wu stank

Awesomenesssauce Video

2012-02-07T08:55:00.002-05:00

This video is filled with humans being awesome.

Highlights include Soccer Volleyball (yes, combined) and lots of people risking their lives in "extreme" sports just for the chance to get some free Red Bull.

Hiking & Camping

2012-01-29T20:03:00.004-05:00

So I haven't been able to finish this post yet... and this was originally written back in October. I was about to delete it but the photos are epic. So this is a very short post with just a few bullets to get this out of the "draft" list and live.

(These bullets are actually what I originally saved as a draft, so this is really unedited, unless noted in red.)

Pisqah National Forest
Wilson Creek Wilderness Area
Mortimer

Foccacia (Ate this too soon before hiking, then almost did the next bullet below.)
Puke
Blisters (Stupid shoes didn't fit and within an hour I was full blistered.)

Camp

Moonlight (It was dark, the light you see is from the moon... slow exposure of course.)

Multiple Stream crossing
Waterfall accidental sighting (We didn't know we had arrived, we just decided to get off the trail to eat and BAM, there we were.)

We lost the trail. Lost for 2 hours (photo below)

RUM HAM

2012-01-24T12:24:00.000-05:00

My lists of top-5 favorite things in any category are constantly changing and expanding (if you ask The Wife she would tell you my top-5 lists contain anywhere from 50-500 items).

What I can tell you for certain is that I recently discovered the TV show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and I am madly and deeply in love with it.

One of my favorite episodes involved Frank (Danny DeVito) and his creation of the epic "Rum Ham," a 90 proof chunk of ham soaked in - you guessed it - rum.

Time to get rips#!t on rum ham.

FULL VERSION

BEST PART 1

BEST PART 2

CAPTCHA THIS!

2012-01-24T12:09:00.000-05:00

CAPTCHA, I am so fed up with you.

Each time I need to securely log-in to a website, CAPTCHA decides to test me.

While I appreciate your attempts to keep the internet(s) safe from spammers, you also make me furious because you are sometimes/most of the time impossible to decipher.

Just look at the image above. Seriously, how many attempts do you think it will take for you to understand this random gobblygook? You could just click on "get another one" 30 times.

Or you could just punch your screen.

Cedar Point Trip

2012-01-24T12:01:00.003-05:00

Back in October (Yes, I had this draft sitting here for months and have done a terrible job of updating the blog) the crew headed to Cedar Point for some amazing roller coaster adventures. This was the second time I had been there (with brother and Dirty the previous trip) and this time we brought our spouses along. Everyone had a great time, despite Jeanette being afraid of Halloween stuff (they had scary stuff at night in the park) and the Wife not liking Roller Coasters (she did great and rode most of them).

Maverick was the newest one in the park and we got to ride it for the first time (ended up doing it three times, and I wish I could have done it many, many more times. It was amazing. Watch this POV video below of Maverick (and not this Maverick).

This second video shows Dirty and me at the end of our last Maverick ride.

This final video is one Joe/Wife took of Top Thrill Dragster XL which will make you squirm just watching it on video or in person. Riding it is amazing, and beyond intense.

An annual trip would be nice, but I'm not sure the Wife will be down for that.

VidRhythm is My New Favorite App

2012-01-12T09:54:00.000-05:00

VidRhythm, a free app that I use on my iPhone 4S, is brilliantly fantastic.

At the core of these two epic performances is a wealth of talent (i.e., my talent).

However, my talent can't shine without the magic of this app. Look for this icon in the App Store and download it soon.

TOB vs. Withers

2011-11-03T11:01:00.001-04:00

Ok, I might be biased, but Ithink NC State football coach Tom O'Brien just landed the knockout blow after UNC's interim head coach loser Withers started mouthing off yesterday in the paper. TOB after practice today had this to say (credit to my pal Derek Medlin):

O'Brien: "At our school, number one, all classes have a syllabus. Our guys go to school, they are not given grades, and they graduate."
O'Brien: "As far as the flagship, here was a guy (Withers) who was on a football staff that ends up in Indianapolis."
TOB on UNC scandal: "You have an agent on your staff, you are paying players and you have academic fraud. That's a triple play."
O'Brien: "If that's what the people want in their flagship university in North Carolina then so be it."
O'Brien: "It's a little tougher here..our guys earn everything that they get here. Certainly all of our graduates earn everything they get."

Full story on PackPride.com and the full audio is on WRAL.

This is a Real T-Shirt

2011-10-24T10:03:00.001-04:00

I decided to stop at a gas station while driving north on I-77 through middle of nowhere Virginia. The image below is from a t-shirt that was for sale in the gas station.

I don't want to meet the woman that would wear this shirt, or the person who would buy it for her.

"Yo Mama's Pudgy. Face It."

2011-10-18T14:17:00.004-04:00

Oh man, these are the single-best videos YouTube has ever hosted.

I already mentioned my favorite on an early post, and my blog slogan reflects my all-time favorite line.

This one "featuring" Mitt Romney is priceless, too.

"F##k prison. I'm a party rapper. That's what I am."

Why You Should Be Using Google For Everything

2011-10-12T22:56:00.001-04:00

I have been a fan of Google since it first arrived on our browsers in 1998. I soon got a Gmail account and loved it. From there I have added more Google products than I can count. For me it isn't Mac vs. P.C. It's just Google.

The beauty of Google is that they have a solution for nearly everything and those solutions are usually the best.

I have listed what I think are the best Google products below (A-to-Z, errr A-to-Y) and give reasons why you should be using it, too.

Android - iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. FYI, the iPhone isn't the only smartphone on the market, and it might not even be the best one for you. Google's Android operating system leads the U.S. with a 29% share of the operating system for phones, edging Apple and RIM (Blackberry) with 27% each. If you are a geek and enjoy customization and tinkering then Android is a no-brainer compared to the "right out of the box" style of iPhone. Android is on nearly every brand and style of phone across nearly every provider. If you are a heavy user of Google products (as I am) then it is even a better option because of the obvious focus on integration with Google on the Android platform.

Blogger (Duh) - Do I really need to point this out? You are reading the greatest blog on the internets and it is powered by Google's Blogger. On Google's own blog they discuss their brand new templates for blogs, one of which I am now using. These are very modern and clean, and Google continues to make improvements to their fantastic blogging platform.

Calendar - Next to Gmail I use Calendar more than any other Google product. From custom views and quick adding of events (just type in 9am Bath or 9:15 p.m. Bowel Movement and it automatically adds it with the correct time, no matter the format you use) it is a fully featured and constantly updated and supported product. You can create and color code as many calendars on the same page as you desire. If you use Outlook's dinosaur calendar then you don't know what you are missing.

Chrome - What is Chrome? It should be your best friend. It is hands down the best, fastest and cleanest looking web browser out there. Forget Firefox (and if you haven't forgotten Internet Explorer yet then you need more help than this post can give you). Chrome is also an operating system (usually Chromebook) that provides a fast and high performance experience on select machines designed to create a better online computing presence.

Documents - Documents could quite possibly be the best Google product you aren't using, but should be. Do you get tired of not being able to open PDFs, Excel and Word Documents because Microsoft insists on making backwards compatibility a thing of the past? What a pain. Have no fear. Simply create, collaborate and open documents of nearly all types in Documents. The wife and I use it to make grocery lists and To Do lists that we can both view, update (collaborate at the same time!), share and print.

Gmail - After you start using the fastest web browser on the planet (see above) you should be using the best email client, too. The amount of changes and features is mind boggling, but when it boils down to it the message-threaded emails keep your inbox as free as you please. Not to mention how quickly messages are sent and how much storage they give you. You really never NEED to delete emails. I have multiple folders full of messages and have had an account for years without ever deleting my trash... and check out my storage! Not to mention that many companies and universities (like NC State) have all converted their email systems to Gmail.

Google.com - The undisputed master of search continues to improve and innovate how we find and use content on this magical World Wide Web.

Google+ - Facebook killer? I wish. Many people aren't convinced (even Google engineers) that it can topple Facebook, the obvious direct competitor to what Google+ is trying to do. Google+ is vastly superior to Facebook when it comes to posting and sharing of photos, videos and links to the exact group of people that you choose. It is cleaner and well designed and the mobile app is flawless. The biggest problem holding it back? Facebook came first. All of the sheep out there whine about the crappiness of Facebook while never realizing that there is a better alternative out there. Sure you can find me on Facebook & Twitter, but if you really want to hit me up on social media then you best head to GOOGLE+.

Maps - Probably the most practical and popular of all of the Google products. Maps are very detailed and accurate, with instant loading and great walking, biking, car and mass transit directions. The mobile version on Android (and the iPhone uses it, too) is fantastic, with excellent turn-by-turn directions. Say goodbye to the GPS.

Music - Google Music is still in BETA, but they beat Apple to the punch (and trail Amazon, though I'm not sure people realize that Amazon has it. What I am referring to is storing music in "the cloud." Google Music is getting a started by offering a free song each day, with excellent reviews and blogs dedicated to helping users discover new music. You can also store music "in the cloud" through Google Music, allowing you to access it on mobile devices and any computer when you log in. I expect Google to start selling music soon to compete with iTunes and Amazon. Currently Amazon allows you FREE storage for any music you purchase from Amazon (in addition to the 5-20GB of free storage they offer to anyone), which is a huge perk. Once (if?) Google can match this, they should be able to continue to compete in the music industry. Right now they are just getting started.

News - Why go to CNN, or Fox, or ABC when you can simply go to Google News and see all of these sources in one spot. Sort and edit locations and interests to fine tune Google News to deliver exactly what you want.

Picassa - An easy to use, full featured, photo hosting site. That is only the online web portion. The really powerful tools are available when you download their software of the same name. Use it to edit, browse and upload directly to your online albums.

Reader - Perhaps my favorite Google product, Google Reader collects RSS feeds (or content from any website) and allows you to read, preview and share content in one fantastically organized place. Simply type in an URL and Reader does the rest. I read 15-20 different sites multiple times a day without having to open and browse to each of those sites. I only go to one site - Google Reader.

Voice - Google Voice is excellent (and I suspect) under used. Voice allows you to select one number (any available number in any area code) and use it as a "master" number to combine your home, cell and work numbers on Voice. You can setup custom voicemail messages for incoming calls by specific numbers or groups of callers and you can give everyone one number that allows all of your calls to always be forwarded to you no matter where you are. Confused? Even better, you can use Voice to make free calls to anyone in the U.S. You simply go to the website, login, type in the number and which one of your phones you want to use for the call (say my office since incoming calls are free) and your phone starts ringing. You pick it up and it is then ringing/dialing the person you called from the web.

YouTube - I don't need to tell you about YouTube. Though not originally "created" by Google they do own it and have been perfecting it. YouTube currently ranks third in terms of traffic (Google.com is No. 1 which creates a Facebook sandwich). Without YouTube I couldn't watch this.

Give some of them a shot. You will be hard pressed to find better alternatives and you might become a Google addict like me someday. You should be so lucky.

Hot Yellow Kool-Aid and Save a Pretzel for the Gas Jets!

2011-10-06T12:11:00.001-04:00

I can't seem to get enough of this. My post title came from the 1:00 minute mark.

Ice Cream!

Another Movie Marathon?!?

2011-08-16T16:21:00.003-04:00

As I mentioned just a few weeks ago, I had pretty much lost my membership card as a Movie Buff. I threw away all of my Blockbuster cards. My Netflix account has been put on hold for over two years.

However, Blockbuster By Mail (and the one BBV store that is still open near me) has helped me catch up on many of the movies I have been missing. While I am still a bigger fan of Netflix and their shipping speed, selection, online search and queue, having the "exchange for free in-store" option with Blockbuster is very underrated and unappreciated (if you have a store near you, which isn't as easy as it once was).

Anyways, getting my hands on many movies has sparked my love once again. To top it off, I have been going on five days battling a terrible sinus infection, so I have been locked up in the house with nothing to do.

Except watch movies. With no further ado, enjoy more One-Sentence Stank Reviews:

Catfish - STANK - This documentary does a better job of depicting the influence of social networks in our lives than The Social Network did, and it does all of this with chilling and astonishing tension and storytelling.
Source Code - STAnk - I was pleasantly surprised by this Jake Gyllenhaal action/sci-fi thriller in that it was original, fresh, entertaining and well acted/written/directed.
Machete - STANK - Machete don't text (If you don't want to high-five someone after watching this trailer, and then immediately go out and watch this movie, then you are dead to me).
127 Hours - STANk - Extremely well-made and unique true story of what happens when a hiker gets his arm pinned against a 900lb boulder in a narrow canyon (Gotta watch it to find out, but don't go reading about it before hand).
The Fighter - STAnk - Christian Bale gets a STANK but the rest of the movie gets just a Stank because this story was made so many times before that it should be knocked out (zing).
The Ghost Writer - STANk - Old school film noir at it's finest from one of the best directors to ever live: Roman Polanski (note: despite the fact that he is a perv).
Shutter Island - STank - Should of and could of been so much better with the talents of Martin Scorcese and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Town - STAnk - Excellent work on screen and behind the camera from Ben Affleck, and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) continues to emerge as a star on the rise in this Heat-like heist drama (Heat is a STANK movie 100%).

This Little Piggy....

2011-08-08T09:17:00.003-04:00

... couldn't get to market because it fell down the steps and broke.

The plan was simple. I spent Thursday through Sunday at Ocean Isle Beach with the wife and her family. After spending Thursday driving to the house, we spent three hours at the beach before heading back to get ready for dinner at Bimini's Oyster Bar and Seafood Cafe in North Myrtle. Delicious (I went here back in April and it is one of my favorites).

We headed back to the house and the wife and I were in bed upstairs when we hear the thunder rolling in. She suggests that I go down and get the towels off of the porch so that they don't get wet from the storm.

I never made it to get the towels. I slipped on the steps, and fell down, down, down with my left leg kicking out at some point and smashing/snapping/breaking my left pinky toe on the railing.

What a way to start a beach vacation! Enjoy these pictures of the carnage.

^X-Ray from Friday morning

^ Friday morning (I broke it late Thursday)

And the Runner-Up is.....

2011-08-03T21:42:00.000-04:00

... the One Kick Wonders.... AGAIN!

For the second straight year we made it all the way to the kickball championship game before losing. Our final record was 6-5-1 (I'll take that after an 0-3 start).

We lost 7-2 with the lone offensive star being - SHOCKER - me. I not only drove in our first run with a bases loaded single, but I also FREAKING KICKED A BALL SO FREAKING HARD THAT IT FREAKING POPPED. SERIOUSLY. ME HULK.

We were on a tear heading in to the championship game by winning six of our previous eight games (one loss and one tie) and we got revenge for an early season loss with a 7-2 win in the first game of the Final Four. Not bad for a team that started the season 0-3.

I had my worst pitching performance of the season in the championship game, though it was just a series of base hits and nothing too major... but I gave up three in the first and two in the third to help give them an early 6-0 advantage that we never recovered from. Our defense was there. my pitching wasn't. To top it off our legs went cold and we scored the fewest runs of the season. Except for my leg.

ME HULK.

