Final Fantasy: Type 0 in the Works?

Hey there.  When G4 announced that the name and logo for Final Fantasy: Type 0 was trademarked, it immediately grabbed my attention.  Square Enix might be releasing a new Final Fantasy game!  It may be a spin off... it may be a continuation of an existing Final Fantasy title.  As of right now, it's way to early to tell.  G4 doesn't have info on the project but they're willing to spill what ever they do have.  Check out the brief announcement here.

Intrigued?  Yes.  Excited?  Not so much.  Not until we receive some more details.  For all we know, this is Square Enix trademarking POTENTIAL names.  And even if they are, I would assume that because they are trademarking anything Final Fantasy, some sort of product will become of it.  Until then, later!

Always Be In The Know With ESPN

Guest post written by my buddy Lavern Small

Almost everyday I manage to catch ESPN on my expert Satellite tv. Even though I'm a woman I do love my sports. ESPN provides me up-to-date segments on all the teams I love. The commentators are very personable and often very funny. There is a bit of analysis on different teams and also several opinions on many subjects as well. There is also the very helpful ticker on the bottom that will display the scores and highlights from the night before.

ESPN is great because they have fun with sports. It's not always a serious subject. For example, my favorite show is Pardon The Interruption of P.T.I. which airs in the late afternoon and early evening between segments of Sports Center. Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser are perhaps some of the funniest sports commentators I have ever come across but yet they still provide the material that the people are interested in.

What I also enjoy about ESPN is not only it's sports analysis and breakdowns. They also broadcast wonderful programs that a truly enjoyable. These programs can showcase athletes giving back to their community, granting a child a wish, or even a program about the adversaries that an athletes has had to overcome to be where he is. This network allows people to see athletes as more than just a sports figure. It makes them human and we as an audience can connect deeper to the people who deliver our favorite sports.

Going Back to Blogging Roots

Hey there.  I've been reading some of my old posts and I've just realized that I've gone a bit much on the commercial side.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that I've been considered for sponsored posts as well as guest posts.  It allows me to add a new dimension to my site.  However, as I've gone through the past month or so, I've noticed that original content is less and less while 3rd party posts have increased.  The solution?  Increase the amount of original Metallman content.  Adding more of the essence that is me should bring the my identity back into my site.

I've gone away from the daily BS that saturates my life and have gone the way that many bloggers have gone.  They simply let their blogs/site fall into obscurity and do not update their site with their original work.  They simply become another site with the same stuff that is already on the internet.  There is nothing to make someone want to come check out your site when there are thousands of others with a similar post.  I admit, I falling down that path.  No more, my friends.

I've decided that I need to add myself back into this site.  My daily ramblings, my daily quirks, and my daily actions that bring smiles to those around me.  I feel that many things have gone on that were definitely blog worthy have been lost to laziness and a lack of dedication.  And the one that loses out on those experiences are you, my readers, and I apologize.  2011 will be a banner year for Metallman.com and I'm hoping that you guys will stick along for the ride.  Thanks.

Motivational Monday - Hope

One day... one day...

Going Christmas Shopping

Authored by Raymond Whitney

One of the best parts about the holiday season is getting to go shopping for people I care about. While I try to let them know how much they mean to me every day, the holiday season allows me an occasion to go out and buy them something I know they will like.

I usually go holiday shopping with my wife (except when buying gifts for her, of course). We've camped out for Black Friday before, but usually we wait for a couple of weeks after that to get our shopping done. Some of our favorite stores include Best Buy and Toys "R" Us for our sons, as well as Gap, Aeropostale and American Eagle for our daughter.

Unfortunately, the holiday season is also the time of year when many robberies and home invasions happen, due to people trying to take advantage of others and ruin their joyous time. Because of this, I make sure that I always set my security alarm () before I leave to go Christmas shopping. That way, I can focus on what's truly important, and not have to worry about the unfortunate parts of the holiday season.

How I Really Feel About Work

I hate wating...

Christmas Eve is 2 Days Away

Hey there.  Are you guys ready?  Have all the gifts been bought?  Have all the cards been sent?  Are you done with all the madness that is Christmas shopping?  I'm glad to say that for the most part, the shopping is done and done.  Only a few gifts need to wrapped and it is done and done.

Aaaaahhhhh!!!  the chaos!!!!

As opposed to other years, we took a different approach to X Mas shopping and it actually worked out pretty well.  Kids always get gifts, that is a given.  They get gifts from mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and aunts and uncles.  You know who doesn't always get gifts?  The adults!  So this year it was changed up a bit with emphasis on getting the adults in the family gifts.  Don't get me wrong, the kids will still get theirs, but a gift for the couples were a good idea this time around.  It made shopping extremely easy, since you avoid those oh so popular toy heavy stores and the lines were more tolerable than those at toy stores.  I'm not saying that it is something that should be done every year, but after all the years the adults get all the kids in the family gifts, it will be nice for them to receive one that is not part of a secret Santa exchange.  Best of luck, for those procrastinators out there and to all, have a great holiday!  Later!

