So, anyone who watches ESPN or goes to their website knows about the Dustin Johnson controversy and him “grounding his club in the bunker.” It got me thinking of dumb rules in sports. Not that golf is a sport, because no matter what anyone says to me they will not convince me otherwise. I’m not saying its easy or that I can do it. But, its not a sport. Its a game. If golf is a sport, then so is darts or bowling. Anyway, I’m not going to mention any more dumb rules in golf, because if you saw them, you’d see that they would fill the top 10 list alone as there are some lame ass rules in golf.
The tuck rule in the NFL. No, I’m not a Raider fan, so I’m not saying this because I’m bitter that the Patriots stole that game from the Raiders and that the Raiders should of been the champs that year. But, there is no one out there who can convince me that the tuck rules makes any sense whatsoever, and that what Brady did that one year should in fact of been a fumble if not for this stupid rule.
The ground can’t cause a fumble. Ummm, why not?
The designated hitter rule in baseball. Is this the social security rule of MLB?
The dropped 3rd strike rule in baseball. I’m sure there is some reason this exists, but I have no clue what it is.
The restricted area in the NBA. I have never liked this rule at all. I think its so lame that just because one part of your foot is in the restricted zone, its an automatic blocking foul.
Defensive 3 seconds in the NBA. If you are going to get rid of illegal defenses, then do it! It may be called defensive 3 seconds, but its still just illegal defense. Just allow any type of defense the team wants to play.
The leaving the bench leads to an automatic suspension rule in the NBA. Ummmm, I think the Suns agree.
The penalty shootout in soccer to break a tie. To me, this is like the NBA deciding the end of the game based on a free throw contest. So lame. Just freaking play sudden death, and if it lasts 10 hours then it lasts 10 hours.
The time clock rules in soccer. Ummmm, why the hell is there no clock that anybody can see and only the referee knows the time?
The action movie written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, starring an all-star action casts…..of the 80s and 90s. Yup, pretty much every action start you have ever heard of from a couple decades ago come together in one film for what would have been every guy’s dream, back then. Now? Well, I’m sure that the names of these stars still got many people to go and watch the film. In this latest gun blazing action film, Stallone stars as the leader of a bunch of mercenaries that get hired to overthrow some corrupt government/leadership of an island nation. Lots of action, lots of guns, lots of fights, lots of explosions, about what you’d expect knowing the cast of this movie going in.
But, is it fun? After watching the movie, I did not think it was anything special. I’ve definitely seen action flicks that were better than this one. It wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t boring, but I didn’t think it was all that good either. Some of the fight scenes were fun and cool, none realistic at all, some were nothing special, and there were definitely a couple that made me go “Whoa”. But, all that really is in this movie is the action and such. Sly wrote Rocky and Rambo too, I believe. Those movies were awesome action wise, but also had a nice story, some heart. While watching those, you felt for the characters, or got behind them at least. The Expendables? Not so much really, at least not for me. The story that Mickey Rourke tells Sly which convinces him to take the job going to the island was, I guess, an attempt at some emotion and such. But, it did nothing for me.
Overall, if you just want to see fighting, guns, action scenes, and explosions, this is a movie you will probably want to check out. If you are expecting anything else from your movie besides that, then this will not be for you. Go rent this and watch it on your entertainment center because you will definitely be putting your speakers to good use with all the explosions.
I got this game, ModNation Racers, last week for a great price brand new, so was happy about it. A good reviewed game, in my price range, and one similar to Mario Kart, and I just had to lay down the money for it. And most important? The graphics in it are cute, as in Mario Kart, so it was a game the girlfriend and I could play together, which we both did over this past weekend. Can’t have it any better huh?
