Happy Holidays

It's that time of year again...

360 @ 3:30

I've done many dumb things in my life, but usually I do them alone. Last night/early this morning Rachel and I participated in a feat of dumbness as a couple.

Our quest for an XBOX 360 began at about 10PM last night. We heard a rumor that Walmart was giving the 360's out at midnight. So we got there to find about a 100 people waiting in line. According to some of the folks in the line, they had their names on a list and Walmart would hand the XBOX's out in the order they were listed. Since Walmart was only getting a few dozen in, we decided to head home.

Our quest resumed this morning at about 3:30 AM. It was cold (38 degrees), raint and pitch black outside. But we headed over to another Walmart over in Manassas. They aren't 24/7 so we thought we could get in line and snag one when the doors opened at 6AM. When we arrived, there were just a few people. SWEET!! Rachel asked them if they were waiting for the release of the 360, and they said yes and proceeded to show us a voucher they had gotten about an hour ago by Walmart. According to them, all the 360's were accounted for. They were just waiting for 6:00AM to roll around.

Next we drove to Best Buy. It was like a tent city outside. There were people in sleeping bags, tents pitched, lawn chairs all over the sidewalk. So we just kept driving down towards Target. We pulled up and a guy with a notebook said that he had been there since 1:00 AM and he was keeping a list of people as they showed up. He had about 2 dozen names on the list, and said he had spoken to a manager and they only expected about 20 XBOX's.

So we headed over to Circuit City. There were about a dozen cars in the parking lot. As we pulled in to a parking space, two guys who looked about college age jumped out of a Dodge Dakota. They had a notebook and explained that they heard that Circuit City was getting in 20-25 units. 16 Platinum and about 10 core systems. He said there were no guarantees, but said he would put our name on the list. We sat in our car for about 30 minutes and I decided to check the store hours. Oh great Circuit City doesnt open till 10AM. At this point it was only 6 AM. So I said to Rachel, this is ridiculous, lets go home and go back to bed. She said we should wait a little longer and continued working on her book of crossword puzzles. I sat in the passenger seat steaming. I wanted to go home, to go to sleep. The lamp post in the parking lot dripped water on the car like the Chinese water torture...drip...drip...drip every few seconds. I was ready to go nuts. About 15 minutes later, one of the guys with the notebook handed us a card with the number 16 on it. He said the plan was to line up at about 9AM. Well when 6:30 rolled around, people started driving up and lining up outside the store. This got everyone out of their cars, and out into the elements. I had on a pair of sneakers, jeans, and a light weight rain jacket. Most of the people there thought ahead better than I did. They had on ski parkas, wool caps, gloves, and one guy even had a kerosene camping heater. So I stood in line, while Rachel went home to get us some warmer clothes. She was only gone about 30 minutes, but it felt like an eternity. By the time she got back, I was wet and shivering. BUt the warmer, dryer clothes really helped alot once she got back.

We then all lined up by the numbers on the index cards. We were #16. One of the guys in line had a brother who worked at Circuit City and he called him to see how many they were getting. According to the guys brother they had 21 of them. Things were looking good. The guy with the kerosene heater kept calling inside the store because there were a couple of guys in there already. Finally they anounced at in about 15 minutes they would hand out official CC vouchers, 21 of them. About 30 minutes later, they did just that. They told us to come back at 10 to claim ours. We were excited, and started walking towards our car when we heard someone yell "FUCK!" followed by a loud series of bangs. The guy who had the index card labeled 21 didn't get a voucher. Which means either someone took two, someone inside CC couldnt count or someone in CC kept one for themselves. The guy went balistic. He was beating his umbrella against the side of the building and screaming. I can't really say I blame the guy, I would have been so pissed if we didnt get one.

Well we went and grabbed some breakfast and headed back at 10AM. We got a Core system. I would have liked to have a Platinum one, but at least I have something. One of the guys on line said he heard people were paying $800 for the core and $1200+ for the premium. Im hoping the one I reserved at EB comes in so I can sell the Core. That would pay for my platinum and then some.


