If you can cook salmon the right way, I'm in, a big fan of that stuff. I'm going to bounce around and then get back to a food update on the negative end. Washington was just insane with Penguins fans. You all remember my blog when I was in Pittsburgh as the Pens won the title last year and all pandemonium broke loose, but these fans are hardcore. I'm not a hockey guy, but I love seeing their passion. Everyone that day it seemed had Pens jerseys on and were all about it.

Speaking of food, this annoying chick beside us was rough. She first ordered chicken and took a bite and said it was sour. The waiter took the plate away and she ordered steak the next time. They bring that plate back and they apparently cooked it wrong for her taste. Yep, you guessed it, she sent that back too! I can see maybe sending something back once, maybe, but twice? No way ever would that be possible in my mind even if it didn't taste good. The waiter should've handed her an apron and told her to go back there and cook it herself after that fiasco. I find it hard to believe it was THAT bad for her to take back twice, but stranger things have happened.



I waited till later in the blog to bring up this next topic. Fantasy baseball is upon us! It's not quite on the range of fantasy basketball to me, but it's a close second if nothing else. The only thing I don't like about baseball in my area, it's few and far between for some true hardcore baseball fans who really know their stuff in detail. With that in mind, Sunday afternoon was the infamous A#BL fantasy baseball league ran by Commish Kasher. This is the league that I say hands down is the most competitive baseball league out there and I don't say that lightly. I'm talking an 18-team keeper league that has been going strong now for a while. Not that you care, but I'll give the roll call, it goes all across the continent. We have West Virginia bunch of Cork, ManDingo, Trev Daddy, Walz, and myself. Canada features Commish Kasher, TyLaw, Neon, and TMac. Then we go to West Virginia's long lost brother, Arkansas, with the trio of DerekHood, Kris3, and Big Arlo. We also have Wilbur in Washington State, Answer in Vegas, Blahah in Maine, Duce in Philly, Dack in New York, and Big Play Ray in Parts Unknown. To make a long story short, we each keep five players to carry over. I personally love my keeper set and roll with Prince Fielder (Brewers - 1B), David Wright (Mets - 3B), Justin Upton (DBags - OF), Brandon Phillips (Reds - 2B), and Johan Santana (Mets - SP). Now, it's time to unveil yourrrr 2010 St. Paul Apostles, which is the draft results after the keeper action:

6. Elvis Andrus (Rangers - SS)
7. Ricky Nolasco (Marlins - SP)
8. Nyjer Morgan (Nats - OF)
9. Nolan Reimold (O's - OF)
10. Clay Buchholz (Red Sox - SP)
11. Erick Aybar (Angels - SS)
12. Dexter Fowler (Rockies - OF)
13. Akinori Iwamura (Bucs - 2B)
14. Joel Piniero (Angels - SP)
15. Charlie Haeger (Dodgers - RP)
16. Andy Pettitte (Yankees - SP)
17. Jeff Clement (Bucs - C)
18. Matt Guerrier (Twins - RP)
19. Michael Wuertz (A's - RP)
20. Willy Taveras (Nats - OF)



Yes, as you can see, it's a very deep league. The message board of our leagues are what separates things aside from the fact that the knowledge level is about as good as it gets. To me, you can't beat some quality sports fans that are on top of things. On the baseball front, I think this year I'll have to finally get MLB Extra Innings on DirecTV. I get tons of Yankees games the way it is and practically all of the Bucs games, but since I have the entire summer off, why not just get every game of every team. On the basketball side, NBA League Pass is the best money I spend all year long, no questions asked. I will always bow to the NBA, but I'm so excited right now for fantasy baseball to get here!

You know what else I'm excited about? The new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 maps. Yes, I can barely contain myself around this time of year. On Tuesday, the newbies came out and they were way overdue. We get three new maps (Bailout, Salvage, and Storm) as well as two from the first Modern Warfare (Crash & Overgrown). A special thanks goes to Corndog for sending a 1600 XBOX Live card up to my mean streets for the annual #basketball internet Christmas exchange. That will definitely get used for the new maps, basically letting me download them for free. You can't beat that with a stick. If our crew isn't already ate up with COD, it's about to take a turn for the worse this week I'm sure. As I always say, I could be ate up with much worse.



