Happy New Year

I will take one day...or two days...from my Cowboys venting/ranting to wish all my readers a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Another Day, Another Excuse

Two days after the really big loss and it still hurts. And everyone seems to want to blame one person different from the previous person. Cut Romo, because he can't win the big game. Fire Wade Phillips, because he's never won a playoff game. Fire Jason Garrett, because the defense knows his scheme. Cut Terrell Owens, because he's not a team player and will destroy the Cowboys, etc, etc, etc. Some of them I agree with, and others I can't understand.

From someone who's seen all sixteen games minus a couple of halves, I can tell you this, two things contributed to their bad season. Kyle Kosair, starting Guard on the offensive line, was on IR (injured reserve) for most of the season. Tony Romo, the starting QB, can't throw the ball acurately when he has a 250lb linebacker starring him in the face on almost every play. Don't blame Tony Romo, blame he offensive line. The second thing that comes to mind is the lack of innovation on the offense. Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett could no longer fool the defense, and when the defense knows what you are going to do, then you have BIG/HUGE/GINORMOUS problems. And that is what happened.

But that's not the bad thing. The bad thing is that this happens EVERY year! Not the OLG going out for the season, or the OC not being able to fool the defense. No, what I'm referring too is that every season, on person on the offense gets injured and the entire team falls apart. In '06, it was Running Back Julius Jones that was injured and things fell apart. Last year, it was Terrell Owens. This year, it was RB Felix Jones, OLG Kyle Kosair and RB Marion Barber.

On the bright side, Jason Garrett is being courted by Detriot to take over as the Head Coach. Jason, please, take that job.

Dallas
Home: N.Y. Giants, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Carolina, Seattle, Oakland, San Diego
Away: N.Y. Giants, Philadelphia, Washington, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Denver, Kansas City

Cowboys = Cubs?

I would like to preface this with the fact that I am a die hard Cowboys fan. I have written before about how the Cowboys are the most loved and the most hated team in the NFL, and I would have to say that I am in the first category. I live and die by the Cowboys every season, and right now, I'm dying. I can't and wont blame Tony Romo. In fact, I believe that he has received a bad wrap for someone else mistake. What is causing this drought? Well, I honestly believe that its not the players, it's the coaches. Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett, Offensive Line Coach Hudson Houck, and Conditioning Coach Joe Jurazek need to go.

Let's start with the Jason Garrett. Every defense that plays the Cowboys knows what plays are going to be called. There whole point to an offense is that after a while, they start to vary the plays to keep the defense off it's balance. That hasn't happened. For the second week in a row, I heard that the defense knew what was going to be called, before the hiked the ball. Not acceptable. Hudson Houck is back as an offensive line coach, and he couldn't have had a worse year, but at least for him, he has am excuse: Kyle Koisar, and Montre Holland were lost to injuries. Corey Proctor has been outright HORRIBLE! CUT HIM or put him on defense. Joe Jurazek has been the the conditioning coach since 1997...and the Cowboys haven't won a playoff game in all that time. Any other question?

Well, I can't help but say, 'Well, wait 'till next year'. And I have been saying that for two years now. And I'm going to say it again. Next year will be better. (I can say it, but I'm not sure that I believe it)

On another note, my mother suffered what was considered a minor heart attack, but actually it was a rapid heart beat and as taken to the hospital in Lynchburg on Friday. I didn't find out until the next day. She's doing much better now, but I can't say I was scared. I was worried, but for one reason or another I was never scared. Maybe I knew that she would be okay. I hope that was the case.

The Days of No Productivity

This past week has been BORING! I understand why, but to me, the bosses of the world should just give us these days off, because we don't actually do anything anyway. Please bosses of America, let us take the day off instead of us goofing off all week!

Happy Holidays

Just want to wish everyone a Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas!

Hulu And Netflix...I Love You

I love streaming video. I never did get into it before because it was such a hassle and not optimal for sitting on my couch and holding a computer in my lap, for a long period of time. Netflix was pretty good at having the discs of that season on hand to ship me, so I never felt like it was absolutely necessary to stream it. But that has since changed. Hulu, and Netflix have stepped up to the plate and done something that has completely changed my buying and watching habits. 1. I no longer watch shows that I have on DVD over and over again, which is a shame, considering how much money I have put into that. 2. I can now enjoy watching new content on a daily basis. But there are differences.

I would have to give the upper hand to Netflix for three reasons. You can stream movies off of an Xbox 360 from Netflix (and in some cases in HD) and you can’t (at this time) from Hulu. You can have movies delivered directly to your house from Netflix but not from Hulu (and I don’t think that it will ever be an option). But I think it’s the next part that is most important. Netflix steaming is a MUCH better quality than Hulu. In fact, the comparison isn’t even close. If I watch Hulu on a computer, the image is very rough. Netflix, on the other hand, can stream onto a 50” plasma and look better than some DVD’s I’ve seen.

So, thank you to Netflix and Hulu for giving me things to do while I play!

So Much To Write

I have so much to write, but this being the holiday season, I have absolutely no time to write it all.

The Magic Number

This is my 200th post! W00T!

GOTY

The next episode of Geezer Radio (Skypecast Episode 4: GOTY) is ready for download.

Why Go Home?

Oh, Give me a home...okay, so I won’t ever win American Idol, but I do have something to get off my chest about Sony’s new, revolutionary, totally, like, awesome service: Home. When you first boot up your PS3, you don’t get any kind of prompt that asks you to download it, instead you need to go to the PlayStation Store and enter a code in order to download it (I got into the Beta and that’s probably why I had to do it that way). That was the intro to my experience to Home. I wish it were easier, but for the PS3, nothing including games, playing online and those pain in the ass monthly downloads to update my firmware has ever been easy. And guess what; creating an Avatar isn’t easy either. As opposed to my 360 Avatar that was fun and easy, this one was close to creating an exact digital copy of yourself. You could customize just about every facet of your avatar, which is both tedious and time consuming.

Once that’s finish, your prompted to go directly into your Home. I must admit, when I first saw my “Home”, I was immediately jealous that it wasn’t my real home. I had a great view of a beautiful harbor with sail boats and yachts and the most beautiful water that came in close second to the beauty of St. Maartin’s crystal clear water. But, with a 50” plasma and an HDMI connector, what would you expect. I thought that I had lucked out and gotten a primo spot, but it turns out that a lot of other gamers got the exact same thing. Although, I should have been disappointed, I just said, “Figures.”

There is only a couple things you could do in your “home” and that mainly consisted of dancing to no music, watching a bubble machine, re-arrange furniture and sit on the porch and listen to the digital birds chirping somewhere in the distance. I decided to venture out and enjoy some company, so I tried to venture out my door. I was met with a “Please download Central Plaza 39.5 MB”. Okay, so I had to wait for that. After a few minutes, I walked back to the door and ventured out for my first trip into the Home world. I was impressed for about three minutes, and that consisted of three minutes of watching a trailer on a GIANT jumbotron-sized TV that was showing a game trailer for the PS3 (nice product placement, Sony). I then ventured out and saw the theater and was surprised that all I could do was watch a making of trailer for SOCOM: Confrontation. After that I went to the mall and looked at all the empty shops. Then it was on to the bowling alley, but I didn’t go in there. After being disappointed for ten full minutes, I decided to socialize so I walked to a little outside dance floor and started to dance, although, it wasn’t that successful, because no one was paying attention to me (all the other guys were huddled around these two women). So, I decided to just pack it in.

What a waste of my time. I didn’t buy a PS3 so that I can walk around in a virtual world an be absolutely bored. I could have caught a movie, but it was just some making of video and didn’t offer me the option of watching something I wanted. Not only that, but it wasn’t even private, which makes me believe that going forward, all the movies that they will be showing, will not be chosen by me. So much for a user controlled world. Let’s just call Home, what it really is: One Big Advertisement for Sony.

Future Weapon Used

I read today that the police in Italy were being harassed by laser weapons! WOW! So it has begun! I think this is both awesome and frightening. On the one hand, I like the fact that people have found a use for laser weapons. On the other hand, it’s scary because someone, outside of the military, has USED these weapons in an aggressive way. These “attacks” on the Italy police were only to blind them, but if you amplify them with a higher power battery, you could have a weapon that can kill. What makes a laser more dangerous than a gun? Lasers can shoot in hurricane force winds without any effect on the beam, there is no kick-back from firing it and in zero atmosphere no visible trace. AND its ultra portable and very dangerous if used at higher powers. Imagine a man sitting on the shore of a beach, and takes out this weird looking gun. Takes aim at an airplane and fires. Next thing you hear is that 200+ people died in a plane “accident”, and there is NO explanation to why the plane crashed. Scary!

A Lot Of Thoughts

I have a lot of thoughts rumbling through my head, but no time to organize them. Maybe I will one of these days, but I don't think it's going to be today.

Thoughts on my mind;
PlayStation Home
Dallas' Victory over the Giants
Smart Phones...

Anyway, look for those in the upcoming days...unless I don't get time to write them up.

No Fantasy, No Problem

This is the first year in many, probably 9, that I haven’t played fantasy football, and you know what? I don’t miss it at all. It’s like a pain in your body. When it’s gone, you don’t remember what it was like or how it felt. So Happy.

Finally Cracked 18,000

I finally got to 18,000 in Gamerscore. It wasn't easy and that's what makes it so satisfying. This time, I actually played through tough games like Gears of War 2, Fable 2 and Left 4 Dead to get there. Now, 19,000 and then the next step 20,000. I just hope that I get a couple games that motivate me to play them all the way through and get the achievements.

This reminds me, MS put in Achievements so that I/we could feel like we accomplished something. Most of the time, I feel like achievements are just something that makes me want to play a game, but this past 1000 points, it actually seemed like I accomplished something. But I think the most enjoyable/worthy 1000 Gamerscore I ever earned was playing COD2 on Veteran. That was hard!

More Numbers

1 - number of days before PlayStaion Home is released for an open beta

15 - number of days until Christmas Day

4.4 - the magnitude of the Earthquake that hit Central California

2 - number of days until the weekend

5 - number of posts until I hit 200 for this blog

GR Episode 16

...is now available for download.

