La di da di... who likes to party?

Wow, that's probably the lamest post-title I've had yet! But hey, I'm just not feeling ultra creative right now, so deal.

-Had a pretty fun weekend. Saturday was Henry’s 25th birthday party over at Maryellen’s place. We wound up getting there a little later than planned (due to some circumstances beyond our control- like stupid people who don’t know how to drive…) but we were also the last ones to leave.

Lots of people were at the party, including Gaetano, John, Ashley, Joe, Athena, her b/f (who’s name I know but am not exactly sure how to spell, so I won’t botch it up here), Steph and Pat J. We all wound up playing Scene-It, and the 20th Anniversary Trivial Pursuit. I was teamed with Pat and Steph for both games (although I was almost put in the same team with Henry and Maryellen, but people complained that it was unfair as we would have been a power-house team, so we were forced to split up).

My team got wrecked in the Scene-It game, and we also weren’t doing so great in Trivial Pursuit at first, but about half-way through the game we made a really strong comeback, thanks to a handful of comic book related questions (see being a geek has it’s advantages). We even overtook the lead for a portion of the game, and came within just one question of winning the entire game. However, we wound up losing to Henry’s team (who also won Scene-It). So yeah, Happy freakin Birthday man! lol

A good portion of the rest of the night also went to everyone being in awe of and playing with Henry’s TiVo [wow, if you were of the Beavis & Butt-head mentallity, that could be taken in such a naughty way... *huh huh huh*]. Apparently, Henry was hawking it to everyone like a salesman before I arrived, so people just wanted to watch different things they had saved on it.

The crowd began to dwindle down as the night progressed until me and Ariana were the only guests left. We were about to leave when I asked Henry if Joe and Marisa were still coming to the party (as they had stated earlier they would). I had a feeling they would though and didn’t want them to show up after everyone left, so Henry called them and we found out they were already halfway to the house. So we stuck around for them to arrive and actually wound up hanging out and looking at pictures and stuff for another two hours. So yeah, I think a good time was had by all (my only regret was not being able to defend my title in “Name That Tune” but maybe next time).

****

Sunday was a fairly normal day, except that at night me and Ariana went to Phil’s place for the WWE Royal Rumble PPV.

The Royal Rumble is usually always one of the most fun PPVs of the year and this one was no different. Not one match flat out sucked (yeah Undertaker vs Heidenreich wasn’t great but it wasn’t horrible either) and the rest of the matches were actually pretty damn cool- including the rumble itself. I was also extremely happy when Triple H defeated Randy Orton FAIR AND SQUARE. I’m still grinning…

But yeah back to the Rumble- it was just so much fun this year. They did lots of things I didn’t expect but which were all quite fun. And they also really didn’t do anything to totally aggravate me either. So kudos to the WWE for a job well done. Let’s just hope that Wrestlemania 21 can be this cool (and things are already looking good. Can anyone say Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels)?

We should be ashamed of ourselves...

I was looking to see what movies are coming out this weekend and ran across the box office numbers for last week's movies.  It seems that "Are We There Yet?" is the #1 movie in the country.  And to that I say "Bad America!  That's a Bad, Bad America!"

Me am confused...

Ok, so this morning my TV alarm turns on to wake me up and I always have it set to ESPN2 for Cold Pizza. However, this morning the Australlain Open Tennis semi-finals were running long so that is what I woke up to.

Apparently the match is really close and has been going on for about 4 and a half hours or something and is hotly contested. I watch a few moments of the game and it is pretty crazy with lots and back and forth action. The crowd is into it, the announcers are into it, hell even I'm getting into it... with only one problem...

...I have NO idea what the hell is going on.

I don't know the rules of Tennis, never have. So I'm watching this match (between Federer, who I remember only b/c he was on SNL last year and he also looks like Stifler from American Pie) and some other dude. So Federer is behind and he's hitting it and winning some serves and losing some serves but then I'm looking at the score and nothing is changing. They had gone back and forth like 5 times and the score was still like 7 to 5 or something. I was just like "what the hell? How do you score a damn point?"

I was thinking it was like volleyball, where only the person serving can get a point, but if they miss then the other person serves. Well apparently it is not, lol.

So I'm watching, and like I said the action itself is good, but I was SOOO lost in terms of how this was being scored.

It just made me remember when I was young and I had Tennis for the Atari 2600 and I would try to play it and not understand how it worked at ALL. I'm gonna need to look up the rules or something (unless one of u kind folks would like to explain it to me), cuz I was sitting there with an even more confused look on my face than the ones the girls usually have at Joe's annual Superbowl parties.

****

Oh and I also can't end this blog without making a comment on how ABSOLUTELY FRIGID it is outside!!! And the wind makes it even worse!!!

I nearly froze my ass off this morning while walking from the Fordham parking lot to Hughes Hall. I have not felt so cold in a very long time. It was horrible. I had to shield my face b/c the wind was blowing fairly strong and right in my eyes (the rest of my face was covered). And it was so bad it made me tear up, and the tears were starting to freeze to my face!

I even felt the cold blow right through my gloves! It was insane. All I had going through my head was "It's frikkin freezing here, Mr. Bigglesworth!"

I pray it isn't that bad when I leave at the end of the day.

