Thanksgiving in the Hizouse

It's Saturday night and it has certainly been a fun 4-day weekend thus far!

Festivities kicked off Wednesday night when Jack, Page, Eamonn, and I got together for a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving meal. Jack supplied a @#$%!@$^!@# AWESOME turkey that was stuffed with... stuffing. Page supplied green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, sausage balls, and pumpkin pie. Eamonn & I brought rice and gravy... I felt like such an underachiever. However, to my credit, the rice was unreal. By the time dinner was over, I am willing to bet I was 8.23 lbs heavier. I could barely move. For that reason, I really shouldn't have gone to the bar afterwards but peer pressure will get you every time (if you're of low self esteem and willpower like myself). We ended up going to the Clarendon Grill which was not all that fun- I think you have to be with at least 6 other friends and be pretty hammered to have a good time there. All in all, I give Wednesday Evening a 4.82/5 thanks to the AMAZING food.

Thursday night was a good time all around. It consisted of:
1) Guitar Hero/Rock Band!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, I had not played these types of games for a while so I was incredibly pleasantly surprised when I found out that GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR had come out- Basically, it is the same game as Rock Band except it uses a WAY more badass drumset:
Do you SEE the dual cymbals?! How awesome is that?! My crowning achievement of the night was playing "Beat It" on the HARD difficulty. I have a new respect for drummers now because my arms were pretty tired after that song. Anyway, after Guitar Hero World Tour, we watched one of the most badass movies of all time:

2)
YES! POINT BREAK! Point Break is possibly the sweetest movie ever. Also, please note that we did not just watch Point Break, but we watched the PURE ADRENALINE EDITION! I don't know what the difference is because even if you were to watch a Japanese dubbed version of this movie and couldn't follow the plot, your heart would still be going about 1230948 beats per minute due to the superintense action. Why is this movie so awesome? Let me count the ways:

1) Hot female lead? Check.
2) Keanu Reeves? Check.
3) Keanu Reeves' character having a totally sweet name? (It's "Johnny Utah") CHECK!
4) Surfing? Check.
5) Bank robberies? Check.
6) JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE WITHOUT A PARACHUTE?! CHECK!!!!
7) Gratuitous use of the words "definitely" and "radical"? Check!

I mean, even the Red Hot Chili Peppers make a cameo! If you have not seen this movie, you are a terrorist, and nobody likes a terrorist.

For your viewing pleasure:



Friday night was relatively laid back. Jack, Eamonn, and I got some Indian food at Tandoori Nights in Arlington, and then watched "Hot Fuzz." Not much to say about this movie other than it was kindof funny, really long, and probably about a 6/10.

ALTHOUGH, it did have one great scene where it was making fun of "Point Break"- this was probably 10X as funny as it should have been seeing that we had just watched "Point Break" the night before!

Saturday has been an up and down sort of day so far. I realized that sometime around Friday night, my computer had been infected with spy/mal/shitware so that now I get these annoying pop-ups every minute or so. SO, this morning, I spent a couple hours installing every spyware killing program known to man. I don't think it's completely solved the problem but at least its manageable now. I swear that I am never going to buy a PC again!

After the computer debacle, I started looking at new phones. I'm torn between going to Verizon and getting this:
OR going to AT&T and getting an iPhone.

The Verizon route is $50 for the phone, and $50/mo for a substantial amount of minutes and unlimiting texting.
The ATT&T route is $300 for the phone, and $30/mo for unlimited data+$40/mo for the voice plan + $5 for 200 incoming/outgoing text messages which = $75 total/mo. BUT, since I would most likely exceed the 200 text messages, I'd be looking at about 80/mo.

SO, in all, over the course of a 2 year contract, it's about $1000 more for the iPhone. And that's assuming I don't accidentally kick it into a pool or something. I'm not beyond doing something stupid like that!

While I was researching phones today, I stumbled across a really funny Yahoo question-
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjSVtJTqS1fYedFYQ2DhL.O3xQt.;_ylv=3?qid=20081128231659AAzNplQ

Please look at it.

Anyway, I actually went to Best Buy today with the intent of making a spontaneous decision about going with either Verizon or ATT, but instead I ended up buying Fallout 3 for Xbox 360.
For those of you who don't know, Fallout 3 takes place in a post-apocalyptic DC- note the crumbling Washington monument in the picture above. I'm really hoping the game involves zombie-killing but I guess I won't know until tomorrow when I pop it in. I'll keep you updated.

On tap for tomorrow is:
1) Chelsea-Arsenal soccer game in the morning
2) Packers-Panthers game in the afternoon
3) Zombie killing (please!)

Should be a good time!

This song rocks.

I really like this song:

Gang Gang Dance- House Jam



That's all. There's a pretty cool video of it being played live on YouTube as well, but you should listen to the studio version first.

Fresh Dose of New Music: 6 Sweet Songs

Since my blog has absolutely zero thematic consistency, I thought I would try and establish some sort of reoccurring music post. How reoccurring? No idea, but it will occur again. This I guarantee. Here are some songs that I have been very into lately… Not all of these are necessarily “New” though:

Smashing Pumpkins – Once Upon a Time

This song is incredibly mellow. I think when I bought “Adore” a long time ago, I really underappreciated it because I’ve been listening to it quite a lot lately and enjoying it a ton! Last week I saw the Pumpkins (sans D’arcy & James) in DC and they played this song- it sounded so amazing that I didn’t know why I had ignored it for so long!

