I deleted a comment from "Satan" I generally try to keep him out of my life so i figured it was a no brainer. Not sure what he wanted, something about jews or something, I dunno know. Anywho, check out Scott's blog, he won some amazing u2 contest for 99x in atlanta, the lucky shmuck won a u2 ipod complete with 400 u2 songs and a roundtrip to Philly to see the concert. Plus he's the drawing for a trip to Ireland to see u2 there. I'd say some people have all the luck, but I've had my fair share recently with the shuffle from roe.
Speaking of which i had to drop it off at roe's as it wasn't charged up enough to make it through the day. Kind of stinks with my usb being 1.0. I may pick up a wall charger for it which would be nice when a laptop or computer is not near by.
I was looking at mac's site today at work (we get 10% off all their products in case you want a small hookup) and so i'll probably buy the charger through work. Only drops the price down 3 bucks, but maybe i'll get a computer too... just kidding.
I've been playing Super tennis that crabb gave me, its actually pretty dang fun, way better than the tennis on my cell phone.
In other news... I hope UNC loses to MICH ST this week so i can win the pool at work and church.
I love this dog...
Tonight I just vegged out all night. I feel kind of bad... I mean I didn't even play video games... though I did watch g4 some (video game station on cable). But I guess after mowing for 4 some odd hours yesterday I earned a break night.
I should mention i'm not getting a computer. I'm a bit of a materialist, something I struggle with i guess and have these annoying desires to have all the latest tech gadgets. I don't plan on getting a new computer, I don't even plan on spending the 12 bucks for a USB 2.0 port. I frankly don't plan on spending money on myself for quite some time. I did the GB SP and the Ipod was a great gift, and that should do me for many moons. I need to play the sp more, its one of those things you can forget about pretty easily b/c its so small. Crabby let me borrow the classic Tennis for the original gameboy so I should play that more..... or read.
I watched Lost tonight... man that show is pretty dang good. Lock, my favorite character, man i feel for the guy. It was gut wrenching to see how his parents used him for his kidney. I remember when I heard Alias was being postponed so JJ Abrams could do this new show. And when I heard the plot of the Lost a year ago I was so ticked off because it just sounded hokey and stupid, but Abrams knows how to do a story... hopefully it won't peter out like Alias has.
So after all my excitement over my ipod I found out my comp doesn't have USB 2.0... which basically makes things a pain and basically means I yet again need a new computer. Not sure what will happen on that front, oh well. The roes came up for tuesday night roe night and roe tried to talk me into getting a mac laptop. Though its tempting because of their super swankness I convinced him that I, as a gamer, would not benefit from a laptop or a mactop. If i was a programer or worked from home I'd go that route though. Though I was tempted to get a mini mac b/c of the cheapness of them and the size is just nice. But I may have to go the dell route again. Even if I don't plan on gaming much longer, which to be honest my computer gaming days may be over with the gameboy and just lack of time and stress it puts on my marriage.
So I'm in three pools right now for NCAA... and I'm in first for all three. Its insane, and basically there is only one way to win them all... UNC lose to Mich St. If that happens there's no stopping me and I'll win 35 bucks from my office pool, respect and bragging rights from Root's pool, and a surprise gift from my third pool. But if UNC wins, I'm out. I was actually rooting against UNC when they went up against Wisconsin, even though I picked UNC. Its weird how its all fallen out.
We hydroplaned back home today from Macon. We spent most of the weekend down there helping the inlaws move into the house. Granted they moved over a week ago, they still haven't unpacked and have little time or energy to do so. So we did what we could, helped where we could. I helped father in law to shave off doors so they'd close, put together their brand new barbeque pit, and put their mailbox up. It was good to help them out and we were rewarded with a good lamb dinner, squash casserole, asparagus, and sweet tea. Then today we churched it and went up to atlanta in the pouring rain and had a good meal of turkey, ham, homemade mac n cheese, sweet potatos, green bean salad, green beans, rolls, and topped off with a homemade strawberry cake made by the Wifey. Good eaten. Then we stopped off at the Crabbs to say hi and break up some of the trip home. It was good to see them but now its after midnight and i'm exhausted.
