Last post of May...

Wow, I'm real creative with my post titles, right? Well, there's not a whole lot to say right now. It was a pretty crappy unofficial start to the summer. It was kind of muggy and rainy all day and never really got that bright out.

I went to lunch with Phil and met his girlfriend. We talked and reminisced about old times, which was fun. The barbecue at the house was kind of a washout, given the weather.

In case you look frequently (and I know by the hitcounts that you don't) I moved the webcam from the bedroom to the living room. Once I get my DV camera, I'll be able to alternate between the two of them, with a simple flip of an IP address in my router configuration.

Oh, and Lakers-T'Wolves game six starts in about 30 minutes, and apparently, Derek Fisher might have to sit it out due to a knee injury. While that might slow the Lakers' offense, I don't think it'll prevent them from winning the game. So long as they get the ball to Shaq, they'll be fine.

And if you haven't noticed, to the left, I've debuted a new feature called "Versus." It's something Pooz and I do frequently online, thanks to my crazy large collection of desktop girls and a dual-monitor setup. It's basically just "which girl do you like better." E-mail me with you comments, and I'll post the best ones on a Versus archive page, along with my selection and reasoning at the end of the week.

Memorial Day...

So today's Memorial Day and we're supposed to remember all the people who lost their lives fighting for our freedom. Which is kind of what we do on Veteran's Day, but not quite the same. Given that we have two of these days yearly (but only one is a "national holiday" meaning banks and schools are closed and there's no mail) and the current national landscape of being in two wars that we're not really winning or losing, it's tough to get excited about today.

I did manage to achieve something today (well, actually late yesterday). I put up the photo album of the "Lord of the Rings" swords. There are some full length photos, as well as some closeups. Obviously the flash becomes an issue when taking pictures of a reflective metal surface, but you get the idea. I'm going to take some pictures of my living area today and get those up as well. Eventually, I'll have a whole "Photo Gallery" section up, though that could take months at the pace I'm going.

Phil called me up earlier this morning and we're going to go out for lunch later. I haven't seen him in awhile, so it should be fun. As for my plans for the rest of the week, obviously I'm going to the DMV tomorrow to get my license replaced, then after that I'll probably go to Borders to start writing. Hopefully I can bang out the final couple chapters in just a couple days, and then spend the rest of the week just chilling.

Oh, and I feel obligated to mention that I got around to installing the 10.3.4 update on all my computers and aside from my iBook everything went smooth. On my Cube, Bluetooth connectivity seems to be a little better, with my keyboard and mouse staying connected without issue for much longer.

Crazy couple of days

Sorry about the lack of updates, but things have been kind of crazy around here. First off, I was exhausted on Thursday, but I had to do a split shift on Friday, then open on Saturday, so I haven't really gotten much sleep. In addition to that, Moore, Pooz and I went out again drinking Friday night, and it might have been a good time, except for the fact that I couldn't find my driver's license, which meant I couldn't drink. I still can't find it, so I'm gonna have to get it replaced Tuesday when the DMV opens.

My sword is here, and hanging up on the wall opposite my bed. I am going to take some pictures of both swords later today and get a gallery going. If I get really ambitious, I may do a whole "apartment" gallery, but that isn't likely to happen. Oh, and I am buying a digital video camera soon, so I may get my "MTV Cribs"-style intro video to my place done this summer.

I am on vacation this week, so I'm going to try to get my novel done. I'm not doing anything on it today, because I'm treating today as my cleaning day. Once that's done, then I can get some stuff done that doesn't involve dusting and sweeping.

Ok, and I just saw that VH-1 is doing an "I love the '90s." Now, we knew after "I love the 80s" and "I love the 70s" that this was next, but it's crazy to treat the 90s as a nostalgic era already. It was five fucking years ago! And, despite what VH-1 will try to convince you, the 90s weren't all that interesting. Take away the Clinton scandals and the dotcom boom and what are we left with? A decade that jumped from trend to trend with no real identity of its own. But hey, the Bulls fuckin' rocked. MJ rules!

