Yes Please!!

A kid from N.J. figured out a way to hack into an iPhone and unlock it for use with any carrier!

Where do I sign up?

Sorry For the Interruption...

Yes, it has been a very long time, but I have a legitimate excuse... a new job.

I started on Thursday last week at the Junior Library Guild. I sell books to schools and libraries... interesting, no? It's a phone sales job and really is a lot of fun. The people so far are great and there is a lot of room for earning potential.

Not my lifelong dream, but it pays the bills. Plus, even though it's a phone sales job, the JLG is an established company that has been around since 1929 and we're not telemarketing. We have relationships with Librarians and schools throughout the U.S.

Peace.

Stranglehold

Here is what I wish I was doing to my dog, Bailey, right now.

It's 4:30 a.m. and the rumble of thunder started a few moments ago. He has been panting and whining ever since the hint of showers. We have basically seen scattered thunderstorms almost every day for the past week or so in Ohio. No end in sight as far as I can see.

There are times where being a dog owner really stinks and this would be one of them. I love the little mongrel, but he sure make me want to do a little cartoon strangling once in a while. If only the consequences of the cartoon or video game world applied to ours sometimes... what a wonderful world it would be.

That reset button would come in handy, wouldn't it?

Things Are Tough All Over

As many of you know, times are tough in Michigan. Things are looking tougher and tougher all the time.

Cheryl and I have been in Ohio for a little over a year now, but there will always be a place in my heart for Michigan. Especially Detroit and the Metro area.

We are still in the midst of some pretty horrible stuff when it comes to our old house. It seems that the entire state is suffering from a huge rise in foreclosures. An article in the Free Press, says that foreclosures are up 130% since July 2006. We are in the midst of probable foreclosure right now and I have no idea what the outcome will be.

While it can be unnerving that we may lose the old place, there is also a sense of peace that God provides. He will be there no matter what the situation is. We have to keep believing and hoping for the best even in the midst of situations that can seem quite hopeless.

Stripes

Stripes will always hold a special place in my heart.

I remember watching it on TV with Dad and him laughing and laughing. Bill Murray is classic in this movie. The only problem is the end when they take the top secret RV into enemy territory. There are so many hilarious moments and lines to be quoted... yes, I have been known quote lines from movies. Not as much as I used to, but I can quote with the best of them.

John Candy is obviously one of my favorites. I love when they go around the room to talk about why they decided to join...

Ox: My name's Dewey Oxbeger. My friends call me Ox. You mighta' noticed I have a slight weight problem.

Guys: No. No! No.

Ox: Yeah, yeah I do. I went to this doctor and he told me I swallowed a lot of aggression... along with a lot o' pizzas. Haha-ha!

I'm basically a shy person. I'm a shy guy and ah, he suggested takin' one o' these aggression training courses, you know these aggressive training courses, like E.S.T.? Those type o' things. Anways, it cost like 400 bucks! 400 bucks to join this thing.

Well, I ah, I didn't have the money. I thought to myself, join the Army. It's free. So I figured, while I'm here, I'll lose a few pounds. And you got what, a six to eight week training program here? A real tough one. Which is perfect for me.

I'm gonna' walk out of here a lean, mean, fightin' machine. Haha-haha!

Just one of John's classic moments in film.

Throughout most of the movie I think I would have been in the dog house just like Bill Murray. I have seen eye to eye with authority figures, but like the song goes, "When I fight authority, authority always wins."

It's fun revisiting some of the "classics" of my youth. Although, I always saw the TV versions. I had no idea all the stuff I missed!

2 - 0

So far, so good.

The Detroit Lions are 2 - 0 in the pre-season... can you say Super Bowl? Well, they'll get to play the Super Bowl Champion, Indianapolis Colts, on Saturday.

It's not wrong to dream is it?

Go Lions!!

Fall Fling

Today was one of those picture perfect days... mid 70's, light breeze and tons of pre-season football to watch on the NFL Network.

