I am putting some people on notice...

I like movies. Most people do...it is a nice way to escape real life for a couple of hours and not think about things. Every once in a while, though, a movie comes along that resets your love for movies. They don't come along very often...I remember being so pissed off at the movie Hannibal that it set me back a couple of years.

Last night, we decided to treat ExplosiveDaughter to a movie at Blockbuster, her choice. We walked out of there with probably the biggest dump of a movie I have ever seen. Seriously, this was the most uninspired schlock I have ever laid eyes upon, but that isn't the worst of it. This movie starred (well, the voices, at least) of several very highly regarded actors, but never, ever, even approached funny, well written, or entertaining. Here are some of the people that are now being put on notice by me:

Tracy Morgan - I love ya in 30 Rock. You are a very, very funny man. But you were completely reduced to a racist cliche in this movie. You were awful.

Jon Favreau - You almost get a pass because of Elf and Iron Man. But you don't, because you know what is good and what isn't. And this wasn't good...and not once, did you step up and say, Hey! I know what makes a good movie, and this isn't it! This sucks! And you should have, and you know it.

Penelope Cruz - You get a free pass on this because I don't think you would know a funny movie if it came and bit you on the ass.

Sam Rockwell - You are better than this...way better than this. You were brilliant in the Green Mile...almost made the movie...you were fantastic in Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You disappointed me thoroughly in this movie. It actually made me sad to see that was you at the end of this movie.

Will Arnett - You aren't that funny anyway...I haven't liked you in pretty much anything. If you weren't married to Amy Poehler, I don't think I would want you in any movies ever.

Zach Galifianakis - Shame, shame, shame on you. You probably had the best chance to influence this movie because you weren't an animated rodent. You were actually in it...and you still failed.

But all of these people pale in comparison to the person who deserves the most amount of criticism, all of it very well deserved, and that would be Hoyt Yeatman. Who is this, you ask? Why, he is the director. This is the man that couldn't get ONE FUNNY LINE out of any of these people, and he was content to do it. Have you ever seen Shrek, Hoyt? Somehow, they were able to make a kid's movie that was funny for both kids and adults. You had freaking Zack G, Tracy M, Jon F., AND the financial backing of Jerry Bruckheimer and this is the pile of goat shit you come up with?

Seriously, if you haven't figured it out, I am talking about G-Force. Please don't say that it was a cute movie....because I can make a cute movie filming an hour and a half of guinea pigs that would be funnier than this. Ugh...I am so disgusted about this movie, because it represents everything that is wrong with the movie industry today. Just throw together some names, and animate it with computers, and it doesn't have to be good! It just has to be able to sell Happy Meals! If we can put a gerbil on a Slurpee cup, the movie is a success!

I hope to all that is sacred you weren't forced to watch this movie...because it was awful. I was actually a little mad at my daughter for picking it out. If there had been ONE funny line in the movie, I might have just shrugged it off...but it was that bad. I would rather have watched Ken Jeong and Jane Lynch do a dramatic reading of War and Peace than watch this movie...seriously.

Actors I am sick of...

The following is a list of people that I am tired of seeing show up in every single thing ever, and why. Warning: The following is a rant, which exempts me from having any logic whatsoever in my logic.

• Ken Jeong - Every time this guy is in anything, he is over the top, and not in a good way. Have you seen Community? Awful...he drags the show down, yet he is featured in every GD episode. Wasn't that funny in The Hangover either. He distracts from the main story line. The best funny people make those around them funny...He just seems to try and make every line in his performance all about how funny he is.
• Jane Lynch - Almost didn't watch Glee just because she is in it. Can't stand her...yet everyone seems to put her on this pedestal like she is the queen of comedy. Note to directors: Just because they are funny at improv doesn't mean they are funny when there is a script.
• Kristen Wiig - ok, you were pretty funny the first couple of seasons that you were on Saturday Night Live...and then Lorne Michaels tried to cram you down the throats of America, and I am sick to death of seeing you in EVERY EFFING SKETCH!!! Gilly is not funny, nor is the lady who tries to one-up everybody. So tired of your shtick. If I were in the audience for SNL and you tried to puke up another Gilly sketch, I would boo you on live television.

This is not an all inclusive list. I plan on adding to it. I just saw a picture of Ken Jeong and it fired me up. I might even do a list of people that I want to see more of on television...ahh??

That gets you interested, doesn't it?

Oh, and I tried to put pictures on the post, but Blogger is retarded in adding pictures to a post. Nice job, boys...way to make it semi-manageable. I don't pay you all this money for a blog to...nevermind.

• 
  

Subtle...

This is a great ad...very subtle. Takes a minute to get what they are saying...it is for lube, btw.

Found at yepyep.com

Lamebook – Facebook Fails, Wins, LOLs and More � No Shit

Lamebook – Facebook Fails, Wins, LOLs and More � No Shit

Lamebook is one of the best sites out there. One of my biggest fears is that one of my Facebook posts will show up on there...

This one kills me.

Good Stuff...

Stumbled...

I stumbled across this song on the radio yesterday.

It is officially the worst song I have ever heard.

TiK ToK @ Yahoo! Video

Religions

Inside Look at Birth of the IPod

Inside Look at Birth of the IPod:

Interesting article about some of the things that coincided with the birth of the iPod. This was especially interesting:

"'There was no discussion of (digital rights management),' Knauss said. 'Their belief was DRM would hurt sales when they rolled out the music store. They specifically wanted no DRM in the original iPod.'"

This is sad: The guy is the same age as me, meaning that he was about 23 when he worked on the original iPod. Sigh...

Hulu - Saturday Night Live: Digital Short: Shy Ronnie

Hulu - Saturday Night Live: Digital Short: Shy Ronnie

Absolutely brilliant. I don't know how these guys continue to come up with the brilliance (The Lonely Island) that they do, but they rarely miss. So funny....

Google Chrome Extensions

Google Chrome Extensions

Extensions are now live for Google Chrome. The final piece to the puzzle has been completed. I now have absolutely no use for Firefox anymore.

Chrome is faster, cleaner, and better. There may be one or two extensions that haven't been ported over yet, but you really have no reason not to switch.

And if you are still using Internet Explorer in ANY capacity, I feel very, very sorry for you. You are missing out on a whole lot of speed that you could be using to do other things. Like read this blog.

Oh yeah...I have to post regularly for you guys to read. My bad.

Go get Chrome. Ditch IE. Please...for the children.

Conservatism...

I really enjoy blogging...but I am way too conservative of a person to say all the things I wish I could say. I have said this before, but I would love to start a blog where I could speak freely...but no one would know it was me. I am too worried that some smart person will follow one detail that I forgot and find out it is me, and I would be embarrassed.

Maybe I will start one...maybe I won't. You will just have to find it on your own.

We played Uno last night for the first time in a long time...that is a great game. I love games that have stood the test of time. I always wonder how long it took them to refine the game just right so it is competitive and fun at the same time. This is also why you don't see a lot of good games being "invented" anymore, because they actually have to allow time to develop.

Cold weather is here...at least the beginnings of it. The only thing I like about cold weather is that I don't get hot under the covers at night. I sleep comfortably during the winter, and not during the summer.

Going to look for a place to host my uncensored blog...

Daily Grind...

