So holidays are almost over. I had to work later than I wanted on Christmas eve, but made it for a late dinner at Rachelle's parents house. It was very good, damn I love prime rib. Christmas day we slept in, then Rachelle's parents came over and we had strawberry waffles and pepper bacon, yum. Then we opened presents, actually we mostly watched Peyton shred through the massive pile of gifts she got. She made out like a bandit, I tell you. Spoiled you say...Maybe just a little.

When I opened my present, it was a piece of paper with a riddle, that lead me to my jacket pocket. There I found another riddle leading me to the washing machine, then to the freezer, then finally to the Daily Astorian newspaper on the front porch. In the classified ads there was a small little ad that read:

"Derek
What has a 20 GB hard drive
Has 512 MB of RAM
And is sold out everywhere"

So Rachelle and her parents had planned on getting me an Xbox 360 for me for Christmas, and Rachelle had apparently spent the entire day going from store to store in Portland on the day of the Xbox 360 launch, where she was pretty much laughed at. So unfortunately she had not been able to secure one since preorders are like out til march. But at least when they do become available, I have the cash and the wifely permission to get one. She also got Madden 06 for it, so I was pretty damn excited.

Day after Christmas we went to my brother Brian's house for dinner, and had a great time. Brian made us some of the best enchiladas that we had ever eaten, and the margaritas were pretty damn good too. It is so great that his family and mine get along so well. Rachelle and I absolutely think the world of them and truly enjoy the time that we spend with Brain and Tina. And they have the two most well behaved, absolute best 2 boys ever in Brandon and Alex. It just baffles me, because I don't think my brother Rob and I were anything like those two kids are when we were their age.

Got to see my Grandpa Sims today, he came down to drop off some presents and to visit, which was nice. Brian, Brandon, Alex, Peyton, and I went to lunch in Seaside and got back just in time for Grandpa to show up. It was really nice. I wish Grandpa lived a lot closer than Sequim, Washington, I miss him.

Oh and I turn 29 on Friday, and don't feel like doing a damn thing. How sad is that. I feel old, for the first time. Oh well, another one down 40 or so to go.

Oh, send me your birthday's, I am horrible at remembering dates, and am trying to get it all recorded so I won't forget this year.

Hope everyone has a fun and happy New Year's. See ya next year.

My resolution is to update this more often so that I don't have to keep typing such long posts, but don't hold your breath.

Losing Faith...Never had it!
Best Buy. Now I can understand why Microsoft chose Best Buy as the main retailer for the Xbox 360, seeing as they are probably the largest electronics store in the US, but this is obviously a very shady organization. First there was the huge fiasco with the launch where they forced people to buy hugely expensive bundles to get a 360. Now comes this. The second shipment of xbox 360's are gone before the store opens, and everyone gets the hard sell on a damn Compaq laptop. I god damn hate that whole car salesman tactic. Read the post, it is very interesting.

Xbox vs. GOD!
Here is a book that should be a best seller in no time.
The Bible vs. The X-Station

Take the Test
Fake or Photo

What happened to Intel?
maybe Colin can explain Intel's sucking

Favorite new shopping site discovered Rachelle
1 item each day until they sell out, totally random, and totally cheap!
Woot

Cool stupid idea
At first I thought this was stupid. Why would I want to put something over my analog sticks on my xbox controllers. Then after seeing Colin nearly eat through my brand new contoller in 2 days flat, I was sold.

Damn good movie.
The Island was fantastic...enough said.

For Nathan.
A Huge Video Game Lot on Ebay!
The man who owns more video game crap than anyone else I have ever come in contact with.

Now granted I want an Xbox 360 pretty bad, but come on!

The highest amount ever paid for a video game console goes to the new Xbox 360.
Comes with all 18 available games, a couple extra accessories, and a Sony Portable Playstation with 2 games, for a whopping $238,109.00!

That's insane asylum crazy!
Granted, you can't get one anywhere right now, but eventually they will be available. The combined retail value for all this practically seems like a steal at BestBuy for $1991.48.

$238,109.00 Sucker Price
-$ 1,191.50 BestBuy Price
___________
$236,117.52 Pure profit, God you gotta love eBay!

Check it out here. I can't believe it had 70 bids from 20 people, 4 of which bid over $3000.

Haven't posted in nearly two months...still ain't feelin it.

Well, the concert was fantastic. By far the best performance from Trent Reznor I have seen, and this was my 3rd or 4th I have been to. A band called Autolux opened, and they were good, but as the band proclaimed that this was the biggest crowd they had ever performed for, it showed. They seemed to get swallowed by the enormity of the Rosegarden and it's crowd. Queens of the Stone Age played next, and played a damn impressive set, they sounded great live. And Josh the singer, is very much a drunk, and told everyone to get drunk and have sex, which I thought was funny. Some guy in the crowd threw something at Josh during the show, which many times will end the show, but Josh just pointed out the guy to the crowd and proceeded to tell everyone what a small dick the guy had. "Your dick must be so small that you piss on your own testicles." and "Why don't you go buy a hotdog and shove it up your ass, unless your buddy there is already doing that for ya."

