Hey honey, have you seen my wedding ring?

Oh this is gross....

http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues//179_04_180803/cat10045_fm.html

Creepy...

We had a really creepy sort of sunset tonight. Not sure if the photo conveys the actual scene, but here's what I was able to capture...

Maybe it's the late summer haze?

Leeping Lizards!!!

Ok, the lizard problem at my house is getting out of hand. For the past month when I've been home on saturday, this tint lizard would find its way in through my sliding glass door that leads out to my back yard. He would poke in, see me and run back out. Well this past weekend, the little bastids got more daring. I was watching TV at around noon on Saturday, when I saw something streak across the floor. I turned me head to see a 4-5 inch lizard sprinting down the hallway. I got up to try to chase him out, but he ran under the door of the utility room. He stayed there for about 20 minutes and didn't seem like he was going to come out. So I hid up at the top landing of the steps and waited to see if he made a move. After about 10 minutes, he finally sprinted back towards the door and made his way out. Then yesterday, Rachel and I are sitting down by the computer, and I see something over by the TV. Yet another lizard. This one wasn't the same one as the day before either. It was much smaller. And this one wasn't as smart as the larger one from the day before. It ran behind teh tv and came out from behind the couch. At which point Rachel started screaming and jumped up into my computer chair. After about 10 minutes Rachel got the idea to chase it out with a stick. So we got this spare piece of molding that we had. Eventually she got it near the door and I was able to slide the door open and it ran out. Im pretty sure they are either salamanders or newts. They're kind of cute, but I'd rather not having them running rampant around my living room.

Audra and Mike were visiting this past weekend with the kids. It was nice seeing them all. Got to play golf on Sunday with Mike, which was the first time I had swung a golf club since the golf adventure with Niel in Pennsylvania. It was a really hot day up around 95, and Mike and I struggled. We put up some big numbers. Luckily the course was fairly empty, so we finished in around 3 hours. So the suffering was over pretty quickly.

Did anyone get to see the closing ceremonies of the Olympics last night? I know Greek culture is probably a lot different than that in the US, but that closing was really strange. At one point I turned in and they were lighting straw on fire. Then a little while later, there was this oddly dressed man riding a bicycle. And not a modern looking bike either, it looked like the one from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. He was ridinga cross stage and this angry mob takes him out and knocks him off the bike. I assume it was part of the show and not some crazy hooligan. Another thing I thought was funny was when one of the athletes from Russia whipped out a cell phone. It was the oddest looking cell phone I have ever seen. It looked like the remote to a television. That's old school baby!!! But I will miss the olympics for moments like this...

Mrs. Garrett must have been crazy!

Does the name Lisa Whelchel ring a bell? Well she's the girl who played Blair Warner on The Facts of Life. Well incase you haven't noticed, she hasn't done alot of acting work since parting ways with Tootie. Turns out she is now a single mom with two teenage daughters. So she's now writing a book about raising children. In her book she talks about a practice called "hot saucing". Now in the adult film industry hot saucing is something completely different, but that's something for another time and place. According to Lisa, when your child does something wrong, you have them stick their tongue out and you pour a few drops of hot sauce on their tongue as punishment. I guess maybe this is the modern day equivelent of a mom washing a kids mouth out with soap? Seems a little on the edge, but sometimes kids need a good beat down. You take the good, you take the bad, hotsauce your kid, they'll be glad. The facts of life... the facts of life!!!

This morning on Howard Stern, he had director/actor Vincent Gallo in the studio. Damn is he one interesting guy. Between the famous women he's slept with, wishing cancer on Roger Ebert and stories about Christina Rici peeing in the middle of a restaurant, he could fill a book with stories. He has a new movie coming out that Roger Ebert said was the worst film he had ever seen at the Cannes film festival. It's called Brown Bunny. I'm a big fan of Buffalo 66, so hopefully its not as bad as Ebert says.

Sand Blasted...

That's what I'm talkin' bowt...