Sugar Cookie Christmas Trees

Guest post written by Lauren Wiles

Right now I'm planning our family's annual Christmas party where a bunch of our neighbors, friends and our kids' friends come over for a dinner and some fun. We don't exchange gifts because we never know who's really going to show up. We just ask people to bring something with them if they come. But even thought we do that and don't have to make as much food as a result, I still put a lot of time into what I'm making and how I decorate our house for it.

I was online with our Clearinternet trying to find some new recipes to fix for this year. I found all kinds fo stuff, a lot of which I could actually fix the day before, which will make that a lot easier for me. On my e-mail invites, I'm making sure to add a list of things I'm making so that people won't bring the same thing with them.

I never like to repeat centerpieces from year to year, so I was really excited when I found the idea for a sugar cookie Christmas tree. You can eat the cookies afterward and I thought that it was the cutest thing ever.

Motivational Monday - 56K

Is there any other reason to ditch dial up???

What is Wrong with this Mirror?

Hilarious Prank - Watch more Funny Videos

TiVo Primier for Only $99 at Best Buy

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TiVo. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hey there friends.  Are you still trying to find the perfect gift for the TV/movie afficionado in your family?  Then you obviously have not heard of the new TiVo Premiere currently available at your local Best Buy.  It's definitely not your run of the mill DVR box.  No longer are you limited to just the shows that are currently showing on your cable TV.  The New TiVo Premiere can also be used to browse the web to stream videos from Youtube, Netflix, as well as Amazon Video on Demand downloads and it's also a Pandora music player where you can easily change from watching TV to music with a touch of a button.

 

So how much will this magic box cost?  Well, if you take advantage of Best Buy's holiday offer, you can snag a TiVo Premier for only $99 with a year's subscription.  With the ability to record up to 45 hours of glorious HD programming, the TV/movie buff can revisit their favorite shows time and time again.  This deal is well worth it and for this price, you might as well grab one for your home.

Don't confine yourself to what is "just" on your TV.  Enhance your TV watching experience with the new TiVo Premiere and explore the possibilities.

I need a Vacation

Hey there.  I didn't come in to work yesterday.  And no, friends, it wasn't a kick back, I'm not going to do anything, kind of day.  lol  Both of my daughters were going to perform in their school's annual Christmas Program and I wanted to be there.  And... the school was going to honor both of my daughters for making honor roll.  Yay for my girls!  So the schedule looked something like this... 

7:00   Take girls to school
8:30   Have breakfast
10:30 Christmas Performance
12:30 After school party
2:30   Get son from JR High
4:00   Honor Roll Assembly
5:30   Honor Roll Assembly
6:00   Go home

As you can see, school related activities were nothing but planned that day and you know how well things turn out when you plan out your day.  Here's what really went down.

7:00   Take girls to school
8:30   Have breakfast
10:00 Go to Target to get MiniDV recording tape
10:35 Run to school auditorium
10:40 Realize that stupid camcorder is not working
10:50 Said screw it and took video with my phone
12:30 Made it to after school party
2:15   Take my youngest to get her hair cut
3:05   Speed off to get my son from JR High
3:35   Experience LA traffic jam
4:10   Run to school auditrium
4:30   Get text invitation to my cuz's b day thing for that night
5:00   Have small "lunch"
5:30   Honor Roll Assembly
6:15   Go to my aunt's for b day thing
10:00 Go home

Yeah...  that' didn't go as originally planned.  lmao  Needless to say, I need a vacation...  But like a real one.  Where the day is not used for home projects, shopping expeditions, or school related activities.  But like, a real vacation.  Yeah... that would be nice.  lol 

I came into work and for being out for a single day, it seems as if hell on Earth rained down on me.  More than 250 Emails sitting in my inbox, more than 10 voice mails waiting to be answered, boss saying there were complaints because I wasn't there...  It's like... man, can't have a day to myself without my work world going down in chaos???  *sigh*

Mac or PC?

Hey there.  I've been a PC guy all my life.  PC's in school, PC's at home, and the laptop is a PC.  But you know what... I'm getting tired of the viruses and the updates and the pain in the ass methods that it takes to install drivers and what not just to get "easy" plug and play devices to work.  Because of this... I'm leaning on picking up a Mac laptop for business. 

I've gotten good feedback from friends about them and some people even swear by them.  I'll admit that I don't know much about them, since I've been surrounded by PCs.  The only thing I do know is that Mac's are more expensive than PCs.  Does the old adage, "you get what you pay for" apply to computers? 

