The calm before the storm

Been keeping things kinda quiet on the homefront the past 2-3 weeks. What with my new budget and all, I'm just trying to save more money, so we haven't been going out as much. But that's also mostly b/c we are going to have a VERY busy (and thus, prob very expensive) August and September. I've already mentioned all the concerts we're already going to, and I JUST added Our Lady Peace @ the Bowery Ballroom on Aug 31st. So with all that (not to mention whatever me and Ariana decide to do for our anniversary) I'm barely gonna be saving anything this next month.

So I've taken the indoors time to catch up on my video games. I've put a good amount of time into KOTOR2, and me and Ariana also beat Lego Star Wars (which was a fun game, thanks Henry and Maryellen)! I've also caught up a good amount in my DVR shows, so I've been fairly productive at home.

But that's not to say I've been a complete hermit though. This past Friday I went with Ariana, my mom and her husband to go see Fantastic Four. The movie was alright. It was NOT as bad as the reviewers made it sound. Granted, it wasn't spectacular but it was ok. Basically the movie was JUST the origin story, with the battle against Dr. Doom being kinda short. So I can see people bitching about that. But they totally got the characters of Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm down. Jessica Alba as Sue Storm was a questionable pick but she did ok, plus she's hot so I guess I'll let it slide. The things they changed with Dr. Doom kind of annoyed me though, but I can't say much cuz they followed the way they altered things in the Ultimate FF book, so it's not like they JUST screwed it up for the movie. It did follow the comic, they just chose to follow the crappy comic.

In the end though, I'll let FF off the hook b/c while this movie wasn't too great, it was a good setup, so that if they did a sequel (and you know they will) it has the potential to kick ass. So I'll wait and see.

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Also went to chill at the Palisades mall on Sat with the whole family. Just window shopping mostly, but I did pick up some awesome new floormats for the backseats of my car. I'm not gonna say what they are just yet, if anything I'll take a picture and post it here later for u all to see.

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On Monday me and Ariana were invited by Greg and Jessii to attend a free Sneak Preview of the movie- Stealth down in the city. I wasn't really interested in seeing the movie, but I haven't chilled with Greg and Jessii in awhile, and the movie was FREE so I figured, "why not?"

So I get down to the theater, and the line to get into the movie is actually pretty short. And the people that WERE there all were pretty much minorities (us included), so that just led to us making lots of fun of both the movie and the audience it would attract.

But yeah, as for the movie- me and Ariana wound up not staying for it b/c it turned out this showing was more for the press, and us "average-joes" were just there to fill up the empty seats- in the first 3 rows.

So when they walked us in and said we'd have to sit in the first 3 rows, I immediately turned to everyone in my group and was like "I'm out! There ain't no way I'm gonna strain my neck for this crap." Greg seemed tempted to leave also, but Jessii wanted to stay, so I said thanks for the invite but yeah, especially with my neck and back the way they are, I was not gonna deal with that. Not for THAT particular movie anyways.

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And then, as I mentioned briefly in my last post, I went to the Yankee game last night. But sadly we did not get as good of a game as the one on Tuesday. The Yanks wound up losing 7-3, so that sucked. It was just a crazy game. Al Leiter wound up throwing like 114 pitches in only 5 innings, it was insane (although what's crazier is that for all that he actually only gave up 1 run).

But of course, the Yankee bullpen could not keep the game close and that was their downfall. So yeah, this is as big a signal as anything that for this trading deadline they need to concentrate on middle relief more than starting pitching or a center fielder (although those are important too, but you gotta make priorities since it's doubtful they can get ALL the pieces they need since they got nothing to trade).

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Oh and as an addendum to my post from a few days ago about TV shows to watch, I've got another one for the list- Mind of Mencia. It's the new comedy variety show on Comedy Central starring Carlos Mencia, it's basically similar to the Man Show and Chappelle Show, just with a hispanic twist. I think it'd be enjoyable for anyone though, cuz the show is just freakin hysterical. New episodes air on Wed nights, but they repeat the show constantly throughout the week, so keep an eye out for it. This show is legitly funny, you don't need a unique sense of humor to enjoy it like some of the other shows I suggested. So yeah, check it out.

They can't make me wait 2-3 more years...

I just finished reading Harry Potter last night. The story of how I finished reading it, is actually kind of funny in itself. I had been reading the book at work this past week and I was 21 pages from the end when Ariana came down to Rose Hill and we were supposed to set off for the Yankee game. She actually came a little earlier than I anticipated (she showed up around 4:30 instead of 5pm). If she had shown up by 5, I totally would have been done, but once she arrived I had to leave (although on a side note, i wasn't too upset, b/c the AC died in our building and so it was even hotter inside than it was outside, and THAT is saying something).

