Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Claw and Antlers 2010

I have a moral dilemma.  

As most of you know (if you follow this blog), I am a Cubs fan.  Dyed in the wool, bleed Cubbie blue Cubs fan.

I worshipped the ground that Ryne Sandberg walked on.  I marveled in the fact that Leon Durham could still play baseball in those glasses.  I went into my backyard and Sports Cried when the Cubs came within 5 outs of the World Series, just to see my hopes and dreams fall flat.

I was born in Chicago, but I have lived in Texas (in the DFW area) since I was 6 years old, so I am pretty much as Texan as I can get without being native.  I have always considered myself to be a Rangers follower.  Not a fan, mind you.  Fans live and die by their team.  I have never lived and died with the Rangers.  Every time the Cubs lose a game, a little part of me dies.  Every time the Cubs win, a sliver of hope springs forth.  This has never been the case for the squad that is about to take the field tonight in San Francisco.  Sure, I would go to many games, and root, root, root for the home team because I wanted to see them do well, but if they lost, no biggie.

But, little by little, this postseason has started to turn me.  I was very happy to see them take a 2-0 lead on the Rays.  I was extremely worried about the psyche of the Metroplex when the Rays tied up the series.  I was excited at the prospect of the ALCS being so close to my house.  Then they had that disastrous inning against the Yankees, and I started to wonder if it was just me.  Maybe I am the cause...every team I root for seems to fail.  Only once in my life has "My Team" won a championship, and it was the '99 Stars.  Other than that, I have 1 playoff win for the Cowboys, 1 series win for the Cubs, and a disaster of a Finals appearance for the Mavs.

But, your Rangers overcame that inning and pretty much demolished the Yankees from that point on. And, I will admit, that when Vlad hit that double, and Nellie followed up that at-bat with a monsterous boomstick into the left field bleachers, I have to admit that I just might have become a Rangers fan.

Now, don't get me wrong...I can't just shut off 31 years of being a Cubs fan.  If it is ever Cubs/Rangers in the WS, my heart is in Chicago, and Rangers fans be damned....but I am allowed to root for them.

And this has been a lot of fun.  It is great to see people in such high spirits.  Baseball just found itself about 100,000 new fans here in Dallas/Fort Worth.  People who didn't even know who the Rangers were at the beginning of the season are now yelling at each other to "Fear the Deer" and giving each other the claw while driving.  It is great.

Overall, though, I have one piece of advice.  Several years ago, there was a team from the North Side of Chicago that was primed to go to the playoffs every year. They were young. They were hungry.  They were talented. They had pitching that could go all day long.  They had a fearsome lineup....and that team now possesses a 9 game playoff losing streak after winning two straight division championships.  Oh yeah, and they haven't been to a world series since 1945, and haven't won one since 1908.  That is a long, long time to suffer.

My point is this:  Your Rangers probably won't be here again.  I would put money on it.  For those of you who think that the Rangers now have some God-given right to be in the postseason every year, please don't delude yourself.  It is hard to make the playoffs every year. Soak this in.  DVR every game, and never delete them.  Go see the Rangers when they fly back from San Francisco.  Watch every news report you can get your eyes on.  Buy the hats, the t-shirts, the plaques, do it all.  Live this experience up.  Because, in less than 2 weeks, good or bad, it will all be over.  And you may reflect back on these two weeks 35 years from now, and say, "Yep.  I remember the last time the Rangers were in the playoffs.  2010 was awesome."  It can happen all that quickly.  So, please, from the bottom of my baseball-heavy heart, enjoy this.  You may not get another chance in your lifetime.

Posted via email from Explosive Amnesia

Literalists and their ultra-optimism

A good note for my good friend, Frank Taylor.

via 22 Words by Abraham Piper on 10/27/10

(via)

Posted via email from Explosive Amnesia

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

HoverCoat Carbon Fiber iPad Case Contest – Winner

WinnerTweet

That’s the winning tweet in the above screencap. Congratulations to @spoonerstreet!

We had lots of entries for this one – thanks to all of you who took part via Twitter.

Look out for more cool contests coming soon here.

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Tagged as: HoverCoat carbon fiber iPad case

This NEVER happens...I won one of those "retweet this message and you could win" contests. So, I won a super expensive case for my iPad...go me!

Posted via email from Explosive Amnesia

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Small Guy Music/Matthew JC and the AllStars - Texas Rangers/TXA 21 Promo Theme Song/Music Video

The guy singing? Christian Sly, singer from my band that I used to be in. He does a lot of local stuff, and he and his music company did this promo song and video for channel 21. Great stuff!

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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

A Thousand Words

I took this picture for two reasons:

1. The chick on the bike in front of us (yes, it was a woman) looked
quite a bit like Bret Michaels from behind. But then again, doesn't
pretty much every woman wearing a bandana look like Bret Michaels from
behind?

2. The truck in front of the bike had a full window sticker
advertising a tattoo parlor. In itself, this isn't that remarkable.
What I thought was interesting is that he had his MySpace account as
the URL to find his shop. This must make him sad, as I am sure he
paid good money to get this sticker put on his truck, only to find out
a few years later that no one uses MySpace anymore.

But it was so cool 5 years ago!

Please ignore the bird crap on the windshield...my windshield wipers
don't work all that well anymore, nor does my windshield washer
delivery units. That is what you get with 113,000 miles on a car.

Posted via email from Explosive Amnesia

Video Games

I, for one, would love to see a video game go backwards.

What I mean is, in almost every video game you play, you start out as weak.  Or, you start out as strong, and your weapons are weak.  As you progress through the game, you collect various power-ups and you become stronger.

But what always happens?  Your enemies get stronger too.  So your power-ups become victim to the law of diminishing returns.  Sure, you feel like a badass with your triple-pump shotgun, but your enemies are just as bad ass as you, so there really seems to be no point.

What I would like to see is that you start out as a bad ass, with all of the bad ass weapons (maybe save 1 or 2 for later) and just increase the volume of your enemies, so you get to experiment with all of the cool ways you could destroy them.  I have always hated it when you get the best weapon in the game with about 10 minutes of game play left, and you never got to really feel like you owned your digital enemies.

Also, if you get some time, play Just Cause 2 on the 360.  Great game...I just wish I could have gotten a better gun in the beginning. 

 

 

Posted via email from Explosive Amnesia

Friday, October 1, 2010

Voice Plus Creates Google Voice Number Rules on Android [Downloads]

Finally...I know not many of you have Google Voice, but if you do, this is the one app you NEED to get. It allows you to selectively choose who you call with and without Google Voice, which is really good for family plans. I have requested this feature numerous times, and it looks like someone finally took it into their own hands!

via Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy on 10/1/10

Voice Plus Creates Google Voice Number Rules on AndroidAndroid only: Google Voice allows detailed rules for people calling you. But your outgoing Google Voice calls? Not so much, unless you've installed Voice Plus, which lets you choose contact groups to call with or without your Google Voice number.

Voice Plus is nothing more than an extension of your Google Voice settings. You choose whether you call with your cellphone's carrier-supplied number or your Google Voice number by default. You choose whether certain area codes are always called with Google Voice—handy for those who live on the border of international areas. And you can choose certain contact groups, set up in your Google Contacts, that are always called by Voice, and others always called by a landline.

Voice Plus Creates Google Voice Number Rules on AndroidSo the use you'll get from Voice Plus depends on your ability to set up your contacts with distinct Voice/non-Voice numbers, but that's a big help to those who grow tired of toggling Voice on and off for individual calls. Voice Plus is a free download available in the Market; you can get to it directly by scanning the QR code at left.

Posted via email from Explosive Amnesia