I'm BAAAAAACCCCKKKK!!! Welcome to the 85th edition of Random Thoughts...boy, that's a lot of thoughts. Anyway, it's been a while since I last wrote, so I thought I'd check in with another edition. Enjoy.
- I know I've been pretty incommunicado and minimally reachable for the past month. I apologize to those of you who have been trying to reach me. Like I've been doing most of the summer, I've been keeping a lot to myself (with the exception of my Browns Backers which I'll get to in a bit). Some of it is still due to stuff I talked about in the last blog. I'm still dealing with some of that, though it has lessened. A couple other things are contributing to this, at least as far as the past month is concerned. One thing is that I just haven't felt like talking to anybody, and that has included by phone, by Facebook, and even doing the blog. I decided after the last blog that I needed to focus on myself for a while so that I could start feeling better and hopefully doing better, which has helped. Last week I started becoming social again, though I am going really slow with it and it may take some time before I get into a comfort zone in terms of my social-ness. I'm not actively trying to ignore anybody, but it might be a while before I get back to people and I hope you all understand that. The other thing has to do with my computer itself. Some time before the last blog both my computer desk and computer chair fell apart, which made things difficult. I decided to move all my computer stuff into my living room and I only got everything the way I wanted it last week. I've got my monitor on a traytable, but at least I'm comfortable on my couch as I do my computer stuff from now on. I might even be able to consolidate down the line. My living room is a bit of a mess, but at least I've got things set up to where I'm generally comfortable. If I get visitors, then things might get interesting, but for now I'm good.
- I may be out of the loop with a lot of people, but I'm still here and kicking. Even though I am taking things slow on the social front and may not be up for a lot, there is a higher-than-likely chance that I might be up for doing stuff now than I have been in the past few months, especially stuff to do on the weekends and even if it's just to hang out. Just something to keep in mind.
- The reason for the subtitle of this blog, the "bus trip" edition, is that I took one to Cleveland to watch the Browns take on the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday with the Westerville Browns Backers. It was a gorgeous day for the trip and I even wore shorts to the game. I was hoping for the same result that occurred at the end of 2002 when the Browns beat the Falcons (I saw that one at the stadium too), but alas it was not to be. They lost 20-10. I had a good time on the trip and had some fun, but honestly it would have been a great time if the Browns had won...oh well. I'll have pictures up on the WBB fan page within the next couple of weeks...I hope.
- Staying with the Browns for a moment, this is how most of the season has gone so far for the Browns: 1) Aim gun down towards foot; 2) Shoot. That has been the pattern for all but one of the games. They are beating themselves. On top of that, they've lost two quarterbacks and it looks like rookie Colt McCoy will be starting against our arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. They need to stop screwing up if they have any chance of winning...they seem so close, but they need to stop being their own worst enemy. Maybe it'll happen this Sunday.
- Every Sunday there's a Browns game, the Westerville Browns Backers will be watching it at Jimmy V's in uptown Westerville. This season every game starts at 1 PM and we invite those of you in Columbus and elsewhere who want to cheer on the Browns with fellow fans. I usually post upcoming games on Facebook, but if anybody is interested in coming up for any games, give me a buzz.
- This year I became a fan of the Florida Tuskers in the United Football League. The UFL itself has been really competitive at the halfway point in their season, their second, and at this point nobody knows who's gonna be in the championship game on Thanksgiving. The Tuskers are 2-2 and a half-game out of first place. The games have really been good this year and if you get a chance check them out (I can get you info on how to do that). Next year the league is hoping to expand to 8 teams, with the Viginia team confirmed to join next season (they are in the middle of a contest to pick the name and I'm hoping for the name "Tritons" even though I'm a Tuskers fan). A big reason you might want to get behind a team in the UFL, if you are a football fan, is that there is the strong possibility that the NFL will have a lockout next season and the UFL may be the only pro league playing. I encourage you to check them out.
- The OSU Buckeyes football team are undefeated and number 1 in many of the national polls with the BCS polling starting next week. They have been looking good so far and have already beaten a tough Miami Hurricane team. They still have some stuff to work on, specifically Terrelle Pryor and some of his decision-making which has improved from last year but still needs some work, and the heavy part of their schedule starts this Saturday night against another tough team in the Wisconsin Badgers. I just hope they can keep up the momentum for the rest of their season and beyond (meaning bowl game whichever one they go to).
