"They Came to Burgle Carnegie Hall"

Well, I actually enjoyed watching the winter Olympics these past few weeks. I guess I am in the minority of Americans who actually care about them anymore. I believe that in 2010 when they are held in Vancouver, that the viewership will be up, as will the overall interest, if only for the fact that we will not have to be up at 2:00 am to watch the events live. Which is my only complaint. I did not enjoy having to be up at 8:00 am yesterday to watch the Gold medal game between Finland and Sweden. Oh well.

NHL is back tomorrow for the final stretch to the playoffs. Time for me to bring out EA sports “NHL 2001” from mothballs and give it a whirl

~Oz

"The Greatest Story Ever Hulaed"

I received some very depressing news yesterday morning. Eric Hall called me up (and Billy G later in the day called as well) to inform me that the younger more attractive Mike Kelley passed away Saturday.

I realize that Haji is probably the only person reading this who knew Mike, so I will say some words on Mike. He was a great person, 49 years young. He unfortunately had many ailments that he has suffered from throughout the 10 years I knew him. The past 5 years seemed to be the most depressing for him as it all just went downhill. Me and Kristen (Hitchcock) were talking about this oddly enough just 2 weeks ago. Sometimes it seems like it would have been kinder for God to just take someone before they suffer endlessly for a few painful years. I suppose God finally felt Mike had suffered through enough.

Mike was probably the kindest person I have ever known. For someone with such a disposition he brought so much joy to everyone who met him. He was a fathom of knowledge on the science fiction - fantasy books/movies and sparked my interests in so many things such as Monty Python, P.D.Q. Bach, and the like. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him, but I believe we will all agree that he is now in a better place.

Goodbye Mike.

"Muppets Go Medieval"

Just a teaser: Soon you will receive the next James Bond movie countdown review.

Lucky You.

You're being rude to me. Don't chain me down with your manners.

~Oz

"Good-Time Slim, Uncle Doobie, and the Great 'Frisco Freak-Out"

This was taken on an Easter Morning which Lord only knows how many years ago it was.

"Hydro, the Man With the Hydraulic Arms"

I can now log onto the Fredonia website, and I have full access as a student. Cool. Just never received anything from them informing me of this great occurrence. Of course I cannot sign up for classes for the Fall semester yet because it is like half a year away. Isn’t going to stop me from trying once a day though. No sir. I am just that excited to be in school. I start work at FYE one week from tomorrow. The plan is to work there as much as possible until school begins. I figure I should start looking for an apartment around late May early June time frame. After talking to Wyatt on the idea of either living up there or commuting every day, he highly recommended living in Fredonia. So that is what I shall do.

Speaking of Wyatt, I haven’t forgotten you. Got your messages. I will call you one of these nights after 9.

Checking out the Robert Plant video on his blog. Go check it out yerself

~Oz

"The Boatjacking of Supership 79"

Well, I drafted my fantasy baseball league for the upcoming season. Lets see what my Yahoo team looks like, shall we?

At catcher is A.J. Pierzynski from the Chicago White Sox.

1st Base is : Shea Hillenbrand from the Blue Jays

2nd Base: Ron Belliard from the Indians

3rd base yielded Aaron Boone and Nomar Garciaparra, while Hillenbrand plays 3rd as well

Short Stop: Nomar again, Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria

Outfield: Jason Lane from the Astros, Magglio Ordonez from the Tigers, Geoff Jenkins from the Brew Crew, Jermaine Dye from the ChiSox, and Austin Kearns from the Reds.

All around a pretty solid lineup.

And now, the pitchers

Johan Santana, Freddy Garcia, Curt Schilling, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras, Dontrelle Willis, Brad Radke, and Paul Byrd. My relief pitchers are Curt Schilling (although it looks doubtful he will work much in relief, now being fully ready to go back to full time starter), and Francisco Rodriguez.

Having 3 of Chicagos killer rotation at my disposal, I should be unstoppable. Time will tell.

This is dwarf invasion

~Oz

"The President's Neck is Missing!"

Howdy, little Hobbits!

I am once again employed! After 23 days I am working at FYE. That’s right honky... I am once again selling electronics. Not TV’s or the stuff like I sold at Sears, but CD’s DVD’s, Video Games, it is going to be great.