If anyone would like my Core system it can be yours for $1000. Yeaaaah bitches! What sucks is that no matter what, I won't be using my 360 till Christmas day :-(.

Wizard of Oz 2005

The other night Rachel was flipping through the channels and the Wizard of Oz was on. We were watching for a bit, and we starting thinking about if they did a modern remake of the movie who would we cast for the roles. Here's what we came up with. Feel free to chime in with your own suggestions. For a few characters we couldn't settle on one answer.

Tinman: Tom Hanks
Scarecrow: Jim Carrey
Cowardly Lion: Jack Black
Wicked Witch: Rachel Dretch or Molly Shannon
Good Witch: Kate Hudson or Nicole Kidman
Dorothy: This was a tough one. Hillary Duff, Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood
Wizard: Robert Duval

And I know there weren't any "brothers" in the original, but I would find a way to work Morgan Freeman and Samuel L Jackson into the movie in some capacity since they make every move that much better.

Not so United States

I remember back to about a year ago, just before the presidential election when the country really seemed to be split down the middle. I never remember seeing the US so divided as it was last year. I thought once the election was over, things would quiet down. But we seem to be just as divided if not more divided then we were a year ago. This is really discouraging considering in September of 2001, everyone was on the same page, closer than I ever remember.

This country has existed for quite some time, but I really wonder how much longer it can exist as a whole. There have always been issues that the public disagrees on. And for the most part, most of the decisions along the way have been for the better. But I think the far right and the far left are further apart then they have ever been. I can understand why politically this happens. Republicans tend to protect the current president, while Democrats try to spin every word and every action from the president look moronic, and wrong. That's to be understood. But what really shocks me is that people who grew up in the same part of the country, at the same general time, in very similar social and economic environments can have such a different view of the world. I see it at work, I see it on television, I see it on these blogs.

There was an episode of CSI last week that was a perfect example of how people can see one issue two completely different ways. The story began with a high speed chase through a prominantly hispanic neighborhood in Las Vegas. The police were chasing a car with 4 hispanic men inside who were firing automatic weapons at the police. In the end 3 of the 4 hispanic men get shot and killed the cops. 1 man escapes. On the cops size, 1 cop is killed. And a young boy who was out riding his bike was found shot and badly wounded. Apparantly caught in the crossfire.

Now I look at that situation, and I see the 4 men with the automatic weapons as being wrong. If they hadn't run from the cops, noone would have been killed or injured. But the residents of the neighborhood see it completely different. They see it as the cops picking on the hispanic community. The 4 men who ran from the cops had a long list of arrests. So to me the world is better without them in it.

One of the officers chased one of the men by foot. He ran out of ammo and was about to get shot by the man he was persuing, till another officer came to his aid. The 2nd cop came up behind the hispanic man who had his gun pointed at the other cop, and shot him in the back. The community where the 4 men lived saw this as shooting a helpless man in the back. However, if they hadn't shot him in the back, you're looking at a dead cop.

So who was right and who was wrong here?

That 18 year old kid in Pennsylvania who shot his girlfriend's parents. My opinion is death penalty, we're better off without him around. But more liberal people will say he needs to be given therapy and rehabilitated and introduced back into society. Who's right and who's wrong?

The Donald in Chicago

This photo has been selected as the most sexy, tantalizing, fantastical photo by Trump Magazine. Trump has been quoted as saying "we'll feature it on calendars, lunch boxes, and even a box of Wheaties. It's gonna be HUUUUGE!"

I know it was windy in Chicago yesterday, but this is crazy.

New System of a Down

I've been eagerly anticipating the new System of a Down CD Hypnotize for quite some time. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy. Here is a really quick rundown of the CD.

Overall I think Mesmerize is the better CD. I think SOAD could have taken BYOB, This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like Im on this Song, Question!, Violent Pornography, Revenga and Cigaro and added 4 or 5 songs off the new CD and they could have had one amazing album. Some of the songs on Mesmerize like Old School Hollywood and Radio/Video seem like filler. The same goes for Hypnotize. Some awesome new materia, but unfortunately some filler.