(And one final note... this is Meghan's last appearance on the One Kick Wonders as she is moving {and by appearance I mean she was on the roster all season long and may or may not have actually PLAYED}. At least she went out with a bang by getting ran over twice at first base {though in fairness the other dude got the brunt of the trauma the second time}).

Movie Time!

2011-08-01T11:01:00.000-04:00

It has been well documented (the whole launch of this blog was originally as a movie review site) that I was a huge movie buff from the time I was 10 until I was in my mid-twenties.

I then discovered DVR.... and my world changed. I got addicted to T.V. and began recording every T.V. show I could (note: we never had cable at my house until I went to college, so my T.V. choices were always limited until I was out on my own).

By the time I started looking at my monthly bill (I had to have HBO and Showtime because of Deadwood, Entourage, The Sopranos, The Wire, Dexter, Californication, etc.) and once 24 and LOST aired its final episode, I was YEARS behind in my movie watching. I had quit going to the theater (high prices and a wife who isn't a movie watcher) and didn't have time for movies with all of the T.V. I was watching and recording.

My Netflix queue ballooned to around 400 titles EACH in both DVD form and online streaming because I wasn't renting anymore.

In approximately one year we are ditching DirecTV and DVR to cut costs and because (at least for me) there isn't anything on T.V. that I can't wait to watch until it is available on Netflix.

I recently got a free trial of Blockbuster By Mail, and so I have enjoyed watching a few of the most recent releases that I had missed. Below is a one sentence synopsis of each one and my official "Stank" rating:

Black Swan - STANk - Fantastic, dark and freaky story of a ballet dancer (Natalie Portman who deserved TWO Oscars for her performance) who goes crazy and dances a bunch.
The King's Speech - STANk - Exceptional storytelling with very strong performances that was worthy of the Best Picture award, even if it was tailor-made to appeal to Academy voters.
True Grit - STANk - Epic western with a stellar cast headlined by the little girl and of course Jeff Bridges.
Lincoln Lawyer - STAnk - A very good lawyer movie that was entertaining and well done.
Crazy Heart - STAnk - Jeff Bridges won a well-earned Oscar for this role that is essentially the same storyline of The Wrestler but it has The Dude as a country singer instead of Mickey Rourke as a WWE failure.
The Social Network - STAnk - A good movie with a stellar soundtrack, it ultimately was doomed by a boring story that fell flat and the movie as a whole was vastly overrated.

Final Four for the One Kick Wonders

2011-07-27T21:48:00.000-04:00

Our ticket is punched.

The One Kick Wonders swept a playoff doubleheader to improve to 5-1-1 over its last seven games after the 0-3 start to advance to the Final Four next Wednesday.

We avenged two losses from the regular season, winning the first game 11-9 and the second game 8-5. We held big leads heading into the last two innings of each game, 11-6 and 6-0, respectively, and our solid defense was able to push us to victory.

Everyone seemed to make big plays today. Solid defense all the way around, plenty of base hits and the usual big run scoring hits from Chris and Bryan.

Heck, even I had two hits and three RBIs in my two plate appearances with the bases loaded.

I rule.

Do You Like Quilts?

2011-07-27T09:27:00.000-04:00

Yes? Then check out Deborah's Quilting. Freaking awesome looking quilts.

No? Then get over it and visit anyways.

Below is a photo of the quilt that Deborah (my mother, hence the shameless plug without monetary gain) made for our wedding present.

The NCAA is a Joke

2011-07-27T09:09:00.001-04:00

"An NCAA panel has proposed broadening the definition of agents in a move aimed at closing the loophole that allowed Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton to keep playing despite his father's pay-for-play scheme..."

This is the NCAA's fault anyways. What a joke.

Cam used the "I don't know anything" excuse..... and it worked! Our parents didn't let us get away with this, so why did the NCAA?

If ANY family member arranges to take money or does take money then the athlete is DONE. Period. If not, this continues to happen. How idiotic is this?

Why doesn't the NCAA just admit its hypocrisy? Go ahead and admit that the only reason that he was allowed to play was because he was the Heisman winner, NCAA Champion and No. 1 NFL Draft Pick.

Read the rest of the article from the Raleigh News & Observer (AP).

I just hope that Cam can throw a ball and not end up like the rest of the Panthers' QBs last year.

g+

2011-07-23T16:40:00.000-04:00

I just got my hands on Google+ (or Google Plus or g+, etc.) this week but I have already found it to be fun, addicting and one billion times better than Facebook.

Will it eventually kill Facebook? Not a chance. The user base for Facebook is large and well established for that to happen. However, with more and more people using multiple social networks, g+ has the potential to explode and be (at worst) the fourth largest social site out there (behind Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).

I gave up on Facebook over a year ago and never looked back. It became an exercise in patience to weed through the clunky and ever changing user interface. Some people enjoy reading every word and viewing every photo uploaded to Facebook, but that wasn't for me. I also wanted some separation between my friends, family and co-workers (Facebook has this now but it was a late addition and not well executed, and as such I don't think people use it that much). g+ Circles handles this, and you can choose to filter them (again, very easy and clean to do) to limit it to any combination of your Circles (ie, friends, family, co-workers).

Privacy is also a great feature of g+, which sounds odd when talking about a social network that encourages sharing your content. However, the privacy features are easy to use and never stand in your way from sharing

What I like the most about g+ is that it is clean and simple, but also has many options for sharing digital content. I am also a heavy Google user (Blogger, Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Sites, etc.) so g+ is made for users like me.

It is almost like Google knew how to get me there.... all they had to do is integrate as many Google products as possible and I would jump at the chance to abandon Facebook (I mentioned I has been off of it for a year, but I honestly was just recently thinking about coming back.... but not since I got my new g+ account. Word).

Here is a screenshot of my g+ page when I log in. (And by the way, the app on Android is fantastic, and they have it out for iPhone as well... the app is much better than Facebook's app which limits so many features and uses).

A - Filter your Stream by clicking on your list of circles

B - Sparks.... this is under used and under developed. You can basically enter interests and Google pulls in a type of feed showing the latest stories related to that topic. I already use Google Reader, so I'm not sure how much I will use this.

C - The infamous '+1' that started it all. You can find this on more and more websites and any time you click +1 on an article it gets posted to your account under your profile (see D below).

D - From left to right, Home, Photos, Profile and Circles. Home is the page you are looking at. Photos is obvious and Google is in the process of re-branding Picasa to Google Photos. The integration is very seamless here. Profile has a very robust editor to add information about YOU. It is so easy to edit that you will never want to struggle to edit with your Facebook profile again. You can also chose to "view" your profile as any other friend, Circle or the world so you can see how it is viewed by the public. Really a nice feature.

E - Is where you share... photos, links and videos are all super easy to add. You can also edit at will after you post, something Facebook never quite figured out. You can then chose (again, the process is easy) what circles or individual people you share this information with, or chose "public" and the world can see it. Any time you share here or make comments on other posts, you can chose to mention one of your friends within a post (similar to @reply on Twitter) by simply typing "+Bob Barker" and finishing your message.

F - This is your "Stream" which is just like the news feed on Facebook. You can use the filters as mentioned above in A to read streams from individual Circles.

G - You will see this on Gmail or any other Google product once you have g+. This is the place to check when you have notifications for g+.

Keep your fingers crossed that you get an invite and then try it out. Once g+ launches for real it should really take off. I think there are already over 10 million users and it is by invite only these days.

Oh, and I do have some invites left for g+, so comment below if you want me to send you an invite.

One Kick Wonders Fall in Regular Season Finale

2011-07-21T09:18:00.000-04:00

Nothing much to report. We lost, 5-3. They hit ONE quality ball, but it was a grand slam when the score was 1-1. Yikes. We had our worst kicking night of the season.

We welcomed a new teammate this week... MEGHAN!

Now we head to the playoffs with a record of 3-4-1. Hopefully we can get back in the groove and make some noise in the postseason. I believe we have to win four games to win the title (back-to-back doubleheaders over the next two Wednesdays).

To close today's blog post I leave you with a simple video of our loan offensive highlight: A Richie Cunningham homerun. Note that when he gets close to second you can hear me say "that is his best kick ever!" and if you look closely you can see the yellow ball in the background as he is running. Also listen closely on the click for the "ping" of the rubber ball.

One Kick Wonders Fight Back to .500*

2011-07-13T22:57:00.001-04:00

* Well, .500 and a tie, thanks to some guy whose name rhymes with Rick Mushing [Insert Winky Smiley Face Icon Here].

The One Kick Wonders played a doubleheader tonight with the chance to get ABOVE .500 after an 0-3 start to the team's fourth season (the worst start in team history). We did GET to .500, but only halfway ABOVE it, thanks to a late inning rally from the only undefeated team in the league.

The team was on a two-game winning streak and we were six outs from making it three straight while holding a 9-4 lead. I was pitching for most of the first five innings but gave way to the one armsleeve maestro, Scoot, aka Francisco. Lucky for Francisco he didn't take the loss because of the tie, but he certainly took a massive blown save as the enemy rallied with three runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh to tie it up.

We had a chance to scratch out one run to take the win in the bottom half of the seventh as Nick made it to third with one out. Kristy came to the plate and smartly hit a hard bunt that got slightly elevated. Despite third-base coach Chris telling Nick to tag up and stay at third, he took off on a dead sprint home. The pitcher made a nice play to snag the low sinking bunt for the second out, and then easily doubled Nick off third for the final out. It was a excellent play by them and bad luck for us as our record went to 2-3-1. I was on deck, so all Nick did was save me from being the last out AGAIN. So thanks for that!

The night cap was a welcome change from the dramatic last second tie of the opener, as we played against the nicest, friendliest and least-talented team yet this year. I know I called last week's opponent (a team we shutout, 8-0) the worst, but this team was turrible.

We blasted them 17-2 to improve our record to 3-3-1, and seeing as the other team hadn't scored more than four runs in any of their six games while giving up an average of over 13, it was an expected outcome.

The most impressive play of the game (and according to our ref the longest and best "out throw" he has even seen) came off of the gifted young arm of Frank. The best player on the other team hit the little green ball over Chris' head in centerfield, and Frank was a good 20 feet from second base in center ready to receive the relay throw. As their runner was halfway down the line, Frank turned and fired a bullet that hit the kicker on his left thigh five feet from home plate. WOW.

Offensively, Frank had an unofficial team record three homeruns on the day. He was clearly the MVP. Liz and Kyle were clearly the power couple of the day, as Liz had a two-run triple and Kyle had three base hits in his last four plate appearances including a triple.

Hooks pulled a Kirk Gibson. He got to the field late as this chick named Media was giving him a hard time. We immediately put him out in the field and he also promptly hit a homerun in his first at-bat. He stumbled and bumbled his way around first base Chad-style on his blast, which made the play at the plate much closer than it should have been.

A couple of quick notes:

Frank is my hero.
Richie wasn't here. We had lots of fun. Coincidence?
Did I mention Meghan wasn't there?
I managed to get on base twice, once on a flyball that wasn't caught (but wasn't an error, yay boy!) and another on a fielder's choice that Chris got out on (shockingly he made sure I knew this).
Next week is our last regular season game before the playoffs.

Politics = Soap Operas

2011-07-08T09:54:00.002-04:00

I get tired of following politics. Just a bunch of bravado and B.S.

I also hate soap operas. So it got me thinking......

Politics reminds me of a soap opera with the terrible acting, far fetched story lines and irrational decisions.

In the end the viewers (the voters) and the actors (the politicians) always lose because they all enjoy soap operas (partisan politics).

Can't we cancel politics like we have with all of the soap operas lately?

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR - One Kick Wonders Win, 8-0

2011-07-06T22:13:00.004-04:00

Let's hit a couple of bullet points before the recap:

Ed shares the pitching duties last week and the team gives up 14 runs. I pitch all but two innings this week and we get the shutout. Coincidence?
Meghan didn't show again (who is even shocked at this point) and we won for the second straight week without her. What is her contract status? Can we cut her without taking a salary cap hit?
No dogs = shutout.... Mmmmm. This will not make Amy happy.

Now on to the show.

With storms pounding the area off and on, we still somehow managed to play our 8pm game without delay on a muddy field against a short handed team. They were not very good.... half of their players didn't know what to do, the other half weren't very good at doing it even if they did know how. They were very nice and fun to play with so that counts for something.

We won 8-0 to improve to 2-3 and extend our winning streak to a possibly-near-record two wins.

After giving up anywhere from 8-14 runs in each of the first four games, it was nice to have some solid defense (and of course pitching). We committed zero errors, thanks in part to the stellar defensive play of Mrs. Rushing (serious, I'm glad he got married so someone with the last name Rushing would be worth having on our team!). She made three outstanding defensive plays while playing three different positions. Twice she came on the field and immediately had to make the first play of the inning. Once at first base, and once at shortstop. She also ended the game (with runners on the corners) with a great catch in centerfield as it was almost completely dark out (she told me after the play that she didn't have her contacts in).

Offensively we started slow, but in the last four innings we scored all of our runs to win with ease. Chris hit a two-run homerun (with Amy flying around the basepaths while dodging mud puddles) for one of the offensive highlights. Mystery guest Alan had a triple and Kristy had a big-time double.

Next week we play a doubleheader so we could move over .500 for the first time this season with a sweep of both games. We need it!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Francisco played last night. Pretty bad when Francisco shows and Meghan doesn't.

Wonders are Winners!

2011-06-29T21:23:00.002-04:00

YES, a big time win! We are in the win column after a 20-14 spanking to improve to 1-3.

There were many heroes and few goats (besides Meghan, who wasn't there, but, you know...).

We scored often and actually held a 20-10 lead heading to the final inning. The twenty runs were despite us not scoring in two of the six innings, so we scored all of our runs in just four innings.

The OKW's offensive explosion was because of a plethora of base hits: homeruns (Frank, Hooks), a triple (Liz) many doubles and many base runners. We also had our best base running aggressiveness ever due mostly to the tutelage of the finest base coach in the history of the sport (we are talking me, shocker).

A few notes:

a) Frank is my role model. I don't even miss Sumner after he deserted us for the Nation's Capitol.

b) This is the first game that the Koch's brought their dog. That was the real difference between our first three losses and this week, so all of the credit goes to that sweet furry thang.

c) Oh, Ed actually showed up. So the dog gets half credit. Ed can have the rest.

Greatest YouTube Video Ever?

2011-06-29T16:45:00.000-04:00

I think so.

One Kick Wonders Photos Make Us Look Like Winners

2011-06-22T22:26:00.001-04:00

However, we are losers (thanks Media AND Charlie!). We fell to 0-3 on the season. We led 6-4 heading in to the top of the seventh (and final) inning, and the bad guys hit a three-run homerun followed by a solo homerun to take an 8-6 lead, which ended up being the final score.

In the bottom of the seventh we managed to get runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs, but some tall goofy guy kicked a fly to right to end the game.

Instead of some amazingly detailed recap that will only suffice to sadden the OKW further, why not just enjoy some photos of the One Kick Wonders?

PHOTOS OF ONE KICK WONDERS IN ACTION.

