So what's been going on in my world?  Tons!  Now I honestly thought after the Senate race was over last year that I would have a bunch of free time...oh how wrong I was.  I've got MMA training two nights during the week, my band just recorded a CD and DVD that we're mixing and editing, and then there's work.  Now I have always been a 40 hour a week kind of guy.  I always thought if I can't get it done in a 40 hour week, then it would wait until the next week.  Well, things change sometimes.  The last several weeks I've been working a lot of extra hours and that includes actually logging in from home at night some...and this is one thing I thought I would never do.  So why the change in attitude about work?  Because this is the first job I've ever had where I actually like pretty much every person I work with, so if I don't get something done I know it's impacting someone else, and I don't want to let anyone down.  It's the weirdest thing...I actually feel a sense of purpose and accomplishment with the job I have.  Sure, it's corporate America, but this company has gone through some major changes over the last several months, so there's a strange attitude there of fighting an uphill battle...and I do love a challenge.  Plus, one project I have been on for almost a year was finally released as a product.  This is the first time I have ever worked on something in any job where it's actually gone out into the marketplace...and it doesn't hurt when the president of the company stops you when you're leaving one day to not only congratulate you on this, but also to tell you how much praise the client we were working with keeps showering upon me every time he talks with them.  This is good and bad.  It's good to be recognized for the effort, but bad because now I get assigned all sorts of time-critical sensitive projects because they figure I can handle it and get everything squared away.  Maybe there's something to be said for mediocrity...hahaha.  And what really sucks is the weather is warm which means grass grows and weeds sprout...and me being a home-owner means I have to actually work in the yard at some point.  Plus, I do like to sometimes play with my dogs and chill out with a movie.  I swear, it's like my free time is zero.  Sure, I'm online right now typing trivial banter, but it's fairly late at night and I can't sleep.  So let me ramble about some movies for a moment.

After the last studio session a couple of weeks ago, I stopped off at the movies because I knew I wouldn't be able to go home and sleep.  What did I see?  I went to check out "Spiderman 3".  I guess that's no surprise considering my love of superheroes.  I wanted to wait a few weeks for the crowds to die-down, so I figured it was a good night to check it out.  Oh man did it suck.  I was really excited to see it because of Venom.  The whole Spiderman/symbiote suit/Venom story is great...and I really wanted to see it in a movie.  First off, Kristen Dunst, or whatever her name is, had WAY too big of a role.  What cracked me up in a bad way was after her character of Mary Jane got a bad review for a play and she's crying about it to Peter Parker.  He's trying to give her a pep-talk, telling her to not let one person's opinion get you down and makes a comparison to how the Daily Bugle treats Spiderman.  Does she go "Yeah, you're right" or anything like that?  Oh heck no.  She says "But this isn't about you...it's about me and my career!"  Well cry me a river...just please go on and wallow in self-pity.  After all, Spiderman being ragged upon in the newspaper while risking his life to save people could NEVER compare to a bad review she got over a play.  Plus, I don't see why people think Dunst is attractive honestly...it almost looks like she has too many teeth for her mouth, but that's my opinion.  She's no Jill Wagner...who's latest Mercury commercial I just saw.  Now I had a bad feeling about this Spiderman movie because not only was Venom going to appear, but I also knew that Sandman would be in it, along with Harry Osbourne as the second Green Goblin.  That's a lot to cram into one movie.  The Sandman part wasn't bad, but Venom is in it for all of about 5 minutes and then gets killed?  It made absolutely no sense.  Plus, the way Peter Parker acted after donning the symbiote suit was a little over the top and a big waste of time.  So yeah, it was pretty weak.  The next day I had a little time to kill late at night so I watched "The Punisher".  No, not the lame Dolph Lundgren one from 1992, but the really cool one with Thomas Jane from about two years ago.  That movie rocks!  After it was over, I got online because I heard a sequel was being filmed and wanted to see what I could find.  I wish I hadn't.  I saw Thomas Jane quit the new Punisher movie stating something about the movie going away from the comics, and he didn't want to be associated with it.  I'm crushed...literally I am.  There is nothing like watching a superhero movie where the lead actor has a true appreciation for the character, and he definitely was Frank Castle in "The Punisher".  I can't picture anyone else taking over this role.  