Bored at work... again

I'm just chillin here at work all bored, so I figured I'd just babble away on my blog. Let's see... what's new?

-Been playing tons of X-Men Legends with Ariana lately. And when she's not around, I just level up the guys in the Danger Room. I have this one training mode in there which is super tough to beat but thats good, b/c I can keep trying and leveling up my characters like crazy. I've already jumped all the X-Men from levels 22-24 up to levels 32-37, so now when me and Ariana go through the regular missions next time, we should be near unstoppable. I can't wait!

So yeah, if you can't tell, I like the game quite a bit. My favorite team at the moment is Storm, Iceman, Nightcrawler and Colossus. I'd highly recommend the game to anyone (especially if they are an X-Men fan). Check it out for at least a rental.

-Speaking of rentals though, I'm tempted to go rent that new game- Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. The commercial just makes it look like so much fun. I wanna blow stuff up!!!

Another game that looks like it'll be cool to rent/buy is the new Punisher game. It's supposed to be pretty badass, especially the interrogation/torture option. If anyone out there has played either of these games, let me know how they are.

****

I ran across a fun article on the KROCK website. I would post the link here but my mac here at work is stupid, so u know what? I'll just post the whole article here for everyone to see.


"Jan 19, 2005 9:55 am US/Eastern
(MTV Radio News)

TENACIOUS D AND FRIENDS ROCK THE WILTERN FOR TSUNAMI RELIEF

Foo Fighter Dave Grohl, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Beck, Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age and Tenacious D all performed acoustic sets Monday night at the Music for Relief benefit show for tsunami victims at The Wiltern LG Theater in Los Angeles.

Actor Will Farrell opened the show by telling the capacity crowd - which included Luke Wilson and guitarist Brad Delson from Linkin Park -- all the music would be live and there would be “No Ashlee Simpson Bullsh*t.” He then went on to perform a lip-synched version of Coldplay’s “Clocks.” Seated at a piano, Farrell jokingly pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, took bites of a sandwich, read the newspaper and even took a nap during his “performance,” afterwards he begrudgingly admitted to lip-synching.

The first real performance belonged to Josh Homme, who played a short acoustic set that included “The Mosquito Song” - which he stopped in the middle saying “he was already bored.” He also played “No One Knows,” and two new songs; “Long Slow Goodbye,” and “I Never Came,” which featured Dave Grohl on guitar. Next up, Eddie Vedder performed the Pearl Jam tune “I Am Mine,” their cover of “Last Kiss,” the Cat Stevens’ tune “Trouble,” and The Who song “The Seeker.” Vedder was joined by Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass for The Beatles song “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.”

Chris Rock, who was not on the bill, hit the stage and told some jokes about hosting the Oscars and then introduced Dave Grohl, who performed a new Foo Fighters song called “Razor of Mine,” and then launched into “Everlong,” “Times Like These,” and “Tired of You.” Beck hit the stage next and performed a few songs, including “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes,” from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack and “Lost Cause” -- during which Will Ferrell came out dressed in a red body suit and did an interpretive dance to the tune, which culminated in him humping Beck’s pump organ. Beck stopped a few times to politely tell him to stop.

Tenacious D took the stage and introduced themselves as the “Greatest band in the world.” Their set included two new songs - one that will open their movie Tenacious D: In The Pick of Destiny - and another called “Dude, I totally Miss You.” They opened their set with “Flash Gordon,” and also played “Wonderboy,” “Explosivo,” “Lee,” F*ck Her Gently,” a Who medley and a Beatles medley.

Finally, the show came to a close with a special encore featuring Grohl on drums, Homme on bass, Beck and Vedder on electric guitar, Jack Black and Kyle Gass on acoustic guitar. They performed The Chambers Brothers song “Time Has Come Today,” Tom Petty’s “So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star” and Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times.” They were then joined on stage by Ferrell - playing a cowbell - as they reprised “Time Has Come Today.” Each member walked off the stage one at a time, leaving Farrell alone and hitting the cowbell as the crowd chanted “Time!” 96 percent of the money from ticket sales and donations from the event will go directly towards tsunami relief in Asia, according to the Red Cross. You can still make a donation at redcross.org."

-After reading this, I was just really jealous they didn't have anything this cool in NY b/c I so would have gone. This also just goes to further prove how awesome Will Ferrell is.

****

In baseball news- the Marlins won the battle for Carlos Delgado and I'm pretty happy about that. He's a solid left-handed hitter and will add some much needed power to the Marlins. His addition just makes the Marlins a VERY well rounded team- they've got very good young pitching (who if they live up to their potential can be great), lots of speed, good defense and now a fairly strong middle of the lineup.

This should make the NL East one of the more hotly contested divisions this year, now with the Mets and Marlins improving so much. Maybe Atlanta won't run away with it this year (I would hope).

The Marlins just really need to continue winning in order to support their push for a new stadium. They need one with a freakin retractible roof, and also so they can earn more money (as now they are sharing a stadium with the NFL's Miami Dolphins and most earnings go to them), But the state of Florida keeps jerking them around. I hope things get settled soon though, b/c Las Vegas is really pushing to have an MLB team come out there, and right now the Marlins are looking like the most likely team to make that move and I think that would really suck. So let's see what happens with that...