Then NIN came on at about 10 minutes to 9pm, and played until 11:30pm. The lighting and special effects were bad ass, and they played video clips over a giant see thru screens that covered the stage on 3 sides during part of the show, and had huge LCD screens displaying various graphics and other impressive stuff. During the song "Right Where it belongs they played images of death caused by war and animals killing each other and then they showed a vid of a large row of track housing followed by George W. and his wife dancing during the line "What if all the world you think you know, Is an elaborate dream?". It got a huge cheer out of the crowd. They played 23 songs in all, but no encore. Here is the set list:

1.Pinion
2.Love Is Not Enough
3.Wish
4.Terrible Lie
5.The Line Begins To Blur
6.March of the Pigs
7.The Frail
8.The Wretched
9.Closer
10.Burn
11.Gave Up
12.Eraser
13.Right Where It Belongs
14.Beside You In Time
15.You Know What You Are?
16.Sin
17.Only
18.Deep
19.Down In It
20.Hurt
21.The Hand That Feeds
22.Starfuckers Inc
23.Head Like a Hole

They didn't play several of my favorite songs, and I would have like to have seen more from "The Fragile", but I guess if they did the show would have gone all night. I was however, excited that they played a couple of non album track like "Burn" and "Deep". "Deep" sounded amazing live and "Burn" was pretty good. There were only a few songs that I wasn't that impressed with: "Only" was not great live, and "The Hand That Feeds" was just OK.

Rob and I met up with Cory T. and his girlfriend before the show and had a beer at McMinnemans on Broadway. Then we all went down together. Rob and I got to our seats like not even 5 minutes before the lights went out. Then at the break between Autolux and QOTSA, I discovered we had been sitting in the wrong seats. Instead of Section 220 Row L Seat 1 & 2 we were in Section 120 Row L Seats 1 & 2. But we stayed thru QOTSA before some skanks and the usher came and told us to move. We went to our real seats (which was only a few rows down from the top at the far end of the stadium), NIN had just started by this point, and there were people sitting in our seats so we moved up a row, which was fine, since we were in the nosebleeds anyway. Then of course as soon as the music starts we had 4 lesbian dancers in front of us for the whole show, grinding and rubbing and all that crap which got old fast since they were constantly blocking my view, so Rob and I moved up another row where we sat for the rest of the show. There was the usual abundant smell of weed, and judging by the number of lighters during "Hurt" and "Right where it belongs" everyone but us was a smoker in one way or another. Some girl got up on someones shoulders directly in front of the screen that was showing a video, and took off her top and showed her breasts to the world, lit up by the projectors for all to see.

The overall mix of fans was pretty unique, there was just about every group of people you could imagine. Freaks to Daddies with their daughters (i wounder how dad explained Closer to his 12 year old daughter), from old people to babies (who will probably suffer permanent ear damage as a result of the concert). All in all, a great show with lots of energy and intensity, the seats were shit, and there will definately be no more presale tickets for me. Can't wait to do it again in another 5 years!
Here is a video clip of the Portland show from NIN's official page on myspace.com. It even has the Predator Drag Queen that we all saw at the end of the show before we left the Rosegarden. Very Scary! And I especially like the girl who bites the hand to get the drum stick...Nice!
Portland Show

Here are some pics from the Vancouver BC show on Monday, gives you an idea of the performance and the setup, very cool stuff.

You can get all but 2 (Deep & Down In It) of the tracks on iTunes.

The countdown has begun...
4 days remain...
NIN
My Nine Inch Nails Update
So I got a little nervous when I heard that an hour into the first show of the North American tour, the concert ended, due to the drummer, Jerome Dillion having chest pains, and an irregular heartbeat. But apparently all is well now and the tour is back on schedule after fucking up only 2 shows. Thank God!
It was damn cool to see Trent Reznor perform on the Katrina benefit on MTV, VH1, MTV2, CMT, etc last week. He played two tracks: "Hurt", and a cool new track called "Non Entity". You can see the performance here, or download the track along with the performance of hurt from Sony's version of itunes (which sucks by the way) for $0.99 here, oh and it only works with Internet Explorer, how suck ass is sony anyway? But they played the first real show of the tour last night in Phoenix, and from the look of it, Saturday is gonna kick ass!
Anyway I still need to get ahold of Corey, I think Rob and I are gonna go with he and his girlfriend, which by the way she doesn't even like NIN.

I am so pissed off at the Bush administrations' handling of hurricane katrina, that just thinking about it makes me want to punch something. Don't get me started. Put up a bunch of pictures of Peyton, from the safety fair i put on at safeway, and some of her 2 favorite new outfits, the bella ballerina outfit(cause Bella Atkinson had one)and the princess nightgown. I am not sleeping well at night for a few weeks now, not sure why, but I think it is stress related. Watched the Ring for the first time, not bad! Love the new Hulk game: Hulk SMASH! And have really gotten into Grand Theft Auto San Andreas again, damn addictive. I will probably be switching from DSL to cable internet, charter finally got cable internet in Gearhart, and it is 3mb vs the 1.5mb dsl I have through Qwest for less money. The only thing I don't like is the upload speed sucks! 250kb is pathetic, I have 892 with DSL! Oh well, should be much faster download though. Rachelle and I went and saw Garbage at the Arlene Schnitzer Auditorium in Portland last weekend, and the show was amazing. Not a huge venue, just a few thousand people, and they looked and sounded fantastic as they always do live. The opening band was a group called The Thermals, a local Portland band. They were pretty damn good, and had a cool black chick bass player in rubber boots and a fro. We had pretty good seats, in the orchestra section but were off to one side, until a guy came over and asked if he could switch seats to sit next to some friends, his seats were dead center about 1 row further back. Anyway we had a great time, and I couldn't hear right for 2 days. We have been really watering the sections of the lawn that died, and they are coming back nicely, I think I have the only green yard in the neighborhood.

