Lozzie's Mind Dump

A Story about a Fallen Friend

2011-09-05T19:46:00.001-04:00

Story time for those who want to hear it. It is a story of a girl who entered my life in 2007 and was one of the reasons that my daughter Liliana Grace was born. Don't believe me? Well, here is the story.

Back in May 2007, while working at Wal-Mart, I met a girl named Sachary Montanez. She was 15, but she had gotten a job at Wal-Mart by saying she was 16. Wal-Mart didn't hire under 16, but she really wanted the job so she could have money. I remember wanted money that young, so I really didn't blame her. We got along very well when she started and she actually told me what she did almost right away. She didn't tell everyone at the store she did, so I kinda felt special, you know?

Jump to September of that same year, and I started talking to a girl I had met online. Her name was Amanda and we all know the story of her by now. But what not many people don't know was that Sachary was the catalyst that helped start that relationship. You see, I am one of those guys who sucks at first moves. Sure, I initiated the first contact online, but I am better on the net that I am with a phone in my hand. We had been texting and messaging back and forth for a while and she asked me to call her, because she wasn't going to and she actually wanted to talk on the phone. I stalled because I hated talking on the phone and was a wimp when it came to hitting that send button, especially when a girl was involved. My fear of rejection back that was a lot stronger than it is nowadays.

Well, I talked to Sachary about Amanda all the time. What she was like, how much I think I liked her, and whatnot. She was the person I went to about things like that and its funny because I truly don't know why. She was a girl and I almost actually dated her, but she was really underage and I didn't want to get into that boat and have it sink. She actually admitted later that she kinda liked me and would have dated me if I had asked. But that's moot, isn't it?

I told her that Amanda wanted me to call, but I just couldn't. She basically slapped me around figuratively and told me that if I really liked Amanda that I should go ahead and call her. I would be doing a lot more harm by doing nothing than complaining about it. So, that night I did call Amanda and started my 3-year odyssey with her that is well documented as well.

Amanda told me during that or another conversation that if I hadn't called, our relationship may have stalled or never began. She was very old school when it came to dating and that the guy should always make the first call, move, etc.

If Sachary hadn't been in my life at the time, I probably wouldn't have found another person to talk to about Amanda and how much I was stalling. I may have never have called her and started up my relationship with her. If our relationship never happened, I may have found another girl or had remained single up until present day.

But the biggest thing is that Lily would have never been born. And as much as Amanda and I argue with each other to this day, I still love my daughter with all my heart and would do anything for that little girl. Even when she is becoming as much of a grouch as she has become.

So, why did I tell this story? Because that same Sachary, who entered my life in 2007 has left it just as quickly as her life was taken from her at such a young age. Her stepdad committed the most heinous act known to man and murdered her, her brother, and her mother where they lived late last night. Why he needed to do such a thing remains a mystery. But, it hurts my heart in a way I never thought was possible. A young life lost before it could even begin.

R.I.P. Sachary. You were always smiling and always loved living your life. You always helped everyone around you and I bet if given the chance, you would help everyone in the world. You didn't need to leave us so soon, but you will definitely be in a better place now. We will all miss you.

Initial Aftermath of SummerSlam

2011-08-15T02:21:00.003-04:00

Before I start my rant about SummerSlam 2011, I have to say that I didn't watch the PPV because I just wasn't able to order it. With that said, from what I read about the PPV, I kinda wasn't happy with the end results. Not because they were against my predictions, but the way things played out, it seems like a giant clusterfuck and it seems like WWE is definitely moving backwards.

To start, the three non-main event matches didn't seem that stellar. The Sheamus/Mark Henry match seemed like it was a good one for what it was billed as. Mark Henry rammed Sheamus into the pole and caused a countout and definitely builds the feud up for the next PPV.

Bryan/Barrett did NOT end the way it should have. They gave Bryan the MITB briefcase and expect him to carry the title eventually. Then, you give Barrett a random win over him at a PPV? You should have made him look stronger than they did and they dropped the ball on this one.

The Divas match ending would have pissed me off more, but if I read correctly, Kelly Kelly actually had a decent match. Now, my opinion could definitely change if I can find footage of the match and find out that Kelly sucked hard, but for now I am not as pissed as I could be. Beth Phoenix should have won the match after the buildup given to her, but in the end it will create notice in the Divas division after it being so dull for so long.

Now for the main events. The Orton/Christian match sounded like it was good, but it definitely didn't end the way it should have, hence the reason that I posted the way I did in my predictions post. Christian should have walked out of SummerSlam the champion and FINALLY give someone other than Cena and Orton the title. But it didn't end up that way, now did it? Orton is now the champion AGAIN after beating the ever-loving piss out of Christian at the end of the match.

Now for the shocking match of the night (and I have a big rant about this match afterward). CM Punk wins the WWE Title...until things got thrown out of wack. CM Punk shakes Trips hand at the end of the match, the mighty COO leaves the ring and lets CM Punk celebrate. Before Punk can leave, we have Kevin...Fucking... Nash?! Come in and Jackknife Powerbomb Punk?! Where in the mighty blue hell did that one come from?! I understand that Nash has just been chilling in the back waiting for an opportunity to do something with the company finally. But this?! Come on.

But that's not the biggest shocker of the whole thing. No, it gets better. The one thing that I knew was going to happen, but I didn't think was going to happen so soon, Alberto Del Rio cashs in his MITB contract successfully, picking up the scraps that Nash left in the ring. Alberto Del Rio is now the WWE Champion... or is he?

The way things ended in the match, there are definitely things that need explaining on Raw tomorrow. First of all, there are now three people who can claim that they have a rematch clause for the WWE Title, and I'll get to that in a minute. Second, John Cena's foot was under the ropes a la Christian at Capitol Punishment (I hope that's the PPV he got screwed). Trips didn't care and Punk was the winner. Cena is definitely going to pull a Christian on Raw tomorrow and he might whine about being screwed tomorrow on Raw. Third, Punk is going to say the same thing, but his claim is not going to hold water. The MITB has been cashed in on opportunities like what happened at SummerSlam pretty much all eight times its been cashed in. The only time I could think of that it didn't was RVD, when he cashed it in at a PPV in a true match. Daniel Bryan is claiming that he will do the same for Wrestlemania, but things might change.

Fourth, what excuse is Nash going to give about attack Punk, a guy he has NEVER wrestled before (in my knowledge anyway) and never met (in my knowleddge anyway) and therefore has no past feud with? Is it going to be some bullshit that Trips pulls out of his ass about why he did it? Is it a bigger ploy to get Trips to be a heel and he orchestrated the con to get the title off Punk? But then why did he look legit shocked (and by legit I mean OMG Wrestling is fake) about the ending? Fifth, why was Stephanie McMahon at the PPV? Not only that, but why did she talk to Punk, Cena and her hubby throughout the night? Why bring Steph into this situation when you already brought Laurinitis in already?

So now, here are the some things that I got out of SummerSlam 2011 and one actually is starting to piss me off. The first is that the WWE does not know what the fuck they are doing. Except the Punk/Cena match and maybe the Sheamus/Henry match, everything they did with the other matches were ass backwards to what they were billing. Why build up a heel diva faction and not give them the title?

Next is the fact that the WWE Title situation is SO fucked up at the moment. Now here is how their are technically three #1 contenders: Rey Mysterio lost the title on Raw like three weeks ago and accordingly to the bullshit rematch clause, he is cashing in on Raw tomorrow against Del Rio. Cena gets a rematch because he was technically a champion and he did lose the Title to Punk. Of course, you also have Punk. He won the match, but he also lost the Title to Del Rio, so he gets a title shot as well. Now, we know that Mysterio is getting his title shot tomorrow, but what about the other two? Are they going to do them one by one or does this set up a triple threat match (which I abso-fucking-lutely LOVE triple threat matches) at the next PPV for the Title?

Lastly, there is the fact that the WWE is basically only paying attention to the Cena/Punk storyline. It seems that it is the only storyline that matters on TV and PPV anymore. The fact that it had the biggest swerve of the night and the biggest WTF moment of the night and every other match seemed to be just plain, I think it's actually starting to annoy me a little. NOW, don't get me wrong, I am absolutely loving the fact that Punk is the main reason that the WWE is gaining is gathering so much attention finally in the wrestling world. They are going away from the stale predictable shit to the "what's going to happen next?" But it only seems that the only storyline you are going see that "what's going to happen next?" moment is the Punk/Cena storyline. The other ones have definitely gotten beefier, but they definitely not on the level of this one. You want to run the coattails of the Punk/Cena story, then apply it to EVERYONE on the roster and all the stories you want to run. I know that every story doesn't deserve a swerve every night, but apply it occasionally.

Anyway, that's my main rant of the night. Now, I actually found the footage of SummerSlam, so I am going to watch it and find out if I was right about my initial reaction of the PPV.

WWE SummerSlam 2011 Predictions

2011-08-13T03:06:00.001-04:00

Summerslam is definitely an interesting PPV to predict. On the one hand, WWE has the momentum running after Money in the Bank with the CM Punk/John Cena angle. On the other hand, we have the idea that WWE might finally say screw the fans again, and run the show how we want. With the trend of CM Punk putting his input backstage on how things should be run (without having the entire power to do so) and the idea that Vince might be finally in the final steps of retiring from the WWE overall (yes, I know that he was storyline fired, but there are rumors that he is done for good after next year). Triple H, even though he is currently just a figure head on TV, is definitely putting his input of the brand and how things should be as well. From what I've read, CM Punk and Triple H are both responsible for the influx of Zack Ryder, Evan Bourne, Daniel Bryan, and other names who I cannot think of at the moment being put on TV more and more. Plus, I read that Triple H is planning on actually rebooting the Tag Team Division with new blood, including that of the Kings of Wrestling from ROH, as well as some tag teams jumping ship from TNA.

But all the creative side of things could be saved for another post. This post is about the current PPV Summerslam. Like I said it was fairly interesting. So, I am going to post accordingly. There will be three points for each match, rather than the normal ramble. There will be How Things Should Happen, How Things Might Happen and Ultimately. In how they should happen, it is just how it sounds. This is how creative should book the match for optimal success (in my opinion of course). How they might happen is if the WWE reverts back to the status quo as Punk put it, this is how the match will probably be booked. Ultimately is my opinion on the aftermath of the storyline and eventually what will happen as a result of the match. Also, it is my last ditch effort to talk myself into believing that the WWE will actually do what should happen.

Also note that two things: 1) CM Punk and Cena almost sound me another PPV. Although, due to financial hardships, I don't think I will order the PPV. That might change. 2) This is a very short card with only two matches that I am really looking forward to and those are the title matches. No IC title match and no US title match. Interesting.

So without further ado, my predictions for WWE SummerSlam 2011:

Undisputed WWE Championship Match: CM Punk (c) vs. John Cena (c) with Guest Referee Triple H

This is the match that will determine how things are really going to be run in the WWE. CM Punk is the reason that the whole wrestling community is in an uproar for his promos and such on TV the last two months. What will happen?

How Things Should Happen: If I was sitting backstage at creative, I would probably be shot for what I am about to suggest: Make John Cena a heel. Why would I be struck down? Take a look at this quote:

"The rumor is attributed to the Wrestling Observer, as they reported last week that a high-ranking executive with great influence over Vince McMahon is lobbying for the match in Rock's hometown of Miami, Florida to be canceled. The executive is concerned that WWE's premiere star, Cena, will be heavily booed during the biggest show of the year."

There are people inside the WWE who are afraid to turn their biggest draw with the little crowd bad. But, ultimately it is what will make this match that much more memorable. You have so many smart marks in the crowd who understand what Cena is and that is why he is booed every match. CM Punk is a smart marks wet dream. He is awesome on the mic, excellent at being the good bad guy, and he can actually wrestle. So the biggest swerve this match will see is if John Cena turns heel, Triple H helps the process by either turning heel as well, and CM Punk walks out the champion. "But James," you are all out there shouting from your computer screens, "If Cena turns heel, and Triple H does as well, won't that mean that Triple H is going to be more bias towards Cena and thus he will win?" Well, you would think that. But in the end, I think that Johnny Laurinitis might be more involved in this match than what is being shown. Look at the facts: He has been on almost every Raw since Money in the Bank and even spoke on one about how Cena should be stripped of the title. He is butting heads with Triple H already and I think he is the reason that CM Punk walks out champion. Triple H will attempt to screw Punk somehow or even Punk smells the double cross from Trips and smacks him in the head. This either leads Trips to play the downed ref or DQ Punk, making Cena the champ. However, Laurinitis, the smart man that he is, will restart the match stating that a title cannot change hands on a DQ. Therefore, CM Punk hits the GTS and Anaconda Vice on Cena, who has no choice but to tap and loses. Now that I am have described the dream scenario, here is how things will probably happen.

How Things Might Happen: If WWE reverts back to the status quo, John CenaWWE champion again. Therefore, CM Punk will be thrown to the mid-card yet again and made to rot. But, even if that's the worst case, I still don't see that happening. In the end, I think that WWE will book a clean finish of the title match with CM Punk walking out the winner and Triple H calling the match down the middle.

Ultimately: Either way, Cena or Punk are a placeholder for Alberto Del Rio to cash in his MITB briefcase. There are numerous rumors that Del Rio will win the title before October so that he is the Mexican champion heading into the tour of Mexico. Although I absolutely hate this idea, I think that even he will be a placeholder champion and entering a feud with the champion who walks out of SummerSlam champion. If WWE was smart, that will be CM Punk, the hottest thing you have going. But who knows?

And through all that, who do I think wins? CM Punk, hands down.

No Hold Barred Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Christian (c) vs. Randy Orton

How Things Should Happen: Remember back months ago that Christian was deemed an unworthy champion and wasn't only given the belt because Edge left and it was a feel good story? He dropped the strap two nights later because creative didn't believe that Christian STILL wasn't a worthy champ and wouldn't carry the company as well as Orton? Well, look how the tides have changed. After a fans dream card at MITB, Christian walked out the champion, although he walked out a weak champion by winning it by a DQ. Now, this card is where the cards are on the table for this feud. If the WWE is going to go down the road of how things should play out, Randy Orton will give Christian a complete ass whooping in this No Holds Barred match. However, Christian, will pull out all the stops down toward the end of the match and beat Orton as his own game, beating him down just as hard. Edge is rumored to be attending Axxess and although he has said numerous times that he will not be backstage at the show or even in the crowd, that might just be a smokescreen to something bigger. Being essentially a street fight, Edge could be involved in the decision, although I don't think he will. Christian walks out the Champion and the internet community rejoices because Randy Orton, while although a big name, along with John Cena are not holding the two titles hostage anymore.

How Things Might Happen: Once again, if WWE reverts to status quo, Randy Orton walks out the champion yet again. However, they wouldn't have built Christian's

heel persona so well just to give him a measly month run with the title after basically screwing him out of the title only after two days. I think Christian still has one major title run left in him (he did hold the NWA/TNA Title for a while when there), so I think this is it. He holds onto the title at least until Royal Rumble, where he loses it to the person who challenges Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania. The funny thing is, I don't have a clue who could wrestle with Bryan at WM and put on a spectacular match. Orton or Christian don't seem like the kinds of talent that would counter Bryan that well. But I don't know.

Ultimately: Daniel Bryan is your next World Heavyweight Champion, regardless of the outcome. While there are plenty of people out there who don't think the D-Bryan was smart at picking his time and place so far in advance, RVD did it in 2006 at ECW One Night Stand with success, so it can be played out well if done right. I don't think either Christian or Orton will be facing him as champion, so there is a third mysterious player waiting to take the title and face Bryan, but I am uncertain at the moment who.

Who wins? Christian and he is made to look stronger in the finish than the MITB finish.

Sheamus vs. Mark Henry

This match, as well as the last two, do not need the three breakdowns. I feel that the championship matches are going to show exactly how much the WWE cares about the fans more than these matches, although these matches are interesting in their own rights. I mean, seriously, who saw a Sheamus face turn coming? It was SO sudden, but so welcome, that alone makes this match interesting.

They have been building up Mark Henry so much over the past few months that he has even taken out Big Show and Kane in the process. So, in steps Sheamus, the Celtic Warrior and a smaller guy in comparison to the two I just listed as well as Henry. But, he was sold so well last week to be stronger than Henry in his match against the Great Khali. Besides, the guy has two title runs already, so they believe that Sheamus can carry the company eventually, otherwise he wouldn't have been given the title in the first place. So, will he defeat Henry here? No, I think that Henry is given one last PPV boost before finally slipping into this long feud with Sheamus, eventually ending with a Sheamus win. Sheamus will give Henry one hell of a fight though, and it won't be a squash by any means.

Winner: Mark Henry

Wade Barrett vs. Daniel Bryan

I already commented on how much I think Daniel Bryan means to the WWE right now. He is the loveable loser of wrestling, not just the WWE. I read about his time in ROH and to be honest, it was strikingly similar. He started out being the loser of every match and getting nowhere fast. However, ROH saw his potential and finally put the title on him a couple of times and turned him into a real asshole. While I don't see the asshole part coming out yet, I do see Bryan walking out of Wrestlemania as champion.

Now to this match. This is turning into quite a small little feud. It all boils down from the Nexus angle from last year. While D-Bryan was technically a part of the original Nexus that destroyed the set, he was "fired" from WWE for being non-PG when he strangled Josh Mathews with his tie. At the time, I thought it was very legit that he got fired and he wasn't allowed back. Now that I have read more into it, I find it odd that there have been PLENTY of non-PG things over the past couple of years on WWE TV that could haven warranted a similar firing, yet nothing happened to those people. So, even back then the WWE was grooming Daniel Bryan to be the superhero that triumphed over the Nexus. They played off D-Bryan off TV to make it seem like Nexus gave him the boot, when in reality he was better suited being a singles star rather than being stuck in a stable. Tell me, besides Wade Barrett, David Otunga, Michael McGillicutty, and maybe Slater and Gabriel (who both don't get much air time) who else is still around from Nexus, both old and new?

This match will definitely showcase how much of a talent D-Bryan really is. I think Wade Barrett doesn't stand a chance and its possible that D-Bryan keeps his promise of trying to learn new submissions and showcases a new one here.

Winner: Daniel Bryan

Divas Championship Match: Kelly Kelly (c) vs. Beth Phoenix

The Divas division is a shamble. It hasn't been the same since Lita, Trish Stratus, Jackie, Molly Holly, etc, were still wrestling. Beth Phoenix and maybe Natalya are the only two I can think of that can actually get through a match without fucking up TOO badly. Kelly Kelly, while has definitely gotten better since she first started, doesn't hold a candle to the divas I listed at the beginning.

But wait! We have Beth Phoenix and Natalya bitching about how much the Divas division sucks? Isn't that what I just said? Could it be that the WWE is FINALLY realizing what I and pretty much all the fans have been saying about Divas matches? While I hate Michael Cole and he is total tool, his commentary during Divas matches are pretty much what the community as a whole is saying. They are boring, nothing happens, and nothing is taken away from it. Except maybe the T and A, but that isn't what these ladies are trying to accomplish. Well, the ones who care that is.

So, what does this mean for the Divas division? Well, I think Beth Phoenix comes out as Champion and forms a stable with Natalya and maybe a few other Divas that tries to cleanse the Divas division and maybe try to compete with the Knockouts? I mean, I don't even watch TNA and I know that their Knockouts are 100x better than the Divas. Hell, they have Mickie James, who I totally forgot to mention in my list above.

Winner and New Champion: Beth Phoenix

Social Media vs. Retail Hell: The Reckoning.

2011-08-07T22:39:00.001-04:00

This may the most emotional and truthful post I have ever posted. I am going to do my best to write it within the guidelines I have been given and I will definitely skirt around topics to work for my agenda and mine alone. But after being in retail for almost half my life, I feel that I need to once again get my feelings about the industry off my chest. It will be nice release of anger.

Now, what I am about to say is nothing new. Anyone who had a summer job in a supermarket or retail store knows how much it sucks. That is nothing new. So, even if I bash my current job into the dirt will I really be revealing anything that people don't already know. The catch to this post is the fact that social media is prevalent in society today and wasn't when I took my first retail job almost 10 years ago.

I could also go into the debate over social media and perspective employers again, but plenty of people have beaten me to that. Being a journalist and having to learn about the first amendment and how I am protected by it makes me wonder how much we are being spied on and anything we say on our personal time is being used against us.

Take it back to 2001. That was the year I took my first retail job. Back then, the internet wasn't as popular as it was today. Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter didn't really exist or were in their infancy. The best way one blew off steam about a crappy job was go to a small knit group of friends or family and bitch about how much their job sucked, why, and how much they wish they could quit. Sound familiar? That's because that how people talk about their jobs now on Facebook and Twitter. Only, instead of being in a private setting, they are sharing it with everyone on their profile. So, if you are friends with someone who is management, a snitch, or your friend is friends with management, whatever you are saying can be transferred back to them. Privacy outside of work doesn't exist in this day of smartphones and social media.

Why do you continue to do it though? The fact of the matter is that future employers and current employers are using social media sites as a means to either hinder someone from being hired or find a reason to cut payroll. If you think that the only reason you got fired or your hours got cut was because of you, then you are gravely mistaken. This is one reason I enjoyed working at Wal-Mart for so long. As much as they are a huge company that has a lot of negative reviews backing them, they still have enough money to say "fuck it, I know we might go over payroll this week, but there is no coverage in this area, so I will schedule over anyway." Smaller companies who don't have the budget to do just don't care.

That leads me into my current employer who I am going to go Voldemort on. It will be the company-that-must-not-be-named or else I might get in trouble again. Needless to say, I am just sick of these two facts: I am making minimum wage and my store does not know how to schedule properly. You wonder why your numbers are horrible? It isn't because I refuse to help people, because in all honestly do. The reason your numbers suck so much on a daily basis is because we have no cashiers to ring people out when we get long lines, no one to cover each department so someone like myself is running from each department to make sure that everyone is being helped. Only, when I get there, I find that the customer has left because no one was there to help them. You know how many times I watched a customer leave the store angry because they weren't helped? More times than I can count on my hands and feet. Oh, and your numbers are based on surveys we hand out to customers with receipts, so I highly doubt that the five people I don't stop in a 4 hour shift (which I will get to later) is really going to drop that number significantly.

Scheduling is the most important aspect of any retail job. You need to schedule enough people in the store on any given day to make sure that you account for all departments, call-outs, and any other aspects that you can't account for. But instead, I am expected on any given night to run three departments on the floor, all their put backs, clean and make it look respectable while helping fulfill customer orders, needs, and questions. Plus, I have to run the back room, which is a joke some days. I am only one person, yet most days I am expected to make sure that all orders are brought up to people's cars in a timely fashion, which is sometimes two-four pieces of large furniture pieces that I can't do by myself, but there is no other people in the store to call for help. Meanwhile, 75% of the people who call themselves management tend to hide on the computers or office claiming to be helping customers with issues or doing management work, knowing full well that the store is trashed, we are short staffed, and what they could be doing could wait until the end of the night during a lull. Even better is that those same people are receiving outside calls from their significant others about probably something that could wait until they got home, but still take the call to avoid working. Then the double standard of being yelled at for doing the same thing is kinda laughable.

That's high school drama for you though. When you find that if you aren't on a list of a managers favorites, you are going to find yourself on the short end of the stick. You will get in trouble more than those who are favored. You thought nepotism doesn't exist anymore? Wasn't there a guy in Illinois who was holding a senate seat for someone once Obama was elected? Granted, that's high scale, but still it exists. CM Punk said it best when he ranted about his employer: if you kiss enough ass in any company, you will find yourself more ahead than those who speak their mind and tell the truth. If I wanted my nose to be brown, I would paint it brown to avoid the smell.

Am I going to piss a lot of people off with this post? You betcha. But that's the wonders of being stubborn and not caring. When you work a minimum wage job and are expected to perform miracles, there is just no incentive to do it. If I was asked to work one department and get that one department squared away for the night, I would gladly bust my ass to make sure that one department was taken care of. But when I am asked to make sure that four are taken care of, you don't pay me enough to do that. Maybe if you were paying me $15/hr, I will gladly take my toothbrush to the toilets on top of squaring away my four departments. I would even do it with a smile on my face and talking to every customer that is more than touching distance away from me.

Read this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." This amendment guarantees that I am always an opinion on anything that I want to say. It guarantees that if I wanted to tell my employers to fuck off, I have every right to do so. I don't care what your policies say, because I have a brain, I have an opinion, and you may not like what I have to say, but I only speak of what I see. I was making $11/hr at Wal-mart and I walked into work every day happy to know that I had a job and I wasn't expected to do much more than what I was being paid to do. Granted, there were days I was told to unload trucks, but given that I was paid to run a department and not unload trucks, I think you can understand my stance.

