Ghetto-fabulous

Recently, I discovered a new route on my drive home from work. This new route is much quicker and easier, which is good. Yay! However, it happens to take me through the ghetto in Minneapolis, which is bad. Booo!

Well yesterday on my drive home from work I’m traveling down Portland Ave. S and going about 45 MPH. A little fast, but hey who does the speed limit anymore, right? I get to about 33rd St. E and I notice a couple car lengths ahead of me off to the right a yard full of black people waving their fists and arms in the air and yelling at each other. (A regular occurrence in the ghetto.) However, then I notice most of the attention is focused on 3 guys closer to the street (and my car) yelling at each other. One guy (will call Tyrone Shoelaces) out of no where proceeds to punch guy two (umm…will call him Basketball Jones) in the chest and take something from him. Not believing what I just saw I’m glued to the ordeal like watching a fight in the ghetto. Oh wait?!?

Immediately, after punching and stealing, Tyrone takes off running (at me, into traffic) at full speed being chased by Basketball Jones and another black guy (will call him Bob). I immediately hit the breaks and swerve to avoid hitting Tyrone. What an idiot!

I look back in my rearview mirror and I see Tyrone running away from the other two guys as fast as his legs will take him. “Run like you stole it!” I yell out. Cause well … it looks like he did. Well Tyrone, not being blessed with brains nor coordination, gets a little further then trips over his own feet and falls (rather painfully) to the ground. SMACK! A couple of more cars swerve to avoid hitting him. Then Tyrone immediately gets up (for fear of being beat within an inch of his life from Basketball and Bob) and RUNS INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC. He proceeds to run across the street dodging cars and making them swerve to narrowly avoid becoming street pizza. Wow! Basketball and Bob not being as dumb as Tyrone, choose life over imminent death and decide not to run into oncoming traffic, but instead do choose to yell obscenities at Tyrone waving their hands in the air.

Well all of this happened in the course of about 30 seconds, but man what a ghetto-fabulous adventure! Maybe I should just stick to my old route home from work? Nah, this is much more entertaining.

Strap yourselves in and lock the doors! We’re going for a ride through the ghetto. ;) Good times.

Live Free or Die Hard - A Review

My Review: Go See This Movie! Enough said.

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Okay I'll elaborate a bit. If you are looking for a fun summer action movie that will have you cheering for the good guy, and leave the audience clapping at the end. Then look no further! Bruce Willis is back as everyone's favorite underdog NY cop John McClane and from the one liners to the action-packed explosions I suspended my disbelif and was truly entertained. I bearly even noticed the lack of swearing I was used to ala
Die Hard 1-3.

Overall, a great flick! I'd give this movie 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Take that Klepto!

Win one for the good guys. Earlier this week some jackass got into my car and stole (among other things) the faceplate off my CD player. The inept thief chose to leave the CD player (thank God), but for whatever reason deemed it necessary to steal the faceplate off my Pioneer CD player. (Ahh...what would you do with just a faceplate?)

Well, after a frustrating morning discovering all of this, I did a quick Yahoo search and found a Pioneer Electronics website (www.pioneerdirect.com) devoted solely to replacement parts for various electronics like replacing my stolen faceplate. Yahtzee!! After a quick search and finding my model number I had my new faceplate ordered in a matter of mins. And 3 days later it arrived via UPS (United Package Smashers) today!! Talk about quick service! I just ran out to the car and the new CD Player faceplate works like a charm. (No more singing my own songs to get me through the drive home.)

What started out as a very frustrating ordeal had a stress-free happy ending thanks to the wonderful people at Pioneer Electronics! Win one for the good guys. Snoochie boochies Pioneer noochies!

Irony

Funny pic of the day. Good thing this guy had the BIG zoom lens. lol.

Worst Week Ever

Well I think I’m “on record” having the worst week ever. Not only am I completely out of it from being sick with a bronchial infection (see below) that has left me dizzy, sore throat and a number of other things I won’t go into. I was also put on the “hell” account at work this week. The account is called the “hell” account because it has crazy clients, insane deadlines, and anyone that works on it goes nuts and works an ungodly amount of hours. I’m on this account only temporary to help out while they are hiring more people. And if that wasn’t enough, somehow someone got into my car yesterday evening (not sure how) and stole the faceplate off my CD player, rendering it useless. What the heck? I looked around my car and nothing was broken or anything. Looks like they made away with some CDs, loose change and a few pens as well. Hmm ... is this the work of an annoying klepto? So I guess my car is still okay, and I do still have my CD player … I just can’t listen to it.

This week has got to get better!

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Update: 6/20 at 11AM

Things are looking up! I'm starting to feel a lot better and ditching this sickness that has plagued me the past week. And last night I found a Pioneer website where you can order replacement faceplates for CD Players. Got one ordered and it will be arriving next week. Take that klepto! And the heatwave has finally subsided. So it would appear the week is getting better!

