Random

It’s been a few days since I’ve been able to post, but I wanted to give you an update on some things going on…

Throughout these last few days I’ve been all over the place, trying to balance out a hectic week at work, spending time with Bethany and my other friends, my sister coming home from spending all summer in Boston (although she leaves again in 2 weeks), volunteer work, and all the other fun stuff going on in my life.

But of course, in the juggling my time, I’ve spent some quality time feeding my Madden 2006 addiction…  Ugh… 

MADDEN 2006 is basically "video game crack".  It feeds on my enthusiasm and excitement for football and results in the elimination of basically any and all of my free time.  It’s been pretty bad, but so far I’m still getting the hang of this game.  Now many of you may be asking "Wait…  Don’t you already have Madden 2005 (and 2004, 2003, 2002, etc.)?  Is this year’s game really all that different to justify spending $50 for?".  Well…. Yes!  Not only do you get all of the updated rosters (and with all of the free agency and player movement in the NFL, they’ve also introduced a ton of new features).  Supposedly last year was their "Year of the Defense" and this year they’ve made just as many offensive additions to the new version – the most noticeable being the "Quarterback Vision" .  It’s actually a really cool concept.  The game basically replicates your QB’s field of vision, illustrating it with a cone-shaped lighting while you throw.  If you throw within the lighting, then your passes will be pretty accurate.  If you throw outside of the cone you’ll either throw a pick or just a pretty stupid pass.  For each Quarterback their skill and awareness dictates the size of their cone.  What’s really funny is how highly (or lowly in many cases) EA Sports considers each Quarterback.  Payton Manning’s "Vision" is basically a 90 degree angle..  Jake Plummer…. well…    I would say that it’s probably fair and reflective of his skill, but it’s disappointing when your favorite team has a crappy quarterback (and you’re reminded of that).

They have a cool tutorial about the vision and how it works, and I went through all those motions, but no help – basically for the first 5 games I played I just got my ass kicked all over again.  Sack.. Sack..  Sack!  Ugh…  I think I ended up with something like 2 for 10 for my first game or something, it was really pathetic.  I got the hang of it after a while though (with the Eagles beating the Ravens 30-2  – not too bad!)  It’s definitely an equalizer when it comes to defense though.  I really like the QB vision because then you get a sense to where the QB is looking, and it’s easier to defend. What’s really funny is that the biggest change for the way I play has nothing to do with offense, but that they switched the "speed" and "switch player" buttons on defense.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve screwed up my pass-rushes… Ugh…  So I’m excited to see how other people will fare with the new Madden.  I’ve been playing the computer a lot these last few days, ready to play a real person… 

Oh and the PC version comes out on Tuesday…  You bet I’m going to be in line to get that one as well, and pray that it’ll install on my laptop (makes flights A LOT SHORTER!).

On Thursday night Bethany and I went to go see Charlie and the Chocoloate Factory.  I’ve heard a lot of good things about this movie from my family and friends, but after sitting through the movie, I can’t really say that I agree with them.  While I can see how people enjoyed the movie, both Bethany and I couldn’t stand it!  Maybe I was trying too hard to compare it with the 1971 version with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, but when you think about Wonka and Johnny Depp, I didn’t think that Depp was going for the Willy Wonka role at all.  Depp wasn’t Willy Wonka, he was Michael Jackson!  The appearance, mannerisms and even down to Depp talking about "P..P…Parents".  Ugh!  That really did it for me!  The other qualm I had about the characterization of Wonka in this movie was the fact that it had this "Dr. Phil’s analysis" part of it.  We already knew that Wonka was crazy and a little loopy, but I didn’t need to know that it’s caused my a "repressed anger and disappointment at your parents" thing.  Can’t anyone just be NUTS?!?  I didn’t appreciate that part of the back story.

Now with the rest of the casting, I liked the kids they got to play Veruca Salt, Violet  Beauregarde and Augustus Gloop.  I wasn’t a big fan of Charlie, but I really couldn’t stand Grandpa Joe…  It’s almost as if they went out of their way to make Grandpa really weird-looking.  I really couldn’t stand the scene where he got out of bed.  In both the book and the original movie Gramps got out of bed because Charlie really wanted him to go, but in this movie Granda seemed pretty eager to re-live his past and when he hopped out of bed it looked like he was holding out on the rest of the family.  At that point I thought "Wait a minute, so you were too sick to go out and get a job, but when it comes time to gravy-train off the kid’s trip to the factory you’re perfectly healthy?!?   Thanks for nothin’ gramps!