If you are a geek like me, and I know you are, and would like to help out with the hurricane relief, put down some cash for a shiny new Halo: Fight The Flood T-shirt to benefit the hurricane victims.


If nothing else go to your nearest Safeway and tell a checker you would like to make a contribution to the Hurricane Relief.


In both cases 100% of the funds collected go to help the victims, none of that administrative costs bullshit...

Last To Fall
This is a band from Astoria, they are pretty decent. They played the Warped Tour this summer and are currently playing gigs around the area. Definately check em out if you get the chance. Their drummer Tory works for me he's a good guy. They have hard edged sound with a female lead, that really gives it a different feel. Go Listen.

Ok, haven't posted in over a month, really don't want to, but the pressure of not posting is getting too great. Had a great time with Jeremy B, modded jeremy's xbox, put an ass load of games on JB's new enlarged xbox harddrive, fucking wish sweet tits dan would have come down for the class reunion, had a great time seeing the rest of the group, bought a new 50" hd plasma tv, played lots of xbox on the big tv with JB, had my 8th wedding anniversary, My daughter rocks...she sings the chorus to "The Hand that Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails! Stressed as all hell at work, bought a new Razr phone and plan, Sold my old 50" tv for $300 bones, part of my lawn died in the shape of a perfect giant rectangle, my brother rob came down and we played xbox with Jeremy B, JB went back to Japan after spending nearly every day at my house for 2 weeks...which made me very sad, JB spread fucking spam to my blog, downloaded and am listening to the new Staind album which is very good..." Please is the best song on the CD, will be putting on a Kids Safety Day event with the Fire Dept, Police,& the Coast Guard, at the store this Saturday, told dish network who's boss...and got my way!, I have come to the conclusion that FX is the best damn cable channel out there now that I have found a favorite new show called "Starved", also watched 30 Days, and Over There two other great shows on the same chanel, and I think that is about it.

Ok, I need someone to go to the Nine Inch Nails Concert in September with me. Tickets go on sale on the 16th of this month, and I will order them, but I need to know how many. I don't have pricing yet. Let me know. Damn I want to go bad. The show is on September 24th at the Rose Garden in P-town.

This morning, I got a call from my boss, he told me that a very good friend and my Head Clerk at the Store hit and killed a 23 year old Astoria girl after leaving a bar in town at 2 am last night. I don't even know what to feel in this situation. He is such a good guy, and it is not like him to get drunk at all...But he killed someone!! His whole life is over, he faces a minimum of 6 years in prison, all because of a few beers... Makes me wonder why anyone would drink and drive. I feel extremely bad for the family of the girl, and I can't help but feel bad for Rick. I never thought I would feel bad for a drunk driver after my Aunt Lisa was killed by one when she was 19. I was wrong, he is a good man, who made a horrible mistake, and will spend the rest of his life having to live with himself. Everyone at work is a wreck, we have a grief counselor coming to the Store tomorrow to help. All I can say is that I am just in shock... I just don't know what to think.

Holy Shit! My Blog works! It has been almost a month since I have been able to access my blog or anyone else's for that matter. Don't know why, but now all of a sudden I can. Weird, cause other people could.

Lets see, what's new? Took a vacation from work, Peyton was sick almost the entire time. So I basically just held her for a week in my arms. I was actually off for Father's Day so Rachelle let me sleep in. I woke up went into the living room and Peyton said, "Happy Father's Day Daddy..I love you." Now if that doesn't just kick your ass, there might be something wrong with ya. Her latest thing is to tell Rachelle and I, I miss you Daddy, or I miss you mommy. It breaks your heart. If I could work out of the house, I totally would. We went to the beach for Fathers day which was a lot of fun even when Peyton took a header face first into the sand. We had a great time playing in the sand and then went home and did yard work. It was really nice.

Last weekend I went to Eugene and saw Nathan, Dan, and Rob, which was great and a lot of fun. Went to my sister's college graduation, which I am unbelievable proud of. Got home and realized my face was sunburned on one side from sitting in the bleachers in the sun, I even had lines from my sunglasses.

