Ok, no politics or any of that crap this week.  I've had enough for right now.  This is all about entertainment.  Speaking of which, I know I've mentioned about my movie over the last couple of weeks but didn't want to go into detail.  Why?  Well, even though the odds of the idea being stolen are pretty low, I've had enough ideas stolen for things over the course of my life to know when to not make things public.  Need an example?  Ok...ever heard of the videogame "Legends of Wrestling" that came out for the Xbox and PS2?  That was my idea.  Serious, me and my bud Jason discussed this one night on the phone when I was living in Austin, TX.  We talked about a game of classic wrestlers, working territories, storylines, who would be in it...and even the friggin name.  The plan was to work up a proposal to Acclaim Entertainment who is located in Austin since they just lost their WWF (at that time) license and already had an engine to make wrestling games.  Anyway, we planned on how this would be done for about two months and then I went to a video game website one day and saw that Acclaim was announcing a new wrestling videogame - Legends of Wrestling!!!!  Serious, the press release not only had the name we came up with but also the ideas on how the game would work.  Sadly there was nothing we could do since all our notes were basically nothing but crap scribbled on a notepad.  So how did the idea get stolen?  I remember one night I was out getting something to eat with a buddy of mine and was telling him all about the game idea.   I believe someone that worked at Acclaim in Austin was sitting near by and heard my idea and went with it....I'm not kidding...there's too many similarities in everything for it just to be a coincidence, especially since they used the EXACT same title we came up with.  So I'm always real cautious since that in letting ideas out into the public.  Anyway, the movie...contest has passed and the winner was announced last Saturday at the Nashville Horror Convention.  The title is "30 Years" and is a tale of revenge done by one pissed off evil clown.  It starts as a harmless urban legend about a clown that worked the local town fair and was blamed for the murder of area kids.  Years later, Chuckles has a little revenge to take care of against the town that did him in.  I'm going to get it posted online somewhere sometime soon, so stay tuned.  Of course I played Chuckles the Clown with this badass latex evil clown face attached to me and some kickass makeup I did as well.  I came up with the idea one day at work while I was taking a smoke break...moments of genius hit me at odd times...hahahaha.  I came up with the basic plot and Jason filled in some of the details.  After that it was time to write and record the music for it, and that rocked!  I had never tried to come up with "mood" music before...you know something that can be played underneath movie scenes so that was a really cool challenge.  Jason came up with some of it, and we did the sound effects also.  Now granted it's not some multi-camera production with a huge crew and stuff like that...we had one night to shoot it and a few hours to edit it because of the time constraints, but it came out pretty good for what we had to work with.  I think my favorite parts to shoot was the "buried alive" stuff...it came out pretty well.  So the big question...did we win?  Ummmm...no.  We didn't even make it into the top five.  I'll admit, ours looked rough in comparison to the other entries.  I mean the winners looked like groups of people who had been doing these a while with pro equipment and stuff.  Now I will say I think the story in our movie was MUCH better then the ones that placed 3rd, 4th, and 5th...and possibly even 1st.  The only one I dug was a movie called "Rock & Roll Crazy Nights" (which at first I thought would be a documentary about the Japanese heavy metal band "Loudness"...ok...bad joke) and it was pretty good.  The story was that this singer of a heavy metal band made a deal with the devil for immortality or something and in turn this singer would possess teenagers through the band's music.  A group of high school nerds wanted to stop him but didn't know how...until the school janitor became their mentor.  He was a former 80's rock star and helped the kids...they had a big showdown onstage where one of the nerds got into a guitar duel with the guy and won and evil was vanquished.  It was shot like a campy 80's horror movie and was quite entertaining.  Other then that one our story killed!  Oh well, there will be others and this was our first try.