****

Oh and I had been meaning to talk about a funny thing I saw on TV over the weekend. I was flipping through the channels and I ran across this hilarious skit on MAD TV. Now I normally don't watch MAD TV (as I think it sucks), but the skit they had was one of the funniest things I had seen on a sketch comedy show.

The premise of the skit was making fun of the Terminator movies, but with a twist. This time they send the terminator (an Arnold look-a-like) back in time to save Jesus from being crucified.

So they have the Terminator appear at the time of Christ and as he is searching for Jesus to save him, he runs across a bunch of Romans and they show that first person view the Terminator has with the scanner where it says either "non-hostile" or "terminate." And he starts killing anyone off that had anything to do with Jesus' death.

They cut to Jesus at the last supper and as he is saying his final words, the Terminator bursts through the door, does a quick scan of the disciples before coming across Judas where he scans "Judas- Will betray Jesus- TERMINATE" and he takes out the shotgun and blows him away. Then Jesus is all like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!!?" The Terminator is all like "I'm here to save you." And Jesus responds "No, you don't understand, Judas is SUPPOSED to betray me so I can die for the sins of the world." He then approaches Judas and raises him from the dead, but then the Terminator blows him away again as soon as Judas stands up. Jesus once again starts yelling at the Terminator "Stop it! He HAS to betray me!" He raises him again, and once again the Terminator kills him.

Eventually, Jesus convinces the terminator not to kill Judas, so then we cut to when Jesus is carrying the cross through the crowds and the Terminator is standing next to Mary weeping and he goes to her to hold her and just says "He'll be back."

-I just thought it was a genius skit that was well done, inoffensive considering the material, and absolutely hilarious in its delivery. It's not gonna make me a fan of MAD TV but I'd love to get my hands on that skit so I could watch it again- so I'm off to Kazaa!

An apology

I basically just wanted to apologize for some comments made in my last post. I made some derogatory comments about people who voted for Bush, not taking into consideration that some of my friends (and readers of this blog) may have voted for him. So I said some things I probably shouldn't have, which I attribute to the fact that I was just in a worked up emotional state and really pissed over the situation.

That is not an excuse though. So if I offended anyone with my comments in that post, please accept my apologies.

Oh, it's ON!!!

Dammit all! I know I promised not to go off on political issues anymore on this blog, BUT I also said I would be one pissed off dude if Bush's "plan" for education eliminated the program I worked for.

Well it happened.

We were just informed today through a letter from the President of the Council for Opportunity in Education which you can read here:

(click on the image to enlarge)


Me and especially everyone else in my office is just freakin INFURIATED. We KNEW there were gonna be issues once Bush got re-elected but it happened faster than expected.

I hope anyone out there who voted for Bush sees what is going on, The sad thing is, this is all happening on the low, which is why I'm posting this here. Word of this needs to get out so people realize the mess the US education system is going through.

To put it in perspective- the Talent Search program I work for serves 850 students, and our Upward Bound program serves between 60-100 students. And that's just the program from Fordham! Imagine the THOUSANDS of students across the whole country who will now no longer have access to the services these programs provided after the 2006 school year.

Oh and did all of you know that Bush cut funding from the Pell Grants? By a few million too. So each student gets a lot less money (possibly up to $1000 less).

So what was all that Bush talked about "increasing" Pell grants during the debates? Utter B.S., just like I mentioned before. What he ACTUALLY did was increase the amount of students eligible for Pell but not the amount in the budget which means each student got less. And now with these cuts (hmm, didn't see that one coming did u?), students will get even LESS.

President for education my ASS!

So let's see, Bush and his administration eliminate programs like mine which tutor middle school children, provides counseling services and help high school students in getting into college, and the Upward Bound program which motivates disadvantaged students into going to college (and gives them a positive summer program to attend). Then he makes it almost unaffordable for thousands of students to go to college by cutting grants. Oh and that nice old "No Child Left Behind" program? More like "pass or you get kicked out of school." So yeah "technically" kids won't get left behind, b/c they will be forced to leave school if they can't pass within a certain time.

It just disgusts me. And then people have the nerve to defend this man! People don't realize what he is doing!

Bush and his administration are cutting the funding from all these programs so they can put more money into the war in Iraq! How sickening is that!?!?

And don't tell me he is not, b/c he SO is. Look, he's eliminating funds from all these education programs so kids have less of a chance to get into or afford college. So what is the alternative for them? To join the freakin army. So Bush kills 2 birds with one stone, how nice for them right?

Uggh, I can't even think or write straight right now b/c I am just so pissed off. People in America are insane for voting for him back into office. In my opinion right now there are two types of people who voted for Bush: 1) Scared chicken-shit people who were so afraid of the war that they didn't consider the real issues, and 2) idiots like those who carry NRA cards, redneck fools who want to show off their 'big balls' and blow up other countries, or are so into the "Christian" issues like anti-abortion or eliminating gay marriage that they also didn't look at the real issues.

