I Know It's Tuesday

So I'm back in Rochester, but swamped as usual. I apologize to my millions (AND MILLIONS) of fans for the no post yesterday. I need to remember to work most of my blogs on Sunday evening in order to get it complete on Mondays. I have too many meetings Monday morning.

A fun weekend in Des Moines at a wedding. There was a live big band playing at the reception so definitely no Chicken Dance, Hokey-Pokey, or other songs from my "overplayed at weddings" list. Too bad certain readers weren't as lucky at their weddings this past weekend;)

When I came back to work yesterday - I had a pleasant surprise. For those who don't watch The Office on NBC, you probably won't find the humor in this. I have a mug from the show that says "World's Best Boss" (of course I bought it myself). When I came in, I found it in a cooler in front of my desk surrounded by jello:



I was impressed (and quite amused) all day with it. Only problem was in the late afternoon when I went to remove the mug and begin thinking about taking it home to clean.... well Jello is very acidic or something as it removed all the lettering from my mug! So now I have a plain mug and a bunch of Jello that has the letters "World's Best Boss" on it! Easily replaceable for the amount of laughs it generated.

Lots of movement in the sports world yesterday. With the trade deadline ending today for baseball - the Braves pick up Mark Teixeira from the Rangers to add some strong hitting to their lineup as well as another lefty reliever. The Twins through in the towel already by sending Castillo to the dreaded Mets. So again the NL East becomes the trade zone for other teams giving up on their season.

And basketball - it is a sad day in Minnesota as Garnett now appears to be going to Boston for like 10 different players. I guess the new saying should be "you can take McHale out of Boston but you can't take Boston out of McHale". Bastard! Is it that hard to build a team around KG? You've had 10 years to do it! Good luck KG - hopefully the green will indeed bring you luck!

That's it for today - so like the month of July, I say goodbye!

Haiku of the Day -
Six foot - eleven
A Former League MVP
Thanks Kevin Garnett!!!!

Entertainment of the Day - I snagged the movie Let's Go To Prison that has Dax (from Punk'd fame) in it. It looked dumb but somehow still ended up in my rental queue. I'm glad it did as it was actually really funny and worth the 90 minutes (or 60 minutes at my viewing speeds). Rather interesting movie and has a happy ending, I promise.

Weblink of the Day - This page is AWESOME!! Two guys challenge 25 dumb laws across America to see if they can indeed get arrested. Check it out and laugh away!

HO-MER! HO-MER!! HO-MER!!!

Yes, this is the release of the very very long awaited Simpsons Movie. After 400 hilarious episodes, it now comes to a full featured movie! Unlike most cartoons, a movie doesn't have to signify the end of it all. Consider Beavis and Butthead, Southpark..... but not Family Guy;)

I've probably seen 95% or more of the 400 episodes. I watched it all through high school (1991-1995) and even had my tape collection that was a popular thing on long bus trips. Thursday nights it was me watching Simpsons on the TV downstairs while the rest of the world watched The Cosby Show. Then they went back to Sunday nights where they'll always belong!

So out of 400 episodes, it's hard to pick a "top 10"... but I'll try to at least share my favorite moments and/or episodes.

Favorite Episode - probably the Monorail... technically "Marge vs the Monorail". Mainly because of the parody of Music Man. Classic!!!

Other quality episodes

• Homer At The Bat (featuring the likes of Jose Canseco, and Ozzie Smith)
• Homer Vs. New York City
• Mysterious Voyage of Homer - eats the hottest chili pepper (with help from a wax candle) then hallucinates!
  
• Homer's Enemy... good ol' Frank Grimes... who may or may not remind me of some employees I work with!
• Simpsons Super Bowl Episode that changed the teams (and correctly predicted the winner some 4-5 years in a row if I remember correctly)
• Bart gets an Elephant (STAMPY!!!!!)
  

Favorite Song - WHO NEEDS THE QUICKIE MART!?!?!? Planet of the Apes and "Dr. Zaius Dr. Zaius" (to the tune of Amadeus by Falco)

Favorite Halloween Episode - The Shinnin! "No, the Shinnin... do you want to get suuuued?" (Groundskeeper Willie). Apologies to The Raven with the incredible James Earl Jones.

Best Musical Guests - U2 and the PopMart Tour! Apologies to REM and Rolling Stones ("Homer it's only Rock and Roll" "ohhh... but I think I like it")

Lauging my ass off funny moments....

• Shock Therapy with Dr. Marvin Monroe (Season 1!!)
• Homer goes to buy a gun but is told there's a 5 day waiting period... his response "Ohhh... but I'm mad NOW"
• Homer getting baptized on accident by Flanders and replying "Oh Bartholomew, I feel like St. Augustine of Hippo after his conversion by Ambrose of Milan."
• Anytime Homer says "Stupid TV.... be more funny!"
• When chasing after Stampy (and Bart), they almost hit a deer and you hear "D'oh" "A DEER"... "A FEMALE DEER" (Sound of Music reference).
  

You have to be paying attention to understand the Simpsons!!

Anyway - i could take days and talk about more Simpsons moments... but I won't. I'm headed out of Raleigh, so please take a moment and sing with me (use the Mickey Mouse Club song please)

"Now it's time to say goodbye, to IBM (my company)......
R-A-L, Ya'll come back now!
EI-G-H..... H? It's freakin' HOT HERE!!!......
North-Car-O-Li-Na!!!!!!"

Have a good weekend!

Pour Oh Pour The Pirate Sherry

Welcome home Nate, Martine, AND NOAH!!!

Last full day in North Carolina. I did see something that I don't believe you'll see in other states this morning on my way in..... the gas station advertised on their outside sign: "50 cents off two packs of cigarettes". Only in a tobacco producing state! It's starting to get warm again which is more usual for this area I'm told.... not that MN is much better right now. Where's fall at?

Found an inspiring story last night. It's a long read but the gist of it is this 19 year old, from the country of Malawi in Africa, is building a windmill with his engineering skillz while studying engineering. Pretty inspiring to see what someone with the creative desire can do without having it take a ton of money! Photos of his progress can be seen here. Good stuff.