Lastly, try and fire me over what I just said, because a shit storm will rain if you do. I will print that first amendment out so fast, that it will make your head spin. Like I said on Facebook, where this whole mess started, "If you tell me to be silent, I will just open my mouth louder."

Because if I am not going to stay what 90% of the employees at my job are thinking, who will?

Edit: As I sat talking to someone, I was reminded of something. When working, I am told to greet people I see. Which is fine, because part of my job is to greet people and make sure they are assisted in their needs. The thing that starts to get annoying is the fact that most customers are now greeted at least five times while they are in the store and by the fifth time, they will tend to get annoyed by it. This is why I made my comment on Facebook the other night. The fact of the matter is this: when I head to the back room, which is my main department of the store, I tend to meet people in the back of the store. Thus, they were greeted by at least one person up front (sometimes a greeter, which is another topic I could spew hatred over for a whole post in itself), one person in the front department, one person in the side department, and possibly another employee heading up front. So why then would I greet the person again, when they know what color an employee wears and if asked I will admit that I work there. Yes, I don't wear my name tag any given day, because my job out back usually requires lifting heavy and awkward things that make my tag get caught. Why choke myself?

This is why I only greet people within touching distance or look confused. It makes sense, because those who get closer to you will more than likely need help. Since I have worked in retail so long, I know when someone looks confused and needs help. Maybe retail management should take a step back and realize that sometimes their employees are more times smarter than they are. Which is why they don't become management, otherwise the circle would be broken.

WWE: This Is Getting Interesting

2011-07-26T00:24:00.001-04:00

I am fairly certain I said something similar to just what happened last night on Raw.

"However, if a new champion is crowned, CM Punk is still going to lay claim to the championship. He never vacated the title and technically Vince was relieved of his duties before Raw when on air, if you want to follow the storyline. So, if Hunter comes out and says that everything Vince said last week is false, the Punk is still the WWE champion. This could get interesting very quickly."

Yep, I did call it! Knew it. Also, this:

"Even better was they posted the video on their site. What does that matter? First, that they were recording it and knew it would happen (which their footage is shit compared to the others on the net) and second that it is part of the story. They could have let the independent youtubers of the world post it on their and let it game notoriety that way, instead you gave away the best part. CM Punk is still under contract with the WWE and posting the video on your site was the worse thing you could have done to prolong the story. Dumb move, WWE, dumb move."

I mentioned that CM Punk was not going to just leave and take a vacated title with him. This angle was just getting good, so obviously he resigned either short term to finish up this angle or he actually signed a full contract back with the WWE, now that they understand that he is marketable. I told you he would make a claim on the title and I knew that since WWE.com posted that video that he was contracted. Picking up the pieces, one piece at a time.

Well, I was on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and was reminded that this angle is similar to one from Wrestlemania X. Shawn Michaels Intercontinental Championship was vacated after he didn't defend it in 30 days (one of the rare times that that rule was applied). Razor Ramon won the title during a tournament and Michaels claimed that since he never lost the title, he was the rightful champion. That led to a ladder match at WM10 to crown the true champion, which Razor Ramon ended up winning.

The differences in the angles are definitely there. CM Punk started this angle by claiming that he was under-utilized and that he hated the company and was going to leave the company with the title. Never saying what would happen after he left, it was claimed that Vince stripped Punk of the title and was going to crown a new one. The match never happened that week and Vince was fired only to be replaced with Triple H.

I figured that since CM Punk left and never lost the title and never violated the 30 day rule, he was still champion and would make that claim no matter what. Cena wins the title again (holy shit, rather shocking) and he is going to claim that he is the champion. Both are right, but both can't be right. There can't be two champions. Hmm, this sets up another match at SummerSlam to determine the rightful champion? Shocking part two.

WWE is slowly starting to pick up the ball finally. They are picking up this angle pretty much how we wanted it. Punk is the champion and Cena is not. It sucks that Rey Mysterio was caught in the middle of it... again. However, if Punk loses the title at SummerSlam, I actually might get pissy about it. Why do you need to keep Cena as champion. Punk can carry the company just as well as Cena, he has PROVEN it over the past month. When your buyrates come back and say that you made a lot of people buy MITB just because of Punk, then you probably should take advantage of it.

Anyway, that's all for now. Adios.

WWE and the CM Punk Storyline

2011-07-23T03:46:00.000-04:00

Look at the last few posts on my blog. They are all related to CM Punk and his promo somehow. The reason? Because the promo he shot was the best thing to happen to WWE for a while now. They brought us back into the company and wanted to find out what was going to happen with his contract and after he left. Hell, it was the one reason I actually ordered the PPV last week and I never order them anymore. Not with the internet giving me the same results for free.

But the story intrigued me. Even better is that the story is continuing outside the ring with Punk. He took the title to a Cubs game the Monday after he won it, the same night that Vince was fired. He has made claims on his Twitter that the real champ is him and that bogus tournament they are running is not true. The best thing he did was crash the WWE panel at San Diego Comic Con this week. There are videos swirling around the internet and makes us see what he is doing now that he is not under contract with the WWE.

Or is he? I have been wondering that since he won the title last Sunday. Why would they give the title to him and then let him walk out? Not only that, but let him go into the WWE panel at SDCC and talk to Hunter about WWE things with him and get an interaction. WWE has been using the whole "CM Punk didn't exist" mantra, so why bother acknowledging him at your panel? You could have kicked him out.

Even better was they posted the video on their site. What does that matter? First, that they were recording it and knew it would happen (which their footage is shit compared to the others on the net) and second that it is part of the story. They could have let the independent youtubers of the world post it on their and let it game notoriety that way, instead you gave away the best part. CM Punk is still under contract with the WWE and posting the video on your site was the worse thing you could have done to prolong the story. Dumb move, WWE, dumb move.

That is all. I just had to share this because WWE is showing that they don't know social media or youtube as well as they should. Maybe they should talk to Zack Ryder, he seems to know what the hell he's doing. Probably why CM Punk mentions him in his questions at the panel.

WWE Middle Finger to the Fans

2011-07-19T04:00:00.003-04:00

I am severely pissed off at the WWE for doing what they did. Plain and simple, they fucked up. Immensely, they fucked up and they are going to have to do a lot to fix it. They dropped the ball completely on this whole angle with Punk and I just hope that how they ended Raw fixes it somehow.

After one of the best WWE PPVs in a while last night with Money in the Bank, they fucked it up with Raw within 5 minutes of starting. How the hell do you go from having the perfect storyline of Punk leaving and having the title gone for a while and using that as the perfect storyline to a tournament to crown a new champion. It was the cheapest way out of the angle in my opinion and they could have done SO much more with it than they did.

With that said, the ending of Raw intrigues me to see how they are going to play it out again. Raw sucked, plain and simple. It could have been so much better if the entire show was based around a tournament to crown a new champion when the current champion was watching a Cubs game. They could have kept a camera in Chicago and filmed Punk watching the game with the title and keep the title off air for a few months.

I told you the other night that MITB (the initials for Money in the Bank) was one of the first PPVs in a while that I actually wanted to buy because of what Punk was doing. I was torn on Punk before this month and how he played that mic so well proved to me that Punk was better than what I thought. I remember back when Punk debuted on the fake ECW. I wasn't sure about who he was and what he was doing and I missed his three World Heavyweight Championship reigns, so I didn't get to see how he evolved in the WWE. I've seen promos of him YouTube from his days in the indies and how smart he was using the crowd to his advantage. The guy signed his WWE contract on the Ring of Honor title! He knows how to strike controversy and I am reading a book by Eric Bischoff entitled "Controversy Creates Cash", so it could have been perfect.

I mentioned last night that there could have been so much potential in the arc. I thought they could keep the title off air and play that. I thought Vince could use his legal magic to get the title back from Punk. Hell, he could have forced Punk to vacate it himself, but he took the cheap way out and played the "Punk never existed" route. Cheap and non-effective.

But what's this? Vince is now fired? What can this possibly evolve into? If it means that the entire two hours of Raw that I watched tonight was pointless and they aren't even going to finish off the tournament next week, then I will go from being pissed to being super pissed. You spent one week of Raw building up your cheap ploy to erase Punk from history and then bring him back as champion, and say "Fuck you, the tournament is bologna and we are actually going to play out the title is gone angle as planned." That would be a giant middle finger to the fans.

However, if a new champion is crowned, CM Punk is still going to lay claim to the championship. He never vacated the title and technically Vince was relieved of his duties before Raw when on air, if you want to follow the storyline. So, if Hunter comes out and says that everything Vince said last week is false, the Punk is still the WWE champion. This could get interesting very quickly.

Never before have I sat on my computer and wrote out a big giant hate letter to the WWE this severe. I have been a fan of wrestling for a very long time and got through the Monday Night Wars of the 90s and the Attitude Era and the WWE has something here that they could drive on. I bet you there were a lot of people Sunday night who said "I haven't been this excited for a PPV for X number of months/years. They really have hit gold on this one."

Don't drop the ball guys. Fix the dam and maybe you might sell Summerslam just as effectively.

CM Punk wins the WWE Title. What next?

2011-07-18T02:12:00.003-04:00

I didn't think wrestling could shock me anymore after the Monday Night Wars, Stone Cold, The Rock, DX, the nWo, Goldberg, etc. I thought the ultimate swerve in wrestling died when WCW finally died at the beginning of the 2000s. I guess I was wrong.

I picked Punk to win a week ago. My sister, who knows that I write predictions for the PPVs on here, asked me a week ago to tell her my choices. I picked the other five matches first and had to look at the Punk/Cena match twice. I wasn't sure how it could play out.

I knew that Vince could do a lot with this Cena/Punk match. There were plenty of options to shock us that would keep the title in the WWE and only one where it would leave. Cena could win outright or we could see another screwjob to have Cena win (which Vince tried to start again, but Cena stopped it). Punk could win, but just have Alberto (or the MITB winner) take it from him after the match. They even tried doing that too at the end, but it failed.

When I picked Punk to win, I did it as a half joke. I picked it because I knew that it was the right thing for Vince to do to shock us. There has been no word of Punk actually signing a new contract with the company, unless it was signed under very heavy wraps. Well, the ending of this match apparently was kept under very heavy wraps, and only Vince, Cena, Punk, the ref, and Vince's right hand man knew the actual ending. So, Vince has definitely kept this ending secret. If he kept the contract signing under wraps and threw all this bogus shit to the internet to throw us off, he definitely hasn't lost his touch yet. But, I doubt it.

I chose Punk as a half joke because I didn't think Vince would actually do it! I didn't think he would throw this storyline of having the WWE title gone from the company. If Punk is definitely out of the company and the title is too, then how is this going to play out?

A few things can happen. Well, first of all, Cena is definitely not fired. I said that even if he lost, he would not be fired real or fake. He is still the face of the company, even when he is loved or hated. So, don't worry about him.

Second of all, Vince could come out tomorrow on Raw and tell Punk to vacate the title and try to play a legal card and say that since Punk is no longer an employee, he can't be the champion. Then, either Punk will not do it and find a loophole and keep the title or be forced to vacate the title. Apparently, Punk will be at Raw tomorrow and it will be his last appearance on WWE, if the internet is telling the truth. Raw is definitely going to be as interesting as MITB was tonight.

Third of all, if Punk keeps the title, he is either going to take a break and the title will no longer be in the company until Punk comes back. That definitely will be an interesting scenario and how WWE can play that out would be interesting as well.

We will just have to wait and see what Vince has planned now that Punk won. How is he going to continue to shock us now. Tomorrow, I will definitely have to write my full aftermath of the PPV. Daniel Bryan wins?! Who the hell saw that coming?! Anyway, until tomorrow.

WWE Money in the Bank Predictions

2011-07-17T04:06:00.005-04:00

I have been a wrestling fan for a long time. Back in the day before digital cable and the onslaught of comcast and verizon, there were such things as black boxes. They were cable scramblers that allowed one to get free cable back in a day where it was possible. Nowadays, Comcast and Verizon make it near impossible for you to do this anymore, so you actually have to purchase a PPV if you want to watch it.

What does that have to do with me? Well, for the longest time, the only PPV that I would order after we lost our black boxes (or cry me a river for stealing cable because I wasn't the only one doing it) was Wrestlemania. It was biggest one of the year and supposedly the best. But, after this year's Wrestlemania, I was totally disappointed at that claim. You know how I felt about the show. It wasn't worth the $60 I paid for it.

Still, what does it have to do with Money in the Bank and me? Well, later tonight I will be ordering Money in the Bank. It will be the first non-Wrestlemania PPV I have wanted to order and watch in the longest time. Every PPV I sit in front of my computer and look at the results as they happen on WWE or other Wrestling sites. But, with CM Punk and the little drama he has created at WWE, I am intrigued on how Vince can play this one out and if he can do it the right way. He has a gold mine opportunity, he just needs to cash in on it.

It isn't just the Punk/Cena match that is interesting. The Christian/Orton saga is beefing up and drawing to a close soon enough. Christian has turned into a really good heel, which we already knew from his TNA days that he is good at doing. The PPV also has two Money in the Bank ladder matches and there will be surely enough highlight from both of those to satisfy. The other matches are there, but those four alone finally sold me on finally getting the PPV.

So, the question now remains. What do I think is going to happen? I, after all, have been posting my predictions the last couple of months on here and find it helps me get into the mood to want to write more. So, without further ado, this is what I think will happen later tonight.

WWE Money in the Bank PPV Predictions

WWE Championship Match: John Cena (c) vs. CM Punk

This match is guaranteed to either steal the show, or disappoint immensely. The background on this match is immense and I could spend an entire post talking about what has happened and how it has helped me follow this story very deeply. But, this post would be last forever and I doubt you would want to read just on how well I think this match has been laid out. So, here's the short of it:

The rumors way back were that CM Punk was going to go for the title this summer. But the rumors were also out there that his contract was up in July and that he wanted to take a break and rest. So, I was shocked that Punk became #1 contender AND told us he was really leaving. It threw a monkey wrench into the whole plan. Punk was going to carry a story arc with Cena for the summer and probably carry Cena into his loss of the title until he won it back to face The Rock in April. When he said he was leaving, that was a sure fire loss on his part. Surely, Vince would not let Punk win the title then either leave with it or vacate it right after.

But then Punk threw that amazing promo that I posted about almost exactly after I saw it. He did everything right in that. He said it with a passion, he spoke the truth about he was treated while he was with the WWE and he spoke what we all are thinking about the WWE and Vince. It made me want to watch and find out what would happen.

He was suspended.

But good guy Cena, the same guy that Punk called an ass-kisser the week prior, wanted to face Punk. The WWE Universe wanted Cena kick the crap out of Punk. Vince didn't. Vince has a history of watching a title leave his company and end up on competition. He didn't want to deal with that backlash again. But Cena, the golden boy of the company, threatened to "quit" and what would Vince have? No champion and no draw for the title anymore. He made the match and all was good. Except, that he said that if Cena lost the title and Punk left with it, he was fired.

That effectively told me that Punk was not winning. Vince would not fire Cena, he wouldn't let Punk leave, and he wouldn't lose the championship.

Yet, I still think Punk is going to win later tonight. I just have a funny feeling that says that Vince has pulled out all the stops when it comes to this match. Look at it this way. Before Punk went on his tirade, the show was the same old shit. Nothing new, nothing exciting anymore. Cena was champ and so was Orton. Same old shit, new day. Punk effectively took the WWE and made it a thing to see again. Everyone in the circle was talking about what Punk had just said and they wanted to see what would happen. If Vince lets Punk leave the WWE for his sabbatical with the title, it would cause that same stir that Punk initially brought three weeks ago. Hell, even with what he said last week on Raw.

So, Punk wins. What happens? Well, one of two things happen. Punk wins and actually leaves with the title for a bit and will eventually come back, probably before Wrestlemania to give it back to Cena to face The Rock with. Cena getting fired? Not a chance in hell. Punk was right on Monday, Cena was fired last year from the Nexus...for a week. Then he came back and is champion once again. He won't get fired fake or real. He will stay and have that sour taste in his mouth that he let the title slip from him. This is scenario #1.

Scenario #2 takes the reaction of the crowd, who just saw the title effectively leave the company, and turn them upside down once again. This PPV is Money in the Bank after all and there will be a MITB winner crowned before the match starts. My prediction is later and I will get to that later, but whoever it is will cash in their contact and take the title from Punk before he can leave the company. His contract expires at midnight, so he will still be obligated to defend it before that. The crowd is shocked twice in one match and Vince wins yet again.

We will just have to wait and see what happens. Like I said, that was the SHORT version of my logic. Just imagine if I kept on talking?

Winner and New Champion: CM Punk, who then leaves or gives the title to the new Raw MITB winner.

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Randy Orton (c) vs. Christian

I don't know if I mentioned this, but I hated the fact that WWE took the title from Christian so soon after giving it to him. I think I have said it now three times or something. These two had two really good matches in a row and stole the show twice. Now, its getting stale. Christian has definitely become an effective heel, but he is starting to sound like a crybaby more and more. It's actually pissing me off, which is exactly what the WWE wants. But, is his character turn and good selling of how much of a whiny bitch he is going to equate to the title, finally? No. I haven't heard otherwise, so I think the brass backstage do not think that Christian can be an effective champion. So, I guess we are stuck with Orton for a while. Until my MITB winner takes him out, which won't be at this PPV.

Winner and Still Champion: Randy Orton

Raw Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, Evan Bourne, R-Truth, Jack Swagger, Alex Riley, The Miz, and Alberto Del Rio

I really have not much to say in regard to the ladder matches, so effectively, all I am going to say is who wins and why. In order:

Kofi Kingston: Isn't ready. As much as he has been with the WWE for a while, they haven't sold him in the main event ever. Why they going to start now?
Rey Mysterio: Rey is only in this match to be a high flyer. Sad truth, but the truth nonetheless.
Evan Bourne: Same statement for Rey.
R-Truth: They didn't give him the title last month, why are they going to give him the MITB and effectively the title? I still say he will be champion eventually, but not because of this match
Jack Swagger: Undersold WAYYY too much. Especially after his involvement with Cole earlier in the year.
Alex Riley: Is just starting and still has a feud with The Miz to wrap up. I think he will be champion in the next couple of years, but not yet.
The Miz: Won't win two years in a row. I know it's been done before, but I think he still has Riley to put over and being champion won't help that.
Alberto Del Rio: So, why is Mr. Del Rio all the way at the end? I said a while back (probably at Wrestlemania) that Del Rio will be champion by year's end. So, here you go. I think that Del Rio wins the match and either cashes it in at Summerslam and starts a feud with Cena, or he cashes it in right away later in the night to stop Punk from leaving the company with the title.

Winner: Alberto Del Rio

Smackdown Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Kane, Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Sheamus, and Wade Barrett

Same deal:

Kane: Won it last year and did a really good job being a very smart psychopath with the title. Don't see it happening again.
Sin Cara: High flyer in a ladder match.
Daniel Bryan: Same
Cody Rhodes: I think I said that Rhodes will probably be in the title picture soon, but not here. Very close though.
Heath Slater: Not ready yet. Plain and simple.
Justin Gabriel: High flyer in a ladder match.
Sheamus: I was very close to picking Sheamus to win, but I can't imagine they would. Someone just rubs me and says that Wade Barrett is ready to try a title run again.
Wade Barrett: Which bring me to Barrett. Last year, Barrett feuded with Orton for the title on Raw and lost each time. I think he will become champion and feud with Orton again. I actually thought that the Orton/Barrett feud was good and could be worked on some more. I don't think Barrett cashes in tonight, but he will soon. Maybe by Summerslam. It will also mark the fact that neither MITB winner will make it to Wrestlemania with the briefcase. Just like last year.

Winner: Wade Barrett

Big Show vs. Mark Henry

Wow, they REALLY turned Mark Henry into a real asshole. Very effectively, I might add. His heel turn was a shock after being a good guy for so long, but it definitely has worked. You notice him again on TV and he is relevant in the company again. Feuding him with Show is excellent as well, as it makes the fight fair for both of them. I think Show has the slight edge in the match, but I think Henry takes him out right after and it might spill onto the stage again. This feud will carry one more PPV and then dissolve.

Winner: Big Show

Divas Championship Match: Kelly Kelly vs. Brie Bella

Rematch match. Whoo. Kelly Kelly actually has shocked me. I actually remember her first coming up through the fake ECW. She sucked A LOT when she first started wrestling, but I definitely have seen improvement in her in-ring ability. However, just like the Tag Team division (which doesn't even have a title match on the PPV card, shocking) the Diva's Division is dead. It died when Trish, Lita, Jackie, Molly Holly, and all those left. It just hasn't been the same. The Divas have reverted back to being eye candy and nothing more, which is sad. Because, there are plenty of talented young girls who could become good wrestlers if the WWE gave them a chance. Now, I know you're going to say that I am wrong, but seriously. When is the last time you got excited over a Divas match?

Winner and Still Champion: Kelly Kelly

That's my rundown. It is late, so I think I will taper off and end this post crappy. See you Monday for an aftermath post and see how well I think the WWE will play this out. This card could produce the best card of the year if the WWE plays it out the right way. See ya!

CM Punk: The "Holy Shit He Just Said That?!" Promo

2011-06-28T02:27:00.002-04:00

I just finished watching Monday Night Raw from this week. I get home at 10 on Mondays when I work, so I start watching it late. With other interruptions, we never finish til about 1am. But holy shit, did they end in one of the best ways I've seen in a long time.

In the current storyline with CM Punk and John Cena, CM Punk is the number one contender for the WWE Title. He stated last week that his current WWE contract will expire on July 17, the same day as the Money in the Bank PPV where he challenges for the title. He said that after he wins the title, he is taking it with him when he leaves. What he meant by that is a little ambiguous, whether he would vacate it after leaving or take it with him to another promotion was unclear.

To further the story this week, CM Punk came out and interrupted Shawn Michaels and remind us of what he said. He also almost challenged Michaels to a match, which would have been great in its own right, but his Nexus members got Sweet Chin Music for their troubles.

Then, later in the night CM Punk got involved in the main event of Cena Vs. R-Truth in a Tables Match. He allowed R-Truth to spear Cena through a Table. He then took a mic up to the top of the stage, sat down, and said this:

One of the best promos I have seen in a LONG time. After watching that I was shocked. I was shocked that he was able to say about 3/4 of what he said! Not only was he doing the shoot in a Stone Cold Steve Austin shirt, which no wrestler usually wears another's merch, he said a lot of things that if wasn't told to say them, he would have gotten fired for it, let alone "suspended".

So, let's break down what points he would have gotten fired, shall we?

First of all, he called John Cena, Hulk Hogan, and The Rock ass kissers of Vince McMahon. His mic would have gotten cut off on the fact that he called all three ass kissers of Vince McMahon. His mic DEFINITELY would have been cut off at the mere mention of Hulk Hogan's name. Now, with Savage's death last month, mentioning Hogan's name was necessary because of all those feuds. But, to mention Hogan is no-no number 1 to Vince nowadays. Also, the fact that he called The Rock "Dwayne" and using real names (which in this day of wrestling isn't too uncommon) is kinda taboo.
He mentioned Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar. Heyman isn't too much of a taboo, but now that I have read a little about him, I think it might as well be a taboo. Heyman was not happy with the new ECW (which is understatement because EVERYONE was unhappy with the new ECW) and the fact that Heyman has publicly bashed WWE since doesn't help Punk. Lesnar is not in good graces I believe with the WWE as well, considering the way he left. If you don't know, I believe the way Lesnar left and the way Batista left are very similar.
He mentioned the fact that he is a wrestler and constantly making fun of the fact that the WWE is moving away from wrestling and into entertainment. WWE has definitely started moving away from wrestling more and more and the larger than life attitude of wrestling is definitely diminishing. The fact that wrestlers are acting more real and less like superheros each day is showcasing that.
He mentioned the main event for next year's Wrestlemania and putting down the "biggest match ever". He called The Rock "Dwayne" again.
He mentioned New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor by name. Naming a competitor by name is a HUGE no-no. But, this is where the line between Real Shoot and Worked Shoot began to blur (I will talk shoots later for those who don't know what a shoot means). If Punk was legit shooting at this point, he would have mentioned TNA/Impact. At that point his mic definitely would have been shut off and he would have been carted out. But he didn't. He mentioned two slightly smaller competitors and was left on stage to continue.
He used a vulgarity and was luckily censored. I didn't notice what the swear was at first, but I noticed on the replay that he said douchebag. He also mentioned higher ups in the company and put all of them down.
He said that the company might be better off with Vince dead (which is true, but that's another story), but that it will be taken over by his idiotic daughter and doofus son-in-law (Triple H). If this shoot was real and he started on that, he probably would have cut out immediately and sent packing right then and there. He was cut off before he could talk about the bullying campaign and that was probably when Punk might have gone a little too far with it, but the point was made anyway.