But as we walked to my car in the parking lot, I was just itching to know how on earth the book was going to end! Cuz first off, I hate having to stop reading a book in the middle of a chapter, and also, once I'm near the end, I just like to go ahead and finish. I can't leave a book unfinished with so few pages to go. So I expressed my feelings about this towards Ariana, and being the awesome girlfriend that she is, said I could go ahead and finish the book before we got on our way. So we got to my car, I pumped up the AC (COLD AIR!!!), and finished the book. It was a total geek moment, and I'm lucky enough to have a gf who supports/accepts such marks of my geekdom, heh. (Plus, she can't say too much anyway, she's the one who got me started on these books in the first place).

So yeah, as for the book itself- Damn... just Damn. What a great read. I would talk about it here, but I don't wanna ruin it for anyone who has not had a chance to read it yet (and I also do not know how to do invisible text yet- but if I figure it out, then I'll post my thoughts on the book). But I just have to say that Rowling is such a great author. The books just keep getting progressively better and better. Just when you think you have a handle on certain characters, Rowling adds more depths to them. And with the end of each book, she just leaves you craving for more. As per the title of this post, I can't stand the fact that I will have to wait between 2-3 years for the conclusion to this story, ESPECIALLY with all the stuff that happened at the end (and it hurts more, that there are reports going around that Rowling is planning to take a year off before even starting to write the 7th book- I pray these rumors are unfounded, b/c I just really can't wait).

But yeah, if you've finished the book (or are still in the midst of reading it) and would like to discuss it, just send over a reply or shoot me an e-mail and we can talk about it there. I'm dying to talk about certain things.

Grand Theft Uh-oh...

I don't know if you've all heard but apparently the latest "big" news story is the fact that a hidden sex mini-game was discovered in the video game- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This obviously has conservatives and idiots all across America in an uproar. It's gotten to the point where many big chains such as Wal-Mart and Target have completely removed the game from the shelves, while other stores are now forced to put a "AO" (Adults Only- the equivalent of an NC-17) rating on the game.

But here's the thing, you can't access this mini-game by normal means. The game has to be sort of hacked to get to it. I say sort of, b/c unlike how Rockstar games claimed at first that it was hacker's who made a patch, this mini-game IS in the source code of the game. But, in order to access it on the PS2 you need a Gameshark or some other kind of cheatbox.

So here's my gripe. First off, the game was ALREADY rated "Mature" so kids shouldn't have been able to get their hands on this game anyways. If any parent was irresponsible enough to buy this game for their 13 year old child, they have NO right to bitch. But regardless of that, like I said, you need a gameshark or some other kind of "hacker-type" add-on to access these scenes. And there are just not THAT many people out there with those kinds of add-ons, so this is only affecting a very small portion of the people who have the game.

So yeah, it's just a stupid "news" item, that is garnering a lot more attention than it should be receiving given all the other problems in the world right now.

But if anyone is curious just how graphic this sex mini-game is, I'll paste a link with a few pics below.

But BEWARE, this stuff is not work-safe!! GTA "Hot Coffee" pics.

Harry Potter (and More)

As many of you know, this past Friday night was the midnight release of the new Harry Potter book. Well me and Ariana had pre-ordered the book at the Barnes & Noble in Bay Plaza a few months ago and since we didn't have anything planned for Friday night, and also b/c Bay Plaza is so close to me, we decided to hit up the midnight release party.

We actually got there after 11pm, so there wasn't much going on festivities-wise, but the place was jam-packed with people. I got my wristband and I was #266, so I knew we had a bit of waiting to do. So me and Ariana basically just wandered around the store looking at stuff. I settled myself near all the manga graphic novels and just read some of those along with doing some people-watching.

It was kind of amusing b/c well Bay Plaza is sort of in the ghetto. But there were families of all types there. But there were a few people throughout the store ranging from older teenagers to guys in their mid-twenties and it was funny b/c some of them were still trying to act all thug and street like. I mean not in an overly annoying way, but just trying to put up a front like they were all tough guys and that they were better than the other people in the store or something (just to their friends, but still I saw and overheard a few things throughout the store). And I just had to laugh. I felt like just going up to some of these people and calling them out on their BS. It's all like "Dude, you are in Barnes & Noble for the midnight release of Harry Freakin Potter. You can't try and come in here and act all hard. You're a geek like the rest of us Deal with it."

Like I said, I just found it amusing.

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As for the book itself, it's pretty good so far, but I'm not very far into it b/c I just started it on Monday since I had a busy weekend.

-Like before I even got the book, me and Ariana met with Myra again and she gave us our new financial budget. It's looking pretty good, but it's gonna be rough at first cuz I gotta save a little bit more a month than I have been, so I gotta get used to not going over that amount. It's not gonna be impossible, far from it, but I won't be able to go too nuts with concerts and DVDs and stuff anymore.