I love this time of year more than words can say.  Why?  A couple of reasons…one is the weather is finally cooling off.  I swear, I’ve got a pair of black sweatpants that are just so unbelievably comfortable it’s like I’m wearing nothing.  During the cool and cold weather months, if I’m home, they’re on…unless I’m washing them.  If I could get away with it, I’d wear them 24/7…I’d wear them to work, to the store, everywhere.  And now it looks like the weather will permit me to pull them out of the drawer and make them the staple of my wardrobe at home.  I hate clothes…I really do.  Now in saying that, that doesn’t mean I’m a nudist…I just hate “outfits”.  Now this is just me I’m talking about here.  The worst part of each weekday is getting my little work outfit together…it drives me insane.  First off, I absolutely despise having to tuck my shirts in.  All day I feel like pulling and tugging at it, I hate it.  The first thing I do when I get home from work is rip my shirt out of my pants.  I hate going places right after wok because I feel like I’m wearing a costume.  My whole life I’ve been a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy and have never felt comfortable in polos and button-downs tucked in.  Oh, and the work pants are as bad.  Slacks suck…period.  I honestly feel like such a dork walking around in my little dress shirts all tucked into my little slacks and uncomfortable as hell dress shoes.  Such is the price for being a corporate stooge.  So when I’m at home, its sweatpants and a baggy shirt…I can’t stand having clothes feel like they’re constricting…I hate even knowing I’m wearing anything.  I have about as much fashion sense as a hobo and I really don’t care.  Ok, another thing I love is football season.  I know, hard to believe isn’t it?  Now here’s what is strange…I can tell how well my beloved Atlanta Falcons are going to play by how my dog acts on gameday.  Yeah, I’m serious.  I noticed it last year.  If you don’t know, my dog’s name is Vick and he’s a pretty good sized German Shepherd.  I named him after Atlanta’s starting quarterback, Michael Vick, and also figured that if Michael Vick ever ended up being a bust, then I could always say his name was short for Victor or something.  Anyway, on Sunday mornings during the season I get up and go outside with Vick for a little while and toss around these glow in the dark balls.  I swear he goes nuts for those things when I start throwing them.  I do all this before the ultimate bachelor pad is setup…check out this for football viewing pleasure on Sundays – I’ve got Direct TV with the NFL Sunday Ticket package that I run to 2 TV’s, a 56” widescreen TV with surround sound showing the Falcons (or some other game if they aren’t on) and then I move a 25” TV out into the living room also with another game on it, and then a 13” TV to watch whatever the local game carried is.  Yep, three games at once with another batch of games that starts at around 3:15.  And as if that wasn’t good enough, I fire up the grill about an hour before kickoff so me and my buddies can cook dead animals over an open fire to feast on while watching hours of football.  It’s sheer bliss.  But before I get everything setup, I toss the ball around with Vick…and I can tell how Atlanta will play based on this.  For instance, here’s how he’s acted so far this year: Week One Atlanta beat Philadelphia…this was a HUGE game and before it Vick was full of energy, running around and wouldn’t calm down.  He wasn’t fielding the ball as well as he usually does, but he was doing ok.  My thought was the ATL would win but it would be a wild and somewhat sloppy game and that’s exactly what happened.  The next week they played Seattle.  I went outside that morning and was throwing the ball around and Vick wasn’t chasing it.  He was moving along a little lethargically like he just woke up.  No matter what I did, he just wasn’t getting excited and seemed a little flat.  I was scared now…serious.  I knew based on this Atlanta was going to come out and play VERY flat and uninspired…and that’s exactly what happened.  Seattle jumped to a 21-0 lead.  By the time Atlanta woke up, it was too late.  The next week was a game at Buffalo.  That morning I was throwing the ball around and wrestling with him a little, and he was pretty excited but not wild.  I’d throw the ball and he’d take off after it and most of the time grab it on the first bounce.  Based on that I knew Atlanta would play well, they’d make a few mistakes but they’d be up for the game and play well…and that’s what happened as they pulled out a win.  Two weeks ago was so accurate it was scary.  Atlanta was playing Minnesota, and that Sunday morning I was outside getting the grill ready and playing with the dog.  I’d throw the ball and he’d grab it every time on the first bounce…not acting wild at all but running around with a quiet confidence.  No matter where the ball went, he’d nab it, running smoothly the whole time.  He usually gets real excited when chasing it, but his excitement was controlled.  I knew, and I mean was sure of it, that Atlanta was going to have a good game, and that Vick would be playing with poise and confidence.  So I sat down in one of my chairs in the backyard and Vick came up to me and sat down.  Now most dogs shake hands, but not Vick…I taught him better.  Ever seen the movie “Gladiator”?  