Fired!

I finally was able to completely fire my cable company. The new house has DSL hooked up and we have DirecTV so we're done with cable. Since we're still living (until Saturday) at the old place that means no net access on a regular basis. Sucks but it was good to tell cable company bye bye.

Pacman

If you give $81,000 to a bunch of strippers you shouldn't expect it back. Idiot.

M*A*S*H

Pretty Bird and I watched this Altman masterpiece the other night while trying to fall asleep. I hadn't seen this movie in a little while so obviously it kept me from falling asleep as opposed to something that helped me unwind. Jack Bauer's Dad, Viper, Odo, Elliot Gould, and Radar are all brilliant in the movie. I've enjoyed or at least respected every single Altman film I've seen but this is far and way my favorite. I love that the script writer wanting nothing to do with the film after he saw it, Altman apparently wrote most of it on site and then they ad libbed the rest. I'm sure he didn't mind picking up his Oscar a few months later or attaching Oscar winning writer to his resume.

I find your lack of faith disturbing

Apparently I need to stop relying on the DirecTV search feature and use the internet or the much more reliable TiVo search feature. I was told Star Wars would be on at 10am yesterday and then not again until sometime next week. Well look what I found at 6:30pm in HD, the granddaddy of all movies, Star Wars. Sure I just watched it this weekend on DVD, sure it would be the same movie (Cinemax and HBO are using the 2004 DVD versions, Han and Greedo shoot at the same time, Stormtroopers sound like Jango Fett, ghost is Hayden, etc) I just watched. Sure I should have been packing, sure you're tired of me talking about Star Wars. Well suck it.

The movie looks great in HD, all three of us watched it and loved it, again.

If the dorky scale went to 11

then tonights Heroes absolutely blew through 11 all the way up to like 135 or something. Oh my god was it a great episode. All the geeky goodness plus a Stan Lee cameo.

14 years later

For fourteen years, ever since it was released, I've hinted to just about anyone that would be in position to buy me a gift that I wanted the Led Zeppelin box set, the complete studio recording one. Sure I could have bought it myself but when I've had an extra $100 I never really think about it. Now my lovely wife has given me the box set for my birthday. Last year Aerosmith in Vegas, this year everything Led Zeppelin has recorded. This is just greatness.

Few things

There really are fewer things in life I enjoy more than driving my new car. Man it was fun on an empty road to run through the different gears. This Mustang can get up and go when it needs to, I have no idea what the bigger one would be like, this one is fun enough.

The Empire Strikes Back

I guess Star Wars will not be my first repeat showing in 2007, Empire was. All three of us had a good time watching Empire yesterday afternoon after painting.

Star Wars

With all of the Star Wars movies I've been watching lately and with older movies not looking that great in HD compared to DVD I couldn't keep waiting for HBO to show Star Wars, I had to watch it. I'm sure this will be my first repeat movie once I can find it at a normal time on HBO HD.

Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

With all of the other movies in HD I figured I would waste, I mean that literally, a few hours and watch EP2 when it was HBO HD. Unlike older films that don't actually look any better than the DVD copy or at least not much better a newer film does. Episode 2 looks incredible in HD, well as incredible as a movie that isn't very good can look. There are parts of the movie I enjoy but overall this was an absolutely awful movie. That said I'll probably still watch it another dozen times before I die. Crazy Star Wars.

This leaves me three more of the trilogy to see in HD.

A whole lot of wireless

We first got our wireless router about three years ago in Norfolk. In our neighborhood we were the only wireless network at the time. When we moved to Charlotte two years ago we were also the only wireless network at the time. I've helped my mother (no other network), aunt (no other network), and a friend (one network in range) all hook up wireless networks about two years ago.

Now in my neighborhood, which I'm soon leaving, my laptop can detect two other networks, progress I guess. Today I set up the wireless network in our new house. My laptop detected 28 other wireless networks. That is just a crazy number. This is a subdivision sure but that is a huge amount of people who are looking at porn without wires. Typical in a wireless home network about half of them aren't password protected.

Pitchers and Catchers

By Monday all teams will have pitchers and catchers. In fact most teams, including the Braves, will have their entire roster there by Monday. At least it isn't that long between the Super Bowl and Spring Training.

Some people

If you don't know something about a topic then please try not to pass yourself off as someone who does. If you do and then get called on it don't further dig yourself in the hole and add the problem. We have a new (old) idiot at work. This guy is a blow hard who pretends to be the foremost expert on everything. He talks all the time about how big a racing fan he is, how he knows this about this and that about that. This exchange took place yesterday.

We have a bunch of t-shirts from when we did apparel up until last year. They are all either directly NASCAR shirts or shirts based on the car companies themselves. I needed some shirts for painting and figured I would pick some up. The idiot walked into the room right behind me, not more than 2 feet.

