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.

A few thing

1. Manny Ramirez is a dumb ass. I don't follow baseball much, but when one of the "top" players gets suspended for using illegal drugs, after all of the press and attention that has been on drugs in baseball, you HAVE to be a fucking idiot. COME ON!!! You have a list of what you can and can't use, so get your perscription, read the lable, read the banned drug list, and then decide if you should take the drug. I have always disliked Manny. "Manny being Manny" is a phrase that makes me throw up a little in my mouth. Translated it means that he is an idiot and a dumb ass, but hey, he can hit the ball well, so who cares? Well guess what, Dit Shit. You got caught cheating and you are out.

2. Can someone please do something that will keep Brett Favre from coming back to the NBA? "I retire." "I'm back!" I retire" "Maybe I'm back!......for my old team's rival!!" Enough is enough already! Retiring means you are done. There should be a rule in the NFL stating that, if you retire, you are allowed ONE comeback. Not two, not three. Who the hell does he think he is? Rocky Balboa? I am SO sick of Sports Center being filled with stories of Favres comebacks to the NFL.

Sorry, I just hate when two stories monopolize my sporting news.

Big Tournament tonight

Sorry that I am lacking in posts lately. Not too much to post about lately, I guess. Plus, I feel like a broken record sometimes. Anyway, I am planning on playing in a poker tournament tonight. It is way out in BFE (Baltimore, about 40 minuted from me) but it is a big game. There should be 70 players, or so. I usually play in cash games, so a tournament will be a bit of a change of pace. I played in this game last year, and there are a few rules that I am not a fan of. First, if your chip stack is below the big blind (if you have 100 in chips and the BB is 125) you are out of the game. That happened to me last time. Second, if someone goes all in, their chip count is the maximum bet. So, if they have 200 and go all in, you can only call the 200. This is done to iliminate side pots, which I don't get. I guess it gets confusing with side pots, but it limits what you can do in the hand. If I have pocket aces and 4000 in chips, and someone goes all in for 200, I can't raise to get other players out of the hand. This leaves good starting hands, like the aces, vunerable to drawing hands (straights, flushes, etc.) I was dealt a good hand last year, someone went all in, I couldn't raise, and I lost the pot to a weaker starting hand. Still, these rules are a small price to pay to have the chance to play a big tourney for a big prize pool. I think first place gets over a grand. Anyway, I am looking forward to the game and a chance to text my poker skills.

Better Off Ted - Give It a Try

If you have not watched Better Off Ted, I highly recommend it. It is HI-larious! It is about a product development company. I know that sounds dull, but the products are outrageously, silly and the characters are equally silly. I really can't go into the details of the stories. Really, it is something that you have to see for yourself. One of the funniest episodes involved the motion sensors in the labs that turned on and off the lights in rooms. New sensors were installed that were cheaper and worked by detecting the light reflecting off of the skin of the workers, but it had one glitch: the sensor did not recognize black people. It was hilarious. Rather than fixing the system, they hired white people to follow the black people around so that they, the black people, could do their work. This cause issues in the legal department, who claimed that they needed to open the position to black people, which in turn would require the hiring of more white people. Portia DeRosi is one of the characters and she had a great line in the show. It went something like, "We should not be focusing on the fact that the system can't see black people. We should be proud that we have a system that can see Asians, Hispanics, and Jews." I laughed my ass off. Every episode I have seen has made me laugh out loud. Everyone that likes to laugh should watch Better Off Ted.

Making Memories

I guess "Saving Memories" would be a more appropriate title. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I have started my 10th year working for Nationwide. It is definately the longest I have ever been at a job. I am not sure if I will be doing this for the rest of my life, but for not, it works. Anyway, for my 10th year anniversary, Nationwide let me choose a gift. I got to choose from items like a golf club (driver), a DVD player, poker chips, and other items. I chose a LCD picture frame. It probably wasn't the most expensive of flashy item, but I have wanted one for a while. If you are unfamiliar with them, you can load digital photos on a memory card and display them on the LCD screen as a slide show. The only card I has was 4MB, so I could only unload a few pictures. So, I checked the best buy ad and they had 8 GB memory cards for $20 off. Now I have a good five minute slide show going on. Another think I saw was 8 GB flash drives $20 off. Now, I have all of my digital pictures saved on my computer and a flash drive. I tried putting them on CDs, which I have done for most of them, but it was getting tiresome.

