Disney Owns Marvel

Hey there. This is a problem. This is a huge problem. The creators of the "Happiest Place on Earth" has just purchased the rights of some of the most dark, and mentally challenged characters every created. I am not happy with this. I don't want my Dark Knight to be transformed into some "cute" creation to appease the Disney audience. I want blood, I want violence, I want the dark and sick mind that makes Batman, Batman.

I'm not too happy with this. Disney has a reputation of dumbing things down to appease their audience. Many of the characters in the Marvel universe are flawed, and are flawed for a reason. There is no "perfect" superhero. They all have their own strengths and faults that give them human characteristics that we can relate too. We all can relate to one of many of their characters and we can do that without having a huge ego. Peter Parker is noble yet nerdy, Batman is strong yet troubled, The Incredible Hulk is a monster fueled by rage and Iron Man is an engineer that is power hungry (my opinion). If Disney jumps in here and starts meddling with story lines and characteristics, there are going to be many unhappy readers. Later.

A Baby Shower and I Know Who Killed Me

Hey there. We are dead tired this Sunday. Last night, my mother in law threw a surprise baby shower for my wife. We got there at 4:30 and we were one of the first ones there so my wife didn't get the huge surprise that we hoped for. She was surprised though. She was expecting family over to watch a fight, so she expected to see people, but she peeked outside from the kitchen window and saw the baby decorations and started laughing. lol We ended up helping my mother in law most of the night. My wife more so that I. My mother in law served up some shrimp cocktail and because she didn't have much help in preparing the food, it wasn't ready when we got there so we helped out. My mother and grandma showed up after awhile and I couldn't help much since I was hanging out with them most of the night. My wife, on the other hand, was on her feet the whole night, helping her mom. Once it got dark, someone looked towards the hills and noticed that the fires that are burning up Los Angeles are visible. The past few days have been horrible and you could only see smoke from where we were at, but last night, the flames were clearly visible as they stretched across the hills. Scary sight. I tried to take pictures from my phone and camera, but no dice. It's tough to take a picture of a far away scene in the dark.

Today, we are feeling dead tired. My wife can't be on her feet, they hurt her so, so we've been lounging around at home catching movies. One movie that had caught my wife's attention was I Know Who Killed Me. I want to say it was because Lindsay Lohan stars in the movie and I think she got pretty bad reviews. When we hear that a movie is awful, we like to check it out and see the horrors for ourselves. lol The movie is not all that great. It's very choppy and there is no rhythm to the movie. Scenes are short, it continuously jumps from scene to scene, flash backs are thrown in at awful times, and the acting is pretty bad. Not a movie that I recommend. As soon as it was over, it was deleted from our DVR. Not worthy to stay on there any much longer.

I then went to get us some ice cream. No smiles in them today. lol But they so hit the spot in this 90+ degree weather... I am so not a fan of summer.

My wife soon dozed off to sleep and I continued to look for movies. I caught some of my early teen favorites. Major Payne finished not too long ago and now Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls is on. lol They are not great movies and borderline awful, but they're "fun" and I like to see movies from my youth. These are those kind of movies that my bro and I laughed our butts off when we were younger. lol

Let me get back to Ace. I'll catch you guys later!

At my mother in laws for a surprise baby shower.She needs help in preparing some of the food since my mom didnt show up early.Damn u mother.

Los Angeles is Burning

Hey there. Yesterday, I sent a Twitter message about how I was walking outside and I can smell smoke and taste ashes. Like earthquakes, Southern California is no stranger to wild fires. There was already a strong fire blazing near West Covina (about 20 miles East of Downtown Los Angeles and another fire started last night in La Canada Flintridge (about 13 miles North of Downtown Los Angeles). The skies above my hometown are ugly. I live in Long Beach, where blue skies were visible this morning. Once we got on the 710 freeway heading north towards Downtown L.A., a HUGE cloud of smoke covered the skies. There's mountains visible in the skyline when you're on the 710 heading North. Today, I couldn't even see Downtown, it was so bad. Here are a few pics I took this morning from my mother in law's place. It's only a few minutes from where I work, which is only 5 miles away from Downtown.

Smoke is creeping up, covering the sky
The sky over Downtown Los Angeles

Ugly, no? I don't like seeing the skies like that. And to make matters worse, I'm upset. I was watching the news last night when the latest fire broke out and the anchor man on the news was being a jack ass about it. He downplayed the fires as "something to get used to" if you live in Los Angeles. We citizens of Los Angeles don't need to get used to fires. That's absurd, if you ask me. You get used to things you can't change, like earthquakes. You can't stop earthquakes, that is something you can get used to. As for fires, you can stop some jerk from tossing a cigarette butt into dry brush and causing all this disaster. I doubt that anyone here wants to get used to breathing this crap. The air quality is awful right now. As I write this, I can smell the smoke that is creeping in the building. Once I go outside for lunch, I know it's going to be hot, and to top it off, I'll be breathing in ashes and smoke. I don't need to get used to that, you jack ass news reporter. Someone should put him in a box and fill it up with smoke and see if it's something he would like to get used to.

I need to go. I got work to do. Later.

Labor Day is Coming

Hey there. I started thinking about Labor Day and what we should plan for that weekend. It's still a week or so away but if you're going to make plans, you should make them early. I was thinking of maybe taking the family to the Grand Canyon. I've never been and I think the kids would get a trip out of it. Then I read that it's an 8 hour car ride from Los Angeles and I quickly scratched that idea. My wife, being preggers, shouldn't be sitting for 8 hours straight. I don't think it's healthy. So now I'm trying to find alternatives. It would be good to take a short drive somewhere and enjoy the sites. Maybe a camping trip. That sounds like fun. The kids and I have never gone camping before so I think it would be cool. Maybe rent a cabin somewhere or something like that. I'm still not sure. I wouldn't mind doing something in the mountains. I've never been to the mountains. lol I love to check that out and maybe see some snow. I've never seen snow so that would be awesome. lmao

Since there have been much stuff that I haven't done before, I think we're going to go camping, in the mountains, and see some snow. lmao Or maybe not, I don't know just yet. I'll look into the camping thing, though. That sounds like it would be a fun activity to do that weekend. Weekend camping tips, here I come. Later.