• I am usually glad to see cold weather move in for about 2 days. Then I am sick of it.
• At least I am done with outdoor sports for now. Everything is indoors from here on out.
• I deleted my FriendFeed account. I found it to be essentially worthless to me.
• Bought myself a turntable for my birthday this weekend. I have never owned one, and wanted to see what all of the fuss is about. It is an interesting study in my behavior. I like listening to records, but is it because it is on vinyl only? The three records I bought, I already have on MP3. Why is it that because the song is through a needle does it make me want to listen? Does it really sound better?
• I think there is a difference in sound...the low end seems to be much fuller...but is it enough for me to say, "Yeah! That is what I was looking for!"? I don't think so...
• The records I bought were Boston's self titled, Rush's Moving Pictures and Led Zeppelin II. Two of those were made before I was born, and the other when I was 5. I thought that was pretty cool that those albums have stood the test of time.
• The only thing that my kids thought was cool about it is when we changed the speed of the record and it sounded like the chipmunks. They couldn't have cared less about anything else.
• Got some videos sent to me from the old guitarist in my first "real" band. It was so great seeing those old shows, seeing how inexperienced we were back then...the thing is, that the music was really, really good...
• Watching yourself perform publicly at 19 years old makes you feel old quick.
• Back then, I shaved my head very, very close. That wasn't a good look for me. It wasn't until I grew my hair back out that girls started to pay attention to me.
• I remember back then that my only goal was to play Trees...and when we booked a Tuesday night at Trees, we all jumped around and hugged each other, like we had made it.
• I want to say a special thanks to my family for putting up with all of that...we practiced in my Mom's garage (even though I didn't live there anymore) and were really loud...and they put up with it all, so thanks to ExplosiveMom, ExplosiveSisters and ExplosiveBrother.
• I also want to thank ExplosiveWife for putting up with the band stuff for almost a decade. That must have been rough on her, and I appreciate how much she put up with until I decided I was done.
• I still miss the heck out of it sometimes. Blogging just doesn't have the same rush

Small town America

Agh, the joys of a small town. I imagine many small tows struggle with
coming up with front page stories for their local newspaper. But your
front page picture is the high school band? And your big lead story
is that the window service at the post office is going to change?
Might want to consider going to every other day.

Vacation blog

Ok, so I am thinking about putting up some stories from our trip.

Explosivewife is running a 50 mile race this weekend In Amarillo. We
are currently on our way there. We just stopped at a little gas
station on 287 that proclaimed to have "Lean Restrooms". Obviously the
"C" was missing from the sign, butthat didn't stopy genius son from
asking " what is a lean restroom?". Mind you, he is a 13 year old
straight A student.

While waiting for the mens lean restroom, the gentleman that was
occupying it was taking quite some time, so we jumped to the womens
restroom (the place was empty). Upon returning to the car, my lovely
wife asks what took so long. I replied that the guy in the restroom
was giving birth to a baby so we used the other restroom. I jokingly
mentioned that he kept asking fir hot water and towels.

My wife believed me. "really?" she asked.

This is my wife and son. They tend to lack the common sense gene that
most people seem to have. Or don't, I have noticed quite a bit lately.

Sorry if there are typos. I am typing this on my phone as we drive.

Well Hello, Blog!

Hi Blog! How are you?

Lonely.

Porquois?

You have abandoned me.

Moi?

Oui.

Sorry, Blog...my French skills notwithstanding, life has been crazy. I would like to see you keep up with a Blog when you have a son playing football and baseball, a cheerleading daughter, and a wife who goes insane if you are away from her for more than 3o minutes.

But I do have those. I have several sister blogs that are very needy.

BS.

No, seriously! Have you read some of the blogs that are on the side of the page? Take 10 minutes and read the comments on Barry Green's blog...that will make you understand.

My bad, blog...those people are insane. Although I do wish that sometimes I would get crazy commenters on you, because it would give me more to blog about.

Trust me, you don't want that, dude.

Don't dude me. I deserve your respect.

Not when you ignore me for weeks on end.

Touche. Mind if I put down some random thoughts?

Nah...go ahead.

I don't get U2. Never have...probably never will. Worth an occasional listen when on the radio, but I have never owned one U2 album, never put them on the favorites, never listened to them on purpose. They just never have spoken to me like they have with others.

But I am very excited about the new albums from Bowling for Soup and Atreyu. That should give me plenty of listening material for quite some time.

Ordered and Apple TV this week. Hopefully I can get some thoughts up about them.

Received some good feedback when posting the pic above on Twitter. You can follow me...@spoonerstreet

It has been said a thousand times, but I am sick of rain. Sick, sick sick of it!

I actually had a celebrity or two reply back to me on twitter...that is my favorite aspect of it...the pseudo-personal communication with people who two years ago I had no chance of ever interfacing with.

Later, Blog!

Yeah, right. Later...

Daily Grind...

• I need to create a twitter account where no one knows it is me. There are a lot of things that I think people would be interested to read, but in no way do I want those thoughts associated with me.
• I went to see Metallica last night. I can't tell you how happy I was to get to see them again, especially after the new album and with the new bass player.
• I also heard that one of their engineers developed this new cool way to distribute low end at a concert that is supposed to be revolutionary. I will definitely say the sound was good. There is an entire register in my hearing that isn't there this morning.
• Here is a link (warning, really technical stuff here that will bore most people).
• The show was, for lack of a better word, incredible. I can't believe that these guys can put this kind of show at their age, for having done it so long.
• Interesting story from the night: A really drunk guy behind us started putting ketchup and mustard on my buddy's hat, and my other buddy stood up for him. Turns out that they were in the wrong seat, and the AAC upgraded our seats for the trouble. So, I went from sitting in the corner up high to the 15th row, dead center. That was awesome. Thanks, drunk asshole!
• My new Sony Reader is so awesome.
• I am currently reading the Dexter series that inspired the Showtime show. I am glad it just inspired them, because I don't think the books are very good, especially compared to the show.
• I have professed my love for Michael C. Hall before on this here blog, but reading the books to Dexter makes me even more impressed at how he is able to convey emotion in the most subtle way.
• ExplosiveSon is 3-0 on his football team, and he hasn't even touched the ball yet this season. But, I love his attitude, as long as they win, he doesn't care if he does a thing.
• Baseball is really his sport, anyway. He made me proud this weekend by doing very well in his tournament. I was happy to hear him say that he was sad that they didn't get to play more games, and how he wished he was playing baseball right now.
• It has reached the age group where he has to start showing that he can hang with the big boys, and he is starting to show it. I am very happy with that development. Next year, he is eligible to play on the JV team at the high school he will be attending.

Community, Chevy Chase and movie references...

Ok, so I just got finished watching the pilot to the show Community, starring Joel McHale and the legendary Chevy Chase. It was actually pretty funny, and I am looking forward to watching the next one.

Watching the show brought up an interesting thought (or at least I think it is interesting):

Why don't people in shows recognize the people they are acting with?

Let me give you an example from the show.

In the pilot, several students of a community college get together for what they think is a study group for their Spanish class, but it really was a chance for the lead (played by McHale) to get a chance at a date with a pretty girl from class.

He is surprised when several people from class show up, including a former CEO (Chevy Chase).

There is quite a bit of 80's movie references thrown about during the episode, specifically to The Breakfast Club, but to other 80's movies like Meatballs and Stripes.

My question is, if someone in the show has such a great knowledge of 80's movies (including being able to recite perfectly a key line from The Breakfast Club), shouldn't he look over and say, "Holy Crap! You look JUST like Chevy Chase!"? I know that if I was in that room, and a guy who looked just like Chevy Chase walked into that room, that is exactly what I would say.

This has always bugged me when the TV shows and movies cross that 4th wall. If they are going to reference things that aren't supposed to exist in that universe, they need to take it all the way through.

Another example was from an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" last year where they encountered Summer Glau from Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles. They instantly recognized her as someone from the TV show. Therefore, shouldn't she have instantly recognized them as the cast from "The Big Bang Theory"?

All I am saying is that that 4th wall is no longer sacred. You could cause some kind of time vortex that could doom us all.

Toys on Cars (hey, that might be a good band name)

Jurassic Park: "

People of Wal-Mart is a really neat blog. What I don't understand is how they continue to come up with these pictures of cars with toys all over them. I have never seen one of these in my life! Is it because I live in Texas and toys would melt in the sun? Or is this a localized phenomenon?

"

Rainy Grind...

• Good lord, if it doesn't stop raining soon, I think that mass suicides might start happening.
• My dog is going insane being cooped up in the house.
• Went bowling this weekend at the Brunswick lanes in North Richland Hills. When we got there, there were no less than 13 lanes that weren't being used, but we weren't allowed to use those, since they were being "readied" for birthday parties that didn't start for an hour and a half. Nice job on creating false demand for your crappy bowling lanes.
• Ok, I will admit, the Federer between the legs shot was cool...but go to any tennis tournament, no matter what level, and you will see that shot at least once. It was great and all because it was on the big stage, but most people who play tennis regularly can pull that off. I'm just sayin...
• I purchased a Sony E-Reader off of Craigslist last week, and it might be the greatest thing I have ever owned. The best part is that I can "check out" digital books from the Frisco library for 14 days. So far, I haven't spent a dime on books and I have PLENTY to read. It is awesome.
• I just finished Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Great, great read about medieval times, cathedrals, monks and Earls.
• I am currently reading the "Dexter" series, which is what the show is based upon. Good stuff.
• Man, is it great to have football back. Seriously, it might be the happiest day on my calendar to see the first Cowboys' game. (Especially if they win)
• I feel bad for the Rangers. They have done so well this season, and it looks like they are going to fall just short of the playoffs. It kills me.
• On the latest iPhone/iTunes update, you can upload Genius mixes to your phone, which is great. There is also an option that you can check that fills up the remaining space on your phone with music. Great idea, right? Not so much. Unfortunately, it fills up every inch of space, so you can't download any new apps, nothing. I think they need to add a setting so that it always leaves 50 mb or so, so this won't happen.
• I love technology (just like Kip Dynamite), but every once in a while, I am reminded how behind technology a lot of people are. I just had to teach someone how to use their new work-issued iPhone, and she looked at the thing like it had 3 heads and came from Jupiter.
• Speaking of Jupiter, I love me some Martellus Bennett, but he will only be popular if he can perform on a week to week basis. If he starts to screw up, people will be all over him for being unprofessional. Just be careful, MartyB!

X'Zavier Bloodsaw Stats, News, Photos - Texas College Steers - NCAA College Football - ESPN

X'Zavier Bloodsaw Stats, News, Photos - Texas College Steers - NCAA College Football - ESPN

Check out this guy's name: X'Zavier Bloodsaw. Seriously?

New Cowboys Stadium Grind...

I was fortunate enough to secure two tickets to the new Cowboys Stadium for Saturday's pre-season game against the SF 49ers. It was an unbelievable experience, and I am glad I got to go. Here are some quick hit, scattershooting thoughts, a la Barry Green:

• ExplosiveMom did us a HUGE favor and dropped us off and picked us up from the game. She dropped us off just East of Rangers Ballpark, and we walked from there. It was a trek, but not terrible. Luckily, we caught a break and it wasn't that hot.
• The stadium is so big, you think you are close to it. News flash: you are not close to it. Ever. You just keep thinking you are close, and you never quite seem to get there.
• If you plan on going, pay attention to your "Entry Gate". You can't just go into any door you want to, you have to go to the one they tell you. Unfortunately, Entry Gate "G" was on the farthest possible side from where we were dropped off. Fail.
• The video board is indescribable. Seriously, the English language does not have the correct words to describe this thing. It literally took my breath away.
• The floors of the stadium use that kind of coating that makes it look highly polished. It was a nice touch that really gives the stadium that extra bit of shine that make it stand out.
• Barry mentioned the "dance team" that performed just before each half. He was correct that it was like a stripper revue. I am pretty sure that their shorts were designed to encourage camel toe.
• I never would have known this if it wasn't for the video board. Again, this thing is impressive.
• There are still a LOT of problems with the game presentation, specifically that they still lack a constant scoreboard that is easy to see. I didn't find it until the third quarter. I was constantly wondering down and distance and how much was left on the game clock. That should permanently be on the video board.
• Speaking of game presentation, Jody Dean is TERRIBLE as the VOCS (Voice of Cowboys Stadium). This will warrant its own post later.
• Let me put the board into perspective. When they showed a cheerleader on the board, you could tell if she had removed her bellybutton ring. It is that big and that clear. I now know which cheerleaders have moles on which parts of their bodies.
• One of the coolest parts of the video board, obviously, is the replays. What makes it extra special is that you can see things like where Romo's eyes were looking, or you can see Wade Phillips say "dammit" after a holding penalty that costs his team a field goal.
• Lots and lots of crowd shots on the board, but they need to put a little more variety in the sections. I swear, there was one guy who probably had about ten minutes of face time on the board, because they would cut to the same section over and over.
• I am pretty sure there was one section where they wouldn't let you in unless your arm flab jiggled when you waved. They showed that one on the board a few times as well.
• Concession stand situation: Food was ok, but we didn't buy much. During halftime, we waited in line for about 20 minutes for nachos and a Dr. Pepper, while looking over at the "barbecue" concession stand with zero line. Might want to balance those out a bit in the future.
• Another weird thing that I can't decide if I like or not: While we were in line, not 20 feet from the entrance to the seats, we couldn't hear a thing from the game. No cheers, no PA announcements, nothing. Usually, when you are at a game and waiting in line, you can get a decent idea of what is going on by listening to the crowd, but you couldn't hear it at all!
• You have to make yourself watch the game action on the field. Gordo on the Ticket described it best this morning: It has a tractor beam. It keeps pulling you in, over and over again (the video board).
• You can never say again that you don't go to the game because you get a better view on television. Nope. Don't want to ever hear it again.
• However, it is perfectly acceptable to say you can't go because you can't afford it.
• Leg room was more than acceptable. I never felt uncomfortable, with my section totally full.
• One thing that is weird: Not being able to see the other side of the stadium, because of the screen. It is almost like you have that half of the stadium to yourself. It is hard to explain how it feels, but it almost feels like there is a divide and they are at a different game.
• Not one punt came close to the board in this game. I am sticking to my guns: The only way these guys are going to hit the board is if they are trying to do it, and if they are trying to do it, it is a terrible punt that they would get yelled at by their coach if they did in a game.
• They are still working out the volume levels. Music was kind of loud (but not as loud as I heard the first game was), but not overbearing. The commercials sounded pretty good, but the levels still need some work.
• There were a lot of the same complaints about the American Airlines Center when it opened, and they have worked all of those out.
• Did I mention that Jody Dean was awful?
• On our way out of the stadium (with about 4 mins left in the 4th), we were walking by one of the really, really close parking lots. There was a guy there waving us towards the sidewalks. As we were about to walk across the driveway, he stops us with his light to allow the car to go through, which I thought was really odd. Most of the time, the cars stop for the pedestrians, but not this time. I said to him, "You are making US stop? Geez!" and he said, "Hey, I don't make the rules.". So the rules are, let the car plow through pedestrians? I can understand if there was a huge stream of people, but it was me, ExplosiveWife and another couple following behind us. The car would have had to wait for 5 seconds, tops.
• The escalators up to the top sections give you serious vertigo. They are REALLY high up, and you can look over the edge into the abyss. Holding the handrails is highly recommended.