Back to my happy thought of the week: My Ipod. I don't think people realize how much this Ipod from Roe meant to me. I was seriously having the worst week ever, I felt like Peterman from Office Space. "Everyday you see me, that's the worst day of my life..." thats the week I had been having... and it was only wednesday. Work's been a drag, I know I shouldn't complain, but it has and to say anything else would be dishonest. Its a whole miriad of problems that I'm trying my best to ignore and not let it get me down, but it was taking its toll on me. That and I've been sick this week, so it was a one two combo. But roe, calls me up, and handed me something that brought my spirits up. I mean it was just one of those times where you're throwing your arms up in the air and begging for God to throw you a bone... he threw me an Ipod. It was great, and totally unexpected. That and the wife made this killer pasta dish that had me ooing and ahhing, it was fabulous. So through food and music my spirts were lifted. I know that's materialistic and stupid in a sense, but I think God knew what little thing would make me happy, and as long as I see that the blessings in life are from him and through my friends and family I think I have the right perspective.
On the U2 tickets front:
I hopped on Ticketmaster to see if for some odd reason some atlanta tickets might have shown up. They hadn't but two st. louey tickets showed up, 100 bucks each behind the stage. That's a bit much for behind the stage, though I thought... well might be worth it. Then i looked at the date, december 14th, and realized thats pretty darn close to christmas, and its in the middle of the week. We spend Christmas with the inlaws in Macon so that would require some massive traveling in December and I don't think I want to drive all the way to St. Louey in the middle of the week then have to turn around and come back to work for a day or two and then go to Macon. I checked out Ebay, but no atlanta tickets were up that were decently priced. They were all a bit more than I wanted to pay. Nose bleeds for 100 bucks per ticket. We'll see, maybe in a few months i'll have a better job and the wife will be rakin in the dough as a teacher. Until then I can just dream a little dream.
Well if you haven't seen Roe's blog yet, then this is news to you. I am now the proud owner of an Ipod shuffle.
Apparently some sort of error sent Roe an extra free Ipod shuffle. And now I have a gig of portable media. I must say the thing is pretty dang sexy and sweet. I mean so much music on a device with no moving parts and is about the size of my digit.
The thing is great, though as everyone knows the head phones are terribly uncomfortable. But I already have a great pair of sony head phones that will work well. Many many thanks to roe. Now my day at work may actually be bareable.
So I had to do a bit of home repair today. We had a massive leak in the basement and I couldn't figure out its origin. At first I figured it was the drain pipe, so being the stupid male that I am i hack sawed the drain pipe and pulled it out... then I realized that it wasn't the source of the leak and realized I shouldn't have hacked sawed the drain pipe. So I snooped around the sink area and found it was the cold water to the kitchen sink that was leaking. I figured it was right around the nozzle where the hose screws into the faucet, so I set out to Lowes (by this point I had already been to Home Depot and bought the wrong part for the drain pipe). I got some PVC pipe to replace the piece I had cut (the piece that was fine and not leaking), a new elbow, and some clamps, and a new little hose to connect the cold water to the faucet. It was the biggest ordeal, but I got it all fixed... for now, and the mystery of our leak is solved.
On another related note we had an astronomical water bill in february a 100 bucks and it said we used 6000 Gallons of water in the shortest month of the year (february). We contested the bill as we didn't see any leaks and were not even home for one week in february. I was really worried that we had a leak under ground on the pipe that leads to the house and it just wasn't visible to the naked eye. And to fix this would require a huge back ho and many many many dollars. But I checked the water main today after I had turned the water off in the house and there was no movement on the meter. Then I turned the water back on after I had fixed the leaky faucet and there was no movement on the meter, which to me would mean there aren't any leaks in the house. Now some would think my leaking faucet was the culprit of the huge bill, but the leak didn't appear till this week, the bill was for february. So not sure, but I look forward to our next bill to see if it was a billing error by the water company or if it might have been that leak.
Well, my pools have suffered some devestating blows after today. For starters I had pitt winning yesterday and then taking out Washington on one of my pools. I'm running about three pools right now and it kind of sucks cause i picked different things for each one and its hard to keep track of each one and to know who to root for because chances are it will screw me on one bracket and help me on another. But Kansas losing and Syracuse losing really screwed up my bracket. I'll probably finish in the middle of the herd, but oh well, some good basketball is being played.