Chris' Attitude and a Lack of Meghan Cost the OKW at Brier Creek

2011-06-15T23:11:00.002-04:00

Two games have been played by the One Kick Wonders at Brier Creek in the four year history of the team. Both games featured Meghan costing us the game. The first one was a classic, and you can read all about it in one of my legendary recaps.

The second one was tonight, as the OKW fell to 0-2 on the season with a 13-11 loss and Meghan didn't bother to show up. Shoddy defense was the main culprit this night, as we have managed to score 12 and 11 runs in back-to-back games without managing a win. Quite impressive, really.

Our defense and general play looked much like this. We suspected that the other team cheated - badly - by not sticking to their lineup. They had this one guy bat twice in an inning when they only scored 5 runs (and they had 15 people on their team), and two of their girls didn't bat in the inning either. Three of us noticed this independently, but as we were told last week "who would cheat at kickball?" The answer is all of us!

I can't remember much of the game, except for the fact that I was the interim coach in Kelley's absence (her choice as she picked me over her husband Chris, who responded by pouting and calling me a bad coach the entire game).

I got on base twice and scored once from my customary anti-leadoff spot in the lineup (last).

We welcomed many newcomers this week, including Nicole "Speedy" Rushing (Soon-To-Be), Liz Koch who brought her husband along (this guy Kyle, whatevs), Buzzy making his debut (despite having a shirt from the first season back in 2007 and never using it) and Frank.... oh Frank.

Here, I snapped a photo of Frank during the game:

Deborah's Quilting - Best Blog on the Interwebz??!?!

2011-06-09T22:36:00.000-04:00

My fearless mother is now a blogger. Crazy.

She is a very expressive writer and makes some amazingly gorgeous art with her quilts.

Do yourself a favor and check out her awesome blog.

And if you want a quilt made, be sure to contact her and pay off some of my school loans, will ya?

Deborah's Quilting.

Tour de Cure

2011-06-08T22:22:00.000-04:00

What a view! On June 5th I participated in the 2011 Tour de Cure in Cary, N.C. The ride is to benefit diabetes research, and I helped raise over $200 dollars in one week of fundraising (I meant to start in January, but after buying a house I sorta spaced it out).

The ride was about 44 miles through southern Wake County. I had been training 15 miles or so every couple of days, but I have only in my lifetime been over 25 miles (that was back in March in D.C. riding up to Mt. Vernon. Awesome.). Needless to say 44 miles was a bit intimidating.

I got out to check-in around 9:30am and the ride started at Koka Booth Amphitheater at Regency Park. I put on all of my gear, got the bike loaded down, had lots of Clif Blox and water, and was ready to hit the road.

Amy was my personal paparazzi as she managed to find me three different times out on the course to shoot photos. Impressive!

(The above photo is a shot of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in New Hill. Our second rest stop {about 22 miles from the start} was basically across the street at the closest point the public can get to the plant.)

I survived and made it the entire route without stopping (except at the three rest stops every 11-12 miles). There was a section of about 5 miles before the last rest stop that was almost non-stop climbing. That was killer.

I can't wait for next year. What a great event!

One Kick Wonders Kick Off Their Fourth Season

2011-06-08T21:40:00.001-04:00

All hail the triumphant return of the One Kick Wonders!

For the fourth year-in-a-row, the team with the mighty heart and Clumsy Chad took to the fields of Wake Med Soccer Park for the season kickball opener (it is only a semi-professional league, so don't try to Google it).

I (and my lovely Bride) were the obvious stars on offense (It is my blog after all). Bride went 4-for-4 and scored four runs, and also made two strong defensive plays. I went 2-for-4, scored once and had my first RBI of the season during our first rally. Chris went nuts and had some big hits and RBIs, like usual, and Hooks has the dangerous leg and the looks of a STAR. All of the girls bunted like champs and Meghan had a nice kick out of the infield. Everyone seemed to get in on the action.

Total fall count for Clumsy Chad was officially two (or five?) (though when he hopped the fence to get a wayward ball I was hoping for No. 6).

Our opener started in a dubious fashion, as we quickly gave up seven runs in the top of the first. The other team hit single after single, and we made a few minor sloppy plays, but nothing serious like the patented OKW-esque defense of years past.

In fact, besides a few dropped balls, we didn't have any errors that really hurt us.

We soon rallied for nine runs over the next few innings to take a 9-7 lead. The teams traded quick innings with no scoring, before the bad guys had another big inning in the 5th. They scored six runs, using a huge three-run homerun to cap the inning off and hold a 13-9 advantage.

There was some confusion and the biggest controversy of the night after that inning. The ref was very on top of it and a bit A.D.D. perhaps, but he was doing a good job of keeping the game moving and calling out the score. He said five runs scored after the three-run bomb in the fifth, and kept repeating how many it was. After the third time he said "five" the other team started saying "No, it is six runs." After the inning was over, the ref was getting the sheet back from the bad guys and, even though the ref was keeping stats, he got overruled by the other team and wrote down six runs.

I asked him how he counted "five runs" at least three times during the inning (I could hear it all since I was catching) but ended up taking their word for the six runs. His comment was "it is on the honor system and they said that it was six runs, why would they cheat, it is kickball."

Well duh, why does anyone cheat at games? They want to win!

Meanwhile we get to the sixth inning, and it is announced that it will be the last inning because of the time limit. We start getting runners on, taking extra bases, and putting runs on the board. The next thing you know we have a runner on third with two outs and three runs have already scored to make it 13-12.

Chad (yes, THAT Chad) comes up and nails a ball to left center that was caught, but what a finish it was! We rallied twice, once from seven runs down, and almost rallied again from four down to almost tie it in the final inning.

Oh wait, without that "extra" mystery run that the ref counted it would have been 12-12. Team captain and mean lady Kelley even said "that run better not cost us." It did. Doh.

Welcome to the wild, wonderful and wacky world of the One Kick Wonders!

L.A. Noire Early Impressions/Review - STANk

2011-05-19T10:08:00.000-04:00

L.A. Noire already has 33 critics reviews on Metacritic and has earned a score of 90.

Fitting, because I give it a 9-out-of-10 as well, or a STANk on my awesomeness scale. Metacritic steals my stuff!

This game is a critical success, no doubt, but time will tell if the gamers are going to be patient and enjoy the change of pace gameplay found in L.A. Noire from Rockstar Games.

For some footage of the gameplay, check out this great video of 14 minutes of gameplay with some commentary from Kotaku.com.

My early impressions/review (NO SPOILERS):

I played the first four missions last night that serve as a tutorial. This was well done and allowed you to experience the basics without it feeling forced. Make note game developers, this is how to make/disguise a tutorial in the actual gameplay and push the story along while learning the controls..

I already like the gruff, tough personality of the lead, Cole Phelps. There are flashbacks to his past that get interspersed, and those are decent, but so far I would be o.k. without them. I like characters and back story, but it feels forced, however it certainly adds some insight on how Phelps is the kind of person and cop he is, so I will wait to pass final judgement on it as I get further in the game and the story expands.

All of the other cops and witnesses that I have ran across and talked to are fully fleshed out and amazingly acted, as well. It is the closest a game has come - so far - to feeling like you are PLAYING an interactive MOVIE. Truly great.

Occasionally, when trying to read facial expressions, you will make a mistake (I was wrong on the first one I did, ha). I like this challenging aspect. For one thing it makes the difficulty higher but it doesn't feel unfair. It isn't truly a guess.when you are reading a witness. After I got it wrong I realized how I misread the witness. Lesson learned, or so I hope.

The good news is, if you find enough clues, you don't have to rely on the eyewitness to help push the case forward, again, like real life. For example, after I doubted the truthfulness of one witness, I had already found a gun. I was able to get the model and the serial number of the gun and go to a store to see if the store owner had sold it or had any information on who the gun belongs to. This eventually led me to the suspect. BANG, arrest.

The graphics are gorgeous. I already mentioned the faces, but the character models are great and the cars and buildings are all flawless, smooth and great. The city looks amazing. The old cars creak and squeal when you tear around a corner or slam on the brakes.

Even though this game is open world with a GTA-like mission structure (more on this in a bit) don't go in to this expecting to run people over with cars, to wreck and destroy property or to run around with your gun out shooting. You aren't living in Cop Land but instead you are a good cop and you can't shoot unless you are being attacked. You can't even pull your gun out unless the game lets you.

Fist fighting is fun and easy to do. Just block and then throw punches once they swing and miss. It is pretty easy early on but fun to grapple and get in fisticuffs, regardless.

Driving is enjoyable as well, and felt I felt much more in control than I did behind the cars in GTA4. The weight and float-i-ness of the cars feels correct, or at least correct as I would think it would be like to drive a 1947 police car.

One of the cool, smaller things I really liked is when you are driving. If you are driving to a location but it isn't an emergency or chase, most of the time you have to follow the traffic lights and drive safe so you don't hit other cars, property or people (this can cause you to lose points on your case completion scores). If you ever get bogged down and there are too many cars in your way, snap the siren on and the cars all pull over and stop, letting you speed by. Once you clear the traffic, turn the siren back off and get back to normal driving. It is very fun to abuse that power. If you are tailgating a car when you flip the siren on you will hit this car. They slam on their brakes to let you pass and I did hit someone because I didn't expect the great response from a fine citizen of L.A.

Going back to the differences in GTA... You are allowed to free roam in this game, but the first four missions (during the tutorial) you play back-to-back-to-back-to-back. I liked this as it got you doing missions without wasting time (something I would start doing when boredom set in on GTA4). Now I was forced to keep playing and it was fun, fun, fun.

Outside of the main 21 story-driven missions (and we all know more will come via DLC, this is tailor-made for that), there are also 40 "emergency" type calls that come across your radio when you are out cruising the city. You can respond to these and these are more action oriented (car chases, shootouts, foot chases, etc.). I haven't played any of these yet but when I do I can update this review.

To sum it up, I would recommend this game if you are interested in play games that are story driven adventure/action games. This isn't GTA or Call of Duty. It isn't about explosions and killing. It is about solving crimes and playing an interactive story like you are Bud White in L.A. Confidential.

I think this game is amazing. Even after only 51 minutes of playtime I would give it a SOLID 9. I don't have any real complaints yet, with my only issues being getting used to the shooting controls (they use L2 and R2 like GTA instead of L1/R1 like the FPS games I've used lately) and the sometimes "floaty" feel of driving and running - it is clearly their take on physics-based movement - but I understand why it is like this because vehicles aren't supposed to stop on a dime and a person's momentum is factored in when running and then stopping.

Welcome to Hollywoodland.

The Wilderness Downtown

2011-02-28T20:26:00.001-05:00

This is probably one of the coolest websites I've discovered since Al Gore invented the internet.

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

The site is an HTML5 based page that is a Google and Chrome production. It combines a few of my favorite things: a) Arcade Fire, b) music, c) art and d) Google.

You enter the address where you grew up (or any address) and it cranks up an amazing website experience set to Arcade Fire.

Love.

From the site:

The Wilderness Machine

A postcard is created by an analog signal: you. This site takes that postcard and converts it to digital. The Wilderness Machine brings it back to analog. Look for it on tour with the band in North America. If you're lucky enough to get someone's postcard from it, plant it. A tree will grow out of it.

Wu-Pat Weekly is Dead

2011-02-22T21:34:00.000-05:00

If you click on the "Old Wu-Pat Site" on the sidebar under "stank links" you might notice that it doesn't work. This is what you get:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /~pmnorri2 on this server.

Reason: Server unable to read htaccess file, denying access to be safe

Logs on server web02stat.unity.ncsu.edu

Sad.

Have no fear. After over 12 years of being hosted at www4.ncsu.edu/~pmnorri2, NC State finally closed it down. The legend is over. My first blog/website that launched my career (?) is no more.

However, thanks to the wonders of Google, I can now repost all of the old content and have it live forever.

Thanks Google Sites!

Check out the new Wu-Pat Weekly Website.

NOTE: The site is under construction.

Come Ride With Me

2011-02-19T19:09:00.000-05:00

For my 30th birthday, the lovely wife bought me a bike. It could have been because I wanted one, but it also could have been because I was developing my own "Bootydo."

This is the route from our house to my work. I did it today for the first time, and it was a nice ride. Mainly on greenways, but a few detours on roads along the way, though most of the roads were through neighborhoods.

It will take me between 45 minutes and 1 hour to ride it one way. I'm looking forward to getting my old body back once I start doing this trip to and from work.

View Ashley Brook to Bar Center in a larger map

Radiohead - The King of Limbs - STAnk

2011-02-19T19:00:00.004-05:00

Radiohead just released their latest album, The King of Limbs.

The first single is Lotus Flower, and the video, with a smooth dancing Thom Yorke, is awesome sauce.

Very good so far in the first few listens. Keeps the feel of In Rainbows, but with some strong Amnesiac leanings. Regardless, this is Radiohead. As a wise man told me recently:

"they are the best band in the world by a wide margin
best band since the beatles
best band of our lifetime
i still love the pumpkins more, but they are way beyond them at this point"

This is from the biggest Smashing Pumpkins fan I know, a guy who had a picture of Billy Corgan over his bed in college.

If his assessment is off the mark, then it isn't by much.

Song Of The Day

2011-02-17T10:55:00.004-05:00

Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Arcade Fire

Good Music Isn't Dead

2011-02-15T10:48:00.002-05:00

Arcade Fire is amazing. They make amazing music. Even if they are from Canada.

Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Eminem and Justin Bieber are not amazing and don't make amazing music. Well Eminem has made some solid contributions and Katy Perry likes to kiss girls (well at least one, and she seemed to enjoy it) but they don't make amazing music.

After Arcade Fire's epic Album of the Year win at the 2011 Grammy Awards they will now - deservedly so - blow up. For those of us that loved 2004's Funeral, 2007's Neon Bible and then loved their 2010 The Suburbs (this linked song just does it for me... can't explain why) then this comes as no surprise.

Now everyone is talking... Who is Arcade Fire? Did they really just beat out these huge pop stars? Will US Weekly and the shit tabloid rags start following around Arcade Fire now? How many "hipsters" will destroy their CD's because Arcade Fire is too mainstream now? Not me. These guys (and gals) rock. They play small shows and show love to their fans. Even the night before the Grammy Awards.

And did you know that all three of their album's are published on Durham's Merge Records?

Canada wins again. First Rush, universal healthcare, then Strange Brew, now another great Canadian import.

F-U Celine Dion and Sidney Crosby and the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal game.

"My Pleasure"

2011-02-15T10:15:00.001-05:00

Dear Chick-fil-A,

I love your food. You claim to have invented the chicken sandwich and you also have delicious offerings like chicken biscuits, chicken nuggets and fries. Don't forget the most amazing (and bad for you) milkshakes.

You are amazing.

However, I have a gripe.

When I finish paying and say "thank you" you always respond with:

"My Pleasure!"

While some may like the personal, original touch, I take it as you being pretentious. I don't hear it and think "wow, that is really nice and unique."

No, instead I think "why can't they just say 'you're welcome' like the rest of humanity?"

I am offering this open letter to you, delicious chicken maker, as a way out.

It is never too late to change.

My Pleasure,
Stank

Nothing Like a "This is What I Have Been Doing for Four Months" Post

2011-02-04T10:17:00.004-05:00

I hate when I forget to post something. Then I use the bull excuse of "I have been so busy." Seriously, I should be ashamed.

