We now resume regularly scheduled blogging

And so it begins, another blog to throw on the fire. Actually finding a good point to begin is the first of my many concerns here this evening. I certainly have enough in me jumbled cranium to pass for blogging content, but they are all topics of a disjointed lot, nothing running into the next topic.

Let's begin with the illness that seems to be no more. I think I finally kicked this damn thing sometime Saturday, running my days under the weather to a full 18. At least it wasn't the knock me on my ass type of illness where I couldn't do anything, I just couldn't do all of the things I am used to. All told, I only missed one shift at work, that my part time gig, and one week of volleyball, though I also missed this past week because of work at the radio station. So far since I have started going 4 weeks ago, I have missed two weeks, not that it matters all that much, it isn't a league or anything, it is just whoever shows up plays. We don't even pick teams, you just show up, take a spot on the floor (after some warming up and stretching) and that is your team. I banged myself up the first week I played (my groin is still sore from when I pulled it chasing a ball) but my second venture over there, I thought I played slightly better, even if my team was worse overall. It is just a matter of getting the movement down and cutting down on my miss hits and I should be fine. I actually blew three serves the last time I played, which I almost never do, though two of them were long rather than into the net, so I was just serving too deep to the back line, something that will be fixed with repetition. I don't do anything crazy with the serve, no jump serves or anything like that, just a knuckleball I was taught back in high school. The trick is that before you serve, make sure the air hole for the ball is pointing directly away from you. That one spot on the ball has a different weight that the rest of the ball, so if you can serve the ball without spinning it, the weight distribution actually causes the ball to "dance" in the air rather than move in a straight line.

I am thinking of donating part of my blog space to what I am watching on the web these days. I say that because I am getting way to addicted to Surf The Channel, opting for it instead of regular TV most nights. Recently I have been watching episodes of Newsradio, Family Guy, The Office and Deadliest Catch on there. Deadliest Catch may turn out to be my favorite reality show, either that or Ice Road Truckers, both shows are far better than the horrid reality show offerings on TV most nights. Last night as I was sitting down, I did click on the TV and what should appear but Decision House, a show where a divorce court judge has a couple that is thinking about getting a divorce shack up for three days on location while being poked and prodded by her inane questions, as well as questions from a marriage counselor, someone with a lie detector, and a psychologist. After three days of this, the couple is supposed to decide what they want to do,stay together or get a divorce. I know what I would do after three days of that crap, kill the people involved with the show, but that is just me and another fine reason why I should remain single. Instead I opted for PS2 this weekend when the TV was on. And yes, I did break out the baseball game which means it is time for the Joe Random update.....

For those unfamiliar, a while back my cousin Melanie bought me MLB 2K6 The Show for the PS2. Given she works at the Gamestop offices in Dallas, she will sometimes pick things up, though I don't know if she gets a discount on it or not. Sometimes it will just be promotional stuff, like mousepads or shirts or what not, other times she will grab actual games. As it turns out, she picked this particular game out for me a while back and I have been tinkering with the create a player option. The goal is to start with a player and have them work their way to the major leagues, and possibly the Hall of Fame, though I will just be happy to have a decent career. Anyway, the game allows you to create someone who starts in the minor leagues, either the AA or AAA level and through gameplay you work your way up to the major league level. Because you are a player in this mode, you don't make any management decisions, so you can't say when you will and won't play, that is up to the manager, nor can you control getting injured, that is just randomly determined in the game itself. Thankfully the game has a Simulate to Next Appearance option, so you can fast forward through games you aren't going to play in, which has helped me get to season 4 already rather than playing the normal 162 game schedule each season. Anyway, my first season was pretty uneventful, I spent most of the year in AAA ball, playing only two games in the majors, and my second year was the same, again getting only two games at the major league level. Season 3 had me get all of 19 games in at the major league level, but now that I am on season 4, I am finally getting some serious playing time. I originally started as a first baseman in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays system, but as a secondary position I opted for utility infielder, a decision that has proven very wise, as the normal third baseman of the Devil Rays was put on the 60 day DL list with a torn hamstring, so they called me up to play third base, where so far I have logged 49 games this season, and the numbers are fairly respectable, a .407 average, 24 runs, 17 doubles, 1 triple, 6 homeruns, and 37 RBIs to this point. I am even third in the voting for rookie of the year and I have the Devil Rays (normally a doormat for the rest of the league) competitive, in third place with a 46-49 record, and 9.5 games out of first in the American League East.