Rockin’ Wednesday night...

So last night Moore, Pooz and I decided to go out, despite the fact that both Pooz and I had to be at work early this morning. Whatever.

First, we hit Joe's which is closing its doors for good tonight. However, they had like nothing left and were closing about 20 minutes after we got there, so we just had a round and left. We then hopped across the street to Chili's, which was also closing soon, but we had enough time for another round and some food, so that was good.

After that, we decided to go up to the Berlin Turnpike for more drinks and some naked women. We thought about going to Centerfold's but we drove up and it seemed kind of seedy (even more so than a strip club should) so we swung back by The Gentlemen's Club, which actually ended up being pretty lame (then again, we were at a strip club on a Wednesday night so what were we expecting?).

My sword is arriving today and I'll try to get some pictures of both of them up within the next week or so.

Also, while we were out drinking, the NBA had it's draft lottery last night. The NBA Draft has become so lame in recent years, with so many underclassmen and international players, it's hard to know who your team is drafting. At least with Orlando securing the top pick, it's likely they'll take Emeka Okafor, who is going to be such a better player than Dwight Howard. Hopefully Cleveland will take either a true point guard or a small forward, to give LeBron a more defined role as a two guard. I'll be following the draft in more detail for the next month, and of course, I'll let you know what I think.

Oh, and just so you know, I have my iBook at work with me today, so that's why the webcam is down. I really need to get on getting that in my living room, but I'm pretty lazy. :)

So I missed a day...

Yeah, I didn't post anything yesterday, but it really wasn't an interesting day, even though I was off from work. For those who are wondering, yes, I did buy the "Return of the King" theatrical edition DVD. And I'll buy the extended edition when it comes out in November. I'm a sucker like that.

Otherwise, I watched a whole bunch of movies. I got my Netflix movies cleared out, and I'm sending back "Liar, Liar" and "Dirty Harry" today. I sent back "Chasing Liberty" last week, but it still hasn't arrived, according to Netflix. I'm supposed to give them a week before reporting a shipping problem, so I'll wait.

As for my thoughts on the "ROTK" DVD, well, to be honest, it's nothing special. Sure, it's the best movie ever, but the real movie is the extended edition. As for the special features, they're pretty lame. It's just some self-congratulatory featurettes and the inclusion of the strangely random National Geographic special (which was previously available as a separate DVD, which, anyone who bought is now pissed about). Oh, there are also some character profiles, that were on the LOTR website before, so it's nothing new. Of course, anyone who's buying this edition knows what they're getting. The good stuff comes in November.

Speaking of good stuff, my sword is en route via Fed Ex ground. It's supposed to be here tomorrow, but with ground shipping, there's no guarantee. I'll let you know what happens.

OK, so now that I’m calm...

I'm still not sure exactly what happened at the end of "Alias" last night. First off, I'm not entirely convinced Lauren is dead. We've seen way too many people die on this show, only to show up later alive, to believe that if Sydney and Vaughn just left her in a hole then she's definitely dead. As for the ending, the theories being bandied about the Internet are varied -- some crazy and some possible.

One theory is that Jack has been secretly running the Convenant with Irina this whole time, and knew about Katya's split loyalties, Lauren's duplicity, etc., etc. He tried to bring Sloane in but couldn't control him (no one on this show has been able to yet) and thus all the craziness with Sloane and his daughter at the end. I don't really buy all this, but it could be interesting.

Another theory is that Jack isn't actually Sydney's father, but simply her "CIA handler" since her birth and that she's some kind of government created super-agent. While the latter part of the theory is a little too "Dark Angel" for my tastes, the first part could be interesting, as it would drastically change the dynamic on the show.

Oh, and would someone please just kill Sark. Just kill him. He's useless to the CIA for info, a slimy bastard, and I hate his guts. And if the bullet that kills Sark should somehow end up lodged in Sloane's head, I wouldn't mind that either.

On a happier, less violent note, check to your right for a new DGOW -- Jennifer Garner (what, you expected Melissa George, aka, uber bitch Lauren).

