Bowling

Tonight as part of our off-site, I went bowling with the coworkers. I dominated everyone the first game with a measely 145 (around my former average of 150-170) but then lost my bowling mojo and got a 104 (which sadly enough was still good for a close second).

I know I could have done better if I had one of those pimp-style Star Wars bowling balls

But wait, in a couple of months, I WILL have one of those, because there's a Star Wars bowling league in Bellevue that gives you your choice of Star Wars bowling balls for free if you sign up.

http://sunvillalanes.amfcenters.com/default.cfm?action=merchandise.starwars

http://www.starwars.com/collecting/news/misc/news20050527.html

For the love of...

I just got done with one of those all day off site meetings. It started at 8am and went until 10:30pm or so. Sure, a lot of it was socializing with the coworkers, but it's still exhausting.

So why I am I not in bed?

I'm at work. Yup. Sitting here at my desk at midnight....and I'm not even doing anything that time critical.

I have to finish this presentation that I'm giving Friday morning, and I knew that if tomorrow's meeting lasts as long as this one, I'm not going to have time to have it pefect by then. I may want to come home and just crash, So I decided to suffer tonight and that way tomorrow I can just have a stress-free day and not worry about this dumb slide deck.

I can't look at Powerpoint anymore, so I'm taking a break. I have the entire building to myself....so I have Letters to Cleo playing on my Xbox nice and loud. Thank God for the Soundtracks feature in that hulking beast of a video game console.

Late night TV

I just got done with one of those all day off site meetings. It started at 8am and went until 10:30pm or so. Sure, a lot of it was socializing with the coworkers, but it's still exhausting.

So why I am I not in bed?

I'm at work. Yup. Sitting here at my desk at midnight....and I'm not even doing anything that time critical.

I have to finish this presentation that I'm giving Friday morning, and I knew that if tomorrow's meeting lasts as long as this one, I'm not going to have time to have it pefect by then. I may want to come home and just crash, So I decided to suffer tonight and that way tomorrow I can just have a stress-free day and not worry about this dumb slide deck.

I can't look at Powerpoint anymore, so I'm taking a break. I have the entire building to myself....so I have Letters to Cleo playing on my Xbox nice and loud. Thank God for the Soundtracks feature in that hulking beast of a video game console.

Lazy Saturday

I woke up this morning to the sound of my neighbor's dog barking. The dog barked from like 8am to 10am. I'm not sure why, but he's been doing that for the last 3 days. I meant to go over there and ask the neighbor what the deal is, but I forgot.

Played some Halo today. Won many games, got my ranks back on the way up to their former respectable numbers.

Made some progress on the Star Wars room today. I opened every baggie of loose figures that was on the floor or on the shelves. That means I probably set up about 50-100 figures today. I have one box (probably 200-300 more figs) to go, and then I'm done with setting up all the stuff that I already have opened.

When that's done, I can start opening new things that are just waiting in boxes to be displayed. Probably 50% of my collection is still in boxes, but if I spent about an hour every day or two on this, in a couple of weeks I could be done.

Then I could finally show off this collection I've been working on for 10 years now. That's the goal. :-)

Worst night of Halo ever

I don't think I've ever had a losing streak as long as the one that I had tonight. 24 games tonight and according to Bungie.net, I won exactly 5 times. I know I'm rusty because I don't play as much as I did last year, but this was just bullshit.

From just after midnight until just now, I was staying awake just trying to get one win before bed, but it never happend. I'm finally retiring because I have to be at work in less than 7 hours, so it's just common sense. I'm done with Halo though. Done for at least.....the next 12 hours. Mark my words.

I'm so glad tomorrow....er, today is Friday.

Flashing headlights save the day

Today as I was driving in to work, someone was flashing their lights at me. I knew immediately that this meant a cop was ahead, waved to them...and slowed down. Sure enough, my slowing down from 45mph to the posted speed limit of 25 saved me a ticket, as right around the corner there was a motorcycle cop. So thank you friendly motorist!

Growing up in California, the rumor was when lights were flashed at you, you were never to flash your lights back at this person as this was a signal. This signal meant they were a gang member, and would chase you down and shoot anyone that flashed their lights back. I never personally witnessed this, it was just something that my friends in high school always warned me about.

So, when I moved to Washington years ago, and someone flashed their lights at me, I remember having a conversation with some new friends about how "That could get them shot in California". Those friends explained to me that up here in Washington, flashing lights usually mean that a cop is ahead and you should slow down. I thought that was a neat idea, and since I didn't seem to be in danger of dying for it, I later started doing this myself.

Because of the internet, movies or simply word of mouth.....eventually, the "Flashing lights mean gang members are going to kill you" urban legend later spread around, as I eventually heard someone repeat it to me in Seattle when I told them about how I now used my flashing lights to warn people about cops.

They told me "That can get you killed in California".

I always thought this was funny, and today I found a website that chronicles the whole thing. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/lightout.asp Turns out this has been around for 20 years, and has almost never been true.

