Almost Done.....

I have only 100 pages left in the last Harry Potter book. So far, it is really good...in spurts. There is alot of back story about Dumbledore and some slightly lame side stories. Still, the main plot of Harry, Ron, and Hermione tracking down Voldemort's Horcruxes is great. Lots of action and good story lines. Also, some twists and turns that keep you off guard. One thing that really catched me off guard is when someone important dies. It's not that I don't expect characters to die, but the way that some deaths are presented is a little suprising (I guess that it is the word.) I won't say who died, of course, but it is a few important characters. My biggest complaint about all of the Harry Potter books is that Harry is such a whiney little bitch sometimes. I understand that it makes him seem more human and he is only supposed to be 17, but I just want to tell him to get over himself sometimes. Life is shitty for everyone in the wizarding world in this book. Still, I am reaching the climax of the story and can't wait to see how things end. J K Rowling has really created a great world and a wonderful set of characters. If I were her, I would keep milking the Harry Potter cash cow for all it is worth. I guess if, in the end Voldemort and/or Harry die, alot of the drive and tension behind the story will be gone, but there is still alot that could go on the the world of Harry Potter. Look at all of the Start Wars books out there. Sure, some are complete garbage, but alot of them have some really good stories. Just because Luke offed the Emperor and Vader doesn't mean that he eliminated all of the Empire's forces. The same can be said for the Harry Potter universe. Well, we shall see. Maybe J K Rowling will start seeling licensing rights and let other authors take a stab at Harry's 'verse.

This Season

The 2007 Ohio State Football Season is just around the corner. I have faith that the OSU defense will be dominant with their tight line backer corps, but am a little concerned with the offense. Most of the receivers have gone to the NFL and Heisman winner QB Troy Smith is right there with them. The younger running backs showed some good potential, but the big question mark is going to be which QB is going to step up to lead. I don't know the preseason rankings yet, but here is a look at the upcoming games:

Youngstown State - 09/01 nickname: Penguins I don't really expect this to be too much of a game. The first few game of the Ohio State season aremore like warm up games.

Akron - 09/08 nickname: Zips Another in state game. I don't know much about the Zips, but expect a snoozer.

Washington - 09/15 nickname: Huskies Here is where the season starts to get interesting. Since the rankings are not out yet, I am not sure how good Washington is supposed to be. It could be a pretty tough game

Northwestern - 09/22 nickname: Wildcats The Mild Cats have not been doing too well in the past few seasons. They have some good players, but have not been much of a factor in the Big Ten lately.

Minnesota - 09/29 nickname: Golden Gophers They had a rough year last year. I expect Ohio State to win again.

Purdue - 10/06 nickname: Boilermakers The Boilermakers are always a tough game for OSU. They were almost the one loss to ruin OSU's 2002 undefeated season.

Kent State - 10/13 nickname: Golden Flashes Another instate game. I guess this is as close to a by-week as the Buckeyes will get.

Michigan State - 10/20 nickname: Spartans The rough part of the season really starts here. All Big Ten teams all the way out.

Penn State - 10/27 nickname: Nittany Lions A big one. Penn State is always a tough game, no matter the rankings or where the game is played. Jo Pa may be getting up there in years, but the past few season have shown that he still has the magic.

Wisconsin - 11/03 nickname:Badgers The Badgers are always another tough opponent. They always have a huge O-line and running game.

Illinois - 11/10 nickname: Fighting Illini A mild break before The Game. the Illini have fallen on hard times the past few seasons. Still, they can't be overlooked.

M*ch*g*n - 10/17 nickname: Wolverines THE BIG ONE Any season is a good season with a win over the Wolverines. ESPN has picked them to finish #1 in the Big Ten, with OSU #2. The game is in the Big House, so it is going to be tough for the Buckeyes to come out on top.

Ohio: The Number Two State

Once again an Ohio team got to the title game of a sport and came in second. It seems to be our lot in life. OSU got to the National Title Game for football against Florida, and lost. Then, they got to the National Title Game for basketball against Forida, and lost. The Cleveland Cavs got to the NBA Finals, and lost. Now, the Columbus Destroyers got to the Arena Bowl, AND LOST!! Anyone see a pattern? I didn't watch a single game of the Destroyers season until the Arena Bowl yesterday, and then I only half watched it as I worked. It really isn't my bag, but I wanted to witness an Ohio team, ANY Ohio team, bring home the gold. My first taste of bitterness at a loss of an Ohio team was when the Cleveland Browns lost to Denver in the playoffs, twice, years ago. I've also seen the Cleveland Indians get close to the World Series and the Cavs get close to the NBA title. I'm probably wrong, but the only title that I can remember an Ohio team winning in my lifetime is Ohio State's win in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Ever since then, it has been close, but no cigar. A perfect year for me would be a National Title for Ohio State in ALL sports and the Cleveland Browns, Indians, and Cavs to win their respective titles along with the Columbus Bluejackets and Crew (the Destroyers too, I guess). Sorry Woody, but I gotta put the Bowns above my desire to see the Bengals win the Super Bowl. Of course, it is more likely that the Bengals will do it first, but I a not a huge Cinci fan. Anyway, the Arena bowl was close in the first half, but they the Destroyers ended up losing by about 22, I think. I forget who they played, but they got an ass whoopin'.

Instead of a Summer Cookout.....

Sorry folks. This summer has just gotten past me too quickly. What with going to California and trying to keep up with yard work and other things, planning a cookout just slipped my mind. Besides, most of the people that I would have invited have moved out of state or are having kids this summer. So, I dicided to put off the summer cookout and will plan an early fall birthday party. Jessica's birthday is in September, so I will tempt the fates and risk having a party during football season. It will probably not be anything too big, but I will certainly include your names on the invite list if you feel the need to come to C-bus for some Rhodes home cookin'. Again, I am sorry to those of you that were looking forward to a summer cookout here. It just doesn't seem like it will work out. It would probably be on the 8th or 22nd of September. More likey the 22nd, since I have the opportunity to go to an OSU football game on the 8th. Still, I need to check the OSU football schedule (yes, I plan things around the OSU season) and also check with Jessica to see what would work best for her. I may go with a Friday or Sunday date instead. We'll see.

I need to check and see if I have a vagina

Not only do I watch homo-suspicious shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance (mostly Jessica watches them and I don't NOT watch), but lately I have been we have been watching an old show called China Beach. It is an '80s show about a R&R site/hospital in Vietnam during the war. It's a pretty good show, actually, but has some bad acting and an occasional cheesey story. Typical '80s TV. I would class it as a chick flick-type show, but it's not bad due to the occasional war action and attractive women. One of the show highlights is Dana Delaney (seen on the left here). I always thought she was attractive. She is a nurse in the show and apparently, likes to run around in her bra and panties. Marg Helgenberger from CSI and Robert Picardo from Star Trek Voyager are both in the show. I don't know that the show would be for everyone, but Jessica likes it because of the nurse connection. I won't go on too much about China Beach, but it is sometimes on the History Channel or the Halmark Channel. It's a decent show if there is nothing else on.

As a side note, Dana Delaney is reported to be one of the newest cast members on Desparate Housewives, one of my guilty pleasures. If you follow the link, you will also see that Mal is joining the cast too. Nathan Fillion will be Dana Delaney's husband on the show. It is good that Mal keeps getting jobs. It will be weird watching him as a resident on Wisteria Lane instead of shootin' bad guys and delivering clever one liners.

A Few Updates

HARRY POTTER MOVIE - As mentioned in the comments of my last post, I went to see the latest Harry Potter film. It was really good. Therre was alot of action and good special effects. The story was good too, of course. Order of the Phoenix has been my favorite book to date. The only issue I have with these movies is that there is SO much more in the books that never makes the silver screen. The same is true for Order of the Phoenix. I guess the same is true for any book turned into a movie. Still, a good movie. The only issue I had was with the theater. We went to the Movie Tavern, where you can order food and sit at tables, and they did not turn the lights off until all the food was served. That means that we had to watch several minutes of the movie with lights glaring off the screen. I'm doing pretty well with the latest book. I get a little tired of all of Harry's whining though. He's going up against the most dangerous and evil person in the world. Get over yourself!! I know teens are full of hormones and aggression, but it gets a little old after a while.

DEAD RISING - I finally beat Dead Rising. The real ending this time. I got through the game once, but did not make it back to the helocopter in time, so I didn't really beat the game the first time. This time I got to the chopper, which caused 'overtime mode'. It took me a long time to get through overtime mode, mostlt because the commandoes kept kicking my ass. They had body armor, so guns were not too effective. I figured out swords worked well though. I got through to the end and completed the game, causing infinity mode. I haven't played it yet, but am hoping that there are no time limits for any of the quests. I should be able to get more, if not all, of the quests completed.

