I'm Not Even Sure What's Next...

First Podcast Is Up

2009-06-02T21:13:00.001-05:00

Check it out here.

Cool Site

2009-06-01T08:49:00.001-05:00

Check this out, it's a cool way to see some of the top stories of the day, based on traffic. (Re-posted from "From the Sidelines".)

Podcast Update

2009-05-28T11:05:00.001-05:00

So the last time I said this, it was October, but I really mean it this time. We're going to have a podcast recorded as early as this weekend. The only reason it was derailed last time was due to the mugging incident and I didn't have the best equipment either.

Right now we have a couple of blog posts up concerning the recent Memphis allegations, check those out at From the Sidelines.

Working Hard

2009-04-21T14:22:00.001-05:00

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind. Between the jet lag and sheer amount of work I'm doing, there hasnt been much time to think. I apologize for all of the typos in my last post; since I'm working through a German isp, Google thinks I'm German and the spell check isnt so awesome. Yesterday we did a lot of work on pricing, I didnt feel well, and I didnt take any pictures. I was in bed by 8:00, woke up a ton of times in the middle of the night and so there's nothing to report.

Today we had a little more interesting subject matter and I felt a lot better. I still havent gotten a picture of the hotel, but I will eventually because it's very nice. I talked about the size of the whole Krone compound in my last post, here's a picture of one of the show rooms:

This is off to the side of one of the large meeting rooms. I'm kind of bummed that I cant get a good pictuere of the size of this place; it's very impressive. We worked on quite a few things in the morning, but got a lot of stuff done. (And I only almost fell asleep twice!) This afternoon we met with out brokerage firm, Kuehne and Nagel, and then they took us to dinner at a place I cant type or pronounce, so I took a picture of the entrance:

I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but right now is the season for asparagus in Germany. It's very short, and everyone is crazy for it. So again we had asparagus and pork. The asparagus is actually really good. Warsteiner is the beer of the region so I had a couple of those. It tastes completelt different than the version that is exported to the states. The K&H guys were incredibly funny, especially the one to my left in this picture:

This guy, Helmut, goes to the US every now and then and he is obssessed with Bush's Baked Beans. You cannot buy them in Germany, and you cannot order them from here and have them shipped. They have to be brought by someone in their luggage. Right now he has one small can for each month until he goes to St Louis on business, and one of those massive "family size" cans that he's saving. This is literally what he's saving it for: this summer his mother in law and aunt will be 65 and 70 respectively, in addition to his neighborhood being around for 100 years. That's what he's busting the Bush's out for. To each his own....

Like I said, today was much better only because I've felt much better. Headed to bed in an hour or so, because it's up bright and early once again. I've given up on the tv, since I cant understand anything. Although, there was a show on last night titled "Sexy Sports Academy". Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is.

Yall be safe and send me some emails!!

Maybe I Should Have Learned Some German...

2009-04-19T14:07:00.003-05:00

I am currently in Spelle, Germany at the Krone Hotel right across the street from the Krone compound. The size of this operation is really impressive, and it's safe to say that if Krone wasn't here, Spelle wouldnt exist.

Today is the first time that I've had internet access so there's a fair amount to catch up on. The flight over wasnt bad at all, but it was over eight hours. (I had originally thought it was around seven.) So I did what anyone in my situation would do, I watched four movies. The first was Yes Man: entertaining, funny, and good movie all around. The second was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: it was good, but long and I almost cried about six times. The third was Role Models, and then Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. We landed in Amsterdam at 7:30 am local time and got on a train to Rheine by 8:30. I hear that the train ride was very pretty, but I slept the whole time. The only time I woke up was when a conductor got mad at me for having my feet in the seat.

In Rheine we stayed at the City Club Hotel, which is right on the ems canal/river/water thing. Rheine is a very cool city, it's not huge or anything, but large enough that there are a fair amount of things to do. I took a few pictures of the landscape, but I'll only post one since those arent that cool.

After dinner, we went to a bar near the hotel and ended up making some friends. The people who ran the place kept it open for us, and we scored some free beer because I "fixed" their ice cream machine. And by "fixed", I mean I just plugged it in and they went nuts. The picture below is of us celebrating the small victory.

The German beers are very good, and very thick, but I feel in love with the random Mexican tequila beer called Salitos. It sounds pretty disgusting, but it tasted delicious. The funniest part of the night for me was an interaction with a female bartender at the place. She was from Czeckosolvakia, and did not speak any English. I do not speak any German. There was a good thirty seconds of both of us talking non stop to no avail. Another interesting sidenote: when I'm drunk and I'm talking to someone that cant understand me, I automatically start speaking Spanish. There were countless times last night that I would just answer questions in Spanish for no reason. We closed that place down, and one of the bartenders (the guy on the left in the picture above), knew of some after hours club down the street. I'm only in Rheine once, so I thought "what the hell?"

The place was packed when we got there, but they were playing AC/DC so I knew everything would be ok. For some reason, I started trying to talk to every single person that I passed. Most of them would just laugh and say something in German, but some would actually talk back and ask what I was doing in Rheine. I made more than a few friends and didn't pay for a drink all night. There are a ton of random pictures on my camera from the club, in fact, I think someone else had it at one point. But here's a good one of me a one group of peopole I talked to for a while.

All in all, everyone was incredibly nice. They tolerated my English/Spanish and probably put up with me being more than a little annoying. I had no problem finding the hotel (thank God), but I could not find any where that was selling food, so I woke up with a wicked hangover this morning. Lunch was great, but I couldn't eat much of it. We took a cab to Spelle and I got to sleep for a few hours and felt fine for dinner.

It's almost 10:00 here right now, so I'm going to finish it up and try to find something to watch on one of the 13 German tv channels. Real work starts tomorrow, beginning with a five hour meeting bright and early!

More to come.

Off to Germany

2009-04-17T08:51:00.002-05:00

So I'm leaving for Germany in a couple of hours, and I'm pretty anxious about it. I know it'll be a lot of fun, and a great experience, but at the same time I am going for work. We got our agenda yesterday and it's pretty full. (Of the fourteen scheduled meetings, I get to skip out on one, maybe two.)

The plane ride is long and it'll probably be uneventful. I have an ipod, my computer, and some other things to keep me entertained. I should probably pick up a book at the airport since the only unread book I have is Twilight. I did not purchase the book, it was left at my apartment. Still, I may or may not have packed it...

I'll be landing in Amsterdam around midnight tonight (7:30 am local time!) and immediately getting on a train for Rheine. We're in Rheine until Sunday, then we'll be in Spelle, Veulta, and Papenburg. My apologies to anyone who actually knows how to spell German city names because I'm sure I just butchered at least half of those.

The plan is to post some pictures during the trip and update this periodically only because my internet access will be a little spotty. I obviously won't have my cell phone, which will be very odd in itself. When was the last time you went without your phone for over a week? When I was in DC a few weeks ago, mine was broken for two days and it felt odd.

That's enough for now - more to come...

Story to Share

2009-02-26T08:43:00.001-06:00

I might get a longer post in later today, but it'll probably be tomorrow because I'm a little busy at work. Either way, I wanted to pass along this story from Rick Reilly. It's really uplifting.

Weekend Post

2009-02-23T14:56:00.002-06:00

Had a great weekend, but it was far too short. Friday after work I got a text message from my good friend Matt DeBerry that merely said: "Grizz tickets 5th row, free. In?" I was currently with my aunt and uncle in Germantown having a couple of drinks and basically ditched them in less than 15 minutes, but they understood. (Sorry Martha!)

The game itself was pretty cool, it's always fun to hear what players are saying and watching the bench, but the best part was right before halftime: there's a promotion where a person dressed as a FedEx delivery guy walks to a certain seat in the arena and gives a lucky fan a "Grizzlies Prize Package"; it's usually a shirt, bobblehead, etc. Well, Friday night the guy was coming towards our row, so we were pretty excited, and then ever more excited when he stopped right next to us. Unfortunately, he gave the box to a woman sitting two seats to my left with her boyfriend. At first the woman refuses to take the package (this is important later), but the boyfriend finally coaxes her into it. Meanwhile, the two of them and myself are on the Jumbotron and I'm acting like an idiot and waving and generally being awesome, while Debo is screaming at them "It's a diamond ring!!". Well, the game starts again and the woman opens the box and, you might have guessed by now, a small box falls out. The guy picks it up, opens it, and proposes to her right there. I just stare and am stunned by the whole turn of events. She says yes, he puts it on her hand, then they awkwardly sit there for the rest of the game. I might be old fashioned, but ladies, wouldn't you want your guy's proposal to be a little better than that? It's not like they were huge Grizzlies fans or anything. Oh well, I hope everything works out for them. (After everything died down, I asked the guy if there were going to get a copy of the Jumbotron video, he asked why, so I said "Because then I'll be a part of this memory for the rest of your lives!" The woman was not amused.)

After the game, we met Dan and Sallie at the Silly Goose and wrapped up the night somewhat early because of our Saturday plans.

Saturday afternoon, Chillcut and his fiance, Erin, rolled into town, so we tried to have a full day planned. After lunch and the first half of the Tigers game at Bar Dog, we checked out the Saucer for a while and played some darts. (Note: Erin is a huge cheater.) After that, we headed to the apartment, played some whiskey and rum fueled Rock Band and Guitar Hero, then headed to Papa Pia's for dinner. It was my first time there, and I loved it, very nice place and the prices were reasonable. We then headed to Silky's and eventually finished up the night doing karaoke at Superior. All in all, it was a fun day, but it put down for almost all of Sunday. We didn't get any work done on the MAME, but I would say we're still on schedule.

Sorry for the long story time post, there were just a few things I wanted to share. On to the links:

- In Boston (I think), ironworkers who are building the new Yawkey Center for Cancer Care, have started a ritual where they paint names of the children who are patients at the nearby Dana-Farber hospital on each beam before they hoist it into place.

- If you're wondering about the "housing bubble" and just how big it was, here's a graph with inflation adjusted data. It's really interesting see.

- Here are two quick comics that I've been reading, one is "Garfield Minus Garfield", where the author has simply taken Garfield out of the famous Jim Davis strip. The second is one I've been reading for a while, Cyanide and Happiness. The comedy is a little darker, but I still think it's pretty hilarious.

- Lastly, everyone go over and check out JStan's cooking blog. (Recently renamed) She's done quite a bit of updating and I must say, has some really cool stuff on there.

Everyone have a great start of the week; see yall soon.

"Old School" Post

2009-02-18T10:51:00.003-06:00

As anyone can plainly see by looking at the post history, I've slowed down quite a bit in terms of frequency. I don't think there has been one in the past few months that has come anywhere close to some of the first ones in length, and I hardly ever throw out some of the neat stuff I find on the internet daily. I still look at the same amount of useless stuff, I just haven't been passing it on. That will change today. This could be an anomaly or I could start posting epic amount again, who know, but today is an "Old School" post.