The Numbers

7 - posts I need before I have 200.

50 - more gamerscore until I hit 18,000.

$1.44 - the lowest price of gas.

7 - how many points the Cowboys lost by.

10 - how many points the Cowboys led by halfway into the 4th quarter.

1 - the number of women that make my heart skip when I see them.

25 - the age of the one woman that makes my heart skip.

Blackout!

I was playing Left 4 Dead last night and I had a ball. That game is one of the more amusing fun games that I have played in some time. The purpose of this game is to get from one point to the next and kill everything not human in between. In these days of story based games and the attempt at creating a movie that you can play, this game takes the opposite direction and gives you nothing but running and gunning. It also offers great 4-player co-op and a new take on versus.

But the game does have one minor flaw. When playing 4-player co-op online, for some reason, when you disconnect the power to the router and modem, you can’t continue playing online with your friends. How did I find this out? Well, my wonderful wife, who I love very much, decided to take the blow dryer downstairs because there was a better mirror in the downstairs bathroom, and that resulted in blowing the circuit breaker for the router...and modem...and everything else downstairs.

But other than that, the game is a gem and might come in as a game of the year candidate.

My Angst with Comcast

Since I teased you with my issue with Comcast Cable Internet yesterday, I will today share with my faithful listeners about why I am not happy with Comcast’s Cable Internet policies.

And I am sure that some of you can agree that they aren’t the best policy for customers who pay hard earned money for a good service (one that I will have a hard time giving up, but more on that later) that will cut you off for a year if you use too much bandwidth for two months in a row or throttle you if you are using too much bandwidth at the same time your neighbors are using it heavily also (if I understood the e-mail correctly).

Now, first, let me start off by saying that 250GB cap limit is REALLY generous, and I applaud them for going with that huge limit. And in order to better manage their customer’s usage, they have to limit their customers to 250GB per month. But no matter what they say about it being better for their network, I seriously don’t think it’s necessary for them to cut you off for a full year if you go over that cap for two months (and another oddity, it’s not two times in one year or two months in a row, it’s two months...period. So theoretically, I could have gone over it in November and stayed under that cap for three years and then go over it again in July of 2011, and they would cut off my service per their policy). I would prefer them charge me more per month, but that’s not their policy, apparently. Why not charge me five dollars for every 10 GB’s that I go over? That seems fair to me. Cutting me off for a year means that I wouldn’t have any other choice but to go to a competitor and use them for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t mind switching to Verizon DSL, now that they have 7Mbps down on their DSL. That is just about as good as I was getting from Comcast, and some could say that it’s a better service because Verizon doesn’t have a bandwidth cap. Not only that, it would be an easy switch to their FiOS service when it becomes available.

As for the throttling me when my neighbors and I use too much, well, that is another bad decision. Why? Well, I don’t see any reason to throttle me just because I am using a lot of bandwidth while the people in my neighborhood are doing the same thing. What if I were in the middle of an online computer course that relied on streaming video? Then I get throttled and miss my work. Or worse, I get throttled in the middle of a timed test that required a video to download/stream. I just see it as a way for Comcast to really annoy its customers and force them to go else where with their business.

I really hope that Comcast would come to their senses and remove the clause about being cut off for a full year. The rest I can deal with (yes, even the throttling issue doesn’t bother me as much) and remain happy. But for them to cut me off entirely for a year for two violations is just wrong. One question, though, if they cut me off, are they still going to charge me for that year?

Comcast Does Care!?!?

Some of you that listen to Geezer Radio on a regular basis know that I’m not a big fan of Comcast Internet because of their bandwidth cap and now throttling policy. (I’ll get into those thoughts in a different post) No matter what I have to think about those two policies, I have to give them props on their excellent customer service. I don’t know how many of you are on Twitter, but Comcast Frank and Comcast George are on the ball for their unusually good and friendly conversations (or in Twitter speak: tweets). Not only are they attentive to a person’s (customers) needs, they are people who talk about who they are and the struggles they face in everyday life, whether it be being a Eagles fan or going to jury duty. If you are on twitter and have Comcast, follow them and if you have a problem, they WILL listen to you. I know personally how much they are willing to help. I’ve tweeted with both of them and exchanged e-mails with both of them.

They WILL listen (unless you talk about the Dallas Cowboys) and they WILL help in whatever way they can. I welcome either one of them to come onto Geezer Radio for a chat.

AnGrrrr(ER)!

What in the name that is all holy and decent is the motivation for people to be putting the ER onto words that shouldn’t have it? Do you know what I mean? Over Thanksgiving, I heard my sister-in-law say that it was “funner”. Not sure what she was talking about, but I did hear her say the word “funner”. I rolled my eyes and nearly corrected her, but decided not too, but I couldn’t help but wonder why this is becoming popular. Apple (the computer company, not the fruit) has an ad “iPod Touch. The funnist iPod ever” that is, in essence, telling kids (youth and young adults alike) that it's okay to be seen as stupid and that it will not make you look stupider. Who thought that this would be a good idea? Apple (and other companies) is leading the way for bad grammar in today's youth.

With that said, is the word Google a verb? Yes it is, according to the dictionary. I can understand how people would want to use words like funner and funnist, but to me it is considered stupid and immature, and you will NOT hear my children saying things like that...at least until they are 18. And yet, there is a part of me that says let the kids have fun, but if you think this, please ask yourself if you would put that in a Résumé or a company report that you will be distributed? In other words, keep me sane and don’t use those words. Thank you!

The Crying Time

Have you ever found it funny that you can tell what your spouse is thinking or doing just by hearing a noise or two from their general direction? For those of us that are married, being in such close proximity all the time gives us a unique perspective on how and what they can do at any given time. Case in point: Friday night we were in bed and I was reading a book. I heard her sniffle. Not one of the quick one’s either. This was a long drawn out sniffle and there is usually only one reason that she is doing this. I turned my head and asked if she was crying. She responded no, but when she turned her head, I saw a tear on her nose. I then asked her why the top of her nose was wet, and she started balling. For the instant second that she had been crying and balling, I ran back through my day and all the things that I did. Not one of them was bad, at least to me. It turned out, though, that it wasn’t anything I did. The next day, I told the story to my mother and the first question out of my mother’s mouth was, “When was the last time she took a pregnancy test?” I rolled my eyes and closed my mouth for the rest of that day...

Could it be? I told the same story to my co-worker and he said the same thing... I think we may be on to something.

Oh, and how was everyone's Thanksgiving? Did you get stuffed on the stuffings?

No Motivation

I don't know, but yesterday I had a problem staying motivated. I did the podcast and it wasn't half as fun as the previous podcast's and it wasn't because of the co-host, or the content, I was just tired. Not really sure why, but I then joined a game of Gears of War 2 with nine other friends and didn't enjoy it at all. I usually eat that stuff up! I hope I get over this before the next time I hop onto XBL or do another podcast. On the other hand, I can't wait until the Cowboys play their next game.

Oops

I had a very long and well thought-out post today, but I forgot it. So you're stuck with this.

2-4-6-8...who do I appreciate?

My sweetie.

What's The Point

I really need to get away from my desk when I eat my lunch. Two reasons I need to do this. 1. I might actually be able to read a chapter in a book or an article in a magazine if I do this without getting interuppted by IM chat, e-mail or phone calls from co-wrokers. Today, it was IM chat. 2. If I go away from my desk, I might actually be able to finish my lunch on time. This doesn't happen often.

Why the Xbox 360 Avatar Hater-ation

I don’t understand why everyone hates Avatar’s on the Xbox 360? I have heard that a lot of people don’t like them. I just can’t understand why. I love my avatar, and I think Microsoft was genius in doing this, because now (and this does apply to 90% of the friends on my friends list) I can see a digital representation of who they are in real life. I also have a chance to show people what I look like. I just don’t get why people do not like the avatar features on the dashboard. I want to know what you think.

Reason Not to Hate Amercia's Team

I live in Richmond, Virginia, what many consider to be the home territory of the Washington Redskins, so I take a lot of flack for being a Dallas Cowboys fan. Why not? They are rivals. But I think it goes beyond that. Did you know that the Dallas Cowboys are the most liked team in the NFL? Did you also know that the Dallas Cowboys are the most hated team in the NFL? Well, this is why I not only love the Dallas Cowboys, but Tony Romo (the QB of America's Team) is starting to become my all-time favorite NFL player. Here is the link.

Geezer Radio 14

Episode 14 is ready for download!

SE-Mail = Fail

SE-Mail – scam electronic Mail not to be confused with snail mail.

I read on Fox News yesterday about a woman that lost $400,000 dollars to an e-mail scam. For those of you who want to read about it, here is the link. But as I thought about how stupid and ignorant this one woman is, I couldn’t help but think that she is not the only one that has fallen for this. If no one fell for this kind of scam, it wouldn’t be around to begin with. So, instead of bashing her for loosing her husbands entire retirement and falling for one of the most stupid scams out there, I will be focusing on who falls for this and why they fall for this.

First, who is targeted: Scammers (people who send out scam e-mails) target older people for several reasons. One reason is that sometimes older people don’t understand the technology that they are using. One instance of this is flash games. My wife instant messaged me to tell me she was playing a flash game (Squirrel shoot) that was e-mailed to her from her grandmother and I immediately told her that flash is one of the easiest ways to get a virus on your computer. Does her grandmother know this? Probably not, and one reason I know this is because I know her grandmother. This grandmother once got a text message from someone and in response took it back to the store and asked for a tech to fix it because she didn’t want text. You can’t fix that kind of thing, instead, you tell them to turn off the service.

Now, why people fall for these scams? A lot of people who fall for these scams at first think that the scam is actually a legit e-mail because they are looking for a get rich quick payout, and by the time they realize that it’s a scam it’s too late. Or in this ladies example, she had put so much money into the scam, she thought by putting more money into it, she could recoup the lost money (isn’t that the same philosophy as gaming addicts fall into), but it didn’t work out that way. What these people need to realize, though, is that get rich quick scheme’s don’t work and PLEASE remember the old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” But these people don’t understand it at all. They see the dollar bills before the common sense.

