Hobbies that drive the wife insane!

My newest addiction! Modern Warfare 2

2010-01-27T18:13:00.002-07:00

Just started playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the X-Box 360. I have always liked first person shooters, but this game is just way too much fun. I picked it up so I could play with/against some friends who live up in Seattle and also in Las Vegas. Ill post more on this game once I get a chance to play it more.

Here is a link to the webpage for the game, as well as some screenshots.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Pinhead as a baby

2009-03-26T09:55:00.001-06:00

This could be the one of the greatest photos of all time!

Action Comics #1 Auction ended

2009-03-15T08:43:00.002-06:00

SYSTEM OF A DOWN drummer John Dolmayan paid $317,200 for the first comic book featuring Superman in an Internet auction. John is known as a buyer and seller of comics for years now.

Always cool when these books show up on the market. From what I read the guy selling the book purchased it for $.35 back in 1950 at a second hand store. He had kept it all these years. That is pretty impressive.

Only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to exist and they seldom come up for sale.

I call for a worldwide boycott of the following movie remakes!

2009-02-27T09:19:00.002-07:00

Okay seriously, what the fuck is going on in the world of film? In an age where the lower budget indie films keep coming in with big wins at the awards why are the major players pumping out remakes? I have never understood, and never will understand the purpose of taking a film and remaking it. Isnt that like taking a book and rewriting it and selling it as new? This trend must stop. People, please please please stop paying to go see these craptastic sewer wastes.

Here is a list of movies that have already been greenlighted, or are in talks to be done:

The Neverending Story
Total Recall
The Evil Dead
The Shadow
Conan the Barbarian
Hellraiser
Tron
Fahrenheit 451
A Nightmare On Elm Street
Fame
The Thing
Angel Heart
Dune
Footloose
Short Circuit
Red Sonja
Metropolis
Escape From New York
Meatballs
The Warriors
Westworld
The Birds
Clash of the Titans
Akira
The Dirty Dozen
The Fly

STOP PAYING TO SEE THESE FILMS!

The only way Hollywood is going to stop this injustice is if people just stop paying to see them. There are thousands and thousands of screenwriters out there trying to get their scripts sold. Most are shit, a lot are not. I think studio execs need to start taking chances on some unknowns instead of dumping millions into movies that have already been made. Remakes are insulting, and degrading to the original work.

Take a chance on some new material. The next Slumdog or Juno just might show its face.

Definately Metallisuck

2009-01-29T13:56:00.003-07:00

I have been listening to Slacker radio all day today and hearing some pretty cool new music here and there. I was really excited when the song "My Apocalypse" off the new Death Magnetic release from Metallica came on. I have been really scared to listen to anything off this album since it came out.

I am really sorry I even listened to it.

Metallica has just NOT been good since the release of "...And Justice For All". I know everyone thinks the "Black" album was their shining moment, but I disagree. I actually didnt care for the "Black" album all that much. It had a few decent songs on it, but just did not have the raw power, killer rifts, or crushing drums of previous releases.

Two things have happened in the history of Metallica that caused them to spiral downhill for me.

1) The death of Cliff Burton
2) They cut their hair off.

Metallica's sound completly changed after Cliff passed away and Jason Newstead came into the band. I did still enjoy "...And Justice for All" even though I felt it was not on par with the previous albums. Really take a listen to "Kill 'Em All", "Ride the Lightning", and "Master of Puppets". Listen to the way the music flows together and just assaults you. Then listen to "...And Justice for All". The music no longer flowed as one. It had that chop chop bass sound that Newstead used during his Flotsom and Jetsom days. It changed the way the band worked when he joined.

Everything after this point has just gotten worse and worse. There was high hope for "Death Magnetic" and from the sales figures I am in the minority here. If the rest of the release is anything like My Apocalypse...no thank you.

I shall continue to refer to you as Metallisuck when speaking of anything after "Master of Puppets". I wish they would just hang it up and call it done. It is as if all their power came from the hair. Once that was gone, so were they.

If you want to hear how a song called My Apocalypse should sound...go listen to Arch Enemy and the song of the same title.

The man, the legend - Neil!

2009-01-29T07:48:00.006-07:00

Found a great interview/article today on one of my favorite singer/songwriters...Neil Diamond. Yes you did read that correctly. I cant help it. Neil is the man!

Neil Interview

Actually it is quite funny to be sitting here reading an article about Neil Diamond while I have some Lamb of God playing on my Ipod. Oh wait, it just switched to a little Venom.

Anyways...great article and after reading the interview I know now why I think Neil is one of the class acts out there. Never takes his career for granted, nor the fans. I have had the pleasure of seeing him live 4 times now and each show is simply amazing. I even took my wife to a show once, and she wasnt really into him. Yup, she is a fan now.

I am looking forward to this weekend!!!

2009-01-23T18:17:00.002-07:00

I am very excited about this weekend. To start the weekend off the little man, Drew, has a "parents night out" function at his Tae Kwon Do school. This is where we get to drop him off from 7:00pm to 10:30pm to play games, eat pizza, and we get to go do something just the two of us. So what are we going to do with our 3 1/2 hours of togetherness? Why, we are going to go sit at Barnes and Noble so that Jayna can study for her HR test tomorrow. We are going to get coffee, she is going to study, and I am going to wonder around and see if there is a book I can convince myself to read.

Tomorrow morning we are going to have to get up at 6:30 so that Jayna can make it to her test by 8:00. I know what you are thinking and I agree...6:30am on a Saturday is JUST NOT RIGHT! For the sake of honesty I must admit that Jayna is absolutely terrible about getting out of bed on time. That means that I have to get up in time so that I can force her out of bed so she can be on time. Once I do this there is no way I am going back to sleep. So I might as well get up, make coffee, and get in some Warcraft play time or something.

After her test we are going to go pay for the rest of Drew's birthday party (which is coming up in a couple weeks now). Then we are going to head home, do some work around the house like fixing the dog area in the garage, clean up the living room, and try to make the house look not so cluttered.

Saturday night is going to be a blast. I am going to take my wife out on an actual date night. Drew is going to spend the night at some friends house so mom and dad are going out. I think we are going to do something like dinner and then bowling! Bowling and beer. White trash night here we come!

Sunday will be spent sleeping in! Well okay, not really sleeping in since we do have to go get Drew at some point. We are actually really funny about getting a whole night to ourselves. We will go out to eat, get to bowling and about 30 minutes into it we will both be missing Drew. It actually takes effort to NOT just go pick him up and head home.

Sunday night I have a hockey game but since it is a late game I think Jayna and Drew are going to stay home.

I love the weekends I dont have to work. Especially the ones where I get to go out with the wife!

Yo, get my party on and stuff.

Aggrivation, skiing and booty kicking!

2008-12-18T17:06:00.004-07:00

Christmas vacation was scheduled to start this Friday for Drew. His first official school vacation! This is a big deal you know. That first school break you kid has kinda makes you realize that he is growing up way too fast. Okay there are a lot of other things that do that like the fact that he can do just about everything himself, he doesnt like you cleaning his face in public any more, and that he talks back too.

Anyways...since we both work we had to find a sitter for Drew during his time off. My parents offered to take him on Friday, but they wanted to go to the cabin this week. So, they took Drew with them on Tuesday and the little guy got 3 extra days of vacation! He left Tuesday around noon and later that day I recieved a call that went something like this:

"Hi daddy. I won aggrivation."

"You did what?"

"I kicked Opa (that is what his calls grandpa) out of the game and then I beat Oma (what he calls grandma)"

"Wow, that is really great Drew. Are you being a good boy?"

"Yup, I am kicking booty!"

Then yesterday they took him skiing up at Tamarack. The call I got was:

"Hi daddy, I won."

"You what?" - notice a pattern forming here?

"I beat Opa and Oma down the hill. I was the leader."

"Wow, that is really great Drew. Are you being a good boy?"

"I kicked their booties!"

Yup, that is my son. He comes home tonight. I hope he isnt wanting to "kick our booty!"

Avalanche vs. Oilers tonight!

2008-10-23T12:40:00.002-06:00

I am excited for some more Avalanche action tonight. They are playing the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers lost 3 - 0 to the Blackhawks last night and if they play like they did in that game the Avs are going to tear them up.

Go Avalanche!

Finally, a first win.

2008-10-17T10:26:00.002-06:00

It was a pretty bad start to the NHL season for my Avalanche. Well, they finally won a game last night against the Flyers. Final score?

5 to 2.

I hope this is the turning point for them and they can keep it going. For the first time this season they looked extremely strong on both offensive and defense.

I also hope this also means my team will win our first game this weekend. I play on 2 different teams at 2 different rinks. One team is doing pretty well so far. We won our first game, then had a buy, and then tied our next game. The other team has yet to win a game. Lost 3 straight.

I guess I will find out on Sunday. I have a game at 11:00am that day as well as another one at 6:00pm.

Joe Elliott = TOOL!

2008-10-15T14:27:00.002-06:00

So the other day I posted a nice rant about how insulting it was that Joe Elliott from Def Leppard placed the Stanley Cup upside down. He now has the disrespect to say, in a recent interview:

"I will, as always, take full responsibility for what happened because I have big pucks. However, someone at the NHL should have known better and informed me first instead of keeping the Stanley Cup under lock and key until the last minute. The practice run the day before with a coffeemaker went swimmingly because it, like every other sporting cup I've ever seen, was wider at the top than the base. Ironic, isn't it, that after that night's gig, a NHL insider told me that long ago the Stanley Cup was also designed to be put down that way? Like most of my fellow Brits, I'd never seen it before until it was handed to me sideways by which time I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right. Whoops..."

Okay first off...fuck you Joe. The NHL should have known better? Okay sure, they could have told you how the cup stood...but maybe you should have stepped up and actually did some research on the league, and the trophy you are being paid to promote! Step up, be a man and actually look shit up youself you asshat! Never seen it before? They are paying you to promote their product. How about you do some research on the product?

This guy is a tool!

It's yellow, a belt, and Drew is the proud owner!

2008-10-12T10:00:00.005-06:00

My son tested for his yellow belt on Friday night. He was so excited I was amazed he could even stand still.

He tested.

He did amazing!

He passed.

I have never seen him more proud of anything before. It was an amazing night for him.

Then to top it all off he got to pick where we went for dinner. He picked "The Red Bird" as he calls it, or Red Robin as it is named. He wanted it to go because he had to be home in time to watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Secret Saturdays.

I am so proud of him!

I now pronounce you Def and Clueless Leppard

2008-10-10T14:28:00.002-06:00

Last night I got home from work in time to catch the last part of the "Rock the Face Off" I mentioned in an earlier post. Here are some suggestions I have for Def Leppard.

1 - FIRE YOUR SOUND GUY!
- Seriously. The mix was absolutley terrible. Joe Elliott sounded like he was trying to sing his way out of a huge cardboard box filled with pudding. Whoever was doing the mixing for the mic needs to stop standing next to the speakers. It has severly damaged their ability to hear, let alone provide a good sound mix.

2 - KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THE STANLEY CUP IS BEFORE YOU SIGN UP TO SING FOR THE NHL
- I know Hockey is not a huge sport in Sheffield you blokes, but do some fucking research. It was completely insulting to watch Joe take the cup, set it down like he was so honored to be even holding it - AND THEN SET IT DOWN UPSIDE FUCKING DOWN! If all the stars were to align in the perfect cosmic position that resulted in anyone from Def Leppard actually reading this blog I hope it will inspire them to spend even 5 minutes researching what they are promoting.

3 - IF YOU HAVE MAN BOOBS...BUTTON YOUR SHIRT
- I know at one point in the late 70's and early 80's there was an entire small country worth of females who wanted to ride the Def Leppard trouser train. I know at some point you guys were one of the biggest, hottest bands out there. I also know that at a certain point in your career you have to take a step back and say "Wow, I have gotten old. I look like I have man boobs and a gut. Nobody wants to see that so maybe I can just cover it up."

Now, my note to the NHL.

Next time you are going to do a huge party before the start of the season...hire entertainers who actually know ANYTHING about Hockey. When asked about placing the cup upside down Joe Elliott responds with "How are we supposed to know, we are soccor boys."

Are you trying to bring the NHL all the way down to the bottom? No? Then stop doing stupid shit every year that seems like you are.

Maybe they need to hire a NHL fan to run their promotions. Maybe then the promotions might actually make Hockey look good.

Okay, my ranting is done. Maybe its because my AVS lost last night.

Avalanche playing tonight VS. Boston Bruins

2008-10-09T10:38:00.003-06:00

I love the start of the NHL season. I REALLY love the start of the season when my team plays the first official night. They are really starting this year off with a bang it looks like.

Sarah Palin will be dropping the puck at the Flyers vs. Rangers game tonight.

The NHL is kicking off the 2008-09 season with an event called "NHL Face Off Rocks". This event will take place at the Fox Theater in Detroit with the band Def Leppard.

In Montreal Canada the "Face Off Rocks" party is taking place at Place des Arts with Alanis Morissette.