One more comment about the drug-totin', drunk-drivin'....... now totally-denyin' LiLo. In an article last night, I read this:

That behavior won’t cut it anymore and neither will spa-style clinics, said Barry Gerald Sands, a Century City defense attorney who’s also a certified drug and alcohol counselor. “Whatever you have done in the past, do a 360-degree turn and go the other way,” Sands said Wednesday. “She has to change her alleged friends, people sharing or selling her drugs. She has to lead a clean and sober life.

So obviously Mr. Sands is an attorney AND certified drug and alcohol counselor so is deemed by the writer of the article as an "expert". And also obviously, math was not required for either one of those expertis.....es as a 360-degree turn would not take you "the other way". Comments like that make you appear stupid so don't use them.

Nintendo is skyrocketing (as expected) right now. They've sold almost..... 10...... MILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLION Wiis since launch. That was my best Dr. Evil imitation over cyber space - did it work? I also saw that Super Mario Brothers 2 was released for the Virtual Console this month so that gives me something to look forward to playing in the hot month of August. Fly Princess Fly!!! IBM stock is looking good lately as well!

Haiku of the Day
It's "up up down down
left-right, left-right, b, a, START"
Bring me my CONTRA!!!

Entertainment of the Day - I think there may (or may not) be a new movie coming out tomorrow... can't remember. I haven't watched any new movies yet, I should work on that one of these days. As for some good music (another bad thing about being in meetings all day, no time to listen to music) - but in honor of a crappy bowling captain who shall remain nameless, let's go back to Elvis singing "Viva Las Vegas" for today's song of the day!

Weblink of the Day - I found this pretty simple at first, but very addictive. Just follow the instructions in the upper left.

Wearing My TarHeel Blue Today!!

Good luck to Jill (of "Lee and Jill" fame) as she flies to Los Angeles for the new season taping of Wheel of Fortune. More details in September when they'll actually broadcast the show but here's to hoping she wins!!! Don't ask for a "Q"

Went to "Trivia Night" last night downtown Raleigh. Overall the team took 3rd place - more importantly, some things to share in this installment of

DID YOU KNOW????

• Ringo is the oldest of the original 4 Beatles? He was July of 1940, Lennon was October of 1940, Paul 1942, George 1943..... we had guessed correctly
  
• David took 5 stones with him as he went to fight Goliath. Only needed 1 - lots of controversy as to why he took 5 when I researched it on the web. (we guessed 3)
  
• A Different World was a spin-off of the Cosby Show (someone knew that in our group... I had forgotten)
• "Misogamy" is the hatred of marriage.... we simply stated that it was being single and no relationship.
• "Noble Metals" are resistant to corrosion... weren't even close on this one
  

What else did we miss......

Here's the picture of the much coveted prize for 3rd place:


But I'm now torn between most annoying news of the past week..... the freaks and their obsession with Harry Potter (yeah, I mean you Miss Chachi) or the fact that every news station is talking about Lindsay Lohan like there's nothing else going on in the world. Seriously - I have 20 stations in my hotel room and 1/2 of them are talking about Lindsay. How dumb do you have to be though to get pulled over after being drunk yet again... AND be possessing some crack? She makes Britney look like a saint!

As for Harry.... there was a radio station here that the DJ was threatening to read the last 2 pages on the air and all these people were calling in to tell him how wrong it would be and not right... then the majority called in to say "DO IT" which was my thought....

Runner ups for news that should go away is the sports world focus on the betting NBA ref (I would bet 1/2 of the professional referees out there have wagered on their sport), dog fighting and the soon-to-be-unemployed Michael Vick, or Barry Bonds trying to hit 3 more homeruns so we can all sleep at night.... or care even less about MLB!!!

Haiku of the Day -
Basketball Central -
All around this area!
To me? Still.... "GO STATE"

Entertainment of the Day - With all the focus on drunk drugged up socialites on my TV last night, I was thankful that Bruce Almighty was showing (unfortunately on USA with dreaded commercials). Didn't realize that TBS was showing the Braves again till 5th inning. I still like that movie - the best lines are "SMITE ME OH MIGHTY SMITER" and "I'M THE OMEGA BABY!!!"

Weblink of the Day - I'm in a game mood today (and a destructive one) so found a Rampage wannabe game. Use the arrow keys, the space bar, and "a" and "s".... pay attention to which buildings you're supposed to be destroying!

Now You Know - And Knowing Is Half The Battle

What the heck is a "Tarheel"? The UNC logo is probably one of the most easily identifiable college logos, but it has nothing to do with the team name. Their mascot is a ram.... but haven't you ever wondered what a Tarheel is? Here's the legend that I found

When Carolina was divided in 1710, the southern part was called South Carolina and the northern, or older settlement, North Carolina. From this came the nickname the "Old North State." Historians have recorded that the principal products during the early history of North Carolina were "tar, pitch, and turpentine." It was during one of the fiercest battles of the War Between the States, so the story goes, that the column supporting the North Carolina troops was driven from the field. After the battle the North Carolinians, who had successfully fought it out alone, were greeted from the passing derelict regiment with the question: "Any more tar down in the Old North State, boys?" Quick as a flash came the answer: "No, not a bit, old Jeff's bought it all up." "Is that so; what is he going to do with it?" was asked. "He's going to put on you-un's heels to make you stick better in the next fight." Creecy relates that General Lee, upon hearing of the incident, said: "God bless the Tar Heel boys," and from that they took the name

So yeah, the official logo is a foot with a black stain on the bottom of the heel. Seriously!!