The 1st track is called Attack. Very catch chorus. Sort of reminds me of the song Bounce of of Toxicity. I give this song an 8 out of 10.

The 2nd track is Dreaming. Not a big fan of this song. The song is all over the place. No structure. Multiple vocals going on at one time. I give this song a 2 out of 10. This is one of the filler songs IMHO.

The 3rd track is Kill Rock N Roll. Ozzy Osbourne has a song of the same name back in the 80's which is one of my favorite Ozzy tracks. This song is pretty catchy. But it's got parts that are very annoying. But the hook "Everyday I look in your eyes, every day Im watching you die" is very catchy. You'll be singing it without realizing your singing it. But I don't get what the lyrics mean or what they have to do with Rock N Roll. I give this song 6 out of 10.

The 4th track is the title track Hypnotize. I really like this track. A good song to release as the 1st single. Sometimes SOAD can be a little too preachy and political, but they pull it off in this song. Very strong vocals and lyrics. One of the slower SOAD's songs you'll hear, but Serj's vocal range really shines in this tune. He hits the highs, the lows and everything in between. I give this one a 9 out of 10.

The 5th track is Stealing Society. The song is loud, explosive and starts out very fast. One of my favorite tracks. My only complaint about this song is it sounds a little too much like some of SOAD other songs. I give this one an 8 out of 10.

The 6th track is Tentative. Another song I consider to be filler. Sounds too much like other SOAD songs. Not very original sounding. Nothing really special. 5 out of 10.

The 7th track is U-Fig. This is a song that really defines the style of SOAD. The song starts out slowly and builds into an explosion of guitar and vocals. Then it winds down into a catchy, hypnotic (hehe) chorus. The lyrics are just awesome in this song.
COME JOIN THE CAUSE, COME JOIN THE CAUSE!!!! Who wants to come with me and hide in the sky!!!!
I give this one a 7 out of 10.

The 8th track is called Holy Mountain. A slow song that reminds me of Aerials. Lots of nice harmonizing in the beginning, followed by haunting guitar riffs and vibrant drum beats. One of the more serious tracks on the CD. It takes a little getting used to, but it's very powerful when Serj screams LIAR, KILLER, DEMON at the beginning of the pre-chorus. I think this song may be about the Armenian Genocide. 8 out of 10.

The 9th track is a little dity called Viscinity of Obscenity. This one of my favorites. It's the true epitomy of the SOAD sound. It's a song like noother band could ever pull off. And it features the lyric "beat the meat" which makes me giggle. It reminds me of "this song makes me feel like Im on this cocain". It's got some of the craziest, zaniesty vocals you'll ever hear. If anyone else tried to pull this off, it would probably sound terrible. But SOAD pulls it off so well. The solo towards the end of the song sounds like the music that would accompany you as you're falling down into the flames of hell. It's frightening, dreary and intense all at the same time. 9 out of 10.

the 10 track is called She's Like Heroin. The song isn't bad, I just find it very annoying. I've listened to it a few times, and it never really grew on me. A filler song 5 out of 10.

Track 11 is a balad called Lonely Day. The song attempts to sound all down and serious, but to me it almost has a sarcastic tone to it. Im not sure if this is intentional or their intent, but its just something I picked up on. But there is something very pleasing about the song. I like it. 8 out of 10.

The 12th track is amazing. It's called Soldier Side. SOAD teased this song as the into to Mesmerize. The little snippit was pretty intense, well wait till you hear the whole song. The lyrics are amazing. "Young men standing on top of their own graves...Wondering when Jesus Comes are they gonna be saved. They were crying when their sons left, all young men must go!" 10 out of 10. They don't come any better than this. The song is just perfect. The music sets a powerful atmosphere that is complimented by the powerful lyrics. Great song!!!!