Fun Night, Living Up To Its Name

Last night was the last night of bowling for my league. We ended up in 4th place, which is OK. Last night's games were, basically, meaningless except for a handicap bracket we do to make things a little more interesting. The #1 position bowler on team A bowls against the #1 person on team B, #2 bowls #2, and so on. You take your score plus handicap and the high game moves on to the next round. The next round whomever won the #1 position game bowls against the #2 position and the #3 position bowl the #4 position winner. The two winners bowl against each other in the third game. There are eventually six final winners and of those, the top four high series with handicap win money. I won first place and took home $50! Woo-hoo! On top of that, I bowled my second best game ever. A 266. I was perfect through the first 8 frames. My ninth ball looked perfect, but I left a solid 5 pin. I was irritated. It is the closest I have been to a perfect game. When I rolled a 279, I rolled a spare in the 4th frame, so I knew a 300 was not possible. Still, it was a good run.

On top of a good night of bowling, I played cards very well afterward. I won almost $90. I was getting pretty good cards and played them well. I lost a few big hands here and there, but won more than I lost (obviously). It was pretty nice. I went to bowling with $17, knowing that I didn't need to pay this week. I came home last night with $180+. Good times.

Something Kinda Cool

I got a call yesterday from US Bank. Usually, I don't answer calls from banks or mortgage companies, but this one came up as a 614 (Columbus) area code, so I anwered. I had a loan though them before, so I thought maybe there was something important. I was wrong. Kind of. What happened is this: When we go to Giant Eagle, our local grocery store, we put the kids in the Eagle's Nest. It is a play area that you can take your kids to while we shop. We like the Eagle's Nest and so do the kids. Anyway, the Eagle's Nest was having a coloring contest for Easter and it was sponsored by the in-store US Bank. Well, Gabriel won second place in his age group and Alydia won first place. US Bank wanted to let us know that we could pick up their prizes. The prizes weren't anything too big, but the kids were super excited and proud of each other. It was so cute. I need to go to Giant Eagle so that I can see the pitcures.

Spring is in the air!

I love the Spring. Winter is coming to a close and the warm air is starting to roll in. It's time to stop sitting on my ass all the time and get out into the yard. I have already done quite a bit in the back. I trimmed my roses, butterfly bushes and other shrubbery (NIEGH!) in the back. I still need to clean out the flower beds and get the garden ready. I think I am also going to expand my flower beds in the back. It is a pain in the ass, but it is something I would really like to do. The goal (eventually) is to have my entire back yard surrounded by flower beds all along the fence. It will take me a long time, but if I do it little by little, it will eventually get done. I am really bad about planning though. I would like to be able to get a variety of plants that match in color and range in size so that there is there is the greatest visual impact. I also need to worry about poisonous plants with the kids and dogs.

Weekly review

There hasn't been too much going on lately. You probably guess that by the lack of posts. My bowling league is coming to a close, which is a bummer, but I think I am going to join a summer league this year. I want to maintain my good skills. I am going to end this year with an average just under 200. A 199 is awesome in my book. I would say that I am probably in the top ten of my league. A 220 average would be nice, because I would be able to joint the PBA, but as far as a local men's league goes, 199 is not shabby.

Spring always makes me happy. I have a LOT to do outside. The garden is the priority, but I also need to spray weeds in flower beds and put stuff on my grass. I keep playing with the idea of hiring True Green, or something like that, to spray my weeds. The pokey weeds get pretty bad in my back yard. I want to put some lattice around my deck so that the dogs can't get under there anymore. I have some already, it is just a matter of putting it up. I also think I am going to add a flower bed in the front. I will put a rock border around it a perhaps plant a weaping cherry tree and suround it with tulips. I don't know for sure. Maybe I will just cut down the ugly tree we have out there now and put the cherry tree in its spot. The tulips are a must though. I had a bunch at my old house. If I had more time and more money, I would put in a munch of flower beds all around my back fence. Now I get to contend with a chronic back issue too.

Remember when I said my back was hurting? Well, I have arthritus (sp?) in my lower back. Let's hear it for an older person ailment showing itself in my 34 year old back. Awesome. There isn't anything I can do about it other than take anti-inflamatories and asprin. Like I said, AWESOME. The pain hasn't been too bad lately. Still, it makes me less likely to want to do things that require me to get up and move around. Still, I always find a way to get done what needs to get done.

