The Bull Pen #25

Well, I see that last week’s blog of nonsensical statements was not a big hit. I would have liked to do a column based on a Larry King style but it is too hard for me to emulate his unique style of gibber gabber. I can do a column full of topics that do not really relate, so here goes.

A movie that I enjoy watching that may have been overlooked by you is The Hudsucker Proxy from the Coen Brothers. It is quite an amusing movie with some memorable quotes, solid acting, and an excellent score. I’ll leave you with one of the better quotes from the movie, “You know, for kids.”

I went ahead and downloaded a CD’s worth of 80’s music from I-Tunes and have been playing it almost non-stop since. A sample of the music includes: Rock the Casbah, Come on Eileen, Centerfold, Always Something there to Remind Me, Our House, Video killed the Radio Star, and Vacation. I can list the others if you are interested but they are along the same lines.

The real sign of the cultural apocalypse is the fact that a program such as American Idol can generate so much buzz and pull in so many viewers for what amounts to singers who will be lucky to be playing state fairs within the next 10 years. Is it any surprise that stations that used to be Top 40 formats (meaning the current hits) are increasingly playing older stuff? It is a sad state of affairs when an anthology series called Now that's what I call I music (which has very little interesting stuff on it) can top the charts.

If you have not visited an amusement park and ridden a roller coaster this summer, why not? Most of America lives within a 3 hour drive of an amusement park with at least one roller coaster. The new ideas keep getting crazier and yet traditional roller coasters continue to thrive. A summer without riding at least one coaster is a summer that was wasted.

I would like to point out as a public service announcement that The Simpsons Season 8 is being released this week on DVD. This and season 9 are the last of the golden age seasons before the descent into more wildly outlandish plots and rehashed ideas. It has one of the best Treehouse of Horror editions and some famous episodes, such as Homer’s Enemy (featuring Frank Grimes), the Springfield Files (parody of the X-Files, and Homer’s Phobia (where Homer is forced to deal with his homophobia).

Does your office have Muzak playing over the loudspeakers? There are times when I could shoot the people who create bastardized versions of good songs for this system. The system also tends to play a couple of songs over and over again that no one recognizes. Sometimes silence can be golden.

I have noticed that the ladders are starting back up again for Halo 2. I might be more interested this time in joining a team. I know I enjoy MLG starts but I also know that the competition is really stiff on the MLG ladder. I kind of fall in the middle in the skill level set as it pertains to Halo. I am good enough to be a nuisance to the top players but not good enough to consistently equal or better their score. I have long said that my best scores come when there are one or two people better than me on the team so that the other team’s best players have to focus on them.

If there are any special games that my clan would like to play (that I have set up) following the Royale fun on Friday nights, please let me know in room. I try to pick games that are fun for everyone but also try to mix it up. That may mean playing a SWAT game followed by a Fiesta game followed by an objective game, etc.

Custom Game of the Week: Nothing for you this week except to say that my custom game moment of the week came last week right at the end of my clan night fun. Let’s just say that WallyBR was probably having ‘Surprise’ haunt him for the rest of the evening. If not, well, I still had fun dropping from the second level of Foundation to assassinate him with the sword for my last kill.

P.S. You should really read last week's blog for some funny statements.

P.P.S. An all-time classic is the children's book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. If you have never read it, go out and read it now. I do not care that you are over the age of 25, the book is great for Adults as well with the imaginative illustrations. I saw a copy sitting on a table in a Macy's the other day and was reading it while my wife returned an item. It still garners laughs after all these years. Update - Apparently a movie is going to be made out of this book as the information was just released today.

Posted by RagingBull888 @ 2:51 pm EDT | Permalink | 7 Comments

The Bull Pen #24

The jade monkey watches over the pale faced little girl in the crystal castle. It was a dark and stormy night. A shot rang out from behind the curtains. Two men walk into a bar, buy a few drinks, and leave. If you gotta go, go with a smile. The time of your life is usually indicated by a large digital clock that flashes 12:00. I am going out on a limb and predicting that the Carolina Panthers will be playing football well into December. The blind squirrel may find a nut every once in a while but not usually before getting run over by a car. It was the best of times; it was the blurst of times. You will never learn everything you ever need to know, let alone learn it all in kindergarten. This statement is plagiarized from my mind. I have not yet decided whether I am going to finish this state. Top scientists today proved that when you are not inside, you are outside. The tooth fairy is actually a global conspiracy designed to teach children that they should be rewarded for having something natural happen. When life gives you lemons, throw the lemons at someone else. The phrase ‘floating on the river’ does not have the same appeal as ‘rolling on the river’ does. A little bird once told me that I should stop listening to birds. Customer service representatives should be psychologically screened. The Marquis De Sade would probably enjoy being a telemarketer. I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain, but I’ve never seen sunny Acapulco. If there is not a light at the end of the tunnel, then it likely is not a tunnel or it is very late at night. I have seen the enemy and he is suffering from the heartbreak of psoriasis. Whoever believes that the world is better that we can now share our opinions with the world over the Internet probably needs a rectal probe. Soylent Green may be made of people but that’s a lot better than making it with dog crap. It is not really a donation if you are practically forced to do it. I would like to thank those who are responsible for this blog, which is pretty much everyone from the first humans onward. Any rebroadcast, reproduction or other use of this blog without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited. James Bond will return in You Only Blog Twice.