I talked (I think) before about how I had lost my groove at poker. Last week, that changed. After almost 3 months of being one of the first few people to be eliminated, I came in 2nd place over at Joys. There were 9 of us playing, and I lost to Pat in the end. I made some gutsy all in calls on Joy, and Kyle, and they both turned out in my favor. Confidence breeds confidence. Tonight I enter the game with a feeling I have not had since November. I do believe like I can take the pot. With that being said, I am off to pokerstars.net

Goodnight Mexico!

~Oz

"'P' is for Psycho"

Well, I had an interview today at FYE, and it appears as if third time really is the charm. I should know for sure in the next few days if I am hired or not. Everything is coming up “ALEX”. I ran into Kathy -the district manager for Sears today in the mall. I took opportunity to strike a blow for freedom and justice. She of course did not remember I worked at Sears for 3 years and 4 months (and I didn’t remind her today). Instead I played the role of an upset customer. I informed her that I would never shop at Sears again (after spending a few thousand dollars there over the past couple of years). When she asked me why that was I told her that I had a quarrel with the store manager, I big guy...Matt..err Mark... and she said “Mike”...I said yeah, I think so. I told her how he actually was swearing at me at one point and that he told me he didn’t care if he lost me as a customer. And know what? She blew me off then too. Informed me that I must have provoked him in some fashion. It was then I told her, yeah I was a loyal employee under Paul’s and Jeff’s watch for 3+ years. Being loyal to them was like signing your death warrant in hers and Mikes eyes. I walked off before I let myself say “go fuck yourself, you dominatrix bitch”.

Later

~Oz

"The Erotic Adventures of Hercules"

Well, I got my computer problems solved...I think. I can now log onto the internet on my own settings.

Remember, Czech out “Lost” tonight on ABC at 9:00 pm EST

To the nay Sayers and doubters who have thus far criticized the sophomore season of this excellent show for being “too slow”, hopefully after tonight you will be silenced.

And think about this for a minute. Once ABC picked up the show, it was for 5 seasons. The writers have said they have 6 seasons of story already created. They cannot rush the story line too quickly. If they did not take a slow pace, the show could be over this season possibly. I have enjoyed the shows so far this season. Lets see what we have been given so far from the flashbacks:

We discovered how Jack met his wife in the season opener. We then found out how Michael lost Walt to his wife via her legal team. Hurley is living with the guilt of changing everything he held dear to him - the simple life- when he won the lottery. Jin met Sun after he quit his job as hotel greeter. Locke had a good relationship that he through away because of his father with a women named Helen. Shannon wanted to prove her worth to Boone and his mother. We discovered what hellish experiences the tail end survivors had to go through, having had much more contact with “the others”. Kate killed her own father, and Ana Lucia lost her baby when she was shot in the stomach by a criminal. Eko was a drug lord back home, but was saved by his brother, the priest. Jack considered cheating on his wife, but she cheated on him first (WITH DESMOND I think...just wait to see if this is revealed...Desmond was the guy they found in the hatch in the season opener). Charlie was trying so hard to provide for his family, but his brother was a worse addict it appears than Charlie ever was. Oh yeah, and Sawyer has never done a nice thing in his life. Tonight is a Sayid back story, and next ep. is a Claire back story. And you know we have to have another Locke story this season.

See, all of that happened, and that was only the back story. It may seem like the story (the real time on the island story) has progressed slowly; as if mot much has happened. ??? They have discovered the hatch, Sawyer, Jin and Michael found the tailies, reunited them with the fronties...we have seen a near disastrous encounter with the others, Michael has gone AWOL, Sawyer played them all for fools, Eko found his dead brother on a plane in the jungle, Charlie has tried to baptize Aaron, I could go on and on for ever. Just trust me...a lot has happened. And they have done it at a pace which is deceivingly slow.

Rant Over.

~Oz

"Dial M for Murderousness"

Well, today I finally got part 2 of my Fredonia application completed. The final road block came last night, as my web browser seemingly has no active internet connection. On my profile only. My sisters and fathers works just fine. Mine however? Nothing. Still have none today, I even created a new profile, and that wouldn’t work either. Go figure. I finally got out of my dad his password to get on his profile. And now after a month of pains in my ass, I finally have completed part 2. Now it is time to wait again.

Valentines day, like usual sucked for me yesterday. I do not think me and Mary Kate have done anything on Valentines day, on the 3 attempts at the day we have had. I personally find it overrated as a holiday, but still... oh well.

I DID get Survivor: Pearl Islands on DVD yesterday however. So that made my day pretty damn cool. After viewing the first 3 episodes, I really wish I had caught this season when it originally aired, so I could anticipate each new episodes after a week of waiting. Well, now I can view 3 episodes a day, feeding my greedy Survivor appetite.

