pp2's Blog - 2old2play

Lost (here there be spoilers)

I am really into the show Lost. I think its wonderful to have a show around that is this well-written and one that creates a mysterious and convoluted universe and then assumes you are intelligent enough to roll with it, and in turn doesn't insult that intelligence by ignoring rules and precedents that it set even way back in the first season. (yes I'm looking directly at you, Heroes...may you rot forever with Ali Larter's giant teeth)

For those of you still watching the show you know that its the last season and that answers are coming. We've actually been told that answers will be in an episode, except when that episode is over (Sundown) you were left wondering if maybe those were the "answers", then perhaps we've been asking the wrong questions. Well I believe I was, and I think I've got some stuff figured out.

I would normally post this in the Lost thread on the boards but this is going to be long and those spoiler tag things never work right. Ok, here go:

At the beginning of The Incident we see 2 men on a beach. One is wearing a white shirt, one is wearing a black shirt. Both are wearing gray pants. The man in black ultimately asks the man in white if he has any idea how much he wants to kill him. The man in white answers that he does. The man in black tells him that some day he will find a loophole.

Hm. Odd, why wouldn't he just kill the man in white outright?

Towards the end of season 4 we run into Michael on the freighter. In Michael's flashback we learn (through Tom, the Other) that Michael could not kill himself no matter what. Why not? The island wouldn't let him...even though he was off the island.

In season 5 we saw Locke (the real one) attempt to kill himself only to be saved by Ben. Of course then Ben (being Ben) killed Locke himself a few minutes later. But Locke could not kill himself either.

This past episode we saw Richard and Jack play chicken with dynamite. Richard asked Jack to light the fuse because...Richard was not able to kill himself, he needed someone else to do it. Jack lit the fuse and the stayed there knowing full well that the dynamite would not go off since he was the one who lit it and he was staying with it.

Dogen told Sayid that inside everyone there is a scale that goes between light and dark. Black and white. Big theme in this show. Fake Locke took the white stone off the scale in the candidate's cave and threw it away.

The man in the black shirt could not kill the man in the white shirt, because they are both the same person. They are both Jacob. Each man represents an aspect of Jacob, the light side and the dark side. The man in black needed a loophole to kill the man in white. He tricked Ben into doing it. Thus he did not kill himself, he had someone else do it.

So what is going on with the flash sideways stories? I think what we are seeing is the scale inside each of those people. They are struggling against their biggest obstacles in life, their demons if you will, and the outcome decides the side they are on. Let's look at what we've seen:

Ben: allowed Alex to be killed in reality to keep his power, which he then found out he never really had anyway. In the alternate universe (AU) he put Alex first. He found redemption at the end in reality. Also note how Locke in the AU tried to push Ben to make a play for power while the Locke in reality tried to push Ben to make a play for power on the island by killing Ilana and becoming the ruler of the island. Ben is now White.

Sayid has spent 5+ seasons claiming he is "not that man anymore", and yet he is able to whip out the Chuck Norris on a moments notice. In the AU Sayid had the chance to not kill Keamy and still make things right for his brother. He chose to kill Keamy. In the island reality Sayid killed Dogen even though he could have just left the temple. Sayid is now black.

Jack had father issues and never believed himself to be capable of being a good father himself. In the AU Jack had a strained relationship with a teen son. He was in a position where he could have given up on his relationship with the boy, alienated him forever. But instead Jack came through and repaired that relationship. He had it in him all along, he just had to face his own failings in his relationship with his dad to do it. Jack is now white. And interestingly enough, the man of science is now very much the man of faith.

Ok, those are (to me anyway) 3 clear-cut instances. Now the murky stuff, and I will offer at least something resembling an explanation. In short, I haven't really figured these parts out yet:

Claire and Kate. In the island reality Claire is "claimed/infected". She was going to give her baby up for adoption to a couple in LA but wound up on the island. Aaron was her son and yet she was able to just walk away from him seemingly at the guidance of her (and Jack's) father, which we are pretty sure was the man in black taking his form. So in reality she was unable to face up to parenthood. In the AU she had them postpone her labor even though at first it seemed she would lose the baby if she didn't deliver right away. She said she wasn't ready. Plus she helped Kate. Claire is black. I think.

Kate has never been able to stay in one place. I don't think the fact she killed someone is relevant, I think the fact that she believes she didn't do anything wrong by doing so is. So she is constantly on the run and not willing to accept responsibility for her actions. In the AU she was unwilling to accept responsibility for her actions and bolted from the marshall. She ultimately returned Claire's things but in the meantime dragged Claire to the dark side as Claire covered for her with the police. Kate is black. I think.

And now the big one (to me)...John Locke. Locke is dead, so why do we get an AU for him? Thats whats been bugging me. I am guessing that we were simply shown that John Locke, the man of faith, is no more. He doesn't believe in miracles, he doesn't believe in destiny in the AU. He has accepted his handicap and is moving on. Sorry, thats the best I can come up with for him.