I hate WTNH...

OK, I can't rationally discuss what just happened on "Alias," for two reasons. First: what the fuck was up with that ending? Is Jack really that evil and manipulative? How did Lauren know about the safe? And more importantly, who does Sydney kill first -- Jack or Sloane (you know his slimy ass plays into this somehow).

Second, and the reason for the title, is that WTNH decided to cut into the show for some dumb ass tornado warning right as Vaughn was shooting Lauren while torturing her. At least, it looked like Vaughn was shooting Lauren, but obviously he wasn't since she seemed fine later on. Apparently something happened there, but I don't know, since WTNH decided I needed to know about that stupid tornado in Colchester. I don't give a fuck. On top of all that, technical difficulties at WTNH (at least I assume it was technical difficulties and not pure idiocy) meant I could only watch the episode in 4:3, not HD. I hate WTNH.

And waiting until January for a resolution on any of what transpired, oh, that's gonna suck. At least I'll have the S3 DVDs to hold me over.

Oh, and I bought the sword online from World of Weapons. They claim to have it in stock, and it was only $175. I'll probably give them a call tomorrow to find out if it shipped. I want this thing ASAP.

We gambled and we lost...

So Pooz, Moore and I thought it'd be best to wait until the last day of Wizard World for them to pick up my sword, and we were wrong. By the time they got to the convention today, everyone was sold out of it. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to order it online. Checking out some of the sword sites, I may also pick up Arwen's sword, which is desk mounted rather than wall mounted, but still looks pretty slick.

More importantly, on a short-term basis, tonight is the season finalé of "Alias." It's been three weeks since the last episode, which was one of the worst of the three-year run of the series. Hopefully this one will be great, not only to make up for the last one, but to hold us over until January. That's right, season four of "Alias" isn't debuting until January, 2005. How stupid is that? At least the 20 S4 episodes will air in consecutive weeks, rather than the long breaks we had to deal with this season.

Checking in again...

Wow, three entries in a single day. Never thought I'd do that, especially not in my first week of doing this, on a relatively boring day. I did manage to go to two different malls in Connecticut (Buckland and Westfarms), which isn't a big deal at all. I went to Westfarms today to trade in the "LOTR: Fellowship" EE DVD for some other stuff at FYE. I got the new double-disc version of "Enter the Dragon" (it's first anamorphic appearance on DVD) and the Usher CD.

I wasn't going to buy the Usher CD at first, but "Yeah!" still isn't on the iTMS and some of the other tracks on the CD are pretty catchy, so it was worth picking up, especially since I was getting it for store credit.

Pooz and Moore also checked back in from Philadelphia, trying to find a club/bar to go to and drink. They had another fun day at Wizard World, though apparently the line to see Eliza Dushku was too long. They did go back and make another visit to Aria Giovanni, who seems unusually interested in Pooz's life story. Tomorrow is the last day there, when they'll pick up my sword. It should be awesome.

Media Play’s gone...

So, I swang by Media Play, and it's gone. Well, the building isn't gone, but the store is closed. At first, it looked like it was just for renovations or something, but I went to Suncoast at Buckland Mall, and the woman there said they were closed for good. Also, in perhaps the weirdest of coincidences, she said to me "hey, weren't you at Hooters that night?" Apparently she and the Media Play crew went to the Hooters on the Berlin Turnpike the same night that I went with Pooz, Moore and Geoff and recognized me as a frequent Media Play shopper (I've been there so often in the past three years, I've earned over $300 in Replay Certificates).

I did manage to pick up what I needed to get from Suncoast, including the gift set from LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring. I really wanted the Argonath bookends and the National Geographic extra DVD, which would have cost me about $60 separately. So, I figured it was easier to buy the whole set and sell the sealed extended edition DVD, which I already own.

I also got a used Nintendo 64 from Game Stop, taking the first step toward rebuilding my video game system collection. Now I just need a Sega Saturn and an original NES. The NES will probably be easier to find, but the Saturn will be cheaper. Also, if I can't find my original GameBoy anywhere in the house, I'd have to consider getting one of those, although the GBA I'm getting is backwards compatible, so it may not be worth it.