Even though I eagerly await the warmth of Spring and Summer, there is just something so wonderful about the Fall. I think it probably my favorite time of year. Spring is extremely close, but Fall just has something to it that is absolutely the best feeling in the world.

The trees start to change, football is in full swing and those cooler temps allow you to throw on a sweatshirt and play around outside and get a cold nose and rosey cheeks. Plus, as much as I hated school, there was something pretty exciting every year about heading back. New clothes, school supplies and when you were young, a new lunch box. Those were fun... although my lame Christian school wouldn't let you have half the lunch boxes out there because they were"worldly." Can a kid just have an Alf lunch box for crying out loud?

Bring on the Fall... just remind me that I asked for it when I am whining about the Winter.

Buckeye Birthdays

I have never seen so many birthday parties in my entire life as I have seen since we moved to Ohio. There must be something about birthdays or at least about the people we know down here. We just celebrated another one tonight. I think we have been to at least 3 or 4 so far this Summer.

When I was a kid, I can remember like two birthday parties that I had. One was a pretty bad memory in some ways... in fact, birthdays were never really a big deal in our household. I always seem to remember the weird gifts I got from my parents. One they will never live down was the year they got me a clock radio... what a growing boy always hopes for on his special day, something to make him wake up in the morning! I can't even really remember my brother having birthday parties.

No offense to all my friends with kids - and trust me, Cheryl enjoys them - but these kid birthday parties are even harder for me. Maybe deep down I am jealous. Plus, with no children of my own, I miss the point I think. I also never know how old infants are. I just think they are eternally two years old until they can carry on a conversation with me that makes sense. I don't dislike kids at all, I just have no understanding of the kid world.

Maybe I need to start having dog birthday parties. In fact Bailey just turned 3 years old today... or is he 21 years old? If so, I need to give him his first beer. Ellie, our first dog, loved beer. Maybe it will take the edge off during our next thunderstorm... we can only hope.

Couldn't Have Been Scripted Better

Tonight on Big Brother 8, the stars aligned and the unthinkable happened. 

The man known as Evel Dick (left) did everything in his power to be kicked out of the house by going on an Evel Dick rampage, tearing people apart and acting like a total jerk. He won the Veto Competition and saved his daughter from eviction from the Big Brother House seemingly ensuring his own eviction.

Then...

America made things interesting. This season BB8 has someone called America's Player and America gets to see what people say when no one is watching. They know who is lying and who is telling the truth. So last night they told Eric, America's Player, to get one of his own put up for eviction and voted out, Dustin (right). That set the wheels in motion that saved Evel Dick from exiting the house.

Dick lives on for another week and to top it all off, his daughter, Danielle, won the Head of Household competition and will be picking two poor souls to be nominated for eviction this week.

I swear, it seems like someone is writing this stuff, because the likelihood of these events all lining up is completely amazing.

DIRECTV

If you have never had DIRECTV or have believed all the cable company garbage about it, I have to tell you about an amazing customer service experience I had.

As I have mentioned on these pages before, I am a huge NFL fan and sadly, a die hard Lion's fan. DIRECTV has something called, The Sunday NFL Ticket, to which I started subscribing when we moved to Ohio. When we first signed up, it was an amazing deal where you ended up getting free premier service for months if you bought the Ticket. So last year I thoroughly enjoyed many, many NFL games each Sunday and became and even bigger NFL fan.

Fast forward to this year. When it came time to pay up for the Ticket again this year I had to really think about how fiscally responsible it was... plus I heard that if you called into DIRECTV and voiced concerns about paying the big bucks for the Ticket they would try to retain you. They did exactly that. After my conversation with a customer service rep, I basically ended up with the Ticket and Superfan (HD games, etc.) for about $49. That is amazing when you normally pay $269 for the NFL Ticket plus $99 for the Superfan.