FUNNY ONIONS - I went to the Sam's to pick up some things (when you have three kids, you need to buy things in bulk) and I went to grab some onions. They were the funniest onions I have ever seen. Not actually the onions themselves. They were orginary run of the mill onions. It was the packaging. Did you know that NASCAR sponsored onions? I found this to be HI-LARIOUS. Don't believe me? Well, that's why I added the photo. Now, I get Wheaties boxes, even some of the special edition cans of pop and packages of snacks, but who knew that a bad of vidalia onions peaked enough of a buzz to make NASCAR want to sponsor them. I mean, how ofter do you peal an onion and think to yourself, "I needs to watch me some NASCAR."? I chuckle a bit just thinking about it.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE? - I watch too many of these stupid talent/reality shows. Mostly because there is nothing else on and Jessica likes them. One of the shows is So You Think You Can Dance? It's like American Idol, but with dancers. I was actually reading the latest HP book last night, more than I was watching the show, but it was on. I mostly look up to see hot women in the sexy dancer outfits. Also, the dancing can be a little interesting. It amazes me how these people can make their bodies twist and move. Some of the dances they have to do are a little silly sometimes though. Another fun side effect is that Alydia always dances when this show is on and it is SO CUTE!! I enjoy watching her dance. I should really video tape it some time, since we have that fancy video camera.

Harry Potter Mania

Lefty's posting about it: Harry Potter mania is sweeping the globe this month with both the release of the latest Harry Potter movie (Order of the Phoenix) and Saturday's release of the final book, The Deathly Hallows. 11 million books sold in one day? Are you kidding me?? That's amazing. Did you know that J.K Rowling was broke and living on the streets when she wrote the first Hary Potter book? Can anyone say, "multi-millionaire?" I knew you could. Anyway, due to the lack of a reliable sitter, we have not yet seen the latest movie. I think that we are going to go tonight. I did, however, add myself to the 11 million people that bought the book Saturday. I have read all of the books to date and have been looking forward to the release of The Deathly Hallows. I am not the fastest reader in the world, and I really don't have a ton of time to read, what with my enormous Xbox habit, but I am already several chaptes into the book. I was up until 2:30 am on Saturday night because I got caught up in an exciting chapter. Needless to say, so far this has been the darkest and most grusome book to date. And I am not even half way into the book. It will require some serious editing to avoid an R rating in the movie theaters if the gore continues. It's not the movie Hostle gore, but still, some gross parts so far. I think that I was fortunate in the fact that I saw some of the movies before reading the books. The First book, The Sorcerer's Stone, was a bit weak and definately more of a kids book. The same was true for The Chamber of Secrets. Rowling's writing improved and The Prizoner of Azkaban really got good and all the other books to date have been excellent. If you have never ead them, give them a try. My favorite book so far has probably been The Order of the Phoenix. I can't wait to see the film. I was suprised when I asked one of my co-workers, April, if she was getting the new book and she said she had never read any of them or saw any of the movies. Are you kidding me? I thought that everyone has read at least one of the books. You should really start at the first book though so that you get all of the back story and character develpoment. The movies do a good job of telling the story, but you really miss out on some good subplots and side stories if you don't read the books.

NCAA 08

I went ahead and bought NCAA 07 Football. It's pretty good. I haven't had too much time to play yet though. I started a dynasty and played a few online games. It's amazingly easy to gain ahievements. I picked up a bunch yesterday. One just for playing a game online. I also got others for multiple sacks and big plays. The game plays like the 07 version, but there are some changes. There are more audibles and moves. It's taking me a while to get used to them. My biggest beef with the game is that, after your opponent picks an offensive play, you only get seven seconds to pick one on defense. this was OK in the old version because you could view six plays at a time, but the 08 version only shows you four. It takes time to scroll to the play you want, so sometimes you don't get to the right play in time. As a result, I only played three or four different plays on defense. I think my mistake was playing online before playing a few more games in my dynasty. the AI in the game is easier to beat than an actual person. I would also have a chance to learn more plays. I also need to set up audibles. I used a few back in the day, but I think they will really be beneficial in the new game. My other beef is that it is about ten times easier to throw an interception. The second game I played, I threw easily six interceptions. Pissed me off. Two went back for TD's and I lost the game by 3. I caught 3 or 4 myself, so it's not just that I suck on offense. Ohio State is more average than last year. I never played against them then someone played them online and I never played as them online because of their insane speed on offense and defense. It was unfair and even no talent people could win with OSU in the 07 version. Now, the game has them ranked #12 and they are more average. No Troy, Teddy, or Gonzo. The running game is still pretty good and their linebackers are good too, but the QB and receivers are average. Another thing that suprised me about this game was that, when I started my dynasty, I played a school that I never heard of. In the 07 version, you played the actual 07 season of your team. If that were the case here, I should have played Youngstown State. I have no idea who I played in my first dynasty game on 08. UNW FC or some crazy acronym like that. I clobbered them 52-0.

All in all, I think I will enjoy NCAA 07 Football. I really need to take the time to master the more subtle skills if I am going to be competative online. Otherwise, I will get my ass kicked all over the place.

I need to start writing stuff down.

I can't believe it. At age 32 (I had to do the math real quick) my memory has turned to shit. It's my mom's fault. Genetically, at least. My grandma had altzeimers real bad and my mom fears she will be the same way. I will probably be right there in years to come. Why do I think this? I come up with ideas and think of things that I need to do, but if I don't write them down, these ideas and plans are forgotten quicker than water through a strainer. I usually don't post Tuesday and Wednesday because I don't usually come down to my office. I think of things to post some times, but if I don't write the ideas down or post right away, I usually forget what I am posting. Anyway, I had a senior moment a few minutes ago when I forgot I was going to post about Doctor Who and Eureka.

THANK GOD FOR SCI FI IN THE SUMMER

Otherwise my summer viewing schedule would suck. Doctor Who and Eureka are two good shows that supliment my summer viewing. David Tennant is starting to grow on me as the Doctor. I really liked the second episode when the hospital he was in was transported to the moon. He absorbed some radiation and then shook it down into his shoe in front of his new friend. He took his shoe off, she said he was mental, and he agreed because wearing only one shoe looked silly. It translates poorly on a post, but was funny in the episode.

Eureka is about a top secret, hidden, town of geniuses that invent new wave high tech stuff that often malfunctions. The sherriff, a US Martial who stumbled into Eureka, kind of stumbles into solutions for the malfunctions. It is a pretty good show with neat ideas.

As a side note, the commercials I am seeing for BSG are a little troubling. Admiral Cane was in one. I hope they are not jumping back to before she was offed. Maybe they are going to go in depth about the Pegasus' crew and their route after the Cylon attack. I hope not. It would piss me off if they would drop the "these guys are all cylons" bomb on us and then avoid that whole story line next season.

First picture used from my Flickr page

I got a suprise the other day when someone asked me to use one of the pictures I posted on my Flickr page for another internet site. It is a pretty cool picture. It's a full sized Volvo made of Legos. I guess I am more of a photoprapher than I thought. Anyway, here's the link to the story. Does this mean I should expect a royalties check?

I'm not Rinnert

If you check out Rinnert's site, you can see some pretty cool pictures. One of these days I need to look through all of them. Anyway, since I own a camera, I figure I should use it right? The problem is that I own a crappy digital camera and the zoom sucks. Actually, I have two cameras. One is a DVD camera and also takes stills and the other is a normal digital camera. Well, the two pictures here are with my non-DVD camera. I like it because it is small and easy to use. The problem is, when you zoom, you can't move at all or the picture blurs. These pictures are the best that I tried to take of these two butterflies in my back yard. The white one had blue on the inside of it's wings, but it wouldn't hold still with it's wings open. It was about the size of a dime, so I had to get really close. You can see from my Flickr page that some of my pictures aren't too great. Probably because of the fact that I don't really know how to use the camera correctly. If the light settings are off, there can be a lot of glare. The beach pictures are the most obvious example of this.

California Trip

Day one: Thursday, we packed the kids up and went to Columbus International Airport for a 10:40 flight to LAX. Oh, first we had a quick lay over at Cincinnati Airport. It was pretty quick though. We got off and right back on to another plane. We landed in LA, got our baggage, picked up our rental car, and then stopped by Jessica' s aunts (Becky) for dinner. We hung out there for a while (pretty late, I guess if you consider we were on Ohio time) and eventually got to our hotel in Palmdale around 11:00 (2:00 Ohio time). I ran to Walmart real quick for a few things, and went to sleep.

