Notes from 2010...in no particular order

Happy New Year! Here's some random year wrap up/next year predictions from me.


TV-
Lost eneded. I really liked that show alot. The first few seasons were great. Even though the last couple seasons dragged on a bit, I still liked it. I just re-watched the last episode today(DVR) and I actually enjoyed it more than the first time I saw it.
I started watching Entourage this year. Never seen it. So I watched all of the seasons on DVD and was consistently entertained. A show about 4 dudes who are friends, rip on eachother and live in Hollywood. And lots of babes too. What's not to like?
Dog the Bounty Hunter. - A guilty pleasure, yes. But good entertainment....brah.
American Chopper. - Always liked it, always will.
Palladia.- It's a channel I get with comcast. Its all concerts, videos, specials. It's awesome. It's really what MTV should be. Ive discovered many new bands from palladia.
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. - Best late night on TV. period. Classic songs like"balls in your mouth", and the Neil Young impresions. Cool games, good humor. Definetely worth watching.

Movies -
Iron Man 2. - Loved it. Iron Man is my favorite super hero ever. It wasn't quite as good as the first one, but I still dug it anyways. Good fight scenes, Mickey Rourke was cool as Whiplash, and it had War Machine. Dope.
Stepbrothers. - Awesome hilarity with Will Farrell and that other guy. Good laughs.
Gran Tourino. - Clint Eastwood makes a good film. And he has the craziest racial slurs ever.

Music -
Album of the year - Minus the Bear/OMNI. Freaking sweet. Such a great record that flows. Every song is worth listening to, and they sound good live. Check em out.
On a side note, last year's album of the year was Silversun Pickups/Swoon. Check it out too. Next year's album of the year - The new Twilight Singers album due in Feb. Already heard 2 songs from it and it sounds great.
Other noteables to check out - III/IV from Ryan Adams, Broken Bells, Jeff Klein - Death of the fox, and anything from Citizen Cope.

Other -
Tums. So much for heartburn, Tums kicks ass.
Nebraska football-Last year in the Big 12. 10-4 record. Some tough losses but they are imroving. Bring on the Big 10 next year.

Thats it for now. Peace out 2010. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

K

Helpful technology, unhelpful people

As I have worked in the retail sector for years, I understand the importance of customer service. I went into Best Buy tonight to look at computers, and found my way to the desktops. I found an HP that was on clearance, and looked beneath it to see if there were any in-stock. I saw a different HP with similar features but there was no price. So I waited for a customer service person to come and help me....and waited...and waited. I then decided to grab my phone, log onto bestbuy.com, and search for the computer. I found the price, realized it was too much, and left the store without talking to a person. Someday there will be no need for people to work in retail in a salesperson capacity.

It was faster for me to use the internet on my phone then to talk to a real person.

Someday people won't sell computers at BestBuy anymore. Computers will sell computers at BestBuy. Guess I better learn how to fix computers. Hmmm..now I wonder if they will just make more computers to fix the computers. Oh well. All humans will be gone soon and I won't have to worry about not getting service at BestBuy.

Affirmative. Binary Solo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1BdQcJ2ZYY&feature=related

Oh what a feeling....Toyota!

Sometimes you just have to be there. I get it. Sometimes you hear a story that someone thinks is hilarious, but you just don't think it's that funny. Hopefully you, one of 7 readers, will enjoy this story as much as I did when I lived it.....

So I'm at work, and I'm walking through the store, and I walk up to a couple of associates standing there talking. Alicia is staring off in to space, as if she were in deep thought...

Me - "Alicia, what are you thinking about?"

Alicia - "Jen told me the miles she has on her truck, and I'm trying to figure out the decimal point."

Me - "Oh, ok. Jen, how many miles do you have on it?"

Jen - "Two Hundred and Ten Hundred Thousand miles."

Me, looking puzzled.... - "Um... you mean Two Hundred Ten Thousand, right?"

