Can It Be True?

ANOTHER 300!

What To Do About Michael Vick

Michael Vick hasn't even gone to trial yet, but he's already guilty of a few things, with the biggest "stupidity". I mean did he really thing his "boys would have his back" while they were staring down the barrel of serious jail time? It amazes me how many of these athletes stick to their childhood friends as though they owe them a share of their success. They weren't the ones that had to go to school for for years, put in all that practice time, then get drafted by some NFL team. It's like his entire entourage hit the lottery!

How did they repay him for his generosity? By promptly selling him up the river.

Again We Wait For A Tribe Winner

The Cleveland Indians ain't gonna get it done this year. They have zero chance of advancing to the playoffs this year led alone winning the world series. Not only are they currently not hitting, but their pitching has really let them down this year. They have had to depend on 3 pitchers all year (C.C. Sabathia, who finally emerged as their ace, Paul Byrd, and Fausto Carmona, who shocked everyone with his filth!) Without these 3 pitchers there's no doubt that we would be a sub .500 team. Jeremy Sowers whom I knew was a flash in the pan, was mercifully sent down to AAA to work on his stuff. He's a left hander that relies on his location to get batters out. The problem is when he misses his spots he's throwing BP fastballs and everyone was teeing off on him! Then there's Cliff Lee. Now to his credit he was coming off of an injury and missed all of spring training. He was never able to regain his form from last year and the year before that when he was really dominant. He was also sent down to AAA, which is unheard of for a veteran pitcher but the Indians had no choice. He was blowing leads left and right, so he pretty much force the front offices hand. Lastly, there's Jake Westbrook. Jake is a right hander who showed great stuff over the last 3 years. He too was coming off an injury, and has struggled all year. The trading deadline came and went but the Indians didn't make a move to improve their rotation, but it's hard to blame them because there really weren't that many front line pitchers available.

Hitters will always eventually hit, but unless the Indians solve their pitching woes this season is over.

DT

The Browns?

When was the last time the Cleveland Browns were any good? How many first round picks is it going to take for this team to begin to show some progress? I'm a huge ND fan, but I have my own doubts about Mr. Quinn. His arm strength and big game performances are what worry me the most. Name one big game he won while he was at ND. It may not be fair to blame it all on him, but he had some awful games in those big time contests.

I'm watching the Browns play the Detroit Lions right now, and they have yet to score a touch down. Not only in this game but in the entire pre-season. This is their second pre-season game!!!!!!!! Are you telling me that the Kansas City Chiefs scrubs are better than our scrubs? Amazing. I am not blaming this on Romeo Crennel because I think he's an okay coach, but this does go to show that just because you were an assistant coach on a team that won 3 Super Bowls doesn't (Romeo & Charlie Weis) doesn't make you the second coming of Vince Lombardi. Oh, and I hate Bill Bellichick.

DT

Innocent Until Proven Guilty? Yeah, Right.

Late last month the dogs belonging to Ving Rhames were accused of mauling a man to death on the actors property. Yahoo news and the Associated Press seemed certain of this in their stories so it had to be true. The actor was out of the country at the time of the incident and probably couldn't have been held responsible anyway, but it was disturbing to see the public conclude he was guilty of "something" nonetheless. Well the autopsy has been completed and it turns out the dog bite wounds "were superficial" according to the coroner's report. The wounds were on his arms and legs, and in no way were life threatening. When dogs attack to kill the wounds are usually found near the face and neck, and none were found in those areas of the victim.

Now I will be the first to admit that celebrities in general get a free pass for just about everything they do, but can we at least let the case get to court before we convict and hang someone? Michael Vick is a prime example of this. I have no idea what the man is guilty of, and neither does anyone else except him and maybe the witnesses involved in the case. But all of my friends are absolutely sure he's guilty of something. Maybe he is, and maybe he isn't. That's not for us to decide unless you happen to be sitting on the jury. Let due process run it's course before we hang someone. Sheesh!

DT

That's Mr. 300 To You

By now you have all heard about the infamous "Wii Bowling Tournament" I hosted a few weeks ago. I was the favorite coming in, but ended up getting my butt kicked by some other dude. I think his name was Luke. To be honest it's all a blur now. Anyway, Scott and his wife took first and second place. All I did a few weeks later was retool my throwing motion and bowl a perfect game. That's right. I bowled a perfect 300 in Wii Sports Bowling, so from now on whenever you see me just call me "Mr. 300". I think it has a nice ring to it, don't you?

DT

Do The Amish Get Down? No. Not So Much.