Oh, and you may now notice to the right, the "Lindsay Lohan 18th Birthday Countdown Clock." Lindsay, like this week's DGOW Lacey Chabert, stars in the hit movie "Mean Girls" and is amazingly hot, but only 17, so it's not "OK" to call her "hot." So we all wait until July 2, and I can assure you that shortly thereafter, she'll be a DGOW.

And speaking of not-yet-legal movie stars, am I the only one who thinks it hilarious that Mary-Kate Olson got rear-ended by her bodyguard (in the vehicular sense, not the way you were thinking you dirty bastard). The Olson twins are much more popular than they should be. They need a few scandals and stupid doings to knock them down a few pegs. Besides, neither of them is nearly as good looking as Lindsay.

It’s Saturday

I'm off today, and just chilling. I'm probably going to swing by Media Play later to pick up some DVDs I've been waiting to get. I also decided to have Pooz pick me up Anduril. I may end up paying a little more than I would if I ordered it online, but it's worth it to not have to wait (all the online sites are backordered).

I saw "Shrek 2" last night, and I highly recommend you go see it. I actually found it funnier than the first movie and seeing it in DLP made it even better. The computer animation was stunning, and the story was a classic fractured fairy tale (right down to the self serving fairy godmother, who I thought was the best new addition to the movie).

Lakers beat the 'Wolves last night, not a surprise. After seeing part of the game (I was at the movie for most of it) I'm not sure Minnesota will win a game. They just have no way to stop Shaq (that's right, it's a Shrek-Shaq double-feature in today's blog). The Big Aristotle is once again proving why he's the most dominant player in the NBA today, and maybe ever -- I'm not saying "best," I'm saying "most dominant." I'm from the generation that fully believes Michael Jordan is the best NBA player ever (and maybe the best athlete) and nothing can convince me otherwise (oh, and despite my ownership of two Washington-era Jordan jerseys, I still say those two years never happened. To steal a line from Bill Simmons, I will not argue this. It's like the Tori year of "Saved by the Bell." Just never happened.).

Flame of the West...

So Pooz called me from Wizard World in Philadelphia, where he and Moore are spending the weekend. I'm not a big comic fan, so the idea of a three-day comic book convention doesn't interest me, but "Lord of the Rings" memorabilia does, and they've got tons of it.

The biggest thing there, literally, is a full size replica of Anduril, the sword of King Elessar. According to Pooz, various vendors have it there for anywhere from $200-$250. I'm really tempted to have him pick one up for me, but I'm going to sleep on it before making a decision. I still have some bills I want to pay off, plus I'm not sure where I'd hang it, now that I have the Sword of the Ringwraiths already on the wall.

In other news, Crown is showing "Shrek 2" in digital projection, so I'm gonna go to the 9:50 show. I can't imagine there'll be too many kids at that late of a show, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Oh, and before I forget, I got my web cam back up with live video. Using an iSight and EvoCam, I can now broadcast all my life (or at least the part that takes place at home) to you. For now, it's in my bedroom, because that's where my iBook is, but I may hook up the iSight to the Cube so you can see my living room, where I spend more of my time.

Morning...

It's almost time to open the store, and I'm here at work. Figured I'd get a quick entry in before we opened. I haven't worked an opening 8 a.m. shift since April 8, so this is a weird experience for me. I have gotten very used to waking up at 11 a.m.

With the NBA conference finals matchups set, it's prediction time. In the west, the Lakers should win in five (Minnesota will win one at home) and in the east, I like the Pistons to win in six.

I'm going to see "Shrek 2" tonight (it's playing in a record 4,167 theaters) but I'll probably have another entry before then.

Tying up some loose ends...

On "Fight Night 2004": I forgot to mention a couple things in my review yesterday. First off, the decision to make Big Tigger the announcer was not a good one. As a ring announcer/intro man, fine, but not for play-by-play and commentary. Also on Xbox, the fact that the d-pad, rather than the left analog stick, controls ring movement is kind of annoying.