Metallica's Low Mans Lyric

Hey there. I'm in music mode right now. I've had this itch to listen to music I haven't listened to since forever. I easily get frustrated by the music that is played on local radio. There is just not enough good stuff out there. I'm not a fan of any of the new "rock" that is coming out. I'm not a fan of Paramore, I do not like Kings of Leon, and I can't stand the voice of Silver Sun Pickups. I'm just not a fan of the music of the "up and coming" bands. So when a bad ass song like STP's Plush comes out, I turn the radio up and sing my ass off to the song. lol

This leads me to last night, I was off at the local Target store looking for a phone battery. Ours seemed to have died so I needed a replacement. Since I couldn't find it there, I went to another one to get it. While in the car, I got frustrated with the music on the radio and popped in an album I don't listen to often, Metallica's Re-Load. Now, say what you will about the Load and Re-Load albums. I think they're more than decent and they're definitely an experimental period for the band. They dropped their tuning and the sound was so far from any the previous albums. Nevertheless, I think these albums were needed in order for them to progress as a band. This leads me to song, Low Mans Lyric. I strongly believe that this is the best song on that album.

It's considered a softie by the message in that song is so strong. I must've heard it like 4 times while in the car last night, singing along to the song. A strong characteristic of Metallica music is that they place on strong emphasis on the subject matter of the song. Where Master of Puppets is about addiction, Low Man's Lyric is about a homeless person and their thoughts. Where Master of Puppets has a strong, frantic style, Low Man's Lyric is powerful, yet pensive. I love it. Having such great lines as, "And I can't bear to see; What I've let me be" and "But I lie, lie straight to the mirror;The one I've broken, to match my face".

There is a strong message there. Listening to the song, you have a sense that the person in the song is out there by choice. He falls because "he let go", he's been offered help "he just wants right back out again". Should we feel sorry? "Maybe you'll understand and won't cry for this man" is the line that puts it all together as he asks for forgiveness.

Check it out for yourselves and let me know what you think. Below is the song and lyrics. Later!



My eyes seek reality
My fingers seek my veins
There's a dog at your back step
He must come in from the rain
I fall cause I let go
The net below has rot away
So my eyes seek reality
And my fingers seek my veins

The trash fire is warm
But nowhere safe from the storm
And I can't bear to see
What I've let me be
So wicked and worn

So as I write to you
Of what is done and to do
Maybe you'll understand
And won't cry for this man
cause low man is due
Please forgive me

My eyes seek reality
My fingers feel for faith
Touch clean with a dirty hand
I touch the clean to the waste

The trash fire is warm
But nowhere safe from the storm
And I can't bear to see
What I've let me be
So wicked and worn

So as I write to you
Of what is done and to do
Maybe you'll understand
and won't cry for this man
cause low man is due
Please forgive me
Please forgive me
Please forgive me

So low the sky is all I see
All I want from you is forgive me
So you bring this poor dog in from the rain
Though he just wants right back out again

And I cry, to the alleyway
Confess all to the rain
But I lie, lie straight to the mirror
The one I've broken, to match my face

The trash fire is warm
But nowhere safe from the storm
And I can't bear to see
What I've let me be
So wicked and worn

So as I write to you
Of what is done and to do
Maybe you'll understand
And won't cry for this man
cause low man is due
Please forgive me
Please forgive me

So low the sky is all I see
All I want from you is forgive me
So you bring this poor dog in from the rain
Though he just wants right back out again

My eyes seek reality
My fingers seek my veins

Stupid, Funny Movies

Hey there. My wife and I watched the movie The Hangover this weekend. Word on the street was that it is one hilarious movie. So it got our interest and we sought it out to watch. I thought the movie was hilarious. I was laughing throughout the film at it's stupidities while my wife was practically falling asleep while watching it. She didn't find it as funny or as good as I did. Later on in the day, as I was flipping through the movie channels, Step Brothers was on. I said, "Oh, Step Brothers" and my wife goes, "Again... You and your brother like retarded* movies." She didn't find Step Brothers too funny either. I asked her which movie made her laugh more than 3 times and she said Elf. lol

My bro and I, laughing it up since the mid '80s

My bro and I are goofballs. We quote, if not act out, funny parts of movies all the time. I just sent a Twitter message to my bro about what my wife said and his response is that the movies we like are "witty" and "smartass" type. lmao We can go on and on about movies and the funny lines in them and literally end up in tears from the laughter no more than 10 minutes into the conversation. Or sometimes its just randomly shouted out to start a conversation. It's not uncommon for my brother to walk in a room and go "I'm singing. I'm in a store and I'm singing!" LMAO The movie that we're stuck on right now is Step Brothers. We'll send messages back and forth quoting the movie. Great lines such as:

"I have a belly full of white dog crap in me, and now you lay this shit on me?"
"Look... we can bicker about this night, but what's done is done Dad. Are you guys going to invest or not?"
"Mom, I honestly thought I was gonna be raped for a second. He had the craziest look in his eyes. And at one point he said, "Lets get it on.""
And... "You have the voice of an angel. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus."

Oh man... And this isn't a new trend. We've been doing it since we kids. Dumb and Dumber used to get us cracking up all the time. Ace Ventura and Austin Powers were other characters we quoted and acted out constantly. Oh man.. Good times, good times. I don't doubt if The Hangover takes the new spot as the movie we go back and forth on. This movie has some pretty hilarious lines like:

"I always wondered why they were called roofies. Cause you're more likely to end up on the floor than the roof. They should call em floories."
"Oh, you know what? Next week's no good for me... The Jonas Brothers are in town. But any week after that, it's totally fine. "
"Now remember, what happens in Vegas stays, in Vegas... Except herpes, that shit will come back with you."
"I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust."

So what about you guys? You guys have a quirky characteristics like my bro and I? Any crazy antics between yourself and your siblings? We always manage to get someone laughing. Sometimes we're the only ones laughing because of our sense of humor. lol When is the next stupid, funny planning on coming out? Until then, later.

*If I offended anyone by my use of the word retarded. I'm sorry. Don't mean to offend anyone by it and it's used in no way shape or form to put down anyone.

Black Gold on truTV

Hey there friends. Most of you know about my love of truTV and of real TV. Just this weekend, my wife and I sat through several hours of Most Shocking on truTV. Most Shocking: Caught on Tape and Most Shocking: Car Chases are the ones that come to mind.

Anyways, a new show that I'm starting to catch is truTV's Black Gold . I'll admit that I didn't catch the first season but after catching the second season's premiere episode, August 19th, I may be tuning in for this season.

The show features the daily toil of Roughnecks. Roughnecks are the men that are on the field, drilling for oil. This is no ordinary job, though. These men need to be tough, strong and if they are not paying attention, could lose their lives. The show follows the format of Ice Road Truckers, another truTV show that follows the lives of men that drive big rigs in icy Alaska. Check out this link to see how truTV's Black Gold drilling adventure goes down. This job is definitely not for the weak.