Day two: Friday we went to Jessica's cousin Christy's house. Her grandma and other aunt came over too. We ordered Pizza and eventually went home. Christy and Jessica's grandma are pretty religious. I guess Jess' grandma hasn't spoken to her Aunt Becky for years because of their different views on faith. Also, her grandma has avoided all contact with her dad since he came out of the closet. Anyway, it was about 110 degrees out, so I stayed in the AC on the couch.

Day three: We left hotel #1 and went to the beach and then checked into hotel #2 for a night. The beaches were nice. It amazed me the temperature differences from Palmdale (about 100 everyday), to the LA (about ten degrees cooler), and the beach (low 80's). Noah had fun in the waves and Gabriel and Alydia got their feet wet, but were too timid to go in too deep. At hotel #2, the kids all enjoyed the pool. It was a little cool in the water, but we all had a blast. I think we may get a pool next summer. We definately need to get the kids swimming lessons.

Day four: We left hotel #2 and went to Legoland. It was pretty fun. There were all sorts of cool things made by Legos. There are lots of pictures on my Flickr page. Gabriel said that he liked Legoland the best. He had a lot of fun on the rides and checking out Legos. Back to hotel #1 again.

Days Five and Six: We basically chilled out at the hotel and at Christy's again. We swam alot in the pool and went to see Jessica's grandma again. A funny red neck side note: Jessica and her cousin are both on her Grandma Burkert's side. The other grandma is Jessica's dad's mother. Cousin Christy's mom died a long time ago and Grandma Walters divorced and remarried........Christy's dad (Jessica's uncle). So, Jessica's grandma is her aunt and her uncle is her step-grandfather. "You know you're a red neck when....."

Day seven: We left hotel #1 again and went to hotel #3 and Disneyland. It was really weird. The streets and walkways in Disney were packed with wall-to-wall people. Images of standing in line for hours or sitting with Alydia for hours while Jess took the big kids on rides flooded my brain. However, the longest wait that we had for any ride was 45 minutes (Jess took the boys on Space Mountain while I played Galaga and watched Ally). Everything else was 30 minutes or less. If there was a line that looked long, there would be another ride next door that would have no line. The only thing we wanted to go on but didn't was the Finding Nemo submarine ride. We couldn't even find the end of the line for that. One cheesey thing was the Pirates of the Carribean ride. It was just the Pirate Ride, but with "Where's Capitan Jack Sparrow?" dialogue added in. At the end, there was a Johnny Depp animatronic puppet sitting on a pile of gold singing a pirate song. Cheesey. (I had been on the Pirate Ride back in the day)

Last day: Did I mention Hotel #3 was a dive with black mold in the bathroom? Luckily we were only there for one night and only to sleep. Next time (if we go back to Disney) I told Jessica that we can spring for a Disney Resort hotel so that it will be clean. It was nasty. Anyway, we went back to Disneyland and also to Disney California Adventure, which is more of a 'big kid' ride. I got stuck with the little ones while Jessica and Noah went on a roller coaster. We went on a carosel and had some ice cream. I got my turn to go on a 'big kid' ride when we went on the Tower of Terror. It's a left and drop kind of ride. Gabe didn't like it too much since it literally lifted you out of you seat when you fell. The ferris wheel was interesting. most of the cars were on tracks so that you would go up and down and swing back and forth as the wheel revolved. We left the park around 7:00 (after the parade) and made it to the ariport with plenty of time to check and grab some dinner before the flight at 10:40. We arrived back at Columbus at 5:50 am. (remember the time difference) It was a pretty miserable flight since Alydia was having trouble sleeping and there was some turbulance. Still, we made it home in one piece. I am going to add beach pictures to my Flickr site soon.

I lied

I know I said that I would post more about our trip to California, but I have a few other items I feel I need to address first:

First, a few trip tid-bits that I should have added to yesterday's post: 1. there are more Spanish TV channels in LA then English speaking channels. 2. Denny's is a heart attack waiting to happen. We don't have Denny's in Columbus (that I know of) so when we went to one in CA, I was suprised a the about of meats on each breakfast. Each egg dish came with bacon AND sausage as a side. There were other dishes that included extra bacon and sausage, plus even more that had ham and smoked sausage added to the meat mix. The craziest, heart-stopping meal was the 'caver omelet' which was stuffer with ham, sausage, and bacon, then topped with cheese sause, and served with a side of bacon and sausage. I needed a triple bypass just looking at the picture.

Xbox news: To NCAA 08 or not to? NCAA Football 08 is coming out this week. Do I want to buy it? I sort of do because all of the online gamers will be upgrading and I will need to as well if I want to play any online football games. Still, I have a few other games I need to attend to first and may not have the time to give the game the attention needed for me to be competative online. I'll probably cave and get it.

I beat Dead Rising last night. Well, sort of. I should say that I completed the game. I killed the last 'boss' the butcher, but the these army commandos came in and kicked my ass, tied me up, and I missed the deadline to escape with the truth. The game saved and I now haev to start over. I will probably keep playing so that I can kill more bad guys and save more people. Plus, there area alot of achievements that I need to complete. Still I was frustrated that I got to the end of the game and then got my butt kicked in a heartbeat and catipulted back to the beginning of the game.

TRANSFORMERS: I took the boys to see Transformers this past Friday. I figured it was a good way to unwind and also give the girls some alone time. Plus, I really wanted to see it. It was pretty good. There were a few editing schemes I would have avoided (like the smattering of slow motion action segments here and there) but all in all, I thought it was pretty well done. The effects were neat, there was plenty of action, and a hot girl. What more do you need? I didn't like that the Autobots were all Chevys. Bumblebee is supposed to be a VW Beetle, not a Camaro. Still, other than that, I was pleased with some of the old school dialogue like, "One shallstand and one shall fall." Oh, and did I catch that Prime and Megatron are supposed to be brothers? Hmm. All in all, this is a movie that I will probably buy when the DVD comes out.

I still need to see Harry Potter. The new book is out this month too.

Flickr Pics

So, I added all of the interesting pictures from our trip to my Flickr page. I hope you like them. I will post more content tomorrow, but here are a few observations that I made about Cali:

1. in California, they say 'soda' not 'pop'.
2. in California, every highway is preceeded by saying 'the'. The 104. The 14. The 405. etc. In Ohio, we just say the route number: "Take 315." rather than "Take the 405."
3. driving in LA brought out a whole new aggressive driving style I never knew was in me. No one yields to merging traffic and keeping 'safe distance' from the car infront of you is open invitation to others to cut in front of you.
4. LAX is a pain in the ass compaired to Columbus Internation Airport
5. 'Dry heat' is bull shit. Hot is hot.
6. LA has TONS more fast food options. They have the McDonalds, BK, and Wendy's options, like in Ohio, but also, Jack in the Box, Popeyes, Weinerschnitzel, an In'N'Out Burger. Funny since California is supposed to be a 'healthy' state co0mpaired to Ohio.
7. POP (remember, they say 'soda') is way over priced in CA. Here in Columbus, I can get a 12 pack of pop for $3.99, sometimes 4 for $10 if they are on sale, but in California, it was $5.50 for a 12 pack.

A few interesting things we saw:

1. Barbed wire on the bottoms of interstate signs to prevent grafitti
2. A highway sign indicating illegal immigrant crossings on the highway (like a deer crossing sign in Ohio)
3. A brush fire
4. Mountains
5. 110 degree temperature. It was a 'dry heat' though.
6. I saw a child on a leash. I thought of Woody, took a picture, but it was kinda far away, so it looked like I was taking a picture of the mom's ass. It was a nice ass at least, but I deleted the picture.
7. A lotof people swim in shirts. I do it to spare the world from the sight of my grossness, but there were alot of kids in shirts swimming too. Probably because of the intense sunlight.
8. Smog is gross. On a perfectly sunny day, thereis a gray haze over LA.
9. There weren't as many women with obviously fake boobies as I thought I would see. A few, yes, but my guess is that the local women that would (steriotypically) have the fakies probably don't hang out at Disney or Lego Land.

More Tomorrow.

I'm Baaaaack

We arrived in Columbus at 5:50 am this morning. The flight was pretty miserable withAlydia not wanting to sleep. It wasn't too bad though. All in all the trip was pretty good. Some low points, but mostly a good time. I will go into details as the week goes on, including pictures and commentary about Lego Land, Disneyland, California Adventures, the beach, and other general happenings. I am pretty beat today, so the plan is to relax and recover from vacation. I think I will take the boys to see Transformers today and Jess and I might go see Harry Potter tomorrow. So, I should be chalk full posts in the next coming days. Also, be sure to check my Flickr site for pictures. I had to go through and delete some pictures from the memory card (like blury pics and similar pics) because I took so many (over 200). So, more later.