-After the meeting with Myra, we decided to go bowling cuz we've been wanting to for awhile and we also have a long running competition between us as to who has won more games. At the time I was only one game ahead overall, b/c the last time she kicked my ass in two straight games. However, this time I took my revenge and won both of the games we played (even scoring a 129 in the second game, which is up there with one of my highest scores, so that was cool).

-The next night I went with Ariana, Ashley, and Maryellen to go see The Wedding Crashers. I found it kind of funny (ironic?) that I wound up going to see that particular movie with my girlfriend and 2 single girls rather than a group of dudes, but hey, it's all good. The movie was freakin HYSTERICAL. I was laughing non-stop throughout the whole movie. There were some scenes that nearly had me falling out of my seat. There were also a few classic lines throughout the movie. I would put this movie right up with the likes of Road Trip, Old School and Dodgeball- all flicks that would be like "dorm-room essentials." So yeah, go see it.

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Been putting a good amount of hours into KOTOR2 this week. It had been over a month since I last played but I've caught up decently with my DVR stuff so I had some time to commit to the game. It's cool b/c I've already turned like more than half of my crew into Jedi, so I'm psyched about that. Now just gotta get me some more lightsabers and then the fun really begins!

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Baseball stuff- the Yankees took first place of their division!!!

For a day...

They're now back to about a 1/2 game behind Boston, BUT they have won like 12 out of their last 15, and have won the series against both Boston and Texas on the road. They have a tough 4 game series against Anaheim coming up but if they continue playing like they have, they should be fine.

Giambi is FINALLY starting to play like he should within the last month. Which I am glad about b/c that dude seriously needed to start earning his ridiculous paycheck.

Wang is out injured, which SUCKS for NY b/c somehow he became the Yanks most consistant pitcher. But the Yanks did pick up Al Leiter from the Marlins on Sunday and he pitched a good game against Boston. I'm just praying that wasn't just a one time performance though. The Yankees' run depends on it.

As for the Marlins, they're not doing so great. They are SERIOUSLY underachieving this year. They are only at .500 when they should be doing a lot better considering the pieces they have. I mean they aren't completely out of it yet, not by any means, since the race in the NL East is so close, but they need to make a run, and they need to do it ASAP.

I just worry though, b/c they are thinking of trading A.J Burnett, who granted is more potential at the moment than how he is actually performing. But sometimes he shows sparks of being an incredible pitcher. Thing is with the loss of Leiter and then Burnett, their pitching rotation will suffer deeply and I don't think they will get enough back to make it worth it (for this year at least). I hope I'm wrong on that front though, b/c there is a lot of talent on that team and I'd like to see them make it to the playoffs again.

But anyways, it's lunch time so I'm gonna get me some exercise and take a walk around the campus. But I'll be back with another update later in the day b/c I got something i wanna link you all to but I don't wanna do it at work on my mac. So catch u later!

Crashing the Trailer!

Joe sent an e-mail with a link earlier today, but I didn't check it cuz I was at work. Well just now Henry sent me his copy of the link that Joe sent, and OMG, it was one of the FUNNIEST things I've ever seen!

So I did my own version which you can view here.

(I won't ruin what it is here, you just GOTTA click the link, and watch carefully).

And if you'd like to try this site out for yourself after watching the link above you can go here for that.

-Let me know what u think! heh.

Shows you should watch (at least once)

Thanks to the wonders of the DVR, I have been able to sample TV shows I probably wouldn't have had the chance to try and catch regularly. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised, and sometimes the shows suck balls. But hey, at least I'm being entertained, heh.

There are 3 shows I wanted to briefly mention here though, b/c they stand out for various reasons.

First off- Wonder Showzen. I don't know how many of you have ever heard of this show. I hadn't heard of it myself until about 2 months ago, when in the final issue of the Ram (which I would pick up every Friday at my job) had an article on it, in which the writer praised the show for it's originality as well as its hilarity. He made it sound so good, that I just had to watch it.

So about a month or so ago, I DVR'd two episodes of the show and watched them. And well... it was interesting to say the least.

Wonder Showzen is a show on MTV2 and it's basically Sesame Street for adults- or better yet, adults in a drug or alcohol induced state (I would think). But yeah, the show plays out exactly how an episode of Sesame Street would, lots of puppets and kids, only thing is the puppets are pretty naughty (and hell, some of those kids ain't saints themselves).

Here's an example of how episode would go. There is one major plotline through the episode that they keep referring back to, but there are also tons of smaller segments. Like they have one puppet go out onto the street and ask people questions and basically annoy the hell out of them. Then they have kind of a Daily Show-esque segment where Kids do "in-depth" interviews on the scene but the kids are insane (oh also the name of the segment? "Beat Kids"- Kids on the Beat).

As for specific examples of some plotlines the show has had. There was one where Mother Nature went through a sex change, screwing up the environment, and the kids and puppets had to find out what was going on. Then there was another that was sort of a twisted version of Romeo & Juliet, where a Number fell in love with a Letter, but they were both male characters... oh and did I mention there was a sex scene between them also?