Last Friday I brought up a topic on Facebook. It didn't blow up like the Notorious B.I.G. one did previously, but it was along that same line. Last Friday marked the 15th anniversary of the death of rap icon Eazy-E. Eazy meant a lot to the rap game and doesn't get nearly enough credit in my mind. First off, he was a pioneer to the gangsta rap sensation. He brought that style to a huge spotlight and ran with it. In 1991, for whatever it's worth, he even ate at a White House dinner with President Bush. He rolled up into the White House with the Compton hat, one of my favorite clips. Also, he should get a huge amount of credit for being one of the first to break through and branch out with an independent label that made it big, giving others the chance. He was a founder of Ruthless Records and of course, most know him as the founder of the infamous N.W.A. Eazy was very talented, sometimes he got a bad reputation, but I feel that he's so underrated.

I will end up on the main part of this with some wrestling chatter. Yes, I'll never grow up and I'm cool with that. Wrestling has been a vice of mine forever and it's something that I'm probably a bit obsessed with it, but so be it. Anyways, this past Sunday was the mecca, WrestleMania 26, from Phoenix, Arizona. Personally, I thought it was a very good show and I thought it was worth the money and then some. I could write an entire blog on wrestling, but I know I'd lose just about everyone, so I'll keep most of it to myself and touch base on a few things I thought hit home. The Randy Orton face (good guy) turn? I'm into it and normally I like a heel (bad guy), but Orton plays his character so well it's not even funny. I like the "viper" aspect of it and him "slithering". It's a running joke that Corndog and I have every week. I really wished the CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio match would've received a lot more time. It could've been off the charts. It was still good, but too short in my mind for how good these two really are. The Bret/Vince stuff, eh. I guess it was expected that it wouldn't actually be a "match". Still, Bret gets a lot of respect from me. My second favorite match of the night was my boy Jericho keeping his title against Edge. These guys can go and it's nice to see Edge back in action and healthy. Jericho might be the best in the world at what he does, he's in the argument for sure. The main event is what everyone is talking about. Shawn Michaels put on a clinic against Undertaker and it was very impressive to me. A great match, especially considering Taker can barely move, it shows how awesome that HBK is. The next night on RAW, they had his farewell and it was well done. Wrestlers never really truly retire, so we'll see if this sticks.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: We go to a video this week from Corndog. He's sending us one from Little Shrunken. Needless to say, Shrunken is fired up at his boss and lets us know what he really thinks. Here is some stupid humor, enjoy.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Despite Erin Andrews bouncing around being all hot and Ocho Cinco being Ocho Cinco, I've yet to even give Dancing With The Stars a chance. I know it'd be something silly that I'd be into, but I already have enough TV going on. Plus with Monday nights, that's wrestling night for sure, nothing is going to trump over wrestling action.

2. So Hedo Turkoglu of the Raptors is having a disastrous season. He signed a 5-year $53 million contract and left Orlando for Toronto. The other night he was 'sick' and sat out like a little girl. That's fine and dandy I guess, even though he should've toughed it out, but later that night? He was out partying like a rockstar. How'd he get busted? Thanks to the internet. Fans were fired up he was being a little girl, so sent emails to team officials. In the end? He was fined and benched for Saturday's game against the Heat. In other news, he's a Facebook buddy of our very own Clark "The Governor" Riley.

3. This aren't too "quick" this week, but so be it. We're going to end with Corndog's Wise Words of Wisdom..

Corndog: "Its ok for a grown man to be afraid of a bird"
Corndog: theres a story behind that lol
Corndog: i have a hole on the side of my house where this light was....
Corndog: and a bird got down in there...
Corndog: so i had to take off this whole big panel of wood to free the bird..
Corndog: all at the same time i was afraid of the bird attacking me or something when it came out
Corndog: but i was thinking...hey, i bet alot of people would be afraid..and thats ok
Corndog: it was scary...but its over. the bird is free