Jen - "No, Two Hundred and Ten Hundred Thousand miles."

At this point, I had given her the chance to correct herself, and she didn't take it. Maybe she was just tired. Maybe she hadn't taken a math class in a while. Maybe she didn't see the huge grin beginning to form on my face. So me, being the nice guy, tried to give her another chance to get out of it...

Me - "Jen, that's not a real number."

Jen - "No, when I bought it from the guy, he told me that's how many miles it had on it. He had it on a farm and they drove it alot."

Me - "Well Iv'e heard of some old Toyota's getting up to a million miles, after 20 years or so, but that's about it." (At this point I'm just trying to wrap up the conversation so I can go somewhere and laugh....)

Jen - "Well he said Two Hundred and Ten Hundred Thousand miles on it."

Me - "Well, whatever you paid for your truck, you have certainly got your money's worth!"

So I walked away, and the whole time, Alicia is still trying to figure out the decimal point.

I couldn't keep myself from laughing the rest of the day. I would think about the seriousness in her answers and I would start to grin and crack up.
Unfortunately, Jen quit, and is moving to Alaska with her boyfriend.
According to mapquest, it is 3227 miles from Englewood to Anchorage.

That would put her Toyota truck at

Two Hundred and Ten Hundred Thousand Three Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty Seven miles when she gets there....I think...

Oh what a feeling....Toyota!

My last three blog posts

My last 3 blog posts have NO comments. None at all. Throw me a friggin' bone here, people. Isn't the point of blogging to share a bunch of stupid stories with people and then have them comment on said stupid stories? Do my stories need to get stupider? More stupid? Stupid-endous? Stupidtacular? I feel like they are getting stupider by the second... I can feel the stupid.

Fun stuff from Jury Duty

So it was a couple of weeks ago that I went to jury duty. Iv'e pretty much told everyone about the facts of the case and how it turned out. So I'm going to post a few things that I thought were interesting about the whole experience.

Some interesting names of people in my jury pool:
Quintas
Robota (yes, as in "domo arigato, Mrs. Robota, domo domo....)
And Melinda, the baliff.

The jury sits in a slightly raised seating area, on the side of the courtroom. There are two rows of chairs, with a small wall separating the jury seating area from the courtroom floor. I found it highly amusing that someone had carved graffiti on the inside of that wall from the jury seats! Someone had been so bored during a trial that they pulled out their car keys and started carving on the wall! (There are no pocket knives or any sharp objects allowed into the building so I figure they did it with car keys.)

Our judge was an older man, who had come out of retirement to help with the case overload in Arapahoe county. (Talk about an overload, the case I was on was already 2 years old....) He was a very astute judge, who was spot on with the information on the case and was very sharp. I did find it amusing though that it looked like he was asleep during most of the trial. He would lean back in his chair, and look out through the bottom of his eyelids through his glasses. Just when I was convinced he would start snoring, one of the lawyers would object to something and he would instantly take care of it.

Couple of things I learned:
The state does provide enough coffee for everyone. (In both the jury selection room and in the actual jurors deliberation room)
They do NOT provide food. (muffins, doughnuts, etc.)
Your job is required by law to pay you for at least 3 days worth of jury duty. After that, the government will pay you $50 dollars a day....I'm still waiting for my $50 check!

Castlewood Canyon

So I live on the Southeast end of the Denver Metro area. I really liked it when I lived on the west side of town, becuase I was close to the foothills and plenty of good hiking. But, I don't, so I either have to drive accross town, or find somewhere near me to hike. I have heard of a place called Castlewood Canyon, which is near Parker. (about 15 miles from my place.)