Anyway, the game is fun. Its kind of like a combination of Little Big Planet in that you can totally and completely customize your driver, your kart, and all race tracks, as well as the aforementioned Mario Kart, being able to use weapons and such to attack the other racers on your way to the finish line. Like Mario Kart, I am and probably never will be great at it. I know how to do things like drift, but I don’t know how to use it in a way that makes me better. I have yet to play online, and I might do it on occasion but probably not something I would do on a normal basis since I know that I’d get my butt kicked all the time. The best part about this game, I’d say, is the multi-player ability. Like I mentioned earlier, the girlfriend and I played over the weekend. You can play with up to 4 players split screen, and like Mario Kart, it’s be great. Now we have two games we can play together on PS3, this and Little Big Planet.
I also do like the fact that this game can have almost limitless replay value. There are tons and tons of tracks that others have created which you can download and race on. I already downloaded 4 of them and they are fun. I haven’t even played much of the single player career mode yet, but what I have played is pretty fun. Like the rage nowadays, there are achievements you can get on each race and throughout the game, making those who like that stuff want to get them all. There are also tons of characters and karts you can download that people have created. I saw Spider-Man, Mario, Joker, Batman, and tons more.
As for the negative? Firstly, I will say that I think that Mario Kart is a more fun and better racing game. I can’t really explain, but it just feels better and seems to be more fun. The choice of weapons, I think, are better in that game. But, this game is definitely not a bad one, and there are not many kart racing games that live up to Mario Kart so its really unfair to compare it to such a high standard. That being said, the number one, by far, biggest negative of the game is the unbelievably slow load times. It is terrible. After finishing a race, I almost always want to replay the exact same race because if you change the tracks, you have to wait probably over a minute or so to select and start the next race. I know 1 minute may not sound like a lot, but when you are playing with others and you have to wait that long after every race, especially when each race only lasts a total of a couple minutes, it gets very annoying. Other than that, its a great, fun game that is great especially at parties.
My dad knows nothing about computers. Well, that’s exaggerating, but to say he is a novice would be exaggerating as well. He has gotten in trouble before with sending information he has not supposed to. So I told him never to do stuff like that. Most websites will never ask for personal information. So, yesterday he gets something on his computer saying he has a virus, and this program called Wireshark Antivirus is saying it will remove the threat. Turns out this “antivirus” program is in fact the virus or malware. He is not able to use his browser as everytime he tries this “antivirus” program pops up and says he needs to remove a threat. To remove the threat though, he needs to “pay for the full version” and thus enter in his credit card stuff.
What a pain in the ass. I spent much of my evening trying to get rid of that crap. I put people who write these viruses and crap in the same level as thieves. Get a freaking job like everyone else instead of scamming and stealing from others. What a joke. I always find it funny that all the tech sites I read blame people for being dumb and opening attachments and such to give themselves viruses and such. Well, let me break some news to you folks. Not everyone is as tech savvy as you. My dad has no clue what an attachment is. He knows that he can get files sent to him through e-mail from friends and such, but I don’t think he knows that is what at attachment is. I tell him, but its just another language to him and he has no clue. Its like me trying to learn Chinese or Russian at my age. I can attempt it, but it would be very difficult.
And you know what? I guarantee my dad is not alone. All the viruses that exists on people’s computers are proof enough. The number of anti-virus programs and companies that exist are proof enough. The news stories that come out every week are proof enough. We lock our door at night and secure our cars and such, but generally we are a trusting people. If someone tells us something, we tend to give them the benefit of the doubt even if we don’t know them, until it bites us in the ass. And that’s how so many people get scammed out of things everyday. Its quite sad and I wish that there was something that could be done about it. Teaching people tech stuff is one thing, but them actually learning and picking them up is another. I consider myself decent when it comes to that stuff, but I guarantee I will come across another virus at some point in the future. I use a Macbook pro now, but I wouldn’t be surprised when these malware/virus writers target Apple users. I always hear the argument that these writers don’t target Apple users because there are not enough of them out there. I might agree with that…maybe. However, I can tell you that I get so annoyed sometimes at Apple fanboys who act as if their Mac is superior this and that and act like Steve Job is a god even though they never met the man. I’m surprised that some of these malware writers didn’t just write some crap to shut them the hell up. Unless it really is true that when it comes to virues and malware Macs really are more secure…..I kind of doubt it but who knows.