Last Post For Awhile

Well, we are leaving for California on Thursday. I don't own a laptop and am not sure if I will have any computer access, so this is going to be the last post for a while. We get back on the 13th at the butt crack of dawn (like 6:00 am). We should all be pretty wiped out, since we will have a week chalk full of activities. Lego Land, Disney, the beach, and family gatherings... should be fun. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures to share. Now, I'm not going to be as organized as Mona was with her European escapade, but we do have a list of things to pack and times that we need to be places. I'm going to be taking my IPod as my main source of entertainment in our down time. I have all of the last season of Lost to watch. I'm also going to take an old Game Boy with Tetris. I love that game. We also have a portable DVD player for the kids to watch in the car and on the plane. I feel a little nervous taking all this high dollar stuff on a trip out of state. If forget something in Cali, it will be harder to retrieve than if I forgot something at my parent's house a few hours away. I just hope that I will be able to survive a week without my Xbox and computer. I do like my high tech toys. I'll be off for the next two days, so hopefully I will be able to get in a good zombie killin' fix. I don't know how I'm going to go back to work after being off for 12 days. It is going to be tough dragging myself out of bed. Well, I guess I will be back online in a few weeks. Be sure to check back for trip updates and pictures.

Garden Before and After and Pansy Final

Not much to post today, so I thought I would post a few pictures. I took a picture of my garden a while back and another one today. You can see that most of the plants have gone crazy. There is also a picture of that pansy I was posting about from time to time. Lame, I know, but I have lots of time on my hands. The last picture is of a cucumber and yellow squash out of the garden. I am looking forward to eating them. We picked enough green beans of a meal too. YUM! I just hope that the tomatoes start turning red soon. They are the whole reason that I grown veggies. Home grown tomatoes are the best.

Knocked Up is funny. If it doesn't happen to you.

Jessica and I went to see Knocked Up. It's a movie about an unemployed stoner getting lucky with a E! online talent and getting her knocked up. It was a really funny movie, with bits of immature humor for the guys and bits of "chick flick" for the girls. It was a pretty good movie. The E! talent was Katherine Heigl , who is on my list. She looked really hot in this movie, even with the preggers-belly prosthetic. Personally, I think pregnant women are sexy. Maybe cute would be a better term. Anyway, they show Katherine in several revealing outfits and she is in several, non-nude sex scenes. These were probably some of the funniest scenes. Anyway, my attraction to the lead aside, Knocked Up really was pretty funny. Two people from different worlds (stoner vs E! on screen talent) get drunk at a bar, hook up, and she gets pregnant. It ends up being a one night stand until she discovers she is preggers. You can imagine their respective reactions. There are a lot of jokes based on all of the pregnant/birthing steriotypes and experiences as I'm sure you can imagine. I won't give anything away, because this was a pretty good film and worth the watch. It is a bit painful, in a way, if you ever went through this situation. Some of you may know that it happened to me. Luckily, it worked out for me and the wife in the end, but hearing 'I'm pregnant' when you aren't expecting it is a helluva shock. Honestly, it makes the movie a bit funnier to me since I lived through the situation. Sure, it was different for me (It wasn't a one night stand, I knocked up my girlfriend.), but some of the jokes play on the reactions that you have when a child is, unexpectedly, thrust into your life. Still, as mentioned, this flick is worth the watch.

It is Still a Vacation if It's Going To Be a Pain in the Ass?

We're leaving for California next Thursday. I was started to look forward to getting away from the daily routine for a while and relaxing a bit. Now, I am starting to rethink that. Initially, we were going to go to a wedding, but it was cancelled. I was happy about this, since I don't really like huge family engagements. Especially when I don't know any of the family members (it was Jessica's cousin getting married). We also planned on a trip to Disney, the beach and a pace called Lego Land. Jessica got the hotel rooms booked and plane tickets paid for, and I was starting to look forward to a fun week. We are going to stay most of the time in the city that another one of Jessica's cousins lives in (not the one gettign married) and then go to the beach and Lego Land from there, and then go to a different hotel near Disney for one night, go to Disney, and then leave for the airport from there. This was the plan for months. Now, this is where I start getting irritated.

Last night Jessica is talking to her cousin who tells her the Lego Land is three hours away. She wants to dive there day one, stay the night, and then go to Lego Land the next day. Well that's some great f---ing information to get a week before we fly out. As I mentioned, we already have the rooms booked. See, this is why I don't like family obligations. I love my family because they are mostly rational and plan things out well in advance. They don't wait until the week before and then suggest plans. We have alot of money rolled up into this trip and to make changes now is going to cost us more money. Plus, now instead of me drivin from the airport to the place we are staying, then from then to Disney and from Disney back to the airport, I have to add six additional hours of drive time. YIKES! I am really not looking forward to all this driving in CA.

Want to know another reason why I hate family obligations? As you may or may not know, After Jessica's mom passed away, Jessica's brother moved down to Columbus in January to be closer to us and their dad. He didn't have a job yet, but moved down anyway. He ended up getting a job, but was let go after oversleeping the first week. Apparently, after that he couldn't find another job until last month. So, for those of you that don't like math, he was living here unemployed for five months. Since he had no money, guess who he asked to pay his rent? Yup. Jessica. So, instead of having money saved up for our vacation, I had to pay our mortgage by myself for several months and everything (hotels, Disney, car rental, food, you name it) is going to have to go on my credit cards. Needless to say, I am irritated by this since I was finally able to get my credit debt down from $10000 to $2000 this past year. I know. It was bad. Now, it is going to go right back up.

OK. I am done bitching now. I really am looking forward to our trip. I just need to look beyond all of the irritants and try to have fun with the wife and kids. I will besure to take tons of pics and will recap when we get home. I just hope that the hoops we will need to jump through will be worth the effort.

More Dead Rising (sorry)

I know that most of my readers don't care, but I feel the need to post more about Dead Rising. Honestly, there isn't much else for me to post about at the moment. It's been a 'same-old-same-old' kind of week. I played alot over my past two days off. It's freaking fun and freaking frustrating all at the same time. Oh, and a little gross.

First, the fun: I keep finding new weapons to use in my zombie killin'. I went to the gun store, put five clips of ammo into the owner, and have access to shot guns and sniper rifles. Also, just around the corner is a knife/sword shop. The katana is a kick ass weapon in close quarters. After killing a psycho clown, you get a small chain saw which is better than the big one. It's quicker and lasts longer. I think I have Frank up to level 21.

Frustrating: I touched on this before, but I am still having trouble with completing some of the quests presented to Frank. The problem is that it is hard to kill the main bad guys and still have enough ammo and weapons to get the survivors back to the security room. Currently, I have been trying to kill this fat ass female cop that is holding four women in a store. I can kill the cop, but have yet to even get the women back to the park. I can get about half way there, but not with all of the girls. I have to use all of the rounds in the sniper rifle and half of the shot gun ammo just to bring down the fat cop. Then, the zombie amount seems to double and I am dealing with these freaky green faced guys. Ican give a katana to one of the girls, but the others always seem to get killed or zombiefied no matter what I do. Some of the 'bosses' are just impossible. There is a huge marine gut in a hardware store that LOVES to kick my ass. I'm just avoiding him now. There is also a group of convicts in a jeep with a machine gun on it in tha park that enjoy killing me. I try to keep away from them too.

Finally, GROSS: If zombie killin' isn't enough to gross you out, there are some pretty nasty animations in Dead Rising. The previously mentioned psycho clown falls on two running chainsaws. Iew. Sometimes when survivors are turned into zombies, there are some other gross animations. One guy was taken down and had his balls bit off and one of the girls gers her guts ripped out threw her mouth. It was nasty.

I Totally Get It Now

I now understand your obsession with Dead Rising, Woody. For those of you that didn't notice the many posts about Dead rising on Woody's blog, Let's just say that there are several. No, I am not being compensated for putting, not one, but three links to Woody's blog. I'll sum up the posts for you: Woody likes to kill him some zombies. And so do I!! I had started Dead Rising a while back, just to see what it was like, but I didn't really sit down to play it seriously until this weekend. Fun with a capital F. There are a few things that bother me, but the good things about the game out weigh the bad. I guess I will go into what bothers me first:

1. There is no auto-save. Most games that I play save themselves automatically when you pass a check point or change areas on the map. Dead Rising doesn't have that function. You need to go to one of the save points (the bathrooms or the security room) if you want to save the game. Sounds easy enough, but when you are knee deep in zombies and enthralled by the killin' you tend to forget to save. This happened to me several times. I got so wrapped up, that I completely forgot to save, then I died, and had to start all over again.