There’s that scene right before the major battle at the start of the film where General Maximus and this other guy are talking, they start to part ways before the fighting starts and grasp each other’s forearms and tell each other “strength and honor”.  So I taught Vick this.  Yeah, laugh all you want but I think it’s cool.  So he sits down in front of me and I say “Vick, strength and honor” and he raises his front leg up and out where I grab it near the joint (like it’s a forearm) and shake it.  I bring this up because after I did that on Sunday morning, I noticed two tiny specs of blood.  It was dried so it was no big deal considering he had a blood test for heartworms the previous day at the vets.  However, when I saw that I jokingly thought to myself “oh great, I bet this means Michael Vick gets a leg injury”.  Me and my buddies finish up our burgers and steaks and go inside to watch the game.  Atlanta came out on the first drive and went right down the field for a touchdown with razor like precision and soon started to dominate the game with confidence.  But then it happened…in the second quarter Michael Vick got hit late and got a knee sprain so they pulled him from the game since they were playing so well.  Again, my dog predicted how Atlanta would play with frightening accuracy.  This past weekend, Michael Vick was listed as questionable to play because of the knee injury.  I went outside on Sunday morning and started throwing the ball around…he wouldn’t chase it.  He just kind of trotted around the yard.  I thought to myself “Yeah, I guess this means Vick is out today” and went inside to cut on ESPN.  Sure enough, Vick was listed as out for the game.  Later on before kickoff I was outside again while the grill was going and throwing the ball…he finally started chasing it and based on how he was acting I knew Atlanta would get off to a slow start but fight back.  Well that’s what happened.  The Patriots jumped out to a two TD lead before ATL came back.  Sadly Atlanta couldn’t finish strong and lost by a field goal.  The Vick-o-meter hasn’t lied yet this season…it’s quite frightening.  As pissed as I was Atlanta lost, nothing compared with the tragedy before kickoff though.  I had three burgers going on the grill….heavily coated in garlic and onion powder.  I go to flip one, start to slide the spatula under it, and then watch helplessly as it slides off the back edge of the grill onto the driveway.  Instead of sliding the spatula under it…I ended up just pushing it and was doing it so quick I didn’t have time to catch it.  As it started to fall, everything went to slow motion as I screamed “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”  My plans were now ruined.  Originally I would eat two of them while watching the early game…then save one for later in the afternoon…but not his week.  Yep, just a bad Sunday all around.  But it’s cool…Atlanta is 3-2 with the soft part of their schedule coming up so I still have hopes for the playoffs.  If they can only have a three point loss to the defending Super Bowl champs while Michael Vick sits on the bench, I think they’ll be ok.  On a brighter note, my beloved University of Georgia Bulldogs beat Tennessee Saturday and are still undefeated!!!!  Even though I’ve lived in Tennessee most of my life, I DESPISE that team and everything about them.  That horrendous orange color, the song “Rocky Top” blasting through their stadium…it makes my sick.  I hate that team with a passion, so it was quite a sweet win this past Saturday.

You know what I learned this week?  I really need to do some anger management courses...oh yes I do.  I was online the other night and had instant messenger going and all of the sudden my Norton Anti-Virus program popped up a box that said I had a trojan virus.  I clicked "repair"...it then said "Norton cannot repair this file because it is in use".  So next I clicked "quarantine"...and basically got the same message.  I'm thinking "Gee Norton...thanks for NOTHING you piece of crap!!!  Tell me I have a virus and do NOTHING about it!!!!".  So I logged off hastily and stayed up for about 2 hours trying to delete the dumb file using all sorts of methods.  I was so pissed I wanted to throw the friggin PC out the window.  I finally got in bed and had visions of trying to backup what I needed before formatting the hard drive and how I would solve this problem.  Well, the next day I was emailing someone...the same person I was on instant messenger with...and was told that when she has those messages she reboots and everything is just peachy.  Of course my life was collapsing around me with my PC down and I'm hit in an email with a ray of sunshine...but I knew that I was in for a battle and this girl's attempts at making me feel better would amount to nothing!  I got home from work ready to be pit in the ultimate battle of man versus machine and guess what...she was right...I booted up and saw Norton deleted the file on startup.  I felt like a complete idiot.  Just picture this...I'm ADD guy big time...I'm about to go postal if I'm in line at the grocery store for more then 5 minutes...I'm ready to ram the car in front of me if they aren't going the posted speed limit or more...and when my PC has a problem I'm ready to take a baseball bat to it.  But it was all for nothing...everything was fine and all those visions of mayhem and destruction I had were a waste of time.  I gotta learn to calm down...hahahaha.

Until next time Sportsfans....