Custom Game of the Week: Redneck Rampage is probably a game you have played before but this is the name I have given to it. It is neutral Capture the Flag with shotguns and grenades with SWAT rules. That means no shields and no motion sensor. You can play it with two teams or four teams depending on your map. I think you should be able to figure out what maps would be ideal to play it on. Despite my hesitation with using the shotgun as a weapon in most cases, I have had fun playing this game. You know, I could afford to get a little better at Halo so I could hang with some of the bigger guns that I seem to end up playing against lately. Then again, I would just be curious about my reputation as a teammate and opponent because it is always good to solicit outside opinions. All I know is that if the game features a BR start, I’m usually a happy camper. Are you non-OMM and reading this? If so, I want to know. Heck, even if you are OMM, I want to know since you cannot tell who is reading it.

Posted by RagingBull888 @ 4:26 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

The Bull Pen #23

Have you ever had a song that makes you get all teary-eyed? Sure, we all will admit to socks we enjoy rocking out to but what about songs that move us to get all watery under the eyelids. I will say that there is such a song that gets me every time: The Rainbow Connection. It is not a sad song by any stretch of the imagination and is actually a warm uplifting tune but the song always reminds me of one thing, the fact that Jim Henson died way before his time. Every time I hear it, it makes think back to news clips of his funeral and of all his friends and colleagues singing the song in his honor. I do not believe any other song gets me teary eyed in such a sentimental way like that although I am sure there are a few songs that have driven me to tears because they are so bad.

 

I am now happy to say that my collection of The Simpsons DVD’s is complete after I finally purchased Season 2 over the past week. I have been buying them in an unusual order as I was financially unwilling to buy them in the order in which they were released. At one point, I had owned Season 1, 3, 4, and 6. I have now managed to rectify that situation with season 5, season 7 (Marge head case), and season 2. The stores have been most willing to help by marking the seasons down to $24.99 or, in Best Buy’s case, down to $19.99. Ironically enough, the season 8 DVD will be released halfway through August and the collection will be incomplete again, or at least until I decide to get it. Just think, this will be the 8th DVD set and there will still be 9+ more to go!

 

It is never too early to discuss the next summer movie season, especially since the 2006 summer movie season seems to be grinding to a halt with nothing much interesting opening in the next couple of weeks. If you like to play roulette, I would advise betting on the number 3 as the 2007 summer movie season will feature both Spider Man 3 and the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, both of these blockbusters will open up in May so any movies opening up in June and July will have their work cut out for them. To make an incredible meat inside this sandwich will be Shrek the Third and you can plainly see that May is shaping up to be a record breaking month at the box office. These three movies alone would be enough to drive the box office for the entire summer but wait, there’s more. Look at July and suddenly you get the releases of Transformers (please don’t f*** this up Michael Bay), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and to top it all off, The Simpsons Movie. Are you kidding me? I have not even mentioned Ocean’s 13 (which I will see despite being disappointed in Ocean’s 12), Ratatouille (Pixar’s next), or Rush Hour 3 (my wife likes these and so do I). I would ask you to tell me a summer lineup that will produce as well and/or had as much potential. I would call 2007 the equivalent of facing the 1927 Yankees or the 1975 Reds, a lineup that is strong from top to bottom. Oh, why must we wait so long?

 

Custom Game of the Week: You might be wondering what took so long to list this game considering it is one of my favorites but I am finally featuring Nucking Futs this week. The game’s name usually gets a chuckle but it is the gameplay that makes the game so crazy. I take one King of the Hill game, make the hill move every 30 seconds, turn team multiplier off and contest hill on so that only one person in the hill can earn time. Throw in a random starting weapon and play on a smaller map with lots of hill spots, such as Sanctuary, Beaver Creek, or Ascension. Finally, get as many people as possible to create as much chaos as possible and make the time to win 3:00 minutes so that the hill will have to relocate at a bare minimum 6 times (likely at least 12). Voila! You have a game that causes people to reverse the N and F in order to get the true intention behind creating this custom variant. In my experience, this game seems to rate high on the popularity scale when you want to unwind after a hard fought or tense battle. It also seems to do a good job of frustrating people when they kill 3 guys to get to the hill only to see it move.

 

Posted by RagingBull888 @ 11:56 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

The Bull Pen #22

In lieu of actually having some good material for the first section of my weekly blog, I just decided to throw out some choice quotes from The Simpsons.

Marge: Homer, the plant called. They said if you dont show up tomorrow dont bother showing up on Monday.
Homer: Woo-hoo. Four-day weekend.

Ralph Wiggum: Me Fail English? That’s Unpossible.

Homer: Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

Homer: Weaseling out of things is important to learn. Its what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel.

Homer: Im normally not a praying man, but if youre up there, please save me Superman.

Troy McClure: Dont kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, hed eat you and everyone you care about!

