For once this isn't about me, but more about my parents.

In celebration of my parent's 30th Anniversary, they decided to leave me for the tropical shores of Hawaii. The left this past Saturday and managed to break a vase-thing and wake me up at 4 in the morning to let me know about the broken whatchamacallit. Considering that my Night Owlness kept me up well past 2:30, I wasn't too happy about being woken up when I had heard the vase-thing break 5 minutes earlier. Anyway, I'm getting a little off track with the story here.

The flight over to Honolulu went rather well and I'm pretty sure the 80 degree weather is a blessing compared to my 20-30 degree weather right now. The very next day my Dad, who's an early riser, decided to walk on over to grab a newspaper when he encountered a downward slope in the walkway. Not thinking anything about it my Dad walked down it and slipped and fell. That part of the walkway was as slick as ice apparently. My Dad's not terribly old, he's 60 but looks like he's 40, and a fall isn't that big of a thing. Except of course when your kneecap ends up in your quads. He ended up tearing his tendon. As painful as it sounds, they initially though he dislocated the kneecap. Now whichever sounds more painful to you, dislocation is a more dangerous injury as it endangers the arteries in the leg around that area. Luckily it was a torn tendon, unlucky that it happened at all.

He's had his surgery already and they're unsure when they're going to head back. It was just supposed to be a week vacation (why does that remind me of Gilligan's Ilse?) and they may have to stay a little longer to allow the tendon and the muscles around the kneecap heal. My Dad's alright even though he won't be able to bend his knee for quite awhile and will draw the ire of our cat (who needs to be up at 6 AM to be fed every morning).

Plus my sister's cat is also worried.


Worried Cat is worried.

My sister is going to kill me.

This may be a tad bit late, but I had a nice short Thanksgiving. Well maybe not nice.

Due to my work schedule and how JC Penney's won't really allow Holidays off, I had to wait two weeks prior to Thanksgiving to find out I had the day off. Thankfully I was given the day off and could have a holiday, albeit a short one. I had to work on both Wednesday and the Hell that is Black Friday. To make matters worse, I came down with a pretty bad head cold a couple days before this whole fiasco began. Oh, did I mention I had to get on a plane?

Thanksgiving every year for the past four years now has been in California. The whole family travels out there for a nice get together and feasting of the turkeys and ham and stuffing. It would have been great, but like I said before, I was sick. So here's what my holiday looked like.

Wednesday
The day started out with me getting almost no sleep and heading into work at 9:30. Five hours later I'm on my way to the airport for my 5:13 flight coughing and sneezing along the way. The flight over to Denver wasn't too bad. Nice and short. However, the flight to San Jose was complete hell. There is nothing worse than feeling all the small capillaries in your head start to burst as your head gathers pressure from congestion and from being a pressurized tube with wings in the air. It got so bad that I could almost no longer hear anything out of my right ear (no it didn't burst but came close). San Jose wasn't the final destination for the day, and I managed to finally get into a bed well after midnight.

Thursday
Thanksgiving should be a great day, but when you're sick, bad right ear, and you have to leave early the next day, it kinda destroys the mood of turkey eating. It was a great day otherwise. The food was fantastic and it was great to see and talk with relatives. I really enjoy being around my family when we're all together, and I wish I could have stayed longer. Sadly work beckoned.

Friday
I somewhat fretted as to what would happen to my ear which was getting a little better on the flights. It ended up that the exact opposite happened upon taking off from San Jose. While on the way in my ear got plugged up and an intense pain settled in as I lost hearing (like placing a mute over a trumpet). Yet as we took off, the pressure started to be relieved. If you don't know what it sounds like when your ears release pressure, well it sounds like the popping of miniature bubble wrap. Unfortunately the popping also brought an itching sensation inside my mouth. Not the most pleasant feeling let me tell you. I ended up getting home around 1 and was out the door to work for a good 7 and 1/2 hours at 4.

What a great three days, eh?