With that settled..... the other thing that caught my attention today was an article on yahoo that asks "what is the most annoying thing at work". The finalists were Office Loud Talker Guy, annoying cellphone ringtones, and speakerphones (in that order). I agree with all three of those, although I put the cellphone ringtone a lot higher than the other 2. The other ones can be blocked by good headphones - while the annoying ringer can also be covered by headphones, the lack of respect for the individual who owns the phone can never be recovered. I would also add to the list the guy who walks around shmoozing 8 hours a day because he has no purpose. I would also add the annoying "Hockey Coach Wannabe" guy who is all talk and only stops over to say hello when you have candy in your office. Smelly food isn't usually a problem but I do hate folks that bring back lunch at 10:45 when I can't get out of meetings till closer till noon:(

It is nice that the Braves have been on ESPN the past two nights so I've enjoyed the Braves playing while I'm working from the hotel room. Too bad last night's game was in San Francisco and didn't start till 10pm eastern time. They still won. Hopefully Bonds doesn't get any homers during this series and breaks the record against anyone else! Twins are playing like crap again... don't expect another miracle run out of them at this point.

Haiku of the Day
Football Season's here
just about a month away
Let's all shout: "GO CLONES!!!!"

Entertainment of the Day - Anyone have a tool to convert an MPG4 to MPEG? can't do much with an MPG4 file except watch in quicktime. And all the free demo converters only allow first 5 minutes, or leave an annoying watermark on the converted file. Anyway - the joys of trying to get stuff for free! So today's entertainment..... today is New CD Release Tuesday and today there's a new Prince CD out (Planet Earth) and not much else. So listen to some Prince today and celebrate! Funny little guy.

Weblink of the Day - Looking for a new pet? Forget the Llama or Fainting Goat.... get a Hippo!!!! That's pretty sweet!

Work Just Hard Enough Not To Get Fired

I'm in Raleigh, North Carolina where the weather is great (not too hot so far), the golf is even better, and life outside of the midwest is fun for a change.

Old Roommate Adam and I did some major golfing this weekend. I packed up the clubs and brought them down on Friday so yes, I was one of "those guys" who has their clubs in a hard case that's rolling around on the luggage carousel. Actually, my luggage was in the first 2 minutes of coming out so I was able to snag everything and run - always a good way to start a trip.

Saturday, Adam and I got up early (my body was still an hour behind) and played 18 holes at a nice course that was in great shape. Pine Hollow Golf Club where collared shirt is required. Had some trouble to begin with but was able to adjust during the round so I finished pretty strong. There were some tricky holes, but almost all of the holes were open enough and it was hard to actually lose golf balls. Unlike Meadow that I play every week and hit balls into the nasty stuff very regularly. Was perfect weather though - putted a nice par from the fringe of the green from about 20 feet...... even outdrove Adam on one par 5 (by about 3 feet but that's all that matters).

Had so much fun that we did it again on Sunday at a different course. Lots of places hidden in the trees around here. We also hit a huge farmer's market Saturday and found some great healthy food for dinner Saturday night. I discovered that I like grape tomatoes. Who knew? Also have some new ideas to try for grilling once I get home.

As for the other folks I've seen so far? Meet Frank and Carley (Frank's the rabbit, Carley the puppy).....





So the real reason I'm down here? I have two new folks on my team now in Raleigh so I'm here to meet and interact with them for the week. I fly home Friday. Wedding in Des Moines on Saturday.

So have a good week!

Haiku of the Day
What is a "Tar-Heel"?
"Demon-Deacons" and "Wolf Pack"....
I still say "DUKE SUCKS!!!!"

Entertainment of the Day - Take your pick.... new Beastie Boys album (experimental album that if you're a true BB fan, you'll recognize that it's them - but not something you'll hear on mainstream radio) - or movie... we watched Top Gun this past Saturday while preparing dinner. Good movie still after 20 years. But would be a whole lot better without the volleyball scene!!! Talk to me Goose.

Weblink of the Day - one of the funnier things I've seen in a while - Gary Coleman has been doing commercials for Cashcall. The first one I saw on TV last week was this one where it's basically him laughing and obviously high on something.... ahhhh the new lows that stars hit to make cash. Gary Coleman is 39 years old in case you were wondering.....

Quickie for Thursday

Few quick thoughts for a busy day!

It's take your kids to work day today. The boys from La Crosse are on their way over for the day to enjoy the fun things they have setup around site today just for the younger audience. Some to entertain, some to try to interest them more into going into math and science! Should be some fun exhibits and displays to check out all day.

There was a notification from our townhouse association last night telling everyone to trim the bushes within 3 feet of the house, otherwise they would be done professionally and the homeowner would be charged $45!!! I trimmed the bushes of my non-existent neighbor to the North because his way overgrown bushes were blocking the sprinkler. Where's my $45??? I'm in the wrong career here - doing yard work and just trimming shrubberies would be easy for $45! Needless to say, I'm safe from any charges. Just don't want anyone to touch my new hostas.

British Open has begun for the golf fans. Tiger is usually the favorite to win, but you do sometimes see some no-names creep up there from the European tour who you may never have heard of before.

I'm off to Raleigh tomorrow afternoon. I'll still be blogging in the morning and all of next week from south of the Mason Dixon line.

Song of the Day - Today is a very special dedication day on my blog page. Some of you may get it, some may not. But due to recent occurrences, I would like to send out this dedication to someone in my past..... I like the new rendition by Velvet Revolver of Psycho Killer (originally by Talking Heads). So I'm sending out this song... including the "run run run run run run away" part.

Stay On Target.... Stay On Target.....

Lesson of the day: Don't wear a red polo and khakis (especially bamboo color) to Target - even for 4 items. You'll get asked lots of questions. The first guy (I hadn't figured out my mistake of clothing choice at this point) was looking at me asking where the hand weights were as I walked down a main aisle. I just looked away and kept on walking. Then I realized why he was asking ME (thought it was because I was so ripped and he figured I knew where the weight room stuff was) but still kept walking. Then an elderly lady asked for some help with the top shelf - which sure, could have been because I'm tall but I blame the shirt color. I was a nice guy and helped her get what she wanted.