They are really trying to attract people to watching this season. I have always been a die hard hockey fan. I guess I just cant understand why Hockey is not one of the top 3 sports in this country. It is fast paced, energetic, hard hitting, and simply the most exciting game to watch live. Is it because you can only pronounce about 10 players names without some kind of international language degree? Is it because the number of goals is small? Hell I don't know, but I do know that it really is one of the greatest sports out there. If you have not watched a hockey game before - START. Dont worry about the rules yet - just watch and see how fast these guys move. How hard they hit. Most of all, remember that when they line up for a slap shot some of these guys are able to get that puck moving at over 100 miles per hour.

Of course I have to end this with a mandatory...

GO AVALANCHE!

My little Jackie Chan!

2008-10-08T17:46:00.002-06:00

I just received a phone call that made me smile so big I just had to post it here. My phone rings and when I answer I hear Drew on the other end.

"Daddy. You are on speaker."

"Hi Drewman. How was school today?" I ask.

"Daddy. In two days I test for my yellow belt."

"I know buddy. That is awsome. Are you excited?"

"I am so excited you cant believe it. Heeeyaaaa chop!"

It was at this point the connection broke up and disconnected. I am left with the image of Jayna driving home with Drew in the back attacking the back of the seat. I am sure that seat is the evil Megatron and only the supreme martial arts expert Optimus Prime Drew can defeat him.

Robot martial arts. Yup, that is my son.

Samael and Amorphis in Seattle

2008-10-02T18:35:00.004-06:00

I just saw a posting that the band Samael will be playing in Seattle on October 10th. They are playing at El Corezone . I am not going to be able to make this show as I work next weekend and it is too short notice to get up there. If you are in the area I would STONGLY suggest checking out this show. I am hooked on their release SOLAR SOUL.

If you read this, and you do make it to the show...let me know how it was. I would love to see these guys live.

They happen to be playing with a favorite of mine - AMORPHIS. Now I must say that I happen to prefer the Amorphis that still had Pasi Koskinen singing. Although "Silent Water" was not a bad release and Tomi Joutsen does a pretty good job on vocals. Either way it would be great to see them and see how Tomi does singing the older stuff.

Also...this Friday the same place is having Helloween playing along with Gama Ray. That might be a good show as well.

Then Saturday night October 4th they will have The Cruxshadows. I ended up missing the show here in Boise last night so someone please go to this show and let me know how they were!

Fuck Hollywood!

2008-10-02T15:31:00.003-06:00

I mean it. Fuck Hollywood.

I mean seriously...is there any studio exec that actually has an orignal thought or are they all tied together like the Borg collective?

The latest brilliant idea to come out of these fuckwits is the planned remake of "Angel Heart."

If you have not seen this movie you need to see it. The film stars Mickey Rourke as Harry Angel. Angel is a detective who is hired by Louis Cypher (Robert DiNero) to track down a musician who broke a contract with Cypher. The film also stars Lisa Bonet and caused a big stir with it's graphic sex scene.

This film is one of my favorite films and my top Mickey Rourke film of all. He is simply amazing. This ranks up there with his performance in Barfly for me. Say what you want about him now, back in the day he was amazing. Okay he is still amazing as an actor - when he decides to pick actual good movies to be in.

Anyways. It appears that New Line execs (fucktards) Michael De Luca, Alison Rosenzweig and Michael Gaeta have purchased the remake rights to the film from some UK firm. They also picked up the rights to the book Fallen Angel by William Hjortsberg. This is the book the Mickey Rourke film was based off of.

There is just no way this remake can even come close to compairing with the original. To some extent I would classify it right up there with the remake of Psycho. There are some things you just dont fuck with, and Hitchcock is one of them. They are probably going to get some Michael Bay wannabe tard who is going to turn this thriller into some kind of action flick using washed up Matrix style shots with "inventive" new camera angles and shitty color filters and fuzzy focus.

They will probably get some pretty boy actor like Shia to play Harry, with Miley Cyrus in the Lisa Boney role (oh yeah and they will NOT include the graphic sex scene) - and then someone like Sean William Scott playing Cypher. Oh god - I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

These half-wit, money hungry, no talent assclowns couldnt form an original idea if they had to. This remake is the dumbest idea I have ever heard.

Oh, and just to twist the blade and rub salt in the wound this created in me...here is a list of other planned remakes:

Conan The Barbarian

Friday the 13th

Hellraiser (grrrr this one almost pisses me off as much as Angel Heart)

The Birds (again - dont fuck with Hitchcock)

Escape from New York (oh fuck me NOOOOOOOOOOO!)

The Thing (what is with screwing with Kurt Russel/John Carpenter classics?)

The Cruxshadows show was moved

2008-09-25T09:57:00.002-06:00

It appears that the show on October 1st for The Cruxshadows has been moved. It is still taking place on the 1st, but it will now be at Visual Arts Collective Garden City ID

The Sisters of Mercy - Can you say ROADTRIP!!!!

2008-09-25T09:26:00.003-06:00

Very exciting news for me today. For some random reason I can not explain I decided to check out my favorite bands website.

The Sisters of Mercy

I never check this site because it never seems to get updated. Well, what do you know - it was updated. Today. First time in 2 years. And guess what...

THE SISTERS ARE BACK IN THE U.S.A. FOR ANOTHER TOUR!!!

Here are the concert dates and locations:

October 27 Buffalo New York Town Ballroom

October 28 Toronto Ontario Phoenix Theatre

October 29 Montréal Québec Club Soda

October 31 Philadelphia Philadelphia The Trocadero

November 01 Worcester Massachusetts The Palladium

November 03 New York New York Irving Plaza

November 04 New Haven Connecticut Toad's Place

November 05 Washington DC 9:30 Club

November 07 Richmond Virginia The National

November 09 Orlando Florida House of Blues

November 10 St Petersburg Florida Jannus Landing

November 11 Atlanta Georgia Variety Playhouse

November 13 Cleveland Ohio House of Blues

November 14 Cincinnati Ohio Bogarts

November 15 Detroit Michigan Royal Oak Music Theatre

November 17 Chicago Illinois House of Blues

November 18 Minneapolis Minnesota First Avenue

November 20 Denver Colorado Odgen Theater

November 22 Portland Oregon Roseland

November 23 Seattle Washington El Corazón

November 24 Vancouver British Columbia Commodore

November 26 San Francisco California Warfield

November 28 Las Vegas Nevada House of Blues

November 29 San Diego California House of Blues

November 30 Anaheim California House of Blues

December 02 Los Angeles California Henry Fonda Theater

I am going to get tickets and head up to Seattle for the show there on November 23rd. This is a Sunday night so that works out well since I am off on Mondays. The show is being held at El Corazon. I have never been there so not sure how the venue is. Maybe I will call a couple friends that live up there and see if they have been. Might be another good excuse for a guys weekend.

Upcoming shows I would like to see

2008-09-18T17:18:00.002-06:00

I just found a couple of shows that are coming up here in Boise that I am planning on attending.

October 1st at the The Bouquet

The CruxShadows

For a full listing of shows for The Cruxshadows check out their website. They also have some streaming audio feed at the top so you can take a listen.

Tuesday October 21 at The Knitting Factory

Devildriver

And finally I think I am going to try to drag my wife to see this next show. I think it would be a blast to go with her since she isnt into this kind of music. Just to see how she reacts.

Sunday November 16 at The Knitting Factory

GWAR

In memory of those who lost their lives.

2008-09-11T07:22:00.000-06:00

New seasons of shows that I love

2008-09-03T18:33:00.006-06:00

September is going to be a great month for television watching. Some of my favorite shows are starting back up with new seasons this month so it is time to set the TiVo.

Entourage - Sunday 9-7-2008

Heroes - Monday 9-22-2008

Californication - Sunday 9-28-2008

Star Wars: The Clone Wars 10-3-2008

This will keep me occupied until October when the start of the 2008-2009 NHL season starts. Yup, getting NHL Center Ice again!

It is looking like I am going to have to wait until first part of 2009 for new episodes of Lost. Grrrrrrrr.

If anyone has any other series that they enjoy, or are looking forward to a first season of please let me know. Please no ER, House, or Grey's Anatomy. That is not my kind of show.

The Crucible of Man (Something Wicked Part II)

2008-08-29T12:09:00.003-06:00

Iced Earth has set release dates for their upcoming cd as follows:

Germany, Austria, Switzerland: September 5
Rest of Europe: September 8
USA, Canada: September 9

This is the follow up album to 2007's Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked Part I). This also is the first full length release which features the return of Matt Barlow on vocals.

There are audio samples available on the bands MySpace page.

Sakic is backic (wow what a lame title)

2008-08-28T14:34:00.002-06:00

Joe Sakic has resigned with the Avalanche for 1 more season. Finally - some GREAT news today!

Thank you Joe - made my day!

I am ashamed to admit that outsourcing makes sense now.

2008-08-28T09:27:00.003-06:00

It never ceases to amaze me how some people still have jobs. I have always been VERY against outsourcing. Each day that I come to work I am reminded why companies continue to do it. I can now understand why our econemy is terrible, why companies are losing money, and why we are laying off more and more people and outsourcing jobs.

I work with people that I if asked, I could not explain to you exactly what they do around here. I mean I can explain what they are supposed to do, but not what they actually do. It just blows me away that these people still have jobs, and really just confuses me how management just continues to turn a blind eye.

It was 5 months ago that I was told I would be switching job functions to work on a different system. It wasnt like "Hey, we are going to switch you to work on XXXXXX starting next week after some training." That would have been logical in most situations wouldnt it? Oh no, not around here. I came to work at the start of my week and was told "Oh, by the way, we are moving you up to XXXXXX starting today." To which I responded "I have never worked on that system before, is there going to be any training?" The answer I received was simply "Nope, good luck with that."

I was then told that the two guys they moved from that system to documentation would be responsible for training me. I figured that would be good since they were still part of our group. Holy crap was I completely on the wrong page. Not only did they refuse to train me, but the also would not help answer questions. This was even AFTER being advised more than a dozen times that they were required to do this. What happened to this people who batently refused to do what they were instructed to do? RAISES!

Now the documentation is done and they are back to be work on the same stuff I am. Each day we have about 6 or 7 reports that we generate as well as taking care of any outage tickets, server down issues, among other things. Last Friday I ended up doing all the reports, all the system access requests, server outages, missing file transfers, and basically everything else that came up. What were the two other guys who just came back doing? One was messeging back and forth on some forum while the other was watching movies. Finally after about 4 hours of this shit I turned to one of them and asked if they were actually going to help me by maybe doing their job. I shit you not when I tell you the reply:

"I dont have to do that stuff anymore. That is below my pay scale now."

To which I promptly informed them that they were still in the same position that I was and yes they were to do this. One of them actually told me "You should just shut up about stuff you have no clue about. I dont have to do that stuff and I am not going to. Dont talk to me any more."

I guess it is a sore subject with him or something. That or the fact that he did not get promoted like he told everyone he was going to made him bitter.

Come in to this week and we now have a new guy that moved to our system. In front of everyone the two happy guys were told that they were required to train this new guy. So yesterday the guy that comes in from 2 to 10 actually sat down and did some training. This was a shock, but of the two I figured he would be the one to step up. Come in today and the 6 to 2 person has yet to even talk to the new guy. He flat out refuses to train him, and has yet to do any of the work. Today has been IM'ing his buddy about some game, looking at those stupid cat pictures with the stupid "I haz cheezburger" or some shit saying on it, and that is about it. Oh yeah, and getting coffee every 10 minutes.

The thing that amazes me about this is the fact that nobody with any authority does anything about it. They all just turn a blind eye and let him get away with it. Why? I have no idea. I guess that is the way things are done around here.

And everyone is so shocked and pissed when they annouced lay-offs and outsourcing. The point I have to make here is - at least the India people actually do their work. Maybe if everyone around here would do the same we wouldnt have to get lay offs and outsourcing.

Wow, what an interesting concept...actually DOING the work they are PAYING you to do.

Nah, that would make sense.

Now serving a large plate of old age with a side of pain: TO GO!

2008-08-21T12:39:00.002-06:00

Do you know what really sucks?

The point in your life when you finally realize that no matter what you do, how you act, what you think, or how you live, you are getting old.

Yeah, I am at that point and it sucks.

Last Friday I flew up to Seattle to help a friend with an addition to his house. This particular friend is part of a group of friends that I have had since way back to 4th grade. We all keep in touch, and try to get together at least once a year. So when he called saying he was trying to get a guys weekend together I was ready to go. He let us know that he was asking us up to help with his house and also to have some fun.

I really like doing remodel work so this was going to be a great weekend. He hired builders to come in and do everything except the floor, painting and trim work. There was going to be 6 of us up there to help so we figured it would go by really fast.

It took us about 6 hours on Friday to get the Pergo floors done. It wasnt that big of a room, only about 600 sq feet, but we split up on floor and painting. I have officially been given my pornstar name by my friends as "Pounder". I had one guy cutting and placing the first set of boards on the left while the other two guys cut and placed the right side boards. I charged through all the middle boards, placed them, locked them in, pounded them tight, and made sure we were even on both ends.

