An Upside to Kittens

I suppose an upside to this kitten situation is that I am up at the ass-crack of dawn most mornings (at least, I have been since Sunday). Thus it gives me time to think about posting.

Not that I've had a lack of things to discuss; oh no, there's plenty to talk about from the LA Lakers finally making it back to the NBA Finals, to the presidential campaign, WiiViews, and what I've been up to, I've never really been lacking things to discuss. Rather, I've never had either the a)time, or b)motivation to post.

But I have plans. Grand ones, at that. Well, at least a little. But before I take on anything ambitious I have to prove to myself that I can keep at least a little blog updated regularly, so I'm trying once again. Honestly, the more often I have found myself not posting, the more impressed I am by people like The Reva who post so damn frequently! It's not easy!

So what's this post about? Nothing, really. Just sorta rambling. But ok, I'll talk about something. Let's talk about the 2nd best thing to happen to TV recently (the first, of course, being How I Met Your Mother): American Gladiators.

Damn Straight.

This show is awesome for so many reasons. First of all, check out their Wiki page, it's just full of good info. But I love nearly everything about this show, from the (awful! - and I mean awful) clished dialogue to Titan's mullet, to Wolf's teeth and taunt, to Helg's deep voice, to Jet and tiny little Rocket winning. It's just freaking cool. Like, retro cool, but not in a it's-only-cool-'cause-we-feel-nostalgia way. In a wow-it's-retro-and-I-like it! way. I find myself rooting for the Gladiators pretty regularly, only picking a contestant during the Eliminator when there are no Gladiators.

If you enjoyed the original AG, you will also enjoy this one. It's really just a fun show, a neat competition with really cool events and Gladiators that they try - sometimes too hard - to give some personality too.

Oh wait. One thing I forgot: Layla Ali sucks. There; I had to say it.

Everything else rocks!

A Day Late and a Short Post

I promised some people that I would post on June 1st.

Sorry I'm late.

And sad to say that this will be a (very) short post.

But both are for good reasons: Namely, we picked up a stray cat. A kitten, actually. I know, I know. I'm not a cat person, per se. But this (way too damn adorable for my good) kitten showed up on our front porch (almost literally) Sunday morning, so what was I to do? Give it to a shelter that would kill it? I couldn't do that, and so we took it in.

*sigh*

I'm not complaining; it is a cute kitty, and we named it Roxie. It just takes a lot of work. I'll post pictures soon.

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Yeah, that's "soon" relative to my posting schedue, not, you know, what most people consider soon. I'll shoot for this weekend at the latest.

Post New-Year's Update

I know, I know, I've already had a mixed bag on my resolutions. But you know, two steps forward, one step back, right? If you want my MySpace page updated, give me an idear for a song; that's what is preventing me from doing that. Anyway, I've had several requests for different types of postings, but I'll start with video games because, really, they're the important part. So here are my first 2008 WiiViews:

Boogie: Have I talked about this game before? I played it so long ago, and it was so... lackluster, I can't remember. The singing part is ok, the dancing part is really annoying; but mixing them becomes massively dumb.
Carnival Games: Have you ever played a game that was too realistic? If not, try this. This game surprisingly emulates the actual feel of carnival-style games (Ring Toss, knocking clowns down, etc.) including how incredibly boring those games are. To me, this game sufferred from what so many Wii games suffer from: Too much emphasis on the new motion-sensor controller, not enough attention to actual gameplay. WiiPlay is a better party game than this by far.
Chicken Shoot: When I first got the Wii, I thought to myself "I bet shooting games will be great on this system!" Maybe, but certainly not this game. Chicken Shoot has no plot, no characters, no variety. There are chickens, you shoot them for points. Occasionally, they throw eggs at you. OOOO!! Exciting!! (Please not sarcasm). To borrow a TMQ-style item: In hell, Wii's are everywhere, but the only game is Chicken Shoot.
Mario Party 8: Finally, finally, a good game! Ok, maybe I'm suffering from the "soft bigotry of low expectations," but still, MP8 isn't that bad of a game. The mini-games are varied enough (and there are enough of them) that you aren't just doing the same thing over and over, but it's not too complicated. The boards range from very enjoyable to wierd to downright stupid. I definitely think I benefit from not having played many Mario Party games before this though. Overall, it's a great game for parties, but (due to AI cheating) gets less so the fewer people that play.