Full tilt

I've played poker online before, both on my computer and on my Xbox, but never for money. Well, that has all changed. Today, I opened an account on Full Tilt Poker. I started out safely, playing only with pretend chips, but today I put in $60 just for a little bit of gambling fun. And fun it is! So far, that $60 is over $300. I really don't know how or why. I am not a great card player. I guess I am getting good cards. Plus, insteadof playing people, I just play my hands. If I have a good hand, I bet. I have been doing pretty well. I did have two hands that really hurt though. One hand I flopped a flush but one of my opponents caught a full house. Then it happened again. Only I had a straight. I started playing Texas Hold'em, and I won a little over $100. Now I am playing Omaha, which is a little different. It is played like hold'em, but you get four cards to start out. It is wicked fun. You have to use two and only two of you cards, plus the five community cards, to make your hand. Basically, you look at your four cards and see how many hands you could make. What can draw into a straight, or a flush? If you have enough good combinations, you are usually good to go. I usually play if I have 4 or more good starting hands. For example, if I have A, K, 2, 5, with two hearts and two clubs, I have two flush draws (the hearts and clubs) and four straight draws (A-K, A-2, A-5, and 2-5). It is a lot to keep track of. When people are betting, the pots can get really big. Fun times.

BSG Bummer

Well, BSG is all done. The show finale was this past Friday. I must say, I was a little bummed to see the show end, but am glad that it is over. The last season was pretty weak an the finale was pretty lame as well. The show started out great and sustained for several seasons, but this last season had the feeling like they were just throwing eposides together just to fill up the last season. The last few episodes were full of flash backs that made no sense and seemed pointless to the show. There was one good battle scene in the finale, but then the show just kind of gave up on itself. The questions were never really answered. Oh well. The one thing that I really wanted to know was, what the hell was Starbuck? She died, came back, found her own corpse, and then vanished again. Wasn't she supposed to be lead the human race to their doom? It made no sense to me. I guess if you think about it, the way the show ended,with the flash forward to the colonist's future being our present, maybe Starbuck did lead the people to their doom. If "all this has happened before and all of this will happen again" then the human race must be in some sort of loop that repeats. They advance their technology, build the cylons again, get killed by the cylons again, kill the cylons again, and then start all over. Again. I guess the BSG people wanted to make a statement about how technology would be our doom.

I Bowl With Teenaged Girls

Well, not really, but there are similarities. First, let me tell you a few rules we have as a team:

1. We play poker. $1 ante the first two games, $2 ante the last game. If you get a strike or a spare, you get a card. If you bowl a turkey (three strikes in a row) you get a bonus card. If we all bowl a strike in the same frame, we all get a bonus card. If you bowl a gutter ball on the first ball of your frame, you must put an extra dollar in the pot. The person with the best had at the end of the bowling game wins the pot.

2. We kind of do a beer frame thing, where if everyone but one person gets a strike in the same frame, the person that does not get the strike is supposed to buy the next pitcher. We don't really enforce this because we usually only buy one pitcher each per night. So, if the person that gets stuck already bought a pitcher, we let it slide.

3. (the important on to the story) If you bowl below 100, you must go to the front desk and have your name and score announced over the PA. Basically, we want to you "man up" if you bowl like crap. It's a bit of a deturant. We don't normally enforce this one either. It is something we are supposed to do, but when someone bowls under 100, it doesn't always happen. (I never bowl under 100. I get mad if I am below 150.)

Last week, Rick bowled a 97. It was the last game of the night and after, he went straight to the front desk. It was suprising because, as mentioned above, we usually let it slide. Rick is the weakest link on our team, he has had his poor scores announced before, but we usually have to do it for him (which is why we usually let it slide). Anyway, a minute or so after Rick is at the front desk we hear the announcement congratulating JESSE for his 97. Well, Jesse was not happy by this. Going into the tenth frame, Jesse had 8 strikes out of 9 frames. He had a great game going. As expected, everyone in the league started laughing and poking fun......at Jesse. Jesse got distracted and screwed up in the tenth frame. He blamed Rick. Since I am in the last position to bowl, I missed all of this, but apparently Rick and Jesse exchanged words. No blows were exchanged, but Rick basically quit the team and Jesse was not saddened by this. WHAT???? Are you kidding me? I was very much reminded of some of the tiffs and spats that were common back in my highschool days. I tried to mediate, but to no avail. Jesse won't budge, Rick won't budge. Craziness.