I will say this, though: This place is amazing. Flat out breathtaking. Every single detail seems to be attended to, and the 2011 Super Bowl will be so freaking cool to have here, with the Party Pass concourses and all. Kudos to the designers, architects, and workers who busted their asses getting this thing ready for the season.

Jerry Jones is going to make SO MUCH MONEY off of this thing.

Child’s Estimate of Parents’ IQ

Child’s Estimate of Parents’ IQ: "

God, if this isn't the truth. I must admit, I was guilty of this with my children, but why do all parents think that their child is the most brilliant thing of all time? I ran around telling everyone who would listen that my child's head size was in the 95th percentile. That means her head is big, so her brain is big, so she is smart! I heard a new parent the other day telling everyone that their son was in the 98th percentile in foot size! So effing what!

The new parent always amazes me, and they ALL do this. My nephew, who is the cutest kid on the planet, is suffering through a mild case of this right now with his parents, but his parents are nowhere near as bad as most parents. Just because your kid eats veggies two weeks ahead of schedule does not mean he is going to finally crack the genetic code when he gets older. Let your kid live! Just enjoy that they are there, and savor every moment.

And yes, I am a hypocrite, because I did this too. I will say, though, that it is allowed within the family. Outside of the family, I can guarantee you that no one gives a crap. :)

How Secure Are Your Private Photos?

How Secure Are Your Private Photos?: "

The Found Photos project consists of a collection of private photos which file-sharing users have unknowingly made public when installing P2P software.

The result is a pastiche of modern life upon which you can’t feel at least slighty guilty for intruding:

The Found Photos project started in 2004, while searching for mp3’s using a filesharing program.

After downloading a folder of mp3’s, I came across a folder named ‘pictures’ inside of the album folder, and found a handful of digital camera photos. This made me wonder what else was out there, what people are publicly sharing - after a few quick keyword searches I came across thousands of them publicly shared.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Nick9000.

"

Funny!

Cruefest

A couple weeks ago, a good friend asked if we wanted to accompany them to Superpages.com center (formerly Smirnoff, formerly Starplex) for Cruefest 2, featuring Drowning Pool, Theory of a Deadman, Godsmack and Motley Crue. I immediately agreed, as Godsmack has always been on my list as a must-see band.

So, on Saturday, we packed up a cooler and made our way out to Fair Park to stand for 4 hours. We were out on the lawn, natch, and we found our seats. Unfortunately, we didn't get there until after Drowning Pool was finished, which kind of disappointed me. We found our spot in the lawn, about a quarter of the way up.

Theory of a Deadman

was the first band that we saw, and they were very...average. I really like their album, and they do indeed, rock. They have the title of Nickelback Jr. all sewed up. Give them the trophy.

After TOADM came Godsmack. I have been a big fan of them for quite some time, so this was the band I was most excited to see, and they delivered. Sully is one of the best in the business at putting on a live show, and he didn't disappoint. I will say that I got tired of hearing how "fine" he was from our female companions, but I wasn't paying attention to that. :) The band delivered a fantastic performance, and didn't try to overthink it. They did what they did best, which is to rock.

After about a 40 minute wait, Motley Crue took the stage.

They decided, for some reason, that it would be a good idea to play the entire Dr. Feelgood album from start to finish. I didn't have too much of a problem with that, because that album was really the first one from them that I liked, but they were playing songs that no one has even heard in 20 years, so there were a lot of lulls in the show as people looked at each other and said, "What the hell is this song?". After they played their album, they played most of their big hits, and finished out the show with "Home Sweet Home" and "Girls, Girls, Girls". It was....fun. That is about all I could say. There were no life changing experiences, nothing that made me say, "Wow. Now that is awesome."

I should explain, though. My very first concert I ever went to was Metallica, 1994, Starplex, 17 years old. We were in the lawn, but it was the most amazing, jaw-dropping experience I had ever had up until that point. Metallica played for 3 hours, never let up, and made sure each person in that venue left happy. I couldn't hold my head up because three hours of head banging will do that to a person. It was so loud, so perfect, that it set the bar for all future concerts WAY too high. Since then, there has only been one other concert that I have been to that made me feel remotely close to how that one felt (Green Day, American Idiot tour).

My really, really big complaint is pointed at superpages.com center. Your sound system sucks. No, it blows...frankly, you should be ashamed at that sound system. NEVER should I be able to talk to someone on the lawn in my normal voice while a band is playing. It shouldn't happen. But, that is what happened. I was able to chat with my friend during the bands. I should have to yell. Plus, the sound was so muddy it was hard to tell what song was playing sometimes. My ears weren't ringing...let me repeat that...I went to see Godsmack and Motley Crue, and my ears weren't ringing. That is pathetic.

• Some other observations:
• Vince Neil needs to hang it up. He only sang about half the words that I could tell. His voice sounded OK, but he looked like he was having trouble making it from one side of the stage to the other
• Sully is one of the best in the business.
• Don't bring your 10 year old kids to a rock concert and complain when people are dancing to the music.
• Don't bring your 10 year old to a rock concert, just to see them fall asleep on a blanket.
• Ladies: Wearing the straw cowboy hat with the brim folded down does not make you hot.
• Beer is expensive. Thank you to those who subsidized my buzz for the evening. You know who you are.
• The $16 margaritas contain about 25 cents worth of alcohol in them. You just paid $15.75 for kool-aid.
• I will give the props to the venue for having free parking. God bless you for that.
• You need porta-potties in the parking lot.
• Getting in and out of the venue, both parking and otherwise, was very painless. I was surprised.
• Mick Mars did NOT look well.
• Not a lot of teens there. Guess that really isn't their scene.
• Why do people insist on wearing black concert t-shirts to an outdoor concert in Texas in August?
• Godsmack's drummer might be the most entertaining drummer of all-time to watch. I wish I had brought binoculars.

In 40 years?

In 40 years, do you think that:

• People like me, who are into the social networking thing, are going to say things like "Why can't we just have a conversation over Facebook like in the good ol' days?"
• I will use Twitter?
• MySpace will still exist?
• The Ticket will still be around, bragging that this is their 55th year of Training Camp coverage?
• There will be an iPhone? Will it be the Iphone 8GSwSHMS (8gSpeed with Super Hyper Mega Speed)
• You will hear Metallica played on KLUV (Oldies)?
• Barry Bonds will still be the record holder for career homeruns?
• Google will still reign supreme?

It is scary to me to think that somewhere out there is a mother who is pregnant with the future president of the United States, and she is making choices every single day that could effect how he decides to handle a policy decision in the future. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could trace back our ethos like that, to the point where we know why we feel things the way we do? What if we could yell at our parents for deciding to move to Texas instead of staying in Michigan where you could have been a hockey goalie? Wait, I already do that. :)

Interestingly enough, Twitter and Facebook are kind of helping us do this now. ExplosiveKids will be able to go back to this blog, and my Facebook page, and my Twitter feed to see the kinds of things that I was thinking back in 2009. When it is 2049, my grandkids will look back at this post and say, "What an old fart!".