So speaking of Target - I do really enjoy going there, but there's only one in Rochester (till October when the new one for us cool people on the SW side of town is opening). So for convenience shopping, I will head to WalMart and "struggle" through it. Most people I know agree with me - which is surprising because I honestly do feel I save money if I shop at WalMart for the exact same items as Target..... so here's my analysis:

Target has the edge due to:

• MUCH MUCH Cleaner - both in appearance and people
• Parking lot is "normal"... the south WalMart is the dumbest parking lot EVER
• Layout makes more sense.... electronics in the front so I don't have to walk through bedding to get to the Manly sections
• Target generic brand seems more available on most items that I shop for
• WalMart South puts the hand baskets on the left as you enter which is dumb because people enter and walk on the right (like they drive). So I'm basically crossing over the exit lane to get to my baskets. I'm a guy - I don't do CARTS at Target/Walmart. Target has them 15 feet inside the store which is recommended after I read Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.
• Cuter staff at Target.... note the female to male ratio at Target vs WalMart! I find it much better odds for a guy going to Target!
• No greeter at Target that serves no purpose whatsoever at the front door. LEAVE ME ALONE!!!
• Higher quality shopping bags to go home with. I keep these... WalMarts get immediately recycled.
  

Walmart has the edge due to:

• Greeting Cards suck at Target.... I seriously believe this. WalMart is actually pretty good.
  
• Clearance Items are hidden at Target on the ends - Walmart has 2 of the messiest aisles up front that you'll ever see.... reminds me of the Bargain Barn days of my Drugtown working years (1993-1995).
• Slightly Higher prices at Target - Walmart is big on everything ending in $.x8 instead of the usual $.x9.... even Target generic brand is higher than WalMart generic brand
  
• Self Checkout - unfortunately, this is a huge motivation at times for me to go to WalMart over Target. Hopefully the new Target has these (IBM designed and built!!!)
• Surprisingly - WalMart's webpage is pretty useful and easy to navigate. I believe this is also thanks to IBM!!
• WalMart has a lawn and garden... Target? Negative (at least Rochester's version)....
• I won't get mistaken for an employee when I wear a red shirt (Cyclone Pride!!!) to WalMart.
  

So my conclusion? Target about 80% of the time!!!!

Numbers of the Day - 116/63... that was my bloodpressure taken on Monday at the doctor with the new automated machine that takes it 8 times and uses the average of all of those. It's the "new thing" that doesn't take up time of the hospital staff so they can keep you in the room by yourself even longer. Anyway - "average" numbers are 120/80 so I'm well below the suggested numbers;)

Entertainment of the Day - I love getting radio signals from the Cities because they play GOOD music... heard a little Notorious BIG - Hypnotize last night and wanted to share the awesome video with everyone for your enjoyment!! Ahhhhh... memories of college and Baker floor!

Weblink of the Day - 30 second bunnies are back with Napoleon Dynamite... WHICH is 100 times better than the original movie. I love the bunnies if you haven't noticed:)

Another Random List

Things that I'm not a big fan of today:

• Country music (but y'all knew that one already)
• Baseball players who don't run it out and set a bad example for kids. Check out Ramirez of the Cubs last night (8th inning).... hit a shot he thought was a home run and started walking and got cocky.... didn't start running till half way to 1st. Ended up with a double but could have gone for a triple if he would have actually run.
• Revolving Doors. Long story that really isn't that interesting
• Needles.... I've learned to look the other way.
• Ringing in my ear... seriously drives me crazy for that 10 seconds or whatever
• People who can't fill up the ice cube tray once they empty it
• High School kids driving convertibles around town..... should be driving beaters!
• New noises in my car that weren't there a month ago - new one is a rattle in the back left door and it's a weird one
• People who actually still have the standard ringtone for their Nokia phone. There are at least 30 other ringtones to use
• People on cell phones while on the treadmill
• Over analyzation of presidential race that is still 15 months from the actual voting:( Sad that the hateful commercials are going to be back very soon.
• Ticketmaster over charges..... $45 per seat x2 should = $90 + a little extra for tax... NOT $113!!!! Bastards!
• People who schedule 7:30am meetings then don't show up for them
• Folks that don't get references to Space Cataz... gotta be up on this stuff!
• Rochester.... but that's every day!
• Commercials because I'm watching Live TV:( The local ones still annoy me (Pawn America, Rochester Lapidary, Treasure Island, and Universal Marine and RV)
• People who call my bass a "cello".... at least "Jumbo Guitar" is funny, still not right, but it's funny.
• Q-tips.... if they're not designed to go inside of your ear, what are they for? The doctor says don't stick it in your ear - then what are they for and why do they only come in quantities of 5000?
• Hanson who still isn't cool but sings the National Anthem (and not very well) at the Chicago NASCAR race? Wouldn't they be better for a NAMBLA assembly?
• People who park in Handicapped stalls who are obviously just lazy (or using someone else's permit). No wonder we need 30 of them wherever we go.
  

Haiku of the Day
Mmmm, bop - GENTLEMEN
ba duda dop ba du bop
START YOUR ENGINES...... bop

Entertainment of the Day - I changed up my morning workout list this weekend. Even though I was in "shuffle" mode, seemed to be a Dave Matthew's Band morning. The only album I uploaded was "Live at Red Rocks" which is still probably my favorite live album that I have. Even though some of his latter songs are awesome, I still like that live album best. Probably because it was first of the 30 live CDs that were to come for that group.

Weblink of the Day - This one's for Eddie.... good song (did we see Drowning Pool ever?) and funny way to relay the video:)

45 Days Till Kickoff!!

A B-E-A-UTIFUL Weekend.... lots of great weather for a lot of golf. I made the most of it playing 45 holes since Thursday night. I had my best round of the season for league Thursday night (that's not saying a whole lot considering how poor my other scores have been), but I'm slowly progressing.

Ever notice how Tom Cruise plays the EXACT SAME CHARACTER in every movie? So Minority Report was on TV yesterday and I put it on in the background as I did some other stuff around the house. Everytime I looked up at the movie, his character was running with some high intensity music going on. I kind of liked that movie and the plot behind it, but after seeing every other movie of his where he's running the entire movie, it's not as cool. I did remember that it's the only movie to use Schubert's Unfinished Symphony as music when he's looking at the videos of the future.... interesting.