I'm just going to let some of my friends tackle the joys of playing AC2.

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JD pops AC2 into the 360 and quickly finds a groups of guards to fight.

Stun bomb.

Knife wound.

Knife wound.

Knife wound.

Knife wound.

Ah there seems to be a mess here. Let me - oh ****ing hell! I was mugged.

Chase after thief.

Catch thief.

Watch thief plea for mercy.

Laugh at the thief and poison him.

Watch the thief go insane as the poison reaches his nervous system.

Return to the battle scene.

Time to clean this mess up.

Locate the nearest hay bale.

Toss bodies into bale.

There. No battle took place.

Paul leans over to whisper into Yagr's ear.

"Is there a reason JD narrates while he plays the game?"

"Not really. But we do only have one TV and a ****load of popcorn. So I say we enjoy it while it lasts."

"Claymore to the freaking head," JD narrates.

"I love it when he does that," Yagr mentioned in between mouth fulls.

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In a word or two, AC2 is freaking awesome.

Imagine a Bostonian accent when reading the above .

So I just happened to have my camera ready when I got some nice pics of the weather here.



I don't know about you, but lightning is awesome.



And it snowed a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't snow here too often, but when it does it has me excited. I mean c'mon, snow is sweet. You can hit people with projectiles. Unfortunately the snow melted a few hours later .

So I received this in an email from my Dad and thought I'd share. I did not write any of this, and neither did my Dad. But it's fun nonetheless.

anonymous wrote:

International Pun Contest The ability to make and understand puns is considered to be the highest level of language development. Here are the 10 first place winners in the International Pun Contest: 1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger." 2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, "Dam!" 3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too. 4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, "I've lost my electron." The other says, "Are you sure?" The first replies "Yes, I'm positive." 5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication. 6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?", they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer." 7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain ; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal." 8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars. 9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet.. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis. 10. And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did

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So what'd you guys think?

I'm sorry, but ever since I saw the latest Trident Gum commercial, the one featuring Trident Layers, I can't stop watching it. It's so corny/creepy that it's hilarious.

Check it out.

I'm not too sure why, but ever since I saw a Glee episode a couple of weeks back, I can't seem to get a certain song out of my head. It also doesn't help that XBLA released a certain game that seems to keep this song plastered in my head.

So what the hell am I talking about?

It's Bust-A-Move.

The long running arcade puzzles series starring those two dinos Bub and Bob of Bubble Bobble fame tasked with breaking colored shells much in the same way most puzzle games from Japan feature. But where does the song come in?

Way back when Young MC created a song called "Bust a Move," and recently it was covered by the highly addictive and fantastic show Glee. Now I can't not play Bust A Move without "Bust a Move" playing in my head.

Having a hard time picturing the two together? Take a look and try to imagine.

Glee's "Bust a Move" cover.

Bust A Move gameplay, yet not the XBLA game, but it works better in this context.

Yeah. I have a problem.

Yesterday kicked off the start of the 09-10 NBA season. Today I'm writing the preview for said started season. Yeah. I'm slightly late.

Preseason saw a number of teams bulk up in terms of great additions. San Antonio, the Lakers, Boston, Cleveland, and Orlando each upgraded and enter the season as the elite five teams. Denver, Utah, and Detroit fall into the next three top teams. The rest of the league is full of questions about consistency.

So who am I picking to win the entire thing?

San Antonio! Why? Because I friggin' say so .

Anyways, there are a couple of teams that are going to improve this year.

Washington will almost certainly, unless their entire starting lineup gets injured like last year, win more than 19 games. With a healthy Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, along with new coach Flip Saunders, the Wizards could make the playoffs this year. Also, how about the youth and potential in OK City? While I'm not saying these guys are going to make the playoffs, they'll be battling in every game and improve in wins off the previous year. A shallow roster and a rough West will keep them from making the playoffs this year.