I had my xbox modded. Found a guy in Monmouth, Oregon and begged and pleaded until he said I could come down and have it done. He did, and I am very happy with it. He put a software mod with a external switch, so that I can still do xbox live by just flipping the switch, which makes it as if there is no mod at all. I also had him put my 250 gb hard drive in so that I would have plenty of room for games. I have it linked up to my network, and I can watch movies from my computer, look at pics from my comp, play mp3s or playlists from itunes, and do internet stuff, all thru my xbox wireless network connection. Not to mention play burned games. Rented Star Wars Episode 3 for Xbox and beat it. It is actually a lot of fun for a hack and slash game. Not much substance, and not very long. But you can unlock some cool playable characters like, yoda, darth vader, and General Grevous. I also rented Destroy All Humans for xbox, which is also fun. It is a campy 50's era game where you play a little grey alien that sounds like Jack Nicholson and likes to suck the brains out of people. It is very funny.

Then the day I went back to work, last Monday, I started getting sick as hell. Started with a soar throat, then I got the fever, aches and pains, congestion, all around feeling like crap to go along with the now horribly painful soar throat. I had Thursday off, and did not even get out of bed except to eat very little for dinner. Still felt sick yesterday (Monday 6/27) and my throat was still horrible, but the fever and other crap was gone for the most part, so I took a sick day and stayed in bed. I feel a bit better today and the soar throat is lessening. So hopefully I am about done with this crap. Summer is not the time to be sick damn it.

Watched Hostage with Bruce Willis, which is a bad ass (though dark and very bloody) flick. Rent it today. I also rented Coach Carter with Sam Jackson, very motivational, and Hitch (Will Smith) which was pretty funny.

Found out that Nine Inch Nails is finally coming to Portland, on September 24th, with Queens of the Stone Age and Autolux, so you can bet your sweet ass I will be at the Rose Garden that night. Let me know if you want to catch the show with me. I think Rob and I are going so far. Trent released the master file for The Hand That Feeds last may, so that people could make their own remix with Apple Garageband, and people submitted over 500. They have got it down to the top 40 you can download with bit torrent. There are some damn good remixes here. Trent released the masterfile last week for the next single "Only", in both PC and Mac formats, if I had more time and knew what the hell I was doing I would try it.

And finally, Rachelle got a call from a friend at the Bank of Astoria, to let her know that a Credit card processing center had been hacked and that they would have to reissued her debit card with a new number. No big deal, cause I have my checking account at The Safeway Credit Union. So on Sunday I got to lunch at a restaurant up the street and give them my debit card, and the girl says, "Sorry but it comes up cancelled." I tell her to run it again, cause there is no way it cancelled and she runs it again with the same result. So embarrassed I give her another card which works fine. Then when I got back to the store I called and checked my balance and had plenty of money in my acct, so I try to use it at the store, and it works fine even lets me get cash back. So the next day Rachelle tries to use it somewhere and it comes up cancelled again. Then she uses it at the Post Office and goes right thru. She tells me, but I forget about it until I go to Dairy Queen for ice cream to soothe my soar throat and I get the damn cancelled message again. I call my bank and she says, "Oh...Did we call you this weekend?" I tell her that I never got a call and she tells me that I was one of 500 people at the bank that had to have new debit cards issued due to the same thing that happened to my wife's card. Damn I am pissed, cause now neither one of us has a card, and I don't like to write checks. God Damn Hackers.

I saw this on G4 the other day, and it is some of the most hilarious messed up cartoons I have ever seen. It is called Happy Tree Friends, and features really cute animal cartoons getting horrible disfigured. Check it out, you can even rent them on DVD.

Well it's almost the July 4th, which means I am busy as all hell at work, can't wait for that to be over. Work is incredibly stressful, but we are doing tremendously well. Robert, my boss, and I seem to be the power team. We are just about the top store at everything, service, sales, etc. Which feels damn good. Now if I could just work less than 50-60 hours a week, I would be very happy.
That's pretty much it.

So my Mom and my Brother's names are being blasted in to space on a microchip and will land on a comet...How bizarre is that?

Offensive W
NIN pulled the plug on their scheduled performance next week during the MTV Movie Awards due to the network's uneasiness with a back drop of George Bush during the song, "The Hand That Feeds". This song is "a warning against blind acceptance of authority, including that of a president leading his nation to war." Yet another reason not to watch that lame ass network.

"Nine Inch Nails will not be performing at the MTV Movie Awards as previously announced. We were set to perform "The Hand That Feeds" with an unmolested straightforward image of George W Bush as the backdrop. Apparently the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me."
-Trent Reznor 2/26/05

What is wrong with this country...

Well it was only a matter of time before Square-Enix caved and brought Final Fantaxy to Xbox. Looks pretty nice on the xbox 360! Here are a couple of other nice trailers for the 360 from E3.

Throwing cats from 4 story buildings does have a certain entertainment value doesn't it?

Team of Fighting Midgets loses to lion in a battle to the death (at least for 28 of them) before the fight was called a victory for the lion. This is damn messed up and yet funny at the same time.

With Teeth is #1. It was the best selling album last week, now if you haven't already go out and buy this cd, I bought the dualdisc which has the album on dvd 5.1 surround with videos and a discography and other stuff on one side and the regular cd on the other, very nice. Trent is broke now after all and needs your support, not to mention it is an amazing album.

Well they have finally confirmed the worst kept secret in video game history. The Xbox 360 as it is officially called will launch this year. Looks impressive, I like the wireless integration both internet connection and controllers, and I really like the Xbox Live integration and HD mandate, makes me wanna buy a new tv. But only time will tell, and we will have to see if it has the games to really sell the system (Perfect Dark Zero, Quake 4, Colin's favorite Ghost Recon 3, and Dark Sector are good starts).