First and foremost, man does it kind of suck to be indoors right now. The weather here today is amazing - 65+ and sunny. The ironic thing is that I wrote the previous sentence about four hours ago and have just now been able to get to this - work is pretty hectic right now.

So what has been going on? Well, in the last couple of months being gainfully employed has definitely not sucked at all. Living downtown has been everything I expected from it and more. I've already been introduced to a lot new places that I didn't even know existed; there's so much to do downtown that's not on Beale St. I'm excited to see what the summer has in store.

I'm currently halfway shopping cars right now. I've more or less picked out what I'm going to get, but I'm open to everything. I'm really hoping that prices stay a little lower than average for next couple of months since I won't be buying anything until the end of April.

I'd like to write more, but today's one of those days where I need to earn my paycheck. Onto the links:

-Here's an interesting architectural decision...

- A 56 year old man wakes up from a coma just as his family decides to take him off of life support.

- Here's an article titled "5 T-Shirts That People Regret Owning". I vaguely remember the first one, but the next four are dead on. My cousin and I had the Hypercolor ones right around 1991 and thought they were absolutely amazing. (Yeah, we were cool). I think "Big Johnson" and "No Fear" memorabilia were required if you grew up in Dyersburg.

- Here's a story on the automakers coming back to Congress to ask for more money. Chrysler needs $5 billion more by the end of March. I know it sucks that auto workers are losing their jobs and/or retirement, but a lot of other people are too. Completely ignoring the fact that Chrysler is owned by private-equity giant Cerberus Capital (check out the link if you want to know more), the government is basically giving the two automakers interest free loans when no financial institution would. Chrysler's sales are down 54% from the previous year. Sometimes you need to take your economic medicine, and go bankrupt. Poor business decisions should have consequences. It'll be interesting to see if the government gives in this time, since the public was largely against a bailout the first time around.

- Ending on a funnier note, here's a site that Dan just linked me, fmylife.com. I've only spent a couple of minutes on there and it's pretty good, check it out.

Sorry for the shorter list of links than I promised, I'm hurting for time and a couple of them weren't so good the second time around.

Everyone enjoy Wednesday, it's two days from the weekend!

Phone News and (Gasp!) More MAME

2009-02-16T10:36:00.003-06:00

Once again, we had a big MAME weekend. The results can be seen on the MAME Project site.

Last summer, when I was impatiently waiting for my Instinct to be delivered, I really thought I would have the phone for a while. The first consideration being the fact that upgrading would be painful on the wallet, and the second that the Instinct had everything I wanted. (The navigation system is amazing, and superior to every other one I've seen on a phone). While I'm not disappointed by the Instinct, I really don't like having a touchscreen keyboard. Enter the Palm Pre. I've been excited about this for a couple of months, and today the news got even better.

No release date yet though.

Lame. (Like working on President's Day.)

MAME and More...

2009-02-10T11:46:00.004-06:00

Quickly, we updated the MAME Project blog with all the progress from the weekend, check it out.

I just read this short post by Rick Reilly of ESPN, and I have to say that he's got a point. I've embedded the video below, and it happens around the 28 second mark.

I Want This

2009-02-03T08:54:00.004-06:00

Here's a house in Suffolk, England that has mobile walls and a roof that moves along rails. The user can basically cover and uncover the static parts of the house at will.

While this application is kind of minimal, and expensive, it's a really cool idea. Maybe another deep pocketed homeowner will expand upon it.

Update: Just found another link with a lot more pictures and a better description of how this works.

This Weekend...

2009-01-30T07:59:00.003-06:00

AC/DC hits Memphis tonight, and I'm fortunate enough to be on the floor and about eight rows back; I can't wait. Most of the excitement comes from the fact that when I was in high school, my friends and I would continuously listen to AC/DC and other hard rock bands that were, in all reality, before our time. It was always kind of bittersweet to think about how we wouldn't really get to see them live, just due to our age. Tonight should be fun, and you can bet that we'll play "Thunderstruck" more than once during the pre-party.

MAME Update: As always, you can check out the MAME Project for all of our latest news and updates in that area. Take a look, because things are really picking up.

Other stuff this weekend:
-Dan's brother, Nate, will be in town so he too can be harassed by me about the Eagles' failures. (Speaking of the Iggs, here's a pretty funny picture Dan sent me yesterday.)

-Trying my hand at gumbo on Saturday during the MAME building. I looked at quite a few recipes, and mixed a few that I liked together; I'll let you know how it goes.

-I think there's a football game happening on Sunday. If I gambled, I'd be putting a lot of money on the Cards at +7.5 and +215...

Everyone have a fun and safe weekend.

Cool Link

2009-01-27T08:41:00.001-06:00

Ran across an interesting site this morning: it determines "How Many 90 Year Olds Could You Take in a Fight?".

I was fairly honest and got 16; I don't know if that's good or bad.

MAME Update

2009-01-22T15:30:00.001-06:00

Ordered a lot of pieces for the MAME today, check out the MAME Project for the full scoop.

I really need to change the name of this thing.

You Silly Goose

2009-01-21T08:28:00.002-06:00

Did anyone ever go to "Swig" when it was still open? Me neither. However, a new bar opened in the space last night called the "Silly Goose" and we decided to check that out instead on trivia at the Saucer. DP and I met Samad, Rudelson, Will and Nelly and all of us were in agreement that it's great new place. They don't have a website up yet, or one that I can find at least, but here's an old write up in the Business Journal about the planning process. I just hope it survives.

With Calhoun's and Bardog going strong, this place, and the occasional Saucer visit, do I ever need to go to Beale Street again?

Maybe Not a Bad Idea

2009-01-15T08:17:00.002-06:00

-Here's a story quoting some "Cowboys Source" that says they might release T.O. As far as his performance on the field, the 'Boys are probably overpaying a declining receiver, and if they higher ups think he is really affecting the locker room that much (I'm not so sure), then he probably does need to go.

The only problem is that cutting T.O. would immediately make his $12 million signing bonus go towards the salary cap. (Signing bonuses are pro-rated throughout the contract) A hit that large could cause the team to be unable to re-sign DeMarcus Ware - someone who is probably more valuable than T.O. at this point.

Had a good time at the Saucer last night, and a really cool glass from New Belgium Brewery was available. Of course, I left it on the table when I walked out...

So Long Smoltzie

2009-01-08T09:45:00.003-06:00

Well, John Smoltz is leaving the Braves after spending every season in Atlanta since 1988. While I'm fairly sad about it, especially since it looks like the Braves could have kept him, I think it was probably the best move for him personally.

The Red Sox give him a chance to win another ring, something that Atlanta won't have the luxury of doing for a long time.

It's not so bad when you think about the fact that he'll go into the Hall of Fame wearing a Braves hat anyways.

This puts me in the odd position of maybe rooting for the Red Sox...but only every 5 days.

Looking at the Braves' schedule right now to see if Boston comes to town during interleague play.

Mr. Fusion

2009-01-07T11:10:00.003-06:00

Anyone remember the Mr. Fusion from Back to the Future? Evidently the technology has kind of been around for a while, but this is the first time I've seen a full tutorial on how to do it.

WTB an old Honda Accord, pst. (or DeLorean)

Bored, Part Deux

2008-12-23T08:30:00.002-06:00

I've been here for roughly 30 minutes and have completed everything that I need to do before the holiday. While that sounds fun, the time passes much quicker when I have something to do.

A few things I've seen this morning:

-A slideshow of "10 Holiday Beers to Help You Forget 2008". I've heard of a couple of these but have not sampled them as far as I know. I would like to; I'm a sucker for seasonal brews. I think number 10 is probably my favorite.

-The Onion is always great, and this article on Kim Jong-Il doesn't disappoint. Best line: "Despite claims from China that Kim's statements are 'nothing more than hollow threats,' the U.S. remains worried that the communist republic may test a second nuclear weapon in response to Sony's new line of 62-inch flat-screen television sets."

-By the way, Nintendo sold over 1,000,000 Wii's LAST WEEK...

Since it's 8:39, I think this might be a day with a second post.

I Might Be a Little Bored at Work...

2008-12-22T14:32:00.004-06:00

However, check out that awesome Christmas tree I made with this magnetic sculpture thing I have on my desk.

If the whole accounting thing doesn't work out, it looks like I can always be an artist.

While I'm here:
-Today's xkcd is great.

-A funny picture of a letter from a 3rd grader, although it's probably fake.

I haven't really seen anything else that's very interesting today, but then again I haven't really made the rounds either. Reserving the right to edit this later.

So It's Been a While...

2008-12-16T15:56:00.004-06:00

Yeah, it really has - almost two months to the day. I added the someecard on the left because I saw it when I was killing time and thought about how I haven't updated the blog. I'm over all of the drama about getting mugged and things have actually been going really well overall. I'm finally employed, work for a great company, and really enjoy what I'm doing. There will be more about that later I'm sure, but right now I just wanted to get something in here. I really, really need to change the title and update some of the stuff around the blog - it looks stupid to me now.

If anyone has any good idea for what to do around here for New Years (besides the Peabody), send me an email or something; we've heard of zero appealing things going on.

Much Better Today

2008-10-17T08:45:00.002-05:00

I've re-read the last post quite a bit, and while I'll be the first to say it's a little dramatic, I'm leaving it as it is because it's cool to look back and see how I was feeling at a certain point.

News on the incident: Miraculously, Dan and I both got our wallets back with everything left in them. A couple that was running Sunday morning found Dan's, contacted his bank, and they got in touch. I still had my Rhodes ID in mine, so when someone found it, they turned it into the school and I went and picked it up Tuesday. So, by my count, our attackers got roughly ZERO dollars from us - smart guys.

The worst part about it wasn't losing anything, it was just the fact that it made me question living downtown or in Memphis in general. I really enjoy living down here, walking to almost everywhere we need to go, and enjoying the amazing parts of downtown. As cliche' as it sounds, it kind of was a "loss of innocence" about the city. However, I think I'm looking at it the wrong way. The fact that two groups of people went out of their way to track us down and return our wallets untouched is encouraging. There is hope for Memphis just yet.

In terms of the injuries, my left hand is healing nicely and I have just about full use of it. My right knee still has a pretty nasty place on it, but I think it's doing fine. The big issue is my right hand, which was cut up pretty badly in the scuffle. It's healed quite a bit in the last week, but I still can't use it very much. Try and go through a day without using your dominant hand to open bottles, brush your teeth, button your shirt or tie a tie - it blows. I had a job interview yesterday and it took me over an hour to get ready just because of all the difficulties.

Speaking of the interview, I have three really great and funny moments from it. I don't want to share it on here until I find out about the job, but if you really want to know now, call or email me - they're pretty good.