Smashing Pumpkins – Shame

Another song off of “Adore” that I didn’t appreciate it until it was played live. This was played when I saw the Pumpkins in North Carolina and at the 9:30 club in DC last year- Like I said, I completely underappreciated it before. In a weird way, it sortof reminds me of the song “Drown” because there are undertones of that same “Drown”-like feedback…

Junior Boys – In the Morning

I heard this song for the first time just a week ago- It was playing just before the Pumpkins came on stage in DC. I pestered Nichole like 50 times to figure out who sang it. She did. Thank goodness because I was searching for it thinking the title was “Too Young” (a repeated phrase in the song).

Sufjan Stevens- Come On! Feel the Illinoise!

Okay… I may be getting this song confused with one of his other songs “Chicago,” but I’m pretty sure I intend to mention this one. I could just confirm this via iTunes but I’m lazy. Anyhoo, this song rocks. Right around the 2:40 mark, it completely transitions into what seems like a separate song, and I LOVE when that happens (See “Reptilia” by the Strokes, although that one bounces back and forth between two “songs”). I see this song rapidly storming up my Top 40 Most Played iTunes tracks. Ironically, I have had this album for a while but never listened to it because I thought it would pale in comparison to the Michigan album. Now, I listen to this track all the time but nothing else off of it because I think it will pale in comparison. What can I say? I’m a complex individual.

Beatles- Do You Want to Know a Secret?

Somehow, I never had heard this song because I never had the Beatles’ first album, “Please please me.” But this song rocks. If it were to be released now, it’d be tacky. But it’s the Beatles so I guess they’re off-limits for criticizing, and can’t be considered tacky.

Ron Browz- Pop Champagne

I’ve listed five truly good songs so I deserve to mention one that is bad and a guilty pleasure- this one. I usually hate trashy hip hop songs like this but my god this song is HOT YO!

Yeah... I dunno.

Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama

President Obama,

First and foremost, congratulations on your amazing ascent to the most powerful position in the world. Now, to business. If you check your campaign's records, you will notice a $25.00 contribution from yours truly. That said, I think you can spare a few minutes of your time to read my important message.

President Obama, you say you want to CHANGE Washington, and CHANGE the world. You want to focus on bailing out MAIN street. You want to end useless wars and focus our attention on the true hotbeds of terror. But I ask you this sir: HOW CAN WE DO THIS WHEN OUR NATION IS ASLEEP? Allow me to explain. This country has unlimited potential, but so much of it is lost due to the sleepiness that persists from coast to coast. Let's take myself as an example. Do you know what time I get up? 5:45 AM. Do you know what time I get back from work? 7:00 PM. Then, I eat work out, eat dinner, relax for a minute, and try to go to bed early. On a good night, I get 6 hours of sleep. Sir, I'm no mathemagician, but 6 hours does not equal the 8 hours that everybody says is the minimum amount that a body needs to function successfully. And I George-Foreman-guarantee that the majority of other Americans are experiencing sleep deprivation just like me.

Sir, what we need is a siesta. Before we can change things for the better, we need to wake up. Not with energy drinks or $5.00 Venti pumpkin spice lattes, but through that amazing mid-day nap that our Spanish friends have perfected. This is one initiative that I'm sure Democrats and Republicans can agree will be beneficial to the country. Your popularity would skyrocket, and the nation would thank you as a savior of a sleep. Please contact me at your earliest convenience, and we can discuss arranging a visit for me to introduce this idea to the House and Senate.

Thank you,
Steve

PS: What kind of puppy are you going to get?

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2008 just happened. It was total madness!

Since I've spent the last few Halloweens in DC, I decided to shake things up a bit and head to Baltimore where my old roommate(Matt)'s girlfriend (Erica) was throwing a Halloween party in Fells Point. Accompanying me were a few friends (Chris, Brandon, Kasey, Kurt) and a BIG TIME attitude for fun!

Chris was a gecko, Brandon threw on a Michigan jersey and a bunch of construction gear (a metaphor for our shitty rebuilding team, and Kasey was a referee). I donned my GREENMAN costume from Its Always Sunny and the results were awesome! Look carefully in the picture below- I didn't even think I was in it the first time! I look like a green tumor on the gecko!



The night kicked off at Erica's party where I got really really really really really drunk. I blame this on the crabcake I had for dinner- it was not nearly as substantial as it needed to be. The pulls of tequila we took probably did not help either. Anyway, hilarity ensued. For the viewing pleasure of the 3 or so readers of this blog, may I present the following pictures which recap the night beautifully.

Chris & I in all of our green glory. The girl in between us had a very cool ALICE costume, made even COOLER by the "Drink Me" bottle that she was carrying around...

I talked to a blue Crayola crayon for a while about salsa dancing. I don't know a damn thing about salsa dancing but the crayon did, and she tried teaching me. I am pretty sure I crushed 6 of her toes. She is somewhere in Baltimore today cursing the "ass in the green spandex." In retrospect, this is really funny because only in a VERY drunk state of mind can you actually think that you can pick up salsa dancing in like 5 minutes! Anyway, blue crayon, if you're out there, let's salsa again sometime!

Only on Halloween... We eventually left the party and headed out to Fells Point. It is worth noting that I barely remember anything from this point on!

Apparently I ran into another Greenman and the people in the streets thought there should be a dance-off. I probably kicked his ass since I'm a dancing machine, but I don't remember...

Maybe this girl remembers... She seems pretty into the dance-off.

Awesome times all around!

So that's that! It was an awesome night and I give Halloween 2008 two enthusiastic thumbs up! Now I will leave you with this important piece of advice: IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA YET, GO OUT AND BUY ALL THREE SEASONS IMMEDIATELY! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT! I must have told 20 people this last night!