How to stop se-mail! You can’t. Plain and simple, you cannot stop it because for every thousand of se-mail’s sent out, one person fails for it and that profit is 100% than they would have gotten if hadn’t have sent them out. You can educate people, but there will always be that one guy who falls for it and that one person will be the reason why the scammers continue to do it. There is another reason, why scammers still do it, because as we evolve our technique to stop the, they find a new way to scam people.

Let me get off my soap box and tell you something else that I find really annoying. I have Skype on my pc so that I can talk with Geezers around the country for Skypecast’s or roundtable discussions and it works really well. Last week, though, I got a message from someone saying “High, I’m new to skype and looking for friends. Please click on the link to view my profile.” I know this is a scam right away. How? I look at the address and see that it’s for a site that has nothing to do with Skype. But out of curiosity, I click on it and it takes me to a dating site that you have to pay for to get in. What this is, though was someone trying to get me to sign up and I would believe that they get a percentage of that money because they are “referring me” to that site. I immediately changed my setting from anyone can contact me to only friends, but will that limit my ability to add Geezers to my list of friends? I’m not sure, but we’ll see. Anyway, my point is that when a technology, whether it be text messages, IM, or VOIP phone service over the computer, there is someone out there that is going to try to make money off of a scam. When will it stop? NEVER.

Clean Up on Aisle 3

I love my wife for many, many reasons, but the one reason I fell in love with her so fast was her ability to make me laugh like a hyena at a marching band contest (not quite sure what that means, but she makes me laugh a lot). Anyway, not even having been married, I took her grocery shopping because at the time (and I think it still holds true) she loves going shopping with me. We had a lot of things on the list, and one of them was spaghetti noodles. Since she is a far better cook than I am, at least when she’s asking, I sent her to get the noodles, while I picked out soups and vegetables. I was one row over when I heard the tale tell laugh that I knew to be hers. She only does it when she is laughing at something funny and she’s embarrassed (but I didn’t know it at the time). So I walked to the end of my aisle and walked towards her aisle and there she was picking up spaghetti noodles off the floor, giggling and laughing uncontrollably. Blushing, I walked to her and said, “How...?” She couldn’t control her laughter enough to tell me, but I got the idea. Apparently, she grabbed a box of noodles that had already been opened and turned it so the opened section was facing down and it spilt all over the floor. I picked her up and said, “Grab a new box and let’s move on.” (I later told an employee that someone had spilt it and they cleaned it up.)

Fast forward to us being married for two years and a month. Friday night, the wife and I were watching a movie and wanted popcorn, and we were out, so we made an emergency dash to the grocery store. Decided that she needed to get more than just popcorn, we split up and I head for the popcorn. She didn’t tell me what she was going for, but I wasn’t worried. Five minutes later, while searching for the popcorn, I hear this giggling and laugh that I knew all to well. I walked to the end of my lane and then walk down a few more rows and what do I see? My wife standing over a pile of spilt spaghetti noodles on the floor with an open box in her hands. Blushing and chuckling, I walked to her and said, “Again...?” She couldn’t control her laughter enough to tell me, but I got the idea. Apparently, she grabbed a box of noodles, again, that had already been opened and turned it so the opened section was facing down and it spilt all over the floor. I picked her up and said, “Grab a new box and let’s move on.” (I later told an employee that someone had spilt it and they cleaned up aisle 3.)

I once heard a study that said laughing makes you live longer. As long as my wife is alive, I will live to be 130!

Bring The NXE On

Last night I got an e-mail saying that I had been approved for the New Xbox Experience. I can't wait until I go home and load it up for the first time!!! It's been a long time since I have been this excited about the release of new software...okay, that was last week with Gears 2, but you get my point...right?

R.I.P. Michael Crichton

I should have mentioned this last week, but things got a little hectic. My favorite all time author, Michael Crichton, passed away on Election Day last week and for the first time in a long time, I really felt like I lost something that I can never get back. Michael was more than just an author. He was responsible for the way that I looked at the world and how I understood the difference between morals and murals. I read “Jurassic Park” when at the age of15 in 1993. That book changed my life in a significant way. I taught me that there is a choice between doing it because I can, and doing it because I should or not doing because I shouldn’t. Do you know the difference? If you could time travel to the past or the future, would you do it just because you can? The next question you should ask yourself is: should you? Anyway...

It was books like Sphere, Congo, Prey and Timeline that held me in suspense and made my mind wander into placed that it had never been before. As soon as I finished “Jurassic Park”, I started wondering about things like Chaos Theory and moral implications on doing something groundbreaking. “Timeline”, perhaps one of his best all around novels, again asked the question about doing something because I can versus should I, but it also re-introduced a theme that a lot of Crichton books talk about: Greed. If you’ve read his books, 90% of them revolve or are started by a man or woman who don’t mean to let greed rule their actions, but that’s what ultimately happens. And that is perhaps the ultimate question of morality that I learned.

I don’t want to go on and on about morals and choices, but I do also have to say this. Another thing that Michael Crichton did to allow my mind to expand was to introduce new concepts to my mind and interest me to explore them. “Prey”, although not his best work, introduced me to the concepts of Grey Goo and the Uncanny Valley. I have also found that I have an extreme interest in nanotechnology, and how it will apply to future generations. (Although, he was a genius, he did make one prediction that was off and that was when he called video games “the hula hoops of the 80’s.” and “already there are indications that the mania for twitch games may be fading” in his 1983 book “Electronic Life”.

Michael Crichton will be missed by me in more ways than one.

Michael Crichton
Born: October 23, 1942
Died: November 4, 2008

Book List

This year, I have five books on my Amazon.com wish list and all but two are gaming related. Three Halo books and one Gears of War book some of which haven’t come out yet. Also, I just found out that one of my favorite authors put out two more books in this series. Ian Douglas put out two books in his Inheritance Trilogy before I even knew that they were out there. If you don’t follow Sci-Fi books, then this part wouldn’t pertain to you, but I do love them. I’ve read the Star Wars books (of course) but they are very predictable in the usual direction that they take. But the Ian Douglas books of the past are a rare exception to sci-fi. He’s penned three trilogies (The Heritage Trilogy, The Legacy Trilogy and now the Inheritance Trilogy). For the first book of all nine, “Semper Mars”, I can’t say anything bad about them...at all. He used realistic warfare tactics in space in the year 2038...or was it 2040? Anyway, there were no super weapons, there were no flying cars and there was no magic vehicle that took soldiers to space. It was all tech that we used today. “Lunar Marine”, the next book in that series, started off two years later and didn’t vary too far off his previous book, but for some reason wasn’t as good. “Europa Strike”, the last book in the Heritage Trilogy, was the first book that disappointed me.

When “Star Corp”, the first books in The Legacy Trilogy came along, it was around a hundred years later and it again blew me away, in a good way, with the tech that was used. He really opened my eyes to tech that could be applied in the future (even though Michael Crichton had been writing for years, his applications of the technology never went as far as “Star Corps”). “Battle Space” was another disappointment, but it did follow “Star Corps” which was a Triple A title in my opinion. “Star Marines” the last title in the trilogy, and it occurred 100 years after “Star Corps”, was rather good, but not nearly as good as “Star Corps”.

With the Inheritance Trilogy coming, I can’t wait to see where he’s taken the series.

When It Is THE Game

Do you remember when you used to play games for fun? I think I had more fun when it was for fun instead of competition. Well, Gears of War 2 brings that all back with its two game types of Co-Op and Horde. Co-Op is played with two players on any of the different difficulty levels and is fun...as long as the story lasts, where Horde is where the FUN is at as long as you can hold a controller. Not only is it co-op with four friends, it’s fast paced, confusing and difficult as all get out. Even on “Casual” difficulty, the 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th and 50th levels are incredibly hard! I played from 6 pm to around 11 pm and only managed to get to level 48 (there was an hour and a half that we played Submission [Meatshield], though). Now, I can imagine that after a while this game can get played out as other newer games come out, but I can’t believe how much fun I have had in such a short time. I won’t bore you with a review for two reasons; a) anyone who reads this blog either has the game or doesn’t care for it. b) I can’t be unbiased because I am a total Gear Head!

As for the past four days, I have been SUPER busy at work and at home. If you want to know how the midnight sale went, please listen to the latest episode of Geezer Radio (and while you are at it, laugh at Furgus [snicker....]). Friday consisted of playing games until 6 am, sleeping, playing from 1 pm until 5 pm and then watching movies all night with the wife. Saturday was tiring as me, the wife and four others toured our nation’s capital. We went to the Holocaust Museum, which was really enlightening and somber. Sunday was just a rest-up day, but I ignored my bodies request for rest and played Gears of War 2 and finally beat the campaign. What an awesome game...(I think I already mentioned that). Yesterday consisted of being way to busy at work for me to post a blog entry and get the latest episode of Geezer Radio out, so I chose Geezer Radio. Then all night long (as I mentioned above) I played Horde on Gears 2...and it was fun!

This Town is a Chainsaw Town

As someone who is quasi-patient, 12:01 am on Friday is going to be a day that HAS FINALLY ARRIVED. I thought that 11/5 would be the day I was looking forward too the most, because it signaled the end of a 2 year election cycle that drove me bonkers. November 5th also signaled the end of a VERY annoying month long add blitz in the state of a Virginia which also happened to be a swing state. Well, at 12:01 am tomorrow, another highly anticipated day will arrive. What day is that? What could be so important that I couldn’t wait until tomorrow? GEARS OF WAR 2 is released to the general public. Me, for one, am not going to let one minute more than I can help pass without owning that game. Why is this so important? The original Gears of War was the most played game of my life. It wasn’t just the single player that I played a lot, but it was the multiplayer (mp) that I fell in love with. You can point to the wonderful mp game play, but in fact it was the very first game I played with Geezer Gamers. I remember the first time I hopped into a mp game with SparkStalker and McJeepers. I sucked and I sucked bad, but I had fun. Two to three days later I was signed up at GeezerGamers and introduced to fun and enjoyable multiplayer action. It was also when I was introduced into GGSE (Geezer Gamers South East – the Clan). So, in a way, Gears of War 2 is a reminder of how wonderful it is to be a Geezer...that and I can now Chainsaw people at will!