So, before I finish, for those who don't know what a "shoot" is, it is a wrestling term for when a wrestler comes out and says something that isn't scripted or planned by the writing team before hand and is usually honest and brutal. I think from the video you just watch, that qualified. Now, this is where the line blurs. There is what is known as a "worked shoot" and a "real shoot". In a real shoot, it is exactly as I explained above. The wrestler involved usually is docked pay, dropped off TV for a while, or even suspended or fired. So, when I heard that Punk was suspended, I was sure that it was real and that he was exiting on his own terms.

But, then I read on where Punk's mic could have been cut numerous times in the promo and that's when it became more and more clear that it was more worked than anything. Wrestling by nature is a worked entertainment, and what that means is that it is scripted like any movie or TV show, and most that is said or done is planned ahead of time. Now, that doesn't mean that the wrestlers come out, grab a mic, and just speak lines from a script. They are given an idea of what to talk about, promote, and even call out if the situation calls for it. The better promo cutters can ad-lib during a promo and use crowd interaction, a flubbed line from the other wrestler, or even work off the other wrestler. So, when a shoot is worked, it is planned in advance that the wrestler is going to come out and talk bad about the company and it will be played off that he did it on his own.

Now, the question still remains. How much of Punk's shoot was worked and how much did he actually say from the heart? I mean, he said A LOT of things that were impressive and truthful about how the WWE is being run at the moment. He said it almost flawlessly and that is the sign of a really cool promo cutter. Punk can come out and cut a really good promo and if he was given free reign to say what he wanted (with a few limitations) than it is amazing that he got away with what he said. Look, I am watching the promo again because it was just SO well put together that I just need to listen to it again and dissect it.

Either way, Punk accomplished something amazing tonight. His promo will be talked about for the next month because of how well it was delivered and the shock value of the promo itself. It should add the intrigue of the story between Cena and Punk until the PPV and maybe beyond. I read the spoilers for next week's Raw since it was taped after this week's Raw due to the Australia trip next week. It is going to get interesting very quickly and the WWE really need to play this the right way and they might get back into the mainstream again.

That's is all.

WWE Capitol Punishment Predictions

2011-06-19T01:17:00.001-04:00

My predictions about the upcoming PPV Capitol Punishment!

WWE Championship Match: John Cena (c) vs. R-Truth

Remember a couple of months ago when I said that R-Truth would get involved in that Triple Threat Tag team match and I wouldn't be surprised to have his heel persona finally get him a championship match? Well, here you go.

Is it enough for him to actually win the championship though? This is where I find my prediction rather tricky. I would love to say that R-Truth definitely deserves to win the title just based on the way he swerved from face to heel so quickly and so well is definitely worthy of a title reign at least for one month. But I don't think the rivalry between him and Cena has played out entirely. I think there is still another month of promos and such and then I think that R-Truth wins the title. For now, Cena keep the title for another month, loses it, then probably regains it back at Summerslam.

Winner and still Champion: John Cena

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Randy Orton (c) vs. Christian

When Randy Orton challenged for the title five days after the PPV that it was rather odd that two faces were in a title match at the same time in a 1 vs. 1 match. So, when Christian finally turned heel a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't completely shocked. Randy Orton just turned face not too long ago and it is very rare to see a quick turn back like that. Christian turning heel based on the fact that he finally won the title just to lose it again is definitely a good reason to turn someone heel. Especially after the whole Edge retirement angle played out as well, it was a perfect time to do it. Christian is definitely playing an effective heel as well, using the whole "I was robbed angle" very well as well.

I am still upset that the WWE Creative is holding Christian back and saying that he wouldn't be a draw as a champion. I have said this before, he was the champion of the TNA twice and for extended periods of time as well. He drew over there as a heel. I think it's time to have him draw as a heel over in WWE. I think he finally takes the title back at this PPV and I don't think he'll keep it for too long. But I think he deserves to take it back.

Winner and New Champion: Christian

United States Championship Match: Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler

This rivalry came out of nowhere and I don't think it's played out that well. I think Kofi keeps the title for now and the two of them start a better rivalry and Dolph takes another shot at the title. Ask me again next PPV what I think as I see the rivalry play out.

Winner and still Champion: Kofi Kingston

Intercontinental Championship Match: Wade Barrett (c) vs. Ezekial Jackson

Now this title match I can get behind because it has had time to play out. I missed the whole Corre breakup, but I did hear about it. Once I knew that the Corre broke up, it was a sure sign that Wade is going to lose the title to Ezekial. I think Ezekial has been played up to be this unstoppable force again in the WWE and I think that he finally wins a title against a Correless Barrett.

Winner and New Champion: Ezekial Jackson

The Miz vs. Alex Riley

This rivalry has been brewing since Extreme Rules and The Miz's loss against Cena and Morrison. The absence of Alex Riley in that match is what set this rivalry started. The climax of the rivalry was Over the Limit when The Miz lost his match with Cena, when Miz blamed Riley for not helping him enough to win the title back. This rivalry is definitely going to get really good with the history of these two. Riley was Miz's rookie on the show NXT and he has been with Miz since. Riley hasn't really shown anything since NXT and to be honest I haven't watched NXT since the first season. Riley was on season 2, so I didn't get to see him. I also won't be able to see him wrestle this match either, but I still think they are pushing him for greatness. I think he takes down The Miz at this PPV and the rivalry will continue for a few months and I think it will definitely be a good one.

Winner: Alex Riley

CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio

This rivalry is definitely getting rather old. Last year, these two had a long rivalry and low and behold Punk had followers back then as well. I really have nothing on this match, but I think that Rey Mysterio is going to win. That's all.

Winner: Rey Mysterio

Big Show vs. Alberto Del Rio

Now this rivalry is becoming very interesting. I have never seen Big Show this angry before in the WWE and he looks like he could be very angry. I think they are playing this rivalry out very well with Show being run over with Del Rio's car and then having him beat up Ricardo in retaliation. Now, I think adding those bogus charges against Show is rather ridiculous, but I think its needed to add the severity of the situation to the angle. That being said? I think Show definitely comes out on top, but it will play out for another month or two, if Show doesn't rip Del Rio's head off in the process.

Winner: Big Show

Boston Bruins!

2011-06-16T01:08:00.000-04:00

Boston Bruins. 2010-2011 Stanley Cup Champions!

Super Bowl? Check (2001, 2002, and 2004)

World Series? Check (2004 & 2007)

NBA Title? Check (2008)
Stanley Cup? FINALLY A CHECK (2011)

Now imagine this. Josh Beckett threw a one-hitter tonight. Do you think anyone would have remembered him throwing a no-hitter after the Bruins won? Was anyone even watching the Sox tonight?

That is all. GO BRUINS!

Hockey Talk

2011-06-14T23:01:00.001-04:00

I am not the biggest hockey fan ever. In my rank of priorities of sports I watch, my list goes:

Baseball
Football
Hockey
Fuck Basketball

Now, to all you basketball fans, calm down. I love playing basketball, but I can't stand watching it. Too many whistles and stoppages of play for me to handle. Yes, baseball is slow by nature, but that it what I grew up watching and I know it is supposed to be slow like that. Football can be slow at time, but that too is set up that way. At least you know that every 40 seconds you are going to get a play in football. Basketball has WAY too many fouls over stupid shit and it annoys me. Then, once the foul is called, play stops dead for like a minute, they take a shot, players are substituted out, then another minute passes, and another shot and then play resumes. They go down to the other end and rinse and repeat. Very annoying in my opinion.

But, I am not here to talk basketball. I am here to talk hockey! We all know why, of course. Tomorrow night Boston fans are going to be sitting in front of their TVs waiting for the Bruins to clinch their first Stanley Cup in almost 40 years. There is a lot of pessimism in this town, but that is warranted after the luck we have always had in this town.

Why am I not as much of a hockey fan as I should be in this town? Well, while I watched all the sports growing up, I was never a fan of football, basketball, or hockey growing up. I was a baseball fan 100% and the other sports were second fiddle. I don't know why I felt that way, it just was. When I got into high school and the Patriots were starting their run of three Super Bowls, I decided to start watching football a little more. The early part of the 2000's, I only watched one football game a year and that was the Super Bowl. It made sense to me. I didn't like the sport that much and I wanted to ease myself in. Eventually in the late 2000's, probably the 2007 season, I actually starting watching more games in the year. Last year was the first full season I tried to watch all the games I could. The reason? I started a Fantasy Football team because apparently it is the thing to do during football season. I ended up in 3rd place. Not too shabby.

Hockey is a different beast. I didn't get back into the sport because of the pros but because of high school. In my junior year, I was the assistant photo editor of the newspaper. I got tasked with taking pictures of a lot of sports and events throughout the year. I took the entire hockey season because I wanted to get back into the sport just like football and it made sense. I even had a goal for the season: my advisor said that getting a photo of a goal actually being scored is near impossible, so I made it my goal to get at least on goal shot (I succeeded by the way and it was definitely awesome).

Well, after taking photos of hockey for almost 3 months, it got me interested in watching hockey on TV again and watching the Bruins. Well, guess what happened the year I decided to pick up interest? THE FUCKING LOCKOUT, THAT'S WHAT! That turned me off again from the sport. Until the last couple of years, when the Bruins made playoff runs each and every year for the past like 4 years.

To the observant person, I look like a fairweather fan. I only pay attention to a team if they are winning, which is far from the truth. Since I tend to close at whatever job I work at (mainly because I prefer to close) I tend to miss a lot of sports games because mostly all of them are at night. I usually go on Yahoo! Sports after work to find out scores and such and anything I missed throughout the day and that works for me. Ever since 2004, when the Sox won the World Series, the only thing I listen to in my car is Sports Radio 850 AM, so it's not like I don't know whats going on in the world of sports.

Brings us back to the Bruins this year. We are heading into Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals against a shaky Vancouver team. The Bruins have outscored Vancouver 19-8, yet the series is tied. The home team has won every game, but there hasn't been a domination factor for Vancouver. All three games in Vancouver have been 1 goal wins for the Canucks. The series could easily be 6-0 in favor of the Bruins if things had gone differently in any of those games. Tim Thomas has kept the Bruins in all three games, but have lost by a 5 fluke goals in Vancouver. Two of the games in Vancouver have been shutouts for Vancouver. It's not like the Bruins have been outplayed entirely, they just haven't played their best up there. Now that it is Game 7, they need to pull out all the stops and play like they did in Boston. They have scored 17 goals in three games! It's not like they can't put the puck in the net! They just seem to have a issue about doing it up in Canada.

My family is worried that we won't win tomorrow night, but I think they are going to do it this time. This is their third game 7 of the playoffs and they have done it in both of those. If they are going to hoist Lord Stanley's cup, they are going to have to pull off a third. Go Bruins and hopefully when I post Thursday, we'll see a picture of Chara hoisting a cup.

Now, I posted this to make mention of this and I have yet to do so. I will leave you on this. Brad Marchand last night beating up Daniel Sedin pretty much sums up what the Bruins have to do while they visit Vancouver for the last time.

Wii U: Keys to Success

2011-06-09T20:42:00.002-04:00

I wrote this for Zelda Universe, but they didn't think it was necessary... doesn't mean I can't post it here! Here is what I think the Wii U needs in order to succeed.

A lot can change in a matter of six years. I remember six years ago I was mainly running the site during E3 2005 with Scott gone at camp for the summer. I remember being overwhelmed trying to post everything about Twilight Princess, the Nintendo Wii, and everything pertaining to them. I also even had time to write an article entitled "What's in a Name". I wrote about the fact that even though we were given the name Wii, we shouldn't judge a book by its cover and hopefully it would be the revolution we were hoping for from its codename.

Well, five years later and we are still sitting here stratching our heads wondering if the Wii gave us that revolution we were looking for. I definitely was underwhelmed by the Wii and its library (save a few games here and there, which was the case with the Gamecube too). Now, we are given a second chance with the Wii U. E3 2011 is definitely a repeat performance of E3 2005, seeing Nintendo as the clear winner with innovation and definitely seeing its fans having really high hopes about the next console.

Now with the Wii U, I think it was definitely a cop-out with naming the console. Nintendo is definitely getting lazy when naming their consoles. The 3DS was definitely a cop-out, but they amazed us with the 3D without glasses aspect of the console. Now I think we all are going to forget the name soon enough because Nintendo did what they should have: they showcased the controller instead of the console yet again.

Now, I am going to get onto the controller, but it is a part of four essential goals Nintendo must accomplish to win with the Wii U. The four goals are:

Cater to the Hardcore and Casual gamers equally
Have the next big innovation
Give us a console with HD capabilities
Online play that is at least on par with XBL and PSN

Let's see if, from what we saw at their conference yesterday, they might be able to accomplish their goals for the Wii U.

Catering to the Hardcore and Casual gamer equally

Before the Wii was released, there really wasn't a casual gamer. Most games that came out were geared towards those who bought the consoles and likes to play games to begin with. Then Nintendo came along and the debate about being a casual vs. a hardcore gamer began. The Wii became known as the casual console and those who owned it were only interested in games that anyone could play. Lost in the shuffle were games like Twilight Princess, Mario Galaxy... and that's about it. Hardcore games were pretty much non-existant on the console and the major franchises that most wanted to play like Call of Duty and Madden. When any hardcore games were released on the console, they looked terrible and everyone would rather play them on the Xbox or Playstation because they looked better and they offered better online support.

If Nintendo is going to have the Wii U succeed, they are going to have to balance the two better this time. The fact that they announced Battlefield on the Wii U was definitely the right thing to do. Now they just need to get Call of Duty and those franchises on the console as well.

Have the next big innovation

Well, this one is the given. With the Wii, they showcased the controller and the idea of motion control with the console. They showed how the console was going to work, but the main focus was the controller. So, it was no surprise that Nintendo focused once again on the controller as the selling point of the system. With the touch screen and the things that they showed during the conference and the ways they work with the controller, there are definitely plenty of good ideas in the making.

However, they need to avoid the problem that the Wii ended up having. A flood of third party crap on the system that didn't use the motion control to its fullest. We all know that its going to happen, but they definitely need to market the franchise games better this time around.

HD Capabilities

I mentioned this in the first goal, but it needs to be said again: The Wii U definitely needs to have HD and there is no going around that. Even better is that we learned that the majority of the gaming footage we saw for the Wii U at Nintendo's conference wasn't even on the Wii U. Nintendo has stated that they were footage from the other consoles but that the Wii U would be able to handle those games and their graphics just as well, if not better. Now, I can understand not having footage for those games on your console because developers didn't have time to play around with the console, but don't take footage from other consoles and claim that yours will do the same! That's a lot to live up to and if you fail, you're going to look bad.

But, they did show a couple of tech demos of that Zelda game that may or may not become a full Wii U game. Those graphics looked good and from what most people online are saying, it looks just as good on the controller screen when transfered. Nintendo definitely has a lot of catching up to do in this department and hopefully they pull it off well.

Online play

Now, when I went into this article, I had no idea that friend codes were getting the axe. I was going to say that friend codes need to get the axe and that the online play of the Wii U needed to be at least similar to those of XBL or PSN.

Imagine my surprise when I found an article saying that Nintendo is going to do exactly that. Friend codes are a thing of the past, leaderboards are going to be implemented, and friend lists are going to be added. If this is all true and implemented correctly, then Nintendo and the Wii U are going to compete against Microsoft and Playstation finally.

With all those goals stated, Nintendo definitely has an uphill battle when it comes to getting back into the gaming market. They lost of fans with the Wii being the way it was, marketed toward the casual gamer more than the hardcore gamer. I think if they are going to get back into the market, they are definitely going to have to show that the WiiPad isn't another gimmick like the WiiMote, Move, or Kinect. It is going to be a very interesting year in terms of gaming. The year 2012 is going to show us the future of gaming and that is no lie.

Bed Time. Nintendo to Follow

2011-06-08T02:36:00.000-04:00

Now anyone coming here (ha, people come here) looking for me to say something about the Nintendo Press Conference didn't see me post anything. That was because I was moonlighting as a journalist or something on Zelda Universe. Yea, I actually posted on ZU once again.

Here is the article I wrote this afternoon. I decided that since I was planning on watching the Nintendo Press Conference anyway that I would talk to some of the ZU personnel while the event was taking place and offer my help if needed. I had plenty of time this afternoon to play with before work, so I was able to write that before going to work. But, I must say, I do have plenty to say about the Wii U that I didn't on that article. I wrote an article in 2005 about the name that Nintendo gave us with the Wii. I think that there will be a sequel article either here or on ZU tomorrow night.

But I figured I would say something quickly on my blog and let you know that I am planning on saying something eventually. Stay tuned. But, I decided to fuck around until 2:30am and now I must go sleep to pick Lily up in the morning.

Videos: Near future?

2011-06-07T04:44:00.000-04:00

I have been watching a lot of videos lately. I mean, that's all I do at night most nights. I also have been watching a lot of video blogs of people, since it seems to be a trend.

I am not a stranger to getting on camera for the nets. I used to do video mailbags for Zelda Universe before I had Lily. I think I am itching to get back in front of the camera and try and gather a persona on video again. Since I am going to get into a profession that may require that I get on camera or radio, I think practice would be nice.

Also, I have a camera on my laptop that I have been trying to play with. That's the whole reason I got it. :-)

That is all. Hopefully I can post one video blog a week. That is wishful thinking, but I can wish. :-)

Bruins and WWE

2011-06-07T01:18:00.011-04:00

Only took me one night to come back and blog! But, I am just so excited after the Bruins absolute beatdown of the Canucks that I had to come and say something.

But first, I will talk about WWE first. I actually decided that this year I was going to watch Tough Enough from the beginning and finish it out. I love watching the behind the scenes of training to be very entertaining. Knowing what those wrestlers have to go through before they become superstars is entertaining because its good proof to give to those who hate on wrestling to be fake. It shows how much training and how much can go wrong if you aren't trained properly.

So, now to the finale. It was Andy vs. Luke for the Tough Enough 5 title. Watching the whole season, I know that those two shouldn't have been the final two. I think it should have been Martin vs. Luke with Martin winning the contract. But, due to freak accident in the middle of the season, he was forced to quit. I hope he gets a second chance in either another season of Tough Enough or just in general.

The winner? Andy over Luke, which definitely properly shocked both me and the entire WWE Universe. Luke definitely had the skills and charisma from the start and like I said, should have been in the finals anyway. But, I don't think he was the best. But over Andy? He should have won. I think as with Martin, I think he should be given a second chance as well, but we'll see.

As for Raw? Well, Stone Cold was on, so we all knew it was going to be good. Plus, seeing R-Truth in a confederate uniform was freaking hilarious and weird at the same time. As I have been saying in my predictions, I think that R-Truth has become a really good heel. He is even surpassing The Miz as the best heel in the company. The last couple of weeks I have become more and more uncertain on whether Cena keeps the title at Capitol Punishment or loses it to a deserving R-Truth. I think that this rivalry will definitely play out for the summer and R-Truth will eventually get the title at least once, as long as he keeps this heel thing up properly.

The rest of Raw wasn't that bad either. Definitely some rivalries are starting up for the PPV. Jack Swagger vs. Evan Bourne is turning into a nice David vs. Goliath type thing. CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio is coming back in full force for some reason. The main one that I am definitely looking forward to see? The Miz vs. Alex Riley. I definitely know that those two are going to put on a good match, seeing as though that Alex Riley has definitely come out of that shell of his and is starting to become a good superstar. I think this rivalry puts him over the time and maybe get him a U.S. Championship in the near future. Also, Zack Ryder sighting on Raw? That was random.

The Main Event of June 6, 2011 wasn't Monday Night Raw though. It was Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals. Canucks @ Bruins. Those two have definitely been equally matched the last two games, as they both ended in one goal losses for the Bruins. The first a 1-0 loss in the last 18 seconds of the game, and the second a 3-2 loss 11 seconds into the overtime on a cheap goal. How were the Bruins going to come out of Vancouver and come home? Kicking ass, of course.

Before the game, I started off on a conversation with a friend on Facebook. I wanted Thornton to come back into a game and kick some Burrows ass. He bit Bergeron in the first game and should have not been part of the game winning goal of Game 2. Yet, there he was scoring that goal on an open net from behind the goal. It was definitely a shot that Thornton needed to take. But the best moment of the game? Milan freaking Lucic.

Lucic in the third period took a cheap shot on a player (it might have been one of the Sedin's, but I am unsure at the moment) and Burrows came into the mess. He took some shots at him as well, even putting his exposed fingers near his mouth. The second taunt of fingers in two games. A Vancouver player did the same thing to Bergeron in Game 2, and I thought that was asshole move. Yet, I think that when Lucic did in Game 3, it was freaking awesome.

Now, I know I said the best moment of the game was that one play, but the whole game was amazing. Back to the conversation that I was having. I said that Thornton should take Burrows out with a nice knockout. One of my coworkers said to me that Thornton should do that with a 2-3 goal cushion. I said 7 goal cushion would be better, then Thornton can take Burrows out.

Final Score: 8-1. Bruins. Fucking Amazing.

Now, another coworker of mine is a physic. Now, you may sit there and say "Yea, right!" But listen to his track record: He predicted before the football season because last year that the Super Bowl will be Packers over the Steelers. We know how that turned out.

Next prediction: He predicted that the Giants would beat the Rangers in the World Series. Two teams that you wouldn't expect in the series and low and behold.

His latest prediction: He predicted that the Bruins will beat the Canucks in the Stanley Cup.

That is all. Until next time.

A Video Gamer's Christmas

2011-06-05T02:29:00.004-04:00

Man, I haven't posted a post in a while. So, while sitting and reading another's blog, it struck that bug inside of me to write something. So instead of sports, I think I shall post about my other passion. Video games!

Next week marks the 2011 version of the Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. It is like a Video Gamer's Christmas in June. This event is notorious for allowing game companies to showcase their next big thing. There are plenty of expos before hand to showcase some games and consoles, but most of the companies tend to wait for E3 to showcase the best.

This year is definitely going to be stacked with some of the best. For those who don't know or live under a rock, consoles have a shelf life of about 5-6 years nowadays. This year is a console showing year, because all the major consoles came out in 2005-06.

Nintendo rumors of their next big console have been labeled as Project Cafe. I believe I posted either here or on Facebook that if Project Cafe isn't a robot, it will be disappointing. Everything that could be said about a console has been said about this. The one rumor that I have heard that would be cool in principle but not practice is this: The console will be able to be upgraded by the user and would eliminate the need to buy a brand new console in the future. Basically you would buy the new hardware for the console and you would install it yourself seamlessly. I don't think this rumor will be true, but I think it would be an interesting thing to see.

The other major rumor about the console is the controller. Just like how we were shocked at how the Wiimote turned out, there have been rumors that the controller on the Project Cafe will have a touch screen. It will be a controller that people are thinking might look like this:

While that obviously isn't the true controller, looking at that makes me wanna vomit. I mean, that thing puts the original Xbox controller to shame. That this is a monster! Besides, what benefit do you get from putting a touch screen in the controller? You can get the same benefit if you are able to connect the 3DS to the console rather than making the controller a beast like that.

Now being a Zelda fan, I am most excited to hear about new details for the Zelda game due out soon. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was announced last year and we haven't heard much about the game. We are being told that it will be released this year and shortly after OoT3D, which is getting a June release. If they delay this game to the holiday again to make a nice buck around the holidays, they are definitely going to piss off a lot of fans of the series and Nintendo, but I digress.

Now, if you've noticed, I mainly have been talking about Nintendo. That's because I am a huge Nintendo fan. I wish that sometimes I had bought a 360, but I stick by my decision to buy a Wii at the beginning. While I would love to get into FPS games and the other mainstream games that get attention, I have always been a Zelda, Mario, and Metroid fan first. What have the other companies been saying?

Well, Sony has been in pickle for the past month and definitely have a lot of ground of catch up on. The hacking of the PSN has definitely turned a lot of fans away from the PS3. So what are they planning? Well, from the sounds of it, they got scared that Nintendo was going to beat them to the next console, so they announced "Nintendo is making a console? WELL WE ARE TOO, LOOK AT US! WE CAN GET SOMETHING RIGHT FOR ONCE". I think Sony might be sunk before they are able to float away from E3 a success.

And Microsoft? Well, they haven't said much. They haven't leaked anything that they are planning a new console, and to be honest? They could probably get another couple of years out of the 360 and still continue to beat Nintendo and Sony. They have such a stranglehold on the online gaming market that they have no worries at the moment. You won't hear anything major from them this year, except for some games.

I am going to end here. But I will be back and hopefully sooner than last time.

Boston Bruins vs. Vancouver Canucks

2011-05-28T01:08:00.004-04:00

It is well documented that I am a sports fan. It is even more well documented that I am a huge Boston sports fan. So, you can imagine the excitement when Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals ended at around 11pm.

The Boston Bruins entered the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1992. After the last couple of years of heartache, Boston finally made it in. Now, for the first time since 1990, they are going to play for a Stanley Cup.

Last challenge? The Vancouver Canucks. The Bruins have been pretty much been put down the entire playoffs. They have been written off as the weaker team, the crappiest power play, mainly a defensive team. Yet, here we are, watching the Black and Gold going into the Stanley Cup.

All the experts are stating that Vancouver is a better team. They have a strong power play which they took advantage of against the Sharks. The experts are now going to say that Vancouver is going to do the same against the Bruins. But, Boston fans always have that one thing that makes it worth watching: Hope.

We all believe that our team will win. That's what got Red Sox fans through 86 years of pain. Bruins have only almost 40 years of pain to deal with, but it is still pain. Every other Boston team has won a championship since the Bruins won a cup, now it is their chance to finally bring home a championship to Boston. Just four more games and the Boston Bruins have a championship.

Can't wait for the series to begin. Hopefully Boston sees another championship this year.

WWE Over the Limit 2011 Aftermath & Comment on Raw

2011-05-24T03:02:00.004-04:00

So, I mentioned that last night I wanted to write this post before I saw Raw. Well, I wasn't able to/forgot to, so now I will post it now. I am also going to comment on Raw itself, because I found it very interesting. Here goes.

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Randy Orton (c) vs. Christian

From what I read about the match, it was just as good as the match these two had on Smackdown when Orton won the title. Which should have been expected, since they had a very great match on Smackdown and had to top it.

I really have nothing to say about this match, other than I am not sure how they are going to play the title scenario on Smackdown. With that said...

"I Quit" Match for the WWE Championship: John Cena (c) vs. The Miz

I must say that after the Wrestlemania debacle, these two have had two really good matches since. I read that this match was very brutal and ended very nicely. Not much to say.

Now I read that the next target of the title is CM Punk. After Raw, I still think that R-Truth should be given a shot with the way he is progressing that character, but I guess from what I read, they are trying to make sure that CM Punk sticks around after his contract runs out. We'll see how things play out.

Intercontinental Championship: Wade Barrett (c) vs. Ezekiel Jackson

Now, this match was the only hiccup on my perfection for the night. Coming into the match, I had two options that I could have gone with. I figured that WWE was planning on breaking up the Corre completely, and to do that, Barrett had to lose the title. But, then again, I watched Smackdown right before the PPV that night, so I must say that after watching it, I should have predicted that Ezekial didn't win the title. But I whatever, I think he will finally get the better of the Corre eventually.

Kiss my Foot Match: Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole

From what I read this match was very short, but awesome nonetheless. I figured that Lawler would win because of the lead-in to it. Swagger left Cole, the stipulation was that if Cole won, he would be inducted by Lawler and given Lawler's ring. I didn't think that Cole would win because of that.

So, it was great to read that Lawler won, JR came out and dumped BBQ sauce on Cole, Eve moonsaulted him, and then he tried to leave. Not only that, but the biggest surprise of the night was Bret Hart coming out and sending Cole back to the ring, putting him in a sharpshooter, and Lawler making him kiss his foot.

Amazing times, I must say. With Raw having Cole apologize, I hope that this thing is FINALLY over and we don't have to hear Cole whine and bitch all the time anymore.

Rey Mysterio vs. R-Truth

I really should be a writer over at WWE. This match was definitely the reasoning for me saying that. Look, I said that Rey is definitely good to push for characters and he usually loses in those cases. Sure enough, he lost.

Now I said that in order to push the heel character of R-Truth more, they would have him win and he would beat up Rey after the match. Sure enough, he did.

Now, I just need him to be in a title match soon and it will come full circle.

Tag Team Championship: Big Show & Kane vs. New Nexus (CM Punk & Mason Ryan)

Not really gonna comment on this match all that much. Not much to say. Although, I was shocked to see them lose the titles the next night to the other two Nexus members, then she Big Show taken out by Alberto Del Rio. That was really random. The only thing that I can think of is that Show got injured at the PPV and they needed to take him out somehow. Odd way to do it, but it worked.

Sin Cara vs. Chavo Guerrero

Once again, not going to comment too much on this match either. Sin Cara matches are more fun to watch then read about, which I had to do online.

Now, onto Raw. There were three things I found interesting:

Show being injured. Like I mentioned above, that was random of them to take the titles of Kane and Show and then injure him. So, he must have gotten injured at the PPV and is now out for a bit.
Kharma coming out and crying. That was pointless and counter-productive to what they were doing with her. Why build her up as this unstoppable force, then surround her with 8 Divas and have her cry. It was too long drawn out and pointless.
Bret Hart involving himself in the Main Event. Not too bad, but I did find it interesting that he gave Punk a sharpshooter (which he botched and funny enough). Wonder if he is going to be coming back for a reoccuring role for a month or so. I also have to say that I feel bad for him for the most part. Since his stroke, he is slow and not as great as he used to be. Especially when he was doing counts on pinfalls. It was kinda sad.

But that is all I have to say about that. Until next time, have fun everybody.

Edit: There was one more thing that I found interesting coming out of Raw and didn't realize it until afterward.

4)Alex Riley and The Miz. I don't know if they are planning a feud between the two, but if that interaction between the two was any indication, it would definitely work.

Aftermath to Follow

2011-05-23T02:38:00.005-04:00

It is now 3am in the morning and I haven't written up an aftermath about the PPV that happened last night. I just had to come on here and write this first:

I was 5 1/2 for 6 on the matches I knew about going into watching Smackdown tonight. But, I wouldn't really count the Divas match. That division is so fucked up it's not even funny.

I predicted pretty much the entire night down to a T. The only thing I got wrong? Ezekial Jackson won his match, but by DQ, thus not giving him the title. That was the only thing. I, of course, couldn't guess that Bret Hart would come out during the Lawler/Cole match, but I think that was a definite surprise for the crowd in Seattle.

Cena and Orton remain on top. Shocking.

But, I am off to bed for now. I will write more hopefully before Raw tomorrow night so I can write it unbias and without any knowledge of what did happen.

Night all.

"Macho Man" Randy Savage

2011-05-22T01:47:00.004-04:00

This will definitely be brief, just because it is late and I really don't have too much to say about this. But since I am a wrestling fan, I feel that I must say something.

It very rare for a wrestler's death to make it into the mainstream. When Eddie Guerrero died, it was mentioned for a brief second and then went away. I would say that Chris Benoit didn't make it into the mainstream, but unfortunately it did under different circumstances.

The Macho Man was definitely a different case. Even if you don't watch wrestling or have never watched it, you knew who the Macho Man was. Just as much as you know who Hulk Hogan is. It is just one of those things that you just know because these celebrities extend over from their medium and broaden them into the mainstream.

I started watching wrestling in the mid-90's and really didn't get to see the prime of all those wrestlers in the 80's. Macho Man, Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat, Jimmy Snuka, etc. I did get to see Macho Man and Hulk Hogan wrestle in WCW, but it was just really different. He was getting older and wasn't as flashy anymore. I hadn't watched the matches of Savage from the 80's yet, but I knew that this wasn't the Savage that the 80's had seen.

Now, I am in the boat that think that the late 90's were the best time for wrestling. The attitude era was in full swing and there was finally life back in the WWF. People were drawn into what Stone Cold would do next to his boss and The Rock was running rampant in the ring. But there are definitely purists who believe that the 80's were the best. I do not have a complete opinion on the matter because I haven't seen many matches and rivalries from that time, so my opinions starts when I started. But, I do have a goal and that is to watch some of the best from the 80's to see who is right.

That includes watching what a lot of people call the best Wrestlemania match of all time: Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat at Wrestlemania 3.

Anyway, I really don't have much else to say. RIP Macho Man. Give the big man a big OHHHH YEAAAAA when you get there.

WWE Over the Limit 2011 Predictions

2011-05-22T01:40:00.006-04:00

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Randy Orton (c) vs. Christian

I have not yet made my opinion clear about how much it annoyed me that the WWE writers gave the title to Christian just because it would be a feel good moment with Edge. Then, 2 days (or as the on screen time stated 5 days) later take it off him in favor of Randy Orton. I did mention in my last prediction that Christian would be an in between champion for Alberto Del Rio. I also now noticed that I said that TWICE after knowing the Del Rio was going to Raw. So, I am a complete idiot. But, i still think that Christian would have dropped the title at the next PPV to someone. I didn't think they would do it so soon and give it to (shocking) recently acquired Randy Orton.

With that being said, I wish that the WWE writers believed in Christian more than they do. I mean, there is a rumor that most of the backstage people think that Christian would not be a good champion. Hold that thought. *Runs to Wikipedia* Look, he held the NWA Heavyweight Title for almost a year combined over two reigns. So, yea, he totally can't hold a title in an organization that is currently thriving. I think the WWE writers need to watch the other organization some more when they say that Christian can't hold a title.

I don't think they will give Christian will get the title back at the next PPV, even though that he should get the title back and hold it, since he is very popular in the WWE. Oh well. I hope that I am wrong and they give Christian another shot.

Winner: Randy Orton

"I Quit" Match for the WWE Championship: John Cena (c) vs. The Miz

Best tweet I read the night that Randy Orton won the title: "Oh shocking. Cena and Orton are on top of the WWE once again" I might have paraphrased that a little bit, but that was pretty much the gist of the tweet. I wasn't shocked that someone finally said the obvious. But I am rather shocked that it is actually the truth. I also read somewhere that the WWE is not suspending the disbelief that the mid-card superstars have a shot at beating the main event superstars. That the main event superstars are all the same and every once in a while you get a random mid-carder propelled into the main event status to break the status quo (aka The Miz).

With that ALL being said. John Cena will retain the title for now. I still think he will drop it probably around Summerslam, probably to Alberto Del Rio, and win it back in time to defend it against The Rock at Wrestlemania. Now, what happens in that match I still haven't figured out. Once I see that feud open up again in December, I'll let you know.

Winner: John Cena

Intercontinental Championship: Wade Barrett (c) vs. Ezekiel Jackson

I find it random that after all the in-fighting between the Corre on Smackdown led to only Ezekiel Jackson being taken out of the group and causing a feud to start. So, it makes me wonder: Is the entire group going to be disbanded because of this match? I mean, if Ezekiel Jackson wins the title at this PPV, then the group is going to turn on each other, Wade Barrett is going to go into single status and go after the title, and the other two will probably continue into the tag team role or fade off TV again.

What do I think will happen? Exactly what I just said is going happen in the last paragraph. Ezekiel Jackson will take the title and probably rot in mid-card hell when he loses the title very quickly.

Winner and New Champion: Ezekiel Jackson

Kiss my Foot Match: Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole

I do believe I mentioned in the last predictions that this feud will finally end at the next PPV. With the stipulations they added to this match, it makes me believe that the feud will definitely end with a Jerry win. Why would they put Cole into the HoF that quickly, give away Jerry's ring to Cole, if only to prolong the feud further. I think the feud has definitely run its course and needs to finish once and for all.

Now, I wrote all that before Raw. Which I am now realizing that I should probably hold my predictions until I see all the shows before the PPV. With the stipulation of the match being a Kiss My Foot match and Swagger (supposedly) being out of the picture, there is no doubt that Lawler finally gets the win.

Winner: Jerry Lawler

Rey Mysterio vs. R-Truth

So, this match showcases how to fix a broken feud. Since John Morrison is out with a legit injury, the feud that I called last month during that Triple Threat Match, they had to continue the R-Truth heel turn somehow. As much as I hate to admit it, Rey is a very good launching point for most up and coming characters. Since R-Truth has brought out this very good heel persona very quickly, I think that putting him in a feud with Rey might give him a chance to get into the championship picture in the near future.

That being said, I think Truth gets the win. Might try to take out Rey a little more after match in his little crazy thing.

Winner: R-Truth

Tag Team Championship: Big Show & Kane vs. New Nexus (CM Punk & Mason Ryan)

I am actually getting sick of the Big Show and Kane getting beaten up by both the Nexus and the Corre. Granted, it works because those two do not get into many feud with teams/people that can take them down. So, in that sense, it is fine to watch them go down on occasion. But, with them just battling the Corre on Smackdown and then go to Raw and take on the Corre... I mean Nexus again, it gets stale. So, needless to say, I don't really care about this match.

Show and Kane keep the title for now. I don't think the Nexus will take the titles. I don't know who will and to be honest, do you really care? The Tag Team division in WWE has been slowly dying a slow death (and yes, the redundancy is necessary) and is really only there because of the tradition of tag teams. There is no real great tag team anymore. Which sucks, because I long for teams like the Hardys, Dudleys, E&C, New Age Outlaws again. That would be awesome.

Winners: Big Show and Kane

Sin Cara vs. Chavo Guerrero

Now this is a random feud that is brewing on Smackdown. Sin Cara comes into the WWE and just has a lot of random matches with random people. Including bigger opponents like Jack Swagger. Then along comes Chavo Guerrero, who has not been a real regular on TV for a while now. He comes out during a Sin Cara match and claims that everything this guy is doing was once a move that his family used. Needless to say, once he started saying that, I knew that a feud was going to be brewing. I think it is a good idea to start Sin Cara on a feud and I actually think it would be good to use Chavo. Especially since he hasn't seen much TV time and maybe he can make a comeback of sorts.

I see Sin Cara continuing to build a winning streak in WWE. I think that this feud might flesh out over the next couple of months, which is great because I have been waiting for a good feud to start for a while now.

Winner: Sin Cara

Looking Back

2011-05-04T02:58:00.004-04:00

I frequent the site Journalism Jobs a lot these days. Mainly, because it is a really good place to look for jobs in my field of Journalism. I get the sense of what I will eventually need down the road at most of the major news outlets (if I ever chose that route) and just how many jobs are actually still out there in my field. I know that I am the start of the New Media Journalism movement that is going to kick off in the next few years, with newsprint becoming obsolete soon and magazines all but dying the slow death that should have been a few years ago. But, it's amazing that the Old Media Journalism is still fighting to stay relevant.

That is not the reason I decided to post this evening, however. I posted because on finding one job post on there that I could actually apply to and maybe have a shot at getting, I had to go through my old clips from when I interned at the Eagle Tribune in 2008. Looking back on them (and remembering how much of them was fixed later in edit by the sports editor), it still amazes me that I had my stuff printed in a newspaper not 3 years ago. That I actually set in motion a career that I hope to one day embark upon and enjoy doing for many years.

If you read my stuff here, I think it's safe to say that I like to write and convey my feelings through print. Every time I post here, I try to do so that it is mostly professional, free of error, and the best I can do. Those who know me know that I suck at self-editing my stuff, so you could probably go through all my posts and find multiple errors just poking their head out and screaming blue murder. But, I said mostly professional, so get off my back. :) (totally unprofessional smiley face)

I have always written better than speaking my feelings. That's why I have so many poems from high school (and a few I wrote a month or so ago) and that's why I decided to get into the field I am getting into. My words have been my life for a long time. Using them to convey a message to a large audience and get paid to do it? Not a bad idea in my mind.

My favorite thing is to tell people that I have an interest in video game journalism. I wish I could record the majority of them, because a lot of them are gold. Well, a lot of them are the same thing. "*Snicker* You want to sit and play video games for a living?" Well, yea! Sports and video games are a passion of mine, so why not use them in my career path? I have never been good at art and drawing, so design is out. I have never truly been creative enough to write a script or write a script for a video game, so that's out. Telling people a story about something random or something that truly interests me? That my friends is how I found journalism.

Video game journalism just blends the two together. I get to tell people stories (news) about their favorite video games that are in development or already out. I get to give them my unbiased opinion on why they should or shouldn't buy the game. I also get to tell them what the next big thing in gaming will be and why they should pay attention. All things I am truly good at! It's a perfect blend!

And now that I have both used the word "and" at the beginning of a sentence and ranted about nothing really, I will go. Until next time...

WWE Extreme Rules 2011 Followup

2011-05-02T02:14:00.003-04:00

So, Extreme Rules is now over and done with, so I figured I would post my reactions on how I did and what I think is in store.

I'll go in order of the matches that took place. I, of course, didn't predict two of the matches because I didn't know they would take place.

Last Man Standing Match: Randy Orton def. CM Punk

So, my prediction didn't hold water from the beginning of the match. The GM banned Nexus from ringside, so I totally lost my prediction from the start. So, I wasn't shocked to see Randy Orton win, because with Nexus there he was a shoe-in to finish the feud with a win. Nothing more really to say.

Tables Match for the U.S. Championship: Kofi Kingston def. Sheamus (c)

Now, I was kinda shocked after Smackdown went off the air Friday that both secondary titles were on the show. So, I knew going into the PPV or maybe on Raw, that this title, or the IC title would change hands before the end of next week. So, when this match was announced, I knew Kofi had already won the title.

Country Whipping Match: Cole/Swagger def. Lawler/Ross

I didn't get to order the PPV, because I am not rich, living with my parents, and really need to save to move out on my own. So, I am sad to say that I didn't get to see Cole walk down to the ring in bubble wrap. I have to imagine that it was pretty hilarious to watch him walk down like that. Now the outcome? Kinda shocked that they gave Cole another "win" in the feud. But, I still believe that the next PPV will be the climax, and hopefully shuts Cole up for good.

Falls Count Anywhere Match: Rey Mysterio def. Cody Rhodes

I said Rey would win, but I didn't imagine he would spew green slime into Cody's eyes to do it. But, it definitely reinforces the fact that Cody will be pissed on Friday and take it out on someone else.

Loser Leaves WWE: Layla def. Michelle McCool

I also said that Layla would win because I think Michelle wants to leave and spend time with the hubby. So, no shocker there. I was shocked to see them debut Kharma at the PPV like that. Not only that, but add insult to injury on Michelle. But hey, she had to debut sometime.

Ladder Match for the Heavyweight Championship: Christian def. Alberto Del Rio

I am fairly certain that I called that Edge would be involved somehow in the match, causing Alberto to lose. Now, I know it was only the horn, but he was still involved! I imagine that Edge will now go off TV for a while (he may show up at Smackdown and that will be his last appearance for a while), but Christian/Del Rio will continue until at least Summerslam, I imagine.

Lumberjack Match for the Tag Team Championships: Big Show/Kane def. The Corre (Ezekial Jackson/Wade Barrett)

This was another match I didn't predict because it wasn't there before the show. But, I will say that I imagine that they are dismantling the Corre just like they did the Nexus. I think that is wise, because unless they were finally planning on doing the Nexus vs. Corre match, then there really isn't a need for it anymore. Run its course, it has.

Triple Threat Steel Cage Match for the WWE Championship: John Cena def. The Miz (c) & John Morrison

Once again, I knew R-Truth would get involved, and knew so when I read that he cut a promo backstage at the start of the show. True to form, he took out Morrison and it became a battle between Miz and Cena. From what I read and saw on the site, the match was definitely better than the Wrestlemania match, which is good. But, I was shocked that they put the title back on Cena. This makes me wonder if they are going to keep it on him til Wrestlemania, which would be stupid. Before picking my winners, I did note to myself that if Cena won the title, he would lose it during the summer and regain it back at either November's PPV or the Royal Rumble. So, we'll just have to see how this goes.

So, 50% of the matches I got right. But, the Orton/Punk match wasn't a complete loss, because I knew Orton would win if it was a fair fight. It turned into a fair fight, so half a win on that match really. Anyway, I am off.

WWE Extreme Rules 2011 Predictions

2011-04-30T01:54:00.005-04:00

Now I am certain if you know me well enough, you know how much of a wrestling fan I can be. Wait, I guess they don't want to be called a wrestling company anymore. I am a huge WWE fan and have been watching since I was about 8. Last month, I posted on Twitter my predictions for each match at Wrestlemania. I got the majority of them right, so I figured I would throw down my predictions for the next PPV, which is WWE Extreme Rules. So, without further ado:

1. Michelle McCool vs. Layla (No DQ, No Countout, Loser Leaves WWE)

Right before Smackdown even came on the air, I checked Wikipedia for the list of matches. I thought for certain that this match had already been announced (and while yes, I do check the spoilers for Smackdown on occasion, I hadn't this week). So it wasn't a complete shocker that after a buildup from Smackdown to Raw and back again to SD, this match was announced tonight. What I didn't see coming was the stipulations. While that doesn't put too much of a damper on my prediction, it does make my prediction that much easier. Because Layla I think has a future with the WWE and Michelle has been wrestling for a while now, I see Layla winning.

Winner: Layla

2. Jerry Lawler & Jim Ross vs. Michael Cole & Jack Swagger (Country Whipping Match)

It is weird. Whenever they put Jim Ross in the ring, it tends to devolve into a whipping match. Shocking that it happened again, huh? Well, the difference is that he will be on a team with his longtime announcing partner in Jerry Lawler. While the feud between between Jerry and Cole has been a little too one sided (especially with Cole repeating the same word/phrase OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN ALL OF HIS FUCKING PROMOS!) I think it has to start twisting over to the good guys side. While Jerry did win but didn't win at Wrestlemania 27, I think he wins again at this PPV. It will set up the climax of the feud at the next PPV, and hopefully it shuts Cole up finally.

Winners: Jerry Lawler & Jim Ross

3. Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes (Falls Count Anywhere)

This feud is a weird one. When I put my predictions together for Wrestlemania on the fly, I mainly picked all the faces because I believes that the majority of them would win (and I was right). But, I picked Cody Rhodes because I thought that with the way they were fleshing out this injury angle, he would get a push. Needless to say, I was right. It also sucks that Mysterio always tends to be on the receiving end of a push. But, with Rey leaving to Raw after this match, I think he is going to go over there with a win over Rhodes. Especially since Cody has been embarrassing Rey the last two weeks on SD. Rey will win, Cody will get really pissed, and he will start a feud because of it with another SD superstar (I don't know who yet).

Winner: Rey Mysterio

4. Randy Orton vs. CM Punk (Last Man Standing)

This match is a weird one for me to pick. For one, Orton won at Wrestlemania and did it on "one leg". He also did it with an even playing ground, with him punting every Nexus member before the match. Now, the Nexus is back again to skew the playing level once again. So, how does this match play out? Well, the first half of the match will be "fair" and one-on-one. The two of them will beat each other up very nicely. But after the halfway point, Nexus is going to take over and I think that they will be the reason the Randy doesn't get up. It sends Orton to SD pissed off and CM Punk will be all smug on Raw for a few weeks.

Winner: CM Punk

5. Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio (Ladder Match for the World Heavyweight Championship)

This match is a weird oddity of chance. This match a few weeks ago was to determine the #1 contender for Edge's title. Then, we get the retirement of Edge because of his neck injury thus pushing Christian from mid-level sidekick of Edge who probably wasn't going to compete for the title until the end of the year maybe, to the new champion. Why will he be the champion and not a rising Alberto? Because I said about Wrestlemania that Alberto is definitely shining, he isn't ready to hold the title. I still believe that. I think he will win it in a couple of PPVs from now, but I think with Edge retiring (and was probably going to hold onto the title until Alberto won it from him), they are going to give Christian the title mainly because he is Edge's partner. Edge will be at the PPV and I won't be surprised if he gets involved in the match lightly. Like maybe to drop Alberto from the ladder or maybe give him a spear.

Winner: Christian

6. The Miz (c) vs. John Cena vs. John Morrison (Steel Cage Match for the WWE Championship)

I posted on Facebook in a note that I absolutely HATED the title match at Wrestlemania 27. I hated that it was just SO slow, Cena was not the Wrestlemania Cena that he usually is, and it was SHORT. Main events are supposed to be a little longer than what that was. Now, I understand that Miz probably did suffer a concussion and thus wouldn't have been able to end the match because of it (and thus the match was cut short), but it was just an overall sloppy match.

Now, three things are going to happen the night of Extreme Rules:

R-Truth is going to take out Morrison and the match will turn into a rematch of Cena vs. Miz.
R-Truth is going to take out Morrison and he will be inserted into the match instead.
R-Truth is going to take out Morrison DURING the match, and allow the other two to finish the match without him.

In all those scenarios, this match is going to be the launching point for an R-Truth/Morrison feud that is going to brew for the entirety of the summer. It has already started on Raw and will just flesh out the R-Truth heel turn and maybe launch him into a title match soon. I think turning R-Truth into a heel was a good move, now they just need to flesh it out some.

Now, I just spent three paragraphs about what the match is going to do in the future, but didn't predict a winner yet. Initially, I have thought that Cena is going to win the title, but now I am unsure. I don't know why they are keeping the title on the Miz for so long, but I think they are doing it because he obviously is showing the bookers something to keep it on him. While I think that Cena will get his wish (and defend the title against the Rock at Wrestlemania 28), I don't think he will win it until later. Maybe the November PPV or Royal Rumble. So, I think The Miz holds onto the title (unfortunately).

Winner: The Miz

The aftermath of the PPV:

Michelle McCool is going to take some time off from the WWE or might leave for good. Layla might get another title because of it.
Cody Rhodes is going to be pissed about his loss to Rey that he will start taking it out on the SD locker room and enter into another long feud.
Jerry and Cole continue their feud for one more PPV. I think Cole might end up leaving the WWE for a while because of it.
Christian becomes an in-between champion from Edge's end until Alberto Del Rio's eventually title reign. He might continue the feud with him leftover from Edge.
Cena will probably challenge Miz again at the next PPV for the title, but won't win it until November or January. He will defend it against the Rock at Wrestlemania 28.

That is all I have. Let's see how much I get right! See you Sunday!

Longing

2011-04-27T23:38:00.004-04:00

A month ago, if you had told me that I would have been over the fact that my ex pissed me off enough to order a paternity test a few days before my daughter's birthday, I would have said that I would have held ground and stood firm on my decision and not taken her until the courts said so.

But every day that passed and I was unable to see Liliana in my life hurt a little more. I had been in her life for almost the entirely of her first year on this Earth. While I did ask for a DNA test, I did so to make sure that if I was going to support her, that she was mine. I could never deny that child because she is a splitting image of me, but on the off chance my ex lied to me, I wanted to be 100% sure. Not only that, but if I had waited until the courts, I would have never been served my custody papers and found out that my ex wanted full custody with no visitations with me. I found out later she did that because I denied the baby. I didn't deny her, I just wanted to make sure she was mine. Big difference.

I tried to be the bigger man and work something out with my ex, but she wouldn't budge. She told me that it wasn't a good idea, so I took her court to work out an agreement. The main reason I didn't take the baby over the last month was because I was afraid that after one more argument, I would get a cop at my door requesting that I return the baby because my ex claimed that I had kidnapped her. Which would be impossible, because I wouldn't be able to take the baby, all her essentials, and her clothes without my ex there.

So, that culminated into today when the court date was set. We went in and I wanted things to go back to normal. I would resume my two overnights a week and return Lily on the third morning. My ex thought that the baby was too clingy to her and that she might not take well to coming back into my life after a month. Needless to say, we sat in court for six hours to have a judge claim that we would ease Lily back into my life with "supervised" visits with my ex or her mom to make sure that the baby was comfortable with me to take on overnights again.

Now, I am not one to brag... Oh wait, yes I am. Needless to say, I went to see the baby today and was slightly nervous that she would not remember who I was and shy away from me. My fears were extinguished the minute Lily set eyes on me at the park for the first time in a month. She gave me the biggest smile she can put on that face, waved at me, and ran right at me. She thought it would be funny to veer at the last minute, but I snatched her up and hugged her tight and gave her a big kiss. Ease her back into my life? It's like I never left.

Unfortunately I have the biggest test of my patience in my life tomorrow and next week. I have to hang out with Lily with my ex or her mom around to make sure Lily is alright. But after today, I find that pointless. But I also know that if I am going to fix my relationship with Lily and be able to communicate with my ex again about the baby, I need to follow the courts for now and deal with it. In three weeks, I get the baby on my normal days and everything will be back to normal. Hopefully for good. Hopefully, I only have to talk with my ex on those days if needed.

Now, I have a belated one year old party to plan for my little one. I guess it will be a one-year-old party mixed with my 25th birthday. What a way to celebrate my birthday than with a birthday party for my little one. Nothing special really, just to say that I am sorry that missed your birthday, but I felt that having eyes bore holes in the back of my head because everyone hates me would not have been my idea of a fun time.

Anyway, that is all for now. I will post again later!

Banks: An Adventure to Hell

2011-04-26T03:46:00.002-04:00

I have definitely posted enough online and told everyone in real life that I fucking hate banks with a blinding passion. Most of the major branches love to find ways to fuck you over and get some extra money in their pockets. It's not like that they don't get enough money from their interest on loans and mortgages.

Now why do I hate banks so much? Overdraft fees. I am pissed whenever I get them and usually it is not my fault. It is the way they like to fuck around with my money in my account.

Take for example the most recent example and see if this makes sense. I checked my account this morning to see that my Best Buy geek squad protections for my phones are on hold for tomorrow. This puts my available balance into the negative, but my current balance isn't affected. So it is saying that I have -33 available, but 6 current (which is what I had in there).

I was planning on going to the bank anyway yesterday to put $100 in the bank for my car insurance which comes out on the 26th every month as well. So, to add everything up, I have $140 in insurance coming out later today.

Now, the bank has done this to me in the past and I know it's going to happen again. This is what they do, ready for this?

Now the Best Buy insurances come out as $10 charges and there are usually two per month. Now last month, they didn't take it out because for some reason they said my card was giving them an issue. So, they are taking out four this month. They were put on hold on the 25th.

Now later today, my car insurance is going to come out and all four Best Buy insurances are going to come out officially. Now, if I didn't get the money in on time yesterday, which I hope I did, they are going to claim that the four charges were taken out of my account, put my account into overdraft, then they will take the car insurance which will put my account further into overdraft. This stemming from the fact that those four charges were put on hold for the 26th.

Even better? They are going to put the four charges back into my account AND CHARGE ME AGAIN FOR THOSE SAME FOUR FUCKING CHARGES. Thus, putting my account further into overdraft and charging me an overdraft FOR EACH FUCKING CHARGE.

Thus, if I didn't get the money into my account on time, I will more than likely see anywhere from four to eight overdraft charges for $37 each. How does that make sense for a charge that wasn't due to come out until the 26th?

Even better? If I hadn't checked my account (because I wasn't planning on paying Best Buy this month because they were having issues with my card, so I figured I wouldn't get charged anymore) yesterday morning, I would have just deposited $100 for my car insurance and may have not avoided this entire mess. Now, I just have to sit and wait to see if they fuck me over.

The best part though is this: I have my court date for the baby on Wednesday. If I find all those overdraft fees in my account tomorrow, it is going to royally piss me off and I am going to end up going into court Wednesday pissy. Yes, I am going to call customer service Tuesday to have them fix it, but I might go into court uncertain of how fucked I really am.

That's all. My fun with banks never ends. Also, you know I am really pissed when I say "fuck" a lot in this blog. I try to avoid swearing too much here because I want to keep this blog semi-professional. Oh well. Have fun everyone.

Impressed

2011-04-25T01:53:00.003-04:00

Now, we all know that I am a huge sports fan. What you may not know is that I am not one to sit and watch a lot of games. Even my favorite sport baseball, I don't watch a lot of games throughout the year. It is a mix of the fact that I work a job and can't watch them all that way and because I usually find myself playing a video game instead. With the addition of Liliana in my life, that also takes away from my sports viewing time as well. But, if you have met my daughter and find out how freaking fun and funny she is, I think you would choose her over the sports too. Trust me though, she will know the rules of baseball (and the other major sports) when she grows up and she will be given the choice of whether she wants to watch or not. But that's my duty as the dad.

While I don't watch all the games throughout the year, I do make it a note to make sure I know what's going on in the world of sports. I know that the Celtics and Bruins are in the playoffs and I know that the Celtics just moved on to the second round. How do I know? Well, I do pay attention to this wonderful device known as the internet, the other device known as my cell phone, and the wonderful gadget in my car known as a radio.

This definitely isn't the same as actually sitting and watching the Bruins score that goal in double OT and watch the frenzy as they go up 3-2 in their series. Nor is it the same to just see that the Celtics just manhandled the Knicks in their series and swept the ever-loving hell out of them. But, at least when I go to work the next day, I know what the fuck is going on.

Now the Sox, I definitely pay attention to the most. Baseball is my number 1 sport, so naturally they fall on my radar more times than the other two. So, it was to my utmost surprise to see that Daisuke Matsusaka absolutely annihilated the Angels the other night, with 8 innings of 1-hit ball. Not only that, but he has allowed no runs and two hits in his last two starts. This, after being hammered by the Rays three starts ago. Sports radio was not kind to him after that Rays loss and wanted him to go away. Now, all you haters can suck it.

Now while it was a surprise to see Daisuke succeed (because he really hasn't done too much while he has been here), it was a surprise to see Lackey start off weak. He had one full year in the AL East to work out the jitters of being in Boston, so surely he would start out alright? Well, he has been the second question mark in the rotation. He got a win against the Yankees, but still allowed 6 runs in the game. Apparently he was bad enough to skip a turn in the rotation as well. He pitched fine in Oakland, but was just the victim of a bad offense at the time. So, it was somewhat of a surprise to see him pitch a shutout in back to back days with Daisuke. That, my friends, will definitely shut up those whining about the rotation.

Even better is that the lineup seems to be finally putting it together. They scored 12 runs in the last two games, and Carl Crawford hit a HR. So, it is definitely starting to look up.

Now all we need is for the Bruins to kill Montreal Tuesday and move closer to their first Stanley Cup in almost four decades. Go Bruins!

I guess that is all. Two more days til court. Wish me luck!

Liliana's First Birthday

2011-04-24T03:24:00.003-04:00

April 23, 2010. A little girl named Liliana Grace Healey was born into this world. While it was unexpected for her to come along, she was definitely welcome into this world. It is unfortunate that she is growing up in a broken home, but sometimes that is something you can't predict nor stop. You just have to give them the best you can.

The worst thing a parent can do is use a child as a bargaining tool in a fight. Yes, me and my ex have definitely both used that chip, but the fact of the matter is this: I did mine to make sure that if I am going to support Lily, she is mine. She did hers to make sure that I don't see the baby, if the baby is mine or not. That is just not fair.

So, Liliana turned one yesterday and I was not able to see her on that day. It's not that I wasn't invited to the party, but I chose to give her a hard time about the fact. I also felt that I would not feel welcome. She told me that if I were to go, she would have to warn her friends to be cool with me. Now, as much as she can tell her friends that, I didn't feel like having eyes on me the whole time.

Then, there was this fact (which I learned something later, but still): Her boyfriend would be attending. Now, her boyfriend is the reason this whole mess occurred. Not for the obvious reasons, but the underlying ones. I gave in and said that I can't control her life and that is her decision to make who she dates. Now, I was worried about Lily's safety and who this guy was. Now we all know that when we ask an ex about her new significant other, they are going to do nothing but praise that person. So, I decided to dig. I logged into her email to find out where she met him, his dating site profile, and make an assumption based on what I knew.

What I found was the fact that the two of them started talking four days after I left the house and dirty pictures of her sent to him a month later. I gathered from what I read that he asked for them, a lot, and convinced her to send pictures that she told him she would never send. I also am lead to believe that she hadn't met him in person when she sent them and that the baby might be in the house while she was taking them. I only assume that because the pictures were taken on the couch when there is a bed in the other room that is comfier. But that's a stretch and I know that.

Now that I totally swerved to the past, the reason I didn't go to the party was him. For some reason, I just so feel angry towards this guy because I don't trust him around my daughter, but I don't have the say in that matter. But I do feel that if I met the guy, I might do something I regret. Besides, I feel like that they probably won't last more than six months, so why bother meeting this guy when he will be out of her life so soon. The reason I believe that? He is only in the relationship for the sex and I know that my ex will hold out if she gets pissed, so sure enough that is going to happen eventually, and once that happens, he will be out the door. My ex will suffer and so will the baby.

So the underlying issue here? I am upset that my ex is setting my daughter up for disaster so soon after I left the house. Even better? My ex doesn't want me to have joint custody of the baby or even have visitation rights and wants me to pay child support. How much sense does that make?

I am also pissed that my ex said that she wasn't going to invite her new man to the party, just because the day was about Lily and not about him. I found out later that she stuck to that, but still he was there and if anyone asked, she was going to tell the truth about who he was. Plus, it probably wasn't hard to put two and two together on who he was.

But anyway, I am not just ranting. So, since it is now 4am, I feel that going to bed is a good option. Good night for now.

Necessary

2011-04-22T04:37:00.003-04:00

I haven't updated this in three and a half years? What the hell could I be doing for three and a half years that would stop me from doing so? Well, my friends, if you are reading this, you more than likely know why.

While she is only a year old (well, she will be in almost 20 hours by the time I write this), had to meet the girl that bore her and date her for almost 2 years and create that. But, of course, in that last year of the relationship, it all exploded. I mean, nuclear bomb explosion.

And now I fight. I fight to bring that beautiful girl back into my life. But that isn't why I posted this.

I posted this because I haven't posted in a long time and have been finding that posting my thoughts of the last day are helping me through some tough times. Fighting with my ex over our breakup, fighting with her over her choices in life (which I know I have no say in but when they relate to that little girl I do), fighting to win custody of the baby. Finding a new girl to enter my life and not having luck in that department. Being stressed that a girl may have entered my life but that has definitely has stalled beyond belief. It's like a certain friend zone girl all over again, and if you knew that story you would know that I do not want to venture on that journey ever again.

I also am posting because I have realized lately that I haven't done anything really to further my career as a journalist. Since the baby was born, I have put all my effort into making sure she was taken care of before I continued my education. Now that I am back on my own (well, living with my family again) I have the chance to go back to school. Now I won't go back until the fall more than likely, but I still want to get back and finish it eventually.

How does that relate to this blog? Well, putting my writing out there is the first step in proving that I definitely can write and write about anything. Now, my passions are sports and video games, so I definitely will be writing a lot about those two topics. I have a little extra money nowadays that I can use to go out and buy some games and try to review them as best I can. That way, when I put together a portfolio of my work, I can hopefully include this work. I may even start my other blog up again and try to play through the NES library. For those who don't know, I made it a goal last year to play through the NES library, finish them all, and review the games and process. It did end up changing to just at least playing each game once and review the game and the process. I didn't even make it out of the A's.

I am definitely looking for ways to enhance the fact that I end up staying up til 4-5am every day. Now that will more than likely change once I get the baby again, but for the most part it won't. The days I have the baby, I will go to bed early, but the days I don't, I will stay up. What a better way to waste my time than to chat with friends and to further my career. Now the thing that I need to work on is making sure I follow through on promises and actually do it.

With that said, I think I will go to bed for the evening, since I have to work at 1 tomorrow and it is currently 5am. So until later, have a good one internet.

Red Sox

2007-10-31T00:55:00.000-04:00

I haven't updated in a while, but then again no one ever read this thing to begin with. So, here I go on my happiness/angry rant about the Red Sox, the World Series, and other misc. baseball notes. Red Sox First, there is my beloved Red Sox. As I heard earlier on the radio, I am not a "pink hat" Red Sox fan. By that, I mean I have always loved the Sox since I knew I loved baseball. I have always been in this area, watched them, and loved the history of this team. I have not been on this Earth a very long time, but I have been here long enough to know the heartache the team had given fans for years. I witnessed it myself in '03 and to an extent in '04. But, everything prior Game 4 of the '04 ALCS, everything is in the B.S. era. Not the one you're thinking of, but what I read in the Herald today: Before Steal. I have been a fan of the Sox and baseball since around the age of 5. My dad would watch games, explain the game to me, and we would watch together. It was fun and I grew to love the sport. I love to talk baseball with people who hate it, and defend the sport with a passion. If I were to attempt a sport in the near future it would be baseball. I am urging to play, but I can not seem to find a way to play. Since I have been a fan for so long, the Red Sox winning in '04 was very special. I know I haven't been through what most fans in their 40's-70's have, but I know the history. I knew about the supposed curse, the Impossible Dreams, the Bucky Dent's, and the Buckner's. I knew most recently with the Little's and the Aaron Boone imitating Dent. I also know the almost disaster of '04. I sat in my bed in '04 when Mariano Rivera came in the ninth of Game 4. I sat there with hands on my face, watching the Sox being pummeled once again by the Evil Empire. I found myself not wanting to watch, but doing so anyway. I then watched as the Sox did the impossible and tie the game and continue playing. I also regret ever admitting that I went to bed one half inning before that amazing homerun by Ortiz because I knew in my heart the Yankees would overcome and win. I was proven wrong the next morning when I found out the news. After the missed opportunity of Game 4, I resolved to watch Game 5 in it's entirety. Then Game 6, and finally Game 7. I watched as Boston smoked the Cardinals, and finally broke the curse. 86 years of torment was finally laid to rest. We could finally say we were the champs. Don't get my wrong, '07 was amazing as well. We did everything right this year. We won the division for the first time since 1995, around the same time I started following the Sox more closely. They won the division in amazing fashion, taking the lead in April and never turning it over. They swept the Angels again, they were almost crushed by the Indians, only to show them that this team never dies. Then, we sweep another World Series (although this one was a lot closer than the scores will show). Two times in four seasons. It doesn't get any sweeter. Red Sox Critics But, since we are winning two times in four seasons, there are people who are not happy. I will admit, as a baseball fan, nothing would have been nicer to see the Rockies win there first World Title. However, my Boston fan side wanted them to be crushed, which ended up happening. It's that mentality that seems to piss so many people off around the country. Red Sox Nation. You've heard the term. It's the collective group of fans from this entire country that pledge allegiance to the Red Sox. They live in other states that isn't named Massachusetts, but they still call themselves fans. I cannot tell if all these fans are legit, but most of them certainly are. It still amazes me when I turn on my TV to watch an away Sox game, and see more people cheering the Sox than they are the other team. But, there are still those diehard fans who root other teams that see what the Sox did this year and dislike us. They start making the excuses to why we are winning and can't admit that this team might just be good. Most of the excuses are about the payroll. The Red Sox own the second highest payroll in the MLB, second only to the rivals. But, there is a major difference between how the Yankees play and the Red Sox play. If you look at the World Series roster again, you'll notice that a lot of the names on that team and young players. They haven't reached the prime of there career, and most are playing for chump change when compared to big contracts in the game. So, the payroll and money issue can't really play much of a factor. Jealously, gotta love it. Re-sign Lowell and Don't Sign A-Rod The worst showmanship in the game was displayed during the game on Sunday night. Late into the game, a few innings before the Red Sox were crowned, it was announced that Alex Rodriguez was becoming a free agent. His agent, Scott Boras, broke the news to everyone which then ended up on the World Series broadcast. If you have ever talked to me, you know I am an avid listener of Sport Radio WEEI. If you get into my car, you'll see the dial on 850 AM mostly everytime. So, to hear what was said after this happened was funny, but very true. Scott Boras, for those who don't know, is a superagent in baseball. He is a very good bullshit artist when it comes to selling players in the game, but he does it with precision. If you are a Sox fan, you can't help but dislike this guy. He does represent a lot of the players on the team, but he also represents Alex Rodriguez. Alex Rodriguez is the best player in the game today. As a Sox fan and avid Yankee hater, I can't put my bias against the guy when he is doing as well as he is. But, from what he shows on TV and during games, he seems very arrogant. He knows he's that good and he LOVES to show it. Hence, the reason you were informed during the World Series that he was becoming a free agent. You know what this truly shows? That A-Rod really thinks he is better than the World Series. Why else would he and his agent announce this small bit of information when the Red Sox were the main story? He didn't want to be out of the spotlight, so he forced himself back into it. So, when you heard the chants of "Don't Sign A-Rod", it is a sentiment to how many fans, including myself, feel. We don't want this scum on our team; we'd rather have Mike Lowell, the "throw-in". Mr. MVP Speaking of the "throw-in", it was very nice to see Mike Lowell win the MVP of the World Series. For those who don't know and were only watching the World Series, Mike Lowell was an added bonus for the Sox when they signed ace Josh Beckett. The Florida Marlins were willing to dish out Beckett, but only if Lowell went with him; this was done because they didn't want his contract anymore, it was worth too much. This guy is a class act. Not only did he come in here last year and play, he played well. We filled in that third base role nicely with good defense and average offense. That, however, changed this year when Lowell played like he was out of his mind. I think it was saying something that when Manny Ramirez was out of the lineup, this guy stepped into that cleanup spot perfectly and helped the Sox get into the postseason and win the division. Not only that, but he stayed in the spot until the end of the season, even when Manny came back and started batting second. I think that was saying something. So, when you heard the A-Rod chants Sunday, you also heard the advice of Red Sox Nation on who should be there. "Re-Sign Lowell" wasn't just a chant, it was a message to the front office. We love this guy as our third baseman, and we want him here. Now, we just have to wait for them to listen. Offseason Now, we can FINALLY look into the offseason. As a WEEI fan, people has started the offseason talk in late September. So, now we can start talking about it. But, I think I will wait to talk next time. I am getting tired and starting to fall asleep. I have more to talk about, but I will save it. So, until next time... Good night.

Deathly Hallows

2007-07-22T18:04:00.000-04:00

Two days it took me again to finish a Harry Potter novel. One of those nights became an all-nighter of reading. I try to tell myself to savor the book and don't finish it within a night. But, there is another voice in my head that says if I don't finish it now, I will be spoiled. I must have feared being spoiled further on this book especially, that I finished it in a night. I was upset with the fact that I ended up downloading the leak on Tuesday, read the first chapters or so, then (stupidly I must admit) read the last chapter thinking that this couldn't possibly be the real book. There was SO much security on this book that it was impossible that the book was released too early, someone got their hands the book early and shared it with everyone. The book seemed to be perfect, as written by JK herself, and come to find out it was. But, even as I read the end of the book, I did find out more about that ending as I read the book. The biggest spoiler was the the location and the people that were introduced, but the main spoiler of Severus Snape, which I will not spoil for anyone. Let's just say it was someone people thought they knew about Snape, but didn't to the extent they did. That's all I'll say. The title of the story did play a very large part of not only the story, but the backstory of one Albus Dumbledore. This book could have very well been "Albus Dumbledore and the Deathly Hallows" as much as HP, but this story is more about Harry than Dumbledore. The book was wonderfully done and played out perfectly. This book did, however, in turn ask some new questions about the series and never fully answered them. We were once again left in a cliffhanger, but this time I know we won't be as left in the dark as we have in the past. It will probably happen that every unanswered question we have about the series will be resolved by Jo herself, either on her site or through another interview; I tend to have faith in that statement. The book was so much full of death it wasn't funny. People tend to come up to me and wonder why I love a children's book so much. I look at them and tell them to read it sometime, since they will figure out that there are so many themes that are not children oriented. Death, true love, betrayal, pain, murder, and loss. Those are things that children will be exposed to (more than others) in their first 10 or so years, but will not have a clear understanding of why it is happening or what it truly is. These books draw more of a teenaged/adult audience than children, but children can read and still enjoy. There were some deaths that I found to be thrown in their as extras. I won't mention who, but it did seem odd that so many had to die when they really shouldn't have. But that's war and there are causalities. The final battle in Hogwarts (which isn't a spoiler, because if you read the chapter titles, you know it happens) was wonderful. It was pulled off perfectly and the final showdown between Voldemort and Harry was perfect as well. The road to the final battle was full of so many twists, turns, and revealed secrets that made it wonderful. Jo is the master of suspense and mystery, and planting everything about this book in the previous six. People will now go back through all six and find every piece of the final story in those books now that they know the ending. Well done Jo, it was almost flawless. However, I do not want it to be over. I want more of the world of Harry Potter. I want to know a History of Hogwarts. I wouldn't mind the book entitled "The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore". An encyclopedia of spells, creatures, and characters would be wonderful as well. But, now I depart. The saga of Harry Potter being complete, I must find something else to fill my time. But, it has been a wonderful journey in the life of the Boy Who Lived, and a fitting end to his journey finally complete. That's all I have to say.

Leaked

2007-07-18T23:40:00.000-04:00

Apparently, someone thought it would be funny and leak the latest Harry Potter book online. It doesn't come as a shock to me, since I am used to the internet doing this to me. The thing I found more shocking was the article I read before I found the leak. This Harry Potter phenomenon is out of control. I posted about the latest movie already, but I have to touch on the books. The books are much better than the movies, and those who read the books can agree. So it wasn't a shock that I was, along with many others, more excited to get the book than see the movie. The article I read before I found the leak was about the security on this book. So much security was placed on this book, it would make you think that this book was what was stored in Fort Knox. People watching over the book at all times, and checking to make sure that people weren't leaving the plant with the book. So, it comes to a surprise that Scholastic noted that someone sent the books out three days in advance. Sending something that is so popular in this sense before it is supposed to be released IS NOT A GOOD THING. I have seen the sites. I know of the people who patrol the net. There are people out there who find it so pleasing to ruin something like this for everyone. Therefore, it wasn't a shock that someone posted a picture of every page of the book and sent to everyone who knew where to look. I was just surprised it took this long. I have only read 7 chapters of this leak. I am still skeptical, but it is hard to be when the writing style looks similar, it's laid out the same as every book in the series, and the story sounds reasonable. I don't know, maybe I agree with some conspiracy theories and claims of hoaxes. Little glimmer of hope. Anyway, I still have book 6 to read before I read either this hoax or the real thing. Let us wait til Friday to see.

Order of the Phoenix

2007-07-12T01:19:00.000-04:00

Well, I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night and must say "I confess myself disappointed." Don't get me wrong when I say that I love the idea of putting words to visuals in the respect that the novels are being put onto film. But, when you transform a book that was over 850 pages to a movie that was two and quarter hours long, you might have some issues. Order of the Phoenix was the five book and movie in a seven part series. It was one of the more darker books in the series, mainly due to the fact that Harry was being possessed by Lord Voldemort the entire book and Harry never knew it. Also because Harry was very emo the entire book, lashing on everyone he could. It also introduced Dolores Jane Umbridge, the evil dictator-like character from the Ministry of Magic sent to look after Hogwarts. The reason being that the Ministry and most of the wizarding world don't believe Harry and Dumbledore are telling the truth of Voldemort's return at the end of the fourth book. The mood of the book was transformed to the movie somewhat well. Harry was full of angst and anger the entire movie, but it really wasn't evident throughout the entire movie. The movie does play on the aspect of Harry feeling like an outsider and alone throughout the book, but most of all, it wasn't that great. I am one that can split myself into the three types of Harry Potter fans. Those who just read the books, those who just watch the movies, and both. I can make myself look at through the eyes of the latter two types and break down the movie to tell you how much it sucked. Which, it really did. For those on the book and movie side, this movie left you feeling blank. The movie cut out a lot of the more fun parts of the movie and left you feeling like you wanted more. This book was massive and their was a lot of subplots to fill the book, but they really didn't focus on any of them. Quidditch was missing, the house-elves weren't there (with the exception of Kreacher, which is interesting on a whole other level), and Harry's true relationship with Cho was missing. There were mentions of Harry wanting Cho and the other way around, but they never really went into detail of why they were together, the whole torn feeling Cho was feeling for Harry, and their eventually (true) breakup. The Department of Mysteries was nonexistent; there were only apparently two rooms there. Dumbledore's Army was there, but it really wasn't explained how they met (the Galleons Hermione created), the challenges of meeting (like Quidditch and other after-school activities), and the eventual demise (which isn't Cho like they said in the movie). There were some good aspects of the movie. The final battle between the Order and the Death Eaters was definitely worth the money. It definitely a great battle between the sides, especially Voldemort and Dumbledore. On the movie only side, I believe those people were the most confused. The other four movies were up-to-par on advancing the plot of the series well, the first and second being the best. The third was great and the fourth was lacking, but still advanced nonetheless. This movie was too fast, didn't allow anyone to gather any information, and was generally confusing. At the end of the fourth movie, you are never really told that Fudge doesn't believe Harry or Dumbledore. The beginning was ok, advancing somewhat smoothly. The dementor attack, the advance guard, and Grimmauld Place were all there, but never explained on why Harry was moved or even where. I think the most confusing part would be why Harry was having dreams throughout the movie. It was explained a little with Snape in his Occlumency lesson, but never explained after. Dumbledore is nonexistant in this movie, but for the most part he was in the book. The Prophecy of Harry and Voldemort was never explained, so those watching the sixth book are going to start out confused. Sirius dying was kind of anti-climatic, since he wasn't shot with Avada Kedavra, but a stunning/disarming charm. That pretty much gave him a way of "coming back" possible. I am ranting on and on. But, on the whole, this movie was bland. It was too fast, tried to teach you too much, and really didn't explain a lot. I was rather disappointed. So, that's all I have to say though.

Journey Part 3

2007-07-05T02:09:00.000-04:00

The Journey continues... very slowly. I am currently on Goblet of Fire Chapter 20. So, instead of reading while I have the chance, I am on Blogger talking about it. I suck. I have been taking a lot of notes on things I've noticed that bug me. Like Bagman having no idea what's going on at the Quidditch World Cup during the Death Eater scare. He is a Ministry Wizard... he should know what's going on. I am losing the contest with my sister. He is up 6 points, I believe. Not too good for me. We have upped the question count to two per chapter. Gives me somewhat of a chance now. 6 days til the movie... 16 til the book. Getting so close I can taste it.

Life

2007-06-26T01:59:00.000-04:00

There really is no need to tell everyone that life is short. I don't need to tell everyone that life is too precious. I don't need to tell everyone that you never know what is going to happen each day. It's odd that you will read this statement and see how I can link that to wrestling. Well, it does and I will explain to you why. It starts back in the mid-90's. I became a wrestling fan, and started watching WWF and WCW every Monday night with my dad and my sister. I saw greats like the Hart family, the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the introduction of Triple H and all the veterans in the game today. Back in 1999, I was watching Over the Edge: In Your House, one of the monthly Pay Per View that the WWF put on. That night started with a bang, but ended in tragedy. Owen Hart, a superstar in the WWF, died that night due to a tragic mishap in his harness. He fell from the rafters all the way down to the ring head first and died instantly. People there had to witness it, and then we all were told of it the next day on a tribute show. Life went on, I continued to watch wrestling until 2003, when my life decided to get the best of me. High school and a full time job gave me no time to watch wrestling anymore. Now the WWE, I missed two years of shows that I could have easily have taped and watched, but decided against. It wasn't until late 2005 that I started watching again, and this time it was another death that hooked me. Unfortunate that a death got me back to watching something I loved for so long. Eddie Guerrero was a great wrestler and entertainer. He was able to entertain the fan with his unique style of lie, cheat, and steal. Lie for a win, cheat to accomplish it, and steal whatever he could in the process. It was unique, but he pulled it off perfectly. He died in his sleep due to problems in his past with drugs. Unfortunate that I found out and decided to watch the night after on Monday Night Raw. Watched the tributes and watched the people remember Eddie for who he was. I don't cry that often, and it's really strange to cry for a person you never really knew, but did at the same time. I once again was hooked on wrestling. Most of my favorites were still there, and I watched all the new faces that I saw debut back in the day become stars. I also watched some new guys that I never heard of make a name for themselves, including someone my area. I watched every Monday via tape, and was one the main reasons I got a DVR for my room. So, I could tape all the wrestling for the week and watch it when I pleased. I watched a lot of fun storylines, including McMahon blowing himself up. But, things change, and lives change and end. Monday afternoon, the body of Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and one of his sons, Daniel, were found dead in their new house in the Atlanta area. WWE reported it, as did all local stations. The news that another star was dead shocked me the same way that Eddie's death shocked me. I started watching my tape and found myself crying for the same reason I cried for Eddie. I never knew Chris, but I felt like I did. I watched Chris Benoit in ECW, WCW, and WWE. He was a fan favorite, always did what he could in the ring, and left himself in the ring every night. The most unfortunate part of this death are the circumstances. He apparently is the reason everyone is dead. A lot of people don't realize how I stand on murder or suicide. Both are the most heinous things anyone can do to another person or themselves. Wanting to end someone's life or even your own makes no sense. I entertain the thought of death, what it would feel like, but always find myself telling myself that I am here for a reason, and that I would let a lot of people down if I left. Double Murder-Suicide. Authorities think that Benoit killed his wife and his son over the past weekend. He failed to show up at events over the weekend, and cited to WWE that he had personal issues. He then killed himself on Monday. Life is short and precious. You never see anything coming, and when you do, it's always too late. Jerry Lawler said something to this effect, but mostly it's what everyone should do. You never know what is going to happen tomorrow, so always make sure you tell everyone you love that you love them. You never know what will happen tomorrow, and you may regret not having the chance to do so. No matter the grudge you hold on someone, if you truly do love them, always make sure they know it. You can never tell anyone you love them enough times and truly mean it. Life sucks, but you deal with it. I'm here and will be for a long time. I am not going anywhere and hopefully, those who do read this, aren't either. That's all I have to say.

Journey Part 2

2007-06-11T00:37:00.000-04:00

If you read Journey Part 1, you already know that I am rereading all 6 Harry Potter books as a contest with my sister. This is a small update. I have read through the first two so far (that's Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets) and am currently on Chapter 4 of the third (Prisoner of Azkaban). I have questions for the first two books, and am able to annihilate my sister come July. I mean... nah, I mean it, I will defeat her! It is currently 39 days til the book and 29 til the movie. July is just going to rock so much, you have no idea.

Spoiled

2007-06-07T01:04:00.000-04:00

I am a Red Sox fan. Always have, always will be. You can't steal me away to another fan base, it just won't happen. That's what happens when you grow up in the same area and that's all you see on the TV. But, it's really more than that. But that's for another time. Being a Red Sox fan has made me think that we are really spoiled when it comes to our team. We have one of the highest payrolls in the game, so we can afford some of the top names. We have a good team each year and are always in contention to be in the playoffs. We always start off the same each year, so good that it's not even funny. This year is no exception, as they own the best record in baseball at 37-21. They have a double digit lead over 3 of the 4 teams in the division. Yet, they now have a nice little four-game losing streak. Out come of the critics. I think we are spoiled in the fact that every year is the same. We start out good, start slumping at the all-star break, and then lose it in the second half of the season. It even happened in the 2004 season. It happens every year, yet we blow it off and say this year is different. It makes me laugh to tell my mom we are doing great, yet to have to remind me the truth about this team. I don't what it is about the Sox that causes the same thing to happen every year, but it does get kind of annoying after a while. This year feels a little different, because the injuries aren't as immense as years past, we have a great rotation (that is just in a slump at the moment) and the lineup is ridiculous. I don't know, it makes me feel spoiled, don't you know? That's all I have.

Arteest

2007-04-29T03:39:00.001-04:00

It is a funny scenario, my friends. A couple of weeks ago, I went on a random idea that had me purchase a sketch pad. I decided to learn how to draw, mainly because I wanted to start a webcomic. Yes, that is the exact reason why I have decided to put pencil to paper. However, there have been a few bumps in my road. One is that I remembered while attempting to draw that I can't draw for shit. So, I guess I am reaching out to the general public for any sort of tips that may be helpful. Second being that the idea I finally planned on trying was taken last year without my knowledge. I wanted to start one about the hells of retail, an idea I thought no one had thought of. So, on a random whim, I decided to make sure I was right. A guy (in Massachusetts no less) decided to do the same thing in January 2006. Now, you can tell me all you want to do it anyway, but pretty much every joke that can be made about retail are generic and I could risk copying a joke here and there. So, I may have to find a new idea. Third being that even when I get my idea, I may have a snag in being funny. Now, if you know me, I try to be funny on a daily basis, mainly because it makes the day go by faster. Plus, being in a funny mood is better for me, it makes me feel a lot better in life in general. However, when I try to be funny at work or even when I was at school, it just came on a whim. I have a hard time pulling a joke from thin air, setting it up, and delivering the punchline effectively. A technique that maybe someone could help me with as well. Other than that, I am having a ball! I am practicing here and there, but I still don't feel like I am getting any better. That might be because I have high standards, but meh. On a lighter note, ER's suck. A few years back, I went to the ER in Haverhill over a very massive headache I had. They did bloodwork (which was spilled during the process), a cat scan, and other misc. work done to tell me I had a migrane. So, fast forward to last night when I was having this aching pain in my right side. Just to be safe, I decided to go to the ER to make sure my appendix was still intact and I was OK. Six hours of waiting and fun and bloodwork (which they didn't spill this time) and X-rays and urine testing to tell me that I am full of shit. You think that would be a good joke I finally made, but that was the truth. I was supposedly blocked up and the pain must be from that. Interesting enough, NO IT'S NOT. But, it might just be my hip. Meh. I'm out. Adios.

Video Games

2007-04-19T04:21:00.000-04:00

If you know me, I like the occasional video game here and there. I don't live my life around the next one or devote all my free time playing them. However, it is a nice thing to know that I can kick up my Gamecube, Wii, or any of my other wonderful systems and escape from the shitty reality I live in for a few hours. The debate of video game violence is a long road of lies, deceit, and half-truths. While many people will come to the defense of video games and their connections to violence, there are still a select few who hate them with a passion. Of course, the forerunner in the campaign against video games being Jack Thompson. Video game violence isn't a new topic. It dates back to the days of Doom and the beginning of the era of 3D graphics. Games were crossing the line of not just being for fun, but to show more realistic situations. This, of course, sparked the debate on whether or not games were telling kids that it was alright to kill, because their video games basically told them so. If you believe that last statement, you are a fucking idiot. No way around it. While many people continue to believe that video games is the prime reason why someone at Virginia Tech, Columbine, or any other mass murder spree would do it, it just isn't true. Well, partly not true. The partly not true part being that while these violent people might have played a violent video game, it isn't the main reason behind why they did it. The main reason, of course, being the fact that they were fucked up to begin with. We are all born a different way, in a different part of town, to a different kind of family. A lot of us are going to go through the same issues in life. We are all going to grow up, we are all going to go to school to learn, and we are all going to live life. We are all going to go out dating, we are all going to "find true love" and then the next moment find out that there is nothing true about it. We are all going to handle it in different ways. While many will blow it off as being life, some will take it to the next level and make it an obsession of sorts. Those who take it to the next level do what the person at Virginia Tech did. The main argument I could make is look at the history of violence. Video games are violence only intersect at the point in which video games were created. However, look back further. To the Stalin's, the Hitler's, and the other evil dictators of the world before even them. They did not sit down and play Castle Wolfenstein and wonder how they could accomplish the same atrocities as the characters they were controlling. They did it because of what they believed in and what they thought was right. No one will ever know the real reason why were have to commit the most heinous crime known to man, we will always be left to guess. However, when you start blaming violent media, video games, movies, and TV combined, you start treading the waters of what we play in our games and watch in our movies. A world in which anything is possible and where the unexplainable is easily explained that doesn't make any sense. In summation, all those haters of video games need to shut the fuck up and pick up a game controller. Then, after you play the games that aren't named Grand Theft Auto and Doom, you tell me that I am going to turn violent and kill everyone in sight.

Journey Part 1

2007-03-31T03:16:00.000-04:00

Well, well, well. I finally decided to show up and post something. Well, actually, I came to tell you how I will hopefully be using this as a blog of sorts before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is in my hands. For anyone who reads this, I have a contest with my sister going. The contest is a trivia contest of sorts. We are to reread all six books that have already been released (which is a good thing anyway, because it refreshes our memories of the story so far) and write down a question from each chapter that we feel the other might not be able to answer. The person who answers the most questions from the book "wins" the book. The person who "wins" the most books will have to purchase the other's book when it is released. I am diving into the first book tonight. I shall return and post about what I learn that I didn't learn before.

Middle Class

2007-01-28T22:29:00.000-05:00

Before I can say why I hate being middle class, I must tell you this story. My house is pretty much a fucking zoo. There are numerous cats and dogs in my house, it's hard to miss an animal in my house. It is also easy to get emotionally attached to our animals as well. There are a lot, but not enough to not know who is who. That said, there has been a love triangle between two male cats (who are father and son) and one of our female cats (who is the daughter and brother of the two cats). They have been pumping their seed into her like it was nobody's business. We believe the cat is pregnant. The worst part is that female cat's brother has been hissing and fighting with the father for a while now, moaning and keeping us up at night. It was no surprise that the father had become sick and limping. We worried the worse today when he started bleeding from what my mom thought was his penis. We followed him and tried to see if he was OK, but he wasn't acting like himself. After I came home from bowling and my sister from work, we decided that the cat needed help. Here is where the lovely rant comes from. You see, my mom asked us to take it up to the MSPCA (which is the SPCA in this area). The SPCA, for those who don't know, is the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (the M being Massachusetts). We took the drive up there and brought the cat it. They looked at him and told us that his bladder was blocked with acidic crystals and that to fix him would be a very expensive procedure. The other option would be euthanasia. My sister is a very emotional person. She gets very attached to people and animals, so to hear that the cat should be put down made her break down. We finally told them to do it and we left. My sister would not stop crying over this cat. I was a little choked up, but I am not as emotional. It was a hard day indeed. The rant is me being middle class. If I was upper class and had the money, that cat could still live. I would able to send it to a vet and let the cat keep living and give us another companion. However, I am stuck in middle class where I can barely put gas in my tank from week to week. I am beginning to realize more and more that life does indeed suck unless you live upper class. Even then, I think they think life sucks as well. But, it's probably a lot better than my life. On a lighter note, I decided to finally bowl again on Sunday morning. I decided that I could almost afford to go, so I went (the truth was I had to "borrow" from myself $20 from my bowling fund for Wednesday). The last time I went was two weeks before Christmas. I went and practiced and figured that missing the head pin would constitute another bad run on Sunday. I was wrong. I went to the first game and threw a nice 140. Then it was a constant 100 stretch with four games in the hundreds. I never relinquished the lead one throughout the day. That, and that 140 was the hi-single on the first game, so I got another $16 for that. If only I had hit that Hi-Lo Jack. I would be much happier at the moment. That's all I have to say.

Shameless/Career

2007-01-26T00:53:00.000-05:00

Shameless self-promotion. I seem to be going in that direction. In Other Words This is based on the fact that I want to be a journalist/writer now. I have created that blog in order to get my somewhat lacking talents to the test. The blog is a simple blog. I will post news stories that interest me, why I posted them, and what I think about that story. I will not hold back, since it is my opinion. Hopefully, this works out for me and I am making the right career move. I really do like to write and really do want to write. But, I need to practice some more before I get back to school. I have also entertained the thought of freelancing some articles to Associated Content, the content site for the people. They pay you for articles, so I might get back on that wagon again. That's all I have for now.

Money

2007-01-13T01:45:00.000-05:00

My problem stems on the heels of everyone's favorite time of year: Tax Season. It also stems from a few things about me and Dunkin's. First issue I have with the green stuff: You never make enough. I am currently being fucked by minimum wage enough, that I can't afford college right now. Now, I know you're all asking yourself, "But, why don't you get a loan?" That's because I currently have one from my first failed attempt at higher education. I would like to get rid of that one before I attempt school again. It's just my personal opinion on the matter. That, and I would also like to pay off my bills before I take out another loan. That brings me to the next point: In order to get more money, I would have to whore myself to a second job. It is something that I don't want to have to do, but every day I sit at Dunkin's and tell myself how much I hate the job and want to write, it makes the idea that more appealing. The next issue is finding a second job that will hire me part time for mornings only. By mornings, I mean 8-9am to 2pm. Not much of a shift, but the earnings will add up to at least 2 semesters at NECCO, which is a step in the right direction. There are two things I am considering. One is the offer my friend dealt up. I am thinking about waiting until March before I venture out into the job force. He offered me a $15/hour job playing video games that if it is true, isn't an opportunity to pass up. He said late February, so if he doesn't get back to me about it by March, I will find a second job (which is Plan B). Two more issues with money: Dunkin's fucking me over. I got my paycheck today and they seemed to have forgotten to take out federal and state taxes. I know I missed two days, but I worked the same amount of hours as another, and she had those taken out. It is an issue that needs resolving. Last issue: Taxes themself. I started filing them (just to get a general idea what I'm getting back) and it pisses me off everytime that I get all this money taken out, live single, nothing to fuck me over, and I don't get it all back. It sucks, really. Money is the root of all evil and it sucks. Like I told my coworker: Classes at colleges should be $0.50 per credit. We would all be happier if they were. That's all I have to say.

Sickness

2007-01-09T09:49:00.000-05:00

I must say that I underestimated the aftermath of my cold. I thought this sucker was more or less gone from my system, leaving behind a tickle in my throat and a tiny cough. I thought as much that I didn't take Nyquil last night, thinking I could get by au natural. Boy was I wrong. Of course, going to bed at 4am didn't help the situation either. I laid down at 4am, rolled over and tried to sleep. However, my cough thought otherwise. I was coughing pretty much every 10 minutes or so, that it actually kept me up for the next 4 hours. It got to the point where I said "fuck it" and gave up. It was now 8:30am, so it was pointless to try and sleep. However, every cloud has a silver lining. This actually finally allows me to start a resolution I was going to follow. That was, go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. You know, like a normal person does? Instead of going to bed from between the hours of 4-6am and waking between 12-2pm, I want to sleep between 12-2am and wake between 10-12pm. It is a start, considering the fact that I need to find a second job to pay for school and it will get me into the rhythm of actually going to school. That's right, haters, I am going back. All you non-believers can keep non-believing. I took statistics in high school and I know they most statistics are merely bullshit. So, take that. That's all I have to say about that.

Dating/Management

2007-01-04T02:58:00.000-05:00

Dating About a month ago, I posted on here the trials I had in asking a girl out on a date. It is the hardest thing for me to do, but I ended up doing it. An accomplishment in itself, really, but the "backlash" of sorts really pissed me off. The accomplishment, of course, if you were to ask anyone seems a little to crappy. I ended asking her out (whilst making a fool of myself, of course) on MySpace through a message. She sent one back to tell me that she had too much on her plate at the time to committ into a relationship and that we should just remain friends for the time being. Something, I would like to point out, that I've heard far too many times in my past. Therefore, it sort of pissed me off, but my personality allowed to suck it and respect her decision. As much as I would like to find a girlfriend and I, at times, feel like I am trying to hard, I know it just won't happen out of the blue. The thing that really pisses me off? I find out a week later that she is now in a relationship. So, her excuse on me lasted a week. Therefore, I knew that once again I was stuck in the friend zone, a place that has I have a permanent reservation at, it seems. Naturally, I was down in the dumps. I even told my coworker (who was having boy issues of her own) that I was giving up on dating and that if I wanted a girlfriend, they can ask me on a date. Apparently, my date radar is broken, so I'll let them ask me instead. Funny thing? This coworker and I had been having conversations about another coworker who she thinks likes me. I told her that couldn't possibly be, as my own personal defense mechanism. Now in order to finish this story, I need to lead into it. This coworker and I had the conversation above (about the coworker liking me) one night, so I decided to tell that girl about it as a joke. She then laughed and told me that day crew (I work night crew) had been telling her the same thing. Apparently, everyone at Dunks has been trying to play matchmaker between her and I. We shrugged it off, considering she has a strict "no dating coworkers" personal rule of hers. She joked that in order for everyone to get off our backs, we should go out once, tell everyone it didn't work, and that's that. That's exactly what she did. The week leading into New Year's Eve, she asked me about making plans to hang out on New Year's. I had plans to stay home and play games with my sisters, but getting out for a few hours wouldn't hurt. We both would think about it and get back. Stupid me, didn't ask for a phone number, so I would never have been able to tell her anyway. Now you're thinking, "You work with her. Her number should have been posted." You're talking about Mr. Nice here. That, my friends, is an invasion of privacy. Actually, if you wanted to get technical, those numbers are there for "emergency purposes", such as when I called in Monday. But, that's another story for later in the blog. I told her such, so she gave me her numbers personally, so now I have no excuse. I have certainly been biased towards the fact that I wouldn't mind dating this girl. But, there are my doubts. In the name of my sister's advice and me working with her. She is a very nice girl, but she does seem to have her moments. However, who am I to talk, considering how I acted Christmas Eve. That, and me and dating are not the best of friends. I don't know how to get to know a girl properly, so how would I know if she isn't the one. That sounded really weird, when I was typing it. Odd. So, I work with the girl tomorrow, so this topic will more than likely break open during the night. Who knows, maybe I'll find out she isn't everyone of my worst nightmares in a girl and she is the one. Then again, I could find out she is not the one. Now, I am afraid. Wish me luck. Management If you've read this blog, you know me and my history with management. Most suck and if they don't suck, their bosses suck. Someone in the management ladder has to suck. It's a law. If it isn't, it should be. It's the "Management Sucks Law". My newest rant on management involves my earlier mention of calling out on Monday. It starts Sunday. Sunday, I went to work in the morning (which is a miracle in itself). I worked the shift, went home, and planned on spending the night at home (since certain "plans"(if you can call them that) fell through). We were all going to play poker, which seems to be the entertainment in my house now. I made myself some dinner and we started playing. This, however, starts right when I was making dinner. I started getting a sore throat, something that doesn't hit me very often. I ignored it and went on with my dinner and fun. All throughout the poker games, however, everything else decided to join the fun in my body. Sore throat invited stuffy nose, headache, minor aches and pains, and general shittiness into the party. Throughout the night, it got progressively worse, to the point where I just wanted to sleep. Now, considering it is now 3:26AM EST and I am currently writing this and not sleeping must say something about the next statement: I laid down at 11:30, watched the ball drop at midnight, and fell asleep not too long after. There are two signs you need to look for in me to know that I am REALLY sick. I blow my nose (exception being at work, because picking your nose is considered "unsanitary" there :)) and I am sleeping normal hours. I feel asleep at around 12:30am, awoke for a bathroom break at 4:30am, went back to bed at 5am, and reawoke at 1pm, still feeling like shit. I decided that my general shittiness was enough to warrant a call out, something I haven't done yet at Dunks (which is a note you should remember). I called the store and told them I wasn't coming in because of my general shittiness. I told them I had just woken up from sleeping all night, not feeling good, and wasn't going in. They said ok, and everything was golden. I decided to channel surf for a little then go back to bed. This is where the fun began: I get a phone call. Now, when I get a phone call, it's one of two things, family or work (unless it's wednesday, then it's my friend). Since I was currently in sight of all my family, then it must have been work (which I don't understand why they would call me when I just called out). It was the manager of another store. She informed me that they were unable to find a replacement for me that night and that I would have to go in anyway. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize how pissed that statement made me. I told her that I was really sick and was unable to come in. She went on and on about the rules and that you needed to find your own replacement and the time window for calling out was 4-6 hours before your shift and blah blah blah. I continued to tell her I was sick and wasn't coming in. She then told me there was coverage until 6pm and that I would have to come in then. So, in a pissy tone I told her fine, hung up on her, and threw the cordless phone across the room, breaking the battery off and scattering my GBA games on the floor. I was pissed. Not only have I never called out before to this place, but now I find out that apparently I can't call out. Interesting. That didn't settle well me, of course. I got up, fixed the phone, put my GBA games back in order, opened the door, and slammed it. Now, when someone slams a door in my house (or any house for that matter), someone is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, pissed. So, it was no surprise that everyone looked at me (knowing that I'm sick) and asked what was wrong. I told them the situation and that I couldn't call out, put the phone back, opened my door again, and once again slammed it. I then dropped onto my bed and proceeded to clench my fist and almost break down. Now, remember this kiddies: No matter how much you fight with your family about the stupid shit in life, they will always and I mean always have your back, no matter the situation. This remains true to this day with my mom and her continuing issues with my brother. My mom and sister proceeded to call everyone back and tell them I couldn't come in (throwing in the occasional lie about me vomiting here and there). We finally reached the agreement that I would need a doctor's note (which is something we apparently can easily get in this house) and that if I was still not feeling well to call earlier tomorrow. I went back to bed at 2pm and woke up at 6pm. I started feeling better. I ate some tomato soup (something I haven't had as soup in a long time) and watched Raw and played some games. However, remember, if you sleep for 17 hours, don't expect to easily fall back asleep the next night. Finally falling asleep at 6am, I woke up at 11am Tuesday to go to the doctors and get my body checked. I only had flu like symptoms, nothing more. I got my doctor's note, went to Dunks, handed it over, told them I would be in later, and got some food. My trials with that place continue to make me wonder why everyone is so astonished with the fact that I hate it so much. Amazing. Anyway. I have a LAN party on Friday. It is something I have never been to, but am looking forward to. It does seem like it's becoming more of a hassle to attend this, as I need to go get one more game for it tomorrow. But it's ok. The game is free for me, now that I have a $20 gift card to Gamestop, courtesy of my friend who owed me money he didn't even remember (nor did I). And that's all I have to say for now.