And then I will yell at them, telling them that back in the good ol' days, we used to have arguments over Facebook like civilized people.

Hidden Creek...Hidden Fees?

For those of you that don't know that much about me, I grew up in Burleson, TX (No, I didn't know Kelly Clarkson, but ExplosiveSisters were in choir with her). Whereas Burleson may not have the greatest reputation of all time (it is somewhat known as a hick town), I really enjoyed growing up there, but it was clear that I had outgrown the town shortly after high school. I still really enjoy going back, which is pretty frequently as ExplosiveFatherInLaw still lives there. Which leads me to my post...

It was suggested that myself, ExplosiveBrotherInLaw, ExplosiveFatherInLaw and my good friend all meet at the Hidden Creek Golf Course, located off of 35-W just south of Burleson. I had never played the course (in fact, I have only played 4-5 rounds of golf in my life), so I was excited about it. Our tee time was at 8:37, and we showed up, paid our $38 a piece, and played our round. I actually shot pretty well, shooting my first ever pars on a course (I got two of 'em!). I only lost about 5 golf balls, which was a personal best for me. You see, I golf lefty, and I also played baseball all of my life. My body just doesn't want to let go of the baseball swing, no matter how hard I try, so I tend to slice it a lot. There is one hole at this course where I-35 is just off the side of the hole, and I was very nervous teeing off at that hole, because I don't want to pay to replace someone's windshield.

But, that is not the point of this post. Before I start, I should preface by saying that it is not the point of this post to rail on Hidden Creek, per se. My beef in general is with the ways that places like Hidden Creek tack on other fees to make up for lost revenue. Not knowing their policy, I showed up with a cooler full of non-alcoholic drinks. I brought the cooler over to the golf cart, and was semi-politely informed by someone on the staff there that I couldn't bring in my own cooler. Ok, kind of miffed, but not enough to put me off, but this is where it gets interesting. I was told that I could go inside and use one of their coolers...weird...I can't use my own, but you will let me use one of yours for free? No problem...I go inside, and posted inside is "THE RULES". I can use one of their coolers for no charge, as long as I purchase FOUR drinks from the snack bar. Cheapest drink? $2.25. So it now costs me $9 to use their free cooler, plus I had to leave my driver's license. At least they didn't charge me for the ice. The odd thing was that I noticed that they had a sign up that said "Need Vaseline? Just ask!". I didn't know what to make of that.

So we set off on our round, $2.25 Powerade's ready to go, and we play golf. When we get to the turn (that is after the 9th hole, halfway through the round, for you non-golfers out there), ExplosiveFatherInLaw decides he is going to go buy a 6 pack of beer. He comes back with 6 Coors Lights in hand and a pained expression on his face. "Everything OK?" "Yeah...they just charged me $18.50 for 6 beers."

$18.50! Are you kidding me!!? So, the Vaseline sign made sense (no, they really didn't have a vaseline sign). Now, I know that Hidden Creek is actually on the cheap end of golf courses, and I don't mean to single them out, because A LOT of places do this kind of stuff to you. They kind of lure you in, and then nickel and dime you to poverty. I also know that our current economic climate dictates that companies do this to you. If American Airlines just rolled the checked bag fee into their ticket prices, no one would buy their tickets for being so expensive.

This is why I LOVE Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, and why I am somewhat afraid of the Rangers getting a new owner. They allow coolers! With your own drinks!! What a concept! Heck, you can stop at Wendy's before the game and bring your own food in! Man, that is a great idea...and even with that, we STILL make a trip to the concession stand for food and drinks, if you can believe it!

If you have your own nickel and dime story, I would love to hear it. Put it in the comments...I need to know which places I need to avoid!

Euless man arrested in possible road rage incident on Texas 114 | Crime and Safety | Star-Telegram.com

Euless man arrested in possible road rage incident on Texas 114 | Crime and Safety | Star-Telegram.com

A Euless man was in jail Thursday after police say he fired a shot at a car on Wednesday afternoon that he claimed had tried to run him off a road.

This is why I go out of my way not to provoke people on the highways. I just have too much fear that this is the one who is crazy enough to shoot at me.

This is why I just smile and wave...or ignore them.

This is why I constantly remind my kids that a person driving slower than you is no reason to get pissed.

This is why I never flip anyone off while driving.

This is why I will let just about anyone in that needs to be in my lane.

This is why I don't drive "fast".

This is why I leave 10 minutes before I should, so I don't have to deal with these kinds of issues.

This is probably why I don't get stressed out...Getting somewhere 30 seconds faster doesn't really matter to me.

This is why I laugh when the guy on the motorcycle flies by you at 90 mph and you pull up next to him at the next red light. You are going to get where you want to go. Don't let the idiot who can't control themselves dictate that.

Be safe. Be courteous. Just remember that getting riled up about traffic just isn't worth the effort.

Yikes...politics...

Ok, if you read this blog even semi-regularly, you know that I don't like to get into religion or politics all that often, which will make this post seem even more weird, as I dabble into both!

Politics: (I am open to debate on this, as long as it is civilized)

Take whatever current political issue that is plaguing our country, and you will find no shortage of people who think it is the worst idea in the history of humanity. You will also find people who think that it is the one thing that will save humanity.

Isn't the system set up so that there is a balance of those people? If something passes into law, isn't it because there were more people that think it is a good idea than bad? Doesn't that mean that there were (in theory) more people who think it will help? Whether it is bailouts, health care, or hydrogen cars, isn't there a system in place that keeps the terrible ideas from becoming reality?

Religion: I am reading the book The Shack by William P. Young, at the recommendation of a very good friend. This is a great, great book that challenges a lot of religious ideals that many people might find a bit hard to swallow. I would suggest that if you are Catholic, don't read this book because your head will explode. Otherwise, if you have an open mind about the role that the Holy Trinity plays in our lives, you should probably read this book. I am not done with it yet, but I am close to finishing, and it really hits home with a Preacher's son.

Pizza that is Incredible???

So, for ExplosiveWife's birthday, ExplosiveDad gave her $50 worth of gift certificates to Incredible Pizza. We had never been before, but I knew they had pizza, video games, mini-golf, go-karts, and bowling. We decided to finally take the kids there this week, but our expectations were pretty low.

First of all, we knew going in it was going to be expensive, but we had no idea until we got there just how expensive it would be.

Every person entering the building HAS to get the buffet, and a drink. Even if you want water, you pay the soda price. We thought this was the biggest ripoff since the CueCat.

You really can't enjoy the place unless you get a video game card to play in the arcade. They had a special for a 90 minute unlimited game card for $12, so we bought two. The total bill came to $71, which, for a night out with the kids, is WAY more than we normally spend.

(As an aside, ExplosiveWife is, without exaggeration, the most frugal person on the planet. Seriously, I will do a whole separate blog post on how she is.)

So, we are in the door, and we head to the buffet. Basically, this place is Cici's Pizza when it comes to the food, but the selection was pretty bad. I never have trouble finding something to eat at CiCi's, but there were only about 5 total pizzas to choose from at IP. I wasn't happy about that, but we were able to eat.

After eating, we made our way to the arcade. The unlimited cards pretty much let you play almost any game in the place, save for a select few (such as the big crane games, for example). We unleashed the cards on skee-ball, games that simulated jump ropes, shooting galleries, and even games that you can win tickets to redeem for prizes.