This is just another thing I love about DIRECTV. If you get a chance to look at the picture quality compared to cable or even digital cable you will be blown away. There have been only a few times I can remember in the years that we have had DIRECTV that weather has made me lose a signal. Compared to the number of times I saw snow when we had cable, I'll take DIRECTV any day.

The Hits Keep Comin'

When is this going to end? Now we're having Baby Bibs recalled... unbelievable.

Maybe it's time to think about manufacturing some things right here in America where we can keep our eyes on what's going on. The only thing stopping us is greed... that's a really good thing, huh?

Here's a list of things MADE IN AMERICA to get us started.

Remembering...

Fourteen years ago at this time, I think Cheryl, myself and a bunch of our friends were hanging out in Mom & Dad's pool. We were just relaxing a bit after a pretty eventful day. We probably stayed up late the night before, then got up early and made ourselves look really nice. Then we took some pictures before we stood up in front off a room of family and friends...

It seems as though we have been together for as long as I can remember, because I mostly remember being with my best friend and the love of my life, Cheryl. We were only sixteen (me) and fifteen (Cheryl) years old when we started our relationship. No one thinks those early loves turn into mature love, but ours did. We had ups and downs, but one thing was certain, I can tell you exactly when I knew I was in love with Cheryl and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her... oh, you want to know? We were standing out in front of her house after a date and I looked her right in the eyes and said, "You might think I'm crazy, but I think I'm falling in love with you." That was only a few weeks after we started dating. I just knew.

Many people thought we were just too young. There were a lot of warnings and "are you sure's?" thrown around, but we had that really important component... we were in love. We made mistakes and I made sure we had our share of drama, but God saw fit to bless us, even when we forgot about Him from time to time.

You hear people say this all the time, but the longer I know Cheryl, the more I love her. Everyday there is something she does that makes me smile. Not a day goes by that I'm not thankful that God brought her into my life.

Fourteen years from now, I know I'll have even more amazing memories with this woman. I look forward to them and can't wait to see where God takes us... the places we have been so far, even the bad places, have been a blessing with Cheryl by my side.

More China Problems

Here we go again...

Mattel is going for number two in the China recall business. Who cares though? It's just children's toys... it's really all about cheap stuff, right?

Hot Fuzz

Just watched the movie, Hot Fuzz on DVD. If you are a fan of Shaun of the Dead, this movie will not disappoint you. Just a warning though, it's British and has a little gore in it.

The movie centers around a police officer (Simon Pegg) from London who does his job a little to well for the liking of his superiors. Since he makes arrests and stops crimes with such efficiency, they decide he is making them all look bad and he needs to be reassigned to another post. He ends up in a small town with no crime... or so we think. Soon he unearths the mother of all conspiracies and the hilarity ensues.

His sidekick (Nick Frost - also his sidekick in Shaun of the Dead) is enamored with the Hollywood version of policing. He asks his new police officer buddy if he has done all types of scenarios which he has seen some of his movie star heroes perform throughout the film. The best one is when he asks if he has ever had a chance to shoot a bad guy who was getting away from him, but couldn't bring himself to do it because he knew him then fired his gun in the air and screamed like Keanu Reeves in Point Break.

Much like Shaun of the Dead there is all sorts of crazy action that has a bit of humor thrown into it. It's worth a spin in the old DVD player, but the British humor thing may not register with everyone.

Rearrange

Right before our friends came to stay with us, I decided to do a little reorganization of the living room. I do this from time to time to change things up a bit. Plus, you can really do a deep cleaning of everything when you move things around... you'd be surprised where Bailey's hair ends up!

So, one of the major changes was putting our super old couch (w/it's beautiful new slip cover) where our chairs used to be. Cheryl and I used to have our armchairs in the prime viewing area of the TV with an end table in between us. Now the couch sits there... one of the best things I've ever done.

Now we sit together and hold hands... cuddle... Cheryl curls up next to me with a book while I watch football, it's great! I feel like we forgot about how wonderful it was to snuggle up together. 

