Carnival of Madness

Well, the Wii got here around 2:30 this afternoon. It took about an hour to set it up and download all of the Nintendo upgrades. Basically, I had trouble with the Wii finding the Airport Base Station. Then I had to type in the insane long and complicated network password and then I had to register with Sean’s Wii and get my Wii character “Man Thing” from him.Oh yeah, Man Thing. The story dates back to last year about two and a half weeks after the surgery. I remember because I took my surgery photos with me that the doctor gave me when I had the stitches removed on Valentine’s Day. Anyways, Sean and Melody was headed to his parents house to do laundry and I talked him in to taking me with him so that we could hang out, party and play his brand new Wii. I remember he was kinda late (in the sense that I was ready to go about 1/2 hour before he came over). So I turned on Sci-Fi channel and there was a movie calledMan Thing on. It was a really stupid movie with a bunch of guys lurking around a dark swamp and trying to find Man Thing or something. It was ripe for MST3K.

Anyways, I got there and created my Mii and it was really a wild and crazy looking guy. I named him Man Thing because of that movie I was watching. Anyways, Man Thing rocks!

Also, reading up on Man Thing it was created by Stan Lee. Yep, that Stan Lee created Spiderman and stuff. He’s really run out of ideas if Man Thing is the best has donlately.

Time for bed now…

Well Jesse is most dependable. He got the Wii that mom was wanting for a long time. I’ve already gone to Wal-Mart to get more controllers. They didn’t have any controllers and the lady there suggested Wii Play, it has a controller and a Wii game with a bunch of little games. It has, from the looks of it, Duck Hunt! Also got some rechargeable batteries for it as well. I just don’t think it’d be worth it in the long term to use regular batteries. Help the environment and all that too. The Wii is not here yet. It will be here tomorrow. He got it on Amazon yesterday in one of the few moments when Amazon actually had some.So yeah, looking forward to that whole thang.

Oh yeah, the “blizzard”. A whole lot of talk for what turned out to be the pussiest blizzard I’ve ever seen. The loser idiot government employees here in Dubuque told everyone “Travel Not Advised”. Yep, travel not advised on clean highways and minor amounts of snow on city streets. Clearly, me going out last night was a big “fuck you” to the Dubuque County Man who was trying to keep me from having tasty pizza and watching Bowfinger last night and of course downloading the entire fifth season of Bullshit off iTunes.

Well, I’m tired now. Time for go to bed….

It’s a rather sad state of affairs for the Pirates. If the Pirates had taken on Matt Wieters and his non big salary demands of about $6 million, they would enter this draft in a better position. They would be able to take San Diego pitcher Brian Matusz and not worry about the hitters since they got a great one in Wieters, not to mention the possibility of what McCutchen and Walker could do eventually. The big problem is that Pedro Alvarez who sounds like A-Rod will go first to the Devil Rays. I think the 2nd best player is Justin Smoak, who many describe as a Todd Helton like 1B with a good bat.The Pirates first round picks have been historically terrible. Daniel Moskos and Brad Lincoln will be lucky to have a major league career. McCutchen and Walker should be good, but not Barry Bonds good. Maholm should eventually be a good #3 or 4 pitcher. Bullington and Burnett will be lucky to have careers. John Van Benschoten should have been a hitter, but the Pirates drafted him as a pitcher. Bonifay had to be high when making that decision… Bobby Bradley, so much potential, yet so much injury. Clint Johnston, another guy who should have been a hitter, but the mindless idiots with the Pirates tried to make a pitcher. J.J. Davis, was at best a career minor leaguer. Kris Benson, real major league pitcher, but not worth a #1 overall pick. could have had Travis Lee instead…

Chad Hermansen, the biggest bust in Pirates history. Told for half a decade he was a long term solution for the Pirates in OF. Didn’t even bat .200. Mark Farris and Charles Peterson were terrible picks. Jermaine Allensworth made it to the majors but was a bench player at best. Andy Rice? Who? Jason Kendall, probably the best pick since Moises Alou. Shon Walker, Jon Farrel, Kurt Miller and Mike Zimmerman a bunch of nobodies who did nothing. Willie Greene, good pick, thanks for trading him away for nothing, Pirates! Austin Manahan and Mark Merchant, two more first round picks who did nothing. Jeff King was picked first in 1986 ahead of Kevin Brown, Matt Williams and Gary Sheffield. Thanks again, Pirates. Finally we get to the best #6 overall pick ever: Barry Bonds. Thanks White Sox for taking Kurt Brown ahead of him!

Before that, there wasn’t many good first round picks. Generally the 2nd best pick after Bonds is probably the 1970 14th round pick Dave Parker. Then there’s Willie Randolph and Moises Alou, who were both drafted and both traded away for nothing.

