12 Angry Jurors

Is doing well right now. The video introduction and between act II and III segment looks great on screen. It is what the director wanted and he is happy with it. The cast enjoys seeing themselves in a different way as well so it really is a hit all around.

Tonight is the final rehearsal and tomorrow is producer's night then the show starts for the public. This weekend and then next weekend.

Then I jump into the next show learning the light plot. It is a complex plot too, lots of cues. Going to be a good show though. I'm excited about it!

Yes it is now officially a very busy time of year for me.

I'm Voting Democrat

I am going to vote for Obama this year because I sincerely believe the following:

1. I believe the government can do a better job of spending money I earn than I can.

2. I believe freedom of speech is a good idea and not to be taken seriously. As long as you agree with what is being said you will be fine, really! The fairness doctrine means NOTHING I tell you!!!!

3. I believe that if we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan that the bad guys will pack up and go home peacefully and never, ever, EEEEVVVVEEEERRRRRR bother us again!

4. I believe that people who can't tell me if it is going to rain tomorrow can tell me that the earth is warming up because of man. Never mind that we have had massive hot and cold cycles throughout history. This time it REALLY is our fault!

5. I believe that judges should legislate from the bench and dismiss the will of the people when the mood strikes. Why have elections and vote on state bills when we can have appointed judges do our thinking for us?!?!

6. I believe that the government isn't big enough or intrusive enough into our lives. We need to get more people off of the tax roles so the achievers in America can pay them for not having any sense of responsibility and bad judgment. I believe if done right we can have 80% of Americans being supported by 20%!!!! If we are really lucky we can have 90% supported by 10%!!!! I have lots of HOPE for this one!

7. I believe that the more taxes that companies pay the more likely they will be to hire people at fair wages and expand their businesses. If you lower their taxes they will likely pack up and move their company to a country that has a higher tax rate so they can pay more! Companies are funny that way. I should have taken an economics course to understand the complexities.

8. I've seen what the government can do with a welfare program, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, roads and bridges, and the education system and I can't wait until they take over my health care and start dictating to my doctor what is wrong with me!!!!

9. I believe that we have no right to defend ourselves in our homes so the second amendment isn't really necessary anymore. Who needs a Constitution anyway?

10. I believe that social security will be around forever and is my best option for a healthy retirement! It is the best run government program after all so it must be good right?!?!?!

11. I believe that the UN is the best option for diplomacy but since we will be pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan the world will be a happy, shiny place and all of the bad guys will know we mean them no harm so there really will be no need for a UN will there?

12. I believe prisons are too crowded and the prisoners are likely just misunderstood anyway so we can probably just let them all out. I trust them to be good this time around. Heck they might just volunteer themselves to come live with me since the second amendment will be repealed!

13. I believe that people inherently flee from freedom and want to be in an oppressive government run society like Cuba. People are braving dangerous, shark infested waters to live there!

14. I'm tired of being called a racist for believing that these words mean something:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." and that there just aren't enough racists peddling racism in our world and getting wealthy by telling people they are oppressed while keeping them down at the same time.

15. I believe that a baby isn't a baby until it is at least one year old. Until then it really doesn't matter what happens to it, it should be a law that it doesn't even get a name until then.

All of those reasons are why I'm voting for Obama in two weeks!!!!

I'm excited I Hope.

Leading

I'm not leading the league but I do have a comfortable lead in my heads to head game.

The league leader has seventy points right now while second place is a paltry forty five by comparison. If my kicker hits his ten point per game average I can get into the money from where I'm positioned at thirty seven.

That would allow me to put points on everyone in the league but one or two teams so I maintain my league leading status. With two of my key players out yesterday I'm happy to be where I am.

My opponent has two players going tonight, Pittman and the NE Kicker. Kickers should offset themselves or come close to it so Pittman would have to have an epic game to make the distance up.

In other news, I had a freaky zombie dream last night. Long one too for some reason. They weren't Night of the Living Dead type of zombies, they were smarter than that. Sort of like the vampires in Omega Man smart. Yeah, definitely that smart but zombies and not vampires.

It was freaky and likely not as detailed as it seemed at the time but still it was darned fascinating. A good October dream for sure!

Busy Day Ahead

I've got to do laundry, finish editing, and make whiskey sausage for football this afternoon.

My fantasy line up will be light of Fitzgerald today. I'll have him the rest of the year but this is his bye week. He has been my most productive WR thus far this year. Andre Johnson had a breakout game last week so he might be able to step up one more week and get some points this week.

I'm going to drop Kevin "Silent Bob" Smith from my RBs and pick up another, don't know who yet. Michael Turner is also on a bye. My team is vulnerable for another loss this week.

My lineup will look like this: Philip Rivers QB, Peterson and ?? RB, Andre Johnson, Torry Holt, and Devin Hester WRs, Prater K, and I think I'm going to start the Steelers D/ST this week. They are a little bit more productive than the Giants have been and have a better match up against the Bungles.

Busy day, need to get it started......

All Filmed

And ready to edit now!

I have twenty five minutes of footage to edit down to about three or four.

This is going to be a bit difficult but I have plenty to draw from. I believe I'll be able to get this done today and get the director something to look at on Monday. \

I'm glad it is the weekend. I'm tired and a bit worn out but I feel good this morning.

Next week will be a short week for me as well since I'll be taking off Friday and having a my back window replaced in my suburban.

Making whiskey sausage tomorrow for football. Friend of mine sent me the recipe and I'm pretty excited to try this one! It sounds incredible! There are some good football games on today with the main event being Texas/Missouri. I really think Missouri has a good shot and knocking off Texas!

Wooohooooo!!!!

It is Friday and who isn't happy about that?!?!

Two days off of fun and frivolity!

I had DVR'd this week's episode of Sons of Anarchy last night. There is a growing rift between Clay and Jacks, the president and vice president respectively. Jacks is getting more than tired of the outlaw ways while Clay is getting the club in deeper. Eventually one will have to go but I hope that is a couple of seasons away.

I don't think I blogged about this, I don't remember if I did. My neighbor across the street was mowing his yard this past weekend and I believe a rock got picked up by the mower and thrown into my back glass of my suburban. Anyway it cracked all to pieces and the first time I closed the driver's door it all fell out. So I've got plastic there to keep the rain out.

Set up an appointment next Friday to get a new one installed. Good thing next Friday is my free paycheck! No bills come out of it at all!

Tonight I'm filming the interviews for the Gaslight project for 12 Angry Jurors. I'll edit it this weekend and get the finished product to the director to review. Then we will have to have a test run to see if it actually works!

Fiesty Debate

McCain finally decided to take the gloves off a little bit. He didn't pounce on all of the opportunities he had such as pursuing Bill Ayers as much as he should have though.

I guess he finally made up his mind that if he was going to lose this race he should go down fighting which ironically might have given him a great shot at winning now. Ayers, Acorn, William Wright, which I wished McCain would have brought up, are showing a pattern of bad judgment for Obama, the product of the Chicago political machine.

Obama never got flustered but at times I do feel he wasn't as prepared as he normally was in the past two debates. He was getting frustrated and going off his script at times. His answers a little bit more hesitating, a lot more vague and generalized.

The undisputed facts are that if Obama is elected you can count on less money coming in. Spreading the wealth so others can succeed and then get punished by higher taxes. I call it, "From each according to their ability to each according to their needs." Karl Marx wrote that. Obama subscribes to that.

I've got some disagreements with McCain but on most of the issues he is right. I wish he would stop being so bipartisan and start confronting the liberal view point a lot more often though. I wish he would have said he is going to prosecute Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, and Nancy Pelosi for the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae debacle that has cost the tax payers over seven hundred billion dollars.

Raining Again

I go to sleep and it is a foggy, drizzly evening, I wake up and it is full on raining again.

My feet never really dried out yesterday while at work. That really kind of sucked.

I went up to the theatre and gave the assistant director the questions for the opening presentation for the show. We are going to film it on Friday and I'll have time to edit coming up. I also got wrangled into doing the lights for the next show, Yes Virginia There Is A Santa Clause.

The lighting board is new so I'll have to attend a class to learn how to run it. This will be fun though. I'd much rather be behind the stage or in the booth. Actors want to act, I want to make the show happen.

Another Loss

My defense failed to score any points last night leaving me with an eight point loss. Two losses in a row. I was expecting a tough stretch through the bye weeks but come on, not when my team was a full team!

I'm still in first place by thirty three points though. My opponent next week has Tony Romo as their QB and he is now out, his other QB is Vince Young.....who was benched for Kerry Collins. I looked at the free agent QBs and there isn't much to choose from.

Peterson has had a lot of yards this year so far but few TDs. I need him to start producing. If Andre Johnson will start to have some weeks like last week he will be fine. Maybe a Texans win will boost their offensive confidence and they will go on to become an offensive juggernaut....or not....

I'm on a two game losing skid now. That sucks. If I can make it out of the bye weeks with the overall points lead though I believe I will be in good shape to continue my run at the championship.

Rainy Morning!

What a pleasure it is to wake up to a rainy morning! It is just cool!

It is a comfortable temperature, a gentle breeze, and of course the rainy part. Yeah, really nice!

Well yesterday I had a rough fantasy day. I'm eight points down right now from winning my weekly match up. Peterson just isn't producing right now even though he had a great rushing day with one hundred eleven yards. I'm trailing right now 43 to my 35. My opponent is done while I have the New York Giants defense and special teams going tonight against Cleveland.