2. The survivors that you are supposed to save and escort back to the security room are morons. You have the ability to call out to people, but they don't listen. You can run into them, knock them down, and yell at them, and still they ignore you. I try to save as many people as I can, but to be honest, I have not done too well.

3. Too much to do, not enough time. There is not enough time to save the survivors and complete the main quest of the game. I guess that you need to pick and choose what you do, but why would they give you so many quests if you couldn't complete them?

What I like about the game is that it is not your everyday FPS (first person shooter). Yes, you do get a gun, but I think that it is the least useful weapon against the hordes of zombies. You need to pick up other weapons through out the shopping mall. So far, my favorite killing toy has been the lawn mower, followed closely by the chain saw. What I don't understand is why all of the weapons eventually die out on you. I get the chainsaw running out of gas, or a wooden bench eventually breaking, but things like a lead pipe or a rock should last forever. How does a rock break? I guess it adds to the game, in that, you need to constantly find means to defend yourself.

There are a few aspects of the game I am having troubles with. You are supposed to take pictures of the zombies and the things that are happening. I forget to do this. I have gotten some good pictures, one worth over 5000 prestige points (it was Kent shooting a zombie in the head and the blood spray shooting back) but I get into the killin' and neglect the picture taking. Also, when the screen is loading, you see diagrams of different martial arts moves you can do. I have not yet figured out how to do any of them. I think I need to go back and read the instructions manual. Or, I need to ask Woody for some pointers.

Best Call and Worst Beat Ever. In the Same Hand

After winning my last tournament, I decided to play in a cash game last night. We started with four players and I started out pretty strong. I was making good calls and getting good cards, and was soon up $40. I was feeling pretty good as more and more players showed up. We maxed out at 12 players at the table. As the night went along, I was still playing well, but my hand quality was going down. I was hitting fewer big hands, so I started playing more defensively. I hit more big pots when I had the cards and around midnight, I was up to $240+/-.. No kidding. I was feeling GREAT about myself. I was playing really tight because some of the bets were getting out of control. I was playing with some guys with some serious cash and some of the bets were getting up to $70+ range. Now, I don't nomally do that. I can't afford it. Then is happened. Throughout the night, I noticed that Bennie (one of the players) was making big bets at odd times when he didn't hit his hand. It was only when there was already a lot of money in the pot. Basically, he was trying to buy pots. I noticed this on several occasions. Anyway, I was dealt 8-6 of spades. not a great hand, but this was one of the rare occasions that the opening bets were below $5, so I played them. Two spades came up on the flop, giving me four spades towards the flush (5 cards of all one suit). The turn card was another spade, so I had a flush. It was a low flush though. Remember that I only had 8-6 of spades. Two higher spades would beat me. Anyway, I bet big. Maybe $10 (big for me, but not for the table last night). Bennie goes all in, which turned out to be another $73. YIKES!!! Now, remember, I was plus $220 for the night, so I was thinking about this. I would still have alot of money if I called and lost. Remembering his tendancy to make a big bet with nothing, I called Bennie. AND I WAS RIGHT!!!! He had a jack of spades and a six of clubs. I was dominating him with only one card left to come up. The only thing that could beat me was if another spade came up, giving him a higher flush (jack high vs 8 high). there were literally seven cards that he could hit to win. Seven. Anyone want to guess what came up? A MOTHER F*#&ING SPADE!!!!! After that hand, I was crushed. I should have left with my $100+, but wanted to hang out more. I didn't win another hand for the rest of the night. I left with more money than I went with, but having $74 at the end of the night feels alot different than leaving with $300+. I guess I souldn't be too angry about it. I made a great call, but just got unlucky. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Can you see my Xbox?

I was at Sam's picking up some food for the kids (they tear through a box of chicken strips like you wouldn't believe) and on a whim I checked out the Xbox 360 stuff. They have a few games and carry systems and sometimes have some other supplies. Well, this time they had a prety neat 'cool down' kit. Basically, it was a set of fans that you plug in the back of you Xbox to decrease the over-heating issues suffered by the Xbox 360. Along with the fan, it came with four re-chargable batteries and charger, and the cammo face plate that you may or may not see in this picture. To be honest, I needed some help last night when I wanted to play. I couldn't find the damn thing! Maybe I should have gotten the kit that had the red face plate. I'm SO stupid!

On a serious note, here is the first flower on the pansy I have been tracking.

Pan's Labyrinth

One of the latest things I got through NetFlix was a movie called Pan's Labyrinth. I don't remembering hearing much about it when it came out into the theaters, only that I thought it looked interesting. I think it wan several awards. As you can read (if you follow the above link) it is a fairy tale for adults. The description on the NetFlix sleeve was a little bit off. It said something to the effect that it was about a little girl in WWII times needing to rely on her imagination to excape the ugliness of her life. If that is the case, it is a really sad film. It was really interesting to watch though. Basically, the girl's mother married a prick of a Spanish military capitan who is in charge of eliminating Spanish freedom fighters. This guy is a real asshole. I don't know how much I want to get into the details of the movie, because it really was quite interesting. It kind of reminded me of Lady in the Water. At least that kind of feel. Basically, you learn at the beginning of the movie that a child of the Underworld leaves (goes to Earth) and becomes lost and forgets what she is. Her father has portals opened to the world in hopes that she will be reborn and return to him. Sounds, weird, right? Anyway, she finds the portal in the Labyrinth and has to complete three tasks before she can open it and return home. If you don't like fantasy-type movies, skip this one. There are fairies, monsters, and a pan (up right walking goat lookin' thing). There is also some pretty brutal violence, so this is not a film for kids. I had to turn away once. Oh, and my biggest concern before watching the movie: it is in Spanish. So, if you hate reading sub-titles, skip this film. Overall, I really enjoyed watching this movie. It has a sad ending if you don't buy into the 'princess of the underworld' aspect but a happy ending if you do buy into it. It certainly isn't a movie for everyone, but I recommend it if you like Grimm Fairy tales. I'm not talking about the Disney fru-fru sugar coated versions with mice and birds makeing a dress for Cinderella. I mean the original versions where Cinderella's evil step mother had her eyes pecked out by birds at the end. I think I will probably watch it again. I give it 3 and a half start (out of 4).

Pansies

So, I posted about growing a pansy on June 1st. It;s not too exciting, really, but here is the pansy today. As you can see, it is about to flower. I have no idea why some pansies that I planted are this advanced, and others are barely the size of a quarter. They were all planted the same say in the same kind of dirt and get comperable sunlight and water. Of well. I also put up a few more nature-type pictues on my Flickr page. They are all from around my house. I like this picture of a rose.

Got that Poker Monkey off my Back

So, I finally won a card game that wasn't played on my Xbox. I hosted a game last night and was able to come out on top. I know that makes me a rude host, but I don't care. It was about time that the cards came my way. I hit two huge hands back to back and eliminated two played from the game. Two pair followed by a straight. I even hit a full house in a hand. The best hand of the night was a straight flush(someone else's). I think it was the first time I've ever seen that happen in real life. Anyway, I think I ended up taking out 5 of the 15 people playing. I was being brutal. I was getting good hands and making great reads. I think I playedone hand wrong, but was anble to recover to win. I could afford to take a chance with my huge chip lead. We played a second smaller game after that, which I lost, but I was playing with other people's money. It took forever though. The first game with 13 people took 3 hours and the second game with 7 people took 4. I wanted to kick eveyone out, but I try to be a good host.

Dinner and a Movie, Re-defined

I wanted to go see a movie Tuesday. I was hoping to catch Spiderman 3 at around 2:00, but it was not playing at the time. Instead, I took the kids (never gonna do that again) to see Pirates of the Carribean 3. Unbeknownst to me, I went to Hilliard's new hot spot, Movie Tavern. See, it used to be a regular run-of-the-mill movie theater, but it was converted. Now, when you go see a movie, you get to sit at a table and order food and drinks. This was good because, now I could get the kids some substantial food other than pop corn. Plus, they could stuff their mouths while watching and hopfully sit still the whole time (didn't work). The food was pretty good, but pretty pricy. Remember how they screw you at the concession stands? $4 for a pop and $5 for a large pop corn? Imagine a plate of nachos or a chicken basket. Oh, and the drinks are still $4. I will never take the kids to this place again. The food is too expensive for kids that only eat half of it. Also, there were spinning chairs (like desk chairs) that the little kids were spinning in non stop. It is definately a place that I would go to with Jessica. Perfect for a speed date, and for those of us with kids, speed is good.