Oh, and the Oompa Loompa’s were horrible!  I guess they ran out of money and needed to re-cast the same person over and over again, but they were just creepy!  And I didn’t appreciate the dance troupe thing they had going on, it was just lame…  And the songs – totally sucked!  Maybe I’m just a bit nostalgic for "Ooompa Loompa do-pa-di-do… "

Like I said before, I can understand why other people liked the movie, but I personally couldn’t stand it!

I also went to go see Four Brothers today… I’ll write more about it in a bit..  Oh, and I have an update on the web site saga.  More to come…

Another Monday work day draws to close, and with it a bit of random thought:

As you likely know by now, Peter Jennings has passed away at 67, losing his battle with lung cancer.  It’s really sad to lose someone, especially someone who has served as a major media figure throughout the last quarter of the 20th century.  With Jenning’s death, there are many significant notes.

Jenning’s death has essentially marked the end of the "Network TV News Era".  Being the last of the "Big 3" (with Rather and Brokaw) to leave the nightly news spot, the broadcast networks have relinquished their iconish figures of big media.  When the Big 3 ascended to their network thrones in the early 80’s, the world they brought news to was vastly different than the world we have today.  25 years ago there was no cable news conglomerates like CNN, CNBC/MSNBC, Fox News.  25 years ago there was essentially no talk radio (at least not to the level we are today with Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Bill O’Reilly).  25 years ago there was no Internet (at least in the form that we know of it today).  25 years ago we didn’t have all of the media outlets dispensing information that we have today. Back in the early 80’s Jennings, Brokaw, Rather were it when it came to getting your TV News.  Sure people read the newspapers, but when it came down to Breaking News and the nightly 30-minute recaps we relied on the Big 3 Anchors to tell us what we needed to know.  These three wielded more power than I think we’ll ever realize – becoming the face of these networks.  Whenever a big story broke, or a large event was taking place – chances are that these three guys were there telling you about it.  It’s funny when you look at it today, but where do you get your news from?  Can you name the three people that are currently anchoring the nightly news on those networks?   Many of you already know Brian Williams, but it was mainly because the guy was groomed into the position over a carefully-planned period of four years.  And even with that Williams doesn’t have nearly the clout that Brokaw had.

My guess is that Dianne Sawyer will be sitting in the anchor seat for ABC Nightly News, but I don’t think there is any way she – or anyone for that matter – will replace the role the "Big 3" had in our society.

In happier news…  Fantasy Football is underway!   As I mentioned in a previous post, we were "gettin’ the league back together" for another year of Fantasy.  With all 12 roster spots filled, I went out and set up the league, and sent out the invitations for people to join!  Let the fun begin!

Now if you’re not into sports or have never played in any "fantasy" leagues then you may struggle in seeing the value of what we’re doing, as well as my excitement!  But there is so much to get excited about:

• So much of it is based on healthy competition.  When I set up my team, I got to choose the team name.  I picked "Dhani’s Bow Tie"* and am now issuing a challenge to the rest of the league to come up with a name that’s more creative than mine.  My friend Matt may have me beat with "CUT THAT MEAT!"**.  But I love that you can find healthy rivalry in virtually any facet of the game
• It promotes unity and camaraderie between a group of people who may otherwise have no reason to interact or even know each other.  While it’s always good to call your buddy up to see how they’re doing – now you have something to rustle them up about
• It’s such a great way to get into the game.  The team closest to my heart are the Denver Broncos, but now my excitement can extend to the other 13-15 games during that weekend.  All of the sudden I’m rooting for a team to do well (or rooting against them), and I’m interested in the random games that are on.

Only 29 days 2 hours, 57 minutes and 5 seconds until our draft kicks off!  You bet I’m excited!

*"Dhani’s Bow Tie" is an obscure reference to one of my favorite players in the NFL – Philadelphia Eagles’ Linebacker Dhani Jones.  Dhani also has a company called "5 Star Bow ties", where we sells Bow Ties.  Whenever he does an interview or an appearance he is always very well dressed, complete with a 5 Star Bow tie  

** "CUT THAT MEAT!" refers to the MasterCard commercial where Payton Manning (Quarterback for the Indy Colts) is a fan of "typical" people.  In the commercial he’s in front of a deli counter chanting "CUT THAT MEAT!  CUT THAT MEAT!" to the worker.  Another awesome part in the commercial is when he’s hounding these accountants going to work "I can’t believe it, you’re on my Fantasy Accounting Team!", then a guy high-5’s him, and he just stands there shocked.  Hilarious commercial!