I'm below my average of 43.6 points right now even though I believe I'm still the league leader in total points. Other teams have gained on me by quite a bit. The league leading teams this week have 54, 51, and 51 points. I really don't have much of a chance to hit that unless the Giants have an incredible special teams and defense night, really incredible.

I'd need three TDs plus a handful of sacks or interceptions to beat the league leader. It is possible and against the turnover prone Browns it can happen!

Two TDs would get me above my average and that would help quite a bit. Right now I just want to win my weekly match up.

My Lineup Today My Last Night

Should look like this: Rivers QB, Peterson and Turner RB, Fitzgerald, Johnson, and Jackson (unless I drop him and try to get Issac Bruce) WR, Prater K, and the Giants D/ST.

I have a good lineup today. Only the Steelers are off on a bye this week. I have some good match ups with Peterson going against Detroit and Fitzgerald against the Miami D. I believe Warner and Fitz will carve up that defense this week.

Last night I settled in to watch the OSU-Missouri game when I got a phone call. Two friends were going to Buffalo Wild Wings for some late supper and wanted me to come along. I really didn't feel like it but I had been in the house all day and thought it would be fun to get out a little.

We finished up there and went to The Blue Note next, a nice little club I've blogged about before. It is a quiet place and usually less than twenty people are in the whole place. OSU knocks off the mighty Mizzou then for some reason unknown to me we decided to meet another group of friends at Scooters.....this is the big hang out with LOTS of people, loud music, and LOTS of people.

We get there and it is packed of course. We find our buzzed friends and I confess to having a decent time. I leave around midnight so I can get lunch cooking at home for football Sunday when these very same friends will be coming over to watch football and eat.

I got out two crock pots, I only have two so both of them are being employed. I cut up six huge potatoes. Put one roast and half the potatoes in each crock pot, season and set on high.

This morning the entire house smells incredible!

I'm Tired

Of the government believing they are the solution to every problem. Congress gets us into this financial crisis and now they are using tax payer money to get us out.

Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Chris Dodd, among others, they all should be put into chains and led to prison, never to see the light of day again for defending Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Two organizations that needed desperate reform and these criminals stopped all efforts to get their fingers out of the cookie jar.

If there is a recession I just plan on not participating in it. I even bumped up my contributions into my retirement program, this is an incredible buying opportunity while the markets are down! I'll look like a genius when the market hits 15,000! I am paying my bills and just will continue as I have.

Anyway now we have the Acorn scandal which Obama has contributed as much as 800,000 dollars to, did lawyer work for years ago, and just is a organization that promotes voter fraud. Well this is probably not American but if you don't pay a positive amount in taxes or if you don't know any of the issues you shouldn't be allowed to vote.

If you know Judge Judy but don't know the Supreme Court Justices you shouldn't be allowed to vote. As for the positive amount in taxes, lots of politicians promise more entitlements to people who vote but are just living on government money. If you are living on government money (the taxpayer's money), I really don't care what your opinion is on any issue. They will pander to you to get your vote, they will promise you that the gravy train won't end. What is sickening is that they take from achievers to give to the freeloaders.

Yes there should be a safety net, a temporary safety net to help people from falling into homelessness or worse.

This country is being set onto a path to socialism. I don't like it. I like people who pull themselves up from their circumstances. I like people who strive to better themselves or their circumstances. This country, for now, offers more opportunity than any other country in the history of the world.

My recipe to fix the world:
Flat Tax. Everyone pays the same percentage on products they buy, except on food and clothing which will go untaxed. Your paycheck is yours, you get the full untaxed amount. How much you pay in taxes is up to you and how much you buy.

Let people opt out of social security. I don't want those idiots in charge of my retirement. I'd take the House and Senate out of their own retirement programs and put them into social security.

I'd mandate a Constitutional class from K to 12th so that everyone will know what the Constitution says and means. Also school vouchers for everyone, meaning if you want your child to go to a private school, you get a voucher for the same amount that the government pays for public school.

Kick the UN out of the US. This is the institution that stood by while Darfur and Rwanda happened. They do no good and the American taxpayer shouldn't foot the bill anymore.

Put the government on a massive diet. The taxpayer has sacrificed enough and depending on what state you live in you pay 30-50% of your income into taxes! That's entirely too much. Government needs to spend a lot less of money that isn't theirs.

My foreign policy will be simple. You are either a tolerant, democratic government or you will face my wrath. I would allow the CIA to assassinate your despot dictators!

Health care! Easy fix, the government will put the doctors through medical school in exchange for them working in health care clinics in every county in the States for a couple of years. You need health care, you go and you get what you need! If you have private insurance you go to your doctor, nothing changes for you!

Health care isn't a right, housing isn't a right, food isn't a right, a car isn't a right. Your rights are spelled out for you in the Constitution, read it. Work hard and you are putting yourself into a better position to succeed. The government shouldn't tax you more for succeeding! It should get out of your way!

Had Lunch

With a friend, caught up and kicked around a couple of ideas. It was great seeing them again! It has been a while and we had a great time.

Came home and took a nap. Decided to watch all three Pirates of the Caribbean movie which was fun all at once. Seemed to add quite a bit to the overall story.

Today is payday! Love payday! I'm about to pay my bills online and then run a few errands to get the ones I can't pay online paid.

Plan on having lunch with another friend I haven't seen in a while! It has been a really good time while being off!

The Shield And Samcro

The Shield was really good Tuesday night. Things are really heating up and the tension between Vic and Shane is boiling over now. This is pure speculation on my part but I do believe they might take each other out in the series finale.

Even though Vic is a bad guy I find myself wanting him to win. This isn't that kind of show though. I'm sure Vic will get killed in a gangland hit or by his own team. I don't see him being arrested.

I really want him to go out a good guy.

Samcro has been a great show. Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original. It is the story of a Hell's Angels light gang that runs guns and provides its own brand of justice for the townsfolk. A couple of the cops are on the payroll, ATF is investigating, and the vice president of the club is growing a conscience.

The magnificent Ron Perlman is the leader and it is just fun to watch swagger across the screen, ruling his club with an iron fist. This is a show that is about half way over with for the season and has easily held my attention all the way through.

I don't know if the drama reaches the level of that of The Shield but it is pretty good!

Vacation!!!!

I decided to take today off to add to tomorrow and Friday. Since Monday is a holiday I now have six days off!

Hosting football at my house this week for my friends. I think I'll cook something really nice but I have to get the kitchen spruced up a little first.

Mainly I just wanted to not be at work this week. I needed a break, I had plenty of PTO and right now it puts one of the shops in a bind because they laid off a person a while back. When I'm not there, and this isn't an ego talking either, things really do get behind.

Right now they need to get behind.

Clipped

I'm now 4-1 and tied with two other teams for the best record in the league. I have a overall league leading two hundred sixty eight points while second place has two hundred twenty five.

Adrian Peterson did practically nothing last night. The Saints stacked the line and really committed to shutting down the run. They dared the Vikings to beat them with the pass and while the Vikings did win it was mostly because of New Orleans's mistakes.

I was three points outside of the money this week and put points on every team but three. This coming bye week I will only have the Steelers defense and special teams off. Other than that I'll be full strength and will have the opportunity to add to my lead.

I've got a healthy fifty three point per week average which is the highest in the league by nearly ten points. I know that if this team scores all at once it will be a huge week. I know that is possible and when it happens no one will catch me.

Behind Again

Going into Monday Night Football I've been behind a couple of time so far this season and I'm behind again. I have Adrian Peterson though and if he scores two touchdowns I win first place again this week or if he scores a bonus touchdown which is one over fifty yards.

If he scores one touchdown I put points on everyone in the league but two teams to retain first place and tie for second place this week.

If he doesn't score at all then two teams gain on me, one six points and the other one ten points and I fall to four and one this season. The four game win streak will come to an end.

It is likely though that AP will score against a New Orleans defense that has been giving up 5.2 yards per carry. He has been averaging 5.1 this season so he should be licking his chops.

Tonight is an important night in our league. I can sustain a loss and since my team has 47 points going into tonight I have gained points on every team but three. That makes the cushion better between me and them. That is if I lose tonight and AP does nothing.

If I win and AP scores a lot I can widen the gap between me and the entire league, be in the money for four out of five weeks and first place money three out of five.

That is if AP gets twelve points.
I have a lot of confidence in AP to score tonight, I just don't know how much he will score.

Week Five

Today I'm going to be pretty much 100% strong since the only player I have on a bye is Torry Holt. I wasn't going to start him anyway since the Rams changed coaches and are abysmal on offense.

So my lineup looks like this: Rivers QB, Peterson and Turner RB, Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and Vincent Jackson WR, Matt Prater K, and the Giants Defense and ST.

I have a good shot at being undefeated today. I believe that the defensive match ups favor my team as I think the Giants will stifle the Seahawks offense.

Rivers will have to deal with the poor Miami defense. I don't like Arizona's match up with the red hot Bills. Larry Fitzgerald will have his work cut out for him, especially since Anquan Boldin is out. I can only hope Andre Johnson decides to stop dropping touchdown passes before long. Maybe he will get his act together.

Adrian Peterson will have a Monday night match up with the very tough Saints. That's ok though, I think AP will have a good night! I like having a player in the final game of the week in case I'm behind and need points, it helps that that player is the number one overall pick!

My chances are good that I'll still be undefeated by the time the weekend is over with.

I'll be heading over to Chianti's house before long to start cooking chili for everyone. I've got a pretty good recipe and have the spices all prepared and ready to use. I have two pounds of meat that is already cut and....well everything is ready!