The bonus to this particular day of work is the fact that people in Seattle have a strong fear of air conditioners. "It only gets warm a few weeks out of the year, you dont need one." Well let me tell you something Mr. THEY LIE! Friday turned out to be one of the hottest days they have had up there all year, and there was no AC. Imagine this...6 guys all doing flooring and painting in a room with no AC and 98 outside. The meat packing plant by my house stood a better chance of winning a pleasing oder compitition than the 6 of us.

So after we finished the floor we decided to call it a day for work. We got the volleyball net set up and proceeded to play 9 games of ball.

This is the point in the story when I can tell you that the next morning when I woke up I had an apiphany. It hit me like a 2 ton brick. There was no way to describe the horror I felt, the soul shattering knowledge:

I am officially old.

I hurt in parts of my body I didnt even know had the ability to hurt. It took me 25 minutes just to crawl my way out of bed and to the shower. The best part was knowing that we still had the baseboards, and trim work to go as well as moving all the excercize equipement into the room. I was going to need a long hot shower and a jug of Advil.

So you would think that after the experience of waking up in that kind of pain I would have relaxed after we were done moving everything in. Oh no, my mind was not going to let my body decide when I was old. 9 more games of volleyball!!!!!

It is now Thursday of the following week and I am STILL sore.

Old age sucks!

Hello neighbors, we are the police. OPEN UP!

2008-08-13T16:25:00.002-06:00

So last night Jayna and I were laying in bed trying to go to sleep. It was one of those nights where we were both tired, but could not fall asleep. So what do you do when this happens? Well if you are us you watch really terrible movies. Like the one we watched last night. The Tommy Lee Jones CLASSIC:

If anything might work to make me nod off, this shining example of film making most definatly had a good shot.

We were about 3/4 of the way through the movie, and sitting at about 1:30am by the clock in the bedroom when we hear a really strange banging sound. We jump out of bed and I head for the door to check down the stairs while Jayna looks out the window. It turns out that there were police officers in the backyard of the house directly behind us banging on the sliding back door.

If you have read my previous post about hating people, you will note that this is the same neighbor that set the speed record for me not liking them. The very same neighbor who feels it is vital to the exestance of her grass to water it daily with a mobile sprinkler set to full blast. This blast has now officially washed the back side of my house clear of any dust, as well as washing my entire back patio clean and turned my grass to a nice swamp area.

Now we get to deal with cops busting down the door at 1:30am?

I hate people!

Home for sale! No charge for the swamp!

2008-08-07T11:01:00.003-06:00

I hate people.

I know that sounds pretty harsh, but I have come to the realization that we as a society have become oblivious to anything that happens outside our immediate bubble. There is no such thing as respect for others. There is no concern or care for anything that is not MINE MINE MINE.

What made me finally realize this. One word that I think everyone can sympathise with me on:

NEIGHBORS

I think I need to write a letter to the Lord of the Underworld suggesting he create a 10th plane of hell reserved for neighbors. There really should be a special place for these special people.

We have these neighbors that moved in two doors down from us. We live in a cul-de-sac that seems to get a fair amount of traffic turn around in it. So, these neighbors move in to the house as renters. They are only the 4th set of renters in this house in the last year. Yup, a revolving door a new inhabitants. This set of renters managed to surpass all of the others for trashy. The other 3 sets were all really great people. Kept the yard up, were very polite, and quiet. This couple? Yeah no, not so much.

It only took 2 days for me to realize that I hated them. That is a new record I think as I am usually willing to look past a lot. I think it was the second night I came home and they had 13, yes 13, cars at their house. Oh yeah, not a single car was park along the curb. They all pulled straight up to the house and were piled 5 rows deep out. I had to squeeze between the car parked in front of my house (not visiting us) and the line of other cars just to get to my driveway. Okay, one time I can handle until the next night = same thing. This went on night after night after night. Turns out the guy renting the house owns a bar and everyone was coming to his place to party. He also had his 23 year old daughter and her 2 kids living there with him. Oh yeah and his girlfriend/wife. Did I mention she was 21 and he is 46? Oh yeah, and her kid. Great invironement for the kids with all those party people around all the time at night.

Add that to the fishing boat, revolving round of cars, and the trailer full of ATV's permenantly parked there makes for one really busy neighborhood. Then there is the fact that the feel they have to drive at 100 mph in and out of the place with kids trying to play, mainly my son! doesnt make me too happy.

Then there is the house directly to the right of us. This is where I get to have fun by telling everyone never, and I mean NEVER use a company called Power Enterprises as your landscaper. Unfortunately we didnt have a choice as that was the company the builder used and they would not let us change it. Yup, we purchased during the boom and builders in our area pretty much got away with anything they wanted.

Anyways...at the time we built our house everything was flat. Somehow we are now a good 12" lower than the house next door. You know why that is important? Draining. When we moved in and planned our landscaping the last thing I thought would look really good on the side of our house was a mini swamp. I mean swamps can be pretty nice looking, just not in suburbia. Every time the neighbors run their sprinklers the side of our house floods. I have not turned on the side sprinklers once this summer. We even built a mound on the front side of our fence in order to hopefully pool the water up on their side - yeah that didnt work. I have a huge section of lawn that has died due to severe flooding and is now a rotting swamp. The best part about this...the house is empty and owned by a bank. The agent that is selling the house? He doesnt do anything but show the house. He stated it was not his responsibility to control the water at the house.

How does this relate back to Power Enterprise? Note the mention that this whole area was flat before we started building. Power Enterprises came in and did the grading on the property and removed so much top soil that we were now 12" + lower than the neighbor house. It just so happens that I knew the builder of the house next door and when he saw what they did, he brought in several trucks of nice new top soil. He spread it in our yard, redid the grading and it looked fantastic. We came out the next afternoon to check on it and Power Enterprises had already been there, REMOVED ALL the dirt he had brought in, graded to even MORE of an angle so now we were lower than before, and had put the front yard in. When we called the builder they said that it was at code and there was nothing we could do. Now we are dealing with flooding and going to have to call someone out to completely redo that side of our house beacuse of these idiots.

Oh yeah, we called them at least 12 times to come out and fix it as that side of the house was flooding from day one. They came out several times and finally said that it was not their issue any longer since the water was coming from the other yard. Which didnt make any sense since there was no yard put in yet. Then it was our fault for running the sprinklers too long and too often. Then they just stopped returning our calls after I told them I had not had the sprinklers on in over 5 weeks.

NEVER USE POWER ENTERPRISES
NEVER USE POWER ENTERPRISES
NEVER USE POWER ENTERPRISES
NEVER USE POWER ENTERPRISES

In case you missed it.

Now we just had a new neighbor move in behind us. A single mom with her kids. She now has taken the record for pissing me off the fastest. Yesterday was the first day I had even seen anyone there. Last night I got home and they had a sprinkler hooked up to the hose and were watering a section of the back yard. Now, when you are going to water your yard isnt the main point to it to actually get some water on it? She had the water turned up so high it was actually coming over the fence and all the way up to our back porch. I woke up this morning and that fucking sprinkler was still on and now my back yard is a swamp.

If I wanted to live in a swamp I would have moved to one.

I hate people.

Nevermore at Seattle Tattoo Expo

2008-07-24T17:22:00.003-06:00

My favorite metal band Nevermore has been confirmed as one of several bands that will perform at this years tattoo expo in Seattle WA.

The line up for the festival is as follows:

Friday, August 8:

Nevermore
Murdock
Point One
Mos Generator
Pleasure Elite
Zero Down
Witchburn

Saturday, August 9:

Nashville Pussy
Throw Rag
Viva Hate
Dragstrip Riot
Thee SGT. Major III

Sunday, August 10:

Tiger Army
Vince Mira
Duff McKagan's Loaded
Kane Hodder

The festival will be held at the Seattle Center on August 8th, 9th and 10th. Tickets look like they will be $15 for one day or $35 for all 3 days. This is if you purchast them online at http://www.seattletattooexpo.com/. Tickets will also be available on a per day basis at the door for $20.00 each day.

I think I might talk to Jayna and see if she wants to road trip it up there that weekend and attend.

And just a reminder...Warrell Dane's solo release "Praises to the War Machine" is out now and it definately worth picking up. Jeff Loomis's solo release is called "Zero Order Phase" and will be release on September 30th in the US.

I Want To Believe

2008-07-24T17:12:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow in theaters:

I have been waiting for this movie to come out. I may try to talk Jayna into hitting an afternoon matinee this weekend. I don't think she is quite the X-Files fan that I am, but who knows, she might like it.

Trailer can be found here:

X-Files: I Want to Believe

Dark Friday

2008-07-17T18:44:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow should officially be called "DARK FRIDAY"

Why?

That is all.

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog!!!

2008-07-16T10:46:00.003-06:00

Joss Whedon returns. Nuff said.

This is a 3-part series to air via the Dr. Horrible website. Episode I hit yesterday July 15th. Episode II hits tomorrow July 17th, and the final episode (III) hits Saturday July 19th. Joss said that he will leave all 3 episodes up until midnight on Sunday July 20th.

Episode I was fantastic!!!!!

Into the valley of the sun

2008-07-03T10:25:00.004-06:00

There are certain things one takes for granted before one has children. Okay okay, there are a LOT of things one takes for granted before children come along. First and foremost...quiet. You know, before Drew learned to talk quiet. We were so worried that he was going to have trouble talking. He didnt start speaking until he was just over 2 due to ear infection issues. Is there any way we can go back to that time? Please?

The other thing that I really miss about not having childre...the ability to just go out of town for a weekend without having to figure out what to do with the little one.

Well, this past weekend I got to experience BOTH.

Jayna and I decided this past weekend to take a trip up to Sun Valley. It is only a 2 hour drive so it makes for a quick, nice getaway. Jayna reserved us a room at a bed & breakfast in Hailey for Sunday and Monday night. This was some much needed adult time.

We drove up Sunday early afternoon and arrived in Hailey about 4:00pm. We checked into our room at the Inn at Ellsworth Estate. So, we are pulling into Hailey and Jayna is trying to pull up the directions on her IPhone. For some reason she could get the email to show up but it would not download the map. We are driving along and all she could remember is that it was someplace close to the airport. I decide to pull off on a side street and park to try to see if we can call and get directions. We turn off, drive and as I am about to turn around Jayna says "Hey, umm I think that is the place." Sure enough, we just happened to pull of the road the Inn was located on. Starting off to be a good trip.

We went out to dinner Sunday night to an amazing place called CK's Real Food. We both ordered the Ribeye and let me tell you - it was pretty close to the best ribeye I have ever had. We had ribeye with asparegus, potatoes, bread, salad and wine...all for under $150.00. That is not bad at all for the type of food we ate. Oh yeah, and we had this amazing ice cream that they make in house. It was a combo slice that had coffee, vanilla and chocolate ice cream covered in chocolate, caramel, toffee, and oreo crumbs.

Our waiter was really great, and even gave us a hand drawn map on where Demi Moore's house was, and also Bruce Willis's place. Turns out they live right across the street from each other up there. We drove past like the crazy star struck people we are not. You cant see anything because of the trees, and of course it is all gated off.

After that we decided that we were just going to go to a movie. We went and saw Get Smart. It was just so nice to decide to go to a movie and not worry about getting a sitter.

The next day we drove up to Sun Valley and had lunch at the lodge. The outdoor seating is right next to the outdoor ice rink.

We got to sit and eat while watching people practicing for some ice show that was going on up there. After much shopping and walking around we drove around looking at houses. We had so much fun the night before we decided to go see another movie. This time we caught The Wanted. We decided that we needed a couple bottles of wine after watching that - due to the large amount of cheese in it.

Tuesday we went to the ski hill and walked around, and then headed back to Boise. All in all it was a fantastic weekend of doing a whole lot of nothing. The quiet. The ability to just do what we wanted, when we wanted. The quiet. Yeah I said quiet twice - it was important.

Now we are back, and the quiet is gone. I am back at work, and realize that I desperately need to go back to Sun Valley.

Anyone have an extra 2.4 Million laying around?

Isn't that just called "Good customer service?"

2008-06-26T13:48:00.003-06:00

It is time once again for me to discuss the taboo topic of work.

I am sitting at my desk the other day and I receive and email entitled (and I shit you not...):

Do you got GOT?

Normally when I receive these company wide emails I just tend to ignore them. Seeing as how this one decided to just ignore basic English 101 I decided it was time to take a look.

So, got GOT is this "new, fresh and exciting" concept that the higher ups have decided to implement. GOT is the hip new thing known as Greet, Offer, Thank. The premise here is that with each and every interraction via teleconference, phone call, email, IM or in person you must attempt to GOT the person on the receiving end. It's sort of like a big old game of tag, but for adults. In the workplace. Getting paid. Oh yeah, and this is serious - not fun.

So, when you are interracting with someone the first thing you need to do is Greet them. This means letting them know you are there, what department you work in, and what your role is.

The offer part is just that. You offer to help them with whatever it is they need. I am pretty sure this doesnt involve things like going to the bathroom, getting them coffee, or offering to suck up to them in order to get ahead. What? Oh no, there is never any of that going on around here (insert sarcastic tone with that).

The last is to thank them. I am not sure why you would be thanking someone that just called you for help. I tend to think if someone calls me and I help them out, I am the one receiving the thanks. But hey, I didnt think of the complete and total awsomeness that is GOT.