Well as Sunday draws to a close it’s time to reflect on what turned out to be a pretty good weekend! 

First and foremost, I ended up getting 17 hours of sleep in two days!  Sweet!  After being really bad about getting to bed on time for the last week, then getting up early for work, it was nice to turn the alarm of and just sleep the day away.

On Saturday I got up then headed down to Loveland to have lunch with my mom and my sister, which was nice considering I haven’t seen them in a week (which compared to the rest of this summer has been quite some time).  I then made my way back up to FC and made a trip to the drum store.  I went into the drum store with no intention to buy anything grand, and pretty much left accomplishing that: a container of cymbal polish, a pair of Danny Carey signature sticks, and a replacement pair of "Lightning Rods" (my old pair is really splintering up).  It was kinda pathetic, I pretty much went to the drum store to make sure they didn’t think I died.  I haven’t been in there in months and I’ve really missed not upgrading my drum set.  Lately I unfortunately haven’t had much reason to – I’m not really playing in any active bands/projects (outside of church choir), and between Dave Matthews, Broncos Season tix, and a bunch of assorted stuff I throw my money away on – I really haven’t had the excess funds to throw at my drum set…  It was funny being in there because the two guys they had working at the weekend were relatively new, none of them knew who I was (and I’ve been a regular there for the better part of 10 years), and the guy who rang me up asked "Do you shop here regularly?" to see if I was in their database… Too funny.

I then went and played over at church.  It’s been like 6 weeks since I’ve been there and all of the guys gave me a hard time (mainly by introducing themselves to me).  It was a lot of fun being there again, but I had A LOT of rust to knock off.  I pretty much screwed up two of the newer songs we did during rehearsal, and luckily I locked them in during Mass.  It’s just funny because I’ve been practicing quite a bit, but it’s on the electric set, and it makes me realize just how playing on electronic rubber pads really numbs up your chops (then playing on the real things kills them again).  Hopefully this week I’ll be able to find somewhere to break out the real set and see if I can get my chops back.  I really want another music project right now.

After Mass I spent the evening hanging out with my friend Michael.  It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen him (since my birthday), but we had a blast.  We had dinner over at La Luz, then went and made a beer run and came back to my place and watched Be Cool.  First off, if you haven’t seen Be Cool and you’re looking for some laughs – I’d see it.  I remember seeing the previews in the theatre and really wanting to see that movie (after seeing all of the stars that were in at (namely Andre 3000!), but I never made time to go see it.  Then I guess it didn’t do well in theatres and came to DVD pretty fast.  My guess is that the movie wasn’t marketed well when it came out, because it really turned out to be a really great flick! (but then again a lot of things are great after a few beers)…

I’ve forgotten how much I enjoy hanging out with Michael, because we have the most random in-depth discussions on so many different topics, then we come out with these really interesting conclusions.  Just to give you a sampling of what we talked about:

• Web Browser Standards, and the most common ones that web designers ignore
• Microsoft (M$) and the fact that they have total disregard for any established standards (i.e. Microsoft FrontPage)
• What the world would be like if M$ made hardware – we wouldn’t be able to buy a computer for $300-400 now.  Everyone would be proprietary in their hardware and IBM would likely be at the top of the PC Market
• Weddings – How "cool" a wedding will be is not measured by who is getting married, but rather who you know will be attending the wedding.  Because you have no real interaction with the bride & groom during the wedding, it all depends on which friends you sit by.
• Engagement periods – The minimum engagement time should be 9-12 months.  Any engagements that are shorter than 9 months and still have an extravagant wedding causes you to wonder about how much marriage preparation has gone on.
• FOCUS – Of course…
• When it’s appropriate to re-design a web site (i.e. J23 UM)
• The difficulty of managing a student database over MS Excel
• Many things related to Be Cool.  We talked a lot about the Rock
• And most notably: The law of worthwhile travel – Which states: If the amount of time you’re going to spend at a destination is less than the total round-trip time it takes to get there – it’s not worth going.

So a lot of fun on a Saturday evening.  I also had two glasses of Pep-to Bismol-errr-Tequila Rose.