It is going to be a great day!

OJustice

Sort of.
Thirteen years after OJ got away with murder he will likely finally be sent to prison for the rest of his life.

OJ Simpson, ex superstar athlete, ex celebrity, most infamous man alive who got away with murder was convicted on all counts of kidnapping, armed robbery, and other related charges.

He will be sentenced on December 5th and will likely never see freedom again. I really believe he was set up by the people who recorded the tapes and sold them. I believe that the reason he was convicted was because of his past. He went around getting his stuff back in the wrong way and it was a stupid mistake.

Yes he deserves to be in prison, he deserves to be in prison for these charges and the way he went about getting his own stuff back but the facts are that he was found not guilty thirteen years ago even though consensus is he was and even though it shouldn't have played a part it most assuredly did.

I'm sure there will be an appeal but for now OJ is a convicted felon and faces life in prison.

Chili And Football

I am getting together the ingredients to make chili for my friends on Sunday! We will be watching football and having a good time. It will be a lot of fun.

I don't often get to cook for everyone like this and I really enjoy the times I get to.

Today is a no lunch day at work. We get to work straight eight hours and get off early. We still get a lunch break but it is only thirty minutes instead of our normal forty five. There is a big air show this weekend so that is the reason for the early time off.

No I don't plan on going to the air show. I don't want to go to my place of work on a weekend unless they are paying me. Again I have plans with my friends this weekend!

That is more important!

The Vice Presidential Debate

I watched this and I have to say I think Governor Palin really took care of business after a very rough few weeks of media skewering.

Governor Palin has, to recent memory, gone through the political ringer and has been lambasted without mercy in a very short time. She has enraged the left and made them really go nuts. I've not seen this level of venom directed towards a VP candidate since Dan Quayle.

Yeah people don't like Dick Cheney but I believe that Cheney has been one of the most effective VPs in a long time.

This was the Sarah Palin Show, there was no doubt. She was able to talk directly to the people and tell everyone what she stands for. No spin, just her and her views.

I like her, I liked the debate and I believe she won and is the direct opposite of the polished Obama/Biden machine.

Ultraman

I introduced via my iPhone Ultraman to a younger generation the other day. He had never heard of Ultraman being that he is twenty seven. It was on TV when I was a kid. With the bad dubbing and all.

I always had a fondness for the Japanese monster movies with the guys in the big suits fighting it out with crude special effects like models being blown up and negative scratches.

I got the DVD set last year and now that I have learned how to put my own DVDs onto my iPhone I've had a great time doing that! Iron Man is on there now along with a few episodes of Spaced.

Ultraman though just absolutely rocks. To start with it is a cool name, Ultraman! More than just a Regularman! The episodes are pretty straight forward and self contained. You have a space patrol who defend the Earth. You have one of them who can secretly turn into the gigantic Ultraman. You have a monster that appears every episode and fights with the hero.

Yeah when you say it like that it doesn't sound so cool but it is and I love it!

Big Meeting

Our new program manager had a big meeting with everyone. He is actually a pretty bad public speaker. Says he has thirty years of intelligence experience, NSA, and Naval. Retired and went to work for my company.

So either he is really smart and wants people to underestimate him or he is a guy who failed upwards. One person raised their hand at the end of the meeting and asked if there were going to be anymore layoffs.

He danced around the question and finally said he didn't come up here with a pocket full of layoffs. Not very inspirational.....

Sometime this week he is supposed to be making his rounds to meet people.

Undefeated!!!!

That's right! Behind going into the second half, my last half of the week and the Steelers D pull out a tough one for me! Not only did they get enough sacks and one interception to win it for me but they also scored a fumble recovery for a score six point score!

The net result is I put twelve points more points on the second place team and padded the overall lead by double digits!

I'm the lone undefeated team now but again it is the bye weeks it is difficult to go without a loss during this time. You have key players out when other teams might be strong. It is very tough.

My team narrowly missed being in the money for a fourth time this year by three points. I had the fourth highest total of the week. One more weekly money win and my season rolls into profit as the whole season will be paid for by my fellow players.

How cool is that?

Iron Man comes out today on DVD. I can't wait for this one! That was a great movie! Lots of fun to watch.

First Place Sorta....

I have a chance to win my weekly match up against Beersnob. I'm behind forty three to my thirty seven. I have the Pittsburgh defense and special teams tonight while Beersnob is finished for the week.

I'm the only team over two hundred total points with two hundred nine. Second place over all has one hundred seventy one. I didn't lose any ground and I didn't gain any. I'm just maintaining my league lead.

If I can do that until the bye weeks are over then I'll have accomplished a big step towards the league championship.

It was a good weekend. Yeah I took off early on Friday if you'll remember and spent a lot of time reflecting on things. Not things in specific but things in general. I watched football with friends which seems to be becoming a weekly ritual. I did buy another bottle of Zaya which is some incredible rum if you'll go back a few blog posts. I paid my bills out of this paycheck, well it was only two this time around.

Next paycheck is the one where all of the utilities come out, a necessary evil but I do enjoy electricity and water. This week should be pretty stressful at work. The new program manager will be walking around and I'm sure looking to see where he can cut work force to lower his costs. Scary times.

Week Four

Today is actually my second week of bye weeks. Because of Hurricane Ike I had two players effected in Andre Johnson and Matt Stover. Not that big of a deal with Stover but Johnson has been targeted quite a bit in the end zone and just hasn't made it click yet.

I saw him drop two tds last week in the end zone. I know that he will make some adjustments and is an elite WR. He will get it all together soon enough.

This week Kevin Smith, John Carney, and my main D are on byes.
Haven't submitted my lineup yet, I want to drop Matt Stover and pick up Matt Prater from Denver. He has been lights out in scoring and Stover hasn't really done much. Prater has the Chiefs on his schedule this week while Stover has the Steelers, my other defense and special teams. So it adds up to Stover being cut.

Kevin Smith might very well be cut as well and I might activate another rookie. Smith is a great RB but right now he won't be getting carries. We will see though, Smith is a great RB.

The lineup I plan on submitting is: Rivers QB, Peterson/Turner RB, Fitzgerald/Jackson/Johnson WR, Prater (if I get him) K, Steelers D/ST with Garrard being my tie breaker.

If I don't get Prater then I'll get another top K that is on the Free Agent board.

I Took Off

Half a day yesterday. It had been quite a while since I took off of work early and it felt good. I am already planning on taking off October nine and ten and having a five day weekend. Picked up a bottle of Zaya, it was payday after all! I'm allowed an indulgence every once in a while.

Next week is going to be stressful at work. the new program manager is going to be walking around and likely seeing where he can cut jobs. Ugh....

It tires a guy out after a while.

Anyway tonight Alabama is playing Georgia! That should be a really good game! I really hope Georgia is upset. They are just a bit overrated compared to a couple of other SEC teams. They are better than nearly any Big 10 or PAC 10 team though. Those conferences just suck.

Beavers Stun Trojans!

These are always good days!
I went to Buffalo Wild Wings after work yesterday and picked up an order to go. Came home and had them. They were really good, Spicy Garlic and Caribbean Jerk.

Then I sat outside for a while until the game started. Well that was my plan anyway, then a friend called me and said he and his girlfriend were going to Buffalo Wild Wings for supper and I should come up there.

I told him that I just ate there but I went anyway and had a mojito. They make good mojitos! Excellent Summer drink even though it isn't Summer anymore.

Got home in time for the kickoff between USC and Oregon State. It was the only football on last night so it would do and what the heck, OSU plays SC tough at home so it might be closer than the twenty seven point spread that Vegas has on the game.

By golly it was too! The top ranked SC Trojans got beat by the unranked Beavers, the names alone incited many giggles last night with friends. It was a really good game, OSU took control right from the start and SC never recovered. Great game and a good evening!

Thursday!

This week is almost over with. I'm in need of a weekend too. This week has been long and strange. AT work and at home.

At work the big boss got fired for cost overruns. He went around and shook everyone's hand yesterday. He was replaced by the guy who from corporate who wanted all of the layoffs to start with.

He immediately put an end to the recalls that were starting to happen. Recalls are when the people who were laid off are called back to work. Well they are done. Now we are wondering if or when there will be more layoffs and if so who.

I don't exactly know how safe my job is but I do believe this time it is safe. We barely have enough people now to do our jobs. Take anyone else away and it will be impossible to do what needs to be done to meet the mission.

What Do You Do

When you have a crisis of conscience exactly what do you do? When you have an opportunity to do something with no one around and not get caught do you do the right thing or do you do it?

I think that is a good question for my project the 12 Angry Jurors. We are supposed to have a discussion with the cast and come up with some good questions to film and script answers for.

It is also a good way to tell the character of the person and their integrity. That and compassion are the subjects that I'd really like to approach for the project. We will see what the cast can come up with! I bet it will be good!

First Place And First Overall

This week was gold for me as I said yesterday!
I won my heads up match up, coming from behind to win sixty seven to sixty six. I'm one of two undefeated teams, I'm now first place overall with a combined one hundred seventy two points. Second place overall has one hundred thirty five and they happen to be the other undefeated team.

I've won first place twice and tied for second place once so far. Now the bye weeks start and teams won't be one hundred percent for a while including my own. There is no way I can come out of the bye weeks undefeated. It is just nearly impossible in fantasy football to do that.

I haven't left many points on the bench either so all of my scoring is happening from the starters. That means when they are off I won't be scoring many points at all. A couple of losses are inevitable.

