so i said see you monday, but it’s actually sunday now. new york was amazing but also exhausting. i got to go to so many cool stores that i normally just shop at in the virtual world. and i also ate great ramen and pinkberry. and word on the street is, starbucks just bought them so it will no longer be an “only in new york” thing soon. here is a link to their website, but be warned: the song is ridiculously catchy.

so getting to the title of this entry. there is an apartment in my neighborhood. well there are a lot actually, but i don’t have the time or reason to talk about them all here. this one in particular was special. because in the ground floor window that faced the street on my walk home from one of my favorite restaurants and also a local market, was the man himself. the leader of the autobots and quite possibly the greatest american without an actual heartbeat: optimus prime. and i’m not talking about some new rehash. this was the original. the same one i found in my mom’s closet around christmas of 1986 i believe.

it was always so comforting knowing that the best of the best in all of the transformers kingdom was there watching over the neighborhood. ready for anything. if the decepticons attacked, he would be there. if a dinobot got out of control, he would reign them in. or maybe you just wanted to say hello. optimus was always there for you. but no more. sadly, optimus prime and the other robots (which were cool but not transformers, maybe in training though) has moved on. there is just a curtain there now. and no robots to be seen anywhere.

i mean, sure. over the past almost two years i have lived in my current place, i have grown a lot. and i’m not saying i don’t need optimus there, but i think our little slice of rva is going to be ok. we have good people, and i know deep down inside, if we need prime and the rest of the autobots, they will come to our aid. but i will miss seeing his robot face, smiling at me under that cool looking thing that covers up where his mouth would be.

so one last time, in honor of prime, autobots….transform and role out.

i give you the above video. that really happened. the wwe sent out obvious impersonators to have a theoretical wrestling match between the two democratic candidates, only to be assaulted by a samoan mad man. can you imgine what other countries think of us if they see this? as a country, we are a pretty awesome place to live, but we also have a fair amount of baddies that have hurt our rep internationally. not to mention the current administration has made us the butt of most jokes around the world. and then there is this. and now this. prime time wraslin’ between mock candidates on nationally televised prime-time cable. the only thing that could make this worse, would be if the candidates themselves had a part of it….

OH WAIT, THEY DID. and not just the dems. clinton, mccain, and obama all had terribly stiff taped messages that aired on the program where they borrowed the tag lines of many of the popular wrestlers and used them to talk about how they were going to “lay the smackdown.” mccain even used ric flair’s old line, “to be the man, you have to beat the man.” i mean, maybe i missed the point. maybe i’m being too hard on them, but i mean i was in college once and i liked wrestling at one point in my life. a lot. but i never thought, man….if only a politician would go on monday night raw. then i could REALLY relate to them. i want my president in washington, BEING PRESIDENTIAL. just like i want the rock in the ring laying the smackdown. now that i think about it…the rock would probably be a great president, but that is another post for another day. KIDDING. but seriously, if this is what it takes to get votes and to decided who is most suited to be the leader of the free world, well then the free world is in trouble. i mean sure, it’s all in good fun, and i’m being a little over the top in the opposite direction, but ask yourself this: would kennedy have done this? lincoln? washington? well, we all know george washington was a total bad ass. but still, and that’s the bottom line…..ok, i really need to stop.

and totally disconnect and get enchanted by nintendo:

wiimote cufflinks have you nerding out in style!

speaking of wii, mario kart is out for the system and apparently mario is out in new york driving cabs. kotaku has the scoop.

apparently, all that cab driving has given mario serious street-cred over at wonderland. (zomg! i think the medallion is made out of legos!)

and finally, probably the most absolutely amazing nintendo system you will ever see. thanks to gearfuse for this magic.

i am a fan of countdowns. i watch countdown with keith olbermann. the final countdown by europe is totally epic. 24 is all about countdowns and i love that show. well there are two websites out right now, by people i am pretty indifferent about, but i am captivated by their websites because they have clocks which are ticking away to something happening. what things are going to happen? i have no idea, but i want to know.

it’s the same theory that makes us watch deal or no deal. the need to know. the show is really silly and drawn out if you think about it, but what is in that case!?! I HAVE TO KNOW! it’s that theory. so the two people that i’m watching for that very reason are mike huckabee, and the guy that made mortal kombat.

mike huckabee might have failed at his run for president, but his website is ticking down to something tomorrow! considering he and chuck norris were going to put the irs out of business, i am hoping they are either starting a political action group to push for the national flat sales tax, or that they are starting a buddy cop show and/or movie together. either way, i’ll be there tomorrow to find out.

on the other hand, the mortal kombat guy has noob.com and he has something coming later in the week. what? probably another crappy game. i mean, i don’t even know the guy’s name and i want to know what he is going to reveal when the clock hits zero.

honestly, mortal kombat was sort of neat when it came out in middle school and then part two added some other characters to liven things up just a bit. it had crappy fighting, the awe of seeing realistic blood in a game (oh how times have changed), and some shock value finishers which ran their course in a day or so. once those novelties wore off, the game pretty much sucked.