Ok, so what we are seeing in these flash sideways segments is the recruiting procedure on the present-day (well, 2007) island. We've been told a number of times that fake Locke is "recruiting". If I am correct...and that is a big IF with this show...then I am really curious to see Sawyer's AU.

I mentioned in the thread on the board that I think Sawyer's whole life has been a long con on himself. He's been trying to convince himself that he is not a good person when he actually is. He went willingly with Locke on the island even though he knew that wasn't really Locke and even though Richard came by to warn him. Remember the boy who told Fake Locke that he couldn't kill Sawyer because those were the rules? I'm guessing that since Sawyer is a candidate to replace Jacob...who is really Fake Locke, remember...then Jacob is not allowed to kill his potential replacements, even though he may be able to. He gives them choices, puts thoughts into their heads, and lets them do the rest.

I think we will know for sure once we see Sawyer's AU.

And now this brings us to Jin. All we saw of him was when he was at the airport and still being a douche to Sun and also trying to sneak undeclared money past customs. And then we saw him in Sayid's segment beaten and bound at Keamy's place. I'm guessing Jin is going to be black. I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that Jin and Sun will NOT reunite. They are done because I think Sun will be white.

So there you have it. What any of this means beyond what I came up with I don't know. Well I have an idea but its kind of abstract and this blog is long enough anyway. And of course I am very possibly wrong and just wasted a lot of time coming up with this, but thats ok...this is a fun show. And I also know that no matter how clever I think I am, someone probably posted all of this on the Lost wiki a month ago lol. But thats ok too, because like I said...I'm enjoying this.

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Bear down!

Normally I won't post a 2nd blog with one of my icons still showing, but this little find warrants an immediate blog. While out grocery shopping today at my local Meijer I browsed the dvd section and came upon this little gem:

Ok, now I have been searching for a copy of Super Bowl 20 for literally 2 decades and have come up blank. A guy I work with said he had the SB and both prior playoff games on tape and he could convert them to dvd for me, but upon searching for them he discovered them to be lost. I really want to show my kid these games because lets face it...especially with the current product the Bears have put on the field (even in their fluke SB run 3 years ago) this sort of thing is something to behold.

So I come across this and see its in an NFL dvd series titled "Greatest Games Series". Unfortunately there was no info on the box at all regarding what games were featured, aside from the promise of "12 classic games". The back of the case promised that these were 12 network broadcasts in their entirety but again...no mention of what you were getting. So I coerced the guy at Meijer into unwrapping the package to look at the cases themselves. Two words for ya:

YEAH BABY!

Ok, from the regular season you get:

Week 1: vs Tampa

Week 3: @ Minnesota (McMahon off the bench for 3 TDs)

Week 4: vs Washington (I was at this game...woot!)

Week 5: @ Tampa (if memory serves, some sweet Payton runs)

Week 6: @ SF (eat it, Montana)

Week 7: vs GB (Fridge scores his first TD, George Cumby goes missing)

Week 11: @ Dallas (44-0 beating)

Week 13: @ Miami (erm...lets not talk about this one, mmkay?)

Week 16: @ Detroit (Marshall kills Hipple...film at 11)

Thats 9 from the regular season, and then you get both playoff games (Giants and Rams) and then the Super Bowl!

I have only watched the Washington game so far, but it was cool. As advertised it was the original network broadcast. Its not restored or enhanced, it just is what it is minus commercials. Its like if you had videotaped the game yourself back in the day and were watching it again. The game I watched at least had menu options to skip between quarters, so I assume all of the discs are like this.

So there you have it. This is major for all the Bears fans out there, a chance to relive not only some great moments out there but to see the greatness on the other teams back in the day and to also see some great coaches in action. Just a word of warning though: Best Buy has this listed at $100. I bought it at Meijer for $55, and you might even find it cheaper if you look around a bit. But whatever you do, go get this now!

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So I bought an iphone...

Yeah, go figure...me of all people. I figure I won't have the company cell to abuse forever so I wanted to just go ahead and get my own cell. My one buddy at work has one and he really likes it. I've checked it out a few times and it seemed cool, so I broke down and bought the 3Gs phone. I went with AT&T service, since by all accounts from people I talked to their service is the best, or at least the people I talked to had the best experiences with them.

So anyway the phone itself is pretty cool, except for a few things. First, the compass feature. I don't know if I'm sitting on a pocket of electromagnetic energy or what (gratuitous Lost reference heh) but the compass on it does not register north correctly. Its not even "slightly" off. Its a good 23 degrees off lol. Not a big deal of course since I don't care about that app, but still a little disconcerting that an app doesn't work to that extent.

Secondly, the GPS feature on it (where it asks you to use your location) is off by a block or so to the NE. I think I was able to manually override it but still...why was it off that much? I also wonder if that has anything to do with the compass being off.