Re: Podcast - The podcast was put on hold last Sunday just because of the whole incident on Saturday. We'll be moving it to a Thursday night show more than likely now as well. There will be a post when our first one is up.

Quick Hits:
-This pic is ancient in terms of internet years, but still good for a laugh. Stick around that site and check out more of the "Fail Blog" if you want.
-The new WaMu homepage with comments inserted. Might be a little funnier if it wasn't the truth.
-Two articles from Gizmodo, one about the Hubble Telescope and a computer in it being switched on for the first time since 1990, and another about nation-wide 'net censorship in Australia.

Off to go meet my aunt and catch up a bit over breakfast. Tonight I think DP and I are going to see "W" at Studio and then who knows. I really want to hit up a haunted house (Corn Maize?) at some point this weekend or next, let me know if yall know any good ones around here.

Mugged, Robbed, Pissed

2008-10-12T05:04:00.000-05:00

I really have no way to explain it. Tonight Dan and I had an amazing time with the people that came to our party, and I think it was a success. Without too much more exposition, we went to Silky's and had a great time there as well.

Dan and I left.

Dan and I walked near the Happy Mexican and came into contact with our first experience of Memphis violence.

We got a couple of shots in on the two (three at the end) culprits, but they eventually made off with our wallets and self confidence. The most glaring part of the night was the fact that we flagged down a Memphis police officer, pointed to the culprits, and he DROVE HIS CAR THE WRONG WAY.

We made a report, but all I have to show for it is two bloody palms and knuckles, and a damaged knee.

I've been through some hardcore shit in my life, but I can't remember being this pissed as an adult.

I sat in my bed and cried for ten minutes before I even decided that I had to preserve this.

What else can I do? Have you ever felt helpless?

I'm joining your club right now.

There's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I'm a peaceful person, and take a lot of things with a grain of salt, but I wish I could just beat these guys face in.

Provoked to Post

2008-10-09T07:17:00.004-05:00

It's been quite a while, and hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things. But I had to pass this along:

"We Must Stop Daylight Savings Time!"

How do things like this happen?

Moving on to a couple of quick pieces of news:

-The first podcast will be up this Sunday night after we finish it. You can check out the site here, or email us at ftsidelines@gmail.com. I'll post on here when new podcasts are up as well.

Edit: For some reason, the podcast site was identified as a "Spam Blog", it should be cleared up in the next couple of days though.

-Last weekend was the first homecoming for me as an alum, and it did not disappoint. It was fun to be with everyone again, even if it was for such a short period of time. You don't realize how much you miss some people until you don't see them everyday. I think the oddest part for me is realizing that a lot of us will probably only see each other two or three times a year from now on. During the summer, coupled with the fact I don't have a job, it feels like any other vacation and that you'll see everyone in the fall - but we won't. Needless to say, I'm already looking forward to next year.

-Wish I had time to go into some of the strange people we met on Saturday between Raiford's and the Green Beetle. By far the most fun I've had in a long time.

I'm More Than Likely...

2008-09-26T12:52:00.002-05:00

Going to be made into a liar.

Slim chances on a post today.

Wow, I need to update.

2008-09-25T13:11:00.003-05:00

I've been meaning to update for over a week now and it just hasn't happened. Maybe tomorrow I can get everything together and make a full post. Upcoming: apartment pics, MAME news, Heroes stuff, and more than likely the introduction of a podcast.

The Office returns tonight and we're having a small "Office Party". Tomorrow I promise there will be something interesting on here to read.

In House Rivalry

2008-09-15T12:12:00.009-05:00

This will be a short post, running around and doing a lot of stuff today. Tonight is the culmination of the "In-House Week 2 Football Rivalry". Dan beat me in Fantasy Football this week by 5 points, so some congratulations have to go to him for that. However, the big game is tonight on Monday Night Football - Eagles at Cowboys. For those uneducated few, here's a quick lesson:

1) The Cowboys and the Eagles are in the same division.
2) The Cowboys have won 5 Super Bowls since their founding in 1960.
3) The Eagles have won ZERO since their inception in 1933.
4) Consequently, and stemming from pure jealousy, the Eagles have a strong dislike for the 'Boys.
5) To be fair, the Cowboys do not like the Eagles too much either.
6) Dan is an Eagles fan.
7) I am a Cowboys fan.

In other words, this is going to be a great game - and we're pretty hyped about it. One more thing about that before I go. Here's the Cowboys quarterback:

Here's the Eagles quarterback:

Now, who would you rather have leading your team?

Ok, this was by far the biggest "homer" post ever. I'm heading to the grocery for some stuff for tonight - we bought a Crock-Pot yesterday and want to try it out. Hell, call me if you want a place to watch the game, we have some people coming over. You just have to wear blue...

The MAME Project

2008-09-11T14:32:00.000-05:00

MAME Project blog is up. It can be found here and in the link bar on the right.

Back to the 21st Century

2008-09-11T13:18:00.005-05:00

And we have internet, finally. After living in 1992 for a few days, I'm glad to be back in the present time. I will say one thing about the apartment, it's better than I could have ever hoped for. We estimated the size almost exactly, the move in was pretty much painless, and we got organized fairly quickly.

Monday night we tried out the trolley, headed for Pint Night and had a few beers. This trolley thing is going to come in handy. We're basically within trolley distance of everything we need except a major grocery store, plus getting downtown is quick and we don't have to worry about parking; win-win situation I think.

I said I would take pictures of the new place, but I'm going to hold off until we get a couple more pieces of furniture this weekend.

Ok, back to previous posts - here's some of the pics promised from the Dyer County Fair. (Once again, my camera's quality isn't the greatest since it's on my phone.)

This was a ride I haven't seen before, could be old news though since I haven't been to the fair in about five years. It was called "Freak Out" and looked like it lived up to the namesake. I had to stop and watch a couple of rides because a "technician" (<---carnie) was concerned that one of the shoulder straps that holds the rider in place had malfunctioned. Did they stop the ride? No. Did they allow people to sit in the seat in question? Yes.

This was the most fun of the night. As Jeremy and I were walking back to the car, we decided to check out the tractor pull. I thought it was very, very cool. The truck above is the one that won, named "Bullet". That's as close as I could get for the picture, you can see the gate I'm shoving the camera through. These trucks are powerful (around 500hp) and loud. The sled (the thing that is pulled) weighs about 65,000 pounds. If you want to know more about tractor pulling, the Wikipedia article is here. There were a couple of local John Deere tractors that pulled. It sounded cool when they announced it, but it ended up being underwhelming. Oddest part of the night was a few local guys getting out there in their stock diesel trucks and pulling. They did better than the tractors, but I just don't see the point. Curious Person: "How'd you blow your motor?" Idiot: "Pulling in the local tractor pull, went 250 feet though." Curious Person: "Good trade off."

Quick hits:
-A friend, Adam, has started his own blog so head over, check it out, and leave some feedback. He mentioned earlier about how Jessica Simpson jinxed the Cowboys on Good Morning America. We'll see how it plays out on Monday night, but if they do lose, Adam's fantasy team is sunk.
-Here's a funny "For Rent" sign outside of an "interesting" house.
-The Large Hadron Collider went online yesterday and the world hasn't ended - yet. They just turned the thing on yesterday and won't start colliding molecules for another month or so. Here are the live webcams from the CERN parking lot and the actual LHC. If any black holes appear, I'm sure you'll be able to see it there first.
-Hilarious photoshop contest from Cracked, "15 Ways They Could Get People to Watch TV Again."

This is an odd transition, but I can't really post today without mentioning something about the date. Saying something sappy or trivial for the sake of saying it is stupid; everyone remembers what happened seven years ago. It's one of those things that you'll always remember where you were. For me, I was a senior in high school and had just left Mrs. Regan's Physics class and came to my locker. My friend, and locker partner, Addie McDivitt (now Bleed) told me about a plane hitting a building in New York but we just thought it was a small prop plane. Like I said, a moment almost all of us will never forget.

I'll probably post the side-blog link before the end of the day - have a great Thursday.

My Roommate Is Better Than Your Roommate

2008-09-06T20:39:00.004-05:00

The picture to the right is why. That, my friends, is the Panasonic TH-50PX80U. From here on after it will be called, "The Friggin Sweet 50 Inch Plasma Screen Dan Just Bought." (Both of those are very technical terms, try and keep up.) If you want to know a little more about it, here's the CNet review if anyone is interested. Oh yeah, after explaining the tv purchase to me, he remarked kind of as an aside, "I got that Wii too." There's a good chance I'm not leaving the new apartment for the next week.

In Dyersburg at the moment and spent most of the day today getting furniture and some other stuff together to take to Memphis tomorrow. Unfortunately, one of my parent's trucks is on the injured list so we'll have only one to haul stuff with. At the very least, it gives us a week or so to size up the space and get a good idea of what else we would need from here.

Went to the Dyer County Fair last night, and surprisingly had a really good time. The camera on my phone doesn't have the best quality, but I took a couple of pictures of the high points of the night. I have to take my brother to get some food and bring a camera to my mom, but I'll get those pictures up sometime soon. Here's two words to get excited about: Tractor. Pull.

Also, I'm launching a second "side blog" (maybe tonight) that will detail our MAME project. Stay tuned.

The Sky Is Falling

2008-09-05T12:54:00.003-05:00

Not really - but three posts in three days? Who knew? Nothing much going on today, just packing up, heading to Dyersburg, and then coming back on Sunday. Since we won't have internet until next Wednesday, I have no idea when I'll post again. Hopefully there will be some kind soul around our building with an unprotected "linksys" network that we can mooch off of for a few days.

I really want a small digital camera to start taking pictures of what I do on a regular basis. I've always depended on other people to take pictures of me, and that just doesn't work. Plus, it would be a lot easier to throw a picture up here of something cool that happened the day before than just say "something cool happened yesterday."

Sometime during last year, the roommates and I discovered the Travis Barker remix of "Crank That" on YouTube. Then later, he added a remix of Flo-Rida's "Low". The "Low" video I still listen to on and off because I like it so much. Then something great happened today: I found a link that allows you to put in a youtube address, and the site converts the audio into an .mp3 file. I converted the "Low" video and came out with a 29 minute song. (YouTube video = 4:03). I skipped around the song a bit and it seemed like it was just repeating over and over, but I noticed that it wasn't always the same thing if I went back to the same point. I decided to just let it play from the beginning, it never repeated, and just stopped at 4:03. It has to be something with the conversion I guess. I'll burn it to a cd for my drive today and report back on how that works.

Team AMac got off to a good start in fantasy football last night with Brandon Jacobs bringing in 11 points. If you want to check out our league homepage, it's here.

Speaking of the NFL, there's a few new rules for this season. If you're big football fan and want to be ahead of the curve, nfl.com has laid them out nicely for you to read.

