Office/Mancave

So, I finally got my home office/man cave all set up last week.  Moved my tv from my bedroom, hooked up my computer to the tv. Brought in the PS3 to watch Bluray movies. Bought a ton of furniture from IKEA. Hooked up my stereo system (still need to buy speaker wire to get the last three speakers connected though.

All in all it's a fine area to work/play. Which got me thinking. Now that I am going to be spending most of my time in this room; what other accents should I add?  I have posters for the wall (as you can see from a few posts ago). I have a panoramic shot of Soldiers Field above the couch which is one of the first thing to get replaced by the way..(couch not picture). I've also ordered another print of one of my photos from Canvas on Demand   But, I still need a few special touches. Not sure what to go for, what will really make it special? Only time will tell I guess.

Right now I guess I have everything I need here to keep me busy on my down time at work and all points before and after. I have a Nintendo DS but all I find myself playing are mods of original NES games.  I have a Playstation 3 with: L.A. Noir, Tiger Woods, Uncharted, Assassins Creed and a few other games but I only seem to play 24: The Game (ps2), Katamari Damacy (ps2) and Lupin III (ps2).

This is sitting on the shelf next to my 8-track player which is on top of my laser disc player, which is to the right of my record player. But my pride and joy is my Tardis money bank that is hanging out with my Yoda action figure, desk patrol Dalek, and Buddy Christ....yeah, that happened!

Tomorrow I am faced with the toughest question of all....what to have as my afternoon snack? Animal crackers, flavor blast goldfish, or Dunkaroos.  Yeah, I'm six what's your point!

Making plans...

So the planning has finally begun in earnest for my October trip to Europe with my travel companion Don (aka: Big Poppa Shields). 

Originally it was going to be fly in to London for a few days, then go to Ireland, then back to London, then train to Paris....then leave.  But, after thinking it over...that seems mighty stupid!  More jumping around from country to country with London as base was killing our chances of doing stuff.

So a plan was hatched. Fly into Dublin, stay for three days and leave for London on the fourth day. Stay in London for three days, leave for Paris on the fourth. Three days in Paris and then home to the States on the fourth.  Seems like a solid plan....until I realized that some of the things I wanted to do would be left out in the cold with that plan...namely Scotland!

One can never underestimate flexible travel plans! This is why I didn't want to get roped into a group tour. I can't even commit to a dinner choice long enough to order sometimes.

Now, I think we have a time table hammered down that we can live with...or at least not deviate too far from! 

Day One: Get into Dublin around 7am...rent car and drive south! On way to Cork stop in Co. Carlow and visit Duckett's Grove Castle. Carry on to Cork to take in the sights and stay the night.

Day Two: Get up and drive back to Dublin. Grab hotel, hang out in Dublin and head north to Belfast for the afternoon/evening. Get back to Dublin late and crash.

Day Three: Fly from Dublin to Glasgow on early flight.  Rent car make trip to Loch Ness. This was a must for me and one of the reasons that the travel plans were changed. I, for some reason, thought it was a much shorter trip from London to Loch Ness...not so much the case!  Spend time in Loch Ness and then meander back to Glasgow in the the early evening....enjoy.

Day Four: Fly to London.  Originally this was going to be a train trip through the English countryside. But, a rail pass (as far as I could see) was actually going to be about the same price, if not more expensive, than a quick flight. The flight would also cut out about 5 hours of travel...unless Google maps lied to me! Arrive in London and do typical touristy type things for rest of day.

Day Five: Stuff in London....trip to Stonehenge ("The Greatest Henge in the World"....I'm going to be seriously sad if I can't get that on a t-shirt!)

Day Six: Stuff in London

Day Seven: Stuff in London...and a trip to Cardiff. As a fan of British Sci Fi I can't pass up a trip to this great Welsh city. Home of the Millennium Centre, shopping, Cardiff bay...and of course the fictional former home of team Torchwood. (yeah that's right, I am planning vacation locations based on Russell T. Davis' Dr. Who spin off!)

Day Eight: Bullet train to Paris...hotel...food....museums

Day Nine: Paris...food .... Museums

Day Ten: Paris ...maybe out of the city travel...

Day Eleven: Wake up and get my ass to the airport to fly home and hate the fact that I am only a few days away from going back to work!

Now I need to find the small things to fill in those wide open days in London and Paris. Also, need to make sure that my netbook has plenty of space for movies (for the trip) and photos (of the trip).  Probably would be a wise decision to renew my Flickr pro account too.