Beyond AM...Beyond FM

I've been curious about satellite radio for a while now. I didn't want to invest a whole lot in case I didn't like it. So I started looking around and noticed Walmart had an XM Roadie2 for $30.00. So I picked one up and gave it a try. The installation is pretty simple, except for the antenna. You have to snake the wire from the antenna through your car and so it can plug in to the roadie2. I just have it laying loose for now. I'll have to get out one of these days and tuck the wire a little better so its a cleaner install. Once the antenna is connected, the rest is really easy. You plug the power adapter into the cigarette lighter and then you can play XM over the FM frequency using the built in FM modulator.

I listened to Opie and Anthony on the way into work today which was really cool. Brought back old memories. It's still a bit shocking when they curse or use dirty words. I've gotten so used to the sanitized airwaves on terrestrial radio. I haven't had a chance to listen to many of the other stations, but I did tune into ESPN radio while O&A were on a break. They do this 3 minute recap of all the NFL games, which is awesome. They also have licensing for all the MLB and NHL games which is cool. The other cool part is that you can log in to XMradio.com and listen to any of the XM programming using your PC. So no need to have a seperate radio receiver for the house. That's included in the $12.95 monthy fee.

So if you want to give satallite radio a try, check out the XM roadie2. It's inexpensive, easy to hook up and gives you a lot of programming options.

Moron Alert...

Pardon me while I climb up on my soap box...

I've been hearing alot about these upside down Christmas trees. It's bad enough Christmas has become totally commercialized and stores start selling Christmas stuff around Labor Day, but this has gone too far. Im all about a traditional Christmas. A green Christmas tree, with colored lights and ornaments, red and white stockings, reindeer, snowmen, and all that good stuff. It drives me nuts when people put up white and silver Christmas trees with blue lights. Thats bad enough. But now hanging Christmas trees from the ceiling?

1st of all, this is gonna piss off and confuse Santa. He's not gonna know where to put the gifts.

2nd it almost seems sacraligious. Like hanging an upside down cross.

3rd If I were to walk into someones house and they had one of these trees, I would point and laught at them, then walk out. If I had a kid and they went over to play with a friend and they had an upside down Christmas tree, I wouldnt let them play over there anymore. And I would probably light the tree on fire. And then piss on it. Maybe even drop a deuce on it if I had been drinking egg nog.

If you know someone who is considering purchasing one of them, tell them they are trying way too hard to be cool and different. And if they really want to waste $500, give it to charity or better you, give it to you. Then slap them and make them thank you for enlightening them.

Monday Night Matchup

This week games took place on the frothy tundra of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusettes. Where you can get a shave and a blowjob for $20.

The star of the game was Corey Dillon. Dillon caught a 22 yard strike from Tom Brady for the first TD of the game. Niel responded by marched the Colts down the field, until an erant pass intended for Brandon Stokley was intercepted by Randal Gay. A few quick slants paired up with a few runs from Corey Dillon and the Pats had 1st and goal. Niel setup a wall of defenders and sent Dillon down hard at the 2 yard line. 2nd and goal. Dillon takes it to the weak side and is thrown for a 2 yard loss. 3rd and goal from the 4 yard line. Dillon takes it down the middle and takes it down to the 1 foot line. The thought of kicking a field goal crossed my for exactlt a nano-second before I called in the I-Form jumbo squad. I tried to drawn Niel offside, but he wouldn't budge. So I snapped the ball, handed it to Dillon. Dillon sliced through the defensive line into the endzone. Vinatieri added the extra point 14-0 at halftime.

I got the ball back first in the 2nd half, but wasn't able to do much. Niel's defense shut me down, and forced me to punt. Niel put together a drive of about 3 1/2 minutes which concluded with a TD pass from Manning toReggie Wayne. 14-7. Wayne used some pretty moves to elude two defenders enroute to the endzone.