On "Chasing Liberty": Halfway through watching this movie, I thought maybe I'd been too harsh in my intial assessment. Then, it fell apart, and fell into a rehash of just about everything covered in "Crossroads," right down to the 18-year old sheltered virgin falling for a guy named Ben. And while critics were falling over themselves to say how great Mandy Moore was, I didn't notice anything different from her previous performances. At this point, she needs to develop in her acting style or just go away. That said, Mark Harmon (of "Navy NCIS") was pretty good as the president/overprotective dad.

On the DGOW: I'd be remiss if I didn't give major credit to SexyDesktop.co.uk. Sure, the link is in this week's description, but I can't emphasize enough how much you need to visit this site. They've got gigs worth of photos ready to go in 1024x768 resolution. For my purposes, I've had to delete a lot of background colors (to fit in with my whole black/white them) but they're great desktops overall.

On SportsPickle.com: I made passing reference to it before, but I am the current (and only ever) webmaster for SportsPickle.com, the best sports satire site on the 'net. It's updated every Wednesday (technically Tuesday afternoon/night) so check it out when you get a chance. There's a full archive online (the "Who's been Pickled" section) so you can see everything DJ and I have done since November 2001.

On daily updates: Yeah, don't get used to this. Sure, I'm going good right now, but all it takes is one bad day, and I'll end up going a week without an update. For now, all I can promise is that sometime next week (either Monday or Tuesday) the DGOW will change.

Fight Night Review...

I've only played one night (but 24 fights), but I'm ready to give you the lowdown on "Fight Night 2004," which I'm ready to call the best modern boxing game I've played (I say "modern" because nothing will ever top "Mike Tyson's Punchout" for NES, if only for sentimental reasons).

First off, major props to EA for licensing P. Diddy's "Victory" as the primary song for "Fight Night." For those that don't know, "Victory" sample the fight music from "Rocky," which makes it the perfect video game boxing song.

As for the game itself, the biggest change is in the control system. The days of alternating between the hook and jab buttons as quickly as possible to score a quick knockout are gone. The punches all are thrown using the right analog stick, making for a more realistic boxing experience. It's easy to throw jabs and straights, a little harder to throw hooks, and the uppercuts are very difficult and leave you open. Plus, because of the new system, blocking is more important. You can no longer just "block" by throwing lots of punches.

The control system definitely takes some getting used to. Unlike what I did, you'll probably want to fight some exhibitions first before starting a career. I lost at least three fights to start my career just because I was unskilled at throwing punches.

As for that career mode, it's much more in depth than ever before. You start off ranked 50th (as opposed to 20th in previous EA boxing games) and it's realistically hard to move up. Also, adding to the realism, is you can fight at different venues at early points in your career -- in previous versions, the venues changed with your experience level -- and different venues offer different purse sizes.

One disappointment with career mode is that there just isn't much to spend your money on. You can't buy better trainers or cutmen (at least not to the point I've played) nor can you improve your training facilities (which is the only quibble I have with the fantastic training modules). Also, EA did cut the early hyped feature of being able to move up and down weight classes at different stages of your career. At this point, I almost hope it doesn't show up in future versions of "Fight Night," because I'd hate to have to pay for this every year like I already do with "Madden" and the NBA and NCAA Hoops games.

As for my recommendation, here it is. If you're a boxing fan, or a sports gamer, pick this up. If not, an older version of "KO Kings," with its button-mashing control system, is probably better as a rental for you. But this game is a huge advance for fans of the "KO Kings" series.

Party on my day off...

So, my suspicions regarding the situation at work were on target. They set up a little party for me, which was nice. Pooz got me "Fight Night 2004" for Xbox, which I should be playing right now, but I'm getting my Netflix movies out of the way. I finished the Eddie Murphy flicks and I'm on to "Chasing Liberty." Mandy Moore plays the same fucking character in every movie, which is why I'm kind of interested to see "Saved," because it should at least be something new for her.