Things that will fill the gaps in time I am sure will include: eating, drinking, tours of places you can drink, tours of famous places, tours of infamous places. Shopping---oh God the shopping is going to kill me! Lounging in awesome locals...sadly it will be October so probably going to be indoor lounging.

Blogging, Facebooking, Twittering and generally lamenting the fact that I will eventually have to leave should also factor heavily into the rotation of things to do. Sadly the one thing that will not be on the schedule is the planned NFL football game between my beloved Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Bucs. Not necessarly because the game may not happen (boo)! The real reasons tends to lean more towards the fact that it would be cost prohibitive to stay the extra two days.  Between tickets to the game, getting back to London from Paris, two more nights in a hotel and switching flights AGAIN, it would add about another $1200 to a trip that I already am on the boarder of not being able to afford!

But, stuff is purchased, plans are made...money can be made with extra work! It's all a go! Pretty sure that Europe (and myself) will never be the same after this trip.

Strange Dream

Had a strange dream last night...

I was on the run from the cops here in Arizona.  Seems I was under suspicion for drinking and driving. But, not alcohol. Just a Pepsi!!

Apparently in my dream world it was illegal to drink anything, and drive anywhere.  So I decided rather than spend hard time in one of Sheriff Joe's fine tent city establishments I would make a run for it. I headed up north towards Flagstaff then decided to cut over towards Colorado. Which is when it got really strange.

Remember the musical/movie Brigadoon about the town that appears like once ever century (or something)? Well, apparently I ran into the town from the mid to late 90's.  There was everything a kid who grew up in the 90's could ask for: kick ass Saturday morning cartoons, bad ass toys on every store shelf (the kind where G.I. Joe's guns didn't really fire), and Crystal Pepsi flowed like water.  Seriously...it came out of the water fountains in this town!

Now I've never been able to nail down my fascination with a drink that almost did to Pepsi what "New Coke" did to Coke. But from time to time I have strange dreams that seem to feature this clear Pepsi product as some sort of Holy Grail of the soda world!

Apparently, not much a search is actually required thanks to ebay  you can open the bidding at $49.99 or buy it now for $249.

I think I need to look a little cheaper for some Crystal Pepsi gear...maybe start with a magnet or sign before I drop $249 on an unopened 6-pack of almost 20 year old soda!!

Sadly I woke up before I ever got to Colorado...or resolved my issues with the state of Arizona. I'd like to think that somewhere in my dreams I am sitting back pretending that GI Joe is shooting Cobra, watching Denver the Last Dinosaur and drinking a tall Crystal Pepsi, the "clear cola".  I man can dream.

Cub's...to this point.

30-44

I wish I could say that my goal of watching/listening to all the Cubs games this year was on schedule. But, sadly that is not the case.

As I said before I was pretty solid through about the first 40 or so games. But since then I have fallen off the proverbial wagon,  Not the bandwagon. I still love the Cubs and watch or listen at every chance. But, my simple plan of a quick blog update following those games has fallen off, way off over the last month or so.

When I last checked in the Cubs were 22-26, only four games under .500.  Oh what great times those were!! As of today's lose to the cross town rivals the White Sox the Cubbies are 30-44 (fourteen games under the .500 mark),

Things are looking better though after taking three of four games from the Brewers and playing close games with both the Yankee's and White Sox. The team seems to be heading in the right direction, But, the question is can Mike Quade and crew turn thing around heading into the All Star break to help make a run at the second half? I would like to think that things are looking up. Carlos Pena is hitting home runs, Carlos Marmol seems to be getting back to his old ways, Carlos Zambrano is his old reliable self (too bad the bullpen can't keep a lead for him), Once Barney and Byrd are healthy I think we have the change to make a run

Changes....

Well...things finally changed today. I was asked to pack my desk up and go home!!

The writing was on the wall. I pretty much saw it coming.

So here I am now....Working from home! Not in a make $1,000,000 in your spare time flipping homes...work from home. Instead I am doing my normal job, just much closer to my bed!

Here's an example of how my day has been altered: my usual day consists of a total of 90min between lunch and breaks...the rest, is work time.

On a normal day for lunch I will re-heat my lunch and watch some random TV show that I have brought in on a flash drive, then spend about 10-15minutes surfing the web. For my break I will surf the web or read a book. Not a lot else that you can get done at 10:30 at night.