First Place!!!!

I've taken over first place overall in my league and have a chance at first place this week for another win!

I had one hundred five points combined for the first two weeks which put me in second. First place had one hundred eleven points. I had another monster day yesterday with fifty five points however my opponent had sixty six points.

Even if I don't win my heads up match I'll still have second place secured as most all of the players are done for tonight. I have two, Rivers and Jackson. If they hookup up for one td that will give me ten points. If Rivers has his average day he should get two to three tds.

If he does that then I'll have a very sweet week! If not I am still in the money this week and STILL am in first place overall!!!! I put twenty eight points on the second place team, they only had twenty seven points yesterday and are done for the week.

This is one incredible team! They have been unstoppable through the first three weeks!

Week Three

Well here is what I was afraid of when I drafted Adrian Peterson. He gets nicked up during the season and gives fantasy owners decisions like this to kick around.

He has a slight hamstring pull today and it happened last game, even though he had a great rushing game. AP is a game time decision today so I haven't submitted my lineup yet. I'm waiting on news to break about whether he will play or not.

So here is my lineup if he starts and if he doesn't.
QB: Philip Rivers
RB: Michael Turner and either AP or Kevin Smith
WR: Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Vincent Jackson
K: Matt Stover
D/ST: Giants

I want to go with Vincent Jackson over Torry Holt for a couple of reasons. One the Rams are horrible. Two Jackson plays on Monday night and if I'm behind then it will be nice to have two threats going and they are a double down threat meaning that if Rivers throws to Jackson it is ten points instead of either four or six. If they are shut down though it is zero two times.

It could be a mistake since Holt is the main weapon along with Stephen Jackson on the Rams team and could see a significant amount of targets against the Seahawks.

The Mind Of R. Kelly

What an amazing idiot. Not because of his trial of an alleged video of him and an underage girl but his answers to some pretty straight forward questions are just mesmerizing.

I swear I felt the intelligence being sucked out of my head while watching this. I actually lost IQ points here! Beware it will hurt your brain if you watch this video. You WILL feel dumber.

The upside is that you witness him talking about himself in the third person which to me is always priceless!

R. Kelly was acquitted on all counts of child pornography but then again O.J. was found not guilty as well. For the record I was never fired by R. Kelly.

Name Change

Those long time readers will notice a change in the title.

I'm not in a lamenting frame of mind anymore. I'm a filmmaker at heart but projects have been few and far between right now with the latest fanfilm project being put on at least a six month hold.

I've thought about a name change for a while now and I think Story captures what I want to tell right now instead of Laments. A lament is sad, in truth I was sad when I started this blog. I had a lot going on and needed an outlet to express things even though I never came out and said them.

While I was lamenting my state of affairs at the time, they ended long ago, since then I've come to own them. I've come to a place of peace and limited understanding of where I am now but not so much of where I'm going....yet. The future is bright though and you who know me personally will know my fondness for shiny things!

I still feel that I'm at my best with a project to work on and lots of projects have come and gone since I've started the hobby. A few have actually come to fruition but most have fallen by the way side for whatever reason.

My current project is small, just putting together some clips for the next theatre project. However small it may be it is still important to me and hopefully it will help amplify the story being told on the stage which is Twelve Angry Jurors.

What I do for a living is still something I'm pretty good at but when I feel that I'm great is when I've got a story to tell visually. I'm excellent at planning a shot, shooting a shot, being efficient at it, keeping people comfortable on set, and putting my own spin on things, editing clips together, and telling a story.

By no means am I an expert but in my little world I'm pretty decent at it. I don't know how long this story will be told but I'm happy to have you along gentle reader.

A Filmmaker's Laments is dead, long live A Filmmaker's Story!

Zaya

I found the best rum a couple of weeks ago. I read about it on Clubstogie.com in their food and drinks forum. I have to say that as a scotch drinker I've had some of the best tasting scotch out there. I've had smoky, peaty, fruity, nutty, all of the scotch that my budget allows to drink.

I believe I found the rum equivalent of Lagavulin, which is my favorite brand of single malt.

Zaya is a gorgeous looking caramel colored rum. Hard to find though. If you can find a bottle you might want to grab it. It isn't cheap for rum either. It should fall into the thirty to fifty dollar range. I purchased a bottle two weeks ago and after some of my friends tasted the quality it was gone in no time!

You can mix it or you can drink it with ice. It is that smooth and has a ton of flavor! I'll have to keep an eye out for a bottle the next time I'm in a liquor store, it might just be nice to keep one on hand.

Simple Evening

But it was amazing! First I had to get Operation: Qatar underway! I packed up all of the cigars I have been saving for this trip overseas and put them into two humidors. Well they were stored in humidors anyway, I just got them packed up and ready to go with ten cutters and three jet flame lighters.

Beersnob will not want for any relaxing material as I figure about one hundred premium cigars will be on their way to Qatar today!

That will be enough to supply about ten of his cigar smoking buddies for about ten weeks for a weekly cigar night. I've read so much about these, that it is a simple way for the troops deployed to relax and get away from their daily grind and danger for about an hour and feel normal again. I hope these help!

So after I got all of that packed up and ready to go I went up to the pub to meet a friend for supper. Had a great sandwich and a water then moved onto a Laphroaig and water on the rocks. Laphroaig is a Islay Malt scotch. It has a ton of smoke in it. A very tasty scotch on a nice evening.

We moved outside to enjoy the incredible weather and I had one more before going across the street to talk about the film project I'll be doing for Twelve Angry Jurors. I gave the director my ideas on how I think it should be since that is what he asked for. He agreed with me and gave me an idea to get more material which I didn't even think of!

Briefly we'll collect questions from the cast, script answers for them, get the Assistant Directors to recruit some of their friends to answer the questions while being filmed. I'll edit a two minute clip before the show, at the second act change, and maybe a clip at the end with some credits.

It should be an interesting addition to the show and our discussion was a great addition to a wonderful evening where nothing special happened but it was amazing in its simplicity!

Second Place

I'm in second place overall with one hundred five points but I won the week and forty dollars! Romo and TO had monster games and took the team that had them from the high twenties to fifty seven points putting them at third place this week and first overall with one hundred eleven points.

It doesn't matter where you are right now but I'm in good shape. My team is putting up way too many yards and is performing very well right now not to get tons of tds in the future!

When the defenses are right this team will go off for over ninety points this season!!!! I'm sure of it!!!! This team rocks! It might very well be my best team ever and I've had some good teams before!

I've come up short from first place at the end of the season a couple of times, very close in fact. I've won money nearly every season save for a couple where injuries and bad performances killed me. Tiki Barber comes to mine on the former.

It's early in the season yet but I believe this team will compete every week for the top three places!

League Leader!!!!

No matter what happens tonight on MNF I should stay first place in the league! I have sixty points which should be good enough for first place this week but there are players going tonight who can score bunches of points.

However I believe that in combined points I should still come out in first place as everyone else is likely too far behind. We shall see though! I'm twenty six points ahead of second place right now.

My line up was: Rivers QB, AP and Michael Turner RBs, Fitz, Holt, and Jackson WRs, Jason Hansen K, and the mighty GMen of New York as my D/Spt! They all combined for sixty points but I have to tell you that I really agonized over the Garrard/Rivers decision.

After last week and this week I believe that Rivers will be the starter all year long save for the bye week. David Garrard has looked horrible in the first two games and has earned his benching.

Adrian Peterson had one hundred sixty yards but didn't score any TDs. That's ok though. The Viking's offense has looked horrible and yet he STILL can get that kind of yardage. He will get plenty of TDs this season. I just have to win on the weeks when he doesn't score.

A Death Magnetic Saturday!

It was pretty rainy all day but overall it was a wonderful Saturday. I picked up the new Metallica CD.

For fans of Kill, Lightning, Master, and Justice I believe you would be a fan of Death Magnetic. If you were a fan of Black, Load, Reload....well then not so much.

It has a great sound to it, it is reminiscent of the old sound. You can't listen to The End of the Line and not think of Blackened. Any of these songs save for The Day That Never Comes and Unforgiven III would be at home on the Justice album.

These songs are longer, less radio friendly. They rock and they also will disappoint a lot of people. James sounds like he used to. Lars beats the drums senseless. Kirk is still a master of speed. The new guy pounds the bass as good as if not better than Jason or Cliff did.

Rick Rubin replaced Bob Rock and it appears to me that he has built a bridge for the older fans and the newer fans while attempting to resurrect Metallica from the St. Anger debacle.

Day and Unforgiven III are bones thrown to the fans of Black and the Loads. They will be the video friendly songs and singles no doubt.

In my humble opinion I believe that Metallica of old is back and I'm happy about that!

Early Morning Rain

It is a nice gentle rain this morning. I wish I had some coffee but I'm out and haven't used my coffee maker in a few months now. It would be tasty!

I had a great Friday evening. I watched USF beat Kansas in the waning seconds of the game. It was a fun game to watch! Lots of offense and both teams were in the thirties.

Looked at the radar and it appears as if Hurricane Ike will be throwing some rain our way but not like what Texas is getting and Arkansas will get in the next couple of days.

Today there is one big game I'm interested in watching in USC and Ohio State. It is a prime time game and likely will be a blow out if OSU isn't careful.

Economics 101 Or Why Obama Will Destroy Our Economy

Obama Obama Obama.....oh how I loathe your economic policies.....

Spore

I've been playing Spore the past few evenings. Fun game. Very creative. You start off as a cell and design how it looks, paint it the colors you want, and then send it off into the world to grow and evolve.