I have more (lots more), but that will do for now. Additionally, Brandy (the no-longer-new-girlfriend) is TOTALLY AWESOME and got me an X-Box 360 for Christmas, so expect some reviews for that as well (once I play some games other than Rock Band). I also have plans to talk about the over-performing Lakers and underwhelming political landscape, but now I have to get back to work.

Resolutions

My New Year's Resolutions:

1. Blog more (at least once a week is my goal; a more realistic certainty is every other week).

2. Update my MySpace page once a month (I'm just not motivated to update it right now, but
before the end of the week I will!).

3. Eat healthier (a low bar for me to clear, to be certain).

4. Master Hard level on Rock Band (damn Orange button!!)

5. Be more social.

I'll let everyone know how these things come along...

Speaking of Fires

Of course, my thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost their lives and/or houses to the recent onslaught of fires in SoCal. The smell of fire and smoke has permeated most of southern california this week, and that smell always reminds me of two things:

Wineries and campfires.

So.... on with the stories!

My senior year of high school I picked up a weekend job doing menial tasks at a local winery (for those unfamiliar to the Temecula area, there are about 15-20 wineries there, of varying quality). And by "menial" I mean really menial tasks: Watering plants, labeling wine bottles, stocking shelves, etc. It was seriously me and what I am sure were, uh, "undocumented workers" doing a bunch of random crap. One time I was asked to go out onto the property (probably around 10-15 acres, if not more) and count how many dead vines there were in each row. Like I said, menial.

Anyway, on very, very lucky days during the winter, I was in charge of The Burn Pile. So on those days instead of coming into work around 9 or 10am, I would show up around 5 or 6, and we would gather all the dead vines, grass clippings, and anything else combustible and burn them. I was in charge of maintaining a good sized bonfire. Ahh, good times. As any good Boy Scout does, I love fire and I love burning things; and I got paid to do it! Really, that's the only thing missing from my job nowadays: Burning shit.

Now, on my summer vacations in high school, I would attempt to escape the smoltering heat of the Temecula Valley by fleeing to the moutnains, where I worked at a Scout Camp in Running Springs (to see how Camp Helendade faired during these fires, go here). One thing we would do at the camp is retire flags. Most people know that to retire a flag you "burn it," but it's not quite that simple (nor is it complex, really). The idea is that, yes, you burn a flag to retire it, but you do so with respect and solemnity, remembering what the flag stands for. So, on closing nights every week, our camp would hold a small ceremony, inviting retired and active duty military persons to join us as we retired several flags on our camp fires.

The other important rule of flag retiring is that you MUST let the fire on which you retire the flag die out naturally. That means you can't just douse the flame once you are done with your ceremony. So as anyone familiar with camp fires can attest, fires can take a long time to die out. And so it was with these fires. As such, several members of the staff would sit down at the campfire until the early hours of the morning talking, laughing, drinking Jack Daniels and telling stories until the fires had finally died. Those summers were some of the best times of my life.

*sigh* Damn, I miss those days.

So those are the two memories that have been on the forefront of my mind this past week, as all these fires have been burning.

Fear Not, Fires Have Avoided Me

Well friends, I know I haven't posted much, but thankfully that isn't because of fires. I spent some time in West Virginia a few weeks ago for a funeral and while I really (really) would never want to live in that state, it is very pretty and I woulnd't mind visiting it more. Or maybe I should just go visit the Appalachain's in general, so I can go look at coolio rocks!

And then Brandy took me away for a romantic weekend. Admittedly, it wasn't very far "away," but it was an incredibly fun, surprising and memorable weekend (with more miniature golfing and bowling included!) that I think we both needed.

So, as always, distractions keep me away. And they continue to pile on; for last night I took on what will certainly be a huge distraction from this here blog: I created a fantasy basketball team.

Scary, huh?

I haven't drafted yet (and I'm doing the easiest version of drafting - not the live draft), but this is my first fantasy sport team and I'm a little scared/nervous/excited. If anyone has thoughts or suggestions, let me know.

I'll be back soon (I hope!), but for now - Lunch!

"Frequent" is a Subjective Term

Yeah, yeah, I know I suck at this. I have some thoughts on why my posting has been so poor of late; I will get to that later. For now, the updates on my life.