Yesterday I went to a friends wedding (John Weston) and I have to say I had a pretty good time. To be honest my wife and I got there a little late, but we made it there in time for the "I do's" and what not. The vows were pretty cool, even though John almost lost it, but he held it together in the end. My wife almost lost it too, but she cries over just about everything. I don't let her watch Extreme Home Makeover anymore. His bride's side of the family is Amish and I was curious to see how they would be at the reception.

So we get to the reception a little late (never you mind why) and everyone seems to be having a great time. I probably killed 7 or 8 cups of punch, but who was counting? I love that stuff. The food was very good, but the green beans were just a tad too salty for my taste, and for some of the other guests as well. All in all it was a pretty good spread. The cake was awesome! I think it came in like 8 different flavors or something.
The food has been eaten. Everyone is full. The music starts. The Amish exit stage left. The end.

DT

Blockbuster Online Price Change

I knew a good thing like this couldn't last forever, but it was great while it did last. Blockbuster Online (www.blockbuster.com) had the sweetest deal in town when it came to online rental services. For $17.99 they were giving you 3 online movie rentals at a time mailed to your home, unlimited in store exchanges per month, and one free game or movie rental per month. So here's how it worked. You fill your online queue with movies, and as they become available they are mailed to your home. You might be saying that plenty of online rental offer this, right? Well they do, but how many of them let you return your movies in the store in exchange for 3 more rentals? And since you returned them to the store they considered them returned to the warehouse and immediately shipped the next 3 movies in your queue! That works out to about 15 to 22 rentals per month for $17.99! That's less than $1 per movie! No wonder they raised the price. Now it's $21.99 for 3 rentals per month, and you only get 5 in store exchanges per month as opposed to the unlimited option of the old plan.

It's still better than what Net Flix has to offer because it used to take forever to get movies from them. Now I will admit that their new PC viewing option sounds intriguing but unless I'm able to easily stream that movie to my big screen TV I don't think I would ever try it. I just don't see myself sitting at a PC watching a full length movie. It looks like Block Buster still has the best deal in town. Check it out.

DT

Losing Weight. Again.

I am back at it again, but this time I have help! I am trying the Weight Watchers points system beginning Monday and I'm very excited. This system sounds cool because you really can eat whatever you want, but in moderation. That doesn't mean I'm going to wolf down McDonald's cheeseburgers every day, but if i want to indulge in the occasional fast food treat I won't need to make myself feel guilty about it. Shannon tried it and she didn't like it. Not sure exactly why, but it may be because you really do have to micro manage your diet. Counting points and measuring your food can be time consuming, but if done properly I don't see how it can't work. This system also forces you to examine what you are putting in your body, and that's a good thing. I will keep you posted on my progress.

DT

Bioshock

Yes, I have a Nintendo Wii but the Xbox 360 continues to be my system of choice. It's not just about the graphics either. There are just more games for the system, and the games are the type I like to play. I would love to have PS3 as well, but that's just not in the cards right now. Not sure when it will be either. I picked up Bioshock for the 360 and this game is phenomenal! In fact it will probably win game of the year. Yes it's that good and dare I say it may even be better than the mighty Halo 3? We shall see. In the mean time pick up this game and enjoy it. It truly is a work of art. Great job Irrational/2K Boston/2K Australia Games!

DT

Xbox 360 Games For Sale On Ebay

I am getting rid of all my Xbox 360 games! They are on Ebay now, but you if are interested in any of them give me a holla' and I will pull it off the site for you. I'm only asking for $20 to $25 per game which is a steal! You can check them out here:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsympka21QQhtZ-1

DT

Barack, Hilary, or John?

With the 2008 election just over a year away it's time to start thinking about who will be our nominee. Our Democratic nominee of course. It doesn't matter who the Republicans put up there this year, because they aren't going to win. They've had 8 years to muck it up, and they have taken full advantage of it. Since the countries experiment to elect a "common man" into the White House failed miserably it is good to know we will have someone with intelligence occupying the place on the next go round. Don't get me wrong, you do have to have some intelligence to get as far as Bush did, but not much. This presidency reminds me so much of a massive Hollywood production from the first election up to now. I still can't believe he was re-elected!!!!!! And I bet some Democrats voted for him in the first and second election. Was Gore and Kerry really that bad? I thought they were both smarter than this guy, and he still managed to make it close in both elections! Amazing really.
But back to the democrats. Webster and I were talking about the candidates today, and who we would like to see on the ticket. We both agree that Hilary won't win the nomination and I doubt she would want to be on anyone's ticket as the understudy. I think she wants it all, or nothing at all. If she was vice president I would be afraid of her staging some kind of coup just so she could become president. Even if she one the nomination so many republicans have been convinced that she is the devil incarnate that they will never vote for her. If you listen to Rush, Hannity, and O'Reilly long enough they will convince you Mother Theresa was evil.
My dream ticket would be Edwards as President and Obama as Vice President. Obama could run for president after Edward's second term. This gives him more of the expereience that everyone says he's lacking. I liked Edwards for president over John Kerry in the last election, but I would have been more than happy with Kerry. No matter who you want to win make sure you get out there and vote. Your vote means more than you think!