Eventually you can explore your galaxy but I haven't gotten that far yet. I don't believe in Darwinism but I do believe that evolution works and is real. I don't believe that faith and evolution are mutually exclusive, that they can and do coexist.

This is an enjoyable game that just gives you a lot to do and explore. It has a slight learning curve but nothing that you can't get in about a half hour. You are able to see what kind of creatures other players have created as there is a built in browser, a really cool touch!

If you enjoy games that are fun, a challenge, and have lots of eye candy, pick it up. You won't be disappointed.

Half Way!

To the weekend and things are going smoothly right now.

I'm in the mood to cook chili this weekend. I'd like to cook it for my friends and watch football but it might not happen this weekend. I've seen a couple of shows on Food Network on championship chili and it has inspired me to give one of those recipes a shot.

It looks fairly straight forward. No complicated steps or anything. It is just about timing.

Not a problem there! We can do timing!

I am sifting through recipes though to find the right one to attempt though, it is fun but a bit time consuming.

45-10

I tied for second place overall in the league and easily won my heads up match. In fairness though that team, the River Rats, had Tom Brady as their number one pick and of course he went down for the season in the first quarter Sunday.

So that really hampered his score and likely put a big damper on their whole season. I left a few points on the bench this past week but I played all of my top tier guys. I might switch Garrard and Rivers at QB this coming week. Just depends on who they are playing.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my team's performance and even though Michael Turner had a career day and I can't expect that every week, he will be solid this season and put up some great numbers.

Week One

Yesterday was an amazing day of football with friends!!!!

We all had so much fun together! It was just incredible!

I did pretty well as Michael Turner had a big day with 220 yards and 2 TDs!!!! One TD was a bonus TD and it gave 6 extra points even!

I am easily winning my heads up match up this week 38-10 and I still have Adrian Peterson tonight on Monday Night Football going. I'm also 15 points out of first place overall as the leader has 53 and they are done. I feel pretty good about my team! Andre Johnson had a great game against a tough defense in Pittsburgh and still had over 100 yards! He should tear up weaker defenses!

I know Torry Holt will still come up with a decent amount of TDs but if not then I can replace him with Vincent Jackson who did score yesterday and is on a much better team than St. Louis. Time will tell.

I feel my team has a lot of potential and they might actually live up to the potential this year!

First Full Day!

Yeppers the first full day of the NFL is here!
Excited doesn't really cover it for me! I enjoy the NBA, will watch the world series every once in a while if it is a compelling match up, hockey...blah, NASCASR, yes if it is a great track like Bristol, Martinsville, or the big tracks....but the NFL baby stands on its own!

Today I can start to gauge how my teams will do this season. Yeppers today is the day! I'm excited about today for another reason too. Beersnob is leaving for Qatar as I've blogged about already and today is more or less doubles as a going away party.

My main starting line up today is:
QB - David Garrard
RB - Adrian Peterson and Michael Turner
WR - Larry Fitzgerals, Andre Johnson, and Torry Holt
K - Jason Hansen
Def - Giants (1 point)
Spec teams - Steelers

This should be a solid line up but may need tweaking during the season.

The Weekend!!!!

Get this, I started to stir this morning in bed and for a second I had wondered if I had actually accidentally turned off my alarm and that I had to go to work this morning.

Then in a moment of clarity I remembered that today was SATURDAY!!!! Woohoooo!!!!

Had a quiet evening at home. Didn't do much but got a sandwich on the way home and relaxed all evening. There are some good college football games on today but tomorrow is when I'll really get excited!!!!

It will be the first full day of football and then TWO games on Monday night!!!! Woohooo!!!!

I'm not even going to tell you what my fantasy scores are right now because they don't matter until the games are over with but I'll tell you I'm winning two games and losing one.

Friday!!!!

I'm excited!!!! Friday's are always good!

At work and usually on Monday's I ask people how their weekend was. They usually reply that it was good, bad, or eh. They in return ask and I say I've never had a bad weekend. They used to ask why, well it is because I was off work and after that it doesn't matter. I can deal with everything else.

They understand the logic, no matter how bad your weekend might have been that it was still pretty good. You'd be surprised on how that changes one's outlook as well. If you expect to have a bad weekend you likely will. If you know that no matter what your weekend is going to be good....well duh, it will be!

Well that's my simple philosophy anyway.

Yes I'm still excited that the NFL is back!!!! The other sports are more like diversions until the NFL gets back up and running. Well now that Oklahoma has a NBA team I'll watch that more often during the regular season but that's about it!

AAaahhhhhhhhh......

The relief felt was on par to that of a cold drink of water on a sweltering day. Kickoff tonight was just amazing. I was with three wonderful friends and about half time another showed up at Buffalo Wild Wings!

What a great evening it was!

The Giants pretty much dominated the inept Redskins however in one of my leagues I had Jason Campbell and he did throw a TD for me.

The next round of games kick off normally on Sunday now and I plan on spending the day at Beersnob's house where I hope to take a commanding lead in my heads up match this week until my showstopper Adrian Peterson takes center stage Monday night and puts an exclamation mark on the weekend!

Yeah that's how I hope it goes!

IT'S HERE!!!!

Finally tonight the kickoff of the NFL regular season!!!!

I plan on being with friends at 5:30 at Buffalo Wild Wings!!!!! I have the Giants defense in this game and a couple of other players on my two Yahoo fun leagues including Jason Campbell.

He has looked very unimpressive thus far but we'll see how he looks when it starts to count.

This is such a great time of year!!!! I'm so excited to get this rolling now and to see how my drafted team does! I believe they will do pretty well especially if AP stays 100% all season!

Best Show On TV Right Now Returned

Last night!

The Shield, the final season kicked off. Thirteen episodes per season, one down and twelve to go.

My general no spoilers review is that this was a great episode. Vic is Vic and still as bad as he was in the last season. Ronnie is still the loyal soldier who can step up when he has to and take care of business. Shane is the scheming guy who buries himself even though he tries to dig himself out.

Justice is still out there waiting like the Sword of Damocles over Vic's head. How will Vic meet his end, Tony Soprano like where life goes on? I hope not. That sucked....

The Shield is about action, in your face action in all of its gritty, ugly glory. Vic will go out either in a jail cell or in a gun fight. The jail cell is about as good of an ending as the Soprano ending. So how will Vic go out? My best guess is that he will turn into a Vader like character and die in an act of redemption.

That's my hope. He is a bad guy. Dirty on a lot of levels but I still find myself pulling for him. I want him to get away with it. I want him to escape the justice that will catch up to him. He is self serving. Murderous, thieving, and corrupt but I still want Vic Mackey to win in the end.

I just know he won't this time.

Babylon Labor Day

I had a great day yesterday thanks to an wonderful pool party at Catina's and then a movie and supper with Beersnob.

The movie wasn't that great. Babylon A.D. starring the sometimes working Vin Diesel. It was convoluted and really didn't have a context that was understandable. There was a guy who hired a guy to go pick up a girl and bring her to America. Why?!?!?! I don't know and I watched the movie.

The girl might have been a test tube baby but she might have been divine....but we don't know because IT SUCKED!!!!! This movie sucked on so many different levels I thought I was watching a Jenna Jameson flick....

Really....this movie turned into an action movie with more cliches than you could imagine. Troubled hero...well we don't know because we don't know anything about him! Nothing. Makes it hard to like a guy when there is almost nothing revealed about his past to make his journey they are filming endearing to the audience!

Action scenes too fast to keep up with! I've blogged about this before. When will filmmakers learn to slow the action down a little bit. It is still happening but no one can connect to what is going on because NO ONE CAN SEE WHAT IS GOING ON!!!! IT IS A BLUR!!!! How are you supposed to feel for the actions of your hero when you can't see what he is doing?!?!?! This kills any kind of tension you were trying to build in a most effective manner.

Hitchcock never filmed action this fast and try to tell me that his movies weren't suspenseful!!!!

I can go on and give you two more points to this movie but I believe I've made my position clear enough.

Avoid this movie as if it were work and you were on welfare!

Day Four

Of my four day weekend and today I plan on resting. I went to Chianti's last night again and helped her cook supper. It was really good! We did a great job!

Everyone who ate it also really enjoyed it so I know it wasn't just she and I who thought it was good!

Hurricane Gustav is starting to come on shore right now, targeting New Orleans even though it is a massive storm. It has apparently dropped to a category two hurricane but with the sheer size of it there will be lots of flooding. Its so big we might even get some of the remnants of this storm where I live.

Everyone followed the evacuation order this time on the coast.

College football closes its first week tonight when Tennessee plays. It was a pretty good first week and signals the start of the football season proper. This Thursday night the NFL kicks off and that is what is going to be exciting!!!!

Tropic Hurricane

I went out last night with friends to see this bit of Hollywood skewing Hollywood. It was really funny and really over the top at times. The Ben Stiller helmed flick never dragged.

From the fake trailers to the witty penned script, this movie was a blast to watch. There are so many small jokes and so many parodies that it was hard to keep track of.

After the movie we headed to Chianti's house where she was watching football with another group of friends and had lots of food prepared. We all hung out until around midnight when Sass and her hubby left, Beersnob and Mrs. Beersnob left and I followed suit.

Chianti can really put on a great time, especially when football is involved!

Hurricane Gustav is expected to briefly reach category five status before directly hitting New Orleans again this coming Tuesday. This time around though the local and state government are better prepared and are actually evacuating people NOW instead of when the storm almost hits. I can't help but think that we will have the San Antonio Saints this season as well.