Congrats to Misty May and Kerri Walsh for winning the gold in beach vollyball. Their post win celebation was fantastic!!! The short one (Misty) did this flying jump/kick in celebration. Then Kerri ran over and slapped her on the ass. Then Misty turned around and jumped into the arms of Kerri tackling her into the sand. They rolled around in the sand for a few seconds while locked in each others arms. And in case you're wondering how I know so much detail about the celebration, it's thanks to TiVO. I went rewound it and watched it 3 times, once in slow motion.

Oh that Dave...

I was laying in bed last night with Late SHow with David Letterman playing in the background when I heard three words that made me ears "stand up". Those three words were Paris Hilton and chihuahua. Then Dave said his joke that made me nearly fall out of bed. "Paris Hiltons dog was missing, but everything turned out to be fine. They found her dog with the Taco Bell dog making a sex tape". I'm sure it loses a little something having to read the punchline, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Ok so I'm 1-6 in Madden. For the most part I don't get killed, but I do one or two boneheaded things to let the game slip away. Last night I'm playing a guy as the Giants, he's the Vikings. The score is 10-7 in my favor with about a minute left. I get the ball back and make a couple of quick completions and then pick up a big 15 yard gain with Tiki Barber. I'm at the Vikings 20 with about 10 seconds to go. I throw to Shockey on a 5 yard out pattern, he makes the catch, breaks a tackle. I see the safety and a cornerback coming towards me as I streak down the sideline. I do a spin move to avoid the tackles and end up spinning out of bounds at the 2. With only a few ticks left, I was forced to kick a field goal. So I'm up 13-7 at the half. Missing that TD would turn out to be huge. Now with about 30 seconds left my opponent scores by sending a deep pass to Randy Moss. So he goes up 27-20. He ends up kicking the kickoff out of bounds, so I start out with great field position. I make it to the Vikings 40 and Eli Manning fires a bomb to Ike Hilliard, but Ike can't keep his feet in, so the pass is incomplete! I get down to the 10 yard line of the Vikings with about 10 seconds left, no time outs left. I quickly pick a play, rush to the line and fire a bullet to Shockey. He gets tackled at the 2 yard line as time expires. Ohhhh!!!! What heart breaker.

My photography has really taken a back seat lately to some of my other hobbies. Mostly, XBOX football, painting the bathroom and Flight Simulator 2004. Plus working such long hours, I don't feel like getting my gear together and heading out to shoot much. But my online buddy Gayle has inspired me to do a photo essay of "my town". I thought of doing something similar back in Queens, taking pictures of places I remember fondly as a kid. But I never got around to it. So I'm going to try to do this in around my neighborhood in Virginia. Rachel works late tomorrow night, so I think I may bring my gear with me to work and do some shooting. Hopefully I can find some images that are visually interesting.

Lastly, I am so hooked on the Olympics. Im not a big fan of the gymnastics, but the diving, swimming, track n field, and rowing have got me hooked. Then you throw in some 6 foot Norwegian babe playing beach volleyball, and I'm so there!!! One funny thing about the beach volleyball competition is that the Norwegian women got in trouble for wearing their birth control patches on their backs. Apparantly the birth control patch company is a big sponsor of theirs and encouraged them to wear them someplace visable. The Olympic commitee asked them to place them in a more discrete location. What impressed me is that the patches never came off. These women were in the hot Athens sun, sweating, diving on the sand and the patches stayed put. Nice!!!

Truckin'

After loading a 36 inch television into my Accord, I realized I would really LOVE a truck. If I had an SUV or a pickup truck, loading that TV would have been so much easier that squeezing it through the back door of a 4 door sedan. Then I come to find out that my brother in law just bought a Tacoma, a pickup truck I have always liked. That fueled the fire even more. While a pickup like a Nissan Frontier or a Toyota Tacoma would be awesome. And the Tundra really kicks ass, but I think a person of my stature would look like a 12 year old boy driving that thing. A pickup truck isn't practical for a person recently married with plans to start a family. So the Honda Pilot is at the top of my list at the moment. I'm really happy with my Accord so far, and the Pilot has the same engine as my Accord. Plus it's one of the fastest SUV's on the road. It goes 0-60 in around 9 seconds. Plus you can't really beat Honda reliability. I'll probably have to wait a year or so, so I don't lose money on trading in the Accord, but I hope to have a truck or SUV by next summer. Then I won't look such a jackass wearing my trucker hat :-).