Now as far as the other apps go, its been kind of neat so far. I found some free apps that I will actually use, like Google, facebook (shaddup!), Best Buy, IGN games, Fandango, etc. What else is out there thats good? I don't mind paying a bit for a good app. I don't really want games or anything, but more functional stuff would be cool.

I've been thinking about getting the ring tone editor, except I don't have any tunes on my phone. My computer is still down (work-issued laptop for surfing...hey, the IT guy said everyone does it) so I don't have the ability to download programs or my music to the laptop. I'm guessing that if I tried to import some songs that were acquired via...less scrupulous...means the phone would reject them. Yeah...thanks a lot for that, Lars. Looks like I may have to break down and buy stuff from the itunes store. Bleh.

The phone aspect of it is good so far. Which is good, because thats actually the reason I bought it heh. I went through my directory on the work cell and pulled the numbers from that that I will need. I spent a bit of time yesterday calling and leaving messages...sober dialing ftw! I still have a few more calls to make...MJ, you're next up on the list!

Battery life is pretty good too. I managed to run it pretty much all the way down yesterday, that took over 4 hours to do. The guy at the store told me if I just talked it would be 4 hours of battery life, so considering the time on it was spent not just talking but watching videos, reading stuff online, etc, I'm pretty happy with that. I also bought a blu-tooth headset since I'm still kind of unclear on which towns around here will ticket you for cell phone use while driving. Not taking any chances heh.

So if anyone has any cool app suggestions I'm all ears. Drop them in the comments section or PM me, either works.

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The announcement

More details available at www.ironmaiden.com, including cities and dates. The article also mentions Maiden's newest album to be released at the end of the summer, "The Final Frontier".

Now call me a pessimist, but when a group's members are in their mid-50s (with the drummer pushing 60) and after 30 years of recording their next album has the word "Final" in its title...I'd say its a good idea to see them live when you have the chance.

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Watch this space!

A mystery announcement coming soon! From www.ironmaiden.com :

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Medicare is rough, I guess

Good thing I'm not on it.

Had my visit with the pulmonary guy today. I'm down a total of 17lbs since I began cutting back, etc, so thats good. The c-pap machine has a memory card in it that I brought with to my appointment. It stores data for the use of the machine and apparently some other things too. According to this guy I saw today, I would be in non-compliance as far as usage of the machine goes if I were on medicare and would probably be screwed. Why, you ask?

Well for starters, there were several times during the first month of use that I seem to have removed the mask in my sleep. I would wake up and the mask would be next to me or on the floor. This was never done consciously. And lo and behold, the machine recognized this and recorded it. There are also times where I will wake up and the mask will no longer be covering my mouth, just my nose. So when this happens I readjust the mask and go back to sleep. Nonetheless, the machine records the time the mask is not fully covering the areas it should be and logs those results. And then there were a total of 9 (according to the data) nights where I crashed before I had a chance to put the mask on. That put me at 86% usage with just over 2 hours a night of what is considered to be proper use of the mask. Apparently this machine is pretty sophisticated.

Um....oops?

On the plus side, when I am using the mask my incidents are down to 2 an hour (from 94). Or was that 2 per night? I forget, but either way thats really good. And my sleeping HAS improved. The other day my son and I were on the reclining sofa, both of us reclined on our respective sides and not in view of each other. I dozed off and he kept talking to me even though I was asleep. He didn't know I was asleep because, for once, I wasn't snoring like a T-Rex. So thats good too, and a sign that I am getting some benefit from this.

Now the frustrating this is that I AM using the mask. The removal of it was subconscious and hasn't happened for awhile. I've been told by the medical supply reps that this is pretty normal for everyone and it usually takes a good 3 months to get used to the mask. The thing with it covering my face improperly, as it turns out, wasn't necessarily my fault either. Turns out the mask is too small (which I kind of figured already) and I had a rep out today to try and get me a new one. Turns out I decided to stay with the same model I use now, just in a bigger size. And of course they were fresh out of those, so it will take as long as 2 weeks to get me a new one.

So I go back in 3 months (appointment on my birthday!) and the guy said that if I was still having trouble he could make some adjustments to the air flow. Not change the pressure because thats prescribed and cannot be altered (I'm at 16 out of I think 21) but he said there were some things he could do to maybe help the situation. He also said that he had no doubt that I was trying, that I wasn't just blowing this off. So at least he's working with me on it.

And on the plus side also, no calls from work today. Yay. Get to back tomorrow, not looking forward to that. I wish I could blog about the insanity thats happening there but I don't think thats a good idea right now. Never know who's reading.