I haven't been too busy. Despite being at work, having to plan a weekly football tailgate (including a nine person fun fest weekend), Thanksgiving, Christmas, lots of snow (for the first time ever on Christmas), house hunting, house buying, house moving and now house unpacking. Despite all of that, I should have written a blog post.

I didn't.

I am now.

In the great tradition of this Stank(y) blog, let me take a moment to do what I just did two posts ago - Cheat and give a long list of random things I've been meaning to blog about, but haven't.

New posts that you will see in February include:

Listing of things I haven't written about, or random things, like this (from Gizmodo.com)
Photos from my new camera (My favorite and worst ones, naturally)
The reviving of the original Wu-Pat Weekly website, which sadly is finally dead after a solid 10-plus-year run
DirecTV love
Photo series from bike rides
Reader Mailbag suggestions
Tasteful self-portrait nudes (this is a Reader Mailbag suggestion)

More soon. Look for a new blog post coming your way this weekend!

Random Photos

2010-09-02T20:49:00.001-04:00

Trouble with advertising.

Sugar cubes shaped as bunnies. Melt them!


Chewbacca. Riding a giant squirrel. While fighting Nazis.

Guy dressed as Darth Vader robs a bank.

Time lapse... or something from Star Wars?

One of these puppies takes cuddling X-rated.

History of the Beatles... by their hair styles.

What an awesome pool table.

Ok, I Have Many Ideas for a New Post...

2010-09-02T20:39:00.000-04:00

... but I never get around to writing them. So this is a quick collection of links I've wanted to cover.

Just click.

Wanna stop world hunger and have fun? Free Rice.
The Manliest Sport In The World
Stupid Images on websites for security.
I don't want the American Family Association anywhere near my family. These people are nuts. (After you click FIVE times to actually get to these "offensive" photos, this is all it is. Do their kids never go outside the house or turn on the T.V.? Sears isn't the issue, it is your parenting!
Beyond all of the snazzy jingles, you really should keep and eye on your credit score. The federal government allows you to get a free credit report from each of the three bureaus once a year. But you usually have to pay for the credit score part of it. This website, Quizzle, is completely free and easy and you don't have to enter any free trial or anything to get your score. Highly recommended.
This is freaky. Be careful not to retype my blog address. My address is wustank.blogspot.com.... but transpose the g and p in and you get this craziness - http://wustank.blogpsot.com/
Dyson does make the best vacuum cleaner (if you can afford the $$$ price tag). Now they are making the best fans ever... I want one... but wow, I need to win the lottery first.
My beloved Seattle Mariners stink on ice. So they fired their manager. This is the greatest headline in the history of sports firings.

OKW = The First Loser

2010-09-02T10:54:00.005-04:00

Sadly, our One Kick Wonders’ kickball season had to end.

Happily, it ended in the championship game.

Sadly, it ended in a loss.

Happily, we played our butts off and were super close to winning.

We advanced to the Kickball Final Four and then to the Championship game where our season ended with a 7-6 loss that came down to the last play of the game.

We played “Team Crappy Losers” (I think that was their name, or something) and we were definitely the nicest and most fun team on the field for the finale. The game went back-and-forth in a well-played, tightly contested battle. I think the lead changed three-or-four times. We trailed 7-5 in the sixth, scratched out a run (me) and then held them to no runs in the top of the final inning. Chris got things going by kicking a single then advancing to third with a good aggressive play with one out.

Even though Hooks, myself, Nick, Bobby, Baby Graham, Tucker the Dog, the trashcan, both of Chris’ parents, his sister, his wife, his sister-in-law (from the other field) and the kickball itself told/reminded Chris to tag up at third and be ready to sprint home even on a pop up or lineout in the infield so you can score easily with your world class Wolfpack soccer speed (heck of a long sentence). So what happened? Yeah, a liner to first base, and Chris moves off the bag three feet. So when the guy catches it and stumbles, he doesn’t have time to go back to the bag then sprint home. Instead he stays there. Maybe he was waiting for Santa Claus to tell him to tag up.

Sumner was next. I’ve been hard on the young chap all year, but he played well, especially when alternating at pitcher for me with his supreme athletic ability (well at least more ability than me). He drilled a ball into right field, and it dropped and curved towards the line. Out of nowhere, on a full run, their girl in right field made a great running catch with her arms outstretched for the final out. That sent us to the showers (or Sammy’s for a free beer).

Sadness. I think everyone was pleased with how we played, as we only had 2-3 errors that hurt us and didn’t have anyone really drop an easy or routine play that had plagued us every once in awhile during the season.

We advanced to the championship game with a 13-3 thrashing of the team that we lost to earlier this season, 6-5 (MEGHAN). Everyone contributed and we scored in nearly every inning. Scoring 19 runs in two games in the Final Four was quite impressive, and we only allowed 10. Of those, I think only four were earned so my ERA for the season was probably a league-best (Maybe Stack's was close).

So season 3 of the One Kick Wonders is in the books and it was the most successful year yet.

Rally Monkey is Alive and Well

2010-08-17T21:19:00.005-04:00

The One Kick Wonders (OKW) played the greatest game in kickball history tonight.

Things got off to a strong start in the first round of the playoffs, as the OKW improved to 6-2 overall with a 17-14, come-from-behind win. The Wonders will play in the Final Four next week for the championship and all of the glory and fanfare that comes with it.

We jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead, thanks in part to Hooks' homerun as my wife came storming around the bases to score.

The bad guys wasted no time in taking a 6-4 lead, as our defense started a theme of bad play that lasted most of the game. Everyone seemed to bobble the ball or make a boneheaded play. We tied it back up at 6, then the wheels fell off again, as we gave up eight runs in the fifth as we kept playing like the Bad News Bears before their big rally.

Meghan "Willie Mays" made an over-the-shoulder catch in the outfield that was one of the few defensive highlights of the game for us.

Down 14-7, we needed a big sixth and seventh inning to keep our season alive. Well, after a poop-filled sixth, with not a single baserunner, we were now down to our final three outs of the season.

Suddenly, a light bulb came on. We started to get runners on base.... over, and over, and over. We were aggressive and we took extra bases. Sumner got the rally started with a big three-run homerun, and he was quick to make sure I realized that he actually made a nice play. Yippie.

We scored another three runs but with two outs we were still down 14-13. Scotty "Arm Sleeve" had the game tying RBI to complete the comeback..... But after scoring seven runs to tie the score, we still weren't done. Chris had a HUGE hit for the go ahead RBI and we tacked on two more for a 17-14 advantage heading into the final inning for the bad guys.

We got one quick out, followed by them putting two runners on. We then snagged the second out, but they answered by loading the bases. The final ball was a floater out towards first base, where Scotty made an "intentional-ish" juggling catch for the final out and clinching the huge comeback win.

We have a doubleheader next Tuesday as we play in the semifinals with a shot for the kickball championship game. We are also guaranteed a second game as we would play in the third-place game if we lose in the opener.

But c'mon, we can't lose. We are a team of DESTINY.

Wonders Fall in Regular Season Finale

2010-08-10T21:13:00.002-04:00

The OKW's fell 14-9 to a boring, non-fun team of poopheads to finish the regular season at 5-2 and snap a four-game win streak.

And this time it wasn't Meghan's fault.

It was Sumner's fault.

Playoffs are Tuesday and Thursday next week.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.9

One Kick Wonders are 5-1

2010-08-03T23:50:00.001-04:00

America's team - the One Kick Wonders - continued their hot play with a third straight win to improve to 5-1. The team went back to its roots with solid defense, a few timely kicks and a couple of boneheaded plays from its loveable pitcher to pull out the 5-2 win.

My feelings on Sumner's overall play in this game can be summed up with this quote from Dumb & Dumber (slightly paraphrased): "Just when I think you couldn't get any dumber, you do something like this..... and TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF!" The kid was pretty terrible last game, as I documented in my post from that game:

"...my LVP offensively goes to Sumner, who fouled out twice trying to place the ball perfectly and failing. Pathetic."

So this time he gets us on the board in the second inning with a solo homerun, a complete bomb to dead centerfield. Impressive. That gave us a 1-0 lead, and we would later allow a run on the worlds most pathetic bunt that went 1.3 inches. We had no chance. We also made an error, with Kelley and Hooks playing hot potato(e) that allowed a run to get in scoring position. Sumner tried to save the day with a diving catch, but the ball squeeked free for a two-out run to tie it up.

Sumner singled in the fifth, and my awesome wife (after she was called up from the minors for this start) hit a near perfect bunt down the line. As their defense played Bad News Bears with the ball, Sumner kept running and scored all the way from first off of a bunt. It had to have been at least two errors, but we took it which gave us the 2-1 lead.

The bad guys tied it up in the bottom of the sixth, setting the stage for a dramatic, final inning finish in the seventh.

All I remember is that Kelley told Meghan "you have to score" and Meghan was like "WTF, whatever, no way" or some such thing. Luckily for Meghan, the underrated Chad was next to the plate, and he drove a ball to right centerfield. As he tried to chase Meghan down (who, with Chad's beer belly, I would think Meghan, a former D-1 athlete is absolutely faster than Chaddy) they both just kept running for a two-run, go ahead homerun. We tacked on another run, but all I can remember from the rest of the inning is that I was the first out. Hey, someone has to be the first out.

Up 5-2 now in the bottom of the seventh when their first batter was a girl who drilled one right at me, but low. I slid to one knee but the ball hit my hands and bounced out, and I threw that little blue sucker over to first with two hands from a knee, and of course it went wide (this was about one minute after telling my defense to just hold the ball and not allow them to get runners in scoring position). Well she made it all the way to third as the throw came in and passed between two cutoff men. As the girl got to third she overran the base, coming off of the bag and she got drilled in the leg for the first out. Whew, saved me there.

I totally redeemed myself on the next two batters, catching an easy floater and then taking a line drive off the stomach that I trapped with no problem. That is how you field your position. BALLGAME. A 1-2-3 seventh... sorta.

We have our last regular season game next Tuesday, and then the playoffs are the following week on Thursday, with the championship game two days later on Thursday.

Hott

2010-07-25T17:50:00.001-04:00

When the last five days had a forecast of 99-101 degrees and then today they said it could hit 103 then you know it is HOT.

I can tell you the forecast was spot on. As the immortal Paris Hilton said (and would still say if she was relevant):

"That's hott."

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BOOM - Offense Makes Up for Shoddy Defense (Mine, Mostly)

2010-07-20T21:34:00.006-04:00

The One Kick Wonders continued its stellar play with a 22-4 bombing of our latest opponent to improve to 4-1 with an all-time high in runs.

It was sloppy defensively and with our base running, but our kicking legs made up for any mistakes our brains made.

The MVP (according to an informal vote) was me, of course. But really it should go to Captain Hooks, who had two homeruns and a double to lead the offense. Let's face it, with 22 runs everyone was involved, but my LVP offensively goes to Sumner, who fouled out twice trying to place the ball perfectly and failing. Pathetic.

I got on base three times and scored one run with one RBI. One of my hits was courtesy of a collision between two of their players behind second base. I pitched all but one inning, as I got benched in the sixth inning after my hustle play on offense went awry. Sumner pitched that inning and went "Five up, three down."

I also got gunned down at the plate as I was trying to hustle home and help my team to the win by scoring more runs and being aggressive but I guess that WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR CHAD GRAHAM. See Chad was the third base coach, and that power was obviously going to his head. Apparently he was telling me to stop. As the throw came back to the pitcher it went wide of her so I took off for home, using my amazing instincts to try to help the team to victory. Unfortunately, much to my surprise, the catcher girl backed up the play, and as I ran by her (within two feet) she simply pegged me in my ba-donk-a-donk for the out, even though I leaped and soared to try and avoid it (and it barely got me).

Sadly, that wasn't my low-light. That was when I was pitching and someone kicked the ball higher than I've ever seen one kicked. This damn thing hit the hubble telescope and took forever to come back down. I camped under it, but as it hit it slipped through my arms, off my thigh and shot towards the dugout. Doh. Luckily it wasn't more in the middle of my body, or I would be typing this in a higher voice.

Today we get some snazzy videos courtesy of my phone. One is of us showing the world how a sports team should high-five each other and the other is of one of Sumner's outs in his 1-2-3-4-5 inning that he pitched.

A Complete Performance

2010-07-13T21:11:00.005-04:00

The One Kick Wonders had their most impressive, complete performance in team history with a 15-0 spanking in six innings to improve to 3-1 on the season.

Once again I picked up the win, giving up just three hits in three innings of work. Stack worked three innings, including the sixth, for his third save of the season. He allowed only one baserunner over the minimum, and had a game-ending double play to close it out.

I went 3-for-3 with four RBIs (all career-highs), including a two-out, three-run double to cap the scoring in the fifth inning (I screamed "WHAT A POWERFUL KICK" as I drilled it to center). I also nearly scored my first run of the season in our big, eight-run second inning, but I was the ninth run to cross the plate.... but there is an eight run limit in an inning when you lead, so my gallop home was for nothing.

Everyone seemed to have multiple hits and defensive plays.... it was a regular merry-go-round out there.

The highlight of the night was courtesy of Sumner. After a second base hit in the third inning, one of their better girls (who was throwing gas from the mound and the ump had to repeatedly tell her to throw changeups instead) hustled to second as Sumner caught the ball near the second base bag on the throw in from the outfield. The girl overran the bag and slipped in the dirt, and Sumner pulled a Strausburg and pelted her in the face as she was facedown in the dirt for the out. Freaking hilarious. He claims it was a "chest pass that hit her in the arms and chest, and not her face," but who do we believe here?

I don't lie in these writeups.

Special shoutout to my Wifey Poo, who had two base hits and ran like she was chasing after a dog whose leash she just dropped.

One Kick Wonders Bounce Back with 4-3 Win

2010-07-06T20:15:00.004-04:00

Let me just go ahead and say it:

I almost lost us the game.*

We won, 4-3, hanging on down to the last inning, last out and last strike.

We got off to another typical OKW fast start, putting three runs on the board in the second inning. I don't remember many details, but I believe it involved those darn Catlett's.

I was solid in pitching the odd innings, with Eduardo Stacko, the "Ol' Gray One," taking the ball for the even innings once again. He didn't allow a run, and I think only had one or maybe two baserunners. Even I have to give him credit for his assortment of fastballs, and well, fastballs.

They scored a run in the third to cut our lead down to 3-1, but we responded with a run in the top of the fourth to get it back to a three-run lead at 4-1. We loaded the bases in the sixth, but failed to add on another run. A run that would have given our shoddy defense (WILL COUGH PRIDGEN COUGH) more room to work when I was on the mound.

Bottom of the seventh and quickly we get one out (me catching a pop up, of course). Then a couple of singles are allowed, then a second out. They loaded the bases with another single (or error, depending on who is scoring). We would have ended the game on the next play if someone (WILL) had simply tossed it over to second for the easy out instead of going for style points with a strong throw to first... which narrowly missed the mark and allowed a pair of runs to score.