If you haven't tried it lately, I highly recommend it.

Secret Good News?

What a day! I am truly exhausted...

I did something crazy today, but I don't want to share much about it until I hear something about it this week. I know that is lame, but you will just have to wait for the news... it just might be worth it.

More to come...

Good Times

It's been so much fun hanging out with Rob, Nicole and Jack. They are friends that you can always just pick up where you left off. We love them so much and enjoy the time we spend with them immensely. Plus, their son is so dang cute, I can hardly stand it.

Bailey loves that kid... hopefully not because he wants to eat him or something.

They'll be back for a day before they fly back to Sin City, so we'll have a little more time to enjoy them.

Football Fix

And here we go...

Football game tonight was frustrating to watch (because I'm a Lions fan), but a lot of fun too. Mostly fun because the Lions ended up winning 27 - 26.

A win is a win.

More football to come this entire weekend, thanks to the NFL Network and local TV showing the Browns game. Should be fun.

I Know I'm Funnier Than...

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of two of our best friends from Vegas! Can't wait to see them...

While we're waiting we caught tonight's episode of Last Comic Standing. It seems that NBC has revamped the way this year is done. No longer do the comics live in a house together, this year they are all put up in a hotel. The episodes also seem to move along a lot quicker and they eliminate more than one comic a night.

As usual, the best comics did not make it through this season, but it seems like the really good comics are picking off the average ones pretty handily. So, for now, I guess I'll continue to watch.

Plus Matt Kirshen (pictured) made me laugh pretty hard tonight.

Fat March

We ended up watching the new show Fat March on ABC and I have to say, it was not all I had hoped for. I'm a big fan of The Biggest Loser on NBC, but Fat March just doesn't stand up so far.

The whole idea is that the contestants will walk 500 miles in ten weeks. All along the way, you can quit or be voted off if the group things you are slowing them down, but each time you lose a team member, you lose part of the groups prize money.

One of the worst things that happened were when this guy that was 520 lbs. was unable to continue walking because of stress fractures in his feet. He actually planned on continuing to walk, but the rest of his "teammates" decided to relieve him from duty. The good news is the guy - who just happens to be a youth pastor - is down to 43o now.

The other thing that was really quite annoying was this chick who did nothing but complain and whine and drag everyone down. She eventually dropped her backpack while the trainer tried to motivate her and said, "I'm done." The team lost money, but they also lost some dead weight... pun intended!

Time to Kill

I had a little time to kill... and TiVo rewarded me with two movies with tons of kills in them.

The Rock and Die Hard may not be considered classics, but there was a time when I truly enjoyed action movies like these. I found out that they were pretty fun to watch again.

First off, Sean Connery is just fun to watch. I need to look into finding some of his James Bond films as I can only imagine they would be a lot of fun to watch as well. We have another Connery film available on the DVR, Finding Forrester and there's is just something pretty funny about hearing the beloved Scotsman yell, "Who's the man know, dog?"

Bruce Willis has always been a favorite of mine. He just comes off as your average everyday kind of guy. He'll probably never win an Oscar, but he will entertain you when you put down some green to see one of his movies. Plus, has there ever been a better action movie line than that nasty little phrase he utters in Die Hard? It has to be up there with "Go ahead make my day," and "Say hello to my little friend!"

Action movies may not be tops on the film critic's lists, but next time you need a little mindless entertainment let yourself enjoy a good old fashioned car chasing, exploding, shoot 'em up
action movie.

Banner Night In the Big Brother House

Alright, this season of Big Brother is really crazy!

This is probably the meanest season I have seen thus far. Evel Dick (pictured w/Johnny Depp) is absolutely out of control at times, but refreshingly honest. He is making this season very fun to watch and living up to his name in more ways than one.

On Thursday, he poured a glass of iced tea on Jen and escaped with nothing but a question from Julie Chen during the Eviction Ceremony for Kail and Nick. Whilst part of me feels sorry for Jen, the humorous side of me laughed uproariously when it happened. Where else but Reality TV does this stuff happen?