So in recap - you greet someone. You offer to help them with whatever it is they called about. Then you thank them for calling you.

Great work there suits. That has got to be the most revolutionary idea in corporate history. This is definately going to set us apart from any other company out there. I mean seriously...who buys into this? Since I got my first job clear back in high school this GOT was called something else....

GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Then again, all it takes is one call to ANY business out there for one to realize the concept of customer service just doesnt exist any more.

Maybe if they got GOT - they could do away with AID

Answer, Infuriate, Disconnect - the current corporate policy.

So remember:

Do you got GOT?

Star Wars....Wii

2008-06-20T10:05:00.002-06:00

Shamelessly reprinted here from the Insider email:

LucasArts today announced Star Wars: The Clone Wars will blast its way onto the Wii and Nintendo DS in Holiday 2008. Bringing an entirely new look and feel to the galaxy far, far away, Star Wars: The Clone Wars combines the cinematic qualities of the Star Wars movies with state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery from artists at Lucasfilm Animation.
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, in development by Krome Studios exclusively for the Wii, delivers fun-filled Lightsaber battles for the entire family while it immerses players in the characters, locations, and epic duels from the all-new Star Wars feature film. Built from the ground-up for the Wii, Lightsaber Duels features an intuitive motion-controlled combat system that puts the lightsaber weapon in your hand for non-stop fun.

Fight the most memorable duels from The Clone Wars feature film.
Wield your Wii Remote like a Lightsaber and experience first-hand the unique weapon of the Jedi knights with intuitive controls, so no matter what your gaming experience you can become a Lightsaber master.
Play with your friends as your favorite Clone Wars hero or villain -- from familiar characters like Anakin Skywalker and General Grievous to new faces like Ahsoka Tano and Asajj Ventress -- each with a unique fighting style and set of skills.
Exploit your interactive surroundings to defeat your opponent: slice down pillars and Force throw them against your foe.
Duel your way through significant Clone Wars locations, such as Tatooine and Teth.
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance, developed exclusively for the Nintendo DS by the LucasArts Singapore team in conjunction with Lucasfilm Animation, lets gamers experience the awesome power when two Jedi join forces to fight as one. With an innovative stylus-based input, controlling the Jedi's movement and engaging in Lightsaber combat has never felt more immersive.

Play through an original story -- exclusive to the Nintendo DS -- that expands The Clone Wars series in exciting new directions.
Create your own Jedi dream teams by pairing Jedi Masters and Padawans. For example, team up Anakin Skywalker with Obi-Wan Kenobi, or Ahsoka Tano with Mace Windu.
Develop the relationship between two Jedi and generate more powerful attacks and special abilities. Replay missions with different character combinations to unlock new areas, collectibles, and other secrets.
Play with a friend using wireless drop-in/drop-out coop.
Control all movement, Lightsaber combat and cinematic action sequences with just the DS stylus.
"Working on The Clone Wars chapter of the Star Wars Saga has been an exciting endeavor for everyone here at LucasArts," said Feargus Carroll, project lead for LucasArts Singapore. "The intuitive and accessible gameplay on both the Wii and the Nintendo DS complement one of the most exciting Star Wars adventures yet."
The world premiere trailer for the games will debut exclusively on Spike TV's "GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley" on Friday, June 20.

With that...here is a screenshot of the game. I am sure we will be picking this up for Drew.

War of the Spider Queen

2008-06-19T15:03:00.002-06:00

Yeah okay, so I am way behind on my novel reading. I am a huge fan of R.A. Salvatore. I enjoyed all of his Drizzt books, and especially loved the Demon War series. I finally decided it was time to jump back into reading and picked up Dissolution. Yes this book came out a while ago and I am just now getting to it.

Dissolution is book 1 of the War of the Spider Queen series. This particular book was written by Richard Lee Byers, whom I have personally never read. I thought it would be a nice change to see what another author can do with the city of Menzoberrazan. The city, and the hiarchy of the dark elf society was always very interesting to me, so hopefully this book will expand on that.

I have been an avid D&D player since I picked up my first basic rules box set back in 1983. Out of all the gaming I have done in my day, Forgotten Realms was always my favorite setting. While shopping I noticed that there are a ton of books out now set in this world. I may have to do some looking at new writers and see if I can find something I like.

Anyways, because the cover to Dissolution is really nice I thought I would post it. Cover art by Brom!

Iced Earth announces release date

2008-06-18T16:55:00.002-06:00

Well, since I have been talking about Iced Earth, and the return of Matt Barlow - I should post the official release dates. The new release titled "The Crucible of Man" is due on the following dates:

USA, Canada: September 9
Germany, Austria, Switzerland: September 5
Rest of Europe: September 8

Iced Earth - N. American Tour

2008-06-13T12:35:00.003-06:00

Well, it looks like Iced Earth have just announced a North American tour with 16 dates so far. The closest they are coming to me is the Portland show, so might be time to take a trip. Anyways...here are the dates announced:

Sep. 21 Harpo's - Detroit, MI
Sep. 22 Phoenix Concert Theatre - Toronto, Ontario, CAN
Sep. 23 Le Medley - Montreal, Quebec, CAN
Sep. 24 Trocadero - Philadelphia, PA
Sep. 25 9:30 Club - Washington, D.C.
Sep. 26 Amos' Southbend - Charlotte, NC
Sep. 27 Center Stage - ProgPower USA IX. Atlanta, GA**
Sep. 28 House of Blues - Lake Buena Vista, FL
Sep. 29 The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC
Sep. 30 House of Blues - Cleveland, OH
Oct. 14 The Norva - Norfolk, VA
Oct. 15 The Palladium - Worchester, MA
Oct. 16 Nokia Theater - New York, NY
Oct. 22 Hawthrone Theater - Portland, OR
Oct. 23 Regency Center at The Grand Ballroom - San Francisco, CA
Oct. 24 The Avalon - Los Angeles, CA

There is a VIP package available via www.icedearth.com at a cost of $65.00. This is a limited offer on a first come basis. This VIP ticket purchase will get you:

Ticket to show
A meet & greet with the band
Random Autographed item
VIP commemorative laminate
Limited-edition shirt

Compaired to other ticket prices out there, this is very reasonable. Hell with prices now - you would pay that much for just a CD and a band shirt at the store.

They are touring with INTO ETERNITY and SAVIOURS.

In other Iced Earth news...they new CD is scheduled for release towards the end of August, or maybe September. No offical release date is out yet. There is, however, a nice picture of the cover art. In typical IE fashion - the cover is amazing.

Also, the new single is being release shortly of the song "I Walk Among You". It is also going to have "I Walk Alone", along with 3 songs from the last IE release "Framing Armageddon". The 3 songs will have new vocals provided by Matt Barlow. This is going to be a must pick up. I really liked "Framing" but Tim's vocals just never worked for me with IE. Now that Matt is back, I am once again a happy IE fan.

On a final note - IE is also going out on tour in Europe supporting Judas Priest. Wow, I wish I could see that show. IE and JP together - amazing.

Frickin farfin fumble grats foob frish frick Red Wings

2008-06-05T15:21:00.003-06:00

Why is there such a thing as good sportsmanship? Why should I be required, by politeness, to congradulate the Red Wings on their Stanley Cup victory last night? I should be able to boo, hiss, and yell profanity at them if I want to!

No matter how hard I try, the nice guy in my wins.

Congrats to the Red Wings on a (oh my god am I really going to say this?) well desereved victory last night. They really did play to win, and it payed off. I guess in order to claim to be a hockey fan, and a hockey player I have to show my sportsmanship even during the hardest trials....like saying anything nice about the Wings. So...that is all I have to say about that!

Pyramaze "Immortal"

2008-05-29T18:22:00.004-06:00

The band Pyramaze is set to release their new CD on June 24th in the U.S (tomorrow 5/30/2008 in Germany). Why do I care about that?

Matt Barlow provided the vocals!

If you have read the blog in the past you will know that I am a huge Iced Earth fan. Matt used to be the singer for IE and after 9-11 he left to become a police officer. After several years away from the music scene he came back with the announcement that he was going to front Pyramaze.

Since then he has reunited with John and is now the singer for Iced Earth again. He decided to stay and record the vocals for Pyramaze, but is not going to be able to tour with them in support of it. The release is titled "Immortal" and here are the track listings:

"Immortal" track listing:

01. Arise
02. Year of the Phoenix
03. Ghost Light
04. Touched by the Mara
05. A Beautiful Death
06. Legacy in a Rhyme
07. Caramon's Poem
08. The Highland
09. Shadow of the Beast
10. March through an Endless Rain

It's a one shot CD, but I am going to pick it up for sure. Matt is an amazing singer, and in my opinion one of the best metal has to offer.

Say Goodnight Harvey!

2008-05-29T17:55:00.003-06:00

Actor/comedian Harvey Korman passed away today at 81 after having complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Blazing Saddles = classic.

Always sad when one of the greats goes.

R.I.P Harvey

You are so money and you dont even know it

2008-05-21T13:58:00.003-06:00

This past weekend I was lucky enough to spend it in Las Vegas! Yeah I know I was just there in March, but can you really go to Vegas too many times? That is what I thought...so....I went to Vegas again.

What took me there this time? 10 of my oldest friends getting together for a weekend of drinking, gambling, stuffing our faces, and hookers. Okay not so much with the hookers, but the other stuff sounded really good. This particular group of friends are my oldest friends to date. Several of these guys I have been friends with since 4th grade and that was like....umm...yeah okay old age does make the memory go away. It was a long time ago, like 30 years ago. We are now all spread accross the country so we try to get all together once a year to catch up on things. This year was the first year everyone was able to make it.

We had a steep hill to climb as far as memories and moments go from last year. Last year we had the famous messing your pants at Luxor episode. This was followed by the "revolution" starting cab driver. There was the circle of pissed off cab drivers. The "it's not that far...let's walk" episode, and the strip club. Game on!

This year was a lot different than last time. We did not even go to a strip club this year. I know I know - how can I call it a guys weekend when we didnt even go see a stip club? It is time to face the facts....and that is we are all old. I think we all crashed out Friday night at like midnight or something.

Things we did this year:

1) Treasure Island gave us our own poker table to play against each other
2) Went to see Spamalot at the Wynn
3) Ate some food at "Dick's" (if you have never been - go)
4) Walked from Excalibur to Treasure Island and then back to Ceasar's.
5) Drank way too much while playing poker (Makers Mark and Coke)
6) Played everything from Texas to Craps to 3 card poker to Black Jack.
7) Checked out the Pussy Cat Doll's blackjack area

All in all it was a great trip. We went to see Spamalot at Wynn and that was fantastic. If you are ever in Vegas and want to see a funny show - go see it. We laughed our asses off.

This year there was not as many stories that are going to become legend like last year. It was a pretty mellow weekend all in all, but we still had a great time. It was fun playing at some casino's that I have not played at before. I think this year was a great stepping stone to next year. Next year I think we seriously need to trim our numbers down. This year we invited the brothers for one of our friends, and then one of their friends. It was just too many people to try to organize while down there. 3 people want to walk, 4 want to get a cab, the other 4 dont want to leave...bla bla bla. We graduated high school over 20 years ago, lets not revert back to that. It wasnt that great the first time.

It was my birthday on Sunday (the 18th) and I flew home this day. I had told my wife that I wanted to do kabobs on the grill for dinner. She picked me up at the airport and informed me that she already had them made and ready when we got home. We get there, I walk in, and there is a house full of people for a birthday surprise BBQ she put together. This was a fantastic surprise by itself, but what made it spectacular was the fact that my wife was finally able to keep a secret long enough to not spoil it. She has never been able to surprise me with anything because she seems to blow it one way or another. Not as bad as I blew it with the IPhone (see post from December) but never the less - she just cant do it. Not only did she manage to keep the surpise party hidden, she got me a really nice new watch that she didnt slip up on.

It was a great weekend.

Trailer to the Clone Wars have I found.

2008-05-09T18:38:00.002-06:00

Here is the link to the trailer for the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Trailer

Enjoy!

Tonight debut the Clone Wars will

2008-05-08T16:18:00.007-06:00

Tonight at 7:58 (in all time zones) on Boomerang, TNT, TBS, CNN and Cartoon network will be the debut of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It will be a two minute trailer for the upcoming theatrical release due to hit theaters on August 15 2008.

Here is the promotional poster:

I am so excited to see this. These are the only pictures from the actual finished product I could find:

If this is any indication on how the animation is going to look - sign me up!

Pizza & Ghost Hunters - it's a tradition (or something)

2008-05-08T09:27:00.002-06:00

Wednesday nights have become my favorite night of the week. One would think it would be my least favorite night due to this being the start of my work week. Nope, it has crept it's way to the top of my list. Why? Well duh, it's the tradition - get with the program.

I really don't know where this all got started. Jayna and I started watching the show Ghost Hunters on SciFi. Well we started watching it a while ago but that really isn't important. Somewhere along the way the little Drewman got to watch an episode. Ever since then it has been "Daddy, I wanna watch Ghost Hunters." So we started setting the DVR to catch it weekly. This lead to the "I don't want to cook tonight so let's order a pizza and watch it." This of course worked it's way into every week on Wednesday we order pizza and watch the show.