The show is pretty sick and deranged, but also absolutely freakin hysterical at times. It's just that to get to those funny ass moments, you sometimes have to sit through some disturbing stuff. So it's definitely not a show for everyone, but you should at least check out an episode or two to see what you think. I myself havent watched more than 3 episodes total, but someone else may enjoy it a lot more than I did.


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-Another show I caught is actually in a similar vein as Wonder Showzen, just minus the disturbing stuff. It's the Andy Milonakis Show (also on MTV2).

Basically it's kind of a sketch show starring this fat 15 year old (he's between 14-16 I'm sure). He's just insane. I say it's like Wonder Showzen, only b/c of the random segments it has, but as I also said, at least this show isn't disturbing in anyway. At the worst, it's just stupid.

And that's the thing, this show is STUPID, but in a fun way. I watched the first two episodes of the show. The first one was downright freakin hilarious, but I'll warn that you have to have a certain sense of humor to appreciate it. I like things that are "dumb-funny," while some people can't stand that kind of humor.

However, if you like "dumb-funny" this is a show you should definitely catch, at least once. Then form your opinions from there. My advice though, try to catch the first one (I believe there are only 4 in total at this point). The segment about Spoons had me on the floor.

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-Finally, the last show I have to recomend is one I think would have the most broad appeal. On Cablevision, we have access to a station (I believe it's channel 21), that on Friday Nights, airs shows from the BBC. One such show is- Coupling.

Many of you may have heard of the show, mostly b/c NBC tried to copy the show to replace Friends last season. Only thing, the remake did just not have the spark of the original BBC series and it was cancelled soon after.

When I had originally heard of the show a few years ago, it sounded interesting but I didn't even know I had that station that aired the BBC stuff, so I was never able to try to watch it. But now that I have discovered this station, I've been DVRing the episodes for about the past 4-5 weeks. Me and Ariana have been watching them, and they have been pretty freakin good.

It does have the feel of Friends, it's just a little racier (b/c you can get away with more things over on British TV than you can here). Like the friends all hang in a bar, rather than a coffeehouse. Plus there is some cursing allowed here and there, along with some themes I doubt NBC would want shown from 8-9pm, let alone in a Sitcom. But the show is truly funny, and if you are a fan of Friends, or just witty writers and fun characters I would definitely recomend this show (especially above the two previous shows I mentioned).

So if any of you happen to catch any of these new shows, drop me a line and let me know what you thought.

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Staying on the topic of Television, I figure I'd mention some of my new favorite commercials. I've got two favorites at the moment-

1) The one for the Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, where a girl is on a date with a guy, who is telling her about himself, and he sounds like a great guy but then the waiter brings her over the soda and she goes into a trance and instead of hearing what he says she just hears a song that goes like "Ma Nah Meh Na! Doo Doo Da Doo Doo." (It's an old silly song, I can't remember the name of it. But it's just really catchy and me, Ariana and my sister will constantly just hum it at the most random of times).

2) The one for the new Starburst candies. It's got a kid who's talking to a friend and pops a Starburst in his mouth and says "It's like a Fiesta in my mouth." Then it cuts to a view of inside the kid's mouth where there is a Mexican Mariachi band playing instruments and dancing around, when all of a sudden a gush of flavor from the candy washes in, and the teeth begin to close and they all dive for cover, and the smallest Mexican dancing guy gets washed down the kid's throat while the leader of the band falls on his knees, arms raised in the air crying "ENRIQUE!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" The first time I saw that commercial I laughed so hard, I nearly fell off my bed. It is just too damn funny- my explanation can't come close to doing it justice, you just have to see it. It is without a doubt my favorite new commercial.

Random Fact of the Day #1

-It is physically IMPOSSIBLE for Joe V., Henry, Alan and myself to be together in a room for an hour (if even) without making at LEAST one Simpsons reference.

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Oh another note: Henry pointed out to me that I celebrated my blog's b-day early by about a week or so. I could have sworn I had started it right after the 4th of July weekend last year but I guess I was wrong. My bad! It is coming up soon though, and it still amazes me how fast time flew.

1 Year!

Hey, I just realized that last week was my blog's one year anniversary (or birthday, don't know how I should refer to it as)!

I'm pretty proud of that accomplishment actually, b/c when i initially started this, I wasn't planning on making it a regular thing. But writing in this blog just turned out to be so much fun, I'm glad that I kept up with it. And I've noticed a healthy amount of hits on the site, so apparently you guys are enjoying it too. So thanks for that!

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But yeah, onto business. I haven't given much detail about what I've done in the past few weeks (except for the last post about the Arbitration), and I'm not gonna bore everyone with every detail, but I guess I should mention a handful of things that have happened.