Will New Orleans rebuild again if it is as destroyed as it was last time? From what I've read some of the levees aren't finished yet and the storm surge will easily breach what is there now.

It appears as if this will get really ugly fast when it makes landfall.

Yesterday Was Amazing!

I had a great day off. Around two o'clock I got a text from a friend saying they were going to get some drinks after work. I don't really like the place they were going to but I went anyway.

I got there about five and there were already a couple of people there so we had a good time. More showed up and then I started getting hungry. I had one drink as I really wasn't planning on staying long at all. The rest of the time I drank water.

I started thinking about where I was going to get some food on the way home when I got another text from another friend saying he and some friends were getting together at Past Times for supper! I texted back for the time and then we all met there and had a great supper!

We went to the pub for after dinner drinks in which I had two. This was more alcohol than I have consumed in probably three months! Three drinks in one evening!

I rolled home about eleven thirty and had a great time with some amazing friends!

FOUR Day Weekend!

I decided to help my laid off companions today by not showing up to work so the work gets a little bit further behind.

The work gets further behind the more the schedule slows the more other people are needed to get back on track. If I'm there it doesn't get behind. Today is also payday and a three day weekend. A perfect combination fell into place today and I decided to use eight hours of leave to maximize this weekend!

Last night I went to a going away get together for my friend I blogged about the other day. She is going away to California to acting college but she will be back around Christmas!

Going to miss her around here but I'm happy for her sake she is going!

Lord Obama

My goodness, Obama really has it going on doesn't he?
Tonight he will be accepting the Democratic party nomination on a stage that resembles a Greek temple.

This is a story that you would swear came from The Onion!!!! Alas no. It isn't. This my friends, I'm afraid, is true and fitting of this guy's ego and arrogance. The Chosen One has decided to call upon the Greek Gods to bless his coronation as the nominee to the Presidency.

Obama just makes me shake my head.

In better news I had a wonderful supper with my young friend. First we were going to go to Panevino however it was closed. Then Mickey's....closed for good. Then I picked a place, the ever reliable Western Sizzlin'!!!!

What a great time the two of us had! There is a small informal going away party for her tonight at eight at Chianti's house!

Come On, One More Day!

I have CPR this morning at work. That is boring and will take about an hour maybe two.

This weekend is a holiday weekend. Friday is payday as well. Those are rare when you get both combined. You get excited about it because you look forward to it so much!

I can already tell that Summer is slowing going away now. The Sun is coming up a little bit later, the days are a couple of degrees cooler, the leaves are on the vanguard of turning.

Yeah this is the end of Summer. The start of football season is just next week now! I've been listening to the NFL network on Sirius a lot lately. It doesn't take that to get me into the mood but it makes it feel as if the season were already here.

I can't wait to see how my fantasy teams do this year! I believe I have a strong chance at the top spot for sure provided everyone stays 100% this year and I 'm sure they all will!

Fast Week

And its only Tuesday. That's ok, it is a good week anyway!

Tomorrow night, maybe, I have supper plans with a friend who is going to college in LA. AMDA, an acting school. I'm going to miss her. She is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. She is an extremely talented actor and will do great in school.

She is the example I tend to point to when I think that the country will be safe in the hands of the youth of tomorrow. Intelligent, bright, articulate, and is all heart. I do wish that there were more like her. Today's kids are well served by her example.

To me the measure of someone's integrity and character is if they were alone and know they wouldn't get caught would they do the right thing in a given situation? I have no doubt that doing the wrong thing would never cross her mind. She would do the right thing ten out of ten times. I have that much faith in her.

She has the ability to turn heads but if you told her that she wouldn't believe you.
She is the person that makes this whole town a little bit better and it will be poorer in her absence. I'm proud to call her my friend but I think of her more as a little sister as I'm fairly protective.

Time isn't a luxury she has right now as packing is the order of the day. However I know she will be back sporadically over the next couple of years and those times will also be valued!

Take care my friend, God Bless and study hard!

Great Weekend

And now I'm off to work again.

That's ok, this week has Payday Friday in it. Those are always good. I enjoy them and wish we had one every week!

The Olympics were a success, maybe one of the better ones in my memory. We took home the most medals but not the most gold.

The Democratic National Convention starts this week and that'll be a real hoot. Denver has been invaded by protesters and they are always fun. They are a little bit upset that Obama has abandoned his "no war" stance already. They are likely just as upset that being a professional protester doesn't really pay the bills and they will have to find employment that doesn't require a drug screening.

Great Night Or LaDainian Tomlinson Vs. Adrian Peterson

Yesterday was a really long day for me that kicked off at eleven o'clock. First of all I had to go to Buffalo Wild Wings and purchased food for the fantasy football draft.

I got eighty wings and got the hottest ten sauces. It was a great pickup and everyone at the draft loved them!

Then the draft. We drew for position and after ten other teams had drawn their positions the number one and number two pill had not been taken yet. The other team that had not drawn was sitting next to me. Neither of us really wanted the number one pick, I really wanted the twelveth pick over all. I like taking two elite players back to back instead of one elite player and then waiting twenty three picks to take the other player.

Anyway it came down to him and me. I had the pill container with two pills in it. I drew my pill and didn't look at it, he drew his and shook his head, I knew he had two. I looked at mine and sure enough it was the first pick.

Now I had an agonizing decision. Do I go with LaDanian Tomlinson or Adrian Peterson? They are equally matched on paper but that wasn't good enough. I thought about a coin toss but again I should really put more thought into the number one pick.

After drawing positions we took a ten minute break. This would be the time I needed to deduce who I would take with the supposed best pick in the draft. The number two team asked me who I was going to take, I honestly replied "I don't know".

So LT has never really had a down season. His season totals average are immense and fantasy football gold. He has lead the NFL in rushing the previous few seasons, you can count on him to throw maybe two TDs as well. He is a receiving threat out of the backfield and has been the all around best fantasy football weapon the past four years.

Adrian Peterson had a phenominal break out rookie season. He was unstoppable and gashed defenses for massive amounts of yardage, including THE game! Eight games into his career he rushed for more yards in a game than any other RB. 296 yards and three TDs against one of the best defenses in the NFL last season, the San Diego Chargers. He also suffered a slight knee sprain a couple of games afterwards and basically didn't do much the rest of the season. He might be the heir apparant to LT's greatness.

LT has a downside though. Even though he is the safe pick, has a ton of history to back up his selection at number one AND has only missed one game in his career due to injury, he also has a TON of mileage and is rapidly approaching the stage in his career where even the most durable RBs break down. He gives steady numbers for your team though. You can easily predict 1,500 yards and 16 TDs.

AP has an unlimited upside but hasn't played an entire season since high school. He is a proven injury risk. If he stays healthy all season long being the full time feature back, behind the best offensive line in the NFL.....you can easily predict 2,000 yards and 18+ TDs. His upside is more but the injury risk is higher.

I mulled over every point I could think of, talked it over with one of my friends. He was happy he didn't have to make the choice and would have been happy with the number three pick.

Break was over now and the teams were starting to take their places. I knew it would be just a matter of a minute maybe two before I would have to come to a conclusion. The number two team looked at me and asked me who it was. I said tell me who you want and I'll write down who I'm drafting. He laughed trying not to give away anything.

I wrote down the name on my draft sheet and covered it up. I asked him who he wanted. He didn't tell me so I showed him who I wrote down and he erupted since that is the player he wanted. I went with the unlimited upside, AP the Phenom over LT the Lock. I didn't go with the safe pick gambling that AP will produce more than LT on the downside of his amazing career.

My entire draft went pretty well. I feel I have one of the best teams and will compete every week:
R1-P1 - Adrian Peterson
R2-P12 - Larry Fitzgerald
R3-P3 - Andre Johnson
R4-P10 - Torry Holt
R5-P1 - David Garrard
R6-P12 - Kevin Smith
R7-P3 - Michael Turner
R8-P10 - Phillip Rivers
R9-P5 - New York Giants
R10-P8 - Vincent Jackson
R11-P11 - Matt Stover
R12-P2 - Pittsburgh
R13-P5 - Jason Hansen

I have a great set of WRs and unlimited upside with my RBs. Kevin Smith might very well be THE AP this season. He has size and speed to tear up defenses. Turner gives a reliable veteran who will put up steady numbers in Atlanta as their main offensive option. Garrard should be steady and the Giants D should dominate fantasy numbers.

After the draft was over with I came home to relax a bit before attending a bday party at The Pub. The Charlie awards were going on at the theatre so I was getting text updates on how Misery was doing. It didn't win any award sadly. It was up for best play, best actor, and best actress.

Then after the Charlies were over with I left the bday party and went to another place for an after Charlie drink. I told my bday companions I would meet up with them at another place after I consoled and celebrated with my theatre friends.

I have to be honest, I really thought that Misery was easily the best play. Yes I'm biased but I also know that there was more technical stuff that went on with Misery than all of the other plays combined. The lead actress, Terri, had more lines in Misery than all of the other female leads combined. John had one of the most difficult acting jobs in recent theatre history.

We laughed and cried about how our play got ripped off. I felt pretty upset at the time but today I know that what we put together was a great play, one of the best. I know that all of the hard work was put out there onto the stage and that everyone who saw the play enjoyed it.

The party broke up and I headed over to the continuing bday party. I went up stairs of the new place and found my companions playing quarters. I hung out for about an hour and a half and had more of a great time, didn't drink and just sat and laughed. I was tired by now as it was nearly one thirty AM. I decided it was bed time and drove a handful of blocks home to bed capping a great day, a great draft, and a great evening!

