Victory!

Firstly, my apologies for falling off the wagon with the blog. I tend to go through periods where so much happens that I really don't have time to make it to the ol' blog to post something.

This last weekend I made a wager as to the outcome of the annual BYU vs Utah football game. Thanks largely to Max "Turnover Machine" Hall, Utah emerged triumphant by a margin of 48-24. This was excellent news for me, as my wager with Mike was that whoever won, we'd wear those shirts on Monday.


Excellent news for me. For Mike, not so much. Go Utes!

Insanity... (Updated)

Well, as many have probably noticed by now, the video of the children praising the Messiah has been removed from YouTube.

I'm actually quite curious as to what has precipitated this move, but if I had to guess I'd put my money on the rather large number of comments claiming the children were being exploited without any real knowledge of what they were singing about - not that having no idea what you're talking about has ever stopped anyone from engaging in politics.

In somewhat unrelated news, I am shocked and amazed -insert sarcasm here- that our $850 billion Bailout package ($700 billion plus $150 in pork) plus a coordinated rate cut by every civilized nation has failed to stem the destruction of our economy. You'd think with as much as Ben Bernanke claims to have studied the Great Depression, he'd know more than anyone that GOVERNMENT CANNOT FIX THIS PROBLEM, they will only make it worse. The artificially inflated markets need to be punctured. The businesses that took excessive risks need to fail.

I realize that there will be huge, HUGE economic hardship when (not if) this happens. We need to just let it happen... not completely debase our currency or needlessly throw away almost a trillion dollars in a futile attempt to stop it.

Insanity...

I found this video on YouTube today and I'd like to share it with you all. If this is not the most freakish, disturbing display of.... good grief I don't even know what of but it really disturbed me.


Part of me wonders if these children even know what the hell they are even singing about. I was even more disturbed at the lyrics after the initial shock wore off...

We're gonna spread happiness
We're gonna spread freedom
Obama's gonna change it
Obama's gonna lead 'em

We're gonna change it
And rearrange it
We're gonna change the world.

Now's the moment, lift each voice to sing
Sing with all your heart!
For our children, for our families,
Nations all joined as one.
Sing for joy and sing abundant peace,
Courage, justice, hope!
Sing together, hold each precious hand,
Lifting each other up;
Sing for vision, sing for unity,
Lifting our hearts to Sing!

YES WE CAN (insert puking sound here)

So... let me get this straight. Change the world... Rearrange the world... Nations joined as one. This would be an awesome concept... in Soviet Russia. This is what I don't understand about these nutjob liberals/socialists. Socialism has failed, over and over and over again in all other parts of the world. What could possess anyone to believe that it will work here in America?

Often times I feel like I'm starting to become one of the few people in this country that enjoys my individuality, that enjoys the government not being in every single facet of my life. I don't want to have the same life as my neighbor. I don't want massive government sponsored initiatives that force us to live in perfect government mandated peace and harmony. I don't want people to be punished for being successful so that their money can go to fund the lazy and uneducated. I don't want "running to Uncle Sam" to be people's first option when it should be the complete and total last resort.

But like I said, sometimes I think I'm the only person who feels this way anymore.

Fantasy Football Goodness

So its been a little while since I've posted anything in the good ol' blogger blog, so I thought I'd get started with an intro to Fantasy Football 101. Rule #1: Its a bad idea to invite your wife to your fantasy football league, and an even worse idea to play her early on in the season.

This is especially true when your wife has exceptionally good luck, as mine does. This week I learned a true lesson in humiliation as my Hatemonger University was completely demolished by the Bookworm Tarus - 112 to 57. Yes, she about doubled my score... awesome! With this public spanking I fall to 2-1-1 which puts me one game out of the division lead and half a game back for the lone Wild Card spot. Suffice to say I'm not in a great spot however there is 10 weeks left in the season, so there is still hope.

Liberty City Online

So today while I was laid up on my couch with a crippled back, I decided I could use some much needed entertainment. Having never tried the multiplayer games in Grand Theft Auto IV I decided I would give it a shot.

First off... if I ever find the genius at Rockstar that decided the multiplayer needed a specific port for data transmission, I will beat them to death in their sleep.... I'm just saying.

At first I couldn't figure out for the life of me why I couldn't connect to a multiplayer game over XBox Live. It would start to connect. I'd hear the punks talking on their microphones. Then bam disconnected. At first I thought maybe it was due to server load but after several failed attempts to connect to various games I decided there must be some other problem. I should note that this is the only XBox 360 game I own that has had this problem... so I was very confused as to the source.

Some digging through Google provided my answer: Port 3074. All game data routed through that specific port. The voice chat was routed through the main XBox Live servers which was why I could communicate with my charming partners in crime. Needless to say, I was mildly upset. My network at home uses two routers which makes setting up a dedicated port a pain in the rear to say the least. I also learned that Windows Vista has no Telnet client installed by default... awesome.

After some time I finally got the routers configured and was able to connect. In my first glorious battle I had the immense pleasure of running over a 10 year old brat with a full-size truck, then getting out and gunning him down while he was dazed from the impact.

Then came the intelligent retort over XBox Live voice chat...

"You mother f***er! I'll f***ing kill you! I'll f***ing KILLLLLLLLL YOUUUU!!!!!" Yes, this was from the 10 year old who's cracking, trembling voice disclosed his prepubescent status.

Ah, Liberty City, the Home of the American Dream.