Saturday, September 29, 2007

We're not kidding anyone

We're on the couch tonight and just had this exchange while watching the Chuck pilot on NBC.

Me: I dunno, I'm just not buying her (female lead Yvonne Strzechowski - a woman in desperate need of a stage name) as hot. She's cute and all, but I'm not sold.

The Girl: She's cute and I guess she's got a body to die for... Do you know what I'd give to have a body like that?

Me: (Sensing a great deal of danger in a question that loaded.) Ummm... No, what?

The Girl: Well, anything except for the time and effort to actually work out enough to have a body like that.

Me: Oh my God, I'm so blogging that. Can I blog that?

The Girl: Go right ahead.

At the very least, we'll have a marriage based on honesty.

(Image from Yahoo! TV)

Thursday, September 27, 2007

What a dumbass

While most guys have incriminating videos from their bachelor parties that involve booze, strippers or stealing pieces of a national landmark, I have this.

Running straight into a wall at top speed in a bumper car after blowing a wide open layup.

Keep an eye out for flashes of my natural ability as an athlete. If you blink, you'll miss it.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Eyes of the Storm

Thanks to the ever-valuable Poynter.org, I heard about this video mid-week, but was given the heads up that with a 25 minute running time, I'd need to make time to watch it.

It was worth every second.

Two years later the New Orleans Times-Picayune photo staff sat down to talk about what they felt about the storm and primarily its aftermath, as well as a wide range of moral questions they were faced with as they made their way through the city in the weeks that followed.

This is one very honest piece, right down to the reactions the photographers received from people, which is the really bizarre reaction to cameras when they're not on a crowd's terms.

There's not much to say beyond that - take the 25 minutes with your coffee some morning and watch this. It's very well done and brings all sorts of new issues to the surface that aren't getting any national attention at this point.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

The deer, nature's worker's comp claim

I'm not sure if this was compiled in Milwaukee or if their mascot is just really, really clumsy, but nothing beats a mascot doing a faceplant.

Over and over again...

Sunday, September 09, 2007

The big question when I fly

When I was little, my family flew to Florida for a conference my dad had in Orlando and I can remember reading a travel guide about the area over and over again before we left on the trip.

My parents made the mistake of telling my far too early in the process and like any dutiful nerd, I read and read about the topic until all of my conversations were about air travel, Disney World and the other hallmarks of the greater Orlando area's tourist attractions.

It was my first flight and as it was 1984, the skies were still quite friendly and the stewardess let me run up to the cockpit and meet the pilots. I even got a set of wings from them that I kept for years after the trip.

The pilots showed me all the buttons, levers and knobs that made the plane go and I couldn't have been happier. I would have liked to have been a pilot until I learned that my awful eyesight meant I'd have a hard time becoming a fighter pilot, which was the ticket to the big time of commercial air travel.

Still, I don't remember ever being afraid to fly and while I still have no problem with the flight itself - it's the waiting and uncertainty of times and security procedures that get me now - there is a greater degree of trepidation that I face now flying as an adult.

In all honesty, the first time I got a twinge in my stomach was after I began dating The Girl a few years ago. I suddenly had something very important to lose if something were to go wrong and it was a very real concern for me.

Occasionally, I'll have that flash of consciousness where I realize if my car were to drive off the road or something terrible were to happen that I'd be disappointed because I wasn't done here yet. I take this as a good sign that things are going well in my life and that I'm doing as well or better than I ever have. It's nothing I dwell on, but it's something that's there for all of us.

When I took off on Friday, I tried to process why I suddenly had this feeling at 29 that I didn't have at 6. It boils down to three possibilities:

1.) I'm more conscious as an adult that thing can go wrong, when they go wrong and what those consequences can be.
2.) I do have more to lose now and I'm very aware of that. Outside of my immediate family, there is a wonderful woman, a lifetime of friends and a family which includes in-laws that I love very much that would be deeply impacted if I was gone. Being able to quantify those numbers make things a little more real.
3.) There's still a lot left for me to accomplish in this lifetime and if I had the clock wind down prematurely, I'd be disappointed. Knowing that life is short is hard enough. Knowing that and having lived nearly three decades makes you aware that you need to start checking more things off your big list.

I'll be getting to the airport and on another plane home tomorrow and there won't be a problem with any of that.

It's almost comforting to know that when I get that quick pulse when the front wheels go up tomorrow it'll be for the right reasons. I can only imagine that it's the travel sized version of the adrenaline rush skydivers get.

If it is, I can totally understand why they do it.

(Image from DeltaTravel)

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Master P is at it again

Here's an interesting write up I found on what is pound for pound the best gaming review site on the Internet, Gamespot.com.

Master P and Seth Green's Stoopid Monkey production company are getting together and are pitching a video game. A rap music industry sim. No joke. I suggest Cap a Fool Tycoon if they haven't picked a name yet.

Better than that news is the snarky write up Gamespot gave the announcement - though with Master P, a resume and asset listing is pretty much pure comedy.

Titled Play the Industry, the game is being developed by Stoopid Monkey Productions and ShadowMachine Films, the TV production companies behind the Cartoon Network series Robot Chicken and Moral Orel. The two will partner with P Miller Enterprises, the investment company Master P set up to fund his various nonmusic ventures, which include real estate holdings, a fast food franchise, a sports management firm, and a phone sex line. Master P--real name Percy Miller--has also been giving wealth creation seminars at the Learning Annex.

As for the game itself, Play the Industry will be a hip-hop-themed role-playing game that will see players earn fame and fortune as a musician, professional athlete, or "power broker." "You can play agent, you can play mogul, you play all sorts of different characters," Stoopid Monkey head Matthew Seinrech told the Reporter.


This game has all sorts of possibilities both to be a fun game or to be an unmitigated disaster and thus become a go to punchline for gamers.

For anyone who refuses to believe that this game won't get made, obviously didn't hear about 50 Cent's steaming turd of a game two years ago. Think Kazaam, but for XBox.

(Image from: HipHopArchive.org)