Not So Surprising

I wish I could say that the landslide victory was a complete surprise, but I wasn't surprised at all. McCain didn’t do a good job at all with his campaign. Oh, well. I’m not considered wealthy by Obama’s standards and I really don’t think that he’s going do that to the wealthy, because, now he has to worry about getting re-elected. Did you hear about the march through Richmond, VA that occurred last night? Check this out: Link. It’s good to see the younger voters out en-mass celebrating and not rioting. Maybe, just maybe, PEBO (President Elect Barack Obama) can make a difference for the good. And change is most of the time a good thing. At least, that’s my hope.

Me and the wife, yesterday, both got up an hour early and went to the polls together. We got there at 5:55 am, and had to wait until 6 am for the polls to open, and even then we had to wait 30 minutes in line. I was very proud of her for doing that with me.

E-Day

Election day is upon us. Did you vote?

Also, SkypeCast will be held tomorrow night at 9 pm EST. Hope to hear you there!

One More Day Until...

Sanity is restored to the nation. That is right. One more day until the election is over and hopefully, we will not have any recounts to watch over for the next two months. No matter who wins, PLEASE let it be over by tomorrow night.

Oh, the movie Zack and Miri Makes a Porno is effing hilarious! Kevin Smith and company along with Seth Rogen, Justin Long, Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and of course Elizabeth Banks do a great job at what they do. Seth, Justin and Brandon though had one of the funniest scene's in the whole movie. I won't spoil it for everyone, but it's not something I am used to seeing from Justin and Brandon and they do it WELL. Seth plays the same character as he did in 40 Year Old Virgin but it worked well. I have to give some applause, also, to Jason Mewes and Jeff Anderson (both in almost every Kevin Smith movie ever made) for their parts. They are always great. And my last shout out to actors is to Craig Robinson for his portrayal of Delaney. That was FUNNY. One last thing about the movie, the soundtrack was the best that I had ever heard in a movie. Maybe, though, it was because I grew up with those songs and I could see myself living in Zack's world (but not as Zack). If you loved Superbad or 40 Year Old Virgin, you'll like Zack & Miri.

National Slut Day Is Here!

Today is Halloween, but as I think about it, the days of zombie and Dracula costumes are over. Instead of the Age of Scary, it’s the Age of the Sluts. And it’s not just the adults that are dressing this way, either. It’s the tweens (pre-teens – 12 and under) that are lending a hand at making this a tradition from one year to the next. They think that just because the teens do it, they can do it too, and the parents are letting them do it in increasing numbers. The wife and I were at a Halloween costume store, and as we looked around, somehow we strolled into the children’s section and there were costumes that I wouldn’t want my wife wearing and these costumes were being targeted to the 12 and under crowd. I’m talking about maids costumes with a (what looked like) 10 year old with too much make-up leggings that looked a little too provocative and a REALLY short skirt (okay, so maybe I do want to see my wife in that). What is this world coming too? And of course, Hollywood and the “in-crowd” are leading the way. With role models like Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan, how can this next generation survive?

Episode 13

Episode 13 of Geezer Radio was recorded last night. It should be up within an 15 minutes of me posting this, so the chances of it being there the next time you check is VERY good.

Again, I Was Thinking

I sold my Zune a week ago and have been in agony ever since. It’s not because I can’t live without a Zune, but the thing is without a Zune, I’m forced to either a) listen to radio – nasty solution B) confiscate my wife’s iPod and listen to that until my Gears 2 Zune comes in. Now the problem with listening to an iPod is that I hate Apple products. Not because I’m a M$ fan boy (I do like a lot of their products – Xbox 360, Windows, and Zune to name three) but because Apple products do not allow for any customization of their products at all. If you want a button on an Apple product, forget about it. Not because the mass of customers don’t like it, it’s because Steve Jobs doesn’t want you to have one. Want a custom background to the iPod interface...forget it. Again Steve Jobs knows what I want and is forcing his will on me again. Want a program you programmed to be on the iPhone? Not is Steve doesn’t approve. Customization is the key to customer happiness. Think about it. Does every person on the Earth all want the same thing? No. We each have individual tastes. Do I want a McBurger with fries or do I want a double cheeseburger with lettuce, no tomato, and green peppers? I’ll take the double, and I’ll take customization over fixed platform any day of the week.

Baffling

Can a dumb blond get any more dumb? Link

So, she's afraid that she would come back 10,000 years after take-off and would be upset. Well I would be upset too, but not for her. In fact, wouldn't that make the world safer if she were not here? I would feel safer. In fact, keeping her from breeding just might save civilization. Just my 2 cents for today.

Can't Wait for 3 Things

These are the three things that I can't wait for:

1. New podcast is recorded.
2. I can play some more Fable II
3. I get my Gears of War 2 Zune.

More Coverage of Me

I felt that this blog wasn't enough for my fans, so I opened up a whole new blog. This one though, is being written by my Xbox 360. Please go to this site or see the link right below my wife's gamercard and read up on what my Xbox 360 has to say about me.

So Hot

A question occurred to me and I as I was thinking about it, I was even more confused. Let me break it down. A friend (Leslie) thinks that another co-worker (Bob) has a picture of a pretty hot (in Leslie’s opinion) girl sitting on his desk. Earlier today, he asked me whether it would be okay to comment on how hot she looked. I said, “If it’s his sister and not his girlfriend, then he probably wouldn’t mind.” And as I thought about it more, I thought it would probably be the exact opposite. I would be pissed if a co-worker said my sister was hot, because I would go into natural protection mode. On the other hand, if someone commented on how hot my wife was, I’d say, “Yep! I know it!” (In truth, my wife is really HOT! She let me play video games for 24 hours instead of going to her parent’s house to celebrate his 50th birthday. That and she is a super model in my eyes. [You can tell I’m trying to earn brownie points])

Missing It

Yesterday, I sold my Zune. I don’t know why, but I miss it SO MUCH. I didn’t have that problem when I went from my iPod to the Zune. What’s up with that? For one reason or another, I liked my Zune much more than I did an iPod. But all hope is not lost, instead of having a boring, black Zune (sorry UndergroundPoet) I will be getting a brand-spanking-new Gears of War 2 Zune the week after it comes out. Why the week after? Because I had to order it from Amazon.com and I chose the free shipping option that saves me money. Oh, I can’t wait for the chainsawin’ goodness to come on 11/7.

A Geezer’s Take on Extra Life

This probably won't make it onto Sarcastic Gamer website/blog, so I'm going to post it here for my friends/wife and admirers. Please realize that I wrote this after the 24 hours of gaming and before I fell asleep in exhaustion.

"Did I realize what I was getting myself into? I must not have but I do have to say that I am proud of myself and SparkStalker, as well as, the thousand others that participated in Extra Life. It’s funny how things go. When Halo 3 first came out, I played it on Legendary over the course of two to three days (that was over a year ago, for those of you keeping tack). Now, 24 hours of playing video games seems to be something that could be handled with ease, but you’d be wrong. Well, this is how Spark and my 24 hours went.

First, we started off with some Halo 3…easy right? Not if you try and tackle Halo 3 on Legendary in one day! Now with four people, Halo 3 on Legendary is not very hard, but with three people, it gets harder, and in our example, with only two people, it’s really hard. But since Spark didn’t have all the skulls or hadn’t yet defeated the game on Legendary before, we decided to attack that first…but in reality, it was more like the game attacking us.

The first level alone took at least an hour. Then thankfully, reinforcements arrived. With the help of at least one more person at any given time, Spark and I finally complete the campaign on Legendary but it took us seven hours. With that done, Spark, in his infantine wisdom, decided to play Duke Nukem’ on the highest difficulty. I’m not sure how many times we both re-spawned, but we sure did need an extra life. After becoming royally annoyed with Duke Nukem’, Spark and I went our separate ways for a while. I hooked up with another friend who was play Gears of War campaign on Insane and finished Act 4 and 5. Then it was time to take on some of the arcade games that I had left behind: Hexic HD, Mega Man 9, Carcassonne, Dig Dug and Golf: Tee It Up.

Then at around midnight, with Spark still entrenched in Halo 3 (he did manage to play other games) I decided to work on my garden…my Piñata garden that is. At one point (around 4 AM) I sent a message to Spark wanting to know if he wanted to do some Gears of War on Insane and that I was playing in my garden. For one reason or another, I never get tired of Gears of War. He responded with, “You and those (expletive deleted) piñata’s!”

At five in the morning, after 20 hours of gaming, SparkStalker and I hoped into Gears of War and played it on Insane…yes we are just that. First we play Halo 3 on Legendary from the beginning to the end, and now we’re going to punish ourselves some more by doing Gears on Insane from the beginning to end. Well, we didn’t quite get to the end; in fact we only got to Act 2 before we just got sick and tired of it. At 20 minutes until 9 in the morning on Sunday (23 hours and 40 minutes into our marathon) Spark and I left Gears of War and finished up our time in Uno.

But what Spark and I did wasn’t as special as why we were doing it. As of writing this, I’ve head that this Extra Life challenge raised over $100,000 in donations. Way to go, EVERYONE!"

What a Wild Six Days

These past 6 days have been anything but normal. It started off the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday having to go to a web conference from 11 Am to 5 Pm and watch a PowerPoint presentation that I had a copy of in my hands. The main reason for me to be in that webinar was to learn about something that was only touched upon with an hour and a half before the conference ended (for those of you keeping track at home that’s 18 hours of webinar [no breaks or lunches] and only spending 1:30 minutes on it). Why was I there? Why did I have to put up with that? I could tell you, but I’m not going to. Anyway, I normally would have gotten off of work at 4 pm, but because of this conference, I was leaving at around 5:30 pm. It wasn’t the extra hour and half that was worrisome; it was the feeling of not being at home on time was what was weird.

I did manage, though, to get a new episode of Geezer Radio up for download.

