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Hockey season is upon us

October 9, 2008
kingsthirdjersey

Once you start seeing the Halloween costumes and candy showing up at the stores, that can only mean one thing. It’s almost Halloween! Oh wait, that wasn’t my point. Hockey, yes, Hockey season. That’s where I was going with this. WOO HOO! It’s hockey season!

Normally I sign up for a fantasy hockey heam with the guys from the office and that helps to keep me focused on how teams are doing all season long. This year, somehow I’ve ended up in 3 fantasy hockey leagues. Apparently I’ll need to follow the games even closer this year. I’ll probably end the season knowing what each player eats before each game.

With hockey season opening today, I was thinking what do I have to look forward to as a Los Angeles Kings fan. Well, most likely: mediocrity. I’m not expecting a lot out of the Kings this year. They still don’t have a true #1 goalie, and the bulk of their guys are really young. This isn’t a horrible thing. It just doesn’t bode well for this season. I firmly believe that the Kings are a solid goalie and 2 seasons away from being a solid team in the west. However, until that time I have 2 wishes for the Kings;

  1. Make the playoffs
    Even if they don’t go deep in the playoffs, making the playoffs would be a great step in the right directions. However, if that can’t happen, see #2.
  2. Finish dead last
    If you aren’t going to make the playoffs, shoot for the bottom. That way you get the best chance at getting the #1 pick in next season’s draft.

There is one other hope I have for the Kings this year. In November when you reveal your new “3rd jersey”, please make it not SUCK! I think it’s time I buy a new Kings jersey, and I’d like to pick up one of the 3rd jerseys assuming they are nothing like that monstrosity of a 3rd jersey you came out with a few years back. Seriously, that thing was horrible.

I was really pleased to hear that the Kings chose Dustin Brown as the team captain. He’s a young guy but obviously a player that the Kings are looking at to take them to the next level over the next few years. He’s a stud of a player and is going to be a force to be reckoned with this season.

Lace up the skates, put on the foil, drop the puck. It’s hockey season. Go, Kings, Go!

Filed Under: Ranting, Sports Tagged With: , ,

Marcia's First Trip To Disneyland

October 5, 2008
buzz_lightyear_10_04_2008

This weekend we took a trip to Disneyland with a group of friends from work and we drug our action junkie friend Marcia along for the ride, too. It was Marcia’s first trip ever to Disneyland. Now, before you think she’s lived a sheltered life, you need to realize she was born in Minnesota, now lives in Las Vegas and has been to California 2 times in her life. Once to San Diego and once to Santa Barbara Santa Monica. Believe me, she’s anything but sheltered.

The trip started out by me taking the day off on Friday. Chris, the kids and I left early for Cali. Marcia was working, so we flew her in and picked her up at the airport in Long Beach. It may sound crazy to have done it this way, but it was the only way for us to be able to get there in time to go to Captain Kidd’s for dinner on Friday. In our minds, it was totally worth it. Plus, this allowed us time to get the kids over to Grandma’s house for a visit as well. See, we aren’t entirely crazy.

After dinner with friends and family on Friday we headed back to my sister’s house in Lomita to crash for the night. Disneyland opens at 8 am on the weekends and we wanted to be there when the gates opened so we could cram in as many rides as possible before the crowds started to grow too long.

We got up around 5:30, showered and were out the door by 6:45. We stopped for some McDonalds (breakfast of champions) and made it to the parking lot of Disneyland by 7:30. We got a killer parking spot and headed for the front door. Picked up some tickets, took a few quick photos and then waited no more than 5 minutes to get in to Disney. I’d say our timing was pretty much awesome!

We rushed in the gates, secured a locker and then hit Space Mountain. Total time in line: 5 minutes. Next it was Star Tours which had no line at all. We then crossed the park to try and ride Indiana Jones. Unfortunately it was broken down at that time, but they said it would be back online later. We hit up Pirates of the Caribbean (no line) and then the Haunted Mansion which is all decked out with Nightmare Before Christmas garb for the holiday season. 4 rides in under an hour and we were cruising!

We made sure to get Marcia on all the “important” rides at the park. She rode Dumbo, the tea cups, Matterhorn, Big Thunder Mountain and several others. We took dozens of pictures and you can see most of them over here.