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Tee hee

So apparently the PS3s are suffering from either a hack of the PSN (which I'm surprised hasn't already happened by now) or some kind of internal clock error centered around Februrary 29th which has apparently been happening the last 3 March 1sts. Nice. Way to build'em, Sony. I was going to watch some blu-rays last night but happened to log into IGN first to see if the FF 13 review was up yet and saw the news. Also saw the sparkling illuminaries of the PS3 community (and please do not tell me there are more timmies on Live...not possible) step up and instead of discussing the issue proceed to bash the 360. Thats fine, chumpy boy, but at least I can actually...you know...go play my 360 right now and log into Live.

Bought Heavy Rain last week and became almost immediately annoyed with the controls. Totally forgot about Sony ripping off Nintendo (and in their typical style, doing it poorly) with that POS 6-axis thing. I don't want to shake my controller, thanks. I'll do that when its not working, not as a point of use.

Had a great weekend with the kid. Also put him to work and we finished rearranging the living room, which turned out better than I'd hoped. I'll have to break down and pick up a digital camera and post some pics. Not that its incredibly impressive, but it does look nice. We also both took fun pics of Kitty with our phones. She was draped across the back of the recliner with her arms and legs dangling off the side. Its really something you need to see to get the proper perspective. Since she's taken to laying about like this all the time I should be able to get another pick soon.

I also had to call my landlord again and get on him again about replacing my blinds. Every year the village inspects apartments. 2 years ago...years...the dumbass from the village broke my blinds, and my landlord has been promising to fix them since. He's been promising specific days he'll do it and hasn't done it yet. Yesterday he promised me Tuesday of this week. Currently my plan is to not put my rent check in the rent box in the hall for this month. And if he doesn't make it Tuesday (and of course if he does, in goes the check) I will just wait for him to call me to ask where the check is, and my response will be "I figured I'd just give it to you in person when you came to replace my blinds".

Day off today to go see my pulmonary doctor, then some errands then...dunno, sleep or something. I should have a fun blog about my neighbors later.

Happy Monday, all.

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Battlestar Sciatica

See what I did there? Yes, I am easily impressed.

So I bought that new furniture a week or so ago to replace my ratty, broken down couch. You would think that using that old couch would have caused me back pain since I already have a bad back, but by and large it didn't. Know whats causing me pain though? The new stuff.

In a cruel, ironic twist my sciatica has been flaring to new levels because of the new furniture. It got so bad I could barely walk Saturday, and just sitting on it was causing me intense pain for awhile. I don't know if its because I got so used to the lack of support and bad posture used from sitting on the old couch that my back muscles became conditioned to sitting poorly (is that even possible?) or what, but now the new furniture and its good support and solid framing seems to be tearing me up. Its gotten a little better the last day or so because I've been making a conscious effort to pay attention to my positioning and posture while I sit on it, so maybe all its going to take is some time to recondition myself to the set. At least thats what I am trying to convince myself of, because the thought of spending all that money on this stuff and being in pain when using it is not something I want to think about.

In other news, still hating my PS3. I bought more blu-ray movies over the weekend, but I still cannot find much if any gaming use for it. I broke out the God of Wat 1&2 set and played that a bit tonight. The collection came with a code to download the GoW3 demo so I popped in that code and began the download. Now its a hefty one, roughly 2.3 gigs in size. I recently downloaded the 1.2 gig Divinity 2 demo for the 360 (which is an excellent RPG btw, give it a try) in under 25 minutes so I know I have a decent connection. So imagine my surprise when 5 hours after I began the download on the PS3 it was only 27% complete. Are you kidding me? Its going to take longer to download this demo than it probably would to beat the game itself.

Oh, and I did some more browsing in the PS store and saw some more PS1 titles I would love to get, including the original Silent Hill. So I actually called Sony's customer service to double check on the whole "only the profile that downloaded the game can play it" thing just to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding things. Sadly I was not, and not only is that the case but any arcade game I pay for and download can only be played by the profile that purchased it. Unlike on the 360 where, for example, I can download neat little games like Castle Crashers, Peggle, or A Kingdom for Keflings and have everyone with a profile on my system enjoy those titles. What a joke.

I've always said that the attach rate tells the real story as far as which console is best for gaming, and with the 360 having a software attach rate of nearly 9 and the PS3 below 3 (I saw these numbers on IGN not too long ago, look them up yourself if you have doubts) I think that says it all. Then I got to thinking about Sony fanboys and their delusional claims about the greatness of the PS3.

Now before you go thinking "well, opinions are never wrong" let me tell you...yes they can be. When an opinion is based on bad information, ignorance, or just plain delusion it is wrong. It is invalid. And then I got to thinking of all the abuse I've taken on this site from said Sony fanboys, of personal attacks made on me in threads here by such illuminaries like Speatley, Blowmonkey, and a few others I just have to laugh at their delusion. At least I'm man enough to admit a bad purchase, and this system was a bad purchase. Its probably the biggest gaming mistake I've ever made, and this is coming from someone who paid $450 for a new 3DO system.

