B-day shout outs

I know I've wished Happy Birthdays individually to most of these people already but I just wanted to give Birthday shout-outs to everyone who has had b-days within the past few weeks (or has one upcoming).

So a very Happy Birthday goes out to:
Maryellen (3/26)
Matthew L. (3/30)
Marisa (4/5)
Jay (Jason G.) (4/9)
Me (4/11)
Mark (Goombah) (4/15)
Joey D. (4/23)

And hey, I just realized everyone on this list has a name that starts with a J or an M... Galactic Alignment? Or just freaky coincidence? You decide!

NOT the yummy orange drink...

This had me laughing so hard, I just had to share...

As some of you may know, Joe sent out an e-mail this week marking a significant event concerning his mustang (it reached 100,000 miles and he sent a photo of the dashboard to mark the occasion). Well, just like many other people probably did, Ariana responded with a note of congratulations- thing is the phrasing of it came out quite humorously, and Joe sent me a copy of what was said b/c he found it so amusing.

I'll just copy Joe's exact e-mail to me below:

[Hey, Ariana emailed my saying about my car, and I was laughing so hard I had to share it with you:

"The ol' Tang looks good on her 100th K-B-Day."-Ariana

I told her "it's 'stang, 'Tang is something else.... and 'Tang shouldn't have 100K mi on it."  I don't think she got it... she said "i say tomato you say tomato",  hehe, perhaps you should enlilghten her
I was dieing of laughing.... 'Tang
hahaha, I needed to share that with you, I dunno if I am the only one who found it so amusing
Joe]

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And well, no, Joe is not the only one who found that amusing, I was lmao when I received this, and mentioned the e-mail to her when I saw her later that night. It was made even funnier when she actually still didn't realize what she said until I pointed it out. I was sort of surprised she didn't make the connection b/c as I'm sure everyone has noticed at one point or another Ariana tends to be the person (let alone the female) to be making some of the dirtier comments when we all hang out (need I remind everyone of various game nights? Naked wrestling, nude sailors, etc).

Ahh, it's cute when she's so naive for some things... :-)

Psyched for different things

Well my birthday the other day started off pretty well. Both me and Henry tried to get tix for the Killers in June through a pre-sale on their website. Henry was able to get through, so he got 4 tix for us. So we're going to see The Killers at the Central Park Summerstage! I'm VERY psyched!

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I also got my other b-day present from Ariana later in the day. I knew what it was already (b/c I had asked for it back in November), but I was still excited for it. It was the Puppet Angel from the episode "Smile Time." (I'd link u all to a pic, but first off, I can't b/c I'm on my stupid mac at work, and also, all pics on the websites are not of how the final product turned out, so I guess it wouldn't make much sense to do it anyways). But just trust me, it's pretty cool.

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Last week, my sister introduced me to this web-comic that has been around for quite sometime, but that she just discovered. It's called "Sluggy Freelance" and it is absolutely hysterical. I can't believe neither of us ran across this sucker in all these years (it's been around since 1997). I dunno if the comic strip will be everyone's cup-o-tea, but it definitely speaks loudly to me and my sister, mostly b/c of the cute evil bunny character: Bun-bun. When me and my sister were younger we would create stories eerily similar to the ones in this comic strip (not all the stories, but there are a handful of things in the strip that just make both of us go- "we so DID that!" or "we so would have done something similar to that!"

So yeah, if you are interested you can check out the strip (from the beginning) at this website:
http://sluggy.com/daily.php

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Baseball season is underway! Thank the good Lord! I'm very much enjoying the beginning of this season, especially since it's starting with a bunch of games between the Yankees and the Red Sox. They've already had some good games (and oh man, did I love watching Schilling get pounded last night), and the next few times these 2 teams meet in the season should be even better.

Oh and the Marlins are doing well also. Within the past 6 games they've had like 4 complete game wins (and at least 2 of those were shut outs if not all of them). The Marlins pitching staff really seems to be coming into their own so far, but let's just hope Jack McKeon doesn't wear out his pitchers by having them pitch so long into games.

But yeah, both the AL and NL east are gonna be fun divisions to watch. So I'm psyched to see how this season plays out. I'd sure as hell be happy with a Yankees-Marlins World Series rematch (although I'd like the outcome to be different this time).