Also, I can't seem to get enough of DeJuan Blair. He dropped through the first round of the draft and fell into the thankful laps of the Spurs, who decided to pick him with their first pick almost a quarter of the way through the second round. Blair is a beast on the boards. Why the hell did anyone let him drop that far and let San Antonio grab him? Just like Glen Davis, Blair will be the sleeper pick of the year.

Finally, the Cavs are 0-2 to start this year off. Don't panic Cleveland fans! It's just the start of the season. Lebron will not let his team fall to 0-5. That's almost impossible. They're going to go though a growing period to adjust to the pros and cons of Shaq on the floor. Cleveland will be back near the top of the East in no time.

I think the last time I picked the Spurs to win, I was way off. Eh. Second time's a charm.

Aside from my lame excuse of trying to make the title of this blog sound and look Latin, let me tell you what's been going on lately.

I managed to grab a wireless adapter for by 360. About time really, and thanks to horseyjesse for letting me know about how much cheaper it was online at amazon. Managed to save almost $25. I placed the order on Wednesday and was surprised to see it arrive yesterday. So now I can finally play online.

I also picked up Borderlands. So if anyone wants to play, just let out a shout and I'll try to make it considering both my work schedule and sleep schedule, and Amazing Race schedule .

Finally, somehow I got signed up for Delta Skymiles. Not sure how or why, but I am now a member. The last time I flew on Delta was...three years ago? Something around that time. So yeah. Maybe someone's telling me I should fly to Cincinnati (which is a Delta hub for some odd and insane reason). Or maybe they're desperate. Either way, I got signed up for free! Free stuff is awesome!

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Work is going to keep me busy what with 80 hours the next two weeks. It's a massive paycheck, but still. Six days, 80 hours of dealing with people's problems. Oh joy. But you gotta love it when an old lady calls in pissed off that she didn't realize she needed to order a size larger in bras and decided to rant about how poor the J.C. Penney Corporation is to me for ten minutes. She also mentioned that the pictures of models wearing bras in the catalogs was misleading. Yes. Misleading was her choice of words.

On a serious note, I do believe she was frustrated due to time passing her by. She was confused by using the internet and the change in technology in ordering nowadays. I saw this in her refusal in me helping her in anyway to address the matter. Oh well, at least it wasn't a prank call which I received earlier that day.

I've been tagged. Now I have to make a list of ten facts about me, interesting or not. So here we go.

1). Probably something that not a whole lot of people know, but I was born overseas in Thailand. Unfortunately I don't have dual citizenship, the Thai government doesn't have that rule. Before anyone asks, no I can't speak any other languages. Sorry. Although that does lead to some interesting situations, both hilarious and frightening.

2). Somewhat connected with #1 above, the longest time I've lived in one area is seven years, with all seven being in Thailand. Every other place that I've lived has consistently been going downhill, with 6 1/2 in Indonesia, 6 in Illinois, 4 1/2 in Oxford/Cincinnati, and now 10 months here in New Mexico. I seem to be a modern day nomad of sorts.

3). One of my major pet peeves is hearing people mispronounce words that shouldn't. Examples include merlot, Illinois, and Nissan. Yes, people have mispronounced those words, and they seem to be from Texas (no offense). So if I hear any of you mispronounce a word that clearly shouldn't, then I'm going to find you and smack you. Damnit, the ****ing t in merlot is silent! As is the ****ing s in Illinois. How can people in Ohio mess that up? ****ing hell.

4). I'm a pacer. In other words I like moving around to think. I walk circles around the house to help clear my mind. I even do this while I'm on the phone. Helps me think and be more active. Otherwise I might fall asleep on you .

5). I seem to only fall asleep the fastest when I'm on a surface that moves. That is, I have an easier time seeing the Sandman in planes, trains, and automobiles than I do in a bed. Don't know why, but it works that way.

6). I have OCD in which I can't step on crack in the floor or sidewalk. I try to avoid cracks whenever I can. I also apparently have OCD in the way I eat, as in I eat one type of food before the other. All the peas, then rice, then the meat. No mixing. But that's only due to the fact that it pisses off one of my friends and I do it on purpose.

