5/14/08

I'm giving up my morning Smash Brothers time to post, so you'd all beter read and enjoy. That being said, I want to start by talking about something that is of no interest to anyone but myself.

If you follow sports, particularly baseball, you may have heard that Jim Edmonds was recently cut by the Padres, and has now signed with the Chicago Cubs. If you follow baseball enough to have heard this, you undoubtedly also realize that Edmonds played many great years in St. Louis, the Cubs' most heated rival. As much as it pains me, because I greatly admire and appreciate everything he gave to the Cardinals during his time there, I am now turning my back on Jim Edmonds, for his decision to sign with the Chicago Cubs, my most hated franchise in all of sports (followed closely by the Dallas Cowboys, then the New Boston Yanksox). I realize he's not the first player to play on both sides of a rivalry, but that doesn't make it okay. If I were a Red Sox fan, I would have hated Johnny Damon with all my heart after he signed with the Yankees. There is an important diference though- Damon hit free agency at the right time, and was coming off of his best years. He needed to sign with a team that could give him the best situation. Jim Edmonds is at the end of his career, and is basically trying to cling to his last few breaths. The Padres cut him for a reason- he's had a lot of significant injuries, and he ust can't hit anymore. I'm not saying that I wanted him to retire, but I think the longer he goes, the more he will end up tarnishing his great career- especially if he's playing for the Cubs, the pit-stain of Major League Baseball. Enjoy your swan song Jim. You're dead to me now.

Incidentally, a lot of people ask me why I hate the Cubs so much. I'll probably explain in a future blog, but watch how much attention they get for signing an aging, one-foot-out-the-door player, and it may make more sense to you.

Quick thoughts on TV- Lost is getting really good, I'm looking forward to tonight's episode. I'm predicting that Keamy dies (no idea if that's how you spell his name), and I think someone else will kick the bucket too- I hope it's Miles, but I'm calling Frank, just because then they'll have the whole "who can fly the helicopter now" problem. I'm expecting the season finale of the Office to be really good too. It's pretty obvious from the trailers that Jim will propose to Pam, but I'm predicting Andy proposing to Angela too, just because it'll be funny.

I was pretty disappointd in the Scrubs series finale. It wasn't a bad episode, but it was a terrible send-off. The only closure we get to JD and Elliot's relationship is a footnote at the end of Dr. Cox's story that they decided their kiss didn't mean anything because they were both idiots? And we were promised that we'd learn the Janitor's name in the last episode. Now that I'm thinking through the people who read this blog, I don't think any of you watch Scrubs, so again, this all probably means nothing to you.

Quick notes on the CDs I've been listening to in the great library reduction project-

• The Ramones, "Brain Drain"- Not one of ther better known albums, and for good reason. We get to hear what it sounds like when the Ramones try to write actual songs, instead of blowing through them in 2 minutes with 3 chords. They should (and thankfully later did) stick to the formula. Best track: Palisades Park
• De La Soul, "3 Feet High and Rising"- I bought this back when I decided that I wanted to listen to more "classic" albums, including classic hip-hop. If anyone else is interested in hearing classic hip-hop, this is where you need to start. To hear groove-based samples and lyrics written more for flow than content, it makes me wish more rap/hip=hop artists followed this formula today. Best track: Plug Tunin' (Original 12" version)
• Rocket From the Crypt, "Scream, Dracula, Scream"- A punk band with a horn section- not a ska-punk band. Depending on who you talk to, they're pretty underrated, although some put them up there with the Ramones and Bad Religion in the punk history books. A lot catchier than I expected. Best track: Young Livers
• Pantera, "Vulgar Display of Power"- I remember when I first heard Pantera (Alexis gave me "Far Beyond Driven" on cassette for by birthday, along with "In Utero" by Nirvana) I thought they were the hardest band I had ever heard. Listening to them now, it's still harder than most of the stuff I normally listen to, but it's tamer than I remember. Still has a great punch, and makes you really angry when you listen to it. Best track: F***ing Hostile
• Peter Erskine and Richard Torres, "From Kenton to Now"- It makes me so happy that I can listen to a metal CD one day, then pop in jazz the next, and completely appreciate them both. Peter Erskine does not get nearly the press he deserves, unless you talk to people who are waaaay into jazz, drums or both. This is a small combo recording, with Torres on tenor sax, Alan Pasqua on piano and Dave Carpenter on bass. I was disappointed that there was only one Stan Kenton tune on there- the title led me to believe that there would be more. Still good, and worth hearing for anyone who likes good jazz or great drumming. Best track: Modern Drummer Blues

Now it's time to hope I'm not too late for work.

5/8/08

Yeah, I suck. I know that the minimum requirement to having a blog is to occasionally update it, and I've been dropping the ball. You can blame work for it if you want (since I've been moved to a position where I can no longer post at work- you know, like a real job), but you can just as easily blame it on the start of the babseball season, and the release of Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

Speakig of baseball, I was planning to post a while back about how good the Orioles were doing, but it seems like they've come back down to earth for the time being. People just can't let the good start make them forget that we weren't supposed to win this year- that's what "rebuilding" is.

Don't have too much time, since I'm posting in the morning before I go to work (which may become normal practice now), but I do want to hit on a few things.