DT

Can't Sleep

Lately I've been having trouble sleeping. I can get to sleep okay, but I always wake up to go the bathroom and can never get back to sleep afterwards. Probably due to stress or anxiety. Work, bills, life. Shannon asked me if it had anything to do with her, but I couldn't tell her the truth! No, I'm only kidding. It has nothing to do with her or anyone else. I end up laying awake in bed thinking about everything but sleep. Was I shopped today? Do I have to get gas in the morning? Did I sell enough accessories today? How are we going to pay the gas bill this month? Does she like me? Eventually I fall asleep watching Jimmy Neutron or Spongebob but it takes a couple hours. If it gets any worse I will see a doctor, but I've grown quite attached to Spongebob and Jimmy Neutron so I will let it go for now. The Fairly Odd Parents is a great show too. My kids got me hooked on those shows! Spongebob is very well written for adults, as some of the jokes are of the variety that only adults would get. Very clever writing.

DT

Go Buckeyes! Directv Sucks!

I'm sitting here watching he Buckeyes make a huge comeback against Tennessee for a bid to the "Elite Eight". While I should be watching it in HD, Directv's satellites continue to screw up. Or it could be this lousy receiver they delivered to the public. I am so close to switching to cable! If only I didn't have so much money invested in this system I would do it tomorrow.
OSU was down by 17 at the half, now they've trimmed the lead to 4 with 11:53 to go in the half. I think they have this one wrapped up. I don't think Greg Odgen is the real deal. Is that his name? I keep think of Kevin Garnett when I see him play, but he doesn't have anywhere close the skill that Garnett had at his age. And Garnett skipped college. He remains one of my favorite players to watch, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy. Not as good as Kobe, but then who is? I don't know if I'll stay awake for the ending, but I will try. I just haven't been into the tournament or college basketball this year. Probably because Duke was so bad. I guess you could I'm not one of those "die hard" sports fans and you would be right. If my team isn't winning in any sport it makes it less interesting to me. The one exception is football. Pro and college.


DT

A New Column

Okay. I give in! I can't believe how many requests I get every day from my friends asking me for advice on everything. I get asked about marriage, work, relationships, etc, etc... so I am going to begin an advice column for all my peeps. Don't worry I will keep the names confidential to respect the privacy of everyone involved. These stories are real and not made up or fake in anyway. I will keep it real as best I can, but don't be offended if you don't agree with my recommendations. Peace.

DT

The Last Mimzy

Any of my friends will tell you that I am not one to rush out and see any newly released movie. I think movie theatres charge way too much and the atmosphere isn't as comfortable as my own home. However, every once in a while a movie comes along that piques my curiosity, and the latest one to do so is The Last Mimzy. Hey, I know it's being marketed as some kids fantasy movie but I love science fiction movies like this. I've been toying with the idea of taking my two girls but I'm not sure if they would enjoy it. They're 5 and 6 so maybe their old enough. At any rate I will go see this movie, so you can expect a review once I do.

DT

Update On My New Laptop

I had my new portable for a few days now, so I've had a chance to put it through its paces. Well sort of. I have no intention of making this a game machine or anything else multi media which is why I didn't spend a ton of money on it. So for what I primarily use it for things are going quite well. I am having some issues with the DVD drive playing movies all the way through, but I'm not sure if it's the drive or the software. I am beginning to think it's the drive because from day one I had problems opening it at the press of the eject button. I had to keep pressing it and it finally opened. Once you get it opened the first time it opens up every time after that. Minor annoyance but I'm not sure if I'm going to send it in just for that. Maybe I will.
When I try to watch a movie from either a DVD or even a DVD +/- it locks up. And when it locks up you have to hold down the power button to reset the machine. Now that's a major annoyance that I will probably send it back for if I can't figure out what's going on. Other than that everything works very well. I was given a pair of Dell usb speakers that work great! I'd like to give out a quick thanks to Ryan for the speakers and to John for the carrying case. The "China man" is calling us. Peace.