One of the rides we rode on with the entire group was Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blaster. If you’ve never rode it before, it’s like being in a giant video game. You ride around and shoot targets with a laser gun and score points for hits. While in line there was a fairly heated discussion about who was going to end up with the highest score. There were 10 or 12 of us at the time, and almost all of us said that we were going to be the winner. Rob and Matt both scored in the 90 thousand point range. That’s pretty good, for a couple of beginners. Those scores were only good enough for spots #2 and #3. With a score of just over 167 thousand, I’m happy to say, I kicked their ass. Even though I took nearly 200 photos that day, this right here may be the most important one.

Oh, one final tid-bit. Before we got to the park, we had been told by a few people that since it was Marcia’s first time to the park, we needed to stop by City Hall on Main Street and pick her up a “First Time” button. As we rode in on the tram we told everybody within ear shot that it was her first time. 2 or 3 of the cast members also mentioned City Hall for the first time button. After our initial rush to hit some rides, we stopped back by City Hall. Chris and Marcia waited in a LONG line to get in. When they reached the front the lady explained that hey stopped making the first time buttons a long time ago. Instead they gave her a “Happy Birthday” button but wrote the word “un-” on it. It was supposed to say “Happy Un-Birthday”, but they wrote it in the wrong spot so instead it said, “Un-Happy Birthday” which seemed really funny to me. Almost as funny as having every cast member for the remainder of the day, along with SEVERAL park visitors, yell out “Happy Birthday” to her every chance they got. Ahh, good times.

We had a great day at the park. It’s always fun to hang out with friends from work AWAY from work. I hope we get to do it again real soon!

Filed Under: Entertainment, Family Tagged With: , , ,

Need your help this weekend!

October 3, 2008

No, I don’t need to borrow money. No, I don’t need to be bailed out of jail. Nothing like that at all.

In an effort to drum up movie ticket sales for the movie Choke, the guys over at chuckpalahniuk.net are running a contest. The premise is simple; get as many people as possible to see the movie Choke this weekend.

Here’s how it works, I urge you to see Choke this weekend and ask that you snap a cell phone pic of yourself with the ticket for the movie. You send me the photo via email. I collect them and send them all in on Monday. Whoever sends in the most photos wins.

The movie is very funny, dirty, vulgar and downright entertaining. We saw it last week at a preview showing and the asked for comments after it was over. A large group of older folks who had no idea what the were in for were there. When it was over it was hilarious how man of them hated the movie. One was even crying. You know it’s good if it makes old people cry!

The prize for winning the contest is pretty cool. The winner will have a character named after them in an upcoming Chuck Palahniuk book.

Help me out if you can! See the movie and send your photo to john[at]johnhawkinsunrated.com.

Thanks!

Filed Under: Entertainment

Now That's Entertainment at a Discount

September 25, 2008

I’m noticing a theme. Lately I have been starting a bunch of posts saying how fast time flies by. It just hit me again, too. Each September I order my copy of the upcoming Entertainment book. I just ordered mine and it hit me. Damn, another year has flown by.

This past year was by far my biggest savings year with the book yet. That could have had something to do with the fact that SuperMex, a place we eat lunch at once a week, takes 20% off your entire bill every time you go and show them your card. You don’t even have to have a coupon, just the card. I just started carrying it in my wallet and would ask places whenever we’d go out if they accepted it.

We actually paid for the price of the book last year the first time we used it. We took our kids to the Adventure Dome theme park inside Circus Circus. They have a coupon for a buy-one-get-one-free on their all-day ride bracelets. $25 saved day 1. Sweet. We then used just about every movie discount ticket coupon, several of the dining coupons and they have discounts for stores like Target, too.

If you use this link to purchase your 2009 Entertainment book, you’ll receive free shipping as well. If you order now, the coupons are good starting the day you receive your book. No need to wait for 2009!

Full Disclosure: If you use one of the links above to purchase your book, I’ll get a little kick back, too. I make you this promise, any money earned will be used to buy beer.

Filed Under: Entertainment Tagged With: , , ,

Choke on THIS!

September 24, 2008

Tonight we got the opportunity to go and see a sneak preview of the new movie Choke. It’s based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and half a dozen other great books. I have been waiting for nearly 2 full years for this movie to come out. I’m quite pleased to say that it did not disappoint. Sam Rockwell was perfectly cast as Victor Mancini, the sexaholic who goes to sexaholic anonymous meetings in order to get laid. Anjelica Huston plays his mom and does a fine job as well.

Since this was a preview showing, there was a rep from Fox/Searchlight in attendance. Before the show he let people know that they would shoot you on sight if you tried to take a picture of the screen during the movie. More importantly, he let everybody know that he’d be waiting around after to hear what everybody thought of the movie. Oh, this is gonna be good.

So we watched the movie and there are several big laughs in it. There’s also a fair amount of gratuitous sex. Victor has sex pretty much anywhere he can. Though, he has trouble getting it up when trying to screw a girl he actually likes in church. I don’t mean he likes her in church, I mean he’s trying to screw her IN CHURCH. “What would Jesus NOT do”, indeed.

When the movie was out I stood around with the group of us that all went and we were talking about the film. We were also listening to the conversations of the other moviegoers around us. It was an older crowed that showed up for the free screening, so I wasn’t all that surprised to hear all the negative comments. However, there was one that really stuck out.

As I was walking over to tell the Fox/Searchlight rep how much I liked the film, I passed by a women who was crying. I paused long enough to listen to what she had to say to her friend. “My aunt died of Alzheimer’s and for them to be making fun of it in that way is repulsive.” So let me get this straight, you didn’t have a problem with all the sex, you didn’t have a problem with all the foul language, you didn’t have a problem with the anal beads… No, you had a problem with the fact that Anjelica Huston’s character had Alzheimer’s? Wow, perhaps next time you may want to check out the trailer for the movie that you are getting free tickets to before you go. Chances are, if you see the name Chuck Palahniuk attached to the movie in some way, you are likely going to be offended.

Go out and see this movie. Just leave the uptight friends at home.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Movies Tagged With: , , ,

Spore finally sprouts

September 13, 2008
AllYou

It seems like it’s been at least 2 full years since I first heard about this game called Spore. Finally, earlier this month, it hit the shelves.

Spore is a game created by the guy who created The Sims. In this game you start off as a tadpole, eat a bunch of food, grow, evolve and then move to land. Once on land you eat a bunch of food, grow, try to make friends to expand your pack and evolve some more. Eventually you build civilizations and take off in to space as well. I’m nowhere near that level yet. As a matter of fact, I haven’t even been able to make friends with any of the other species yet. I’m getting pretty good at attacking and eating them, though.

At each stage you get to edit your creatures. The edit tools are quite robust. I could see spending hours in that section alone. Several months before the game was released, they gave out some copies of the creature creator. Apparently some people started creating walking naughty bits. Apparently they started getting really good at creating them and they started showing up on flickr and youtube. The game makers scrambled to get the offending content down.

Another portion of the game that I have yet to get to is the ability to interact with creatures built by other people. I’m sorta hoping i run in to some of the adult content these people created. I think it would be funny to be running around and find a large set of boobs walking around hunting for food.

It’s too early to give a complete review of the game. I’ve been playing it for about 90 minutes and so far it’s pretty fun. There’s still a lot to figure out. But, I guess that’s what Sunday is for.

Here’s a snapshot of what my creature has evolved into so far.

Anybody else out there playing Spore? My account name is VegasGeek. Add me as a friend in the game so we can team up and take over the world.

Filed Under: Entertainment Tagged With: , ,

Are you ready for some football?

September 7, 2008

Before I get started, Todd, I apologize. I promise not to write too many more times about football.

Today was the first Sunday of the regular football season. I spent the morning at the office finishing up a project. Once the football games started, I found myself checking scores and checking out how my fantasy football team players were doing. I have to be honest with you, I never would have thought I’d be this in to it, but I really am.

Later in the afternoon we went to play poker at a casino. Of course they had football games on the TVs and I spent a fair amount of time craning my neck to check the scores.

Don’t look now, but I think I’m becoming a football fan.