Ok, yes I am a geek. But I always loved dinosaurs and space stuff when I was a kid. Here is a really cool show on the Discovery channel that starts on Saturday about what leading scientists believe is really out there. They even got Steven Hawking with his "Speak and Spell". It's called "Alien Planet".

Here is a hilarious review of "With Teeth". He has a very different take on the album than most.

And this is Trent's reasoning for no cd booklet. Interesting idea.

Here is where you can get the cd book and more. Must register.

Site Update. Well, I got bored so I updated some stuff. New graphics, new design and stle. Updated some pictures of Peyton. Tried to update my DVD listing, but apparently my acct is MIA. And I tried to update my game list but somehow everyone else in the world is crashing gamespot.com. Oh well, it is damn late and Peyton wakes up at 7 am every day. Sleepy time...Oh by the way go buy Nine Inch Nails: With Teeth. It is fantastic. You won't be dissapointed. It is even on iTunes.

Trent Reznor Is Nine Inch Nails....
Just slightly more than a day to go until the release of the much anticipated album With Teeth. Here are a couple of interesting snippets and articles about the new record.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trent Reznor back from the wasteland
-Scott Kara of The New Zealand Herald

"My name is Trent Reznor and I am an alcoholic. If there's coke around - cocaine that is, the Colombian marching powder - keep it away from me. I shovel that for breakfast.

At least I used to. Now, I am clean and I can think again. Although I remain an intimidating person, I am also less prone to being a dickhead."
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Here is a very accurate review by Virus.

"The rumors that were going on upfront - more rock, less industrial - are not really wrong, but not principally and overall right either."
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Even fucking Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit digs the new album...Though admittedly I am not certain that this is a good thing.

"trent reznor is and will always be a force of genuine inspiration. he has never let me down. do yourself a favor and get this cd NOW!!!!!!"
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"Do you see a point where you’ll release something as just Trent Reznor?" - Brian Stillman of Revolver

Trent Reznor: "I imagine so. This record feels like Nine Inch Nails to me, and at the same time – and you’ll have to take my word for it – it doesn’t feel like I’m trying to fit into something that fit me 10 years ago and, motherfucker, I’ve got to fit into it again. At the end of the day, if a record is successful, if your career is up or down or you’re signed or not, you’re left with yourself. And through the good times and the bad times, I feel proud that what I’ve done with Nine Inch Nails has always felt like the right thing to do. I wouldn’t want to rewrite The Downward Spiral or Pretty Hate Machine. It was honest for the guy who did them, a confused fucker who was terrified. I recognize that guy, but I don’t feel like him anymore."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It also took a humiliating spell in rehab to separate Trent the person from Trent the personality. - Victoria Durham of Rock Sound

"I did the full deal," he details,"I did a week in the psych ward, detox, it was full on. It wasn't glamorous this time. I can kind of laugh about it now. But the door that closes and doesn't open back up, and you realise there are no handles on it - it's hard to feel glamourous in that situation when you're vomiting on yourself. I was taught humility." He breaks into a smile, anticipating the inevitable question. "There was no master plan in taking this long between records. This was really about survival."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beyond Hurt
By Robert Hilburn, LA Times

The low point was waking up one morning in London with a hospital tube in his mouth and not knowing where he was. He had overdosed on heroin in his hotel room and had been taken out through the laundry room by aides who were trying to protect his privacy.

That was after Reznor came out with his follow-up to "Spiral," 1999's aptly titled "The Fragile" — an unwavering portrait of psychological helplessness that felt both frightening and sad. Sales were disappointing, and even admirers in the music industry wondered if he'd ever make another album.
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Coming to Grips
-Orkus Magazine, May 2005
"So I took a two-year time out to come to terms with myself again.”
During which he discovered, however, that almost nothing was left of the millions he had earned in the nineties with his records and tours. “My manager, who I worked with for almost 20 years, had gutted me like a Christmas goose, and to realize that hurt like hell,” hisses Reznor. “I always thought something like that couldn’t happen to me. But now I'm exactly the dumb rock star I had always laughed at — I let myself get thoroughly fucked over and even politely said thanks. Because of that I’m now in a lawsuit that is almost as messy as a divorce."
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The Line Begins To Blur in New Midnight Club Game.
Get "The Line Begins To Blur" free from iTunes when you purchase Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition
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Stolen from Colin, who stole it from Nathan, who stole it from Grace.

Your Linguistic Profile:

75% General American English

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

5% Yankee

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

All American baby!

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

Who's Your Inner European?

That's odd, I don't feel any italian in me...oh wait, I get it.

You Are 28 Years Old

28 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Wow right on...That is a little scary.

Good god the new nin album "With Teeth" is fucking awesome. You must listen. Trent Reznor's best work since "The Downward Spiral".

Well I met Brian today for the first time in person, we had lunch. He seems to be a very cool guy. We are gonna have dinner with our families later this week. It is kind of weird seeing someone who kinda looks like me and has many similar characteristics as myself. We are both bald, he is shorter and stalkier than I, but you can definately see it in our faces. What a trip.

This one's for you Nathan. Put Cobalt online.
Dogster

Well tonight i got the call and we talked for like an hour. Seems like a pretty cool guy, we are gonna meet sometime in the next couple of days.

PS3? Don't like the shape, but I do like the finish.

OK here we go. So yesterday evening I am at work and a guy I knew from highschool (Josh Long) walks up and asks if he can talk to me for a second. I thinking he had a complaint said, Yes. He said, "I know this probably isn't the right time but there is something I need to tell you. Do you know you have a brother? And I am thinking, uh, yeah Rob, and I say, "What are you talking about?" He said, "Your dad has a son named Brian who's 31 (3 years older than me) and he lives here in Astoria." So by this time I don't know what to think, is he high? is he confusing me with someone else? what the fuck is going on here?

He goes on to tell me that my real dad had a son with this woman (Cindy) before I was born. She broke up with my dad and then she hooked up with this guy named Al, who takes the boy as his own, and they never tell Brian that Al isn't really his dad. Then when Brian is 16 he has doubts about his dad being his dad, considering he looks nothing like his father, and decides to go through his parents yearbook. There he finds a picture of a guy named Mike Sims (my dad) who he looks just like. He confronts his parents and they tell him the truth and then Brian decides he wants to meet my dad and his family, and he does. So 15 years ago he met my Grandpa Sims and both my uncles on my dad's side, but for what ever reason, it didn't go well or whatever and they never really had a relationship after that. And supposedly he really wanted to meet me, but my mom didn't think it was a good idea considering my dad and I already had a strained relationship and all.

So he tells me that it just clicked a while back when he read my last name on my name tag, and it donned on him how much Brian and I looked alike. He said he had told Brian he should get to know me cause I was a good guy and all. He then asked if I wanted to meet Brian on Thursday during their weekly Poker night where they play texas hold 'em at the Moose Lodge. So I tell him sure, not really thinking and still kind of being in shock. He tells me that he will call me if Brian is weirded out about it and I told him if Brian was uncomfortable just let me know and we could cancel it.

So now I am damn upset, and am in shock. I didn't even know what to think. So I get off work and call my mom and ask if she knew I had an older brother. She tells me that she knew, and that she thought I knew. She assumed that my Grandpa and my Dad had told me and that she had never asked me about it because she figured I just didn't want to talk about it. So apparently damn near everyone in my family has known that I had another brother for the last 15 years and didn't tell me. How messed up is that, I am 28 years old for gods sake, it is not like I am a child who couldn't cope with something like this.

So my Step Dad and mom tell me that my dad and this Cindy woman dated for 2 or 3 years and that she broke up with him when my Dad was like 18 or 19 after getting pregnant, and they don't believe she ever told my dad that she was pregnant or for that matter that the baby was his. So he apparently found out 15 years ago when Brian came looking.

So last night, I am going through the gambit of emotions, trying to figure out how I feel about this, and how I feel about meeting this guy. Does he want to meet me? And then I think, do I really want to spend 3 hours with total strangers playing poker. Especially if I don't like the guy. So I talk to a friend at work, and she tells me that he went to school at Knappa High, and that he served in Iraq. She says, "Now that I think about it, he does look just like you only he is bigger, he even has the same hair cut. And I think he was in the store yesterday while you were working."

So I am guessing he probably already knew who I was and just never wanted to make anything of it. Then this evening I got a message from Josh to call him so I am assuming that Brian is pissed that he told me and wants to call it off. How am I supposed to feel right now? I am so many things right at this moment, confused, pissed, sad, just plain fucked up.... Who the hell wakes up one day when he is 28 goes to work and finds out from an almost total stranger that he has an older brother? What the fuck?

So I called Josh back and got voice mail, and I basically told him that I really didn't feel comfortable meeting Brian this way but that I would like to get to know him just maybe in a different setting and to let Brian know he could get ahold of me if he wants to. I think I want to meet him and see what he is like, but part of me doesn't, and I am not really sure why. We will have to wait and see.

Halo 2 expansion? God knows the ending left it wide open for some type of sequel, and this was posted to an official microsoft site. Who knows, but I would be damn hard pressed not to download it. Makes a lot of sense.

God Damn this is good NIN. Click the link to take you to a quicktime video of "The Hand That Feeds" off the upcoming album "With Teeth" perfomed in the studio. It's large, so it may take a while to load. Wait for it.

I was always a fan of Sonic in my Sega Genesis, Saturn days, but haven't played since. Not sure about this one though. Shadow the Hedgehog, looks like Sega is trying to be dark, not very successfully though. Download the trailer from the article.

I thought this was a pretty interesting interview of former President George Bush on his experiences with former President Bill Clinton on their Tsunami trip. Clinton slept on the floor so Bush Sr. could have the bed. How sweet is that? I probably would have made him sleep on the floor.