So if you see a police officer preparing a speed trap, PLEASE flash your lights to all the oncoming motorists. Some of us understand this does not mean we are going to die, and we really appreciate the warning to slow down. It saved me a ticket this morning.

Finally done with Burger King!

Today I walked into my normal "Morning" Burger King at Overlake that I've been hitting at least once every week of this stupid Star Wars promotion. They always get the new toys first, so I walked in and asked for a meal and my two toys from week 6.

Every time I've gone in there and asked if I can buy the whole set of 5 for the week, they always say "No, you can only buy 2".

Today, for the first time of this entire promotion (at this Burger King) the guy actaully let me buy the extras I needed to fill the set. So I got all 5 figures from Wave 6 today. He even tried to give me one of the 1 per case Vaders for free, but I didn't need another one so I said "Give it to a kid".

I've eaten more Crossainwiches, Whoppers, Onion Rings and those awful hashbrowns than one person should ever eat in a month. Yet, exactly 31 toys later, I've finally gotten them all.


It's over.

NO MORE BURGER KING!
Thank the maker.

P.S. Oh yeah, yesterday John got us tickets to go see Kevin Smith in Vancouver next month. That was supposed to be on my highlights of the last 3 days, but I forgot about it....so there it is

The Highlights

So this seems like a real blog entry, here are the top 10 highlights of my last two days:

1. Received several Star Wars figures in the mail yesterday from some guy online I traded with. He added extras. Specifically, extra clone troopers...which I always like to have more of.

2. Had the sunroof and both windows open on the commute home yesterday. Nothing blew out of my car, which is always a good thing.

3. Sampled some of my friend Justin's homemade pizza. It's coming along...but needs work. I believe that he will be inspired by my constructive comments to create his pizza masterpiece.

4. Had calzones at Pete's, right after Justin's pizza. The direct comparison was good for Pete's, but bad for Justin.

5. --Censored--

6. My car insurance was cancelled due to my forgetting to pay the bill, but I just started it up again today. And hey, now I pay 20 dollars less a month. I guess I am a better driver now that I'm 30. Either that, or they think I am.

7. Hey, that means I've been driving around with no car insurance for the last week and I didn't even know it.

8. I finally watched that Robotic Chicken show everyone is always telling me to watch last night. It's really funny. I will probably have to Tivo this one from now on.

9. I have some cherry coffee cake at home just waiting for me to eat it.

10. I'm going to see a movie tonight. It hasn't happened yet, but it already counts as a highlight.

BTW, attached is a picture that will always be a highlight, of any day.

Back in the swing of things

Tonight I played a dozen games or so of Halo 2. Since Greg was online, I had a good teammate for every game I went into and was able to level up several levels. A few more nights like that and I'll be back up to my old numbers. Still, I felt out of practice and think I need to play some more if I want to get good before the new maps come out.

I also did a new Radio Show, which was long overdue.

Tomorrow morning I've got to get up really freakin early to do a top secret trooping event. It's along the lines of the last one, which I can now finally talk about. A little over a month ago, Microsoft called us up and asked us to come out to MS Studios to be extras (we gave the money they paid us to charity) for a promo video for Xbox 360 they were doing for E3. Basically, they had Bill Gates and Steve Balmer sitting in lawn chairs outside of a movie theater set, playing with the new Xbox 360...and we were all supposed to be fans in the line for Star Wars Episode 3 with them.

As you can imagine, that gig was a real stretch for me. The video only got shown to attendees of E3, so most of us never got to see it, but I'm sure it was very cool. Maybe someday they'll give me a copy.

Hopefully in awhile I'll be able to talk about whatever this secret project we're working on tomorrow is for. Right now, I don't even know....I just know that the guy from Microsoft told some other producer about us......and now we're going to some big movie set. Ooooooooooooh. The suspense is terrible, isn't it?

The World has gone crazy!

So I'm flipping around the premium channels, trying to find a movie to watch so I can zone out for awhile. I see Mallrats. It's on "WE" (Women's Entertainment) which means it's going to have commercials and be edited, but that's actually a really funny way to watch Mallrats. Hearing the substitutions for the constant stream of profanity in that movie (and seeing the boobs edited out of it) is always a good laugh. I stop flipping channels and watch.

The guy who voices the "edited" Jay doesn't sound a thing like Jason Mewes. That's always funny. Then a commercial comes on. But before the commercial, they have these 3 "surfer" dudes talking about how much they love this movie. Then they fade out and it says "3 guys and a chick flick". Apparently this is a regular thing on "WE", and these three guys usually comment on girly movies. That would be a novel concept, except when the hell did Mallrats become a Chick flick? The only movie Kevin Smith ever made that could possibly be confused with a chick flick is Jersey Girl, and this is about the Polar Opposite of that particular piece of fluff.

What bonehead over at the Women's Entertainment network had the audacity to call Mallrats a chick flick? I think both men AND women should be offended. On the other hand, if Mallrats IS a chick flick, then I now have a favorite chick flick of all time to cite when people ask. I'll let them know that I love it for it's tender moments, like the stink palm scene.
Say....would you like a chocolate covered pretzel?