And let's think about it. Bush won the south and all of middle America for the most part. But look at the lifestyles of those states. Most people there will finish high school (if even) and then go straight to working on farms or factories or whatever. They don't need or care about higher education out there b/c it's not a major part of their way of life (at least not in this day and age). But it's a VERY different story in other parts of the US, like in major cities. So is it fair that the people in middle America get to choose the fate of the entire country without taking into consideration how this affects the rest of the country?

No, it isn't. And that's b/c Americans tend to be selfish bastards. It's all about "me" and the here and now. People aren't thinking ahead to the future and how their decisions now will affect their children and future generations. So people think all like "ooh, let's cut some funding from education and other programs so we can have more money now." But then don't realize that this affects their kids, who won't be getting the best education, and thus might not be able to get into a good college (or any college at all) and will have to settle for mediocre jobs, instead of possibly becoming doctors, lawyers, psychologists, businessmen, etc. And if that happens, then they aren't making enough money, so they aren't buying enough stuff, and then the economy goes down, among other things.

It's all a viscious cycle... but it starts and ends with education. And people out there need to start realizing that.

And uggh, I'm just annoyed right now so I'm gonna cut myself off here. But read the letter, and tell people about this and then after Feb. 7th, call or write your local congressmen/women and let them know how you feel, it'd be much appreciated.

I just had to add this in here too

I had posted this in a yahoo group I'm a part of, but I got some fun responses so I'm putting it here too so you can all join in on the debate.

So here is the post as I put it up on the group:

I'm here bored out of my mind at work, and was just flipping through an issue of Wizard magazine (yes, the one about comic books and related items). And in the letters page, the editor started cracking jokes on one of his co-editors that made the statement "a hot dog is a sandwich."

Then throughout the rest of the issue, different writers threw their 2 cents in ragging on the guy. It was pretty amusing, so I decided to throw the same question out to u guys to see what kind of crazy responses we might get.

So- Hotdog: sandwich or not?

Playing devil's advocate, I'll make some points as to why it could be a sandwich. First off- it's meat in bread, with lots of other toppings (if desired). Isn't that the same as making a salami and cheese sandwich? you could add mayo and lettuce if you want, and for a hotdog u can put on ketchup and saurkraut. Also, even hamburgers could be technically called sandwiches. At some fast food places, burgers and some chicken items are under the "sandwich" banner. So why not hotdogs?

Now I for one don't think a hot dog is a sandwich (as the editor of the magazine stated in his response "you try asking a street vendor for a 'hot dog sandwich' and see what happens!"). But what other reasons can u all think of?

Let the debate begin...

[can you all tell I'm REALLY bored?]

My new toy

I got myself a TiVo this past weekend.

I had been tempted to get one for awhile now, but kept pushing it off for various reasons, but last weekend was the straw that broke the camel's back. Last Sunday I went to Phil's for the WWE PPV but that night was also two hours of 24 and Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal, all at the same time. So I wound up setting a tape for 24 up in my room and for the other shows down in the living room.

But then the next day my mom got all pissed with me for using up the TV in the living room so she and her husband couldn't watch anything. She was even less pleased when I announced to her my plans to do the same that night as I planned on watching Raw in my room while taping 24 downstairs.

Problem is, the 24 and Raw thing is gonna be a season long issue, and so in order to avoid more fights with my mom I ordered a TiVo the very next day.

The TiVo wound up arriving sooner than I expected (Friday). So I installed it on Saturday, which was an adventure in itself considering my TV is ancient (like 20 years old) and has a billion things hooked up to it (cable box, vcr, modulator with 4 video game systems in it, and now the Tivo). But I somehow managed to figure out how to get it to work.

Or so I thought...

Turns out, I DID hook it up in a way that works, but not in a way where I could watch one channel while recording another (which is the whole damn point of me buying this sucker).

So I spent a good 45 minutes on the phone with TiVo tech support and after many different attempts we found something that should work, but problem is I needed an extra A/V cable (that red/white/yellow wire) and it was already late, so I was gonna need to wait til Sunday to go to Radio Shack to get it.

So Sunday comes, I get the A/V cable and I try it it again but it only partially works. Cuz basically to make a long story short, if I wanna watch something else while recording another channel I need to do it through the VCR. But while the VCR was picking up the audio fine from every channel, it wasn't getting the video too well from most channels.

So once again, I needed to call tech support. I was basically told that what I did was correct but considering I have so much crap hooked into the TV that the cable signal was getting weak and I just needed to buy a "cable signal amplifier" which I was told was a small cheap thing (lady said they are about $3) I could pick up at Radio Shack. But this was Sunday night, so I was gonna need to wait for Monday to do this (yeah, this is sounding pretty annoying so far isn't it? Trust me, it was).

I wound up swinging by Radio Shack once again on Monday and asked for the cable signal amplifier, but the dude just looked at me like I had 2 heads. We both went around looking for stuff and he gave me an "inline amplifier" which looked like it should be the right thing (even though it was $12). So I took it home and connected it...

... and nada.

So at this point I was kind of annoyed. I've since looked up on the internet exactly what a cable signal amplifier is, so hopefully I will be able to find it soon.

Luckily, one of the channels that works on the VCR is channel 5, so I was able to watch 24 while recording Raw with the TiVo so that was cool.