7). I am a visual learner. If I can see it happening in process, then I can probably do it. This includes sports, LEGO building, drawing, and anything else actually. If you were to give it to me in writing, I wouldn't be able to copy it as well.

. I'm a person of dual natures. Not two personalities, but I often argue with myself almost everyday. It's both a good and bad trait of being a Gemini. Yet it often means I'll be staring at a game, movie, or book for ten minutes wondering if I'm going to buy it or not.

9). When it comes to media, I will almost always prefer to watch/read/play something that's set in a science fiction universe. I love being able to see a hopeful future, or even a future where we're not stuck on this planet for eternity.

10). I love planes. I travel a lot mainly by flying. As such, I've grown a love of planes and studying them, whether they be commercial or military. Yet despite my love of planes and my ultimate dream of becoming a pilot, I actually hate it at times.

So there's ten facts about me that I can find. And I have to tag people.

katamari
clownofpoetry
gbrading
PJ24
telvinostic

Have at it .

Work has been piling on top of me as of late, but I'll try to get on whenever I can, and when I'm not playing Batman Arkham Asylum. Heh, Batman AA is an unbelievable game where for once you actually feel like the Dark Knight. Aside from all the other Batman games which featured Batman beating up enemies a la Final Fight, but a whole lot worse. Developers somewhat forgot that Batman just doesn't walk down streets placing the beat down on thugs, robots, and villains. It just didn't work that way. Batman researches his opponents, strikes from the dark, and is human when it comes to bullets. And this is what Arkham Asylum does so well. Sure there are areas where you have to battle a lot of henchmen, but there are areas where you have to take it slower and plan out your moves to avoid being riddled with bullets. All in all, Batman Arkham Asylum is a perfect Batman game. Plus it has the great voice actors from the Animated Series (including Mark Hamil!).

I've been going a little crazy grabbing all the achievements for that game. Addicting achievement hunting can be. Also frustrating if you know what I mean. But hopefully I should be back with more witty blogs about anything that piques my interest.

Speaking of work, I recently got promoted to a new position, with the key part being I make more money, but get to deal with customers who just plain ol' suck. It's never fun to deal with people's problems, even so when they try to twist your words or they don't listen/read anything. Because reading is fun kids. It's how you get ahead in life. It's also how you understand the fine print of damn ****ing coupons. Not my damn problem you didn't read it. ****ers.

So that's what's been going on lately. Yay! *groans*

These past few weeks I finally got back into the cinemas. I like watching movies and for the longest time there weren't too many out that piqued my interest. But luckily that's changed, and I thought I'd share (and care ) about which movies I'd seen.

Inglorious Basterds

I do realize that Quentin Tarantino is an acquired taste, as his movies are different with most of the action occurring in the dialogue than explosions. I've enjoyed his previous movies, especially Death Proof and Kill Bill (which they're making a third installment or getting ready to or planning to), and Inglorious Basterds is no different. Basterds is told more so like a series of short films that all reach the same thrilling climax at the end. It's told during WWII, and if you're looking for historical accuracy, at least in terms of events, then you're watching the wrong film. What this film is, is fun. Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz are amazing on screen, as are the rest of the actors. Highly recommend.

State of Play

A rental actually. Being a political thriller, and the lack of explosions, State of Play didn't deserve the credit it should. It's a smart film that manages to weave a plot through a couple of twists and turns. It's acted superbly from the cast, and it's another movie that I highly recommend.

Surrogates

Surrogates is a sci fi thriller of sorts that takes a look at a future where a majority of the population decides to use robots (surrogates) to go about their daily lives, thus eliminating any danger to one's self. Yet, a homicide is committed where a user is killed via their surrogate, prompting federal agents into action. While Surrogates is a thriller, the pacing is a little jerky. Where at one point it's moving at a decent pace where you're getting information, and suddenly the plot quickens, a little too fast for my taste. Furthermore, a couple of the character motivations don't make too much sense, or at least not enough information is brought to make sense of it, creating a few questions that aren't needed. Nevertheless, Surrogates is an alright movie with some decent acting thrown into the mix, but fails to capitalize on the great premise.