The Week That Was

2006-12-30T02:33:00.000-05:00

Wow, I haven't been here in a while. I haven't had much to talk about in a while, but I guess I will be here to talk. Christmas was last week and I got pretty much everything I wanted (except that big pile of cash...). I got Guitar Hero II with the Guitar controller, a comforter (which is actually one of my faves this year, it's so comfy), Stargate SG-1 Season 9 on DVD, as well as Gift Cards to Wendy's, McD's, Best Buy, Mobil and others. I, of course, was supposed to spend my Best Buy card on Wii games (well, was told I should), but I bought LAN games instead. CS:S and DoD:S are now mine, as well as HL2, which I shall play if I ever find the time. I bought it mostly to install a few more mods I need. That was Christmas. Now, we are moving towards the new year. I am going to attend my first ever LAN party with the kids from Amesbury, which I hope will be as awesome as I hear. I am even trying to get better at said LAN games above; I even went to the Holodek (a gaming facility) to play with a friend and get some tips. It also seems that this past week was the week of death in celeb land. Three deaths by major people in politics and music this past week. One we never saw coming, one was on either side, and one of course we saw coming. I am, of course, talking about James Brown, Gerald Ford, and Suddam Hussien (respectively). I am torn on the Suddam execution a little, because of the main reasons everyone is reporting. The fact that he had so many followers, that they might rebel more now that their leader is dead. However, he's dead now, that's that. We'll just have to wait and see. I am also entertaining the thought of finding a second job. I don't mind Dunks as much as I used to, it's growing on me. It's the fact that I don't want to be stuck at Dunks forever, so I want to go back to school. For journalism/*insert other related writing major here*. I want write/report, so going back to school for that might get me in the right direction. I think finally the years on newspaper at high school are catching up to me, biting me in the ass, and infecting my journalism nerves again. We'll see. But, that's me in a nutshell. I am still here living, just procrastinating as usual. I shall attempt to update this more in the new year, but we'll see. I think I'll post my list of games that are on my To-Beat list. There are too many to count right now. That's all I have to say.

Hard

2006-12-08T05:05:00.000-05:00

I've played games that are difficult in nature, but was victorious. I bought a Rubix Cube, in order to learn how to solve it. I finally learned how to do that. I thought I would suck at writing poetry, but have a nice little collection. Those things are nothing compared to asking a girl out in my books. I can't muster the words up and I can't find the never to hit that send button. I already know I am cool in her mom's books, as I met her before I met this girl. However, I just can't find the courage to send that message to her. What caused me to be such a pussy? Seriously, I wish I was not afraid of rejection and humilation as much as I am. Someone needs to slap some balls on me. I suck.

Spoilers

2006-11-15T03:12:00.000-05:00

Spoilers. For those who do not know, a spoiler in a video game (or anything for that matter) is something that gives away some sort of plot or plot device in the game. It could be anything from a boss battle to the ending of the game itself. Which, unfortunately, I have the privelege of pointing them out to people on Zelda Universe. Don't get me wrong, I love being able to do what I do, but sometimes, there are the people who go too far. As of now, they have only been releasing things very early in the game, which I can take. It's basic gameplay and items that everyone will find once they start the game. It was some guy who decided to go past the Nintendo Ban (Nintendo issued a "embargo" of sorts for each week before release. Basically, to keep the hype up), and went to the fifth dungeon of the game. Posting basically the biggest spoiler to date; the image of the main antagonist in the game, Ganondorf. We all knew he is the game, that was confirmed. But, I wanted to see him for myself. I will manage. However, there was some good news this past week. After complaining each week that Sunday's were just a waste in my wallet, I finally placed in the Hi-Lo Jack. Not only that, but I placed first with my best five so far this week (but not overall). A 578 for 5 launched me finally into the top spot. Hopefully, I can keep the great bowling up for next week and place again (and grab some extra money with hi-singles as well.) That's all I got for now.

Impatience

2006-11-11T03:48:00.000-05:00

I am so Nintendo's bitch and I think I kinda like it. Nintendo's latest monster, the Nintendo Wii, is due out in 8 days time. The last week always seems to be the slowest since this is due out in that time as well. Now, i'm not going to lie to you. I am a very big Zelda fan with one flaw. I like the game, but can't find the time or motivation to finish them. Which, I hope, will all change with Twilight Princess. It is my New Year's Resolution (2 months in advance) to finish all the games that I own and that I haven't beaten. This is easier said than done because of the minor fact that I work a full-time job and I only have two days off a week. I can claim that I stay up until 4am and do nothing. It really shouldn't be an excuse. Which makes me think if I should take a vacation from the net for a month. Impatience. The one flaw that many people can have and I was stuck with it. 8 days? That's too god damn long. But, that's all I have to say.

Better

2006-11-09T04:33:00.000-05:00

Things tend to get better over time, so it's no surprise that that is how I feel. Better. The three things that I am better at are my health (sort of), my bowling, and my writing. First, my health. Last week, I came down with a cold. Simple little thing: Runny nose, sore throat, cough, sneezing, general feeling of shit. Yea, the whole nine yards. But, I toughed it out and finished the week at work and am feeling better. Even though I probably shouldn't have been handling your food sick. But, I was cautious, nonetheless. Second, my bowling. I have been having a rough go at the thing I love to do. I have (if I have yet to mention it) started bowling on Sunday morning as part of the Hi-Lo Jack tournament. I started out ok, gathering a 103 average, but have not lived up to my standards. I am not doing as well as I possibly could and it upsets me. My wednesday night league suffered as well, going two weeks without breaking 500. This week (aka last night), I finally broke 500 again and hope to bring that attitude into Sunday and as least place this time. Wasting $30 a week and not winning something is really aggrevating. Third, my writing. I last told you that I was planning on writing a novel. Well, I went to write for Zelda Universe and proceeded to fall flat on my face, not writing one word the entire month. This month, the real one, NaNoWriMo started and once again I started off with nothing. However, that has changed, as my novel has finally gotten the kickstart it needed. I changed my idea entirely and proceeded to write 739 words in the night. That is a 739% improvement over last month! So, I'm on the right track. Hopefully, I am not a jackass and fall flat on my face once again. But, that's all I got for now. It's 4am and I must be lonely (although I am an hour ahead of the song).

Doubt

2006-10-18T03:49:00.000-04:00

There is one thing on my mind going into the month of November and that is doubt. I am beginning to doubt two things about myself and the NaNoWriMo thing. 1) I didn't even attempt the ZU one and 2) I am beginning to think my idea for my novel sucks. I've had the idea set in my mind since about August/September and the plot is becoming more and more clear. But, once again, a certain factor has come in and told me I suck. Which makes me start to wonder if I should ditch that factor. I won't mention my idea, since my ideas seem to be made into movies (I swear they are watching my dreams), but I don't know about it. My climax seems to be cliche, but I can't figure out a better one. The other climax I had was even more cliche than the one I have now. So, doubt it looming over my head. But, on top of that, the fact that I didn't even finish 1,000 words on ZU is looming as well. I didn't want to write for ZU at all, so that makes me wonder if I am going to get to 50,000 words next month. Maybe, since I had more time to prepare, I might have a better success with NaNoWriMo. Doubt. You are a very nasty bitch. And that's all I have to say.

Inspiration/Nintendo

2006-10-17T01:53:00.000-04:00

Another small two-part rant. Inspiration When I last posted, I told you of a online novel writing site, along with ZU's version. Well, I come to tell you that I officially dropped out of the ZU one. I am upset for that because that basically tells me I am not inspired to write. I say that because I had enough time to write a story for that site, yet I chose not to. I went bowling, worked, and just pretty much lazed around the house. This is not a good sign. I really do want to take part in NaNoWriMo, yet if I can't finish ZU's version, what are my chances on that? Nintendo This really isn't a mad statement, but Nintendo has me by the balls. This past Friday, Gamestops and EBs around the country offered up preorders for the new system of Wii. I have already begun to save for it as we speak, so by the time it comes out on November 19th, I'll be ready. However, I wasn't fast enough (or got up early enough) to preorder one. This is a dilemma, because I have a Wii game reserved at Gamestop, and if I don't find a Wii on launch, I won't have a system to play it on. Odd, huh? On a side note, I am once again bowling twice a week. I am going to the Hi-Lo Jack that my home alley has every sunday morning at 9:30. It gets me out of bed early. If you see me out of bed before noon, it's usually a miracle. That's all I have for now.

Writing

2006-10-01T00:25:00.000-04:00

I have to be a real idiot. Two months, two novel(la)s. It's going to be fun. For those who don't know, there is a site online called NaNoWriMo, and it's an online challenge where you have to write a 50,000 novel in one month (the month of November). Those who make it to the end get an awesome banner and the satisfaction that you finished. Well, I plan to enter the challenge this year because I have an idea that I have wanted to write a story anyway. Not only that, but a ZU writer decided to start a ZuNoWriMo with a 30,000 novella in the same format on in October rather than November. So, that means, 80,000 words, 2 stories, two months. I am a fucking crazy person. But I love the challenge. Not to mention I work a full time job. So yea, it's going to be a crazy two months. That's all I got for now.

Danity Kane

2006-09-18T01:14:00.000-04:00

Small update. I must say the Danity Kane sucks. Coming home from work last night, their new song came on the radio and I must say it put me in a very bad mood. If you have never heard of them, good, keep it that way. I've never really been a "rap" fan. Now, if you do know me, I will listen to a rap song every once in a while. But, Danity Kane is pretty much a female rap group. Now, I never understood rap posses and such, but a bonafide group? You can try to defend the fact that they aren't a rap group and that is bullshit. Because, even though they sound like they are singing, THEY ARE NOT. There is a beat behind them playing and they are produced by DIDDY and BAD BOY RECORDS. How much more proof do I need? They suck, don't listen, your ears will explode. That's all I have to say.

Five Years

2006-09-15T00:51:00.000-04:00

Man, do I suck at this or what? I am just here to post my thoughts on the recent ceremony that was September 11th. We all should know what happened that day five years ago. Where we were, what we were doing, and what we were thinking when it happened. I will never forget what happened, nor where I was. I was in my third week of sophomore year of high school. The first attack happened around 9:00am, so I was in first period when it actually happened. In my school, the place I hung out at was a little hole-in-the-wall called the Math Office. It was where the Math Department chair's office was, but we pretty much took it over. Yea, that's how we rolled. I got out of first period at 9:38ish. How I remember the times, I do not know. But, I do remember going to the Math Office for the little break we were given between classes to pick up my books and such for the next class. All I heard was that something was happening, but no one knew the specifics. But there, on the Yahoo! main page was the story. Two planes crash into the Twin Towers of New York City. We were shocked, but we had class, so I went to 3D animation, a class I would later drop, but at the time had. So, I went there, and since we had computers, proceeded to look up as much as I could about the attack. I later found out all the details like everyone else did. The two planes in NYC, the plane in Washington, and the plane that never made it to it's destination, in Pennsylvania. What made the day even worse was my fear of Public Transportation. If they could take planes, why not buses? I was taking the bus back and forth to school every day, so it wasn't like it was on my mind. We'll just say that bus ride home was the most nerve wrecking ever. I got home, and watched the news. I hardly do that anymore, because all the media likes to do is scare you with every little thing imaginable. I think the media is one of the main reasons why I am a hypochondriac, because they tell me about every little thing that could kill me, so then what happens? I get the symptoms. But I watched the news that day to find out everything. Earlier, in school, I watched as the two towers crumbled during lunch. Then at home, I watched every other building in the vacinity crumble due to the travesty. Everything I knew about the world changed that day. I bet I'm not the only one. We all know the rest. The constant looking over our shoulders for the next big thing. The nail clippers being banned from the airports. The recent water issues on planes. I even read on J.K. Rowling's website, the author of Harry Potter, that she almost couldn't bring her manuscript for Book 7 from NYC back to London with her. That is crazy. But, the ideals of that day still linger. Be kind to your neighbors. Live the life you're given. Not every day is the same. Today could be your last. Now, if only we could find the son of a bitch who did it, everything would be fine. Without going 88MPH (the obvious Back to the Future quote could not elude me). That's all I have to say.

Management

2006-08-30T01:03:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been a while. It must have been a good few weeks. Life update, I've finally decided to switch to a more normal sleep schedule. It feels really weird. Anyway, my rant today is about management. The act of being a manager. Not something like time management. The lack of intelligence and/or deep desire to fuck people over royally makes me so upset about management. Ninety-five percent of you reading this know EXACTLY what I am talking about when I say this. The assistant manager at my Dunkin Donuts is a fucktard. If you have never heard that statement before, it is made by taking the words fuck and retarded and combining them. It's more insulting, more vulgar, but the retards don't know you're talking about them (that was so in bad taste). But she is VERY fucktarded. She has three things against her. 1) She can't spell. But, that's not the main reason why she is fucktarded. 2) She can't schedule people properly. I learned about the spoils system is school and thought it wasn't in effect anymore, but boy was I wrong. People she likes get more hours and people who rebel against her get less. Take any of the night people for instance. I have 4 nights, another has 4, and the other didn't get any. 3)She's paranoid and loves enforcing shitty rules. You would think these two are separate, but they play on the other. The being paranoid part comes from being scared that she is going to get fired because her boss is pissed at the way things are being run. Therefore, she posted all these bullshit rules that basically prohibit any work from getting done. But, us night crew rebels still don't follow them and are still getting things done without them knowing. The only reason I rant about this is the fact that I am the main reason why she is implementing rules. Before you call me paranoid, I have the facts behind it. I came in one night to start my shift at 2pm and starting breaking things down that should have been saved until like 5-6pm. But, having worked with someone who started that early, I started that early. This whiny bitch went and tattled to this asst. manager about me doing it. Next day, a sign saying not to start until 8pm was put up. Yet, we don't follow it. Then, to confirm this, she went up to another employee and asked if I was still doing it. Now if that doesn't just blow smoke up your ass, I don't know what will. That got to me and I don't know really why. But, that person stuck up for me, so it's ok. I then proceeded to break stuff down tonight at 5pm on the dot. I know how management works. I was an assistant manager. I know how you are groomed to be there and how you are supposed to act. But, I also know that some rules are only there to be broken. That's all rules are. They are there to enforce some sanity in a company, but most are just plain bullshit. I told others that if I ever started a company, the rules would be simple. Don't be a fucktard, don't steal money, and don't be too vulgar. Otherwise, have a ball. Because you aren't here to be fucking robots, running around for a company that doesn't give a fuck who you are, or if you make it anywhere in this world. That's why I hate business, but that's more another rant. But, that's all I have to say about that.

Red Sox

2006-08-23T04:11:00.000-04:00

I haven't been around in a while, because I was unable to find something to rant about. But this past weekend served up the best rant I could think of. You should all know i'm a Red Sox fan. If you have seen Fever Pitch, then you know what kind of people they are. We are the most faithful people in the world, which is true because we waited 86 years to win. Everyone knows about the history of the Red Sox, if you are truly into baseball. Well, this past weekend, the second coming of the Boston Massacre (as the media puts it) happened and it pretty much made all Red Sox fans cry. Let me set up the stage. The Red Sox had swept the Orioles the weekend prior and had just dropped two of three to the Tigers, putting them 1.5 games behind in the division. Which was pivotal, seeing as though the Yankees were in town for 5 games in 4 days. So, we could pick up ground in the standings and possibly giving us some ground to make it to the playoffs. Thursday was off. Friday came a Day/Night doubleheader, to make up for a rainout earlier in the year. We were swept for the day, in blowout fashion both games, thus dropping 2 games to 3.5. Saturday came, and Josh Beckett came in to get the ball rolling, and lost as well, thus pushing the deficit to 4.5. Sunday next for Schilling on ESPN, which was the game that seemed like we might win, taking a lead into the ninth only to blow it. Deficit now to 5.5. Monday wasn't any different. David Wells pitched like he should, only to lose a small run game. The deficit now? 6.5. Not only were the Red Sox swept in 5 games by those fucking Yankees, but they pretty much killed any motiviation to root them into the playoff this year. I ask now? How are the Bruins looking? And that's all I have to say about that.

News

2006-08-18T04:39:00.000-04:00

I decided that a rant about the news this past week needed to be touched upon, mainly the story about the JonBenet Ramsey supposed killer finally found. If you were living under a rock for the past ten years, then you have no fucking clue what I'm talking about. So let me sum it up. Ten years ago in Boulder, CO, a six-year-old girl named JonBenet Ramsey was found in her basement, dead from being strangled. They also believe she may have been sexually assaulted, but more on that later. At first, everyone thought that here parents were the killers, as she was found in her own basement, making many people wonder why or even how someone could have made it into the house, rape her, and kill her. Well, apparently, they found the person who did just that. A school teacher living in Thailand, named John Mark Karr, was arrested after confessing that he was the one who killed JonBenet ten years ago. He said that he was with the little girl when she died, and claimed that her death was an accident. He also claims that he drugged and had sex with the little girl before killing her. Also, he claims that his original plan was to kidnap her and ask for a ransom. Now, I know most people don't really care for Wiki much, but most of the time they are truthful. Therefore I link you to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonbenet_Ramsey If you read through this article, you can find every aspect of what I just said that Karr said happened. Now, I know what most of you are thinking, because I'm possibly thinking the same thing. After watching CNN Headline News all night at work (since it is the only thing they have playing there), most of them think the same thing as well. ANYONE could have accessed all the stuff about this case, made a confession based on what they read, and made themselves an instant celebrity. The only thing against him? The fact that he does have a record of the same kind of crimes. Child crimes, that is. He has the mind set to be the killer of the little girl, but only science can really tell if he was there on the night of the murder. They say that blood was found on JonBenet from a unidentified male. So, only time will tell. The only other disturbing thing I heard on CNN? Apparently, they also found some wood splinters in or around here vaginal area (which, in the first place, is fucking sick). So, even if he didn't have intercourse with her, he might have been using something else. This whole story is fucked up, and can only get worse. But that's all I have to say about that. But, that's not my entire rant. I have one more small piece of news I hate even more than that. The New York Yankees (a team you never, ever, ever see again on this blog unless I am stating how much they suck (can you tell I'm a Boston fan yet?)) are planning to build a new stadium, estimated at a hefty 1 billion dollars. They claim that the stadium will have a musuem in it open year round, will be larger than the current stadium, and will still be named Yankee Stadium. Two things out of this story? 1) It pisses me off that they are building a new one, not because I like Yankee Stadium, but that it's 1 billion dollars, which is more than I'll ever have. Two? It means that I only have a couple more years to catch a game there (when the Sox play, of course). You would think I would want nothing to do with there, but it's still a part of history, and would be somewhat nice to loathe in person. But, now that's all I have to say.

Books/World

2006-08-14T03:09:00.000-04:00

This is a double rant. I feel there is enough to warrant my personal rants, as well as a rant to the world. So, let me start with my rant: Books My rant on books isn't that they exist, but the fact that I can't write one. The human brain is a wonderful thing and me starting the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that makes me realize this. It is amazing that we can the things we do, Music, Art, Teaching others, all the skills that we can do with tools, and of course, Writing. Writing has been a part of my life for a while now. Of course, school makes you take english in school, for a good reason, but there are not many who actually like taking that class. I will admit that during school, I hated English, but I think the reason wasn't because I hated the subject. I think it was because I hated the things we had to do, too much reading something that didn't interest me, and writing things I didn't want to write. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to write poetry. I started writing it in high school, when I found dating and girls who I loved. I wrote it because I was inspired by the person I was with enough to write my feelings down on a piece of paper so everyone can read them. Then, there was newspaper. I joined the AHS Weekly out of a fluke, really. I started "dating" this girl my freshman year, even though there was nothing there. But, she was a seller of the newspaper, and was on the "staff" enough for me to go the room where they were making it, and joined. I stayed every night as long as I could, because back then I was taking the bus back and forth to school. They ended way too late for me to stay, since the last bus of the night came 2 hours before they ended. So it sucked in the fact I couldn't stay, but I still learned much my freshman year. Over the next three years, I became experienced in the "journalism" style of things and reporting, even going out to some event and taking pictures and reporting it as well. I think that's where my love of writing and reading flourished. I loved editing stuff my senior year, and I loved putting the paper together and being able to put my touch on everything I did. But the thing that bugs me most, out of everything, is the fact that I can't write a book. I don't have that "inspiration" and thoughts enough to create a story and characters to write a book. I praise people like J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, etc for being able to tell a story that they just made up on their own. I don't care about the success factor, I just want to tell a story that people would love to read for a long time. I also have trouble finding a topic to write an article on any site or paper or anything. I want to write down my opinions on a matter or make people believe a certain thing. The two things I think I lack/have are the lack of inspiration and the fact that I am a procrastinator/worker. You wonder why I put those last two together. It's because since I work, I don't have the time to actually sit down and just write. But, since I don't have the inspiration to find something to write, it sucks. But that's my rant on Books. World My small rant on the world stems on everything I've been watching/reading/laughing at recently. It's the fact that the Middle East, plainly put, sucks. Everyone is fighting over nothing, people claiming that we're fucked, and the fact that the world is going to end. I work at Dunkin Donuts, and anyone who's been in one know that most have TV's, and most are placed on a news channel to: a) piss the workers off and b) to give us "information". The only information I get at night when I work, is when Glenn Beck is on, and he screams at me that we are in World War III and we're totally fucked. So that's where my rant comes in. I am a VERRRRRRRRRRRRRRY big advocate of World Peace. If I ever do get a chance, I will find someway to make my voice heard about it, but I can not for the life of me understand why we fight. This coming from a wrestling fan, but I also know that wrestling is entertainment, and not real. I'm talking about Iran v. Isreal and U.S.A. v. Iraq, and the prior World Wars, it pisses me off. Even though we won World War II, it was a bad idea to drop the nuke and I bet that most of you would agree. It's fortunate that we make technology and the fact that we dropped the bomb to win, but the aftermath of doing it is being shown today. Every country feels the need to build a bomb so they have leverage over others. But, we all realize that with the amount of bombs on the earth at this moment, if they all were to go off, you wouldn't care what you're reading at the moment. I wish people would grow up, and get along. But, as long as many religions exist and many different believes exist, that will never happen. When you parents told you that you should always be nice to others because you should treat others the way you want to be treated, it seems that all those evil people could have taken a dose of that when they were young. They know that if they fuck with others, we will fuck back. But, i'm getting tired, and must stop ranting. And that's all I have to say about that.