As for "Fight Night 2004," I haven't even opened it yet, but it does prove the strength of the EA curse. People think it's just the "Madden" curse -- the recent seasons of Daunte Culpepper, Marshall Faulk and Mike Vick prove that one -- but don't forget about the the other sports. Lennox Lewis was on the cover of "Knockout Kings" and got KO'd by Hasim Rahman. Dany Heatley was on "NHL 2004" and got into a serious car crash killing one of his teammates (perhaps the most extreme situation) and multiple covers didn't help MVP Baseball last year, where Randy Johnson and Miguel Tejada both suffered drops in their performance. Now Roy Jones, Jr. appears on "Fight Night 2004" and gets destroyed by Antonio Tarver. I guess Jones can only hope Tarver appears on the cover of an EA game before their next fight.

For more on this phenomenon, check out this site I found on the EA jinx. It's pretty interesting, though it ignores the recent boxing history completely. I guess we can only hope the jinx extends to "Madden 2005" cover boy Ray Lewis.

Work on my day off...

Hey, it's Tuesday and my day off from work, but I'm on my way in to work. Why? it's a long story, but pretty much it boils down to me driving across town, dropping something off, and coming back home, which all seems a little suspect. Maybe I'll look into upgrading my iDisk while I'm there.

I watched SportsCenter at least four times today (1 a.m., 2 a.m, 11 a.m., noon) and yet I still couldn't tell who who won yesterday's baseball games. How sad is that. I just don't care that much about baseball anymore. On the other hand, I'm kind of pissed that there are three NBA playoff series still going, and none of them played on Monday. How stupid is that?

Don't forget, it's "New Music Tuesday" which means a new free song. This week's is "James" by Josh Rouse. Don't forget to pick it up. It's free.

...and so it begins...

Well, here it goes, my seventh attempt at a regularly updated web site. I put this together in about one hour after work Monday night, so forgive me if it looks rough or has some broken links. I'll put in some more work on it Tuesday.

For those of you who are wondering about the title, wonder no longer. I turned 24 years old Monday (at exactly 11:27 p.m., thus the initial post time) and so I'm entering year 25 of my life. I don't know what it holds for me, but hopefully changes are in store, and hopefully you'll be around to see them.

Oh, and yes, as far as I can tell, this is indeed my seventh regular web site. Going from the beginning, I had my AOL homepage (which, sadly, is still online, and because I don't have my account, I can't remove it), my website that was hosted on my Towson web space, TowsonSports.com, AdamReisinger.com (from 2002-03), LeBronJamesNews.com, and my iBlog (which lasted about two weeks). Some -- like LeBronJamesNews and TowsonSports -- were pretty successful, while others -- don't make me actually link to that AOL site -- were just sad.

I'm not going to make any promises on how often this site is going to be updated. Sure, I'd like to get the stuff on the lists to the left updated whenever they change, and I'd like to actually have a DGOW (Desktop Girl of the Week) every week, but anyone who knows me knows that isn't very likely to happen. For now, I'll just promise that I'll have another update for the end of the week, at the least.

Oh, and what good is a blog, if all it talks about is its own existence (and how's that for a philosophical question for the new millennium)? How about some thoughts for today... Well, today was my birthday, though I've got to say it was a pretty sad one. I got no gifts (I know some are coming, but it's still kinda sad when you get nothing) and only one person even said "happy birthday" to me (my parents get a flier on this, since they didn't actually see me today). Also, I worked. I could have requested the day off, but I didn't, so I was at the mall from 1-10.

Also, I have to mention this, since I'm watching the game as I'm typing this. The NHL needs to do everything in its power to have all its TV games next season (if there is one) produced in high definition. The game looks so much better, and is so much easier to follow in high def (and I've got to say, my 30" Philips TV is looking fantastic right now). I love watching ESPN HD, and I'm sure I'll love it even more when they move into their new Digital Center in Bristol next month.

That's all I have for now. If I have more later, I'll try to post it. I'm not very good at that, but I'm trying.