As for the movie, it was OK. I was a big fan of the first film. It was fun, exciting, and totally entertaining. The second, was OK. They moved away from the action a little bit and added a bit more plot. This final installment of POTC was a little disappointing. A lot of dry plot, a surreal sceen of the afterlife, and even less action. Good guys are now bad guys, bad guys are good, and a whole bunch of new and different characters were introduced. It was not the best of the three films. It's was almost like they just wanted to wrap up the story. I may have missed alot, since I had to chase the little kids all over the place.

It's almost over

So, my choice was to play Halo 3 as much as possible this weekend. I think that today is the last day that it is available. I wish it were going to be available for longer. I played several matches this weekend. It looks like most of the same games from the old Halo multi-player matches are available on H3. I played a team slayer match on a HUGE map, getting my ass beaten. I played individual slayer matches (I did pretty well in these), odd ball (keep away), king of the hill, and two other slayer variations: rockets (everyone has a rocket launcher and unlimited ammo) and 'snipes and shottys' (everyone gets a shot gun and sniper rifle). I did the best in a snipes and shotty game, taking first place once. My basic strategy is to try to sneak up on people trying to snipe and then shot gun them in the back. There are some cool new weapons in the game too. A Spartan Laser, which is a HUGE laser rifle that will take out anything it hits. The draw backs are that it is slow as hell and you only get 5 shots. There was also a chain gun or something, which shot explosive shells and was slow like the laser. Still, there are a lot of fun additions to the game. I hope I can play a little bit more before it is off Xbox Live. I am DEFINATELY going to buy H3 when it is released. The only online drawback is that there isn't anything that will separate the good players from the no-so-good players. I was in a few games with killing machines. I am OK, but was getting beat down a lot by these people. Hopfully I will be able to meet a group of people that are on my same level when the game comes out and we can have private games.

I'm done (sorta)

So, I finished the quests in Crack Down on Tuesday. Really, I was a little disapointed. I had a great time with this game, you get to kill gangstas and complete quests, with you ultimate goal to clean up the streets of a violent city. Yo are a super-cop with super strength and healing abilities. You also get to look for hidden orbs and agility orbs that give you more strength and abilities. Plus, there are races that you can compete in to give you more experience points. When I say I am done, I mean that I have killed all of the bad guys. I still need to find a bunch of hidden orbs and agility orbs. There area bunch of races I haven't done either. I'm just not sure if I want to committ the time though. What's in it for me? I guess there is bragging rights, like Woody has for Dead Rising and another person I found through Woody, Lefty Brown, has found all but one of the Hidden orbs in Crack Down. I guess that there are more weapons to find too, but is there a point? Wil they be better than my favorite machine gun/rocket launcher combo? I guess I can move on to the next level and play again, but I have Dead Rising, Rainbox 6 LV, and Oblivion to play. Not to mention my online poker addiction. I suppose that I could complete Dead Rising and then revisit Crack Down.....

So, I have also been playing the Halo 3 Beta. The one thing that I have noticed (and my number one pet peeve about first persone shooters) is that I am getting my ass kicked because when I try to reload I am hitting the reload button for Crack Down (that's not the right button for Halo). Plus, I am getting my ass kicked because I basically suck in the rumble pits. AI opponents are easier to kill than real people. I started playing the old Halo story line to see if I could get my reaction times back up and get used to the controls again, but it hasn't helped much. My guess is that I will get into it more and be more successful online after H3 is out and I have gone through the quest. I will get used to the new equipment (bubble shield and portable lifts) and weapons. I heard somewhere that the release date was pushed up to September, but I doubt it.

Rain, Rain...Keep coming!

I know, I know. I sound like a farmer. I guess I am in a way. A gardener at least. 12x24 garden and I like planting flowers and stuff around the house. I finally got everything into my garden a while ago and have been fighting a several week long dry spell. I don't mind watering, but it gets expensive after a while. The weather people kept saying that it was going to rain for the longest time, but it didn't until yesterday. We got some much needed H2O. I know that this isn't much of an exciting topic of conversation, but am running dry too. I have had to work all weekend, so I'm a little drained mentally. Anyway, The rain was good for my garden. I'm sure that the plants don't get enough water when I use the hose. Mother Nature does a much better job. Anyway, here is a picture of my garden. The tall plants on the left are all tomatoes. They have grown about a foot since my dad and I planted them on the 20th last month. I LOVE home grown tomatoes. The ones you buy at the store are crap. If/when we have our cookout, hopfully we will have plenty of home grown vegies for you all.

I also am posting the pansy after about four weeks of growth. They are going a little slowly due to the lack of rain, but they have really sprung up lately. Probably doubled in size. I expect some flowers to pop out in a couple more weeks.

I Can't Believe I Almost Missed It!!!

Who said that there was no point to reading Woody's blog? I may have been me, but if that is the case I TOTALLY take it back. On a whim, I followed one of his links to Lefty Brown's blog. BOY am I glad I did! I figured that there may be some interesting Xbox content since he taught Woody how to create his own 'Achievement Unlocked' notices (see Woody's post today). I scrolled down a bit and Lefty's 05/31/2007 posting and saw that the Halo 3 Beta test was up and running. Not only that, but there is only a limited time left for me to play. WHAT!?!?!? Are you kidding me?? The entire reason for my buring Crack Down was to play the Halo 3 beta test. Now, my window of opportunity is down to 8 or 9 days!!!! I just down loaded the demo and played for about thirty minutes I had time for two fre-for-all games. The forst one, I got my ass kicked. Not just a little. Totally. I'm talking zero kills by EZE2112. The second game I did better scoring five kills. Seeing as how I have never played Halo 3 before, I think that is OK. I'm sure that some of the guys I was playing had already played several hours already and knew all of the nooks and crannies of each map. I played really well. The graphics were great. My only complaint about any of these games (I mean first person shooters) is that they all have different controller set ups. Right now I am used to Crack Down controls, which are majorly different from Halo controls. I tried to throw a grenade and hit the whong button (it was the right one for Crack Down though). But MAN did it feel great to play Halo again. Even if I was getting my ass kicked. I was planning on starting Dead Rising after finishing Crack Down, but I may need to go back and revisit Halo and Halo 2 just to that I can get geared up for Halo 3. Or at least until my controls get figured out again. Just another reason for loving myself for signing up for Xbox Live. FUN SHIT!!!

Poker Problems

So, lately I have been getting my ass kicked in poker. I'm not really sure why. I guess it's been really bad luck. I played last night and started off OK. There were several hands that I was one card away from a killer hand, but kept missing. I guess I need to stop chasing hands like that. The thing is, if I hit one of those hands, it would be killer. The hand I went out on last night, I had a flush draw, a straight draw, and a striaght flush draw. Basically, I needed one of 13 cards. Missed them all. I had a few hands like that. It is very frustrating. Then, it seemed like everyone in the game would hit their hands against me. I guess it's just terrible luck. I guess I should say that when I play on my Xbox, my luck is pretty good. I've won several games, and my online ranking is pretty good. Of course, I'd rather win money. I guess I should quit crying. I know my luck will turn around. I just wish it were sooner than later.

The Life of a Pansy

No, this is not a posting of my day to day life. Nor is it a post about any of my friends. I just thought that this would be an interesting posting idea. I plan on taking a picture of a pansy (plant) every once in a while and we can watch it grow. OK. Maybe I am a bit of a pansy too. I can't think of anything else to post at the moment.

I started these at the beginning of April and this picture was taken a few weeks ago.

I get why 'Enterprise' tanked

I have always liked Star Trek. I am not some crazy Klingon costume wearing freak that still lives in my parents' basement, but I enjoy all of the shows based on origional series. I like the old shows, even though the acting is kinda bad and the effects worse. I really liked TNG and the Star Trek galaxy really hit it's stride with Voyager and DS-9. The latest (last?) installment of the Star Trek saga was Enterprise. I really like the direction they initially took with this show, taking us back to the infancy days of Star Fleet and the first deep space exploration mission. Of course, the ship is called Enterprise. The first chink in the armor is that Scott Bakula was the captain. I really liked him in Quantum Leap, but would have rathered a no-name to fill the role. I feel that there are only a few actors that can play multi-characters on different shows. (I still don't get why Mal sold Serenity and is now in a road race on Old Earth.) Anyway, The best part of the cast was Jolene Blalock (HOTT!!). They seemed to play up her hottness by putting her in a tight-tight outfit and then creating scenarios to get her out of the outfit.