So the real downfall of the Pirates has been drafting, I think. I mean, the Brewers have built through the draft, often taking later picks that have actually made it to the majors. Now we have to wonder what these new guys will do here in the states to get the best players. The US is a gold mine that is starting to be overlooked for Japanese and Latin American players. There’s often under rated players all over the country that the Pirates could get their hands on…

I love it, according to the weather channel, we have a Blizzard Warning. Oh, scary, whatever. I mean, they have some red warning things and an extra map thing. The funny thing is that there’s not a spot of precipitation in Iowa right now. Generally, they should probably not call it a warning until it starts getting nasty outside.So I went to Best Buy with this coupon for 20% off a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player. So I figured that might include a PS3 ’cause it has a Blu-Ray player in it. That would knock $80 off the price. So when I got there, I asked some guy who was working there, but he didn’t know. Then he took me over to Customer Service and that guy didn’t know. So they had me take one up to the counter and try the coupon. It didn’t work, so I didn’t bother. I left and returned pop cans and got $11.

That was my big exciting day.

I got a hint tonight from a person on where I can locate a Wii. Mom wants one and I’m half tempted to go up there and get one. OTOH, I’d have to like, drive and stuff, and use gas and that makes me wanna sit in front of the TV and eat some oranges and bananas. She also didn’t seem entirely sure that they had any. Just that she thought they had them. Might just be all the other Wii stuff, like accessories and games.

The Wii is just annoying at this point. The coolest game counsel ever made and it’s next to impossible to get. It’s just hard to get one and I already have a job. Getting another one would be like getting a temp job that would cost me money. I mean this sort of stuff was expected a year ago. But now, a year later, they should be in the stores for people to buy at regular retail price. Nintendo’s really pushing it here…

In other news, Ron Paul has put out a video to the supporters.

I gotta say that I really liked this video. He’s just trying to keep this whole thing going as long as possible, not to give up just because some idiots in the media says he should. Who knows? We might enter the Republican Convention without a clear winner. With enough Ron Paul delegates there, they could give him the victory that we need.

More fucked up Fox News stuff: So I was flipping through the channels this afternoon and I come up on Fox News and they’re talking about the whole Heath Ledger thing. It’s sad enough as it is. But Shepherd Smith has a doctor on and they start speculating about what would happen if you mix cocaine and sleeping pills. What? According to the NYPD, there was only prescription drugs in the apartment. I mean really, that’s pretty stupid to start speculating about what happened. Or even worse, making shit up about cocaine when there hasn’t been a single report of cocaine even being there. Ugh. I watched for about a minute and within that minute, Fox News says something to offend anyone with any sort of taste or class at all…

Then there’s this whole recession thing going on, supposedly. First of all, recessions are part of the economic cycle. At this point, they’re saying it’s an economic downturn because the stock market has had a few bad days. There’s been talk about economic downturn since this past summer. But this sort of thing will happen with an economy built mostly on credit and debt. Bush cut taxes while he increased spending. Borrowing the difference, making young Americans pay for Bush stuff for decades to come. Pissing billions away on a war that made no sense when it was started. Continuing domestic spending that accomplished nothing except lining the pockets of the politically well connected. Bush can end the recession by cutting spending and vetoing everything that comes to his desk that will cost tax payers money. Simple stuff. When most Americans have financial hardship, they generally spend less and try to save money. If the government followed that model, we would be in better shape. Bush is just not cutting spending and then cutting taxes so that American business can thrive and prosper. He’s cutting taxes and borrowing so that he can keep spending. Yeah! Great idea!d

Another way to fix the economy would be to return to a commodity based currency. Gold and silver. Make our money worth more than just the cost of paper and ink. Having that idiot Bernanke print up more paper fiat currency is not going to fix anything. It’s really only going to make things worse. The Federal Reserve, in general, should be shut down and replaced with a gold standard where our money is actually worth something again. That along with the elimination of personal debt would be a huge benefit to the economy.

Even worse, robotic millionaire John Edwards, is calling for more taxes, more spending and more hand outs. Yeah, great John. That worked very well for FDR, it only took seven years of his financial genius to get the US out of the depression. Then after that, when the war got the US out of the depression in the sense that Roosevelt just up and drafted the number of people out of work, Americans had money but couldn’t buy anything because of rationing and shortages. So it finally ended by 1946 when the troops came home and congress couldn’t figure out how to get them all back to work. The returning soldiers did it themselves and ultimately created a steady economy that lasted for 25 years despite continued government intervention.

The US economy is not depression and recession proof. However, recessions usually last anywhere from a few months up to a year. A week or a few days of economic down turn at the stock market does not equal a recession. These things happen and the best solution would be to ride it out and not give in to wild government plans to fix it.

HAHAHAHAHA!How in the hell does a guy miss a 43 and a 37 yard field goal in regulation and then make a 47 yard field goal in OT? Oh well, who cares? Down go the Packers, once again. I enjoy every time they miss the Super Bowl. Kinda like how much I enjoy watching the Braves lose early in the playoffs or lose the World Series.

Freaking awesome.

I was thinking with the way both teams were moving the ball it’d be a 1962 AFL Championship game all over again (for the less knowing, it was a double OT game that ended with a field goal, the Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs) defeating the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans).

So it’s the Giants at Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, in warm, sunny Glendale, AZ. I don’t think it’ll rain the entire game this time. But it’s a weird place to play a game between a Boston and New York team. Kinda like how a game between Chicago and Indianapolis was played in Miami.