If that weren’t enough, Saturday and Sunday was a blur of video games, a debacle in Dallas and sleeping from 6 pm Sunday until 6 am Monday. Let me explain further. My good friend (and probably best friend) SparkStalker and I participated in a 24 hour gaming marathon for pediatric cancer research which was called Extra Life and started by SarcasticGamer.com. I have written up a review on the whole event from our perspective and given it to the founder of Sarcastic Gamer in the hope that he puts it up his website, and if that doesn’t happen, then I will post it here.

But back to the point. Extra Life was fun and not as difficult of a task as I thought it would be. I had no problem staying up the full 24 hours. The only real problem both Spark and I had was defeating Halo 3 on Legendary. That’s right everyone. Spark and I played the entire game of Halo 3 on Legendary in one day! It was an accomplishment. I also played four acts of Gears of War on Insane to finish out the day. But I think the funniest thing that I heard that whole day was when I told Spark about me playing Viva Piñata, he responded with, “You and those (expletive deleted) piñata’s! I laughed for a good twenty minutes after I heard that.

The debacle in Dallas...I don’t want to talk about it except to say, I wish I were a hockey fan. But I’m not.

This week, though, I’ll be back on my regularly scheduled schedule...(does that make sense?)

Anniversary?

Today, me and the wife will be celebrating our 2nd year Wedding Anniversary. Yep, two years ago today, I ruined my life.

Sad Announcement

I just wanted to let everyone know that for the rest of the week, I will be in web conferences and will not be able to post anything. I am sorry for the inconvenience and please stayed tuned.

I will be back!

Silly Waiters

The wife and I were out of town celebrating our 2 year anniversary, and we went to a restaurant (Joe’s Crab Shack) and had dinner. Two times during our dinner, the waiters and waitresses broke out into a song and dance. Some of them seemed to enjoy it, while the others just looked like they were going through the motions just to keep their job. The reason why I bring this up is because I just wonder who really enjoys doing that? If a boss of mine asked me to get up at a certain song and dance around the office, I would question their sanity. I saw this movie with Ryan Reynolds and Justin Long called “Waiting” and at one point, all the waiters and waitresses get up and sing happy birthday to a child and the waiters involved all HATED doing that. I used to work at an amusement park and I got more Star Cards (tiny morale awards) for my dancing and singing along to songs and changing their lyrics to meet the game I was working than any other activity. But I must say that was when I was still in high school. But these days (being the same age as some of those waiters/waitresses) I would have felt stupid and silly.

You Got Chainsawed

Last night, me and seven others all experienced something that not everyone gets to experience. It’s something that someone like me strives to experience. It’s close to a prolonged tantric sex, but much, much better. Last night me and seven others (all men, but at one point a teenage girl [the daughter of the father who was gaming]) played Gears of War on Annex for three hours!!! It was truly an orgasmic gaming experience. I have not had as much fun fraggin’, shotgunnin’, chainsawin’ mayhem in a LONG LLOOOONNNNNGGGGG time. I had a blast and I think that signing up to play every Thursday night as the weekly Gears Night for Geezer Gamers. The only thing that could put a kink in this...Gears 2, which I am SO getting!

But with all that fun, there was one thing that overshadowed my night. Just as I entered the first Gears game, I got a voice message from my wife over XBL saying that we need to get the next Season of The Girls Next Door on DVD because Pamela Anderson is naked at Hef’s 82nd birthday. That was perhaps the best voice message that I had ever received from her. Also, I just love her! What other wife would say that? It turns out that the best thing that I EVER did was marry her.

Air Fresheners 2

So, I teased you yesterday about my four favorite podcasts that I listen to daily, no here is the list of the four non-daily must listen to podcasts.

1. Major Nelson’s Weekly Podcast – I really like the fact that he is willing to come to us on a weekly basis and give us an inside look at what is happening in Xbox news and in Redmond, WA (Microsoft’s headquarters).
2. Sarcastic Gamer Red Show – Doc, Lono and Dave are really awesome to listen too and they always keep me interested and listening.
3. Hubblecast – I am a space fanatic. And the Hubble Telescope is one of the finest/greatest inventions (in terms of space) ever. I love looking and downloading the images from there. Their podcast is also very informative about space.
4. Sarcastic Gamer Humpday Update – Short, sweet and to the point. I like it!

There you have it! I wish I could say that my lists are sexier, but I think that they are good and solid choices.

Air Fresheners

I couldn’t think of anything else to write today, and I know my wife hates it when I don’t post anything, so I will list my top four must listen to on a daily basis podcasts and in the order that I listen to them. Why four, you ask? Well, there are only four that come out on a daily basis. For that reason, I will list the four non-daily must listen to podcasts tomorrow (unless something else pops up).

1. Buzz Out Loud – I really have a love/hate relationship with this podcast. I love some episodes and all the tech information that I get, but I hate the way that they sometimes go on and on with their inside jokes. Otherwise it’s a really good show.
2. WRVA Q94 Podcast – WRVA Q94 is a local radio station that has one of the best programs on it. The War of the Roses program is F***ing hilarious. Basically, it involves a single person in a relationship. And this person thinks that their significant other is having an affair. The radio DJ’s call up the allegedly cheating person and offer the (usually) guy a free dozen roses to be sent to whomever they want. When they pick the person they have cheated with, the (usually) woman goes off on him and they are caught. It’s awesome, not because they are cheating, but because of their reactions.
3. Talkin’ Cowboys – Yes, I am a Dallas Cowboys fan. Just go ahead and mock me, everyone else does. Anyway, this is the one and only source of information that isn’t completely biased (i.e. ESPN) against the Cowboys.
4. The Lunch Break – My only other source of non-biased Cowboys podcast. If it wasn’t for these two podcasts, I wouldn’t have any faith in my one and only favorite sports team. Not just football, all of sports.

There you have it!

Burned Out

Does anyone get burned out at something that they continuously do? I think I am approaching that level. I think I am getting burned out at being married...just kidding, honey! No, I think that I am getting burned out at silly twitter posts. I think from now on, I'll just send the occasional message over twitter and save my real posts for this blog.

The 1 Day Weekend

This weekend was everything that I thought it would be...busy and tiring (and not in a good way). It started off with a movie with friends (Ben and his fiancé) that I rather enjoyed. “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” was a delight. Simon Pegg was funny as all get out, but it was Megan Fox in a see through dress (and later in the movie her underwear) that stole the show for me. Ben and Tina later alluded me to the fact that the man in the film, who was British (Ben is also British), was pretty accurate, even their selection of strippers...you know what I’m talking about, Ben! On another funny note, me and the wife ran into my wife’s sister at the theater. She saw us there and asked us if we were stalking her. I responded, “Yes, we invite our friends to go stalking.”

Anyway, the next day (Saturday) was the day that things got crazy. The wife and I woke up at around 9:30 in the morning and were supposed to be on the road to nowhere. Well, we got ready and my sister arrived at our house. It turned out that we didn’t leave Richmond until around noon, which meant that we wouldn’t be getting to nowhere until 3 in the afternoon. It wasn’t a bad trip there, but it wasn’t that fun either. Once we got there, we were forced to sit around and wait for things to happen. We were at my grandmother’s house but we were supposed to stay at my aunt’s house. As we find out, my aunt is out at a charity event for the Altavista fire department and wont be home until late, so me and the wife have to wait and watch the grass grow! HOW BORING!!! Finally at around 7pm, we get so tired of waiting that we just go to her house anyway and risk waiting longer. It turns out that that was a good move because she had just gotten home five minutes before we got there. We watched a couple of movies and then went to bed (that was the most enjoyment that we had all weekend in Gretna/Altavista).

The next morning, after a very uncomfortable sleep, the wife and I woke-up and leisurely got ready for my grandmothers party. We tried to delay our getting there until after it started to avoid getting hooked into doing anything. We succeeded in one way and failed in another. Within three minutes of us arriving at the party, I was asked to take pictures on someone else’s camera, and the wife was asked to lead the party in singing “Happy Birthday.” At least we succeeded in showing up after the party started.

At around 3 pm, the wife and I left the party to go to Powhatan to have dinner with the wife’s family. We arrived at 5:20 perfect time for me to watch the rest of the Cowboys game. We ate dinner, and talked and at around 8 pm we left and headed for home. We didn’t get home from our trip until 9:20. All in all, our weekend kind of melted into a very long road trip. I am looking forward to resting next weekend.

Journey to the Center of Nowhere

The wife and I are leaving town this weekend (Saturday morning) to sit in a house in the woods and do nothing...that's right, I'm going to visit my Grandmother and my extended family. Now, let me say that I love my extended family, but I don't know how they live in the sticks. It's one thing to not have a Target, but it's another to be reduced to dial-up internet...if that. But it's not a question of wanting to go, I don't have a choice. My grandmother is turning 95, and if I don't go, I might as well tell the family I want to be a woman. So, this weekend, it's over the water and through the trees to grandmothers abode we go.

On another note, my house was put back on the market yesterday. The housing situation has gotten a lot better since we took it down. Four of the five houses in our neighborhood have sold and the house we really like is still available. So, wish us luck.

The Day I Turned 30

I am now finally able to tell you about the events that occurred on my birthday, September 25, 2008. It was a blast (after I got off work).

The day started off okay as I got up in the morning and kissed my wife goodbye. She said to me, “I hope you have a happy birthday.” I looked her in the eye, and said, “You too...wait! I mean have a nice day honey.” I’ve gotten so used to her saying “Have a good day” that it’s become automatic for me to just say “You too.” Next thing you know, I’ll be saying “Ditto.”

Work was just so-so. Only two people said anything to me, my good friend Nate (who I’ve been friends with high school). Another person asked me how it felt to be a Geezer. Being part of Geezer Gamers, I looked at him and said, “I’ve been a Geezer for a couple of years now, and I don’t feel any different.” I smiled and left their office. But no one else in the office even mentioned it. Not a word from ANYONE! I’m afraid to ask if they didn’t know or that they didn’t care.