The part that makes this my favorite night of the week is Drew. He gets so excited that it is Ghost Hunter night. He wakes up every Wednesday and the first thing out of his mouth is "It's Ghost Hunter night!" No "Good morning mommy and daddy" or maybe something like "I love you". Nope, it's all about the Ghost Hunters. This is followed shortly by "Do I have to go to school today?" He calls his daycare his school since he doesn't actually start kindergarten until this fall. What I find funny about this whole thing is the fact that Drew can remember every Wednesday a new Ghost Hunters is on. Yet he has absolutely no clue that EVERY Wednesday he also goes to school. Not even at the start of his academic career and he is blocking out school.

So, last night was a repeat episode. Drew doesn't care, he watches as if it is the first time he has ever seen it. The look in his eyes, the laughter, the jumping up and down, and basically everything about his reaction makes this the greatest night of the week. He can tell you what episode was the most scary, where they went, what they found, and where they are going next. He cant remember to let the dog in, he can not be troubled with such trivial things.

Oh yeah, and he has informed me that when he gets older he is going to be a Ghost Hunter. So Drew will be the worlds first:

Ghost-Hunting, transforming, space ship piloting, movie staring, race car driving hockey player

I can finally talk about it

2008-05-07T15:02:00.004-06:00

I hate the Colorado Avalanche.

Okay there, I said it...I still don't feel better. I was so happy in round 1 of the playoff when they took out Minnesota Wild to move on. Then they met the Detroit Red Wings. In all my years as a fan of, and player of hockey there has never been a team I disliked as much as the Red Wings. Well okay, the Dallas Stars come in a pretty close second, but the Red Wings?

Have you ever watched the show Fear Factor? I always found that show amusing when they got the the second "stunt" of the show. Without fail it always involved some kind of eating of things sane people would not eat. You know, 2 year old cow bladders stuffed with a light breading made up of mashed stink beetles and mold, and nice shot glass of cow bile to wash it down. This was not so much a "stunt" as it was a test of gag reflex. Anyways...I would rather do something like this than ever say I enjoyed watching the Red Wings.

Yeah so, Red Wings took my Avalanche out back and bitch slapped them so hard they will be lucky to even make it to the start of next season. Took my boys out in 4 games. The thing about this that makes me the most upset is the way the Avs played. I was trying like mad at the start of game 3 to see faces to make sure the Avs even showed up to play. Did it help that Forsberg was injured (as if that is anything new) and Ryan Smith went out as well? Not so much. If the Avalanche had played the series like they played game 1, things might have been different.

Who in their right mind would continue, after game 2, to play Theodore? The Red Wings had his number and they were calling it all night, every night. The start of game 3 should have seen Budaj in the net. I have never been a fan of Theodore, even after he started stepping his game up this last season.

Can we just get Aebischer back? I really liked this kid and wish Quinvillle would have giving him more of a chance. Since that isnt going to happen, then get Budaj back in the net and let Theodore think about his "outstanding" display in round 2 this year. Oh yeah, and to the rest of the Avalanche here are some pointers you should take into next season to work on:

1) Don't let the other team beat you to the puck EVERY time.
2) Don't let people just stand around the front of the net wide open.
3) Skate 120% every time you touch the ice.
4) Shoot on net more
5) Skate 120% every time you touch the ice

and finally did I mention you need to SKATE LIKE YOU WANT TO ACTUALLY WIN!!!! ?

Okay, rant off.

The good thing is that we still have the Penguins and Flyers. I have always liked these two teams so it is a good match up to watch. Either way I am happy with who wins here. Even more so because the other match up is the Stars and Red Wings. So my two least favorite teams will produce a LOSS for one of them. That is always a good thing. That, and one of the teams I like will meet one I hate in the finals.

GO PENGUINS

GO FLYERS

GO AVALANCHE (back to practice and learn how to play in a playoff series)

I am way to smart for this place!

2008-05-01T16:00:00.005-06:00

I know it has been said that one should never blog about ones work. Well, I am not one who has been very good at following the rules of what to and not to do. So here is my work post.

I work for a large grocery store chain in their IT department. The story does not require I give out names, locations, positions (other than my supervisor) and anything else about the workplace. Just roll with it.

My shift is 3 on, 4 off, then 4 on and 3 off. I work 12 hour days so when there is nothing going on the time just drags by. Well, we have this supervisor who works the same shift as we do that (for lack of a better phrase) is completely clueless. I say this not in the metaphorical sense, but in the literal sense. He really has no clue that the things he says and does are just rediculous. Example:

Our work day starts at 7am. When we are on our 4 day work week that means we work Saturday and Sunday morning. AT 7 AM START TIME! So, every other weekend we are here working like good little monkeys. This supervisor, EVERY weekend we work comes strolling in anywhere from 9:30 to noonish, if he even shows up at all. When confronted by us about why he cant be on time like the rest of us his response has been the following:

"You see, the hours I work are like a bank. Sometimes I make a deposit of more than 40 hours, and sometimes I withdraw hours and only work 35 hours." (note on this - nobody here has ever been witness to this guy ever, I repeat EVER working 40 hours in a week, let alone MORE than that. So according to his logic he owed the bank a huge loan payment)

A week or so ago I am sitting here at work with nothing to do. This isnt that unusual for my position. So anyways...My coworker and I are just sitting here talking when in walks said supervisor, 3 hours late for work, and the first thing he does is stands by his desk, pulls out an apple and says "You guys know that I am just way to smart to be working here? I am just way to smart for this place." We look at each other like "what the fuck?" and turn back to say something to him and freeze.

This is the part that is so ironic. The guy who just walked in late for work proclaiming his superior intellect is sitting at his desk attempting to slice his whole apple with.............a plastic spoon.

Yes, it is official........I work with idiots. The only thing that I can say to this spectical is:

I vote today as Black Metal Friday - with videos

2008-04-25T09:19:00.003-06:00

"The Sacrilegious Scorn" - Dimmu Borgir

"Empty" - Emperor

"Carving A Giant" - Gorgoroth

"Lost to Apathy" - Dark Tranquility

The bell rings in 1 hour, Round 2 starts

2008-04-24T16:30:00.003-06:00

One hour from now my Colorado Avalanche will face off against the Detroit Red Wings in roud 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

DOWN WITH THE REDWINGS!!!!!!!!!!

The laptop will be coming out at work, and I am going to find a way to watch it. I was lucky enough to only miss one game for the first round against the Wild. Now that was a great series. This series is, in all honesty, going to be a hard one for the Avs. As much as I hate them, the Wings have a great team.

GO AVALANCHE

The New Testament

2008-04-18T08:10:00.004-06:00

Is this the post where I announce my finding of God? Have I suddenly "got the religion"? Did I stop drinking coffee and coke, and walk around in Jesus jamms?

Not so much.

The New Testament is just that, the new release from the band Testament. The Bay area band just held a listening party for their new upcoming release "The Formation of Damnation" at Fantasy Studio in Berkeley, CA. This release was produced by Andy Sneap who has worked with such bands as Nevermore, Arch Enemy and Machine Head. The release date has been posted as April 29 and it will be on Nuclear Blast Records.

Testament has also been confirmed as a support act with Heaven and Hell, Judas Priest and Motorhead on the Canadian section of the tour.

Testament has put the release up for streaming on the bands MySpace page.

The artwork for the cover can be found here:

Enjoy!

It is almost time for us to "Praise To The War Machine"

2008-04-12T10:04:00.002-06:00

You must, I repeat MUST go to:

http://www.myspace.com/warreldane

Warrel is the featured artist for April 11th to the 18th for his new solo release "Praise to the War Machine". For those that do not know, Warrel is the lead singer for my favorite metal band - NEVERMORE!

I have been waiting to hear this since I first heard about it a year ago. After the first listen I have decided that I am going to get this the day it is release (May 13th here in the US and April 28th in Europe). I have been a fan of Warrel's since the release of Refuge Denied by Sanctuary (his first band). I was lucky enough to see Sanctuary twice before they split. I have also been able to catch Nevermore 3 times now, and definately want to see them again. They put on an amazing show. Of the 3 times I have seen them, the show at Studio 7 in Seattle for the release party of the cd "This Godless Endever" was my favorite. Not only did they sound amazing, they had a great time with the audience as well.

Here is a picture of the cover of "Praise to the War Machine"

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant to hear his cover of "Lucritia: My Reflection". The Sisters of Mercy have been my favorite since the mid 80's. I was hooked after my first listen to Warrel cover this song. Amazing!

Listen to the release, then support this artist by buying the CD when it is released.

Vegas Vacation - non Chevy Chase style

2008-03-19T16:29:00.003-06:00

I made it back from Las Vegas in one piece. This alone is a huge accomplishment and should make up for the lack of postings. Like the old saying goes..."I need a vacation after my vacation." I am worn out after that trip. If life did not require me to get out of bed this week I wouldn't.

One week ago today I was sitting in the car on my way to Las Vegas. We ended up getting out of Boise a little later than we planned. Originally we were not going to get out of here until after 3:00PM but managed to hit the road at 2:00PM. I picked up the other 3 guys that were riding with me and we hit the road. We had to drop off one of the cars for one of the wives to drive home, then we stopped for gas. I knew things were going to get going when I noticed one of the guys up at the counter with an 18 pack. Party on!

Without going into minute by minute details of the road trip - let's fast forward 9 and 1/2 hours later as we arrive in Las Vegas. After a few wrong turns and a couple of phone calls we find the house. Everyone except the trip organizer is out at the strip. I am just wiped from the trip and the "party" that was my car on the way down. I decide I am going to crash while the drunken trio I arrived with decide to go hit the strip. They leave, I crawl into a roll out bed by the laundry room. There are several people that are going to be leaving the next morning so we will sort out rooms then.

I call my wife and end up talking to her for a bit. I am just hanging up with her when two other people arrive from the airport. I get up, get dressed into my swim trunks, and go hit the hottub with them. Turns out their flight out of Boise was delayed by 3 hours and they still have no idea why. A nice soak, a couple beers and its back in bed at 3:30AM.

I get woken up at 6:30AM by the return of the party posse. I get up, and get to watch the 3 of them beat the hell out of each other. Bear hugs, body slams on the tile floor, head slams into the walls (broke a socket cover or two I think), and forehead smacking. Two of the 3 are covered in red hand prints and one has the beginnings of a black eye. Nothing says good times like getting the shit kicked out of you! Here is a breakdown of the party posse and their drink consumption:

18 Pack Beer
18 Pack Beer
Big bottle of Jagermeister
Bottle of Crown Royal

That is just what they drank on the way down there and once we hit the house. I have no idea what they drank while out at the casino.

After some breakfast they posse crashes out. The rest of us spend a nice relaxing day out in the pool and the hottub until game time. Our first game was at 6:00pm and we dominated. Final score was 9 to 3. I started the weekend off on an up swing getting 2 goals and 3 assists in the first game. Everyone is pretty tired after the game so we just head to the house and hit the tub again. I think I crawled into bed at 2 or 3 am.

Next day was a lot of the same. Hang out at the pool (it was almost 80 degrees outside) until game time. Out game was at 3:15pm so plenty of time after to do something. Did I mention after the first game that the girlfriends of the team we played started calling us "sandbaggers" as we left? Yeah, us sandbagging. Okay I might have believed it until our next game started. Total destruction was brought upon us by the other team. Going into the 3rd period we were down 7 to 0. We did manage to end up with a final of 7 to 4 loss, and we felt really good about that. I did manage to get 2 goals and 2 assists in this game.

Friday night was BBQ night. $245 was spent at the store just on stuff for diner. We had steak, baked potatos, broccili with cheese sauce, shrimp, wine, the works. I was beyond stuffed. Then it was hottub time. Our game on Saturday was set for 10:30am so I wanted to get some sleep before.

Saturday's game went about as well as the Friday game. We got schooled. Kind of takes that whole "sandbagger" idea and tosses it right out the window. I wonder what those women were saying about the other teams that slaughtered them? It didnt help that our goalie hurt his back the night before and couldnt move. He ended up not being able to play at all. We had to take one of the guys on our team and make him play goalie. He was the only one there who had ever played goalie before. His experience consisted of a few games as a goalie about 6 years ago. That didnt work out so well for us. Okay, so the tournament is done for us...what now?

Yup, hottub, pool, drinking and just relaxing. Oh yeah, the posse did manage to go out every night we were there, and get completely smashed. I have no idea how any of them were able to skate after the nights they had. Every morning after they went out, the entire first floor of the house was covered in those little porn cards they hand out on the strip. You know the ones...the ones that show really hot woman on them that says they will come to you for $65 no obligations? That is until you realize the girl on the card is actually a porn star and there is no chance in hell you will see that girl show up. I guess if they put a picture of the girl that actually shows up on the card - you would be way less likely to call.