Let me not make it sound like TiVo is evil though. It's actually quite cool, I'm only having problems b/c my TV is too damn old and lacks the newer cable adapters TVs have nowadays that would have made this process much easier. But I'm having fun with the features on TiVo. I can fastforward and rewind live TV (whee!) and play video games while I'm recording stuff and watch it later, which is pretty cool. And once I figure out this amplifier thing it'll be totally awesome.

****

As for the rest of the weekend, went to the movies twice. On Friday we went to go see Elektra at New Roc. The movie was "ehh," it wasn't terrible but not great either. The main gripe we had was that this was a movie about an assassin yet she did not do much assassinating. One thing about the movie though, me and Henry were really drooling for some popcorn throughout it.

Then on Monday, I went with Ariana and my mom and her husband to see Meet the Fockers. I wasn't expecting much from the movie at all (since I didn't think the original was anything great) but it was actually pretty freakin funny. So I was glad we wound up going.

****

Oh and I realize I haven't mentioned anything about what's going on in baseball lately.

So of course we all know by now that Randy Johnson has signed with the Yankees making their rotation- Johnson, Mussina, Pavano, Wright and Brown. Not too shabby if you ask me (and don't think they're done yet, I'm sure they will get another pitcher mid-season). And they also got Tino Martinez back to play first base, which is great as he was a main part of the "heart" of the team during their championship runs. So things are looking good for the Bronx Bombers.

And things are looking up over in Queens too, as the Mets wound up winning the Beltran sweepstakes. They also signed Pedro Martinez a few weeks back (thank god, the Yanks didn't really try for him). So they now have themselves a great centerfielder and a pretty good looking pitching staff as well (if they can all keep healthy). So I'm happy for them, the NL East should be a more interesting picture this year (unless the Braves just dominate it again, but here's hoping not). It will at least make the subway series way more interesting than it has been since 2000.

The Marlins are surviving the best they can. They've held on to most of their players (except of course Benitez and Pavano) but acquired Al Leiter from the Mets and are right in the hunt for Carlos Delgado. If they could acquire him or another good bat they should have a chance to stay in the race.

****

And finally, I don't believe I mentioned it on the blog yet but Henry wound up picking up tix for me, Ariana, Joe, Marisa and of course Maryellen to go see the broadway show based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail- Spamalot. The play stars David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria, and Tim Curry (so you know this is gonna rock).

And to make things even better, we are riding into the theater on "horses." (If we can find coconuts in NY at the end of February that is). Should be tons of fun. I'm really looking forward to it.

New Years Group Pic

Joe V. just sent me this cool group shot from the New Years party at Patty and Joe's so I just thought I'd share. Enjoy!

By the way, you can enlarge this pic by clicking on it.

Holiday Recap

Ok so my last post was dedicated to a year end recap, but now I'll just quickly go through some cool things that happened over my extended Christmas Break.

First off, Christmas Eve was pretty cool. We spent it at my grandparents and it wound up being a good time. There was no drama with my sister and her bf, which was a very good thing, and the rest of the night was a lot of fun as the whole family spent most of it playing Karaoke Revolution 3, which I had gotten Ariana for her b-day.

I made out pretty good, gift-wise. I got a Dell DJ mp3 player from my grandparents (which holds 5gb worth of music), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2- The Sith Lords from my mom, and then Ariana got me a Gameboy Advance SP (it was the retro one that looks like the original NES controller, which is way cool), a game for the GBA (Dragonball Z- Buu's Fury), and The Simpsons Season 5 on DVD. And my sister surprised the hell out of me by giving me a card with a $50 Bestbuy gift card in it (t surprised me b/c me and Jenny rarely exchange gifts b/c she never has any money. But now she has a job so I guess she was making up for past years). So I was a very happy camper.

As for what I got Ariana, I got her Friends Season 8 on DVD, 3 CD's (2 from Juanes, and the Gwen Stefani CD) and this Purple Care Bears Cuddle Pillow she had been wanting for a long time but was nearly impossible to find. I lucked out and found it on ebay (and it was the ONLY one available) and was even luckier to win it. So she was very happy.

****

Skipping ahead a few days, on the following Wed, me and Ariana hung out with Greg and Jessii. First we went down to the E-Walk theater in Times Square to go see House of Flying Daggers (which kicked much ass and I enjoyed it even more than Crouching Tiger, and Hero). Then we headed back uptown and went to the New Roc City arcade for their Wacky Wednesday promotion.

Now, I had been to the Wacky Wed thing once before in the summer and it was awesome, but this time it was VERY over-crowded with kids running around everywhere. We wound up meeting up with Jordan, Gaetano, Adam and even Alan showed up later (we also ran into Anita and Adam who were once again attached by the hip to the Dance Dance Revolution machines), but we were barely all together for any period of time b/c it was just so insane in there. We did have a fun time though, only thing that sucked was not being able to play lazer tag but oh well... next time.

****

Skipping ahead again to New Year's Eve, we wound up going to Patty and Joe's place in New Rochelle. A good portion of the crew were there, including Joe and Marisa, so it was good to see them. Goombah also was back from Hawaii and it was cool to have him around (and to entertain and astonish us as we all watched him consume an ENTIRE bottle of Jameson in about 2 hours).