Oh, and if I get accepted to Fredonia, it will be for the Fall semester. I would have like to have gotten in for Summer, but I will take what I can get.

~Oz

"Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die"

Well, I am still jobless. I still haven’t finished the process of applying/ getting accepted to Fredonia for this Summer due to J.C.C.’s continued ineptness.

Movies I watched this past weekend:

“War Of The Worlds” - again. Still like it though. Besides the ending.

“The Poseidon Adventure” - a classic “disaster” flick. One of the few flicks I can remember seeing Leslie Neilson in the wasn’t a comedy/ spoof film.

“The Wedding Date” - Mary Kate’s pick. Terrible. And I do not say that just because it is a chick flick. Their are honestly a number of chick flicks I enjoy. Avoid this movie and instead, maybe think about renting “Love, Actually”, “Hitch”, or “Mickey Blue Eyes”.

And finally, my top pick for weekend movie:

“Batman Begins” - I was greatly impressed by this movie. I enjoyed the original “Batman”, and found “Batman Returns” to be all right, but “Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin” were just terrible movies. “Batman Begins” made me forget that the last two atrocities were ever created, and surpassed by leaps and bounds its earlier predecessors. I think every actor really put forth a great effort, even that Katie Holms chick.

Well, what else do I got? Lets see...

New music I picked up this weekend.

A whole plethora of Dave Matthews stuff, mainly without the Band itself.

Some new Magic Numbers tracks.

Incubus : S.C.I.E.N.C.E, and Fungus Amungus

Arctic Monkeys - a brit band touring this spring with Oasis

Some Galactic, and Widespread Panic tracks from Bonaroo.

Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama - There will be a light

Robert Randolph and The Family Band

and...the Canadian Brass.

well, I hope you all have a nice Valentines Day, whether it be at a nice dinner with you sig. other or should it be wallowing with a 6 pack and an old photo album somewhere.

Oh, interesting note here. today (February 13th 2006) on my 365 Beers of the Year calendar is Southern Tier Porter, brewed right down the road here in Lakewood NY.

~Oz

"Gladys The Groovy Mule"

Well, I haven’t watched any new movies in the past couple of days. I haven’t seen any new episodes of any TV shows either. I watched the Superbowl. I enjoyed the outcome, although found the game itself a tad boring. I will post pictures eventually. My sister turned 18 on Saturday. Damn if I don’t feel old now. I turned 18 obviously on May 17th of 1999. It was the end of my senior year at Jamestown, and everything seemed to just fly by. Prom, the memorial day parade, my final NYSSMA performance... all of it just flew by. The Sabres made it to the Stanley cup finals, I started dating Ashley, the 2nd Austin powers movie came out, so many things. Erika has the joy of getting to just enjoy being 18 for a few months without having all the stress/elation of graduating high school, and moving on to a higher plain of education existence.

Job search 2006 is NOT going good at all. I am sure I will find something though before I return to school this summer.

Anyways, it is time for the final installment of Survivor All Stars Survive This!

FINAL FOUR

The jury was shaping up thusly; Lex, Kathy, Alicia, Shii Ann, and Big Tom were all in its ranks. The next to join them was...Rupert.

Romber informed Jenna that they fully intended to vote for Rupert (Amber had won immunity). They told her they knew that both Jenna and Rupert were planning on voting for Rob. This season a tie breaker would be solved like this. If a tie between 2 or more survivors is reached in tribal council, everyone will draw a rock out of a bag. Whoever draws the purple rock is out of the game. Simple. So Romber used that to their advantage with Jenna. Better to vote out Rupert, and know its him going than to vote for Rob and force a tie, in which she MIGHT be the one to draw the unlucky rock in that case. The plan worked, and she voted for Rupert.

Now we were down to the final three. The winner in the immunity challenge had a guaranteed spot in the final 2, and got to chose the person who would be sitting next to them. Rob won the challenge, and picked Amber to be with him. Jenna was now gone anyways.

Rob picked Amber, because he knew he had no chance against Jenna. He and Amber had lied to everyone. At least against Amber he would have a chance. And, she was his girlfriend by this point so...logic people.

In the end, Amber won the 1,000,000 bucks by a vote of 4-3. Kathy, Rupert and Jenna all voted for Rob, while Lex, Tom, Alicia and Shii Ann all voted for Amber.