With runners on the corners, bottom of the seventh, and two outs, one of their girls bunts up the first base line. I sprinted in to field it and tossed it, hitting her for what I thought was the last out and the end of the game. Wrong. Foul ball. So we do it again, with two strikes, my pitch comes in.... and the most anti-climatic finish ever as she fouled out to end the game.

VICTORY!

Truth be told: my leadership, strong pitching and defense (and super positive attitude and witty banter) is worth a perfect game on the mound and 10 runs on the field in my fantasy world.

* So yeah, it wasn't my fault.

Greatest Article in the History of "The Onion"

2010-07-06T17:11:00.003-04:00

CLICK HERE FOOLS

"Happy Meals are Weird"

2010-07-02T16:05:00.003-04:00

"Happy Meals are Weird: Or How to Abuse an Audience Member who is Being a Jerk."

Want a New iPod? Finally Getting a MacBook Pro?

2010-07-02T16:00:00.002-04:00

This is an invaluable resource if you are in the market for an iPod, iPhone, iMac, MacBook Pro, etc. If Apple makes it, and you want to buy it, you should check here first. This link lets you see when the latest update was to the product line and when the newest silly is coming out.

APPLE NERDS UNITE!

"You got kidnapped by something that goes on a salad."

2010-07-02T15:55:00.004-04:00

Screw the Oil Spill, Screw Politics... Let's Talk Economy and War

2010-07-02T15:15:00.007-04:00

"It’s almost as if the financial markets understand what policy makers seemingly don’t: that while long-term fiscal responsibility is important, slashing spending in the midst of a depression, which deepens that depression and paves the way for deflation, is actually self-defeating."

Dr. Paul Krugman, the 2008 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics and award winning author, considers us in the Third Depression our country has faced. And this is a world crisis, too. (He also has some good thoughts about the battle over healthcare and how it is sad that instead of making sure that healthcare is available and affordable to all, it continues to be simply a political fight. This article proves that in a stunning case of political irony.)

On top of the economy and the battle over healthcare linked above, another thing has been bugging me.

WAR.

Why are we still in Afghanistan and Iraq? Why, in this time of economic crisis and the many issues our own country is facing, are we still deeply involved with our billions and billions of dollars and thousands and thousands of young soldiers lives and futures in these dead-end, pointless wars?

How many more lives (civilians and military) will be lost, maimed or injured? How many more billions of dollars will we waste when our economy is in the THIRD worst situation we have ever faced? And the last time we were this bad off was the freaking 1930's.

I know the oil spill is a big story and just staggering in its impact financially and environmentally, but it will pale in comparison, always and forever, with the impact that the pointless and endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost us. And for what gain? What have we gained?

Zero. Zip. No WMD. Still no Osama killing (and we have made it worse, we have created more terrorists, not less, and have continued to fail in killing OBL). No cheap oil. Haven't converted any of them to our "better" ways of life (Freaking W., honestly, thought they would embrace us with open arms. Idiot).

Why, as a nation, can we not simply admit (you really don't even need to admit it) defeat? Is it so un-American to admit when you are wrong? Hell no. We as a people, down to a man, are WRONG, and often. I don't want us to fight wars, but leaving the middle east now isn't us giving up or us losing. It doesn't matter. Let's face it. We lost. We went into a situation for false reasons and outright lies, and we have gained absolutely ZIPPY.

What do we lose if we leave now? If we have never gained anything, we don't lose anything further.

We do save the lives of our soldiers and the financial burden of these wars that are straining our country.

So frustrating. Our focus, in order of importance, as I write this, should be:

1) End the wars and bring the troops home ASAP.

2) Use that money to fight the depression. Spend to get out of a recession, not tighten the budget. Read Krugman and other people on this. The stimulus didn't work because it wasn't BIG ENOUGH. Spend now, we must (YODA?). Politics be damned.

3) Healthcare, poverty, child welfare, crime in the U.S.

4) Fixing the iPod reception issue.

5) Everything else.

Get with it, c'mon.

Why Our Kickball Team Blamed Meghan For Our Loss When She Wasn't Even There

2010-06-29T21:18:00.018-04:00

Game two for the One Kick Wonders is in the book. We lost 6-5, though we outplayed the other team in six of the seven innings. They scored all six of their runs in the fourth inning. More on that later.

We were short a girl (you have to have a minimum of four in our co-ed league) and after frantic phone calls leading up to the start of the game, we were able to track down Meghan to come at the last minute and fill out our lineup.

We took the field and quickly showed that typical OKW flare and quality kickball skillz. And by that I mean we caught a few balls, ran around, dripped sweat and all of that jazz.

We quickly took a 3-0 lead on our typical small ball style and were on cruise control defensively.

In the third, one of their guys crushed a ball to dead centerfield that got by Hooks. After he tracked it down he made a strong throw to Scott, his cutoff man near second base. The guy had just rounded third with their players yelling for him to stop. But he did not. Scott's throw was snared by Will (with me nearby ready to back it up) and in one motion Will turned and drilled the guy one step from home plate for the big out. Mighty impressive.

Then, after Meghan kicked, she decided to leave. In fairness, she was packing for her move and all of those excuses and all of that stuff. Anyways, we then had to play with one less fielder so the other team, in their next at-bat, took advantage. They kicked four or five straight balls to the empty spot in our field and just like that they scored six runs.

I, as the pitcher, claimed at least five of the six runs were unearned, but Amy also claims she hit five homeruns. So, you know.

We did score another run the next inning to make it 6-4. Fast forward to the final inning, and we still trailed by two as the sun was setting at Brier Creek Elementary. We had one last chance to score two runs and extend the game, but instead we scored one, then stranded the final runner on third base as

WILL PRIDGEN FREAKING LOST US THE GAME BY KICKING THE BALL STRAIGHT AT A DUDE IN THE OUTFIELD WHEN ALL WE NEEDED WAS A GROUND BALL UP THE MIDDLE TO SCORE THE TYING RUN... AGGGGGHHHH WILLLLLLLL!!!

But really, it was Meghan's fault.

One Kick Wonders Start Season 3 with a Bang

2010-06-22T20:49:00.004-04:00

The One Kick Wonders are 1-0.

With a total team effort and inspired pitching from yours truly (and the old guy with grey hair), the Wonders took their season opener with a 9-3 win. If the third time is indeed a charm, then we might finally win it all. We have won in the playoffs in both of our first two seasons, but this was one of our most solid performances.

With a large roster (15 or 16) it took awhile to bat around. Which is fine, because I bat near the bottom of the lineup for a reason. I can't kick to save my life.

We took a couple innings to get in to the swing of things, and I started the first inning on the pitchers mound. After allowing a hit to the first batter and having two hits allowed in the inning, things looked dicey. It was the start of the finest defensive performance in team history, in my opinion. We settled in and got the outs, then our offense came alive in the third. We scored nine runs, maybe one of the top-3 offensive performances in team history.

The offensive highlight was Katy/Katie/Katee.... Chris' sister. She claims she has soccer skills but often she can't kick the colorful, lumpy, different sized balls to the perfection that I demand of her. Well she drilled a three-run homerun on her second at-bat of the game, which broke the game open.

Hooks had a big time day, getting on base and advancing to third with heads up base running by tagging on a fly ball. He scored on the next batter, so kudos to him for hustle, something the league rarely sees.

I did get my first hit of the season, something that usually happens in the third or fourth game because of my weakness in the kicking department. On my second at-bat I touched the kicking shoes of Katy/Katie/Katee and Chris, then touched my feet. BAM, first pitch, and arching curving single into left field. Money. Probably my most amazing kick ever.

Katy/Katie/Katee also had a great defensive play at third, kicking and stopping the ball before throwing to second to get the lead runner.

The worst defensive play of the game came moments later, when Chad, aka Face Plant, had a ball bounce over his head in the outfield, and as he turned to track it down he slipped and smacked the ground. Last year he fell and landed on his face. The wife thought he broke his neck, but we all laughed because he survived and avoided serious injury or dismemberment. This is Chad if he was on a bike.

We added a couple of late insurance runs and kept the pressure off until the end. That old guy pitched the even innings (2-4-6) and I pitched the odd (1-3-5-7) for a solid team effort. I got the save and the win, which was great. I am the official statistician, so I can pretty much get any accolade I want.

Game two is next Tuesday. Don't you want to come watch our awesomeness?

Lady GaG_

2010-06-22T20:34:00.002-04:00

Lady GAG is terrible.

I can get over the fact that her music sucks.

I can get over the fact that I hate that she is famous.

I can get over the fact that she is a weirdo that dresses like a weirdo.

What I can't accept is that she is fake. A total lying faker. It's one thing to try hard and make crappy, dime-a-dozen pop songs like Miley, Brittney, Christine, etc.

Just be happy with that. You could possibly make it on singing alone. Instead you are trying to be the most cracked out Madonna. Like if Madonna died, and her body rose from the dead, and started a singing career, but forgot how to sing, because she was dead, you know, then that is what Lady GAG is like.

Instead you insist on being, an idiot and faker.

This is what you really look like and who you are. You aren't Bowie and never will be, no matter how much you act like you know and care about Bowie. And you stink, so you are pretending to be some eccentric, when you are really a psycho.

I mean, if Jerry Seinfeld says she stinks, then she STINKS.

“The woman is a jerk. I hate her. I don’t know why she’s doing this stuff. I don’t know what these young people think or how they promote their careers.”

NEWMAN.

All of my Favorite Sports Teams Stink

2010-06-22T20:08:00.005-04:00

Seattle Mariners - THE BAD: The M's are last in their division and last in every batting category in the AL and almost last in the MLB. Their pitching is very good, but it doesn't matter when you can't score. The great baseball teams can win the 9-8 games. The Mariners just lose those games 9-2.

THE GOOD: They are healthy, and Erik Bedard (though he can't hit) is getting healthy and will give the M's options. If he can return to the form that he had with the Orioles when he was a legit No. 1 starter, then it gives the M's the option to either trade Cliff Lee for some hitters or it just improves their chances of holding opponents to few runs so the offense can wake up (if it ever does). Option 2? There is always next season.

Carolina Panthers - THE BAD: Steve Smith, the ONLY viable threat in the passing game for Matt Moore's first full season as starter, broke his arm playing flag football with little kids at his football camp. What is next for this guy? A sex change and then he breaks his leg if he gets on Dancing With The Stars?

And Thomas Davis tore his ACL, again. Huge bro. Him and Beason gave us one of the top linebacking corps in the NFL.

No depth or proven talent on the defensive line (hope my boy Tank Tyler can be a strong, solid NFL starter) and questions in the secondary. Also, can Moore do it? I think so, but we need a strong defense to keep our ball-control-running-game style offense successful.

THE GOOD: Hopefully Moore pulls it off, the teams stays healthy, Dwayne Jarrett realizes he CAN play football, some of the drafted WRs pan out, and our defense surprises.

Carolina Hurricanes - THE BAD: They had a TERRIBLE start to the season and were very disappointing despite some injury issues. I have expected them to fire Paul Maurice and get Peter Laviolette back (they can't decide between those two), but the Flyers grabbed Laviolette and almost won the Cup.

THE GOOD: They played much better late in the year and closed strong. Cam Ward was out for some of the year and when he returned it was better. They need to get younger and tougher on defense to help the great Ward out in the net, and they should be fine.

NC State Wolfpack - THE BAD: Behind the M's, this is my most beloved team. We have been terrible the last few years almost across the board, besides three individual national champions in one year. The sports that really MATTER, however, are a different story. Men's hoops has been pretty sorry under Lowe after he used Herb's players to make a run to the NIT in his first year. Even with flash-in-the-pan J.J. Hickson for one year, the team actually got worse.

In football, despite Nate Irving, Russell Wilson and Toney Baker (when healthy) we have struggled since some guy named Philip Rivers graduated in 2004.

THE GOOD: We do have Wilson and Irving. With Wilson playing one more year of football, and Irving being healthy, it is time for the team to win seven games and get to a bowl game. If not, the pressure is REALLY on TOB. I love the guy, but that will hard to explain four losing seasons in a row.

Worst Time of the Year for Sports

2010-06-22T19:48:00.002-04:00

Thank you Roger Federer.

One of my main Man Crush subjects had a scare in the first round of Wimbledon but survived. How many times do you see a player lose the first two sets, then trail 5-3 in the fourth, force a tiebreaker, then win that tiebreak 7-1. Oh yeah, he then won the fifth set 6-0. You have to feel bad for Falla. He probably thought he could do it, when as soon as Fed got to a tiebreak in the fourth it was over.

And this leads me to another point. It is well known that I love tennis, and I'm pumped that Wimbledon is on and it will keep me happy until Football arrives in late September.

This is the worst time of the year for sports. Just brutal.

The World Cup (if you actually care, most Americans can spell Vuvuzela but can't name more than one U.S. soccer player) is helping to bridge that gap between the NBA and football. The latest game is on at 2:30pm EST, with the first two at 7am and 10am. That doesn't fly.

Yes, you baseball fans can say you have your sport and there is interest in sports right now.... but watch Sportscenter. They fill every minute with baseball highlights which is nice, but it is also forcing us to watch highlights that don't matter. They aren't even at the halfway point of a 162 game season. Way too long. For any sport.

Golf is interesting for two reasons - to see if Tiger Woods wins and during the four Major tournaments (yes this is the same problem with Tennis, only four times a year does it "matter"). Luckily, the US Open was on the West coast so us East coasters (the best and only timezone that matters) can catch it from 5-10pm. Fantastic.

But from July 11 until the first week of September there is nothing but baseball. That is the worst sports stretch of the year.

Sorry, my beloved Mariners.

You Can Get With This....

2010-06-18T23:40:00.000-04:00

Not a Bad Deal for $5.99

2010-06-18T23:34:00.003-04:00

From a restaurant menu in New York via my brother via his buddy Tom. Tough to read, but you can handle it.

WTF.

BP Can't Even Clean Up Coffee

2010-06-18T23:28:00.002-04:00

In case you are the one person who hasn't seen this yet.....

BP Executives Spill Coffee.

Soccer. Not "Futbol" or "Football", it's SOCCER.

2010-06-18T23:15:00.006-04:00

I like soccer. In small doses. I enjoy the highlights and it can be exciting.

I only really watch during the Olympics (I can even watch rowing, so that might not be the best example) and the World Cup. So every two years I give a crap.

The only real US soccer history I know is that Landon Donovan's hairline is getting higher and higher every two years when I see him play (from 2004 and now in 2010).

I've watched both of the US games this year, both "exciting" draws (ties).... well this last 2-2 draw was very exciting... should have been 3-2.

Check out this link and video. The absolute worst moment for a ref in any sport ever.

MLB.tv is Pretty Sweet

2010-06-18T23:04:00.002-04:00

I'm watching my beloved Mariners play the Reds right now via MLB.tv streamed in HD through my PS3. Did you follow all of that?

The point being is I never (rarely) ever get to watch the M's swing the lumber. Being an East Coast guy, it is hard to justify the purchase of an audio or video package to see more of the games because 80% of them start at 10pm EST. I can't stay up until 1-2 every night. It just couldn't happen.

Plus they stink on ice.

But off of the annoying, but I have a feeling ever growing, site Groupon.com there is a snazzy deal going on for the next few days to get a month of MLB.tv premium for just 5 bucks (normally 25 bucks).