There are three piles of shirts, two different red piles and a blue pile. There is also a box of shirts. The different piles are the different race teams, blue for Ford, shade of red 1 for Chevy, shade of red 2 for Dodge. Simple things a NASCAR fan would know. The box of shirts are car specific shirts.

As I walk in (with the idiot behind me) the guy sorting the box says, holding up a shirt with a 2005 Mustang GT on it, "Trevor, you should get one of these it has a Mustang on it".

About 30 seconds later the idiot goes to leave, without any shirts but with a load of hangers. Another guy goes to the idiot "Idiot (well they used his name) aren't you going to get any shirts? I thought you liked racing"

Idiot says "Yeah I like racing I'm a huge Ford fan and there aren't any Ford shirts"

There is a huge pile of blue shirts which all racing fans know are Ford shirts. Plus someone was holding up a Mustang shirt and mentioned the Mustang shirt to me. At this point the idiot just looks a little bad but I figured I would pick on him.

I then say "Yeah, its not like Ford makes the Mustang or anything"

At this point the idiot should have just left it alone.

Idiot says and I'm not kidding, "Are you sure about that?"

Now sure he could be a smart ass but he was trying to fight back and not look so bad. Should have just left it alone.

I don't know the first thing about hockey other than it isn't fun to watch on TV but sure is fun to watch live. Other than Wayne Gretzky I probably couldn't pick out a hockey player. But I don't pretend to know anything about hockey. Don't pretend, in Charlotte of all places, to know anything about racing/cars and not know who makes the Mustang.

Sleepover

This weekend will be our first sleepover at the new house. The little one is very excited, only a few more weeks until we're out of the hood permanently.

Updated the top 100 movie list

I think I need to update my movie list. First there are two movies that I completely missed, how I'm not sure but I did anyways. Pleasantville and Tombstone, how I can forget them I will never know.

There are also movies upon further reflection probably need to get added, Bullitt, The Magnificent Seven, and Heat.

Then there are the newer movies which might be difficult to add but I think Casino Royale might get added. I'll have to reflect on it and see about what to add.

I can create rain

All three times I've washed my new red car, it has rained within 48 hours only once on the same day though. Yesterday I'm using an old borrow pickup truck to move some stuff from the old place to our new house, rained all day. Anyone need some rain?

Happy Made Up Holiday!

I know, I know, all holidays are made. Some of them are just more made up than others. Sure the current American version of Christmas bears no resemblance to the religious holiday, Thanksgiving has almost nothing to do with Pilgrims, etc. This holiday however is truly a greeting card and candy company holiday. There aren't enough reasons for you to give gifts so it was time to create another one.

Of course I sound like an old man. I like Valentine's Day because I like giving gifts to Pretty Bird and I enjoy eating a nice meal as much as possible. I still think it is made up.

Only two volume settings

Did you ever notice Jack only has two volume settings, serious whisper or URGENT YELLING!

Painting is hard

Good lord, painting is a good bit of work.

Made with Real Girl Scouts

That's right, Girl Scout cookies are in! For the first time I've got the inside hookup for my fix. Not much better than cookies made with real Girl Scouts.

The Empire Strikes Back

On HBO HD...so good...

The only problem was not getting home early enough to see Star Wars in HD. I should have taken a half day.

NCC-1701

Talk about an absolutely great episode of Heroes this week. I think one of the things I really respect about the show is how they truly recognize their audience and appeal/market to them on every level they can. The NBC website is great, the commercials are well thought out, they just know what they are doing. Having spent the last four plus years of my life trying to make/sell products to the geeky side of our culture I really respect something this popular that really gets it.

One other thing they really get is guest stars. If you're running Friends and you want a guest star for sweeps you need to bust out Bruce Willis or Brad Pitt. Sure those are popular stars and actually pretty good actors, I'm sure they improve ratings and help promoting fringe fans to check it out. Those stars however cost a lot of money. Heroes however adds people like George Takei and Christopher Eccleston, much cheaper but makes the geeks just as happy.

Mighty Mouse Sucks

I've built PCs for a living before. I love being able to tinker with a Windows based machine, lots of fun. I'm not what one would call a Mac Lover. However I love OSX based machines, we have a G5 iMac that we just love. We want to get an Intel based Mac so we can run OSX and Windows on the same machine. Basically OSX is just better than Windows and Macs in general do things extremely well. In fact every single Apple based product has been great, iPods, airport, everything I've set up or used. Mark those piece of crap, hodgepodge machines at D don't count.

That is everything except the Mighty Mouse, this thing sucks. Their mouse is horrible and I hate using it but Pretty Bird loves it.

February 5th

I think we're going to make February 5th a holiday, the past two years have sure been pretty good to us.

Return of the Jedi

I got home early today because I took a half day to close on the house. When I get home what is on HBO HD but Return of the Jedi. Jedi in HD, OMG, good stuff. I won't even bore you with talking about the movie, if you're reading this you've seen it a good bit.