Sunday rolled around with me sleeping in until 12:30pm (NICE!), then having lunch and visiting Sam.  We had a lot of fun!  I tried my best to spread the good news of Star Trek to her, and pulled out the big guns – the best Star Trek movie of all time.  That’s right, I’m talking about Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .  Unfortunately we only made it about 20 minutes into the film before Sam took me up on my offer to "Change it if it sucked".  So we watched Spider-man 2 (remember, my #1 super hero movie of all time) and I learned how to play Rummikub. It was a fun game and it turned out to be great Sunday afternoon!  I then spent the evening at my family’s, had some dinner and then came back home!

Time to get ready for another Monday   And only two more weeks left until school starts (NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo!)

Song: "Three Little Birds" – Don’t Worry About a Thing, ’cause every little thing, is gonna be alright…  How true…

You know the phrase "Today is the first day of the rest of your life"?  I feel like that today.  Not so much in the sense that I need a renewed look upon life, but more-so that I need to stop dwelling on my shortcomings and do what I need to do to fix the things that are causing stress in my life.

Of course, all of this is self-inflicted and it’s all due to the fact that I’m the biggest procrastinator in the world.  There’s a saying on a calendar I have at work: "Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now."  Unfortunately I live by that all too well, so much so that it gets me into trouble.

This week I’m committed to resolving all of those things that I’ve been putting off all summer long, and a pretty sizable list has piled up.  Ugh…

First and foremost – my crowning disappointment – the NCSC Western Retreat…  You might be asking "What NCSC Western Retreat?" – exactly..  I’ve done some work here and there about it, but nowhere to the point where it should be…  Which has lead me to write the following email to my regional team:

 I am sad to say that due to my inability to manage my time effectively throughout this summer, as will as my ineptitude in delegating tasks that I have only accomplished some minor logistical tasks in preparing for the retreat.  Additionally due to my inabilities I was not able to effectively market & outreach this retreat to our target audience with any realistic notice. I am deeply sorry for letting this fall by the waste-side.  I realize that many of you have gone out of your way to make yourselves available throughout this summer to assist in any way, and I apologize for not taking advantage of your gifts and enthusiasm.  I realize that I have let many of you down, and at this point would ask for your forgiveness as we look towards the fall semester in serving our region and the rest of the NCSC.

It sucks, and it’s pretty much all my fault…  All is not lost, because I was such a bum about this no advertising has been done, so there’s not really anything that has to be canceled in any official capacity – so we’re still able to take the same concepts and ideas and hopefully apply them towards something later on in the semester.  I’m just frustrated because I knew this was looming over me, I kept putting it off and let myself get busy with other things.  Then the next thing I know too much time has passed – it’s too late and now I’m writing apology messages.

Right now I’m working on creating an opportunity for our regional team together at the end of the summer, have some fun together and do some more visioning and planning.  I hope that this opportunity will come to fruition and I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that it happens.  I am blessed with an awesome regional team and I need to use their gifts effectively.  At this point I definitely need a lot of prayer in this area…

So that’s the 800-pound gorilla that is still on my back, but here are some more bits of straw that’s breaking me:

• Pay Off My Broncos Tickets – While I am *officially" on the season ticket waiting list, I effectively have Season Tickets through some former co-workers of mine that have been selling them to me at the beginning of each year.  This will be the 4th year I’ve done this, but first I have to PAY them.  It’s not because I don’t have the money, it’s because I’ve been such a bum to work it into my budget to pay them.  Now our first home pre-season game is August 20th and I need to get all of the money to them.  – Today I emailed them…  I’m hoping to hear from them this week and get the ball rolling.
• Start the Fantasy Football Ball Rolling – Did that last night…  This isn’t so important, except for the fact that if I don’t get going this early people will find other leagues to join and we’ll be up the creek on this one – Emailed a bunch of people yesterday – already received 7 responses!
• Fix the Family Football Pool – I *still* haven’t awarded any of the prizes for the pool, nor have I taken anyone’s dues for the pool.  This is something I need to do before the week ends!  Luckily I will no longer be the football pool commish – I’m turning it over to someone who has the time and capability to do this!
• Tie up the other 50 loose ends I have…

So a bunch of little things – pretty minor in their own but combined have become heavy burdens in themselves…  But hopefully by the end of this week I’ll be able to say that I have all of these taken care of!  Wish me luck!