Ford is is coming out with a hybrid SUV, but this is coming from a company who hasn't been able to figure out to perfect a gasoline engine. The Ford Focus has been recalled about a dozen times. So I don't really trust a Ford Hybrid. It would be nice to have an SUV that gets the same gas mileage of a Corolla, but Hybrid technology in general is new and still being perfected. Perhaps in 10 years everyone will be driving a hybrid vehicle of some kind. Toyota has designed a hybrid sports car that delivers over 500hp while getting around 30mpg. But it's just a concept car at the moment. But I think overtime, the massive V8 engine will be replaced by a small gas engine that works in tandem with an electric engine.

There's this show called the Ali G show. I think it's on HBO or Showtime, I can't remeber. I just don't get the show. It's kind of like that Larry David show on HBO. It's supposed to be funny, but I don't see the humor in it. Maybe I am missing something. Or maybe the humor is so dry and subtle that I am not smart enough to understand it?

I'm tired of getting my ass kicked online in Madden 2004, Im off to buy the strategy guide.

Have a nice weekend...

Madden 2005 First Impressions...

After playing NFL2K5 for about 2 1/2 weeks, it was a bit confusing going back to the Madden controls. Basically on the XBOX the A and B buttons are reversed in Madden as opposed to 2K5. After playing both games now, I wish there was a way of taking the best features from Madden and adding them to NFL2k5 to make a sort of super hybrid game. There are definite gaps in both games. In 2K5 the announcers repeat themselves way too much. If I hear the line about how some defensive lineman is a one man wrecking crew one more time, I may shoot my TV like Elvis. The play by play on Madden is very true to life. In Madden the speed burst is sort of antiquated. You get one quick burst and thats it. I really like how when you are in the open field, you can franstically tap the A button in 2K5 and race the defensive backs. I also like how you can hold the A button and "load up" when you are a power running back or a lumbering tight end. I haven't tried the tutorials yet in Madden, but I'm hoping the hit stick give me the possibility of knocking defenders over when I'm running with the ball.

In NFL2K5 the passing lanes seem to be very narrow, so you have to be very precise with your passes. And when you throw a pass to a RB in the flat in 2K5, the defenders seem to really close in fast on the RB. In Madden the passing lanes and field in general seem much bigger. And the RB's always seem to have about a 5 yard gap to run ahead when you throw to them in the flat. So I think 2K5 is more realistic here.

The online play is MUCH MUCH better on Madden as far as speed and lag go. It was just as fast and smooth as playing the computer. I dont know if the technology is just better, or if it's because the game is so new that not a lot of people were online playing yet. But where Madden lacks is when it comes to online games that people quit. I played an online game against some punk named Relative Pat. I was beating him badly. 31-7. I picked himoff 5 times, recovered a fumble for a TD, it wasnt pretty. With about a minute left, he leaves the game. In 2K5 when someone quits, you get the option to either mutually agree to quit so it won't count agaisnt you in the standings, or if one person quits, you can ask that the game be counted since the other plater abandoned the game. I should have been credited with a win, but instead the punk just gets up and leaves the game.

One really cool feature about Madden is that when you play online, there is this "Sports Center" sort of feel in the lobby. They have a crawl at the bottom of the screen with sports scores, schedules, and other sports news. One last thing I really missed in Madden was the scramble button (right trigger) that you can use in 2K5. There's too much button clicking in my opinion in Madden when you want the QB to run. The right trigger in2K5 is just perfect and you can make that split second decision to run when you see daylight. One other thing I missed is the alternative jerseys for each team. I loved playing as the Giants in 2K5 wearing the red and white tops. I didn't see an option to change jerseys in Madden. In Madden you can flip the play at the line of scrimmage or use the playmaker control to change a route or running path. So if you see the defense is stacked on the strong side, you can change the play and run to the weak side and try to catch the defense napping.

I think graphically the games are about equal. I haven't gotten into any of the deeper features like franchise mode, the mini games or the tutorials yet, so there may be a lot more for me to learn and a lot more features for me to "unleash". I think if you take the play by play from Madden, take player controls from 2K5 and the online play features of Madden and mash them all together you would have the ultimate football game.