Imagine going to an interview to be roughneck. I don't think I'd be able to cut it. First off, I'm a dwarf compared to the men out on the rig. I don't have anywhere near the muscle needed to operate the machines. I would expect to go through some thought provoking tests to gauge my focus and ability to think on my feet. Being a roughneck, you can't afford to have many mistakes. You'll be lucky to get away with one or two but the next mistake could be your last. I don't know, the more I think about it, the more I don't think that I would be able to cut it.

Check out the videos below to get an idea of how an interview goes for a soon to be roughneck. Those are just a taste, if you want to catch all new episodes, tune in to truTV every Wednesdays at 10p/9c. Check it out, friends. Later.





Crazy no? If you want to see more, you can check out truTV's Black Gold trailer to get a good look of roughnecks in action.

Smiling Ice Cream

Hey there. Have you guys seen anything like it? lol I went out to get my wife some rainbow sherbet earlier in the day. I just opened the container and look at what I see. The ice scream so happened to be waiting there, smiling at me. Is that crazy or what? lol I compared experience to that of those that see Jesus in a tree or the Virgin Mary in a tortilla. lol My wife suggested that it was the baby smiling because at me because I got the ice cream that he craved. What do you think? What this merely coincidence that it's smiling? Or maybe, divine intervention? Maybe it was worker intervention and thought that it would be a trip to surprise a consumer with a smile. lol Either way, we thought it was hilarious. lol

Oh... This just dawned on me... Maybe it's my pops, smiling down on us knowing that a little one is on the way. You never know, crazy things have happened here before. Like Odin, our dog, mysteriously appearing in the house after locking him outside or the Corona bottle that opened on it's own... Could be... Hmmmm... Interesting. Later.

Hey there.Having a lazy Saturday.Lounged in bed for most of the day and played some Rockband with our little one.Caught The Hangover and now, its Raider time.

Friday Drag

Hey there. Today has been going by EXTREMELY SLOW. My wife didn't come in to work today. She has 2 sick days left for the year and she wants to kill them before she's off on maternity leave. Work has just been dragging along. I'm surprised that I am not getting anywhere near the amount of Emails I usually do or many phone calls. I usually average close to 100 Emails a day and several calls but I started the day with about 40 Emails and it really has not increased much. So I'm sitting here, with the majority of my work done. Important Emails have been sent and I can't work down my report much more than I already have. You know what it kinda feels like? Like when you're in elementary school and you look up at the clock and say, "damn, 3 hours and 24 mins to go." Yeah, it's kinda like that. I look at the time and think, 2 and half hours to go...

Next week will be a different story. It's the end of the month so I'll be diligently working on reports and orders. But until then, I'll just listen to the seconds tick away. Later.

US Draft to Allow Men over 60?

Hey there. I'm not sure what the laws are outside of the United States, but once young men reach the age of 18, you are required to register for the US Selective Service. It pretty much means that if a war breaks out and the US needs soldiers, Selective Service registrants will be pulled a la a draft. Well, after reading this Email from a senior citizen... I'm thinking that maybe, JUST MAYBE, we got it all wrong. lol Enjoy.


I am over 60 and the Armed Forces thinks I'm too old to track down terrorists. You can't be older than 42 to join the military. They've got the whole thing ass-backwards. Instead of sending 18-year olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn't be able to join a military unit until you're at least 35.

For starters:
Researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every 10 seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple of times a day, leaving us more than 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy.

Young guys haven't lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. 'My back hurts! I can't sleep, I'm tired and hungry' We are impatient and maybe letting us kill some asshole that desperately deserves it will make us feel better and shut us up for a while.

An 18-year-old doesn't even like to get up before 10 a.m. Old guys always get up early to pee so what the hell. Besides, like I said, 'I'm tired and can't sleep and since I'm already up, I may as well be up killing some fanatical SOB....

If captured we couldn't spill the beans because we'd forget where we put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real brainteaser.

Boot camp would be easier for old guys. We're used to getting screamed and yelled at and we're used to soft food. We've also developed an appreciation for guns. We've been using them for years as an excuse to get out of the house, away from the screaming and yelling.

They could lighten up on the obstacle course however. I've been in combat and didn't see a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the side, nor did I ever do any pushups after completing basic training.

Actually, the running part is kind of a waste of energy, too. I've never seen anyone outrun a bullet.

An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He's still learning to shave, to start up a conversation with a pretty girl. He still hasn't figured out that a baseball cap has a brim to shade his eyes, not the back of his head.

These are all great reasons to keep our kids at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off into harm's way.

Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten coward terrorists. The last thing an enemy would want to see is a couple of million pissed off old farts with attitudes and automatic weapons who know that their best years are already behind them.

How about recruiting Women over 50 ...with PMS !!!
You think Men have attitudes !!! Ohhhhhhhhhhhh my God!!!

If nothing else, put us on border patrol....we will have it secured the first night!

Share this with your senior friends. It's purposely in big type so they can read it.

Metallman's Belt

Hey there. Several years ago, I was a stick figure thin 118 lbs. Yup, that's not a typo, 118 lbs. Today, I am a "healthy" 175. lol I've always struggled to gain weight. I tried all I could in high school and beyond to gain weight, but no luck. That is, until I met my wife. The picture you see is of a belt that I took from my wife when we first met. Mind you, it was very loose fitting on her so I pretty much figured it fit me better. lol Well, as you can see, I started off using the hole to farthest left and am now 1 hole away from having to look for a new belt. lmao Check it out.
As you can see, I met my wife in 2003 and have steadily started using the other holes in the belt. I love my babe and she treats and feeds me well. I guess it's true that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. lol I got the idea to post this in the morning when I was getting dressed and realized that I can't go past the second hole. Just thought I'd share that with you. lmao

Damn... looking at that picture, it looks like that button on my shirt is ready to pop! lmao Talking about popping buttons... Wait, that's for another time. I got a few button popping stories but if I start with those now, I won't finish this post today. HA! Later!

Update! As my wife pointed out... We met in 2003 and married in 2004. Not the above dates above! I'm too lazy to change the picture so this will have to do. Nah... I think I'll just change the pic. lmao Later.

Life Through the Eyes of a HP Machine

Hey there. I'm fully charged and ready to go. My master pulls me out of my bag once the evening is well underway. I don't know how much more I can take. His greasy fingers tap away at my keyboard (by the way, which doesn't even light up), leaving me sticky. His many windows continuously sap away at my RAM, causing my responsiveness to diminish. I haven't been cleaned and defragmented since I was fist purchased many years ago, wasting valuable storage room and constantly losing speed. My "spanking new" graphics card is now old news and I can't even run some of the newer PC games. I swear, it's like if I'm turning into an obsolete machine! Something like an IBM Thinkpad T21! *sigh*
How I wish I was one of those brand new HP HDX 16t. Now that is a machine of beauty. 16 inch HD screen, up to 3.06 GHz, Up to 8 Gigs of DDR2 memory, 1 Gig GeForce card, Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer, and many other perks! I'm lucky that my master has not purchased one of these notebooks. And I'm extremely lucky that he hasn't seen the discounts that HP is offering on a HP HDX 16t. In case you didn't know, you can get $500 off instantly when you purchase an HP HDX 16t with $300 coupon code NBN3248 + $200 Instant Rebate. Valid through 8/23 or while supplies last. Restrictions and exclusions apply.