This is where my opinion of the place started to change. In their lifetimes, ExplosiveKids have NEVER been able to experience what it is like to just let loose and go, especially at an arcade. Usually there is all sorts of rationing going on about which games to play, biding their time for the perfect situation, and they spend 90% of their time deciding. The unlimited cards allowed them to be totally free, and play whatever they wanted, for a full hour and a half. They were truly liberated for one evening, and that was totally worth it. Rarely, in their short lives, do they get an opportunity to be "spoiled". We are a very fiscally responsible family, and we do not spoil our kids by any imagination. Trust me, a night out at Jack In the Box is exciting to them, even though they only get 2 tacos and a Jumbo Jack (for $2), and they have to drink water. Remember my frugal wife? This is just one example. So, to see them just go crazy and really, truly enjoy themselves really had its rewards.

A couple of other things:

• At least three times while we were in the arcade, an employee came up to us and asked us if we needed any help. Either we were having trouble scanning our card, or we looked lost, or even one employee who told us that there were 2 credits on a machine that "needed to be used", we found everyone there to be extremely helpful, and it looked like they enjoyed their jobs.
• The place was really clean. I was surprised, to say the least.
• The desserts were really good, if not a bit generic.
• You might read into what I am saying here a bit too much, but there was an element of "upscaleness" to the place. For example, if you have ever been in a Putt-Putt arcade, you know what I am talking about. A million kids running around, unsupervised, making things really crazy. The fact that you have to put down a decent amount of money just to get into the place kept that element to a minimum. That was nice.
• Not once did we encounter a machine that didn't have tickets in it. We didn't have to spend any time waiting for a machine to be serviced.
• The unlimited cards are good for Mini-golf, go-karts, bowling, everything. So, you can use your card until there are two minutes left and go play mini-golf. Sure, it wasn't the best mini-golf, but the kids enjoyed it.
• The best part of the night came when the kids played mini-golf and my wife and I got to go sit down by ourselves and enjoy dessert for 20 minutes. That was really nice, to have kind of a mini-date with the kids safely busy.

Needless to say, I did a complete 180 while in Incredible Pizza. Where we might not go terribly often because of the price, we will go again to enjoy ourselves in ways that we don't always get to do.

The theory of relativity

Hello, blog.

Hey there, Explosive. How's it going?

Not well. Extraordinarily tired and want to go home.

Why? What are you going to do at home?

Well, see, that's the problem. When I get home, I really don't have anything to do either.

You should get a hobby.

Yeah, but if I get into a hobby, then when I am busy I will feel bad because I am neglecting it. I am just stuck in the rut of summer.

Oh man, summer vacation is awesome!

Yeah, if you are 12. Once you get past a certain age, summer vacation just plain sucks. I even remember as a kid thinking how bored I would get the last few weeks of summer vacation.

So, you wanted to go back to school?

Oh, hell no. But I didn't want to be bored.

I hear you are going to Incredible Pizza tonight.

Oh yeah? How did you hear that?

Facebook.

Aw, crap. Are you stalking me again on Facebook?

Stalking is such a harsh word. I prefer to call it "following".

Well, stay out of my twitter feed.

Too late. I already put a link to it in the sidebar. Now everyone knows that you are driving home from work.

I don't put stuff like that on Twitter. My stuff is compelling, and interesting.

Oh, right. Like your update about Weird Al's new song. That is really exciting.

Shut up, blog. I will shut you down faster than...something that is really fast. Like a road-runner, or some shit.

Whatever. Don't you have to update your status somewhere?

Ass.

Dexter

Ok, Dexter is a great, great show. ExplosiveWife and I are just getting into the third season, and we loved the first two.

Michael C. Hall is a fantastic actor. ExplosiveWife complains that some actors on the show really get on her nerves, but I honestly believe that it is because he is such a good actor that everyone else kind of falls flat around him. He really shines when he is on the screen.

For those of you who don't follow the show, Dexter is a serial killer who has been raised by his foster father to have a moral code, only killing those people who "deserve" it. He leads a double life, alternating between morbid killer with a lust for blood and a very effective blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Dade Metro Police Department. The cool thing about it is how he is called to analyze a crime scene and secretly he gets off on admiring the work of the perp.

Season one is about Dexter and his police force tracking down another serial killer, "The Ice Truck Killer". It was a great start to the show, but season two is where it really gets good. Dexter's mass grave is found and an intense manhunt goes through the whole season, with Dexter living on the edge of being discovered.

If you haven't seen the show, I highly recommend putting it on Netflix and checking out the first season. You will like it. I promise. No, seriously. It does a good job balancing the story with the stuff you want to see. What I really liked about it is that the violence isn't gratuitous. I never liked Nip/Tuck because I can't stomach the surgery scenes. Dexter never really shows much of the blood and gore, but focuses instead on the exposition of the mind of a serial killer who lives among us. It really is fantastic television.

Some other thoughts:

Twitter is cool, no doubt...but what I think I like most about it is the direct connection you get with a celebrity. Where else in the history of time have we been able to see just what these people are thinking? And the best part is, you only have to follow those that you are interested in. If you go to TMZ's website, you get a bunch of celebrity news that you couldn't care less about, except maybe one or two stories. With Twitter, you get a glimpse into those people you have chosen to follow. I sent a suggestion to Shawn Marion about what jersey number he should wear. I learned from Weird Al Yankovic that his new single is out. I also know, via Twitter, that Martellus Bennett is a narcissist who loves to talk about himself, but that is cool, because that makes him who he is. If you have a twitter account, find yourself some people who you want to follow that you are interested in. It makes it a whole lot more interesting.

I am convinced that the hardest thing in the world to do is to get the volume on your speakers at work to be the right volume.

ExplosiveSon does not like his gamertag on XboxLive. I can't say that I blame him. So, we went on a two hour long exercise to figure out what a new gamertag for him could be. Unfortunately, all of the good ones were taken. Seriously, every single one we thought of was gone. He thought of some good ones, too, such as "Comb The Desert", which cracked me up, and "AmazingGolfBallWhackerGuy" but that was too long. So, he is still stuck with the old, crappy one. Any suggestions for him?

Fellow bloggers, I appreciate you.

Where I've been....

Update: The last line should read "Daniel Larusso", not Larussa. Larussa manages the Ass-Cardinals. Those responsible for this mistake have been sacked.

About a month and a half ago, my boss was fired here at work. It was completely unexpected, no warning whatsoever. Since he and I worked very closely, I decided to go for his position. So, I put my nose to the grindstone and really focused on work.

This is why there has been no blog.

Well, I found out on Friday that I didn't get the position, but it wasn't for lack of trying. So...I am able to blog again.

There are probably three people out there who said "Yay! He can blog again!"

And there are 7,999,999,997 people out there who said "Huh?". (How do you say "huh?" in Swahili?)

So, I am back. Lots of stories to tell, dirt to dish.

Here's a good one:

My daughter just spent the last 1.5 weeks in Alabama with some family friends. They stayed at a lakehouse on the river (or is that a riverhouse?) and got to swim every day. My daughter looks like a Cherokee Indian now, but that is beside the point. She returned home bearing gifts for the family. ExplosiveSon got a Call of Duty action figure, which suits him VERY well. ExplosiveWife got a puzzle, which she loves to work. Guess what ExplosiveDad got? A fiction paperback called "Cheating Death" about a serial killer.