I only played the game for about an hour, but so far I think I actually like 2k5 a little better. But Madden may grow on me. I think I just skimmed the surface.

Madden Day...

I pre-ordered Madden 2005 from Toys R Us about a month ago. Hopefully they got the game in already. Some stores won't have it til Thursday.

This year I feel kind of torn between Madden and NFL2K5. I never really liked the other versions of the NFL2K series, but this years game is just amazing. On the pro level, the AI really gives you a run for the money. I started a season with the Colts on Saturday. I defeated the Patriots in the 1st week. I stupidly forgot to save my franchise so I had to restart. Last night I replayed the game and the outcom was completely different. In the 1st game I played, I threw for over 300 yards and it was a scoring fest. 31-28. The 2nd game I ran the ball for nearly 200 yards and held the Patriots in check defensively. But I wound up losing the game because I'm a bone head. The game is tied 21-21. I intercept the ball with about 2 1/2 minutes left. I run the ball 4 plays in a row and I am down to around the Patriots 25yard line. Well in range of Mike Vanderjagt's magical foot. But I get greedy and try a passing play. It gets picked off. The Pats march down the field and Adam "clutch" Vinieteri kicks the game winning field goal with 3 seconds left. What amazed me was how challenging both games were, yet how different the games were. The computer played me so well.

If NFL2k5 is that good, I wonder how good Madden can be. I'm really curious to see how the online play is. Its very choppy on 2K5, so I don't know if it's XBOX live, the way the game behaves or something else. I guess if I see similar results with Madden I will know its either XBOX live or latency on my Comcast cable modem connection...

I look forward to playing online against my buddies with high speed cable modem service...

Drained...

Yesterday was one of those days from hell. Where I wish I had just stayed in bed. I've been really tired lately, probably due to being shorthanded at work and working crazy hours. Last monday night I was at work till 2:00 AM and didn't get to bed till after 3:00. Thursday I worked from 8AM-6PM. And Saturday night I was woken up at 1:30 AM to take care of a problem at work.

I showed up at work yesterday to discover I was the only one there from my group. I knew one of the guys was going to be out, but didn't know the two others were as well. As I walked into my office, I was greeted by a frantic co-worker reporting a problem. What I thought was going to turn out to be a quick 5 minute fix turned out to be an 18 hour adventure which I just resolved about 30 minutes ago. I sat there yesterday practically rebuilding the whole configuration. I guess the lack of sleep disrupted my problem solving skills enough to where I was feeling helpless. I basically applied the equivelent of a band-aid to the system that was having a problem, and prayed before I went to bed that noone would call me overnight. Well the system held overnight and on my way in, the solution to the problem dawned on me. I applied the fix when I got in and it seems to be working perfectluy today. I guess I just needed a good nights sleep.

I really hate when I get sleepy and feel overworked because I wind up being grumpy and moody towards Rachel. So after the grumpy guy I've been the past week, I think I owe her a foot massage or something :-).

BJ for a Bracelet?

Maybe I am the last person to learn about this (I'm not as young and hip as I used to be). I heard that it's now popular for girls in junior high and high school to wear these plastic bracelets that indicate the type of sex they are up for. For example, if a girl is wearing a blue bracelet, it means she is up for "oral treats". If she wears a green bracelet, she accepts "oral treats". There are colors to represent just about every sex act imaginable. From anal sex, to flashing, to gay sex and using sex toys. Now apparantly, if a boy grabs one of these bracelets off a girl, the girl is supposed to perform or participate in the sex act the bracelet represents. From what I hear the colors vary from place to place. So make sure if you participate you are 100% sure about the colors. You wouldn't want to snatch a bracelet from a girl expecting oral treats and wind up getting violated by one of her sex toys. Kids today....

56 Deceits in F9-11...

Thought this was interesting... It'shard to know who to believe anymore...


http://www.davekopel.org/Terror/Fiftysix-Deceits-in-Fahrenheit-911.htm

Struggeling...