After finding little success using the Strong I formation, I opted to move to a single back formation. This brought Tim Dwight into the game as the 3rd wide receiver. Dwight has some blazing speed, which allowed Brady and Dwight to hook up on several crossing routes. I quickly moved the ball across the 50. A few quick runs by Corey Dillon and Patrick Pass and I was in the red zone once again. Tim Dwight lined up in the slot, Brady lined up in the shotgun. The Colts blitz! Brady finds Dwight on a quick slant, Dwight shakes a tackle, down to the 10...5...TOUCHDOWN!!! 21-7.

At this point Niel seemed a bit demoralized and more interested in his pork chop dinner than finishing the game . I thought he would quietly run the ball and let the clock run down. But he licked the greasy goodness off his fingers, and put together a nice scoring drive. Peyton Manning finds his tight end Dallas Clark for a 12 yard TD strike. Clark is hit after the catch in the endzone and briefly dry humped by Randal Gay. Niel must have gone back for seconds, because a he flubbed the extra point. 21-13.

With the clock winding down, I knew Niel would try an onside kick. I recovered the onside kick, and began running the clock down by running the ball. Dillon picked up 5 yards here, 3 yard theres, and the Patriots found themselves down to the 10 yard line with about 15 seconds to go. I could have called another running play and let the clock run out, but Im a jerk ass. I called a time out and drew up a passing play. I threw a quick strike to the sideline, but failied to get out of bounds. I was tackles at about the 5 yardline. So I called another time out. This time I tried a quick pass to Deion Branch, but it was thrown over head incomplete. With only a few ticks left on the clock, I decided to call in the special teams. Initially I called for a fake field goal pass. Just before I snapped the ball, I decided against it, and called my final time out. The game ended with a short field goal by Adam Vinatieri. Final score Patriots 24-Colts 13. Here are the key game stats.

Squilky on the Aisle

Squilky on the Aisle...

Rachel and I watched the Devils Rejects the other night. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a sequel to House of 1000 Corpes or not, but it had a lot of the same characters in it. The movie was probably one of the sickest movies you will ever see. It wasn't all that bloody or gorey, but it just had some freak out moments to it. Scenes that make you have simpathy pains and grab various body parts and go "OWWWWW".

One of the freakiest things however is that Terry from Threes Company is in the movie. And she gets naked. Yeah remember Terry. She would stand on one leg during the opening credits like a flamingo. She had pretty, long, well toned legs. Terry was pretty hot. Well that was 25 years ago. Let's just say, she battled gravity and gravity kicked her ass. She's gotten a little saggy. I guess for a woman who's 50, she's not all that bad. But I don't know if she should be going around showing off her cans on the silver screen.

One of the characters who was also in the first movie is a guy named Captain Spaulding. I know there are people out there who have irrational fears of clowns. Im not one of them, but there have been clowns in the past who have freaked me out. Tim Curry as Pennywise, Bobcat as Shakes the Clown etc. Well Captain Spaulding has them all beat. The way he looks, the way he speaks, the way he acts is just so messed up.

The movie overall was pretty good. It will freak you out at times, make you second guess yourself when you see a damsel in distress, but it will also entertain you. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being best, I give Devils Rejects an 8. It's got a freak out factor of about 10, but some of the acting is a little too over the top.

Aches and Pains

I used to enjoy running. But sitting on my ass in front of a computer for 40+ hours a week has made me lazy. Most nights when I go home, I do a couple things around the house and then I crash on the couch. Recently a guy I work with, who is only a few years older than I am, had a heart attack. Luckily he called 911 and they got him stabalized pretty quickly and he was ok. But it was a wake up call for me.

When I lived in NY, I used to walk alot. Especially when I started working in the city. A big part of my job was running from client to client to work on their networks. Well since I moved to VA, I drive to work, so I do a lot more sitting. When I lived in NY when I played golf, I would walk the course. Now I ride in a cart. When I lived in NY, I lived down the street from Juniper Park so I would frequently jog, bike or roller blade around the park. So in a nutshell I used to get a lot more exercise.