But seriously, he has Mission Impossible 1-3, Jerry Maguire (he was running in that movie too if I remember right), Minority Report, War of the Worlds.... Other than the REMAKE of the HG Wells novel, you can't honestly tell me which of those movies is which. Kind of like Police Academy's 3-1 Billion.... they're all basically the same movie redone every dang time.

I do like lazy weekends that are productive, but also where I catch a ton of movies on TV - none of which are actually seen start to finish. Minority Report, Beerfest, 40 Year Old Virgin (with my absolute favorite scene.... "When the moooon is in the Seventh House.... and Jupiter aligns with Mars...."), X-Men (the last one).... and of course Spacecataz a couple hundred times.

ESPYs were finally shown - 4 days after the announcements which kind of defeats the purpose of showing them on TV when you know who wins... but anyways.... I know these things are cyclical, but Tiger only got one award for his domination? And Federer only one? Just shows that our sports dominated culture doesn't appreciate the individual sports as much. Best Driver? Oh yeah - #24!! I love pissing you folks off out there that care!

This little girl looks awfully familiar.... Fat Guy in a Little Dress...... Fat Guy in a Little Dress...... believe in Reincarnation yet?

Haiku of the Day (Chris Farley memoriam)
I'm Not "Status Quo"
"Fat Guy in a little coat"
"Or is it Spankey?"

Entertainment of the Day - I watched Black Christmas which I know, it's the wrong time of year to be watching movies about Christmas, especially horror flicks. But it had Lacey Chabert (who gets killed just as all the other Sorority girls get killed). Plot was pretty dumb and predictable and lots of blood. Blah....

Weblink of the Day - If you're feeling a little slow for a Monday morning, watch this clip and you'll feel like the smartest person on the earth (compared to these morons). Seriously.... how hard is this question? His family even gives him 2 easy answers to go with. Seriously....

Why Today is A Good Day

• It's "Friday" today!! I'm golfing tomorrow all day in Pine Island so take the day off from reading my blog. As for why I'm so late again this morning????
• NEW TOOTH DAY!!!

• No problems what soever and it's already endured me crunching down on a life saver with it.
• Tomorrow is also presale for Velvet Revolver tix! August 29th!!! Should be a good show.
• Home internet works again. I ordered a new cable modem ($20 rebate so only $40 right now.... most of you are probably paying $5 a month for the rental modem you have) that should be here next week. Then I can eliminate more problems from Charter out of the equation.
• I hit 20% weight loss this morning at weigh in! That's my lowest weight in a very very long while.
• I'm golfing tonight - gorgeous weather outside, makes golf good no matter how high I shoot.
• Updating my iTunes to the latest version fixed the stupid Windows error that I was getting all morning and unable to listen to any good music.
• Spacecataz is still available if you know where to look (myspace)..... is there anything better than that?

So with all that said, get back to work!

And There Was Much Rejoicing (yeeeeah)!!

So there comes a point in time when all the suffering and work of the dedicated folks in history actually comes to fruition and changes are made for the betterment of everyone. Think of Woman's rights..... think of the rights of minorities in the US..... think of how many years people were begging George Lucas to finish his Star Wars saga.....

Today, we say thanks to the Lord in Heaven for the changes being made in La Crosse with regards to the Symphony. It was finally announced that in the Spring of 2009, we will no longer have our conductor who has plagued us for far too long now. 10 more concerts with her, then time for a change.... the countdown has begun!!! Now the search for a real conductor can begin and the La Crosse Symphony can get back to a higher level of playing excellence.

With that news, nothing can really rattle me today. Even Charter who last night around 11pm (after no internet yet again for 4 hours) informed me that my cable modem wasn't working right and I need a new one. So as I was doing errands this morning, I stopped by to exchange it (right around 8am). Charter doesn't open till 8:30! WHO OPENS AT 8:30!?!?!? I hate it when the rest of the world doesn't operate early - guess I'm too used to working for a 24x7x365 Company that is always moving.

All-Star game last night for baseball. There was a moment for the Cubs to be the heros of the game, but Lee walked instead of walking off with the game winner. As usual for an All-Star game of any sport, pretty uneventful and meaningless. Now everyone can get back to not caring about Barry Bonds breaking the record.

Today I also get my new tooth... no more shiney temporary crown for me! Hopefully I'll be able to eat as normal soon:)

Have a great Humpday!

Haiku of the Day
The end is in sight
We'll miss the purple bunny
and the chihuahua

Entertainment of the Day - I was on an 80s Monster Ballads kick yesterday for some odd reason. Warrant, Cinderella, White Snake, Winger, Poison, Scorpions, Bad English, Firehouse...... good stuff.

Weblink of the Day - Sorry for the game yesterday that really never ended or got any harder. I quit around 400 finally. Today's link is a G-map (from Google Goodness) Pedometer. You can now figure out more accurately how far your morning walk/run is online. Much better than guessing.

Message Comma Err, Not a Messenger

A huge congratulations to Nate and Martine and little Noah! The newly joined happy family has some adorable pictures from Vietnam where they were able to finally be a complete family yesterday. Check out their first official family photo here. Very very cute.

Did anyone else skip Church last Sunday morning (like I did) and watch Breakfast at Wimbledon? Plus I was still very tired from the Prince concert - but that match woke me up real quick! What a great final with a 5 set match. The 5th set wasn't quite the climax I would have liked, but it was still nice to see Federer actually be challenged on his way to his 5th straight Wimbledon title. Best ever? He's continuing his strong case for such a claim.

I sent off my registration to run in my first 5k (3.1 miles) run for August 4th. Some of you may think "5k? That's it?" and others may think "5k? People run that?". Either way, it's one of my personal goals for 2007 and I'm that much closer to accomplishing it. I'm down some more weight (check the progress on the right) and well onto my goal of finishing this life change in 2007. Who knows what 2008 will bring.

What else..... Karaoke seems to be the big TV show for the summer as there are maybe 10 different shows that deal with singing the correct lyrics or something close to that. I prefer the smokey bar with a bunch of drunks cheering on their buddy (easier to laugh at them) version of Karaoke over the TV staged audience, but whatever. Speaking of which - I'm singing and playing at church this Sunday. A little bit of Elvis to share with the congregation!