So let me say this to anyone considering a PS3: think long and hard. Do not buy into the hype you will hear from the Sony loyalists (considered to be the worst fanboys of them all) about how this console compares to the 360. As a gaming machine it is inferior. As a multimedia machine it is pretty nice, but again I must use the swiss army knife analogy. It does lots of things, most of which you don't need or care about, and it doesn't do any one thing so well that you can forsake the dedicatedalternatives and use it exclusively over them. There are better gaming consoles, there are better blu-ray players, etc.

Oh, and I want to throw a shout-out to kewljoe's blog and recommend you check this out:

http://www.2old2play.com/Blog/Permalink/12089/37600

He posted it in the Off Topic board as well. This is some truly funny stuff and worth the 12 minute listen.

Ok, Monday morning is here and I need to try and get some more sleep before I go into work. Thanks for reading!

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WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Ok, so now that I've been drinking all afternoon let's blog some more!

Last September I took the plunge and bought a 5 string bass. I am partial to Ibanez instruments. It began with my 4 string SR-500 which is an amazing instrument for the price and continued on through this 5 string purchase. Btw, as I told JCotter awhile back...if you are looking for an excellent bass for a moderate amount of coin, start with the Ibanez line beginning with the 500 series. Those and the next few up have the Bartolini pickups and it just gets better from there. Anything below the 500 line has meh pickups and what I consider (for what thats worth) to be inferior or at least not-so-great wood for the neck.

Anyway...,

So I bought an Ibanez at Guitar Center thinking for whatever reason that I bought a 705. Turns out I bought a 305. The only reason I realized this was because as I sat there playing it I realized that not only did the neck feel cheap as I played but the sound was...poor. So I looked into it and yup, 305. Not a bad "cheap" bass, but I didn't want a "cheap" bass. So I called GC up straight away and explained that the error was totally mine and I'd like to return my purchase and put it towards a better product. The guy was all good with that so I began to research.

Thing was, when I went to GC at this point in time their 5 string collection was a bit sparse. Now me, I am a Steve Harris fan. For those who do not know, Mister Harris is the bassist of Iron Maiden...hell, he IS Iron Maiden. So I have always aspired towards what he plays which is a Fender Precision (or just "P") bass, 4 string. The American made Fenders run in the neighborhood of $1200-$1400 though, so that was not in the picture at that time. So as I mentioned I have a thing for Ibanez so I looked further into their line. After a bit of research I came up with the SRX-695 model. GC had to special order it since they didn't carry it normally (at least the one I go to) but the guy waived the special order fee and cut me a deal, so I got a bass with a list MSRP (at that time anyway) of $1099 for $650. Nice. Plus he threw in a case...not a gigbag...which made me quite happy cause those generally run over $100.

It would have been easy to get an SR series bass except in the 5 string model, but what would be the point? I already had an SR 4 string so why get something with the same (or same-ish) sound? So I went with the SRX line, which has passive pickups and a heavier sound.

Now here's the tricky part...the 5th string. For those who do not know, the standard bass has 4 strings. Beginning on the low end (top) string, its E-A-D-G to the bottom. When you add a 5th string its above the E, and its a B. So you basically have to re-learn everything at that point since all your fretting is about to change. For what its worth, any would-be bassists out there I recommend to you to begin with a 5 string. Just get it out of the way, learn to play with that 5th string. It also opens your options for songs that are tuned down because you won't have to tune down because of the extra string. Just play everything half a step (1 fret) down and you're set.

Ok, so I get the 5 string and man was I fucked up for the first few days. Like I mentioned, your fretting is totally off now because what used to be your open top string is now your open 2nd string, or your 5th fret on your top string. WOOT! Good times. So what I did was take like 3 or 4 days off from playing altogether. When I picked up the bass again I was in much better shape and felt much more comfortable. Maybe it was mental or something, but whatever...it worked.

So I've been rocking the 5 string since and love it. It feels strange sometimes but the options are at least there. I've re-learned the fretting on a few songs to accomodate the 5th string. For example with "Enter Sandman" I play the E on the B (5th fret) instead of just playing the open E like before. Some of the original material we played while I was in BME (which I still play on my own cause I dig the songs) I play off the B as well to give it an extra punch.

Another nice feature is this particular model is a 1-piece through neck. In other words its a solid shot connected to the body so the neck won't bow. The downside of that is that this particular instrument was straight as an arrow, which meant I had to have the truss rod adjusted to give it at least a little bow. As it was, the strings were lying flat on the neck which resulted in a whole lot of Buzz (not the Buzz here, but an altogether unpleasant kind) which had to go. So I took the bass to this place down the street from me and had the guy adjust the truss rod, slap on a new set of strings, and set the intonation. The result? It was like a different instrument. When I got it back I couldn't believe the sounds I was getting. Hell, I even sounded good at times! Best $23 I ever spent on an instrument, I tell ya!