DT

Dell? No Thanks

Everyone knows that I used to work for Gateway, so I'm somewhat partial to the company. It was very good to me and I would go back to work for them in a minute. Well at least the Country Stores. I'm not sure about the other channels, but we used to have a blast in that place! Tons of great memories and stories from Gateway! I'm sure I will share a few of them with you guys in this blog in the future, but for now I want to share a little story with you about my brief experience with Dell.
Two years ago, I bought my dad a Dell computer from Aaron's Sale and Lease. Why from Aaron's? You know what they say about black folks and credit? Well there you have it. Anyway, his grandchildren somehow managed to muck it up and it either needs to be reloaded or the drivers for the modem need to be reinstalled. When you buy a computer from Aaron's you don't get any software. In fact I think a lot of the computer manufacturers are making you burn your own restoration disks nowadays. Not a horrible thing if they charge you less for the computer, and with the prices of them these days I can't complain. We don't have the restoration disks so I decided to call Dell. It took me several minutes on line looking for a phone number that didn't lead to sales, and when I did find it of course it didn't give me an option for tech support! I only wanted to ask them how I would go about getting the disks sent to me even if I had to pay for them. Since I couldn't get a hold of anyone on the phone, I decided to hop back on line and download the drivers myself. Of course navigating Dell's website wasn't took me longer than it should have. It drives me crazy how difficult PC makers make the websites to navigate. Gateway's used to be the same way. Anyway I found the drivers I needed, at least I thought I did! I found at least 10 different files for the modem, 4 of which were labeled "drivers". How in the world can there be 4 drivers for one modem? So I just start downloading like a mad man until I realized that once I burned these to a CD and took them to my dad's place I would have no idea which one to install! Now I'm getting pretty frustrated and as a last resort I decided to join Dell's forum to get some help from other Dell customers that may have experienced the same thing I was going through.
I fill out the application to join the forum which seemed more difficult than it needed to be! It took me 6 attempts just to pick an "approved" password. Finally I find one then I have to wait for an email to activate my membership. This is something that I'm used to because I join tons of forums and if they didn't do this you would have all of your friends signing you up for stupid off the wall stuff that you wouldn't know about until you started getting strange emails! What I didn't expect was for it to take as long as it did! I opened my email program up and expected the message to appear immediately, so I hit update. Nothing. I hit update again. Nothing. I hit update again. Nothing. I go and make myself a hot dog, and when I come back nothing. I go and make myself another hot dog. Nothing. I hit update. Nothing!!!!!! What could possibly take so long to activate an account for a forum????? I finally went to bed and gave up in total disgust. When I woke up to go to the bathroom I couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to go downstairs and fool around on the web. Sure enough the email was there! Too bad I had no desire to visit their stupid forum! Ugggggghhhhh!
I'm going to try my hand at reinstalling the modem before I do a complete reload on the system. If I can just get the system back on line I can hop directly onto Dell's website and download any drivers or updates it needs instead of burning them all to a CD and hoping I downloaded the right one. Wish me luck.

DT

Blogging In Bed. It's Kind Of Cool

Ok. So I got this new laptop and I've been dying to try using it all over the house. Well now I'm in my bed blogging! While it's kind of cool, I can't say that it's all that comfortable. At least not while you're lying on your belly. Maybe if I wasn't a touch typist it wouldn't be so bad, because it would be more comfortable for a "hen pecker" but I am what I am, as Popeye would say. So while it's cool for now there will be few and far between entries on this blog from the bed. And I can tell already that my wife hates it......

DT

Refurbished or New? What Should Your Next Portable Computer Be?

When it comes to purchasing a laptop computer you can't help but consider the cost of the unit. While they have come down in price considerably since I sold them for Gateway back in 1998 through 2002 they are still a significant investment for most people. When I was working for Gateway the idea of purchasing a refurbished anything electronic was strictly out of the question! Man how times have changed! A wife and three kids later, two cars, a house payment, insurance, etc, etc........ Well now you can see why refurbished seemed a little more attractive at this stage in my life.
After several months and weeks of consideration and weighing the pros and cons of new and refurbished I (thanks John) I finally decided to go the refurbished route. Do I have any regrets? Well, I'm happy to report that I don't have any! In fact I may never buy a new laptop again! When I purchased the unit I knew I would have to wait at least 5 days to get it, and during those five days I went over and over in my mind of what the condition might be once I got it. Would there be dust and lint stuck between the keys? Would the screen have scratches all over it? Would there be burned out pixels? Would the chassis be dented and scratched? Boy was I relieved when I pulled it out of the box and noticed only 1 imperfection. The front grill of the speakers has about an inch long dent. I hardly noticed it until I stepped back and viewed it from a distance. The screen is in excellent condition, as is the chassis and keys. No dust or lint in the keys, and it looks just like you would expect a brand new laptop to look. I was really put at ease when I pulled it out of the box and saw the HP seal on the sticker that held the box shut.
I purchased mine on EBay but you can also buy them direct from the manufacturer. I paid $599.99 for mine, plus $39 shipping and handling. for what I got with it I have no complaints and I highly recommend anyone looking for an inexpensive laptop to check out a refurbished model. You might be pleasantly surprised just as I was.

DT