New Music Tuesday.... today is SMASHING PUMPKINS new CD. Zeitgeist is the album. Hopefully some good new music to run with along with the new Velvet Revolver.

New Newphew Photo to show off.....



Ok - that's it for me today - have a great Tuesday!!!

Haiku of the Day -
I have new candy
In my office for those who
Come on down ya mooch!

Entertainment of the Day - I also watched Smokin' Aces this past weekend. Another movie that I wasn't impressed with after having high hopes. Maybe I've just seen too many movies lately that want to be like Ocean's 11.

Weblink of the Day - An IQ "rotate" game.... should entertain you for a couple of minutes.

Prince Review... "strange"

7/7/07.... a "lucky" date for some. Me? I had a hot date to the Prince Concert in Minneapolis! Concert time was "8:30" on the ticket so at 8:00ish we made our way to the Target Center to stand in line.... in the 95 degree heat with a couple of thousand other smelly sweaty people. 8:30 rolled on by and we're still standing out front of the Target Center (Hennepin Ave Side) with everyone and at this point, there are so many people in the street that Hennepin was down to one lane. Folks watching from the hotel windows trying to figure out what was going on. 9:00 rolls in and we're STILL STANDING THERE. They opened the doors but due to the chaos that is the Target Center, Prince didn't actually make it on stage till 10pm. Luckily there was no scheduled opening forgettable band so the trade off was minor.

Why was Prince late? Supposedly it was to get Wendy Melvoin (from the Revolution days) to fly from LA to Minneapolis to play with the band... which she did.

Prince opened with a bang pulling out the Purple Rain (complete with purple lights and costume), Take Me With U, Guitar.... then it got strange..... Stranger actually. The whole evening started out weird by the whole waiting to get in. But then Prince (known for having many many hits), pulls out some covers of other people's songs. Ok, even the best do that from time to time I guess. Prince pulls fans up from the crowd to dance with him on stage, and as one white guy starts doing his thing, the band decides to break into Play That Funky Music White Boy.... strange? yes. Funny? yes. Then they played Let's Go (by the Cars). Then to get even more strange, the sax player and keyboardist stayed on stage for what turned into a Kenny G intermission. The sax player was circular breathing which kicked ass, and he was a wonderful player - but it was What a Wonderful World which didn't really fit the rest of the evening..... Strange.

On stage with him was his backup band (Trombone, Trumpet, Sax, bass, keyboards, and drum), two dancers who looked like they were making it up on the fly, and one woman who had some kind of cape and wondered around stage like a mattador is the best I can describe it.

Prince comes back out with just Wendy Melvoin and they do an acoustic set of Little Red Corvette, Raspberry Beret, some new songs that nobody recognized (or really cared to hear unfortunately).... I'm fine with bands doing acoustic sets.... U2 and Stone Temple Pilots were known for this all the time. But the songs they performed were usually just a verse, then the chorus, then time to move on. Felt very rushed.

Band comes back onstage (as do the weird dancers that were not very good at all). They break into Seven (that was cool), Come Together (Beatles rendition), then just Prince on Keyboards where he played the intro to Diamonds and Pearls only to react to the crowd's approval by saying "you're not ready for that one" and again later says "I got too many hits for y'all".... SO WHY DO OTHER PEOPLE'S SONGS?!?!! Let's Go Crazy ended the non-encores. We heard our first "Thank you Minneapolis" at 11:30pm.

Encore brought out Sheila E for some songs including Crazy (Gnarles Barkley), and a lot of songs that highlighted Sheila E which sucks considering I was there to see PRINCE!

Prince is quit a great entertainer though. My grades for the night:

Target Center - F...as usual
Rhythm section - B-... not the greatest throughout the night
Horns/Sax - A... very solid performance. The mic on the Trombone wasn't that good though but they were worth watching
Two Dancers - D... not sure what their purpose was and they really were distracting at times
Matador lady - C... still not sure her purpose other than hit the tamborine
Prince - A++... seriously, the boy has some skillz. I have never seen him play guitar and he was quite amazing and effortless with his playing. I think he shows off his all around musical skills better than most musicians plus when they would go into some "jam sessions", he showed off even more. Plus he pulled out some time on bass guitar (slap) and keyboard. I was very impressed.

Would I see Prince again? Absolutely. Just hope it'd be on a normal tour on a normal night this time. I got a free thing of Prince Perfume for my troubles. Now you can smell like Prince would if he was a woman! Or something like that. I do have to add that the best entertainment of the night was the girl next to me (not my hot date) who was probably late 20s but was doing the "Old Lady Dancing" with a mix of the "Beavis" dance. I seriously cannot replicate it but it was so funny to watch and laugh at throughout the evening.

Haiku of the Day
Waiting outside for
Prince and his Revolution
Well worth the long wait

Entertainment of the Day I watched Apocolypto this weekend which is the movie by Mel Gibson about the Mayan kingdom right before it falls. Problem was that the movie was boring as hell and the gory parts were uncalled for in my opinion. Lots of reading of the translation which I found annoying. Would have rather read a book I guess. Anyway - pretty crappy movie in my opinion.

Weblink of the Day - How to torture a gummy bear.... this is pretty funny:)

One Day Till Prince

I totally forgot to mention the best part about Wednesday! In the yearly tradition that includes drinking excessively, eating grilled foods, and waiting for things to burst..... the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest occurs every 4th of July from Coney Island. This year, the legendary Kobayashi WAS TAKEN DOWN by American born Joey Chestnut who ate 66 Hot Dogs in 12 minutes. Yeah, that's with the bun. The 66 is a world record (formerly held by Kobayashi.... which is also the name of the lawyer guy who works with Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects in case you were wondering). God bless America indeed! Nothing makes you more proud to be American than watching the US flag waving from the guy who just brought the Hot Dog Eating Title back to the chubby country where it belongs.