So I bought the killers cd the other week, and endured a tongue lashing from Roe for my purchase of popular music. I defened my purchase, and still do, as I think the Killers are a decent band that has put out a very catchy album. But upon further inspection the cd seems to be just that, Catchy. It lacks the power and "umph" to take it any farther than that. The cd produces great little songs that get you pumped up but have a feeling of a techno song, lots of style and beat but no substance. For instance, "We bring the bump to the grind oh ho, I don't mind we're on top." That's incredibly hollow and a bit shallow line but its really catchy... I wish I brought the bump to the grind. I still stand by the cd, and recommend it to anyone who likes what they've heard on the radio by them. I think the better songs are not the ones on the radio which is always good. It stinks when you hear a song on the radio that you like, go out and buy the cd and realize the rest of the cd is pretty terrible. That's why I usually am never disastisfied with U2, I usually like the stuff that's not on the radio more than what's on the radio.
So I guess I see why some people, Roe for instance, don't like the Killers, and think they have a valid argument for why the band is not very good. But the music is catchy, and is good to tap your toe to. Oh and its always a bad sign in my book when the band doesn't put the lyrics in the cd book. Its like, what are they trying to hide??
The wife busted her buns today painting anything in the house that can be painted white. She took a big old can of Killz and a big old can of semi gloss and hit the trim in the house. It was great, and frankly needed to be done, and as she's the type A type, she makes a better painter than me. We then had some killer quesadillas for dinner and my streak of eating mexican everyday is up to four days now.
I got a free itune song and can't decide what to use it on. Any suggestions? There's a few albums I want but no one song that I want. I wanted to Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant but the only version Itunes has is a rip off of the original sung by some cracker who sounds crappy. So post your suggestions.
OK, I know you're tired of reading about my exploits through virtual worlds, but I beat Metroid Fusion tonight. It was tough, but thankfully I saved the universe. I'll probably lend this one to crabby or strowmo. I'll probably take my time on Sword of Mana and not rush through it like Metroid. I really wanted to beat metroid to unlock some secret content that you can discover via the gamecube. I'll post another blog with info people would actually care about.
Well the wife got back from her short stint in Macon. She went back down there on wednesday to help her parentals finish up their new home. The home is a sweet little house, well ok its huge, but still it has a quaint smaller home feel to it. But their still behind schedule so she went down to help. Problem is the inlaws are indecisive and change their minds too much and are perfectionists... three things I try to not be. I'm decisive, never look back (oddly enough i was a history major), and am far from a perfectionist. I'm more like a Cable guy, I just want to Get r done. Wow, can't believe I just quoted Larry the Cable guy... I feel so common and dirty. Oh well I am.
So i'm taking the wife out for a day date. It was going to be a night date but we got called into baby sit and the money is good so we changed our plans to accomodate. I'm thinking we'll hit up some local eating establishment... possibly Las Margaritas or La Altena. I'll also get to practice my Gameboy as the wife's stopping at the New Anne Taylor Loft out at Hamilton so I'll be playing the GB SP. We may see a 2.50 show too... it depends on what's playing.
We watched Shrek 1 last night and "damn" is said three or four times in that movie... not a fan of that. I mean its a kidish movie so its pretty disappointing... oh well. We got the movie for free from CCS's favorite Calculus genious Mr. Bintz, they had an extra copy. We also got a free copy of Monsters Inc from Atlanta's own CRABBDOG! I'm all about the free movies.
Geek Moment: So Metroid Fusion is pretty cool. I recommend it if you have an SP. The game has all the same elements of the super nintendo version and is actually pretty tough. The story is unique too and the game is actually Metroid 4. Metroid 1 was on NES, Metroid 2 was on the original gameboy and was a great game, Metroid 3 SNES, and then this one. The prime games take place after this one and are a little different in plot, but the stories connect. Plus if you have Metroid Prime you can hook up the SP and play the original NES metroid on your gamecube and also can have Samus wear the Fusion Suit from the Gameboy game.