Homer: You couldnt fool your own mother on the foolingest day of your life with an electrified fooling machine!

Marge: Homer, you dont have to pray outloud.
Homer: But hes way the hell up there!

Marge: (After Homer complains about Moe taking credit for the Flaming Homer) Well Homer, maybe you can take a little consolation in knowing that something you created is making so many people happy.

Homer: Oh, look at me! Im making people happy! Im the magical man, from Happy Land, living in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane! (Leaves the room, then pokes his head in through the door) Oh, by the way, I was being sarcastic. (Leaves again)

Marge: Well, duh.

I would like to give a shout out to CapnHun, who was kind enough to compliment me on my ability to call out locations when playing a multi-flag game on Sanctuary the other day. In the post game lobby, she was mentioning the person who was able to calmly point out where the enemy was attacking from despite the dangerous threat. I would like to believe that at most times, I try to give out useful information over the communication lines but I have been known to get frustrated (recent Gulch Wars games have proven that). Defense is what I like to do best and coordinating that defense with solid and concise information can prove useful to almost any team. You can contribute with more than just kills in a Halo 2 game. Map knowledge and enemy spotting are just as important. Sun Tzu said it best, “Know thy enemy and know thyself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know thyself but not thy enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not thyself, wallow in defeat every time.”

Custom Game of the Week: No custom game of the week but just some comments about recent custom game action in the clan. By the way, I’m curious as to how many non-OMM have enjoyed these custom games. Anyhow, Cheap PORN is a resounding success with possibly the best game played over the weekend. A battle on Beaver Creek ended with a mere 1 second left for the losing team and both of the remaining players held a ball at the time. I had a chance to break out a dusty classic, Fiesta Grande, and it played out well on Ascension with teams realizing that sniper rifles, while strong on the map, are not invincible when multiple random weapons are involved. There was no Battle Royale or Royale with Cheese last weekend because I was out at a festival but maybe there will be a chance for the Royale fans to play a Cheese game during the week. I’m also eager to play some SWAT Potato again as it has been far too long since the last one of those games. Throw in a game of Ghostbusters on Headlong and there could be a nice variety for a larger party of OMM folks this week.

Posted by RagingBull888 @ 3:16 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

The Bull Pen #21

Well, I was one of the many who helped Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (PotC) beat many box office records over the weekend. It certainly was the most enjoyable summer movie I have seen this year, even though it was by far the longest. The thing that impressed me the most about the movie was the action sequences. There were some extended bits of action that really kept you involved despite how long they were progressing. I give high kudos to whoever came up with those innovative scenes. There were new references to the rides in this one and solid enough references to the last movie. Some folks may be disappointed in the cliffhanger style ending as it leaves a lot of things unresolved and the things it does resolve are a tad trite but there is a third movie to be made and luckily we will not have to wait long to see it. As others have said, if you sit through Dead Man’s Chest, there is little doubt that you will want to see the third and final movie. The characters in this movie (with the exception of the human antagonist from the East India Trading Company, who was kind of woefully used in this picture) are done well enough to warrant watching them again and you want to see how they will top the action in this one.

On a totally unrelated note, I have to wonder how many of my fair readers have been to a Hard Rock Café? Okay, it is one thing to have been to one but do you also enjoy collecting pins or souvenir crap? If so, we may have something to talk about because I am the kind of person who makes sure to hit the HRC if I am ever in a town that has one. It all goes back to my school’s European bike trip in 1992. I stopped at the one in London and picked up a t-shirt for a friend but did not eat. However, when we got to Berlin, it became prime eating territory since I was getting kind of homesick for American style food. It was also nice because it had just opened and was not very popular yet. When I returned from the trip, I had managed to secure 3 pins from the café, each with the German flag colors in the pin. These pins are now worth over $20 each and are the prize of my collection. Since then, I have managed to eat at the following locations: Cleveland, Indianapolis, Orlando, Louisville, Nashville, and Atlanta. I was foolish enough to not even go to the Gatlinburg café on one vacation but thankfully my mom picked me up a pin from there when my dad and she went later in the year. A few of the pins I like in my collection include: a guitar pin from Orlando that features a roller coaster on it (duh), a pin from Louisville that was taken from their city t-shirt (the design is way too complicated to describe but I can hook you up with a link to a picture), and my most recent pin, a musical note pin from Atlanta that uses a peach along with its stem and a leaf to form the note. I could go on longer about my HRC experiences as quite a few have been memorable but I will leave it up to the readers to find out if they want to hear more or even share their own thoughts.

Custom Game of the Week: A simple little game I like to call Cheap PORN. Take a Low Ball setup and make it 2 balls with 30 seconds to win status. Make the only weapons Sentinel Beams with grenades on the map and grenades to start. Throw in a couple of friends with teams of 2, teams of 3, or however you want to do it. Play game on Ivory Tower, Midship, Beaver Creek, or perhaps other map you want to try it on. Have fun. If you are not grabbing your balls in this game, you had better be shooting your golden stream or tossing a number 2 because the action is fast and crazy, even with 3 teams of 2.

Posted by RagingBull888 @ 11:13 am EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments