House-sitting

The weekend provided an unexpected getaway with me house, or rather, dog-sitting for some friends from church that were going to be gone for Saturday night and would need someone to look after him so they wouldn't have to put him in a kennel for the entire weekend. I obliged, and it was nice to just have some time to myself and everything yesterday. I also got to spend some time working on my Guitar Hero abilities in practice for the New Year's Party that our small group will be having replete with XBOX and Wii. Should be good times when it comes around. But there's lots of stuff in the meantime, such as our impending trip to Charleston this weekend. I'm looking forward to it.

Of course, when you think about Christmas, one of the things that always comes to my mind at least is snow. I love it when it snows. It's all sorts of fun to play in, it cancels anything that you're obligated to be doing for the day, it's just all around good news. One of my most vivid memories around the holidays was during the "Blizzard of '93" where we got all sorts of snow here in East Tennessee, and I think that schools and everything else were closed for over a week. Now, for some people, that probably doesn't sound like much, but for Oak Ridge schools, that was huge since we were usually the only ones going to school when everyone else was out with some frost on the grass. At any rate, we were back at the house, and with a huge hill and a steep driveway directly next door, it became logical to start sledding down this driveway.

Across the circle that we live at the end of is a bunch of forest area with large trees, and a fairly substantial drop-off (especially when you're 10). But at any rate, that didn't really concern us. As most boys will do, we (my brother and I) decided that it would be spectacular to create a ramp in the circle that we would attempt to hit and go flying off in the wild blue yonder. So off we go constructing our ramp, and proceeding to go even higher up on the hill before attempting to hit it as fast as we can. Over the course of however long we were out there, the snow was gradually turning to ice due to our constant sliding down it. As we continued on, we figured out that you go faster if you're both on the sled. As we careen down the hill, which was essentially packed ice now, we start to think that it might not have been best idea. Once we hit the ramp, we know it wasn't a good idea. I'm pretty sure that Dustin flew off the sled in mid-air and landed somewhere in a snowdrift up against a tree, and I proceeded to fly down in to the ditch and in to a tree myself, cutting myself right above the eye. We got some nice air on the jump, but, needless to say, we got quite a scolding from mom when we came back in later.

The possibility of snow is not looking all that promising given that it is currently 73 degrees outside. I'll keep holding out for it though. Hopefully at some point it will actually feel like winter and there might be a chance at some snow. Given the overall hatred of the Little Drummer Boy, perhaps I'll fare a little better with the 12 Days of Christmas? Here's hoping.

Selling It

I've been looking through a few Consumer Reports issues over the past few days seeing if Dad had saved any regarding cars (no luck on anything relevant for what I needed), and this back-page section caught my attention. You usually see things like this on Leno or Conan or something when they highlight humorous ads that seem pretty ridiculous. I guess sometimes you just have to do everything you can to get ahead in the world of advertisement.

Outside of that, things have been fairly low key. I was in Nashville on Friday/Saturday to watch some of the guys from Harding play at Itchfest, where they eventually got 3rd place. Not a bad weekend, and especially more-so after going undefeated on Saturday while playing against Vandy and UTK. There was even a sighting of Rufio somewhere in there, but it was hard to tell because he was wearing a black shirt...

I really hate this job hunting thing. It's been about 2 weeks since I've heard anything regarding the position that I interviewed for, and over the past couple days have tried calling and sending an email to get some more information on where the process stands and everything, but nobody answers the phone or responds to the email. Frustrating. On the bright side, I guess they would have called and said no thanks if they had moved on (you would think, anyway), so it's not all lost. I was just hoping that it would move along faster than this. Oh well. On the agenda? Guy's night tonight, which means wings at Wild Wings Cafe. Excellent. Helping out for a day at the church youth retreat this weekend. And then finding ways to help Mandi relax and enjoy her first weekend where she won't be traveling in probably about 2 months. Good times.

These Hard Times

It's been a rough day. Mandi has had bad news about her car, and I believe that I pulled my hamstring tonight playing frisbee in an attempt at a D. At the moment it doesn't feel too terrible, but I have a feeling that tomorrow will be quite a bit worse. For the moment, though, it's sleeping with it elevated, and putting ice packs on it and attempting to stretch it. I've never really had a pulled muscle in all my years of sports, which is quite surprising because I am certainly not a very flexible individual. I've had all sorts of problems with cramping, but never a pull. I guess I just don't really know what to do, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe it'll turn out that I just tweaked it a little, and I'll be good as new tomorrow. One can only hope.

Being one of the 3 shows that I watch on TV on a regular basis, I was remiss in not inviting all who read this (I'm sorry if you're among those...) that House started again on Fox last Tuesday. Seeing as how it is once again a Tuesday, the second episode of the season aired tonight. It started quite promisingly last week, and for those of you (Paul) who failed to see the end of last season, you'll probably be confused at what is going on (but rest assured when you get back I'll hopefully have all the episodes from where you left off). But it looks like it's going to be a good season, and who can really not love the character of House anyway. Hugh Laurie is quite the actor, and I'm inclined to think that I should maybe see some of the other things that he's been in. If you're new to the show, let it be known that he's British, and if you hear him speak on the show, you'd never guess. In addition to being a talented musician, he's a skilled actor who really makes that show tick. Catch it if you have the time.

The UEFA Champions League continues with Matchday 2 today and tomorrow. It's unfortunate that ESPN2 has been stuck with some pretty boring games the past 3 broadcasts. Not that it's their fault, as Manchester United is a potent attacking force with some brilliant players, but they have failed to spark the imagination this term, and has led to some rather slow games. Tomorrow is Liverpool vs. Marseille, but I don't know if it will be much better given Liverpool's previous outing. Of more interest are the games on ESPN Classic that air at 5 ET that show Barcelona and Real Madrid playing. It is still early in the season, so it can only get better from here though.