I'd buy it...

My friend Greg's thoughts on a possible Sin City DVD (considering he was a bit disturbed by all the crotch mutilations):

-I still stand behind my idea for the dvd. I think they should have a special feature (like directors commentary or trivia pop-ups) to have Jessica Alba dance in a little window in the corner for the whole movie. The picture-in-picture will switch (her dancing on main screen, movie in small window) during any wang abuse scenes. I call it the Nancy Edition...

Pre-(and current) Birthday rambling- All in One!

To touch on something I mentioned in a previous post- Joe V. e-mailed me about the Ultimate Warrior speech at UConn. I actually downloaded the full speech in video format. But it's an hour long so I haven't gone through it yet. I did watch about a minute of it though and he just so looks so different now b/c his hair is short and he had a suit on.

But both me and Joe commented on how hysterical it would have been if he actually showed up to the speech in full gear (and if not full gear, at LEAST the face-paint). That would have been great stuff....

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I surprised Ariana on Friday night by taking her out to see the movie Bride and Prejudice. She had been wanting to see it for awhile but the only theaters playing it nearby were down in the city and we had been too busy to go the last few weeks. But we finally managed to squeeze it into our crazy schedules.

I didn't really know what to expect as I had only seen one short preview, but the movie actually wound up being a lot of fun. The one thing that kinda caught me off guard though is the fact that it's KIND OF a musical (there are at least 5 musical numbers). The first one was at a party though, so I didn't think anything of it. But once there was a second number about 10-15 minutes later right in the center of the town (in a very Moulin Rouge type setup) I just had to laugh. The music scenes were kinda cheesy, but cute. This is definitely a date movie. But fear not guys, b/c one thing I gotta tell you- all the women in this movie are absolutely gorgeous! I don't think I've ever seen a movie with as many beautiful women in it as this one had. Don't get me wrong, if you're looking for half naked hot women- look elsewhere, but if you can just appreciate beauty, then guys look no farther than this movie (I think even the girls would be in awe).

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I bought the new Reel Big Fish CD yesterday along with another ska CD- The Forces of Evil (which is like a ska "super group" with members of a bunch of famous ska groups, including the lead singer of Reel Big Fish). They basically play just straight up fun ska like back from when it was originally popular.

So today, I was playing the CDs while driving around with the windows rolled down. Ska is such great spring-time music...

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I finished the Star Wars novel I was reading- Yoda: Dark Rendevous, which was pretty cool (and had some hysterical parts in it too) and started on the final book (well maybe not final- but the one that is basically the prequel to Revenge of the Sith)- Labyrinth of Evil. I'm already halfway through it and it's a pretty damn good book. Even moreso than the other books b/c this one ties together soooo many loose strings.

It's awesome b/c it references things from the comics plus the previous novels (and it feels so good to know about everything they mention). And like I said it ties together some loose strings, including things from the movies. An example- remember in Episode 2 when Obi-Wan goes to the cloning facility on Kamino and when he asks about who ordered the clones the aliens mention a "Master Sifo Dyas" but no one knew who the HELL that was, nor did they bother explaining it? Well this book fully explains who Sifo Dyas was and how he ties into the Jedi, Dooku and the clones. So I found that pretty cool.

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I ordered tix on Friday for me and Ariana to go see Green Day in September. They are a lot of fun in concert and Ariana has never seen them (and has been wanting to), so we are pretty psyched for the show (although we both wish it was in a smaller venue like Roseland or Hammerstein instead of freakin Giants Stadium... oh well).

Then the next day, Steve P. ordered tix for a few of us to go see Judas Priest at Jones Beach on June 17th. So that's two more concerts to look forward to! And we ALSO plan to see Judas Priest again at Mohegan Sun (gambling and music- good times). Whoo!!

And even though they're not concerts- just today I ordered an 8 game Season ticket package for the Yankees this season. I ordered 4 sets, just like last year, so it'll be me, Ariana, Christina, and a friend of hers. So of course I'm also looking forward to that, especially b/c this year we're getting a lot more better teams in the package than last year (this package has the Angels, Twins, Mariners, etc). So once again- Whoo-hoo!