First off, I've gotten tix to a few concerts and shows recently. In August I'll be going to Asmterjam- which is a show at Randall's Island featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers, 311, Garbage, Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe & Mos Def. It's a pretty interesting lineup, and the cooler part, is that in addition to full regular sets by all these acts, they will also be teaming up to do a few "mash-up" songs. So that should be pretty cool.

Also in August, I scored tix to see System of a Down @ the Continental Airlines Arena. I would have preferred a smaller place like Hammerstein, but they are getting bigger now, so I guess I can't complain. It should still be a kick ass show.

And last but not least I also got tix for me and Ariana to go see Dane Cook at the Theater at MSG. I wasn't able to get tix originally b/c the show had sold out, but then Dane sent out an e-mail to members of his mailing list (which i am a part of) and he announced a second show. I would have let people know about that show and tried to get a group, but I got the e-mail after the show had already gone on sale, and it would have been too crazy to try to round up people so fast, so I was forced to get tix right away. I dunno if tix are still available but if there are, we are going to the show on Thurs. Sept 15th if you wanna try and join us.

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I wound up trying to pick up that ECW DVD along with the new Billy Corgan CD I ordered from Bestbuy the other week. Now normally I absolutely LOVE Bestbuy and I am one of its greatest costumers, but they were really off that day.

First, it took them forever to start to help me. Granted there was a long line at returns but no one there turned around to look at me over at the pick up station. But then a few workers would pass by and be all like "Are you being helped?" I'd say "no, not yet." And they'd respond "oh, someone will get to you shortly" and then run away, and I would continue just waiting there. This happened about three times. Now for most people, they would get pissed off and start a ruckus, but I'm a calm person and I wasn't in a particular rush. However, after about 15 minutes of me just standing there trying to wave people over to help me, even i was getting annoyed.

Eventually a guy came over to help me and I gave him the two order numbers. He disappeared into the back and after a few minutes he came back with the Corgan CD but no ECW DVD.

Now luckily, I'm a pretty informed consumer, and I had read on some wrestling websites earlier in the day, that even though the DVD was released on 6/28 (and even said so on the Bestbuy website), the Bestbuy in-store computer systems had the release date as 7/12. So what was happening was that the stores were receiving the DVD but weren't gonna put it on the shelves until 7/12. But for people who ordered it online for pickup, they had to explain to the employees what happened and for the most part there was no problem as the workers would go to the back and get the DVD for them.

So I explained all this to the guy who was helping me, and he was like "oh ok, I'll go to the back to check." So the guy leaves, and he disappears for like 20 freakin minutes! At this point I was getting pretty damn restless as I had been in the store for like 45 minutes already. The guy FINALLY comes back, but empty handed. He tells me he didn't find anything but one of his managers is back there still looking. After a few more minutes, the manager comes out, also empty handed. I explain to him the whole situation about the DVD's online, and also let the man know I've been waiting around for over 45 minutes and that if I got a confirmation e-mail that the item was in the store, it SHOULD be there.

He explained to me, that if the DVD was there, he would definitely give it to me, but it seems as if they never received the item at all. So to make it up to me, they called bestbuy.com and had them switch the order from pick-up to be shipped to my house with free shipping and he also said I could go pick out any DVD I wanted and he would give me $10 off for all my troubles. So I went and hunted around a little and finally picked up Leon: The Professional- the Special Edition.

But yeah, all in all my total time in the store? About an hour and 15 minutes. So this once again does not give me much confidence in ordering for pick-up from Bestbuy, but oh well, at least I got a little something out of it.

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And in better news, I actually went on ebay and was able to find the UNCUT original broadcast of the ECW PPV for only $8. So I'm ordering it and Henry is gonna transfer it to DVD along with a copy of Heatwave '98 so that will be pretty sweet.

And speaking of ebay, I've caught the bug again from it- not as bad as in the past, but I've been going nuts search around for stuff. In my searches I have gotten about 3 morre issues of the G.I. Joe comic that I'm looking for, and am currently the high bidder on 3 more (which will leave me with less than 5 issues I'll need to get to complete my entire collection. So I'm very excited about that.

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I've also been to two baseball games over the past few weeks. I went to the Yankees-Devil Rays game on June 23rd (but sadly they lost that game 9-4). And then me and Ariana went to Fireworks night at Shea Stadium which was also the Mets vs Marlins, so that was cool. The Mets won the game 7-6 but it was a really good, close game. And the fireworks were pretty cool too, so that made it a nice night.

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Been to the movies a handful of times too. Me & Ariana went to see The Longest Yard 2 weeks ago. It was actually pretty funny. There were a few pro-wrestlers in the movie in minor roles like Steve Austin, Goldberd and Kevin Nash. Nash actually stole a few of the scenes he was in, which was kind of surprising but in a welcome way. So yeah, it was a fun summer comedy.

The other fun summer movie we saw was last weekend we went to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith with a few buddies of mine. The plot was nearly non-existant but it was just the epitome of brainless summer action movie fun.

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And last but not least, me and Ariana met up with my co-worker's wife, who is a financial consultant, last week to discuss our financial future. Basically she took down all our info, like how much we make, what our retirement plans look like, the amount of money we save, etc and will help us budget our money as well as find us places to SAFELY invest our money that will yield lots more interest than just throwing it into the bank for a lowsy 1.3% (or whatever the extremely low rate actually is).

She's helped out other people in the office as well as they use the planning themselves and things seem to be going well for everyone, so it can do nothing buy help. Hopefully with this info and stuff I will be able to save better for a house and to pay up my student loans. So if anyone of you guys are interested in how to save and plan for your future financially, let me know and I can refer you over to her. We're gonna meet with her a few times over the next few weeks and stuff so I'll let u know how well everything works, especially if u are interested.

The Legal System sucks...

Blah... where to begin?

Well as I mentioned in a previous post, I had the Arbitration this past Tuesday for my lawsuit against the guy who hit my car about 2 years ago. Things did not go as well as I had planned.

It didn't go COMPLETELY bad, but it wasn't great either. To make a long story short- Two years ago on Easter Sunday, I was stopped at a red light and some idiot hit my car from behind then drove away before I could get his info, although me and my mom did get the Licence plate as the car drove away. And as many of you know, due to this accident I now have like 2 herniated discs in my back plus muscle spasms. It's a permanent injury that will affect me for the rest of my life. I'm not supposed to lift heavy objects (even semi-heavy objects can be bad), I'm not supposed to go on rollercoasters (which sucks b/c I used to go to Six Flags ALL the time), it hurts a lot when I try to shovel snow in the winter, and I can't stand or sit for too long a period of time without my back bothering me. Oh and also, I can't workout as much as I used to. Running bothers my back due to impact, so I had to cut that down, along with some other exercises, so due to that, within the past two years I've gained more weight than I would have wanted to (which I have since been trying to lose, but it's kind of hard since I'm limited in what I can do). And finally, I have pain (ranging from minimal to moderate) almost every single morning when I wake up, and need my back cracked and massaged constantly.

So you would think that with all those problems, I would have a pretty good case right?

Well according to my lawyer, apparently not. But that was not totally my fault. Turns out both me (and my lawyer whether he'd admit it to anyone or not) made some mistakes. Although for me, I can't be blamed as much b/c I didn't know better and the lawyer should have told me what to do. Basically, after the accident, I did not go to the hospital. I didn't feel I needed to. It bothered, but it did not hurt too bad immediately. I DID contact doctors the next day and got X-Rays and stuff right away though. But the real pain came about 3 weeks after the accident when one day while I was getting out of my car, my back just completely went out on me, and I could barely stand up. And it had me walking around like an old man for about a week. At that point, I missed 3 days of work at Yankee stadium (due to all the walking and lifting I usually would have to do), but I didn't miss any work from Fordham, mostly b/c that is a sit down job, and plus, I had only gotten the job about a month prior to the accident and didn't want to start taking days off so soon.

But apparently, those facts were bad for my case. Since I didnt go to the hospital or miss any work from my full time job, it would look to the judge like the injury was not serious. Add to that the fact, that I had been going to physical therapy from about April-July of that year (about 3 months) but then stopped going b/c my no-fault insurance stopped paying for it, and I couldn't afford to do it on my own. I later found out (about 8 months later in fact), that I could put it on a "lean basis" on my new insurance I got when I started working at Fordham, so I went back and am still going as of this time. But once again, my lawyer pointed out to me that that fact looked bad, b/c it looks like I went to physical therapy only for a bit, then stopped (which could look to people, like the judge for instance, that the injury wasn't that serious), and only went back about 8 months later, b/c I had the deposition coming up (which WAS part of the reason, but also, my back really did bother and I wanted to go back, but I didn't know that I could, which was kind of the lawyer's bad for not telling me how to do that right away).

That plus the deposition itself didn't go very well. But that I blame mostly on my lawyer. First off, my ACTUAL lawyer was not present. I got some other dude from the law firm. Then we only went over stuff in the 'Bill of Particulars" for about 30-40 minutes before the Deposition began. Thing is, I STILL had no idea what kind of questions to expect from the opposing lawyer. The ONLY advice my lawyer gave me was "if you're not sure about something, don't guess, just say 'I don't remember." And then the opposing lawyer asked me a bunch of specific things, that I wasn't sure of at that moment (but which I had written down in my journal and stuff but I hadn't looked that over b/c I didn't know I should b/c some things seemed very minor) and basically used the "I don't remember" answer, quite a bit. But like I said, i didn't even know exactly what a deposition was before I went and I was not ANYWHERE near well prepared for it by my lawyer. I was given no "example questions" of what they may ask. And previous to the deposition I wasn't told that I would need to remember specific details right on that moment. Cuz when I called the lawyer to ask how to prepare and stuff, the secretaries were just like "Oh don't worry about it, just come in. They are only gonna ask you a few questions. The lawyer will prep you right beforehand."