I won't be surprised if Vin Diesel is cast just to completely ruin it for me.  Hollywood already screwed up beyond belief with "The Hulk"...but thankfully a new one is being made with Edward Norton as Bruce Banner...and supposedly they're filming this one like the first one never existed.  But next week is the new Fantastic Four movie...and I'm excited and nervous beyond belief.  I really liked the first one, and that's coming from a guy whose favorite superhero tandem of all time is The Fantastic Four.  My biggest concern is how Galactus will be shown.  If you don't know, Galactus is a world eater.  The Silver Surfer is his minion and scouts planets for him to devour.  Galactus then comes down and consumes the energy of that planet.  I am very concerned how this will go down...can you believe that?  Here I am, 38 years old, and I'm completely wrapped up in how Galactus will be portrayed in the new Fantastic Four movie.  But you know what?  I love it!  Hey, it should make a great conversation topic at my 20 year high school reunion in a few weeks....hahaha.  I can see it now, I'll be listening to people tell me about their career and kids and stuff, and then I'll blurt out "So what did you think about how Galactus was portrayed in the new Fantastic Four movie...and can you believe Thomas Jane quit the new Punisher movie???"  Yeah, I'm sure I won't get any strange looks....hahaha.  Oh man I can't wait to write about how this reunion goes.  "So Bo, what have you been up to over the last several years?"...."Well, I ran for the Senate, am the lead singer for a metal band and we just finished our 3rd CD, train in mixed martial arts, and am really looking forward to the next Batman movie."

Speaking of the band, I got an email tonight with the draft of the artwork for the new CD.  It completely rocks!  Now I need to finish up the artwork for the new DVD.  Yeah, something else to add to the list of stuff...hahaha.  Yeah, I think the next several weeks are going to be completely consumed with mixing/editing/packaging of the new CD and DVD.  Because we all actually have jobs to work, it means a few hours here and a few hours there...which can really drag everything out.  It amazes me how three hours can go by like five minutes when mixing a song.  You'll sit there trying to get a good kick drum sound and two hours has passed...can you believe that?  If you've ever recorded, I'm sure you can.  It's definitely eating into my videogame time.  Speaking of which, I was running some errands Saturday morning, and somehow found myself at the Gamestop around the corner from where I live.  All I remember is getting in the car to go pick up some stuff, and all of the sudden I'm in Gamestop looking through the bin of used games...I think that big sign of "Buy 2 get 1 free" had something to do with it.  I picked up a few used games knowing I wouldn't have any time to try them out Saturday until late at night...but hey...I couldn't resist.  So I get home quite late Saturday, and needed to unwind.  I popped in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.  Holy crap what a game.  I haven't played a Mortal Kombat game in probably 5 years or so because they all started coming out with these spin-offs like "The adventures of Sub-Zero" and garbage like that.  However, I read something online about this one and it peaked my interest.  Now, not only do you get to fight the usually game of fighting your way up through various evil-doers, but there's a whole other game on there where you're the hero traveling through different realms and taking out tons of bad guys.  There is nothing like uppercutting a bunch of evil ninja-looking dudes and sending them upwards to be impaled on spikes hanging from the ceiling...hahaha.  I popped that game in at like midnight on Saturday, and the next thing I knew the sun was coming up.  Hmmm...no wonder I've felt like crap all day.  I guess the subconscious part of me knew it might be a while before I get another chance to play it, so I made myself stay up.  One thing that's cool though, my company knows how many hours people are putting in and everything, and they do what they can to compensate you.  Like when I had a sick day a couple of weeks ago, my boss told me I didn't need to use any of my time-off hours because of all the extra time I've been putting in...so that's cool.  I do know this is going to be one busy summer...I've got several deadlines on projects that are all coming up in the next several weeks, the DVD and CD need to get done, and then of course I do have a house and two dogs to tend to.  Yeah, the house is a wee bit of a mess, but on the list of priorities doing dishes isn't very high with everything else going on.  Please...I don't have plates stacked up with dried up crusty food all over them.  I'm smart...I use a paper plate on top of the regular plate...hahaha.  And since I live alone, I can just drink straight out of the Coke Zero bottle!  Yes...being single has many advantages.  All I know is that NFL training camp starts in about six weeks...and every moment of free time will be filled with football.  Oh man, I can't wait.