When I got home, my wife immediately took me to one of her favorite restaurants: Hooters. I didn’t mind at all. In fact, it’s becoming quite the tradition. For the third year in a row, we’ve gone there. That’s how comfortable we are in our marriage. I don’t mind her ordering boneless chicken hot wings, and she doesn’t mind when I tip 40%. Anyway, dinner was fun. At one point, I pointed out a waitress and swore up and down that I went to high school with her. Then I admitted that she was probably too young for that, and my darling of a wife said, “You got that right” followed quickly by “I didn’t mean it!” For the rest of the night, she was trying to take that comment back (in fact, on the way home, she said I was handsome. I looked are her and said, “Thanks honey, but that doesn’t absolve you of that earlier comment) but the damage had been done, and I felt REALLY old at that time.

We got home and my final birthday gift from my wife was waiting for me: a night of nothing but pure, unadulterated Xbox 360 playing time! I felt kind of naughty when my wife asked me what I was doing and I said, “Making the piñata’s $#%^!”

As I look back at the past week, so far being 30 years old isn’t as bad as people made it out to be. An acquaintance of mine from my past once told me that the day you turn 30, everything starts to fail. Well, he was wrong. Next year though...well that might be a different story.

So Busy

I have been SO busy at work the past two days that I haven't had much time to put out a full post, but I have managed to find time to edit the next podcast and that should be up sometime today. I do want to let you know of what happened on my birthday, but I don't know if I will get a chance in the next couple of days. If I do get it down on paper, I'll be sure to post it.

Dear Jane Letter Part 2

It’s hard to judge someone when you know them, but we all do it. And often times it’s really hard to say “I told you so” to someone you like as a person and you want to continue a dialogue with, but...

Dear Jane: I told you so!

Last July, Jane Wells of CNBC’s Funny Business posted something on her blog about how the PS3 will win the console because her son wanted one and traded in his Xbox 360. Link. I went off on her. Link. I then had her on Geezer Radio and apologized for my rude comments. Link. Well, perhaps the final chapter in this interesting saga has finished. Link.

She made some interesting points and I’d like to talk about them. In her lessons learned section, she said:
1-the gaming experience is more than a few games and cool graphics.
I can agree with this completely. Let me list every game that I have purchased this year. Rainbow Six Vegas 1 & 2, Guitar Hero 2 & 3, GTA IV, Viva Pinata: TiP, and will be getting Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2, and Fable 2. What do these titles all have in common? Multiplayer (mp). Not one of them is solely a single player game. The one game that I considered to purchase that didn’t have mp was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, but as the game came nearer to release, it was discovered that it just had too many bugs and it wasn’t worth putting up with since you couldn’t play with friends.
I really think that the one thing that has completely changed my perception of gaming are my friends on Xbox Live (XBL). If I had to choose between a sole single player game with AWESOME graphics, and a multiplayer game with decent graphics, I would choose the mp game in a heartbeat just in case my friends get the same game and I can play with them. Great graphics pale in comparison.
Something else in that sentence: few games. The reason the PS3 is not the console of hard-core gamers is because of the lack of games. The PS3 has some cool games coming down the pipe, but they are 3 to 4 years in development and the ones announced in 2005 have still yet to come out. The reason for this is the processor that can create those cool graphics, takes forever to create code for. It’s just BAD.

2-repeatedly doing trade-ins at Game Stop is a money losing proposition.
Sad and Bad. A sad fact that is GameStop. And a bad lesson to learn by doing something like this.

3-PC games like World of Warcraft can actually MAKE you money.
Are you sure? How many months was he spending $15 to $20 to keep the account going?

4-don't talk to your mother about these things.
Being 30-years-old, that’s something I don’t do.

In closing, let me ask you this, Jane. Now who’s going to win the console war? I couldn’t find the answer in your article. Does your son switching back mean the 360 is going win the console war? Is this “ultimate proof”? Did you know that the 360 outsold the PS3 in August by 10,000 units? Did you know that Microsoft (so take this for what it is) is reporting that 360’s are “FLYING” off the shelves? Anyway, it looks like the console war not over yet.

Next SkypeCast

I just wanted to let everyone who reads my blog (yes, both of you) that the next SkypeCast is scheduled for next Monday (9/29) at 9 pm EST over Skype. We will be discussing the recent Halo 3 news. Please, if you can make it, I would love to hear from you. If you need my Skype Id, send me a PM through GeezerGamers and I will send it to you. I hope to talk to you there!

New Halo Campaign Experience

One of these day's someone will have to explain why Halo 3 announcements happen on September 25th of all days. I know that Halo 3 was released last year on this day, but did they ever consider my feelings? I mean it's my birthday and they are overshadowing it with their announcement of a new campaign part of Halo 3. With that narcissistic rant out of the way, OMFG!!! I loved Halo 3's campaign and loved the 4-player co-op so I am VERY hyped about new campaign for the game...if that is what it is.

Link

And just to let you know, I'm not really narcissistic, I just think the world should revolve around me!! ;~)

Just In Case...

You didn't know, a new Episode of Geezer Radio is ready for everyone to download.

Didn't Mean It

When I said "I do hope that King Wulfgar will not mistake our conversation on Thursday for what it actually was: a friendly debate and that I agree to disagree." I really meant to say: I do hope that King Wulfgar will take our conversation on Thursday for what it actually was: a friendly debate and that I agree to disagree.

For one reason or another, I can't type today. And that was a BIG typo!

Doomsday, Congrat's, Politics, Podcasts

Doomsday
First, let’s get this out of the way so that my worried wife will rest better tonight. The world will not end before my 30th birthday. The Large Hadron Collider that could potentially destroy the world is offline and will be for two months. So, doomsday has been postponed.

Congrat's!
I hope that King Wulfgar and his wife are doing well after their baby was born on 9/21! Congratulations! Here is a link to his post.

Politics
Last Thursday, I think that in the middle of a spirited debate some feelings may have gotten hurt, and by that I mean that the person I was talking with (King Wulfgar) and I came to the conclusion that we do not see eye to eye on the state of our economy. Now, normally I don’t talk politics for just this reason. But I would like to say a couple things in hopes of mending that broken fence. First, I think that two people should be able to disagree on a subject and still have a spirited debate. Two, I think that two people can and SHOULD agree to disagree when they reach an impasse. Not everyone will agree 100% of the time and that is the whole fundamental purpose of the First Amendment. Third, I shouldn’t have started talking about politics in the first place because religion, politics and the economy are three things that garner most of the ill when debate becomes an argument.

That being said, I will be voting on character and not promises. I think the economy will recover (I don’t know how to run’s the United States economy, but I do know that there is someone in a position higher than me that does and I have to trust that they know what they are doing. What else can I do about it at this point, anyway?) And that is all I have to say about that!

I do hope that King Wulfgar will not mistake our conversation on Thursday for what it actually was: a friendly debate and that I agree to disagree.

Podcast
Spark and I recorded a podcast and I will hopefully be putting it up online sometime today for everyone to listen too and download.

So Cute

Last weekend was a GREAT weekend. My wife, the wonderful, beautiful, hot, sexy and outstandingly outstanding, JedisPadme, planned a surprise birthday party that was a 90% shock. I knew that something was going on because she wasn't acting in a way that made me suspect something was up. But, I was completely shocked to arrive at my sisters house to be surrounded by my friends and family. I think close to 20 people were there, including but not limited to: SparkStalker and his wife, Nate H and his wife, Ben M and his fiance, Mildred the woman I adopted as a mother and her husband, my mother, my sister and her husband, Julie J, who I've been friends with since I was 3-years-old and my grandmother-in-law and grandfather-in-law. We had a fun time joking and laughing and having a fun time trying to get the dogs to play fetch with complete strangers. Ben was having a heck of a time trying to getting Alex (my sisters older child [Dog]) not only fetch the ball, but bring it back to him.

We ate hamburgers and hot dogs, with beans and potato salad. I was outside joking with my friends from work and social life, my wife, then opened the patio door to ask me whether I wanted to eat cake next or open presents. Now, I was taught that you always eat first and open presents last. So, I said, "Cake." And no, the cake was not a lie. My wife said okay and closed the door. Less then a minute later, my wife opened the door and said, "Let's open presents next." With a confused, but accepting face, I said, "Yes, dear!" Spark looked at me and said, "Good job. Don't ask, just agree. First lesson in marriage." So I opened my presents, and then we actually did have cake and ice cream. Overall, I had one of the best birthday's I have ever had and I can't thank everyone who attended enough.

The next day (yesterday), I sorted out my gifts and put things together. One of my gifts was a statue of Boba Fett, my favorite character in Star Wars. I thought that it came put together, but I was wrong. Once I finished putting it together, it looked like this. I showed it too my wife and she squealed and said, "How cute!" HOW CUTE!?!? (Rolling my eyes) Anyway, with my favorite sports team improving to 3-0 with a big win yesterday, it was perhaps the best birthday weekend in a LONG time.

Freaking Out

Why is everyone freaking out about the economy? I just don’t understand it. It’s been a long time coming, and it’s not the first time that we have had a financial market crisis. Do we not remember the Enron scandal? How about the first day the Stock Market opened after 9/11/01? What about Black Monday? Every time something “horrible” happens, people panic and the stock market goes down. Does anyone know what happens after every one of those incidents?

THE MARKET AND ECONOMY RECOVERS!

I just don’t see why people right now are selling their stocks in a panic. And just because the stock market is going down, doesn’t mean that the economy is in trouble. My mother and I have close to 35 years combined in the investment/banking industry, and the one absolute fact that every time there is a financial crisis, our economy recovers. But people don’t see that.

What they see is the financial managers (I’m talking about the investment managers that manage mutual funds) holding all those individual stocks in their mutual funds selling those stocks and everyone says, “OMG! I have to sell before my paper gain becomes a paper loss and when the sell, their paper loss (a loss only on paper) becomes an actual loss and they blame the economy for loosing money on their premature sell.

The media is the one to blame for over-hyping this “crisis” just the same way that they over-hype the price of gas in the summer months. I recall one outlet (I don’t remember who) predicting that gas will go to $7.00 a gallon...the closest it came to that was $4.05. That’s $2.95 off from their prediction. And there was a reason that I never mentioned the price of gas on my blog...that reason, I didn’t want to fuel the fire (no pun intended).

So this is a message to all those people panicking out there: GET OVER IT! IT WILL RECOVER!

Ahoy!

Arrgh!