There was a South Park marathon on, and they showed the J-Lo episode which I convinced everyone to watch, so that was fun. And then I don't remember exactly how it came up, but somehow Joe got the brilliant idea of bringing out his illegal fireworks from the closet, immediately turning all of us (well all the guys at least) back into little kids and wanting to go out and shoot some off in the middle of the night.

So just about all of us headed outside (including Goombah's little buddy- Jameson who he couldn't bear to part with all night) and went to the parking lot across the street to light those fireworks up.

Joe had a really big rocket sized firework that he shot to start us all off, which was cool. Then we had a few smaller ones we set off. But Henry had a bottle rocket he wanted to shoot so he put it in the big rocket container and shot it out of that.

Problem was, since the hole for the rocket was so wide the smaller bottle rocket was kind of leaning to the side when placed in it. Thus, it didn't exactly shoot straight up...

...it went zooming around all crazy in the air before finally taking a dip and exploding in someone's yard and it may have even hit the house, we couldn't tell... but we weren't about to wait and find out. We all immediately hightailed it back to the house, but with one other small problem- Joe and Patty had kind of locked themselves out of the apartment.

Luckily Maryellen and Marisa were still inside and we got to the door just as they were coming out to see what all the commotion was about (lucky for us, b/c if they had come out, we would have ALL been locked out). So we all just ran back inside. So that definitely made the night a lot more interesting. We all felt like we were in high school again.

All in all it was a very fun party and I would like to thank Joe and Patty once again for inviting us all over for it. You guys rock!

****

As for my next week off, well I'll be writing about that strictly from memory b/c I haven't found my new day planner thing yet, so I haven't written anything anywhere yet.

One big thing is that me and Ariana finally started playing X-Men Legends. It is pretty cool so far. It was a bit tough at first b/c sometimes there are so many guys on screen that it's hard to see where and who you are and also Ariana isn't used to playing these types of games (although honestly this style of gameplay isn't my forte either) so we struggled a bit but have since gotten the hang of it and it is quite fun. We even went to my friends Matthew and David's place Friday night for some 4 player gaming and that was cool too. We also wound up watching Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle on DVD (which I had just purchased earlier in the day), so that was fun (it's a hysterical movie, even if you are not a stoner).

Before that though, in other big/good news, my sister decided to come live back home, which was cool. Even though the house will now be even more crowded, I don't care b/c me and Jenny just get along really well and I had been missing having her around all the time. So now I got another buddy for video gaming (and just someone else around the house to bother and tease as my big brother code requires of me)! Whoo-hoo!

Oh another cool thing was that I helped Ariana fix and clean up her house a bit in order for her to get Cable TV and cable internet! The cable people came on Friday morning to install it, and I came over after to set up the internet and everything is running great. This is awesome b/c now we don't always have to go back to my place to chill and watch TV and stuff. Also great for her so now she doesn't have to stick herself in the library or stay late at work just to make use of the internet for school (or even personal) stuff.

Umm let's see what else? Oh, me and Ariana went bowling on Saturday and I don't know what happened to me, but she kicked my ass in 2 straight games. Our lifetime record still has me one game over her, but still that wasn't a good night for me, lol.

And that's about it for noteworthy things (that I can think of at the moment, at least), the rest of the week was just us vegging out and catching up on movies and TV shows and stuff. All in all it was a very relaxing and fun 2 week vacation, and it really sucked to have to come back to work this week, lol.

Hope everyone's Holidays were good as well!

Happy New Year!

Hey everybody! A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Been busy for the past 2-3 weeks enjoying my vacation which is why I haven't updated but I found a few free moments today, which is why you all get to be graced with a new post, lol.

So I'm gonna start the new year off, by recapping great things of the past year! Yes it's my own special "Year-End Awards" Column. Enjoy!

Best Movie of the Year: The Punisher
1st Runner Up: DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story
2nd Runner Up: Spider-Man 2/The Incredibles (Tie)

This was a hard one to call, there were a few great movies this year (notice how I was forced to leave out Kill Bill 2, Shrek 2, Shaun of the Dead, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, House of Flying Daggers, etc). It was hard to put an order to these flicks b/c there were some things I really liked about each of these movies. In order to make things more fair, I did watch each of these movies at least twice though (with the exception of the Incredibles, but that was just too awesome to not have on the list). I thought Dodgeball was hands-down the funniest movie of the year and I was gonna put it at the top of the list but after watching Punisher for the second time I remembered how absolutely awesome it was. I had originally seen it the same day as Kill Bill 2 and I liked it a lot more. There were just moments where I was freakin cheering in the theater as Punisher was taking guys out, and hell that just does not happen with me. As for Spider-Man 2, I wasn't totally thrilled with it when I first saw it in the theater (I liked it but wasn't blown away like the rest of America apparently was) but I think that was b/c my expectations were ridiculously high. After watching it again on DVD I realized the movie was pretty damn well made and deserved to be on the list.