I downloaded some spybot program for my dad’s laptop as well as some free anti-virus program, but not sure if that will prevent things in the future. I have no idea how well that stuff works. His other anti-virus program apparently did nothing. I told him not to download things from people he does not know, so hopefully that doesn’t fall on def ears.
After owning a house, (yet not living in it yet 
) for a little more than a month, I’ve come to look forward to a much different thing at work than I have in the last 5 or so years. In all that time, I would always look forward to Friday and the following weekend. Monday’s sucked, as it is the furthest from the weekend, and the closer you got to Friday, the more bearable and painful work was. Week in and week out it was always the same. Just gotta survive the week and get to the weekend. It didn’t matter if all I did was veg all day the entire weekend, it was still the weekend and it was my choice to veg. Don’t get me wrong, I loved getting paid every 2 weeks, but money is a funny thing where it is so much more valuable the more you need it.
However, over the last 6 weeks or so, after paying for the home’s down payment, closing costs, etc, and paying bills left and right, visiting Home Depot every other day to buy this and that to fix the home, watching my checkbook constantly to make sure I have enough for this repair or that, I’ve come to change my work outlook. No longer am I solely looking forward to the weekend, but rather, I am so looking forward to payday. That money that goes into my account is like a breath of fresh air after drowning in water since the last paycheck. The worst part about looking forward to this instead is that it comes every 2 weeks, not every week like a weekend does! For the weeks that you do not get paid, you are just dying and hoping that it finally does come. And when that day comes, its like hallelujah I can afford to buy this or that now, or I can pay back my brother, or whatever.
Its so funny how you take money for granted when you veg and leach off of your parents. I was never rich by any means, but when you live rent free for a long time, you find that you can pretty much buy whatever it is that you want to buy, whenever you want to buy it. Clothes, video games, books, movies, going out, etc. Now? I gotta think and budget and forecast how much I can afford to spend on say a new door, or whether I should fix the bathroom first or the pool, etc. I am finally, I hope, nearing the finish line (well, not quite finish line as that always seems to keep moving back as I find other things to fix) and thus actually moving in soon. Once I do so, hopefully there will be much less spending on fixing and remodeling, which costs much more than normal maintenance stuff. After that finally happens, hopefully soon, I can start actually saving money again, and look forward to weekends again and not paydays at work.
I know I’m not old or anything, but in the years that I have lived, there are so many things that I used to be able to do or remember being the norm that is not the case today. They call it progress, but I actually miss most of them and consider it regressive, wondering how our society became a bunch of sissies and whiners. Some of these are actually better today than they were when I was younger, but if I were to take it all or take nothing, I’d take them all and we would be living in a much better society today than it actually is.
1. Pay .29 cents for an ice cream at Thrifty’s. I think its like a buck or more now at Rite-Aid. Damn inflation.
2. Pay less than $1 for gas. Damn inflation.
3. Call Asian people Orientals. I don’t know why this ever disappeared. I never found it insulting to be called Oriental, but I guess people are just sensitive nowadays. (See more below).
4. Parents being able to hit/spank kids. This is so pathetic. You can’t even hit a kid with an open hand without having the nanny state we call our government and child advocacy groups breathing down your back. The kids nowadays are so misbehaved its a joke. When I was a kid, I got hit with so much more than just a hand. In fact, “weapons” were in their hands. I am not scared of my parents now or disrespect them or am misbehaved. I turned out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself, and I can say the same for all my siblings. My dad was beat down even harder than I was and he turned out great. This whole time out crap is the stupidest thing I ever heard.
5. Being asked the question, “smoking or non-smoking?” I actually am totally cool with this since I hate people who smoke anywhere near me. Go breathe your freaking cancer sticks where no one else is around you punk and throw your damn butts in the trash and not out the car or on the ground. But, just something I remember for some reason and am reminded about every so often when I go to Vegas.
6. Toys R Us’s return policy. Inside joke.
7. Being able to buy fireworks and set them off in the road in front of my house or in my own backyard. Fock the idiots who don’t know how to use fireworks and cause fires. Another instance of other people’s stupidity preventing me from doing something fun.