The trip back took about 9 1/2 hours as well, but was a lot less "party" oriented. I think the 3 of them are doing a 12 step rehab program right now. I didnt go crazy while I was there, but I sure as hell didnt get much sleep. Average per night was about 3 to 4 hours. I have yet to catch up on that. It was a great time. The house was amazing. The tournament, while short for us, was really fun. It was great to play against teams I have never seen before. I am so doing this again next year - only this time I am taking Jayna with me.

Pictures will be posted soon. I actually took a couple the first night we got there, then completely forgot to take any more. I know I know, I will do better next time.

VEGAS BABY!!!!

2008-03-12T09:14:00.003-06:00

In a couple of hours I will be on the road heading to Las Vegas. It will be a long 10+ hour drive packed in a vehicle. I remember the last road trip to Las Vegas I took. It was 8 years ago, yet it doesnt seem far enough in the past yet.

The trip consisted of my friends Larry and his wife (ex now), Matt and myself. I dont think Jen has ever recovered from the beef jerky and spicy pork rinds we consumed the whole way there. I think the hazmat suits had to exorcise that van when we were done with it.

Reminds me of a trip we took to Jackpot Nevada for my bachelor party. We rented a 16 person van and packed all the guys into it. We were young and stupid (now we are all just old and stupid) and thought it would be a great idea to also bring along a keg of beer. Hey, it was a bachelor party after all. So the entire way down there the passengers were drinking. The keg was near the front and my friend "B" was the tapmaster. Every time he went to take a drink of his beer the call would come in "Bitch, beer me!". The beer was poured, passed back, and then the closing call would come in "B - shut off the tap!"

Yes, "B" would pour the beer but forget to turn the tap off. It is never a good thing to step into the van you just rented, and hear splashing. The carpet of that van could have gotten a frat house drunk from the amount of beer that was poured onto it. Two good things to learn from this:

1) Don't get pulled over when your van smells like a vat
2) If they offer you the cleaning insurance/interior accident insurance - TAKE IT!

I will post some pictures from Vegas once I am settled.

Vegas Baby!

2008-03-05T14:26:00.004-07:00

In exactly one week from today I will embark on a quest that will take me to:

VEGAS BABY!!!!

I will be leaving on Wednesday the 12th and coming back on Saturday the 15th, or Sunday the 16th. I am playing in a hockey tournament and the departure date all depends on how badly we get our asses handed to us. Confident...who me? I really have no idea how we are going to do since we are playing teams from other states. Let's just go with "We will give it 110% and see what happens." There, is that better?

The information for the tournament can be found here:

California Hockey Productions

There are several guys from the team that are going down tonight in order to play in the 6th to the 9th tournament. They will be driving down to pull a trailer with everyones gear on it. I told them to try to open my bag up a little so the 10+ hours of blowing wind might remove some portion of the "perfume" it produces. Come to think of it, I don't think there is any amount of fresh air that could help that smell out.

So here we come to the delema that is before me. I really would like my wife to be able to go with me. She seems to really love these tournaments, and hell it's Vegas this time. The issue we have is with getting a sitter for the Drewman. We have someone who will watch him from Friday to Sunday (our normal sitter). She will come stay at the house with him while we are gone. It is Wednesday and Thursday nights we are having a problem with.

Oh I know how we can solve that. Let's call the grandparents (my parents) and see if they would let him come stay with them for those two nights. So Jayna calls my mother to ask.

For the sake of conversation let us revisit several facts:

1) I am 38
2) Jayna is 33
4) We do NOT, nor ever have lived with my parents
5) We have not, nor plan to ask them to pay for any part of this trip
6) Drew is OUR son
7) What, where, when we go on vacation is NOT subject to their approval

Okay, now that we have that figured out, let's continue.

It appears that we are still going to be looking for a sitter for Wednesday and Thursday nights. It was communicated to us that neither my mother nor my father "approve" of us going out of town for "fun". I guess we are not "allowed" to do that? Oh yeah - refer to #7 above if there are any questions. Since they didn't "approve" this trip, they are not going to watch Drew. Oh yeah, and I guess she decided Jayna didnt have a nice enough ass, so she was going to rip her a new one about it.

I guess I must have missed the memo where they were in control of our vacation schedule. That must be filed away next to the memo that says I actually care about getting their approval for vacations.

I mean seriously. "We don't approve of you going out of town for fun." A simple "We would love to watch our grandson, but we will be out of town at the cabin." would have been sufficient.

Anyways...

So as it stands right now it looks like Jayna is going to be staying here while I go play hockey. This makes me very sad, but what can you do?

The team has rented a house for the time we are there. Here are some pictures of the place:

FRONT OF THE HOUSE

KITCHEN

GAME ROOM

Here is a list of things NOT to do while in Vegas:

1) Open up a conversation about politics with any cab driver
2) Listen to your friend who says "It isn't that far...let's walk"
3) Accept anything someone tries to hand you right after slapping their hands
4) If your friend is wearing jeans when he leaves for the bathroom, but has shorts
on when he gets back - you do NOT want to know why
5) If it is night out, and you are walking anywhere near a 15 block radius of a
strip club - it is not wise to tell a cab driver to "F-off" when they offer to
give you a ride to the club for free. Picture rabid vultures circling...

Fusion Reactor Corrosion

2008-02-28T08:36:00.002-07:00

Here is the update on my car.

I took it in for the corrosion on the battery issue last Friday. I received a call about 4:00pm that they would have to order a part and it would not be in until Monday. It turns out it wasn't just "naturally occurring" corrosion on my battery. There was a relay switch on the alarm/door locks that was causing a constant drain to the battery. They didn't have the part in stock, but it would be there Monday and they could get my car done.

Okay fine, at least this time they actually LOOKED at my car. I explained to the "professional" that I felt they needed to replace that part, the battery, and also put a new cable clamp on. The one that is currently on there is still covered in corrosion that has gotten down on the cable. They needed to clean the cable up and then steam clean the engine are and not leave corrosion particles all over my engine like last week.

I waited all day Monday for a call to come pick up my car. Finally at 4:30pm I called to see what was going on. My "professional" service advisor gets on the phone and says "Oh it isn't going to be ready today. Everything is done but we wont have a chance to test it until tomorrow." WHAT??? Why can't they test it as soon as they are done putting everything in? I mean they don't close for another 1 1/2 hours so that should be plenty of time to finish my car I would think. Too much to ask I guess.

Tuesday comes and I wait to hear from the dealership. I guess I am just impatient or something because about 1:00 I decide to call. My "service advisor" is at lunch and they could have him call me back. I ask the lady if she could just look and see if my car is done. She tells me "You need to speak with your service advisor." I tell her no, I need her to see if my car is done. It isn't like I am asking her to go out and fix it herself, or hand wax it. I just want to know if it is done. She puts me on hold, comes back and tells me that yes it has been done since last night.

(insert sound of hand hitting forehead)

I load up the family (we had some shopping to do) and head out. The invoice I get says that they replaced the battery, and the relay switch. It is all covered under warranty so I pack everyone up and we go to the store.

I know I should have checked everything at the dealership before we left, but I just wanted out of there. Have I mentioned I really hate dealership mechanics? So, we get home and I decide to check what they did. I open the hood and....well let's just say I was not surprised at all.

The first thing I noticed was the large amount of corrosion all over the clamp. It did appear that they replaced the battery. Oh yeah, they did steam clean the engine only they didn't bother to make sure it was all clean. There was water pooled up in every possible place and it looked like they used water right out of a sand pool. There was dirt all over the place.

So, I grabbed my handy battery cleaning brush and went to work on the clamp. It took me all of 10 minutes to have the clamp completely clean of any corrosion. If they had actually taken any amount of time to do their so called "professional" job, this would have been done. A customer brings you a car that wont start due to corrosion on the battery, you would think you would make sure there was no corrosion left to be a problem. Well, there isn't any now! Oh yeah, I also sprayed the terminal and clamp with the anti-corrosion spray which they said they did, but actually didn't.

I was so upset by their lack of quality in their work that Jayna picked up the phone and spoke with the service manager. Of course he was all "I am so sorry" and "we want you to be happy." You know what that translates into? Yeah, me bringing my car back in for him to "inspect" it.

After all this do you really think I want to bring my car back to you?

I am going to have to call him today and let him know I am not happy about the quality of their service tech. There are other Ford dealerships here where I can have warranty work done and in the future I will go to one of them.

I will post what he says after I call him.

Battery included....well maybe

2008-02-21T16:54:00.002-07:00

Two weekends ago we decided to do some running around advancing behavior (shopping). I went out to start my car (2007 Ford Fusion) and was surprised when it would not start. All the dash lights came on, radio, Ipod, with no dimming when turning the key. The sad part was the complete lack of motor turning over. The only sound to be heard was a click, click, click, click sound from the starter. It had a really nice beat to it. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate it a 7 for rhythm, but you really couldn't dance to it.

I called the dealership since it was still under warranty and of course they wanted me to bring it in. I called my roadside assistance and had them come out to pick it up. The driver popped the hood and pointed out my problem right away. Yes, the manly man that I pretend to be didn't think to pop the hood before calling the dealership. If I had I too would have been greeted by the beautiful sight of a severely corroded battery terminal.

So, one trip to the auto parts store to return with 1 terminal cleaning brush, a can of anti-corrosive spray, and a loss of $26 I returned to fix my car. I popped the clamp off and started brushing. I am sure if you were an ant under my car looking up it would have appeared that you had just walked into a blizzard from the amount of crap coming of my battery. It took about 15 minutes of scrubbing, putting the clamp back on, trying to start the car, rinse and repeat until I was finally able to get the car going.

I called the dealership back and let them know I still wanted to bring it in to have them clean this mess up "professionally". Two days later my car was in the shop. When I dropped the car off I talked to the "service rep" and let him know my issues. I told him that I felt that the best thing to do would be to replace the clamp and possibly the battery since it was already corroded again after 2 days. He said they would look at it and get it taken care of.

I went back that night to pick my car up. I picked it up and made my way to the bank to deposit a check. After parking I decided to pop the hood and felt an overwhelming urge to just bang my head against it. I was expecting to see a nice shiny clean battery terminal and clamp. I was going to fix my hair in it's brilliant shine, and possibly see if I had any food in my teeth. Boy let me tell you I was sadly mistaken.

Picture this. I clean the battery and terminal myself so I know what it looked like when I took it in to them. What I saw before me had a very strange resemblance to my handy work. So much in fact that I suddenly realized that it was possible that they didn't actually do anything to it. Well okay they did do something. The did spray red anti corrosive spray all over the battery. Right over the battery terminal, the clamp, AND the mounds of corrosion already there. Yup, they didn't bother to clean any of it off. Just sprayed it as is and sent me on my way.

Back to the dealer I go where I get this song and dance about "corrosion of a battery is perfectly normal". Sure it is. It is right up there on the natural scale like "natural sugar substitutes" and my foot is supposed to be up your ass. I have never owned a vehicle that had a battery with corrosion like this. My last car was a 1990 Honda Prelude which I purchased new in 1990. I sold said Honda the same week I purchased this new car. Doing the math here that would make that car what???? 17 years old. In 17 years I replaced the battery once and never had a corrosion problem. Not once. yet corrosion is "natural for all batteries?" I think not.

So we reschedule to have me bring it back in on the following Tuesday. Tuesday comes and the car has been running fine. My wife leaves for work and I decided to just hang at home with my son. Later that day I am getting ready for my hockey game and go out to pull my car out to let it warm up. Guess what happens? Yup, car wont start due to the "natural" corrosion I discover when I pop the hood.

I call the dealership the next morning since they were closed at this point. The soonest they can "fit me in" is Friday morning. So I am set to take my car in tomorrow morning and have them do some "professional" work to it. I think when I drop it off I am going to attach a copy of my good friend Webster's page with the definition of "professional" highlighted to my steering wheel. Just in case there might be a chance they could miss it if I put it under the hood on the battery.

Oh yeah, I did tell the "service rep" that this time they WERE going to replace the battery and the terminal due to the fact that they didn't do SHIT last time.

I think I know how that is going to work out.

Pucks & Nets - Two things I can't make go together

2008-02-17T12:58:00.008-07:00

I am sitting here at work having just finished my first of 2 hockey games today. We played at 10:00am today, and let's just say it didn't so much work out in our favor.

Final score? 7 to 1.

As I sit here pondering the complexity of the game I think I have figured something out. Our team is just not that good. Okay let me rephrase that. Every person on our team is actually a really good player. When we get on the ice, we are just 5 guys in matching uniforms. Actually now that I think about it we usually dont have matching uniforms. We just make sure we all have 1 dark and 1 light colored jersey. It's all about color coordination on the ice you know. We definately dont play as a TEAM. We pass. We have lines. We shoot. We just dont seem to click. That and putting the puck into the back of the net seems to be a major problem for us. Guess that makes it hard to win games doesnt it.

I watch the other teams when I am on the bench, and I see how they cycle the puck, use their points, and crash the net. These are all things we just dont seem to be able to do. Every one of us knows the game, the positions, the plays...yet we get on the ice and its like....well you know. It is like a bunch of guys standing around deep in conversation and beautiful woman walks buy in revealing clothing. Our brains just shut off. We cant help it. I think that is what happens to our team when we get on the ice. Instead of a beautiful woman wearing next to nothing, it is a little black solidified piece of vulcanized plastic. Okay I just confused myself. Puck.....half naked woman. Yeah, that makes sense.