Best CD of the Year: Green Day- American Idiot
1st Runner Up: The Killers- Hot Fuss
2nd Runner Up: Iced Earth- The Glorious Burden

There were some slim-pickings for this category. The music scene has been sucking as of the past few years. Hell I couldn't even think of a third CD to list here without looking through my collection. It was hard b/c first off the qualifications for this award had to be that the CD must have been released within this past year. This eliminated me putting in things like Hoobastank-The Reason, The Offspring- Splinter and anything Judas Priest which even though those were the CDs in VERY heavy rotation in my CD player this year I just couldn't count them (b/c then what about all my old Weezer, Metallica and OLP CDs)?

Not to say anything against the CDs I picked though. The Green Day album is an instant classic and has been in constant rotation since I bought it. The Killers CD was a late year Dark horse that came out of nowhere but is absolutely awesome and really made the choice for top album very hard for me. But I stick with my decision and I'd advise anyone out there to pick up both of those CDs.

Movie Soundtrack of the Year: Team America
1st Runner Up: Kill Bill Vol. 1
2nd Runner Up: Spider-Man 2

There were some better soundtracks this year than flat out regular albums. The one for Team America is absolutely HYSTERICAL. If you've seen the movie (or even if you haven't), then you need this CD. It's super short but oh man, it's quality stuff. I kinda broke my rule for the Kill Bill soundtrack since it came out last year, BUT I only got it myself in the summer and it's got some great music on it, so I couldn't just ignore it. As for the Spider-Man 2 CD, it just had a lot of great bands on it like Hoobastank, Jet, Maroon 5, etc.

Video Game of the Year: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
1st Runner Up: Suikoden 3
2nd Runner Up: Spider-Man 2/ DragonBall Z: Budokai 3 (Tie)

While the winner of this category was never in question, it was rough to pick the other games b/c I played quite a few this year (other notables include Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, Simpsons: Hit and Run, Raw 2, and Halo). The qualifactions included that I needed to have beaten the game, so that eliminated X-Men Legends since I just started that last week, same for the Grand Theft Auto games.

But anyways, Star Wars: KOTOR is THE reason (other than Halo) to buy an X-Box. It was just one of the most engrossing RPGs I have ever played. The characters were well developed and likeable, the gameplay while different than what I am used to was fun and the story was truly worthy of being a part of the Star Wars "canon." It also included some of the most surprising and unique twists I've ever seen in a video game, so big props for that.

Suikoden 3 gets the nod for second b/c it took up almost my whole summer and I loved every bit of it. I'm a huge fan of the Suikoden series and even though they changed the gameplay and graphics a bit for this latest installment it was just as good as the original 2 (if not better).

Third place was hard for me to call. Spider-Man 2 would have been my choice hands down (and may have even taken second place) if not for the fact that it was just so damn short. The game was QUALITY and one of the most fun non-RPG games I've ever played but I beat it in like 2 weeks and it just left me wanting more. I really can't wait for the sequel. But speaking of sequels, the newest installment of the DragonBall Z: Budokai series went head and shoulders above its predecessors. I wasn't gonna buy it originally b/c while the first 2 were a lot of fun, I thought this new one would just be more characters and that would be it. But I was wrong. They tweaked the gameplay itself but all for the better, the graphics look just as if it was the cartoon itself and you can upgrade each character to your liking. It's a very fun game, even if you play on your own (unlike how other fighting games could be). So that's why I had to include it on this list.

Best TV Show of the Year: 24
1st Runner Up: Angel
2nd Runner Up: South Park

This was another rough one for me to pick. Angel was my sentimental favorite but fact is due to restrictions given to the show this season before it was cancelled it wasn't allowed to get on track as it had for previous seasons and by the time they did so, it was the end. There were some quality episodes in there but 24 was quality ALL season long. It was torture waiting a week to see what was going to happen next (and even worse when they did that mid season crap where we had to wait like 4 weeks for new episodes). But each wait was more than worth it and it makes it hands down the show of the year. The new season actually starts this Sunday, and I would advise EVERYONE to make time to watch it (or tape it). I guarentee you will not be disappointed (and will become addicted just like the rest of the shows fans).

I gave the last spot to South Park b/c there have been some funny-ass episodes this past season. We had the Anime episode "Good Times with Weapons" which is one of the best episodes EVER (next to the J-Lo one and the Christian Rock one). A.W.E.S.O.M.- O and A Very Critter Christmas were also insane but funny episodes from this past season. It's just a show I know I can count on to get me to laugh.

Honorable mention goes out to Chappelle Show (I didn't rank it only b/c I don't know whats been new and whats been old- but damn if that Wayne Brady episode doesn't have me busting a gut every single time I see it), and Desperate Housewives for being way better than I had any idea it could be.

"G**dammit!!" Moment of the Year: Bush wins the election
1st Runner Up: Boston comes back from 3-0 to beat the Yanks and go on to win the World Series
2nd Runner Up: Randy Orton beats Chris Benoit for the World Title/ Everytime Orton's music is played on TV (Tie)

This was a pretty cool year with the exception of at least these three notable things.

The presidential election this year had nearly everyone talking and at odds with one another. I'm not gonna go into another rant here but I must say I was super pissed at America for choosing that idiot Bush to run this country (into the ground) again for another four years. Let's just say if my job's department is closed next year b/c of his cuts on education I will be a VERY unhappy camper. It just really hurt to wake up the morning of November 3rd and hear that he won, so this easily tops this category.