8. My memory. Dang cell phones. I think they are to blame for the disappearance of my memory. To this day, I still remember the home phone numbers of every single one of my elementary school friends and my old home phone. The majority of those numbers are not valid anymore, but they are still in my head and I can recite them. Today? I don’t even know the girlfriend’s number. If I lost my cell phone and Google’s servers all get destroyed, bye bye to all my friend’s contacts.
9. My math skills. I was da bomb in all levels of school with regard to math, finishing calculus in high school. Today, I struggle to calculate tip. Damn this losing of skills when you don’t use it!
10. Being able to ride a bike without a helmet (if you are under 18). I get it, I get it, its for your safety. But, I still hate anything that the government makes me do in the name of our own well being. I should be able to be in control of my own safety. But, like I posted earlier, why the hell is it required to wear a bike helmet, but you can’t gamble? WTF is up with these laws the deem some stuff okay but not others. Its so stupid and lame and so we should just be allowed to do whatever it is we want if it only affects us.
11. Being able to say Merry Christmas. Are you kidding me? I remember in school it was called Christmas Break or Easter Break. Now? Its some crap like Holiday Break and Spring Vacation. I know there is supposed to be separate of church and state, but Christmas in this country goes beyond religion at this point and it should be be a freaking big deal if a company or school says Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. Christmas is a freaking national holiday for crying out loud. Give me a freaking break. Some people are too focking sensitive. More about this as well below.
12. President’s Day. Back in the day when I was in school, we used to get Washington’s Bday off as well as Lincoln’s. Now, its combined into one and just called President’s day. Well fock that! One less day off of work…:(
13. Watching good cartoons. When I grew up, we had awesome cartoons like Transformers, ThunderCats, He-Man, DuckTales. Now? I guess the dumbing of our society starts at a young age as we are stuck with drivel like Dora, SpongeBob, and whatever else I can’t think of. Now, maybe its just cuz I’m old and don’t know what channels the “good” cartoons are.
14. On a somewhat related note, the Cookie Monster being able to eat cookies! This is yet another one of those are you focking kidding me categories. He is the freaking Cookie Monster!! He is not the Fruit Monster, so why the fock do you have him eating that crap. What the hell has society come to where Sesame Street now must bow to the pressure of these stupid child/parent advocacy groups and teach kids to eat healthy. Hey Joe Dad and Jane Mom. Your kid is not fat because he watches the Cookie Monster eat cookies. He’s fat because you focking refuse to be a parent and feed him healthy foods or get him outside to exercise.
15. Yet another related note, people taking responsibility for their actions. Yes, my kid is not fat cuz I am a bad parent, but because Sesame Street shows cookies as a good thing. My kid became bad because video games are violent. My kid is bad cuz there is too much violence on TV. My kid is anti-social because the internet is bad. Its not my fault I’m an idiot and spilled HOT coffee on myself, its McDonald’s. Whatever. Go focking take responsibility and not blame others.
16. Being able to tell a joke. We are so freaking sensitive nowadays and politically correct that you can’t utter a sentence nowadays without insulting some idiot. Nowadays, unless you are a stand up comic, you cannot tell a joke about a race besides your own. Its a damn joke for crying out loud. There are so many things I read nowadays that are so lame it makes me cry for the days of yesteryear. I always hate it when I read some article analyzing something and it says like, “In today’s society you just can’t say such and such.” Why the hell not? Focking oversensitive losers.
I probably insulted half of my 2 readers with this post, but fock you, I don’t care if I only have one reader now. And I probably would of lost that other reader as well because I’m sure I could think of half a dozen more things from back in the good old days.
We are now in August, and thus nearing the end of summer. And as we near the end, I have to say that temperature wise this is one of the best summer ever for me! With the exception one week when it was exceptionally hot, almost Vegas like when you went from inside to outside, this has been a great summer. I know other parts of the country have been scorching, but not here in So Cal. I absolutely hate the heat. As I have ranted many times before, cold vs heat, give me cold any time, as for that I can always just put more clothes on. But heat? Well, even if you go naked it will be scorching hot, and you will only gross others out and just give yourself a sunburn.