Today though was a nice change of pace. I was able to run to Best Buy and return a Cat6 cable I didn't need. Drop a package off with my parents for delivery to the post office. Grab a bit of dinner at the Greek Pita and watch a little Hollywood Treasure over on Syfy.  For my break I fixed a bag of popcorn, watched some Criminal Minds, straightened up my office, started some laundry, and wrote this. All in about 30 min.

Maybe it isn't a big change. Or even a dramatic change. But, I feel like I will be getting more out of my day if ever day can be as packed as this. Maybe in the future I will mix in some video games and cooking just for fun!

Games 39-49

22-26

You would think that being flat on my back for almost two weeks would allow me ample chances to listen to and/or watch the Cubs play during that time.  Not the case. While I was able to listen to or watch all or parts of the first 39 games of the season I have only seen maybe one game over the last few weeks.  So instead of going game to game I am just going to look at an overview of the suckfest that has been these last few games.

Game three -vs- San Francisco was rained out

Two game series with the Reds resulted in two loses.  Two with the Florida Marlins went the way of the Cubs.

Which brings us to a three game series with the Boston Red Sox. The first game was a blow out with the Cubs on the wrong side of a 15-5 final score.  The next game would see the boys in blue putting 8 runs on the board in the top of the 8th inning to comeback for a 9-3 win.  Game three, while closer than game one, would again go to  the Red Sox.

The Cubs would then open a three game series with the New York Mets with an 11-1 win, Ryan Dempster would pick up the win to move to 3-4 on the season. Game two was a strange game.  With major rain forecast, the Cubs went a little strange with their pitching.  Casey Coleman would load the bases in the second inning, with a 4-3 lead. and would get pulled by manager Mike Quade. The bullpen didn't really help his cause...letting all three base runners score.

The game would go into a rain delay in the 7th, a move that would not sit well with Quade. Quade broke out from the dugout to have a screaming match with the umpires while the grounds crew pulled the tarp out to cover the field.  After a delay the umpires called the game and the Cubs suffered a 7-4 lose.

For the third game of the series the Cubs would score four runs in the fourth, two in the fifth, and one run in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Carlos Pena would hit his 6th home run of the season while Kosuke Fukudome hit his first to help Carlos Zambrano improve to 5-2 on the season. Big Z would also go 3-3 from the plate to help his own cause.

Overall in the 10 games I didn't really see or hear the Cubs went 5-5 and had one came washed out completely.

Torchwood: Miracle Day (Trailer)

To say I'm excited about the upcoming 10 episode season three of Torchwood would be an understatement. I seriously hope this does well and STARZ keeps cranking out a few more Torchwood series. I remember reading somewhere that most of the principle actors signed something like six year deals. Fingers crossed it does well enough to get at least a few more series orders after this one....

Lonely Island

Just for fun...couldn't resist I'm on a Boat after the others were posted...it just didn't feel right to leave this off.

SNL Shorts/skits Pt. 2

Natalie Portman Raps



Schweddy Balls

SNL Shorts/skits Pt. 1

Thought I would put up a few of my favorite SNL shorts/skits...starting with the EPIC--Dick in a box.



Lazy Sunday

It's Not Gay if it's a three way....

Timberlake, Samburg and Gaga....love it.  Also, I just realized that when she doesn't look like a complete nut job...Lady Gaga is kinda hot!!

R.I.P-- Randy "Macho Man" Savage

For a pretty funny tribute to Randy "Macho Man" Savage take a look.

original content from: thefrogman.me - "thefrogumblelog"

There Can Be Only Only One

While sitting around the house with a bum back. Or rather while laying on the floor with a bum back I decided to give my Bluray collection a bit of a work out. Last night I started in on one of my favorite movies series....The Highlander!

I can still remember the original Highlander (1986) as being the first movie I ever wanted to see based on a tv commercial. The scene from the original where MacCleod  is taking the quickening, after killing the Kurgan, with the windows exploding was permanently seared into my 7 year old brain.

The original had great fight scenes, a great cast, an original idea and a kick ass soundtrack by Queen. When the original film was a hit the studios got to work on a follow up.

Five years after the original we got the abomination that was Highlander 2: The Quickening.

How this movie didn't kill the franchise I have no idea.

The film not only jumps into the distant future of 2025, but we finally find out the true origins of the Immortals. They were fucking aliens from the past of another planet!!  MacCleod and Ramirez were exiled to the future from the planet Zeist for trying to start a rebellion. From there the film never really decides if it is a action film, drama, or an eco friendly diatribe on us killing the planet.

Essentially this movie is just as confused as the viewers who paid to see it at the time.

Somehow three years later someone was able to revive the idea of the immortals battling for the ultimate prize  as a TV show. When the TV show found success Hollywood was convinced to make another feature film.  Christopher Lambert would return for a third go round as the immortal Scotsman. This time there would be no Sean Connery but we would have Mario Van Peebles doing his best to bring back the swagger of the original films villain.

The only way you can watch all the movies is to realize that continuity means nothing...and most importantly, forget the second movie ever happened! Seriously, if you try to figure out how MacCleod won "the prize" in the first film if Van Peebles character was buried under a mountain like we see in the third. Or if you try to figure out why after the second movie that whole train of thought (fucking aliens!) is never mentioned again...you'll never wrap your mind around the series.

Lambert would team up with Adrian Paul (TV's Duncan MacCloed) for the last "good" Highlander film, 2000's Highlander: Endgame. Squeeze in a direct to video movie centered around the characters from the show Highlander: The Source (2007) and a fairly craptastic animated film Highlander: Search for Vengeance.

With a reboot on the horizon it seems the franchise is still alive and well....for now. There can be only one.

Gram Parsons....

Spent some time trolling youtube while I was flat on my back and found some great Gram Parsons videos that I wanted to share.  Gram has slowly become one of my all time favorite musicians and these are just a few of my favorites that I found.  I only included either actual concert footage (very rare) and official music videos.

BIG MOUTH BLUES -- feat. Emmylou Harris


STREETS OF BALTIMORE -- feat. Emmylou Harris


CHRISTINE'S TUNE (AKA: DEVIL IN DISGUISE) -- Flying Burrito Brothers


OLDER GUYS -- Flying Burrito Brothers


SIX DAYS ON THE ROAD -- The Flying Burrito Brother (from the Rolling stones doc. Gimmie Shelter ... about the tragic Altamont Speedway show. While I like the stones I bought the Criterion DVD just for this performance.)

Doctor Who meets Top Gear

Two of my favorite things...Doctor Who and Top Gear (also Tennant and Clarkson..so technically four of my favs...)

I so can't wait!!!

Backiotomy!

I feel like Sir Smoke a Lot...you know without the lawyer having sex with my momma, the impotence, and the weed smoking. Really it's just the back part...but the clip is funny as hell!!

Games 37, 38

17-21

Games one and two versus the defending World Series Champion San Francisco Giants

Ryan Dempster...this is how you pitch!

Dempster won his second game of the season (2-4) behind six innings of work where he struck out 11 and only allowed six batters to reach base.  Dempster finally also got some back up from the bats!

Cubs hitters plated 11 of the eighteen hitters who reached (14 hits, 4 walks). The top four in the batting order wold go 9-18 with six runs scored, and six RBI's...including 3-5 for Starlin Castro (2runs, 2 RBI) and 3-5 for Darwin Barney (1 run, 3 RBI).  The top of the order wasn't the only portion of the lineup to produce. Reed Johnson went 3-5 with four RBI's and a run scored out of the six slot in the order.

The defending champs pitched like anything but champs. all four pitchers to appear for San Fran gave up at least one run.  Starter Madison Bumgarner 3 ER, Jeremy Affeldt 4 ER, Guillermo Mota 1 ER and Dan Runzler 3 ER.

Game two saw the return to the majors of Doug Davis who took the hill for the Cubs.

Davis, who hadn't pitched since July of last year, pitched five innings and gave up 3 runs while striking out six in a rain shortened game.  Thanks to some untimely errors only one of those three runs was earned. It's been a rough year for Davis, according to the mlb.com story for the game "He (Davis) was diagnosed in 2008 with thyroid cancer, and one year ago in May, he discovered he had pericarditis, an inflammation of the lining around the heart. Then, his elbow flared up."

It looks like the Cubs may have finally found a stop gap pitcher while they wait to see what Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner pitch like on their returns from the disabled list.

The game ended up being official after a forty minute rain delay after six innings were played. That delay, and errors by Koyie Hill and Blake Dewitt, ended up costing Davis a chance at a win in his return.

Games 34-36

16-20

Bring on the Cardinals!!