Here is an interesting article about Xbox 2 (or Xenon, XboxNext, Xbox360, XboxHD, or whatever you wanna call it) and it's specs per the Game Developers Conference this week. I think the mandatory Live enable, high definition, and Surround 5.1, are good ideas that will force the game makers to push the envelope with new games. The best feature on the new system in my opinion is the mandatory user created soundtrack option. I can't tell you how much it improves the gameplay experience to play your own songs. And I think it is great that it will play mp3s on the new box. I don't know what I think about the camera though. I will have to wait and see on that one. All in all pretty cool stuff to look forward to. Yet, I almost wish they had waited another year before releasing new systems. I think xbox was just starting to hit its stride, and we are just now seeing some of the best games the system has produced and what the system is capable of with games like Riddick, Doom 3 and Halo 2. But you know I will probably end up being one of the first people to go out and get one, seeing as I am an xbox freak.

Best WWII Shooter ever? Gamespy thinks so, 1up.com thinks so, and so does Teamxbox , IGN says it is the best shooter on xbox. Could they all be right? Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 very well could be. I bought it yesterday, and I have only played a couple of hours, but I am damn impressed so far.

"Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 puts you in the boots of a 101st Airborne squad leader in the most authentic WWII shooter ever, earning endorsements from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation and the Patton Museum. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is based on the true story of the famous paratroopers who led the D-Day invasion and will immerse gamers in the gritty, uncensored and emotionally-charged side of war." - Xbox365.com

From the opening scene you know this game is serious, and not something you play in front of the kids, that's for sure. If you don't like profanity, this game is not for you. If you don't like blood, this game is not for you. It is by far the most realistic war shooter I have played yet. Check it out.

And for the Star Wars junkies out there, go rent or buy Star Wars Republic Commandos. It is a lot of fun, and I can't stop playing it. Though keep in mind, this is not a realistic FPS, but it is extremely true to the Star Wars universe. And hell of a good time playing it (single player that is, I haven't tried online yet.)

Sick as all hell.
Well I finally got whatever it is that has been going around. And I now feel like death. I am so sick that I think I am gonna call in sick tomorrow for the first time in like 8 years. I worked most of the day yesterday putting in more wiring for my father in laws new house, then I went to work at Safeway last night at 7:30pm I left work this morning around 8:00am and slept all day. In other news, I watched Shaun of the dead yesterday morning, and it was funny as hell for the first 3/4ths of the movie, then it got a little sad. But all in all a very good flick. I also went and saw Constantine, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a damn cool premise, and I love religious movie shit anyway, which is funny since I don't buy into the whole god and satan thing. Have to admit the guy who played Satan, played the russian cosmonaut in armageddon, was fucking hilarious. Definately one to go see. Oh and as you already probably know, my mp3 deck in my truck broke last december, and so I couldn't stand it any longer and I bought a adapter for my ipod. It is pretty cool, you plug it in to the cigarette lighter, it holds the ipod in a holster and charges it while it plays, which is nice. And the coolest part is that it broadcasts to any open FM frequency. You just pick the chanel you want to use on your stereo, and put the adapter on that chanel and it plays cd quality sound. It is damn cool. Now if only I had a real deck other than the stock deck, it would sound a hell of a lot better. Anyway, I am gonna go fall into bed now.

So I saw my real dad today. Completely out of the blue, and without any warning he just shows up at my work. I come out of a meeting at work and there he is standing there like it's no big deal. This is the guy that hasn't been around pretty much my entire life. I haven't seen or heard from him in probably almost a year now. The longest he has ever gone without contacting me was like 5 or 6 years when I was in highschool and thereafter. Not a phone call or a birthday card or anything. But it is always the same thing when I see him. He acts like it is no big deal, and wants to pretend like he has been here all along. Oh and he always apologizes at some point and tells me what a terrible dad he has been, then I don't hear from him for like a year. So whatever. There are a few things I do know.

1. My father is a bigot, he has made numerous comments about women, African Americans, Asian Americans, gays, etc. Which seems odd to me since my Grandpa, his father, is very liberal, and not at all that way, nor is my grandma both of which I love and respect very much. Both my uncles, his brothers, don't have the same warped sense of the world like my Dad. I always believed bigotry was a something you learned from those who raised you. Guess not.

2. My father used to do/does drugs. My mother left my father when I was 2 or 3 because she didn't want me to grow up around drugs and the people that make them their life. And not just the light drugs, like pot and mushrooms, but he was into cocaine, and just about every other drug you can name. I think he still uses drugs to this date. I know he uses pot, which at nearly 50 you would think he would have grown out of by now. Despite all the things that my Mom does that drive me nuts, I am extremely thankful for her having the sense to get me away from that. I don't think I would be the same person today if it weren't for her.

3. My Dad will never be there when I need him. There has never been a time in my life when I could depend on my dad, for anything. And just when I start to believe the stuff he tells me, like he is gonna stay in touch and see me more, he doesn't. Some things never change. And because of this I have really never asked him for anything, he never paid a penny of child support to my Mom and step-dad growing up, and I really resent that. Not because I wanted the money, but if Rachelle and I were to separate, I can guarantee you that my daughter Peyton would get every dime I made, no matter what. It's what parents do.