To the point, Enterprise never seemed to get the fan base that the other series created. I started watching when the show aired, but kinda lost interest. I think that something else was on at the same time and this was before the days of me having DVR. I started watching the show on Sci-Fi. They have been airing re-runs on Mondays and I have been recording them. It is certainly entertaining, but there are some flaws:

First, they are portraying Enterprise as a ship that isn't really ready for deep soace exploration. The ship and engines are solid, but the scanners, shields and weapons are far behind those of the hostiles they start running into. And yet, they keep getting out of scrape after scrape. Even if they are outnumbered and their enemy could wipe them out with one more shot, they survive.

Next, they focus on time travel too much. I think this bugged me because all of the Trek shows farther into the future never really focused on time travel too much. Yet Enterprise threw in a time travel episode almost every week, encluding an episode where the whole crew (and the ship) go back in time to WW II.

Third, the writers totally recycled stories. There is a series of episodes where Archer becomes possessed by a Vulcan spirit and discovers an artifact that will unite the Vulcan people again, much like when Worf found the sword of Kayless and untied the Klingons. And the possession is definately similar to Cysco becoming the B'Joran Emmisary.

Finally, the thing that bugs me the most is that the writers of Enterprise paint the Vulcans as shady, skeemers that are sometimes more emotional than the humans are. Vulcans are supposed to be all logical. I guess the current episodes that aired this week have to do with a group of Vulcans that are trying to change the government into a more pacifistic body. Whatever. To make a long story short, I think that they have just miked the Star Trek cash cow for all it's worth. There may be another movie here and there, but I dought that there will be any future TV series.

Updates

So, nothing really new going on lately. Today is Alydia's birthday. She is officially two. She is SOOO cute. I can hardly take how cute she is sometimes. I'll add more pictures of her brithday party to my Flickr page soon.

I think I am going to take a long break from cash poker games. I have been on a bad streak lately. I may play in a tournament here and there, but I am done for cash games. I will also be able to get my poker fix when I play on my Xbox. It's not the same as playing in real life, but still pretty fun. I found out last night that you can play for achievement chips on Xbox Live. It's not money, but it adds a bit of a risk factor to the game. Plus, you usually get more serious players that way.

Speaking of the Xbox, I unwrapped Dead Rising for the first time earlier this week. I didn't play much, but I TOTALLY get why Woody is into it so much. You are a photo journalist that get stuck in a zombie-filled town. I found it very funnd that therre was a disclaimer on the package stating that the game was not based on George Romero's movie Dawn of the Dead. Sure, it isn't (sense the sarcasm). Stuck in a mall surrounded by zombies? Anyone ever see the movie. Since Woody used to be in journalism, and he likes Amry of Darkness-type movies (the character looks like Bruce Campbell), I totally see why he likes this game. I think I am probably going to finish Crack Down before I really get into Dead Rising.

My garden is pretty much taken care of now. I have tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, herbs and green beans in so far. I still need to put in zuccini and lettuce. I want to get a few more plants for the yard. A butterfly bush and rose bush that I had died and I want to replace them. Here are some pictures of different pretty flowers that I have blooming at the moment.

Happy Almost Birthday Alydia!

We had a party for Alydia's second birthday yesterday. It wasn't all that exciting, just some family and friends. Alydia seemed to have fun though. She was happy with all the attention and pleased with her gifts. Her favorite was a little stroller for her babies. She's been pushing it around almost non stop. She also got some cute outfits and a few other toys. It seems harder to buy stuff for girls. Boys seem to have all sorts of cool toys to buy, but with girls it's just dolls and doll excessories. I think I may go buy her a 'boy' toy to expand her playing perameters.

I Hate This Time of Year

'Tis the season for all of the good TV shows to wrap up their seasons. I should put wrap up in quotes because these days, TV seasons end in cliff hangers and leave you with more questions than answers. I have already complained about BSG and the major cliff hangers and shockers of the season finale. Last night was the Greys Anatomy season finale. There were some suprises and twists and turns. It was an hour and fifteen minutes long, which is another reason why DVR is GREAT. It looks like there are going to be some changes. My guess is that the red head(Dr Montgomery) is going to be leaving. There was an episode a while back where she went to a clinic in LA where a bunch of her friends worked. There were too namy big actors in the clinic for it to be a one time deal. And last night she had a conversation about how she wasn't happy. It also seems like George may be taking a smaller roll (he is the gay actor that Isaiah Washington called queer or a fag or something ignorant). I like the show, but I won't cry over some changes. As long as Katherine Heigl is still on the show, I don't care. She's HOT.

Desparate Housewives is coming to a close too. One character is getting married, another has cancer, and is returning after her 'honeymoon' (she was preggers in real life and took a break from the show. ) So is Lost, ER, and most of the other big shows that I am into. As the good shows come to a close, it will be time for the reality TV shows to flood into the prime time TV slots. All in all they are mostly trash, but there are a few that I kinda like.

Hell's Kitchen is pretty good. If you haven't watched it, there are wannabe chefs that go on the show to learn and be abused by Gordon Ramsey, a pretty popular chef. They vie for a chance to win a restaurant to make their own. They have to go through competitions and also serve customers in Hell's Kitchen and each night one is eliminated. Really, it is one of the only reality shows I can stomach. Probably because it doesn't envolve pretty people trying to get laid. Oh, I usually get several seasons of shows on DVD to watch when there is so much garbage on TV.

So, what do you do when good tV is gone for the summer?

I'm SUCH a follower

I usually don't follow the pack when it comes to buying things. I like to form my own opinions and make my own choices. Sure, there are sometimes that I follow the masses, but only after being stubborn for a very long time. For example, I never watched Lost until this past winter. Honestly, the concept looked silly to me. People surviving a plane crash on an island? Wasn't that a Tom Hanks and Wilson movie? Well, after running out of things to watch through NetFlix, I caved and am now hooked to the TV show that America loves to get frustrated by. Everytime you think you figure something out, something happens that throws you for a loop. An invisible leader named Jacob? Come on!! well, I guess it can't be any weirder than the black smoke moster. Anyway, what I'm getting at is, OK, maybe I AM a follower. I just take my time and follow at my own pace.

My stubbornness only goes so far however. Actually, it usually lasts until I find a good deal at Best Buy. Like I mentioned before, I found seasons 1 and 2 of Lost for $20 a pop! Oh, and I also bought Firefly when I saw it for $20 at Target. That's another post though. This past week, I followed Woody. I know, I know....pretty stupid, right? What I mean is, I went out and bought Dead Rising for my Xbox 360. With as much as he posts about the game, it must be good, right? Well, let me tell you......I have no idea yet. I just bought the game Tuesday and haven't had the chance to kill me some zombies. I've been too busy slaughtering gang members and innocent by-standers in CrackDown. I had considered getting Dead Rising before Crackdown, but was drawn in by the Halo 3 demo, which still isn't out by the way. As you can see by my Xbox Blog, WSOP: TOC and NCAA Football 07 are still my top two, but that is only because I don't like playing games rated M in from of the kiddies. The Xbox blog really cracks me up sometimes. Like how is posted that my Xbox was 'dumbing down the AI' so that I would be encouraged to play more. The 5/16/07 post is funny too because I stopped because my link to Xbox Live kept going down on me. It's hard to play poker online when you can't get online. So, I guess it really did make me stop.

Back to the point, I am following again. However, the following only occured because DeadRising went from $59.99 to $39.99. I am SUCH a whore for a good deal!

A Few Updates

1. I found a few wrinkles in watching TV shows through NetFlix. First, not all of the episodes are included. I started watching a new TV series I wanted to try and realized that I was missing an episode here and there. I don't know why it would be like that. I guess they want you to go ahead and rent the DVDs. Second, you don't get to watch unlimited DVDs online. I tried to watch an old Dr. Who episode and got a message that my online rentals had reached their limit until the next billing date. I guess I will just need to pace myself.

2. The TV show I mentioned above is called Dead Like Me. It's actually pretty funny. It's about an 18 year old girl that is killed when a toilet seat from a space station hits her. She gets recruited as a Grip Reaper and starts collecting souls with several other Reapers. It's funny because the Reapers are all pretty odd and depraved. One is a drunk theif, the other is a whorey ex-actress, and another is an angry meter maid. They work for the division of Reapers that take care of weird accidental deaths (like a butterfly effect type thing. Someone slips on a banana, knocks over a chair, causing someone else to trip and fall on a knife, for example). There are other divisions, like reapers that take care of animals, old age, etc. All in all it is a very entertaining show. Pretty funny. I may need to get the DVDs just so that I can catch all of the episodes I missed. Plus, I think Jessica will like it.