• Kathy and I got new carpet installed on our stairs and entire upstairs, including our bedroom. It looks really good, but Empire Today hosed us, and their mistake caused us to sleep in the basement over the weekend. Fortunately, it's done now, and we got a $500 deduction, since I'm such a hard-ass on the phone (they originally offered us $50).
• Final episode of Scrubs airs tonight. I'm excited, sad and worried all at the same time. I just have to keep in mind that it's pretty much impossible for a final episode to have everything you want.
• Haven't posted about American Idol in a while, but I'm so glad that Jason Castro is FINALLY gone. I really thought he would go in the first wave, back when the top 24 first started performing. As bad as his performances were this week, they weren't that much worse than they've been all season. So glad he's gone, wish it had been sooner.
• As I mentioned, I'm in a new position at work. No new pay, just kind of a lateral move, but I'm still enjoying it. I spend more time at the office, rather than being out in the field, which is good because it makes me feel more like a part of the company to be around more often.
• Lost is still awesome. I still want them to kill off Miles.
• Kathy's birthday was last Monday. We celebrated by staying up late moving furniture back into our bedroom after the carpet, which was supposed to have been installed Saturday, was finally finished being installed.
• I'm still going full-bore on my CD library clean-out. I keep telling myself I'm going to put short reviews here of what I'm listening to, which I might still do, but I wouldn't be surprised if I don't post again for another month, so who knows?

Okay, that's all for now. Time for a quick shower, and then a game of Smash Brothers before work!

3/20/08

Before I get disowned by a member of my family (who's probably adopted anyway) I would like to give a birthday shout-out to my sister Alexis. This shout out will be so powerful that it will travel back in time to yesterday, when her birthday actually was. She is 43. :oD

I also meant to shout out yesterday to my friend Bart (who also posetd a comment.... weird). He will be a father in the coming year, which is awesome. Congratulations. If anyone else knows/knew Bart but hasn't talked to him in a while (or just can't stand talking to him), he's got a blog set up over at http://www.bartraeke.com/ , so go ahead and catch yourself up with the Ringo of Phobos Magnet. Not because he played the drums, but because he was the least popular with the public, despite being my favorite.

Okay, now that I've slammed the only two people nice enough to have posted comments on my new blog, time for some news. I think I mentioned yesterday that Kathy and I were going to Carmax to test drive a car. Well, we did, and we bought it. It's a 2007 Toyota Corolla, and it had about 20,000 miles on it when we bought it. The idea is, since I do so much driving for my job, that I'll use this car mainly, and Kathy will start driving the Jeep, which guzzles gas (but makes up for it by virtue of the fact that the best grandparents ever sold it to us for an excruciatingly fair price). Anyway, I drove it into work today, and totally love it. After driving the Vue (and briefly the Jeep) for the past couple years, it's weird to be driving a small car again, but I think I'll manage.

One of the great things for me about the new car is that I once again have a CD player in my car. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal to most people, especially considering that my beautiful wife has never had a car with a cd player (and that won't change with the Jeep- sorry sweetie), but I just about went crazy having to survive solely on radio and the one tape I was able to find (an acoustic set by Local H done at WHFS studios way back in the day- Just Passin' Thru, for those that remember it). This also means that I can continue my massive task of going through the mountain of CDs that I never/hardly listen to, and consequently sell them for dirt to Record and Tape Traders after ripping the songs I like to iTunes. The good (or bad) news for you is that I'll probably post my thoughts about each CD here, as I go through them. I do this not only because it's fun for me, but I also enjoy the distant possibility that someone will think what I have to say is interesting enough to go out and buy the cd (or ask to borrow/have it from me before I dump it off at R+T).

I might go through the archive of CDs that I listened to before the accident, but didn't post about. If I have time today, and I'm not lazy, it may appear here. If not, it won't.

I do want to quickly touch on tonight's episode of Lost, which Kathy and I will be watching with a group of friends, since they all have off tomorrow. They advertised that someone would die, so I figured I'd throw out a quess. Jin would be too obvious- besides, I'm slowly being converted into one of thos people who doesn't think he really died, but just got left on the island. A lot of people are saying Claire, but there's too much left for them to do with her character. Actually, there's not, Aaron is her only real interesting point, and we can explore that without her. Still, I don't think the fact that Aaron's off the island without her means that she died. My official guess is Miles, mainly because I want him to get killed off. Also, if it was a main character/original survivor biting the dust tonight, I think there would have been more buildup. Maybe it's just me. Although, I would love it if someone dies in a flash-forward. Someone like Hurley or Kate that we know gets off the island, but they die before they get back. I don't think that's happening tonight, bu that would be awesome. My official guess, though, is Miles, killed by Ben. Bank it.

3/19/08

Well, for the second time this year, I'm making the first post in my new blog. Of course, I can actually call it a blog now, instead of an online journal. Hopefully people can find their way here- if not, I'll try to hype it up to everyone I know.

Some personal news- Kathy and I are test driving a car at Carmax tonight, and possibly buying it to replace the Vue that was totalled. It's a 2007 Toyota Corolla, slightly used. If I ever stay on top of this blogging thing, I'll let everyone know what we thought of it.

At some point, I might actually start posting stuff with some substance to it. You know, like a great story of something that happened to me, or my opinions on a big issue. I'm trying to steer awat from only writing about my thoughts on the latest episodes of Lost and American Idol (although I'll probably still do a little bit of that).

Well, hopefully I'll like this Google blog better than the old LiveJournal one. We'll see. Feel free to comment (it should be easier now than it was), and don't be afraid to let other friends and family know about it- I really don't feel like sending out an email, and I'm probably not going to end up promoting this thing myself, but it would still be cool if people read it, especially people I don't see very often.