Oh man, I hear him coming. It's time to struggle through another night of work. Maybe I should delete this post. I wouldn't want my master to purchase such an awesome machine and toss me aside. Or maybe even use me for spare parts! DELETE! DELETE! DELETE! Oh no! It's too late...

Brett Favre Signs with the Minnesota Vikings!

Hey there. It seemed that it was more of a matter of "when" instead of "if". Well, today is the "when". Even though reports claimed that Brett Favre called it quits for real this time, he has gone out and signed a deal with Minnesota. His signing is no more than a few hours old and he's already in pads, practicing with the Vikings. What does this mean to the football world? One of many things. Are we going to be blessed and see one of the game's greatest QBs make a gallant effort to end his career on top? Are we going to see "Old Man Brett" hanging on my his last thread just to make it through the season? What does this mean to fantasy football players? Will you trade to start Brett? Will Adrian Peterson get his now that Favre is in the lineup? It's exciting, I'll admit, but it's hard to look forward to seeing The Legend in action when we've seen him have extreme highs and extreme lows these past couple of seasons.

His first retirement was heart felt. I remember seeing him weep at his press conference. It made me feel somber knowing that one of the best QBs in the game is retiring. It made me feel old to see a player from my childhood hang up his cleats. Then he came back, and then retired, and then came back again. I'm not a Green Bay Packers fan, but I am a fan of the game and of individual players. Naturally, I want to see the best players on the field. That's the only way we're guaranteed great football, but if Brett's time is up, he may regret this move. Viking coach Brad Childress better hope this gamble is worth the risk. His job hangs on Brett Favre's arm. I don't want to see him fail, but if Favre fails, not only will Childress look foolish, but so will the legend of Brett Favre. Later.

Do Fantasy Football Better with Waiver Wire

Hey there friends. Football season is fast approaching. We've already had a few good looks at most NFL teams in preseason action and the anticipation is building as the season opener is approaching. Most football fans are scrambling to get their fantasy football teams together before the season starts. I've been playing fantasy football for years now. I've tried different leagues from different places since I haven't been able to find a league that provides the ultimate experience in fantasy football. After signing up and trying WaiverWire, I believe I may have found my home.

After going through the packages that they offered, I went with the appropriately named, Stimulus Package, that is 100% for the 2009 season. That's a savings of $20. Here are all the perks that come with it.
That is a lot of information for a free site. Many other fantasy football sites do not offer anywhere this amount of information. Being a guy that loves numbers (profession: credit analyst) I love being to get all sorts of information from a single source.

WaiverWire.com is brought to you by some former Wall Street guys that love football. Say what you want about Wall Street, but if someone is going to analyze football for me, I'm going to want the guys that did analyzing for a living.
I went ahead and entered my fantasy team into their database and started my research. There is so much information to digest. Projections, odds, player information, team news, player stats, etc. etc. It simply has everything you need to build and research your players so that you can make the best choice for the week. The projections tab is especially useful for this task. Who do I start? Peyton Manning or Matt Schaub? You can go to the projection tab and compare the players and make the best choice for the week. I love this feature!
And when you're done with all the researching for your team, you can stop by the Guru Zone for a weekly challenge. This is definitely my favorite part of the site. WaiverWire provides you a chance to gain Guru Points which is a way to display you're football knowledge by taking part of it's weekly challenge. Who do you believe will gain the most yards? Most TDs? Cover the spread? You submit your answers and points are awarded depending on correct predictions. It's for bragging rights amongst other WaiverWire members. My Guru Status is a big fat 0 but I'm hoping to improve that number as the season goes on.

I spent a good amount of time going through the player news and team statistics. I went through most of the players on my favorite team, Oakland Raiders, to get a better grasp of what's going down with them. I'm reading good things on them and I hope that they come out on top of their division. I'm also reading up on them since I like to have a few players on my fantasy team from my favorite team. As you can see from my autodrafted team, I don't have any OAK players. It's OK, though. I'm planing on claiming their defense and WR Schilens on my team. I play to win! But I also try to stay loyal to my team and I'm not showing much loyalty if I have the SD defense on my side. lol

Sign up at WaiverWire today and take advantage of all the information that is readily available to us football fanatics. Make sure you look for me to add me as a friend for some friendly competition and trash talking among some football lovers. See you there! Later.

Weekend Internet Hiatus

Hey there. I took the weekend off. I did not go online at all this weekend. lol I took a two day sabbatical from all things internet, well almost everything. I still had Email. But anyways, my wife brought up a point on Friday night when I was doing my online work. I mentioned something along the lines of it being a drag to get my work done at night so that don't have to do it during the day. My wife responded to that by saying something along of the lines of "don't do it religiously and take it easy." I wouldn't say I do it religiously, but I've come to realize that it's more of a habit now. I tend to work online until about 11:00 to 11:30 PM. That's the time I go to sleep anyways so I figured that I might as well get some work done. This weekend, I felt like I SHOULD be working at night since I couldn't sleep anyways. I refrained, but it felt off. It felt weird that I wasn't online at night. I stayed in bed and watched TV but at the end of the night, I couldn't really sleep because I felt as if my routine threw off my body. I actually stayed up later than usual. Go figure...

We did have an eventful weekend, though. Once I'm able to get some pictures, I'll post. If anything, I really regret that I forgot my camera at work since I wasn't able to take pics of our event myself. Until then, later.

The Oakland Raiders and The Michael Vick Signing

Hey there. I'm a huge football fan. I follow football and all news that is football. I had my Heavy Metal Rankings last year that took a lot of time to compose, but I'm bringing it back this year as a top 10 list as opposed to a league wide ranking system. Yesterday was the first preseason game for my team, the Oakland Raiders. I've been a fan since forever and I was looking forward to finally see my team in action. Even though it was only a preseason game and the starters would not be on the field for the full 60 minutes, it provided me with a sense of, "YES! Football!" lol I hate, HATE, the summer months. Not only does the heat get to me, there's no sports to watch. Sorry people, but baseball is such a bore to me that it's not even considered a sport in my book. Once the basketball season is over, there isn't a sport out there that will get my adrenaline going and no reason to have some guys over for a game and a few brews. So to see my Raiders on the screen and kicking some ass was definitely welcomed.