3. Alydia is almost two! Her birthday is the 25th, but we are having a gathering this Saturday. Nothing big, just a few friends and family. I can't believe that she is going to be two already. She realyl is such a sweet little girl. Sure, she has her moments, but not nearly as bad as Gabriel was when he was the 'terrible twos'. Maybe she is just waiting until she reaches two exactly until she adds the 'terrible' to her temper.

4. Jessica and I had a night out on Friday. We went with my friend Barb and her husband to get some Mexican and then bowling. We drank much and had a really good time. We don't get to go out nearly as much as I would like. We had issues with out sitter though. She never showed up, so Jessica called her brother and he came over to watch the kids. I guess our sitter fell alseep or something. Her mom called us to let us know that it would " NEVER happen again." It had better not. As far as I'm concerned, she is getting moved to the bottom of our lists of sitters. Not that we have many options, but I would rather try someone else that may be more reliable.

Crackdown, revisited

I mentioned a while back that I bought Crackdown for my Xbox 360. I don't remember when I posted about it, but my opinion was low at first. I found it hard to get into the game because the controls were akward and I was having trouble getting into the story. Well, I cracked it open again (no pun intended) and I think I need to revise my opinion. I finally decided that I was tired of getting my ass kicked in NCAA 07 football and I am getting tired of poker (more like losing in Poker in real life, but that's another post) and to be honest, I just wanted to shoot some stuff. What makes Crackdown is that there is more to it than just shooting. It's like a combination between a shooter and an adventure game (like Fable). Yes, you go around shooting crooks, but you can also develop you character by going through car races, foot races, and by finding these orb things that give you points towards your next level up. There are agility orns that make you jump super high, which is fun. Also, depending on how you kill the crooks, your character develops differently. If you run them over, you get points towards driving skills. If you shoot them, you get points towards you weapons skills. If you beat them or throw somthing at them, you get strenght points. It's a neat twist to the shooting game. So far, the hardest thing for me to do in the game is drive. The cars are pretty fact and hard to handle. Plus, the pedestrians are all over the place and it is really easy to run them over (which is frowned upon). The best part about the game is that I will get access to the Halo 3 beta test (if/when it comes out). Still, in the mean time Crackdown is a pretty game. I am enjoying it.

Make sure to take you biniculars to the strip club

I'm not sure if anyone is aware, but there is a bill that may be passed in Ohio that will basically destroy the 'gentlemen's club' industry. Now, before I go further, yes, I have been to a strip club. My guess is that a large percentage of straight men and some women have gone to a strip club at least once in their life. The reasons vary, I'm sure, but people go. In my opinion, it's not a big deal to go to a strip club. You get to look at and flirt with pretty girls in an environment that is controlled. Now, the law that may be passed will put a six foot restriction on the girls and the clubs will need to close by midnight. So basically, it will be like going to a zoo and looking at the lions. It will basically end the entire reason why guys go to strip clubs: no more getting close to and having conversations with hot women. Sure, you could go to a bar and have a conversation with a hot girl, but the expectations are different:

At the strip clubs, you go, have a drink, maybe buy a girl a drink, enjoy her company, and then you go home.

At the bar, you go, have a drink, maybe buy a girl a drink, enjoy her company, and then explain to her that you are married and just wanted to do some fun flirting. Then she throws the rest of her drink in you face, it burns your eyes, you wipe your eyes off leaving your crotch exposed, she hits you in the crotch, and you need to go home to explain to your wife why you are wet, your eyes are red, and your balls are throbbing. I've seen it a thousand times.

Ok, I get why some people are against strip clubs, but the bottom line is, if the restrictions are put into place, the strip club industry will go under, thousands of girls will be put out of work, and prostitution will probably increase. Not to mention the fact that the government would be taking away yet another one of our choices. Right now, we can't listen to certain things, we can't watch certain things (talking about censorship), and gay people have no rights. What's next? Aren't we supposed to be living in a free country? Man! We really need to get the Republicans out of power.

A Cool NetFlix Function

So, I was looking at my NetFlix queue and I noticed a neat function. There was a tab that says 'Watch Now'. Apparently, there are a bunch of free movies that you can watch over the internet. Now, these movies aren't the new releases, or even what I would consider as movies that I would watch normally, but there are some pretty good choices. For example: Evil Dead, Soylent Green, some Hitchcock films, and some other classic ovies that everyone should watch. I'm watching Soylent Green right now. It is coming over pretty well over the internet. I haven't seen any slow frames or skipping at all. I already know the secret of the movie, but I've wanted to see it anyway. It isn't bad for an older movie. Cheesey effects and bad acting, but the story if pretty good. If you didn't know, the Earth is over populated and there is no ore food. The Soylent company created a food source that they say is a product of plankton from the ocean. I think that everyone knows the famous line "Soylent Green is made from people." That's right, they recycle dead people and feed them to the public. Iew. Makes me glad I know hoe to grow my own food in the back yard.

Best Buy Likes to Tease

So, I've had an on again off again relationship with Best buy. A while back I boycotted them because of some customer relations issues, but after a long while and hating shopping at other places for my electronics needs, I've decided that I like Best Buy again. I bought my Xboxes there and they replaced two of them when I had issues and I've bought several other high dollar electronics (computer, camera, phones, IPods, etc.). I also love going to a place that has all sorts of games, movies, and music all in the same place. Yes, you can find other stores like that, but not with the same wide selection. Anyway, I go to Best Buy about once a month. I check their ad every week to see if there are any good deals. Once they had Lost DVDs for $20 a season, for example. Anyway, I just bought a new computer for the kids to use. I have a Reward Zone card, so I earn points when I buy things and they send me gift cards when I reach a certain number of points. Why I say Best Buy is a tease, is because right after I bought the computer, I received a 'special offer' in the mail affering triple points on one item bought and another offering a discount for a high dollar purchase. Where were these offers right before I bought a computer? Well, I guess I can't complain. Just for being a Reward Zone member I get the coupons and I get paid for shopping. It's a nice encentive, but has bad timing.

Snakes and Arrows

Yup, Bryan called it. Time to talk about Rush's new album, Snakes and Arrows. As you may know, Rush is my all time favorite band. I have all of their original music albums (maybe not the imports). I guess they did a cover album a while ago, but I don't like covers of other people's songs. Anyway, I've given Snakes and arrows a few listens, and it is pretty solid. Farcry, the first song they released from the album, is pretty kick ass. There are a few songs on Snakes and Arrows that I could do without. I don't know all the names, but there is one song that has repeating lyrics. I know, all songs have lyrics that repeat, it's called a chorus, but I mean excessively so. Musically, all of the songs are good. There are certainly two different Rush styles. Their early work has a hard edge and the newer stuff is more mellow. Snakes and Arrows definately has a more mellow feel. If you have heard Counterparts or Test for Echo, then you know what I mean. In case you don't know what I mean, my mom likes newer Rush music too. Not that she has bad tastes in music, I just wanted to better explain my meaning.

Well, I am not really going to get into this much more. If you like Rush, you will like Snakes and Arrows. There's really only so much you can say about an album. I am already getting psyched about the concert in September. I got pretty good seats, in the lower pavillion towards the middle. Not front row, but I should be able to see pretty well. I just hope that my family will be able to put up with me listening to Rush the majority of the time leading up to the show.

Gettin' Caught Up on 24

As I have mentioned, I am cathing up on the show, 24. I can't find the previous posting, sorry. Basically, I just said that I thought Kim was hot, but irritating. She got herself into bad situation after bad situation. Now, I have finished season 4 and am getting into season 5. After watching season four, I have come to some conclusions:

1. The 'parimeter teams' used by CTU couldn't stop a baby. Marwan escaped parimeter teams at least four times when he was surrounded. How you ask? He basically just walked away each time. Sure, there was some confusion each time, but you'd think that they would be able to contain a little better.

2. Jack is the only government agent that know anything about anything. He was able to see what's going on and made the right calls throughout the entire season. Everyone else was wrong or three steps behind him.

3. Kim, while irritating, was definately some eye candy that I missed. I know, I know. I'm a male pig. Deal with it.

4. China has terrible security. One guy was able to get in and kidnap a person from their embassy (from the 2nd floor no less) and got out almost scott free. Of course, it was Jack that went in and out of the embassy, so maximum security wouldn't have helped their cause.

Well, that's about all. I could go on about how national security sucked in allowing terroristst to gain access to nuclear power plants, the Secretary of Defense, and a nuclear weapon, but I think that goes without saying. I am starting season five right now, and I have to say that it has certainly grabbed my attention. Three major chatacters hit in the first hour!?!?!? Wow.