And oh yeah, speaking of strings...fuck bass strings are pricey. I can buy a set for my guitar dirt cheap, but a good set of Ernie Balls cost me @ $30 or so for a 5 string set. And oh yeah, I bought a guitar and amp last month too. Do I have illusions of becoming a great guitarist? Fuck no, but for songwriting its something I knew I had to do. Unfortunately with work being hectic and workey I haven't had much (read: any) time to screw with it but I can put together barre chords at least for writing. Of course I'm going to have to break down and learn real chords too some day but I'll deal with that when it happens.

So here is a pic of my newest bass:

It really is a thing of beauty, and it sounds great. Like I mentioned earlier, I am a big fan of Ibanez. Its not an American Fender, a Musicman, or even a Steinberger...but for what you pay you cannot beat what you get in instrument. Bang for your buck? You betcha.

Edit: I should mention as well...one really nice feature of Ibanez basses is the width of the neck. Generally speaking Ibanez necks run on the thin side. To be honest, I've played 4 string basses with a wider neck than I have on this 5 string. So thats another plus to the brand. I totally endorse Ibanez. And that and 75 cents will buy you a copy of the daily Chicago SunTimes, but whatever.

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Random ramblings

How about several blogs for the price of one? Yes? No? Meh? Alrighty then!

* Finally got a vacation day in yesterday. It was the third attempt at a day off this month (something I stressed with my boss) and this time it actually happened. I made a cursory phone call to one of my guys in the afternoon to check in and see if everything was peachy-keen-neato (it was) and then back to the rum and cokes!

* Have a few errands to run today, including picking up some new clothes. Not going to spend a fortune because I'm still in the middle of losing weight (lots more to come) but the pants situation has to update because they pretty much won't stay up anymore. And no, thats not based on a conscious decision by me heh. Thats a good thing I guess, I just hate wasting money on "in between" clothes but oh well.

* Still hating my PS3. As a gaming machine I find its pretty much a substandard piece of equipment compared to the 360, however as a multimedia device it has its uses. I've bought a handful of new blurays (most of which I have on dvd already...sigh) and am enjoying that aspect of it at least.

* Speaking of the PS3, I enjoyed the Heavy Rain demo. I returned all but one game I had bought for the PS3 and paid off a bunch of 360 pre-orders. The only game I kept for the system was the GoW collection but I may rent HR next week when it comes out. I would buy it outright, but while the demo seems cool I can see some aggravation with the gameplay mechanics hitting home after extended play, plus I'm not sure how much replay value there would be for this.

* I have finally figured out how I want to rearrange the living room after getting the new furniture last weekend. Only problem is I'm going to need some help lugging the heavier items around, so either I'll wait til next week when my son is up or I'll see if I can grab a buddy or 2 to give me a hand. I hate to do that though because this stuff IS heavy and I don't want anyone screwing up their back. We are getting older, afterall.

* Speaking of my living room, still waiting for my landlord to replace the blinds over the patio door. The village I live in does annual apartment inspections, and 2 years ago (yes, years) the dumbass from the village broke my blinds while inspecting my unit. Apartment unit, that is heh. Anyway I was not happy to come home and find part of them tossed aside on the floor and the blinds themselves not able to move. I've been even less happy that my landlord has taken several years to fix this, something I last mentioned to him a week or so ago. I'm going to drop the subject for now though because my new lease is due and I'm hoping to go another year without a rent increase. But either way these things have to get replaced, they're jerry-rigged like you wouldn't believe right now.

* Anybody watching Lost? Hot damn this is good stuff. I have a theory about how this is all going to end, and I will post that later in the Lost thread on the TV board. But man, I can't get over just how good this show is. The casting was fantastic from the start, as the actors have stepped it up bigtime (especially Terry O'Quinn, Josh Holloway and Matthew Fox) to match both the writing and viewer expectations.

And...I think thats it for now. I have a few other things but I'll probably save those for later and give them their own blog. I'm still going to post a pic of my newest bass at some point and maybe once I get the living room done post a pic of that. I think its going to look pretty nice so I'm excited about that.

Alrighty, if you waded through all this then as always...thanks for reading!

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Vacation over!

So today I go back to work after my 1 day vacation which wasn't. I got in about 7:20 on Friday and just punched in so I could get started with the information needed by the guy who was coming out to the facility that day. And of course, he didn't show up until almost 9 so since I didn't know exactly what he was looking for that meant I was working on day-to-day stuff to kill time. When I walked in I had to play 20 questions with everyone who knew I was supposed to be off as to why I was there.

Did the conference call, then sat with this other guy for 2 and a half hours going through SAP and taking screens of different transactions at work and at different moments in theprocess. I finally got out at 11:30. Heh, a couple times when someone would walk past my desk I would ask them if they were going to ask me how I was enjoying my day off. But in the end I got paid for the entire shift and was given my vac day back so that worked out fairly I thought.