So I did the deposition, and after it was over, I wasn't very happy with how it went, but the lawyer said things were ok, so that eased my fears. They also made it sound like it wasn't the "be-all, end-all" of the case.

But now it sucks, b/c last week at the Arbitration my lawyer made it sound like one of the big things that screwed me over was that I "had a bad deposition." So I was like "what the hell?!?!" I thought I'd be able to present the facts to the judge, but basically, I barely got to do, or say anything. The lawyers went in and met with the judge and then mine came out and was like "we have an offer." He then gave me a number, that for the type of injury I have was VERY low. Like nowhere even near the ballpark of where I was thinking.

So me and my mom started to complain. Trying to see why on earth I wouldn't be offered more money. So he gave us the excuses listed above, along with some other legal mumbo-jumbo I'm not about to go through here. But basically in the end, he explained that there is a certain bar that a person's injuries must exceed in order to get any "real" money. And that bar has been constantly raised over the years, to the point where you need to pretty much have gone to the hospital, missed work, been scarred and be in a freakin cast or something. It's absolutely ridiculous. So we explained to the lawyer, fine I may not be "scarred" but I have a freakin PERMANENT injury, that affects me on a daily basis, which will only get worse as my life goes on. How the hell can something like that not be considered above that supposed bar???

Now to my lawyer's credit, he IS a nice guy and he understood my complaints and tried to explain everything to me in "how things really work." He went back in, and came out with another number, which was slightly higher but in the end was barely any difference at all. I wasn't happy at all but he basically broke everything down for me, telling me that sadly my case wasn't very strong and that we COULD go to court with the case, but first off, the maximum amount of money I could get ALSO was not near the amount I originally expected. Plus, he let me know that he doesn't even take cases like mine anymore (I don't know if I mentioned but the main reason he took my case was b/c he was referred to me by the Dean of Alumni relations at Fordham Law, and he saw I was a Fordham grad and decided to help me out) b/c he sees these kinds of cases get thrown out all the time.

So basically my choices were to either go to court, to fight for an amount of money that STILL wasn't what I wanted, but then also have the high chance of having it get thrown out and then I get NOTHING, or to just take the money, cuz in the end something is better than nothing.

Me and my mom wound up thinking it out for awhile and in the end, it just seemed like a waste of time to even bother going to court. So in the end we settled. I'm still really pissed off about it but there wasn't much we could do.

I'm just really upset over everything, b/c I'm SURE things would have gone differently if I was better prepared. Especially for the Deposition, and if I was told about the "lean-basis" thing a lot earlier. I guess I also should have exagerrated my injury more and gone to the hospital the night of the accident (at least just to say I went and to get immediate x-rays and MRI's) but that's just not how I am. Plus I hate going to hospitals and I didn't want to go that night.

So yeah, it was a mix of faults, but I blame it more on the lawyer. It sucks, b/c hell, years ago (before I was born) my mom was in a car accident and she got more money than I did now (Hell, her amount was enough to put the down payment on the house I grew up in and am still currently living in), and I was hoping for something similar so I could do the same thing. So yeah it just sucks. My whole family is pretty upset. But like I said, there is not really anything I can freakin do.

So i'm just trying to look at the brighter side of things. I got SOME money. Not much, but I can invest it somewhere and probably use it to pay for wedding stuff in the future. So there's that at least. But yeah, don't mind me, I just had to vent. I'm sure my posts will return to usual form after this. I just had to get everything off my chest (plus also it's easier doing it here so people can read what happened rather than me repeating it 80 times to all my friends who would definitely wanna know what went down).

So I may not have been well compensated for my injury but hey, there's always the lotto! (and what goes around comes around). lol

What the record books will fail to record

Last night was a crazy night for Marlins baseball. But at least it ended up in a good way.

The Brewers hit up the Marlins (specifically A.J. Burnett) for 4 runs in the first 3 innings (with 3 in the the first). But then after an RBI single with 2 outs in the 3rd inning, Burnett and 4 other Marlins relievers shut the Brewers down COMPLETELY by retiring 28 straight batters in a twelve inning game (which the Marlins won 5-4). To those of you out there who may not know baseball well, or are bad at math, that basically means they combined to make one out MORE than a "perfect game." Which is just absolutely ridiculous. Burnett himself got 14 strikeouts (but sadly had to leave in the 6th inning b/c he threw like 125 pitches) but the Marlins in total made a franchise record of striking out 22 total batters.

So yeah, the record books will not say anything about "the perfect game within a game", but it's definitely something that should be mentioned.

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Another thing to be mentioned- the Yankees seem to be on a mini-roll. But they play the Cleveland Indians for 4 games this weekend, and those guys are on a roll as well. So here's hoping the Yanks can at LEAST take 2-3 games from them.