So last weekend I took a drive there to check it out. The closer I got to the park, I realized that it is far enough out of town and is down inside a nice canyon with pine trees and cool rock formations. As I drove up to the gate, I rolled down my window to pay my entry fee (its a state park, which was kind of a downer...) and the Ranger at the gate had a bullsnake wrapped around her neck! I said" Hi! How much do I owe?" She said "6 dollars." I said, "Ok, do you know you have a snake around your neck?" She laughed and said"Yes, this is Sid. He's super nice." I quickly said goodbye to the Ranger and Sid and drove in to find a parking space.

I found a spot near one of the trails and just started to walk. It was a 4 mile loop so I figured that was perfect for what I wanted to do. The trail was nice, relatively unkept (which was nice) and had plenty of shade with the big pine trees. The trail wrapped down into the canyon, and ran away from Parker Road. It actually went far enough so I couldn't hear the traffic and was really starting to have a nice outdoor experience. It's about at this point, that I something caught my eye, so I stopped to take a look....it was a deer leg just off the trail. Now, I have seen carcases of animals before and they don't really bother me. But what really caught my attention, was that this particular leg was completely cleaned of all meat. Stripped raw. And, the rest of the deer body wasn't anywhere nearby..... so something had taken this leg and dragged it over by the trail to eat it...

If there was any doubt that I was actually having a good outdoor experience, it was now gone. I continued hiking for a couple more miles and then came back. I didn't see any wild life except for birds and squirrels. But the hike was nice, the views were great and Sid was a nice snake. I will definetely head over there again.

Slacking

Yes I'm slacking with the blogs. Yes I went hiking at Castlewood Canyon this last weekend and want to post about it. Yes Iv'e been through two days of jury duty and want to post about it. No I'm not going to do it now. Thanks.

Go back to Oregon, lady!

Dear Lady from Oregon,
I know you will never read this, because you are not one of my blog followers. But that's ok. I'm just putting this out there into the universe. I'm sure some karma will come back to get you. But let me tell you this, I don't appreciate you cutting me off on the interstate, and then throwing your half eaten bagel out the window. As it exploded on the ground and lauched chunks onto my clean truck, I was not happy. Then as you proceded to quickly change lanes and cut off another person, I really wasn't happy. So please, take your polluting, non-safe driving, jerky ass back to Oregon. We (all descent Coloradoan's) don't want you here.

Lost

Iv'e been thinking about this post for a while...not sure I'll actually be able to cover everything Iv'e thought about, but here's my best shot.

I saw an episode of Lost in my Television Appreciation class at Metro back in 2004. The episode I saw was when Sayid met Danielle, and she told him that she hadn't seen "other people" on the island, but she knew they were there....then Sayid went out into the jungle and heard the "chi chi ahh ahh" of the others in the jungle...I was hooked.

Although the show's quality has declined over the years, Iv'e always looked forward to watching the weeks' episode, and speculating on what will happen. It's been more than just a TV show to me, and to many people. Here's some things that I will always remember when I think about Lost.

1. The reason I bought a Tivo was because of Lost. I had to work every Wed. night, and my VCR would not record Lost correctly and I would be pissed! So I upgraded to a DVR and ditched the VCR for good. Thanks, Lost.

2. Cameron's old web board was there, but not really being used. Lost gave us all an excuse to log on every Wed. night, or Thursday morning to discuss the episode and throw out therories about the show and what would happen. Then after talking about Lost, we would go on to discuss any old topic. It was a great way to have a social connection with people I didn't get to see very often. Thanks, Lost.

3. I was able to introduce the show to most all of my good friends. I can take credit for turning them on to a good show, and I can continue to build my massive ego with that knowledge. Thanks, Lost.

4. Every year, the season finale would fall on the week that we would take our traditional memorial day camping trip. I would always look forward to coming home from my sweet ass camping trip, and being able to watch the season finale. It was always a great ending to a great few days. I still think of Lost when I think of camping at Lake Dillon. Thanks, Lost.

I'm sure there are many memories of the show that I am forgetting. And maybe it's a little sentimental. But even though the show isn't what it was in the first 2 seasons, it's still one of my favorite shows, and it will be missed.