The runner up hurt too. Watching the Yankees collapse how no other team in baseball has ever collapsed before was painful (and exhausting thanks to the freakin 5-6 hour games being played) to watch. It hurt even more when the Cardinals fell to pieces and Boston utterly crushed them in the World Series. Thankfully the Yankees have been making some insane trades and signings in this off season (i.e. Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, possibly Beltran- ::crosses fingers::) so we have a way better chance at a Championship next season to erase from memory the end of this one.

For the last runner up, sickly enough I was tempted to put this at number 1, only b/c it affects me on a weekly basis. I have bitched at length of my hatred of Randy Orton (both here and in person) and having him beat my favorite wrestler for the World Title at Summerslam sucked the big one. Even though I was temporarily appeased when Triple H kicked Orton's ass and won the World Title from him only a month later, they still continue to push Orton and make him the "star" of the show above all the way better wrestlers. Plus, Orton's music is probably the suckiest wrestling theme of all time, performed by a really crappy nu-metal whiny band- think guy with no talent trying to sing like Aaron Lewis from StainD but failing badly and having a shitty band behind him and even worse lyrics and maybe u can then comprehend the suckitude of this song. I swear, I need to mute it everytime he comes out (or when they decide to have Orton come out to end the show and loop the song ad-nauseum).

And of course the award I just HAD to give-

Best Concert of the Year: Judas Priest @ Mohegan Sun Arena
1st Runner Up: Linkin Park, P.O.D., Hoobastank and Story of the Year @ Nassau Colisseum
2nd Runner Up: Rolling Rock Town Fair 5

Believe it or not, I only went to 12 concerts this entire year (a record low for me), but I think that goes back to the whole music scene sucking thing. But the few shows I did go to were all pretty freakin good, making this a very hard award for me to give. Any one of these shows could have gotten the top spot but I had to way the pros and cons of each.

The winner is the Judas Priest show for many reasons. First the only "con" wasn't much of a con at all, it was the fact it was at a place 2 hours away (on a Sunday night), BUT the show wound up starting fairly early and ending early also and we were back home by a decent time. The pro's and there were many- were the fact that I didn't go to the show alone (I was with Ariana, Steve P, and a friend of his also named Steve), it was at the Mohegan Sun Arena, so we got there nice and early and gambled at the casino's and ate at a great BBQ place, and lastly- the show just kicked freakin ass! They played for almost two hours (which most bands never do anymore), and every bit of it rocked. All the songs were great choices and Rob Halford was on the top of his game singing and screaming better than I could have imagined. Not only would I rank this show best of the year, I'd also rank it within the top 5 shows I've EVER been to.

The runner ups were harder to distinguish for me. Both the Linkin Park, Hoobastank show and the Rolling Rock Town Fair were great concerts. The cons for the LP show were the fact that I had to drive out to Long Island in a really bad snowstorm to get to it b/c it was at the Nassau Colisseum. Also, even though I was supposed to go with people I wound up being by myself for almost the whole show, b/c Stevo couldn't make it and Christina came on her own later on and we couldn't find each other til the end of the concert. So even though those were two very sucky factors the good things FAR outweighed the bad. Awesome thing #1- as a member of the Hoobastank fanclub I got to go to a "meet & greet" before the show which consisted of me and only about TEN other fans (if even that many) meeting and hanging out with Hoobastank before the show for about a half hour just chilling. I got all their autographs on both CDs and a picture with each member. I also just got to chat with all of them, while we kinda watched the football game on the big screen TV in the background. It was VERY cool. Then the show itself kicked ass. Every single band put on a great performance, and I was right in the front, dead center against the guardrail so members of almost every band came up right in front of me at certain points. So it was definitely one of my greater concert experiences (I'd put this one in my top 10).

Finally there was Rolling Rock, which was very cool also with some distinguishable pros and cons. As for the cons, the weather sucked ass that weekend! It was pouring rain the entire time we were out there including during almost the whole concert, which made everything really gross and muddy. Another big con was the idiot people that me and Ariana ran into during the show which put a bit of a damper for part of the day. The last con though, wasn't really too much of a con in that the concert was 8 hours away which was a long drive, BUT it was made cool by the fact that Jordan had a portable DVD player in the car which allowed us to watch movies the entire way there which made the trip go by way fast. So you know what, I actually might make that into a pro. Other pros were that the motel was pretty nice and had a heated pool which me and Ariana took advantage of. The bars in the area were great awesome and we got some great deals out there. And then of course the concert itself was great too. The highlights of it were the fight between Finch and Disturbed, Hoobastank's set, and Disturbed's set. There were 10 bands altogether and at least half of them were cool and plus the town fair stuff was fun to look at, so it made for a very cool show altogether.

Honorable mentions in this category go to- Metallica at Nassau Colisseum, Green Day (which was in the streets and was FREE), Yellowcard at Roseland, and Ozzfest (which didn't place higher b/c I went alone and had to take the train there- but the show itself kicked ass).

And that my friends is the end of my "Year-end" awards. (Well more like I'm about to go out so I don't have time to write more- but I'm sure this was long enough). Hope you enjoyed. Agreed with my choices? Seriously disagreed? Let me know, debates can be fun. See you soon!