So, it’ll be a good game, if week 17 was any indication. I’m not sure who to pick. The Giants look good. The Patriots look kinda nervous. But the Patriots are probably the best team ever. The Giants, are at best a decent team that’s on a lucky streak. I mean really, tonight’s game was won by luck. They were lucky that Favre threw an interception. They were lucky to get three shots at a FG without letting the Packers score. So my pick will be the Patriots, again, by 3 points, again. Maybe Patriots 21, Giants 18.

Man, I wish I got a Fox channel in HD. It’s so much better watching the highlights on ESPN HD than watching the game on Fox. Oh well, maybe by the next time that Fox has the Super Bowl Dish Network will have local HD channels. The big cities are getting the local HD channels already so it’s just a matter of time before all the locals are in HD. That’d be great. The next two years NBC and CBS has the game so that won’t be a big problem from my place. If I’m still living here then.

Oh yeah, speaking of Sports. I’m going to Pittsburgh on July 24-27th. There are three games against the San Diego Padres. Other stuff to do: On Fridays there are walk up tours of Heinz Field. Gotta go do that. The last four times, I didn’t get a chance. In 2004 and 2005, I didn’t think of it. In 2006, I didn’t get there at the right time and in 2007, we didn’t have time. Besides, there was the NFL Hall of Fame and it was probably better than Heinz Field. So yeah, that’s pretty much the plan. If timeshares were cheap and a good deal, I would totally get one in Pittsburgh. Of course, it probably wouldn’t be on the bus line and still a total waste of money, compared to a hotel. But the plan is that after the game on Saturday night, go right to sleep, then wake up and catch the 6:00 AM flight to Chicago and then the flight to Dubuque and make it home in time to do Sunday Morning chores. So it works, at least it should work.

I guess that’s all for now since I wrote all this about an hour ago and just left it here while I did other stuff….

The slimy yellow journalist over at Fox News are at it again, this time cutting Ron Paul out of a graphic showing how the Nevada caucus ended up. Ron Paul comes in 2nd and the Fox News idiots can’t even stand to put Ron Paul in 2nd place. Fair and um…yeah.I haven’t watched Fox News yet this year. It’s such a huge cesspool. And by cesspool I mean underground container for sewage.

There I was wondering what that smell at LaGuardia was last summer. It was just Fox News, they are head quartered in New York City after all.

Well I fixed the car stereo problem, for the most part. For now. First went to Wal-Mart and returned the tape adaptor I bought on Tuesday night. Then went to the electronics department and looked for something else to make the stereo play iPod instead of (ugh) radio.Basically, I fixed it with a little thing made by Griffin called “iTrip Auto”which plugs in to the cigarette lighter. Find an unused radio station and then set the thing to that radio station and then plug in the iPod and push play. It’s not perfect, but it works and it’s cheaper than getting a new stereo or buying a new car. At about $55 at Wal-Mart (on the website there it says $70, but I didn’t pay that much), I think it’s pretty cool. The best part is that it charges the iPod so I really don’t have to worry again about having enough power for it. That would have been very useful when Sean lived in Cedar Falls and I got there with an empty iPod usually (the few times we did party…) And unlike the thing that Jesse bought me last year that needed batteries and was as big as the iPod.

I love the reaction of the lady at Wal-Mart. She scanned it and then looked at the price and then looked at it and then asked me if that was right. Of course I saw the price when I was looking for it and knew it was right. But she seemed a bit distraught that I would spend that amount of money for something so small. I said that if it doesn’t work, I’ll be right back in a few minutes….

It did work so yeah. That problem solved for the most part. Not sure what to do with old tape adaptor. Save it for when I need to drive Ed’s truck again…

I also decided to buy some more weights. I need a lot. I just need heavier ones. Right now I’m using all of them and I need more. So I went to Sear’s, but they didn’t have the right size. I need standard and they had olympic sized ones. So I might head on down to Scheels to get some instead. There just isn’t any good place here in town to get them. It kinda sucks, but wouldn’t mind a little road trip for that. So yeah, that’s all for now.

So apparently, the tape deck in my car no longer works.I went to Sean’s tonight and decided to listen to my iPod on the way there, like usual. However, on the way there it suddenly stopped working. After attempting to make it work again, while driving at the same time, I quit and listened to the radio….

So I left Sean’s around 11:30, I think and I drove over to a nice, empty Wal-Mart. There, I found and bought a new tape adaptor thing. I figured it was just the tape adaptor thing, it had broke before. So I got the new one out to my car, tore open the packaging and put it in. It still didn’t work.

So clearly, the tape deck itself is no longer working. Ugh, the longer I own my car the cheaper it is to own it (no payments, lower registration and lower insurance), but the more it falls apart too.

Sean and I watched the Keynote address from this afternoon. The amazing thing about Apple is the fact that it’s run in such away that it demands all the suppliers and vendors run just as efficiently and as cutting edge as Apple. It’s very similar to Wal-Mart in that way. Both companies demand the best out of the vendors and suppliers so that their customers get the best. Anyways, it’s just annoying and now I’m gonna have to figure out to fix this whole problem…