Cheryl has a secret fantasy of throwing a drink in someone's face, but when does an opportunity like that really present itself? Well, knowing me, she may have had a few chances by now...

Most Reality TV shenanigans like that would get you kicked off the show by the producers, but somehow Mr. Dick survived...

Now things get really weird when a plane with a banner behind it flew over the Big Brother House... it said:

WE LOVE NICK! ERIC AND AMBER ARE LIARS! LNC ARE THE NERD HERD!

Okay, so Nick just got voted out and obviously someone he knows decided to send a message to the BB House... Crazy! I've never seen anything like this before. Eric and Amber are now outed to the rest of the house. LNC stands for "Late Night Crew," which as you may have guessed is all the people who stay up late... how creative.

This is really bad news for Eric. He is one of the twists this year called America's Player. Basically CBS has people voting on things for Eric to do in the house. Usually it's who to try to get nominated for eviction, some kind of crazy stunt and who to vote for on eviction day. He has to dig himself out of a pretty big hole now...

I could go on and on...

Which leads me to something I have been toying around with for a while and the other day while talking with a good friend of mine, Chris, I kind of got a little validation for my latest idea.

The Ramblin' Scotzman may become a little more of an entertainment Blog over the next few months. Most likely I will Blog about TV as I have not been to see an actual film in the theater since Borat (I know, of all the movies to go to), plus who wants to pay $9.25 for something that might suck? Getting new DVD's from the library fits into our budget perfectly (FREE besides all the taxes we pay).

So I would love to know what all two of the readers of this Blog think... there will still be ramblings about life, love and craziness, but I figure why not write about something I know a lot about. Sad but true... I know TV.

The China Syndrome

Here we go again people... in our quest for cheaper products the list continues to grow. More toys gone bad from China... at least they're affordable.

When is this madness going to end?

Maybe when we decide that cheap products aren't the bottom line anymore. Just my opinion, but it's time to wake up and stop rewarding faulty products and slave labor.

The Games We Play

I had a pretty entertaining "boy's night out" with a friend of mine tonight. We originally were going to try to get a Hold 'Em Poker game going, but alas, there was no one biting.

We ended up playing video games all night and enjoying some grilled burgers then some ribs. The ribs were awesome...

In my own little world I think I'm pretty good at video games. On my PS2 I am unstoppable against the computer, but put me against flesh and blood and a lot of times, I find I need some more practice. That really sucks when you are competitive and get your behind handed to you.

Steve and I ended up playing a bunch of games he bought used for his kids Nintendo Game Cube. We played hockey, Mario Cart (with the kids), Tiger Woods Golf and basketball. Mario Cart was a disaster... I really stink at driving games, I never let off the gas. Either way, it was all fun.

Next time, we need to play on my PS2... home field advantage. It might help, you never know.

It's Time Again!

Time for my semi-monthly Blog about one of the greatest TV shows ever... Arrested Development.

TiVo has been picking up episodes off HDNet and it made me break out the DVD's today to indulge in total hilarity!

While I was on the CBS website the other day there was a internet show I came across called Clark and Michael. One of my favorite characters from the show (Cheryl's absolute favorite), George Michael Bluth, who in real life is Michael Cera, was the creator and co-star of the show.

The kid is amazing and he's from Canada... why do Canadians seem to be such a comedic people? Great anthem, hockey and comedy, what's not to like? Probably the standardized health care and the taxes...

I digress... everything said and done, it's time to watch Arrested Development if you haven't seen it and even if you have, watch it again!

Moments

Sometimes there are little things that happen in life that remind you of why it's so nice to be in love and be loved. It might be a touching moment in a movie, TV show or a book. Sometimes you see a picture or have a thought that runs through your mind.

When those moments come, you treasure them. Hold on to those moments and never forget them. They make life worth living.