Now, Thursday night after I left work I made a stop at a local La Z Boy dealer and scouted out a new couch. I knew our bonus check (and my tax refund) would be in my account the next day so time to get new furniture. I wound up getting a 3-cushion reclining sofa with the fold-down cushion tray and a nice big comfy recliner. Tossed in 5 year fabric warranties on both and an extra $50 for the delivery guys to take out my old couch as well. Did some wheeling and dealing (they had a no sales tax sale among other deals) and got the guy to take another $220 off the whole thing, so I got a good deal overall. So as soon as I got off Friday I headed straight up there to pay off the furniture.

They brought the furniture yesterday morning, so bonus. I wasn't so picky about the color so I was willing to take what was in stock at the warehouse. The delivery guys were fast but sloppy. They knocked the doorknob off my pantry in the kitchen and almost broke the hallway light and this mirror my neighbor had hanging in the hallway. Anyway it feels weird actually sitting on good furniture for a change. Its nice and comfy but I don't really have the room I want for both pieces. I might post pics to illustrate that later.

Ok, off to the showers then to work with me. Have a good one.

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Brothers and their fathers joining hands and make a chain

Btw, what happened to our blog ratings? I see the thumb icons on other blogs so I assume its still there, I just don't see a rating. I miss getting a -3 within 20 seconds of posting a blog.

In other news, I broke down and bought a PS3. The manager at my Gamestop laughed at me, and my son told me I was no longer his father. 2 of my friends have threatened to never talk to me again. My cat unleashed a furball. I am not making any of that up heh. So I felt all dirty anyway about adding to Sony's sales figures so their delusional, arrogant management could point to another unit sold and puff their chests about what a great system they have but I did it anyway. I bought myself a nice big 1080p Toshiba set a few months back so I figured why not, if nothing else its a cheap blu-ray player.

Aaaaand...thats about all I will use it for. What a fucking mess this system is. The user interface is a joke, you can't find shit. I bought a total of 5 games (it was a struggle to even find that many games I wanted for it), with 3 of them being used. I put in the first used game and was treated to a lengthy install. Great, I want to wait to play a game. Who doesn't? The controllers feel like happy meal toys that will break at any second, and nice job not having rechargable batteries. Yeah, love the "hook the wireless controller to your system thereby negating the point of a wireless controller" feature Sony thought of. I finally found the demos and downloaded Heavy Rain and, aside from the painfully long download time (about 3x longer than a 1.3g d/l on the 360 for me) I couldn't find the damn thing to play it. The only bright spot I found was that I could buy FF7 for $10. Then I read that only the profile that purchased it could play it, so there's no point in spending that money if my son can't play games I buy as well.

What's really sad is that this system is over 3 years old and the interface is still this bad. If Sony didn't make killer television sets they'd be done right now. How people can actually get their gaming fix from this mess is beyond me.

You suck, Sony. May you suffer in the pits of bankruptcy and financial ruin very soon.

And to every Sony fanboy (on this site and others) who ever told me about anything about the PS3 being as good as or superior to the 360, you can suck one of my nuts. I'll even let you choose which one.

So I guess now I go out and buy some blu-ray movies or something. I guess for the rest of the weekend I can test out the upconverting abilities on it for regular dvds and at least see how it plays those. After spending the better part of today playing games on it that's all I have the will to do right now.

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You watch the world exploding every single night, dancing in the sun a newborn in the light

Ever have something happen where you were certain you were going to die? I don't mean thinking afterwards that "whew, that could have been bad" but actually where the thought "this is it...I am not going to live beyond a few more seconds"?

Unfortunately I've had a few, most related to my sleep apnea. The worst however was this past summer. I almost choked to death while driving to work one morning last July.

It was like any other morning to that point, the only difference being I didn't have a chance to eat breakfast at home because I had gotten up a bit late. So I made my stop at the mini-mart that I did every morning to get my diet pepsi for the day, then I decided to pop into the Wendy's drive-thru next door for breakfast.

Wendy's breakfast, at least imo, blows. However there was nothing else in the vicinity or directly on the way to work and I was really hungry, so I just went ahead and got a couple of their cheapo breakfast burritos. And like so many times before, without giving a second thought to it I just began to eat while I was driving to work.

Lots of people eat while driving. I'm willing to bet that if you're reading this you do too. I used to as well. Used to. Because not 90 seconds back on the road I either hit a bump or just inhaled strangely and suddenly I found part of the burrito I was chewing lodged in my throat.

My first thought was something along the lines of "meh, better be more careful". My immediate next thought as I tried to clear my throat was "oh shit, thats not going to come out". I felt a slight flash of panic as I gave a major effort to dislodging the piece of burrito and nothing happened. I could actually visualize it in my throat, sitting comfortably...almost perfectly...over my airway and stuck good.

I realized at this point that I really had a problem. I was very much aware of the fact that I was no longer getting any oxygen at all and I could feel my face turning flush. I don't know why, but at this point instead of blindly panicking I began to calm down and think. As I mentioned before I had had more than my share of not breathing moments because of my apnea. I continued to try to dislodge it but nothing was happening so I began to evaluate my surroundings.