Few random thoughts:

• Peter Foresburg is no longer an Av – NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo!!!
• Freakin Comcast randomly changes their channel line-up!  Thanks for breaking my Tivo!  I’m glad I recorded an hour’s worth of the TV Guide Channel!  That’s quality viewing there!
• Only 6 more days until I suffer against the addictions of Madden 2006…. 
• At this moment I’m waiting for a call so that the Explorer can become the drunk bus!  I guess I’m picking up 8 people – should be interesting!  If you ever have too much to drink and need a ride home, call me 24 hours a day at 1-800-AAAAARRRRRRHHHHHHH.

A recap on the places that I’ve been…

First off I ended up working for the first half of the weekend.  I’ve been one of the technical resources on a project we’ve been working on for the last four months, and last weekend was finally the end of the project, where we deployed everything out.  So I had to "come in" on the off-hours to work on the installation & upgrade.  I ended up working on Friday from 9am-1pm, spending time with the fam, then going back in from 4pm-12am.  Then I woke up early Saturday morning and worked from 8am-12pm again, then I spent a good part of the weekend monitoring.  The good news is that outside of a few hiccups here and there, the upgrade went without a hitch.  We didn’t have any major issues and now I am ready to move into my next fun project here at work   Hopefully things will begin to calm down, but we’ll see… 

So when I finally got my work done on Saturday I had lunch with my mom and my uncle (who was visiting in town all this week – there’s where I’ve spent a lot of time this last week), ran some errands with them and then went home to get ready for my big date with Bethany to celebrate her birthday

On Friday I surprised her by having flowers delivered to her at work, and in the flowers was a card that finally revealed what I’ve been planning (she has been in suspense all month): Saturday evening at the Boulder Dinner Theatre to see the Wizard of Oz   So that’s where we went on Saturday.

We had a blast!  I hadn’t been to a dinner theatre in like 6 years, and I’ve forgotten just how much fun they are!  The dinner was pretty good, but it’s obvious you go for the entertainment.  We had seats at the highest level in there, in the middle, towards the left.  The play was a blast!  There was tons of singing and dancing, and I loved the acting!  My favorite characters were the Cowardly Lion & the Tin Man.  The Tin Man’s costume was really cool, except he had this silver thong thing over his spandex (ummmm.. yeah).  I’m not the biggest theatre buff out there, but I was very impressed.  I enjoyed the way they did some of the "effects" from the movie: the tornado, the "no place like home" sequence, along with the flying monkeys and the jitter-bug scenes.  The sets were really cool, especially the Wizard (with the exception that they could have put some black fabric inside his mouth so we didn’t have to see the guy moving it.

Bethany and I had a blast.  In the beginning though, I did something really stupid.  Right as the play started I thought to myself "It’s so quiet in here, it would really suck if someone spilt their drink." and sure enough, freakin’ me moved my arm and knocked my coke over, getting it all over the table.  Luckily the table-cloth absorbed a lot of it, then I was able to quietly clean it up with the napkins, but I felt like a total dumbass.  Argggh… 

Seeing all of those songs again was awesome.  It’s been a good 10 years since I’ve seen the movie, and I never actually saw the live production before.  It was awesome re-living those songs again.  One in particular cracks me up.  It’s the one when they first get into the Emerald City and sing the "Merry Old Land of Oz".  In case you don’t remember, some of the words are:

"Ha – ha – ha, Ho – ho – ho – And a couple of tra – la – las
That’s how we laugh the day away, In the Merry Old Land of Oz!
Bzz – bzz – bzz, Chirp – chirp – chirp – And a couple of La – di – das
That’s how the crickets crick all day, In the Merry Old Land of Oz!
We get up at twelve and start to work at one.
Take an hour for lunch and then at two we’re done.
Jolly good fun!"

Well to show you how much I’ve been shaped by comedy, all I could think of was the "Family Guy" version of this song when Lois talks about how she doesn’t want Chris to go to prison because "(she) know what goes on there.  We’ve all seen ‘Oz’ " then cuts to these guys in the shower singing:

"Scrub scrub here! Scrub scrub there! Whether you’re white or bronze!
A man can wash another man in the merry old land of Oz!"

lol, too funny…

So that’s how my weekend went.  Today was spent doing some work, cleaning up my place and taking a break after a busy few weeks.  Tomorrow I get to go back to the grind and work – beginning another busy week.  Tomorrow night is a Pastoral Council meeting, so I’ll bet I’ll have some thoughts on that tomorrow (never too much drama).

More to come tomorrow