I love what I saw. The timid JaMarcus Russell that started for the Raiders last season is gone. Last night's Russell was consistent and poised. He stood in the pocket, he didn't eye his receivers through the whole route, he looked left and right scanning the field well, and even ran for a good 18 or so yard run. This is the QB that will take the Raiders places. Not the guy from last season that made it easy for the defenses to read and take apart. The Raider team as a whole looked real good. They spoke confidently and walked tall. They look like a team to be reckoned with. The running backs were superb. Especially Darren McFadden. And considering that we have three strong backs in Fargas, McFadden, and Bush, we should have a very strong running game that should soften the defenses up for Russell and his receivers. Speaking of receivers, Chaz Schilens looked outstanding. Last year, Russell looked for his TE Miller for completions but Russell looked comfortable passing to his WRs. We even saw a few bombs launched by Russell to rookie Darrius Heyward-Bey. I believe that once the timing between these two is right on, they are going to be a deadly combo. Heyward-Bey has speed and Russell underestimated his speed and he under thrown the first pass to him and on the next, he over thrown the pass. One thing is for sure, the Raiders are looking very capable of making some noise in the AFC West.

The Raiders were not all offense either. Their defense stepped up and stopped the Cowboys in goaline situations and the Cowboys were never really in rhythm. The only touchdown for the Cowboys came on Romo's last drive of the first quarter. Michael Huff even came up with an interception and there was constant pressure on the Cowboys QBs. Their run defense is better, but still needs some work. That's the one of many areas that coach Tom Cable has addressed to his team. The Raiders look like a team that is listening and their look and demeanor convey that. The Raiders are finally moving on the upswing and showing the commitment to excellence that owner Al Davis has been preaching for decades. Preseason game or not, when your team can put a 31-10 beat down on your opponent, you are doing something right.

Now, on to Michael Vick. While driving home from work, I started listening to ESPN Radio, in hopes of hearing about the Raider game, instead I hear about the breaking news... Michael Vick signs a 2 year deal with the Eagles. We all know the story of Mike Vick by now. The guy ran, or funded, a dog fighting ring where many dogs were seriously injured and killed. He claimed that he didn't know it was wrong since he grew up around dog fighting rings and what not. The man paid his debt to society and spent almost 2 years in jail. The commissioner, who I believe is doing one hell of a job, conditionally reinstated Vick, allowing him to sign with a team, but not play in a game until the commissioner makes his final decision on whether or not to fully reinstate Vick.

Many fans are divided on the Vick signing. Some strongly feel that he should not be allowed to play, others feel that he should deserve a second chance. The one thing that is going for Vick is that he has Ex-Indy coach, Tony Dungy as a mentor. Tony Dungy is a class act guy. Everyone respects him and when he talks, players listen. Having Tony by Vick's side made his signing possible. Let's face it, the Eagles signed Vick, knowing that he is under the watchful eye of Tony Dungy. If Vick did not have Tony as a mentor, I do not believe that he would of signed with any team.

Even the Eagles owner did some "soul searching" before approving Vick's signing. I praise the owner, not for signing Vick, but for having the stipulation that if Vick is not proactive in anti-dog fighting campaigns, then his tenure with the Eagles is done. That takes guts. Imagine your boss coming up to you and says that you'll be fired unless you spend a good 10 hours a week at the local YMCA for community service. Many of us would say hell with that, not because we don't want community service, but because we know that we can get another job elsewhere that will not require us to work an extra 10 hours a week without pay. Vick does not have that luxury. The Eagles' owner is making it known that Vick MUST work for his spot on the Eagles and you have to give him huge praise for that.

People make mistakes. And those of the criminal kind, pay their debts to society with jail time and then are released back into that same society without any guidance what so ever when they have paid their debt. It's difficult to be reinserted without guidance. Looking at a job application, it clearly asks if you've been charged with a felony and if you've been in jail. They claim that the information will not be taken into account when the job decision is made, but let's be real. If it will not be taken into account, then why the hell would you ask? Just to know? It's BS, if you ask me. Imagine Vick trying to get signed by a team without someone with credibility backing him. He wouldn't be able to do it. They'll look at him as a criminal, someone that's a liability to himself and their team. But because he has Tony on his side, teams can see that he's on the right path. He's being guided by a man that the NFL highly regards as it's personal Jesus. If you have Jesus backing you up, that stigma of a criminal does not have as much weight as it had before. Mike Vick should be thanking his lucky stars that Tony Dungy exists. If not for him, Vick's career would have been over in 2007. Tony Dungy will not allow his name to be tarnished by Vick. If Vick screws this up and blemishes Tony Dungy's name, Vick will have truly committed the ultimate crime and should forever be labeled as the biggest screw up in NFL history. Later.

Bluelight Specials at Kmart

Hey there friends. Kmart is having a sale! You know me, I'm always good to save a few bucks. Especially now that we have a little one on his way, every dollar that we can save will help us in the long run. This is why I'm glad that the Kmart Bluelight specials are back. I mean, we already shop at Kmart and it's been awhile since I've heard the PA system announce a Bluelight item.

It's about time, if you ask me. Since the kids will be back in school soon, we'll be hitting up the local Kmart on Aug. 15th (this Saturday) to take advantage of the 40+ Bluelight Specials that they have planned. Since the kids will need back to school items, we're definitely going for backpacks, since they just don't seem to make it past a full year. lol So it would be great to get a $20 back pack for $8 during their Bluelight special. Come to think of it, we could also use some patio furniture. I got our shed up this week and since I got it up, my wife and I created a lot more patio space now that the items that cluttered the patio are now in the shed. Patio furniture will be on sale (70% off) but if we get there for the Bluelight special, it's an additional 20% off! We need a patio set of some kind. Maybe a bench and a table with at least 4 lawn chairs. We have an open space in our back yard that we just don't hang out on because there isn't a table with chairs there. When we have company over, we usually stay indoors since there really isn't anywhere to seat our guests when we walk outside. And you know what else I can pick up while there? A grill! My wife and I were just talking about getting one yesterday. I had a small, old grill that wasn't covered (again, no shed) so it got ruined by the sun and rain and needed to be thrown out. Now that we have a place to shelter a grill, I can look into getting a decent sized grill. Something where I can grill more than 4 or 5 patties at once. Thinking realistically, I doubt that I would be able to get all the items that I need, UNLESS, the price is right! Considering that the price is slashed significantly during Bluelight time, maybe I'll be lucky enough to get everything I want. We'll see what I can score from Kmart come Aug. 15th! If by chance we won't be able to make it to Kmart, we'll check out Kmart.com, since they'll be having their own set of Bluelght specials there. Hmmm.... maybe we should do some online shopping since I know my wife can't be up on her feet for so long. Then again, I've never heard her say no to shopping in store so maybe we will end up going. lol

I also started following Kmart on Twitter, since I've discovered that they offer printable coupons for items. Who wouldn't want to score free coupons? I'm looking at one right now where I can get a free set of wooden pencils for buying back to school stuff. I'm going to buy back to school items anyways, so yeah, I want free pencils too. lol Sale starts Aug 15h, friends. Check it out. You know we will. Later.