I can't get enough of the Sarah Pallin coverage. At first I kind of liked her, she seemed cool - but now she just gives me the creeps. I told Dan last night, "She just looks evil. It has to be something with the glasses." Anyways, evil or not, if this is true - McCain and Co. could have some problems.

That's all for now - no clue on when the next post will be. Maybe a moving in update on Sunday if we're lucky enough to find a wireless network. Have a safe weekend.

Nobody Likes You Facebook, Go Somewhere Else

2008-09-04T14:45:00.004-05:00

Over the last two months I've gone back and forth trying to decide on if I want to keep my Facebook account or not. My first reason was because I was job searching, and what if someone thought I was a degenerate because of some "Sink the Bismark" pictures or some random photos from freshman year. Eventually, I decided to just not show pictures of me anymore - because I was too weak to deactivate the whole account.

But seriously, what benefit do most of us get from Facebook? It's different for everyone I guess, but most of the time I feel like it's just wasted time on there.

Am I getting rid of my account now? Heck no. (See the "too weak" statement above.)

Quick Hits:
-Paul Ryburn, a downtown Memphis blogger, posted some good stuff that will be going on at Jillian's real soon. Most of the stuff looks great, especially the bowling. (When Rudelson finds out about it, he'll flip.) Check out the rest of his site too, he updates a couple of times a day.
-Here's a pretty cool story about a guy who spent 19 years in the minor leagues, and hit his first home run in the majors last night.
-A cartoon that made me laugh just because of its randomness. A tad NSFW, but I think it'll be ok.

Ok, Saucer action tonight and getting all of my junk around here consolidated. Probably heading to Dyersburg tomorrow to load up some furniture and maybe check out the Dyer County Fair.

Still accepting submissions for the "name this blog" contest. I've had one good one thus far - you can do better than that.

Long Day

2008-09-03T15:53:00.005-05:00

So I went to a job fair this morning, and it was pretty lame to say the least. Most of the opportunities were for mid-career people and the ones that were entry-level positions were largely in IT (Good luck Chillcut). Feeling a bit discouraged, I decided to get lunch with my good friend Matt DeBerry, who is now sporting the most disgusting mustache on the planet, at Moe's. The lunch was great but I left my car's lights on and of course came back to a dead battery. Two hours of phone calling and sitting around later, I'm finally back here.

Oh well, a lot of things are going on right now:

-Sunday is the big move, if you haven't seen our new place it's called the South Bluffs Apartments. Cable and internet will be hooked up next Wednesday, so I think we'll be able to survive. We even have our address, 616 Cabot Ct, #101, Memphis, TN 38103 - just in case anyone wants to send some housewarming gifts or something.

-Atlanta this past weekend was a lot of fun, it was great to see Romig and JWright and just hang out in a different city. Saturday we spent the day in "Little 5", ate at the Vortex, and saw an interesting guy in a black unitard at the Junkman's Daughter. Sunday we met up with some people from the night before that are attending Emory, and had a good ol'fashioned house party. The F****n' Hawks went down in BP, but not after a valiant comeback. Oh yeah - we got some furniture for the apartment too.

-Look at the current NL East standings or read a recap of the Tennessee-UCLA game and you'll quickly realize why I don't want to discuss sports right now. At least the Cowboys have a chance to be good, right?

Quick links:
-Say what you want about Sarah Pallin's experience and record, but this bumper sticker is definitely true.
-A funny xkcd comic from Monday. (If you can't tell, I love that site.)
-Here's a video of a sweet fake out from a minor league baseball game.
-An interesting article from Newsweek about young men not wanting to grow up. (This will probably hit home for 90% of the people who read it.)
-Obscure comic that only three people will get. Seriously, if you've never played WoW or don't even know what it is, you're wasting your time.

That's all for now from me, two things I need from you:
1) Ideas for a new name for the blog, I need to get the new header made and a little layout overhaul done.
2) A new Facebook picture. I've been wanting to change it, and usually just make it something tagged of me before, but a couple of albums with a lot of pictures of me were deleted, so I don't have as many to choose from.

Email me (johnamcculloch@gmail.com) with ideas and/or pictures.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...

2008-08-29T12:13:00.002-05:00

So I haven't been as good about posting as I would like, maybe next week it'll pick up again, we'll see.

A few things:

-Re: Democratic National Convention: I watched on and off most nights, but really just caught up with stuff the next day. The only to speeches that I wanted in their entirety was Bill Clinton's and Joe Biden's (more of why I didn't watch Obama's in a second). Biden did exactly what he was supposed to do, and Bill Clinton, wow. Say whatever you want about the guy's personal life, but the dude is convincing as hell. For anyone who has ever watched "Little Bush" on Comedy Central, you know that the Clinton character can convince anyone to do anything through the super power of "charm." - I was going to link a video here, but there aren't any on YouTube...

-College Football season has started, although not "officially" until the Vols kickoff at 7:00 on Monday. Last night South Carolina played NC State on ESPN, and while I don't really like either team - I watched nearly the whole game, and that's why I completely forgot about Obama's speech. I read some reviews this morning though and it sounds like he rocked the house.

-One things you need to know for this next little bit: The cops in Germantown are notorious for being jerks about speeding. So today I had to go set up a camera for my aunt at Germantown High School (I should be on their payroll at this point) and on the way back I saw this transpire: On a road with a 35 mph speed limit, I'm cruising about 32-34 because the last thing I need is a ticket. The car in front of me can't be going over 38 because we're staying more or less the same distance from one another. We pass a nice policeman on the right side of the road, and I know that I get a great sense of relief when he doesn't move - meaning I'm in the clear. Fast forward about a mile down the road, the same cop from before comes barreling past me, more or less cuts me off, and pulls over the car in front of me. The guy had to have been going at least 50, maybe more. Don't get me wrong, I know speeding tickets are a great source of revenue for municipal governments, but the point of a speed limit is to prevent dangerous driving that could result in serious injury. When your law enforcement 15-20 miles over the limit to catch someone going 3 over, doesn't that just defeat the purpose? Now you may say, "Wow, Alex, great story, sucks for that guys." - but it gets better. While I'm waiting to pass the cop and pulled over car, a motorcycle passes me on the left side. It was a motor cycle with a car seat strapped to the back, and A BABY IN THE CAR SEAT. I'm pretty sure that's illegal, or it should be, and it means that Barney Fife in front of my completely ignored that guy in order to save the community from the old woman in the large car going 38 in a 35 mph zone.

-Rereading the above, that was pretty long, oh well.

-On tap this weekend: Atlanta. Today is DP's birthday so I'm heading with him, Laine, and Will to Atlanta for some fun. Romig will join us (happy belated birthday to him), and at some point I think there's a welcoming to the world of Will's sister's new child. It's interesting here to note that I knew of this child's existence even before I knew that Will had a sister. We'll be back Monday, hopefully in time for Tennessee's kickoff. If anyone is going to be around that area, give me a shout, I'm sure we'll be out all weekend.

-Moving into the new apartment in nine days. Do I have a job? No. Am I worried about that? Immensely.

-I'm going to be lame on the links today because I haven't been around the internet enough this morning, but here's a quick one that give you a good laugh: The Disturbing Origins on 5 Common Nursery Rhymes.

Quick Olympics Stuff

2008-08-21T06:13:00.004-05:00

I'll make a post later in the day too but I wanted to pass a couple of things along real quick.

First, the IOC president accuses Usain Bolt for a "lack of respect" for his competitors in the 100m and 200m. I have no clue what he's talking about in the 200m because after watching it last night, all I saw was Bolt completely destroy everyone again. Either way, the IOC president doing that is fine, but again, how can he get caught up in something so petty but not have any thoughts on the Chinese gymnasts. Unreal.

Second, I mentioned Michael Phelps yesterday and where he would rank against some of the all time greats in other sports. Frank Deford, an excellent writer for SI, has a short column out about that today that you should read. He talks about the desire to place everyone in the "athletic pantheon" as soon as they accomplish something - one of the many great points he makes. He mentions "Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Mozart, and Caruso" in one part. Do you think he meant CSI: Miami star David Caruso? I'm going to say yes just so I can post this video of his endless one liners.

Working on some site redesign, more than likely including a title change. Be back later.

Yes! An update!

2008-08-20T13:39:00.008-05:00

I've been meaning to update for a while, just haven't had a chance to, but today it's raining and fairly nasty outside so I have nothing else to do. Ok, sixteen days since the last post - seems longer than that to be honest.

So what's been going on in the last couple of weeks?

-On the job front, a few more interviews, a lot more waiting. In short, no change there.

-The Olympics! I have to say, I've thoroughly enjoyed them thus far. There's something about it that draws me in for some reason. Here's an example: I really like professional baseball and football, but I'll usually only watch a game for longer than 5 minutes only if someone I like is playing, or I'm "scouting" someone for fantasy football (more on that later). However, with the Olympics, it hasn't even mattered if the US is in an event or not, I'm glued. A women's badminton match between two people I've never heard of? That's 30 minutes out of my life for sure. It's uncanny.

-Olympics part 2: I have to say something about Michael Phelps, and all I can say is that it's truly amazing. Seventeen races! That's crazy; I had to swim 500 meters for lifeguarding certification and almost died doing it. (After eating pizza - not smart.) I'll have to let some time pass to really compare him as an athlete to people like Tiger or Jordan, but he is one of the best ever in his sport I'm sure.

-Olympics part 3: No way the gymnasts from China are even close to 16, here's a picture of one girl, Deng Linlin. There's been a lot of complaining but in the end, the US did get beaten by them. If China uses actual 16+ year olds, do they still win? Hard to say to how much having athletes so young helps (or hurts) the Chinese. The big issue here is how much the IOC has looked the other way. They basically say that China's word is good enough for them, even though there quite a bit of evidence to the contrary. Would the IOC be so cavalier if China was not the host country?

-Olympics part 4: I've heard a lot of mixed opinions on how Usain Bolt won the 100m. I've mentioned him in previous posts just for his cool name, but for those you who don't know him, he's a sprinter from Jamaica who set the world record in the 100m a few days ago. Let me rephrase that, he crushed the world record in the 100m a few days ago - and he could have gone even faster. With 10 meters or so left, Bolt pulls up, looks around and starts slapping his chest because he's so far ahead. I haven't been able to find a good video of it because NBC sucks, but here's a video with some pictures; what you want is around the 8 second mark. Watching it live, I initially thought that what he did was kind of cool. I don't agree with the people saying "he desecrated the games" or that "it wasn't in the Olympic spirit", etc. I'm sure these same people love the watch USA basketball and softball destroy everyone they play. If someone is running the score up on you, or showboating a bit - score more/run faster to stop them. The only thing that I had a problem with is the fact that he could have set a faster record. By the way, he just set another WR in the 200m earlier today; fastest man on Earth is right.