but for some reason, i’m captivated by the anticipation. speaking of countdowns, 12 days until internetpunchacon!

sorry the blog has been still lately. the batman awesomeness deserved it’s time at the top. and despite the timing. now it wasn’t an april fools joke, just like i don’t wear halloween costumes to work, or say things like “workin hard or hardly workin?”. lt. gordon is calling people i know, and the joker is leaving them presents. even if digg wasn’t interested.

so anyway it was a really busy weekend of working some OT and strange parties. i won’t go into details but there is a nasty rumor that i might have sang karaoke. strangers in the night by frank sinatra is the alleged choice. all of this is hearsay because i have a strict personal rule: i don’t do karaoke. i don’t like watching it, hearing it, and wouldn’t ever CONSIDER singing it.

so these lies must stop. sure, there may be several “witness accounts,” but their credibility will be called into question. all 15 to 20 of them, most of which i call friends, and a very few who are close to me, and one who happens to be one of my nearest and dearest. it saddens me that they have all turned into malicious liars now.

becuase i simple can not and would not allow my self to do karaoke. and i know what you are thinking. you read this site and with the video games, and films, and music, and anime and….omg that is why girls don’t like me. well between all of my interests that are shared with much of japan’s pop culture, karaoke and i go our separate ways when departing tokyo.

and there may be some pictures that pop up on facebook or some other social networking site that harbors lies. but if i am seen with my mouth open, i must have been laughing. if there is a mic in my hand, i must have been holding it for someone. or maybe given my audio technology background, something was wrong and i was fixing it for those people who do partake in that awful, awful, habit.

now in the event that i was drugged or somehow coerced into participation of the said karaoke event, then i must apologize to two people that i look up to a lot. so IF, these horrid lies come true by some terrible circumstance that made me unaware of what i was doing…well anthony bourdain and henry rollins, i’m sorry.

it’s always been funny to me, that when you or someone you know, gets a new car, how many of those vehicles you start to notice. when i bought my red cavalier, everyone including myself, started seeing them all over town. they had always been there, but they had no significance so they just melted into the background. but once it was my car, someone who knew me thought it might be me driving around town and would tell me how they saw these cars all over the place. i am going through the same thing with this american life.

i’m embarassed to say, i didn’t know about this show or it’s driving force, ira glass, until a month or two ago. a random encounter with a friend of a friend brought it up. “oh, you work in radio?” she said. “yeah, i do.” “well have you ever listened to this american life?” that simple exchange put glass and his amazing radio program on my radar and i can’t be more grateful. i listen weekly to the podcasts, read up on the show, and i recently stumbled upon a non-fiction collection edited by glass. it is my red cavalier all over again.

the show is just about people. it’s the type of thing anyone who works in the field of journalism like myself, would love to be doing. stories about people, that illustrate the wonder, pain, joy, confusion, irony, and every other great adjective about this american life. i really have to give it to the people that put on the show. i work in corporate radio doing sports, so geographically that put’s glass’s show on the equator, and mine on the piece of ice that just fell off antarctica.

the first time i listened i was so engaged and honestly a bit jealous. i really wanted to be part of something like this. i had a taste of it on a very small scale. my first news radio job, i was an afternoon producer for a morning show. i basically came in after everyone was gone, and chased sound for news stories the next day. the operation was affiliated with the paper, so if i could get sound on an article in the the morning editions, then that was a bonus.

so i went in chasing the obvious stuff, and the host was pretty happy with me. but he told me to step away from the crime beat. while that was important, he said that he didn’t follow the “if it bleeds, it leads” philosophy. he told me to chase stories that effect people. it’s something that i can’t say i have come across since. now that i am in sports, it’s a totally different approach to journalism anyway. however, the reason why i no longer do news, is that was the only place where i ever encountered that way of thinking.

so anyway, this american life, is like the constant human interest story. i highly recommend you check them out on the web, and if you live near by, the movie is playing at va center. get full info on the movie here, and i’ll save you a seat on may 1.

so i posted this link on facebook earlier from the observer in the uk. it basically tells of how fox has greenlit a rip off remake of the awesome british sitcom “spaced” and have hired mcg (pronounced mick gee) to ruin direct it. normally, i’m not interested in the whole remake thing if i have already seen and enjoyed the original. that is the very reason i don’t watch the office. not that it isn’t a funny show. from what i have seen, it is pretty enjoyable. however, the bbc original wrapped itself up perfectly i felt. so why not just leave it alone? why not come up with an original idea?

however, despite the us version of the office that takes brilliant comedic development and turns into gimmicks to be recycled week after week, they do at least have the approval of the original creators. fox isn’t even going that far. they are just going to take someone else’s work, make it their own, and not even consult the original creators. so can you blame stars and creators simon pegg, jennifer stevenson, and director edgar wright for being a bit ticked?