Are We Overprotective Parents?

Hey there. I got to thinking... Are we overprotective of our kids? The thought came up when my wife was telling me how one of her workers was complaining how his pops didn't let him ride his bike out on the street. He was 10 or so years old and could only ride his bike in his back yard. Mind you, his pops is/was a private detective so I can see where he would not want his kid on his own. My wife then said that we let our kids ride their bikes in the yard too and not on the street. He asked when she planned on letting them ride their bikes around the block, and her answer was, "When I'm walking right behind them." lol

Now... It's been a couple of days since our boy left for summer camp. We all miss him and we swear that we hear him sometimes at home. We're parents that talk to our kids daily. Even when we were in New Orleans, we called home to say goodnight to the kids. Having our son be at camp is tough since we are not allowed to call. Might make the kids homesick, we guess.

Anyways, it made me think on whether or not we're keeping the kids close to the vest. I know that when I was kid, I left through the front door in the morning and I wouldn't come back until waaaaaaaaay later in the day. And this was before I was 10 years old. I chalked it up to it just being the times and how things are different now.

As a child, my brother and I were always up to mischief and we were not in the house much. I feel as if the kids are always in the house doing 1 of 3 things: playing video games, playing with each other, or watching TV. We had to mandate a rule to make them go outside and play because I am sure that if it were up to them, they'd hang out in front of the TV all day. Every day, when we get home, we force them to go outside and play with the dogs for at least an hour. This gets them outside of the house to get some much needed outside playing time. And even then, they're in our yard and no further than that.

So I'm thinking, are the kids in the house because we don't let them take off and explore? I mean, how much exploring can you do walking down the street? Its weird because when I was a kid, I knew where my friends from school lived, so if I wanted to hang out with a friend, I'd walk to his house. Since we live in a different city from where the kids go to school, they don't have that option. Maybe that's the problem... I don't know. It's something that my wife and I will have to figure out. This is a big reason why we felt that camp would be good for our boy. To be outside, with his peers, enjoying nature and other activities. Our daughter has expressed an interest in camp and wants to go next year. My wife says that she's not sure if she can deal with 2, soon to be 4,kids away without communication. Come Saturday, we'll get a chance to speak to our boy and see how things played out. Until then, later.

TruTV - It's Not Reality, Actuality

Hey there friends. I love watching truTV. I remember when the campaign to transition Court TV to truTV circulated and the one thing that really caught my attention was the slogan. truTV - It's Not Reality, Actuality. I truly believe that this is the best slogan for a TV station. There are many "reality" shows out there now that boast it's cast as "looking for love" or "surviving" somewhere, but when word gets out about what went behind the scenes, how can you classify it as "reality TV"? The surviving shows have buffet tables for the cast and crew between takes and all these looking for love shows seem so fake and scripted that you know the "winner" will not end up with the host just so that there can be a next season. It's not "real enough" for me. I'll watch these kind of shows with little to no reaction from me. I need something that will cause me to think, something that will cause a reaction, something that is real. I need to experience the truTV effect.

What is the truTV effect? It's fairly simple. Have you ever watched a show and then squirm at the sight of a doctor cutting open a corpse? How about seeing a baseball hit a guy in the head and you jump up and go, "Wow, did you see that?" Or have you ever had the "ouch" reaction to the classic video of an object to the groin. Many squirm, many say ouch, many simply grimace. This, my friends, is the truTV effect. Why do we react this way? I'd say it's because we know that someone experienced what we saw. This is not a fictional show. We are seeing an open body, someone really got hit in the head and that person on TV is really feeling that excruciating pain of being hit in the groin. We see that and we feel that. That's why the programming on truTV has the the truTV effect on us. Here's a good example of the truTV effect in action.


These shows are real stories. Some are not for the faint of heart and if you feel that a young one should not be exposed to some of the content the shows have, then you should monitor the shows on the channel before allowing them to view. It's the only way to go when you have a channel that will show you life as it happens. For example, Operation Repo is a show where the repo man goes out and repossesses your vehicle. Think about that for a second. How can you stage that? How can you script a show like this? A person is coming, with a tow truck and camera crew, and is going to repossess your vehicle. What do you do? Do you fight him off? Do you run for it? This show captures all the crazy reactions that people will do to keep their car. Language is vulgar, punches are thrown, and tears are shed. These are actual reactions, friends!

Another great show is Forensic Files, my personal favorite, and is one of the best shows on TV, period. There's no dancing around it, a crime has been committed (or someone is accused of a crime) and investigators are out to uncover the truth. It's insane how the forensic investigators go through every nook and cranny to find evidence. How it's all pieced together to "re-enact" the situation. The projection of the bullet, the splatter of blood, the hair fibers found on a coat, shoe impressions, etc. etc. If you want to feel the truTV effect, then you need to watch this show. It will amaze you how little evidence it takes to uncover the truth. I regularly watch this show and point out to my wife the one piece of evidence that tied everything together. It's a show that talk about well after it's over.

Need more of a visual? Check out some of the videos that playing on truTV video to get a better glimpse of truTV. Experience the truTV effect for yourselves. Look for it in your guide and start seeing some real reality TV, no... Some actuality TV. Later.

Mission: Shed, Almost Complete

Hey there. It's been forever, it seems, but I finally got our shed up. After months and months of cement bags sitting by the side of the house, the foundation for the shed was set in place. All last week, I started to build our shed after work. Knowing that I would not be able to complete it all at once, I built the frame first and decided to wait until the weekend to really tackle the job. Sometime during the week, my wife told me that she hired her brother to come and help me during the weekend. I figured it was ok, since we sent our boy to summer camp for the week, he would be a good help and someone to talk to while building the shed. He helped me put up the walls of the shed but he was really helpful when it came to put up the roof beams. I don't think I would have been able to that on my own so I'm glad he was there for that. We left the shed, partially complete Saturday night and I continued the work on Sunday. I managed to get the roofing 95% done. Roofing was a HUGE pain to do. Not so much because the sheet metal was heavy, but because I couldn't reach some of the openings on the roof to screw in the bolts. It was frustrating me and it came down to me not screwing them all in and having to get on the roof of the shed to do it. I still need to do some now but that will have to wait until next weekend. I need to screw in the last 2 pieces of the shed. Since the roofing is at an angle, I need to finish off the highest point of the shed (I can't think of the name right now but you'll see what I'm talking about in the pictures).