Thanks, Lost.

The Donkeys and Donkey fans

My Dad always calls the Denver Broncos, "The Donkeys." It's not really a derogetory term, as he is pretty impartial if the Broncos win or loose. I share the same enthusiasm about the Broncos. I am a very casual fan, who will watch the games on Sundays even though I occasionally fall asleep on the couch during them. But overall I really don't care what happens to them. So here is my list of grievances against the Donkeys and their fans:

1. I was excited when Denver drafted Jay Cutler a couple years ago. Cutler is mobile, has a strong arm, and brings a swagger to the game. He also made it to the PRO BOWL. I will revisit this fact in a minute... Then Josh McDaniels comes to town and decides that Matt Cassel is a better QB than Cutler, even though Cassel has little NFL experience. So Cutler's hand is forced, and he asks for a trade. Suddenly, the Denver media and fans just decide to turn on Cutler and call him the bad guy. How would you feel if your brand new boss came into town, and wanted to replace you with some other guy without even giving you a chance? After you had proven to be one of the top performers at your job the year before? It's rediculous. So the Broncos traded one of my favorite players.

2. McDaniels can't get along with Brandon Marshall. Somehow he manages to piss off one of the leagues most exciting young players. All Marshall wanted was a long term deal, which he had earned as one of the leagues top recievers the 2 years before. Great recievers are hard to come by, and he too, like Cutler was traded.

3. Denver completely blows this years' draft, with a 1st round selection of Tim Tebow, Florida QB. Every NFL draft person, scout and housewife knows that Tebow doesn't have the skills to play QB at the NFL level, at least for a couple years, if ever. He still has an ackward throwing motion, and poor footwork. They could have picked Jimmy Clausen from Notre Dame, or stuck with the recently aquired Brady Quinn. But no, they have to go with the QB from the spread system who is way overhyped. C'mon Donkeys...

4. The fans - Now, I occasionally jump on the bandwagon, i'll admit. Like the Nuggets for the playoffs. I don't watch basketball throughout the regular season (another blog for another time) but I will watch the playoff games. But Donkey fans, it's a different story. Take last year for instance..The Broncos opened up the season going 6-0, where McDaniels was appointed football czar to Obama and Kyle Orton was the next John Elway. Every media outlet was all about the Donkeys, talking about Super Bowls and championships. Then Denver manages to loose 8 of their 10 next games and drop out of the playoff race......what happened? McDaniels was the end all/be all of coaches? Kyle Orton was the leader that Denver needed. Where are all the die hard fans now?

All this adds up to a couple of things. As long as the Donkeys continue to trade away their best players and waste draft picks for an unproven coach, I will continue to call them the Donkeys, and fall asleep during every game Sunday afternoon.

Oh yeah, and they should wear those ugly brown and yellow uniforms every game until they make it back to the Super Bowl.

Citizen Cope

So a couple of months ago, I upgraded my Comcast cable for high definition. I ended up getting a new channel called "Palladia", which is all concerts, music videos and specials. It's awesome. It's been a nice way to discover new music. (because listening to the radio just isn't what it used to be...but that's for another post..) Anyway, I was watching a concert and heard a song called "Bullet and a Target" from an artist called "Citizen Cope". I was immidiately drawn in and really began to like the song.
When discovering a new artist, I like to buy one album, and then I'll usually end up getting all of them if I really like them. Two weeks ago, I bought two Cope albums and will buy the other two soon. He has an interesting mellow style, that lies somewhere next to Everlast, or Ben Harper, or occasionally some Reggae. His lyrics are about social issues, his take on the world, love, dispair, and hope. He is one of those artists where, if you leave his album on repeat, every time you listen to it, you will find something new to love each time. Every listen is better than the last. That is hard to find in today's ultra pop super crap music industry. Give Cope a listen, you won't be disappointed. (the 6 of you who actually read my blog that is)