All summer long, I have been able to eat outside during lunch, which I have not been able to do in previous years. I have been able to go without the a/c. And it was still warm enough that I was able to go swimming and such whenever I wanted to. It was never so hot that I just felt lazy and wanted to veg at home (I did veg at home during, but the reasons for doing so were not because of the heat!). I never said no to anyone who asked me to go out because of the heat (I just said no for other reasons..hehe). And I didn’t have to change my blankets in bed as it didn’t get so hot at night that I was not able to sleep. That is by far the #1 reason that I hate the heat. You disturb or interrupt my sleep and I will not be happy.
So, here’s hoping that this blog post does not jinx everything and the temperature stays the way it has been for most of this summer and on into the fall.
Fifty some odd hours later (not counting all the times I died either) I finally passed this PlayStation 3 game that I bought during last Thanksgiving Black Friday sale. I did not think that I had it in me to play a game for this long. But I did, and it was fun. If I play an RPG type game, it almost has to be a fantasy type game, as I played Dungeons and Dragons many years ago and enjoyed it. Dragon Age is not a D & D game, but it is definitely very close to one without actually being one. Bioware has made many D & D games on the PC, so it definitely had that feel. I tried playing Fallout a while back on my Xbox, and just could not finish it. For whatever reason, I just got bored of it, even though when I first started playing it, it was kind of cool to walk out into the world for the first time and see that it is completely empty due to a nuclear fallout. However, I guess it wore thin on me.
Dragon Age, however, was pretty engaging throughout, and when I saw little side quests, I wanted to complete them. I played a dual sword wielding elf that can expertly fire a long bow! While playing the game, I did notice that the graphics in this game are not quite as good as many other games I have played on Xbox 360 and PS3. If I do decide to get the sequel (as one has already been announced to come out) I’m sure that this will be rectified. However, the graphics were serviceable and I enjoyed going through the storyline, so it was all good. I do think though that these types of games are a bit easier to control on a PC than on a console. When I played Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 as well as NeverWinter Nights, it just felt more natural controlling things with a mouse. Maybe its just because I became used to it and have never really played or gotten used to this type of game on a console.
Oh, and one last thing. The ending of this game was pretty terrible in my opinion. When I said earlier that that graphics are average at best for the game, that drops dramatically when it comes to the ending. Why? Because there are no graphics in the ending!!! Its one set picture, and it is all text. As you read it, more text comes! What??? I played all those hours to see a text based ending? That’s so old school. In fact, that could be worse than old school. Even the 8-bit NES games had text in addition to multiple pictures at least! Oh well, it was fun getting to the ending though, and I guess that is what counts in the end. I probably will not be getting the expansions for this game as I don’t want to pay all that much for one mission. Waiting for the sequel will suffice and even if I do, probably won’t buy it until it drop below $40 as I almost never spend more than that on any game.
I heard yesterday that there is talk that California is trying to legalize sports gambling to help its financial holes. My first reaction was that’s lame. How often are you going to pass new taxes or new gimmicks to fix the budget. Here’s a novel idea. Instead of constantly raising taxes or passing new ones, why don’t you freaking cut spending? Every year its the same thing. Let’s tax the rich. Let’s increase the cigarette tax. Let’s tax soda. Ummmm, why does the solution always include raising taxes? Half of these damn social programs out there are wastes of money that just give people free rides. If it was my choice, I’d rather have no taxes at all and just pay for whatever it was that I wanted. I’d have no problem driving on toll roads if it meant that I didn’t have to pay taxes to fix the roads. I’ll just pay when I need to use them.