• Work goes well. I'm starting to tell the difference between the different types of dirt that I see. Oh, how all of you poor fools miss out. You see a pile of dirt and think "wow, that is really uninteresting dirt." I see it and think: "Wow, that is a sandy silt with few (<5%)>
• The Reva will be proud of this one: I've started watching How I Met Your Mother. I stopped watching sit-coms (and most TV as well) when I shipped off to college a few years back, and hadn't gotten back into the spirit of watching them again until very recently. HIMYM is quickly approaching my favorite show, although it has stiff competition, mostly from Two & a Half Men, but also from another show that is a guilty pleasure of mine that I will not mention here lest I get mocked incessantly.
• My mom had been out visiting the past two weeks. I wish I could say I spent a lot of time with her, but due to other circumstances (see lower post) she had to leave early, cutting short our visiting time.
• Over on National Review Online this weekend has been Star Trek Weekend. They have some interesting articles up. The sum of it is that Star Trek was liberal, Star Wars is conservative. Except for TOS, which is more of a Kennedy-liberal, which in today's poltical climate is practically fascist. Some good reads. (I would provide a link to said article, but that website isn't working at the moment. bah!)
• In Transformers news, the DVD for the AWESOME MOVIE is slated to be out October 19th, so go pre-order people! The second movie is now scheduled to be released Summer 2009. I'm excited!
• The first Lakers exhibition game is October 9. Who wants bets as to whether the Lakers make the playoffs this year?

So Brandy noted her corruption due to me a while back and I would also like to note that I, too, have been corrupted. For the first time in 24 years on this planet I am excited about a playoff series in a sport other than Basketball. And I can name nearly all the Anaheim Angels starters. And I've been watching football like I care about it! It's definitely wierd, but in a good way. I've started reading TMQ over at ESPN and am getting about half the references. But I'm determined to keep learning about these sports which aren't basketball.

Finally, I have much to say about the style of my blogging, why I haven't done much recently, what I plan on doing to change that, and all that good stuff. But it will have to wait for another post.

On a Personal Note

My grandmother's taken very ill this weekend; all of your thoughts and prayers are appreciated for her, my mother and the whole family.

What to Post?

Whenever I'm at work I think of things that I should blog about; then, when I have a moment, like now, and I can blog, I can't remember any of it.

*Sigh*

Oh well. Maybe next time I'll remember.

Mea Culpa

Sorry folks, moving destroyed my blogging abilities. I'll try to be back on track now.

So, what's all the new deals? Well, first, Colton: Yeah, this is where I live now. Everyone (meaning my mother and Brandy) thinks that Colton/San Bernardino is some horrible ghetto. Now, Brandy's excusable, she's lived here her whole life; she doesn't know any better. But my mom? Come on! Do you remember Berkeley? Like, at all? People's Park ring any bell to you? There's just no way that Colton is worse than Telegraph Avenue. And while yes, there are some parts of San Bernardino I wouldn't want to be in late at night, it's still much, much better than Oakland. To me, that's obvious.

The new job: it's... different. Whereas before I was hitting rocks with a sledge hammer, now I'm... looking at dirt. Seriously. I'm drilling holes in the ground and looking at the sand (or silt!) that comes out. There's a huge learning curve that I'm trying to overcome, but I'm making progress. It is definitely interesting, and I like the geology involved. So far, so good there!

Did I mention Transformers kicks ass? I did? Well, it's worth repeating. The new Transformers movie is totally badass.

My parents have finally made the move to North Carolina. They (and the dogs) made it out there in one piece. Apparently it's hot there in August. Like, really hot and humid.

I love my apartment. It's not fantastic or anything, I just like it; maybe because it's mine.

For my friends who read OOTS (who should be everyone, it's a great webcomic), beware, spoilers ahead:
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So outside of killing Roy, which continues a proud tradition of killing my favorite characters in a show/series/novel, etc. I read the second prequel book "Start of Darkness." It is, of course, extremely well written. It's not quite as funny as the others, mostly because it is far more sad. It has a definite "Episode 3" feel to me, and solidies Redcloak as my favorite (living) character. When/if Roy is ressurrected I'll be quite distressed as to who my favorite is. Meanwhile, I would kick Xycon in the balls... if he had any.
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Not much else new going on here. I'll try to be better at updating; can't promise everything though. I'm thinking of revamping my website as well, focusing on reviewing X-Men comics. Again though, no promises. If you're in Colton of course, feel free to call and check out my place!