I've really been struggeling to think of something to write about. Been so swamped with work that I haven't really done a whole lot to write about. But I saw this story yesterday and thought hrmmm this sounds fishy. Maybe I am just skeptical because of the Lacey Peterson and Lori Hacking cases. The Lori Hacking case is really strange. She was under the impression her husband had been accepted to medical school, yet he never even graduated from college. It has a weird Tallented Mr. Ripley feel to it. Very sad. He lied to his wife, so he kills her. Yeah don't blow your own brains out, hack your wife to pieces.

The Yankees game last night, while just 1 of 162 games and pretty meaningless, had a very electric feel to it. It started when newly aquired John Olerud had a 2RBI single in his first at bat as a Yankee. Then Gary Sheffield ties the game up in the bottom of the 9th with a 2 run home run. Then A-Rod hits a two run, walk off home run. The ball he hit sailing into the dark, Bronx sky was very similar to when Aaron Boone hit the game winner in the ALCS last year.

How funny is it that Nomar Garciapara was traded from one cursed team (the Red Sox) to another cursed team (The Cubs). It's gotta be pretty bad moralwise on the Red Sox when your most beloved player since Ted Williams doesn't want to play there anymore. I have a feeling Nomar may be playing 2nd base for the Yankees next year. I would still love to get Alfonso Soriano back, but Nomar wouldn't be a bad 2nd choice.

Burning the midnight oil...

ok so it's not quite midnight, but I've bene up since 6:30 AM so it feels like midnight. Im here at work thanks to a hardware failure on one of our Solaris servers. I got home around 5:30, made myself a snack and was called at around 6:00 regarding the server failure. I was hoping it was going to be a simple reboot or restarting of a hung process but noooooo. So I'm waiting for the Sun technician to get here along with the replacement parts which are on their way from Baltimore. The good news is, since I worked from 8AM-4PM then from 6PM-who knows when, I don't have to go into work tomorrow. Hopefully the data on the drives isn't corrupted, or else I'll have to stay here several more hours rebuilding the server from scratch :-(.

Holy War?

Last year when the campaign in Iraq began, the US was accused of being anti Muslim. Well yesterday Muslim extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his henchmen attacked 4 Christian churches in and around Baghdad. My how the tideas have turned...

I'm sort of losing interest in NFL2k5. I think the passing in the game is just way too hard. Plus whenever I try to play it on XBOX Live, it seems really choppy. It worked decently the 1st night I tried, but seems to really be sluggish when I tried to play over the weekend. I thought it was my internet connection through Comcast, but other XBOX live games I played seemed to be lag and jitter free. But for $20.00 I can't really complain much. I just hope Madden 2005 behaves better in online play.

Doom 3 is a beast of a game. My 64mb Radeon video card isn't powerful enough to support the game. The game plays, but it's really sluggish. Even when the video quality is set to low and the resolition is set to 800X600. Video cards are just insane. It seems like they are obsolete in about a month.

There's a show on ABC where they take a house and totally redo it. I think it's called Extreme Makeover Home Edition, but I'm not sure. It's usually a family with financial issues, or a single parent that they chose. I think the show is amazing and really inspirational. On last nights show they picked a house in southern California. It was a mom and her three sons. They boys appeared to be about 12, 9 and 6. Their dad was over in Iraq. It was amazing what they did to the house in a weeks time. With the help of over 100 volunteers and the usual staff on the show they did some amazing work. The two really neat things they did was that they turned the backyard into a miniature Dodger Stadium. They even had the Dodgers grounds crew come in and lay authetntic sod and dirt that they use at the stadium. They also did a really neat shower that was like a car wash. Since they had 3 boys, and little boys are prone to getting dirty, they installed this super duper shower with shower heads that hit from every angle. It even had cycles like at a drive thru car wash. Shampoo, soap and even a Tide cycle for washing their clothes. But the best part was at the end when they surprised the family by bring their dad/husband back home. The focus immediately went from "WOW our new house kicks ass" to "Dad is home!". I remember as a kid getting excited when my dad would come home from work. He would usually bring me home a candy bar or some baseball cards or stickers. So I can't imagine what a thrill it must have been for the kids to see their dad. I wish their were more shows like this on TV that actually help people instead of these dumb dating reality shows.