I knew calling for help on the cell was out. I needed someone to attempt a heimlich or to at least call the paramedics because I knew I was going to black out soon. My vision was already blurring. I also realized that I was still driving and that I was at that point a hazard to everyone around me. Except there was no one around me driving, which was another problem. In fact there was nothing around me in the near vicinity at all in a residence manner either, at least nothing in a vicinity that was going to help me. At this point I was without oxygen for about 60 seconds.

Then I began to think of my son, and that I was never going to see him again. I also thought of the fact that he was going to have to live with the knowledge that his dad died choking on a breakfast burrito heh. After I thought of my son I looked in my rear mirror and saw some cars driving behind me roughly a quarter mile back. That was going to be my one and only chance to somehow survive this, so I had to think of something.

The only thing that I could come up with was to block the road with my car to force those cars behind me to stop and to draw attention to the fact I needed help. My vision was getting really blurred. I stopped my car on an angle taking up both lanes and began to get out of the car to gesture for help. I then saw the driver of first vehicle, a pickup truck, was not paying any attention to the road at all and was still bearing down at me at over 40mph. Heh, I was going to get t-boned before I choked. Maybe that would dislodge the burrito. Ok, bad joke. So as I was getting out of the car I had to just as quickly get back in and throw the car in reverse to prevent an accident. He saw me about 30 feet away and began to swerve but didn't bother to slow down or discern that perhaps there was a problem which would explain this idiot (me) stopping his car blocking both lanes and getting out of his vehicle. He probably even flipped me off too but I couldn't tell at this point.

So now I'm in bad shape. I put the car in park (now only blocking the right lane) and get out and begin to wave my arms to attract the attention (hopefully) of the other 2 cars that I knew were behind the pickup. As I got out of the car...I don't know if it was because of diaphram contracting then expanding or what...I had an enormous amount of pressure release from my abdomen that resulted in a belch of Homer Simpson-esque proportions. This release of pressure in turn resulted in that small piece of burrito being forced out of my throat and into the street. Amazing. I leaned forward against my car, gasping for breath and just blindly waving my arm motioning the stopped drivers (who at this point were staring at me like I had just emerged from a UFO) to go around me. But I could breathe again, and I wasn't going to die. Not that morning, at least.

So from that point forward I stopped eating while driving. In fact aside from at home, I make sure not to eat without people in the vicinity. I also told my son about this and asked him to stop eating in the car as well, which he has. I would recommend to you all that you do the same.

Oh yeah, and I threw out the rest of that damn burrito.

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I'm missing something, somewhere

This past Tuesday I took a vacation which became a "work from home day" as I entertained roughly a dozen phone calls and had to log into the network from home to work on some issues going on in my department. That was an unfortunate way to spend a vacation day, but whatever. Today I have another vacation day scheduled, except as I sit here typing this I am getting ready to go into work. WTF?

Apparently the last thing I remember yesterday was being in on a conference call with my boss and being volunteered to be in another one for today. As I reminded my boss that I was off he kind of went "oh crap...oh well, I just said you were going to be there". Umkay. So I said ok fuck it, I will come in at 9 for the call on my own time. I had running around to do so that would just be part of it. He told me I was a hell of a guy. I corrected him and downgraded that to idiot.

So as I'm getting ready to leave yesterday I get a call from a manager downtown. He told me he'd be out at the facility tomorrow, I expressed my regrets at missing him and tried to get off the phone. Ha, no such luck. I was told he had to get information on the one end of SAP for this project he was working on and he absolutely had to have it by tomorrow. He then asked who else had as much knowledge in this area of SAP as I did, and I told him basically "oh, everyone. You can dial an extension at random and whoever answers will know just as much as me. You'll be fine". He wasn't buying that and I wound up staying late having a conversation with him about what he was trying to accomplish and we threw around some ideas for solutions. Then I offered to help him Monday and got the "need it tomorrow" line.

So I told him since I'd be in for the conference call I would do his thing prior to that. He told me he owed me lunch. I told him he owed me more than that, like a trip to Crazy Rock where I'd be eating steak off a stripper's bare hooters.

So that in a nutshell is my vacation day for today. I am definitely going to talk with my bosses about not having this happen ever again, and also see about not getting charged for one of these vac days I burned this week.

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Iko Iko An Nay

Since I've had this song stuck in my head for a few days (which explains the blog titles) I thought I'd share, so you too can have this bouncing around your skull:

Embedded YouTube Video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1voj6H8CHY

Bonus video for you, one of my favorite songs to play. I've never been in a band that covered this outright (maybe someday), but I used to play it with the drummer in thet one band I was in when he and I were warming up or just horsing around without our guitarist:

Embedded YouTube Video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn01nSG4cvU

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