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And well considering it is past midnight as a write this- today is officially my birthday. Well earlier tonight, I was at my grandparents and they got me a small gag gift. They gave me this huge box, and inside was another box, and then inside that box was a box of Frosted Flakes. But this was actually cool b/c it was a special Star Wars box and the "toy inside" was a lightsaber spoon! The handle looks like a lightsaber handle, and the spoon part is clear and it actually lights up (I got a red one- so I'm now officially "EVIL!")!

So we all laughed at the gag (I was pretty surprised at it actually). But thing is... the spoon is actually pretty cool, believe it or not. I may be tempted to use it (or at least play with it) at the dinner table in the future (God I'm such a geek aren't I? lol).

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And last but not least I leave you all with a HYSTERICAL away message that Sheila put up tonight that had me cracking up. If you know her, then you've probably seen it before (she's had it for quite some time but it's been awhile since I've seen her use it and it just had me rolling tonight). So enjoy!

Hey Baby,
I'm sorry for the recent beef...I had my priorities all messed up..I thought you wanted someone new, or worse for me to add someone to our relationship. But last night, you showed me just how much you truly wanted me...made every ache, and insecurity go away for eight hours....the longest by far recently....So to you, my life partner, my bed...I dedicate all my nights and occassional days to you and only you...no couch could ever take your place!!!

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Good night everybody!

Darth Tater!

I got a Darth Vader version of Mr. Potato-head last night!

Just had to share...

Love in an Elevator... (minus the love)

Was just skimming through the NY Daily News website and ran across an article about a Chinese food Deilvery man getting stuck in an elevator over in Tracey Towers for 80 HOURS!! Apparently he went to deliver food to an apartment in the building and was stuck from 8:30pm on Friday night til 6:00am Tuesday morning.

Funny thing is, the first thing that crossed my mind was- was it before or after he delivered the food? Cuz if it was before, at least he had something to eat to sustain him for the 3 days he was stuck. [But then again- 3 day old cold lo-mein and General Tso's chicken is a pretty gross thought, so scratch that].

But yeah, how creepy is that? Especially since the article claims that police did search the building (but they didn't check the elevators- smooth).

Remind me never to go on any building elevators anymore...

Curious...

I just saw this article on a wrestling website I regularly visit. Apparently, the University of Connecticut's College Republican group had the Ultimate Warrior as a guest speaker. First off, I just find that freakin hilarious, b/c if anyone remembers the Ultimate Warrior (or has read anything he's said in magazines or his website in recent years) then they know this man is certifiably INSANE, and makes words up while talking out of his ass (well not literally- he isn't Jim Carrey or anything).

Here's the full article:

Apology From UCONN For Ultimate Warrior's Actions
04/06/2005 by Ryan Clark

Statement to the University Community
Regarding the Warrior Event of April 5, 2005

To the University Community:

Last night, during the College Republican sponsored speech by the "Ultimate Warrior", there were many comments made which were extremely offensive to many members of the UCONN community, including the College Republicans. We immediately recognized our responsibility and fault for the event by issuing an apology on our website, www.uconn-cr.org. We then released that apology to the Daily Campus. Subsequently, the UCONN College Republicans have taken several other actions of which the members of the University Community should be aware.

We have written letters of apology to several groups and organizations on campus that represent the people toward whom many of the Warrior's comments were directed. A short, but not complete, list of these groups would consist of the Rainbow Center, AQUA, QUAD, the African American Cultural Center, the Asian American Cultural Center, the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center, the Iranian Students Association, and the Women's Center. Again, this is not a complete list of the groups that will receive a direct written apology from the College Republicans. We hope to have the letters to each of the organizations (or their Student Leader, as listed on the Department of Campus Activities website) by the end of the week.

The President of College Republicans, Emily Salisbury, will be submitting a letter to the editor of the Daily Campus regarding the incident that includes an apology by the end of the day. We will be sending a letter of apology to the UCONN Police Department that also thanks them for their presence at the event.

We brought the Ultimate Warrior to campus because we wanted to host a thought-provoking discussion from an individual who would appeal to a broader range of students than normal, given his background. Sadly, the Warrior's presentation accomplished none of those goals and we were horrified like most of the UCONN community by the display. We hope that we can regain our standing in the University Community by cooperating fully with the Undergraduate Student Government and others in righting this wrong.