-Moving on to other sports now, the Braves officially stink. As of today, they're 14 game under .500 with at least 75% of their opening day roster on the DL. Awesome. I've been keeping up with the Cowboys on their website and NFL network, and I'm getting a little worried about them - I think they think they're too good and can just turn it on when the season starts, we'll see. I've missed the first three episodes of Hard Knocks because I don't have HBO here, but hopefully I can catch it sometime 0n On Demand.

-From real sports to fake sports: my fantasy football draft is this Sunday. Twelve team league again, most of the same people returning to get beat down for the second year in a row. As I mentioned before, I've been checking out preseason games to more or less find a quarterback. You can't really put much credence behind if a QB does really well in the preseason because defenses are usually not wanting to "show" too much. However, if a QB really stinks it up, that's pretty telling. Here are the following quarterbacks who I will not be drafting based on my observations: JaMarcus Russell, Brodie Croyle. Kyle Boller, Jeff Garcia, Rex Grossman, Alex Smith, Jon Kitna, Derek Anderson, Aaron Rodgers, Vince Young, or Michael Vick. While a couple of those won't be starting, and one is suspended, that doesn't leave me a lot of options. Some of us will probably get together to for the draft, so I think I'll probably do a running diary of the whole affair, stay tuned.

Quick hits:
-Went with Dan to pick up his new car, and I have to say it's pretty nice. It being "pretty nice" doesn't mean I'll stop making jokes about it any time soon though. Go to his blog, and check it out.
-Woolsocks always sings at the freshman orientation dinner each year, and since some upperclassmen aren't back on campus yet, alumni in the area usually help out - so Dan, Stutz, and I get to go sing with the 'Socks next Monday. I think it'll be pretty fun, I just hope I remember the bass parts because I know Zac won't.
-Saw Tropic Thunder last Friday and I thought it was decent even though I fell asleep for about 15 minutes. There's a quite a bit of uproar over Ben Stiller's character and the word retard. (And surprisingly little over Robert Downey's portrayel of a black man.) Either way, if you go into it knowing that it's probably the most offensive movie you'll ever see, then I guess you'll be fine.
-On tap for this week: short story writing, more job stuff, catching up with some guys that are getting back in town, and probably getting some stuff together since I'm moving in 2.5 weeks.

Below is a video of what seems like a game show in Japan. Everyone remember "We Are the World" from the 80s? Here it is recreated by people in full make-up, attempting to sing in English. Most of them do a pretty good job and I'm glad the original video is on screen for a comparison. In a word, hilarious.

Here's a cartoon from XKCD that made me laugh, keep clicking random and you'll find a lot of other good ones.

Whew, epic post. It won't be long until my next one, have a great Wednesday.

How Does Downtown Sound?

2008-08-04T12:53:00.008-05:00

Dan and I went and looked at the South Bluff apartments today and filled out an application for one of the openings. The place looks great, is in our price range, and the location rocks. Won't be moving in until early September, but that's ok - pending our acceptance of course.

If we did end up living downtown, how awesome would it be if this happened?

Wild weekend, had fun with some old friends from Dyersburg. Maybe a little too much fun...

So yeah, the random picture of me at the top? In the last couple of weeks I've shaved a little sporadically and ended up with this beard, or what could be called a beard. Sometimes I think it's awesome, sometimes I want to just hack it off. Anyways, although this is lame, vote for what you think is best - I could rock it full time.

More posting this week I promise, and maybe even the Wordpress move...

Lazy

2008-07-31T22:02:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I've been fairly lame and lazy on the posting this week. Between messing with Wordpress and job related stuff, I just haven't had time. This weekend I should be free so I'll get it all set up then. (Might even just keep this.)

I really need something to do, it's depressing just sitting around, working out, and waiting for the phone to ring.

More to come soon.

Quick Hits

2008-07-29T19:23:00.001-05:00

Thinking about upgrading the blog infrastructure to WordPress, I've been fooling around with it today and might make the switch this week. I'll keep this updated and Dan found an html code to forward traffic, so the transition shouldn't be too bad.

More to come.

Wedding + Back Home

2008-07-27T21:51:00.003-05:00

Just got back to Memphis, pretty tired so this will be short but I had a great time this weekend. The wedding was really nice, and the reception was even better. It was good to see a lot of people that live far off like Sameer. At the same time, it's good to be back.

I really really suck at using my phone sometimes. Since I have to scroll with my thumb or index finger, I usually end up hitting the wrong name and sometimes not even noticing it until I've called the wrong person (3 times now) or added someone on a text message that I didn't mean to (5-6 times now). At least I'm getting good at explaining and apologizing for it.

Ok, off to bed, helping Romig move some stuff in the moring. Since I haven't been around a computer this weekend, I'm pretty behind on good links and other interesting things. Here's one that I found a second ago that should be a pretty fun read: The 5 Most Ridiculously Unfair Kids Game Shows.

Have a good night and beginning of the week.

ESPY Diary

2008-07-25T04:00:00.000-05:00

I’m up late, and although this will be missing a grand total of two awards (the Giants getting “Best Upset” and Brett Favre getting “Best Record Breaking Performance”), I’m going to do a running diary of the ESPY awards from Los Angeles. Yeah, yeah, it sounds stupid and unless you watched it, skip over it, but I think it’ll be fun, and this is my blog, right?

2:52 – Arthur Ashe award going to Tommie Smith and John Carlos who raised their fists with black gloves during the medal ceremony at the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City. Two interesting things, one being that part of the music is from National Treasure, and second being the fact that the narrator sounds a lot like Tom Cruise. It can’t be, right?

2:55 – Wow, I’ve always seen the photo of these two men raised their fists during the medal ceremony; I never knew that they were sent home from Mexico City and kicked off the team for their actions. Makes you realize how narrow sighted some people can be.

2:56 – After, a sobering piece, I’m hoping that JT comes back with something funny. His monologue at the beginning was great, we’ll see if he can keep it up.

2:57 – Since I still have a little time, I’ll talk about why things like the ESPY’s bug me: it’s voted on by the fans. While that sounds awesome in theory, think about it if fans voted on the Academy Awards, it wouldn’t be the same. (Yes, I’m bitter that the Giants won “Biggest Upset” over Appalachian State. A Division 1-AA team goes into the largest football stadium in the country and beats one of the historical powers in college football and gets second?)

3:00 – The segment on these two guys is still going on. I have to admit, it’s getting a little dusty in this room…

3:02 – Do very famous people think wearing sunglasses indoors and on stage is ok?

3:04 – One of the coolest things I’ve noticed thus far is that how all the athletes are so in awe of the movie stars, and how all the movie stars are so in awe of the athletes. Makes you wonder what you would rather be if given the chance.

3:05 – Tiger Wood’s Gatorade commercial; looking ahead, I think that I might tell my children that he was the greatest athlete I ever saw; him or Tony Romo of course.

3:05 – Writing about having children just kind of scared me, contemplating deleting that last entry.

3:07 – The show comes back with a live rap performace by someone I don’t know.

3:08 – David Beckham is presenting the award for “Best Female Athlete”, it’s always weird to hear him talk.

3:08 – Ok, the nominees are national champion (and recent WNBA thug) Candace Parker, a golfer I’ve never heard of, a skier I’ve never heard of, and Danica Patrick, who has won two whole races in her career. Who do you think will win?

3:09 – Oh man, Candace Parker, huge surprise…Becks did pronounce her name Candiece though.

3:11: Great sketch with Timberlake affecting sports moments, the ones with Favre, the Oklahoma State coach, TO, and Roger Clemens will be on YouTube very soon.

3:14: Romo and Jessica Simpson = JoRo. I like it…

3:15: Funny seeing TO in the audience and knowing that three hours after he tapes this he helps a guy after he got hit by a car.

3:16: Brenden Frasier and Jet Li are presenting the award for “Movie I’m Never Going to See”, just kidding, it’s for “Best Play” but I’m not going to see their movie…ever.

3:18: David Tyree’s helmet catch in the Super Bowl wins “Best Play.” I think the next award is going to go to Yes for “Will the Sun Rise Tomorrow?”. (Sidenote: kind of cool that Millsaps and Trinity were in the running for their 11 lateral play, SCAC ftw.)

3:19: Eli Manning has a sense of humor.

3:20: And a hot wife, wow.

3:25: Commercial recap: scary one by Under Armour with the other Adrian Peterson, one of those weird Cadillac things with fuzzy lights and a B-list star, NCAA Football 09 (Dan, buy this), and Miller Lite’s take on “Beer Heaven.” In other words, almost the same thing I saw 20 minutes ago.

3:26: Fergie looks extremely excited to see TO onstage. He’s presenting “Best Game” and the nominees are the Super Bowl, the NCAA Finals, game 4 of the NBA Finals, and the Black League final from Rhodes Intramurals 5v5.

3:29: In a surprising upset, the Giants win their 3rd award of the night. I’m sure that all the members of Powerthirst are crying with me.

3:31: JT must be a really big Memphis fan because he is all over them on the free throw front.

3:32: Stuart Scott’s glass eye still freaks me out 12 years since I first saw it.

3:33: Jimmy V award for those who “defy overwhelming odds” goes to Kevin Everett. If you don’t know you he is, go to Google, Wikipedia, or something and look him up. It’s a great story.
3:36: Kevin Everett is in attendance and WALKING to the podium…for some reason my allergies are nasty tonight…

3:40: Yeah, I was lazy for the last 4 minutes so I went and grabbed some food. It looked like it was the same commercial block yet again and judging by the fact I’m coming back to an ad for NCAA Football 09, I think I was right.

3:41: Wait!! It’s a commercial for Shell!! I was wrong!! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………

3:43: You know what are great? Individual pepperonis.

3:44: Best Male Athlete nominees: Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, Alex Rodriguez, and Kobe Bryant. Anyone but Brady….anyone but Brady….

3:45: Hah! Tiger Woods; suck it Tom. And Will Ferrell comes to accept the award for him and does really well.

3:48: Thrilling piece on who is up for the award of “Best Team”, evidently the last award of the night.

3:49: “Thrilling” was used sarcastically above.

3:53: So…I stayed for this commercial break and all I have to say is: see entry at 3:25.

3:54: Same off rapper performing when we get back from commercial break. The guy from 24 and Fergie are presenting “Best Team”.

3:54: Fergie sounds like a dude.

3:55: The music for the their nominee montage is “Stronger” by Kanye. Does that mean my Snap-On team will be in the running?

3:55: Nope – it’s the Red Sox, Celtics, Tennessee Lady Vols, Detroit Red Wings, Kansas Jaywawks (no chance), and the Giants again.

3:56: I really don’t know who the “fans” picked. Will the massive Boston vote be split?

3:57: Evidently not, the Celtics win. I can’t argue with that.