Obama/Biden

The most condescending man in the world has picked the most arrogant man in the world to be his vice presidential running mate.

Joe Biden, the senator from Delaware, is a great pick for this ticket. He is so self centered and angry, he rambles on and on about himself, he is the best walking soundbite next to Chuck Schumer from New York. This really goes along with Obama's message of change since Biden has been in the Senate for over thirty years now. Who'd have thought that the agent of change would be in the US Senate? The greatest concentration of arrogance in the modern world.

They are actually thinking about changing the name from the Democratic Party to the Arrogant Party, no fooling....really. I'm sure the shee....uh...supporters will hail this as the next best thing since Aaron assisted Moses before the Exodus.

I am also wagering that the Clintonistas are in a private uproar because HRC wasn't even vetted to become the VP. That goes to show how deep the rift really is between the two camps. There are polls that suggest that only half of people who voted for HRC will support Obama. They are a little bit bitter about how HRC was dismissed by the Obama camp.

That his treatment of her (and her eighteen million votes in case you haven't heard) was disgraceful and earned her the VP slot because she is a Clinton and she doesn't lose on her own, people always cheat her out of what is rightfully hers.

Watch the Democratic National Convention, there will be a meltdown or a powerplay to sway the super delegates to support Clinton the Communist over Obama the Marxist. You can bank on it but it might not be very public.

This is why politics is so fascinating.

I'm sorry if the tone of this post is a bit sarcastic, it is intended to be.

I can't stand any of the people I have just blogged about.
I'm a freedom loving American who wants the government out of our lives.
I am anti-nanny state. Something that all of the above support.
I don't believe that the government can run our lives better than we can.
I believe in personal responsibility.
I believe the Constisution limits what congress can do not the other way around.
I believe that this is going to be an interesting election cycle.

I've Got

Just one more day to study up for the draft.

Tomorrow is the big day, the day where twelve teams will be drafted and we will live or die by those teams. The waiver wire will be bare and picked clean by week three.

Yes this is the time of year we all live for! Drafts will be going on all over the country! It is a magical time where large groups of veteran fantasy football players, league commissioners, and newbies get together and divide up the NFL league amongst themselves.

I'm on message boards all over the place looking for that one piece of information on who is going to have a breakout year and I can grab in a late round that no one else knows about. Its exciting to see where we will pick and which players will fall to us.

Yes this is the time where fantasy football players get little sleep and caffeine is the lifeblood on which you survive. A whole new season, a whole new team of your making.

This is my time of year!

The Watchmen

I have recently seen the trailer released for The Watchmen online. For those unfamiliar The Watchmen is a twelve issue comic masterpiece. It is set in the mid eighties and is mainly about the decay of society as the cold war rages on.

A man is murdered and Rorschach, a masked vigilante, sleuths the crime believing that there is a killer who is taking out masked superheroes. The is post "good ol' days" though, most of the masks have long since retired and are living meager existences while reveling in past achievements.

There are so many layers to the comic that I don't know exactly how they can do all of the facets justice in a movie. It would have to be a movie of considerable length, maybe similar to Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: Extended Edition and push the four hour mark to get the story told.

Even if you aren't a comic book fan this is still an amazing story that will just mesmerize you with its depth. It is very relevant in today's political climate as well, especially now that the sleeping bear is awake in Russia.

Fantasy Football Is Just

Four more days away! Well the draft anyway!

I'm pretty excited and well prepared though! We were going to have fifteen teams but we voted and kept the original amount from last year. Fifteen was just too many. I've blogged about this before but this is just recapping;)

Anyway one team dropped out and now we will have twelve which we set the team cap at twelve so it has worked out perfectly although I really didn't want to see that team leave. He was in the league before I was and this is my thirteenth year I believe.

I'm hoping that very soon there will be a fantasy football iPhone app so I can keep track of my players if I should happen to not be around that day....for some strange reason. That would be so great! I'm sure someone is working on the idea though.

Well

The guy who was off for prostate cancer and a hernia is coming back today. He was off for six weeks. I really thought he would be off for a lot longer than that.

He isn't 100% but he says he is going to take it easy and is going to go home when he starts to hurt, kind of a light duty thing I guess.

I know he will try hard but he isn't the fastest person in the world when he is healthy. They still need to call the two laid off people back. Things are starting to slip and get behind now. One place has gone to twelve hour days to keep up.

I don't know if those are in our future or not but right now I'd say not. We just aren't that far behind yet.

A Quiet Sunday

Which was quite a contrast to the exciting Saturday! I needed it, it was very relaxing and peaceful.
I wound up selling my broken iPhone on eBay for one hundred eighty dollars plus sixteen dollars shipping and handling!!!!

I am shipping it today to California. I hope they get it fixed or get a long life out of it. It was a good phone.

Going to be a long week. I know things are going to be more shorthanded since it is a busy week at the other shop. I am sure on the busiest day someone will call in and I'll have to go there and pick up the slack.

Just the way those children are, it is like a day care.

Great Party Night!

And I never drank a drop! Just wasn't in the drinking mood but I did stay up pretty late and it was a lot of fun! It was essentially a block party and two houses were opened up to a large group of people.

I met some people I haven't met before and enjoyed their company, saw a lot of old friends and enjoyed them a lot as well.

We all watched Olympic history as Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal and seventh world record in the 4x100 relay. He broke Mark Spitz's record which leads to some interesting symmetry. The Olympics started on 8/8/08 and Phelps won eight gold medals.

Weird huh?

It was a great moment in history and it was a great experience with everyone watching at the same time like we were!

Babel

I watched this movie last night. It was composed of three interwoven stories which seemingly have nothing to do with one another.

First two children in the Moroccan desert with a rifle for shooting jackals.
Second a Mexican housekeeper takes her two charges to Mexico for her son's wedding.
Third a deaf and emotionally neglected daughter of a Tokyo business man navigates through a couple of days in her life.

Brad Pitt is the star of this ensemble cast even though there are better performances than his. I'd say watch it, it is enjoyable and at times moving.

Woohoo! Payday Friday!!!!

These are always exciting days!
Now if there were only a federal holiday today or Monday it would be better! I can cope though.

I'm looking forward to an adventurous weekend, I don't know exactly what it holds yet but I'm sure it will be fun!

Been a long week at work and I wasn't even there on Monday.

I'm happy it is eight hours from being over:)

Wow!

There is quite a storm going on this morning! Around six it started to thunder and by the time I got out of the shower it was a full blown storm that was pouring down rain by the buckets!

Noisy too, lots of thunder and lightning.

This will make for a lot cooler August! A lot nicer August! A week ago it was around one hundred five to one hundred eight degrees, which is a typical August for us so this is a real treat.

There is a guy at work who has around three hundred ninety hours of PTO (personal leave or vacation) well what happens if you don't take your leave by January first everything over two hundred eighty hours rolls over into sick leave. Which means it is worthless and you won't get paid for it, while it is PTO it has monetary value.

This guy is like a sixty year old child. Selfish, always angry, gets angry at the drop of a hat for no reason. He is suprisingly single....go figure.

He gets mad if he can't come to work and when he gets there he gets mad at everyone there, I've concluded that is his version of being happy. As warped as it is. He can't do anything on his own and always wants to help, while being mad at you, and screws you up because he has no skills. He has been there longer than anyone else in my department too. You'd think he would have a better idea of what he is doing but he doesn't.

Well the reason for this post with him in it is that he has to take just over a full month off or lose his leave into sick leave. He hates taking off because he doesn't do anything. He has ran off most of his friends with his bizarreness and hair trigger temper. So what this does is leave the shop another hand short for a long time.

Hopefully they will start hiring someone back soon.

The Power And The Glory

I recently purchased this book by Graham Greene. I am familiar with it but have never actually read it yet.

The story is a complex one. In revolutionary Mexico God is outlawed. Priests are hunted down and eliminated. The last priest is a complete moral failure. He drinks, has a mistress, and a child.

He slowly realizes that sometimes you are called to things that are bigger than you are and they are not always what you want them to be.

I'm not going to spoil it for those of you who will pick it up and read this masterpiece but it is a moving story about what Christianity is compared to the dangerous type of Christianity that is pervasive in today's society that is proclaimed by Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, and those of their ilk.

This stands in stark contrast to those of the "name it and claim it" gospel also knows as health and wealthers. Essentially it is up to how strong your faith is and you can reap worldy riches and outstanding health to your heart's content.

This is heretical and exactly the opposite of what Christianity is about. Typically the people who proclaim this heresy are hypocrites who generally are in it for the dollar. They blame the person who doesn't have strong faith for their failings, their poor health, their lack of a desired income, etc.

So say you are sick, deathly ill, you call one of these hucksters to heal you and then you get worse. Their response would probably be that your faith isn't strong enough or there is some sin in your past that is preventing you from being healed that you need to confess. So you are blamed for being sick and you have tied God's hands in healing you.....yeah, you, a mortal being has confounded the Supreme Being of the universe from helping you.....let that sink in for a second.

These people are criminal and deserve to be in prison.

Yeah.....criminal.

Twelve Teams

We decided to cap our league at twelve teams last night at our emergency rules meeting. We have thirteen right now and if someone ever drops out then we will keep it at that level.

Fifteen was just way too many to support by the talent pool. No one wanted to reduce the roster sizes which would have to happen in order to have fifteen teams draft.