Heath W Fahle

Spokesman for the UCONN College Republicans

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Now my question is... what the Hell did Warrior say at that damn speech?? I'd so like to see a transcript of that insanity, lol.

Creepy

I'm watching TV right now and they just showed one of the new Quiznos commercials with their new spokesperson- the baby.

I dunno if it's just me or what, but that damn baby creeps me out more than the ugly rat creature things that Quiznos used to use ever did. I just watch this thing, and uggh the baby has a trucker voice or something and he's just CREEPY.

Just had to share...

Great movies, good concerts, Wrestlemania and more!

First off, I just gotta mention that I'm watching TV as I started to write this, and I just saw a funny ass commercial that I've been meaning to mention here on the blog for a few weeks.

It's that 1-888-JUSTICE commercial for the injury law firm. Now normally you wouldn't think a commercial for lawyers would be funny, but this one is just so ghetto it's hysterical.

There are actually a handful of these commercials and all of them are similar in that they star an injured worker (usually a minority) saying something along the lines of "You mean the company knew that workground was unsafe and they STILL let us work on it?? That's BULL$#!T (with the curse bleeped loudly). It's just funny, how the profanity is the selling point of the commercial. I mean granted, that probably IS a realistic reaction by most people, but it's just so funny to see it put on TV. So yeah, I just had to mention that. Has anyone seen these? And if so, do you agree they are pretty amusing? Or am I the only one?

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On a quick aside, since people have been asking me, I got a response this week about my verdict for my appeal for the late fees on my parking ticket. I wound up winning (Thank God). So yeah, it sucks that I still wound up losing the $115 for the ticket itself, but at least I will get my $60 back, b/c THAT would have been absolutely unfair.

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I guess I should also finish up talking about some things that happened last week (since I had my other post cut a bit short).

So yeah, two weekends ago me and Ariana finally watched that flick I bought a few weeks ago- 100 Girls. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's a comedy I had heard about that was supposed to be in the vein of the American Pie movies that I had been trying to find to watch for the longest time. So yeah, we saw it, and it was pretty funny. We both enjoyed it a lot and it was even better than I was expecting. It's a hard movie to find (to rent at least), but if you happen to somehow run across it, I would recomend giving it a look.

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Good news- good concerts are coming up! I already have tix to Velvet Revolver with Hoobastank for May, and last Wed, Ariana was able to score tix for Weezer (also in May) for us (and I found out my buddy Stevo is going also with some of his buddies, so we'll have a small group going, which is always cool). So I'm psyched for that.

And also, I found out this week that Judas Priest is coming around to the NY area in a few places. They will be at PNC Bank Art Center on June 10, and at the Mohegan Sun Arena again on June 11th. So now I'm just debating which show I'd prefer to go to. But before, I do, I will put the invite out there to any of you who might be interested in joining. The concert goes on sale on Sat. April 9th (unless I find out about a presale or something). So you have until then to get back to me (and let me know which you'd prefer to do).

BREAKING NEWS! I just found out that The Killers will be in concert at the Central Park Summerstage on Sat. June 4th. The intenet presale starts on 4/11 (my b-day!) at 11am. You need to get a password and stuff, but you can get it at this website. There's a 4 ticket limit so I can't get tix for everyone, so check the site soon!

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Speaking of concerts though, as I mentioned about 2 posts ago, I FINALLY went to my first show since November on Tuesday night. I went with Ariana to see Alter Bridge. It was cool b/c not only did it scratch the "concert-itch" I was having, but it was at Irving Plaza, which is a great place to see a show as it's all small and intimate. It was Ariana's first time at Irving (which makes me realize it had been QUITE awhile since I've been there either) and she liked it a lot, so that was a plus.

But yeah the band put on a great show, and I wound up taking home a poster of the band that was hanging on the wall, so it was cool.

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Going back to movies and stuff- Me and Ariana went to go see Robots last weekend. It was good, as I expected (b/c really most of those Pixar-type movies are since the movie companies aren't gonna waste the tons of money to animate a movie in that style if the story sucks). So I'd definitely call it the best movie I'd seen so far this year.