3:57: Wow, Ray Allen just had the line of the night: “Another win in LA.” That’s cold 

3:58: 11th man, Brian Scalabrine is the background. Brian Rudelson and I seriously had a conversation about buying Celtics jerseys this time last year when we were on a plane to Houston. My choice? Brian Scalabrine. (No, I never did it.)

3:59: ESPY’s are over and I have to say, this was fun. I’ll post something short tomorrow before I get out of town. Leave a comment if you like this, I might do it again. It’s long so I’m not going to proof it before I post, sorry.

Short Post

2008-07-24T21:38:00.002-05:00

Doing a lot of things today, just wanted to pass this along:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=granderson/080724&sportCat=nfl&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1

It's a story on the differences between T.O. and Terrell Owens and I thought it was a good piece. Most of you, especially the Eagles fan, won't care but anyone else who might, take a couple of minutes and check it out.

More before I leave tomorrow.

Interesting Day

2008-07-22T18:25:00.004-05:00

Alright, well - the power was out for a couple of hours here earlier so I got absolutely nothing done during that time. I did read two magazines cover to cover and made a "Big Board" for my fantasy football team though. The league should be the same as last year, plus and minus a couple of people. I just hope the ending is a little better for me; "Team Romosexuals" went 11-3 in the regular season, only to be knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, bummer.

No word on the job front, I've just about given up hope. Not really, but kind of. Moving on...

The rest of this week sounds promising, a friend coming into town Thursday afternoon, then a weekend wedding back in Dyersburg. It'll be an interesting event with all of my high school friends in addition to quite a few Rhodes alums attending.

A few things from around the internet:
-A series of pictures detailing the launching of a pig from some rocket like contraption. No explanation, so you can come to your own conclusions.
-For anyone else who is a huge game theory nerd, and liked The Dark Knight, here's an interesting article on the two together. WARNING: Spoilers. (Sidenote: DP, check out the comments on Digg.)
-Yet another thing that I find interesting, but has no real value: one of the favorites to win the 100m in Beijing is named Usain Bolt. Yes, one of the fastest people in the world has the last name Bolt. Epic.
-If you live in Miami, San Francisco, Houston, Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, or Detroit and are planning on getting Comcast service in the next couple of weeks, they'll give you a free Nintendo Wii.
-Lastly, four of these and a few couches to take cover behind could easily provide about 10-12 minutes of quality entertainment before someone either got mad or broke a bone.

Hope everyone's Tuesday is great.

In a little while...

2008-07-21T12:54:00.001-05:00

I'll update, but the internet is screwy around here right now and making it quite frustrating to navigate.

The Dark Knight + Brooks

2008-07-19T13:34:00.004-05:00

I didn't get to post last night because I was exhausted by the time I got home. I won't go on and on about how good the movie was, but I'll just say see it. Best superhero movie of all time? I don't know, I'll have to let it sink in a bit. Heath Ledger getting an Oscar nomination? I think it's a long shot but he was still very very good. Gary Oldman, who gets forgotten in all of this, is great again too. (It's awesome to think how versatile this guys is - Commissioner Gordon, Sirius Black, Russian Terrorist: he can do it all.)

We had some discussion after dinner last night about the top 5 superhero movies of all time - spawned by Romig's blog post. There's a few we couldn't decide if they were superheroes or not, like Transformers. I'll have to think about this at length - but off the top of my head I would say Tim Burton's first Batman, X2, Christopher Reeve's first Superman, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and both of the first TMNT movies would be in the running.

/nerd rant off

Here in about 30 minutes I'm going to head over to the Brook's Museum and see their Andy Warhol exhibit, should be fun.

At the British Open, Greg Norman is still atop the leaderboard. Evidently the conditions have been really rough today, 30 mph gusts at times - makes it tough to play golf. We'll see if the Shark can hang on tomorrow.

Tonight? Downtown?

TGIF

2008-07-18T12:55:00.003-05:00

Not in the traditional sense, since it's not like I'm working - but I'm glad Friday is here. Plans are dinner, drinks, then the Dark Knight; should be fun.

Romig (a current non worker as well) had a good idea: watch Batman Begins this afternoon, definitely doing that.

Job front stuff: no change. It'll be next week before I hear from anyone. I guess no news is better than bad news.

BW3's was fun last night, ended up running into Richie and Sam Smith. Rock Band was once again brought out and fun was had by all. (except for the people listening I assume)

Awesome article on Digg right now about the "12 types of pick up basketball players" that I wanted to link. Unfortunately, it's being hit by the Digg effect and the site is down. If a mirror gets thrown up before I leave the house, I'll post it.

Something to watch this weekend: In a "Tiger-less" field at the British Open, Greg Norman is in the hunt. He finished the second round with another 70. This guy is 53 and last won a major championship over 15 years ago. I can see him fading over the weekend, but it's a great story and a reason to watch golf without Tiger.

Be safe this weekend.

Frustrated

2008-07-17T10:40:00.005-05:00

Not too much, but still getting a little more than perturbed by the job search; just wishing it was over at this point.

The interview yesterday went really well, it was a good experience regardless of if I get the job or not. I think it would be a great place to work. Still waiting to hear back on the first job. I was supposed to hear something yesterday, so that's probably not a good sign for my chances.

Yesterday afternoon, I headed to Rhodes and sat around the pool with Romig (his new blog here) for a couple of hours. Although I put on sunscreen, I'm still paying for it today - not fun.

The Dark Knight is finally upon us. Looks like I'll be seeing it tomorrow around 10:15 at Studio on the Square after a dinner for Dr. Weiner (thanks to Lars and some of those guys for getting it together, great idea.) All in all, it should be a fun Friday. Plans for the weekend? Non-existent...

A few sports stories to hit on before I get out of here; it seems like a lot is going on:
-I've talked about it in previous posts, but the Favre stuff still won't go away. I do have to say, the interview on Fox and then ESPN was pretty entertaining.
-Braves catcher Brian McCann finally got in the All-Star game Tuesday night in the 15th inning, and his only play was when he was unable to prevent the winning run from crossing the plate - bad throw on Corey Hart's part though.
-Dan, who's a cycling "buff" - if you call it that - told me in no uncertain terms right before the Tour de France started that all the doping stuff would be gone next year. I guess he was unaware of this Italian team...
-Finally, I'm quickly becoming a huge Josh Hamilton fan. For those of you that don't know, this guy was out of baseball for 4 years, has come back and is a legitimate threat to win the Triple Crown in the American League this year. Here's a story on him from 2004, with his battle to get sober, etc. It's a good article, and just shows you how talented the guy is. (Note: the article above is an "Insider" thing from ESPN so you have to subscribe to get it. I did fin a blog post where someone copied and pasted it, so if you don't have Insider and still want to read it, it can be found here.)

Ok, off to do some volunteer work at GHS. Have a great Thursday.

And we're back

2008-07-15T17:28:00.004-05:00

Finally back in Memphis. I had a blast in Murfreesboro seeing everyone. A lot of things have changed around there, but a lot of things are still the same. All in all, great trip.

Back to business though (yeah right, what business)...Interview tomorrow and hopefully hearing from another job as well. This could be the week, I hope...but it also couldn't be so...

The new phone is great, still love just playing with it and finding new stuff. I'm probably meeting Dan in about an hour or so, he just got his iPhone today. We'll see how they compare.

That's all for now - maybe some trivia at the Saucer, but I'm going to try and make it an early night, 8:30 is going to come quick.

Quick link to entertain, 10 surprising things that are good for you. More later I'm sure...

Success!

2008-07-10T17:57:00.002-05:00

As you can see, I finally have the phone. Yeah, the picture sucks but it's still here. Thus far, I've been really impressed with it. It has way more than I've ever seen on a phone, much less ever had.

Night one in the 'boro was fun, had some mexican and just hung out. Going to grill out tonight and then try to get something together for Jeremy's birthday tomorrow. (Joe is skipping out and going to Dyersburg.) The only bad thing has been that I can't get my laptop to connect to their wireless network. They use an Apple Time Capsule, so I'm sure it and my Vista don't get along or something. Truth be told, I haven't tried too hard to fix it.

Gotta have a link before I sign off. This is kind of old, but still fun to try and do.

Have a safe night.

'Boro Bound

2008-07-09T10:47:00.002-05:00

After about 5 seconds of hardcore deliberation, I going to head to Murfreesboro. First though, I'm heading to the Germantown High School library to help my aunt rearrange a few things. In return, she's going to pay for my gas there and back. (Score)

I'll probably be there through the weekend because it's Jeremy and Joe's 25th birthday on Friday and we'll have to have a big blowout extravaganza. (<---- dinner.)

Still trying to decide between "Rock Band 2" and "Guitar Hero World Tour"? Here's a good article detailing both. (I think it's great that the GHWT drum kit has cymbals.)

More later, probably when I get to Murfreesboro.

Hurry up and wait, part II

2008-07-08T11:25:00.002-05:00

Ugh, two lame pieces of news in the last hour to further compact my immense amount of boredom.

Someone called to tell me that my new phone was in and that I could come pick it up. Great! Except it's in Murfreesboro... (Jeremy ordered it for me.) Piece of news number two is that it'll be early next week on finding out if I got the job or not.

Seeing as how I might not have anything to do for another week now, I think I might just go to Murfreesboro for a few days. I'll have to figure out the finances of it all, but it would be fun. I really haven't been up to just hang out with Jerm, Drew, and Joe in a couple of years. Plus I could get my phone.

I'll think about it, going to run errands with Martha for now.

Hurry up and wait.

2008-07-08T08:29:00.002-05:00

Blah, blah, blah - playing the waiting game now. Confirmation from a real person yesterday that the new phone won't be here until Thursday now. I'm skeptical because this is the third or fourth day it was "guaranteed" to be here. Oh well...

Waiting to hear back from job stuff, it'll probably be Thursday or Friday - not much else I can do in between.

Considering those are really the only interesting things going on in my life right now, my life is fairly boring. I probably a new personal best for "times checking GMail" each day.

Random thought: I need a digital camera.

Favre's Coming Back!?!?! Zzzzz....

2008-07-07T15:19:00.002-05:00

Since I don't have a job, I end up doing things around the house and ESPN is usually on the tv. For the past week or so, a quarter of the programming (no joke) has been about whether Brett Favre is coming back or not.

This fake newspaper article on the subject is really good so I wanted to pass it along.

Phone Watch: Still MIA.

Good Holiday

2008-07-07T06:51:00.004-05:00

The 4th was a lot of fun, glad it turned out the way it did. Dan and I went to the lake for a day/night, got to see my cousin and just did some relaxing . The crazy part was that in the middle of the day, we're floating around and a man on an adjoining boat says in a deep voice "You boys from Rhodes?" - it was Coach Clary, small world. He ended up getting in the water and floating with us, just talking about Rhodes life, etc.

Saturday afternoon we came back, hung out around here and then met Rudelson at the Happy Mexican and later the Saucer - good Memphis evening. People watching from the window at the Saucer was great; that and threatening to text a certain someone if BRud didn't show up.

Yesterday I finally got to go see Hancock, and it didn't disappoint. Some things weren't explained, but all in all it was entertaining.

Odds and Ends:
-Dan and I probably spent over 6 hours talking/researching our MAME project for the new place. We feel like we can pull it off, but it'll be around 6-7 months of work on the weekends, etc. Here's a good example.
-I already feel like this will be the favorite game, we played it for a while on two keyboards and my tiny laptop screen.
-Maybe the job search ends this week, I really hope so. The good news is that I just woke up about an hour ago, cleaned up the house, etc. That means I'll probably be falling asleep by 10pm, which will be good for a work schedule.
-I'm reluctant to even say anything for fear of jinxing it, but the phone should be here today. I'm not going to say anything else, this is getting ridiculous.
-Finally listened to Girl Talk and it's really good. The same stuff that I like all mashed together. And the best part is that track 9 on his new album is taken from IN A BIG COUNTRY. (By Big Country.) You can download the album for free here. If you want to check it out first, here's a YouTube video of the song I was talking about above, called "Hands In the Air."

Probably more later, especially if I get the phone. Hope everyone had a fun 4th.

Headed out

2008-07-03T17:10:00.002-05:00

After some last minute changes, I think the 4th plans turned about pretty well. I'm about to leave with a couple of Annie's friends and drive down to the lake for a couple of days with some family and friends. DP is meeting me on his way up from Birmingham and then we'll be back here Saturday to hang out with Rudelson, Samad, AJ, and everyone else. I'm excited, especially after all the uncertainty associated with this weekend earlier.

Quick updates:
-No the phone isn't here, it'll probably come while I'm gone these two days and then get stolen off the front porch or something.
-Rock Band / Guitar Hero fans listen up, Rock Band 2 was announced last week, and it looks pretty nice. All of the songs that were downloadable for the original one, can be ported over to the new one. Here is a pic of some of the songs, and yes, it has Journey. (sweet)

The only thing the game needs to be complete is this:

Everyone have a safe weekend, I might get a post in Saturday afternoon/night depending on what is going on. Don't drink and drive...

Watch this now.

2008-07-03T10:26:00.002-05:00

Running around the house getting ready to go to the lake, but wanted to share this with you - watch it NOW. Talk about unfortunate ad placement...

I'll post before I leave.

Kind of busy...kind of lazy

2008-07-02T18:19:00.003-05:00

I thought the above comic was funny, it's titled "MacGuyver Gets Lazy." It's kind of what I feel like, just tired.

Still unemployed but have stuff to do; mostly around here and being a good house guest. Trying to get some things planned for this weekend, it's just a lot harder when everyone is all over the place and not just right down the hall or across campus.

I want to see "Hancock" tonight, but probably won't because I'm doing some stuff for Jeremy and the last showing at the theater near this house is at 7:30.

I can't really explain how anxious I am to hear back if I got this job next week, I even had a dream about it last night. (But in the dream, I got it. So I guess that's good...)

Gotta get back to work, I'll let you know how the movie is if I do go.

Finally? We'll see...

2008-07-01T10:14:00.002-05:00

I've been assured that the new phone will be here today, still not counting on it so if it does come I guess it'll be a big surprise.

Nothing too interesting, other than AirTran still being a bunch of punks. I fought with them up until 9:00 am this morning (when my flight was scheduled to leave.) I guess I can't be too mad though, since the flights I'm not using were done with a free voucher, but still - they should have given me something :-)

Going on a run to clear my head, too many thoughts will be bombarding me later.

In the meantime, here's an interesting story on gun deaths, something I wouldn't have thought to be the case. Then after that kind of depresses you, check out the video below. No clue how this guy can do that.

More later, have a safe Tuesday.

Hilarious Site

2008-06-30T23:10:00.002-05:00

No long post today, too many other things going on. I did want to pass this along, it's a site titled "5 Reasons 'Yoo-Hoo' Rocks My Socks". Really well written and absolutely hilarious. He's right on with all 5 points, including the Fun Dip.

Bored...

2008-06-29T22:39:00.002-05:00

Haven't really done much today, gets a little lonely in a house all alone after a while. What I forgot to say last night is the fact that I never even watched the UFC fight. It's evidently NEXT Saturday. With 4th of July and stuff that weekend, my first UFC fight might have to wait until a later date again.

After some thought, I decided to not really elaborate on events from last night. It was just weird, but so cool. I wrote all of it down, mainly because it's been so cool just to write stuff that's happening to me. I've got the writing bug right now I guess, so I started writing a short story this afternoon, lots of fun. This has been an amazing outlet just to get my mind off of everything else. I feel like once I get a job and settled, I'll be fine - just sucks waiting on all of that.

I'll probably watch some more "Heroes" then hit the sack early, going to try and exercise quite a bit tomorrow since I kind of went out the entire weekend.

One question: what the hell is guarana? The spell check on this thing doesn't even recognize it. I assume some of you have seen the commercial about that "5-Hour Energy" drink. In which is talks about how sugar and calories are "bad", but guarana gets "tsk, tsk". Checking wikipedia... (just saw the commercial, that's why I'm asking). Ok here it is:

Guarana (Portuguese guaraná) (IPA: [ɡu̯a.ra.'na], [ɡu̯a.ɾa.'na] or [ɡu̯a.'ɹa.na]), Paullinia cupana (syn. P. crysan, P. sorbilis), is a climbing plant in the Sapindaceae family, native to the Amazon basin and especially common in Brazil. While guarana features large leaves and clusters of flowers, it is best known for its fruit, which is about the size of a coffee berry. Each fruit contains about one seed, which contains approximately five times as much caffeine as coffee beans.

I guess I can see why they said tsk, tsk - you don't want to say a lot of caffeine is bad if you have an energy drink. Another one of life's mysteries solved. Another side note, I feel weird even getting something off of wikipedia just because it's so ingrained in us that it's a bad source for information. Old habits die hard...

Watching "Heroes" and going to bed, hope everyone had a great weekend.

WTB a basketball, there's a hoop outside but no ball to be found.

Happy

2008-06-29T05:51:00.001-05:00

Great night tonight, and a great feeling right now - I think I really and truly helped someone else out and it feels good. I wish I could write more, but I'm beat and going to bed.

Hasta manana

Wooooo...

2008-06-28T18:32:00.002-05:00

So, what's new around here? Not a whole lot. Really spent the last couple of days splitting time between exercising, relaxing, and sleeping. Went out to Mud Island last night and hung out, watched some of Bob Saget's stand up from 2007. I have to say, it was really really funny; they guy drops the f-bomb once every two or three words. Here is a video on YouTube of someone's favorite parts. I didn't watch it, because it's 5:00 minutes long, but I'm sure it's decent.

Awesome - I was just going to talk about the Braves being 1 game below .500 and three out of first place right now. So I go to their website to get the actual game counter, and they've already lost today! Probably before I was even awake. Tim Hudson gave up 650 runs it looks like for the 5th straight time. Maybe he should spend more time pitching and less time doing this. (Although it is pretty funny.)

Tonight I'm going to meet up with some people and watch a UFC fight. I've never really gotten into UFC, but I do know some of the names and backgrounds of a few, one of them being Rampage Jackson. Lucky for me, Rampage Jackson is fighting tonight, is from Memphis, and is supposed to mutilate the other guy he's fighting. So having a few beers with a pro-Jackson crowd should be entertaining. After that I have no idea what's going on. Downtown? Do I really want to go downtown though? Ah, we'll see.

Random stuff:
- Started watching old episodes of "Heroes" again, and either I skipped 4-5 in a row from the first season or have no recollection of watching them. (I'm going with the former)
- It probably would have been the first thing on this post if it would have come, but yeah, still no phone. Now I'm hearing Monday or Tuesday...
- Stuman, good comeback last night, ending 19-16 isn't too bad after starting 3-11.

See yall later, have a great Saturday.

Well, that was quick...

2008-06-27T06:28:00.005-05:00

Woke up randomly just now so I checked my email and si.com real quick in between a few grapes and ran across this.

Haha, less than 12 hours after he was drafted, Kevin Love is no longer part of the Memphis Grizzlies. I guess I understand the trade for Memphis, since they're getting out of Brian Cardinal's awful contract, but still taking on quite a bit in Jaric's. Oh well, it's not like either of the GMs involved have a stellar track record.

How long are rookie contracts usually? Three years I think, that means OJ Mayo will definitely not still be here at the start of the 2011 season. But I guess there's a possibility the Grizzlies won't either...

Read the post from last night. Wow is all I'm going to say - drinking and writing should not be advocated but whatever.

Embedding this video because it's awesome, sorry I can't get the spacing right in the html.

http://view.break.com/526583 - Watch more free videos

Going back to bed, crossing my fingers that the phone comes today.

Done.

2008-06-27T01:41:00.008-05:00

The Chris Vernon thing was a lot of fun, most people were happy with the Kevin Love selection. I was more surprised that Joey Dorsey was drafted ahead of CDR, but at least they're both part of NBA teams. (While I wish CDR would have gone to New Orleans or Seattle, Portland seems like a great fit for Dorsey.)

Super tired once again but I've noticed something. Driving back from Midtown to G'town every night gives me a lot of time to just think, and I almost always contemplate what's going on in my life. To be honest, right now, I'm just too angry and stupid. Some of the reasons why is my fault, but at the same time it's not all me. I really do have a high opinion of myself, don't get me wrong, so I guess this is kind of pretentious, but right now at this moment, I feel like nice guys do finish last. Being a good person doesn't really get you anywhere in most cases. What I need to be able to do is not dwell on things and get upset, and I'm trying. Yeah, yeah, yeah this is just me feeling sorry for myself, but let me vent - it is my space to do that.

Either way, tonight's events were fun - hopefully this weekend will continue the trend.

Wow. Just read all of that, and all I can say is it's heavy. I still don't even know if that's allowed on something like this? I'm just going to keep typing and pretend to not notice the big wall of text above.

The director from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind made a list of his 25 favorite music videos. Some of them I've never seen (Bjork) but most I definitely agree with. Some good ones included "Virtual Insanity" (moving floors? yes.) and the king of unintentional comedy, "Trapped In the Closet". He even added a personal favorite, Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al"; fond memories of this one because I remember watching it as a kid and really enjoying it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take some time and watch it here. Watch Chevy Chase putting stuff on the table next to him, it's so simple, but so good.

Lastly, any male between the ages of 20 and 30 should be excited about this pic. Needless to say, I'm excited about the summer of 2009.

Ok, about to grab a movie and hit the sack but before I do, I just wanted to say how lame some of you are. One comment on 8 or so posts? Pick it up people, I like the instant gratification. :-)

Goodnight.

Déjà Vu

2008-06-26T15:19:00.002-05:00

I kind of feel like the last three weeks have all basically been the same. I'll be really glad when I get a job just to switch things up a little bit.

As for tonight, NBA Draft! Looks like I'm heading over to the Jason's Deli on Poplar and Highland to watch it. The Chris Vernon show (a local sports radio host) will be there and there's free beer/sandwiches while he's broadcasting - not a bad deal. Drafts are usually fun to predict who goes where so in that vein, here's what I think the top 5 will look like:

1) Chicago Bulls - Derrick Rose, PG Memphis
2) Minnesota Timberwolves - Michael Beasley, PF Kansas State (via trade)
3) Miami Heat - OJ Mayo, SG USC (via trade)
4) Seattle Sonics - Brook Lopez, C Stanford
5) Memphis Grizzlies - Kevin Love, PF UCLA

None of those above are fearless or out of the ordinary and the Sonics could pick Russell Westbrook or Eric Gordon instead of Lopez. I really hope the Grizzlies do not take Love, but I'm not calling the shots. (That would be uber genius Chris Wallace.) Either way, it should shape up to be an interesting night and maybe quite a few trades will make it a little crazy.

Some other random things:
-This will be the new project once DP and I get moved in somewhere. Looks more than a little daunting and we'll probably screw up more than a few times. However, if we can pull it off, I think it'll be really cool. You know you'll want to play if you come over.
- For anyone who played with Legos as a kid, this is a cool write up from Gizmodo with just about everything you ever wanted to know. I definitely would want to see Lego on "How It's Made."
- Still no phone, I've given up hope that it'll ever arrive. I don't think UPS even runs out here until after 5:3o, so even if for some reason it does get delivered today, I won't get it until tonight.

Long post, little substance -I guess I'm not very interesting today. More later...

I can't complain

2008-06-26T04:51:00.002-05:00

Well, the phone never got here (sold out? really?) and my nap turned into something most people call sleep. The interview this morning went as well as I could hope it would have and I truly feel like I did my best. I actually left there feeling more excited about the job.

Tonight, I headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings and had a surprisingly good time, courtesy of Rock Band. It's fun to be able to sit in a bar, have a few beers and attempt to belt out "Roxanne" in front of a lot of people who will be appreciative regardless. Congratulations to Debo on the drums, but shame on Blake for never venturing from the "Easy" setting on the guitar.

On the way home tonight I found myself doing a lot of reflecting. On both my personal life and just the status of the things around me in general. I started to feel down on myself I turned the radio up hoping for some loud, crazy music I could zone out to. Ironically, music didn't come out of my speakers, but a message about abused children and a fund to help them. I really wish I could remember it's name, because I'd throw a link up right now, but I immediately felt like an idiot. Yeah, it's easy to think I have it so hard because I live in my world all the time - but really, I don't have it so bad at all. I've been given a lot of opportunities, and I should be more thankful about my life instead of wishing for more; it could be a lot worse.

/endrant.

I'm going to head to bed, it's seriously past the time I should be in it. I'll throw up a more comprehensive post tomorrow about some stuff, most notably the NBA draft.

I would link to something funny/cool/interesting right now, but I just didn't run across anything today. Everyone have a good night and end of the week.

Tired, but excited...

2008-06-25T12:38:00.003-05:00

Quick post here, I'll give a good run down later on the morning's events. Hopefully after I nap the new phone will be here and I can play around with it.

Fun Night + Free Bar

2008-06-24T23:53:00.004-05:00

Decided to take a break and head out to see Romig and Dan for a bit. Ended up going to the Blue Monkey in midtown, nothing different there. What was different was that Bud Light was having a giveaway thing and had a couple of girls running around giving out little tickets with bar codes on them. The whole point was this:

You go to another part of the bar and "scan" your ticket by a laptop. For almost everyone it would say "Sorry" and you would move on. However, we were lucky enough to be at the right place in the line (they said it was random) and ended up winning. The prize for winning that portion is a night of free beer and food at EPs on August 1st. There will 75 "winners" at EP's and 10 of those people will win a cruise from Bud Light for Halloween weekend. (The Bud Light "girl" so eloquently said the ship was one that Budweiser bought and "pimped the f**k out.") While the cruise is probably not possible, it's still nice to get a free night of food and drinks. It was actually Romig's ticket that won, but he refused to scan it and won't be here August 1st, so Dan and I benefit. Good night all around, nice to just turn my brain off for a couple of hours.

So, back in Germantown, interview in exactly 8.5 hours. I'll probably stay up and rehearse a little more, go over a few other things to feel fully prepared; probably won't sleep much tonight. My biggest fear now is that I haven't been able to get clarification on if I'll have access to PowerPoint or not. I mean, if they're expecting a presentation, they have to let me use PP, right? Let's hope so.

Two quick links before I go:

1) I mentioned the new Batman movie eariler, and the people running things have done some great viral stuff promoting the film, this is the latest one: a backstory on Bruce Wayne told Dateline style.

2) This is just a really funny fake news article about high gas prices - laughed for a while.

Ok, finishing some things up and heading to bed, I'll be sure to update as soon as I can tomorrow, I hope it's all good news.

Updates, etc

2008-06-24T18:52:00.003-05:00

Well, I was wrong on the draft - it's not until Thursday so that's a bummer. Weird that ESPN has 90 minutes of coverage for it tonight though. Bummer number two is that the phone didn't come today so I'm not playing with it. Both of those things could be a blessing in disguise, since I really have no choice other than to continue to work on my presentation.

Just saw two more trailers for the new Batman movie, I really want to see it.

Updated this page a little bit, added a couple of things. I found out I can forward a domain name to this site so I'll continue to brainstorm ideas before I register it. I don't think that alexmcculloch.com is available, and if it was, I don't think I would name it that; seems a bit pretentious. Leave a comment if you have any ideas.

Lastly, grats to DP on landing a job, at least one of us has one. So Dan, pat yourself on the back since you might be the only person reading this anyways.

Thinking....

2008-06-24T16:18:00.000-05:00

So I've wasted most of the day today in bed, stayed out a little too late last night but it was fun nonetheless. Getting ready for the interview tomorrow, and getting easily distracted at the same time. Still waiting on the phone to arrive, so I know I'll play with it for a while. Then there's the NBA draft at 6:00 or 7:00, so I'll have to watch it just because I'll be interested in the Grizzlies' pick(s), where CDR goes and some other stuff. Then to top it all off, I think I might get a special domain just for this stuff - it's a lot of fun.

Needless to say, it might be a late night.

Stay tuned.

On a scale of 1 to Awesome....5

2008-06-23T17:27:00.000-05:00

Every Woolsocks album has had a "self-deprecating" title, such as 'A' For Effort, Better Than Feedback, etc. The above title was one of our ideas, and that's kind of what I feel like today, somewhere in the middle. There's a lot of great stuff happening right now, things are falling into place and maybe, just maybe, the job search will be over soon. At the same time, somethings are just out of my control and I have to just let it be; you can't worry yourself over what if, but I guess you can still be upset about - maybe that means you really did care. Either way, in the last couple of hours I've found that I really do have some great friends, that I should be thankful for. I also know that I didn't lose any today, as someone once told me "We were friends first!" :-)

Either way, enough with all of the depressing stuff - like I said there's some things to be excited about right now:

After being without a car since last Thanksgiving, I'm finally going to have my own set of wheels again, starting tonight. While it's nothing spectacular, a 2000 Dodge Stratus, it'll do. And then there's the added comedic value of me getting to say "I drive a Dodge Stratus! People respect me!" (If you don't get that, you can check out the SNL skit here. Sorry it's not YouTube, NBC had it removed for some reason.)

Another side note, every time I type "Dodge" it ends up being "Didge" the first time, without fail, even there.

While this completely materialistic, it's still exciting - new phone tomorrow! I've never really had a super awesome phone and the only thing I've wanted was the ability to email. I have a Sprint contract so Jeremy and I decided to try out the new Instinct, an iPhone type clone. From all the reviews I've seen, it's a pretty good deal (and a lot cheaper than ATT's monthly plan.) Of course there are some kinks, but it'll get done. Gizmodo did a great write up on it, which you can look at here. Seems to have a lot of customization - righteous.

Finally, Wednesday morning I have a huge interview from 8:30 - 12:30. Suffice to say, I would really like to get this job, it seems like it would be a good fit and a lot of fun. I'll talk a little more about it later, don't want to jinx anything. But I'll spend some of tonight and most of tomorrow preparing for it.

Ok, this was longer than I hoped it would be but that's cool. Next up: finding an apartment! Leave a comment if you know of any places.

Hasta luego!

Can't Sleep

2008-06-23T02:37:00.001-05:00

Long day today, a lot of preparing for the coming week and a lot of emotions all over the place - just worn out, but can't seem to sleep.

I'm watching "When We Left Earth" on Discovery, and oddly enough, it's really getting to me. This episode is about Apollo 13 and the three men almost dying. I try to put myself in their shoes and can't imagine the amount of fear you have to have during and that kind of ordeal. (They were running out of oxygen and didn't know if they could make it home) You have to think about everything that you had planned on doing, and then you wouldn't be able to say goodbye. I guess those guys were mentally equipped for these circumstances so they thought differently. I assume that's why I won't have NASA knocking down my door for an interview or anything. :-)

Speaking of which, I have two coming up this week and might actually join the workforce sometime soon. One of the two I would really prefer, but the other would pay the bills so I can't be choosy, this is the first job and all.

Other random stuff:
- The Madden 09 player ratings were released or leaked earlier today, so I scoured a few screenshots and tracked down Tony Romo's overall rating, 94 - which is respectable. (Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were the only QBs to get 99s).
- The Braves have made it back to .500 almost, winning a one run game yesterday - making them 4-22 or something like that in such contests, and then hammering the Mariners today with Mark Teixiera knocking three out of the park; it made me think of this YouTube video that showed up when the Braves landed him last year.

Ok, closing in on 3am here and sitting in front of my laptop is not making me any sleepier so I should probably at least attempt to get in bed.

I can see this being addicting, more to come...

Welcome?

2008-06-22T04:01:00.000-05:00

After ridiculing these things for a long long time, I think it might be good. The benefit is both therapeutic (I can just talk about what I'm feeling) and historical (I can talk about my days and then be glad I did later). The funny thing is, that even now I can see myself being very very concerned about grammar/spelling. That only means I'm conscious of my audience and probably won't be the most open blogger, but I guess things like that can change.

Hello, to anyone and everyone who is actually reading this, I know it's weird to hear your friend's thoughts put down into words.

I'm new to this but um....more to come later??

Which one?
	Beard
	No Beard

Free polls from Pollhost.com