I keep reminding myself that this all is supposed to be fun. Help me remember that!

The good thing is this was the last game of the season for this team. I play on another team that has its last game tonight. This team is doing a little better as far as win/loss goes.

I hope that beautiful half naked woman doesnt show up tonight. Or wait, was that a puck that flustered us.

(oh yeah, did I mention my back hurts, my legs are jello, and my arms are spent? Yup, old age sucks.)

I am also heading down to Las Vegas the 12th to the 16th of March for a hockey tournament. Sounds dangerous. A bunch of hockey players, in Vegas, renting a 3800 square foot house complete with hot tub, pool, game room, no wives (unless mine decides to go) lots of beer, strip clubs, gambling, and while we are there we might toss in a couple games since we paid for the tournament. I can hear a hang over coming.

I am just looking for a good night sleep tonight. That might be a challenge with Drew and Mazie around. I do think our new puppy is slowing starting to get the whole "Dont pee on my floor" thing down. What puppy you ask? Read my wife's blog as part of a weekly reading program and get up to speed. Otherwise, just work with me here.

I've been cloned!

2008-02-15T13:51:00.005-07:00

To begin the Clone Wars have.

Our story so far:

My son, Drew, left on Monday afternoon to head up to the cabin with his grandparents. He just got back last night, and that is when the realization of my cloning finally sunk in.

Here are the list of things that Drew is "in" to:

Transformers (it's all about Bumblebee and Optimus Prime)
Star Wars
Video Games (did I mention that his favorite games are...yup Transformers and Star Wars)
Ghost Hunters (yes he is 5 and thinks this is the greatest show to ever grace the television)
IPod (he has officially taken over my wife's Ipod as his now)
Skiing
Hockey

Here is a list of things that I was "in" to when I was a kid (and yes I can sorta remember that long ago thank you very much!):

Transformers (granted I was in high school when these were "in")
Star Wars
Video Games (go go Atari 2600 - PONG BABY!)
Ghost Stories (they didnt have cool shows about this stuff back then)
Walkmans (I was a bit older when these came out - but still long before the CD was even invented)
Skiing
Hockey

I know that everyone says your kids will be interested in the same things that you are, but come on. It isnt that he is just interested in them, he is OBSESSED with them. It is like watching a time portal replaying portions of my life as a child. Just like I did, he knows all the Transformers, what they transform into, which side they are on, and who defeats who and when. He knows all the Star Wars characters and even knows the lines from the movies. He has not gotten to the point where he puts on mini Star Wars reproduction plays in our living room, but he has managed to recreate the fight scenes with his lightsabers. Our cats are forever scared I am sure.

Dr. Evil has nothing on this Mini Me!

I have officially been cloned.

New Concept - Daily video's my wife will absolutely LOVE

2008-02-15T13:40:00.001-07:00

(insert sarcasm here)

Dimmu Borgir - The Serpentine Offering
Uploaded by Jayth

My son has ESP

2007-12-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

The holiday season is almost over. I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to get all our shopping done in time this year. My wife was brave (or insane depending on how you look at it) enough to put on the full body armor and wade into the most dangerous territory one can imagine in search of last minute gifts...the mall.

Here is what she looked like (and I am sure it wasn't enough to keep her safe)...

Okay okay, so she didn't really wear a suit like that, but I am thinking she should have. That place is truely a battlefield this time of year. The mall, and the 5 mile radius around it are to be avoided at all costs. I will add another 25 minutes to my drive just to avoid it.

Anyways.

My wife's brother and his family came for Christmas this year. Unlike most people I talk to out there, I actually really like my wife's family. Her brother and his wife have 2 kids that our son just loves playing with. I was really hoping that her dad would come this year as well. He wasn't able to make it, but we are going to get him up here again soon.

Her brother's kids show up and they both have one of those PSP's. You know, the hand held mind numbing things Sony likes to call a game/movie unit.

Drew just thought this was the neatest thing since, well, his Wii. Of course they just HAD to have the Star Wars Battlefront game on it so that just added to the overall "cool" factor for him. Well, grandpa (in his behind the scene plot to get back at Jayna for all the things she put him through when she was a kid) decided that since they both had one, Drew had to have one too. So he sent a PSP up with her brother to give to Drew.

We decided to give it to him yesterday since the other two had theirs. It has been nothing but constant blaster fire, "I GOT YOU!!!!", "Dad, he keeps killing me" ect...

Oh, and Drew is so funny. He has been telling everyone that his "papa" gave him a "ESP".

My son officially has ESP now.

Barlow is back!!!!!!

2007-12-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

This was posted on Iced Earth's website last week. I was out of town for a hockey tournament so I missed this until today. This has got to be the greatest news in music!

Hello Dear Friends!
Once again the winds of change are upon us, and this time I can say that I am very happy about the result.
While out on the European tour I had several in depth discussions with many loyal Iced Earth fans. A common theme of these discussions was how much Matt is missed. I agreed with the fans that things were not the same and that it was a very special period in Iced Earth’s history.
When I heard several months ago that Matt was going to be doing a project in music again, I was thinking about contacting him and seeing what his intentions were. I didn’t act on this because I was so focused on the writing of the new epic, and frankly, it just didn’t seem realistic.
Well, after getting out on the road and speaking with many of you directly, I decided to call Matt and see how he was doing and if he was interested in working together again. I am proud to say that he is coming back to Iced Earth and we will be getting back to work in the studio very soon.
Matt will be singing on Part 2 of the Something Wicked concept CD and we will be looking forward to getting out on tour and delivering a series of Iced Earth shows that will rival any in the history of the band. And there will be a proper DVD filmed from this period, something we’ve all been waiting for.
I want you all to know that it was you who made this a reality. I have missed Matt’s presence onstage and in my personal life in a big way over the past few years, so I appreciate your honesty in our discussions. It did help me realize the decision to move forward with pursuing this. The fans have spoken and we have delivered!
You true fans know that I’m a straight shooter, I say what I mean and mean what I say. And though I value your opinions greatly, you must believe that this is a decision that comes completely from the heart and is not motivated by anything other than what feels the best for Iced Earth. This is the way that things have always been dealt with, for better or for worse, but always honestly and from the heart.
Tim Owens is a great and talented singer and I wish the best for him and his future on a personal and professional level.
There will be more news soon as to further developments and plans. This will push back the release of Part 2 a bit. Not because we couldn’t be ready to record in time, but because of a new addition to Matt’s family in early 2008!
I am very happy to announce that Iced Earth is truly BACK!
Have a great holiday season. We’ll be in touch very soon with more details.
Jon Schaffer

Let the 4 year old teach us how to keep a secret!

2007-11-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

Let's go back a few days and start at the beginning.

I am going to get my wife something nice for Christmas this year. She has been kind enough this time to suffocate me with a mound of ideas to chose from. I will do this right this time. I will get her something she really wants, and it is going to be fantastic. Here is a list of things I have to pick from:

New lens for her digital camera (we have a Pentax K10D)

A large assortment of clothing from a catalogue she likes

An IPhone

Jewelry

New bedroom furniture

New personal Laptop

Bigger Ipod

She was even kind enough to put nice big circles around the items in the catalogue that she would wear. The only thing I have to do this time around, is pay for whichever item I decide on. This is going to be simple. How many times have you said that before? Exactly. Hence the story that follows...

It took several trips to the stores, looking at lenses, jewelry and other items before I settled on the IPhone. She has been extremely excited about getting one of these so this would be perfect. I had my son with me when we looked at them, and he told me "Daddy, this is cool". That sealed the deal. The IPhone is what it was going to be.

I went to the bank the next morning and cashed the check that was going to pay for this gift. Since she does the checkbook I didn't want her to know what it was I was getting. Drew was so excited about the phone I thought it would be fun to take him with me. I picked him up from daycare and off a shopping we went. Drew helped me pick it out (even though there is only one kind now) and even helped pay for it by handing the money to the clerk.

We took the phone home where I promptly picked the perfect hiding spot for it. This was one place my wife would NEVER think to look. I hid it at the front of one of my comic storage boxes. Then it was time to sit Drew down and talk about how we are not going to tell mommy what we got her. He said he understood and he would not tell her. My kid would never give away a secret...would he?

That night we were all sitting downstairs watching a movie and Drew kept whispering in my ear "Daddy, I am not going to tell mommy about the IPhone." I had to remind him several times that we do not tell mommy, and that we needed to not talk about it at all. We made it through the entire night without any spilling of the beans. That had to have been 3 of the longest hours of trying to censor everything that came out of his mouth.

Wednesday is the start of my work week. I don't have to be in to the office until 1:00pm so my wife leaves long before I do. This particular morning she decided I should take our son to daycare instead of her. She left, trying not to wake either of us. I woke up, got both Drew and I showered, dressed and ready to go. We went downstairs to get our coats and hit the road and what do I find? My wife was kind enough to bring my son's heavy winter coat and gloves in that I had left in her car the day before. Normally this would have been great, but not this time. Not only did she bring in the coat and gloves, but she also brought in something I forgot in the car.

THE RECEIPT FOR THE IPHONE!!!!!!

Last night my wife activated her new IPhone, and I am on the hunt for a new Christmas present.

At least the 4 year old in the family knows how to keep a secret. He is now accepting applications to the "Drew school of secret keeping". I have a front row seat for the next seminar.

Ahhhh bachelor life!

2007-11-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my wife informed me that she was going to have to travel for work. She would be flying out on Monday morning for Las Vegas (damn her for not taking me!). Then from there she would be going to Portland and then on to Seattle (again I shall damn her!). She would be gone from Monday until Thursday late afternoon.

So, this past Monday I drove my wife to the airport and began my 4 days of bachelorhood. I had made arrangements for my parents to take my son Drew up to their cabin with them for the week. They would pick him up Tuesday morning and I would be home alone. No kid. No wife. Just me and the freedom to do whatever I wanted.

I can stay up as late as I want. I can sit in my chair and do nothing by play Warcraft all day long if I so choose. I can eat junk food, drink beer, not shower, watch hockey, play hockey, and not have to do any house work. It was going to be 4 days of me time. I was actually looking forward to this. I even went so far as to tell my boss that I would not be in on Wednesday or Thursday just so I can sit at home and enjoy my new found freedom.

I had big plans I tell you. This was going to be my week. I had plans, and they were not to be messed with. I was going to be the king of my domain!!!!!

It is Wednesday today, and I am at work. I played one game of hockey, had hockey on TV in the background while I did dishes, vaccumed, and did laundry. I was in bed by midnight both Monday and Tuesday nights, and more than likely will be tonight as well. There has been no beer consumption, and I made sandwiches for food, and left over pot roast my wife made. I did play a little warcraft, but only a couple hours worth.

I am no good on my own.

The Truth is Out There

2007-11-01T10:40:00.000-06:00

So, after 10 years of silence from the Chris Carter camp, the announcement finally came on Wednesday October 31st.

The return of X-Files!

The announcement from Fox studios confirms that there WILL be a new X-Files movie and production is to begin this December. It appears that they are shooting for a late July 2008 release. There are not a lot of details about the plot line, but it was confirmed that Duchovny and Anderson are both in. This is great news for fans of the show, like myself.

You can read a short article about it at Yahoo. There isn't much to the article, but hey if you don't want to believe me go read it.

I wonder if this came about due to Duchovny's new show Californication doing so well? I just finished watching the first season and I must say...I am hooked. For those of you who have not watched this yet...SHAME, I say SHAME on you. This is one of those shows that is a must see if you like shows that deliver wonderful characters, great plot twists, and pushes the boundaries of acceptable.

The show is centered around Duchovny's character Hank Moody. Hank is a writer, or as he likes to call it Non-practicing writer, who seems to be on a self destruct path. He has an ex-girlfriend with whom he has a preteen daughter. The ex is living with, and engaged to the man she left Hank for. Hank seems to be obsessed with sleeping with every hot girl he meets, drinks too much, smokes too much, and all the while is still madly in love with, and trying to win back his ex. You then add in his agent and his strange relationship with his secretary, and the agents wife who is just a few choice words away from a truck driver. Top this off with the ex's boyfriend's 16 year old sex crazed daughter who has a dark secret about Hank...and you get some fantastic stories.

Bottom line - GO WATCH CALIFORNICATION!

Okay, back to X-Files. I am really looking forward to a new installment in this franchise. For me once Mulder, or Scully left the show it was over. This proved so true when Duchovny left the show. Yes I know he came back in a few episodes, but it wasnt the same. Don't get me wrong, I thought Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish did a fantastic job filling in those shoes, but it wasnt X-Files any more. I dont think I even watched the last season in full due to this.

The good news about the new movie is that it is all the original cast. The script was written by series veteran Frank Spotnitz and series creater Chris Carter. Carter is also set to direct this so it should be more along the lines of the first season.

I can't wait!

NEW!!!!!

This day just gets better and better. My wife just found an article that says FOX has just picked up a 7 episode season of a new Joss Whedon series called Dollhouse. You can read the article HERE!

Joss Whedon AND Eliza Dushku again? It took me several years AFTER season 7 to finally force myself to watch Buffy. It took me about 4 episodes and I was hooked. I never watched it when it was on because I thought way they show was done was too cheesy. After finishing all 7 season I take back everything negative I ever said about the show. In typical Joss fashion...the characters were very interesting and engrossing, and the plot and stories were fun.

This is going to be a must watch for me. Firefly was one of the greatest shows to come along in a long time. This show was cut way too short. I still hold out hope that we might see another Firefly movie, or better yet that Sci-Fi channel might pick it up. I know this is a pipe dream at this poing, but at least we have some good news that Joss is doing something new.

I have also been reading Joss's Astonishing X-Men, Runaways, and his season 8 Buffy comic series. I am a huge fan of his writing and his characters.

And just to get the hype going for me....I present Eliza:

Halloween

2007-10-31T14:43:00.000-06:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

MP3's and Ripping, and Ipod's Oh My!!!!

2007-10-26T18:06:00.000-06:00

My loving wife decided about 5 months ago to take pity on my lack of Ipodiness and surprised me with a shiny new black 80 gig Ipod Video.

The main reason behind this purchase was the new car. Back in January I finally decided it was time to retire the 1990 Honda Prelude. The "lude" decided it was going to take up a smoking habit. Every time I started it up after it had been sitting for the day, I had to allow it at least a 5 minute smoke break before it was okay to drive. After much fighting to just get it fixed, my wife won and we decided to adopt a shiny new 2007 Ford Fusion SE V6. A lot of people like to make fun of the fact that the color I picked was silver. I wasn't trying to have a matching colored car as my wife (she has a 2005 Chevy Trailblazer that is silver), it was just the color they had that had all the features I wanted. This purchase led to the Ipod purchase because the car has a mini jack located inside the center console along with a power plug. Perfect for the hook up of an Ipod.

Currently, without adding in my wife's CD's, I have a collection of CD's that is sitting right around 1000+ discs. I have quite a few that are rare and out of print. I thought that now that I have this 80gig storage unit, I could rip all the songs I wanted and then box up the CD's. This way they are not taking up a ton of space in my office, and they will be out of my son's reach. If you have looked at my wife's blog (http://jaynashaye.blogspot.com/) you will have heard all about him. He has decided that since he is all grown up (he is 4 1/2) that the computer in my office is now his computer. He plays his Star Wars Lego games on it as well as watches his video's. The newest thing he is doing on it is playing World of Warcraft. Yes, at 4 1/2 my son is being sucked in to the world of the MMO. Actually he is playing on a private server, not on the retail ones. He plays on the private WoWGasm servers, but that is a whole nother blog for a later date.

Now that I had this new Ipod, it was ripping time!

I started out with just the songs I wanted to listen to. I went through all my MP3's I had on my desktop and moved them over to my laptop. I then went through and pulled out all the CD's I knew I wanted. I spent 4 days ripping what I thought was a pile of MP3's that would rivel the selection on ITunes. Oh how I have forgotten what it was like to be so completely clueless about my music. After I was all done I hooked up the IPod and waited patiently for it to finish loading my massive music selection.

1045 song.

1045 song?

WHAT? That is it?

I have only used up 7 gig? That is about right since I am ripping at 192. I was going to go at 256, but I wasnt sure how much space this first round was going to take up.

Crap.

That was 5 months ago. Today I finally decided it was time for round 2 of ripping. I started at the beginning of CD rack number one. I decided that I was going to stick with 192 rate since in my car and on headphones it is actually sounding okay. That, and I really didn't want to go back and start ALL over.

Currently I am at 1385 songs. I decided since the plan was to completely box up the CD's this time, I should get everything I might possibly want to listen to on here. I am also going to pick up a docking station that allows me to hook up to the home audio system. That will be nice to have a 3K+ song selection to pick from instead of 5 CD's at a time. I guess I should think about making a seperate play list on just the stuff my wife would actually enjoy listening too.

Think I could sneak some Dimmu Borgir or Borknagar in there without her knowing?

Play Hellgate: London Demo

2007-10-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

There is now a playable demo version of Hellgate:London for download at:

Hellgate: London demo.

I am going to download this when I get home from work tonight and try it out. Tweleve more days until release!

Greatest Comic Stories

2007-10-11T09:49:00.000-06:00

It has been a few days since I wrote anything so I decided I should say something. Since the title of the blog is "Hobbies that drive the wife insane" I figured I should write about something that actually drives her crazy. What better thing to do that than COMIC BOOKS!

I used to be one of those crazy collectors who had boxes and boxes of books. I think at the point where I sold my collection about 14 years ago I was sitting at 16 long boxes and 6 short boxes of books. At the time I was just sick of the industry as a whole with their die cut-foil embossed-glow in the dark-1 of 10 different cover-scratch and sniff-see through-sparkle covers. The whole thing to me seemed to get away from the great story and artwork, and became more about how we can make the most money for shitty product.

So I thought, what would be a great thing to post about now that I have started collecting again as of last year? How about some of my favorite books past and present. These are the books that, while not the "it" books, are the ones whose stories and art I enjoyed the most. Sure I could post stuff like Giant Size X-men #1, or Hulk #181, or Amazing Spiderman #129...or hell even Action Comics #1, or Detective #27 but that is not the point. Here are my favorite books of all time.

1. Sandman by Neil Gaiman. - Best series I ever read. Not just one book, the whole damn series.

2. Jack of Fables by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges.

3. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman

4. Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon

5. Amazing Spider-man - no particular writer or artist. I just love the character and the series.

6. Hellblazer by Garth Ennis - The Ennis run was just fantastic

7. Swamp Thing by Alan Moore

8. Marvel Zombies by Robert Kirkman

9. Marvel Civil War - Mark Miller

10. Wolverine Limited Series by Chris Claremont

11. Batman - The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

These are just some of the many books that I have enjoyed over the years. These are books that I can read over and over and still enjoy them as much as the first time.

I do have to say after taking such a long break from colleting that the quality of books has increased over the years. The page stock, and cover paper is a huge upgrade. The quality of writing has greatly increased as well. The only thing that has not increased to the degree of the others is the artwork. There are some amazing artists creating right now, but as a whole the hey day of the Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Sam Keith, Liam Sharp and others is just not what it used to be. I guess what I am saying is that there is not an over abundance of amazing artwork out there right now. It used to be that every book put out had some amazing artist doing the work, now it is more sparse.

The one thing I am not liking is the$2.99 and $3.99 cover prices for books. If the trend to up the price continues I may have to seriously cut back on the number of books I am getting each month. I have already cut back to the bare minimum, but if the prices go up again I am going to have to stop some things. It will be an Ebay or a convention hunt to find them at discounted prices. $3.50 and up for a book is just getting out of hand.

If you are looking for back issues, gaming items, toys, or supplies I would suggest checking out Captain Comics. The are located in Boise Idaho (where I live) and the team there are fantastic. Even after all these years Corbit still has a passion for the books he sells. The entire staff goes out of their way to know your name, and what books you are getting. The do mail order, and also have a weekly newsletter that is emailed out. You can sign up for it on the website.

Happy Reading!

Hellgate: London

2007-10-04T13:46:00.000-06:00

I have been an avid PC gamer for many years now. I remember those 3 to 4 am nights at my friend Andy's house writing our first Dungeon's & Dragon's based text game on his shiny new HP-85. Anyone remember the HP-85? If not, here is what we had to work with "back in the day".

Looking back I can not believe we spent hours upon hours "playing" a game that was nothing more than:

"You walk down the rough stone path, the sky blocked out by the overhanging branches. You reach a point where the road forks to the left and the right. Which direction would you like to go?"

At this point you would type in "L" for left or "R" for right. Rinse and repeat. Of course we knew everything that was going to happen since we wrote it, but man did you play and play until we wore out the tape the game was stored on.

Games sure have come a long way since then haven't they? I dove head first into the world of the MMORPG with the introduction of Everquest. Many a night was spent raiding away with my guild (yes, I was a guild leader for a while). There were many a weekend that I don't think I even showered, or went outside due to "important raid stuff". I never got to the point where I lost my job, or my friends over it like some people did. I played up to the point where World of Warcraft came out. I tried it, played about 5 months, decided I did not like it and went back to EQ. I then tried playing some Everquest II in the hopes it would bring back some of that old EQ magic, but it didn't. I decided at this point it was going to be EQ and that was that. It wasn't until about a year after release that I got back into WoW. A very close friend of mine called me up and talked me into giving WoW a try again. Thanks to Larry EQ got cancelled and it has been WoW ever since.

I tried several other games over the last couple of years that I enjoyed, but never really got into like I did with EQ or WoW. There was Oblivion, City of Heroes, Doom 3, F.E.A.R, and I even dusted off and played some Starcraft again. It wasn't until I saw the trailer for a new game coming out that I got excited about games again. I am talking about:

This could very well be the next game that I dive into and play for a substantial amount of time. The game is being developed by Flagship Studios, which is a good sign right there. This company was founded by some of the core people involved with the development of Diablo. Check out the website at...Hellgate:London for all kinds of great information about the game like classes, game play, and a very nice selection of screenshots.

The concept behind the game sounds interesting. London in the year 2038, decimated by legions of demons with mankind struggling to survive. The game references several real world events in it's story line. The Knights Templar play a role in the game as the keepers of knowledge on how to defeat the demons. It also mentions that the crusades was actually an undertaking to defeat them. Ordinary weapons will not work against the demons. It is a fusion of modern technology and magic that enables mankind to fight back. There is also the enclusion of the Freemasons who have built a vast underground tunnel network that is used as the base of operations because it was built to be resistant to the demons.

Gameplay looks like a nice mix between a first person shooter and a traditional RPG. The game looks to be played from a first person shooter perspective, but characters will be allowed to level up, get new gear, have a point system to get "talents" so to speak, and increase stats.

The game looks very nice, and hopefully will provide a nice mix of two game types that I enjoy. From the sounds of it you can play this game solo, or you can connect up online and form parties of other players to explore with. There will also be some kind of PVP element implemented but there is not a lot of information on that yet.

Cheryl from IAH Games has a blog going with monthly updates about the game. Check out what she has to say at Angelace's Hellgate: London Blog. If you look under the blog from August 2007 titled "Sizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzling hot! she has some nice pictures up of the Hellgate:London painted jeep. Did I mention the jeep is pretty sweet looking, but not as sweet as what is pictured with it? Go see for yourself. It is worth the click.

Check out the trailer for the here - Hellgate:London Trailer

I signed up for the Beta testing but like most people, I have not heard anything. Beta is scheduled to close up on October 7th 2007 so at this point I am going to vote "NO" on my getting in. The scheduled release date for the retail version is October 31, 2007 for the North American, and November 2, 2007 for the Europe date.

The December issue of PC Gamer is going to have a nice write up about the game. This should be hitting shelves in the next week or two so keep an eye open for it. This is what the cover is going to look like:

In case you are wanting some screenshots guess what...included. Don't say I don't take care of you!

The NHL season starts TONIGHT!

2007-10-03T17:27:00.000-06:00

I figured I would start this new blog site off with something I am very excited about. That's right, the start of the NHL regular season. This topic is really not something that fits under the title of hobbies or things that drive the wife insane. The opposite is true as far as the wife in concerned. She has really gotten into watching hockey, partly because I play in a local rec league. She loves going to my games, and now that she understands most of the rules, she loves the game.

This season should provide some fun rubbings in our house. My team is the Colorado Avalanche, while my wife is pulling a Benedict Arnold this year and actually cheering for the Phoenix Coyotes. I guess I can't call her a traitor really, since she jumped ship last season to the Montreal Canadians. It was all a result of the Avs trading off the player she likes - David Aebischer.

If you don't know who David is, I'll give you the cliff notes. He was the backup goalie for the Avalanche when Patrick Roy was still around. If you don't know who that is, stop reading right here. You obviously have no clue about Hockey and should be punished in one of the nine hells. Either that, or you should start watching and attending games for one of the greatest sports to exist on this planet. Anyways...after Roy retired he pushed for the Avs to give the back up goalie (Aebischer) the headline spot. They did, but talks of trading him started from day one. Eventually they did trade him to the Canadians. After his year with them, he became an unrestricted free agent and was finally picked up by Phoenix.

Wow, talk about just rambling off of topic. To get back to the start of the season...I am lucky enough to have a wife who likes the game. Last season we decided to try out the NHL Center Ice package with Directv (since that is what provider we already had). I must say, I loved it. So we went ahead and renewed again this year and tonight is the first night of games. Tonight we get to pick from:

Anaheim Mighty Ducks at Detroit Red Wings

Montreal Canadiens at Carolina Hurricanes

Ottawa Senators at Toronto Maple Leafs

Dallas Stars at Colorado Avalanche

I wonder which game I am going to be watching? Well, I can tell you it will NOT be the first 3 on that list! The Avs are looking really good this year with some great off season trades and picks. I am really excited to see who they go to for game one in the net. My vote would be for Peter Budaj.

Did I mention I really don't like the Dallas Stars? No, okay then...

I really don't like the Dallas Stars. So much so that I am not going to include a link to their site. So take that you Stars fans!

GO AVALANCHE!