My brother in law picked up a HP laptop for around $200 this black holiday and it's running Windows 7.  I was thinking of picking one up as well, but I'm tired of the slowness and the vulnerabilities of these Windows based machines.  Maybe I just need a change of scenery from the world of Windows.  Maybe it's simply time to jump ship and head on over to the world of Apple.  lol  I think I've already made my decision... but until I have an Apple machine in my hand, it won't be definite.  Until then, later!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Guest post written by Sidney Owens

My family's favorite time of year is Christmas! We always put the Christmas tree and decorations up right after Thanksgiving. It's a tradition.

The first thing my husband, my kids, and I do is hang the stockings on the fireplace. My kids get so excited just putting their stockings up, knowing when they see them on Christmas day, they will be full of goodies.
Then, we put Christmas trinkets of Christmas characters and Christmas stuffed animals on the fireplace with lights all around them. It is beautiful.

Then, we put the tree up. First, we put all kinds of lights on it, especially multi-colored ones and blinking ones because my kids love those. Next, we put the ornaments on it, my favorite part! There are ornaments we decorated and made ourselves, ornaments the kids made in school, birthday ornaments, and a variety of colorful Christmas ornaments. We decorate the tree until there is no room for anymore ornaments left! Once all the ornaments are up, we put tinsel on the tree. This gives the tree a sparkle
.
Under the Christmas tree, we put a train. It reminds me of when I was a kid.

I love to just stand back and look at all the decorations. It puts me in the Christmas spirit! So, after we are all worn out from decorating, we watch Christmas shows on Satalite TV deals!

Motivational Monday - Miley Cyrus

What are the odds of "by the end of the year" ???

iPad Cases for the Family

Guest post written by Tina Simpson

It's kind of funny that so many of the members of my family have bought an ipad over the last couple of months. But from what I can tell, none of them have any ipad cases for them. I thought that would be a really great Christmas present that I knew would get used for sure.

I've received so many presents over the years that I haven't always used, so that's something that I really take into consideration when picking out a gift. So I had that in mind when I went onlne with my CLEAR INTERNET to start searching for all of these gifts.

One thing though that I made sure to get along with the ipad cases was a gift receipt for each one, just in case they got more than one ipad case for the holidays or knew of one that they would much rather have instead. I do have a pretty good feel for what each of my kids like, so I'm pretty sure that they'll love the cases that I've bought for each of them.

Watch Internet Videos on your HDTV with GlideTV Navigator

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of GlideTV. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hey there friends.  How often do you watch TV programming now a days?  If you're anything like me, you'll find yourself watching movies and shows online more than actually watching them on the TV.  In this digital world, we just don't have the time to wait for a show to start at it's designated time slot so when we have some free time to actually sit down and watch TV, we don't want to waste time watch "filler TV" while waiting for your show or movie to watch.  That is why having a GlideTV Navigator would be a godsend.

Imagine owning one these bad boys.  A wireless device that will allow you to enjoy internet videos on your HDTV.  Missed The Office the night before because of work?  No problem.  Just go through GlideTV and start The Office and get to watching!  It really is that simple and this would be a perfect gift for people like my brother and I.  We are always tied to our computers and we constantly watch video clips here and there on our 15 inch screens.  But why strain the eyes when we can be sitting back on the couch and watching videos in glorious HDTV on our 52 inch screen!  This is definitely a device that you will want to try for yourself.

Getting one will set you back about $50 but it is definitely worth it.  But if money is tight, you can enter to win a GlideTV Navigator by "liking" GlideTV on Facebook and submitting a short entry form. You can get the full details of the contest there.  I've already submitted my entry to win and the contest end on December 23!  Get to their Facebook page and enter to win before time runs out.  Later!

The Story of Angels on Christmas Trees

Ever wonder why it's an angel that sits atop Christmas trees? Well let me tell you the story.


One day, 4 of Santa's elves were sick and the trainee elves didn't produce as many toys as the regular ones and Santa began to feel the Christmas day pressure. That morning, Mrs. Claus tells Santa that her mother will be coming to visit, which stressed Santa. Then, when he went out to harness the reindeer, he found that 3 of them were about to give birth and 2 had jumped the fence and are nowhere to be found. Then, when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked and the toy bag fell, scattering toys everywhere.

Frustrated, Santa decided he needed a little drink so he went into the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he opened the cupboard, he found that the elves had drunk all the cider and his secret stash of rum. Upset, that the jug of cider was empty, he smashed it on the ground. He then went to get the broom to sweep up the glass when he noticed that the mice had eaten the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Irritated, Santa stomped his way towards the door to answer it. He yanked the door open and there stood a little angel with a huge and beautiful Christmas tree. Upon seeing Santa, the angel merrily said, "Merry Christmas Santa! Isn't it the most beautiful day today? I brought this beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?"

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Take On Me: The Way It Should Be

Hey there. I stumbled across this gem on TV, actually. I loved and had to share. Enjoy.