Zombieland

Zombies are everywhere. Both in the movie and in entertainment. It's hard not to find a zombie movie being produced or even to find one in the bookstore. Heck, they've infected Jane Austen. So what makes Zombieland special? For one, Zombieland doesn't take itself seriously. Sure, it's a zombie movie and zombies do what they do. Eat people and spew blood out their collective mouths. But Zombieland is more of a road trip movie. A road trip through a world decimated by zombies and inhabited by a man on a mission to eat a twinkie. What makes Zombieland a joy to watch is the overall humor and the great characters that are introduced. Two thumbs up from my end. Check it out.

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I've been away from the site for a little while, and I should be coming back a little more in the coming weeks. Been a little distracted on my end of the screen.

So I was purchasing some new tunes from itunes today when I received a nifty Terms of Service notice. I don't usually have that pop up as often, but it was probably due to this being the first purchases since the new version of itunes was released this past week(s). Needless to say, there was a clause in the ToS that had me scratching my head.

What exactly am I talking about? Well take a look:



Check out the sentences in my oh so masterful drawing skills.

How in the world could the purchase of a song off of itunes be used for the production of nuclear weapons or chemical missiles? So that got me thinking. How can a song help in the production of weapons of mass destruction?

The scary thing is, is that everything in ToS's are based on situations that actually happened. Otherwise, why mention them?

I'm going to be up all night thinking this one over.

Steve Nash, the point guard of the Phoenix Suns and a Canadian to boot, has now just made himself into viral video gold!

Captain Canada!

The NBA is the only place where you'll see its stars really doing anything crazy or cooky, like Shaq challenging everyone at everything and Dwight's Superman fantasies. But when it comes to the best, you've got to look towards Nash.

So today marks the arrival of The Lost Symbol the newest book by acclaimed author Dan Brown. So naturally I went out to grab it. Thankfully Borders also gave me a $5-off coupon that I could use and I only ended up spending about $14 for the hardcover that I believe costs around $40 or more (it was already 40% off for Border's card holders). So not that bad overall.

The book itself stars Robert Langdon, Brown's symbol-loving hero, as he treks around Washington D.C. searching for, you guessed it, a closely guarded secret involving symbols! Yeah no surprise what this novel's about. Of course the first two Langdon adventures had him traveling through the maze-like streets of Rome and The Vatican tracing an old Illuminati path, and throughout Paris and England on the chase for the Holy Grail. So it's nice to see an adventure much closer to home, and to a place I actually spent time in. About time Brown. ****er.

Anyway, I've barely begun the story, but so far it's going along at a fine pace and so far doesn't have anything to do with the Church, as the previous two Langdon books had. So no controversy should be coming from that direction. So far that is. I've barely even touched the tip of the iceberg of this thriller. Hopefully The Lost Symbol will live up to The Da Vinci Code or even Deception Point, the latter of which being my favorite book of his. I may or may not go to sleep tonight. Not sure.

Oh and expect this to be made into a movie in the future. Starring probably Tom Hanks (yawn) yet again.

So I was surfing teh interwebs just the other day when I came across a couple of some vids that I decided to share.

The first is probably one of the most impressive trailers/advertisements for a video game I've seen.

Halo 3 ODST in your face apparently.

That video is beyond impressive. If they can't seem to make an actual Halo movie starring Master Chief, then why not create a movie starring those ODST dudes? Also I believe they're speaking Russian in that vid.

Secondly, this other vid is well... unexpected.

The Bird is the Word.

I just have to say, Brian's reaction is perfect for this situation.

This almost sounds like a 50's Sci-Fi movie title, except it actually happened! The horror!