Homeownership

Pretty Bird and I closed on our first house this afternoon. It is a nice townhouse in Huntersville, a suburb north of Charlotte. It was built in 2002. We're very excited about owning a home. We got a great price on it because it needs a little interior work. Pretty Bird and I excited about painting it and stuff our way though, so that is going to be a lot of fun.

I will post pictures as I take them :)

Champions

Sure the Colts were great yesterday. Sure the Steelers weren't great at all this year (well they did sweep the Browns and keep the Bengals out of the playoffs). Anyways, so yeah it is living in the past but I just want to remind everyone what happened one year ago today.

Gators Suck

I guess I didn't take into account the fact The Football Gods wouldn't allow a Gator QB to win the Super Bowl. I mean The Football Gods were nice enough to allow them to win the National Championship but it was okay because it was against Ohio State. Too much Gator love would be just unacceptable.

Super Bowl

I love the Super Bowl, so much fun. I even like them when the Steelers aren't involved. This Super Bowl could be a lot of fun, I guess we'll see. Everyone and their mom is picking the Colts, hell I think the Colts are a much better team than the Bears. They have the best player in the NFL (sorry LdT but Peyton is better) at the most important position. I've spent all season saying if Peyton actually gets to the Super Bowl watch out. After two weeks of Peytonmania dampening my spirits about 49% of me still believes that. The other 51% of me however believes defense beats offense and that when everyone picks one team you should take the other.

Bears 23, Colts 17

2006 All Trevor Team

With the Super Bowl tomorrow and the Pro Bowl next week I figured I would waste everyone's time with the all Trevor NFL Team. I'm doing all players except OL, I don't know enough about the OL to pick the better ones over the not so good ones, well except Alan Faneca.

QB
Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints (s)
Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts
HB
LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Super Chargers (s)
Willie Parker, Pittsburgh Steelers (home team advantage)
FB
Lorenzo Neal, San Diego Super Chargers (s)
Justin Griffith, Atlanta Falcons
WR
Chad Johnson, Cincinnati Bengals (s, it pains us)
Reggie Wayne, Indianapolis Colts (s)
Anquan Bouldin, Arizona Cardinals
Hines Ward, Pittsburgh Steelers (makes the team go)
TE
Alge Crumpler, Atlanta Falcons (s)
Antonio Gates, San Diego Super Chargers
DE
Richard Seymour, New England Patriots (s)
Jason Taylor, Miami Dolphins (s)
Julius Peppers, Carolina Panthers
DT
Jamal Williams, San Diego Super Chargers (s)
Casey Hampton, Pittsburgh Steelers
OLB
DeMarcus Ware, Dallas Cowboys (s)
Derrick Brooks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (s)
Joey Porter, Pittsburgh Steelers
ILB
Zach Thomas, Miami Dolphins (s)
Brian Urlacher, Chicago Bears (s)
Al Wilson, Denver Broncos
CB
Champ Bailey, Denver Broncos (s)
Asante Samuels, New England Patriots (s)
Rasheed Mathis, Jacksonville Jaguars
Charles Woodson, Green Bay Packers
SS
Adrian Wilson, Arizona Cardinals (s)
Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh Steelers
FS
Ed Reed, Baltimore Ravens (s, it pains us even more)
Chris Hope, Tennessee Titans (this probably pains us the most but not the same as the others)
Return
Devin Hester, Chicago Bears
Kicker
Adam Vinetari, Indianapolis Colts

Obviously the list is slanted towards players/teams I like, to a degree. One thing does stand out, either I like the AFC a lot more of the NFC just isn't very good. There are 33 players, 22 of them are from the AFC. The only real homer pick is Hines Ward and Willie Parker. Joey Porter makes the team because we're playing a 3-4 instead of a 4-3. Starting someone over Troy makes up for any homer-ness though.

Nothingness

I decided one of the things I want to do is blog more often and the best way for me to do that was to pay attention to the monthly counter. I want the counter to be greater than the number of days in a month. I figure that way I will be able to hopefully average a post a day. It helps me keep in touch or just vent a little or offer my brilliant insight. I came up with a few different ways to help give me a topic and with a little luck and work I can keep those going.

Groundhog Day!

It seems the Groundhog decided to end winter a little early for us this year. I think that is probably a good thing since I'm really tired of having to wash salt off my new car. I guess I will go right from salt season into pollen season. Stupid stuff on my car.

Snow Days

Last night was probably the most it has snowed in Charlotte since we've lived here. It wasn't much more than an inch or so. Of course it made every school and business that could get away with it close. Our boss is a hard ass and he never closes the office so we were good to go. It doesn't bother me that much. The one thing I hate about snow/ice is the drivers, some people are just so dumb. One guy was driving about 8-10 mph, with no ice and barely any snow on the road. That is just asking for someone to run into you. Plus my Mustang doesn't go 8 mph, I think it idles faster than that.