You can watch in on your iPhone, iPod, iPad computer of via the PS3 to stream it. And it looks great through the PS3.

Go here to check out the deal if you want to sign up. You have to find it under Charlotte or other cities if this doesn't work. Bit of a pain, but worth it to me.

GO M'S! (They stink).

The Hangover - STAnk

2010-05-28T23:48:00.001-04:00

I can't decide if I love "The Hangover" or just love my man crush Zach Galifiankis.

It is the essential absurdist vulgar comedy in some ways but still pails to the greatness of its forefathers, most notably "Anchorman," "Old School," and 40-Year Old Virgin."

Zach keeps me focused. Every line he says is gold.

The rest of it is funny but not epic.

This is dangerous. How can I NOT buy one/two

2010-05-27T22:16:00.003-04:00

Oh Wal-Mart, how you toy with the heart strings of Americans.

You have given us this, this, this and this.

And now holy crap.... An iPhone 3Gs for 97 bucks. AMAZING.

The wife's phone plan ends in a few months, and her next phone will be an iPhone. I've converted her to the greatness of iPhone.

Then it will be my turn, most likely, to get an iPhone. We shall see.

(Who are we kidding. Within the next year I will have an iMac, iPad and iPhone.)

Slightly edited LOST ramblings....

2010-05-25T23:43:00.008-04:00

(EDIT: I added one more email and a few thoughts this morning after responses from the cronies I emailed originally.)

... these are real emails that I sent to my LOST cronies after the series finale aired. I "edited" them before I sent each one, but I'm going to just copy and paste them here. These are all pretty wild with tons of speculation and guesses. And I change my mind and add new thoughts as I'm typing something else, so it is really a convoluted mess. Enjoy. (NOTE: There are a ton of typos because I typed these emails very quickly on my iTouch.)

These are the few things that are unexplained that I most wonder about or think dont make sense.

* i'm convinced the side flash and ending church stuff is a place that hurley was able to create as the new Jacob to bring them all together. Christian siad they created the place and Jacob always promised the island could give them what they always wanted.

* Jack has a son in sideflash so he can redeem himself as a parent because his dad sucked so bad at it. Still random that he has that son.

* why was penny in the church with everyone else? She doesn't fit. My only thought is Desmond being the constant and super duper electro man means he helped hurley create this place so she got to be there as desmonds prize.

* we always saw and were told that sayid always wanted to get back to Nadia and all that. But he ended up with Shannon. Just sorta didn't fit. In the side flash Nadia is with another man (sayids brother).

* I think the whole series is told at the simplest level as just the story of Jack. It starts and ends with his eyes and his point of view. You can fit the final church scene (and the fact that Jack was the last to remember his island life and the most resistant to believing the flashes in the end) into this theory if you then view the side flash and church stuff as either jack's personal "heaven/purgatory/fantasy world" that exists or was created by hurley for Jack.

I love it. I will always have questions and will change my mind over and over.

Then, like 10 minutes later, I sent this one after thinking through it more while in the bathroom (seriously):

ok I just watched the two-hour recap/interview thing just now, I didn't get a chance to watch it before the finale. I have a bad memory, and so do many others from what I have heard/seen/read.

(first, to simplify the last email, to me the only three things that don't really jive with everything else are: Jack having a son {with Juliet and them being married in the past, WTF}, Sayid ending up with Shannon (instead of Nadia) and Penny being present in the church with everyone else.)

After watching the interview/recap show thing, I forgot that originally in this sideways world Desmond and Hurley didn't know about their past lives, either. This kills mine (and others) theory on Hurley/Desmond being responsible for this sideways world. Desmond was shown/told about the past world by Charlie wrecking the car and seeing his flash then, and Hurley was shown his flash by Libby and Desmond soon found him to help recruit him to help "enlighten" the others by having them see the flash of their real, island lives.

NOW, they said in the thing that Ben always suspected he knew Locke from somewhere else and wasn't sure why/how, but that was really vague (the actor that played ben says this, so it must have been in the script or he was told to feel/look this way by the producers). The only people that seemed to remember the original island lives slightly that are now in this side flash (and convincingly so as they are trying to convince others) were Libby and Charlie... both of whom are dead/died long ago on the island. Both are also crazy and/or on drugs all the time. So, you know.... that might explain their craziness.

So I'm off my Hurley creating this place, but I think the island def. had something to do with it in terms of bringing all of their "spirits", if you will, back together in this one place, hence their spirits and hard work in trying to save the island, fighting for it, doing the right thing, led them to be rewarded in the end by the island for them being all together and happy.

This could also explain why Penny was there (a reward for Desmond for getting them all together) and for Jack having a son (giving him what he always wanted, someone that he can take care of and be a good father for, etc. because his dad was lame.)

Wow. So much to digest.

Why did Jack have a son? Why did sayid reunite with Shannon? Those are still a mystery but I have a theory on sayid.

I'm guessing because they wanted to bring Shannon and Boone back and it made sense to have them reconnect since that was an affair that got destroyed on the island.

That is the reason that I think it was the "island" making them their own little "heaven" instead of it being REAL "heaven".

I just know in the sideways flash Nadia was alive and married to his brother. I guess they weren't meant to be together but his efforts to be good and save her so many times allowed for sayid to know she was alive happy and safe in this sideways island world.

I'm more and more convinced now, because of us seeing Jack's eye open in premiere and his eye close in the finale that we have witnessed/watched most of this story (at least the recent events) through the eyes and brain of Jack (but what I said earlier about Hurley creating it as the new Jacob is bunk). That makes sense why Jack "has" a son. Who doesn't create additional realities in their mind (which would explain why Jack has a son). He always wanted/needed to care for a son to redeem his life and his interactions with his father.

I also highly recommend that you listen to this podcast from Bill Simmons of ESPN fame ("The Sports Guy") who is also a huge LOST fan. His B.S. Report podcast from Monday was one-and-a-half hours of all LOST. Solid stuff. Here is the direct link to iTunes for the episode for you to download.

Jack Bauer is a Serial Killer

2010-05-18T16:33:00.004-04:00

SPOILER ALERT: This post and the link to the kill site has info about the current season of 24. Read and click with caution.

I've talked about Jack Bauer before (the character on 24 played by Kiefer Sutherland in case your head is in the sand or you don't watch quality FOX programming) as he is officially a MAN CRUSH.

This site has tracked every on-screen kill from the hands (and weapons) of Jack Bauer over eight seasons of 24 (that means eight days in his life).

In the eight days of his life that have aired on 24, Jack has killed 266 people. That is over 33 people a day.

Yikes.

Some deadly stats from the site listing Jack's kills:

Jack killed the fewest people on Day 1 (10).
Jack killed the most people on Day 6 (50).
Jack killed the most people in a single episode in "Day 6: 5:00am-6:00am" (14).
The longest run of consecutive episodes where Jack killed no people is the 10 episodes starting with "Day 1: 1:00pm-2:00pm."
The longest run of consecutive episodes where Jack killed at least one person in each is the 5 episodes starting with "Day 6: 6:00pm-7:00pm."
Only four of Jack's on-screen kills (less than 2%) have been women: Nina Myers, Nicole, Dana Walsh, and an unnamed Russian operative in Day 8: 12:00pm-1:00pm. Before Dana Walsh, Jack hadn't killed a woman since Nicole on Day 4 with Myers' death being on Day 3. Walsh's and the Russian operative's deaths came within 40 minutes of each other.
Day 1 is the only day where Jack does not kill someone by breaking his neck.

And if those kills weren't enough, there are still two more hours that Jack has left to kill people before the final episode on Monday, May 24th.

SI.com's Peter King ranks Panthers No. 8 for 2010

2010-05-18T16:13:00.004-04:00

Gotta love this optimism from a non-Panthers' fan. I know as a Panthers' fan I'm pumped.

8. Carolina. Dangerous team. Very deceiving 8-8 record last year. While everyone tiptoed around it because everyone in the Carolinas loves Jake Delhomme, something awful happened to him in the last year-and-a-half, and he just couldn’t play quarterback for this team anymore. Check out what Matt Moore did in his last three starts: three wins, 66-percent accuracy, seven touchdowns, zero picks, and the Panthers outscored three foes 90-26. (Asterisk on the third, New Orleans, because the Saints played the JV that day). This will be Jon Fox’s last year with the Panthers — the owner, Jerry Richardson, doesn’t want to be in the business of laying off employees and paying a former coach $6 million a year in this economy — and I think he’ll say full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, forget next year, I’m doing everything I can to win right now. And he’ll win enough to make the Wild Card. -Peter King, SI.com

A New Look! OMG!

2010-05-18T15:29:00.004-04:00

I have blog A.D.H.D. when it comes to the look of my blog. It's funny because I could care less about my look (clothes, combed hair) or my car's look (pimp spoiler though) or my home (white is alright).

When we are talking my blog layout, I'm never satisfied. In fact, I don't like that my slogan...

"Have you ever written a song so epic that by the end of the song you were actually being influenced by yourself in the beginning of the song?"

... (courtesy of the great Stephen Colbert) doesn't fit on one line on my blog header. Some of the other layouts have a means to stretch the blog to fit all browser window widths automatically, but I didn't find one I loved.

I also would like to see most of the sidebar info pushed to the very bottom instead of as a sidebar, but again those options didn't thrill me.

Until one of you uber-nerds designs a new layout for me then we will go with this current layout.

At least until I change it again soon.

My Favorite Quotes (More Spring Cleaning)

2010-05-18T15:00:00.003-04:00

"And I attempted to look simultaneously helpless and apologetic. We had, I hoped, crossed the border into the land of psychological complexity and unpredictability, a country where ignorance and bafflement were permitted."
- Nick Hornby (A Long Way Down)

"I was peeved. I had some turnovers like I was in the seventh grade. One time, Pickett took my cookies."
- Julius Hodge

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
- Thomas Jefferson

"This isn't 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules."
- Walter Sobchak (The Big Lebowski)

"You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a nay-sayer and hatchet man in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I'll gladly take another, because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method…is love. I love you, Sheriff Truman."
- Albert Rosenfeld (Twin Peaks)

"How did one of our great political parties (Republicans) become so ruthless, so willing to embrace scorched-earth tactics even if so doing undermines the ability of any future administration to govern?"
- Paul Krugman (10/04/09)

"Genius is not replicable. Inspiration, though, is contagious, and multiform -- and even just to see, close up, power and aggression made vulnerable to beauty is to feel inspired and (in a fleeting, mortal way) reconciled."
-David Foster Wallace on Roger Federer

"If you read it carefully, you will find I'm a very accurate journalist."
-Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

"We live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots."
-Louis C.K.

Spring Cleaning - Cleaning up this here blog

2010-05-18T14:57:00.002-04:00

So the right hand side is so cluttered on my blog that I decided to ditch some of the content. So I will simply post it here in separate posts so we can all access it with the snazzy labels or Google Search. Enjoy!

These are my interests:

MISC: WF, DVR, Google, Playing hoops, tennis & golf, Watching all sports, Music, Movies, Reading, History, Video Games, Another Generic Interest, The Sports Junkies, Saying "That's What She Said, " Seattle Mariners, NC State Wolfpack, Carolina Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes.

MOVIES: Dr. Strangelove; Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Strange Brew, The Big Lebowski, This is Spinal Tap, The Usual Suspects, Repo Man, The Princess Bride, Full Metal Jacket; Also: Wes Anderson movies, Quentin Tarantino, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Star Wars Trilogy (4-6, of course), Kevin Smith movies.

MUSIC: Dream Theater, Rush, Porcupine Tree, The Mars Volta, Radiohead, The Beatles, Coheed And Cambria, Metallica, Opeth.

TV SHOWS: Twin Peaks, The Wire, 24, Lost, Dexter, House, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Arrested Development and pretty much anything on HBO.

VIDEO GAMES: (PS3) - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield 1943, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Bioshock 1 & 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, God of War 1, 2 & 3, Fallout 3, Buzz Quiz TV, Uncharted 1 & 2, Peggle.

Treme - STANk

2010-04-28T21:15:00.005-04:00

Another dramatic series hit from HBO.

Can they do any wrong? Sure there was that freaky weird John From Cincinnati show that didn't last long, but for the most part it is slam dunk after slam dunk:

The Sopranos
The Wire
Six Feet Under
Deadwood
Big Love
True Blood
Band of Brothers
Rome
Oz
And many more, like comedies Flight of the Conchords, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, Sex and the City, etc.
And more, don't shoot me if I left off one of your favorites.

Treme (co-created by David Simon of the greatest show of all-time, THE WIRE) is set in NOLA after Hurricane Katrina hit in one of the oldest African-American neighborhoods in the country. It focuses on the music and the culture in the neighborhood and a superb ensemble cast really nails the feel and passion of the people.

The people are key, and Treme is perfectly balanced with eccentric and strong characters.

As with all of the great dramas in modern television history, a fair dose of humor breaks up the seriousness, with much of that being provided by actors John Goodman and Steve Zahn.

While only five episodes have aired when I write this, I love it.

My debut as a serious film director

2010-04-09T12:56:00.001-04:00

I will be buying Old Spice now, thanks.

2010-04-05T11:05:00.003-04:00

BUILDING KICK!

(Credit goes to The Fukerton for turning me on to these.)

LOST Lebowski

2010-03-31T17:39:00.002-04:00

This will only affect a portion of the population that is obsessed with LOST and The Big Lebowski (both getting the top prize in my rating scale, STANK), like me.

This is fantastic and classic. I wish I was this creative and amazing.

Back story: The actor that plays Jacob (blond guy in robes) played the blond thug in Lebowski in the opening scene when the Dude gets his rug micturated on (look it up).

Ouch

2010-03-30T09:51:00.002-04:00

I don't know why I'm sharing this. I just find it to be a testament to the power of human emotions, especially love.

"Doctors were unable to re-attach the dismembered member because villagers could not find it."

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope

2010-03-28T21:25:00.003-04:00

I would give my right one to have written this, but I didn't. It is still amazing. Enjoy, you nerds.

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III

If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.

Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He wouldn't make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.

For the next 20 years, as far as 3PO knows, he is the property of Captain Antilles, doing protocol duties on a diplomatic transport. He is vaguely aware of the existence of the princess but doesn't know much about her. Wherever 3PO goes, being as loud and obvious as he always is, his unobtrusive little counterpart goes with him. 3PO is R2's front man. Wherever they land, R2 is passing messages between rebel sympathisers and sizing up governments as potential rebel recruits - both by personal contact and by hacking into their networks. He passes his recommendations on to Organa.

Yoda is out of the picture by this stage, using the Force-infused swamps of Dagobah to hide himself from Vader and the Emperor. Or something. He is meditating on the future and keeping in touch with Obi-Wan via the ghost of Qui-Gon Jin, which as comm systems go has the virtue of being untappable. Obi-Wan, on Tattoine, keeps in touch with Bail Organa and the other Rebel leaders by courier, of which more later.