Apparently Saturday mornings are when old women all over the damn country decide they want to order ****. Why can't they just watch cartoons like everyone else and leave us poor souls on the other end of the line alone? Note: I don't hate old women, they're actually nice, yet they're a handful when they either a) can't hear you, b) can't understand my accent, or c) are using a phone from the 18th century.

It's natural to assume that most old people can't hear you, especially true for old women, so I do try to shout/talk slower for them. It doesn't become a hassle until you're basically talking in slow-motion in a deep voice "I aam offering youuu a couuuupooon" "What?" or when you're forced to shout at the top of your lungs for all the world to hear, cept her of course. It's even worse when you figure out they have selective hearing. "I can offer you a program that can save you money" "What? I can't understand what you're saying." *sigh* "You're total is blah blah blah and it will be delivered in yay many days," "Oh okay, so yay many?" "Yay many, yes m'am." "Thank you so much," *click and die a little inside* or "Oh, I don't have a coupon" *several minutes later of slow motion talking* "Oh I have a thing for free shipping (a coupon)" "That's ****ing brilliant"

Every so often you'll come across people with accents. You know, those from the South, North, or Maine. Apparently I have an accent that people can't understand, and need someone else to talk to. Yeah, there may be times when I may switch into an Aussie accent at times, but how can you not understand an accent based on English?

Old people can be nice and they cannot, or won't. At times you'll get the old person who loves to twist your words into something else, not fully listening to the full sentence and picking and choosing what they want to hear (I seem to think a certain political party is doing this right now *rubs chin*). Those are fun, as you have to correct them without saying they're doing what they're doing or calling them names. It's worse when they read something without truly reading it and wanting to sue the company on libel. I say "Go ahead and thank you for wasting a few thousand dollars on the time of the lawyer"

Sometimes I ****ing hate my job. But at other times it's fun. But that's when I can make cities out of candy and/or paper.

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By the way, this is blog #300.

So I'm at work the other day during my lunch break when one of my female coworkers walks back inside after a smoke break when she says something a little cryptic:

"Hey you're going to meet a girl with black hair."

Now, I'm not exactly sure what the hell she means, despite the obvious, and apparently my face showed why. She explains that we talked about it before. I shook my head.

"Well you're going to meet her soon." And leaves.

Now, what the hell? It's not like pretty much all the girls that work there have black hair. Also, I do live in New Mexico, which has a pretty high amount of Hispanic and Native American people around, both of whom traditionally have black hair as well. So you can see my dilemma. Now if she would have said blond hair or red, then I might know who she was talking about. But nope. Now I'm looking at each and every girl wondering, "Are you the girl I'm supposed to meet? I hope you are. Not you though. But you yes."

Just the other day, I headed off to Barnes and Noble to check out the latest releases and read the first few pages of any book that intrigues me (just for samplers sake, I don't sit down in the middle of the aisle reading the entire book like other people I see), when I saw this:



I'm not too sure, but seeing as how I'm in the United States, I'm not sure how Webster's English Dictionary will help me learn another language.

Located just in between the large and small intestines lies the organ known as the appendix in the human body. For centuries, ever since good ol' Darwin first suggested that the appendix was a remnant organ of our ancestors who ate leaves, it was thought that the organ was rather useless, just here to give us appendicitis (1 in 20 people that is suffers this) just to let us know we have one. Scientists and medical doctors agreed and soon were taking these nasty useless organs out of our bodies, as without them, we were fine as well.

Well that is no longer the case!

In a new report, it's stated that the appendix is actually a very useful organ and is suggested to be a safehouse for friendly bacteria whenever we have a terrible time on the can (diarrhea). Past studies have also suggested that the appendix is also a vital training ground for white blood cells as well. But why then do we get appendicitis you may ask? That seems to be caused due a changing in the culture and the improvement of sanitation leading to the appendix overworking and thus inflaming. Or at least that's what they say.

So in other words, Darwin was a little wrong about the appendix. So hail the mighty appendix!