Ready for another injury story?  If you're not, I'm going to tell it anyway...haha.  At MMA class we were practicing hitting with knees.  One thing I love about everything I've been learning is that when it comes to fighting, not only do you have your fists, but you can use elbows and knees as well...both of which can be quite effective.  Anyway, we're doing drills alternating between jab kicks and knees.  One guy holds this giant pad, and the other dude throws jab kicks into it...eventually working the guy all the way to the other end of the mat, then you turn around and work your way back to the starting point...switch up...and repeat it.  You get the idea.  One time you do jab kicks, the next time down you throw knees.  And you have to throw them hard because the instructor kept saying that if you're the one holding the pad to not move unless the strike forces you back.  So I'm holding the pad as this dude is throwing knee strikes, we get to the other end of the mat and this is where the striker executes a Thai clinch and throws ten straight knee shots.  If you don't know what a Thai clinch is, let me explain briefly.  You're facing an opponent, you lock your hands behind their neck pulling their head down a little with your forearms tight on their neck and upper shoulder area while holding your elbows in.  This gives you an advantage of controlling their movement, and with your elbows in, gives you defense against body punches.  While holding them like that, you drive knee strikes into their chest or their jaw if you can get that high.  It is quite cool.  So I'm holding the big pad, dude gets me in the Thai clinch and starts off with his ten strikes.  Now at this point I'm pretty worn out and got a little sloppy.  Stupid me had my mouth open a little and lowered the pad just a tiny bit.  One of the strikes forced the pad right right under my jaw which caused it to close quicker than I anticipated.  Well, you can probably guess what happened...I bit my tongue pretty badly.  I was spitting and swallowing blood for a few hours after class was over.  It's better now...but for a day or two it was quite painful.  Not only that, but my right knee which has some arthritis was a wee bit swollen after all the strikes, and when I woke up the next morning and went to bend my leg, it was like "no way man...I'm staying pretty stiff today" so it was fun the next day hobbling around on a gimpy knee while being extremely careful when eating so I wouldn't bite my swollen tongue.  Man aging just sucks.  Take my dad for example, he had a problem with one of his front teeth and in two days it was so bad that his upper jaw was swollen and it actually gave him a black eye.  He spent about two hours in the dentist chair the other day to get it taken care of.  He's better now, but it's just one of those harsh realities of age.  And me being the good son that I am gave him a bunch of DVD's to watch of stuff he's been wanting to see...war movies and so forth.  Oh, speaking of aging and war movies, and I'll end it here tonight...I saw the trailer for the new Rambo movie.  Yeah, can you believe it?  From what I read it was originally supposed to be titled "Rambo IV - The Holy War" but of course Hollywood couldn't have that.  The premise is a group of Christian missionaries get trapped in unfriendly territory and Rambo goes in to save them.  Watching the trailer, which I have probably viewed about ten times, just gives me goose bumps.  Stallone looks like he's done it again.  Remember when I wrote about "Rocky Balboa" and how it seemed more like the first two "Rocky" movies as far as a drama went?  Well this one seems like it's going to be more like "First Blood" versus "Rambo II" and "Rambo III" with all the over the top action.  This new one really looks like it's going to have a great story.  Go to youtube.com and do a search for it.  The scene where he beheads a bad guy and then spins a mounted .50 caliber on the jeep driver turning him into soup was awesome!  But I know people will be up in arms over this one.  Why?  Because there's actually a scene where Rambo and a priest are praying, and of course we can't have that in Hollywood...especially when Christian missionaries are actually the good guys.  After all, Christians are nothing but intolerant bigots while Muslims who behead people are the "peaceful" religion.  Ok, no more on that because I'll rant.  Anyway, this movie looks incredible...and to think Stallone is 60 is unreal.  I'm 38 and crying about MMA training and he's as old as he is taking shots from Antonio Tarver in "Rocky Balboa" and then running through a jungle in Burma as Rambo.  Sadly this movie isn't coming out until next year...but the cool thing is that it gives me something long-term to really look forward to.  I can't wait!  Until then...at least I have the new Fantastic Four movie coming out this week...and I'm beyond excited about that.  Even if I have to work this weekend, I'll go out for a couple of hours to catch it...it's too important!

Ok, I went on longer than planned...but hey...it goes that way sometimes.  I need to go play with the dogs and finish domestic junk like laundry.  If only I could make good money just staying at home and being cool...hahaha.  Later sportsfans!