Since August???

I doubt anyone will read this since it has been MONTHS since I've posted. Seems like most blogs have been killed by FaceBook or Twitter. I don't Tweet, but I do have FaceBook.

Anyway, not too much to report. I really hope that the snow melts soon. It is starting to get depressing.

Anyway, I hope all is well with everyone in Blog Land.

Greatest time of year

Can you feel that? You know. The electricity in the air that preceeds football season. I can feel it. I crave it. It is only a few more weeks until the OSU football season kicks off and the Browns have their first pre-season game tonight. Shit yeah!

I'm sure the Browns will probably suck this year, maybe pulling out an 8 and 8 record. I wish they would get better, but it just never seems to happen. It is the bane of being a Cleveland sports fan. One think I wish they would figure out is what the hell they are doing with two potential starting QBs. Anderson has done well the past few year, but the Browns used their first round draft pick to grab Brady Quinn a while back. Now, he is sitting on the bench getting paid a ton to be a 2nd stringer. WTF?

The Buckeyes are picked to have a good year in the Big Ten. I see them being dominant in the league until their trip to Happy Valley. Penn State always makes me nervous. The REAL road bump in this upcoming season will be when USC comes to town. I fear that this game could get ugly unless OSU's offense will be able to match USC's production. We will have a lot of young players on defense. The offense should be good if the young recievers starting this year can step it up. Prior will have a TON of weight on his soulders to make things happen.

On a side note, my bowling league starts in less than a month. WOO HOO!!! I caught myself looking at bowling balls on the web. I don't need one, I just like looking at what's new out there. Our league merged with another league this year, so now we have 20 teams instead of 12. It shoud be interesting to see how things work out with the new teams and bigger league. Personally, my main goal (beyond winning) is maintaining a 200+ average. I bowl a few games here and there over the summer with mixed results. I tried two different bowling alleys near my house and did terrible at on and OK at the other. Last week I bowled at my normal bowling house and rolled a 204 and 216.

Zombies Zombies Zombies!

What can I say? I love killing zombies. Well, Xbox zombies, at least. If I saw a real zombie, I would probably pee myself. Anyway, I think I can say, with a great deal of honesty, that I could play the Call of Duty World at War zombie levels for the rest of my Xboxing days. The first zombie level was OK: a small map with limited weapons. The second was much more fun: a bigger map with more challenges, more weapons, traps, and player perks. The third was even more fun with even more weapons (Wonder Waffe), more traps, and more challenges. A new zombie level came out for COD WAW last week and it is AWESOME WICKED FUN!!! It is also wicked hard, but that is OK. The map is huge and there are even MORE weapons, traps, and challenges. Then add a teleporter, a weapons upgrade machine, and exploding monkeys, and you get GREAT good times. Yes, I said exploding monkeys. I played last night with a group of online people and had loads of fun. I had a Wonder Waffe (lightening gun) and a ray gun (both updraged to more powerful weapons with bigger clips) and exploding monkeys. They look like wind up monkeys that play the cymbals, but they attract the zombies and then blow up. Wicked fun. We did really well until I ran out of ammo. The Wonder Waffe shoots a bolt of electricity and if you hit a zombie, it spreads to all of the zombies around it. It is great for groups, but not so much for individual zombies. That is where the ray gun comes in handy. I can't wait to play again. The WAW people could make a complete zombie game and I would be happy beyond belief.

Harry Potter was pretty good

I went to see the new Harry Potter movie yesterday with Jessica and the kids. It was a pretty long movie, but Gabe and Ally did pretty good with it. They talked a little and started to move around a bit, but they weren't too bad. The movie was pretty good. I have been a little frustrated with the last few films because they seem to be a little lacking to me. The first few books were shorter, so it was pretty easy to get all of the relevant information into the movies. However, as Rowling's writing improoved and the stories became more elaborate, the movies have had difficulty getting all of the good action and story telling into a feature film. The movies have all of the main action and story, but they seem rushed to cram everything into 2 1/2 hours.

What they were able to cram into The Half Blood Prince was pretty good. There were some good action scenes and character development. The love triangles were done pretty well and there was a good mix of comedy in there as well. Jessica already wants to go see it again. I could stand to wait until it is on DVD, but if she really wants to take me to a movie, I won't complain. My one beef with the film is that it seemed very anti-climactic to me. Yes, what was supposed to happen happened, but it just seemed rushed. The final chapters in the book were action packed and then very somber and sad. The movie made the last two chapters happen in about five minutes. Oh well. All in all, it was a pretty good movie. They just are never as good as the books.

Which is better? Trek or Gate?

As you know, I am a huge Sci Fi fan. I am not a stay in my basement dressing up like Spock kind of fan, but I must admit that Sci Fi is my favorite genre of movie and TV show. BSG is my favorite sci fi show, but I also watched all of the Star Trek series and am currently watching Star Gate shows. I started backwards, with Star Gate Atlantis, but lately have been watching SG1. The other night, I started to wonder which series I liked more: Trek or Gate. I think I am actually leaning towards Gate. I guess they are different 'verses, with different qualities, but Star Gate Atlantis and SG1 are both well written and exciting shows.

Of all of the Star Trek shows, I guess Voyager was my favorite. Lots of space battles and a good story line. It is really rather similar to SG Atlantis in that, both shows take place in distant galaxies. Both deal with exploring the galaxies and dealing with aggressive aliens in those galaxies. Probably these similarities are why I like Atlantis so much.

One thing I thought interesting was how the different series used sexuality. Star Trek did little to hide the flaunting of women. The original series had half nude green girls and skirts cut REALLLY high. TNG had Troi in tight outfits all the time, but decreased number of the sexy aliens. DS9 had little in the line of sexy women beyond Dax and of course, when Voyager started to loose ratings, they added 7 of 9 to the cast. Hot Borg in skin tight outfits. Even Enterprise followed the sexy girl formula with T'pal, a Vulcan in skin tight outfits. I guess Star Trek people thought that a scantily clad woman was essential to a good show.

Star Gate is a bit different. The women are treated in the show more as equals since the story is based in our society present day. The 'sexy' women are dressed in military garb and the actresses are 'typical' women. None of them are oozing sexuality, but when put in certain situations and outfits, they pull off the hot girl role very well. Of course, the very first SG1 episode has a full frontal nude scene, but it went with the story line and wasn't in there just to seel a sex image. It sounds strange, but I actually like Star Gate's approach to women better that Star Trek's in-your-face flaunting of women. Don't get me wrong, when 7 of 9 walked around in her unitard, it was nice. However, there is something to be said for subtle sexuality. Like, when a lady puts on a nice dress instead of her daily work clothes.

Wow. Did I ramble on about nothing forever? Sorry.

Grumpy much?

I don't know why, but I have been in an awful mood over the last day or so. It started last night and continued this morning when I got a parking ticket on my van. I moved into the street so that the kids could shoot hoops. I just pulled out and parked facing the wrong way. Did you know you can get a ticket for that? I now owe the city of Columbus $20 for parking next to my house in the street so that the kids could play. How stupid is that?!?!?

Excited about movies

I saw some new movie trailers this weekend. OK, I had seen them before, but I am still excited about some films coming up. I saw the Transformers preview online and it looks pretty exciting. Some of the new Transformers introduced look a little strange, but the movie still looks pretty good. Putting Megan Fox in hot little shorty shorts always makes for good entertainment.

GI Joe looks interesting. It could end up being too cheesey to be good, but I still want to see it. Seeing Snake Eyes in the trailer is pretty cool though. By far a fan favorite from the cartoon. Well, my favorite at least. The only thing I may not like is the exo-suit thing. Not part of the original Joe show, but it could add for some cool special effects. We'll see.

I can't tell you how much I want to see the next Harry Potter movie. Half Blood Prince is probably my favorite book in the series. Very dark, very exciting. Is there anyone left in the world that hasn't read and loved these books?

I also saw the first trailer for New Moon, which is the next movie in the Twilight series of books. I know. It is a series intended for teen girls, but you put werewolves and vampires in the same story line and you get something pretty exciting. There are some parts in the books that make you want to put it down for being too girly, but then the good parts make up for that. It looks like another good film.

Anything else I need to see?

Another Facebook Victem

My blog is being neglected lately. It is a good blog. It never bites or pees on the carpet. I just don't seem too interested in keeping up with it these days. I am not going to take it into the woods and shoot it, but I don't see myself posting too often in the future. Maybe a weekly update now and then. Mainly the reason for this is bercause of Facebook. I don't post on that as much either, but it seems like more people check my Facebook page than my blog. Poor blog. So, for frequest updates, I am on Facebook, or you can just check here from time to time for bigger posts of bigger events.

New Toy

So, my PC went ka-put last week. It's had an OK run, since I bought it several years ago. I would like to say it ran perfectly, but I would be lying. It was oober slow and multi-tasking was impossible. I took it to Geek Squad to see if it would be an easy fix, but I was told the error message usually meant my hard drive was failing. Minimum repair cost, $300. So, I said forget it and bought a lap top. I am a total impulse buyer. I knew I wanted HP, which is what I have been using lately, but I was torn between screen size and battery life. I went with the better battery life, in case I wanted to travel with it. I figure that I can hook up my HD monitor when I am using this at home. I still have another PC for Jessica and the kids to use, but I wanted a lap top so that I can do stuff upstairs when watching TV with the family. This one is pretty nice, I guess. It has 4 USB ports, a webcam, mic, HDMI input, plenty of memory and is pretty quick. The biggest downer is that I couldn't save my music that is on ITunes on my old computer. This means that I have to upload all of my CDs again. After about an hour or so, I am up to the letter C. I have a hundred or so more to do still. UNGH!!! Luckily, I had the forethought to save all of out family photos onto a removable flash drive. I can't imagine losing all of the family pictures. Anyway, I might be posting more often, now that I have computer access in places other than my basement.

A Week In the Life......

Time for a weekly recap:

-Ally turned 4 Monday. She had fun at her party. We got her a new bicycle, which she seems to like alot. It was basically just a few family members and friends, but I think fun was had by all.

-I am having a hard time watching the Cavs series in the NBA play offs. It is frustrating knowing that they have the best record in the NBA, have swept their first two series, but now are barely hanging on to life, being down 3-2 to the Magic. They have had big leads in two of the games they've lost. Each game has been close though, so I guess anything can happen still.

- Does anyone think it is possible that a network will realize how great Firefly is and let Joss make a few more seasons? I am hoping that Dollhouse keeps going too, but I am watching Firefly today (again) and I am amazed at how great this show is. How it only lasted one season on the air makes no sense to me what-so-ever.

- Poker game tonight. I have not been doing too well lately. I have played well, but my luck has been crappy. Hopefully things will change for me tonight.

Does Anyone Esle Find This disturbing?

Has anyone seen the White Castle commercial for their pulled pork sandwiches? You know. The one with the person in the pig costume dancing on stage like a stripper only to end up doused in barbeque sauce. That commercial creeps me the fuck out! I think it is because they are painting pigs in a sexual light. OK, maybe they are painting people in pig costumes in a sexual light. Still, doesn't this creep anyone else out? At least, it fills me with even more desire to avoid White Castle.

Ouch

This weekend my parets came for a visit. Partially because Ally's birthday is next weekend and they wanted to bring her a gift and celebrate a little, but mostly they came to give me my annual infusion of plants for my garden. So, I was super busy planting things in my garden. I also planted a whole bunch of plants and flowers in my fron flower bed. I tried to put in a lot of perennials so that I don't need to re-plant every spring. Still, I put in a bunch of annuals too. It looks pretty good, if I say so myself. My dad helped alot. He is crazy about getting things planted just right. He is very meticulous about his gardening. That is fine by me. It means that it is done right. So basically, I dug the holes and he planted. It worked out pretty well. I did all of the annuals myself though. That was a chore! I love spring time. Fresh tomatoes in the summer....YUM!!!

FINALLY!!!

As mentioned, Jessica and I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night. This took some doing since Jessica lothes the old Star Trek show and movies. Actually, she just doesn't like William Shatner and Leonard Nemoy freaks her out. A fun fact: As a baby, William Shatner was on the same plane as Jessica and her mom. He (the Shat) commented on how cute Jessica was. Anyway, back to the movie. I mentioned that Jessica had dragged me to see Twilight, which I had resisted, and I liked it. Anyway, she agreed and we went. The first ten minutes of Star Trek were the most intense ten minutes of possibly any movie I have ever seen. It was AWESOME. The rest of the movie slowed down here and there, but the first ten minutes alone made the movie worth the $16 we paid. The rest of the movie was very VERY good. It gives some history of Spock and kirk, and also goes into how the crew met and came aboard the Enterprise. I won't go into the plot too much, but it was similar in some aspects to Generations, when Picard met Kirk. (Spock meets Spock) I can understand how some people (die hard Trekkies) might not like some aspects of the movie. It basically changes some of the aspects of the Star Trek verse that are present in the entire history of the movies and shows. I will say that I liked the casting. It was a little hard to see Sylar as Spock, and I kept expecting zombies to attack and Scottie chuck records at their heads, but beyond that, the casting was spot on. The story was good and the effects we stellar. It is definately worth paying to see Star Trek in the theaters. It is a visually stunning film. A- (the minus is because Smock and Uhura were hooking up. That was one thing I didn't like much.)

Going Boldly Where No One Has Gone Before

To an exciting Star Trek movie. Hopefully. My report tomorrow.