So who ever picked tonight's simpsons pulled a real dumb move. The episode, a rather dumb one in general, had Grounds Keeper Willy get arrested for alleged car jacking of Homer's car (the thing was Homer lost his car and said he was car jacked to cover his tracks). Well Willy gets proven guilty so in a move of desperation he grabs Chief Wiggum's gun and threatens to shoot the court room. He then shoots Principal Skinner in the chest in affect appearing to kill him.... now the whole thing in the show was a ploy to teach Homer a lesson about griftng and the wrongs of lying and cheating people out of money. Its a long story and really dumb, just know the detail of the court room. Put that up to what happened today in Atlanta and you pretty much want to go slap who ever is in charge of Fox 61. I mean that was dumb.
Well, I did the deed today. I returned my defunct MD player to bestbuy. My md player was not synching up with the computer, not really the md's fault but as I'm not getting a new computer anytime soon, and might get a shuffle from roe, I figured why not use my warranty and get store credit for the md player.... and what did i get with said credit....
Yep a gameboy. I tossed and turned on whether or not to get a PSP. But I weighed the pros and cons and figured the SP would do me. Reasons not get a PSP:
$250 price tag, that's almost a new computer
Not out yet....
It plays movies, but so do laptops.
No great nintendo classics.
Price tag again.
The Gameboy DS wasn't even really an option. I mean it would have been neat cause it plays the old games plus new ones, and I had a 130 bucks store credit so it wouldn't have taken much out of my pocket to get it, but frankly its too big. I like the SP over DS and PSP because its smaller. So I got the SP. And I got a 2 year warranty so in two years maybe it will break and I'll take it back.
I had some store credit left over, and since Best Buy doesn't carry many games anymore (only what's hot and popular) I figured I'd use the money on my wife. I got her Marry Poppins the Collectors edition and the movie Hardball with Keanu Reeves. Hardball is actually pretty touching, Keanu is his typical bad actor self, which i just love for some reason, but the movie has a sentimental aspect as it was one we watched on our honeymoon.... that and it was only 6 bucks. So I got her that and picked up the Killers Hot Fuss.
Its a great cd that you've probably heard a few songs on the radio. I like it, kind of a catchy British type band.
So you're thinking, "Christoph, you got this new gameboy but no games, whats the dealio?"
Glad you asked. I had a few more stores to hit on the way home and a little store credit to burn at EB games and Mckays. So I hit EB and picked up Metroid Fusion for about $15 bucks or so used. I've already played it a bit and like it. Graphics and game play is like the snes Metroid but its got a unique plot and so far is pretty cool. Plus it uplinks to the Cube's metroid and via that you can do some cool stuff on the cube.
But I was trying to buy a game for the wife. I feel bad she doesn't get to play games she likes. So I was trying to buy the old classic Tetris for her, as she said she liked it. This game was offered for free with the original gameboy, so one would assume it would be A. cheap and B. everywhere. It was C: neither. I had to search through hundreds and hundreds of small little gameboy games at Mckays and finally in the last bunch i found one and it was 11 bucks!!! Something that was once free Mc-ripoff-kays was charging 11 bucks for. So i buckled and bought it for the wife. But I talked to Crabbdog and he thinks he has a copy of it and if he finds it he said he'd be glad to give it to me.
I used to have it, in fact I had tons of gameboy games, good ones too, but Concerned lost the gameboy and the games. I think I may have a few left in St. Lou but traveling to st. lou is not in the works anytime soon unfortunately.
While at Mckays I spotted another rare find for the Gameboy, Sword of Mana, the prequel to Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo. Sword of Mana, I just learned via google, is the prequel that came out in Japan and had some wacky Japanese title. The company rehashed it and put it out on gameboy. So far the few seconds I played it, it was good but reviewers say Secret of Mana is far superior in gameplay. So we'll see, it was cheap and I needed an RPG I could paly around with.
But the little Gameboy is kind of nice I can multi task now and watch tv and play a game. Mainly I got it for those car trips and grueling shopping trips with the wife. I'm gonna try to keep the play to a minimum as to save the games for times when I'm out on the town and want to ignore the real world around me.
Plus three friends of mine have one, so wireless multi player should be an option. Those friends being Crabb dog, Roeseph, and Stromo.
I saw a few games at Mckays I'd like to pick up here's a list:
Street Fighter 2
A few sports games
Final Fantasy (not sure which one)
Zelda Links Awakening, which i used to have so not sure if I'll get it.
A few other zeldas.