4. My Dad and I have nothing in common. I always pretend to be interested in what he tells me about and the things he says he does, but I'm not. He fishes, he hunts, he lives on boats, not that these things are bad, they just don't really interest me, which he would know if he ever really spent any time with me. I can't really think of 1 thing we share in common, how sad is that. And when we talk all I can think is, "ok, that's great but I gotta go." Even today, I had not a thing to say to him. He told me about how he has been in Peru for the last 6 months and that is why I didn't hear from him, even though other members of my family did. He told me how he is moving there and how the government of Peru is giving him 1000 acres of land to promote tourism. And how he is having a house built, and how he is making $4000 a week taking people fishing and hunting. Whatever. I guess it will just be that much longer between uncomfortable conversations with him on the opposite side of the hemisphere.

So I eventually told him I had to go to another meeting, and it was good to see him. And just like that he was gone, and I probably won't see him again for another year. I thought I wanted him to be a part of Peyton's life, but now I am not so sure. I think he can just be that guys she sees every 10 years. No one I know has a perfect family. I just wish I had something a little closer to normalcy. Shit, who knows, maybe this is normal.

All you xbox owners, better read this. Apparently the power cord is really a cord of fiery death. Watch out and go to Xbox to have it replaced.

Who ever thought of suing for poor quality downloads. Apparently this kid did, and is suing Kazaa and Sony. Stick it to 'em.

Sounds like Bruce Willis better start training to destroy this asteroid, though now it appears it will just miss us. Would make sense though that it will happen on Friday the 13th. Go figure.

This is by far the coolest xbox mod (or any other mod for that matter) ever made. Check it out, a 1979 Millenium Falcon xbox. Fully functional, with light up afterburners. How cool is that? I have been thinking of modding mine, but I just don't have those kind of skills.

I have 50 more Gmail accounts if you want one or several let me know by posting a reply here or email me and tell me where to send the invite.

Stupidest theif ever. I especially like the part about how he came back and asked for his gun. That is fucking hilarious. Only in the Midwest.

Cleavage For Rent!
This has got to be an all time low in advertising. She came up with the idea from this guy. The guy sold the space on his forehead for $37,000, you would think hers would go for more, just my opinion.

This movie, Sin City looks damn cool. Bruce willis is a bad ass. Yippee-Kay-Ay Mother Fucker!

Today, January 24th, is the worst day of the year apparently.

We need to all chip in and get this for our main man Dan!

Here is an article about the next generation machine from nintendo. Personally, I think Nintendo should go the way of Sega, and focus on the the thing they have alway been the best at, the games. What is Nintendo's fetish for gyroscopes? Do I really need, gyroscopes in my controller? I was one of the first people to own the NES, my uncle contracted with them at the time, so I got a fully loaded system free. It came with Rob the Robot, which was an interactive robot that played gyromite with you. It was cool at first, cause it was new, but the novelty wore off quickly moving those damn gyroscopes from one side of the robot to the other.

Daft Punk is back! This is their upcoming third album titled "Human After All", set for release on March 21st. And while it is short (about 45 minutes from beginning to end), it is fantastic. It is the kind of cd you can listen to straight thru. Their last album was good, but this blows it away. Check it out here.

Well it seems Electronic Arts is up to their old tricks again, first signing an exlusive deal to publish games based on the NFL, and now they are stealing the ESPN franchise from Sega/Visual Concepts Studios. But rumor has it that Sega is fighting back with an exclusive deal with MLB. I think this is bad for sports gaming, less selection usually leads to less innovation. We will have to wait and see, makes me not want to purchase games from EA though.

Well, I am not sure how this is possible, but apparently I am more of a nerd than Nathan

Portland #6 on the list of Fittest Cities in America. Seattle is #1.

Everyone I know needs to pool their money together and get this for me. Please! Nothing says you care like 102" of Plasma Screen. This is the worlds largest plasma screen made by samsung and debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas this week. Prices have not been revealed but rumor has it at around $1000.00 per inch and it will not be available for about a year. So start saving now, just think of it as my christmas/birthday present.

Turned 28 on Thursday, and I can't believe it, but for the first time I felt old. Oh well, that is the way it goes. Stayed up for new years' this year, but felt kind of down with all the shit going on in the world, it is difficult to get excited for another year of "THIS". The Earthquake/Tsunami absolutely blows my mind, I can't stop watching the shit on CNN and the internet. It is beyond all nightmares anyone could ever have thought up. I read today that, if a similar event happened of the Oregon coast where the two plates meet like 20 miles west of where I live, there would be no time for evacuation, at all. And after seeing the total devastation that it can cause, it really makes you think.
I gotta say I feel like hell, I started to feel like crap late last night, and it is worsening by the hour. I should be sleeping to get over this shit in my head and nose, cause I work very early in the morning. But I am not. I have been playing some online Halo 2 with my new wireless headset, love wireless. I also just finished the movie "Hero" with Jet Li, it was fantastic. A truly beautiful film in every sense of the word. I thoroughly enjoyed the use of color to display emotion, and the dialogue was quite good, even translated. Fight scenes were tremendous, especially the two women fighting in the leaves. Enlighten yourself and rent it.

Oh and by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR to all.

Quoted from NIN.com...
"With Teeth is finished.
The band is rehearsing.
I can't wait to present this music to you.
On your stereo and in your town.
Happy New Year.
TR

Hell Yeah!