Sorry, had to step away from the computer and do some PS2 and some shopping. I played another game of baseball, making the stats above obsolete, as I ended up hitting 2 more homeruns and collecting 6 RBIs in one game (go me!!) and then ran out to buy some laundry detergent from CVS. I had one of those $4 off coupons for an order of $20 or more, and I needed detergent as well as some printer paper and cigarettes, so I was close enough to the $20 mark that I just threw in some blank Cd's to complete the order. I started using some of my pepsi points today, I have enough for 12 songs, I bought three, and I cashed in some coke points for a song on rhapsody as well. At some point I will update the Imeem free music list and repost it in the blog.

This has been another of those almost free weekends. I stopped by the bar Friday after another fine week of radio, and through the course of having a few beers I dropped $15 dollars in the poker machine and took out $90. Saturday I stopped by to watch some of the hockey game, as they had the Flyers - Capitals game on and I dropped another $25 in and took $70 back, making it well worth my effort. As a result, I got to order out on Friday night and made a grocery store run today after work, bought some comic books and added a couple of bucks to my pre paid credit card, since it was starting to run low on cash. Speaking of hockey, the Penguins have finished their first round matchup, yet when they will play again still isn't determined, because while the Penguins were able to sweep Ottawa in 4 games, two of the four series in the Eastern Conference are still going on. I will try to explain the possibilities as best I can.....

#1 Montreal Canadiens vs #8 Boston Bruins (series tied 3-3) - Should Boston win, the Penguins will play Boston inn the next round, should Montreal win then we go to the next series to determine the next opponent...

#3 Washington Capitals vs #6 Philadelphia Flyers (Phi leads series 3-2) - Should Washington win, the Penguins would then play Washington in the next round, should Philadelphia win, the Penguins would play the #5 seed New York Rangers who knocked off New Jersey in the first round.

Confusing enough? I thought so. Until the next opponent is determined, there is no telling when the next playoff game will be so there are no plans for a glog in the near future.

I have been working on the Pogo badges this weekend as well. I think I can speak for thousands of Pogo-ers when I say that Phlinx sucks. That badge is taking me forever, and leave it on a week where they make a long ass badge like that to offer up three personal challenges. Mind you I tacked on a premium challenge as well, simply because I had already purchased it and I could work on it while I did another badge. The premium badge was in Canasta and it was to meld out before your opponent 25 times in two weeks, given one of the challenges was to meld out before your opponent 15 times, it seemed a no brainer to work on both at the same time. I got the Pogo challenge done, and have 4 more left on the premium, and for my three challenges, I took Hangman Hijinks (solve 20 puzzles), Free Cell Solitaire (win two games in 150 moves or less) and Poppa Zoppa (make 15 chains of 15 or more). Still that damn Phlinx badge is a pain in ye olde backside, with just a couple of days left, I still need over 1400 matches.

Excellent, I did the first of the Pepsi point songs into Imeem and no problems, unlike the stuff from Rhapsody, I didn't have to burn it to cd first, I was able to download the songs right to my computer as mp3s and then upload the mp3s to imeem. Rhapsody has some songs as protected files, so they have to be burnt to cd first as converted over to mp3 files for uploading, thankfully Amazon isn't quite that much of a pain in the ass. Maybe I will go purchase some more songs now.

By the way, the Asshat goes to Dr Phil. Mind you I am a week behind, so I still have to pull one for the last 7 days, but since I am a week back I figured I better get at least one of them out of the way. As for the Asshat of the last 7 days, well, that is a work in progress simply because last week was a target rich environment and I am unsure who was the worst, if that is at all possible. As for what Dr. Phil did, or what he claims his staff did without his knowledge, rather than have me explain it, I will just link to the appropriate story right about here.

And while typing that, I snagged two more songs, this collecting of points thing is working out better than the change meter. Not that the change meter is bad mind you, I get to add another .37 to it today, so we get to go to the big board and find that the new total is $34.98, a mere two cents from cracking the $35 dollar plateau.

Well, it is getting late and I do have some comic books to read, and I will be adding to the neverending blog as well this week, as while I still haven't finished the Friends of Liberty book yet, I have just about finished another one, I have three books going currently, something I am not used to, usually I just read them one at a time, and I am finding being stuck in three different books isn't all that appealing so as soon as I drag myself out of this quandary, I have no intention of jumping back in that pool again any time soon. Anyway, I said I would post the new music list when I got a chance, now is a good a chance as any, mind you, some of the music you have already seen on here, but since I did add 5 songs, it seemed worthy of reposting. Nite everyone.