That is, up until this Friday. Cuz I wound up going with Ariana, Ashley, Henry & Maryellen to go see Sin City at New Roc, and I must say, that was one kick-ass movie.

Now I had never read the comic books (not the biggest Frank Miller fan- with a few exceptions) and I had actually only skimmed over one review for the movie, so I really didn't know what to expect. But once the gruesome violence in the movie started to roll, I knew I was in for one hell of a ride.

Now I can't recomend the movie to everyone- b/c it's extremely violent- possibly moreso than the Kill Bill movies, and doesn't put women in the best light, but if neither of these things bother you, then by all means, go see that movie!

The cinematography is great (after awhile you barely even notice that the movie is in black & white) and the special effects are pretty sweet. The characters are also interesting and you wind up rooting for them all (especially Marv).

So yeah it's gonna be tough for any movie in the near future to top the awesomeness of this movie. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is probably the only thing I can think of that has a chance, and honestly, that isn't even a given (ok, now you KNOW this movie has gotta be freakin GOOD if I'm saying that). So yeah, once again I gotta say- go see Sin City!!!

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The geek in me also came out BIG TIME this weekend, as we wound up getting out of the movies on Friday by almost midnight, and I had remembered that Toys R Us was gonna start selling the new Star Wars figures starting at 12:01am. So since Bay Plaza is directly on my way back home, me and Ariana decided to stop in and and check things out.

I didn't MEAN to go nuts in there, but once I saw all the kick ass looking toys, the geek in me just completely took over. I soon found myself throwing tons of figures in a shopping cart. It wound up being so much, that Ariana (being the AMAZING girlfriend that she is) knew I was gonna have a conflict once I realized how much I actually had in the cart, that since my birthday is coming up soon, she offered to buy a portion of the stuff for me (did I mention how much I love my gf?).

That said, I still spent a TON of money (like I said, more than I ever planned), but I got tons of cool stuff- including a huge Anakin figure that you can transform into Darth Vader, and a huge General Grievous figure.

I'm gonna be smart about stuff this time though, and I'm keeping EVERYTHING in their boxes and thankfully the boxes are pretty cool looking, so hopefully when I move I'll have a place to display them all.

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And just to wrap up some other stuff that happened this weekend- last night I went to Maryellen's movie night b-day party (sadly by myself b/c Ariana got stuck having to go to an event for work). It was a small turnout (prob due to the very sucky weather), but a good time was still had. We wound up watching a different movie than planned (since the group of people wound up being different than planned).

We watched Ray, which wound up being a very good movie. It was pretty interesting b/c I gotta admit I didn't know much about Ray Charles (like how he was sort of a man-whore for awhile, then a womanizer, a heroin addict, and not the greatest person in the world- at least for the first 15-20 years of his career). So that came as a bit of a surprise, but an interesting and entertaining one. Jamie Foxx definitely deserved the Oscar win for his performance. And I'm glad to say that I FINALLY watched one of the movies that was nominated for Movie of the Year at the Academy Awards- one down 4 to go (let's see how long it takes me to do that- if ever).

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Then finally, just tonight we had a nice group (consisting of me, Ariana, Henry, Maryellen, Gaetano and James) gather at Phil's place to watch Wrestlemania 21.

As for my opinions on the show? I dunno yet actually, it wasn't "bad" by any means, and I don't wanna use the word "underwhelming" either b/c pretty much all the matches were solid (except Cena-JBL), but I guess I just had my expectations set too high.

Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio was cool for an opener but did not top their Halloween Havoc 97 match (as they had stated they wanted to do), the ladder match which was awesome while it lasted was CRIMINALLY short (it was less than 20 minutes long), and there was no big standout moment I can think of.

Plus, like I said, JBL vs Cena sucked balls, and even HHH vs Batista wasn't the greatest thing in the world (although for the way the fans love Batista it would have been hard to screw up that match).

I think the thing that definitely saved the show was Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels. It was without a doubt the match of the night and I'd recomend the show if only to see that one match.

So yeah, all in all I'd rank the show at about thumbs kind of in the middle but leaning up. And Hopefully they'll capitalize with a cool Raw and Smackdown this week.

Oh and tonight was opening night for the Yankees and they wound up pummeling the Red Sox 9-2, so that makes me quite happy and makes for a good start to the week.