Actually their were seriously about a 1000 games there and all under 15 bucks so finding one won't be a problem... or affording one for that matter. But the ones I have now will work.
The wife and I went to Maconia this weekend to help the inlaws with their new house. They're on a tight schedule as they have to be out of their apartment by the end of the week and tile, carpet, countertops, and paint are not finished in the house. Not to mention a lot of other things including moving things. So we went to help where we could. I mostly put door nobs on doors as I know how to do that and won the bronze back in the '96 Atlanta Olympics. Wifey painted mostly, well primed, they weren't even ready for painting on somethings. The house looks great, though this will be a long week for them. The wife is heading back down there this week to help them so I will batch it for a few days up here I guess.
We felt bad, but wife's parents really wanted to take wifey out for her birthday, and though we had already had two strait nights of Italian food, we figured no other place would be better than Carabas! So we went and waited for an hour and a half, guh, and gorged on the Caraba goodness. I got the Chicken Marsala as I wasn't in the mood for pasta (don't worry I wasn't sick) and the wife got the classically delicious Rigatoni Martino. It was sooooo good. And the wife got a new Pressure cooker and some clothes for gifts. Trust me the pressure cooker was something she wanted...
Then today we rode up to atlanta to meet with the inlaw grandparents. IT was great to see them and we had a good homemade meal of pork, homemade mac n cheese, rolls, broccoli, and a triple by pass. Topped off with some homemade b day cake that was good. Then we high tailed it home and watched tv then I blogged. The end.
Hunt: we sent you a care package last week so you should have it by now. We couldn't find pop rocks in time but have found some since then so you'll get those in the next shippment. Mail me my camel soon, I want to impress the neighbors... preferabbly two humps, so wifey can ride on it too.
I just watched this expose on Dateline that was a follow up on a prior expose on Benny Hin, the Indianish type "preacher/healer" on TBN. Now I've always thought that the guy was a scum bag, anyone who watches his show and has a discerning mind and a few brain cells should be able to tell that this guy is playing chess with checkers pieces. But the show basically showed his 10 million dollar beverly hills house, 80,000 dollar mercedes's, how he stays in the president's suites of all the hotels he stays at. One hotel was larger than our house and had a full size swimming pool on his floor and cost 10,000 bucks for one night. I don't know watching the thing just made me ticked off and makes me want to go blow up the TBN transmition tower on Covenant's property... but I don't have enough c4 to take it down, just enough to mame it. I can't stand Televangelist!
The expose had Michael Horton from Westiminster West on it too, which was a pretty cool little connection as he spoke at Covenant a few years ago.
My bloggin's really been lagging behind, so have most of my buddies out there.
One thing that's been rolling in my head and being reinforced with some personal study/youth group discussions, the need to be a slave to righteousness. In youth group we've been discussing how too often in our lives we feel like slaves to sin, but if we are truly saved and truly in God's flock than this cannot be. We can still struggle in our sin but we cannot be a slave to it because Christ has freed us from our bondage. And then when we are freed we are enslaved (in a good way) to Christ. We are to be slaves to righteousness and serve Christ not our own selfish ambition, desires, etc. I find this interesting not just because of what I'm studying and learning now, but also long ago when I first got my Bible I wrote on the side, "Serve your savior." I'm not sure I knew what the significance of that, it was probably a remnant Catholic belief that if I wasn't doing good works that I wasn't serving God, like I said, I'm not sure what possesed me to put that on there. But the phrase has recently taken on new meaning for me.
My co leader at youth group was emphasizing to the guys in the group that we shouldn't think of our goal in life not to sin, but rather to be righteous. We too often sit and dwell on our sin and concentrate so hard on not sinning that it consumes our whole mind and we end up sinning all the more. But my co leader challenged the guys, and myself, to look at our life in Christ not as not sinning, but as being righteous. In a way if we are so focused on not sinning, we are allowing ourself, our mind, to be oppressed by the sin. Its controlling our mind and our thoughts, our time is spent dwelling on the sin and focusing on not doing it. (I'm speaking in general terms and I don't have multiple personalities) So instead of not sinning we should focus on being righteous or in a way "serving our savior." So I guess after 6 years or so I'm starting to see some new meaning into "Serve your savior."