How did Amber win it all?

She had a strong alliance with Boston Rob. He put himself in the power position, and came off looking like the asshole, even though she stabbed everyone in the back just as much as he had. As she told Big Tom, she lied a lot, but not as much as Rob.

That’s all she wrote for All-Stars. For now I will keep up with updates on Survivor Panama: Exile Island. And soon I will be back with Survivor Palau

~Oz

"Calling All Quakers" (with Dolores Montenegro)

Okay, I watched “Dominion: A Prequel To The Exorcist” last night followed by “Rounders” so I would dream of poker instead of Satan. “Dominion” was less graphic than “Exorcist The Beginning” which was the same overall plot line, with the same actors. The story behind the two movies was that the original director made “Dominion”, but the producers did not feel it was scary enough, being more cerebral. They then brought a new director in (after one movie was made already) and had him make what became “The Beginning”. Neither film was very good. “Beginning” was needlessly a overly gross movie. It used terribly disgusting images and relied on loud sounds as unexpected times to scare the audience. “Dominion” overall told a better story, relied a little more on acting chops but still fell short of being a movie worth paying any money for. Around the end were some inexcusable cheesy graphics, as apparently the devil is responsible for Aura Borealis. If I HAD to recommend one movie over the other I would steer you towards “Dominion”.

“Rounders” I found to be a great movie. Good story line, believable characters, and situations I can easily see happening to real people. I am surprised I have waited this long to see this movie. I like Matt Damon is most of his roles, and even though I have only been playing poker for a couple of years now, I should have seen this earlier in my “career”. I actually feel as if I took something away from this movie that might make me a slightly better poker player. I realized little nuances in the game I have not before considered.

The first episode of “Survivor Panama: Exile Island” aired last night. My impressions after the first show are as follows. The young men tribe is going to fall apart, but not until the older women tribe goes away. This tribe just seems so unfit for Survivor. The only member on the Older women who really seemed to be a good fit was Tina, the lumberjack who was voted out last night. They voted her out instead of Cirie, the overweight (very much so) woman who is afraid to pick up leaves. Go figure. Obviously they did not heed what happened in “Palau” when Jolanda was the first voted off her tribe because she was so strong and a good leader. That tribe NEVER won a SINGLE immunity challenge.

The young women tribe seems to be in decent shape despite losing the reward challenge. They were the first tribe to win immunity last night. The older men seem like a powerhouse or at least will be if the smoker addict can keep himself sane.

Well, have fun kiddies. I have other matters to attend to now.

And good call Haji. The titles are all of movies Troy McClure starred in on “The Simpsons”.

~Oz

"The Wackiest Covered Wagon in the West"

Survive This!

Shii Ann might have survived one tribal council, but her days were still numbered. The first time she did not win immunity, she knew she was gone. That came the very next episode. She knew there was nothing she could do. She announced to the tribe before it was time to vote that she would be voting for the person she saw as having the best chance of winning survivor. She put Ambers name down. The rest put Shii Anns name down, and with that Mogo Mogo was no more.

How could she have stayed?

By this time nothing. Romber had a tight alliance with Rupert and Jenna. Big Tom felt quite helpless and told Shii Ann so. He would not betray Boston Rob, believing him to be his true ally.

Which brings us to our next episode

Rupert and Jenna were a tight alliance. So were Romber. Big Tom had a close alliance with Romber, but not much so with Rupert and Jenna. Big Tom caught wind from Rupert that Rob was planning on voting him out. Rob overheard a conversation between Rupert and Jenna that they were thinking about voting him out. Rob then decided to start a fight between Rupert and Big Tom. He told Big Tom that Rupert had betrayed his trust by telling Boston Rob that Tom was planning on voting him out. Tom and Rupert couldn’t see that Rob was playing both of them against each other. Rupert lost all faith in Tom, so he and Jenna decided to get rid of him. Romber decided to follow suit. So Big Tom was now gone. Rob also called Tom out in this episode on his alliance with Lex and Ethan. LIES ALL AROUND IN THIS EPISODE FROM EVERYONE!

Why did he go?

Rob lied to him and Rupert. Tom was the final victim ...almost... of Rombers lies.

How could he have stayed?

Seen what Rob was doing to him and Rupert. Not allowed himself to get caught up in arguing with Rupert instead of focusing their duel attention on Rob.

Next time: The Final Four. Boston Rob, Amber, Jenna L, and Rupert.

~Oz