Unknown

2006-08-12T03:54:00.000-04:00

Standing at work today, I began to think of a blog I could write. Then I remembered no one reads this, so it would be for my own entertainment. The rant is still the same. I am afraid of the unknown. If you know me, you actually know I fear heights and death. So you wonder how I get the unknown out of either. Well, first of all, both are inadvertantly intertwined. I am afraid of heights for the purpose that, if I fall, I could die. Therefore, since my other fear is death, I don't like heights. Once again, where does the unknown come from? It comes from me standing at work today thinking about my blog and the post I could write. I began to ponder the real reason why I fear death. It's not the fact that I'm dead, because as I know, it's inevitable. I cannot stop myself from dying, it's one of those things that are certain when you are brought into this world. The thing that scares me is what happens next. I love this quote in my favorite book series, Harry Potter, and it is very underused, even though the character who said it is now dead himself. Yea, I just spoiled it for you if you find this quote now. It goes "After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." It has been used recently in discussions about the fact that Dumbledore didn't mind death, because he knew it was inevitable as well. No one really knows what happens next. You all go to bed with a head full of dreams for the next day, when you wake up and take on the world again for another day. As a lot say, you are lucky to wake up every day to take another stab at things. That's all you can ask for. So why the depressing post? I am still having issues where I think there is something major wrong with me. With that being said, I can only think about the unknown, seeing as though it might be creeping up on me, which I know sounds bad, but seriously. It's all anyone can think of, it's always in the back of your mind, from the time you learn of death, til the day you are on your death bed. Which, hopefully for most, is life expectancy, which is 70+ years. I also post this to keep a reminder to all, that you must cherish the things you have, and the ones you love. You can never tell your mother or father how much you truly love them, even if they are going through rough times. When they know that you are on their side, it makes things that much better. So, my depressing rant is now over. Hopefully, I don't have one for a long time. Like another 50 years or so. Besides, I need to go to Water Country tomorrow, and it's 4am. So, my bed calls for me sleep and hope that I get another day to step foot outside my door and enjoy the Dragon's Den, line-free. And that's all I have to say.

Anger Management V 2.0

2006-08-10T00:49:00.000-04:00

Bowling is something that has been in my life for about 3 years now. Ever since I joined a junior league when I was 17, I have done it every year since. Wednesday has been my day since 14, a mix of newspaper and bowling has been in my life on that night. After leaving high school, it became bowling. The only annoyance to the game is the fact I try to hard. As shown tonight, if you could have watched. Toward the end of the night, the fifth string, I just started hurling the ball down the alley, not really caring. It's like anyone who has a frustrating run at something, they are easily angered at the most simple things in life, or those they work hard to fix. I will never say I am one of the best bowlers in the league, because i'm not. My career average I would say is around a 95, which in candlepins is average. But, with my state of mind, I want to be the one out there winning the match if needed. I want to be the one carrying the 105-110 average on the team, not the one bowling a 439, when your average is far higher than that. The main factor I believe is that I don't practice as much as I should. Mixture of reasons to that. The fact that I work 5 nights a week now, during the peak hours where I could go, 2p-10p. I wake up 10 minutes before my shift, so going in the morning is out of the question. And i'm both extremely cheap and extremely good at wasting money at the same time. I could have $200 to my name, and wouldn't want to spend it, yet always find a way to do so. Therefore, I'm broke by Tuesday when I just got paid Friday. So, I say I suck when I don't put the effort in. Yet, when I put the effort in, it's all for naught. I am also changing my approach too much to warrant a care. I can't understand why I can't just throw the ball the same and get the results. Maybe i'm just too picky. The day was not all wasted. I went to the driving range as well, and finally hit a ball down the fairway straight. That is a step in the right direction, as all my balls have been curving too far right. I still hit them that way, but not many. I've noticed that my short game is ok, therefore I should progress backwards. Master putting, then chipping, then irons, then woods, then drives. I think that would be the best way to go. You must be thinking i'm crazy. I'm playing two sports that most people don't care about. But, I care about them, so that's all that matters. You never know, I could be on your TV soon playing on the PGA. Or I just might still be sitting in my chair dreaming. And that's all I have to say.

Laziness

2006-08-09T02:31:00.000-04:00

I have once again learned about myself tonight when I stupidly agreed to close at work alone. I would never realize how much I don't do, and how much the other person does when I don't unless I did close alone. What I did realize is if there isn't two people on at the store to take care of customers and the other random jobs at night, it takes an hour an a half to halfass everything done. I could only imagine if I really put effort into it. The fortunate part was it was only two and half hours alone, and it was drive-thru only. But still, I was alone. The fact is, the store is only run efficiently if two people are there. I did manage to get everything done. The only thing I really didn't accomplish was the backroom, to which I didn't sweep, so it still looks like shit. Oh, and the creamer I was supposed to clean. I can just hear one of the people there now. "I've closed alone before, and I got everything done." Well, that's also because you're Superwoman, and that's not an overstatement. It's more of an understatement. In my two months at Dunkin Donuts, tonight made me realize how much of a lazy fuck I really am. I will admit, I am rather lazy at EVERYTHING I do, but for some reason I am able to get my job done. It was the same at Market Basket, Mobil, and possibly Seaview. Mobil takes the cake, because all I remember from that is me sitting behind the counter doing nothing all third shift, yet everything was done by the next morning. I even amaze myself sometimes. Whether you would like to believe it or not, sometimes Laziness makes the world go around. Being lazy sometimes makes you realize how much some people really accomplish. It might make you realize how much you really suck, but in the end, you realize how much you really need to accomplish to make yourself a better person. Who knows, maybe you'll become what the person who wonders why the other person you work with is so lazy. That's one thing that I can't comprehend. I try to understand why my coworkers won't tell me I'm lazy, when I know they think it. I can "see" myself from an outer view, and I would yell at me for doing the things I do there. Who knows, maybe they don't think that, and think that I actually do accomplish something. Probably the reason I rant tonight. The fact that without me there, they would have a night like I had tonight. One from hell, alone, and having too much to do with not enough time to accomplish it in. And that's all I have to say.

Technology

2006-08-08T01:40:00.000-04:00

Computers are becoming the norm in any household nowadays. Faster services like cable and DSL are allowing people to surf the net with such fast speeds, it's amazing how fast you are going and not even realize it. I am concerned though that technology is so flawed that so many things can go wrong, that if you don't have a degree in computers, you are totally fucked. Which brings me to my rant. My internet connection is a piece of shit. After surfing two years on the net with my wonderful cable modem, the past few weeks reminded me what dialup was like. How much I wanted to rip out my hair because it was going so fucking slow, my ADD told me to go read a book. I can't understand why it's going so slow. I reset the fucking thing so many times a day, yet a snail goes across my desk faster than pages load. For those who are thinking "Why not just call Comcast for the issue?" Already did and the person who dealt with it was probably reading off a screen a list of solutions that I could have found online. The problem? I COULDN'T GET ONLINE TO FIND THE LISTS. Therefore, my loop theory is now getting more stronger. In anything in life, you are constantly stuck in a loop. I already mentioned the money-->job-->college loop. The most recent one being the computer issue-->tech support. Tech support being the computer issue, as those indians who are trying to tell you how to fix your computer is quite funny. I am beginning to think that the modem is finally saying "You know what, after being on for three years straight, I've had enough. I'm going to die and take you with me." But I have no proof of the life of a cable modem. Which, once again, is something I could find online. You must be shocked I was able to post this. It was in one of those pockets where I actually had access. Amazing thing, technology. And that's all I have to say about that.

Obsessions

2006-08-01T04:48:00.000-04:00

Before I begin (to those who actually spend time and read this), i'm not dead. I just didn't have anything to write about the past few nights. However, after reading my Pearls Before Swine treasury, I found that I do have something to talk about. Obsessions. Whether they be of the small or OMG YOU ARE A FREAK obsessions. Mine are usually the former, and they tend to change from week to week. My current obsession at the moment is golf. In an earlier post, I told you that I was unable to drive a golf ball straight. Well, the past week, I watched too much of the golf channel, went online to find tips, and have been practicing in my room with my toy light saber I bought last year. You might ask, why the light saber? Well, it's a good length, I can grip it like a golf club, and swing it like one as well, and it's just short enough that it doesn't bang into my walls. I even asked my dad to come out to the driving range with me, as he is one of the two people I know who golf, the other being my uncle. The last time I was supposed to go with my uncle, but my leg issue stopped me from doing so. Thanks blog, you just reminded me of something I need to go do, ask my uncle to go golfing. Golf, as I thought of it last night, is a hard game to learn and a hard game to master. My other "sport" of choice, candlepin bowling, is easy to learn and hard to master. My favorite sport, baseball, is easy to learn and easy to master. That should give some of you golf ignorant people out there enough of a comprehension to the talent these golfers actually have. Those who have never picked up a golf club and tried to hit a golf ball are usually the same who complain about the people who play golf. The people who say that golfers have it easy, winning millions of dollars to hit a ball. Go to a driving range, pick up the club, swing at the ball. See, not so easy, is it? There is a lot of things you need to do before you even step up to the ball. What club to use, how far do I need to hit it, what's the wind like. Then you step up to the ball. You need to hit it at a certain point to hit it right. Golf is like baseball in a sense. The same people probably complain about baseball being too easy. I would love to see you hit a 95mph fastball every time. Go to a batting cage, go in the fast pitch section, and tell me how many you hit. See, not so easy, is it? People who bash thing they don't understand are ignorant of that sport. I admit I bash Nascar and the IRL because I don't understand it. There really is no strategy in that, to my standpoint anyway. To fans, it's the simplier things, like they need to know how much gas they have, if there tires are inflated, the oils not overheating, this and that. It's driving, it's a machine that gets you from Point A to Point B. Not a competition. The reason for this random post about obsessions was brought on by my non-stop obsession in life. That's comic strips. I love the funnies to the point that my bookshelf is pretty much just funnies. I currently have 7 Garfield 3-packs, 8 regular Garfield books, 14 Foxtrot books, 2 Foxtrot treasuries, 3 Zits treasuries, a Calvin & Hobbes treasury, a Dilbert treasury, 3 Get Fuzzy books, a Least I Could Do (online comic) book, and my recent purchase, a Pearls Before Swine treasury. You make think I have a problem, I see it as constant bathroom reading material for someone with a short attention span. And on that note, I believe my bed calls me. Wednesday is my only day off, so the quicker Tuesday comes and goes, the more I will be happier. And that's all I have to say.

Drama

2006-07-29T01:53:00.000-04:00

You know when people tell you that you can't go back to high school. Well, that is true, you can't physically be 14 years old again, but the drama that you remember from high school is always, and I mean always, present. It's funny to watch your peers in high school battle the rigors of school, activities, sports, the after-effects of puberty, sex, relationships, jobs, and god knows what else, while finding time to bitch about it all. Well, my friends, those people NEVER STOP. Take for instance at Dunkin Donuts yesterday. Apparently, two people walked out today during an inspection there because the manager threw away her juice. You wouldn't get that, unless you knew that we aren't supposed to be taking bottles soda/juices without paying for them, which most of us do anyway. Well, she got pissed, yelled at the manager for a while and walked out. Followed by a friend of hers who apparently looked at the manager wrong. A third didn't show up at 3 to start her shift with me tonight, which is when I found out. So, I got to work with my manager tonight. Which wasn't too bad, because he didn't want to be there, because he had started working at 4am. So, with that mindset, he locked the doors at 9pm, which ended my night and started my day off an hour earlier. Drama is so overrated. It seems in this world, that most people can't get by the day without starting some sort of drama, whether it be small or large. And it sucks, because I hate dealing with other people's bullshit. On another note: My anger update. It seems that with this increasing more and more at work, I should keep you updated on how bad I blow up at work. Today wasn't too bad, it wasn't as busy. But there was a spurt where I threw stuff and I punched the ice in the container out front. Which, a while after I did it, I found out I cut myself a little bit on my knuckles. Not too painful, just a real annoyance. Is my anger a form of drama? That for you to decide. You should see some of the rants and rage I throw at work, they are entertaining when I get into a better mood. Especially breaking that ice coffee brew basket. The thing is an overgrown version of your normal brew basket and made of basket and I put a nice crack in it. Seriously, i'm actually shocked the sucker didn't snap into two pieces. The best part? The manager had to tape it back together, so it actually does work again. Fortunately, for all, I don't take my anger out against my coworkers. Just all the dumbass customers and inanimate objects. Which, is better, if you think about it. And that is all I have to say.

Anger Management V 1.0

2006-07-28T02:22:00.000-04:00

My anger has seemed to have resurfaced since I started working at Dunkin Donuts. That, my friends, is not a good thing. If you happen to know me very well, you know I have anger issues. I'm talking Serious. Anger. Issues. I hate getting angry, but when i'm there, any little thing can set me off and it's not that pretty. Example: Work today was one big anger issue. It seems that I might have to change my mind about management. If they want me to be one, I will just so that I can change that fucking schedule. We are busy during the afternoon, from about 3-7pm. So, there are only two of us on tonight from 3p-10p. Therefore, the place was trashed the whole night, we had to scurry the last few hours to get everything done, and I pretty much lost it all night. I was throwing cups in anger, threw a coolatta in the sink and got splashed, angry tones over drive-thru. The biggest anger issue was me breaking the ice coffee brew basket. Yea, I can't keep my anger issue in check there. I was close to having a breakdown. So, all in all, an AWESOME fucking shift. And don't get me started with the internet. I caused a really big shitstorm at ZU, that I am getting ready to hide in a big fucking ditch for a week. I started a war I didn't want to start, and they won't give it up even though I apologized. I don't want to start something with you guys, and yes, I know you're watching this, since you found it funny to post my info on your site. I don't want any trouble from you guys, I won't meddle in your site again. And with, I'm going to go cry myself to sleep. Maybe it will ease the pain that has creeped back into my leg again. Fucking doctors don't know shit.

Golf

2006-07-27T03:22:00.000-04:00

I went to the Driving Range today and came to the unfortunate conclusion: I am not the next Tiger Woods. It's unfortunate because in my never ending endeavor to be the next millionaire, that isn't the route I can take. But it isn't just the money I am interested in. Golf seems like that one sport that even if you can just hit the ball 200 yds per swing, chip it on the green, and the putt it in, you have a daily activity that you can play with many friends, if you choose. However, my drive doesn't like to get airborne. And when it does, it hooks far right. An issue I can not for the life of me solve. I have yet to practice the other aspects of the game, but it is my goal to find a person who knows the game very well, and coach me for free. Free things are much better than paid things, but you already knew that. I have been watching way too much Sportcenter/Golf/Golf Channel to realize that it is my goal to find another hobby/sport to occupy my mind. It seems that would be the best way to past the time. But, practicing sucks, and anyone who was on my JV team in high school baseball would know that. But, I also realize it's the only way to get better. Most aren't born with that ability to do everything perfectly, even though most claim that. In other news, my bowling scores for the night include: 95, 103, 92, 103, 106. 499 for 5 makes Lozzie a sad panda. And that's all I have to say for now.

Jobs

2006-07-26T06:06:00.000-04:00

It seems the writing bug has bitten hard this time around. The urge for me to write is strong, yet that piece for ZU I want to write remains unwritten. I find it funny that I have been searching online for jobs in journalism. The only bad part being that I actually need college experience to get the jobs. If only they accepted the fact that I was on my high school's newspaper and nothing more. I actually do know what i'm doing, even if most don't think so. That's the only thing I hate about jobs. Certain jobs, like writing, shouldn't require a college education. I don't mean that people who speel liek tis should be able to be a reporter. I mean, if you can impress a publisher with a piece of work enough, you should get the job. Continuing to woo said publisher is the bonus. I know what you're thinking. I am trying to find an excuse to stay out of school. You could be far from the truth. I want to go back, i've been itching for the past year. The funds are what's keeping me out. I just need to win the lottery or have something just drop my tuition fees in my lap, and I am all set. Those commercials are so true. "I need money to go to school, but I need school to get a better job, so I can make the money I need to go to school." It's an endless fucking cycle. It's amazing how people are able to accomplish the loop without spiraling too far into debt. Granted, I am paying off a loan that went down the shitter, but once it's paid off, that an extra $50 a month to my name. Granted, it's going to take me 15 months to do it, but that's closing in. It's also amazing that I can find something to rant about every night. It must be to keep my mind off other issues. Like the state of the world and my body. Both, to which, I don't want to get into. Life sucks and it's only recently I've believed that to the fullest extent. But, I chug along knowing I must be here for a reason, otherwise I wouldn't be here at all. And that's all I have to say for now.

Work

2006-07-25T04:14:00.000-04:00

You know, if you know me, you know that I have two styles to me personality. I have my laid back, really lazy side and I have my hard-working, must get everything done side. Currently, my lazy side is in full force. As mentioned before, I told you about my love of writing, yet the lack of inspiration to do anything about it. I am currently in the middle of writing an article for ZU (which I believe I said as well), which I took a break from to write this. I also took a break from it to chat in the chatroom, practice my hitting stance, and go to the bathroom. My two sides also show up at work. I am either the most laziest cleaner/stocker in the store that night, or I am doing everything at such a pace, I even amaze myself. Sunday and Monday are two great examples. Sunday, I was really lazy, and didn't want to do a thing. It might have something to do with the fact that halfway through the shift, my inner thigh decided to say "fuck you" and started hurting again. Therefore, I did shit on Sunday. Monday, however, I got in, started doing dishes, took out the trash, took orders, and started stocking. It was pretty much nonstop all night. My leg started nagging at the end, but not to the extent it has been hurting. Right now, my leg is fine. It seems the pain is starting to subside for the most part, however that doesn't keep my nerves in check. I still believe that something is wrong and probably will be back in the doctors office in no time, asking for them to do a test in my area, so they can finally tell me I am a massive hypodroniac who has nothing better to do than think he has something he doesn't. That's my life. I go to bed every night and the first thing I think of is whether or not I wake up in the morning. It's depressing, I know, but it's good in a way. It makes me appreciate what I have more and makes me more motivated to do more. Including going back to school, which you wouldn't expect anyone to be itching to go back after 2 years off. I have never been the normal person in the bunch. Ask anyone who knows me. Well, I better set off to work on this article. I have many more I want to write, but the patience and attention to do it isn't there. And I say I want to be a journalist... And for those who wished I updated (to which I say, what the fuck are you on), this hasn't been in the front of my mind, as you just read.

Bowling

2006-07-20T00:34:00.000-04:00

Well, things are looking brighter I do believe. I went bowling tonight. Now you would think that isn't that big of a deal, but the thing is, my leg didn't kill me as much as it has been, especially since I am was actively playing the game the entire night. You think it isn't much to do to bowl, but you are moving arms and legs to slide, so my leg is moving around enough to maybe cause pain. Now, tomorrow... If you care, my scores were 85, 99, 110, 114, and 81. That's 489 for 5, which is above my average. If you are wondering why they are "so low", it's because it's candlepin bowling, the one with smaller balls and pins. I live in New England and candlepin is king in this area. That's all I got right now. But, I do ask that whoever the anonymous person is that is posting comments on my site... I would appreciate if you tell me who you are. I like to know who is actually viewing my blog.

Pain V 3.0

2006-07-19T04:11:00.000-04:00

I love being in pain. It's so exciting. I love walking around with my legs pulsing and telling me it hurts. The better part is that the Aleve i'm taking isn't really dulling the pain much. The heat on my leg does, so there is hope for me to not worry as much. I want this pain to go away. I want to feel like there really isn't nothing major wrong with me. Because it's getting to be that way. I feel like there is something major wrong, just like my sister knows there is something major wrong with his wrist. I am going bowling tomorrow, because I will never give that up. But, I am not going to play DDR, because i'm stupid, but not THAT stupid. I've decided that I will hopefully write a couple of articles i've been meaning to write at the alley tomorrow. I have so many ideas finally for articles to write, yet, if you read my post about irony being a bitch, then you know my situation. Anyway, I am at 4:24am. My plan didn't work last night, as I did fall asleep at 7am. So I am out to play MVP Baseball and listen to Pottercast (because I already finished all my Mugglecasts, so you Mugglecasters that don't read this, don't worry ;))

Pain V 2.0

2006-07-18T03:11:00.000-04:00

In an attempt to control the pain in my leg (and lessen my fears for this month), I went back to the doctor again to find out why my leg has still been hurting and if i'm still going to be here for a long time (don't ask). Well, they told me again what they told me two months ago (I actually had deja vu at this appointment): That my groin is sprained, that I should not be too active, take two aleve two times a day, and apply a heat pad to the area. The only issue I had a concern with was he did feel the lump I thought I felt, and he told me it's nothing major that it might just be a cyst. The last time I checked, a cyst was something to worry about. But, I am going to actually follow doctors orders this time around, other than the last two. The reason my leg probably isn't fixing itself is because I haven't been following the orders. The first one was to do what i'm doing now. I started taking the aleve, but I was still active and didn't apply the heat. The second one was to take an antibiotic, which I didn't take until a month after he gave it to me. But, I was still active. This time, i'm finally not being an idiot, and deciding to see if this works. If not, i'm going back to have them check me out again, and this time, i'm not leaving until they do any tests that will tell me that my groin is fine, and i'm not going to die anytime soon. So, i'm sitting here with a heat pad on my leg. I will not go out and throw my tennis ball around in the parking lot (which is the most active this i was doing), but, I flat out refuse to miss bowling this week. If, after this week's session, I will not bowl next week and rest my leg. The only issue I have with this week, is that I was active over the weekend, and didn't let my leg fix itself. I asked my uncle to go to the driving range this weekend. I don't know whether or not to say maybe next week, but I really wanted to start practicing golf ASAP. But, my health is the most important priority. Now, I think I should go to bed. I've been meaning to go to bed earlier, rather than 7am every morning. Yes, you read that right. 7am. Every morning. I'm gone.

Irony

2006-07-17T02:08:00.000-04:00

I am a writer. I love to write and it gives me a nice sense of being. The fact that I can write something, people will read it, and hopefully they like what I have to say makes me elated. But, I am also a procrastinator. I love to be lazy and not do anything productive, while thinking I am doing something productive. It reigns true at home, when I was at school, and at work. So, my two personalities are clashing. I have this wonderful article I want to write for Zelda Universe, but I am too lazy to care to write it. Then a third factor is there as well. I have a very unique case of writers block. Sometimes, if I sit to write an article, I have a hard time finding the words I want to write down. So, what do I do? Irony... How much I hate you.

Pain V 1.0

2006-07-15T22:54:00.000-04:00

We all know that pain sucks. We have been in pain at least once in our life to know that when you are in pain, it sucks. Well, I have had a constant pain in my left leg for the past couple of months. I have been to the doctors twice in May. I saw two different people. One told me I had a groin sprain, which my mom had also told me. The other told me I had epidydimitis (when I told him I thought I had felt a lump on my boys). So, I don't know what to believe. The second one prescribed an antibiotic, to which I took last week, to which I was fine the whole time. But now, the pain is back, and other ones have been popping up. Some days it's my lower back, sometimes my little pinky on my left hand feels numb... So yea... But, the reason I haven't been back to the doctor since, is the same reason I have a nice $180 dentist bill... I just don't have the money to do it. So I'll just sit here in my room, take my aleve, and ice my crotch. Maybe Wednesday i'll suck it up and go to the doctor.

Blog

2006-07-15T03:16:00.000-04:00

*Parental Advisory Suggested: There is swearing in this blog, so be warned* I guess I'll get into a real blog place... This is my first attempt at a true blog. You won't find much here, just my random ramblings. I will probably post articles I write, my thoughts about video games, bowling, and wrestling, or whatever you really want me to rant about. About me: I am a news/content editor at a nice site called Zelda Universe. I am also a newly instated Webmaster/Admin of the forums. I have been with the site for almost four years, so I am (hopefully) somewhat respected. I hope. I am an active candlepin bowler. I am a gamer. I watch the WWE. I tend to ramble about these things, and have actually started writing articles about them. Mostly just for my own good mind, other times for others to read. My Zelda ones get published on ZU, but my wrestling ones are posted on my new wrestling forum for other wrestling fans to read. I need to promote that forum more though. That's all for now. More to follow.