The dogs thought it was their mansion. They walked in and out of the place like they owned it. The girls are pretty happy with it. They kept walking in and out of it and they helped where they can. My wife is glad it's finally done. We can finally move some of our stuff outside to create even more space for the baby. We've been storing all kinds of stuffs in our closets so it's going to be nice to get all stuff outside. It's also going to make our yard look a lot better. We have bikes and tools and all kinds of stuff that is just lingering in the yard. Finally, we'll have a place to put all that away. I strongly recommend you guys get one, if you don't have one already. Check out the pics of our shed. Later.

I Submitted a Short Story

Hey there. I haven't logged on to Associated Content in awhile, so I decided to check it out and see if there are any topics that would interest me to write about. Right there, on the front page, I see the task to write a short story. A flash-fiction, actually. Hmmm... Interesting, so I went ahead and checked it out and AC provided 3 sentences for you to start your story with. The sentences seem a little dark, implying some kind of bad news of sorts. I went with, "She still couldn't shake the previous night's dream." and ran with the "horror" thing but with a twist at the end. Check it out. I called it, "The Devil's Pawn". Click the link below and let me know what you think of it. Thanks!

The Devil's Pawn

This is Sparta

Hey there. I've seen the movie 300. I thought it was good. In my opinion, it could rank as high as Gladiator as one of the best ass kicking movies ever. The problem with it is that there should have been MORE ass kicking and less of that narrator. Anyways, I was looking for something to laugh at and stumbled upon this gem at TheChive. I damn near spit out my water. lmao I love me some lists, especially those of funny pics or epic fails. This one just grabbed my attention and wanted to share it. Later!

Stop Remote Confusion Now

Hey there friends. Do you still have too many remotes in your home? Did you not read this post and say, "Hey, that's a great idea. I need one of those!" A Yamaha neoHD would be perfect for any tech savvy owner that loves to experience technology at it's best. Or for those who simply want to make things a little easier for the family.

Yesterday, I had my brother in law come over to help me build my shed. We spent most of the afternoon outside building the thing. After we called it a day, we came inside to watch a little TV. He was confused by the remotes we had on the table. He's not at our house much so he struggled to find the right control to turn the TV on. It quite funny actually, since he walked over to my wife and asked her to turn the TV on for him. This is where the Yamaha neoHD would make things simple.



I don't blame him. It's happened to me where I would be at a friend's house and I'm hold 4 remotes, pushing the on button on each in hopes of finding the TV remote. With the Yamaha NeoHD, all the remotes can be eliminated since you can program your remote devices to be used by it's user friendly device. You hook up the device to your TV and then program all your remote devices (TV, DVD, Stereo, gaming console, Ipod, etc.) and easily navigate through the user menu to select and activate your device. All through a small and simple remote. Who would not want this device?

Also, you can enter the Yamaha neoHD Sweepstakes for your chance to own your own Yamaha NeoHD. You can gain an entry by Tweeting: “I just entered to win a #neoHD b/c I have too many remotes, visit (blog.izea.com) to enter” or you can go to blog.izea.com and leave a comment on their Yamaha NeoHD post. Simply leave a comment about how you can benefit by having your own. I've left my comment and would love to see why you would like one too. Leave a comment here and let me know if it's something that is worth entering a contest for. And for those friends with a Facebook account, don't forget to search for NeoHD to become a friend and keep up to date with all that is the Yamaha NeoHD. Check it out, friends. This is definitely something that we should keep an eye on. Later.

Starting My Shed

Hey there. I am building a shed. I'm finally getting to building my shed, now that I have my cement foundation in place. I've had the shed just as long as I've had the cement bags (well over a year) so it's about time it's getting done. The clutter in our yard is finally getting to me. Will provide updates and pictures soon. Later!

Friday Drag

Hey there. Today has been one of those days... One of those days that just seem to drag on and on and on...

The day started with the computer acting stupid. It's always acted stupid and extremely slow. This morning, it refused to load up my Email and my applications for work were extremely slow. Slow to the point where I wanted to smash the damn thing. And to top it off, I was getting some "Sorry" message from Google each time I tried to display a Blogspot site. What the hell? I was getting frustrated since I wasn't able to log on and do some tweaking to my site. That's when I knew it was going to be one of those days. I tried to work around these short comings but the machine just got slower and slower and finally, my stupid Email froze. CRAP! I hate when it freezes. Outlook takes FOREVER to bring up my archived Emails and I'm literally sitting there for almost half an hour, staring at the stupid bar that claims that it will only take 4 more mins. I said hell with this. I started looking into fixing the damn thing. I cleaned out the registry, did a check disc and defrag, ran some virus scans, and deleted all kinds of crap. Hopefully, this will get it working. I let all that run while I was off to lunch.

When I got back, I see that it still wasn't done. Frustration was beginning to set in big time. Luckily, all the scans seemed to finish at the same time so once I restarted the machine, I was ready to go. Mind you, I didn't get the damn thing working to good capacity to close to 2 PM... Ugh! I spent most of my day "fixing" the computer at work. You can't rely on these IT guys. They swear they're gods and you'll be lucky if one responds to you within 2 weeks. I'm fortunate that I at least know what I'm doing when it comes to things like this.

So now... It's close to 3:30 PM with only an hour and half to go before I'm off of work and the damn day just seems to continue to drag on. After work, we need to stop by a store to pick up some stuff for our boy. Since he's off to camp tomorrow, he needs to make sure he has all he needs to for the week long trip. Then when we get home, we're going to help him pack. So it doesn't look like this day will be flying by anytime soon.

It's alright though. It's Friday and that means the weekend is upon us. It's almost as if I'm a kid, watching the clock tick by so that once school's out, I can enjoy the weekend. Something tells me, this is going to be a good weekend. Until then, later.

Final Fantasy Periodic Table of the Elements

Hey there. Where the hell where you during my time in AP Chemistry? I actually would have attended class more often if I knew this was going to be my "study buddy". lol It's great, no? And the best part is that the table does a good job of associating the element symbol to a name in Final Fantasy lore. Here are some examples:

Copper = Co = Chocobo
Silver = Ag = Aeris Gainsboro
Chlorine = Cl = Cloud
Caesium = Cs - Cait Sith
Titanium = Ti = Tidus
Magnesium = Mg = Moogle

I mean, C'mon! How bad ass is that?! Kudos to the creator of this table of the elements. That person must have taken forever to match a final fantasy term to each element. I'm going to look for a big one to get my kids. I'm sure they'll learn all these by the time they need to know them. Until then, later!