Anyways, that’s actually not what I wanted to talk about….just my normal rant about how taxes suck mainly because governments wastes the money that they steal from us every paycheck. What I really wanted to discuss was how much of a nanny state our government really should be. Already it is illegal to use certain drugs, to gamble in most states, to smoke or drink under a certain age, to have more than one spouse, to pay for sex, etc., etc. My question to all that is, is it really necessary? When is too much too much? Why the heck should it be illegal for me to place a bet because some loser down the street from me can’t control himself and wastes his paycheck doing so all the time? Why the heck is it illegal for a woman to make a living having sex with others, but she can take her clothes off in front of others with not a word from law enforcement? Why can’t I smoke pot if I ever wanted to? Why does the government let us do some things but not others? Cigarettes and alcohol can cause just as much grief and deaths as, say, marijuana right? So, what makes one okay and not another? Just cuz the government says so? Just cuz some politician drafted a law for one and not for another? Just cuz tobacco can bring in a lot of money for many states so those politicians would never abolish them? If I buy a woman dinner and we have sex, its okay. If I take her to a movie and have sex, its okay. If I hand her a few bills, we both can be thrown in jail.
Laws that are “for our own good” are so lame and I wish they were abolished. I can look over myself. I don’t need the government to be my nanny. Its one thing to make it illegal to murder or steal from others. That I get. But, who the heck am I hurting if I pay a hooker? Maybe I am just not a social guy who wants to waste time buying a woman dinner or going on a few dates or making small talk. Who exactly does prostitution hurt? The guy has a good time, the woman gets a few extra bucks. Who the fock cares. And why can’t I smoke a little pot if I ever wanted to?
Do we really need all these laws to watch over ourselves? If it was legal to gamble, to drink, to smoke, to do cocaine, to be a hooker, would we as a society cease to exist? Are all those things illegal because the government really believes they are helping us from ourselves, or is it illegal because people consider them “wrong?” Which brings me back to governments trying to make sports betting and online gaming legal. I personally thing I can control myself from going crazy gambling, but apparently it doesn’t matter what I think or feel because the government has decided for me. But, here is my question to that. Why is it legal to have a lottery and horse racing, and card clubs and casinos on Indian Reservations in California, but not any other type of gambling anywhere else in California? It makes no sense that some gambling is allowed but others are not. It just seems so arbitrary. I can buy a lotto ticket for a buck, but I can’t bet on the Lakers or put a dollar in a slot machine? So lame. What makes it even more lame is that I know I can bet on sports any time I want any way. Make a call or click a few buttons and its done. So, why make it illegal when anyone who wants to do it will do so anyway. Might as well just legalize it all and earn a couple extra bucks regulating it if you want. We should just let people do what they want. If they can’t look after themselves that should be their problem, and not mine. Its my freaking tax dollars which are being wasted enforcing these stupid laws.
Another summer weekend, another movie watched. Although I did not utter that sentence for many weekends this summer, I am able to do so for this one. As you can see from the picture of the always hot Angelina Jolie, the latest and possibly last movie for this summer was Salt. I’m not sure if there is another movie I really want to see in this, what I still consider, a disappointing movie season. But, enough of that and on to Salt. Angelina Jolie plays CIA agent Evelyn Salt. While interrogating a Russian defector, she is accused of being a Russian spy, and that is where all hell breaks loose. Using her spy skills, she must instead evade the people she has always worked for. But, is she really a Russian spy? Or is something going on in the background that no one but her knows about?
The movie is definitely action packed, and somewhat reminded me of the type of action you see in the Bourne movies. As you are watching the movie, I think it tries to present itself as a is she a spy or isn’t she throughout the movie, but I didn’t think it was all that unpredictable seeing what was really going on. However, getting to that conclusion was definitely fun and worth watching. The movie is not very long, but didn’t feel short either. Its not the kind of movie like Inception where you are thinking throughout the movie, what is really happening, or thinking after the movie, what just happened. It is just good, clean, pure action packed fun. That and you get to stare at Angelina Jolie for 90 or so minutes. What more could you ask for??? Not a great movie by any means, but definitely one of the better ones, IMO, of this summer season. Go watch if you are looking for a movie to watch, or wait for it to come out on cable. Probably be fun either way.
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