Game 1
Chris Carpenter and  Carlos Zambrano faced off in the first game of a three game series featuring one of baseballs greatest rivals.

Carpenter pitched a solid seven innings. Well, solid in the fact that he got a win. Not sure if you would count 13 hits over seven innings as solid. But, he did get a win in a 6-4 game.

Carlos Zambrano looked good again giving up only four runs over seven innings. Ultimately the Cubs bats and bullpen couldn't get on the same page and Kerry Wood took the loss giving up two runs on two hits with three walks all in an inning of work.

Albert Pujols held the hot bat for the Cards going 4-5 with a run scored in the game.

Game 2
Matt Garza picked up his first road win of the season with five innings of one run baseball. Garza failed to top double digit strikeouts...but he came close, K'ing 7 Cardinal batters.

This was finally a game where all the hitters in the Cubs lineup were in the zone.  The Cubs combined for a total of 17 hits. Five of those 17 hits were for extra bases (3 doubles, 2 triples).  Koyie Hill went 2-4 with a double, triple and 2 rbi's.  Starlin Castro was a perfect 4-4 with a triple and three RBI.

Over all the Cubs plated 11 of those 17 batters that reached on the way to a series tying 11-4 win over the Cardinals.

Game 3
Casey Coleman ... Sucks!  He started strong with a few good showings, but since then it's been a bit downhill. This time the damage was only nine hits, six runs and four walks in four and a third innings. The killer was the second inning where Coleman gave up five runs.

The series had a total of thirty five runs scored...but only one home run was hit (Matt Holliday in this game).  The Cardinals 4,5,6 hitters went a combined 8-14 with five runs and 2 RBI's to back Jamie Garcia.

Garcia improved to 5-0 by spreading nine hits over seven innings. He struck out four while only walking one and only allowed one run to score.

Jeff baker was the only Cubs batter to collect multiple hits, going 3-4 with the teams lone RBI

Movie Review: Thor (2011)

The God of Thunder is here...and he's awesome.

Why does Marvel make such awesome super hero movies? Source material is a strong first step...so major props to Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and the countless others. But, mostly Stan Lee...dude is a comic book icon, a twitter "general" and steals ever scene he's a part of!

Casting is another strong characteristic of most Marvel movies. Think about it...when was the last time you saw a Marvel movie with a weak cast? I can't think of one right now...but Thor would definitely not qualify as "weak".

Chris Hemsworth makes a good Norse God. Anthony Hopkins is amazing as always, Idris Elba (nuff said), Academy Award Winner Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgard...no weak links in this cast

For the movie itself I think a big part of my enjoyment was rooted in the fact that I had no prior knowledge of the Thor cannon. I was never a reader of the comics, honestly never got into the Avengers comics either as a kid. So, the extent of my Thor knowledge is a basic understanding of the Norse mythos. Due to those facts I wasn't really nit picking the movie the was I do when I watch an Iron Man movie or a Batman film.

I have friends who said they liked the movie overall but there were a few things that didn't click for them. Either info on a character or how a character was portrayed. Story wise people seemed to generally like the movie.

From start to finish it was exactly what I look for in a super hero movie:

 It was a strong origin story--doesn't get bogged down in details but does set the stage to let you know what the character is about.

Strong casting -- as I said not a weak link in the cast. The only down side for me was I wanted more out of Hemdall (Idris Elba). When Elba was cast I wanted him to play a huge role in the film since he is slowly becoming one of my favorite actors. Watching the film I can see where if I had read the comics I would have maybe had lower expectations!!

The movie is serious...but doesn't take itself to seriously.  The film, like many good movies, has a good balance of action/drama/comedy.  If you take a superhero character and make him too serious you run the risk of the character becoming too dark.  Even Thor, while not a dark hero like Batman, if he doesn't have a sense humor he just seems like a crazy person. The humor of the moves seem to humanize the characters. Thor, while an alien "god" becomes more human with his humor, and if you ask the women in the theatre...his ripped abs (a scene that had my dad asking out loud when Natalie Portman would follow suit!).  Look at Iron Man, without humor Tony Stark would just be an alcoholic rich kid with dangerous toys...but the sense of humor seems to soften him and the obvious emotional and mental issues he may or may not have!

For me the move was entertaining from start to finish and definitely hooked me into the characters and just amped up my interest in The Avengers movie. Which reminds me...is Joss Whedon done making that yet? I really want to see it now!!