Metallman's Reverie Not Indexed on MSN (Bing)

Hey there. I'm fairly proud of this site. From my very first post, to what it is now. There is a sense of pride in building something from nothing and I'm definitely feeling proud. At first, I paid very close attention to this site's statistics: Page views, visitors, Alexa rank, Google PR, indexed pages, etc. etc. It got to a point where I would check it once a week to see if my trend was going up. I don't do that as much anymore. I occasionally check on the stats to see if there have been any improvements and I keep widgets on this site to tell me my Alexa rank and Real Rank. I gave up on Google PR. I'm finding it difficult to gain any love from Google in that aspect (or Google Adsense for that matter, since I was banned without warning).

Well, today was one of those days I decided to check up on Metallman's Reverie to see what's up. I like that Google decided to add me to their search engine. Typing in "Metallman" displays Metallman's Reverie in the top spot. Same deal with Yahoo. I like that I'm on there and it will display all or most of the places I'm mentioned. Not the case with MSN.

I logged on to the webmaster tools on MSN to see what it tells me. None of my pages are indexed. Not one. Hmmm.... So I go to Bing.com and enter Metallman and search. Metallman's Reverie does not come up. I see all my profiles, though. Every profile from Socialspark to NBA.com to Twitter. But absolutely no mention of Metallman's Reverie on Blogspot. What the hell???

I mean, I don't think it's a big deal, since I strongly believe that the majority of the world uses the Google search engine and I'm on that, but considering that I've been around for well over a year, I'd figure that MSN would acknowledge that I exist. I just find it a little odd that I'm not on there and am wondering if I'm the only one having that problem. For SEO reasons, you should be indexed in the "Big Three" of the online world but I'm curious as to why MSN refuses to index me. I'm going to need to look into that. I'm pretty comfortable at where I stand as a website. Pretty good Alexa rank, pretty good Real rank, I have 600+ feed subscribers, I get over 10K in page views a month, etc. It make me feel good that this is a moderate success, but this MSN thing bugs me. If I were to be indexed in MSN, would it bring more readers? Could it be possible for me to increase my visibility? Who knows... But I'm going to try and get to bottom of it and see why MSN is ashamed to index my site. lol Until I uncover the truth, later.

My Son is Off to Camp "Wannahonkaloogie" or "Chippawah" or Something Like That

Hey there. We've decided... Our son is going to camp. A friend of ours presented us with an opportunity for our boy to go off to camp and learn a few things. My wife and I briefly talked about it before deciding that he's going. I've never been to any kind of camp as a kid and my wife says that she went to a "fake" camp for a week. lol I think this will be a great experience for him to get out and do something while he's on vacation.

Our boy can be timid, but at the same time, he can be very outgoing. We feel that sometimes he's just not in the mood to play with others and would just rather stay in his room. Reminds me a lot of me when I was young. lmao The difference, though, is that while I was out, I was out playing with kids and doing stuff with friends. When our boy is out, he's either sitting by himself playing video games or sitting there looking bored as hell. Mind you, this is not all the time. There have been occasions where he's out and about playing with other kids and he practically disappears until it's time to go. We figured that maybe camp would be a good way to help make a dent, if not break, this shell that he hides in at times.

We spoke to my son during our lunch break to get his thoughts on the whole thing. I talked about camping and what not to see if they were activities that he would enjoy. He said that they were cool. So I mentioned a camp for a week, and he shot it down, saying he wouldn't want to go. I told him that he just said it sounded like fun so why would you not want to interact with other kids his age and do fun activities? (This is that shell I was talking about) He couldn't really answer me so I told him that that is the very reason he is going to camp. He should want to go out and have fun with kids his age instead of passing up these life experiences. I never got to go to camp and I would have loved to have gone. He didn't seem to receptive to the idea that he's going, but I have a feeling it's because he won't be able to play video games. I'm sure that once he's there, he'll have a blast and one day, many, many moons from now, he'll look back on that thank us for giving him that experience. Until then, later!

Get Ready for Back To School with Sears' Campus Ready

This post was sponsored by Sears. All the opinions are mine.

Hey there friends. We are now in August, which means that many retailers across the country and gearing up for "back to school" sales. While retailers generally target the elementary school kids, those of you that are getting ready for college can be left out in the cold. Going to college and living is a dorm room is a huge transition and our good friends at Sears are here to help with their CampusReady website. Sears makes it extremely easy to get your dorm room furnished with what you need. Below are some of the highlights of the site:

*You can shop by dorm room

You can view pre-furnished dorm rooms and pick and choose items from that dorm room that you like. Considering that Sears went all out and created more than a few dorm rooms, you should be able to find a style that suits your needs.

*You could shop by coordinating dorm room products and design ideas

If you select an item that you like, Sears will automatically display several other products that coordinate with the item that you chose. Making it extremely easy to have a well organized dorm room.

*You can shop using the interactive checklist

This handy tool organizes strongly suggested items that you will need to make college life that much easier. All items needed will be neatly categorized for easy check off.

*You can shop by necessary items

This is a god send for all parents that are about to see their child off to college. This interactive list will display all necessities for college life. The items are organized into the 5 categories of eating, sleeping, studying, playing, and cleaning.

*You can shop for clothes

Campus Ready not only offers furniture, but clothes as well. Keeping the clothes simple, young men and young women can shop by tops, pants, and t shirts, among other categories. It also provides tips on how to keep your clothes lasting the longest, offering advice such as this tip for jeans, "wash jeans in cold water and turn them inside out".

*Sears provides financial tips

The "Money Sense" tab is there to help students with tips on how to be money savvy. It emphases on the importance of a budget, but offers such money saving advice, such as "buying used books", and "search for free entertainment".

You can't go wrong with a site that goes of it's way to make things simple for a college transition. As an added bonus, you can check out CampusReady on Facebook and make things even easier with their facebook application.

College tuition is on the rise all over the country. Sears is doing it's part by offering a great site where a soon to be college student can get a grasp of what's going to be expected of a soon to be adult. For all us parents out there, be sure to sign up, for free, at Upromise.com to help pay for tuition costs. The program is extremely simple. You make purchases through Upromise.com to online retailers and a portion of the purchase will be returned to you in the form of an online account. And to sweeten the pot, Sears has teamed up with Upromise.com to give away up to $25,000 in cash for college tuition if you make a purchase through the Upromise.com website. Free money for college is not easy to come by so make sure you get your entry in for your chance to score money for college. Later.