OK Todd, if you see another football related post from me this month, feel free to smack me. But as we get towards the end of the fantasy football season, you’ll have to allow me a follow-up post.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: , ,

Kevin Smith makes a porno, and everybody laughed

September 4, 2008

I’ve known for a while that people either love or hate Kevin Smith movies (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jersey Girl, and of course Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). With the exception of Jersey Girl, which I haven’t seen, I fall in to the LOVE category. I think Clerks is hilarious, Dogma is smart, daring and funny, Chasing Amy is a classic and J&SB Strike Back is ridiculous and hilarious all at the same time. But, if you don’t like his previous movies, you are probably going to want to stay away from his new project, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

The premise is simple: Long time friends need money so they decide to make a porno, hilarity ensues. Cut, Print it.

I have been reading for months that they had been having trouble getting the MPAA to give it an “R” rating rather than an “NC-17″ rating, which would kill box office sales. Then, early in August Kevin Smith went before the ratings board and appealed their ruling after they had made several cuts to the original movie. This appeal worked and the movie was finally granted an R rating.

And now, finally, after waiting several months, here is the VERY MUCH NSFW red band teaser trailer for Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

So now I have 2 movies that I can not wait to see in October. Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke comes out on the 3rd and Zack and Miri hit the screen near Halloween. I’m down for seeing both on opening day. Hit me up and we’ll make some plans.

Filed Under: Movies Tagged With:

Fantasy Football newbie

August 26, 2008

I’ve never been much of a football fan. But just about everybody I know is a big time football nut. So it makes it tough to hang around the water cooler when you don’t know a field goal from a 2 point conversion. OK, I’m not a complete dumbass, I know the rules and scoring of football and I watch enough Sports Center to know the teams and several key players, but if you asked me how a specific team did last year, I’d have no clue. This year, I’ve decided to take a much deeper interest in the game of football. What better way to do that than by joining a Fantasy Football league?

Our draft was set up for today at 4:00 PM. Over the past week I had done some research and even created a spreadsheet with tabs for each position and a ranking system that I had found online somewhere. I cross-checked some names, tried to keep an eye on the news for injuries and basically thought more about football in the past week than I have over the past 10 years.

By random draw, I ended up picking 11th in the first round out of 12 teams. In the second round I’d pick 2nd and then it would be a bit of a wait before I picked again in the 3rd round. As the time was getting close I double-checked that I had everything I needed. Then, it was go-time!

As players were getting picked I’d mark them off my sheet. The big names that I expected to be taken went right away. After a few short minutes I was on the clock and ready to make my first pick. My goal here, don’t make a fool of yourself. Don’t pick somebody that people are going to say “Dude, you could have got him in the 6th round…” Actually, to be honest, that was my goal for the entire draft, not just the first round. Just don’t be a complete idiot.

One thing that I realized I have going for me is that I have no pro team affiliation. I’m not a Chargers fan, I’m not a Raiders fan, I’m not a Patriots fan. As the draft was going on, you’d see certain teams picking guys off their favorite team just because they are on their favorite team. I think this is a huge mistake, but I’m a noob, so what do I know.

When all was said and done, I’m fairly pleased with my team. Our weekly team consists of 1 quarterback, 3 wide receivers , 2 running backs, 1 tight end, 1 kicker, 1 team defense, 1 defensive back and 1 defensive lineman. We also have 6 bench spots for a total of 17 draft rounds. Here’s who I picked by round:

1. Larry Johnson, RB
2. Clinton Portis, RB
3. Plaxico Burress, WR
4. Matt Hasselbeck, QB
5. Dwayne Bowe, WR
6. Jeremy Shockey, TE
7. Donald Driver, WR
8. Dallas’ Defense
9. Nate Kaeding, K
10. Jeff Garcia, QB
11. DeShaun Foster, RB
12. DeAngelo Williams, RB
13. Jerry Porter, WR
14. Nick Barnett, DL
15. Sammy Knight, DB
16. Deion Branch, WR
17. Arnaz Battle, WR

I’m fairly pleased with my team. Checking the match-ups for the first 3 weeks, Yahoo predicts I’ll have more points than my opponents each week. So that’s a good thing.

So, here we go. My rookie year as a Fantasy Football coach. How do you think I did draft-wise? Of the 17 picks I made, how many of them would you say were “good”, “OK”, “bad” or “horrible”?

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Sports Tagged With: , ,