- In between my job searching and my other activities, I've been seriously checking out some freebie and prize sites to see which ones were legit and good and whether they were worth keeping up with. I've checked out several and found a few that are definitely worth it for those of you looking for such sites. One I go to regularly, which I have talked about before, is Swagbucks, which I have a link to in the right side column of this blog. It's a search-and-win site that uses Google's search engine where one can randomly win Swagbucks just for searching as well as earning them by completing offers and watching videos. I have won some stuff from them and they deliver pretty quickly, so it is definitely legitimate. Another site I've been going to is called Club Bing. Run by Microsoft through their Bing search engine, it's a game site where you can earn tickets for playing games that utilitze Bing itself. Through them alone I have won a Coleman tent (a nice one at that), a DVD of "G.I. Joe," and a 6-popsicle mold. If you don't mind "Bing" branding on some of the products, this is definitely a good prize site with a lot of prize choices. Another site I check out daily is The Freebie Blogger. I have this site as one of my RSS feeds. You'll normally find a lot of free samples and discounts on the site, but I've found some great stuff here. Depending on what you may be looking for, this may be the best place to find some good free or cheap stuff. I'm still one the lookout for other freebie and prize sites and still evaluating three specific sites: Crowdtap, Lockerz, & Points and Prizes. If those pan out, I'll post the link to those here. I'll be adding the confirmed links soon to the right column of the blog if I haven't already yet. I do hope you check them out.
- Last month, Jorge "Giant" Gonzales, the 7'7" pro wrestler who was probably the tallest one ever in pro wrestling, passed away. Also known as El Gigante, he was one of the most interesting wrestlers ever to step into the squared circle. I remember him not for his time as a wrestler, but for a role he played on the popular show "Baywatch" where he played a gentle, bullied giant. He actually did a really good job in that role. I wished he had done more roles, but I don't think he was able to as he had a lot of health problems in the latter part of his life. He will be missed. RIP El Gigante.
- How many of you were expecting Jeff Hardy to turn heel? I didn't either. TNA had their biggest PPV on Sunday, Bound for Glory, where Jeff Hardy turned bad guy and joined forces with Abyss, Jeff Jarrett, Eric Bischoff, and a once-again-heel Hulk Hogan. I don't think he's been a heel since he was in the Brood in WWE in the late 90's. TNA seems to be on an upswing as of late and I really hope they keep up the momentum. JWoWW of the Jersey Shore (yes, the real JWoWW) is going to be on TNA Impact this Thursday, showing up to confront the new faction calling themselves "The Shore." It should be interesting to watch.
- Staying on wrestling for a moment, WWE seems to be trying, but for some reason they seem to be faltering a bit. It could be PPV fatigue, having three of them within a two month timeframe. It could be that the ideas they're using right now have been used to death already. They are definitely overusing some talent like John Cena, the Nexus and especially Michael Cole, who as of late has been more annoying and almost has me turning the channel just to avoid his crappy commentary. The ratings have been bearing out this notion of faltering, reaching low enough for TNA to maybe have a chance to catch them...maybe not real soon, but it's starting to look more realistic now than a few months ago. They have the talent, but I don't think they have the right writers nor the right management at this point (and I'm including the McMahons here) to be able to get to that next level. The PG rating thing isn't helping them either.
- I don't know about any of you, but with a month to go in the political season, I am already sick and tired of the political commercials. They all generally went negative right away with both sides skewing facts to the point where I don't know what to believe or whether any of them are worth believing. There's so much misinformation out there through these commercials alone that if you're tempted to not vote this election I wouldn't blame you. For the record, I am voting on Nov. 3rd but I'm gonna have to do some serious research before I vote this time out as there are a lot of newcomers and not enough good info out there about them or the issues. Just for the record, on issue 12 in Columbus there is a lot of confusion on what's on the ballot. It's about whether Columbus City Council should be able to have closed-door sessions. To help clear up the confusion a bit, vote YES if you want the council to be able to do this or vote NO if you don't want them to be able to do this. For those of you in Columbus, I hope that helps.
- Something I never thought I'd ever do again: watch the original Transformers and G.I. Joe animated series from the 80's on television. It's a reality...they are both back on the new channel known as The Hub. Formerly known as Discovery Kids, the cable channel rebranded itself when Hasbro (owners of the Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises) joined with Discovery to bring these and other properties back to the small screen. For now they are on at midnight, but they're back on TV once again and if you have The Hub you can watch them too. I hope down the line they bring in some of their other properties like Beast Wars and The Unicron Saga (Armada, Energon and Cybertron).
- Song on repeat: "I Like It" by Enrique Iglesias. He finally put out a song that I like and doesn't get on my nerves (his other songs did that though I don't really know why). There may be hope for the guy yet.
- SLP to the following: George, Dave, Nick, Rusty (happy b-day), Russ (happy b-day), Diane (happy b-day), Lisa (happy b-day), Andrea (happy b-day), Dan (happy b-day), Ernest, Aunt Susie, Steve, the Westerville Browns Backers, Mindy, Paula, April, Griff & Holly.
For the foreseeable future, until things get more busy for me on many fronts, this blog will probably go on a monthly schedule. Of course if something big comes up in the meantime, I'll definitely blog then, but for now it's staying on the sporadic timetable. Until next time, folks. Take care and God Bless.
DJ