The Nature of Politics

I don’t understand why I am caring about this issue, so please hear me out and let me explain myself before jumping on my back. But before you read the full post, please follow the link. LINK... Now, let’s begin.

What do celebrities and politicians have in common? No privacy. Now, I understand the concept that people want to know juicy details about famous people’s lives, but come on. Celebrities deserve some kind of privacy. Politicians deserve privacy but for reasons, don’t get it. Now this thing about Gov. Palin’s Yahoo e-mail account being hacked has me on both sides of the issue.

On one hand, I think that Gov. Palin should have the freedom to send out private e-mails to family and friends. If she used a government e-mail account to send out personal e-mails, people would be calling for her head. So, what does she do? She gets a yahoo account and sends them from there. I send out private e-mails through my Gmail account from work and one time it was about a job offer (which I turned down). Is what she did so different? Private pictures of her family were exposed. That, to me, is unacceptable. What if that e-mail account didn’t have anything wrong in it at all? That would be a complete and total invasion of privacy! And it is.

On the flip side, it appears that she did government business from that same account. What kind of business is still not known by me at the time of writing this, so I’ll reserve judgment, but is this a crime? Is this something that should disqualify her as a Vice President? Well, that remains to be seen, but I doubt it.

Another question we should be asking is: should we even know about this? McCain supporters would say no. Obama supporters would say yes. I don’t know who I’m voting for, but I will say that I am glad this leaked out. My reasoning for saying that is that even if we like the Governor from Alaska, we have a right to know if an elected official that could hold the second most powerful office in America is capable of doing something illegal.

With all that is at stake in a presidential election, things like this happen. On the one hand I’m glad it leaked out so that I can see what she is REALLY like. On the other hand, doesn’t she deserve any privacy at all (especially in regards to her personal family photos)?

I hope that nothing harsh comes from this and that the authorities look into this matter with the full weight of the Justice Department (and I think it is). And if anyone in Obama’s campaign is responsible for this, then he has officially lost my vote, because what was done is ILLEGAL!

Other political outrage for today:
Lindsey Lohan is getting political and then get's turned down by Obama’s campaign. A plus for Obama in my eyes. She said on her blog, “According to this Associated Press story, the church of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is hosting a kind of conference devoted to the "conversion of Gays" -- no kidding.” Where was her outrage when Sen. Obama’s pastor said disparaging things? Listen, Miss Lesbian Lohan, stop telling me how to hate someone for being a part of a political party that you’d never vote for.

It’s The Character, Stupid

I was talking with the King yesterday, when I expressed my opinion about who I was voting for this election, and something that I have been saying for weeks now, became even more evident in my eyes. So, I thought that I would share it with you.

So much is made every election cycle of who can do what for the average American. Promising to lower taxes is a big one and both Presidential candidates have already done that while mentioning that they will not cut government spending and in Obama’s case, promising every special interest group that he will continue to spend or in some cases start spending money on them. I ask this of both candidates: How can you do that while lowering taxes?

If all it takes to get elected is to make promises that someone doesn’t intend to keep, even I could run for President...hey wait, I can do that too!

I promise to lower taxes. I promise to bring the troops home. I promise to be bi-partisan. I promise to bring America together.

You know what...I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States of AmeriLies. My running mate will be my wife! Try to impeach her character, I dare you! Her character is unimpeachable (unless you mention her cooking).

The real thing that people should be looking for in the candidates is Character (hence the title). I am so tired of slinging mud (Obama’s lipstick on a pig comment comes to mind) and hearing the other side point fingers. I am also tired of the promises. I would love to hear one of them say, “You know, I can’t promise you that things will get better and you’ll get more money in your pocket, but I’ll do my best to make your life better.”

I also don’t want a president who will do something because a poll says he should (Bill Clinton, I’m looking at you). Isn’t that the same as making a promise? I think it is. No, I would rather have a president do something very unpopular because he absolutely believes what he is doing is the right thing (here’s to you, G.W.B.). That takes character. And character is what I am voting for!

Need Sleep

Tomorrow, I will be making a post about Star Wars. Today...I'm sleeping.

I Heart Football

I love professional Football. I love it so much in fact that I somehow manage to convince my wife that I NEED the NFL package from DirecTV. So far, I have been successful in getting for the second straight year. Yesterday, though, I didn't watch a single game. I turned on my 360 at 1:30, and played Viva Pinata until 7. Is that wrong of me? Well, not really. You see, my one and only favorite team of ANY sport is actually playing tonight against a division rival, so the way I see it. I haven't missed a thing! But I do wonder, would the games have turned out differently if I had watched them? (...twilight zone moment?...)

Fantasy DVR

I had a unique experience last night. SparkStalker, his wife, my wife and I all went out to dinner and Spark picked the place. As it turned out, the place we went to was a Caribbean eatery, named Fantasy Island, that apparently had some of the best and ONLY Caribbean style food in Richmond. When I first arrived, with the ball and chain in tow, I marveled at the place. It was fashioned in the style of a little hole in the wall that the wife and I encountered in St. Maartin on our honeymoon. They had a bar, numerous tables, a stage with wicker leaves rounding the top and about 5 LCD TV's that had live looped (I think) scene's of Caribbean beaches. It was a great, and small atmosphere and for that place, it worked.

Spark and his wife had yet to arrive when the wife and I got there, so I sat down in the front and just waited. I was asked whether I wanted to be seated several times, but instead of being annoying, they were very nice about it. Once Spark arrived the four of us got seated and we were handed menu's. Now, I have never been to a Caribbean style restaurant, so I wasn't quite sure what I wanted, but for appetizers we ordered something that escapes my mind at the moment, and some fried Calamari. Now, I must say that the Calamari was THE BEST I have ever had in Richmond. While we were eating the Calamari, the bartender came over and asked me how it was. When I told him it was the best I've had, he beamed said, "Thanks. That's what I wanted to hear" and walked off. I didn't think too much about it, but later was told by our waiter that that was the owner and he liked hearing things like that.

I ended up ordering Jamaican Mahi Mahi which tasted FANTASTIC. Unfortunately, I also ordered a side salad, and that wasn't delivered until after the main course, but in the long run I didn't mind because up until then everything had been perfect. I will say that the Pina Colada wasn't that strong or that good, but that was the only negative. After dinner, the fun started.

Karaoke is something that I tend not to do. Not because I hate getting up in front of public, but because I can sing just about as good as Mili Vanili. Anyway, my wife LOVES to do karaoke, especially Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive". Well, the good news was that my wife got to do karaoke. The bad news was that we had to go through four others (two okay, two bad). (As an aside, the second person to go onstage sang song that I don't know the name, but it started off, "Short people..." When that song started I looked directly at Spark and he said, "Shut UP!" The inside joke was that he's 5'4" and I'm 6'4".) Anyway, my wife got up on the stage and rocked the joint! She did a FANTASTIC job doing "I Will Survive". I was so proud of her!

Overall, my experience at Fantasy Island was 9 1/2 stars out of 10. I loved it and will probably be going there again in the future.

Well, we paid our bills, and left for the night. Me and my wife then went to another store, which we promptly left when my wife HAD to get home. So, we left and I gunned the engine and rushed home. As soon as we got there, my wife grabbed my keys from my hands and ran to the door. I casually collected our left over dinner, pound of sugar that I picked up from the grocery story and casually got out of my can and walked to the door. By the time that I got to the front, my wife was putting the key in the door. But wait...it get's better! As soon as the door opened she rushed through, and once she was past the door, she started to close it...with me still in the middle of the door frame. The door hit me squarely on the forehead and nearly knocked me backwards. My wife, who was in a hurry, casually said over her shoulder, "I'm sorry honey, but I have to check something."

So let's summarize...

Speed home risking accident and a speeding ticket, had the keys snatched out of my hands for no reason, had the door shut on my forehead all because she needed to check something. What was so important that she need to check immediately? The DVR!

Day of Rememberance

I would like to say that instead of reading this blog today, please take the time to have a moment of silence for the people that lost their lives seven years ago.

Thank you.

Another Day...

Another insult to Sarah Palin and her candidacy...

And the response...

Playing Together

My wife and I played Viva Pinata last night together for the first time. I went to the trouble of transferring all my saved game data, profile and controller to her 360 and what do I get for my trouble? Within 2 minutes of playing in my garden, she sold one of my two Preztails!

But in reality, local co-op for VP:TiP is not fun. If it were split screen and not shared screen, then it would be okay.

New Person to Dislike

I have a new person to dislike. His name: Russell Brand. If you (are one of the two that) follow my blog on a regular basis, you'll remember last week's post about how I'm now energized by the Vice President pick of Sarah Palin. Also in that post, I mentioned that I absolutely hated how celebrities went into a public forum and announced how their choice was the right one, well, Russell Brand did it on Sunday.

At the MTV VMA's, Russell Brand went off into a tirade about how bad the past eight years have been in the United States and that we should elect Obama to right the wrong. Well, first of all, who knows that Obama would be better? Second, Russell go back to Hampstead, you former heroin addict, sex addict and alcoholic! THIS ISN'T EVEN YOUR COUNTRY! You live in a monarchy and you call us evil? If you want to rant about how bad the past eight years are, please tell it to the cops that arrested you all 11 times! If he were a US citizen, then fine, your opinion counts. I thought we went to war against England so we wouldn't have to listen to those people! (Sorry Ben)

This is exactly what I talked about before. Someone with the morals of a squirrel is telling me how to vote. No. That's not how it's done. Go on Meet the Press and then talk about why you think the way you do. Or converse with me in a calm and polite debate. I like those.

And even if you are a US Citizen, please, leave you politics OFF the stage and microphone. I don't want to hear it, and I'm not going to listen to you. Had I been watching the VMA's I would have turned it off almost immediately after hearing that.

Otherwise Shut Up!

Geezer Radio Explination

I just wanted to let all of you know that Geezer Radio Episode 10 was posted over the weekend. If you get a chance download it and let us know any feedback. Thanks.

Football is Back

It's that time of the year again! Yep, it's FOOTBALL TIME! I want to know, who's your favorite team?

Here we go...

Let me preface this next post with I am not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat. I’m not even an Independent.

I used to love politics and in a way that only the obsessed could understand. I used to follow the news very, very closely and debate the issues with the “miss-informed”. But this election, I couldn’t help but feel un-inspired for just about everything. From the candidates to the issues...I just didn’t care. Nothing and I do mean nothing has inspired me to care. Why? Because neither of the candidates for president have caught my attention as someone who will be a good president. They both have made promises, but what presidential candidate hasn’t? I don’t care if I can have 3 apples instead of 2 in the new administration. My question is who has the better character? Again, I was stumped by the two presidential candidates.

But when the VP picks because official, my thoughts on this years election has changed. Now, let me again say, I am not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat. For one reason or another, I can’t explain it or understand it at this moment, John McCain picking Sarah Palin as his running mate has energized me and made me want to pay attention. I had never heard of her until last week, and now I can’t get enough of learning about who she is and what she stands for. But for some reason, everyone is attacking her.

These kind of attacks put me off. I don’t get it. What is so threatening about a female vice president? I would think that in today's society that they would see that as breaking a barrier. In 2004, Hollywood celebrities tried to tell me and the world that their morals where the morals of America. So, they were in effect telling me that people who drive drunk repeatedly, snort cocaine, and marry 5 times are the morals of every person in the US. Those aren’t my morals. So when someone calls Sarah Palin a MILF instead of the Governor she is, that insults me and puts me off the candidate they say is all that and a bag of chips.

These days, though, I hate politics.

Extra Life

Sarcastic Gamers is now looking for a group of individuals to play for a full 24 hours for charity. Here is a link to their site. Please go there and if this is something you might be interested in as a Geezer Gamer, please go here to sign up. It’s for a good cause and I think that it will help. I don’t think that I’ll be in town for that day, and I’m sure I don’t have the stamina to play all 24 hours. But this is a good cause and I beg for someone to please sign up and lead Geezer Gamers for charity!

Long Live Pinata!

(In my best Wayne and Garth imitation) "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!"

No Podcast Tonight

Spark is sick and won't be able to do it. (Insert sad face here)...

New Geezer Radio Tomorrow....Hopefully

Spark and I were going to get together last night to do an episode of Geezer Radio, but we felt that we needed one more day to find out is someone wanted to be interviewed for Geezer Radio that night. It didn't work out for this week, but we decided to get it done tonight and forgot the interview for this one. Don't worry, a special interview from a person from HIGH-UP in Geezer Land will be doing an interview with us soon...can't tell you when (because...not even we know)...but soon.

Cruise Ship Day 5, 6 and the Trip Home

...Opportunity knocked on my door...literally! It turned out to be mo grandfather-in-law and my mother. They were worried about me because they couldn’t find me. Of course there was nothing wrong with me, I was trying to SLEEP!!! I was perfectly fine!!! Anyway, my mother came by to tell me that she had paid for a hop-on/hop-off tour for the both of us and that I could take a relaxing tour of Halifax and wouldn’t have to worry about exhausting myself. That was good enough for me. I grabbed my sunglasses, wallet and camera and I was on my way!

Halifax if beautiful and a wonderful place to visit. For a bit of history, please visit the following links:
Titanic
Halifax Explosion
Citadel Hill
I do have to say, though, that Canada should never be allowed to become part of the United States for one very good reason...Canada is the exact opposite of the US and that is what makes Canada/Halifax so beautiful!

I have a friend, and fellow Geezer that lives in Halifax, and I was so hoping on visiting him since I was in town. The Friday before I left, I sent him a message over XBL and told him I would be there soon. I then turned off my laptop and packed it away. What I didn’t know was that he sent me his phone number and told me to call him when I docked. Not knowing this and not having internet on the ship, I arrived in Halifax and didn’t call him...I felt so bad when I checked my messages when I got back from my trip on Saturday. I sent him an apology, and he responded to me saying he hoped that I had a great time, but not being able to hear him say that to me, I can’t tell if he forgives me, or understood. If you read this NTI Admiral, please know that I’m sorry I missed that message.

Okay, when I got back from my trip, the wife still hadn’t come back from her trip, so I went back to the Lido Deck and lay out on the deck to catch a few rays. The rest of the day finished fine with the usual stop by the casino and then dinner and then bed. (I don’t think I mentioned this before, but our dinner started at 8:15 every night, and by the time we finished dinner, it was 10:30 pm.)

Friday was amusing and relaxing! The day started out with the wife and I relaxing in the hot tube for three hours off and on. It was a nice a cool day and that is why I didn’t put on any sun-tan lotion and that is the reason why I completely burnt my shoulders. Finally, my mother, her mother and father, her brother and I headed for our rooms to get ready for something (I can’t remember what) when they announced that there would be a contest for people 16-years-old or higher. The contest was: Who can slide down the slide the fastest. My wife, being the young and energetic woman she is, jumped up and down and said “I want to win!”

I turned to my mother and said, “She’s going to get 20+ seconds, I guarantee it!” My mother, being the polite and loving mother-in-law that she is said, “Be nice!” Then the contest started. I don’t know how many exactly that there were, maybe 25 people, but prior to her slide, the fastest time was 13 seconds. The slowest time, three people before my wife, was clocked at 20 seconds.

Then they announced her name. It was time. Here is how I saw it happen. They announced for her to slide and she hopped on the slide and they said, “3...2...1...go!” I had been counting for the other contestants so I decided that I would count for her. When I got to ten, I expected to see her coming around the final turn but there was no sign, so I continued to count. When I got to 20 I started to wonder. When I got to thirty, I stopped counting. Finally, I saw her head as she started to come around the final turn. She wasn’t going that fast, and I thought, “Oh, Lord! This can’t be happening.”

She finally turned the last corner and we could all see her pushing her way down the final part of the ramp. When she finally hit the water at the end, the announcer came on and said, “Good news, John, *******, has knocked you out of last place with a time of 41 seconds!” Everyone in our group started laughing hysterically, including my wife. A few more people went on and finally finished a couple minutes after that. The announcer came back on and said that they had two winners. Jason at 13 seconds and Padme at 41 seconds! They gave my wife a prize for coming in last place. I was so happy to hear that. We actually cheered her as she went up to get her prize.

The last night on the ship was kind of mix of good things/bad things. We had to pack and have our bags put outside of our cabin by 11 pm, so I had to pack after dinner. As soon as that finished though, I, alone, went down to the casino and watched people play black-jack. I think that’s the one thing that I do actually regret, not playing black-jack at any point on the cruise. Oh, well, I’m not even 30, so I’m sure I’ll get the chance to play sometime in the future.

The next morning, was a blur of the same hurry up and wait that plagued the trip from NYC to the cruise ship, but in reverse. This time I was on the cruise ship, trying to get to NYC via customs, and then getting a cab to Penn Station and then taking a leisurely train trip from NYC back to Richmond.

Cruise Ship Day 2, 3, and 4

Day 2 of the cruise was something that I am not normally accustomed to: relaxing and having someone waiting on me. It was an odd feeling. I didn’t really feel that comfortable, because I was in unfamiliar territory but I tried my hardest to relax. I sat on the deck of the ship, in the shade and just looked out at the surrounding water. It sure was a new experience. I had never been on a boat for more than an hour and now, it had been nearly a full day at sea. It wasn’t a bad feeling, just different.

Anyway, the first full day on the ship consisted to just laying around and doing what I could to stay hydrated and not hungry. They played island music the entire trip and it was kind of relaxing to hear the horribly covered Bob Marley songs. Since it was a big ship and cell phones didn’t work 100% of the time, I had to keep track of the family by keeping an eye out and constantly looking around. Often times, the wife and I could go a couple of hours of looking for but not finding anyone else in our family. With that in mind, you’ll understand when I say that that day, my wife continuously popped into and out of my life. Let’s just say that, with the exception of a little gambling in the Casino and dinner, not much happened on our first full day at sea.

But let’s focus on dinner. Tuesday was the Captain’s Dinner, which meant that you had to be wearing a suit and tie in order to attend. This night ticked me off more than any other night. Not because I had to dress up for the occasion, but because every three steps, a crew member from the ship stopped me and the wife and proceeded to take ten to eleven pictures of us in our “funeral wear”. It was annoying and my legs were throbbing after the 10+ miles that I walked in NYC and the cruise ship. By the time dinner rolled around, I was nearly too tired to EAT!!!

Me and the wife so wanted to create a baby that night, but I was way too tired and she had a headache. It wasn’t pretty.

The next day, though was our first stop on our six day cruise: Saint John, New Brunswick. Prior to the trip, my father-in-law and brother-in-law and I each signed up for a beer tasting tour so that we could get liquored up in Canada. It turned out though that instead of touring local pubs, we ended up taking a tour of Saint John that ended at a pub where we had one drink each. After that, the three of us ended up walking around Saint John and getting a good overview of the place. Just to give you an idea of how small the town was, Saint John reminded me more of Lynchburg, VA than Richmond, VA. It was small, but beautiful town.

That night was mostly the same activities, such as visiting the casino, and then dinner and then sleep. This turned out to be a good thing, because on the next day, the wife and I awoke to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Halifax is perhaps one of the most beautiful places in the world that my eyes have seen. It was just a shame that I was too tired and too sick to enjoy it.

I love my in-laws. They are the nicest group of people I could have blessed to have as in-laws...but they don’t have a working comprehension of how to take vacations. This is vacation on my family: rest all day, party all night. This is vacation on her family: go here, do that, rest all night and do it all over again the next day. When they go to a new city, they see EVERYTHING they can see in one day. Good for them, bad for me, because (as it turned out on this trip) after two days of walking EVERYWHERE, I was too tired to enjoy myself the rest of the trip.

Me and the wife did disembark from the ship and visit the shops in the hanger, but that was as far as I went. With that said, while the wife and everyone else in my family toured Halifax, I returned to the ship and really relaxed for the first time all week. I ate some ice cream, stared at women in bikinis and then went back to my cabin for an all day Law and Order marathon. At around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, my eyes started to fade and I was just entering that half-way state of sleep and consciousness when...

Tomorrow I will continue and finish the saga of Vacation 1138: Too Tired Too Have Fun.