Going Dancin'

Ohio State has made it into the Big Dance. After a pretty good season and a good showin in the Big Ten tournament, Ohio State get the nod as an 'at large' selection into the Men's basketball tournament. The Big Ten tournament was pretty fun to watch. OSU made it to the finals after beating up on favored Michigan State. they lost in the finals to Perdue, but that is OK. They showed they can roll with the big boys by taking out MSU, but won't be too cocky. I don't know how far they will go in the tourney. they should make it past the first round, but will likely meet #1 seed Louisville in the second round. If they play as well as they did against MSU, I think the Buckeyes have a good shot at going pretty far in the tournament. I guess we shall see what happens. All in all I am glad they have done well so far and hope they put on a good showing for the little respected Big Ten.

Who Watched the Watchmen? I did. B+

There may be some spoilers!!!!

I went to see Watchmen this weekend. I was looking forward to the movie, mostly because the trailers kicked ass. I honestly had no idea what the graphic novel was about, other than it was a superhero type story. It is set in the 80's and is in a world where America won the Vietnam war, Nixon never left office, and the Cold War is raging. Oh, and there are masked vigilanties that catch criminals. The story does a lot of flashbacks between the current set of heroes, called the Watchmen, and the original group, called the Minutemen. There are connections between to two groups that are really the catalyst of some of the plots. Also, the 'heroes' are only that because they focus their energies on catching bad guys. In general, some of them are flawed people with violent tendancies and contrast greatly when compared to groups like the X-men or Fantastic Four. I guess what I am trying to say it that they have little regard for the life of the bad guy. One of them is a war mongering psycho and another is a sadist nut job. There are others that aren't as bad, but they clearly have an 'above the law' attitude. It was really a very interesting film. There was a twist at the end that you could kind of see coming, but other than that, the effects were spectacular, the characters were interesting, and the action scenes were bad ass. The one thing I couldn't quite get was, why were these people considered superheroes? Aside from Dr. Manhattan, a blue man with the power to do, basically, anything, none of the Watchmen seemed to have super powers beyond the ability to kick ass. Maybe it was all super speed and strength. Other than that, no one could fly, shoot eye beams, or control the elements. It added a neat demension to the film,in that it seemed like these were normal people that put on masks in order to stop crime. I think I want to get the graphic novel so that I can get the whole effect.

Aside from the general goodness of the movie, Watchmen had one of the sexiest love scenes I have ever seen in a movie. Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl II go out and do some crime fighting and after, they hook up in their ship. The Silk Spectre II is probably the hottest superhero ever to grace film. I think it is a combination of her hot latex outfit and my latent teen superhero sex fantasies that made the scene so hot. (sorry for that glimpse into myself that may have made you all throw up in your mouths a bit.)

My one beef about the film: Too much blue dong. Dr Manhattan was turned blue in the acident that gave him super powers, and apparently, he no longer feels the need for clothes. When out in public, he would wear a suit or a cod piece, but in general, there was a lot of blue dong when he was on screen. It was CGI blue dong, but still, blue dong. A great update to the movie would have been to make Dr Manhattan a woman! :-) (Sorry. more latent teen perviness!)

BSG Bye Bye

Well, there are only a few episodes left of one of my favorite shows, Battlestar Galactica. The show has been great over several seasons, but I think it is a good thing that it is coming to an end. The edgy, exciting, high speed, kickass show has crawled to a crawl-like funeral march. It's sad really. I have enjoyed the show SO much and now I am looking forward to it being over. I'm not too sure when BSG jumped the shark. Maybe when all of the remaining Cylons turned out to be main characters in the colonial fleet. Last Friday's episode was almost a 'goodbye' episode. Galactica is falling apart and is projected to be useless sooner rather than later. Friday's episode had Adama walking around lovingly carressing the inner supports in a drunken stuppor. I'm really not too sure how the show can end to my satisfaction. Earth was a bust and I don't see three or four episodes being enough time to resolve all of the show's conflicts. Well, I am hoping for the best.