As Star Wars opens, R2 is rushing the Death Star plans to the Rebellion. R2, not Leia. The plans are always in R2. What Leia puts into him in the early scene is only her own holographic message to Kenobi. Leia's own mission, as she says in the holographic message, is to pick up Obi-Wan and take him to Alderaan - or so she thinks. Actually, her father just wants her to meet Kenobi, which up to this point she never has. There's a reason for that.

Obi-Wan has spent the last 20 years in the Tattoine desert, keeping watch over Luke Skywalker and trying to decide on one of the three available options:
A) If Luke shows no significant access to the Force, then leave him alone in obscurity
B) If Luke shows real Force ability, then consider recruiting him as a Jedi. The rebellion needs Jedi. Now.
But, if Luke shows any signs of turning out like his father, then C) sneak into his house one fine night and chop his head off. With great regret but it'll save a lot of trouble later on.
Knowing this to be the case, Bail Organa (perhaps at the insistence of his wife) has found excuses not to send Leia to Ben for assessment of Jedi potential, largely for fear of option C.

To be fair to all concerned, Leia has shown no overt signs of a link to the Force. Luke on the other hand has. In his home-built hotrod aircraft, with no formal fighter pilot training and no decent instrumentation, Luke can regularly score centre-hits on 2-metre targets in complicated zero-altitude maneouvres. Until he attends the briefing on Yavin, Luke has no way of knowing that hardened combat pilots would consider that nearly impossible. To him it's easy. Obi-Wan, who saw Anakin's performance in the Pod Race, is nervous.

Much of Obi-Wan's behaviour in this film, and Yoda's in the next, can best be understood if they are frankly scared to death of what Luke might become. (Ben is also scared that he himself will make all the same mistakes he made with Anakin.)

Now, with the existence of the rebellion at stake, Bail Organa has finally told Leia to go see Obi-Wan and has sent her along with R2. The original plan would then be for Obi-Wan (with optional Luke and/or Leia in tow) to leave his exile and take the Death Star plans to Yavin, where they can be put to use. R2 (with Leia if Ben doesn't want to take her) would then carry on to Alderaan to maintain the cover story. The original plan does not survive contact with a large Imperial Star Destroyer.

R2 and 3PO bail out in an escape pod, landing in vaguely the right area of Tattoine, where R2's first priority is transport. He arranges to be captured by a group of Jawas and, once on board their transport, he makes a deal with them (possibly using emergency funds stored about his person) to take him where he wants to go. The Jawas refuse to go directly to Kenobi for fear of marauding Sandpeople but they agree to R2's second request : transport to the Skywalker farm. They even get to keep the purchase price if they can sell R2 and 3PO there. The Jawas shake on it and go through with the plan.

Seeing 3PO fail to recognise the farm where he worked for 10 years gives r2 a moment's amusement but, as soon as possible, he gets away and heads for Kenobi. Luke and 3PO follow, which may or may not have been part of the plan.

On first seeing R2, Obi-Wan has a twinkle in his eye and calls him "my little friend". Well, he is. However, when Luke wakes up and says that R2 claimed to be owned by an Obi-Wan Kenobi, he blandly says "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Ben has in fact owned several but the remark is aimed at R2 and translates as "You keep quiet. I'm not about to tell him everything just yet." Obi-Wan thinks fast and tells Luke a version of his past that does not involve a father who became a dark lord of the Sith. He wants to examine Luke a lot more closely before he risks telling him the real truth.

Although the Death Star plans need to get to Yavin as soon as possible, Obi-Wan needs to make one more diversion first. If the Empire knows that Leia is a Rebel leader, then they also know about her father and the whole Organa family may need immediate evacuation. Fortunately, before coming to Tattoine, R2 had already arranged transport, which is waiting at Mos Eisley, under the command of the Rebellion's other chief field agent and espionage asset. Chewbacca.

20 years earlier, Chewbacca was second in command of the defence of his planet. He's there in the tactical conferences and there on the front lines and is a personal friend of Yoda's. When he needed reliable people to join the embryonic Alliance, who else would Yoda turn to but his old friend from Kashykk? Given his background, there is no way that Chewie would spend the crucial years of the rebellion as the second-in-command to (sorry Han) a low-level smuggler. Unless it's his cover. In fact, Chewie is a top-line spy and flies what is in many ways the Rebellion's best ship.

The Millenium Falcon may look like a beat-up old freighter but it can outrun any Imperial ship in normal space or hyperspace, hang in a firefight with a Star Destroyer or outmaneouvre a dozen top-of-the-line TIE fighters. It's a remarkable feat of engineering and must have cost a colossal fortune to build. How does Han come to own a ship like that? He only thinks he does, actually it's Chewie's. Half-way through RotS, we see the Falcon landing at the Senate building on Coruscant. If it's the same ship (which of course it is) then it was the personal transport of one of the senatorial delegations - a much more likely source to commission its design. That delegatino must have later joined the Rebellion and given it the use of the Falcon. In fact, if the delegation is the one from Kashykk, then the ship may have belonged to Chewbacca as early as RotS.

Han is Chewie's front man. It's much better, and safer for him, if he doesn't know what's really going on. Chewie used to work with Lando Calrissian in a similar way but Lando wanted to settle down, so Chewie arranged for him to lose the Falcon in a card game to Han Solo, an even better choice as partner. Han and Chewie's working method is pretty much what we see in the cantina scene: Chewie make the contacts and sets up the deals, then turns them over to Han who haggles over the price and gives the final yea or nay. This lets Chewie wander the seamy underside of the galaxy pretty much at will, making contacts, gathering and passing information with no-one was the wiser, especially not Han.

Chewie persuaded Han to do business with Jabba the Hutt so he could make regular runs to Tattoine, where Chewie could pass messages between Kenobi and Organa. When R2's urgent message came through only days before, the only way for Chewie to get back to Tattoine in time was to make the "mistake" that forced Han to dump his cargo to avoid capture. As a down side, this led to Solo's getting a death mark out on him from Jabba the Hutt. Chewie was a bit upset about the need for that but figured they weren't going to be dealing with Tattoine for much longer.

En route to Alderaan, R2 and Chewie play stop-motion chess. This is the latest in a series of games they've played over the year in the back rooms of space stations and cantinas across the galaxy, but this is the first time they've done it in front of their respective straight men, so they put on a big show.

Then it all goes wrong again. Alderaan is gone and the Falcon is caught and brought aboard the Death Star. Only Han, Luke and 3PO don't know just how much trouble they're in but Obi-Wan has a plan and seems confident (but Jedi always do). Soon afterwards, R2 finds Leia in the detention cells and shouts that they have to rescue her, to which Chewie can only agree. If Vader learns he has a daughter, then they're all in deep trouble, so Chewie does his bit to persuade Han to go along with Luke's plan.

Then, on the verge of escape, Vader himself turns up only yards from both of his children, one of whom is leaking Force all over the place. Obi-Wan stages a distraction by letting himself die and go into the Force while the others escape. At this point, Chewie suddenly realises that he's been left in charge, not only of the Death Star Plans and the survival of the Rebellion but of the secret son and daughter of Darth Vader. With the Organas and Kenobi all dead, only Chewie, R2 and Yoda know who Luke and Leia are. And only Ob-Wan knew where Yoda has been hiding. Chewie is stressed out by the responsibility and R2 (who keeps making crude jokes about the whole affair) is being no help at all.

Chewie's first problem is what is happening between Luke and Leia. With a psychic link they can feel but don't understand, thrown together in a life-or-death escape, they are looking at each other with a sparky intensity that Chewie gradually recognises as Romantic Tension. He's no expert on human relationships but Chewie is fairly sure that that's Wrong, so he does the only thing he can under the circumstances - he throws Han at her. Han is at first not interested but after a while starts to warm to the idea with an intensity that gives Chewie new worries.

When they reach Yavin, Han decides to take the money and run and Chewie decides to go with him. Looked at in cold light, it's for the good of the Rebellion. Even if Yavin is destroyed, there'll be one agent who knows what's going on who can try and put something back together, but he doesn't feel good about it. When Han decides to turn around and join the attack, Chewie is all for it.

Han and Luke get medals but Chewie doesn't. Actually, Leia offers him one but Chewie turns it down. He got one of those things from Yoda about 20 years ago, but there's no way he can tell her that.

As the film ends, the three founders of the Rebellion are all gone. Bail Organa is dead, Yoda is out of contact and Obi-Wan's ghost can only talk to other Jedi. (So that would be Yoda then.) Thus, the field leadership of the rebellion has just been turned over to the daughter of Darth Vader. Chewie is really hoping that someone with an official rank greater than hers will get here real soon before he has to think really seriously about option C.

© Keith Martin 2005

Bracket BUSTED

2010-03-28T20:04:00.001-04:00

I have no Final Four teams left.

Move along.

My Bracket After the First & Second Rounds

2010-03-22T16:30:00.004-04:00

My bracket is a mess.
I have just eight of the Sweet 16, four of the Elite 8, two of the Final Four, and my NCAA Champion left. Yuck. In the south bracket, I missed 11 of the possible 15 games. Yuck.

From Blogger Pictures

YUCK.

My Bracket after Day One

2010-03-19T10:56:00.002-04:00

Click on this little guy to see the full size greatness of my bracket.

From Blogger Pictures

The Best Sports Days of the Year

2010-03-19T09:09:00.003-04:00

I said it last night before the last few games even finished. Thursday, March 18th, the first day of the NCAA Tournament, was the best day ever in the NCAA tourney:

Seven lower-seeded teams won games Thursday, including five double-digit seeds, the most on the opening day of the tournament since 1991.
Eight of the 16 games were decided in OT or by a 3 points or less (that hadn't happened on the first day since the field expanded in 1985), 11 of the 16 were decided by single-digits and three games went to overtime.
Eight out of 16 being decided in OT or by 3 points or less. Consider this: There were a grand total of nine of those games in the entire 2009 tournament.

The first round isn't even done yet! We still get 16 more games today to wrap up the first round. Amazing.

Here is a list of the upsets and the finishes:

No. 14 seed Ohio stunned No. 3 seed Georgetown 97-83 in a rout that wasn't even that close.
No. 13 seed Murray State upset No. 4 seed Vanderbilt 66-65 on a shot as time expired.
No. 11 seed Washington beat No. 6 seed Marquette 80-78 on a shot with 1.7 seconds left.
No. 11 seed Old Dominion upset No. 6 seed Notre Dame 51-50 in a game that was as slow as the score indicates.
No. 10 seed Saint Mary's knocked off No. 7 seed (and trendy sleeper) Richmond 80-71, winning its first NCAA tournament game since 1959.
No. 9 seed Northern Iowa defeated No. 8 seed UNLV 69-66 on a 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds to play.
No. 9 seed Wake Forest ralllied from eight down in OT to beat No. 8 seed Texas 81-80 on a 14-foot jumper with 1.3 seconds left.

The opening round games, with 16 on both days, are the two greatest days in sports on a yearly basis. My list would go:

1) Opening Round NCAA Tournament
2) Super Bowl
3a) Final Four (The two semis)
3b) Final Four (The final)
5) AFC & NFC Championship games
6) Game 7 of a World Series (too hard to know when the final game WILL be, so you gotta just go and hope for a Game 7. Stupid "series").
7) Wimbledon Final
8) Sunday at The Masters (especially if that Sex Tiger is swinging his club around {golf club you pervs}).

Note: I can't be bothered to do my own research. The bullet points are all from ESPN.com.

Thank you for the well wishes....

2010-03-17T12:58:00.002-04:00

.... because it is St. Me Day!

Love it. Wear green, drink green drinks and give me presents.

This day is all about me.

I love Cliff Lee

2010-03-17T10:12:00.003-04:00

My Mariners made a huge off season trade to bring in Cliff Lee, a Cy Young winner, and a few other keys to the puzzle that will hopefully lead us back to the playoffs and behind.

And my man Cliff Lee is already fired up and throwing at people in spring training. Don't mess with the M's, baby.

Blackberry users all want an iPhone

2010-03-16T15:26:00.002-04:00

I'm about to get my first smartphone - a BlackBerry - when I switch to my new job. As a techno-nerd, I'm super excited for this. While I have shown my love and desire for an iPhone in the past, I will be more than satisfied (I imagine) with getting a BlackBerry. Heck, it's free.

But apparently I'm not the only one wanting an iPhone (or even a Google Nexus One, as a second option) over the BlackBerry. In fact, many BlackBerry owners would switch in a heartbeat for an iPhone (PC World).

I want 3G access on my iPod Touch

2010-03-15T15:11:00.002-04:00

I want 3G access for my iPod Touch.

Don't get me wrong, I know I said earlier that I crave the iPad, but what I always wanted was 3G on my little Touch.

From the start, some of the built-in apps didn't make sense, like having maps on the Touch. I mean, once you leave your house, you can't use the maps application until you are at another free Wi-Fi spot. Now, on the other hand, if you type in a route before you leave the house, it keeps it stored and loaded so you can navigate there.... just don't try to detour on the way.

With 3G I would basically have an iPhone minue the phone part. I know, just like the iPad, you would have to pay either 15 or 30 dollars a month to get the data access, but that would be worth it for me. You can't really take the iPad with you in the real world unless you had a backpack or manbag with you. It would be nice to have the iPad when waiting at the airport or on road trips.

But it would also be nice to have 3G on my Touch! That is the goal!

Now, after just getting my Touch for Christmas, I bet by this coming Christmas they will be making new iPod Touch units with 3G.

That is always my luck.

Ooooops, only 3-1 now....

2010-03-15T13:39:00.002-04:00

Oh intramurals, how you enforce your rules and disqualify our huge win.

This WIN, does not count. Officially a 2-0 loss. We had two players (who were both interns, but were classified as something different, and thus, ineligible to play intramurals) declared illegal so we had to take that game as a loss.

Not sure why they picked that game, but maybe the most they dock you is one game... not sure. Regardless we are in the playoffs, which start soon.

Game 4 Recap, a.k.a. SUBBBBBB!!!!!!!!

2010-03-12T10:24:00.009-05:00

No D just improved to 4-0 with a solid, albeit shorthanded, effort from five brave souls:

Sumner, Kenny, Scotty Poo, Alan & and yours truly.

When you have a squad of dedicated semi-professionals like that quintet then you are almost assured a win.

We came out a bit sluggish and cold, missing most of our shots early on. We limped out of the gates and trailed 13-7 early. Soon enough it was 15-15, and we traded baskets until the merciful halftime rest/break/hydration-station, up 22-21.

They had two guys who can be politely referred to as "space fillers," with one of these guys almost certainly being Kevin Smith, though not as funny or talkative. The guy I guarded could have been a mute for all I know.

They had one really good girl, who had 70% of their shots, passes, rebounds and basketball skills as a team. Other than that they were sorta average (not that we were a great team, but you know).

We had two time outs that we could use in the second half, and we were already planning on using them to get a much needed rest in the second half, regardless of the score in the game.

I picked of three first half fouls, so I had to be more careful and tentative in the second half. And it worked, I never picked up my fourth, while still staying aggressive in the paint. If I had fouled out it would have been four-on-five the rest of the game. Yikes.

After catching as much rest as we could at the half, the second half started with a quick flurry from us to take a decent lead.