My guess would be that she just picked the first book she could find that had an interesting cover on it, but serial killers? From a 6 year old? I have some work to do.

We had the radiant barrier stuff put on our attic. I haven't noticed a difference. We will see when the next electric bill comes, but it has been at least 193 degrees every single day that we have had it. I bet our bill doesn't go down. I am going to keep a close eye on our kilowatt usage though. We also installed mini-blinds on windows that didn't have it, and I spent a good portion of my vacation caulking windows and doors.

Caulk is fun, especially when you start getting the double-entendres going. ExplosiveBrotherInLaw and I were having a blast asking risquee questions to family members:

"Do you want to see my caulk?"

"I prefer the white caulk, actually"

"It's very important to keep extra caulk handy" etc....

One thing I do is keep very close eye on other blogs and how things are going. Man, am I glad I don't deal with some of the drama other bloggers have to deal with! Of course, it seems that we all have to deal with this heat. ExplosiveSon sweats playing video games....I am blessed with some sort of freakish genetic gift that makes me hardly sweat, especially on my face. I NEVER sweat on my face, at all. It is kind of funny that I will be on the treadmill for an hour and it doesn't even look like I am trying, because I don't sweat. I always used to get mad that the gym would make me walk around with a towel, because I never needed it.

Having said that, I enjoy the invention of the Dri-Fit t-shirt. You know, the ones that wick sweat away from your skin? Those are great. I pretty much wear nothing but during the summer. They are just too comfortable. If you haven't tried them out, you need to get one. You can always find them at Ross, cheap.

Yesterday, I was approaching an intersection and the light turned yellow, so I stopped. Now, this isn't like, the light turned yellow as I was about to enter the intersection, it turned yellow when I was about 15 yards from entering the intersection. I stopped for the red light, and the guy in a red PT Cruiser behind me was NOT happy, at all. He honked, threw his hands up in the air, and was not in a good mood. As soon as the light turned green, he laid on his horn and let me have it. Bad idea, dude. I proceeded to move as slowly as I could through the intersection, further enraging him. He pulled up to my left in the turn lane, and he and his passenger were just dog-cussing me to no end. I just smiled and waved...If you go out of your way to let someone know that they made you mad, and it doesn't benefit you, don't be shocked when I do things that make your life more miserable. It was almost as if they thought I stopped at the yellow light just to make their life more miserable.

Seriously, don't let traffic get to you. What can you do about it? Just be glad that we can get from Fort Worth to Dallas in about 30 minutes. I know that sounds like old man syndrome, but seriously...my neighbors just drove from Alabama to Texas in less than a day. Why do we get upset when we can't drive somewhere in 2 minutes less???

I have been listening to a Chicago Sports radio station all morning. Apart from the broadcasters, everyone from Chicago (local advertisers, etc.) sound like they have a Jolly Rancher in their mouth when they talk.

I need to find a large, gaudy trophy for cheap. Any ideas? I don't care what it is for, I just need to to be really big. Kind of like the one that Daniel LaRussa won in Karate Kid. Any suggestions?

Daily Grind...

• Does anyone else have those friends on Facebook that carry on personal conversations on their wall, and some of them get a little too personal? I have one of those...
• I saw two movies this weekend...one was intensely boring, and the other was much funnier than I thought it would be. The titles were Defiance and Bedtime Stories. You decide which was which.
• Installed a new back door this weekend. Couldn't have done it without my super-handyman brother-in-law. Thanks, bro.
• To return the favor, I used my BRAND NEW pressure washer on his house. Those things are so freaking awesome...they will clean just about anything, and it is kind of fun to do at the same time.
• I did get a blister from moving the wand side to side.
• That's what she said?
• ExplosiveKids have already told me that they are bored. Summer is only 2 weeks old. They are in for a hell of a time.
• I need a vacation like nobody's business.
• Remember those commercials that sang that song? I think it was American Airlines, but I am not sure...
• I am going to miss playing in a band...but I am not going to miss it. That probably makes sense in a weird way.
• I highly recommend everyone encourage thier kids to learn an instrument and try to get into a band. Even if they never go any farther than a garage, it brings so many different skills to the table.
• Are Russell Brand and Ricky Gervais really that funny, or is just the way they talk? Of course I think they are funny, but that accent makes them 10x more hilarious. It has been proven in laboratories.
• Received an ad in the mail for a lawyer who will protest your property tax for you. My wife was about to call them when a story on the news came on about that very firm and how they have had tons of BBB complaints. Whew...dodged a bullet on that one!
• Maybe I should change the title of my posts to Weekly Grind.

Daily Grind...

• Boy, it has been a while. When you are shooting for a promotion at work, it is tough to find time to blog.
• Saw that a professional news organization spelled the word "lightning" as "lightening". Several of my fellow bloggers have the same problem. There is no "e" in the word that describes electricity that bolts out of clouds.
• I am an avid user of Google Docs. It just makes life way too easy. But, there are people at work who are such caveman technophobes that I don't even want to show it to them, because I would spend more time explaining and listening to them bitch about how it isn't Excel and they should just email them an attachment. That is the whole problem I am aiming to avoid!
• Do yourself a favor and decide right now not to be one of those people who avoids new things. Sit down and figure it out. Learn a new skill every week.
• You would be shocked to know how many people don't know about "Alt-Tab". Maybe you wouldn't, but I am.
• Racism disclaimer: I am anything but racist...but why don't black people know about Tommy Boy? Try it out sometime...95% of black people will look at you like you have 4 eyes if you ask them about the movie Tommy Boy. Seriously...test it out.
• I had someone yesterday tell me that The Waterboy was the stupidest movie they had ever seen. That cut me deep. I love that movie. :)
• I went all suburbia last weekend and installed landscape lighting at my house. It cost me about $150 and it looks FANTASTIC. I have gone outside my house every night before I go to bed just to look at how cool it is.
• ExplosiveSon's baseball team is disbanding. I can't say that I am entirely disappointed, but I will miss some of the Dads on the team that I have been friends with for a few years now.
• Isn't it weird how relationships work sometimes? You will see someone 1-2 times a week non-stop for three years, and something like this happens, and you will most likely NEVER see them again.
• That happens a lot at work. You see someone every day for years, and they move on, and you never talk to them again. Just...poof. Gone.
• I am the 4th result for Denarius McGhee in Google...he was the QB at Trinity high school last year. He signed with Montana State...that has got to be a change in scenery for a young man just out of high school, going from the metroplex to Montana. I wish him all the best, and I am going to keep track of him over the years. Let's see how well he does.
• We went to see TCU play Utah in baseball, and ExplosiveSon's new hero is Matt Vern, the TCU 1b. He has a pretty good shot at being drafted, and it will be fun to keep track of him as he develops.
• I played high school baseball with a guy who has been on the cusp of making the majors for several years now. He even was a September call up for the last two years, but he just can't seem to put a good run together to stay in the majors. His name is Bryan Myrow. Good guy...I wish he would come through Texas. I would go say hi.
• I miss blogging...I love just getting all my thoughts out stream of conciousness style. Not sure how much you like it, but hey, that is why I do it.
• ExplosiveSon has already put in his pre-order for "Call of Duty 6", but it doesn't have the "Call of Duty" tag on it anymore. It is now just called "Modern Warfare 2". He dropped the $80 for the collector's edition, but he doesn't even know what makes it a "collector's" edition. I think he is going to be disappointed, but I have been wrong before.
• Oh yeah...it doesn't come out until 11/10. He has some serious patience.