So last week I decided I needed to get off my ass. So last tuesday, I began running again. I ran for a mile, and I was huffing and puffing pretty hard. It took me almost 9 minutes to run the mile. I ran a few more times, and the times came down a little bit. So much to my surprise when I ran last night, I did 2.5 miles in about 15 minutes. That equals about 6 1/2 minutes per mile. I'm not sure how good that as far as a pace, but it felt good to me. I think really good runers do 4 minute miles. But I'm not a marathon runner from Kenya. I'm a short, white guy from NY. I don't know if it was because it was such a beautiful night, or because the Giants game had me pumped up, or because I was listening to Pantera on my iPod, but I was able to run so easily. I didn't even feel that winded or tired when I finished. My legs just started to feel really heavy. I was all impressed with myself until I woke up this morning.

Holy crap am I in pain. My achilles heel on my left foot is so tender. It started hurting at about 3 AM while I slept. I turned in my sleep and woke up because of a sharp shooting pain. I thought maybe my foot was just in an awkward position or something, so I wiggled it a little and fell back to sleep. Then whenI got up this morning I almost fell as I put weight on my left foot. Ouch!

I'll probably take a few days off to let my heel feel better. Hopefully if I do some stretching and limber up a little, I won't experience this kind of pain every time I run. I was really getting into it, so I hope this doesn't happen all the time. The moral of this story, just when you start to feel good about yourself, the old man aches and pains kick in! Ugggh.

Nutt pulls Johnson, names Dick starter against Cocks...

Arkansas coach Houston Nutt announced Sunday that freshman quarterback Casey Dick will assume the starting quarterback role for Saturday's Homecoming game against the South Carolina Game Cocks. Dick replaces Robert Johnson. So to summarize....

Nutt has pulled Johnson and inserted Dick to take on the Cocks.

Gees, I hope Dick is UP for the challenge.

I hope that Dick can get ahead early.

I hope Dick doesn't cause the Cocks to choke.

Lets hope Nutt feels comfortable with Dick behind center.

One for the boys...

I know what I want for Christmas...

CHESTREST

I have a particular fondness for the Kannazuki Mai model. She has a certain Tina Fey, hot for teacher quality to her.

Seriously I want one for Christmas.

I think it would look wonderful on my desk in my sports room. Of course it goes into hiding when my mom, mother-in-law, or nieces come by the house.

Really, I want one!!!

I'm serious, my wrist is killing me.

Come on, buy me one!!!! Buy 2, one for you and one for me.

But I Don't Wanna Be A Pirate!

I was playing around with Illustrator and came up with this. I saw a similar picture in a kids book when I was at Borders the other day and decided to try to make my own version...

Madden

Niel and I have been playing a game of Madden 2006 every Monday night. We play as the teams who are scheduled to play each other on Monday Night Football. Dave gave me the idea of posting a little something about each game. So here goes...

Snapple Iced Tea

I've been a big fan of Snapple iced tea for a while now. I just don't enjoy paying over a dollar for such a little bottle of Snapple. So I did some digging on the "information super high way", and found 3 or 4 recipes for Snapple Iced tea. The 1st one I tried was horrible. So I was about to give up, then I found a 2nd recipe and that was really tasty, it just didn't have the same flavor as Snapple. So I found a 3rd recipe and this one is pretty damn close to Snapple. The one thing I have found is that you can't drink it in a regular glass over ice. I saved a few Snapple bottles and drink it out of them. For less than the price of a 16 oz bottle of Snapple ($1.25-$1.50). You can make a gallon at a time. I use Luzianne tea bags, but you could probably use any brand you wish. The recipe follows:

2 quarts of water
3 tea bags

Bring the 2 quarts of water to a rapid boil, turn off the heat. Place the tea bags in the water and put a lid on the pot. Let the tea sit for about an hour. After an hour remove the tea bags. The water should still be relatively warm. At that time add 3/4 cup of sugar and stir it well. The tea should be warm enough to disolve the sugar. Then add 1/3 cup of lemon juice.

I usually double it so I can make a gallon at a time. So use 4 quarts of water, 6 tea bags, 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 2/3 cups of lemon juice.