Slowly but surely we took control and kept it, and with seven minutes left we maintained a double digit lead for the rest of the game. I came alive, grabbing (it felt like) nearly every rebound on the defensive end (that Kenny didn't snare, of course) and scoring 10 points, including a pair of triples. One I banked in (skill, not luck) and the other was a dagger for the other team.

They were hanging in the game, then I tracked down another lose ball in the corner, and noticing a shorter person guarding me I decided to shoot one of my trademark 3's. I nailed it. I was, no joking, about one inch from being out of bounds deeeeeeeeeeeppppp in the corner, and drained it. Pure skill.

During that stretch the other team called a timeout, which we were grateful for, as we were nearly exhausted after our spurt.

Scotty nailed a mid-range Dennis Horner-like jumper, and Kenny was cleaning glass all day long like a guy at a mirror factory. He must have had a dozen boards, including one second half put-back on a missed shot.

Scotty made the most of it with some money ball handling, assists and cuts to the basket (though he did blow an amazing drive and dish from me when he let some kid block his shot).

Officially, Sumner finished with 20 points on a variety of jumpers and drives, and Alan had a quiet 14 points.

I pitched in 12 points, including a few free throws down the stretch to ice the game. I had well over a dozen boards by my unofficial count, and five blocks (should have been 7-to-10, but two were called fouls and I let a few more shots go so I wouldn't get called for the foul). Should have had the triple-double, but I'm not all about stats.

WIN, 50-34.

We finished the regular season 4-0, and now we will head to the playoffs with hopefully a full roster of able bodies.

And maybe that Kyle guy can remember where he left his jumper when he returns to the team after a suspension for missing too many easy shots and free throws.

(Actually he is out of town, but still, my suspension line sounds more dramatic.)

2010 Christmas List

2010-03-12T10:07:00.005-05:00

My 2010 Christmas List (so you can get an early start):

1) Apple iPad (despite that unfortunate name)

2) Win the lottery

That is all.

EyePet is Freaking Cute; Plans to Eat Wii for Dinner

2010-03-11T15:19:00.003-05:00

This snazzy new Sony game, bundled with a snazzy new motion control, "Move", looks darn cute. I'm sold. Kids will dig it and I know my wife will dig it.

Check out this VIDEO for the EyePet with Sony Move.

P.S. - That song is pimp. Fireflies by Owl City. Guy wishes he was Ben Gibbard, but alas, he is not.

Cosmo

2010-03-11T13:18:00.004-05:00

I hate to even write anything about that freaking magazine - Cosmopolitan.

On my way out the door this morning I saw the wife's copy of the latest Cosmo featuring that troll Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (Google it) on the cover. I then thought of all of the articles that I have heard about over the years that that magazine promotes and women everywhere read monthly with vigor:

"How to please your man in bed."

"Things to do when you are naked."

"What positions are silly good."

"Why can't I find a man, is it because I read all of this crap and now they all think I'm a slut?"

Women frown on magazines for men that have scantly clad women in them and advice and manly type talk. Yet a woman can read and browse that crap (with scantly clad men AND women) with no backlash? Just scan the link above from the Cosmo site and tell me if it is any worse - content wise - than this link from Maxim.

Sure there are plenty of photos of half naked chicks, but I don't see a ton of links like THIS.

FYI, might not want to click on those links during work, fools.

Conan O'Brien on Twitter

2010-03-11T12:53:00.006-05:00

I don't really like Twitter or want to have my own Twitter account (most of the time).

That being said, the occasional Twitter account can be fascinating.

Take twitter.com/conanobrien for example. Conan rules, and this is further proof.

I love his obvious choice of a profile picture showing a bearded Conan with an orangutan friend on his shoulders and his hilarious decision to follow only one person, a random Michigan woman ("I've decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change.").

His Twitter feed is vintage Conan. Here are some more choice tweets:

• Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me.

• This morning I watched Remington Steele while eating Sugar Smacks out of a salad bowl. I was naked.

• Today I connected all the freckles on my arm with a Sharpie. It spells out RIKSHAZ9LIRK. Clearly I am The Chosen One.

• If anyone's curious what I look like with a beard, it's this ?:^(0) Coincidentally, that's also my ATM pin number.

• I just had the fries at the McDonald's in Culver City near the Lady Foot Locker. SO AWESOME. If you can get there, ORDER THOSE FRIES.

• If I had a show, I'd tweet about which Oscar winner is coming on tonight. Instead, here's my favorite frozen vegetable: Peas!

I hate my stomach

2010-03-09T21:18:00.001-05:00

I am not trying to be gross or anything. But I write about my life and things that entertain me.

I have been having stomach issues for 37 hours and counting. Trust me I don't think you want anymore details.

Let's just say when I wake up Wednesday I better not feel like the guy from "Alien" that had that little mouth E.T. explode out of his stomach.

OK GO (watch these two videos)

2010-03-08T15:35:00.004-05:00

Two videos for the same song by OK Go. Both videos better than most.

Amazing.

Rube Goldberg Version

Marching Band With Sniper-Camo Horn Players Version (Yeah you read that right.)

(You also might remember these one-shot video specialists from their amazing treadmill video.)

So I did get that new job...

2010-03-08T14:36:00.003-05:00

... in case you were wondering. I've been getting hounded about it lately.

End of this month will be my last at the old place.

The new job is a 9-to-5 with no weekends, nights or travel required. I may never leave Wake County again.

Also, just so this post isn't completely pointless, check out this bizarre moment from the Oscars last night.

Plus, Tom Petty is coming to Raleigh. That is awesome.

Plus, the Norris Football League (NFL) starts back this Sunday.

Wow this is what a weekend is....

2010-02-27T15:58:00.001-05:00

So I applied for a new job that doesn't include nights and weekends and 70 hour work weeks. Would be nice. Whatthe heck is a Saturday and Sunday? Never had those off before.

Is it bad that if I get the job I hope they don't give me a company phone so I can get an iphone? I mean this is being typed on an iPod touch but still not REALLY the same ya know?

Oh well. Need to remember to post more so the wife will get off my butt.

Game 3 - Almost March Madness

2010-02-25T22:21:00.009-05:00

We are only a few days from March, but it started early on the hoops court at Carmichael Gymnasium.

We finally were tested, and in fact, trailed most of the game.

Keep in mind that in our game (against some stats/math nerds) who had a couple really quick guys and two decent inside guys we didn't take the lead until the four minute mark of the second half, so we trailed for the first 26 minutes of the game.

You must also keep in mind that these "refs" were the worst refs, EVEN for intramural refs. They never, ever, EVER communicated or talked to each other during the game. So when we would ask what the call was, or if we were shooting free throws, they would just stare at each other. One time the clock ran off 24 seconds in the first half, even though I asked 5 times why it didn't stop since they called a shooting foul. I asked two refs and even flagged down the scorers table. Finally one ref yelled at me to chill out and quit talking to him, and he then goes "we need to add time back on the clock." WTF. I kept telling you that!

Not only that but the other team was in the bonus, shooting 1-and-1 with nine minutes left in the first half. So six minutes into the game they had called us for seven fouls, most pretty cheap. Some were just body contact AFTER a clean rebound, or a guy would hit an easy layup and they would call a foul. Meanwhile, we were getting murdered on the other end (I know people complain that they don't get the calls but it was ridiculous).

To top it off, Liebert racked up two fouls and nearly everyone that played had 1-2 fouls in the first half. Liebert got his third foul early in the second half and he set for a bit.

Finally we got a few calls, including once for me to get to the line (sadly I only hit one of two).

We cut a double digit deficit to three points near the end of the first half, but they had a dramatic scramble and tip in as time expired to give them a five point cushion at the break.

After adjusting our strategy (no reaching in and solid boxing out) we started making a small run early in the half. But those math dudes kept pouring it on, and they built up an 11 point lead agan early in the second half.

Finally we started to play. CJ "How did I not get ejected from this game" Jones, aka. Dexter Adams, made three or four aggressive drives for layups and Koch and Sumner hit some big jumpers. I chipped in a couple mid range jumpers.

Finally, at the four minute mark we tied it up, and the score would go back and forth.

After a Sumner tip-in and then a put back by a guy so big and ugly that he looked like Dirk Nowitzki or something even Dirk wouldn't sleep with, it was back to our ball down one.

With no shot clock and a tie game, we held the ball with about two minutes left, hoping to hold for the last shot. With about a 45 seconds left, rando ref calls a three second call on Liebert, the first one of the game. In fact, we were playing four corners and were no where NEAR the lane. Worst call in the history of sports. LIEBERT WAS IN THE CORNER NEAR THE THREE POINT LINE! This ref had no CLUE what was going on, I bet he though the three second call was anywhere inside the three point line, he was seriously that bad.

We knew they would stall and go for the last shot. Instead of risking a made basket or a shooting foul with only a few seconds left, we opt to go to the aggressive route and go for the steal. If we don't get the steal, we foul them and the worst case scenario that happens is we make it harder for them to push the ball up the court. We only had three team fouls so we knew we had a few to play with before they shot 1-and-1 with seven fouls.

Nope, there was a worst case scenario. Little did we know any fouls inside of two minutes are automatically shooting fouls. WHAT THE HECK.

So we laughed it off and up the court we go. One of their better players takes the ball and steps to the line, and misses. Still alive, we can be ok. His second shot also misses, and we grab the rebound....... but for the first time all day, and for the first time since our first game, a ref calls a lane violation on us, giving the guy another shot. It was so close even the other team didn't realize the call and everyone thought it was a foul call.

With 30 seconds left he sinks his third attempt, which he shouldn't have even had, giving them a one-point lead.

After we call a timeout and draw up a play, they go into full court press mode which throws our plans off, Koch flies down from half court and gets to the rim, where he is hacked and will shoot a pair with 20 seconds left. Money in the bank.

Koch misses both. Dagger.

They snag the rebound and we foul them again. They hit 1-of-2 for a two-point lead.

CJ flies down the court and kicks it to Sumner, who swings it to Koch, three ball coming..... Five seconds left. Shoots. SWISH, two seconds left we are leading..... well actually it said 0.2 but the clock ran down too far. So it was a minute or two break while we all congratulated Koch for TOTALLY REDEEMING HIMSELF. In our celebration, something else was going on. With us nursing a one point lead and knowing they would get some shot, even if it is a Hail Mary, we had to be ready.

Two seconds on the clock. A whistle, and the next thing I know Kyle is at the line shooting technical foul shots. A kid for the other team got a technical for arguing/yelling at the ref about how much time should be left on the clock. Koch walks to the line and... MISSES THE FIRST. We should have made him shoot free throws after practice. He does sink the other one, giving us a two-point lead and we get the ball back with two seconds left. We pass it in to CJ and he is fouled with 1.2 left. He calmly heads to the line and sinks both, giving us a game-winning four-point margin. I did steal the in-bounds pass to seal it, but I don't want to brag.

Whew. So in the last 40 seconds of the game there was a 3-in-the-key call (first one all season in three games) during a four corners, spread the court drill, and there was a lane violation called (first all game and first since our first game) and a technical with two seconds left.

Whew, we escaped that one.

More after game four next Thursday.

Game 2 - No D vs. The Worst Team Ever, a.k.a. These Zoology Grad Students

2010-02-25T22:04:00.004-05:00

We opened up with a 13-0 run.... and I turned to my man Kenny "I'd rather be playing lacrosse" Lisi and said "I don't think they will score"..... I wasn't far off.

We easily scored at will, and stole the ball or grabbed the rebound on nearly every possession. Up 32-12 at the half, I had five points about about three boards, including an "And 1". I also stuck my hand in the passing lane on one play and the ball skipped off my arm into the forehead of one of their girls and out of bounds. Lisi couldn't hardly stand it he was laughing so hard. I didn't mean to do it. I promise.

Oh, and speaking of girls, we didn't realize that girls were allowed to play in the league we picked. No big deal, but their girls were terrible. This one girl, on the same possession, double-dribbled three straight dribbles. Bounce. Grab. Bounce. Grab..... by this point Sumner was telling the ref not to call it, then she did it one more time. Bounce. Grab. And the whistle blew. The ref: "Sorry, I had to call it."

Up 32-12 at the half, things just got uglier. We played a soft 2-3 zone so we wouldn't wear ourselves out and to, honestly, keep the score from getting out of hand. Sumner nailed three after three, and I had two monster blocks in the middle of the zone and a handful of rebounds. Eventually the score got to the point where we were approaching the skunk rule and wanted to get there ASAP to end this game and not make the damage too bad.

The skunk rule is up 50 points with seven minutes left (15 minute halves). After a few quick baskets we hit that, with a final score of 63-12. There was just under seven minutes left in the game. You saw that score right. We out scored them 31-0 in the second half.

31-0 and 63-12. Yikes.

Game 1 - No D vs. Some Engineering Type Team

2010-02-25T20:49:00.004-05:00

Intramurals are fun. The refs are very solidly trained.... more on that later.

Things went according to our game plan in this one - win big and don't play any defense.

Up about nine at the half, we were playing pretty sloppy. Thank God for Pat "He's going to kill someone out there" Liebert and his hustle plays made up for the fact that Brian "I would impregnate Larry Bird" Kelly and Kyle "I forgot that I played hoops in college judging by the way I have been shooting" Koch struggled to find their shots all game. Liebert was solid, grabbing boards, getting to the line, making steals and generally scaring the Asian kids so bad that they were afraid of losing a tooth to the wild man.

We ended up winning by 19, as Michael "I was on a Wheaties box, you little Hobbit ref" Sumner started heating up in the second half and we cruised easily.

I think I ended up with four points and two boards.

But the most important play of the day came from Sumner. The little Hobbit ref called Sumner for a technical. Then Liebert got a warning for grabbing the net.

And we are wearing Sportsmanship jerseys. Oh, and Sumner had a sportsmanship shirt on UNDER his jersey. And he got a technical.

Go figure.

Distict 9 - STANK

2010-01-01T11:38:00.004-05:00

HOLY CRUD APPLES.

District 9 is amazing. The minute it ended, I made up my mind that it was the greatest sci-fi movie of all-time. Heck, I decided that before it was over. This is coming from a huge fan of sci-fi, with all-time favorites of 2001, Blade Runner, Aliens, etc. At the very least it is the best sci-fi since Aliens, and that speaks volumes.

Set in South Africa, with a first-time director/writer and a completely unknown cast, District 9 is fantastic (I love the word fantastic, it's fantastic) from start to finish. The special effects are top notch, and the concept and design of the aliens are fresh and in many ways, very original. In fact, the idea that the alien ship was disabled/damaged and was filled with "worker bees" aliens that had little chance of surviving or even appearing to be "advanced beings" on the surface. They are treated as refugees at best, and scourge of the Earth at worst.

Don't fret for the aliens, because there is hope. After 20 years in what is in essence a concentration camp, the one alien with any semblance of being a leader is ready to launch it. Bad break for my man Christopher Johnson (the Americanized name given to him by the humans), as his alien juice gets ingested by the main government goon sent to relocate the non-humans (as the aliens are called). This guy - Wickus - is the hero, but he, perhaps, could be the anti-hero with some twists I won't spoil.

Rent this movie today, even if you aren't a fan of aliens or sci-fi. The human elements and themes throughout are more than worth it.