My mom called me yesterday morning from DC where she is for the week. She got to shake hands with our next President - Barack Obama! I'm jealous.

Should be a low key weekend around here..... that's if you're a loser and don't have TICKETS TO SEE PRINCE like I do! You all had your chance to come with, but instead on Saturday night while you are playing backgammon and watching Lawrence Welk reruns, I'll be watching the entertainment styles of a Minnesota Legend! My favorite songs? In order:

1. Kiss - Quite possibly the greatest karaoke performance EVER (by me)
2. Raspberry Beret - the kind you find at a second hand store
3. Purple Rain - Great song for wedding receptions, if you aren't drunk by the time they play it (it happens more than you think)
4. P***y Control - was HUGE back in my Co-Op/Aquariass visiting days here in Rochester
5. Gett Off - memories of an unforgettable MTV performance once upon a time
6. Let's Go Crazy - DEARLY BELOVED - WE ARE GATHERED HERE....
7. 7 - good answer to know for trivia games at the bar. Great harmony in the intro
8. Batdance - Started the good songs from Batman movies tradition (U2 would follow)
9. 1999 - yeah, it was overplayed for the new millennium, but that was also 7.5 years ago!!!
10. Little Red Corvette - common song on the "misheard lyrics" list.... I had a dream about me entering a karaoke contest with this song once - any dream analyzers out there?
    

In other news.... I despise Charter Communications with a passion. I was on the phone with the automated voice for 20 minutes - the one that says "try this.... then try this.... then try this..." before finally connecting me to a human. The human looks up and says "oh, there's an outage in your area".... thanks for wasting my time before when that was the problem all along! And you can't get mad at the minimum-wage girl on the phone since she has no ability to help other than what the computer tells her. Another example of THE MAN holding me down.

X-Box 360s are not being recalled, but Microsoft is acknowledging issues and they are now honoring a 3 year extended warranty..... what are the issues with the 360 you ask? They're not admitting anything but it is going to cost them an estimated $1.1 BILLION!!

Have a great weekend - whatever you have planned in your non-Prince worlds!

Haiku of the Day -
Chowing down hot dogs
Over 5 per min....
I could hold my own!

Entertainment of the Day - New Velvet Revolver CD is pretty cool, but it'll have to wait till after Prince this weekend;) Wonder if they are touring this fall again??

Weblink of the Day - Idiot Test #4!! Just follow the instructions.

Hello? This is Mr. Brown....

My name is Biff.... and I'm looking for "Holden...."

Yet another 4th of July has come and gone - no casualties from the legal sparklers, but I am dead tired this morning. Too late of a night watching The 40 Year Old Virgin at the movie float-in. Plus I was up at 5:45 this morning to donate platelets. What idiot schedules one of those for the morning after a holiday? We had wonderful weather for the pool party with lots of great food and the beer was flowing as well. Doesn't get much better than that!

As for Transformers..... quality! If you were ever a fan of the cartoon, you need to go see this movie. If you're female, go see something else - this movie is reserved for the boys out there I'm sure. The audience Tuesday night was 95% males 20-35 years old from what I saw. There is plenty of action going on to keep you amazed at how well they were able to pull the movie off. Plus it's a nice and loud movie for the theatres so I encourage anyone to see it there. The first time Optimus Prime drives into the picture, I got goosebumps and wanted to start cheering like I would have as a 10 year old kid. The last 45 minutes or so was incredibly action packed leaving no disappointment!

I was able to catch some more Wimbledon this morning while donating. They're way behind due to the rain so some of these players will play 4 days in a row (assuming it stops raining - currently suspended AGAIN) and some of these matches are pushing 4 hours. So it no longer comes down to who's the best tennis player, it is who is the best conditioned and doesn't need a ton of recovery time between matches. Roddick is the only American Male left - but after watching Nadal's dominating comeback from 0-2 this morning.... I'm still looking for another Nadal/Federer final and hopefully Nadal keeps up his great play to give him a chance at a non-3 set match.

The countdown to Prince continues.... 2 days till showtime!!! For those suckers (such as me) who are working today - have a great day! For everyone else who is enjoying their vacations - blah!

Haiku of the Day
A simple fun 4th
lots of friends and great weather
Beer, Brats, Pool... OH MY!!!

Entertainment of the Day - I watched Bridge to... nevermind. I did that one already I think:) I watched Sound of Thunder which is a Sci-Fi movie (wouldn't know by the title which I still can't figure out what it refers to). Takes place in a futuristic Chicago where there are no longer animals or even much left of nature. This company has the ability to send people back to the land of Dinosaurs for a hunt with "la-zers". Something goes wrong and it's the whole idea of accidentally changing the future by doing something in the past. Heard that one before? No Delorean in this one though...

Weblink of the Day - A little late, but Drew had a good patriotic suggestion. How well can you do on a 20 question "US Citizenship Test"? I scored 100% but that had one lucky guess and two correct "hunches"...... Guess I qualify as a US Citizen but there are probably 50% or more of natural born US Citizens that would score very close to 0%.

Optimus Prime Would Make a Better President

Ok, now I'm just pissed.... Bush crosses yet another line and bails his buddy Libby out of jail. So I see Bush yet again thinks he's above the constitution and above the court system. So if I go to jail, and my mom thinks the "punishment is too harsh", why can't she just dismiss my sentence? All you Bush supporters out there (you know who you all are) - please, please, PLEASE try and explain this one to me. I am opening and begging for a conversation to see what the support of this one is. Remember back when Bush claimed that "the people responsible will be punished" all in an effort to bring back "honor and integrity to the White House"? Not only did he do NOTHING when Libby was exposed, but now he bails the guy out of having to serve his punishment for breaking the law. What the crap?!?!?! Seriously.... What an idiot - continues to show why he is the worst present of my lifetime! I won't even go into his VP who also has NOT read the constitution and doesn't believe he belongs to the Executive Branch. This Executive...ish branch is the leading problem with this country right now. Even Paris served out her sentence without a formal pardon (the 2nd time) - I actually respect her a lot more than anyone from the Bush camp right now. I'm waiting for Bush to declare a holiday in honor of Kenneth Lay, I wouldn't be surprised at this point.