i don’t know, to me it’s just bush. fox has some good shows that have original approaches. “24″ is a favorite of mine, and people seem to like “prison break.” i can’t really watch that one anymore after i realized they would keep finding ways to put the guys back in jail, just so they can break out again, but hey, it gets pretty good reviews. i mean they could be showing “are you smarter than a fifth grader?” or that show that ruins people’s lives with lie detector tests.

now to be fair, pegg and company can only gripe but so much. the rights were sold somehow. they either didn’t have them, or didn’t retain them. so that is something they have to swallow, but it would be nice if fox would respect the process, meaning, and work of someone else. especially if it is going to lead to a profit.

if you read the article you see that “spaced” was a show that was very special to all of those involved, and now mc g is going to work his charlie’s angel’s crap magic on something that was really wonderful. my suggestion is to just not watch. i promise it will be as awful as his other projects and his name. catch the original when you can on bbc america, or dvd (the original is coming stateside soon!). that way the good guys win, and you don’t get dumber by watching bad tv. cheers!

somehow i forgot to post this.  oh well.  here it is 3 days late:

so yeah, it’s st. patrick’s day. the day named after a saint that is most commonly associated with going out to bars and drinking. i’m not condemning the process, just the saintly association. i almost got roped into it, but a call back never came, and i don’t feel left out at all. i don’t need to go out and experience the live version of this. in fact, i’d rather just stay home, catch up on some reading, and maybe even watch my netflix that has been here for a a week and a half now. i did at least move it from my desk to the coffee table on saturday. it’s now a whole 5 feet closer to the dvd player. progress!

unlike this recent quote from dmx, that got him the daily honor on 23/6. the whole interview can be found here for some even more disturbing context. you know, there is a lot of blood on the hands of people in washington right now for the current state off affairs but at the other end of the spectrum, perspective like that isn’t exactly helping things either.

staying in the wonderful world of music, i caught a blurb the other day that said something about metalica re-releasing albums on vinyl to try and curb bootleggers. now there are a lot of ways to get a record into a digital format, but aquire might have one of the coolest.

in romania, tikisitch has discovered american action cola! let freedom ring!

smashing mag has good stuff for you laptop people.

in the “do want!” category is this shirt from meat bun.

and finally, a wonderful tale between father and son, courtesy of the onion.

then i would be way more pumped about the campaign.  unfortunatley i can’t even give props to the creator, since it was a direct link from digg.  but whoever made this rules.

i forget that george w. bush is our president. i forget what a complete joke he is. i could spend hours upon hours sitting here stringing together negative adjectives about the commander and chief, but what is the point? of course, that is the difference between mr. bush and me. if he felt this way, he would stay the course, and you would all be as tired of reading them as we are of having him in the white house.

when seeing people like barack obama, hillary clinton, and even john mccain in front of crowds, on television, in radio interviews, with ideas. intelligent thoughts strung together to propse possible solutions. realistic goals about policies. having factual information to offer about the current state of affairs in this country and the issues they face. it’s amazing!

but it shouldn’t be. that is like a police officer bragging about arresting a criminal. or me boasting about showing up to work on time. it’s what we are supposed to do! has george w. bush beaten us down with his idiocy to the point where we are actually shocked, when presidential candidates are…presidential? i know they are trying to win us all over with big talk, and it might not turn out, but it sounds very realistic.

it’s a truly sad state of affairs. and i know, if some of you keep up with this, i hammered hillary clinton for the bush bashing earlier in the week. but there is a distinct difference here: i blog to blow off steam, and i’m not trying to use this to win a presidential ticket. so i will reiterate, let her stick to the campaign trail and telling me what she wants to do, not what someone else hasn’t done. leave the presidential bashing to the faceless voices of the internet. it is better for everyone that way.

but honestly, if you want to leave it to anyone, leave it to keith olbermann, the host of countdown on msnbc. he torches bush nearly every day with facts, figures, and information (and got me fired up to write this post). the truth? what a novel concept and quite the weapon for change when used the right way. he picked apart the president’s latest encounter with the press better than i could. take a look and shake your head in disgust with me.

today a group of little kids stopped by the studio. i’m not sure how it came about, but a local day care brought some kids that must have been ages 4 to 7 by to see the shiny buttons and flashing lights of radio. well for those of you who have had a chance to grace the insides of our work area, we decorate pretty heavily. we are the sports guys, so we have fun. plus we spend way too much time in there, so we wanted to make it our own.

but back to the kids. they are so funny. i love their energy. they all got really excited when i asked them about sports and some of their favorites. some of them telling me about how they like football and were going to play tee ball or soccer. then one of the taller kids got really pumped, and blurted out, “my favorite sport is hotwheels!” to which i responded, “that is awesome! we are talking about hot wheels on the show today!”

another little girl told me with great conviction that she liked soccer a lot but didn’t play it, while a little blonde sweetheart fought her way to the front of the group to tell me all about how great hockey was and all the renegades games she goes to.

it was hard to take in and remember everything great that was said today. i do recall one little boy before he left, telling me his favorite football team was the green packers. i know this. i’ll be rooting green packers to win the hot wheels this year.