What do you guys read this blog on? Do you guys use an RSS reader like Google Reader, or do you just navigate to the page? I know I don't have a ton of "regular" readers, but I am interested to know. Leave me a comment!

Update....

If any of you are interested, my old band will be "reuniting" and opening for Bowling For Soup at the Aardvark on June 6th. Tickets are available at www.frontgatetickets.com.

This is a really old picture. :)

Hypocrisy...

Ok...so there are few things in this world that I hate more than talking Religion or Politics. By nature, I avoid conflict as much as possible. I don't like to stir the pot at all, but I need to get this one off my chest.

The other day, I posted about the movie Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron and a bunch of other people, apparently who were all volunteers from a church. I had some opinions about the movie, but I was very, very careful to make very, very clear that my problems with the movie were all in the production side. I thought the acting was pretty bad (as you might expect with a volunteer cast), the writing was very, very weak (stereotypical black women who say little else than "mmmmm hmmmmm"), and that the movie felt a bit too preachy.

Not 30 minutes after the post went up, I got this comment:

undoubtly you didnt watch fireproof for the reason it was intended. my guesse is you are either single or divorced. if i am wrong about that then you are obviously not in a God supported relationship and there will come a time in your relationship that maybe you should have payed a little more attention to the true meaning of the movie.

Now, here is what gets my feathers all ruffled: If you go to any church in America (or the world, for that matter) that preaches the Bible, and speak with their pastor, you will hear nothing but the tenets of forgiveness, tolerance, acceptance, loving thy neighbor, etc. If you watch the congregation before, during, or after the service, you will see that all of the churchgoers really do a great job of showing these beliefs off. They love, and pray, and smile, and love, and pray, on and on, which is wonderful. But, a great many of these people, as soon as they leave the church, become what this commenter became. I don't know if it was petty jealousy because I didn't like a "Christian-themed movie", or if this person really thought that Fireproof was the Citizen Kane of Kirk Cameron movies, but sending comments like that one really doesn't do wonders for advancing the cause of Christianity.

My specific beef with this is not aimed at the commenter. People are entitled to feel how they feel. Moreso, my problem with the overall tone of the response is that this is the kind of thing I see from "Christians" all the time. People who go to church every Sunday, and tithe, and pray, and carry their Bible everywhere they go, yet somehow can't seem to find somewhere to get rid of all of this venom that builds up inside of them, so they attempt to take it out on those that they perceive to be less holy than them. The Bible is a complex book, and even most theologians would agree with that statement. The human race has waged wars over the interpretation of the words in the Bible, which is a whole other topic for another day. But, the basic ideas of the Bible are pretty simple. Act like a Christian, everywhere you go. Oddly enough, the phrase, "What Would Jesus Do?" is a pretty good rule to live by, yet it seems that a fair portion of people who claim to live by this sentiment are the first to knock you down a peg if they think that you aren't living by that standard.

My pastor at Church (Celebration Fellowship in Fort Worth, by the way) had a wonderful analogy for Christianity. Christianity is like salt. Take away the salt from a meal, and it tastes bland and lifeless and most people wouldn't think it tastes very good at all. Add a little dash of salt, and the meal tastes better, depending on your tastes. But when someone puts too much salt on your meal, it ruins a perfectly good meal. This pretty much hit the nail on the head for me with how Christians should act. Sprinkle a little salt here and there to season up someone's life, but don't crack them over the skull with how Christian you are. I don't need it, and I don't want it.

For this commenter to assume that because I thought the acting in Fireproof was not great that I am divorced is just the kind of hypocrisy that I have come to expect from a lot of "Christians". There are a lot of good ones out there, but there are just as many with the "holier than thou" attitude that I could frankly do without forever, thank you very much.

To all the morons...

An short message to all of the morons who think that their time is more important than everyone else's:


The reason that you don't stand up in the middle of a ceremony to walk out is not only because it is rude. You might be ruining someone else's experience as well. Such as this woman, who decided to stand up at exactly the same moment as my son shaking hands with his principal to receive his induction into the National Junior Honor Society. Thank you for ruining this moment in my son's life because you couldn't stay seated for another three minutes, when the ceremony would have been over. I hope you made it to your car in time to avoid traffic.

Spooner

Daily Movie Grind...

• I saw a couple of movies over the weekend. Neither were very good, in my opinion.
• First, I saw Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron as a firefighter going through a rough patch in his marriage. This movie, for lack of a better phrase, was so unbelievably average, it made me sick. It felt like I was watching a poorly-scripted play at church. Overt Christian overtones, stupid attempts at comedy, and more preaching than you get in an average year at church. Now, before anybody gets their panties in a bunch, I thought the message of the movie was good. As is usually the case with "regligious" films, it spent way too much time pandering to the audience and not enough time developing the story. It felt like I was watching a cross between an afterschool special and a Lifetime movie.
• The sad part was that I had several people recommend this movie as a life changing type of film. As a film per se, it was terrible. Absolutely awful. The acting was pretty crappy, and I HATE to be pandered to, and this was one of the most pandering movies I have ever seen. Seriously, it was like reading a childrens' book.
• I liked the firefighting scenes the best, especially the train sequence. That was kind of cool.

• The second movie I saw was Seven Pounds with Will Smith. Very, very confusing movie, but it all makes sense in the end. I thought that they kept us in the dark for too long, then accelerated the story too fast to catch back up at the end. Not a bad movie, good premise, but I just found it too hard to be emotionally involved because they just wouldn't give any of the story up!

• Baseball aside: We finally won our first game of the season on Friday night. We scored the winning run on a safety squeeze, called by yours truly. The funny part was that the kid that was batting had two strikes when I called it, but he had no idea he would have been out if he fouled it off, but I was counting on that when I called it. It worked to perfection, and I was as pleased as punch!

Daily Grind...

• I really, really like the show Fringe. Great story lines, has a very witty edge to it, and the guy who plays the eccentric scientist is great. But there are a couple frustrating aspects to it.
• One, they always (ALWAYS) get it right the first time. It is kind of like in Star Trek, how every week there was a 1 in a million chance that this could work, and it always did. In Fringe, the theories that are floated out there about what is going on are always dead on, even though they preface the theory with "this may sound odd, but...". I would like to see them get it wrong once or twice to make it a bit more on pace with reality.
• I realize how silly that sounded, especially if you watch the show. Reality is not this show's strong suit.
• The second thing that really bugs me about the show is that the people involved in the show still find things hard to believe. In this season, we have seen: A 12 foot long lizard/snake/scorpion hybrid, hands reaching out of computer screens, a giant porcupine monster, women who can become pregnant and deliver a baby within an hour, and people whose heads spontaneously explode. But every time that Agent Dunham goes to her boss in the FBI (who is head of a special task force related to paranormal/weird happenings) says something like, "You realize how crazy this sounds, right?". WHY??? DOES HE NOT KNOW ABOUT ALL OF THE OTHER WEIRD SHIT THAT HAS HAPPENED, OVER AND OVER AGAIN?
• Sorry for yelling, but you think that the writers of this show would have caught that by now. Everywhere she goes, weird crap happens over and over, yet they still act like they haven't ever seen anything weird before.
• I have a bet with a friend that I have to buy him lunch if the Rangers finish over .500 this year. It is one bet I would be glad to lose.