Now I have to take a break so I can finish my daily thoughts without going off again..... back in a bit

**insert break here for self meditation**

Ok - so opening tonight is Transformers in an updated 2007 version! For the female readers who are already rolling their eyes at today's subject... remember that if there was a movie on Strawberry Shortcake or My Little Pony, you'd be drooling all over it. Truth is, the girl toys of the 80s/90s would make shitty movies where the boy toys continue to come back and are rated as "cool"! GI Joe will come back, as will He Man!! You just wait:)

Transformers featured the traditional Yin/Yang or Good vs. Evil as do all good things from the 80s. GI Joe had Cobra Command, He-Man had Skeletor, Smurfs had Gargamel (and Azrael... which would make a good name for a cat btw for anyone in the market for 7 toed kittens), and in the Transformers there were the Autobots (good guys... not to be confused with the fake GoBots) vs the bad guys - the Decepticons. The easiest way to figure out who was good and who was bad is to check the sticker on the car to see if it was for the good guys or bad guys.

The leader of the good guys and possibly the greatest Cartoon Hero of all time was Optimus Prime. No debate necessary on that one. Other "good guys" were Jazz (the Porsche), Sideswipe (The Lamborghini), Prowl (the Cop Car)... then they had Mini-bots (not as cool but just smaller) which include Bumblebee (who I believe is in the movie), Dinobots (Dinosaurs.. not nearly as cool), there were Gestalts who could all combine to form one larger robot (pretty cool but got expensive having to buy all 5 or 6 to make the big one), the Triple Changers (taking Transformers to a new level), and the Casettes who could form Slamdance which was HUGE back in the days of boomboxes and breakdancing... ah, those were the days.

Then the Decepticons (lots of plains and military vehicles from what I can remember) - Mainly led by Megatron (A tank), and then Afterburner (Top Gun type jet). So you had lots of planes shooting at cars then they would all "transform" (thus where the name comes from) into people who would punch each other. Nice and violent!

So I'm making plans (with at least one other "fan") for a 7:30 showing tonight here in Rochester.... any other takers? I may go get tickets this afternoon since I will be in that area anyways then. Just give me a holler today if you're interested in joining us.

Happy 4th of July to all! The wonderful insight of the week was contemplating how we celebrate our Nation's Freedom by blowing things up and consuming excess amounts of alcohol. "Let Freedom Ring"

Haiku of the Day-
Watching fireworks
With my mom always saying
"That's my favorite"

Entertainment of the Day - I checked out a movie that I've heard 3 different people mention in the past week - The Corporation is another documentary about the world of Corporate America. IBM is mentioned of course as are other big companies who have changed the modern way of doing business. Think about aiming the business towards the shareholders and for quarterly revenue. Welcome to the companies of the 21st Century. Pretty eye opening movie.

Weblink of the Day - Personal Blood Alcohol Meters... not sure who would have one of these! But they're not always accurate (shocker!). Make sure you watch the video that shows cops serving and helping a reporter and others get drunk so they can test out these gadgets.... WHERE DO I SIGN UP!??!?!

Why I Hate Nicolas Cage

First off - HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAMS!!!!! My #1 fan is my grandmother in Nebraska who turns the big "21" today!! Or so:) Hope you have a wonderful day Grams!

This weekend was productive, but I also renewed my hatred for Nick Cage. I realize that there are movies that he's been in that aren't half bad - but I propose you take a second to consider how much better these movies would be if they had someone in them that could actually act!! My defense is as follows:

Exhibit #1: City of Angels - one of the worst movies ever. Only movie worse than this is:

Exhibit #2 - Ghost Rider - THE worst movie I've ever seen. It's been 2 weeks or so and I'm still not over the pain.

Exhibit #3 - Raising Arizona - this is a case of a movie that had potential, only to be shot down by Cage and his lack of being able to act.

Exhibit #4 - Leaving Las Vegas - Only reason to see this movie is for the attractive Elisabeth Shue.... don't try to follow it, it'll depress you (both for the plot and for Nick's acting)

Exhibit #5 - A "plethora" of movies that involve a cop/FBI type person who tries to be funny borderline psychotic but in actuality plays the EXACT SAME CHARACTER in each of the movies.... Con Air, The Rock, Face Off, Snake Eyes.... seriously - they all run together. I did see The Rock this weekend which is how this all started. Yes, it's a good movie (worth a B rating, maybe B+) but think how much better that movie could be with a REAL actor?!?!?! Only good part of that movie is when the guy says "I'd take pleasure in guttin' you boy" but then Cage repeats it over and over and pretty much kills all that is funny about it. Again - in these movies he is out acted by someone else be it Travolta, Connery, Malkovich (never try to out act John Malkovich), and in Snake Eyes a dog has better acting moments than Cage does.

Exhibit #6 - Bringing Out The Dead - probably the only movie where he was NOT the worst actor in the movie.... John Goodman was pretty crappy as well. Too bad as it was directed by Martin Scorsese who we'd all expect something better from him.

Exhibit #7 - Forgettable movies that you know you've seen but couldn't say a dang thing about: 8MM, The Family Man, Matchstick Men, Lord of War.....

Exhibit #8 - The Weather Man - a ton of hype on this one but it really sucked. Realize that Michael Caine pulled this movie out of the trenches from being a "worst ever" nomination.

Exhibit #9 - Gone in 60 Seconds and World Trade Center - I call it the "bad timing" theory where both movies came out and were over shadowed by better movies on the same topic. Fast and the Furious was much better as was United 93.

Exhibit #10 - Ok, so there is one movie that he's done that is respectable - National Treasure. It's also my mom's "favorite movie of the month" (yes, it seems to change monthly depending on what she's watched on HBO in the past month). I enjoyed this movie (and still do from time to time since it's on HBO every other hour it seems) but I see they are coming out with a sequel..... not so sure on that one. This is one exception to his "sucking" rule.

That's it for today - have a great MONDAY!!!!