In music news, today was the release of the matchbox twenty retrospective album "Exile On Mainstream". This is exciting for me since they were the first band that I actually bought an album of, and the fact that I like their music, and they haven't done anything new for 5 years (their last release was in November of 2002). If you head to their web-page you will get to hear the 6 new tracks that they've written for the album (including the track for the title of today's post). Of the 6, I probably like All Your Reasons the best, but all 6 are good. They are certainly different compared to their earlier songs, mainly due to the fact that the band as a whole is writing the songs, rather than their lead singer Rob Thomas writing everything on his own. I think the collaboration does the band well, especially since Thomas has a successful solo career as well after his 2005 release. At any rate, I'm excited about the new songs, and looking forward to what they do in the next couple years.

I got to see one of the funniest Sonic commercials to have come out for a while last night. It was the husband-wife team, with them enjoying the new ice latte's I believe. So they're drinking them, and the wife says, "Ha! I've got a mustache!" The guy casually continues drinking his while saying, "You can only see it in direct sunlight." The wife glares. And I can't stop laughing. Classic.

Things Better Left...Unseen?

The other day, after dinner, dad said that he was going to the church to play some basketball. I had asked who all would be there, and he wasn't entirely sure but that a friend of ours had said he should come out and play for a while. Dad was a pretty good player back in the day, but it's been quite a while since I've seen him go play b-ball. Well, having not run yet yesterday, I figured I'd go along as well as it would be a good little bit of exercise. So I ended up going, and it turns out that they don't play full court. A league here in Oak Ridge plays a half-court 3-on-3 style game, where you play to a certain score, usually 25 or 30 or so. It turns out to be a good workout, but for the older guys, it's essentially 3-point shooting practice since the game-plan is to pass the ball around, and hit a 3 at the first opportunity. Maybe once every 10-15 possessions or so someone will drive the basket, but that's about it. I still got myself a good bit of high-intensity running in though, since I would just chase the ball around. At any rate, I talked with Mandi later in the evening, and mentioned that I'd attempted to play basketball, which anyone that knows me would know that it's a lost cause. But she said she couldn't even picture me trying to play. Which got me to thinking of other things that I didn't want to ever have to try and picture or see myself attempting...

1) Basketball
Reason that I shouldn't be pictured attempting this - I'm Asian. Enough said

2) Visual Art
Reason that I shouldn't be pictured attempting this - Have you seen anything I've attempted to draw? Be thankful if you haven't. I might be the worst pictionary player in the world, and if you can't even draw to get someone to guess what you're attempting in that game...well, you're bad.

3) Ballet/Gymnastics
Reason that I shouldn't be pictured attempting this - Does this really have to be spelled out?

4) Bodybuilder
Reason that I shouldn't be pictured attempting this - Well, besides the fact that it's disgusting, I sure can't think of why this would be your objective in life. And have you seen the female ones? If they need a commercial about what drugs can do to you...

That's about all I can come up with at the moment in between attempting to find jobs and such. If you've got suggestions, I'd like to hear them. Tonight, it's wings and a movie with the guys from church. 3:10 to Yuma is on the schedule, and Wild Wings Cafe is the dinner. Should be quite the evening.

Ninja Warrior

So I had the tv on today while I was doing some work, and would you believe that I ran across a program on G4 called Ninja Warrior. Now, the premise is simple. Take 100 men, put up 4 separate obstacle courses that challenge strength and agility, have a really excitable Japanese commentator, and let the games begin. I have to say, this is the first time that I've ever seen it, but it seemed pretty humorous. Kind of a less campy version of MXC, which is one of the classic game-shows, but probably just as amusing. Basically what they try and do is get through a series of traps and physical agility programs in order to become the next Ninja Warrior. The commentator at the start said that only 1 person had ever made it through all the traps.

As an example, the first series of traps for everyone to attempt involved: 1) running across diagonally spaced tilted blocks, 2) running up an inclined narrow log, 3) jumping to a ring that is hung across a sliding metal bar and hanging on and swinging to the next safe point, 4) running across a series of planks set diagonally opposite each other on a narrow pivot point, 5) jumping off a trampoline onto a rope net and climbing across without touching the pool of water underneath, 6) running up a ramp that comes over the top of itself, kind of like a C with a hook across the top of the C, and finally 7) climbing a rope on a wall that is approximately 20 feet high. And that's just the part to weed out the weaklings. According to the website, of the 1400 people to have attempted, only 200 have made it to the second stage. Tuesday's at Midnight on G4 tv. If you're a fan of MXC, I can pretty much guarantee you'll like this one. I guess I found it interesting because I am a ninja at heart (most people just don't know that about me though), and it's always funny to listen to overly-excited Japanese comm1.6entator people screaming things such as "Go Curry-Man! We like our curry anyway you serve it!" (said to a contestant that is a chef for his real job). At least, it was something like that, and certainly funnier when you hear it while watching some guy in a chef's apron running through all the obstacles. I guess my relatives over there in Japan really are quite funny a lot of the time.

On to the game of the day. Here they are:

26) 1.6 K in a M
27) 4 W of a C
28) 191 U N M S
29) 2 D in a W
30) 168 H in a W

The Evolution Of Dance

I figure Paul could do this as his next big act in the camp talent show if they would let him. He's already got the lawnmower down.