It was a good meeting, very productive and everyone voiced their opinions. Everyone voted and the majority won eight to four with one not able to be contacted. Afterward we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and had some supper. I've never seen so many TVs in my life outside of a TV store....it would have been better if we would have been able to hear the game that was on and not the jukebox.

Good food. I enjoyed the atmosphere.

Off Today, Maybe Badminton Is On

Yep!
I decided to take the day off. If our shop never gets behind then we will never get anyone hired back. So I'll sacrifice some of my leave for the cause and in the process enjoy another day off.

I've got a couple of errands to run today so that'll give me time to do those as well.

It appears as if it might rain today. That's nice. I'd much rather have this cool weather than the one hundred degree days we had a week ago!

So there I was yesterday flipping through the Olympics when I saw women's Badminton being played. I had never seen it played outside of backyards before so I sat there.....transfixed, mesmerized even. It appears as if the Chinese take this sport seriously! They were really getting into it!

The Chinese also appeared to dominate women's Badminton. I believe they had the two top ranked players in the world! Yes there are also world Badminton rankings, who'd have thunk it?!?! So there I was watching it and all of a sudden it dawned on me that I had watched three matches!

I watched as they adjusted the shuttlecock (yes I snicker when I hear them say that) and then flipped it over the net, the other person returns it and play continues until one person gets the required amount of points.

I didn't even know this was a real sport let alone an Olympic sport but in some parts of the world this is taken seriously much like Curling in the Winter Olympics. So it begs the question, why get rid of baseball and softball in the next Summer Olympics and keep Badminton? If Badminton is allowed what about Mini Golf? I could be a gold medalist as long as there is a windmill and loop to loop with a clown at the end!





Anyway

Busy Evening

I helped a friend move yesterday evening. Had a lot of fun, learned quite a bit, and got a lot of stuff moved.

I think I've made plans for next Friday night too! Woohooooo! It is always fun to get a bunch of friends together with a common goal!
My friend's new house is really nice and cozy. I like it a lot!

My fantasy football league is going to discuss including two other teams which would put our total to fifteen. That is a lot of teams. Too many in my opinion and I feel we should keep it at what we had last year at the most which was thirteen.

That was a difficult year and there still wasn't a lot to pick from if you suffered an injury. As it is with thirteen it is difficult but with fifteen, just two more teams you are talking about six more RBs drafted and you likely won't get a starter from pick thirty two to forty five.

That makes it very tough.

The Olympics

I've never been a huge Olympics fan. I watch a few events here and there but overall I'm just not that interested, especially on the cusp of football season.

So now the Olympics are in China....one of the countries that has few human rights, no religious freedoms, hybrid communist views, and an exploding population to control. I can't help thinking that this is a perfect storm for a tragedy when the world comes to visit. The world who enjoys many freedoms that China denies its population like freedom of the press.

Whole herds of journalists have descended on China and they expect to report what they see with no interference like normal. Wellllll.....not so fast there Sparky. As long as China approves what you write you can.....I'd dread that assignment if I were a journalist. Likely you will be seeing lots of reporters who drew the shortest straw.

Sure the opening ceremonies were beautiful. Amazing even! Why can't this gigantic country be as amazing when it comes to trusting its population with fundamental freedoms? It isn't quite right at that point but it is a start. For example our Constitution clearly states that we are endowed by our Creator with rights, they are not parsed out to us by the government. The Constitution limits what our government can do, not empower it to give its population rights.

That is the right way, and in some ways our congress has gone all bonkers with arrogance. Anyway that is a subject for another blog.

The Olympics! Where the world meets to express goodwill and have sporting events! Lets hope that goodwill that China is displaying right now carries over through the duration of the event with no interference from its oppressive government.

iPhone: The Final Chapter

Yes, this is the first generation iPhone that has been broken and
replaced!

Jet Favre

Will make little difference to the Jets. He might be good for a two or three game improvement but that would put the Jets at almost 8-8. Hardly earth shaking.

They were talking on the radio yesterday about how he might lead them to the playoffs......yeah.....in a division that has the Patriots in it!

Delusional.

You can pretty much count on New England, Indianapolis, San Diego, and Jacksonville. Likely the Steelers too.

I'm sorry but Favre was brought in to sell seats not win games. One host had it right, he thought that it was unreasonable to expect a massive improvement from New York as well. At Favre's best he would still turn the ball over at crucial moments. Not good for a team that only won four games last year.

Do they really think that he has three years left in him? They signed him for three years and that was on a good team! Favre won't like losing in spades like he will be doing with the Jets. It has a way of demoralizing you and making you want to retire....again......

New Phone Arrival!

I was kinda happy....well I was skipping down the halls at work when I received the email saying that my iPhone had arrived!

Finally no more reading, browsing, playing the iBeer game through a cracked glass that happened to keep cracking and falling out....and yet it still worked!

I drove to the store that had my new shiny phone after work to find another guy who was purchasing his first iPhone. I showed him my damaged phone and he marveled (and so did the hottie who was waiting on him) that it still worked.

About ten minutes later my new phone was activated and my contract extended....yeah....extended.

Oh well, maybe we will get a 3G network here in town soon and it will be used up to its full potential. That would be nice. I'm not holding my breath though. My broken phone might have a home though as two coworkers have expressed an interest in buying mine.

Yeah, it is still worth quite a bit in its condition. I can send it away to Apple and they will send me a refurbished phone with warranty for two hundred dollars plus tax or I could format it and sell it as is even! Amazing! This thing actually holds value!!!! Try that with a blackberry!!!!

Shipped!!!!

My new iPhone has been shipped and according to the tracking number should be arriving today for pickup!

That is great news! The screen continues to disintegrate with small pieces of glass coming off now and again. Still working though!
I'm not sure on the transfer process how it all works but I'm sure that will all happen at the store.

I'm just happy to be able to look at a screen that isn't all cracked now....

Sleepy......

For some reason I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep.
I'm tired this morning.....I feel blah......

Not a very interesting update today, sorry kids.

Off Today

Today I go in to get a ct scan to make sure all of the kidney stones are gone. I am pretty sure they are but the doctor wants to make sure.

So I'm off today! It is at ten and I have to drink this dreadful dye in about an hour to prepare for it....I don't think it will take that long for the scan so I'll have a lot of time today.

I hired a guy to help me haul off the stuff in the hanger, I'm going to give it back. Beersnob and I talked about how it would be better to use a place with running water and climate control. So he is going to stop by at two and we are going to get it cleaned out.

Had my first fantasy football draft of the year last night. I got into a Yahoo league with some people and I had the third pick overall. I was prepared to take Joseph Addai since I was positive that LT and AP would be gone......well that didn't happen. The number two pick took Tom Brady which meant that I got Adrian Peterson!

I believe I got a pretty solid team overall. I have a team that has unlimited upside. It will be a team that will also strike out on some weeks too.
It looks like this:
QB: Jason Campbell, Jon Kitna
RB: Adrian Peterson, Jonathon Stewart, Kevin Smith, Selvin Young, Chester Taylor, Ahmad Bradshaw
WR: Braylon Edwards, Marques Colston, Lee Evans, Anthony Gonzales
TE: Kevin Boss
K: Josh Brown, Lawrence Tynes
Def: Washington, Tampa Bay

So this team will compete if my number one pick fulfills his potential. I might work a trade for another WR sometime this season if I feel I need another good one and let loose one of my plentiful RBs.

Working!

My PC is now working and Harry came through with flying colors on restoring my backup drive however I'm having a hard time with using the backup drive.

I figured out the install problem and got past that part. I put the hard drive back in and windows sees the drive but I can't access it yet for some reason. Going to have to deal with that problem after work though.

Today is layoff day. It is rumored that there will be a sort of blue flu going around part of the place I work in protest. I'd love to see that happen! It would be great to see management scramble to get the job done!

IT Miracle!

I believe my hard drive is restored or at least partially!
Harry called me last night and asked me if I had such and such named folders and I said I did! So amazingly I believe I'll be able to have my PC up and running today!

Woohooooo!

My laptop has been good but it just isn't a desktop PC. It is just a matter of putting the right programs back and it will be like a new PC!

Stargate: Hard Drive

Is now in the hands of my IT friend who believes he can recover some if not all of the data. I took it to work with me and he picked it up and said he would do what he could do!

I was invited out to supper last night by a friend and we ate at La Fiesta! Very good place to eat and some very good margaritas! Strong too!

Yesterday I picked up the two Stargate SG1 movies. I have to say that they were great movies! I like how they are continuing the series in a more adult way! They had a little language and a bit more violence. All in all it would be a PG rated movie, not even PG13.

The stories were really good and it was great to see O'Neil in Continuum! A great story that wraps up the Baal clone storyline! Ark of Truth wrapped up the Ori storyline and was the first of the two direct to DVD movies. I do believe that there are more coming as well! Bring them on!

Reformatting Blues

Last night I decided my pc needed a reformat and Vista installed again. I got it reformatted just fine but when it came time to install Vista back it wouldn't work for some reason!

It came time to select the drive I wanted to put Vista. I chose the recently formatted drive but it wouldn't allow me to select Next to continue the install!

I'm going to have to run this by my IT buddy at work and see what I can do, this might cost me a six pack if he has to come over but I'm really confused. I've installed dozens of Windows OS in my time and built two complete systems that I have used for years! I am not a newbie at this and have some PC chops.

I even used diskpart.exe to clean the drive completely to make sure a new installation would go right in the place of the old OS......gggrrrrrrr