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Oh and on a non-baseball related note- last night when I got home I checked my e-mail and there was one from Phil about WWE releasing a bunch of wrestlers. Now I had read a short list of guys they released the night before, but this was a MUCH bigger list, and when I saw some specific names in Phil's e-mail my first reaction was "NO WAY! This has GOT to be wrong!" So I zoomed over to wwe.com and lo and behold they actually did release about 17 people (a mix of wreslters, announcers and divas) but still there were some names in there that shocked me- including all 3 of the Dudley Boyz, Charlie Haas, Akio, and Matt Morgan.

Granted, the Dudleyz have been off TV for sometime, recuperating from injuries and stuff and guys like Haas, Akio and Morgan weren't being used to their full potential, but that's the thing! They all had POTENTIAL. They were cool but were being WAY under-utilized. And it just sucks that they let guys like that go while they still keep fools like Heidenreich, Snitzky, Orlando Jordan and useless divas like "Boobsie McTitsalot"(not her real name, just a funny nickname used by a few wrestling website people that I also like to use) around. It makes no sense. I swear, I wish I could be a writer for the wrestling shows, I'd turn it around big time.

Or hell, someone should make a federation of just all the guys that have been released. Most of those guys combined with some big names that are currently unemployed could be a promotion in itself. Give me a freakin good budget and let me run that, i'd have it competing with WWE in no time.

But that will never happen (cuz wrestling promotions only hire bad sitcom writer monkeys nowadays), but I can dream, heh.

Inspirations

I came across this on one of my favorite wrestling websites this past Friday. They have like 30 of them, making fun of those "Inspirations" plaques a lot of people have. They are funnier if you like wrestling, but I showed this to some people who haven't watched wrestling in years and they still found them amusing, so if you'd like to check it out, just go here.

This is just an example of the kinds of pictures on the site (courtesy www.Onlineonslaught.com).

"You Can't See Me"

I just ran across this article in the Daily News website (sadly I'm on my sucky Mac at work so you'll have to copy and paste the link):

http://nydailynews.com/front/story/324309p-277190c.html

It's pretty amusing, but kind of messed up too. Basically a Queens High School teacher was forced to resign after the school board found out that the teacher was taking sick days to compete as a pro wrestler, both overseas in Japan and even in nearby Philadelphia for the WWE.

It was only four days total (on seperate occasions) but now the Special Schools Investigator said he wants the teacher to pay back all the money he got while he was supposedly out sick. Which is just freakin ridiculous. The teacher HAD the sick days to use. What he does with his private life after calling out sick is his OWN business. Not that of the schools.

The teacher even had this to say: "Given the fact that there are teachers out there that molest students and beat students, I fail to see how four days is something that they were going to so aggressively pursue."

Damn skippy.

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While I'm on the subject of wrestling though, I should share that last week I joined Charles and a few mutual buddies in participating in the WWE Fantasy League.

Basically, it's just like fantasy baseball, but with pro-wrestling. You get a certain budget and every week you buy a roster or wrestlers who you gain points for depending on what they do during the shows. It makes watching wrestling even more fun, b/c now I find myself cheering for guys I would normally despise, just so I can earn Fantasy points (although I will still hate Randy Orton with a passion).

The league lasts for 14 weeks. I joined during the second week so I'm a week behind half of the people playing, and what makes it worse is I made some not so great roster picks my first week (specifically, I did not read all the rules before picking a roster and b/c of that I did not pick Batista or HHH, while everyone else did, which was dumb considering they were Main Eventing a PPV in a Hell in the Cell match). So I got absolutely DECIMATED last week, and am in WAAAAAY last place.

I picked a better roster this week though, so I have been looking very forward to all the wrestling shows this week. Last night was a pretty big Smackdown and I just checked this week's scores and I'm in first place by a good margin for the week (although still way behind in the overall scores). But this is just the beginning of me chipping away. I would be very proud of myself if I was able to get to 3rd place by the end of this whole thing. So we'll see what happens.

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And in final wrestling news- last night was the final night of the Lottery Draft, and also the deadline for trades between the two shows. Well I just checked WWE.com for the finalized trades, and they basically make NO SENSE. They traded almost none of the people I expected them to, and in the end I don't think the Rosters are very balanced.

Raw seems to have taken all the HUGE stars (they still have Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and got Kurt Angle and others), while the Smackdown roster wrestlers who are more about "potential" at the moment than pure star power. This even includes guys like Christian and Batista. I like them a lot, but WWE has not proven yet that they can handle them like they deserve to be.

I'm hoping that due to these big changes, it forces WWE's hand to use some of these guys to their fullest potential. But the writer-monkeys that WWE seems to have on their payroll don't exactly inspire confidence in me that will happen. But hey, at least they made some pretty major shake ups, so the storylines should be fresh. So I'm looking forward to that.