Building a Gingerbread House

Hey there.  Last night, the family embarked in their first ever gingerbread house.  I know, I know.  How can it be the first one???  Well, quite frankly, they're hard to decorate so if we bought one, it most definitely had to be pre-decorated!  Well, last night we decorated it ourselves.  The wife went out and got 2 gingerbread kits.  One being the house and the other being the tree.  Since the women have better decorating prowess than the men, the girls decided they wanted to do the tree while my son and I did the tree.  We all agreed and we set off to our adventure.

The icing mix was easy to make but the mess... god, the mess...  There was white and green icing EVERYWHERE.  And to top it off, the instructions on the bag of icing were all wrong.  We used almost twice as much water to get that "toothpaste" feel and once it was poured in the decorating bag, it started to ooze out!  lol  Once that was done, I created a base of the gingerbread tree with cardboard and foil.  Nothing fancy, just a circle cut out wrapped in foil.  Then we started building the tree, which was simple enough... just place icing on a star shapped cookie and stack em up.  At this point, I look over to the girls to see how there were doing, since we were doing just awesomely.  lol  And I see the wife struggling to build the house.  I ask the girls how they're doing and this exchanged happened:

Wife:  Ugh!
Me: How you ladies doing?
Oldest Daughter: Ok, I guess.  I'm just watching.
Wife: You're not watching, baby.  You're supervising.
Oldest Daughter: No I'm not.  I'm just watching.

All the while, the youngest daughter is sitting there holding the decorating bag of icing and letting it drip into her hand.

Me:  What are you doing, baby?
Youngest Daughter:  Nothing, just holding the bag.

At this point, the wife figured that the girls were getting bored, watching her trying to keep together the gingerbread house.  She asked me to build it because "men are better at building things" which the girls gladly agreed.  lol  So I stepped in and put together the house and once the icing dried up, let the kids go at it.

Instructions? Who needs instructions when you have imagination!

After icing, candy, and everything else splattered all over the table, the finish product looks pretty damn good.  Check em out.

Too bad they need to be eaten!

All in all, it was a fun experience.  The clean up is a pain, but the kids enjoyed it.  Considering that it's our first one ever, not too bad, right?  Next time, we'll learn how to do the swirls, icicles, and all the other fancy stuff in the instruction booklet.  But until then, we have these delicious looking structures that we built.  Later!

The New Mike Tyson's Punch Out

I love the new and improved graphics on these old school games!

Motivational Monday - Frustration

Getting laughed at in Round 1 is troubling enough...

Blade Runner Never Fails To Impress

Thanks to Roman May

Blade Runner is a futuristic film based off the cult class sci-fi novel. This movie is one of the most well recognized cult-classics and is a favorite for many different movie watchers. Blade Runner is full of acrobatic action, guns, drama, and a multitude of emotional themes that make you appreciate the skill behind Harrison Fords acting.

The sci-fi aspect is what makes this film so interesting. Human clones roam in space freely, but their lifespans are set to end at a certain point. Deckard, the main character, is the one that is involved in ending the "life" of these clones. The main action comes into play when these "replicants" escape and come to the Earth with the wrong intentions.

"Deckard: [narrating] The report read "Routine retirement of a replicant." That didn't make me feel any better about shooting a woman in the back. " This quote is one of my favorites, and so powerful in meaning. Deckard is in a conflicting situation throughout the movie, but despite these non-human creatures needing to be "killed" he doesn't feel good about it.

Blade Runner is an excellent movie to watch on satellite television from www.bestchoicetv.com/, as most channels play it frequently. I am always happy to catch a showing of this film anytime, or anywhere.

Do Not Disturb

Now this is a hotel that knows it's clients!

How to Use a Doorstop

Instructions are overrated anyways.

Christmas Spike in our Electric Bill

Guest post written by Beth Klondike

Every year I try to convince my husband that he should lay off a little bit on all the Christmas lights that he puts up on the outside of my house and in our front yard. I really think that it's kind of getting out of control by now. But he honestly just won't stop, so I put up with it anyway.

I went online to try and find some new decorations that would take up less energy than the ones that we've been using for years. While I was doing that I came across the site ClearTVBundle.com and read through it and ended up showing it to my husband. Now this was one thing that we could agree upon, so we signed up for the internet service for our home.

Well, I found some Christmas lights that are supposedly more efficient than the typical ones. So my husband ordered some of them and is replacing some of our lights with them. Hopefully they'll cut down on our electricity bill some this year.

Artz Painting - War

Hey there.  I want to show off a few more pieces of my comadre's artwork.  Check out this bad boy and the Aztec poem that inspired it.

WAR

There is nothing like death in war,
nothing like the flowery death

so precious to Him who gives life:

far off I see it:
my heart yearns for it!
-NEZAHUALCOYOTL-