Magical Pills

So I've been sick off and on for the last week, and it really hit me this weekend. With my throat on fire and coughing up a lung, enough was enough. I ventured out to the Park Nicollet Clinic urgent care to go see a doctor. The diagnosis ... some sort of low-level bronchcial infection. Which I guess just translates to a bad cold. He gave me some magical pills and I'm supposed to be cured in the next couple of days.

Only problem is the pills (while I'm taking them) make my skin sensitive to the sun and prone to burn easier. Burn easier? I've got to be one of the whitest guys in America; I don't think I need help in that arena! Oh well, if these magical pills cure me, I'll put up with living like a vampire indoors avoiding the sun the next few days.

Africa Hot

Well I was downtown MPLS over lunch yesterday and I noticed some elephants and few gazelle wandering about among the people along Nicollet Ave. I guess that must mean that it's Africa Hot out this week! (Incidentally, I later had to cross the street to make way for a pride of lions.)

That's our crazy MN weather for you. First it's way too cold (winter), then it's way too hot (summer). Never just right. And when it's cold we want it hot and when it's hot out we want it cold. I guess we are never truly happy. Oh well, I'd rather have it really hot than really cold temps. What are you going to do? Try to enjoy it I guess. We get so few summer months in Minnesota.

Well in the meantime I'll be hugging my air conditioner. Enjoy the Africa Hot this week, everybody!

The Bad and The Good

Things I’m sick of right now:

- Match.com web ads on MySpace with webcam shots of hot girls wanting to talk to you. Trust me they don’t want to talk to you.

- A-Hole slow drivers who hurry up and pull out in front of me then go slow. (Seriously, just wait 1 more second till I drive past you! Lots of room back there!)

- People who wait until 4pm on Friday to give me work, or get back to me.

- McDonalds … yet I still eat it.

- Really windy days. (I like to run, but a little difficult lately with the 25+ MPH winds we’ve been having. Feels like I’m running into Hurricane Andrew. Hey that's my name! Nevermind.)

- Being bored at work at this particular moment. I just want to go home!

Things I’m happy about right now:

- Seinfeld Season 8 on DVD. Sweet! Just picked this up from Target.

- Package from BestBuy.com. There’s not a feeling so great as getting a package in the mail. Yahtzee!

- Going running after work, and enjoying the wonderful weather!

- My iPod Shuffle. I use that thing all the time for working out and it’s AMAZING!

- Found a new route home from work that is quicker and not many people use. It’s like I’ve discovered some magical secret, yet it’s not really magical. Hmm…

- Got to hang out with Twins Players last night and was a lot of fun.

- The fact it’s FRIDAY!!!! The weekend is upon us my friends. In words of Rick James, “It’s a celebration, bitches.” Enjoy it!

Bowling with Johan

So this is kinda funny. I have to go to this charity/fundraiser event for work tonight. It's actually Johan Santana's Bowling Event. At this event each team bowls with a MN Twins Player. Sounds pretty fun, except that the only thing is that well ... I suck at bowling! So now I get to go humiliate myself in front of our hometown sports heros. Sweet!

"Hey, Johan check this one out! (Bowling ball jumps three lanes and hits a spectator). Whoops, sorry!!! Nevermind."

I can't wait! Should be interesting. :|

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UPDATE: Friday, June 8th (the day after)

Well the event took place last night and I didn't embarass myself, which is good thing! We bowled 2 games and my score broke 100 both times, which was my goal. Whew! Also, the baseball stars were out in full force. Got to talk with and got autographs from Johan Santana, Joe Mauer, Torii Hunter, and Juan Rincon to name a few. Also, talked with John Gordon for a while (voice of Twins game broadcasts).

I have to say the star of the night for me was Juan Rincon (relief pitcher for the Twins). I bowled next to him all night and we got to talking; this was the second time he'd ever been bowling in his life and he did a GREAT job. I think his score was 150 by the second game, which beat me! Not bad for a guy who's never bowled. And heck of a nice guy.

All in all, a great/fun event with lots of stars, media, food/beverages, and prizes. Fun was had by all.

Wii (pronounced: Weeeeeeeeeeee)

Well I was over at my friend Pete's place on Saturday to help him celebrate an early B-Day. (Happy B-Day Pete!!) And later on in the evening me and a few friends found Pete's Nintendo Wii system. Now I've played the Wii a couple of times before at various friends' houses, but I was reminded once again what a unique and wonderful video game system the Wii truly is!!

I have to say that the best part about it is that you actually have to get up and move your body to use it. Anyone that's played Wii Sports - Boxing will know what I'm talking about. One minute into that game and I'm working up a sweat, and I stay in shape! No wonder it's helping fat kids lose weight, and even retirement communities are requesting them for their seniors. Just a great system! Plus, it's backwards compatible with GameCube games and you can get all the old Nintendo games (for a fee). Brilliant idea.

Now, if the stores around here could get more than one system every three months, maybe I could get one.

Side Note: Writing this entry just help me remember. Actually, I was in Tokyo, Japan back in Dec. '06 when the Nintendo Wii first launched and I saw Japanese Ads for the Wii EVERYWHERE!! Funny stuff, let me tell you.